It was just another meaningless party that Tony had decided to throw for the holiday season, and Bruce was damn near bored out of his mind despite the somewhat stimulating conversation he'd had so far with some of the guests and the entertainment currently up on stage.

Apparently hearing a somewhat drunken Clint croon out, I'm over the moon for you, wasn't exactly his idea of 'fun'. Though it was definitely funny when the former assassin decided to trip over his own feet and fall right onto Tony while he'd been talking to Pepper.

"Get off of me you lunatic!" He heard Tony snark at the man who only looked at him and grinned up at Pepper before blowing Tony a kiss and quickly jumping to his feet and hightailing it over to Natasha and Thor to hide. Earning a lot of laughs from pretty much everyone in the room, including a small lip twitch from him.

Not long after the music for Clint's song ended, someone else decided to take the stage for the moment earning every watchful eye in the room. Deciding that it might be fun to watch yet another drunk try to sing for the people of the room, he blinked and stood up a little bit taller where he stood in the shadows of the dim lighting in the back of the room as the next person took the stage.

She was young, looking as if she were only sixteen or seventeen years old though he knew logically that that couldn't be the case since Tony never let's children or teens into his parties unsupervised. But damn was she beautiful in her black knee length dress with the for fitting sweetheart halter top and flaring skirt made of layered chiffon over black satin.

Her long red hair was piled high up on the top of her head and parts of it fell down around her face and shoulders in tight little ringlets that had his fingers- oddly, itching to touch.

Her wide turquoise colored eyes were exotic and innocent looking, her ivory skin smooth and unblemished, and her pale off rose pink lips looked soft and oh-so-very tempting even to someone like him.

Taking a sip of the drink that he'd been holding in his hand for practically since he'd first arrived at the party, he tried to ignore both the strange sensation of his mouth being dry and the not so pleasant burn of the rum in his cola as the girl finished giving her instructions to the band and then took center stage and adjusted the mic as the music started to play.

Instead of what he had first expected the song to be (something that kids loved to really let loose and dance to with their sweetheart) the song that she had chosen was White Christmas. And the moment that she started to sing, he knew he was a goner.

Not only did everyone in the room stop moving, socializing and talking to listen to her, but she had the voice of an absolute angel.

He couldn't help being enthralled.

Her voice had a nice calming effect that seemed to sink into his brain and sooth the other guy into silence. Which was startling, really.

The other guy hadn't stopped bitching at him to be let out since the party had begun and Tony had left him with some really annoying people, making him wish that he had the presence of mind to not care overly much if he broke the billionaire's leg just to keep him from scampering off to the bar or other places unknown.

The moment that the song ended and the girl took a bow, Bruce felt a little bit disappointed that she wouldn't be singing again and watched as she quietly left the stage and seemed to disappear.

Huffing softly, he downed the rest of his drink and decided that maybe it was time to call it a night. There was really nothing of interest to hold him here.

Setting his glass down on the nearest table, he started across the room and came to a stop when he heard a familiar voice speak from directly behind him. "Are you well?" Frowning at the question because he was sure that it couldn't have been aimed at him- he turned his head to see the girl standing right behind him, barely two feet away.

Well isn't she a brave one. He thought to himself and wrinkled his nose a bit when the other guy snorted in reply.

Her expression held hints of mild concern, and enough open curiosity that he found himself turning to face her and said politely, despite the tight lipped smile. "I'm fine. I was just going to call it a night."

"A pity. One would think that a man as handsome as yourself would be dancing."

He blinked at her for a moment before her words seemed to sink into his brain and he floundered for a moment as it hit him that she had just complimented him. No- wait that wasn't exactly it. She had just flirted with him. He went from floundering to flat out gaping at her in zero point two seconds as he saw her take a step closer to him.

Slowly closing the distance between them as if she were stalking him like some sort of prey. Though he could plainly see that there was no malice nor ill intent, being 'stalked' more than sort of rankled him.

"Stop." He hissed, knowing that if she didn't listen to him, he would panic and likely lash out and harm her.

She stopped moving as he glared down at her, uncertain about what to do now. Jesus from this up close he could smell the perfume on her skin, the tantalizing floral scent was making his heart go into palpitations.

"I'm sorry," She said looking genuinely abashed for causing him discomfort. "I only wanted to see if you were alright and ask you to maybe dance with me. But since you are leaving I suppose that I will settle for this." She said as a fetching pink blush tinted her pale cheeks.

Not knowing what she was talking about, all Bruce could seem to manage to get out was an unintelligible, "Huh?" Causing the girl to point up at the ceiling above both of their heads.

Getting a suspiciously sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, he slowly looked up and muttered a rather creative oath about Tony and his parentage before looking back at the girl in a sort of panic knowing that he couldn't kiss her and vice versa.

He was about to turn her down gently, or maybe bolt for the nearest exit- he wasn't really sure which since his mind was going blank on him and he was rambling pitiful excuse after pitiful excuse so that she would walk away from him with her feelings unhurt when he felt her take one of his hands in her own and before he could so much as yank it away from her, she had lifted it to her lips and laid an innocently chaste kiss on the back of his hand, reminding him of his old childhood story books about knights and their princesses.

Truly the irony wasn't lost to him. Because in that moment, he felt as fragile as spun glass and the girl appeared to him every bit the knight from his childhood books. There was simply something in her eyes when she looked up at him that had his knees going weak as she slowly released his hand and let him take a stumbling step back from her before she smiled and then politely wished him a goodnight and then turned and walked away.