“No-- No, you don’t get to do that,” Tony said as the mask flew up and he strode towards James as fast as he could in titanium gold. He shook open the whole top half of the armor and reached out with bare, warm hands to grip James firmly by frigid cheeks and to wrap his fingers around the back of his head. He hadn’t exactly intended on embracing James, but he pulled him into his arms just the same as the quinjet silently landed behind the man a hundred or so feet away.

Wind caught in James’ hair and Tony ignored the way it whipped against him as he exhaled on cold skin.

“I can’t lose you, even if you’re hellbent on losing yourself. Thirty years… Okay, I get that it wasn’t you, but sometimes it was. You made me feel safe. You protected me. And that wasn’t all the soldier… Let’s go somewhere warm, is that okay?”