[ For his part, Sam keeps his shields on lock down as well, trying not to let anything slip out. He'd gotten lax about keeping them up around Bucky, with how much they’d been in each other’s heads towards the end of their time in Concordia, keeping Bucky grounded. It'd only been when Bucky started avoiding him that he'd realized how used to it he's already become.

So keeping himself back is only part out of a desire to give Bucky privacy and not overwhelm him. The rest of it is his own issues about having someone in his head, about missing their presence when it's not there, and it unsettles him.

Still, that doesn't stop him from grinning a little. ]

There's the snarky jackass I've been missing. You're gonna hurt my feelings here, man, you know you don't gotta literally run away from me any more, right?