Work Text:
Steve was nearly always unbearably cold. Ever since he got out of the ice he felt as if he always had snow clinging to his clothes. He knows its just his imagination but dammit, it feels so real. Steve was often fighting the urge to shiver for his first few weeks out of the ice. After that, he just grew accustomed to the imaginary ice keeping him cold.
When Steve had experienced a particularly cold bout of cold, he often traveled down to Tony's workshop. The man was seemingly always awake, and it was nice to sit there with the white noises of Tony working in the back-round as Steve drew to distract himself. He often found that just being near Tony usually warded off the feeling of cold. One night, though, Tony's general presence just wasn't enough to make Steve feel warm again. The ice seemed to travel through his veins, made him feel as if his bones were becoming ice.
The blond couldn't stop shivering, and any attempt to warm up was pointless. Steve's teeth chattered and he took one shaky breath after another. Steve attempted to focus on his breathing rather than the cold, hoping that it would distract him. Several minutes passed until the blond admitted defeat and traveled down to Tony's lab. The man was mumbling to himself and taking huge gulps of coffee in between sentences.
Captain America stood in silence for a moment, watching the man work, then he wandered onto the couch. Steve wrapped himself in several blankets, but was still freezing his star spangled ass off.
"Tony?"
A grunt.
"Can you turn the heater up?"
Tony turned to face Cap. It was already 75 degrees in the room, and it was damn near impossible to be cold in that. The first thing Iron Man took in was the sheer amount of blankets covering Cap. There were at least fifty and Dummy was frantically searching for more to pile on top of the man.
"Uh, Cap, I appreciate blankets as much as the next guy but don't you think your'e taking this a bit too far?"
"I'm cold," was the mans reply. Tony would've laughed if he wasn't so concerned.
"Its 75 degrees in here, Cap. How are you cold?"
Tick tock. Tick tock, tick tock.
Seconds blended into minutes before Steve mustered up the courage to tell someone about his... condition.
"I'm nearly always cold. It's almost like I never left the ice."
Tony frowned. How long had it been since Cap had been thawed out of the ice? 6 months at the most. The man had been dealing with this, all alone, for six months. Tony felt a wave of sympathy crash over him. He made his way over to the ever growing pile of blankets and wrapped his arms around it, knowing that somewhere in this pile was a very cold Capsicle who needed some warmth.