Steve's Diary

November 6, 2023

"Bucky- God," I laughed and he joined me.

"Where to for breakfast this morning?" he finally asked.

"I don't really care, to be honest," I relayed.

"How about the bagel place down at the corner two blocks down?"

"Sounds good to me," I smiled.

We continued down the sidewalk as cars whizzed past us, sending chilled air even more forcefully our way. It was really starting to get cold now, as the first frost had happened only a few nights ago and I could barely wait for winter- you know, which had become my favorite season after I stopped getting pneumonia every year during it.

"Steve?" he stopped mid-walkway.

I walked back to where he'd been standing. "What?" I asked, looking around to see if, perhaps, he'd seen a HYDRA agent or something that we would've had to run from or attack head-on, despite the fact that we were both retired... not like the attacker would care either way.

"Are you seeing that?" he wondered, unmoving.

"I have no idea what you're looking at," I admitted.

He grabbed my jaw and pointed my gaze towards it. "Is that a woman with really short hair?" he prodded for clarification. "And, you know, no boobs? Or, is that-"

"Two guys," I filled in. "Yea, I think it's two guys."

We stood there shocked that there had been two men standing against a building just... kissing one another like it was nothing.

"Should we- ask them?" he pondered.

"I don't exactly know how to do that in a nice way, Buck."

"Neither do I, but I know how to do it in a non-offensive way..... I think," he nudged me. "C'mon."

We approached the two of them and Bucky seemed fearless, despite my being petrified. He cleared his throat as we stood a relatively normal distance from the men. They stopped and looked at us.

"Hello," Bucky started in a Russian accent. Now I see where he's going with this.

"Uhm, hi," one replied in a lilting, confused voice. "Can I help you?"

"Eh, yes," he continued. "You boys, ehm, homosexuals, yes?"

They looked at each other like we were crazy. "Yea, what of it?" the other confronted us.

"No, no- I have no harm, really," he backtracked. "You know, I am here with my friend from Russia. He no speak English. Where we live, that is... not okay."

"Oh, so you're gay too?" the first one questioned.

Bucky looked at me and I nodded. "Yes- you tell no one, okay?"

"Well, it's okay," the second went on. "It's legal here. It has been for like, 40 years in New York or something."

"Yea," said the first. "And, like, it's been legal everywhere in America since 2003 or whatever, so."

I looked at Bucky like this was insane news because, well, it is. "This is truth?"

"Mhmm, yea."

"Oh, thank you," Bucky answered. "Apologies for- erhm, interruption."

He grabbed me and pulled me away into a side street so we could get as far away from those Generation: Alpha kids as possible.

"Did you hear that?" he asked as soon as we were alone. "Steve?"

"Yea, uhm... yea. I- I'm shocked," I admitted.

"We've been living in fear for, what? About 80 years, now? How are we only now finding out about this?"

"Probably because neither of us really know how to use the internet or a cellular device properly, just saying," we both laughed.

"You're probably right," he agreed. "But, don't you see what this means?" I nodded. He grabbed my hand. "I can hold your hand as we walk down the street now, Stevie."

I grabbed his jaw and kissed him on his lips like no one else was there and it wasn't the middle of the day in the busiest city in the country. "You can kiss me now, too, Buck. We were the best kept secret in history, but it's almost as if I want the world to know now."

"And they finally can," he assured me.

"What about the others?" I questioned. "Did... you wanna tell them?"

"What do you think? I mean, you kinda knew most of them before me."

"Maybe we start with Natasha seeing as we both kinda-"

"Yea, good call," he looked down. "Then what? We can't just call a meeting in the conference room and announce it."

"Why not?"

"Steve."

"Okay, fine," I submitted. "We'll have to just wait for another open time that everyone's around to announce it. Until we can agree on that, and telling Nat - in terms of a specific time - we tell no one."

"Agreed, absolutely. We gotta keep it completely secret until we're ready to spill everything."

I smiled. "I love you."

"I love you, too," he answered, kissing me again before we walked back to Stark Tower without our bagels and without a care in the world.

—————

This... it's a life changer.

I mean, I don't know all the specifics but, is there potential to get married now, too? Could we live together just us like this without any trouble? I'll have to learn more about that whole internet concept I guess to figure it all out...

Maybe this was the real reason I came back to the future after all.

~ Steve Rogers