A/N- Part of my Christmas Countdown 2015, a series of fics from different fandoms centering around different pairings. Prompt: Sweater. Needed me some Stony fluff (Mostly implied, sorry) because the CW trailer pretty much killed me. So not ready for that movie.
Mech the Halls (Sweater)
It was probably one of the coldest winters in the history of New York, and of course, that was the exact winter the heating in Avengers tower decided to quit.
"I can see my breath Tony!" puffed Clint, from where he was curled up on couch, wrapped in a blanket and with a dog that was at least part Labrador resting his head on his lap "I should not be able to see my breath inside the house!" He was the only avenger left in the tower, other than Tony of course. Natasha had disappeared outside, saying she'd rather brave the cold. Steve was training new recruits, Thor was in Asgard, and there was still no sign of Bruce anywhere.
Tony decided to ignore his No Pets on the Furniture rule, on the basis that Clint might actually use him as a pin cushion if he objected to his personal space heater. "I'm working on it!" he said agitatedly, stopping only to pick up some coffee before heading to his workroom.
"Dude, just give it up and call a repairman!" Clint shouted after him
Tony snorted. "A repairman wouldn't know where to start with this baby!" he yelled back, just before the elevators shut.
XXXX
Steve's shoulders hunched slightly as he entered the tower. Today had been grueling, to say the least. If he ever found out who thought it was a good idea to put him in charge of training the new Avengers recruits, he was going to strangle them with their own office supplies. It wasn't as if they were lacking potential, they were chock full of it. Unfortunately, it was the whole "work together as a team" part that was causing issues. Although to be fair, that often caused issues for the current avengers as well. On top of that, this was Steve was still new to actually training anyone. SHIELD had been his first gig at being a trainor at all. The Avengers had sort of just fallen into line, the Commandos hardly needed outside training, and before that, well, he wasn't in any shape to be teaching anyone anything, unless maybe it was how to throw a punch while having an asthma attack. This whole coming up with training exercises thing was daunting, especially without the organization and resources of SHIELD at his back.
He stopped in the kitchen to rummage in the fridge. He pulled out some cold stir-fry and a tortilla, and made himself a wrap. He ate quickly, and debated just going straight to sleep, but it was still freezing, and cold and sleep didn't go together anymore. So he headed to Tony's workshop, because Tony and sleep almost never went together anyway.
XXXX
"What are you working on?"
The soldering iron in Tony's hand slipped and he swore. He turned to find Steve standing behind him, not too close, but close enough to feel the heat radiating off of his body.
"Trying to fix the heating, I'm pretty sure we have some broken parts."
"Huh, okay." Steve settled into a corner of the workshop and picked up one of the books that they both pretended that Tony didn't keep around just for his benefit. This had become something of a habit, on the days that neither of them could sleep. Tony would work, and Steve would sit, sometimes watching him, sometimes reading. He'd just finished the Lord of the Rings trilogy and was starting on the Chronicles of Narnia.
They sat in comfortable silence for a while, before Steve looked up from his book as Tony made a frustrated noise. For the first time he actually took in the clothes his friend was wearing, a thin black t-shirt, jeans, and a pair of worn sneakers.
"Aren't you cold in that?" he asked, because the workroom was colder than all the rest of the tower, despite (or according to Tony, because of) all the machinery kept there. Steve was wearing his jacket.
Tony jumped at the sound of his voice. "Jesus Christ Capsicle! Warn a guy!"
Steve rolled his eyes in response. "Aren't you cold though?"
"Yeah, I guess. Haven't really had time to think about it, I left my jacket upstairs."
"Okay."
Steve finished a few more chapters before sleep finally began to overtake him, and he carefully marked his place before closing the book. He cleared his throat to give Tony a little warning. "I'm going to head to bed, good night."
Tony didn't even look up from the workbench "Good night, sleep tight, XOXO, smiley face smiley face, obnoxious beating heart emoji."
Steve rolled his eyes as he left the room, a small smile playing at his lips.
XXXX
Two days later the heating still wasn't fixed. Tony had given up out of frustration the night before, and finally returned to his room (after spending the first night asleep in the workshop, which lead to a tag-team scolding from Steve and Natasha), deciding to sleep on it, and start work again the next morning. He headed down bleary eyed, stopping in the kitchen for coffee, where Clint mouth-breathed to prove a point and Natasha made him eat a bowl of cereal, before heading back to the workshop.
When he first saw it, he thought he might be hallucinating, but when he reached out to pick up the neatly wrapped present, it was solid in hands, so he knew it was real. There was a yellow sticky note on top. Tony rubbed the last of the sleep out of eyes and picked up the note.
Figured you'd probably forget your jacket again.
-Steve XOXO :) :) 3 -Obnoxious beating heart emoji
Ripping open the present, Tony found a dark blue sweater with a silver robot in a santa hat emblazoned on the front. The words "Mech the Halls" was written in a fancy script underneath, bookended by grey gears made to look like snowflakes. Tony grinned and pulled it on over t-shirt. As he got back to work, he began to whistle, he was going to fix it today, he was sure of it.