Dear Diary,
After quite a while living in constant celebration, life is back to what Tony coined as normal, which is mostly the abnormal.
I surprised everyone with Natasha and Tony and explained everything and how it worked perfectly and they accepted it with open arms. We all will be staying at Stark Tower, including all of the Starks, the space-beings belonging to The Guardians as well as Thor and Danvers, the Barton family as well as Peter Parker and his Aunt May.
We've all been away from one another for so long that we've forgotten what it's like to be together and inseparable as ever like we once were. Living together for an extended period again is the only way to get that feeling back.
After a few months like this, Thor is to part with The Guardians of The Galaxy and leave New Asgard under the rule of Valkyrie. Peter and May will head back to Queens, the Bartons to their countryside home as well as the Stark's to theirs. Natasha was asked to live with the Bartons, but she has yet to decide whether or not she will actually do so. Bucky and I are finally going back to our place in Brooklyn. Oh, and T'Challa said he is needed in Wakanda, and Carol Danvers is needed in the rest of the Universe, so they won't be joining us at all- but we were sure to wish them well before they left a month ago.
And so, the battle we fought a month ago surely was to get to this endgame. But now? Now that we're fully in it? I see that the endgame we're all longing for is only a few months away, when we finally get to live out on our own with no duties and nothing to do but live our simple, new lives.
—————
Bucky and I made a habit of going on walks together every morning to get breakfast and to work out after. It was nice to be up here in Manhattan, where everything is always bustling. Hopefully, when we get back to Brooklyn, we'll continue this as a memory of our post-war tradition.
I was often tempted to hold his hand, and I could tell he saw it in the way I let my fingers brush against the back of his hand every once in a while. It was killer sometimes living in the shadows like this, unable to do what I really wanted.
"So, tell me more about her," he started.
"Peggy?"
"Mhmm."
"Well, I've already told you most of it," I replied.
"Sure, but it's barely been a month and you spent most of it on the 'returning all the stones' part of the story," he explained as we waited at a crosswalk. "You left off yesterday at ringing her doorbell."
"I knocked, I didn't ring the bell, Buck."
"Yea, yea, same thing," he chuckled. "What happened next."
"We got our dance, was really all an-"
"Ohh, so Steve Rogers finally got the girl after a hundred years," he smiled. "How romantic. What next? Did she take your virgini-"
"Buck!" I whisper-yelled as we made it across the street and continued on our way. "You know that was you, right?"
"I know, I just like reminding you," he looked over at me. "So, if she didn't de-virginize you, what happened during this dance that you're so-obviously trying to keep from me?"
I smiled to myself. "I'm not keeping it from you, it's just lost in history right now. Only we know."
"No, only you know," he corrected me. "The Peggy of this timeline doesn't know shit, remember?"
"Okay, fine. We just kinda kissed for a little until the record jumped and then that was it."
"Oh, so you're cheating on me now?" he joked.
"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