Prologue

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Steve Rogers was in love with James Buchanan Barnes. Had been in love with him since they were 15 years old and had had the absolute pleasure of dating the other man since then. The two met when they were 5 at the neighborhood playground and had hit it off right away. Their friendship soon grew after discovering that they in fact lived in the same building as well and would often spend time in each others homes. Their parents had even become friends through the two of them and both families spent almost all their holidays together. As the years went by, their friendship only seem to grow deeper and stronger and the two became inseparable. It didn't come of as a surprise when when the two of them decided to date and add that extra step into their tooth rotting, sugary sweet relationship.

In short, the two of them were perfect for each other and they both knew it. They were each other's first in just about everything and they couldn't have asked for more than what they already had. They were so deeply in love with each other that nothing else in the world mattered to them. That didn't mean things were always perfect between the two. When it was time to go college, the two of them fought about whether or not they should go to different schools or stay together. Bucky wanted to stay with Steve and go to NYU, and as much as that idea pleased the blonde, he couldn't agree with it. They both wanted to study different things in different places and Steve didn't want to be the reason why Bucky didn't get to live out his dreams and go into the school he had always wanted to go to. He hated arguing with Bucky, but the brunette just wouldn't stop being stubborn about the whole situation and didn't want to listen to reason. And since Steve hadn't even applied to MIT, the brunette thought that the next best thing was to apply to NYU.

Steve didn't even know that Bucky had applied to the school until the brunette had gotten his admissions letter and even though he had been so mad at him for that, he'd decided to push the ordeal aside. But once Bucky had gotten accepted into MIT, they were both suddenly forced to talk about it and it hadn't been pretty at all. They would argue about it every single day, sometimes going as far as even yelling at each other. Their friends were worried that this was going to hurt their relationship and tried to talk to each of them about sorting their shit out. But it didn't help that all their friends and even family members agreed with Steve and made Bucky feel as if they were all ganging up on the brunette.

And being the hardheaded idiot that he was, Bucky actually thought that Steve had gotten tired of him and their relationship already and that he was just using this as an excuse to break up with him and that everyone but him was in on it. It broke Steve's heart to know that Bucky actually thought the blonde would be capable of such a thing and despite his wounded heart, it made the blonde so angry that he had decided stopped talking to Bucky for a whole week.

And it had been a grueling week.

Not talking to Bucky was both mentally and physically stressful. Steve thought about going over Bucky's house and tell the brunette to accept his NYU admissions and to fuck MIT. But Steve didn't want that and he didn't know if he could live with himself if Bucky ever started regretting his decision to stay. He just wanted Bucky to see and understand that this was for the best, even though it didn't fucking seem like it at the moment. And being the stubborn mule that he was, Steve managed to hold on for a week and ignore his boyfriend even though it hurt.

In the end, it was Bucky the one who came through. It was a Sunday afternoon and Steve had been contemplating whether he should take a bath or stay in bed for the rest of the day. It was already 5 pm and he had nowhere to go. His friends were staying out of their fight and had decided to not hang out with either of them until they both got their heads out of their asses. It sucked and he had spent that week bored out of his mind, but it also gave him plenty of time to think about his relationship with Bucky.

Steve knew he was head over heels in love with his boyfriend and that that wouldn't be changing anytime now. And he knew that Bucky loved him just as much and that distance was not going to hurt their relationship. He also knew that Bucky was scared because this was going to be the first time they'd be away from each other and for a long period of time (hopefully for only four years) and he was scared that something might come between their relationship and he was afraid of losing him. Steve knew all that and had thought about all that as well. But he knew that he wanted only Bucky and that he'd work really hard for their relationship to succeed. He just wanted Bucky to try as well. He also worried about how they'd keep in touch with each other, but there were a lot of ways the both of them could communicate and MIT wasn't that far away. He was thinking about all the new video chatting apps they could download when his doorbell rang. His mom and dad were working so he was the only one at home.

He didn't want to get up from his bed, so he just stayed there, wishing whoever it was would just go away. But they kept ringing the bell and when that wasn't enough, they started banging on the door. Steve had groaned and cursed and thrown a mini fit before dragging his feet across the hardwood floor and making his way to the door.

And there stood Bucky, with a single rose in his hand and a bashful smile on his face. He looked good but also tired, with dark circles under his eyes that probably matched Steve's. The blond stood there and gaped, not fully registering what was happening at the moment.

"I love you," Bucky had said. "I love you and you're the love of my life and I don't want us to fight anymore."

Without saying anything, Steve took the rose from Bucky's hand and placed it on the small table besides the front door. Once the flower was in a safe location, he threw himself at his boyfriend who was caught off-guard and almost fell over. Letting out a grunt, Bucky chuckled and was able to pick Steve up, wrapping bony legs around his waist.

Steve wrapped both hands around the brunette's neck and began kissing his face. "I love you, I love you, I love you." He repeated. Bucky giggled and managed to navigate both of them into the house after closing the front door.

They began kissing. Slow and sweet, yet passionate. Steve had missed this so fucking much and he just couldn't get enough of it. Soon, their tender kisses turned feral and deep and Steve pulled Bucky as close as possible to him. Bucky quickly walked both of them towards Steve's bed and gently placed the other boy on top of it. They made love that afternoon, and like everything else in their relationship, it had been nothing but magical.

They didn't argue about MIT or NYU after that night. Instead, both of them had a serious conversation about it the following morning and came to an agreement. Bucky would be going to MIT in the fall and would come to visit Steve during every holiday while Steve would go over there during the weekends. It was a perfect plan, but when the time came, both of them couldn't hold it together and had cried in each others arms.

Steve stayed in New York where he went to NYU and studied art history and Bucky went to MIT to took engineering as his major. And despite Bucky's worries, the distance only seemed to fortified their relationship.

Four years later and after graduating from their respective universities, Steve got a job as an arts teacher at a private high school in Manhattan, while Bucky came back to the city with a job at Starks Industry. They moved in together a month later, after finding a nice and affordable apartment in Brooklyn and lived in a happy harmony for four blissful years. They were so deep in their own bubble of love and everything was perfect. Some nights, Steve thought that he was dreaming. That all of this, everything he had with Bucky, was nothing but a wonderful dream.

Bucky always kissed the thought away from him though, and assured him that if this was a dream, that it was the best fucking dream in the whole wide world and that he didn't want to ever wake up from it. And honestly, this only made Steve fall deeper in love with his boyfriend.

But good things never last forever, and even though he didn't want to, their sweet little bubble of love, drastically came to an end.

Steve had always been weak and sickly as a kid, and growing up, some of those aliments grew with him. He had horrible asthma, heart problems and a bad back. Neither of those things put a stopper on his life though, and he always managed to live it to the fullest. They both knew that they could turn deadly though, so they were always keeping an eye out for things that had to do with Steve's health, so that it wouldn't catch him off guard.

So it came as a surprise when on a sunny morning afternoon, Steve Grant Rogers, the other half of James Buchanan Barnes, had a heart attack on his way home and died on the ambulance on his way to the hospital.

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