Steve + being worried about his girls
okay but in all seriousness i bet it’s a real hazard to cry or even sit on your bed looking unhappy at Avengers Tower because Steve “Mom At The Ready” Rogers WILL appear in your doorway wearing something soft and saying “Hey.” in a gentle, compassionate voice
I want to point out that in CATFA Bucky never spoke about being tortured at Kreischberg and Steve never pursued the conversation although he saw, with his own eyes, the sort of environment he was in (if not the torture itself).
Assuming they didn’t talk off-screen, maybe Steve felt too awkward to bring it up, or Bucky deflected the question and acted like nothing was wrong. Maybe Steve was too distracted with the war; maybe Steve was too distracted by his own dreams coming true to notice Bucky’s admittedly very subtle signs of distress. Maybe Steve thought that Bucky getting his chance at revenge as part of the Commandos would be enough. Maybe all of the above.
Do you suppose that after Bucky fell from the train that Steve, intensely guilt-ridden and ready to think the worst of himself, especially in light of his relationship with Bucky, castigated himself for not being a better friend? Did he look back on all their interactions with a hypercritical eye, and pick himself apart for not being observant enough, not being considerate enough, not being emotionally brave enough to pursue these difficult topics?
Do you suppose that mere decades and weeks later, Steve had excoriated himself enough to seek out Tony, a man he doesn’t like and who doesn’t like him, after Coulson’s death, to try to comfort him, in his clumsy, war-mindset way? And when Tony didn’t respond positively (“We are not soldiers”), maybe he did some digging, found a way to modify his approach, so that when he assumes Natasha would be in distress about SHIELD, he approaches her in a way that’s less…bossy, perhaps? more inclined to listen first and make assertions later. And then comes Wanda who, for all intents and purposes Steve seems to have adopted as a little sister, and he modifies his approach again to still be soft but a little more authoritative; more of a big brother/father figure approach (since she is much younger than Natasha and is still visibly reeling from the loss of her own father and brother).
Steve has always been good and compassionate towards the whole world as a concept, but he started out very much up his own ass with regards to how much consideration he put into his interpersonal relationships, and seeing him mature in that respect is both beautiful and heartbreaking.
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