His City
The whole thing had been Steve's idea; playing hookie from their respective responsibilities to take the day for themselves. And while secondary-school-Peggy would have been on board in a heartbeat, the practical side of herself that she had raised and cultivated over the course of several decades had not been one to go out without a fight. Still, between her weariness with work and Steve's puppy dog gaze, she eventually gave in, with Steve being the one to call the office and make their excuses (something to do with some bad tacos, fooling no one, she was sure).
And so their day had begun.
While they picked up sandwiches at the best deli in the City, Steve had made the realization that he'd yet to give Peggy a proper tour of his old stomping grounds.
They started in Brooklyn, where some of the buildings that he and Bucky grew up in were still occupied, though no longer by the same types of people as before. There was a fair amount of gentrification that seemed to put Steve off, but Peggy simply reminded him that at least it kept the neighborhood alive. How could he argue?
The building that Steve and the Barnes' had lived in was now a shell, having gone up in flames sometime in the 1970s. But the ice cream shop around the corner (boasting proudly its "est. 1926" on its sign) was still in business. The same shop, Steve informed Peggy, that he had taken his first date to. Her name was Martha and she had been a friend of the girl that Bucky had been going with at the time. He'd been thirteen, and he had been so nervous that he accidentally dropped his chocolate ice cream down the front of her dress.
Peggy laughed at that.
Peggy and Steve received their cones for free, the woman behind the counter (a former school chum of Rebecca Barnes) recognizing Steve. She insisted that Steve even remembering the place "after all these years" was payment enough, not leaving one inch or argument. And Peggy did have to concede that the ice cream was probably the best she'd ever had.
The tour took them to an arcade, new, but it reminded Steve of the ones he used to tag along to with Bucky. He insisted on playing the games, exchanging a handful of bills for several rolls of quarters. What started as innocent fun, quickly deteriorated into childish contest to see who could win the biggest stuffed animal before they ran out of coins. It ended with Peggy breaking the Strong Man game, winning the giant stuffed giraffe by default.
Peggy then dragged them into the nearest photobooth, the giraffe taking up at least half of the frame as Peggy grinned smugly from ear to ear wile Steve made a show of pouting. He finally cracked when Peggy snuck a kiss in for the final flash.
"I love you, you know," Peggy's voice low against his lips. Steve grinned.