Written declarations of love offer something to hold and cherish over time. The Romance!! Below are my Top 5 Favorites:
“The Department of Special Collections” (T, 4k) by Speranza, art by alby_mangroves
It was a messy thing of leather and papers and rope. It looked like Phillips had carelessly thrown a bunch of documents onto an old piece of black leather and then rolled the whole thing up and tied it . . . The papers inside were all different sizes, everything out of order and haphazardly stacked, like someone had been in a hurry and just grabbed it all.
+ Post WS, someone finds their WW2 letters. “I am only half of myself without you. I cannot let myself think that you are not writing for some other reason. In fact I won’t think it, and so instead I must assume you no longer love me, you shit, even though you are all I have in the whole world.”
-☆-
“Yours, Bucky” (T, 2k) by attackofthezee (noxlunate)
Natasha joins Steve on the couch and proceeds to squeeze her way right into Steve’s space so that she can read the letter. “Love letters, Rogers? Y’know, despite the whole star crossed lovers thing I didn’t expect you two to be so damn romantic.”
“Why? Because we’re from the 40s?”
“No, because you would literally rather jump out of a plane without a parachute than talk about your love life. Believe it or not, it’s possible people might make assumptions based on that kind of behavior.”
“Speaking of, do you see any planes around so that I can get out of this conversation?”
In which Bucky doesn't come back right away, but that doesn't stop him from leaving Steve love letters.
+ Post WS, Bucky’s recovery. “Sweetheart, look up.”
-☆-
“1917″ (M, 9k) by msbluesunflower
Born on March 10th, 1985 in Brooklyn, James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes was named after Sergeant Barnes, Captain America’s childhood best friend, who died when he fell off a train in the Swiss Alps.
In 2008, Peggy Carter donates to the Smithsonian letters Captain Rogers wrote to Sergeant Barnes in 1944, after he fell.
Some lives are eternally entwined.
+ 2008 to Steve’s defrosting. Bucky is reincarnated with memories. “The gravity that pulls me toward you, that makes me revolve around you all day and all night — Well, maybe it’s against the laws of the universe but I think it’ll always be there, even after you’re gone.”
-☆-
“If You’re Reading This, Steve Rogers” (M, 39k) by fallendarlings
Nobody tells Steve it's okay to cry.
Nobody touches him.
Nobody remembers Steve Rogers is a person under the mantle. It's okay. He hasn't felt like a person since he watched Bucky fall.
+ WW2 to Post WS, pining, Steve angsts. “Surprise, Sweetheart. Here’s all the things I never told you, but always desperately wished I could.”
-☆-
“Sincerely, Your Pal” (M, 65k) by lettered
"[...] lesbians and gay men writing letters to their lovers and friends faced the special problem of wartime censorship. Military censors, of course, cut out all information that might aid the enemy, but this surveillance made it necessary for gay and lesbian correspondents to be careful not to expose their homosexuality. To get around this, gay men befriended sympathetic censors or tricked others by using campy phrases, signing a woman’s name (like Dixie or Daisy), or changing the gender of their friends. Sailors became WAVEs, boyfriends became WACs, Robert became Roberta. There must exist, hidden in closets and attics all over America, a huge literature of these World War II letters between lesbians and between gay men that would tell us even more about this important part of American history." - Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women In World War Two, by Allan Berube
+ TFA, up to Azzano. “I love you. I just needed to say it again, write it down so you could see it and I could see it and we could both know: I’m in love with you.”
-☆-
*More Epistolary fics in the Biblionerd07 and Whendoestheshipsail lists
