When he was a kid he didn't have many friends. That was all right. He wasn't really the most social of people, when it got down to it, he preferred to read or draw and neither of those were things he could do with someone interrupting him all the time. There was the odd child, here and there, who would talk to him about comics or attempt to get him to join in some sports, and he appreciated the kindnesses when they were given and tried to give out some of his own.
At the orphanage, when they first brought in Bucky, he thought he would be one of the kids who picked on him, or one of the kids who ignored him completely. Bucky was tall and strong, and had an easy laugh and a way with words and Steve just assumed he'd never want to talk to someone like him.
He'd been wrong.
It started with subtle things. A hand on the shoulder of a kid who was about to nudge Steve's shoulder while he was drawing. A comic, stolen from him before he'd finished reading, returned on his pillow that night. A friendly smile when he came into the room that Steve found himself returning without thinking.
Finally, a long conversation one afternoon, sitting on the back wall of the yard, with a handful of stolen apples (Steve only found out they were stolen after they were eaten and resting uneasily in his small belly — too green, the cook had been going to make pie, but they'd been too much off a temptation for a restless, hungry army orphan, and he'd stolen too many to eat by himself) kicking their feet over the edge of what for Steve was a world full of possibilities that would always be slightly out of reach. Bucky talked constantly about going back to the army, being a soldier like his dad, and while a small part of Steve longed for that life, he tried very hard to keep it small.
They'd never take him.
But it was good to share those wishes with someone, good to have companionship that wasn't judging, good to just be young and be friends and have the whole of their future ahead of them and no real knowing what direction those futures would take.
He never really knew why it was Bucky stayed close to him all those years, never understood why someone with all of his advantages could see something in Steve that made him want to be his friend, but he didn't question it too closely. It was a valuable thing, and he wanted to keep it.