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To the public's surprise, Tony is a rather affectionate person. They just don't see it often because he was only affectionate to people he was comfortable around. Not many people filled that requirement ever since the loss of his parents and the gain of their assets. The formation of the Avengers changed that. After they started to work together frequently, Stark Towers became their home. Seeing each other often and in an informal setting proved to be an effective bonding experience. He realized a few weeks in he no longer had the urge to immediately leave the room when someone else walked in.
Sometime after that, he actively sought them out to talk to or do things with. It reminded him a lot of how things were when he lived with his mother, the constant feeling of familiarity and warmth. Before he knew it, he was slipping back into some old habits.
* * *
Tony had just pulled three all-nighters working on a project. He was developing his own synthetic skin for prosthetics ( something he may or may not have started for Bucky ). He had wandered to the kitchen in desperate need of caffeine before he slumped over somewhere. As brain fried as he is right now, maybe it wasn't the best idea to try to work his coffee maker, but he was too exhausted to consider that. He is only a couple of feet from the machine when a warm mag is placed in his hands.
"You look like you need it," Bruce told him with a slight grin on his face.
Tony stared down at the coffee, his brain was far too sleepy to provide words to express his gratitude. So his body worked off of pure instinct. He gives Bruce a small peck on the cheek before shuffling off back to the lab ( only to crash on the beanbag chair in one of his offices ).
Bruce did not move for a solid five minutes trying to process what the frick-frack just happened before eventually coming to the conclusion that he had hallucinated the whole thing.
* * *
It's movie night at the tower, and they are watching Terminator ( it was Clint's turn to pick ). Usually, they'll watch three to four different movies too late in the night ( aka early morning ). It was a byproduct of being a house of multiple sleeping disorders. However, Clint was insistent to just keep replaying Terminator. They all told him to change it to literally anything else, but he just hid in his little corner in the ceiling that no one could reach him. Or so he thought. Apparently, Natasha also tired of watching the same movie and used her acrobatic skill set to get him. She wrestled the remote out of his hands and left him up there hogtied.
The movie was switched to Ocean's Eleven, and she returned triumphantly to her spot on the couch.
"You're a lifesaver," he said before swooping down and kissing her on the top of her head without thinking.
He ignored the looks some of them gave him and enjoyed the movie.
After that incident and a talk with Bruce, a Tony Kiss™ was treated as the highest form of praise possible. Everyone made it their mission to get at least one Tony Kiss™ and would brag about it to the other as soon as their resident genius was out of earshot. He didn't seem to notice their behavior change or mind the increased intimacy. They were all genuinely dysfunctional weirdos and couldn't help but challenge each other to see who could get the most sugar.
* * *
Thor outdid them all when Tony gave him a forehead kiss as a reward for saving him the last piece of bacon. He got so excited he punched a hole in the wall. When Peter eventually came along, he ( who got like five kisses a day ) became the reigning champion, his only rival being Pepper.
