"What's changed? You could talk to me back then." And they did talk. About everything, about nothing. Life and hopes and dreams and music and dancing and the weather. Bucky brought up girls so Steve would never guess how he felt. Steve brought up current events because he was troubled by things going on in the world. They talked each other into trouble and out of the worst of it. Had the world really changed so much that there was nothing to talk about anymore? Or was it more than that? Was it the fact that he'd 'died'? That he remembered certain things but... not enough. "You thought I died and you missed me. In those moments when I crossed your mind since I fell or you woke up here... what would you have told me? What would we talk about?"
He watched Steve's hand for a moment before shaking his head and taking a step back. He could retreat. Face this all another day. Hide away for awhile and get his thoughts and feelings under control. There had been occasions when Bucky had wondered if Steve had thought about him. If he wasn't just easily replaced by SHIELD or the Avengers. It was a horrible idea. One that he knew wasn't true, couldn't be true. Steve had made new friends but those friends had proven to be nothing short of welcoming. Especially Clint. Stark he'd decided to avoid until he could find a way to apologize for everything he'd done. Howard had been a friend and Bucky had never met Maria but he was sure neither of them had deserved what he'd done.
"You're allowed to touch me. I don't recoil from human contact." It was usually the opposite. He liked contact. Seventy years spent without the comfort of a hand on his shoulder or the warmth of someone close to him just had that effect on a person. He was willing to forget that Hydra had been violent in their contact because, hell, contact was contact.