Chapter Text
First Kiss
If it weren’t for Peter’s excited voice carrying down the halls, Tony would have wandered around the labyrinth of the New York Sanctum for hours trying to find the teen. The pair’s voices had been faint from the front door, but grew louder as Tony wondered closer to the small study Stephen used as an office of sorts.
“MJ’s parents went to Montreal for New Year’s, so she’s coming to celebrate with Aunt May and I!” Peter’s voice was practically vibrating with anticipation as he recounted the information. Tony could envision the how the kid was probably fidgeting with his hands as he spoke as well as if he was standing in the room himself.
“And this is…a good thing?” Stephen’s hesitant baritone echoed down the hall.
Tony couldn’t help but laugh softly gently pushed the cracked door of the study wider. Stephen was seated behind his desk, engrossed in a book, while Peter perched on an end table with his back to the door, talking a mile a minute.
“Are you kidding? It’s perfect! Now I don’t have to sneak out to try and kiss her at midnight! She’ll be right there! She says she’s not into ‘sappy shit like that,’ but it has ‘nice symbolism.’ It didn’t make sense at first, but then I talked to Karen and…. well, I’m sure you know all about that, right, Mister Strange?”
Stephen’s fingers paused mid-page turn, and the paper rattled softly between his trembling fingers. “In theory. I’ve never had a New Year’s kiss,” he confused airily before returning to his reading.
“What?!” Peter gaped, jumping off the tabletop. “Why not?”
“The opportunity…never arose,” Stephen sighed, abandoning his book to the side. “I was studying, or working, or out at some medical benefit by myself. I assure you,” he added with a touch of laughter, “my life is just as fulfilling.”
Peter’s head tilted, and Tony could nearly see the cogs turning in the teen’s head. It was time to intervene.
Tony cleared his throat loudly, grinning winningly when the room’s occupants turned their attention to him. “Hope I’m not interrupting, but Happy’s outside waiting, Pete. You owe me some lab hours. I hear there are some new web formulas in the works?”
“Oh, yeah!” Peter grinned enthusiastically, snagging his backpack and hastily waving goodbye to Stephen. “I worked out all the formulas on the subway this morning. What do you think about adding in diisocyanate?”
---
It had been difficult to gently turn down Peter’s offer to join him and his Aunt for New Year’s Eve, (“As much as I’d love to see Aunt Hottie three glasses of champagne in, there’s an issue I need to tend to.”) and even more difficult to not childishly kick the back of Happy’s seat every time the man shot Tony a knowing look in the review mirror on the drive to Bleecker Street.
It was nerve-wracking, but any reservations he had were gone when Stephen opened the Sanctum door.
The sorcerer looked anything but as he stood, barefoot, in a worn sweater and jeans with the New Year’s countdown blaring from the TV down the hall.
“Stephen,” Tony greeted tightly, shifting from one foot to another. In the background, he could hear the televised crowd chanting, “Four, three, two, on-!”
“Yes? Ton-!”
Tony used Stephen’s shoulders as leverage and stretched forward on his toes, softly kissing the shocked man as a bubbly news anchor shouted, “Happy New Year, New York!” happily in the background.
Tony pulled back slowly, watching as Stephen stared at him in a mixture of confusion and anticipation. “Sorry for the short notice,” Tony mumbled, “but no one should get to our age and not have had a New Year’s kiss.”
The man said nothing, and a twinge of panic wormed its way into Tony’s chest. “I had overheard you and Peter talking earlier and I…I didn’t mean to overstep but-”
Stephen silenced Tony’s blabbering with a brief touch of his lips. “Come inside, Tony,” he offered with a chuckle, warm hands sliding around Tony’s numb fingers. “No one should get to our age and spend New Year’s out in the cold.”
Tony snorted and crossed the threshold. “Touché, douchebag.”