"So don't keep it together," Bucky said. But he made space for Steve next to him, and some things were automatic. Bucky might be strange about touch most of the time, for at least a second, but Steve was on his right side, and he looked miserable and things were grim and about to be worse. So Bucky just lifted his arm, dropped it across the shoulders that still felt too broad compared to when they were younger, giving Steve a little squeeze. Bucky still knew Steve, and Steve had never been all that great at asking for what he needed. Bucky had just learned to watch for the signs. "She cares about you, Steve. She doesn't need you to hold it all in. You can be fucked up around her."
"Well, they got an uphill battle, might as well try to make it easier," Bucky said. Like Steve wasn't fucking gorgeous. He'd never actually know it though, and Bucky saying it now - it would mean something different than all the times he'd told Steve someone would be lucky to have him, and that he was good looking when they were kids. Bucky wasn't going to step anywhere close to that again. Bucky had always believed it when he said it, and Steve had always thought he was full of shit. But it wasn't his ego Steve was looking to soothe now, anyway. It wasn't what mattered to him. The idea of bending and scraping to wear what they told him - Bucky figured that was what would stick in his craw, not how he actually looked.
He heard the sigh and squeezed again, reaching up to scrub his hand careful and light through Steve's hair, then dropping it back across his shoulder. All the things Bucky would have said before were meaningless now. Platitudes and reassurances - all empty. There was nothing to say that could make anything better, Bucky knew that. He knew that from experience. He remembered Natasha now, her offer before he went in. It had meant something to Bucky, forgotten or not, but it wouldn't have the same weight to Steve. He already knew Bucky would send whatever he could, that Bucky knew everything Steve liked.
There wasn't really any way to make this better, except the way Bucky was pretty sure Steve was going to try to shoot down. But he'd try anyway. "I got something for you," Bucky said.
He reached lefthanded into his jacket, drawing a small flask out. Bucky reached with the same hand, metal fingers not actually touching Steve, and held it out. "It's the rest of the stuff. That you tried with me and Clint? I thought ... I want-" Bucky stopped, swallowing. "You can't get away from all this. You and Peg, you don't have any time, and you got this huge thing hanging over you. Getting a coupla good moments - it's almost impossible. But take this, have Peggy take some. It'll ... lighten up the rest. Enough that you can at least feel something nice with each other for a little while. A shot of something happy in all the shit. Okay? It won't hurt nothing, and you deserve that. So does she. And she got it for me, so she'll know it's nothing that shitty."
Bucky gave him a small smile. "Gotta take a little where you can get it, Stevie. It's not perfect, but it's what you got. So take it, all right?"