As time went on Steve knew leaving here would be the hardest thing he'd ever done. Because here? Here he had things he'd never dreamed of letting himself have. He and Bucky were good, they'd been so brutally honest and they were closer now as a result. The connections he'd built with people were open and honest and Steve wasn't about to let go of Tony without a fight.
"I was seeing a guy, looked a little like you, tragic right?" Steve said with a huff. But it was tragic and he'd been pining, of course he had. "Conspire with your wife? About how desperately in love with you I am?" Steve asked and skeptical seemed like an understatement. He'd been scared of Pepper since always, because he was a smart man and he knew scary when he saw it.
But talking about that was still a somewhat lighter topic than Tony's untimely death and Steve's desire to join him, so he'd take it.