NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR // OPEN

[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"]//wow im late to my own thread lmfao

Well, Steve was glad someone could find it amusing. Maybe he'd find it funny later, when he wasn't flattened by the other feline, but for now, it was kind of difficult to laugh when his breath wasn't all there. His asthma wasn't what it used to be, though his lungs would quiver in certain situations, like they were going to seize on him. He wasn't too keen on suffocating under some nameless bully, one who didn't seem like he'd be getting up anytime soon. Guess trying to talk with him wasn't going to work out, was it? Of course, the small feline already knew that- he'd tried talking in the beginning, and here he was now, flat on his back, hoping his lungs cooperated. "I can handle it," Steve said, voice a little airy, and that wasn't really the answer he was certain Venus had been going for, but he wasn't going to give these bullies any ground. Even if it was obvious he wasn't the strongest person around.

He couldn't turn his head to see, but he heard someone else speaking, and she must have been pretty intimidating, because the guy on top of him stiffened- not like he was going to fight, but like he was going to run away. A bit like those guys when Steve first showed up here, although whoever the Sunhavener was, they weren't Marina.

"We didn't steal anything. We're just cleaning up." The guy above him dug his claws in a bit, and Steve wondered if he could shift enough to sink his teeth into his paw, but another person -how many people were gonna see Steve get his ass handed to him?- threw the feline off of him. Steve immediately rolled over, picking himself up off the ground, and coughing a bit as his lungs gave another quake.

"You wouldn't. Bad for business if people get word you're killing customers." The bully picked himself up too, and might've wanted to say something else- but Steve would never know what that would be, since Bucky -he knew him, at least- was tackling the second fellow, crushing him to the ground. Steve couldn't hear everything that was said, his bad ear dropping some of the syllables, but he got the gist of it. Something threatening, and he couldn't blame the guy for looking like he'd just been shoved off a cliff.

He saw the feline beneath Bucky give a few vigorous, desperate nods, but Steve didn't pay him much mind, lifting a paw to rub at his chest, expression tight. It wasn't too hard to breathe yet, though uncomfortable, like something was gradually leaning into his rib-cage. "Think he gets the message," he managed to say, a bit breathless, and he approached Bucky, gently touching a paw to his shoulder.