[ Steve might remember such closeness, even affection, between them but he has the barest glimpses of it and most of it doesn't make sense to the mind of a weapon. He struggled to have an identity, to be anything other than the asset and such kindnesses were not given to a tool; one worked and then was put away till there was a time to work again. He couldn't remember the time in deep freeze (fortunately) but he wasn't entirely unaware of what had happened. The way he'd been kept in a cage, something they hadn't even bothered to gild because there was no fear of someone leaving if they weren't someone. The board and papers said he had been once, but it was hard to grasp; it was a struggle to find a place to start when he had no idea what he was missing.
But that calling was there, for water and the splash against the shore and something else that he didn't know the name for. So he went, tried to finish this strange mission he'd set for himself.
However he is not adverse to contact as much as he had been previously, even if touching Steve felt like a burn. Too warm, to hot under his hands, like the dull sensation of acid used to polish metal. His throat flexes and he swallows down a vague watercolor of a memory and instead allows himself to be brought along with Steve toward the strange calling.
He can hear the tide over the sands, can't see it right away, but once they're parked he's sliding off and moving like a man possessed. Though this time it wasn't the coiling tendrils of hydra scratching along the inside of his skull making him move. Breathing a sigh he doesn't bother to slide those heavy boots off when he approaches the shoreline, stepping out into the low lap of waves around his ankles. The cold in itself is a strange sensation, creeping along his skin but he ignores it, stepping out a little bit farther, breathing in the salt in the air and watching the distance like it might tell him something other than what he already knows. ]
I remember this place. [ He pauses, like the words are thick, a syrup on his tongue. ] But not this place. [ Not it specifically, but he remembers the ocean, remembers the noises more than he does the visuals, the crash of tide is familiar in a way that makes his stomach clench painfully. ]
Kay :'D
But that calling was there, for water and the splash against the shore and something else that he didn't know the name for. So he went, tried to finish this strange mission he'd set for himself.
However he is not adverse to contact as much as he had been previously, even if touching Steve felt like a burn. Too warm, to hot under his hands, like the dull sensation of acid used to polish metal. His throat flexes and he swallows down a vague watercolor of a memory and instead allows himself to be brought along with Steve toward the strange calling.
He can hear the tide over the sands, can't see it right away, but once they're parked he's sliding off and moving like a man possessed. Though this time it wasn't the coiling tendrils of hydra scratching along the inside of his skull making him move. Breathing a sigh he doesn't bother to slide those heavy boots off when he approaches the shoreline, stepping out into the low lap of waves around his ankles. The cold in itself is a strange sensation, creeping along his skin but he ignores it, stepping out a little bit farther, breathing in the salt in the air and watching the distance like it might tell him something other than what he already knows. ]
I remember this place. [ He pauses, like the words are thick, a syrup on his tongue. ] But not this place. [ Not it specifically, but he remembers the ocean, remembers the noises more than he does the visuals, the crash of tide is familiar in a way that makes his stomach clench painfully. ]