[It doesn't really answer Steve's question - he still doesn't know what happened to this Bucky, or why, or what kind of super soldier he is. If he went through torture, if it was willingly or not, or if all he had to endure were those endless two minutes of feeling like your body was being ripped to pieces and then put back together again.
It takes him a minute to answer, partly because the memory hurts, and partly because he has to be careful about what he says.]
Zola tortured him. In Italy, before I could get there.
[Short and sweet. And the truth, if not all of it. But if he thought that question was hard to answer, the next really knocks him for a loop.]
I - [He stutters, then stops. It's not really a complicated question. All it needs is a yes or no, but Steve honestly doesn't know what to say. How to answer it. Because the truthful answer is "no," after all - but he's supposed to be playing along with the idea that the answer is "yes," here. Either way, the answer carries with it about six metric tons of guilt and the reminder that he's not only not a perfect soldier, he's a pretty awful friend because he should have gone back for the body and he didn't and he can never, ever explain why he didn't because he doesn't know, himself. He was in too much pain to push when the big wigs said no, but that still doesn't seem like an excuse. He's been in pain in some form or another for most of his life, and he always managed to push through. Why should that time have been any different?
So instead, after a minute of floundering, he figures... he can pull the same trick. It's not a lot easier than answering the question, honestly, but he asks one of his own:] You died?
Spam; Oct. 3
It takes him a minute to answer, partly because the memory hurts, and partly because he has to be careful about what he says.]
Zola tortured him. In Italy, before I could get there.
[Short and sweet. And the truth, if not all of it. But if he thought that question was hard to answer, the next really knocks him for a loop.]
I - [He stutters, then stops. It's not really a complicated question. All it needs is a yes or no, but Steve honestly doesn't know what to say. How to answer it. Because the truthful answer is "no," after all - but he's supposed to be playing along with the idea that the answer is "yes," here. Either way, the answer carries with it about six metric tons of guilt and the reminder that he's not only not a perfect soldier, he's a pretty awful friend because he should have gone back for the body and he didn't and he can never, ever explain why he didn't because he doesn't know, himself. He was in too much pain to push when the big wigs said no, but that still doesn't seem like an excuse. He's been in pain in some form or another for most of his life, and he always managed to push through. Why should that time have been any different?
So instead, after a minute of floundering, he figures... he can pull the same trick. It's not a lot easier than answering the question, honestly, but he asks one of his own:] You died?