Chapter Text
“One minute to midnight!” Thor shouts over the noise in the crowded ballroom where all the Avengers (and several hundred additional guests) are celebrating their first New Year as a team.
Tony moves strategically to stand next to Bruce. This is his chance. When the ball drops, he’s going to use it as an excuse to finally lay a kiss on the good doctor’s mouth. If Bruce kisses him back, fabulous. If he doesn’t, Tony can just turn and kiss a few other people around him, pretending like he’s just spreading around the New Year’s joy. It’s a very Tony thing to do, so it shouldn’t draw suspicion.
Although he and Bruce have gotten closer these past few months since Bruce moved into a guest suite in the tower, Tony still isn’t sure whether Bruce feels anything more than friendship. Sure, he’s noticed a sign or two, like that time he saw Bruce in the window reflection staring at his ass, or that smile Bruce seems to reserve just for Tony. But to be fair, a lot of people stare at Tony’s ass when they think he’s not looking. And Tony is basically the only person Bruce works with whose mind is anywhere close to being on par with his own, so those smiles could just be from plain old intellectual satisfaction.
Other signs, like the couple of times when Tony stood close enough to Bruce in the lab for shoulders to brush, and Bruce didn’t move away, are there but still too vague for him to be sure they actually mean anything. In less than a minute, he can finally stop feeling like an awkward teenager and find out for sure.
He doesn’t know why he’s so nervous; he’s never been like this with anyone else he’s had feelings for. But the stakes have never been this high before. He genuinely values Bruce’s friendship, and even though he hopes for more, he’s not willing to risk what they have. Hence his plan to innocently test the waters tonight.
The countdown begins.
“Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven!”
Tony pointedly doesn’t look at Bruce. He wants it to seem like he chose to kiss him on a whim.
“Six! Five! Four!”
His hands, stuffed casually into his pockets, ball up into sweaty fists.
“Three! Two! One!”
Before Tony can act, he feels a warm hand on his cheek turning his head to the left. And then Bruce’s lips are covering his, and the shouts of “Happy New Year!” raining around them sound muted and far away, and Tony can hardly think because Bruce is kissing him, and it takes a second for him to remember to kiss back, but then he does, and his insides are exploding. And when Bruce brings up his other hand so he’s now cupping both of Tony’s cheeks, Tony actually feels weak at the knees and has to clutch Bruce’s shoulders for support. For the first time in his life, he understands that that’s not just a figure of speech.
As the other attendees’ drunken rendition of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ concludes, Tony reluctantly pulls back and looks at Bruce. There’s confetti in their hair and the music and chaos around them are deafening, but Tony hardly notices it.
“What was that?” he asks, slightly breathless, heart still fluttering in his chest.
“That was…something I wish I’d done a while ago,” Bruce answers with a shy smile.
“You and me both,” says Tony, completely charmed by Bruce’s shyness considering the bold move he just made. “How’d you know I’d kiss back?”
Bruce shrugs. “I just had a feeling. Have for a while. And just now, you were pretty obvious when you came over here at the one-minute mark.”
Tony is starting to get his wits back. “Well you kinda stole my thunder there. This was supposed to be my move, and you messed it all up.”
Bruce grins. “You get the next one, then.”
And Tony does, pulling Bruce in for another kiss.
“Whoa, whoa, hold up!” exclaims Sam, who’s standing nearby and has just noticed them. They break from their kiss and look at him just as he shouts “Yes!” with a triumphant fist pump in the air. “I called it! I had them kissing at midnight on New Year’s! Barton! Where are you? You owe me fifty bucks!”
Clint arrives at Sam’s side, drink in hand, and shoots Tony and Bruce an exasperated look. “Damnit, you two! You couldn’t have waited another day?”
Bruce is blushing furiously at having so much attention drawn to them. Tony is characteristically unperturbed; he just gives Bruce a lopsided grin and one more chaste kiss, then wraps an arm around his shoulder and leads him toward the exit. He briefly lifts his hand from Bruce’s shoulder to wave in Sam and Clint’s general direction as they go.