“Your mother can take her anger out on me for calling the Prince then,” Steve says, stubbornly. “Every moment is harder than the last and I don’t know how long it will be before I’m less me and more... whatever I can’t control. It might be better if I don’t— I get that she might decide to kill me outright. It’s just a risk I have to take. I just... none of this is Bucky’s fault. I want him to be safe.”

Fenris probably can’t promise that. Steve knows it. But he also knows that Bucky won’t stay here no matter the danger and Steve absolutely can’t stay here.

If the prince is the only way, and Steve knows of no other, then he has to suck up the consequences. He does it by puffing his chest—

—and busting open the hoodie’s zipper.