When Steve leaves S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters after they finished their tests there is a box in his arms, Fury said they were his now and sent him along to his new apartment.
He ended up looking over the files Fury sent along first before he looked at the box wondering what was inside, perhaps it was everything he'd left behind after the crash.
Steve took a fortifying breath and prepared himself.
What he did not expect was a box full of neatly sealed envelopes addressed to himself and Bucky, with different variations of their titles or names.
Deciding to leave Bucky's alone Steve grabbed one with his name.
Carefully he opened it and then had to sit back on his heels.
'Dear Cap,' It began, 'It's the year 1950, we won the War, most of is anyway. We told you that we all came home after Hitler's death, we still meet up once a year, buy you and Sarge a drink and drink ourselves silly. This year it was my sister's turn to pick us up when the barman called. I swear she could rival Miss Carter for a guilt trip, I took a drink in hopes they never meet.
'We played cards when she got us home, didn't want to sleep, we never do, it's a tradition now, to stay up in vigil for those that didn't make it home, figured you'd have done the same for us.'
Steve felt tears falling down his cheeks as he read.
'I been thinking about life, been thinking about how we never talked about after the War. I've been thinking about settling down, have a kid or two.
'Well, until next year Cap,
'Dum-Dum Dugan.'
Steve took a breath and let it out and dug through the box to find another.
He spent hours reading the letters, he read about the accomplishments that the world made, some of them too farfetched for his friends to make up.
He read Morita's account of Howard's death and felt a pang of sorrow at the loss, he and Howard may not have been close but they'd still been friends.
He read about the passing of each of the Commandoes from the ones left behind, the ordering of one more undrunk drink.
He read about them getting married and having children, none of whom were named after Steve or Bucky, to Steve's relief.
He read about the lives his friends had lived and when he'd opened all his letters he carefully arranged them in order and placed them in the folder Fury had sent him home with after dumping the documents inside of them.
According to those files all the Commandoes were dead, but they said nothing about the way they'd lived.
Steve looked at the box filled with letters to Bucky and thought about reading them too but they were Bucky's and so Steve packed the box up and set it aside.
Then he grabbed his coat and made his way out of the apartment, he had a couple of drinks to buy and one to drink, they had started it, it was only fair that Steve continue their tradition.
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A/n: i don't know i thought about how maybe the Commandos would react to their loss and then decided they'd write to update Steve and Bucky on what's going on, about all the things they miss, they write to one another too until the recipient dies and then they stop writing to that person.
None of them live to know that Steve and Bucky read those letters but it's nice that they wrote them at all, they sent them to Peggy to keep and she did and insisted that Fury keep the letters when she retired.
It was Coulson's first job in S.H.I.E.L.D., collecting the letters from the Howling Commandoes, while tempted he never read them, though he did send some letters of his own, about possibly signing his cards.
Eventually Steve gives Bucky his letters and they still go out and buy drinks for their Team, it's one of those things that Tony actually doesn't tease them about, they've all got their coping mechanisms.
There only being one letter written out is me being lazy, i didn't want to write a lot of letters and try to keep things straight and all, sorry.
This means that Steve isn't that lost on certain things, sure they're mostly things that the Howlies thought would interest him but it's better than nothing, Steve's got a list of Disney movies he wants to watch and a few other cartoons and live action films that the Howling Commandoes recommended.