Thank you all so much for the reviews on my first story, I was really overwhelmed by all the lovely compliments! I've tried something more from Brennan's POV this time, and one of my reviewers mentioned the last one was a bit rushed (and I agree now I've re-read it), so I've tried to avoid that this time.

Mild spoilers up "The Foot in the Foreclosure"

Don't know what it is about Christmas/New Year, but they're great for first kiss fics.

Dr. Temperance Brennan stood on the roof of the Jeffersonian and looked out over the city. It was odd, she reflected, that people always assumed Christmas was the hardest time of year for people who were alone. But she'd always overcompensated at Christmas, planning trips abroad and attending digs at far flung corners of the world, so she'd never had time to feel lonely or left out. And lately of course her father and Russ, and Russ' new little family, had been around to make Christmas a time to be happy again.

No, it was this night, when most people celebrated the birth of a New Year with their loved ones, that she truly felt alone. Christmas she could ignore. She'd never really understood the significance of the nativity, and while she knew it had once been a Pagan festival, she simply wasn't religious in any way at all. But New Year was something she could understand; a time for fresh starts, a time to blow away the cobwebs, and although she'd never admit that she thought about it, a time to kiss the person you cared about at midnight.

She hated New Year parties with a passion, the giggling couples and flowing alcohol, the assumption that you had to have a good time and couldn't possibly leave early if you were tired, or bored, or lonely. So she came here instead. It was freezing cold, but she knew it'd be worth it to see the fireworks from this amazing viewpoint. Angela had tried to convince her to accompany her and Wendall to a club but Brennan had refused, saying she had somewhere else to be. And it was true, she thought. Angela just didn't need to know that 'somewhere else' meant up here, alone. She wrapped her arms around herself, pulling her coat in tightly and hunching her shoulders so her mouth was buried in the folds of the scarf she had piled around her neck. She tried to manoeuvre her hand so she could see her watch without exposing any skin to the icy air. It was 10 to midnight.

There was a sudden noise from behind her and she whirled round in surprise to see Booth standing, leaning against the roof terrace doorway, his hands buried in his pockets and a tiny smile playing on his lips. Her stomach contracted slightly at the sight of him and her heart started to thud, although she had no idea why.

"All alone, Bones?"

"Booth! I thought you were at the FBI party?"

He shrugged, and walked forward to join her. "Much as I hate to admit it, it was kinda boring without you and your squints there."

Brennan smiled. Well, you're just in time. The fireworks are quite spectacular from up here".

They stood shoulder to shoulder and watched the city, the atmosphere seeming to become more charged as the New Year approached. She eyed Booth out of the corner of her vision and tried to determine his mood. She'd gotten better at reading him over the years, but since his coma he had been… different. He seemed more vulnerable somehow. And there were times she caught him looking at her in a certain way, like he couldn't quite believe his eyes, or like there were thoughts flowing through his head that had caught him unawares. He had always been protective of her, but now his protectiveness was laced with something else that made him look afraid when she got into trouble. His bursting in when she had been stabbed with the scalpel had been like all the other times he had rescued her, or held her, but his murmured "I got you baby" had somehow made it feel leagues different at the same time. And she felt different too; suddenly she was looking at him as though he might evaporate at any moment. Normally she would run from someone who had such potential to hurt her; but she was starting to understand what people had been trying to tell her; that it was worth the risk. Brennan hugged her arms more tightly around herself and tried to disguise the shivers that were only partly to do with the cold.

"Bones you're freezing!" Booth's concern was evident in his voice and he started to unbutton his coat

"I'm fine Booth. And you can't take your coat off, it's much too cold up here."

"I wasn't planning to Bones. Come here" he added softly, and with his hands in his pockets, he held his arms and his coat open for her to step into his embrace.

Brennan eyed him nervously. She was almost sure this was what Angela would describe as a 'moment' and she didn't know what to do. She hesitated, thinking about what Hank had said those weeks ago. Don't be afraid.

"Aw c'mon Bones, it's freakin' freezing out here!" Booth stepped forward putting his arms round her and wrapping her into his coat. Brennan was taken aback but her arms found their way around his waist seemingly of their own accord. She leant her head against his chest, listening to the steady thump of his heart under the soft sweater he was wearing. She could feel the warmth of his breath puffing against the top of her head, and then his lips pressing into her hair. They stood like that for several minutes and Brennan tried to breathe deeply and calm her pounding heart and gasping lungs, and to fight the sensation that her knees were about to collapse underneath her. But it was useless, she knew, to try and fool him. He could read her like a book, racing heart or no racing heart. And she knew that he probably understood better than her why her body was betraying her so completely.

He leant down to whisper in her ear; "it's almost midnight", and she shuddered as he placed a feather light kiss just behind her lobe.

"Booth? I…"

"Shhh, Bones. It's New Year; just let me have my moment will you?"

Brennan's breath caught in her throat as Booth started to move his lips slowly down her jaw, ducking his head lower to try and reach the face still buried against his chest. He nudged the corner of her mouth with his nose and waited; she paused – one deep breath, two, and then turned her head to meet him. He was so close that she barely had to move to close the gap. His lips moved against hers gently and she sighed into his mouth. She felt him smile against her and then pull away slightly.

"Warm enough now?" his eyes crinkled as he gave her his famous charm smile and she chuckled and hid her face in his neck again almost shyly. He smiled to himself at the sight of her being so girlish and looked back out over her head at the city below.

"Hey Bones, look. The fireworks are starting, it must be midnight"

Brennan looked up at the spectacle unfolding before them and sighed happily.

"It's beautiful"

"Yeah", replied Seeley Booth, his gaze not on the fireworks but on the sparkle they were causing in his partner's eyes. "It is".

Sooo…any good?