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"Bucky, I swear to God," Steve threatened. His boyfriend retracted his wandering hand from Steve's thigh.
"Well it's not my fault that we've been driving for an hour and you've given me minimal attention, Stevie!" Bucky huffed, leaning his cheek dramatically against the cool window.
In truth, the boys had been on the road for two hours. But one hour didn't count, as Bucky was fast asleep.
The idea was the two leave early on Saturday morning, drive up into the Adirondacks, and camp out overnight. Then they would leave around noon on Sunday.
That was the plan.
The first hiccup was the early departure time directly interfered with Bucky's so-called "sophisticated sleep cycle".
Steve arrived outside the Barnes household at five AM. He however was up at four, quickly took a shower, and threw the camping supplies into the bed of his truck. And with a quick goodbye kiss to his still sound asleep mother, Steve was on his way to a relaxing weekend away from school with his boyfriend.
Steve knocked on Bucky's bedroom door four times before the other woke up. Bucky swears left and right that he never gave Steve a key to his front door. But yet...he was inside Bucky's house often. Rebecca must have given him one. Or his ma. They were nosy like that.
He also swears left and right that Rebecca planned on stealing his boyfriend.
When Bucky eventually did open his bedroom door and saw who it was, he shut it in Steve's face.
This prompted the teen to invite himself in and physically remove Bucky from the bed that he once again returned to.
After a grueling twenty minutes, the two were finally ready for real. Even if Bucky was still grumpy. Even if Steve scared the hell out of the other Barnes' with his knocking and heavy steps.
"Buck. I'm drivin' on the side of a mountain. I gotta focus." Steve eased the break on to let a deer hop across the narrow dirt road. The doe took her sweet time joining her fawns on the opposite tree line.
Steve was patient. Bucky was not.
Bucky sat up in his seat and leaned over Steve, slamming a hand on the horn.
Immediately, the terrified creature sprang for the safety of the forest. Far away from the angry man in the big truck.
The blonde swats his boyfriend's hand to avoid scaring the shit out of anymore woodland critters. And avoid any more wandering hand syndrome.
Bucky slid down in his seat and dozed off once again.
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Once their campsite was sequestered and the food was hidden from any bears, Bucky crawled into the nylon tent and passed out on the shitty air mattress.
He did most of the work.
That is to say, he did all of it while Steve struggled to blow up an air mattress with an automatic pump.
Steve followed his lead. But Steve didn't sleep, he just layed next to the sleeping Bucky.
He turned to face his boyfriend. Bucky's sleeping face wasn't cute like most claimed their partner's was. His eyebrows were furrowed and his mouth was pulled into a tight lipped frown.
At first, Steve had thought this face had stemmed from nightmares or unease while sleeping. But Bucky insisted he slept just fine most nights.
It was just his face.
Steve placed a soft kiss on the tip of the teen's nose. He wasn't allowed to do it when others were around.
In fact that was the entire reason they were camping.
Bucky confessed he'd felt blue because the two weren't spending much time together. They didn't have many classes together, only two. Not counting lunch.
Then on weekday evenings, both had to work along with regular school duties. And the past few weekends, Bucky had been helping his father at work and Steve was helping Sam with college searching.
It was their last year of high school. And though they didn't talk about it, both boys knew they were going to different colleges. The schools weren't thousands of miles apart. Bucky was going to stay in New York for mechanics and engineering. Steve was going to Rhode Island for an art college.
They'd be able to see each other on weekends with a little bit of effort.
But they had only been together for a year, and before that they were childhood best friends separated for seven years. Steve secretly knows that he has always been in love with Bucky.
There wasn't a time he could remember not feeling those damn butterflies whenever the brunette got too close. Or did literally anything.
Steve wiggled forward on the mattress. Bucky huffed and draped an arm over his eyes.
"Steve, your thinking is preventing me from snoozin'. C'mere."
The blonde let himself be maneuvered so his head was at the junction of his boyfriend's throat and shoulder. Bucky ran fingers up the buzzed hair on Steve's nape.
"Lemme sleep for twenty minutes, then we can go hiking or somethin', okay?" Bucky pulled Steve's face out and gave a quick kiss.
An hour later, Steve jolted awake.
The first thing he noticed was Bucky. Or, lack thereof.
He was sprawled on the slightly deflated air mattress completely alone. The tent was devoid of life.
The secound thing he noticed was someone singing.
Bucky.
Steve shook the sleepiness out of his brain. It felt like seventy years since he fell asleep. He unzipped the tent flap and came face to face with a backpack shoved into his space.
"Good morning sleeping beauty! I was worried I'd have to drag your lifeless body along the trails!" Bucky chirped. How long had he been awake? He was already equipped with his own pack and tight laced boots. Much different from the sandals he slipped on just before leaving.
The bed to Steve's truck was cleaned out. Camping items were either locked inside the truck or shoved in one of the backpacks. It was unlikely someone would raid their campsite, but it was better to be overly precarious than under.
The sun had since risen, steadily warming the Earth. Most animals were awake now. The evidence lied in the choruses of bird song and the rustling of squirrels scampering around. This also meant the bugs were awake. Mosquitoes buzzed in huge colonies. Bees floated by peacefully. Spiders dropped down from their webs.
Steve didn't much care about the birds or the bugs. He didn't care about the crisp crunch of leaves under heavy hiking boots. He didn't care about the trickling of a nearby stream. The pleasant whisper of wind through the grass. None of it.
All he cared about was Bucky. Bucky who was excitedly pointing out different trees and rocks. His grip tightened on Steve's hand as he pointed to a distant flower.
"That's a blue flag. Bunch of 'em. 'S poisonous," he stopped in his tracks to study the bloom, "Weird. They usually only flower in the summer...guess we got a couple of freak flowers."
Steve wasn't really listening. Bucky just looked so at peace. His smile was real. His eyes were wonderfully bright. He looked like a kid in a candy store, despite being six feet tall and able to bench some of his friends.
That was all Steve wanted.
Just Bucky's happiness.
Steve cut his still rambling boyfriend off with a slow kiss. He cradled Bucky's stubbled cheeks with his palms and pressed their bodies flush together.
The shorter sighed through his nose and smiled into the liplock.
Any thoughts of school were miles away. All that existed was Steve, Bucky, and the ground beneath them. College? Who cares about that?
Steve was content. As long as he had Bucky, everything would be okay.