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[proof-of-a-stark-heart]

#justironhusbandsthings

The first thing Rhodey does when coming home has always been turning the lights down low. It all started when they were rooming at MIT, and Tony would stay up “studying” (read, tinkering) while Rhodey had late aerodynamics courses. Tony would inevitably fall asleep on the couch, tucked under the patchwork quilt Mama Rhodes had made. Rhodey would shake his head, turn off the overhead lights, and carry Tony to bed.

nowadays, JARVIS can do it (and will, on days when Rhodey isn’t coming home) but he has learnt that this, this is something the dear Colonel wants to, needs to, do.

and so, when Rhodey comes home late and finds his husband sleeping on the couch, tucked under a threadbare patchwork quilt? Rhodey will shake his head fondly and turn the lights down low, before carrying his husband to bed.

when asked about it, later, when the dust has time to settle, Rhodey won’t say that it was desperation and a refusal to believe he’d been left behind that led to him continuing to look for Tony in that G-d forsaked desert; he’ll answer the heavy question flippantly, say I don’t think he’d die without us ever finding out which one is actually the best Go Fish player. 

There is actually some truth to that sentiment. They’re very competitive.

The real, actual truth about Go Fish? Rhodey’s better at that and at Bridge, any other card game Tony’ll handily smoke him at (board games, however, Rhodey’s the undisputed king)

Unless it’s Ludo. Tony loves Ludo. 

speaking of MIT, when Rhodey hears he’s got a new roommate? he curses quietly, once, before resignedly accepting his fate. when he meets the new roommate - big, soulful brown eyes, tousled black hair, looking like a kitten could bowl him over? Rhodey curses again and then decided there’s nothing for it - he’s gotta protect the kid.

it doesn’t actually happen that quick, it just sounds so romantic when he says it like that. what actually happens is that Tony, two years younger than the next youngest on campus, nervously keeps to himself, more or less pretending he doesn’t exist, until three months into their cohabitation when Rhodey gets the worst food poisoning of his life and spends three days puking.

during those three days he had two assignments to turn in, both worth a big percentage of his grade.

he got an a on both assignments, one of the professors going so far as to congratulate him in his nigh-on groundbreaking ideas.

Rhodey’s pretty sure he’s never had a groundbreaking idea about aerodynamics before, and when musing on this out loud he can’t help but notice his new roommate hunching even deeper over his textbook.

Rhodey decides he can probably like the kid, no big.

the thing is, Tony’s rich - like, ridiculously rich? While Rhodey didn’t grow up poor, they weren’t well off by any means. Christmas, their first year rooming together, that’s when Rhodey properly realizes there are different kinds of wealth.

Mama Rhodes had insisted on gifting Tony something for Christmas, despite Rhodey’s insistence to the contrary. Mama Rhodes, being a mother hen of rank, decided Tony needed a quilt.

Rhodey manfully pretended not to notice Tony’s tears when he opened the gift, but did take careful note of the way Tony swept the quilt around himself, more or less nesting in it.

the quilt didn’t cost much more than time to make, the fabrics coming from worn-out clothing and the like - monetarily, it had no value.

just the same, Rhodey did notice when Tony received a car from his father, and Tony did nothing but grimace in disgust.

[proof-of-a-stark-heart]