Happy New Year guys!
So I got this idea when I was on my way to a party for New Year's, and immediately started writing it when I got home the next day. It was actually inspired by a series of e-mails between bookworm03 and myself. So Bookworm, buddy, this one's for you… :)
"It'll be nice to have someone to kiss at midnight this year."
He stared at her in mild surprise, choking out a small laugh before remembering to turn his eyes back to the road before he crashed into something.
"What do you mean?" he asked her, poking her in the arm when he pretended not to hear.
She sighed. "Well… Last year I didn't kiss anyone. And the year before that either."
He pondered at her words, flinching slightly when the implication hit him that three years ago, someone had kissed her. Someone that wasn't him.
He'd never experienced this kind of jealousy before. Just the thought of some other guy touching and kissing her was enough to send him through the roof. He was aware this level of possessiveness made him look like a big jerk, and rationally he knew perfectly well that it was healthy for everyone to have had a few sexual partners in a lifetime. He just didn't know how to deal with the thought of hers.
He reached over and squeezed her knee teasingly. "I woulda kissed you last year, baby. All you had to do was say the word."
She snorted and laughed a little. "Yeah right. If I'd asked you this time last year to kiss me you'd still be running."
He chuckled at her brutally truthful words. "Yeah well… What can I say? I was an idiot and I didn't know what I was missing…"
She smiled, reaching out and smoothing a dark curl away from his forehead. Her hand traveled down his cheek and he turned his head slightly to press a kiss against her fingers without taking his eyes off the road.
"What time is it?" he asked, and she reflexively checked her watch.
"Almost eleven-thirty."
He nodded in approval. They'd decided to head to his place since it was closer to the center of the city and they'd be able to see the fireworks from the balcony. They should have been able to leave CTU hours ago – a fact that had quickly become fantasy thanks to a new kid in IT accidentally releasing a virus into the network. There had been a moment when Tony thought they wouldn't make it home at all tonight, but Michelle had eventually gotten in under control with the help of their newest (and quirkiest) analyst, Chloe.
Now he was just in a big hurry to get home, spend his first New Year with his girlfriend and pray there would be many more to come.
When they got home he immediately went to the fridge, pulling out a bottle of chilled champagne. Laughing at the surprised look on her face, he poured it into two elegant glasses, nudging her towards the balcony once she's pulled on the sweater of this that was resting on the arm of the couch.
She shivered as they stepped outside, and he wrapped both arms around her from behind, careful not the spill any champagne on her. They were silent for a moment, swaying gently in the breeze and taking delicate sips. Reveling in each other's warmth and feeling exceptionally thankful that this time last year was over with.
Finally she turned around in his arms, resting her free hand against his warm chest.
"What about you?" she murmured. "When was the last time you got a New Year's kiss?"
He looked at her in amusement and thought for a moment. "Not last year. The year before that… uh…"
His voiced trailed off as he remembered where he'd been on New Year's Eve two years ago. He'd asked Nina to come over; he'd cooked and dished out his best wine. She hadn't shown up until two hours past midnight, full of apologies but refusing to tell him were she'd been, just that she "had to take care of something". He'd been so furious at her for not even having the decency to call, that he'd ordered her to get out of his apartment barely ten minutes after she'd entered it.
He sighed. "Year before that wasn't so great either… Three years ago…" He thought hard. "Christ, Michelle. I don't remember, they're all fuzzy before that."
She groaned a little and rested her head against his chest. "We're pathetic, Tony."
He pinched her gently and she squealed. "Hey, I'll have you know that had four New Year's kisses from four different girls when I was in college."
She looked up his face, curious now. She handled the idea of his former lovers better than the other way around, but it still dawned on him he would have to choose his words carefully.
"Really?" Her ice-cold hand made its way underneath his shirt and he gasped, making her smile. "Were they your girlfriend?"
At this his ears turned slightly pink. "Uh... Not really… Well… Not all of 'em."
At her raised eyebrow, he rolled his eyes. "Sometimes it was just this heat-of-the-moment kind of thing. It was New Year, I was young, there was a pretty girl standing a few feet away…" He shrugged. "They never complained."
She nodded ruefully, and he was relieved to see a little bit of amusement in her eyes. He brushed a curl behind her ear, not sure he wanted to know the answer to the question he was about to ask.
"Didn't you ever do anything like that?"
"Wanted to." She shrugged and sighed a little. "I was shy. Still am, really. When it comes to things like that anyway."
He chuckled and pulled her closer. "As I recall you didn't have any problems asking me out, Michelle."
"You made me," she protested. "With you I had no choice. I waited for almost a year for you to ask me out and you wouldn't budge, so I bit the bullet."
"And because you kinda already knew I had feelings for you, right?"
She nodded, running her hand over the collar of his shirt. God knew she never would have had the nerve to ask him out of she wasn't ninety percent sure he'd say yes. "That too."
"Yeah." He snorted. "I disguised that so well."
She laughed at his sarcasm, and was about to retort when they heard shouts beneath them.
"Ten!... Nine!... Eight!..."
They looked at each other as the city counted down to zero.
They missed the fireworks. He leaned in, initiating a soft, tender kiss that quickly became passionate. His hand on the back of her head held her lips against his, and he slid his tongue in her mouth, groaning when it entwined with hers. He tugged on her bottom lip with his teeth, feeling her tongue gently graze his top one when they parted.
"Happy New Year, sweetheart," he said gruffly, his forehead leaning against hers.
She smiled. "Happy New Year."
He kept her close, brushing a few fingers through her hair. "How's that for a New Year's kiss, eh?"
She grinned wider. "I expected no less with all your college practice."
He kissed her again, most likely to shut her up.
"C'mon, it's freezing out here."
He led her back inside, waiting patiently until she'd finished her champagne glass before grabbing it out of her hands and placing it in the sink. He lifted her up in his arms, smiling at her breathless laughter as he hauled her into the bedroom…
--
The partying in the city was still going strong, but Tony and Michelle were so tired – both from the day's stressful events and from what they'd spent the last hour doing – to care much.
He was on his back with her body draped against his side and across is stomach. His fingers brushed across the smooth skin of her bare back and in her wild curls, now loose and framing her face. Her hand was doing its own swirling motion against his chest and both her feet were wrapped around one of his.
He thought she was almost asleep when she quietly said, "Tony?"
"Mmm?" His lips brushed against her forehead.
She looked up at him and he saw that spark of mischief in her eyes that he adored in her. "Was this another one of your New Year traditions in college?"
He half-groaned, half-laughed. "Do you really wanna know?"
She opened her mouth to answer but he suddenly turned serious on her and placed his finger on her lips. His voice was soft when he spoke.
"I don't want a new girl every year anymore, Michelle. I just want you, for the rest of my life."
She felt a rush flare up from her stomach to her chest to her cheeks. She knew she couldn't speak so she just pressed herself against him with a fierce kiss.
"That's what I want too," she whispered.
He kissed her nose. "A kiss at New Year's for the rest of our lives then."
"Not just on New Year," she told him, rolling her eyes.
"And thank God for that."
She giggled, and it occurred to him for the millionth time how much he loved seeing her laugh. It was as if everything even remotely tight in his chest let loose.
Her giggle turned into a yawn and he smiled, pulling her covers over them a little more tightly. Closing his eyes, he took in the scent of her hair and prepared to doze off.
He promised himself he'd make her his wife by next New Year's.