What, you mean we didn't? [... wow, it's strange to talk of himself, of them, in the past tense. It probably should be something to get used to.]
Steve... [Don't think the pauses, the pretending to be okay, none of that is fooling him of how-- and shit, if he'd go down thinking he'll die, wake up 70 years in the future, with everyone gone and everything changed? Yeah, he wouldn't take it well, either. Steve even less so, the dumb punk.]
You don't gotta pretend with me, you know that, right? You're not doin' this alone... you don't have to.
[It's almost the same words he remembers saying to him, before, though this time, they come with the side-order of a hug as Bucky grabs Steve closer, drawing him into a hug instead of saying anything more, that he gets it, that it's gotta suck, that he's so, so happy Steve lived, that he's trying.]