By his body’s clock, there’s been less than five years from the beginning until now, from knit top to body armor, from showgirl to warrior of legend, from Steve Rogers (aka Captain America) to Captain America (aka Steve Rogers). He’s barely thirty, which nobody seems to realize or remember. It’s just as well because sometimes he feels all of the ninety-six years the calendar gives him. Never more so than when he looks at the photos and rare scraps of video from before, when he can see how much the transition has cost him and how much of it he paid even before Bucky fell. He never meant for war to become his life, let alone the only thing he understood. And yet it has.
#Fandom always talks about how much Bucky has changed#and how Steve will have to deal with a possibly darker Bucky#but I wonder how heartbroken Bucky will be when he realizes that STEVE has changed too#That Steve hardly smiles and always looks so tired.#That his once idealistic and optimistic friend can barely remember why he fights#and is always battle-ready because he no longer sees an end to the war.#The world has changed Steve and hardened him even more.#but Captain America is still keeping up appearances (via assetandmission)