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Bucky looks down at the sealed envelope in his hands, anticipation swirling low in his belly. He’s sitting alone in a gaudy hotel room, Steve locked away in his own room down the hall. Though he knows better, all he wants is to cross the distance and hold his fiancé close.
Tomorrow, Steve will be his husband, he thinks in awe.
Their journey had been a long one – spanning over ninety years – but Bucky couldn’t find it in himself to regret a single moment in this life that had brought him to Steve. Between the two of them, they had gone through far more pain than any two people should in a lifetime. Despite everything, the life that they have been able to build together is beautiful and Bucky can’t imagine a better person to be by his side for all of it.
He traces the words on the front of the envelope with a shaking finger. Steve’s handwriting, beautiful and curling, had addressed it to him. “My Darling Bucky,” it reads.
It was Steve who had brought up the idea of writing each other a letter the night before the wedding. He had spoken about it with a smile stretched across his face, his eyes bright, and Bucky couldn’t do anything but agree. It was a nice idea – something to tide him over until he could be with Steve the next day.
Bucky tugs his lower lip between his teeth as he flips the envelope over, tearing at the seal with his thumb. He takes a deep breath, and begins reading.
My Darling Bucky,
I can’t believe this day is here. I’ve waited almost 100 years to call you my husband.
I’ve loved you my whole life, Buck. I can’t remember a day that’s gone by that I didn’t love you.
I loved you when we were two fellas in Brooklyn, giving Sarah and Winnie hell, and I still love you today.
I wake up each morning loving you and at the end of the night, as I’m falling asleep with you sawing logs in my ear, the last thought that I have is that I love you.
I don’t know how I manage to get anything else done.
We’ve lived such long lives, my darling, that sometimes the days blur together. There are still stretches of time that I can’t remember – usually the days I spent missing you – but Buck, I’ll never forget the day you came into my life.
Do you remember the first time we watched The Wizard of Oz at the picture palace near your ma’s? Do you remember when Dorothy stepped into Oz and everything became technicolor?
You were my technicolor. Before I met you, my life was made up of warm, sepia tones. The moment that I met you, it was like I was stepping into Oz. Suddenly I could see colors that they hadn’t even come up with names for.
I don’t mean to make this sad but when I lost you, the technicolor faded away. I blinked and I was Dorothy, waking up in Kansas, imagining that I dreamt it all. The last things I could remember seeing were your technicolor eyes looking up at me.
I dreamt about those eyes for years. Every night until we found each other again.
You made my life so much brighter, more vivid, and you continue to do it every single day.
Everyone’s asking if I’m nervous for tomorrow but sweetheart, I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.
You make me feel like the luckiest man alive. You are the strongest, most brave man I know. You're so kind and your heart is full of love for every person you meet. You’re the sun, shining bright, and we are all helplessly stuck in your orbit.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
You’ve changed my life, Bucky Barnes. You saw me when nobody else did, and now in a different time, in a different life, you are the only one that sees me while everybody else only sees what they want to. I will never be able to tell you how much that means to me. How much you mean to me.
I have loved you every day of my life; I can’t wait to love you for every day that I have left.
‘Til the end of the line, my darling.
I’ll see you at the altar.
Your husband,
Steve