( yeah, obviously he's gonna pick the easier topic here and completely ignore the gentle probe. look at him, totally deaf to it, definitely didn't pick up on it at all.

(they're alright, anyway. had the closest thing to a talk they ever really get — an earnest apology on his end, a gentle dismissal on Steve's, and then they carried on like that somehow fixed it all.)

he huffs out a breath that is and isn't a laugh. )

Doubt it. We've been on the outs since before you were born.

( hurr hurr hurr, old age. he reaches out to take a screwdriver from her, uses it on a screw that his left hand isn't quite numble enough to twist. )

Used to be I could drop just about anywhere and sleep like the dead for half a day. Now...

( Ha. Nope. Four hours on a good night. )