Grant had the most obvious reaction, mouth hung open, an immediate leap to his feet. "Wait a second, will you? What competition-- You're-- you've the wrong idea. No one, sorry to speak for you Steve, no one is waiting for you to just make up your mind here and decide if--"

Steve reached out to gently put a hand to Grant's shirt and tug him back down into his seat. There wasn't any struggle, thankfully, and no shirts had to be harmed in the process. He watched the younger man put a hand over his face and then cleared his throat. "Maybe you have the wrong idea. Maybe you both do. I'm only after friendship," Steve said. He was the lay on the wire guy here. He was the superior officer to them both. He made the touch calls. He did the harder mission. Him. Not them.

Grant again felt his jaw drop open. "Bucky is not a commodity!" Even Steve was startled by that and he blinked down at Grant. "No one should be offering him to anyone. He's his own person. He gets to make his own decisions. And whatever that decision is, we have to be all right with it."

There was a passion there that Steve hadn't lost, but had still been tempered inside of him through pain and age and understanding of what was acceptable this day and age. Grant didn't have that yet. His passion was still pure and real. "You're right. This is up to Bucky..."

"And now you should probably kiss him. So that we can be even," Grant continued. "Because that's what's fare." He frowned a little at himself. "But only if he wants. And he probably does. And that's okay. I can go back to my room."

And whoops. There went the other Rogers' selflessness.