winter soldier

              SACRIFICE was agreeing not to pull apart the furniture in the living room to              make a fort because they didn’t want to make a mess.

❝ ——– It’d be so much fun, but… ❞ 

❝ ——– Your Mom cleans up enough as it is. We can play outside today. ❞

             BETRAYAL    was shoving the last cookie into your mouth before the other              could eat it.

❝ ——– How could you… ❞

❝ ——– ‘ou c’n s’ill ‘aff some if ‘ou wan’. ❞

❝ ——– Gross, no! ❞

              An ENEMY was the kid that laughed when you fell over.

❝ ——– Ow. ❞

❝ ——– Hey! It’s not funny! How ‘bout I push you over and see how funny it is then! ❞ 

             WAR was a grown-up word. 

❝ ——– Are we going to go to go fight someday? ❞

❝ ——– Yeah! We’re gonna be super heroes, me and you. ❞

             LOVE was easy, bright and abundant. It manifested in toothy grins and ice-              cream smeared faces;     dirt covered knees and band-aids on barely-there              scrapes.         It swelled in tiny fingers that slotted between one another and              tugged with excitement. 

❝ ——– He said we’re boyfriends. Is that what we are? ❞

❝ ——– You’re my friend who is a boy, so yeah. You’re my best boyfriend. ❞

               These were the words that would shape those wide-eyed children.      That              would mould them into rough, damaged objects. The words that didn’t truly              exist yet; not within their bubble of youthful innocence.         The words that              wouldn’t make sense     until  James Barnes  and  Steve Rogers  had seen              them.  Felt them.  Endured them.  Bitten into them and tasted their coppery              terror.        They wouldn’t know them until they’d torn both of them apart.