“I’ve broken into military installations, private homes, international embassies, factories, prisons,” Bucky rattled off contemplatively, like itemising most of a century’s worth of ugly work and missions conducted in the dead of night, “and on one really bizarre occasion, a carnival after hours. A man got eaten by a tiger.”

It had been an unconventional way to see the job through, for sure.

Which might’ve been appallingly dark humour around anyone else. He couldn’t levy it around just anyone — Steve would have blanched — but now that he’s with Nat again, he gets to drop some of his hackles. Resurrecting his ability to find that absurdist, tragicomic streak in it all; peeling back one more layer, and behaving more himself. The himself that he’d become.

“So if we need to sneak onto someone’s private beach afterward, hell, that’s nothing.”