Summary: Despite getting a fast and straight to the point response, someone remains unconvinced.
Steve had been lying in bed the entire morning, trying to get some more sleep. The previous night had not been kind to him at all as he spent it coughing continually. He tried taking water to ease it up but that didn't do anything but make him go to the bathroom more often. He tried taking medicine that he really hated because of its taste but that didn't work either. With all his attempts failing, he resigned himself to riding it out.
By the time morning came, he heard the mansion come alive with activity. A lot of the Avengers were morning persons so it was no surprise to hear movement outside. He guessed that Bruce was one of the people who left early. After all, it was another off-site day for him.
He waited a bit longer and ended up falling asleep only to wake up around thirty minutes later because of his rather persistent coughing. It was getting bad. Last week it was the colds that still hadn't left him but had significantly cleared up and now it was the coughing. He swore that he would never go back to Asgard again. EVER.
Looking at the windows and seeing the sunlight streaming through it, as well as some birds by the window sill hopping about, the super soldier decided to get up and start his day. Might as well since it was nearly 11 in the morning.
Sighing, he walked up to his BannerPhone (It was a StarkPhone but Bruce made quick work of that one fine day,) and saw a small envelope on the screen. He had a message, apparently. Tinkering with it for a few moments, he finally got the device to display the message that was from Bruce.
Reading it, he frowned and felt his heart sink even more. Now he felt even worse. Bruce admitted he was stressed, never really a good sign. What was even worse was the fact that there was no refute on everything being focused on him lately. That confirmed things for him even more and it was very disheartening.
"So I really was being selfish..."
With a very heavy sigh, he unplugged his phone from the charger before walking back to bed and slumped down.
"...nice going Rogers..."
Navigating his way around the system to compose a message, he trained his eyes on the screen to make sure he wouldn't mispress the buttons there.
Stop being too nice and going too easy on me. I deserve the blame and you know it. It doesn't take one rocket scientist to figure out that you're the one who has the shorter straw on this relationship, Bruce, and frankly that's just unfair.
You deserve more than this. You deserve better than this.
Steve looked at the last line he had typed and felt a rush of guilt. It was true...Bruce deserved so much better.
With that, he hit the send button.