[ It's said half under his breath, so no wonder the wind snatches some of it, carries it away from his own ears so that his voice is just a muffled resonance in his head, always deeper than anyone ever expected from his size. His posture is rueful as he faces the hatch, head ducked down nearly to his chest, but when he looks up at Bucky again a moment later there's a smile and some amazement.
It's a very present, alive expression, an unintentional answer to Bucky's observation of him, like maybe he's let himself believe Bucky is real in turn, and not just a haunting, hunted shadow. Of all the things: the ways and times and places he'd imagined finally seeing him again — what they would say to each other, if Bucky gave them half a chance — that one hadn't factored. It should've. If Steve could've shed a hundred-plus pounds that day on the helicarrier to jog Bucky's memory, he would have. The discrepancy must have been confusing. Hard to believe.
Steve thinks it might sound too much like chastisement, though, and as he reaches out to lend his own unimpressive strength to keeping the hatch open, he searches for something else to say, comes up only with confirmation. ]
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[ It's said half under his breath, so no wonder the wind snatches some of it, carries it away from his own ears so that his voice is just a muffled resonance in his head, always deeper than anyone ever expected from his size. His posture is rueful as he faces the hatch, head ducked down nearly to his chest, but when he looks up at Bucky again a moment later there's a smile and some amazement.
It's a very present, alive expression, an unintentional answer to Bucky's observation of him, like maybe he's let himself believe Bucky is real in turn, and not just a haunting, hunted shadow. Of all the things: the ways and times and places he'd imagined finally seeing him again — what they would say to each other, if Bucky gave them half a chance — that one hadn't factored. It should've. If Steve could've shed a hundred-plus pounds that day on the helicarrier to jog Bucky's memory, he would have. The discrepancy must have been confusing. Hard to believe.
Steve thinks it might sound too much like chastisement, though, and as he reaches out to lend his own unimpressive strength to keeping the hatch open, he searches for something else to say, comes up only with confirmation. ]
Turns out you were right.