ʙᴀʙʏ

When you were a kid, you were Steve Rogers' next door neighbor. You had been excited to move into that house knowing that there was a boy your age who'd you be able to play with. You were an only child and sometimes it was hard not having anyone else to play with or talk to. Unfortunately, Steve was a really sick and fragile boy so you needed to be careful around him. If you had so much as an itch at the back of your throat, you couldn't see Steve for two weeks.

Thankfully, Steve had introduced you to his best friend James and when Steve couldn't come play you at least had each other. Even at that age you felt the need to protect and watch over Steve, you and James almost acted like his bodyguards at school and Steve hated it but neither of you were going to stop any time soon.

It went on for years. As teenagers and even young adults, you and James were always watching Steve's back.

Then World War II happened and now your stupid, big-hearted best friend wanted to enlist in the army and be on the front line. You understood why he wanted to do it but the thought of having to say goodbye to Steve and James as they leave for the army terrifies you.

As if Steve fighting guys twice his size in alleys hadn't been stressful enough, now you had the army to worry about too.

One day you were meeting both of your best friends for lunch at a diner and when you walked in, they were already sitting at a booth. As you had gotten closer, you noticed that James wasn't wearing his usual clothes and when you finally reached the table your heart sunk in your chest.

He was leaving for England the very next morning to go fight in the war, his number had been drafted and there was nothing any of you could do to stop it from happening.

Saying goodbye to him had been the most heartbreaking thing you had ever had to do. You wanted to stay positive but you also needed to be realistic, a lot less soldiers came back walking than they came back in coffins.

You had struggled a lot with him being gone and you could tell that Steve was struggling too.

That was until Steve got into some kind of science program and got injected with what they now call the super soldier serum. You could barely recognize him afterwards. Your tiny little friend was gone and a giant, strong man had taken his place. You now had to look up if you wanted to talk to him and when he hugged you, he almost crushed your bones. Shortly after you were saying goodbye to your other best friend who was also leaving for the war. His job was to perform in front of crowds but you knew Steve long enough to know that it wouldn't be long before he found a way to get right in the middle of the action.

Your suspicions were confirmed when the letters stopped coming, for some reason you just knew why you weren't receiving them anymore.

A few weeks later, Steve had shown up at your door with the news of James' death. You thought you had been prepared for it but nothing could have prepared you for this amount of grief and pain.

Not long after you received a letter to tell you that Steve had disappeared, missing in action and presumed dead.

Peggy had given you some of Steve's blood for the serum in the hopes of creating the next Captain America but sadly there wasn't enough of it to succeed. Or at least that's what you both thought.

You might not have grown or put on an incredible amount of muscles or have super strength but you stopped aging. You hadn't really noticed at first, it took years for anyone to notice, but as everyone around you got older you stayed the same. You, your family and your friends joked around a lot that you had really good genes but when you got to 40 but still looked 24, you knew something wasn't right.