Work Text:
Naptime
Bucky didn’t understand why Steve didn’t come to play with him anymore.
Bucky and Steve were best friends, weren’t they? They’d been friends ever since first grade when Bucky had rescued Steve from a fight with the sixth graders, and they’d been best friends ever since they’d sat in front of Old Mrs Hendrick's Candy Store in third grade and split their coins so they could get taffy for them, and for Bucky’s little sister Rebecca.
And since they were friends, Steve always came over to Bucky’s house, or Bucky went over to his. They did that every day after school, and every Sunday after Church. Sometimes, if Steve was feeling sick and had to go to Doctor Stan, Bucky went over to his house to play, too, unless Steve was too sick to play and needed to take a nap. When that happened, Bucky got scared and cried sometimes because Mama and Mrs Rogers said that Steve was in pain and Doctor Stan always used big words to say that Steve was getting worse, but Steve always got better.
And when Steve got better, they could play again. That was Bucky’s favorite part. He knew it was Steve’s favorite part, too.
And now, Steve was better, but he didn’t come play anymore.
Did Bucky do something wrong? He didn’t think so.
Mama and Mrs Rogers both told him that Steve was in a better place, which meant he was better, and he wasn’t sick anymore, so he could come play. But he didn’t.
When Bucky asked why Steve didn’t come over, Mama just started crying, which made no sense because she said that Steve was better. Why did she cry? Bucky felt like crying too, because he hadn’t seen Steve in a long time and he missed Steve and their playtimes.
Bucky went to ask Mrs Rogers, too, but Mrs Rogers started to cry like Mama and told Bucky that Steve was taking a nap. The first time she said that, Bucky understood because sometimes after Steve gets sick, he didn’t recover immediately and he needed to take naps to recover slowly.
But whenever he asked, Steve was taking another nap, and Mama and Mrs Rogers kept crying.
Bucky didn’t understand why Steve kept taking naps. Was it hard for him to recover? Was he really sick this time?
Bucky promised Mama and Mrs Rogers that he would be real quiet and would not wake Steve up if he could see him take naps because Bucky really missed Steve, but they cried more. Why did they keep crying? Bucky didn’t want Mama or Mrs Rogers to cry. He just wanted to see Steve.
Bucky even went to ask Papa why Steve couldn’t come over and if he could go over to see Steve while he was taking a nap, but Papa just pulled him into a large hug. Bucky thought he was crying too.
Adults made no sense.
One Sunday, Mama and Papa brought him to church and everyone was there, even Mrs Rogers. But Church was weird because everyone wore black, and Steve wasn’t there. Bucky felt like crying, because Steve was better but he wasn’t at Church and that was wrong and he missed Steve.
Father William said a lot of words and he mentioned Steve and Mrs Rogers a lot of times, and Bucky went to ask Father Williams where Steve was and if he could play because Mama and Papa and Mrs Rogers were crying. But Father Williams just smiled sadly, which was wrong because smiling was supposed to be happy but Father Williams managed to make smiling sad.
Mama and Papa and Mrs Rogers came to hug him and told him that Steve was in a better place, again, but Bucky just wanted to see Steve and play with him again, and if he was better, why couldn’t they play? Mama and Mrs Rogers said that Steve was taking a long nap, but Bucky didn’t understand why that would be better because playtime after naptime was his favorite part and Steve’s favorite part, so how was naptime be better than playtime?
Bucky didn’t understand why Steve didn’t come over to play with him anymore.