[ oh, goddamnit. he feels.. wobbly, suddenly, at the hug, and before he can stop himself or even think about it, he's wrapping both of his own around steve in a brief, hard return hug. how the hell is he going to go back home without him now? ]

Yeah, [ he agrees a little shakily, and pulls back with an unsteady breath, reaching up to squeeze steve's arm. ] Guess I was still looking pretty rough the last time you saw me, huh?

[ he glances away so steve doesn't see how emotional he's feeling about all of this, shifting to unstack the boxes and open them up. it gives him something to do with his hands and a reason not to look into steve's face. ]

It's, uh, been a couple of years since then. The U.S. even made me go to therapy. [ a beat. ] It sucked.