Avenge the Adventure

Chapter 4

Steve looks at her trying to figure out if all that she said is true.  When he comes to his conclusion he asks, "will that happen to my friends and I?"  She looks into his blue eyes filled with worry. "Yes, but we can stop it."  "How?" Steve asks, anxious.  "You have to pass a test, just you and if you fail, all of you will die.  I don't want that to happen to you, so I'll help you prepare.  The test will be on the night of a full moon, that's in about two weeks.  Hopefully you'll pass and if you do the forest will let you leave."  "What about you?" Steve asks.  She looks at him unsure why he would care.  "I can't leave, not now, not ever, the forest won't let me, but you can if you pass the test."  Steve nods.  Natasha heads to the door and Steve follows.  She explains how to get back to his cabin and that she'll see him tomorrow morning. "See you tomorrow, Natasha", Steve says. "See you tomorrow Steve", Natasha says.  Before he leaves, she calls out, "Steve, don't tell anyone about this otherwise..."  "I won't" and with that he leaves.  When Steve gets back to his cabin he lies to his friends as to where he was.  He has trouble sleeping that night thinking about everything he was told.  He was also thinking about Natasha, till he fell asleep.

For the next week Steve has left the cabin in the morning and doesn't come back till about 3 o'clock. The group has become curious as to what he's been doing. Sam and Bucky especially. "Where do you think he's been going every day?" Buck asks. "I have no clue, maybe he's trying to find a path or something to help us find a way out of this stupid forest" Sam says. Buck nods. The two of them stay in an awkward silence. Sam tries to break it by saying "want to go for a walk? Not too far so we don't get lost." "Sure" Buck answers. The two go outside and let Tony know where they're going. They walk in silence till Buck speaks "when that librarian bumped her head, she had no one to blame but her shelf." Sam bursts out laughing. "Seriously?" Sam says still laughing. Buck laughs too "just thought a joke would lighten the mood." "Well, it was stupid" Sam answers. "Well, what do you want to talk about?" Buck asks. "I don't know, why is it so hard for us to talk? We used to be able to talk about anything" Sam states. "Ya" Buck says then its silent again. Bucky then asks "what happens if we don't find a way out of here? Food and water will run out at some point." Sam sighs "I'm not sure, let's just hope we do find a way out." "Sam?" Bucky asks. Sam stops and looks at him "Ya?" Bucky takes a deep breath "if and I mean if we don't get out of this forest, I have to tell you something." "Okay what is it?" Sam asks. Bucky again takes a deep breath then starts "for a long time I've struggled with being gay, Steve was the only person who knew before and now all our friends do and their all so supportive. But now I've started to develop these feelings and I have been so scared to do anything about them. But if we don't make it out of here, I don't want to have any regrets." Sam listens intently hoping Bucky is going to say what he thinks he is. Buck continues "the truth is Sam, I like you, more than just as a friend and I think I'm falling in love with you." The two men stand in silence and just when Bucky is about to walk away assuming Sam's answer he gets taken aback. Sam grabs his face and kisses him. Buck is surprised but kisses back. Eventually they pull away and Sam looks into Bucks sparkling blue eyes "I like you too Buck and I think I'm falling in love with you too." Now both men have the cutest of grins on their faces now that they finally told each other how they feel. Maybe getting stuck in this forest isn't so bad after all.