[ Enough is a pretty complicated concept when you've lost everything, though. He'd be a bald-faced liar if he told Bucky he didn't want him to remember — to be remembered — and despite Bucky's claim to the contrary, maybe he still knows enough that he'd know Steve was lying if he tried to say otherwise.
But here— it's not a fresh start, not for him. He doesn't know what it is for him, just that he needs to keep moving forward. Needs it with an urgency he keeps to himself, because it feels familiar and he knows what it got him last time. But the past has become painful in a way it wasn't even when he was fresh out of the ice, when he hadn't wanted to let it go. Now it hurts just to touch it, like it's something ephemeral that he's not sure could stand up to it, when it was made up of so much code.
He knows the grimace shows on his face, but he doesn't duck his own head again, knowing what it will look like if he looks away from Bucky right now, even though his arm is beginning to tremble minutely from helping keep the hatch open. ]
One step at a time, huh?
[ It's a request as much as an attempt at reassurance. They're both here, and now that he's seen him Steve doesn't think he can stand any more of this awareness of Bucky constantly in his peripheral, lurking at the edges of his life here, such as it is, and stop himself from turning around to find him. ]
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But here— it's not a fresh start, not for him. He doesn't know what it is for him, just that he needs to keep moving forward. Needs it with an urgency he keeps to himself, because it feels familiar and he knows what it got him last time. But the past has become painful in a way it wasn't even when he was fresh out of the ice, when he hadn't wanted to let it go. Now it hurts just to touch it, like it's something ephemeral that he's not sure could stand up to it, when it was made up of so much code.
He knows the grimace shows on his face, but he doesn't duck his own head again, knowing what it will look like if he looks away from Bucky right now, even though his arm is beginning to tremble minutely from helping keep the hatch open. ]
One step at a time, huh?
[ It's a request as much as an attempt at reassurance. They're both here, and now that he's seen him Steve doesn't think he can stand any more of this awareness of Bucky constantly in his peripheral, lurking at the edges of his life here, such as it is, and stop himself from turning around to find him. ]