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As a general rule, Steve tried not to use his serum-enhanced senses outside of combat. It hadn’t been a problem during the war, but once he found himself in a new century there had been a steep learning curve. Nowadays, he was able to sit in a restaurant without following every conversation around him, or walk through a crowd without noting every freckle on passers-by, but he could still hear and see those things. It had taken time to train his brain to discard the input to leave others with some privacy. However, when it came to things that were important to him, his senses captured far more than the average person’s.
It was for that reason that he’d barely opened the front door to his and Bucky’s apartment when his ears caught the faint sound of sniffling.
“Buck?” Steve called out, worried. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” He bustled through the house, depositing his armload of shopping in the kitchen on his way to the living room. When he reached the doorway to his destination, he stopped in his tracks, eyes wide. Bucky sat on the couch, wrapped in his excessively-fluffy unicorn blanket and eating from a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Therapy. The eyeliner he had painstakingly applied that morning (Steve had watched raptly) was now smudged beyond repair, and the TV was playing an earlier season of Say Yes to the Dress . Even without the clear signs of crying, that ice cream and show combination only came out for singularly bad days; it was obvious that Bucky’s day had not gone well after they’d split to go to their respective jobs.
“Sweetheart, talk to me.” Steve fell to his knees in front of Bucky and rubbed one of his boyfriend’s knees through the blanket. “Even if there’s nothing that can help, I want to listen.”
Bucky sniffled again and set the mostly-empty ice cream carton aside. “It’s not – It wasn’t just one thing. Just… A bunch of little things added up, and it was a really bad day.” He rubbed the corner of his eye, smearing his makeup even further. “I don’t want to talk about it yet. Can you just hold me, please?”
“Of course, Buck,” Steve assured him. “I’ll always be glad to hold you when you need me.”
The two carefully maneuvered themselves so they were positioned back to front, Steve’s arms around Bucky’s waist and Bucky’s head resting back on Steve’s shoulder. There they remained for the rest of the evening, wrapped in the comfort of each other’s presence.