I'm with you... {completed}

10) 1945

    "We need to set up camp for the night. There's no way we're gunna make it all the way there before the sun sets." Some of the men muttered their agreement.
    It was mid-February and the deadly remains of winter nipped at the men's legs.
   "Common Captain. Not everyone is a supersoilder, you know. Some of us actually require sleep."
  Steve sighed dejectedly. He turned to the man beside him for an answer.
   "Let 'me rest Stevie. We can continue at sunrise, yeah?"
  Steve stoped his onslaught through the dense forests brush abruptly, causing Dernier to run into the Captains back.
   "Set up camp for the night. We're leaving at sunrise," he unwillingly ordered.
    "Corse you listen to Bucky the first time. Shoulda made him ask to stop an hour ago," Jones muttered with contempt.
   The Commandos would have whooped and hollered for joy of not having to drudge through the forest anymore, but instead they threw up their tents with zombie like motions and subsequently collapsed from exhaustion. The cold, frost ridden ground was horrible uncomfortable, but what could they do? Any sleep was good enough for drained men.
    The one exception from the group was, of course, Steve, who waited impatiently from the side of the make shift camp. He leaned against a small pine bounced his knee as he watched the Commandos languidly set up their tents and one by one fell off to sleep. Once all the other men had dropped themselves in their tents, he briskly walked over to the tent that he had been watching for the last 10 minutes. He shoved open the door flap and crawled inside the tight space that was left unoccupied. That was Steve's first mistake.
   "Hey Buck," Steve murmured as he kissed the soldier on the cheek.
   "Hey, darlin'."
The two curled around each other in a familiar position. Steve may not have noticed the cold, but Bucky sure as hell did, so Steve's oven like body was a welcome sight.
   "Sunrise huh?"
Steve chuckled quietly. "Yeah.. I guess I didn't think that one through."
   "Of course not," he nuzzled into Steves neck and kissed his collar bone. "Well I'm not one who has ta' be outta here before sunrise so do as you please, capt'm." He kissed his captain again, "Goodnight baby."
"G'night bucks. I love you."
That was the second mistake.
    Bucky snorted. He shoved Steve lightly, making sure not to hurt him. Not that he could, what with the serum and all. "Yer not sposed to say that round the Commandos, 'member?"
    Now it was Steve's turn to laugh. "What? And we're allowed to sleep together around them?"
    "Whatever shudup." Bucky pulled Steve back towards his chest for a kiss, which quickly turned into multiple kisses, which turned to Steve losing his shirt, which turned into Bucky losing his pants, which turned into the third mistake Steve would make that night.
     "Steeevie!" Bucky hissed. "We're gunna wake them up!" He pulled Steve up off his chest to kiss him.
      "Na, they were dog tired," he kissed Bucky feverishly, pulling his bottom lip between his teeth. "We're fine, doll." He went to move back down, trailing kisses along Bucky's abs.
    "Steve! We can't d-" Bucky's whisper-yell rant was cut off by an involuntary gasp followed by a soft moan as Steve traveled further down. "Fuck you, Steve," he spoke in a huffed laugh that was followed but a sharp inhale. The heat from Bucky's breath was visible and formed delicate curls in the air.
     He could feel Steve's smile as he held back laughter.
    "And before you say it, no, that was not an offer."
     Steve let the laughter that he had been holding back slip out.
    "Fine, Buck. I'll stop. Let's just go to sleep," he teased as he began sliding back up to lay next to his boy. 
    "Ha!" Bucky laughed, probably too loud, which he corrected as he whispered, "You're funny Steve."  He pulled Steve in for a kiss before shoving his head back down.

    "How does he already have his tent down and packed! The sun is barely rising!"
    "Where is he anyway?"
     "I dunno. Ask the snorer."
    "Hey! Why should I know? He probably went for a walk to scout out the area or something useful. Go wake up Dum Dum."
     "Ask Bucky. They're practically inseparable. If anyone would know it's him."
     "He's not even up yet."
      "Well, go wake him! Just cus he's the teachers pet doesn't mean he gets to sleep in."
     "Whatever. Just gimme a second."
      "Umm... Guys?"
      "What Jones?"
      "I, uh..."
       "Spit it out!"
      "I found the Captain."
   Steve rubbed his eyes as light shown in on the two sleeping figures on the tent floor. He turned so the light wasn't on his face, his sleep unfazed by the disturbance. The body beside him copied the eye rubbing, adding an animated yawn while sitting up, which really only made matters worse as his crappy military blankets fell off of him revealing a shirtless chest and a bruised neck.
       "Whadda ya want Jones." He mumbled, obviously not found of being awoken at such ungodly hours.
     "Well, I was hoping to ask for your help finding the Captain, but I guess you got that covered."
       "What the fuck are you talking about." Bucky ran a hand through his hair in a vain attempt to tame the unruly mass of hair atop his head.
   "Just that you've decided to replace your sleeping bag with our Captain as you source of heat, is all."
    "Wh-" Bucky felt his leg brush against another bare leg beneath his thin blanket. "Shit."
     "What's wrong, baby?" Steve asked still obvious to the presences of a third body.
      And it was at that moment that Dernier walked over to figure out what was going on.
     "Whats going on over her- WOAH! Well that explains the favoritism!"
     And with that loud wake up call Steve sprang up in bed, his blanket flying off leaving him with little modesty, and began forming, and failing at excuses.
      "I didn- We never- It's just that- We used to share a bed in Brooklyn. Yeah! That's it! And I just uh-"
      Dernier interrupted the incoherent babbling. "Hey, Bucky. Why are ya is a bed with the Captain here?"
   "It was cold," Bucky answered firmly. He was actually kinda impressed with his lie. It was simple and not entirely untrue. He was almost feeling confident in his excuse when Jones decided to chime in, pointing out the one flaw in his lie.
       "So why don't you have clothes on?"
      For better or worse, Steve swooped into save the day; "It got hot."
      Dernier and Jones shared a look of disbelief, both about ready to laugh at the failure of a excuse they had just heard. And they would have laughed till their sides ached if it weren't for the fact that they knew Captain Steve Rogers and Sergeant James Buchanan  could beat them to a pulp individually, not to mention what they had witnessed the duo accomplish as a team. All the while Dum Dum stood with his jaw practically unhinged, gaping at the idiots in his squadron.
       "Well then. We best be going. Common Jones, Dum Dum." Dernier dragged the slightly annoyed men away from the tent, boots crunching the morning frost on the forest found, leaving a blushing Steve to bask in his own embarrassment.
       "Oh god. We're fucked," he stated bluntly. "We are totally and completely fucked."
     Bucky just sat thinking, trying to find a was to spin the situation.
      "Shit Bucky. I fucked up. I fucked up! How could I 'of been so stupid! All I had to do was get up before the sun! Shit!" Steve started hyperventilating.
     "Hey! Woah, Stevie doll, look at me. Okay? Breath." He grabbed Steve's hands and placed them in his chest. "Okay Stevie? Breath with me. Just like we used to. In. Out. In. Out. There you go." Steve's snuffles and sharp breaths slowly evened out. For some reason, seeing Steve in panic always made Bucky calm. Not that he wanted Steve to be panicking, but his body just forced himself to be rational to keep Steve safe. He forced himself to stay sane for Steve. Otherwise Bucky would have been hyperventilating right along side Steve.
       "You're gunna be okay Stevie. We're gunna be okay. Ya know why?" He paused to make sure Steve was listening. "Because I'm with you, yeah? I'm with you till the end of the line."
Steve nodded slightly in agreement.
      They sat in the tent for another 10 minutes not moving. Eventually, Steve moved to put on his shirt. It really was quite cold. They dressed quietly and sat back down.
     Steve crawled over to sit in Bucky's lap. Bucky didn't engulf Steve like he used to be able to, but they still fit like two perfect puzzle pieces.
     "What are we gunna do, Bucky."
     "Nothing."
     "What! How can we do nothing? We can't just walk out there and do nothing! We can't just pretend this didn't happen!" Steve spoke frantically as he tried to think of a plan. 
      "That's exactly what we are gunna do. What else are we supposed to do? If we bring it up, it only incriminates us more. We can talk to Jones, Dum Dum and Dernier privately if you think that's a good idea, but besides that, we just go back to normal. Just maybe a little more careful."
     "But-"
     "Steve. We can't to anything. You saw their reactions. They didn't believe a word we said, and I wouldn't either I was them. You're a lot of things, Stevie, but a good liar is not one of 'em."
      "How do we know they won't tell?"
       "How do we know they didn't already. We don't, okay? We just have to trust the Commandos and hope they trust us." Bucky tightened his grip around Steve and hugged him fiercely. He pressed his mouth to Steve ear as he spoke. 
      "I love you. And no matter what happens, we'll figure it, just like we always have. We're married remember? Even if we don't have the rings, we're married."
      Steve felt a small trickle of tears falling down his face, but he ignored them as he responded, "I love you, too."
    Steve crawled out of Bucky's lap and began digging throw the folds of the sleeping bags.
     "Stevie, whatcha looking for sweetheart?"
      "My tags." He shook out his blanket. Nothing. He pulled Bucky's blanket out from around his legs. "Hey! I was using that!" Steve ignored him and continued his search of the small tent.
     "Bucky, move." Steve commanded.
      "Seriously? I'm not sitting on it. Steve." He made strong eye contact with Steve who returned the look, staring equally as stern.
     "Move." Steve tried again.
     "Oh come on Steve! Don't you trust me!?" Bucky held his chest in mock distress.
       Steve stared him dead in the eye and responded seriously, "There is no trust when looking for something you could be siting on."
       Bucky dropped his jaw open still pretending to be offended; "Rude!"
      Steve rolled his eyes but smiled genuinely. "Bucky, my love, would you please be a doll and move so I can find my dog tags?"
      "Fine," he pouted, "I'll move only cus you're cute."
      Steve smiled again. "Thank you, baby." He leaned over to peck Bucky on his lips where he still held a fake pout. Steve looked around on Bucky's half of the tent but found nothing.
      "Ahem," Bucky cleared his throat. "I believe you were looking for these." Bucky held Steve's boot upside down causing a set of tags engraved with 'Rogers, Steve' and several other identifying markings to fall out.
      "Oh. Thanks." Steve turned pink with embarrassment.
      "Well it's a good thing you're cute, Stevie," Bucky taunted.
      "Shadup." Steve took his tags and untangled them. He wrapped a set around his right ankle and the other around his wrist. Then he faced Bucky and cleared his throat.
     "Hey, um. Bucky," he forced his attention on the tags in his hand. "About what you said earlier. Ya know, that we don't have rings but we're still married? Well, I was thinking. I mean, I know it's not the same but, um," Steve took a breath. He looked up into the eyes of the one person he loved more than anything. "I want you to have these. So no matter what happens, I'll always be with you, till the end of the line, yeah?"
      Now it was Bucky's turn to tear up. He swallowed the lump in his throat as he accepted the tags that Steve held out toward him. Carefully, he clasped the tags around his neck and slid them under his shirt, laying them against his heart. He rubbed away a few stray tears and reached into his jacket that lauded on the ground next to where the soldiers kneeled. He fumbled for a few seconds before pulling out a set of his own tags. A small laugh that was more of an uneven exhale escaped him as he reached around Steve's neck to clasp his own tags. Bucky leaned forward and pressed their foreheads together.
      "I love you."
      "I love you."