Hillary hesitated a bit, and then tucked herself cautiously against his side. The end of her tail curled around one of his ankles loosely and she put her head on his shoulder.

Steve slid an arm around her, letting her get comfortable there and just relaxing. This he could absolutely get used to.

Hillary just basked in his body heat for a while, relaxing.

"Remind me sometime, I don't think I've shown you my venom, yet," she murmured to him. "It can melt through an inch of steel in under a minute."

Steve blinked at that. "Sounds useful, if you ever needed to defend yourself," he said, glancing down at her.

"It's a pain sometimes," Hillary admitted. "Sometimes I produce it whether I want to or not, and it's not like it's safe to just spit it out anywhere." She made a bit of a face. "At least I'm immune to my own venom."

Steve chuckled quietly at that. "I imagine that comes in handy," he said with a small grin. "Besides, it is useful, so there is that."

Hillary rolled her eyes a bit and settled a bit closer to him.

"So you're okay with all... this?" she asked, gesturing to her tail.

"Yes," Steve said, pulling her closer. "I'm fine with this. I'm fine with who and what you are."

Hillary closed her eyes as she was pulled closer and searched their bond for any hint that he might be hiding the truth from her. She relaxed more when she didn't find anything but earnest sincerity.

Steve was being sincere, and he was relaxed, not even a hint of deception in him. He was bad at deception, anyway, that was more Natasha's territory.

Hillary relaxed at that and snuggled into his side some more.

"Stay here with me?" she asked softly. "I'm going to be stuck inside for a couple more days."

"I'll stay," Steve agreed. "As long as you want me to." He settled in there, content for the moment.

"Thanks," Hillary said. His contentment echoed across the bond, mirroring hers.

Elsewhere, Bucky was still keeping watch at the safe house, making sure nobody could get in.

By that night, Liz felt well enough to get up, although she still swayed a bit when she did. Her hip was fine and had healed the fastest, of course, so she just had to worry about the other two wounds.

Bucky kept a sharp eye on her, making sure she was really okay enough to be up and about. The safe house was stocked enough that he wouldn't need to have anything brought in until the next day, so he just ended up locking the place down and settling in for another night of keeping watch.

Liz made it to the bathroom and back on her own, and she carefully settled on the couch again.

"You going to sleep tonight?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"Probably not," Bucky replied, shrugging. Hey, at least he was honest about it. "I'm fine. I'll keep watch tonight."

"You need to sleep eventually," Liz said, her eyes closing briefly. She could tell he wasn't tired, not yet, but he was weary in other ways. She frowned.

"Not right now, and that's what matters," Bucky replied, settling in so he could keep watch near the windows.

Liz frowned a bit but settled down to try to sleep. She knew she needed it, after all. "Wake me up in a few hours," she muttered, focusing on him long enough to make sure he'd heard.

Bucky made a vague neutral sound at that. He had no intention of waking her up, not when she clearly needed the sleep, so he didn't promise one way or the other.

Liz noticed and snorted quietly at that, but she managed to fall asleep.

She got a solid five hours of sleep before she started twitching, mumbling under her breath. She managed to curl in on herself, even the sharp pains in her back not waking her yet.

Bucky could tell she was having a nightmare; he could feel it across their bond. Cautiously, he tugged on the nightmare, pulling it away from her and trying to replace it with something less distressing. He eventually settled on giving her a memory that he rather liked, of him making friends with Stark's pet robots.

Liz settled down again, relaxing back into a more restful sleep. She did curl a hand around a pillow, though, clearly hoping for something a bit more solid and substantial. Like a person.

Bucky could feel that, as well, and for a moment, he was torn between going to her to give her what she wanted and keeping strict watch. Finally, the bond wore him down enough that he gave in. Once he made sure the windows and door were all secure, he made sure his rifle was close and then settled down next to Liz.