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A knock.
Quick footsteps padded across the small Brooklyn apartment. “Bucky! You’re here!”
“Told ya I’d be here, jerk. Lemme in, it’s cold out.”
Bucky entered, and Steve shut the door behind him. “Mom’s making cookies for us but they’re not ready yet. Want to see our tree?”
“I’d love to, pal. Lead the way!”
The two ran through the apartment until they reached the small, three-foot shrub that was decorated with shaped scraps of aluminum foil. It was a clever use of so little material that only a true artist could come up with.
“It looks beautiful— Steve!”
“What? Buck!? What’s wrong!?”
“Your hands are absolutely freezing! What were you doing, sticking them in the icebox?”
“They’re always this cold in the winter, Buck—”
“They are incredibly cold. And a bit blue. Do they hurt?”
“A little, but—”
“Here, let me warm them up for you.”
“You know Cap, if your stride length was any longer, you’d have to measure it in units of football stadiums,” came the complaint from just behind Steve.
“Sorry,” Steve said sheepishly, slowing his pace a little to let the shorter man catch up.
“No, you’re not,” Tony accused from beneath his hot-rod red scarf, hands shoved into the pockets of his coat.
“I am, actually,” Steve said, slowing down more so he could walk more comfortably with his teammate side by side. “I didn’t mean to leave you behind in the dust. I guess I’ve just been really excited to buy presents for the team.” It was their first Christmas since the team reformed, after all, and despite Hulk and Thor having accidentally smashed the Christmas tree once, Steve had already addressed that problem thoroughly in a way only Captain America could. It wouldn’t be an issue again, especially when both Hulk and Thor had placed fragile items of personal significance onto the tree to ensure its safety.
“I’ll admit, I never took you as the Christmas junkie sort.”
Steve shrugged. “It was one of the things that we tried to uphold, you know. Even when Bucky and I were too poor to get real gifts for one another, we’d make do, decorate the small tree shrub with tin foil, things like that.”
“If you put tin foil on our tree-”
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Steve said with a laugh, unable to help his own amusement at Tony’s look of pure horror at the mere thought of it.
“Just making sure, Cap,” Tony said with a shake of his head. “With old-timers like you, you never know.”
“I’m far too busy with buying gifts to even try.”
“Is that why you needed me along, then? For my credit card?” Tony asked.
Steve tensed up. “What— no! Where would you— Look, Stark. I’ve been meaning to spend time with you, get to know you better. I feel like I haven’t done a good job getting to know you. And that’s one of the things that broke us apart last time, not understanding each other and not communicating. So, I figured we could spend some time together and—”
“Hey, chill, big guy. I didn’t mean it like that.” Tony’s arm ended up wrapped around Steve’s waist. “You had me at ‘coffee’ this morning, okay? And it was a good coffee, so well worth getting dragged out of my lab for. And this, now? This is fine, too. I’m not going to pretend I’m some lover of Christmas — I’m really not, at all. And not just because my parents died in a freak car crash during that time of year. But I understand where you’re coming from, and if anything is going to make trying to buy gifts for a holiday I couldn’t care less for suck less, it’s doing it with someone I don’t mind the company of. Got it?”
“Uh, I think.” Steve’s mind was reeling a bit, processing all of that information.. “Shit, Tony, I—”
“Nope, if that’s pity in your voice, zip it, I don’t want it. Now, where was that store you wanted to go to again?”
“It should be just up ahead. Another mile or so.”
“Another mile— Rogers!”
“What?”
“A mile!?”
“I said it was a short walk!”
“That’s not a short walk in the snow!”
“It—” Steve paused, thinking it over. “...Right. I guess it isn’t for everyone.”
“You owe me a second coffee,” Tony asserted.
“Make it two.” One coffee hardly felt fair in Steve’s opinion. He considered making it three anyways and surprising Tony later.
“Done deal.”
A silence fell between them briefly, interrupted only by the crunch of snow beneath their feet and the occasional conversation of civilians passing by.
Steve still felt bad, watching Stark walk with his hands in his pockets again, cheeks reddened from the cold.
“Do you want me to, um, carry—”
“Rogers, you finish that sentence and I am calling JARVIS to send a suit to kick your ass.” There was no bite in Tony’s words; the genius was grinning when he said them.
Steve couldn’t help laughing.
Soon, they made it to their destination. It was almost like a mall, a strip of small gift shops along a street. Steve had seen the area during one of his morning runs. From the moment he’d first glimpsed it, he’d known he had to visit sometime, and what better time of year than the season of giving?
The first store they went into was something with fabrics and crafts. Steve had gone through his gift lists so many times the materials list was practically seared into his brain. He led the way inside, holding the door open for Tony to follow him in.
The place was a little cramped, admittedly. Combined with Tony’s easily distracted attention span, it spelled trouble. After a few near-misses of almost knocking something down, Steve reached for Tony’s hand to guide the genius along while Tony answered whatever email he was looking at—
“Stark!”
Tony jumped at the sudden bark of his name. “Wha— are we under attack?”
“Your hands are so cold. What the hell?”
“Uh, yeah they’re cold? It wasn’t exactly a warm walk here, Rogers.”
“You should have said something!”
“Why? Because my hands are cold? Cap, we get shot at by crazy supervillains with experimental missiles every other week—”
“Put your phone away and come here.”
“Uh-oh, you’re using the Cap voice,” Tony commented, pocketing his phone. “And the Cap pout. What’d I do to deserve that?”
Steve didn’t say anything, just taking both of Tony’s hands in his, their fingers entwining.
“Your hands are warm,” Tony commented, bewildered. “How are you so warm? You’re like a furnace. Is this because of the serum? Has to be.” Tony prattled on with theories on the specific biological mechanisms that could be causing this. Steve didn’t interrupt, too busy studying the genius’s face. He needed to remember this moment well. After all, Tony had been the one person on his list he hadn’t been certain of a gift for. What did you give a man who had the money to have everything?
The answer: a beautiful painting, and Captain America hand warmers. Maybe he could figure out how to create the handwarmers, too. Surely that couldn’t be too complicated? He’d need to ask Falcon for help, or try to inconspicuously ask Tony for engineering lessons. Maybe he could say it was for his shield, say the straps got frozen and stiff during the winter.
He’d figure out a plan; he always did.