[ A few weeks, Steve had said. Grief must still raw, and Sam can't even begin to picture the level of it. The weight of half the galaxy being snuffed out. Not a loss Sam thinks he will ever understand - and for that, at least, he can be grateful.
This Steve, here in front of him, has endured for weeks. There's a version of him that endures for 5 years, that fights himself bloody and broken all over again to fix everything. It traumatizes the whole world a second time. It pushes Steve to a breaking point, or so Sam thinks quietly. To a point where fleeing into a happiness away from all he gained must have seemed easier. It would be easy to resent that - Sam's been returned to find his life in shambles and trembling on the tightrope without a safety net, the world's been left a mess. He's chosen to fight to make it better. But at the end of the day he can't resent Steve for not holding out for that fight himself. How do you reconcile 5 years and trillions of lives throughout the galaxy for a man who's already shouldered too much?
Sam doesn't know. And perhaps it's a mercy that the Steve he finds himself reunited with is not one who felt that weight for more than a few no doubt horrifically painful weeks. ]
How are you, man? I mean, really.
[ Sam's eyes soften in response to the squeeze on his arm. He's mourned for half a year, but the truth is that the Steve who left into his own form of retirement and passed the shield along was barely the Steve Sam remembers. Five years are a long time. ]
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This Steve, here in front of him, has endured for weeks. There's a version of him that endures for 5 years, that fights himself bloody and broken all over again to fix everything. It traumatizes the whole world a second time. It pushes Steve to a breaking point, or so Sam thinks quietly. To a point where fleeing into a happiness away from all he gained must have seemed easier. It would be easy to resent that - Sam's been returned to find his life in shambles and trembling on the tightrope without a safety net, the world's been left a mess. He's chosen to fight to make it better. But at the end of the day he can't resent Steve for not holding out for that fight himself. How do you reconcile 5 years and trillions of lives throughout the galaxy for a man who's already shouldered too much?
Sam doesn't know. And perhaps it's a mercy that the Steve he finds himself reunited with is not one who felt that weight for more than a few no doubt horrifically painful weeks. ]
How are you, man? I mean, really.
[ Sam's eyes soften in response to the squeeze on his arm. He's mourned for half a year, but the truth is that the Steve who left into his own form of retirement and passed the shield along was barely the Steve Sam remembers. Five years are a long time. ]