This is great, just great. Sam thought grudgingly looking out the window to the Brooklyn streets below him. He and Natasha were in a dilapidated, old apartment. Some sights on the street below were familiar like the family owned pizzeria around the corner where Steve took him once while showing him his old neighborhood. He also recognized a small dry cleaners, though the interior was different and he recognized some apartment buildings largely left untouched. Most things about the neighborhood though was different from the way it was back home. Home – over 75 years into the future.
It's my own damn fault, he thought with annoyance.
He had kept the big red button on the machine away from Clint. He made sure Thor's curiosity didn't get the better of him and made sure Tony's carelessness didn't get the better of him until Steve and Hill returned to help analyze HYDRA's latest project. He wasn't faster than Quicksilver who zoomed in filled with questions and pushed the button before he could stop him. It had opened a portal close to Natasha and she was getting sucked in. Clint tried to hold her but couldn't. Sam had flown in after her with the intent of catching her and flying back out. He did manage to catch her but then the portal closed, and the pulling force was too much for them, so they were pulled down and down through the electric blue light until they popped out in an alleyway. It looked like a run of the mill alleyway and they thought they'd simply been transported to another part of New York. The HYDRA cell they'd been going against had been in Steve and Bucky's old neighborhood. Across the street from their old apartment. They had staggered out together and boy had they gotten looks, especially Nat in her catsuit. It was obvious from the way people were dressed that it wasn't just another part of Brooklyn and when they saw Bucky across the street with both his arms dragging a much smaller version of Steve behind him and into the apartment building across from them they knew, they weren't in Kansas anymore.
Nat had been the one to suggest they lay low, hanker down until they figure out how to get back home. The former HYDRA base was an empty cheap apartment that they scooped up immediately, hoping to find clues but turning up nothing. They'd managed to end up in 1941 so World War 2 was on and the Depression was over, but Steve and Bucky hadn't joined the war just yet. Sam really had no idea how they would get back to their time. It wasn't like the machine that brought them here existed yet and he really wasn't looking forward to going it the long way round, just living out their lives until they got back to their time. Natasha might be able to do it physically and still look relatively young, but he couldn't, furthermore he didn't want to. It would help if his concern was shared but Natasha was busy pursuing other interests.
"Again? Really?" He asked Natasha as she stood across from him with her mini binoculars (who knew where she kept it on her with no pockets in a skintight suit) looking into Steve and Bucky's apartment across the street.
"I'm researching," she replied, not looking away.
"Spying."
"Well, I am a spy, so..."
"Don't you think we should be focused on more important things like, oh I don't know, getting back to our own time?"
"Like I said, I'm researching. I'm being pragmatic."
"How?"
"Obviously they made the machine to come back specifically here into the past, probably to kill Steve or Bucky while they're still squishy humans before they become problems. My money's on Steve so he doesn't end up defeating Red Skull and pushing HYDRA into obscurity over the years and then pushing them into the light before they were ready."
"Okay, makes sense but how does this help us get home?"
"They had to have a plan to get back home. Maybe this version of Steve and Bucky are the key to that."
Sam had a feeling that wasn't the reason behind Natasha's fascination, not with the way she was grinning lecherously at whatever was going on across the street, but he let it go... for now.
It was a week later that Natasha came to him. He had been trying to avoid going outside so he didn't potentially run into Steve or Bucky and he had succeeded. He had been trying and failing to think of ideas on how to get home. He had been trying to keep track of Natasha but was failing there too. She had been disappearing over the past four days and he had no idea what she was doing. To say he was concerned would be an understatement. Until one day she strutted into the kitchen/living room/dining room (damn, these tenements were ridiculous) and the look on her face just spelled trouble. He was suddenly very glad Clint and Future Bucky wasn't with them because between the three of them he wouldn't survive without Steve.
"I'm pretty sure I have an almost formed plan, but I need your help." Sam looked at Natasha wearily.
"I'm listening."
"Past Bucky's been chatting me up for the last four days at some of the swing clubs I've been visiting. He asked me out on a date, and I agreed, so I need—"
"Wait, hold up. You said what now?"
"We need to get close to them. I need to get into the apartment and search the place to see if the HYDRA agents might've sent someone ahead to plant something in there or if there's anything to help us get out of here."
"You're Natasha Romanoff, you can just break in and search the place."
"Sure I could, if I was interested in doing this the boring way. You've barely looked at them since we've been here."
"Because the priority should be getting out of here."
"I'm just saying we can get out of here, but we can also bang those beautiful Brooklyn boys in their natural habitat."
"Natasha!"
"Besides, I always wondered how different sex would be with James if he didn't have the metal arm. Now I can answer my question. I don't expect it to be better or worse, just different. Though the metal arm can vibrate."
"Are you seriously discussing you and Bucky's sex life with me?"
"It's technically not cheating, right? Because it's still James, he's just... squishy and more breakable. I should probably be gentle then, can't have sex with this James as hard as we usually do."
"Please stop."
"I wonder if he's always had such an oral fixation. I hope so, he's the best at it. Even better than Sharon and she's really good."
"Oh my god," Sam groaned, rubbing a hand over his face.
"Anyway, here's where you come in."
"Excuse me?" He spluttered.
"Bucky suggested we make it a double date. I said I'd bring my roommate since he was bringing his, so I need you to be Steve's date." Sam stared at her like she'd grown a new head.
"What? It's not like you don't like men and you sure as hell like Steve as more than a friend even if you won't tell him." Sam opened his mouth before snapping it shut. No point lying to Natasha, especially when she was looking at him with a perfectly arched eyebrow daring him to lie.
"That's beside the point. We're messing with a set timeline. Isn't that going to do something like rip a hole in the space time continuum?"
"I think you're being dramatic."
"Natasha I—"
"Date's tomorrow, we need to get some clothes for it."
She dragged him out of the house then, not letting him get a word edgewise.
That's how Sam found himself standing next to Natasha feeling like he just stepped out of Michael Jackson's “Smooth Criminal” music video in his new black and red three piece suit and a black fedora with a red ban around it with Natasha who wore a long, sleeveless sparkly black dress with her back out and a slit up the leg. Needless to say they were getting looks everywhere from appreciative to scandalized and outright menacing. Sam tried very hard not to think of what era he'd landed in and what that meant for a Black man who lived with a white woman and was about to go canoodling with a white man. He was only thankful that he was in New York instead of down South, at least he didn't have to worry about becoming strange fruit hanging from a poplar tree... at least too worried. Either way, he could defend himself against some street thugs plus he had Natasha and he kept his gun hidden on him just in case.
"This is a bad idea. It's a very bad idea," Sam mumbled.
"Bad ideas usually turn out to be the best ones."
"I'm 85% sure you're wrong about that."
"Too bad, no time to back out."
"Hey!" They heard above them and looked up to see a girl with dark brown hair and blue eyes leaning out the window.
"The door's open you can come on up. These two nitwits are still gettin' dressed. It's apartment 3C," she said before popping back inside.
"Was that Becca Barnes?" He asked as they opened the door and entered the building.
"Yes, it was," she answered before they made their way up the staircase. They knocked on the apartment door and Becca pulled it open.
"The fashionistas are probably still doin' their hair," she said in lieu of a greeting.
"Hey, I'm ready. Perfection o' this level don't take long to brush up. Steve's the one obsessively primping in the mirror like a nut," Bucky said, striding into the room talking in a Brooklyn accent thicker than Sam had ever heard him talk in. The accent usually only came out when he was annoyed back at home.
"Hiya, doll. Sorry 'bout all this," Bucky continued, kissing Natasha's cheek.
"I don't mind. This is Sam Wilson, Steve's date."
There was a squeak and a crash from the bathroom. Becca rolled her eyes at it but didn't bother looking up from whatever she was doing while Bucky got that look of long-suffering he got when Steve put his foot in his mouth.
"Stop listenin' through the door and get your bird-boned ass out here, Rogers!" There was silence before Steve came shuffling out the bathroom wearing a beige jacket that practically dwarfed his small frame and completely covered his outfit. His hair was a little wild like he kept trying to style it and couldn't decide. There was a little part sticking up that was probably going to drive Sam insane the whole night, but he didn't reach out and fix it, not wanting to make things more awkward.
"Hi," Steve said, looking towards the floor and shuffling a bit. Sam smiled at the shyness. Steve could be this way even back in their own time or he could be almost smooth, but he usually followed it up with ten embarrassing things. Sam recognized this Steve.
"Nice to meet you," he said, holding out his hand. Steve looked up at him and then stared at him blankly for a moment. He wasn't sure what that was about, but Becca threw something at his head and he finally snapped out of it, shaking Sam's hand with a blush spreading across his face. Bucky rolled his eyes before he offered his arm to Natasha.
"We are going out dancin', if you want to join us Stevie, you're welcome but we're goin' now, if that's okay with you Nat."
"Lead the way," Natasha said with a flirty smile, slipping her arm through Bucky's. She was probably going to get what she wanted from him. Well, good on her as long as she remembered what they came for.
He and Steve followed behind them down the block, not portraying as plainly that they were going on a date. This was just as much due to the social climate as it was the fact that Steve was keeping his fascination purely trained to the floor and only answered monotonously when Sam tried talking to him.
They ended up at a club that Bucky frequented a lot. It was pretty open in the ways of sexuality considering the time period but the neighborhood they lived in allowed for such things. As soon as they entered, Bucky and Natasha whisked each other to the dance floor and Steve slunk his way to a corner to himself. Sam thought about leaving him to it before deciding not to and following Steve where he was hanging up his coat. He turned and seemed surprised when he saw Sam leaning on the wall beside him.
"Aren't you going to go find someone to dance with?" Steve asked. That was the most he'd said to him the last half hour.
"Well, I'm on a date with you. It'd be bad form if I went off gallivanting with someone else."
"I don't dance."
"That's okay, we don't have to dance. We can talk."
"You want to talk to me?" Sam was starting to feel some understanding towards Steve's lack of social skills when it came to serious flirting and relationships. It's a wonder he ever managed to get as far as he did with Peggy Carter. Then again, he probably didn't get a lot of play. He could see some of the men and women side eyeing Steve's ridiculously small, frail form and figured dating wasn't all it was cracked up to be for him. He wasn't pleased about this, still wasn't okay with interfering with timelines but he was a counselor and furthermore he was Steve's friend (if he wanted more than that was irrelevant to the matter at hand) and so he had to do something to make him feel better.
"Yeah Rogers, I want to talk to you," he said with a small smile. Steve hesitantly smiled back at him before he got the look of an eager puppy, another trait Sam recognized in him.
"What do you wanna talk about?"
"I hear you're an artist and that you're pretty good." Steve started blushing again.
"Oh, I just doodle is all. I'm colorblind so I can't do much more than sketching really."
"I bet you're even better than I heard." He had seen some of Steve's sketchbooks; he knew how good he was. He would've gone to art school if he had the money to.
"You're just saying that."
"Nah, I'm not but I won't embarrass you anymore. I don't think your body can take another full blush." Steve suddenly stood up very straight and held his head up defensively.
"I'm stronger than I look." It could have been awkward after that, Steve's intensity a bit misplaced for the familiar flirting Sam was used to with his Steve but instead he looked Steve up and down. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't attracted to the Steve who was a brick house with steel biceps and a toned six pack, but this Steve had an appeal of his own. He was small but Sam could tell he was stronger than he looked, all sharp edges and harsh plains but with a face that softened them.
"I can tell," Sam said and maybe his voice was a bit huskier, maybe his eyes were more hooded as he watched Steve blush a little but not break their eye contact, maybe he was going against everything he told himself but he didn't particularly care too much about that, not when Steve started smiling at him with twinkling eyes and oh... he recognized that look on his Steve but it was a look that frustrated Sam because he could never figure it out, Future Steve always looked quickly away after that and this Steve was no different. He looked down before clearing his throat.
"What about you? I mean do you like art?"
"I don't really draw but I read a little on art history."
Steve and Sam talked much of the night, Sam tried to answer Steve's questions truthfully without giving anything away and he did his best to take in the information this Steve gave him as if hearing it for the first time and not the third, fourth, fifth time but he enjoyed the talk. He managed to make Steve laugh and smile and blush and give him that indecipherable look many times, yet he still couldn't figure it out. By the time Bucky and Natasha stumbled over to them Steve seemed relaxed and completely different than he did when they first left the house.
"It was nice to meet you, Sam."
"You too, man," Sam said when they got back to their block. Steve held his hand out and Sam shook it before grabbing Natasha away from where she and Bucky were sucking each other's faces off and dragged her across the street.
"We should do it again sometime boys," she called as Sam dragged her inside.
"Thought I was supposed to get in," she pointed out.
"Becca's there anyway. We'll do it again another time."
"So, how was your date with Steve?"
"It wasn't a date."
"Eh... except it kinda was." He rolled his eyes at her.
"We had a perfectly friendly discussion Natasha, that's it. Now let's go to bed."
"Okay, we'll see how long the platonic thing lasts."
~*~*~
He and Steve saw each other from time to time after, but they didn't speak beyond neighborly pleasantries. The next time he talked to Steve he's not exactly expecting it. He'd been keeping his ear to the ground while Natasha was off having her fun with Bucky but somehow any leads, he brought to her attention she didn't seem surprised by, he didn't ask how that was. He had been staking out a man he'd noticed had been looking a little too closely into Steve and Bucky. The man was obviously a lackey because he didn't notice Sam following him until he managed to corner him in an alleyway.
"Tell me everything you know about HYDRA's plans," he demanded.
"I don't know what you're talking about," the man said in confusion, but his eyes were shifting side to side.
"Really? Because the blue portal I took to get here tells me otherwise and I've seen you whisper hail HYDRA in about three ears so far." The man looked fearful before his jaw started to move. Sam quickly held his mouth open before snatching the cyanide capsule out and crushing it.
"None of that, you can either tell me what you know, or you can take it up with Black Widow." The man looked genuinely afraid at the mention of Natasha and Sam didn't blame him, he'd think him foolish otherwise.
"Look, it was Rogers we were after, okay? We wanted to kill him before he could ruin our plans. Two other agents were meant to meet me here, I don't know the full plan."
"How were you meant to get home?"
"They were meant to take me." Sam rolled his eyes and sighed. Of course, they were. He was about to continue the interrogation when a familiar voice sounded from the mouth of the alleyway.
"Hey, get off him!" He turned around to see Steve standing there with his fists up. He faltered a bit when he saw it was Sam, but he kept them raised. The HYDRA agent slipped from under his loosened grip and ran out of the alleyway. Sam contemplated going after him but didn't bother, he didn't have the information he wanted. He'd just go after the other three people he saw him talk to.
"Hey man, can you put the dukes away?" Sam asked, straightening up and fixing his jacket.
"So that's who you are? Someone who corners people in alleyways and what? You beat 'em up? Bully 'em?" Steve sounded so disappointed that Sam felt disappointed in himself for making him feel that.
"I'm not the bad guy, he is. I was trying to stop him from hurting people, like he's done before." Steve still had a defensive stance against him.
"Look Steve, I'm not fighting you. You don't have to believe me. You barely know me. I guess all I can say is trust your instincts, they're usually right." Steve stared at him, scrutinizing him with a look of pure concentration, before his arms slowly fell to his sides.
"He's a bad guy?"
"One of the worst."
"He doesn't look it."
"Worst ones hardly ever do."
"True. I'm sorry for..." He flailed his arms a bit, but Sam understood. There was a tension to Steve, one Sam wanted to melt away.
"So, you a pro boxer or something?" He asked. Steve looked at him confused.
"It was a nice stance, you know. You got good form, Rogers," Sam continued imitating Steve's defensive stance. Steve started to look embarrassed now.
"Okay, go ahead and tease."
"No, I could see it. Artist by day, fighting for freedom in the ring by night. What's your ring name? Rampagin' Rogers? Ooh, Pastel Patriot?"
"Yeah, you got me Sam. I'm the extra-light featherweight champion of Brooklyn." Sam chuckled, giving Steve a playful punch to the shoulder. He retaliated with a swift hit to the chest. They playfully swatted at each other before Sam managed to grab one of Steve's hands and pull him to his chest. Steve looked up at him, the flurry of activity making him breathe heavily in a way his future self rarely did. Sam looked down at him and it'd be easy to lean in and kiss him then and there, but he couldn't take advantage of him in that way. This wasn't his Steve and he couldn't just let his attraction run wild. It wasn't right. Sam cleared his throat before taking a step away from him.
"You feeling hungry? Because you look like you could eat," Sam said before it could get awkward.
"I'm feeling a little peckish."
"We could go to Mama Lena's if you want."
"Yeah, yeah that'd be nice."
He and Steve went and ate pizza at the shop and it was just as good as it was in the future going to dinner with Steve where they flirted harmlessly with each other, both knowing it wouldn't go any further and that was fine. Steve wasn't exactly the same, but he was at the same time. His humor was just like Future Steve, his smile, the way his eyes twinkled in amusement at Sam's jokes, even down to the way he ate and that damn indecipherable look he kept giving Sam. He wondered if he would ever figure it out.
He walked Steve back to his apartment building after and they talked the whole way there. Talking to Steve would apparently always be easy no matter the era.
"Hey, you want to come up and see my etchings?" Steve looked nervous as he asked, and Sam wasn't sure why. He looked back at his apartment and Steve's indecisively.
"I'm actually a little tuckered out but another time, yeah?" Steve looked half-relieved, half-disappointed at his answer which confused Sam once again, but Steve gave him a smile before walking into his apartment building. Sam gave his retreating form another look before going to his apartment.
"Idiot, he was asking you to come up and have sex with him," Natasha said later. Sam rolled his eyes.
"He was not, he just wanted me to see his sketches. Future Steve asks me to see his etchings all the time and I just look at his newest sketchbooks is all. He's always nervous about it."
"Future Steve wants to jump your bones." Sam shook his head. Natasha could be one track minded at times.
"Just because you're obsessed with having sex doesn't mean we all are."
"Suit yourself," she said shrugging. She was wrong, he knew she was, but Steve did stare at him with a certain intensity in his gaze when they were in the alleyway. No, it was nothing, Natasha was getting to him. He put that aside and focused on the leads he had. It was no use thinking about that now.
~*~*~
They had now been in the past for two months. Two months of dry leads or no leads at all. Two months of he and Natasha dealing with era typical racism and sexism. Two months of Natasha happily skipping around with Bucky and trying everything in her power to push Sam towards Steve. Two months of Sam trying to skirt around an attraction to Past Steve that was just as strong as his attraction to Future Steve. He learned things about Past Steve that not even Future Steve would talk about or there were just things reinforced about him that made Sam fall that much deeper in a hole he couldn't dig out of. He and Steve were just friends and that's all they'd ever be.
Steve didn't ask him to see his etchings again but they hung out almost every day after that in some capacity, sometimes just the two of them other times with Bucky and Natasha or Becca, and Steve would still give him that look that he was no closer to figuring out. It was annoying at times, frustrating at others, that he was so close to Steve but it wasn't Steve and was at the same time and yet he couldn't do a thing about it.
"You could. You could fuck that pretty little Brooklyn boy like I told you to." Natasha would say.
"I don't want to fuck him, Nat. I want... I just want..." Natasha would soften then.
"You could have that too, Wilson. You don't see how he looks at you, both in the past and in the future. It's pretty ridiculous. Anyone with eyes can see he wants you. You need to stop thinking. I can't believe I'm saying this but you should take Stark's advice. You're walking Birdie, you need to strut." Sam had no plans of strutting anything. They still needed to get home and while Natasha's search of Steve, Bucky and Becca's place yielded a broken listening device and a small gas bomb that wasn't live or in any danger of going off, they still had no way of getting out of the 40's.
"Hey broody, we're all going to Coney Island. You coming? Steve's coming," Natasha said bursting into his designated area of their apartment. Sam rolled his eyes. As if Steve's presence was a deciding factor and then sighed because yes, it was.
"Lemme get my coat," he grumbled.
Coney Island was fun, different from how it was in the future but still fun. Steve refused to ride the Cyclone no matter how much Bucky and Becca tried to goad him into it. Apparently, Steve had thrown up last time and Becca hadn't for which she was very proud.
Sam had stayed with Steve watching their three companions on the ride. They stayed at the park and beach until night, eating all the junk food they could afford and riding some attractions multiple times.
By nighttime, they were all on the boardwalk watching the fireworks over the beach. Bucky and Natasha were huddled together sitting on a table with Becca who was sleeping, her head resting in her brother's lap. He and Steve were wandering not too far away. He looked up every so often watching the bursts of color and light and remembering the feeling of being in the air, weightless, his wings sprawled across his back as he soared and zoomed and made the sky his home. He was staring up and smiling and barely noticed Steve's gaze on him.
"What?" Sam asked when he noticed Steve's stare.
"Nothing, just... you like fireworks?" Steve started blushing then and Sam wasn't sure why. He was acting like he put his foot in his mouth. Maybe in his mind he did. Guy could be hard on himself.
"Fireworks are great, I guess. A little much sometimes for me." It took a long time after his tour not to have an attack every holiday that called for the light shows and loud noises of fireworks.
"You ever think about what's out there? Beyond our world. What we could be missing?" Sam asked.
"Yeah I do, but then I think of what's down here and I don't... I don't think there's too much I'm missing." Steve got that look on his face again, the mysterious look. Sam had long since given up trying to figure it out. Steve would look away soon enough.
Except he didn't.
He stepped closer to Sam until he was invading his space. Sam looked at him with confusion and then realization and then fear because if Steve did that, if he kissed him, he'd have Sam completely and there'd be no going back. Sam couldn't let that happen. He wasn't staying here, and it would make things awkward with his Steve, but he didn't move away.
"Steve, we... we shouldn't."
"Why?"
"We—we're in public."
"It's dark, it's okay. There's not a lot of people around." Steve stepped closer again, pressing his forehead to Sam's. His throat suddenly felt dry and he had to swallow in order to talk without his voice cracking.
"It's a bad idea."
"Do you want this?" Steve asked. He didn't understand how much Sam wanted this, he couldn't understand because he wasn't really Steve. That was enough to get Sam to pull away.
"I'm sorry, I can't. I—I just... I want this more than you know but you couldn't understand, you really couldn't even..." Sam rubbed a hand across his face. Sam turned to walk away but Steve grabbed his hand with more strength than Sam thought he had in his small body.
"Just tell me. Is it because of all of this?" Steve said gesturing to himself. Sam could hear the self-deprecation in his voice.
"No, Steve, god no. There's nothing wrong with you. It's..." Sam trailed off with a bitter laugh.
"It's not you, it's me." Steve looked at him with a furrow between his eyebrow. Sam sighed before he reached his hands up and caressed Steve's cheeks. Steve's eyes shined hopefully up at him and he wanted nothing more than to lean in and feel his lips pressed against his, the taste of it, the softness but he couldn't do it to himself and he couldn't betray Future Steve's trust in that way. He pressed his lips against Steve's forehead before he dropped his head against his, breathing in his air.
"One day, you're going to meet a kick-ass military woman, a beautiful English rose. Do me a favor and make sure you dance with her at least once?" Steve looked at him with confusion before Sam pulled away from him completely and began walking hastily away from him down the boardwalk. He ignored Steve calling him and Natasha as well. He felt Natasha jog up behind him and grab his arm, stopping him from walking away. He wasn't sure what she saw in his face, but it made her take his hand and keep leading him down the street. When they were well away from Coney Island Natasha finally spoke.
"Performance issues?" Sam sighed.
"He's innocent. None of the really horrible things have touched him yet. He's a little messy but he's pure and he's not my Steve. But somehow, I still.... I still have these feelings for him. I just— I can't go there. I can't taint him in that way. I just can't." Natasha nodded understandingly and they silently continued their walk to their apartment, Natasha squeezing his hand comfortingly.
They made their way up the staircase but when they got to their apartment Natasha stopped. The mat before the door was askew and the door was cracked open slightly. They looked at each other before they both pulled their guns out. They silently entered the apartment, guns raised, Sam making sure to lock the door behind him. They both went in separate directions of the small apartment searching for the intruder. He stopped just around the corner of the main room before he came around, gun raised only to falter at the sight of Vision standing there with Wanda, Steve and Bucky. Natasha instantly dropped her gun and Bucky trotted over to her, pulling her into a hug. They began muttering in Russian to each other and laughing. Sam really didn't want to know what they were saying. He looked up as Wanda pulled him into a hug.
"We were worried. We thought we might be too late," she said.
"How'd you get here anyway?" Sam asked as Wanda pulled back from the hug, looking him over for injury. He waved off her concern.
"Between my power and Wanda's, we managed to harness the machine to our will," Vision answered, nodding to him. Sam nodded back and then his eyes wandered to Steve's. He was staring at him intensely, he wasn't sure what he was thinking but it was clear to Sam that Steve knew about what had happened, he remembered. He sighed before looking to Vision.
"What now?" He asked.
"Well, we have a clear way to get you to the correct time period now. Wanda and I just need to rest, we'll be back in our own time by this time tomorrow." Sam nodded.
"We don't have a whole lot of room, but I'll figure something out."
He ended up directing Wanda and Vision to his own room for them to rest and Natasha took Bucky to her room. Sam figured he'd sleep on the floor. He'd done it before. He walked out to the living room and saw Steve standing there. He'd managed to make himself forget he was here in this time. Sam stood wordlessly a few feet from Steve.
"Past me came by while you were gone. He wanted to talk to you. I didn't say anything of course. He sounded desperate. I know he was. I remember feeling it."
"Steve..."
"I did do it, you know? I actually did dance with Peggy. Thanks for that by the way. It was nice." Steve shook his head looking a little dazed.
"It's like a dream. My memories are different now. I remember meeting you in this time now even though I know it wasn't what happened at first. Meeting you here and thinking you were the most handsome man I'd ever seen in my life. The attraction I felt and then realizing I was falling in love with you and then having my heart broken. This whole relationship that wasn't supposed to happen." Sam looked down and away.
"At least not this way." Sam looked up at him.
"Not this way?" Steve shrugged.
"I kept asking you to see my etchings and you never took the hint. Figured you didn't go that way." Sam stared at him for a moment before he started chuckling to himself, it sounded tortured even in his own ears.
"I... I love you, Steve. I don't just want to see your etchings, I want... everything and I was so tempted to give in with Past Steve. It would have been easy to let it happen, but I couldn't do that to you because, no matter what, you're my friend. I know you don't feel the same way about me. I can get over it, I can survive without you. When we go back, I'll leave if you need me to, but I can't keep lying to you or to myself after I was..."
I was so close. Sam wanted to say but didn't. He was so close, so close to having what he wanted and according to Future Steve, Past Steve was falling in love with him. He could have stayed here and been with him. Except he couldn't because the world needed Captain America, the world needed Steve to become that hero and Sam couldn't interfere with that not even at his own detriment.
"You really don't know? I've never exactly been considered the best liar in the world, Sam. Everyone knows, apparently everyone but you."
"Steve, I can't read your mind and I'm too tired for riddles." Steve nodded before he suddenly rushed over to Sam faster than he really was expecting or could do much about. Before he could panic or wonder, Steve's lips were pressed to his own firmly. Sam grunted in surprise as he felt himself being herded against the paper-thin wall. Steve's body heat enveloped him as he felt him pull Sam's body flush against his. Sam moaned breathlessly and finally started kissing Steve back. His lips were as soft as Sam thought they would be, a contrast to the hard arches and sharp curves of the rest of his body. Steve let his lips go just as Sam's lung started burning, Steve started kissing down his neck leaving him even more breathless.
"Steve..." He moaned.
"I love you too in case you were still guessing. When we get home, we're going to have a long talk and after that talk I'm going to fuck you into the mattress, okay?" Sam moaned breathlessly again and nodded his head.
"Okay, okay. Yes, please."
"Good." Steve's mouth took over his again and he felt himself relaxing into the kiss he'd been waiting for for two years.