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Cold hands, warm heart. Tony had grown up hearing that ever since he could remember. He wasn’t sure who said it first, and he never bothered to care too much, but it did bother him enough to hate it because his hands were always warm. Tony leaned into the cold-heartedness well into his thirties, when the world’s perception of him stayed stuck at genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.
But then, Steve was pulled out from the ice, and suddenly Tony’s whole world was turned on its head.
Just by looking at him, everyone expected Captain America to be like a furnace. He was big, muscled, and presumably gave off so much body heat that he’d melt ice. Tony found out, after the Avengers had moved into the tower following the Chitauri invasion, that Steve was, in contrast, always cold. Steve perpetually wore hoodies and sweaters. He was always curled up on the couch on the communal floor with a blanket on his lap.
When they started to date, it became even more obvious. Steve found every opportunity to be around Tony, to be touching Tony. He thought at first that the constant touches and cuddles were because of Steve’s need for physical touch. It wasn’t until Tony had woken up one day, with over two hundred pounds of super-soldier wrapped around him, did he realize that it was because Tony burned hot.
Tony soon became Steve’s personal furnace of sorts. Steve’s hand would be in Tony’s back jeans pocket when they’d walk sometimes. Steve would sneak his arms under Tony’s jacket often whenever they hugged. Steve had cold hands, which matched his warm heart. Tony had warm hands, and his boyfriend constantly reminded him that it didn’t mean he had the opposite.
The thing that truly warmed Tony’s (not) cold heart was Steve’s insistence over holding his hands. Walking down the street. Sitting at each other’s side during mission briefings. Lazing around on the couch watching shitty movies. Twisting in the sheets whenever they’d be rocking together in bed.
Tony’s hands may have been warm, but so was his heart. Steve told him as much when he held his hand at the altar and slid the bright, silver band onto his finger.
