Letters

First Love

Steve was trying to concentrate on Mrs. Whittier but the furious tapping of Willow's pencil against her wooden desk was driving him insane. "Willow..." Steve complained softly folding his hands in front of him. Willow glanced at him before putting the pencil between her lips and biting down on it. Elementary school. Willow and Steve were in the same class with desks right next to each other and Bucky off to Steve's right.

"What?" Willow whispers back even though she knows exactly what he's going to say. She likes annoying him anyway she can. She thinks it's cute the way his forehead scrunches up and his nostrils flare as his eyes narrow. She takes this childish teasing and playfulness all the way to adulthood and it's something Steve loves about her.

"You're tapping your pencil." Steve says focusing his eyes on the board and turning away from her. He's had a crush on her for months now and while Bucky knows, she certainly doesn't. Just glancing at her makes him want to blush.

"So?" Willow questions pulling it from her lips and tapping the eraser end on the table over and over and over again.

"So can you please stop." Steve whines maybe a bit too loduly.

"Steve, what was that?" The small boy blushes and shakes his head trying to sink down further into his desk when their teacher addresses him. Willow puts a hand over her mouth and tries not to laugh, she focuses, instead, on smoothing out her dress. Steve watches her. It's a white dress with red trim and flowers along the edges. Steve likes the way it makes her hair shine brighter and her eyes a lighter color. Bucky nudges him.

"You're staring." The dark haired boy whisper shouts at him. Steve blushes harder and Bucky grins trying not to laugh out loud. Willow pokes Steve.

"What did Bucky say?" She whispers quietly. Steve shrugs and doesn't reply. Willow shoots Bucky a look and he just shrugs, a smile appearing on his chubby pink cheeks. Willow furrows her eyebrows wondering what he could have said to Steve. What makes him blush..? She thought. Embarrassment. Girls. Maybe Steve liked somebody. Willow wished it was her but it probably wasn't. They were best friends after all.

Willow looked around at all the girls in the class. Mary was pretty. She had long blonde hair that all the boys were fascinated with. Dorthy always had nice bows in her hair. Could it be her? Willow decided to ask after class. Meanwhile, she continued to tap her pencil against the desk.

Out on the playground Willow bombarded him with questions. "You like someone don't you. That's why Bucky teased you and you blushed right? Because you like someone. Who is it? Dorthy? Lillian? Annie? Clara?" Words poured out of Willow's mouth like a waterfall and Steve stared at her with wide blue eyes unsure of how to answer.

"How'd you know he likes someone?" Bucky prompted trying to help get his best friend out of deep water. Willow shrugs slowly.

"He blushed. It was either from embarrassment or because he likes someone. Or both." Willow smiled proudly at her great deducing skills.

"Well it was only one of those." Bucky answers. Willow furrows her eyebrows.

"Which one?" Bucky grins.

"Embarrassment. His zipper was down." Willow looks at Steve and starts laughing uncontrollably. Steve blushes and shoots his best friend a glare but is actually grateful he didn't have to answer all of Willow's prying questions.

---

Willow was throwing paper balls at him. Middle school, they had the same class together again but they were all sitting a little far off from each other. Over the years, their reputation as best friends and notorious trouble makers had gotten them kicked out of classrooms, sent to the principals office, and separated into different corners of the small room more times than they could count. Steve always blamed it on his two best friends, Bucky and Willow. They loved causing trouble and dragging Steve into it.

Turning in his seat, Steve looked over the line of kids behind him to glare at Willow. She had grown her hair out this year and it reached almost to her hips. Steve's own hair was plastered back sharply while Bucky's was wild and crazy.

Quit it. Steve mouthed at her. He didn't know how she was able to accurately hit him over three other people but she was doing it.

"Steve!" Mr. Hartman said sharply drawing everyone's attention, even Bucky who, up until that point had been asleep at his desk. Willow tried not to grin. Steve gulped as he turned around slowly. "There is a reason you, Willow, and Bucky are separated. It is so you do not converse with each other. Now I would appreciate it if you stopped turning around and disrupting this class." He said harshly, putting his hands on his hips. Steve ground his teeth.

"Yes, sir." He replies sinking down a little into his seat, trying to disappear. Steve could hear Bucky snickering behind his hands from where he sat and he tried not to groan or roll his eyes in case Mr. Hartman thought it was directed towards him. Mr. Hartman returned to the subject on the board and the paper balls still kept coming.

---

Willow carefully tore a page from her notebook out and scrawled something on top of the page before folding it over many times and sliding the small slip from her desk aiming over the person next to her and then tossing it onto Steve's, who jumped at the sight of it. Steve glanced at Willow puzzled and Willow gestured for him to open it. Steve sighed. They were in their high school English class in assigned seating based off their last names. Willow and Steve were towards the back and in the same row across but Bucky whose last name is Barnes was forced to sit up front away from his friends.

Do you think Louise is cute? Steve glanced at her. Louise was a girl in their class. She was pretty but she wasn't Willow.

I guess she is kind of cute. Steve responded throwing it back over to her. He watched her read it and a smile appeared on her face before she bent over with her pen and wrote something back before handing it to him again.

You should ask her out. Steve frowned a little. He didn't want to ask Louise out he wanted to ask Willow out but he was much too afraid even if they were best friends. He just didn't want to loose their friendship. She had been there with him through everything. All of his happiest memories and even his worst. She was a constant presence and he would miss her sorely if she was gone. Steve was about to write out a reply when the note was snatched away. Their teacher Mrs. Wells stood over Steve and scanned the note with her lips pursed.

"No note passing in my class." She said roughly crumbling the paper up before walking away. Steve sighed, thankful that she didn't make him read it out loud. He was always getting picked on for his size and stature and even though he fought back, and got sent to the principal's office multiple times, it never stopped him from standing up to those who bullied him. While he would always do it, he just didn't want to give them more fuel to feed them.

"Why were you two passing notes in class?" Bucky asked at lunch later.

"I was asking him what he thought of Louise." Willow replied eating her sandwich. Bucky smirked and looked out across the quad. There was a small collection of girls off in front of the group giggling and staring at them. Bucky raised his hand in a sort of wave and Willow laughed as they squealed. "Look at you regular ole ladies man." Willow teased nudging him a little. Steve was jealous of his best friend who seemed to have captured all the good looks. With his dark hair, comforting smile and warm eyes he was like everyone's description of tall, dark and handsome. Then there Steve was, blond, blue eyes and while Bucky built up he seemed to just grow scrawnier.

"The ladies love me." Bucky shrugged. Willow laughed and then excused herself to go to the bathroom. Bucky waited until she was out of line of hearing to ask the question. "You're still in love with her." well it wasn't really a question more of a statement.

"Yes." Steve mumbles out. "She's my first love." Bucky rolls his eyes.

"It's more than that. She's your forever love."

A/N:
The song is called Willow and it's by Jasmine Thompson it will be the theme song for this story. Thanks for reading!