Being the death of Justin is something that Tony fears, not simply because of deep-seated issues with his parents’ death, but because he’s witnessed lunatics targeting the people that he cares about as a way to hurt him. Stane went after Pepper. Vanko went after everybody. Loki went after the entire world. By himself, Tony’s something of a bad luck charm for other people. Add Iron Man into the mix and it just magnifies that bad luck a hundredfold.

An icy spike of fear lodges in his gut, but he doesn’t act on it. His face doesn’t pale, his hands don’t start shaking, he doesn’t look upset or traumatized. He doesn’t even mention it. And when Justin clarifies what he meant – what Tony knew logically that he meant – he shoves it all into the back of his mind and tries to ignore it.

“I like to think of it as satisfying you,” he tells him, focusing on the positive and not taking his words as criticism or some dark foreshadowing of tragedy to come. “If you’re worn out, then you’re satisfied. If you’re not, you might still be wanting more, and I don’t want to leave you wanting more when I’m more than happy to give it to you the first go round.”

The fact that Justin’s hot certainly doesn’t hinder that desire. The fact that Tony loves him definitely doesn’t hinder it.