They had invited Bruce back to join them for a few more shots upon the amicable conclusion of their chat. Bruce could dimly remember finding it mildly fascinating to see Tony and Steve getting along so well in the aftermath of whatever it was they'd talked about.
"Sorry, guys... m'gonna... m'gonna go find Phil and Theo now," Steve excused himself on wobbly legs.
"Go get em, kid," Tony said as he clapped the blond roughly on the back, "Just don't take 'em to my bed."
Bruce watched the exchange with a laugh. When the other boy had exited, he addressed his friend. "You are drunk as a skunk." Not that he wasn't heavily inebriated himself, just that... damn, he forgot where he was going with that line of reasoning.
Tony snorted a laugh in response to what Bruce had said, though he wasn't sure why he thought it was so funny. The big guy joined along in his laughter, the two of them drawing together like opposite poles of a magnet in the center of the room. Jesus, did his friend ever have a nice sounding laugh. And smile. And fucking everything. Somewhere in the fog, Tony remembered the advice Steve had given him. Just ask. God, that made it sound so easy. 'Hey, Bruce. I was wondering, do you like me? As in, like-me like-me.' The words sounded good in his head.
But what if Bruce said no? the possibility hit him. That was the hole in Steve's logic- because if he knew Bruce loved him back, he wouldn'thave to ask. Asking was allowing for doubt, and didn't want to doubt, he wanted to know. As things stood, there were only two things that were certain between them: their friendship, and the sex. Hm, now that sounded like a much better idea.
He leered at his best friend, stroking his shoulder suggestively, "So... first fuck of the new year: Yes, no, or later?"
The only thing that compared to Tony's smirk was Bruce's. "You're horny too?"
"Awesome; so since we're on the same page..."
"No, I meant..." Bruce started to interrupt, and paused to think. "You're horny... as well as... drunk." Tony blinked at him in confusion and the teen waved his hand dismissively; it was too complicated to explain in this state. "Yes," he stuck to answering the question.
Tony's smirk returned in full force, "I'm thinking bedroom. Questions? Comments?"
"Mm..." Bruce hummed as he processed, "Only why we're not already up there." He smoothed his hands down his friend's sides, feeling his lower body awakening at the proposal.
Tony snorted a laugh and led Bruce out of the kitchen by his wrist. On their way towards the stairs they came across a group of people who were all gathered around the Westmore Bilgesnipes. Fandral was holding a pair of scissors aloft, while Hogun, Volstagg and Sif kneeled with their heads bowed. It looked like some kind of weird-ass ritual on first glance. Fandral seized Hogun's topknot of hair and with a flourish, chopped it clean off, the boy's now-short black hair falling down into his face at about cheekbone level. Volstagg was next, and the stout boy bristled at the nearness of the clippers to his face, "Do not touch the beard!"
"I wouldn't think it!" Fandral flashed a smile before beginning to hack through the tangled crinkly red mane on Volstagg's skull. After considerable effort, he finished, proudly displaying the triumph over his head like a hunting trophy- it certainly looked like a dead animal.
"Enough, enough! We're not done yet!" Sif chided the prancing blond.
"Please, Lady Sif!" Thor pleaded, "I fear you may regret your actions! Unlike your brothers in sport, you are a lady, and as such-"
"I am of the team, am I not? I do not wish to be anything more or less than the rest of you."
Thor hung his head, "Aye, but I beg of you, allow me to make the cut."
Fandral looked to Sif, who nodded her head. He handed the scissors to their fellow player. Thor bit his lip and gathered her hair into a ponytail, eyeballing the length until he found an acceptable place to make the cut. With heavy heart, he did as was expected, her locks falling back down loosely at chin level.
Sif's smile was enormous; she smacked Theodore on the back. "Was that so hard, my brother?" She proudly tossed her short hair with a flick of her head.
"I find this to be a suitable sacrifice," Thor replied, holding up the handful of loose hair. It was only an inch or two less than what the other team members had chosen to cut. Cheers broke out among the students of Westmore high. Thor turned to address his teammates as a whole. "Brothers and sister! I am truly moved by your act of solidarity, and extend my deepest thanks! And while our brother Happy could not be with us this day..." Pepper rolled her eyes on the sidelines- "...to all of you, I say, you are my true family." His big blue eyes watered, grin never faltering.
"Was no problem at all," Volstagg nodded, reaching for the back of his head and patting around, "Though, it will require some... getting used to..."
"Oh, it grows back in a jiffy," Fandral motioned his hand dismissively.
"And don't worry; we'll get Happy to donate his eyebrows," Hogun grinned with a mischievous glint in his eyes that made the others chortle mirthfully.
"Ah, please, that's not necessa-" Thor began.
"Shall we have another round?" Sif threw open the cooler with her foot.
"Ah! Yes!" Theodore beamed, forgetting his protests near-immediately.
Bruce and Tony took advantage of the dispersing crowd to continue on their way up to the young billionaire's bedroom, stumbling up the steps.
"They'd better be sweeping that hair up before they leave..." Tony mumbled.
Bruce hummed. "Even if they don't, I'm staying after to help you clean up," he reminded. Though sobering up was about the last thing on his mind right now. He pressed the boy up against the wall next to his door and sought out the other teen's pulsepoint with his mouth.
"Aah, fuck..." Tony tilted his head back. "Save it for the bed," he teased, pawing at the door handle, before managing to give it a turn and swing it open.
Two heads turned and the device that had been rattling was swiftly clicked off.
"Clint... I told you to lock the door," Natasha delivered icily.
"Mmmmmmphgghh!" Clint tried to argue back through what looked like a bandana gag. He wriggled in the bindings that had him currently strapped to Tony Stark's bed, legs spread and at the girl's mercy where she was seated between them holding... well, the kind of thing you didn't usually see except at adult stores.
Bruce blinked disbelievingly behind his glasses; Tony wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.
"You two again," Natasha said as she removed the folded cloth from her boyfriend's mouth; he gasped a couple greedy mouthfuls of air. "Sothis is what the pantry was about then?"
Tony settled on outrage. "That's my bed. You don't get to be smug when you get caught doing..." he fumbled for the proper term for what he was looking at as he gesticulated, "...this, in my bed!"
"Because what you were about to do in it with your friend is so much better?" the redhead looked at him askance.
"It- It's my bed!" Tony sputtered in disbelief.
"Where'd you get the rope?" Bruce asked, still studying the elaborate binding job securing Barton's ankles to the bedposts of the headboard. Jeez, his flexibility came in handy in more ways than one.
The girl shrugged. "Improvisation."
Tony narrowed his eyes at the redhead in stony silence, but the image was spoiled by his drunken swaying. He could send these two out on their asses, but then they might tell the whole school and their parents about Bruce's and his relationship, and then Bruce would have no peace again. Hell, his fanclub might triple if people assumed he was dating Tony Stark. Tony sighed and relented, "Neither of these things leave this room."
Natasha's lips quirked only once. "Agreed."
"Wait, so, we don't have to gmpphh-" Clint began and was promptly resilenced when Natasha pulled the bandana back over his chin.
"Remember to lock the door this time," Tony said with an eyeroll, before turning to Bruce with a look of mild annoyance, "It'll take way too long to untie Barton anyways... C'mon, let's do a little of our own improvising." He shut the door on them and tried to ignore the resumed vibration sounding from the inside.
For the second time in one night, it looked like Tony was leading his friend down to the den. Bruce gave a prolonged chuckle. "You're probably not gonna play good drunk..." he pointed out, focusing his effort on going down the basement stairs. On the other hand, as boozed up as he was, he might not even be that picky about Tony's potentially poor playing.
"Are you kiddin'? I'm awesome at guitar when I'm drunk!" Tony retorted with a little bit of a drawl. "There's a pull-out couch down here. Mostly for sleep if I'm up all night playin'," he explained.
Bruce made a noise that was as close to a giggle as he came, thinking of his friend's musical talent. "God, you're amazing..." he marvelled, moving in on the boy again to paw his hands over him. It was possible he was a bit easy to impress right now...
Tony scoffed, "You're supposed to save that line for while we fuck on it. And after."
Bruce looked at the not-currently-pulled-out pull-out couch as if it were a scrambled-up rubix cube. Tony burst into giggles at the baffled look warping his friend's features. "You can do multivariable Calculus, but you can't figure out a pull-out couch? Watch." Bruce plopped down into one of the bean bag chairs as Tony removed the two cushions from the couch, revealing the fold-in mechanism. He grabbed the handle and gave a tug, the spring-loaded action doing the rest. Tony plopped himself in the middle of the mattress and gave his best inebriated seductive purr, "C'mere."
Bruce was on him in the span of two heartbeats. Though in his haste to get horizontal, he lost what little equilibrium he had and fell onto the other teen more than anything else. "I'm here now," he announced needlessly, sloppily fixing his spectacles, the result possibly worse than before the 'fix'. The chintzy piece of furniture squeaked underneath their combined weight.
"Oh my God..." Tony snorted, collapsing into giggles, "You're shit-faced."
"Shut up," Bruce attempted as he made a grab for the front of other's pants, "I'm not that wa..." he spent a moment fighting with Tony's zipper, "...sted."
"It's cute," Tony said, grinning as his laughter subsided. "Need a little help?"
The big guy's face screwed up in forced concentration, working the little metal button keeping the denim shut between his uncooperative fingers. "No," he said with a stubborn pout.
Tony snorted, "You sure?" He reached for his fly, "I mean, I could just-"
"I'm sure," Bruce responded, finally able to pry the button through the hole. He took a firm hold of the jeans and leaned back to pull. Tony chose to lift right at that instant, and the material slid right off the boy's legs and sent Bruce toppling backwards off the bed and onto the floor with a whump!
By the time Tony's laughing had let up, his face had gone at least two shades redder. "Smooth," he teased, pulling his shirt up over his head and tossing it to the side before Bruce had a chance to get frustrated with it too.
Bruce picked himself up, rubbing the back of his head where he'd bumped, glasses now completely askew since one of the stems had fallen off his ear. He looked up at his now-shirtless friend and quickly forgot all about his tumble, eyes focusing (well, sort of) on the center of the other boy's chest. He hurriedly clambered back up and pushed Tony onto his back, running his tongue across the incision repeatedly like a dog lapping up water. "I love this place on you..." he murmured.
"I love you on that place," Tony breathed out as he responded, back arching on the bed as his scar was once again given special attention. Was the room supposed to be spinning?
"Mm..." Bruce rumbled, lifting just enough to drag the tip of his nose down the other boy's belly, leading him lower. "How about this one?" he asked just before slipping his mouth around his friend's erection.
The billionaire drew in a gasp, fingers leaping into the big guy's hair. "Ohhh God," he groaned out, "Yes. Definitely that one. Fffuck, Bruce..." His features twisted as Bruce's tongue teased the head; he managed to keep his eyes open enough to watch. The big guy wasn't exactly as coordinated with this as he usually was, but it also hardly mattered since Tony was quickly coming to realize his stamina wasn't what it normally was either. His hips bucked up and he lost it, groaning through the entirety of his orgasm.
He threw his elbow across his face. "Shit, that was too fast..."
Bruce snorted. He climbed up on all fours to lean down over him. "Acting like you didn't love it," he muttered in a slur, moving Tony's arm away to kiss him.
Tony half-chuckled against his friend's lips. He tugged on the hem of Bruce's shirt to make sure it wasn't tucked in, then slid his hands under. "No, just aware that a little reci... reciproc..." goddamn it, he had to stop trying to use big words drunk- "reciprocity," he finally spat out, "is in order."
The big guy hummed, sitting up somewhat. "Yeah... yeah, alright." He looked down at the long line of buttons on his front. Rather than fight with them, he pulled the button-up upwards, struggling and wriggling to get it off over his head.
"Now we're talking..." Tony purred, eyes lighting up at the exposure of more flesh- it was always a welcome sight. He reached out to pat the back of his friend's thighs, and Bruce got the idea, moving to put a leg on either side of him, straddling his waist. Now in arm's length, Tony let his hands roam freely over the expanse of his partner's chest, touching every square inch greedily until his thumbs found a place they preferred to stay, dragging in light concentric circles over his nipples. Bruce might not have any procedurely-acquired erogenous zones like he did, but there were always the standard ones everyone had. Bruce's lower lip sucked into his mouth, bowing forward and eyes shutting as Tony played with the sensitive nubs. "Like that?" Tony ventured, supplying a tiny pinch to the left one.
Bruce's voice grew husky and ragged. "Love it."
That word again. It was like the big guy was teasing him intentionally. Tony staunchly ignored it. "Mm... damn right you do..." he grinned. He keened upward and latched onto the protrusion with his lips, mouthing and suckling.
Bruce groaned. "I love... I love everything you do to me..." he shuddered as he raked the fingers of one hand through his friend's hair. He didn't know why he was saying that... it would only cause Tony to ask questions later, but God was it ever true. A harder suck had his thoughts redirected to fumbling with his fly, needing to relieve the growing pressure bowing the fabric outward before it became unbearable.
Tony noticed his friend's fumbling with a soft snort. He gave Bruce a few moments to try to do it himself out of dignity. His tongue tickled suddenly, nose wrinkling; he fished around his mouth with a finger to find the stray chest hair. "Bleh," he commented as he got it at last; he wiped it away. "You're definitely gonna love what I do next..." Tony promised, before pawing the other teen's fingers away from their work. "Here, lemme. I got it," he ordered drunkenly.
"Yeah, okay," Bruce nodded, not arguing this time with that promise in mind; he moved his hands away to let the other teen take the reigns. It wasn't an easy task for Tony either, but for once, the boy was actually fairly patient as he worked on the fastenings; on the upside it left Bruce's hands free to skim up and down his sides. Tony let out a satisfied purr as he finally undid the button and drew Bruce's fly down, taking a moment to fondle the straining bulge in his friend's boxers before guiding it free through the slit in the fabric. The shudder that left his friend's lips electrified him, and he strained himself upwards to claim them with his own again. It took a moment for Bruce to react, but when he did it was enthusiastic in all the best ways. Sloppy, passionate. Open-mouthed. Tony felt his eyes roll back in his head as he let out a groan, continuing to stroke Bruce in his palm.
He was getting aroused again (as if he'd ever stopped), distracted, but God was it easy to with those thick lips caressing his. Tony broke away. "Come on. Up higher. Up here." It took a few motions of his hands for the big guy to clue in to what he wanted him to do. Tony propped his head up on the couch's back as Bruce positioned higher, taking a seat on his chest. The weight felt good- it compressed his chest just a little, just enough to make his breathing a little shallow and quick. "I saw this in a... porno..." he chuckled, "Figured you might-"
"What am I supposed...?" Bruce was left questioning, and my God if Tony had thought the big guy could be slow about sex-related thingssober, this was a true test of his patience.
"Just..." Tony craned his neck upward, eyes rolling once before silently signaling Bruce to guide his erection into his open mouth. After a few small adjustments in positioning so he wouldn't end up with a bruise on the roof of his mouth, Tony set to work, taking Bruce in gradually. His movement was limited, his hands left to wander over his friend's lower torso where they could reach, eventually finding purchase on Bruce's backside. What little he could do, he applied to the best of his ability, cheeks hollowed and head bobbing and twisting as much as his position would allow.
"Hnngh... God, you were right..." Bruce grunted through grit teeth, finding his thighs had acquired a quiver as he restrained his hips from rutting forward. His head sunk low as he clawed at the back of the couch with his fingers, "I do love this..." Tony worked his mouth aggressively upon him, and it didn't take long for him to feel that build-up to release clenching his anatomy.
Except that release never came. Bruce scrunched his face up. Was it a symptom of the alcohol he'd consumed? He didn't even know. But God he wanted to cum more than anything right now. Something between a whine and a whimper left his throat as he watched and felt his friend's lips drag along his shaft, and he swore every time that the next bob would be the last needed to send him over. "T-Tony... Tony, st-stop..." he choked out at last, pressing his palm to the other boy's forehead.
Tony pulled back with a slightly audible pop, eyes clouded with renewed lust and confusion (the booze also deserved an honorable mention), "Wha... what'd I do?"
"N-Nothing, just..." Bruce started, taking a moment to fix his glasses, "...stay put." he finished. Tony still looked a little perplexed, but stayed as he'd been asked as Bruce lifted himself off his chest and moved down so that their bodies were flush. He captured Tony's lips and encircled their erections in his left hand, drawing an enthusiastic moan from his partner. Pumping and rutting, greedily chasing the friction he thought would earn him his release... he began to feel perspiration building in his hairline and all over his skin. He was unbearably close, but now he was also unbearably warm.
Bruce broke away from his friend to give a huff. "Let's... let's get undressed the rest of the way..." he suggested, hoping, praying that if the conditions were right his body would allow him to experience orgasm. He rolled off the other teen and onto his back, beginning to wrestle his lower garments off his body.
"Yeah," Tony nodded, noticing Bruce's frustration but not sure whether it was a good idea to comment. He lifted his hips, tugging off his boxers first before removing his socks and tossing them off to the side somewhere. His eyes stuck on the other teen's naked form then, and he nibbled his lower lip thinking, relationship or not, he was damn lucky to have Bruce all to himself. After about ten seconds, he gave up on a witty or charming remark and settled for "God, you're hot," mashing his mouth back onto his friend's. "I love looking at you."
"I love looking at you more," Bruce argued back, fondling Tony's sides as he pressed their foreheads together.
"I love..." Tony's response died prematurely on Bruce's lips. The teenager felt his heart pound a little faster, a little harder as he reveled in their eye contact. From this proximity he could see the green lining the edges of Bruce's irises. 'Central heterochromia' he faintly recalled, and wondered if this was the first time he'd taken notice, or if he was just too drunk to think back to when he first had. And then it hit him; that first detention. It was Bruce's indifference towards him that had first caught his attention, and the glow in those eyes that had kept it. God, he'd been chasing Bruce since he'd first met him, hadn't he?
Tony willed Bruce not to blink, wanting to stay lost in those eyes. Eyes that had changed from indifferent to angry, but had actually been sad and scared the whole time. The eyes that had finally managed to trust enough to smile back at him, to betray worry and concern. Eyes that showed him compassion, and eventually lust and affection. As those eyes gazed back into his in that moment, he noticed they looked different than he'd seen them before, and he was sure it wasn't just his imagination. Tony had no idea what it was, but he knew all too well what he wanted it to be. Pulse pounding hard and heavy, nerve endings dancing with every touch, he tried not to dwell on the thought. If he thought about it too much, he'd end up saying it. It wasn't the time. It wasn't the place. It wasn't-
"I love you."
Bruce blinked and drew back, and for a moment it seemed like the spell that had been over the both of them had broke. Tony began to splutter out a cover-up. That ability was quickly stolen away from him when Bruce's mouth crushed back on his hard enough to topple them back into bed, limbs tangling together.
Bruce's brain was as muddled as ever, but he didn't default to logic when it came to surge he felt in his chest. He popped their lips apart to pepper hard kisses all along Tony's jaw and throat and then collarbone until he'd nearly run out of breath. "Yeah..." he panted, "Yeah... I love you too..." he returned murkily, head dizzy and swimming.
"You... you..." Tony panted, feeling the beginnings of a laugh winding up in his gut, "R-really?"
"Mmyeah... I fucking love you..." Bruce emphasized in a slur, once again laving his tongue up the other boy's throat, leaving a wide patch of saliva in its wake. "I love you so much, Tony..."
Tony let himself laugh, pulling Bruce closer. He couldn't believe it. The big guy had said it back. "I loved you first," Tony said, as if he was making a child's contest out of it.
Bruce snorted. "So? What's it matter if..." he fought through his inebriation to continue that sentence, as if the taste of Tony's skin wasn't enough of a distraction, "if you did?"
"It doesn't," Tony relented, pressing their foreheads together again, before stealing another kiss, "I'm just glad you do..." He blushed.
Bruce noticed the color spreading over his friend's face and reconnected their mouths, humming pleasedly. His hips ground down on the other teen's. Maybe it was alright he couldn't get off after all. If he stayed hard all night, so be it, he'd take advantage of it and fuck his friend 'til sun up. His skin shivered at the thought. "I wanna have sex..." he stated, "I love you and I wanna have sex."
"I'd call that... redundant, if those weren't... the top two things I wanted to hear ever..." Tony knew he was rambling, and he was lucid enough to know that the two of them both probably sounded really stupid, but he didn't care. They wouldn't be conversing for much longer anyway- Bruce was reaching down between their forms to grab Tony's cock with fumbling fingers. "So yeah, me too. To everything..." He paused, confused for a moment, "...or both? Fuck it," he finished with a snicker, descending on Bruce's lips again, rutting his hips against the other teen's clumsily.
Once or twice the other boy's erection slipped from the circle of his grip when Tony thrust- it was harder to hold onto than one of those 'water wigglies'. But it brought a different concern to the forefront of his mind. "Tony?" Bruce sought the other teen's attention, "Tony, I don't think I can... um... well, uh..." He trailed off, hoping Tony would understand what he was attempting to convey without saying it.
Tony stopped his movements and looked Bruce in the eye, "You can't what?" he asked. Oh, if this guy was about to back out of his confession, he had another thing-
Bruce's face tinted pink. "I'm not... anymore," he left out a word, peering down between their bodies at his lost hard-on.
Tony's eyes followed his friend's and stopped, "Oh." He tried not to pout (or laugh at the absurdity of his earlier worry), relinquishing the tension in his arms and slipping down to rest on top of Bruce. "Don't worry about it; it's not like it's broken," he reassured Bruce with a ruffle of his hair, "Just a little whiskey dick is all."
Bruce's lower lip pushed out unhappily. "How do we fix it?"
"Alcohol's a depressant. Should sober up... and only drink... like..." Tony closed his eyes in brief thought, "…a lot less next time."
Bruce mumbled something incoherent and settled for wrapping his arms around the other male, squeezing him to his chest in grumpy compromise.
Tony chuckled under his breath, accepting his fate as human teddy bear for the time being, "We could just lay here, you know... this is pretty nice too."
Bruce buried his face into the crook of Tony's neck and shut his eyes. "But I... wanned to have... sex..." he grumbled out a semi-complete sentence, but he already sounded half-asleep.
Tony snorted. "Me too; maybe next time." He placed an affectionate kiss to the top of Bruce's head and took a minute to just soak in the entire evening up until this point. In spite of all the curveballs and annoyances that seemed to have been thrown his way, they all seemed to have sorted themselves out. He'd bared his scar in front of an entire room of people and nobody seemed to care. Thor and the football team seemed to have had a good time without breaking anything of value in the process. Steve Jr. had actually been fun for once. And even Clint and Natasha had managed not to completely ruin his mood.
'We'll call that little rope-a-dope in my room "strike one"...' Tony made a mental note.
The big guy shifted beneath him with a snore. Bruce actually handled himself well in the chaotic setting, which was Tony's initial worry, and main reason for limiting the guest list. The second reason was, ironically, to make it harder to get caught sneaking off to do what they'd basically been too drunk to finish just now. Regardless, in the (very) slowly thinning fog of his thoughts, he couldn't really find anything worth complaining about. The only real casualty of the night was the Stark family tree, and thanks to Bruce's quick thinking, it was mostly saved.
And most recently, there was a pleasant warmth in the very core of him that he knew wasn't from the shots, and just thinking about why it was there had him feeling damn smug. He'd finally said it. And he'd gotten his answer without having to ask the question. And maybe there were more questions left to ask, but for now, he was satisfied with leaving it alone and just basking in a different kind of afterglow. He took one long glance at Bruce's now sleeping form, placing another kiss on the big guy's temple and finally allowing his eyes to drift closed.