I remember watching the X-Men cartoons as a kid. Some of them at least, and never an entire season. Then the X-Men movies came out and I quite liked them, but it was only XMFC that got me completely head-over-heels with them. Well, with Erik and Charles, really. I remember being completely heartbroken at certain points in the movie because, having watched the original trilogy, you know a lot of things aren't going to end well. I also have vague recollections of Fantastic Four cartoons... I think. (it's been too long)

So I'm a total latecomer to the Avengers fandom (I didn't even watch Iron Man when it came out, and only had a cursory "oh it's showing in the cinema" knowledge of it). Honestly, my knowledge of their existence was via an XMFC fanfic that had Steve/Tony in it (basic premise: Charles was hanging out with the Avengers, picks up on how much Steve and Tony love each other but doesn't think the other feels that way, the UST got too much and then Charles eventually outs them and Steve and Tony get together). I got more curious about them as a pairing because the author mentioned Civil War in her end-notes and how it split them apart.

Point: I sometimes ship a pairing even before I know their canon. ^^" And I just amuse myself sometimes whenever I remember that the reason why I got interested in checking them out was because of them going separate ways in canon. My brain, IDEK.