While Steve washed out his mouth with cool water from a fountain that Bucky had found in the front of a washhouse, Bucky leaned against the wooden walls and waited. "When are you going to take Eliza out proper?"

Steve took another gulp of water, spat to the side and looked up wearily at him. "What?"

Bucky gave him a smug look. "You really like this girl; that's no secret. I said, when are you finally going to take her out on a date like a proper gentleman?" Steve took one last swig of water and straightened over the fountain, bracing his hands on either of its metal sides. "When I'm ready. Don't rush me," he said curtly. As he began the walk back to the Cyclone, Bucky chased after him. "That's the thing, Steve," he was saying, "you won't! I know you; remember that broad in second grade…what was her name? Penny? Penny Parker! You were like a puppy dog on her heels all that year, and when old Saint Valentine's Day came around and you had your little pink heart all cut out and made for her, you got cold feet. You waited all that time, froze up, and she got snatched up by that boy Johnny Rice." Bucky leaned so that he could peer into Steve's face as they walked. "What I'm saying is, is that Eliza's a special girl, and more importantly, she's almost your girl. Almost, if only you get on your damn high horse and ask her out proper."

Steve glared at him. He didn't need to be lectured about his past endeavors with girls-he knew them all too well. But he knew that deep down, Bucky-as annoying as he was-had a point. He honestly had no idea what he was waiting on in asking Eliza for a date, and hadn't she said, the night that they met, that she had been there at the dance with her friend only referred to as 'he'? 'He' might come back and try to redeem himself and Eliza would've slipped right through Steve's fingers. He felt a disappointment welling up inside him at the thought. His glare slipped.

"Fine," and at this, Bucky raised an eyebrow, "I'll ask her."

"When?"

"Soon, alright? Now will you stop bothering me?"

Bucky laughed but said no more. They walked back together in friendly silence.

It was quite a day. The group wandered all over the park, hand-in-hand for most of the time; Candy and Betty wrangled Bucky along, tugging on both of his arms. Steve had offered Eliza his arm and the two kept a steady but calm pace behind the energetic trio.

"They're like puppies," Eliza said, watching the two blondes and Bucky. "Always running around and yapping away. I hope he doesn't mind their talkativeness too much." Steve shrugged. "I doubt it. Buck's kind of like an overexcited puppy dog too, but he likes to pretend he's suave and slick for the dames-I mean, ladies," he quickly corrected. Eliza raised an eyebrow and laughed.

Candy and Betty insisted they ride all the rides, play all the games, and investigate every nook and cranny. "How often do you get to come to Coney Island on such a beautiful day as this?" Candy explained when Eliza had asked, sounding beat, why they had to be so meticulous. "And we'd rather spend as much time with Bucky as we can; he's planning to go off soon, did you know? Before he runs off to give ol' Adolf a kick in the pants, we have to give him the honor of a good homegrown American girl and a lavish night out, don't we?" replied Betty, winking up at Bucky. Eliza stiffened suddenly and a worried look crossed her face, not unnoticed by Steve standing beside her. She opened her mouth as if to say more, then pressed it shut, thinking better of it.

"He'll be fine," Steve told her, and she looked down at him, "all he's got to is flash that dumb grin of his and an army of girls will come to his aid." Bucky gave him said grin and tipped his head towards him. Candy and Betty giggled and pressed themselves closer to him, but Eliza looked no less comforted. In fact, she looked halfway disgusted. Candy and her sister Betty took no notice, totally oblivious to anything around them. "We should get funnel cake; I'm feeling pretty famished," said Betty.

"Me too," added Candy. "And some candy floss, while we're at it."

Steve caught sight of Bucky raising an eyebrow at him, blinking his eyes discreetly towards Eliza. 'Perfect timing,' he was saying. Steve gave an exasperated, unamused look and piped up. "We'll get some. Funnel cake and candy floss?" Candy and Betty answered at once. "Yes, please!" Steve returned to Bucky. "You want anything?" Bucky shook his head.

"I'll be fine; I've got all the sweets I need right here," he said, winking at the twins, who giggled and began leading him through the throng of people. Steve resisted the urge to roll his eyes and turned to go, but Eliza hadn't budged. He looked up at her and found her staring at the backs of the twins and Bucky, looking betrayed in the worst way. At first, Steve wondered if she was still caught up on Bucky leaving for war, if she was simply being bighearted and sympathetic about his safety, and moved to comfort her more sincerely this time rather than joke about it, but then he froze. She'd been so distracted this afternoon whenever Betty or Candy had been doted on by Bucky or had blatantly flirted with them, and then just now: that look. Like she'd just had her heart stepped on…

It clicked.

She looked that way because that was how it had been. It was Bucky. It had always been Bucky.

'I started having a great time when Bucky came sidling up to me, that beautiful smile on his face, asking me was I taken and could he 'have this dance?'

"Hold on tight to her, Steve; don't want her flying away." He winked at Eliza, who returned it by playfully sticking her tongue out at him and smiling.

"Suave," she raised her eyebrow at Bucky and then directed her tone to the twins.

Jealousy. She'd been annoyed by all the attention Bucky had been giving the twins all day, jealous of the way he returned it, even though she had been with Steve. But…she had never been with him at all had she? She'd always be walking in the shadows of the Bucky and the twins, leaving Steve behind.

As usual.

Steve dropped his arm, looking up at Eliza with an expression as blank and empty as he wished he could be feeling-now, he was full of nothing but cold disappointment, and it hurt, oh it hurt, like he'd swallowed a glass of ice-his movement stirring Eliza out of her hard staring trance to meet his gaze. For a moment, her face clouded in confusion as she took in Steve's, and his heart clenched when she opened her mouth to speak, no doubt to ask what was wrong with him? At the last minute, thankfully, her thoughts came together and she realized what had happened: her eyes widened, her face falling into shock, and then she was gone, pushing through the crowd.

Steve stood in place shaken, curling up his fists and squeezing them tightly, opting to let her go-he wasn't sure if he could handle it all right now. The one girl who had ever taken the time to notice him had eyes for his best friend. He wanted to let her go. He wanted to scream, wanted to pull his hair out, curl up in a ball in silence. For a moment, he even wanted to track Bucky down and hit him. Then the rage was gone, just like that. He wasn't (completely) angry with Bucky and he couldn't pull his hair out, because that was quite possibly the only thing he truly believed might give him a chance with girls if he could just get it to liven up and be more full. And, as he turned and ran through the crowd keeping a steady eye on the red scarf and bobbing brown hair, he didn't want to lose Eliza yet either.

Steve finally caught up to Eliza on the boardwalk. When the patrons had finally thinned out at the edge of the park, he watched her stomp across the wooden boards, keeping up quite a quick pace despite the limited length and upcoming dead-end of the boardwalk, and thought about jogging the rest of the way to meet her. But that train of thought was completely derailed and froze Steve in his tracks when Eliza slipped under the rails and disappeared, her white fingers clinging to the boards the only thing that remained of her. Then, as she dropped down to the beach below, those vanished along with her.

Leaning over the edge, Steve continued to watch her as she gathered her shoes-she must've kicked them off- and continued her brisk pace down the beach unfazed. She must have gone down this way to be alone with her thoughts on an empty beach.

Well, Steve wasn't going to give her that, not when she owed him answers.

He slid under the rail as she did, hanging onto the boards to gather a brace for impact, and dropped to the sand below. His breathing was a bit labored from having to speed walk to keep up with her from the middle of the park to the boardwalk, but he shoved the thought to the back of his mind. He followed her, his footprints forming alongside hers in the soft white sand. She looked like a bright white figurine in the dimming light-had they really been at the park all day?-storming along down the beach. He increased his pace to outmatch hers and catch up, and called her name. "Eliza!"

Eliza looked back and stopped. She seemed to realize that she couldn't keep walking forever and waited while Steve walked the last few steps towards her. When he reached her, the words just couldn't seem to come. He looked up at her, spread out his arms, silently asking for an explanation. 'Why?'

Eliza shook her head, looking like she'd rather be anywhere with anyone than here with Steve. "What do you want me to say? I have no idea." Then she seemed to rethink her previous statement. "Look, Shortbread," she caught herself, closing and opening her mouth as she tried to get the feel of her next word, "Steve. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you had to find out this way; I'm sorry that you fell for someone like me. This was an awful afternoon, and I had promised you a day of fun, too, hadn't I?"

She laughed humorlessly. "How wonderful this turned out to be, huh?"

"I'm sorry that this wasn't the best day either," Steve said. "But I'm not sorry that I fell for you. You're a wonderful girl, Eliza. You're smart and fun, you're sweet,"

Eliza shook her head. "Stop."

"You're beautiful and strong-willed-"

"Shortbr-Steve. Stop, I'm-"

"And you should be told that every day, even if," Steve swallowed, "even if I'm not the one who gets to tell it to you." Eliza looked close to tears; she dropped her shoes to the sand, pulled Steve close in a hug and sobbed over his shoulder. Steve stood perfectly still and let her cry. And then, remembering that this moment would bet the last instance that he ever held her like this again, he slowly wrapped his arms around her waist, and tried to swallow the pain of truth.

Bucky was disappearing before his eyes. He would be swallowed up the crowd in a matter of seconds. A small seed of worry sprouted in Steve's chest as he watched the uniform cap bobbing above the crowd grow smaller and farther away; he'd always rather dreaded thinking about this moment, tried not to imagine it too much, the day that Bucky would leave him. He'd always consoled himself by imagining himself in the same uniform alongside him, heading off on orders together, because anywhere that Bucky was, Steve had always wanted to be.

But he was here, left behind yet again at the front gates of the science fair, watching his best friend get away from him with another pair of girls on his arm-unlike the last two, he hadn't committed their names to memory. They were going dancing. Again.

Steve felt hollow. Three months and no sign of her should have been enough right? No mention of her at all, not an airy giggle to be heard or piercing green eye to be caught. It was like she'd vanished from the world altogether-it made sense, since it had been too good to be true. He sighed and glanced around, just trying to clear his mind and get his thoughts in order by distraction, and froze. He'd had to do a double-take almost immediately.

She was wearing navy raileen and pearls, a startled expression on her face, similar to someone being caught spying or eavesdropping. She looked like she'd stopped walking midstep, like she was regretting her choice but unable to right it. And despite the worried uncertainty on her face and the smile that tried to bloom across her lips, Steve thought that Eliza Berry looked gorgeous.

"Hi," she called out to him, relaxing a bit. She still looked nervous, but at least the smile had grown in full. "Hi," Steve replied, staring at her with a slack expression. He crossed the floor to her and stopped just short of the toes of their shoes touching. For a while, they stood there staring at each other, smiling softly and giggling quietly at something that neither of them were quite sure of. "Did you…did you come to the fair by yourself?" Steve asked, finally breaking through the quiet.

"I did. The twins don't much like things like this. They went dancing. Did you come by yourself?"

Steve shook his head. "Bucky dragged me along…" An uncomfortable moment of silence passed between them. Never mind that Steve knew that the only reason Bucky had brought the second girl, who had ended up leaving with him anyway, was to help him get his mind away from the woman who stood before him now; it just felt awkward to mention him between themselves. "He wanted to go out before…well, y'know."

"Oh, he's gotten his orders, has he?" Eliza said. "It must be hard to watch him go."

Steve shrugged. "It is. But I've got a surprise for him." Eliza cocked an eyebrow. "What've you got planned? You've got a mischievous look in your eye." Steve shifted his weight from one foot to the other and glanced at the big sign hanging in the lobby beyond the gates advertising army recruiting in the area. Eliza followed his gaze and sighed. "Oh, Steve."

"I've got to do this. Bucky's already chewed me out, so he's taken care of that part for you. But I need someone to understand that this is something I feel obligated to do. I want to enlist, and I want to be there with the rest of them. Someone's got to protect this," he waved his hand at the science fair still going on around them, "and why shouldn't it be me too?"

Eliza watched him. "How many times have you tried this?" At Steve's look of mild surprise, she smiled. "Let's be honest; I called you 'Shortbread' for a reason. How many times?"

"Because I'm short and pale? And at least six."

"Because you're short and sweet, and, hey, seventh time's the charm, right? Look, I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to enlist," she sighed heavily and touched his shoulder. "I won't lie to you: I wish you would just stay put; both of you boys. But I can't think of anyone better to do this, with as big a heart, than you. While I say that, however, I want you to promise me one thing."

Steve nodded. "What is it?"

Eliza retracted her hand from his shoulder and pulled a silver bracelet from her wrist. The bracelet was made of thin silver and chimed softly as it moved with little silver charms. There were three in all, no bigger than Eliza's pinky nail, in the shape of a bird's wing, a little silver star, and a tiny letter 'E'. She took Steve's arm and clasped the bracelet around his wrist, closing her hand over it. "Promise me you'll bring this back to me. It means quite a bit to me, you know, and I like to have all my things returned to me safely." She smiled gently and Steve realized she was telling him to come back safely. "You can share it with Bucky when you catch up to him, too. And I won't accept any letters from either of you sending it back. You bring it back to me on this arm, got it, Shortbread?"

Steve nodded. He intended to keep this promise.

Hope you had fun!

-AC