Tony glances around the department store again, bored out of his mind. "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" is playing on the radio for what seems like the thousandth time today and he's seriously considering just buying every radio station in New York and banning them from playing this song. He glances over at Bruce, who's seriously inspecting some kind of... sweater? It looks more like a woollen green potato sack to him, but he doesn't want to say anything in case Bruce decided to reconsider and start his search again.
Tony taps his fingers against the glass display cabinet, picks up a nearby book, opens it, then immediately tosses it back on the shelf. He wasn't really one for teenage vampire romances. With nothing left to do with his hands, he idly readjusts the hat and sunglasses that are doing a pretty poor job at concealing his identity; considering how many people are stopping to stare at him.
"Why are we even here?" he whines.
"I told you, we're here to get Christmas presents" Bruce says, slightly exasperated.
Tony moves to drape himself over Bruce's shoulders."You know I can have anything delivered straight to the tower, right?"
"Hmm, but this is more fun," says Bruce, shrugging Tony off and putting away the sweater. Tony pouts aggressively at Bruce, who only smirks as he picks up an identical potato-sweater but in red this time.
"I would think you of all people would want to avoid crowded department stores Brucey-boy."
Bruce shrugs, smiling at him."What can I say, I just love the holiday." His voice softens a little and so does his smile, "Especially now that I have people to celebrate it with."
Tony feels a sudden rush of affection for the man. He knows that feeling exactly. Tony leans in and places a small kiss on Bruce's lips."And we all love having you here to celebrate with us." Bruce is really smiling now. He looks so cute when he smiles that Tony can't help but join in.
"Oh!" Bruce says after a moment, hurriedly checking his watch, "We should get going, Thor and Cap have probably picked out a tree already. They'll want us back so we can decorate."
"They can wait Bruce, I thought you had presents to pick up, like… this!" Tony finds a shelf of Avengers-themed plushies and tosses the Hulk one at Bruce's face. Bruce catches it (a little awkwardly, nearly dropping it twice as Tony giggled at him) and places it neatly back on its shelf with a little frown. "Stop fooling around, we'll have to look somewhere else anyway. These sweaters weren't exactly made with Asgardian muscles in mind. I don't think Thor would be able to get any of these past his neck. Besides," Bruce takes Tony's hand and begins to lead him out of the store, "we have some tree decorating to do."
As the two climb into Tony's lamborghini (one of many), Tony's eyes light up with an evil glint.
"Say, what if-"
Bruce, seemingly reading his mind, interrupts him. " No way Tony," he says.
"Come on it would be amazing!"
"Nope, that's a terrible idea."
"It could be like a team bonding thing! Plus I think he'd look great in garlands"
Bruce gives him a look that says I will shave your head in your sleep if you don't listen to me and enunciates in a clear staccato, "We. Are. Not. Doing. That."
"Hmm...we'll see" says Tony with a grin.
The next morning, Bruce wakes up with a headache and several pictures on his phone of the Hulk, covered in Christmas, lights breaking down one of the tower walls.
"Goddammit Tony."
A tiny little fic my good buddy wrote me when my internet was down and I was starving for some cute science bros fluff. I just wanted to share it with the world!