I'm With You To The End Of The Line [STUCKY]

Chapter 14

T'Challa estimated two weeks to make the pod for him. That meant two weeks to spend with Steve. Steve said he'd get the others after Bucky went under, so he wouldn't have to deal with comments, good or bad. Bucky was thankful for that.

At the moment, they were enjoying a nice picnic (Sappy Steve's idea) by the waterfall.

"Your saying marshmallows come in jars now? What does it even go on? Fuck it, I'm gonna eat it off the spoon."

"Yes, I like plums, Steve, laugh it up. I hate you, you apple freak."

"They don't sell Charleston's anymore? I refuse to accept that."

"Four dollars for a carton of milk?! That could pay our electricity bill!"

"Steve, you don't eat the white powder! Sarah would be so disappointed in you-! Oh...Sherbet?"

"I haven't had banana's in so long- don't you dare laugh, you punk! Sam is a bad influence on you."

It was a fit of giggles and laughter between the two the whole picnic, Bucky finding out more then he could comprehend about modern day food. Steve loved the wonder and joy on Bucky's face.

"I love you." Steve blurted and Bucky paused in his rambling about the options of meat to blink at him.

"Um..."

"I mean it, Buck. I really do. You don't have to reply right now, I just felt the need to say it." He ran a hand through his blond locks, pushing his fringe out of his eyes.

"...You're an idiot, geez, you're making me blush." Bucky laughed, rubbing a hand down his face, grin in place.

"Good. I think you look good when you're happy." Steve slipped an arm around him and kissed his temple sweetly as Bucky rolled his eyes.

"Ya such a sap." His Brooklyn accent made Steve's stomach flutter happily. He missed it.

"One of us has to be. You were quite the sap back then, you know?"

"Shut up." Bucky pushed his face away, flicking his cheek.

"Make me." Steve dared and Bucky took it happily, kissing him into silence, though it didn't last long since Steve burst into laughter when Bucky lost his balance and ended up squishing the grapes. Bucky threw the mushed up grapes as Steve and by the end of the day, they were both covered in food and had marshmallow fluff in their hair and stubbles.

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It was a week till Bucky would be due to freeze, and he was spending it in the town square with Steve. They had yet to explore, and there had been a festival on in the streets from what T'Challa's sister had said. She had dressed them up in traditional festival wear. Steve had chosen dark blue linen while Bucky got purple with a silk, shimmering sash around his waist. Shuri wouldn't explain why Steve didn't get one.

"You look like a plum." Steve joked as they walked among the festive citizens who danced to pounding drums and flutes.

"And you look like a blueberry." Bucky smirked, fiddling with his sash. "Why didn't you get a glittery sash?" He frowned in confusion. He wasn't hating the sash, it was pretty, but he didn't see why she insisted on him wearing it.

"It suits you. Maybe she didn't think it would suit me?" Steve shrugged.

"Well, I think that's stup-" He was tugged away from Steve's grasp by a girl with bouncy dark curls and chocolate eyes. She was wearing a bright pink silk dress and sash around her shoulders to match. She said something he couldn't understand and he looked back to Steve who looked just as confused as him. Bucky was dragged towards the circle of dancers, all brightly coloured and jovial.

"Uh, why are we dancing?" The girl rose a brow at his English before seeming to think before she spoke.

"Festival calls for dance. Love God shall take sashes to the heavens!" She said with a big grin, pulling her sash off to wrap it around her hips and circle them as she turned, nodding her head to Bucky to do the same. He felt a bit awkward to follow her dance moves, but he couldn't help but feel a bit happy at being accepted into the tradition so easily after so many years of being set aside or worked to the bone.

Steve watched Bucky dance with the girls and boys, gaining a new partner with every swap. Bucky's grin was something Steve could get used to. Bucky was pulled to the centre of the dance circle when the music slowed drastically, all the girls and boys removing their sashes in the air. The black pot of wood was set alight and burned brightly as they chucked their ribbons of colours in, watching them burn and embers float up.

The girl that had pulled Bucky away came up to Steve and took his arm, leading him to a grinning Bucky who's eyes were following the flickers of the flames.

"You dance, for luck in love!" She said over the music, placing Bucky's hand in Steve's behind disappearing into the crowd toward her own partner.

"I think I understand why she gave me a sash now." Bucky shook his head in amusement as Steve smiled.

"I'm glad she did. A little luck in love is something I need." Steve joked, looking around. Bucky pulled him along to dance before he could even watch the others steps, like he knew what to do. He didn't, and no one else did either. They simply danced to the beat the way they please.

Their own love story is theirs after all.

Bucky and Steve spent the rest of evening dancing and talking, stopping for food when they could escape the towns people's greetings. They probably didn't see outsiders often after all. When they got back to the castle, their feet ached and they were happy to discard their clothing in turn for boxers and wife beaters.

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It was the day before Bucky would be going under again, and he was resting besides Steve. He was afraid. He might never wake, or when he does, Steve might be gone, everyone he knew might be gone again.

"Promise to be there when I come out?" Bucky asked, soft fear tinging his voice.

"I promise. I'm with you to the end of the line, Buck." Steve swore and held him tightly against his chest, fingers tangled in his dark strands. Bucky looked up at him, wondering if it would forever be like this. How much would Steve change in the time he was gone?

"Till the end of the line." He agreed, stretching his neck up to kiss him softly, slow and sweet. Bucky snaked his arm around his neck, wishing for the moment to last forever. Steve's palms were warm as they rubbed up and down the muscles of his back but his fingertips were cool when they touched the hot skin under his shirt. Bucky tried to push away from Steve's grasps when his hand slipped lower, but Steve only paused in his kisses to sigh.

"You'll never move on from the past if you don't look forward, Buck." He mumbled dejectedly, fingertips tracing circles just above his hipbone. His stomach quivered against his better judgement.

"...I don't know why you would want that...from me. I did some really sick things, Stevie..." This was the moment Steve would get frustrated, or perhaps horrified with realisation, and stand. He'd walk out without a word, or maybe with plenty of words of his disgust, but... He didn't move away. Not an inch, instead he pressed a soft kiss on his jaw.

"Because I love you, and I know you would never do that." Bucky closed his eyes once more when Steve kissed him again, almost like the brush of a feather before he pressed hard, seeking his attention. He got all of it as Bucky melted into.

"I think I can keep looking forward...I quite like the view." Bucky whispered with a soft chuckle as he gazed into Steve's ocean blue-green eyes. Steve only smiled and showed Bucky what he done all those years ago in the dead of night in a shabby tent. Bucky didn't protest in the slightest.

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