He didn't think that he had done anything more or less than any other best friend would do if the circumstances had been the same, but most people didn't want a scrawny kid as a friend. He happened to have taken to Stephanie as strongly as she had taken to him when they were kids and it was everything they could do to be friends together. "I think you are making me into a far more valorous man than I actually am or was. I only did what everyone else would do for a friend." That was what he believed.

He felt the pressure of her fingers on his skin through his shirt, felt it more keenly than he thought that he should. It was probably just getting back to old roots when he had been denied so many months and then the torture he suffered under while with Hydra. His arm tightened around her waist, holding her close and finding comfort in it. "To your?" He caught her slip immediately. "And I'm sure after some more sleep and a meal, I'll be just fine."