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“Come on. It’ll be fun, I promise.”
“That’s rich coming from you,” Bucky said. “Last time you used the phrase ‘It’ll be fun’, you ended the night behind a dumpster with a broken nose and a sprained ankle.”
Steve refused to be discouraged. Once he was set on something, there was no changing his mind, and Bucky knew it. Whether he liked it or not, Steve would be getting his way.
*****
Fortunately for Bucky, this time Steve’s plan didn’t involve any danger, illegal activity, or potential for bodily harm. The most risk-involved aspect of the trip would be the train ride, but they’d both been on trains plenty of times before, and a train ride had never killed anyone.
They would ride out to the country and have a picnic as they watched the sun set and the stars come out to light up the night sky. Steve had been planning this date for months, a perfect way to celebrate one year together as a couple.
*****
“Will you please tell me where we’re going?” Bucky asked for what had to be the dozenth time.
Steve grinned back at him. “Just be patient. We’ll be there soon. Just trust me. You’ll love it.”
“Will you at least tell me what’s in the bag?”
“Nope,” Steve replied, clutching the bag with their food inside closer to his chest.
They both knew that if Bucky really wanted to know he could forcibly take the bag from Steve and find out for himself what it contained, but they also both knew he wouldn’t do that. Bucky trusted Steve and, impatient as he was, knew that his sweetheart had something special planned; he wouldn’t dare ruin the surprise no matter how curious he was.
*****
“This is our stop,” Steve said when the train finally pulled in at the right station.
Bucky had been itching to finally get up, but now that he was doing so he found that his legs were a bit sore. The ride hadn’t been that long –just over an hour– yet it had felt like an eternity.
“Where the hell are we?” Bucky asked.
“A little ways upstate.”
“Why? What’s up here?” All he could see was grass, trees, and flowers. It was beautiful, but there were plants in Central Park, and that was a lot less far away.
“Nothing.”
“Then why are we here?” What was the point of coming to somewhere where there was nothing to do? Maybe it was because he was born and raised in the biggest city in the country, but Bucky couldn’t understand the appeal of somewhere that had nothing at all going on.
“You’ll see,” Steve promised.
They made their way across the field of grass and up the small hill nearby. When they reached the top, Steve began unpacking the bag.
“A picnic,” he told Bucky as he set everything out. “And we’ll watch the sun set over the fields and look at the stars when they come up. You don’t get to see the stars like this back home. It’s different in the countryside.”
“How would you know?” Bucky tried to joke.
“My mother took me here when I was a kid. She showed me the constellations and told me that my dad did all that with her the night he proposed. It was special here. She told me I should take my future wife here someday.”
“I ain’t your wife, Stevie.”
“I know. But I love you more than I’ll love anyone. I’d marry you if I could. If it were legal, I’d propose to you right here and now.”
“I love you, too. And I’d say yes, if you did.”
“That’s another thing that’s nice about this place,” Steve said. “There’s no one around for miles, so we can say how we feel without worry of what might happen to us.”
Bucky smiled at him and pulled him in for a kiss.
The moment their lips touched also happened to be the moment the rain began. It began slowly, one drop at a time, and within less than two minutes, it was already pouring down as though an endless bucket of water was being dumped over their heads.
Bucky helped Steve pack everything he’d brought back into the bag, and the two of them raced back to the train station as fast as they could. Well, Steve ran as fast as he could; Bucky ran at a matching pace to Steve’s.
When they finally made it to the train station, they huddled close together on the bench under its roof as they waited for the next train to come in. Bucky wrapped himself around Steve as best he could. He wished he had a dry change of clothes for him or a warm blanket. Steve’s body in these temperatures was never a good thing.
“You don’t gotta suffocate me,” Steve complained.
“I’m not trying to suffocate you. I’m trying to keep you from getting hypothermia.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Let me be the judge of that.” Steve may have been the most stubborn man on the planet, but Bucky easily claimed second place. Especially when it came to Steve’s health and safety. There was nothing else that mattered more.
Steve grumbled something that might have been, “Fine,” and they spent the next several minutes in silence.
Eventually, Bucky broke the quiet. “I’m sorry the date didn’t go as planned.”
“It’s okay.”
“We’ll come back again another time,” he promised.
“But today’s our anniversary.”
“We can celebrate a bit late. It’s not like anyone but us would know.”
*****
Ten minutes later, the train arrived, and Bucky ushered Steve on in front of him. They found their seats, and that was when Bucky saw it. They’d been facing away from it when they’d been on the bench, so it wasn’t until now that he looked out the window that it was visible.
“Stevie, look!”
Steve followed Bucky’s gaze out the window to the spot over the hill where a rainbow now stood. It was bright and beautiful and much more rare a sight than the stars and the sunset.
“This almost makes it worth it,” he thought out loud.
“Happy anniversary, Steve.”