Bucky + Peggy
Peggy's straightforwardness had clearly caught Bucky off guard. He started to sputter and cough, making Peggy wince in regret. Perhaps she ought to have eased into that one. She gently, but with firm claps, patted him on the back to try to help clear his airway.
"Yes, he did," she said, trying to keep her voice light, as she looked around for something for Bucky to drink down. Agent Romanoff's sister, bless her, happened to notice and brought over a glass of water from the bar area. Peggy whispered her thanks and turned back to offer it to Bucky. "And not particularly fun, no."
He seemed to be watching her carefully for some kind of reaction. Just as she was watching him. He sounded worried as he asked her whether it sounded bad. Peggy's mouth thinned to a line as she contemplated how to go about this. Delicately, that was for sure. She wasn't sure how much to get into it. She seemed to have an unfortunate habit of talking about less than happy things at celebratory events these days. Still, she figured she could and should be honest, at least.
"Not bad, per se. I will admit it is rather confusing, though. I imagine it would be hard indeed to know if you were under some kind of mind control, but..." She sighed, taking a bite of her tiramisu as a self-soothing action. "I doubt HYDRA conditioning the only type of influence to be worried about."