Bucky doesn’t remember the last time it felt like someone unleashed a whole greenhouse full of butterflies in his stomach, but goddamn if Steve nuzzling against him like that didn’t manage it. It’s the gentleness of it that burrows underneath his skin, he can feel the brush of Steve’s nose against the bare splash of skin in the hollow of his neck.

“Then my master plan is playing out perfectly,” he murmurs, kissing the top of Steve’s head.