I draw silly little fictional characters

D, my love my darling my boo, I know it's been literally months but I still can't find the words to thank you for this, honey! Thank you for giving me the perfect excuse to scribble about these boys 💕💕💕 I love them with all my heart, but I'll always be petrified by the fear of not doing them justice ;3; Here, please accept this offering of mine: 1333 words, prewar boys, possibly a little less dumb than it looks at first 💕

Steve is many things, but he’s not stupid. He knows what they’ve been doing here, this little game they keep playing between them.

Some people would call it a silent agreement; Steve calls it a long-term two-way scam, the way he and Bucky have been trying to trick themselves and each other into thinking that there’s nothing going on here, nope, nothing at all.

If they tend to linger in each other’s space more than necessary, it’s simply out of habit, you know? After so many years, it’s only natural to drift together in the little day-to-day things. It’s routine, really. At some point you stop noticing if the fingers fixing your tie and smoothing your lapels ever so tenderly are your own or your buddy’s.

And isn’t it just practical for them to huddle close, and for Bucky to hook his chin over Steve’s shoulder while they watch the stew simmer away in its pot? After all, the stove is warm but it’s so, so narrow, there’s no way they could both fit in front of it standing side by side.

Honestly, pushing their beds together when it’s real cold is just good sense, and if in the morning they forget to put them back, it’s only because they get distracted, you know, boys will be boys, didn’t Steve’s Ma always say that? (The answer is no. His Ma never once said that in her whole life.)

But Steve knows. Truly, he does.

He knows that young men don’t dance together like he and Bucky do when nobody’s around – swaying on slow feet, arms around each other and heads tipped together, Just for something to do, like Bucky says.

But then Bucky rests his cheek against Steve’s temple and hums along to the music, and holds their joined hands to his chest, tucked over his heart, and hang all the young men out there and what they do and what they don’t do, because if Bucky gives it then Steve takes it, oh, Steve soaks it all up like it’s sunlight and he’s been left in the dark for too long.