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It was Bucky's turn to keep watch, which meant Steve was staying up with him, because he didn't need much sleep anyway. The Howlies made quick work of setting their beds up on the dirt floor, however, eager to catch up on all the sleep they'd earned from their last mission.
It was silent for a good hour, everyone falling asleep to nothing but the sound of crickets, Steve and Bucky just enjoying each other's company as they listened for any enemies. The moon was full and bright, and Steve wished he could draw the way it made Bucky look, all pale and smooth and mysterious.
Steve broke the silence, the thought that had been spinning in his mind for years finally voicing itself.
"I'd marry you, if I could," He whispered, careful not to wake any of the Howlies resting about ten feet away. Steve wasn't even sure Bucky had heard him.
It shocked Bucky, because that wasn't what he had been expecting from Steve right then, or ever, really. It struck him all over again that he wanted to spend his life with Steve. No one else surprised him the way Steve could, no matter how long he'd known him, and no one made him feel the way he did when those words sunk in.
"Why don't we?" Bucky said, just as quiet as Steve had been, barely even speaking out loud, knowing Steve would hear him just fine with his new hearing.
"C'mon Buck, you know why-" Steve started, a sad look in his eyes. Bucky brought his hand up to Steve's chest, resting right over Steve's heart, and Steve stopped to look at him, confused. Bucky's heart was hammering as the gears worked in his head, and he was certain that Steve could hear it, he'd told him he could before.
"No, but listen, your Ma always used to tell us that a marriage was a promise, right? That all the other details didn't matter?" Steve nodded, still looking unsure. Bucky continued, working up to a full whisper in his excitement. "What if I were to promise you, right here and now, for the dirt and the moon to see, that I would never leave you? That I'd love you, in sickness and in health, in this life and the next?"
Bucky could see the glossiness of Steve's eyes, but the smile he was wearing let Bucky know he'd said the right thing. This could work. They could do this, make a promise, a vow, right here and now.
"You'd make me the happiest guy on earth, Buck," He laughed a little, and Bucky's heart just about exploded with it. Steve brought his hand up to Bucky's hair, resting their foreheads together. "Would you really promise all that?"
Bucky closed his eyes and smiled. "I really, really would."
"Well then, James Buchanan Barnes, I never thought this day would come, but if you'll let me, I promise to love you through your happiest days, and in times of struggle and sadness. I'll stay with you when you're old and grey and can't even remember my name," He laughed again, low and sweet and only a little wet. "I'll be with you in all the ways I can, until the end of the line."
Bucky was close to tears now as well, but he swallowed around them and found the words he'd been thinking to himself since he was seventeen. He brought his left hand up to Steve's hair, so they were connected in this private, never ending circle; just Steve and Bucky, Bucky and Steve. "Steven Grant Rogers, you stupid punk, I promise that I will always be with you, even when I'm not there, and I promise to back you up in fights you're still too reckless to back down from, and I promise to love you, even when your this crazy old man introducing yourself to me all over again."
They both lost it then, trying their best to keep their incessant giggles quiet. Together, they stopped, and they met each other in the middle for a kiss. It wasn't their first, not by a long shot, but it still felt different all the same. They smiled into it, the soft and slow press of lips sealing every promise they made, out loud and in their hearts.
"Until the end of the line," Bucky muttered into Steve's lips. "I promise."
The moon shined down on them brighter, filling the trench with it's cold white glow, and they were happy.
*
Steve lost Bucky on a cloudy day, the moon nowhere in sight.
*
It was in the moonlight that Steve first met the Winter Soldier.