CRACKING BONES // MANIPULATION AFTERMATH

[STEVE]

[align=center][div style="max-width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 1.4;letter-spacing:.1px"]Bruises weren't the worst thing that could happen to somebody. Sometimes they were, and there was nothing wrong with that -everyone had different pain thresholds, different tolerance levels- but physical wounds would heal eventually. They might scar, but they could be hidden, if need be. Emotional and mental trauma were...on their own levels. Steve didn't personally know what it was like for someone to root around in his head and strip away everything he was in a crude attempt to remake him into something else, but minds were sanctuaries. Places people were supposed to be secure in, and from what he'd seen, Stryker had tried to violate that, had tried to violate Bucky, and even though the stranger had bought time for Steve and Bucky to leave, that didn't fix damage done in those moments before. Steve didn't know very much about Bucky's history, tried to ignore whatever he heard that came down the grapevine because it just wasn't right to know a man's personal business, but there was obviously past associations with...manipulation.

Steve wished he could've gotten to him sooner.

He wasn't scared of him, though, even being unaware of what Bucky might be able to do. If they gave him a wide berth and treated him like someone ready to snap at any second, that'd just make it worse, wouldn't it? Treating him like he was something to be feared, when Steve didn't believe that was true.

"But he didn't," the smaller feline said, quiet yet firm, "and if he tries again, we'll just have to be ready for him. Seems like a hard guy to miss." He glanced down at the boardwalk, where Bucky's claws made gouges in wood.