He's still so guarded. Steve isn't sure what's going on in the kid's head, even now. On some level he can tell himself it isn't his business, but...if Adrien was perfectly happy with his too-full dance card and the masks he wears to the metaphorical ball, he wouldn't be here, would he?
"Sometimes it feels like that for me," he says thoughtfully, falling back on sincerity, as he always does when he's not sure what advice to give. "Sometimes it feels like the complete opposite. Growing up, all I wanted was a chance to prove myself, show I was worth as much as any other guy. When the war started, I was ready to walk across coals to get into the army. I had asthma, a messed-up back, anemia, flat feet, the works. I lied on my application five separate times before Dr. Erskine picked me up for Project Rebirth."
"And then he turned me into this. And some days I still look into the mirror and get a little bit rattled when I see this face instead of the one I had before the experiment. I guess it took all of this, the shield, the uniform, to get people to look at me, and I'm never sure what they're seeing."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2020-07-01 03:01 am (UTC)"Sometimes it feels like that for me," he says thoughtfully, falling back on sincerity, as he always does when he's not sure what advice to give. "Sometimes it feels like the complete opposite. Growing up, all I wanted was a chance to prove myself, show I was worth as much as any other guy. When the war started, I was ready to walk across coals to get into the army. I had asthma, a messed-up back, anemia, flat feet, the works. I lied on my application five separate times before Dr. Erskine picked me up for Project Rebirth."
"And then he turned me into this. And some days I still look into the mirror and get a little bit rattled when I see this face instead of the one I had before the experiment. I guess it took all of this, the shield, the uniform, to get people to look at me, and I'm never sure what they're seeing."