Tony Stark’s New Year’s Eve parties are legendary. Pretty much anyone and everyone tries to get an invite and even those who don’t sometimes try to sneak in. Considering who Tony is, though, is it really surprising?
Natasha rarely ever bothers going, finding it to be more of an annoyance than anything else. Clint’s been a few times, but mostly to prank Tony and troll any reporters than manage to make their way in. Bucky and Steve, though, have never been and are curious what all the hype is about so she lets herself be dragged alone, her only complaint expressed as a roll of her eyes.
As soon as they walk into the tower Natasha sees about seven different people zero in on the four of them. Giving Steve a smirk and a two finger salute, she heads off to go find a bar. There are always at least four at any of Tony’s parties. She doesn’t see where the other three go, but she’s sure Clint will be off to go fuck with Tony while Steve politely talks to whoever seeks him out and Bucky offers moral support.
After about an hour of dodging Tony and other various people who want to talk to her, she finally gives in and makes her way over to Steve and Bucky. She has drinks in both hands and offers them to both of her boyfriends. Just because they can’t get drunk doesn’t mean they never drink, although mostly just when their friends are.
Bucky takes his with a smirk while Steve just shakes his head. She shrugs and downs it before sitting the glass down and dragging Steve over to where people are dancing. Bucky leans against a nearby wall and watches them as he drinks and keeps an eye out for Clint.
None of them have seen their boyfriend since they arrived, but they all know he’ll show up eventually.
They eventually settle down on a sofa in one of the many corners of the room most of the party is in. The floor of the tower Tony is holding the party on is large enough that the separate rooms aren’t really walled off and it’s most just empty space with random walls in different places. Lots of hiding places and plenty of opportunities to prank people, but other than that not really good for much.
It isn’t until she hears Tony loudly cursing and sees a foam dart attach itself to Tony’s forehead that Natasha realizes where Clint ran off to. She snorts when Tony turns around and ducks just in time to dodge two more darts. Bucky laughs and Steve rolls his eyes. All three of them are completely unsurprised at this turn of events.
Ever since they decided they’d be going to Tony’s party they had been trying to get Clint to tell them what he had planned, but to no avail. He usually wasn’t very good at keeping secrets from any of them, but he had refused to budge on this. He was surprisingly adept at keeping secrets when he needed to, and usually only to surprise his partners.
Natasha was leaning back against Steve’s chest with her feet in Bucky’s lap when Clint finally decided to join them, plopping down in Natasha’s lap from seemingly out of nowhere. Fortunately, she had seen him coming and braced herself for the chance that he was going to do exactly what he had.
“Having fun?” Steve asks with a smirk. “I don’t think Tony’s enjoying your New Year’s Eve shenanigans.”
“Shenanigans?” Both Natasha and Clint ask at the same time, a hint of sarcasm in her voice and shock in his.
Bucky snorts and gives Steve a “you walked right into that one” look.
Steve opens his mouth to respond, but before he can someone yells something about a countdown. Natasha hadn’t realized it was already that late, but she can’t really find it in her to mind because at least that means they’ll be able to leave soon. This party hasn’t done much to change her mind about attending any of Tony’s parties in the future.
Steve seems excited about midnight approaching, though, and he looks so cute grinning and pulling them all to their feet that she doesn’t have it in her to protest.
Clint looks almost as excited as Steve, but that could be more about Tony coming back into his line of sight than the idea of the new year approaching. He starts to raise the nerf gun in his hand - and she really wants to know how he snuck it in without any of them noticing, but that question can wait until later - but before he can properly aim and pull the trigger Bucky is leaning close and pulling Clint in by the front of his shirt.
Natasha snickers at the shocked look on Clint’s face, but is quickly silenced by Steve doing almost the exact same thing to her. She rolls her eyes at the smirk on his face when he pulls back before shoving him towards Bucky with a muttered, “What a gigantic dork.”
Clint grins and waggles his eyebrows when she turns towards him. “You gonna let me go after Tony?”
“Sure. I’ll even help.” She grins, stepping forward into his space. “After midnight.” She wraps her arms around his neck and presses her lips against his, silencing any protest he could have made.
He pouts when she pulls back, which earns him a quick kiss on the nose before she’s trading places with Steve and looping her arms around Bucky’s neck this time. “Miss me?”
He snorts, seeming more amused with this whole thing than he probably should be. “Always do, Tasha.”
“Sap.”
“Been accused of much worse in my time.”
Instead of trying to come up with a response to that she kisses him, effectively ending that conversation.
She does end up making good on her promise to help Clint troll Tony and it takes less time than she would have thought to get Steve and Bucky to help.
Clint somehow produces three more nerf guns and it doesn’t take long for them all to find different hiding spots and lure him into various traps. They even get Sam and Wanda to help, the both of them playing innocent any time Tony glances their way. Bruce refuses, but she sees him laughing with Thor at Tony’s expense more than once.
They get Tony annoyed enough that they can tell he’s considering going for his armor and banning all four of them from the tower before they leave, which Natasha takes as a compliment. Clint does, too, if the grin on his face is any indication. Bucky enjoys irritating Tony in any and every way and Steve? Well, even he looks like he’s having fun.
If not for Tony’s boyfriend, Stephen, showing up Natasha’s pretty sure he would have gone for the suit even with all the bystanders. Stephen gives both her and Clint a disapproving look, which earns him a raised eyebrow from her and an unimpressed look from Clint before they finally decided to back off and leave Tony alone.
Maybe these parties aren’t so bad after all.