Bucky wasn't sure if it was relief or disappointment he felt, at the firm denial. It was a snap inside his chest, anyway. Whatever else, it also meant that his best friend wasn't kicking him out of his life, and, willing as Bucky had been to offer that, if it was too much to handle, this response gave him... hope.

He hunched in on himself, some of the tension draining, and rubbed his eyes with his hand.

"Not very long. At least not past... a few kisses, at any rate. Somebody like her deserves a lifelong dedication, anyway."

And you can give her that. Bucky was only part of a person, anyway. Though Peggy was the reason why he wasn't even more fractured, even more broken.

"And nothing after we found you. It's..." Ever so slowly, his eyes finally found their way to Steve's face. Tired, torn. He didn't know how to both love Peggy and not hurt Steve. Because if there was one person he cared for more than for her, definitely more than for himself...

That was Steve.

"You know I'd never set out to steal your girl, right?" It was a stupid question. It didn't in any way cover what he felt, what he needed or wanted to say, what Steve needed to hear, hell, he had no idea what that was, but he knew there had to be something. But that's what came out, and it was true.