Part One

Summary: "So anyway…are we just going to ignore the fact that Poindexter has never been kissed at midnight?" he says and Dex refuses to turn his head to see the stupid smirk he's sure Nursey is wearing.

A/N: Here, have some New Year's midnight kisses. I don't know where exactly this came from, but my mind has been a treasure trove of ideas lately, and this one came into my head at just the right time to share it with y'all before New Year's. There are two parts to this fic-this first part, with Nursey and Dex, and the second part, where you'll get to see what happened with Ransom and Holster when they left the part (but that probably won't be posted until a day or two after New Year's day). Enjoy y'all! 3

"15 minutes until midnight!" Ryan Seacrest declares on the TV as Dex walks back to the couch another beer for himself and Nursey.

As he sits down, he takes a good look around the room at everyone gathered there with him in the Haus living room. He's glad he's here. Originally he'd been planning to spend the entire winter break with his family, but they were starting to seriously bother him by Christmas Eve. He had been steeling himself to just deal with it, but his papa must have noticed because he stopped by Dex's room the day after Christmas and suggested that he go back to school early and spend New Years with his friends instead.

Initially, he gave his papa a non-committal shrug, because he wasn't really sure that there would be anyone there if he went back early. But when he texted the group chat, saying that he was thinking he wanted to spend New Year's at the Haus, he got several enthusiastic replies—one from Shitty (FUCK YEAH), several from Bitty proposing snacks, one from Jack (sounds fun), one from Nursey (sounds chill man), and a few responses from a few others.

When all was said and done, Ransom, Holster, Shitty, Lardo, Jack, Bitty, Nursey, Tango and Whiskey all joined him at the Haus. Chowder wanted to come, but his flight was too expensive to change, and he wasn't the only one too far away to come back. And the rest of the guys—well, they just didn't want to come, Dex guesses.

Dex has had four beers already at this point, not counting the one currently in his hand, and his high tolerance means it's not enough to feel very drunk, but he's certainly feeling a pleasant buzz. Nursey's only on his third, but his tolerance is lower than Dex's, meaning his probably at about the same stage of drunkenness as him. Jack is completely sober, as usual, and Lardo seems to be unaffected despite having drunk almost as much as all of them put together, but everyone else there is schwasted (or at least close).

Dex's eyes are on the TV but he's not really watching. Everyone else is in the middle of their own conversations, but at just about ten minutes to midnight, the low buzz of conversation in the room is interrupted by a loud exclamation by Holster.

"Bro, what do you mean you won't kiss me at midnight?!"

Everyone stops, conversations going silent as all eyes swivel on the two defensemen. Ransom takes his cup and throws what's left in it back (Dex thinks he's drinking some of the batch of tub juice Shitty had whipped up for the night). Ransom stares at his lap for a long minute before he looks up at Holster to answer him.

"I'm—I'm not going to kiss you at midnight just because," he says quietly. "That's not—that's not how we work bro."

"But bro," Holster slurs, throwing an arm around Ransom's shoulder and listing heavily into his side. "You know it's bad luck if you don't get kissed at midnight and like, who else am I gonna kiss?"

"I dunno bro," Ransom says, shrugging. "But I'm sure you can find someone."

"It's really not that big of a deal. I've never been kissed at midnight and my luck hasn't ever been—" Dex tries to offer up helpfully, but next to him, Nursey laughs, interrupting him.

"Are you kidding me? Your luck is actually shit Poindexter," he says.

Dex rolls his eyes and elbows Nursey in the side lightly, trying to not get distracted by the warm feeling in his stomach he got because of Nursey's laugh. "You're one to talk, since you constantly trip and fall over nothing," he retorts playfully.

"Hey, I'm just clumsy," Nursey replies coolly, taking a sip of his beer. "That's not the same thing as luck."

"Oh whatever," Dex huffs. Nursey grins, and Dex has to force himself to tear his eyes away from Nursey's face, or else he'd just keep staring. Instead, he turns his eyes back to where Ransom and Holster are still sitting, the volume of their conversation steadily rising.

"Listen Holtzy, if getting kissed at midnight is that important to you ask like—I don't know, ask Shitty if he'll do it!" Ransom nearly shouts at Holster, gently pushing him back.

"Brah, I'm d—" Shitty starts to respond, but Lardo (not-so) subtly clears her throat and he stops. "I mean, sorry brah, I'm going to be busy at midnight."

"Fine, then what about the tadpoles?" Ransom says, and there's a hint of desperation in his voice that makes Dex's eyebrows shoot up close to his hairline.

"Seriously Rans—"

"No! I'm going to do it!" Ransom roars, standing up suddenly, nearly knocking Holster off the armrest and onto the floor.

Holster recovers quickly and is immediately on his feet, moving so he's standing in front of Ransom. "Justin," he says softly, putting a hand on Ransom's arm. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, I'm just not going to kiss you at midnight!" Ransom snaps, jerking his arm away from Holster.

"You can't bullshit me like that," Holster replies.

"I need some air," Ransom mumbles, shoving his way past Holster.

"Justin, wait," Holster says, quickly walking after him. They turn the corner and go out of sight. A few seconds later, the back door slams, leaving the rest of them sitting in confused silence.

"What was that all about?" Tango asks, but Whiskey shakes his head.

"Now isn't the time Tony," he says quietly.

"Oh."

Dex awkwardly looks down at his phone. Seven minutes to midnight. Well, this isn't exactly how he pictured the night going. He figured they'd all get drunk and have a good time celebrating the New Year. Instead, Ransom and Holster are having some kind of falling out.

He's more than surprised by this development. He knew that Ransom and Holster hadn't seen each other much since they graduated Samwell. Ransom had been accepted to medical school in Boston and Holster got a job in Charlotte, NC. They had been apart for the first time in four years, but Dex didn't think it would strain their friendship like that. Holster used to suggest things like that to Ransom all the time and it had never caused a problem before. He wonders why it's suddenly a problem now.

His thoughts are interrupted by Nursey clearing his throat. "So anyway…are we just going to ignore the fact that Poindexter has never been kissed at midnight?" he says and Dex refuses to turn his head to see the stupid smirk he's sure Nursey is wearing.

"Fuck off," Dex replies, flipping Nursey off as his tries to will the flush creeping up his neck to stop. "Just because you'll make out with anything that moves doesn't mean that the rest of us are comfortable with that."

"Sure you're not just embarrassed you've never gotten kissed at midnight?" Nursey asks, almost cooing as he leans over so his face is altogether too close to Dex's.

"No, I'm not embarrassed," Dex mumbles because, even as his face starts to grow hot, he's not embarrassed. At least, he's not embarrassed that he's never been kissed at midnight; he's just embarrassed that he let it slip so Nursey found out.

"You are," Nursey says, his mouth so close to Dex's cheek that Dex can feel warm air hitting his face with every one of Nursey's breaths. "But don't worry Dexy, I'll take care of that for you. I'll kiss you at midnight."

Dex immediately frowns as he feels his blood pressure spike. If it had been anyone else that made that suggestion, he wouldn't even give a fuck. But it's Nursey. Nursey, whom he shares the attic with. Nursey, who is his best friend and partner. Nursey, the boy that he's almost certainly in love with.

See, the thing is that Dex is almost certain Nursey knows how he feels about him. He hates that he does, but it's not anything he can change—he's never been good about keeping his emotions off his face, so it was inevitable that he would find out. He hates it, but he can deal with it.

What he can't stand is the way Nursey seems to be shoving it in his face. Ever since they moved in the attic together (which is probably about the time Nursey figured him out), Nursey has been pushing the limit with his flirting and causally sexually suggestive statements. And Dex has been able to deal with that. It's the chirping he deserves for being so obvious. But Dex feels like this is way over the line.

"That's not funny," he almost snarls, roughly shoving Nursey away. "I've put up with a lot but that's too far. It's just mean and sick."

Nursey's expression hardens and his jaws shifts as he grits his teeth. "So it was all fun and games until I'm serious about something like kissing. Then it's just sick. Because the idea of kissing guys makes you sick, right?" he challenges, his voice low and calm but intensely threatening. It would scare Dex, if Nursey wasn't so off the mark.

"I—why is that what you always go to with me? Why is it, when I have any kind of reaction to gay stuff, you just immediately assume it's a homophobic one? What have I ever done to make you think that?" Dex responds, his tone sharp, but short of anger, because he's not angry. He's just confused and frustrated.

He doesn't get why, after three years (two of them as best friends), Nursey is still holding onto that perception of him. He thought that his complete non-reaction to Jack and Bitty telling them they were dating would've convinced him. If he wanted him to react like Chowder had, then Nursey should've known that wasn't coming—that's just not his style. A non-reaction should've been good enough, but apparently it wasn't.

Nursey just shrugs in response. "I don't know man, you just give off that vibe," he states.

"I—you think I give off a homophobic vibe," Dex says, trying to keep his jaw from hanging open (he's not the only one trying to stifle a reaction; across the room, Bitty snorts into his cup).

"Yep," Nursey answers, popping the 'p' as if to punctuate his point.

Dex stares at him for a long moment, because he's not sure if Nursey is actually being serious. Over the last year he's gotten more comfortable with his sexuality and—well, he's been acting as gay as he can possibly manage and everyone picked up on it. Or, judging by the sincere look on Nursey's face, almost everyone.

"I—fuck dude, you're totally getting your signals crossed," Dex says, scrubbing his hand down his face. "It's that, or you're just totally misreading them."

"I don't think I am," Nursey responds, and Dex has to resist the urge to grab Nursey's shoulders and shake him violently. Instead, he settles for placing a hand on Nursey's shoulder as he sighs.

"Nursey, you're an idiot. I'm not giving off a homophobic vibe. I couldn't be 'cause I'm actually really fucking gay."

Nursey's brow furrows. "You're not—you're—I'm sorry, what?" he says blankly, as if he hadn't understood a word Dex has just said.

"You said that you think that I think the idea of kissing guys makes me sick. Well it doesn't. I want to kiss guys," Dex says, repeating what he said in different words, since Nursey doesn't seem to be grasping how he said it the first time.

"I—no, that's not right," Nursey replies, harshly rubbing his eyes. "That's not Dex I'm—I must be dreaming or something. Fuck."

Dex can't stop himself from reaching down and pinching Nursey's arm.

"Ow!" Nursey yelps, yanking his arm back, resulting in him elbowing the back of the couch sharply. He grimaces, pulling his arm into his body as he gingerly rubs his elbow. "What was that for?" he asks Dex, glowering up at him.

"You said you thought you were dreaming," Dex says, grinning slightly. "I was just making sure you knew you weren't."

"Okay fine, I'm not dreaming," Nursey grumbles. "But if you're gay and not homophobic, why did you get upset at my suggestion we kiss at midnight?"

"I got upset because I don't appreciate being made fun of," Dex explains.

"Why would I be making fun of you?" Nursey questions.

"Because you know I'm like, in love with you and you just love taunting me about the fact that nothing's ever going to happen," Dex fumes, because Nursey should know exactly what he's talking about.

"Wait I didn't catch that—you're in what with me now?" Nursey asks, his eyes wide as he stares over at Dex.

Dex is about to throw his hands up and groan in frustration when it occurs to him that if Nursey didn't know he was gay, it's entirely possible he also has no clue about Dex's feelings for him.

"Wait, I mean—fuck, you actually have no idea what's been going on for the past year, do you?" Dex asks.

Nursey nods. "Um yah, so if you could tell me what's going on—"

Dex buries his face in his hands, because he just revealed way too much, assuming that Nursey already knew when he was clueless. "Uh—fuck. Just like—ignore all of what I just said."

"Not likely," Nursey says, shaking his head. "Like, can we talk about how you didn't tell me, your best friend, that you were gay?"

"I—I didn't feel comfortable just announcing it, okay! I've just like, been trying to be as obvious about it as possible! It's not my fault you didn't get it!" Dex moans (and God, how did he fall in love with the most oblivious guy on Earth?).

"I just—well shit, I guess I thought I had your vibe pinned down and I just like—ignored all the signals you were giving off," Nursey sighs, his head falling onto the back of the couch with a soft thump.

"Yeah, well, that's the problem with holding onto assumptions about people," Dex replies.

"Fuck dude, you're so right. I'm so sorry," Nursey says, nudging Dex's shoulder.

"It's fine," Dex murmurs, finally lowering his hands away from his face.

"It's not really," Nursey says. "But I'm glad you finally told me. And if I ever do something like that again—I don't know, like maybe you should smack me."

"I would gladly do that," Dex says, laughing quietly.

"I bet you would," Nursey replies, chuckling along with him.

One minute to midnight!

"So if—if you don't have a problem with kissing guys then—well are you actually interested in kissing me at midnight?" Nursey asks. He's grinning slightly, but there's a flush high on his cheeks and he looks almost sheepish and his voice is shy as he asks. Dex kind of wants to stare at his face forever because he's so pretty, but he shouldn't. Just because Nursey is still in the dark about how he feels, that doesn't mean he actually has a legitimate chance with Nursey.

"I want to, but I don't think we should," Dex murmurs. "Just—with the way I feel about you, it's not a good idea."

Nursey's breath hitches. "How—how do you feel about me?"

"I shouldn't—" Dex starts to say before changing his mind. "Oh fuck it, I'm in love with you, okay?"

Thirty seconds to midnight!

"You are?" Nursey asks, sounding completely dumbstruck.

Dex can only nod, avoiding his looking at his face.

"Thank fuck," Nursey breathes out softly. "I'm in love with you too. Have been for like, forever."

"Seriously?"

"Ch'yeah."

Ten! Nine! Eight!

"So are we going to do this?" Nursey asks.

Dex just puts his hand on the back of Nursey's neck and pulls him closer.

Five! Four! Three!

Dex can't even wait for midnight. He pulls Nursey in and connects their lips. Kissing Nursey is soft, slow, and lazy, and Dex never wants to pull back.

Two! One! Zero!

The New Year rings in with them kissing softly, and Dex gets the feeling that, even though this is his first New Year's midnight kiss, it won't be last. He can feel that he'll be getting midnight kisses every year for a long time.