Dearest Diary,

I've been hanging out with Bucky nearly every day this past month. Weird, right? Well, considering how the last time went...

Anyway, it's been a good time with him, especially now that it's gotten warmer outside. We've been spending time everywhere, too... rain or shine. And that's why I love him— er, I mean, that's why he's my best pal... he'd stick with me no matter what, until the very end.

I'm not even going to bother explaining anything. There's no point really...

—————

"Oh c'mon Steve. You're such a goodie two shoes. Live a littllllle!" He shouted from the bottom of the hill leading to the old, abandoned pier.

"Buck, this ain't safe... I- I don't think it's that good of an idea..." I started. That is, until he began running back up the hill. When you're getting chased you tend to run, so that's what I did. Though, normally, you don't really think about what would actually happen if you were to get caught, right?

Well, I knew exactly what would happen and I did not feel like breaking the rules for Bucky... again... so I kept on running.

Eventually, my poor lungs and I were caught up to. He ran up from behind me and picked me up by the legs, swinging me over his shoulder. "Buck! Put me down! Heyyy!" I shouted as he began walking down the hill again. I kicked and screamed and punched him... throwing a completely unnecessary fit. Whether I liked it or not, I was going down there.

He put me down on the rickety wooden boards that had once held sturdy for many men who had worked at the pier. Water sloshed up against the barnacle ridden posts, spraying salty water into the air and on my face. The best thing about this was that the sun was finally out. The clouds had covered the sky all the rest of the week making it way too cold for us to hang around outside... but now, everything was just perfect.

"What, exactly, was the point of that, hmmmm?" I asked, annoyed.

"C'mon Steve, you know you wouldn't have come down here if I hadn't gone up there to get you. And besides, now you're here so we might as well just have fun... right?" He said, so cheerily.

I exhaled, given up, "yea, sure. I guess I could use it anyways," I admitted, suddenly less mad (not that I could stay mad at him for too long anyway).

"Exactly. Now let's go."

"Where?"

"Uhhm, in the water... duh, why else would we be at the old pier?"

"But Bucky, I didn't bring a swimsuit," I said.

A smile grew on his face as his eyes narrowed and he chuckled a little. "No worries... I didn't either," he said plainly.

My eyes grew wide. What exactly does that mean? "I can't swim with my new pants and shirt on, my mom will kill me," I explained.

His eyes scanned me, across my new pants, up to my belt buckle and up my shirt. I shifted uncomfortably, I wasn't sure if he didn't think I was paying attention or if it was all on purpose. "I mean..." he started.

"No. No way Buck," I refuted. I was not going swimming naked in broad daylight.

He laughed, "oh Stevie. I was just gonna say we could go in our underwear... they're just like swim trunks anyway."

I felt my face burn up, goddamnit why do I blush to much? "Oh..." I said. I really do tend to think of the worst case scenario.

"So...?" His hands met his belt buckle.

"Ugh fine," I reached for my own and undid it. It hung in the belt buckles in my pants. I pulled my shirt out from its neatly tucked in position in my pants. It came up and I shrugged it over my head. I threw it on the floor to see Bucky before me, taking his shirt off too.

His pants unbuttoned and hanging open, shirt over his face. I looked at him, all of him for the first time in... a while. I mean. Yea, I knew he had abs... I just didn't know they looked like that. So sculpted and... and hard...

"Ready, Steve?"

Shit. He saw me staring.

"Mhmm, yea I'm ready," I replied as coolly as possible, pulling off my shorts. I didn't want to act as if he had caught me in the act, so I tried to play it off as much as I could.

As plainly as I could say it, we were all alone on the abandoned pier in nothing but our underwear. And for some odd reason, it didn't feel strange at all... at least not nearly as much as I thought it would.

"Alright then, let's go," he smiled, pushing my shoulder and encouraging me to follow him. I did, but when we got to that moment - where we had to jump in - I freaked out.

"Uhh... I dunno if this is all that good of an idea, Buck... I mean, what if we get—"

"We're not gonna get caught, Steve," he assured me. "No one's even thought of this place in over ten years, nevermind visited it. I'm sure everyone else has forgotten about it. We're completely safe and alone here, so please... don't worry and just have fun."

"Alright," I caved. "But you might have to push me in," I said, jokingly.

"I've got something better planned," he said, lunging at me. He picked me up and held me at his chest bridal style and quickly threw me out into the water. I, as fast as I could, reached for my face to plug my nose but I was a little late.

I coughed a little bit when I surfaced because some water had gotten up my nose. "You okay?" He asked from the deck.

I splashed him. "No, pfft. Get your ass in here and then I might be."

He jumped in right next to me and I wiped my face off again, leaving nothing but a smile behind. Let me just say, though, that water was a little chilly... however, that's probably what we get for swimming in the ocean on a day when it's only 76 degrees outside.

We splashed and played in the water for what felt like hours. One flick of water from either of us seemed to lead us both into a fully fledged battle.

By the time we got out, it was about eight o'clock. The sun was setting, too. Bands of red and pink streaked across the sky as orange and gold ribbons streaked into the ocean. We sat on the edge of the dock to watch the sun set, and what a beautiful sight I had before me. Though, I'm not sure if I meant the sunset, or that which was seated to my right.

I looked away from the sun for a moment and turned to my side, so I could see Bucky. His hair wet and pushed up away from his face, droplets of water slowly making their way down. His face lit up with the light of the golden sky, and his eyes illuminated by the red glow of its aura.

I tried to look away, really I did, but I couldn't. No matter how hard I tried to peel my eyes away from him, I simply couldn't. It was like something was pulling me in and holding me there just so I could get caught.

And look at that, I just did.

He turned and looked at me, wide eyed and a smile across his face. He didn't comment on his having caught me staring just a second ago... strange. He scooted closer so our bare arms and thighs were touching, never looking away the whole while.

"I have a question... Steve," he whispered.

"What's that, Buck?" I murmured back.

"Was it all you had expected it to be?"

"What do you—" my heart sped up, like a drum in my chest. I felt like a hummingbird, like this is how I should feel all the time: excited. That I should fear the day when I don't feel this way anymore. That I should know that the slower my heart beats, the faster I'll grow cold and fade away into oblivion. My skin, where it touched his at our legs and arms, crawled in sensitivity. Then, he interrupted my sentence and my thought process.

He inched closer until our noses brushed up against one another. After that, I felt his fingers touch below my chin. Then, he slowly drew in a breath of air and licked his lips, ever so gently placing his lips on mine. He pulled away in what felt like an instant.

My eyes remained closed after he was long gone. Only after I opened them did I see that his face had gone ghost white. I heard him swallow and saw him bite his lip nervously... I wonder what I look like right about now.

I smiled, looking deeply into his eyes and, eventually, I whispered back to him: "it was more."

~ Steven G. Rogers