Despite their seventy years apart, Bucky can still read Steve better than anyone else on the planet. He's glad to hear that Steve's okay with being here in Wakanda, because there really is nowhere else for them right now. King T'Challa has given them refuge away from the rest of the world, and no one can follow them here. Wakanda has been hidden for centuries, a secret from the rest of the world.

Steve's admission makes him pause though, bread and curry halfway to his mouth.

Hydra had taken his mating gland, cut it out as yet another way to control him. He still goes through what an alpha should, naturally, but bonding is out of the question. There's a chance that he could regrow it with whatever knock off serum the Soviets had given him, but it's unlikely. He's still missing an arm, after all.

Still, he can't smell Steve, and he's not sure he likes that.

"Why don't you just go off 'em? Can't be healthy, takin' that shit. Ain't like i haven't helped you out before, in a heat."