@soldatassassin from (here):
If anyone had asked Bucky if he’d kiss someone on New Years Eve, his answer would have been a stern no. And the possibility of kissing Tony Stark would definitely not have been on his mind at all. But circumstances were strange things, and he’d spent the night at the Stark Tower in Steve’s suite, so he was there to celebrate the new year. He had no idea that he would be closest to Tony while midnight rolled around, but he DID know about the tradition. And he had to admit that he didn’t dislike Tony enough not to kiss him, as the tradition said.
So he threw all his fucks to the wind and leaned close to the other man as the countdown began. Despite knowing the tradition, Bucky had never actually kissed anyone on New Years before, so he didn’t know whether someone just… did it, or whether they asked beforehand. He supposed asking would be the polite thing to do, but then Tony had never been polite to him, and a part of him wanted to see how the other would react.
Bucky didn’t tell him his plan, only leaned into the brunet’s personal space and gave him a slow grin. Three… two… one! He pressed their lips together, harder than anticipated, but that’s the way things were sometimes. Couldn’t plan for everything. When the cheering on the TV had died down, he pulled away, curious to see the expression on Tony’s face. Had he surprised the other man? Or had he simply drove a deeper wedge between them
Traditions were a thing, and Tony’d had more than his fair share of New Year’s kisses. If he was perfectly honest, he didn’t remember the vast majority of them--though the days-long hangovers that followed what he’d formerly call a good time had been far more memorable. But now instead of champagne, his glass was filled with kombucha: just as fizzy, far less likely to derail his progress.
He hadn’t intended to end up right next to Bucky as the countdown started, though things weren’t as tense as they’d been a few weeks back. Progress was a slow thing; there’d been a lot of awkward, stilted conversations, but also a few decent laughs, and maybe they weren’t precisely in friend territory yet, but they sure as hell weren’t enemies.
Still, Tony’s eyebrows lifted when Bucky grinned at him--really?--and he started to say that he had to be joking, but then the soldier was kissing him while the sound of the crowd echoed from the speakers and it was a lot to take in. And the kiss lingered; what started as a too-firm press of lips easily angled into something far more pleasant, and Tony’s hum of appreciation outweighed the initial huff of surprise. Tony was mildly embarrassed that Bucky was the first to pull away, though he quickly lifted his glass in salute.
“Happy New Year to you, too. You know, Steve mentioned you used to be quite the player. Can’t say I believed him,” and maybe his teeth dragged a little over his lower lip in thought, “but that was pretty smooth.”
