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"Ah, a New Year's Kiss! Isn't that nice?"
Nicky blinked and looked over at Lance and then at the exhibits dancing and singing in front of them, following their gaze until they got distracted by some of the tiny figures from Pompeii doing a Mexican wave. It wasn't unusual for him to become sleepy during his hours spent at the museum, and as he'd been to a party earlier that night he was now really ready for a good long nap.
However, he'd promised he'd stay up for the new year, so he was sat on the stairs with Lancelot, who had taken a break from dancing, while several exhibits were partying before them in the Great Court to a 70s playlist provided by his dad. Nicky had put his music on shuffle earlier, but museum folks just seemed to be fans of disco classics. Larry stayed for Hanukkah, and it'd been great hanging out with him, but he'd left earlier that day; he'd gotten himself a dog for company and his grumpy neighbour had only agreed to look after it for just over a week.
Lance had been more excited to see photos of the dog, Betsy, than to see Larry himself. It was understandable, though, his dad was still a little wary of Lance after their first encounter when they almost got all the exhibits, including themself, uh, killed. Also, Lancelot really liked dogs and had an impossible dream of owning one in the priceless artefact filled museum.
His dad didn't need to be cautious though, Lance was pretty harmless, in Nick's opinion. Take their sword away and they were just a slightly confused, unfairly attractive person who enjoyed reality tv a bit too much.
Said knight was elbowing him again, which was kinda painful as they were wearing their full suit of armour for the occasion. They grinned and pointed over at the two statues sharing shy kisses.
"Those lovely ladies over there, isn't it nice?"
"Oh, yeah."
Nicky knew he should've feigned more excitement as Lancelot instantly turned to look at him with a worried expression. He sipped the cider they were sharing and tried to look more awake. New Year's was a great time for the museum exhibits as it wasn't long since they'd woken up, so they were ready to party, but Nicky didn't think it'd be more than a few hours until he passed out. He'd try and stay up and enjoy the celebrations till then, though.
"Nick, what's wrong?" They didn't even need to ask if he was okay, they knew each other so well by now.
"Just tired. I did all my partying earlier, and, you know, I love DJing but being on your feet for so long really drains you."
Lance crunched a handful of crisps as they paused to think. "You should rest, then."
"No, I'm alright, just don't ask me to dance, I'll probably collapse," He chuckled, but Lancelot was still fixing him with a concerned stare. "Just kidding." Nick clarified, patting them on the leg in reassurance before helping himself to some snacks too, opting for the bowl of pretzels between them.
"I won't be dancing myself either, I keep getting made fun of by this very mean guy with freckles who refuses to dress up for the occasion." Lance told him, sniffing and looking away, opting for being dramatic, as per usual.
"Hey, this is a new sweater, I made some effort!" Nicky jostled them in the side and watched the grin spread across their face again. Lancelot could never remain serious for long without smiling, or just forgetting what they were doing.
"Armour is much more appropriate for an important event such as heralding a new year!"
"Not very practical though, at least I can dance in a sweater,"
"You've not gotten up to dance once! Half heartedly doing the hand movements to the macarena doesn't count."
"I'm tired! Look, my eyes are almost shut... can't stay awake... time to collapse... ow!"
"You can't miss the start of a whole new year, Nicky!"
"I'll stay awake, just... don't attack me with your evil metal fingers again."
"What can I say? I have very well made armour. But my metal fingers will leave you be."
"Deal?"
"Deal."
The two shared a smile and then went back to snacking and watching the crowd of exhibits and their varied dancing styles. Tilly was teaching a cluster of people how to do the robot, with mixed results. She waved over to them excitedly and gestured to the exhibits next to her doing the awkward dance. Nicky and Lance both waved back in unison, Nick also giving her a thumbs up.
"When was your last New Year's Kiss, Nicky?" Lance asked in interest, foot tapping to the music.
That took a bit of thought. "Uh... when I was fourteen and the only other boy who liked boys took pity on me at a friend's party." He smiled self deprecatingly as he remembered the girls avoiding him near the end of the night. He'd only recently come out as gay (later realising he was bi) and the only other known gay guy had given him a quick kiss before running off, leaving him alone to play a Pokémon game in the corner. Things hadn't changed much, clearly, as before Lance found him he'd just been sat on his phone on the steps of the Court.
"That's a long time ago." Lance commented.
Nicky elbowed them in the side teasingly. "Not that it's any competition, but when was your last kiss?"
To Nicky's surprise, Lancelot turned the faintest bit pink. "William kissed my hand the night before he left, the same as I had greeted him."
"Shakespeare?" Lance nodded in response to Nicky's question. "Oh, I thought you were going to say Trixie or yourself or something."
"Well, it was just a friendly gesture, I think it was, but it was nice of him."
Lancelot wasn't saying much which was an odd thing, as they usually wouldn't shut up, but Nicky didn't want to probe. They'd only recently gotten comfortable calling themself gay and being more confident in their sexuality: whatever it was, it wasn't straight, and Nick didn't want to push them to talk about crushes or anything. Will had gotten on well with Lance when he'd been part of the British theatre exhibition, and he'd been a surprisingly chill, flirty kind of guy who made terrible innuendos.
"That's a long time with no kisses, though." Lancelot was saying, and Nicky turned to see they were looking at him in thought.
"I guess. I'm used to it though, no big deal, man."
"No, that won't do,"
"Lance..." Now it was Nicky's turn to feel heat rise in his cheeks. He didn't know what Lancelot was planning but, oh man, he was already thinking of ideas and he really shouldn't be thinking those ideas, they were ridiculous... but very welcome.
"Trixie! Come here, girl!"
Nicky breathed out a quiet sigh of relief. Then held his breath again as Trixie scrambled around the corner and sat at Lancelot's side. She really was a loyal dinosaur, it reminded him of his friend Rexy, as boisterous as she had been, and it was a good thing they weren't in the staff lounge for once as Trixie would probably have broken through the door frame and most of the wall to get to Lance.
"Now, give Nicky a kiss." Lancelot commanded, clasping their hands together.
It was probably weird to not be scared by a giant triceratops looming down on you, but Nicky was used to it by now, having helped Lance train Trixie with the more difficult commands. The dinosaur butted her mouth against Nicky's forehead then sat down again happily, and Nicky patted her side in thanks.
"Isn't she a good girl? Yes she is! You're a good dinosaur, Trixie!" Lance was saying, not in a cutesy voice like most people would use for a pet, instead they were proudly proclaiming how great she was while scratching her under the chin. After receiving the praise she wanted, Trixie ran off again in chase of something neither of them could see. It was New Year's Eve, it was a party, neither of them could be bothered to run after her. Besides, she rarely broke anything lately, and if she did it was never any of the really important historical things.
It was a couple songs later after a comfortable silence between them when Lancelot spoke up again.
"Nicky, when are New Year's kisses supposed to happen?"
"Uh, New Year."
"Nicky!"
"What?" He smiled innocently while sipping his drink and avoided looking at his friend; he knew he'd lose his straight face pretty quickly if he saw Lance's disgruntled expression.
Lance pushed some hair from their face so they could frown more clearly at him. "That's not very helpful."
"I'm not a very helpful guy."
Nicky turned his head to give Lancelot one of his best teasing smiles, but just as he did he realised Lance was moving closer to him, their hands on his shoulders and then Nicky's breath caught in his throat and... they kissed his eyebrow.
They both moved back quickly, Nicky now in utter confusion. What had just happened?
"You weren't supposed to move." Lance told him, and, now that Nicky was frozen due to being in mild shock and being held still by Lancelot, they kissed him lightly on the cheek, stubble brushing against his jaw.
"There. Happy new year!" Lance pulled away and patted him on the back, looking as though they felt very successful.
"Oh, right, happy new year, dude," Nicky thought of giving them a fist bump in return, then realised that would look a bit weird and he decided to just smile back before looking away.
Lancelot had no idea they'd just given him the best moment of his whole year and that was ridiculous, but it was also true, and he really wanted to run his fingers over where Lance had been against him and kissing him, and it was just his cheek, but, man, he suddenly felt wide awake. Nicky exhaled deeply and internally told himself to chill. He'd probably have handled himself better if he hadn't had a few drinks. At least, he hoped so.
Lancelot looked completely oblivious, thankfully, to Nicky's reaction. They were tapping both feet to the music now and picking the rocks of salt out of a pretzel with great concentration.
"Thanks, Lance," Nicky told them, not sure if his friend had taken pity on him or just wanted to fulfil the tradition, but it was a nice end to the year. He wasn't going to look into too deeply; the other was always an open person with expressing their excitement and love of their friends and things.
Lancelot patted him on the back, again, proving Nicky's internal musings about their touchy feely nature correct, and nodded. "No problem. Everybody should get a kiss for New Years, I think."
Nicky considered for the briefest of seconds kissing his friend back, but then mentally (and maybe physically? He wasn't really sure what he was doing at that moment in time) shook his head to get rid of that thought. It was better to stick to their usual banter and move on.
Although... kissing for the sake of tradition was a pretty valid reason to do so. He wouldn't have another chance for a year, and fuck knows where he'd be then.
Yeah, he might as well go for it.
"Guess you should get one too, yeah?"
He waited for Lance's nod of agreement, then, as casual as he could be, Nicky held their jaw gently, and pressed a kiss to the side of their face. If he'd been somebody watching he would've walked over and slapped himself in the face; it reminded him of little kids shyly kissing each other during school recess or something. It was only for the sake of tradition, of course, but he felt a little nervous about it happening.
(Nicky was too busy keeping his eyes on Lance to notice, but later he'd be told that there was somebody watching, and it was Tilly, and she had been giving Nicky an unseen double thumbs up. She was very keen about setting people up in the museum, but unfortunately for her, it was just a casual thing.)
Lancelot looked surprised, but grateful, and they smiled. "Thank you!" Another person with a big crush on them might've been annoyed by how relaxed Lance was, but Nicky was glad to see them looking so happy and comfortable. It made him chill out, too.
Sometimes he was anxious about touching or hugging his friend too much, worried he was being too close, being too obvious about his feelings. He didn't want to influence Lance, to make them feel they had to be anything other than good friends, especially now they were more open about being gay. So it was nice to just hang out, to get the warm buzz of alcohol in his body, to joke around and know that his friend was comfortable with the odd touch and hug, and kiss on the cheek. He really needed to start up a conversation to distract himself from thinking about moving his lips elsewhere.
"New Year's Kisses are supposed to happen right as it becomes the new year," Nicky told them, failing to think of anything to talk about but kissing. Great, not like that was weird. He was also pleasantly ignoring the fact he'd kissed them back way before midnight.
Lance didn't seem to mind, though, they just looked thoughtful.
Everything had been a bit surreal, but it was hard to feel awkward around Lance, and even though Nicky was sure he was still blushing a tiny bit, the atmosphere was relaxed as ever. Well, he was used to them being close. It just happened that he'd liked this one action from them quite a bit more than all the hugs, though they were nice. Lance was nice, too, pretty great, actually. It was ten minutes to midnight now, and Nicky was glad to be spending the last few moments of 2016 with his closest friend.
"Well, hopefully I'll get it right next year, then." Lance replied with a nod, happiness returning as they munched on a pretzel and tapped their feet to Boogie Wonderland, while Nicky wondered if that promise would be fulfilled.