Welcome To The New Age: Bucky/Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 17

Walking into Central Park, the stress of the city always slipped right off of Steve. As he moved further and further in, he became more and more relaxed. Bucky felt the strange phenomenon too. It was as if the outside world was crumbling and they were in the only safe zone.

"God I love it here." Steve breathed.

"It's beautiful." Bucky agreed, hearing the birds tweeting from the trees and seeing all the greenery.

"You know, I come here a lot of mornings to run. Would you like to come along some time?" Steve asked.

"I'd love to." Bucky said with a smile.

They continued on for a while in comfortable silence. Trees, and people and benches all passed by, but Steve's mind was occupied with other things than the beauty around him. All except for the one beauty that meant something to him: Bucky.

He wanted to ask if this was a date, but he didn't want to ruin this perfect day. He still wasn't sure how Bucky felt about him. He'd realized that Bucky'd never actually said to Steve that he loved him back. This troubled Steve.

"What's going on in that little brain of yours Steve? You seem a bit... preoccupied." Bucky said.

Steve realized that he'd been zoning out with an angry glare on his face.

"Oh nothing much." Steve said, quickly snapping out of his trance.

"In that case, would now be a good time to stop for ice cream? There's a vendor over there and I'm getting hot." Bucky said while licking his lips.

"Sure. Get me something good." Steve said, pulling a few crumpled bills from his back pocket.

Bucky walked over to the truck. He looked at the side which was covered with frozen treats. Bucky found what he wanted immediately and got two. He walked back to Steve and smugly handed him the pop.

"Captain America ice cream? Really Buck?" Steve asked with a sigh.

Bucky laughed. It was the most he'd laughed in a while, and boy did it feel good. Steve smiled at him, seeing yet another piece of his old friend come back. He'd heard that laugh many times. The real Bucky Barnes laugh, a laugh that boomed and made you want to laugh too. It was infectious, and nothing like the Winter Soldier's dry cackle.

"What?" Bucky said, pulling himself together after seeing Steve staring at him with a troubled expression.

"Just some old memories coming back I think." Steve said with a sad smile.

They were approaching the zoo. Steve had been here a few times, and it had always been enjoyable, seeing all the little kids who had so much hope for the world, the parents who would do anything to keep this hope alive, and of course, the animals.

"Hey Buck, wanna make a detour?" Steve asked.

"To the zoo? Always." Bucky said with a grin, grabbing Steve's arm and pulling him towards the entrance.