Title: Rapunzel
Rating: G
Pairing: None or a wee bit Tony/Steve
Disclaimer: NOT mine! No money made!
Summary: It’s snowing and Steve’s lucky to have the tower all to himself.
Notes: Snow drabble written on my snow day—January 21, 2014

Rapunzel

Steve tucked the thick red blanket around his waist and legs then surveyed his surroundings. Bowl of popcorn, stack of empty DVD cases of action movies already loaded into the six-disc changer, two bottles of cold Gatorade, bottle of Aspirin, and box of Kleenex. Now the only thing he had to decide was whether or not to ask JARVIS to draw the shades down over the window or keep them up so he could watch the snow fall outside.

All morning, the tower had been pelted by the latest winter storm, which was now being assaulted by wind so strong the snow was coming sideways instead of down. It was an assault upon the tower Steve could handle, even with a stuffy nose and without the rest of the team.

Tony was away giving the keynote at a tech conference. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were off on a case in Bermuda, lucky ducks. Thor was attending to business back home. And the Hulk was off… smashing something or whatever he did when he wasn’t here. Pepper had been in yesterday to make sure the fridge was well stocked and Steve was all right. He hadn’t told her he was feeling a little under the weather, but she’d probably guessed from the unnaturally red shade of his nose and his inability to properly pronounce words with Ns, Ms, and Ps in them. He’d done an embarrassingly bad job with her name in particular.

It was nice not having anywhere he needed to be today, not bothering with a job. It was nice having the whole place to himself, not bothering anyone with his sneezes and coughs, at least that was what he kept telling himself. It would have been nicer without the cold, but he could deal with that. It wasn’t all that bad. He could feel his body fighting it off; and Captain America was a damn good fighter. If he could stand up against Hitler and Red Skull, he could handle a little sniffle.

Deciding to keep the window shades up, Steve hit play on the remote and sunk back into the cushions for the long haul. He wasn’t through the previews before he felt like sneezing again. He tried to keep them quiet, his nose encased in four fluffy tissues and two hands. “hfshhh! hushhh! kuhshhh! hefchhh!”

“Bless you!”

For a second, Steve wished that sentiment had come from someone else. But Steve cringed at it this time. “JARVIS, I dod’t deed you to say that every tibe.”

“How often would you like—”

“How about you stob udtil I tell you otherwise?”

Steve had just finished wiping his nose dry and stuffing the tissues under the couch cushion when he was hit in the face with a snowball.

Coughing and, perhaps, screeching a bit in surprise, his first instinct was to wipe it away with one hand while blinking and surveying the windows to make sure none had broken open.

They were all intact, thankfully, but there was someone standing in front of them. “Brand new. Picked it up at the conference. What do you think?” Tony set down his briefcase.

Steve stared down at the snowball, which had felt every bit as wet and cold as a real one, but which wasn’t melting on the rug. “What… why…”

“It’s for indoor snowball fights.”

“Doesd’t that defeat the—”

“This way, you don’t have to go out into the cold to have fun.”

Steve wiped his sleeve over his face, snuffling lightly into it. “It would have beed bore fud to dot get hit id the face with a sdowball.”

Tony laughed. “What happened. Did I get you in the nose?”

Steve shook his head. “Just feelig a little sdiffly. Thidk I cabe dowd with subthig.”

Throwing himself in the armchair by the couch, Tony looked Steve over critically. “Shit. Did you get Bruce to check you out?”

“Haved’t seed Bruce id weeks. Add it’s just a cold.”

“You’re a soldier and a doctor now? Do you realize how bad this bug must be for it to have snuck past Captain America’s defenses? It must be a superbug or something.”

Steve shrugged. “So you should go before you catch it. Heh… hah-ehfshhh!”

“Bless you.” That sounded genuine, sympathetic.

It made Steve smile. “Thadks.”

Tony nodded and propped his feet up on the coffee table. He helped himself to a handful of popcorn then passed the bowl over. “Start the movie over. I think we just missed the first five minutes.”

This overbearing way of inserting himself into Steve’s plans, Steve’s space, was Tony’s way of apologizing. Tony always just assumed he was wanted… though, this time, he might have been right. With a sigh, Steve retrieved the remote and did as Tony had commanded. “Tody, are you sure y—“

Reaching out, Tony batted Steve’s arm. “Quiet or we’ll miss it this time around, too!”

Not being able to promise to be silent and knowing Tony didn’t really expect it of him, Steve pulled a few fresh tissues from the box as a precautionary measure.