𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐄 | barnes¹

xiv. promise me this

Lucy smiled. "I love you."

"I love you too." As he released Lucy's hands, Bucky backed up and blew an air kiss at her. "You better be writing me!"

"Every day!" Lucy yelled back to him as he disappeared into the sea of soldiers. 

She joined Steve and the Barnes family, waving at the soldiers hanging out of the train windows.

If only they knew what was coming.

───

Steve was acting strange.

It didn't take Lucy long to figure out that he was hiding something. At first, she blamed his strange behavior on the emotional day they had. But when the oddness continued in the following days, Lucy finally confronted him.

"What's going on with you, Steve?" she asked, watching closely as he froze in the middle of shoving french fries into his mouth.

The two were sitting at a booth in Reuben's diner, Lucy still in her nursing uniform as they ate dinner together. She sipped on her strawberry milkshake, narrowing her eyes to study his reaction.

"What... What do you mean? Nothing—"

"Steve," Lucy cut him off. "I love you, but you're a terrible liar. Out with it."

The blonde sighed, putting down his fries and pushing them to the side of the table. He fumbled with his words, trying to figure out how to tell Lucy what he did without having her cry or yell at him.

"I have to tell you something."

Lucy's stomach sank. Nothing good could come from that phrase.

She pushed her milkshake aside, suddenly feeling too nauseous to continue with the sugary drink. "Okay," she drawled, encouraging him to reveal whatever he had to say.

Steve took a deep breath in. "I, uh, I'm leaving."

Nothing could have prepared Lucy for that. The words stung her skin deeply.

Everyone was leaving.

She was going to be alone again.

"...What?" Lucy finally stuttered. She stared at him, trying to figure out the meaning of his words through the nervousness swimming in those light blue eyes.

Steve took her hand that was resting on the table. "I got accepted."

"You..." The words died on the tip of Lucy's tongue. She understood immediately. It wasn't until then that she could see the slight excitement shining through his features. Excitement because his efforts for enlisting had finally worked.

"Yeah," Steve murmured. "They accepted me. At first, I thought I got caught for lyin' on my enlistment form— Well, technically, I did." 

She rolled her eyes at that.

"But then this scientist came into the room and told me that I would get a chance. They're givin' me the chance that I never thought I would get, Luce."

Lucy just sat there, staring at her best friend with her lips parted and her mouth slightly agape.

"The guy that gave me a chance... He's from Queens," Steve said quietly, as if the fact would convince her to trust him.

She wanted to scream at him. God, she wanted to curse him out for putting himself in harm's way. But she couldn't. No matter how much she wanted to, Lucy couldn't tell him no because that's not who Steve Rogers was.