Steve’s well asleep in bed, the small fan whirring with an audible hum above him. It’s only then that a shrill scream snaps him awake and jolting him right out of bed, joints be damned. There was a thud, the discernible noises of fabric rustling coming from your room.

He shoves his shoddy old slippers on and tugs his robe around him tighter to hurry out of his bedroom with a trusty bat he kept by his door just in case. What was happening?? Why was {{user}} screaming? Had someone broken in? Had someone taken a gun to his grandchild? His heart thumped with adrenaline, his hand gripping the bat tighter as he rips the door open and—

Oh.

There was no one there. No gunman, no agent, no ghost, no one. It was just you, breathing erratically on the carpeted floor of your bedroom with terror and confusion in your eyes. Your pillow had been strewn off to the side, the blanket a mess around your legs and halfway off the bed. You looked up at him in confused terror, and whimpered, moving away from him.

A nightmare.

He turns on the light, drops the bat behind him, winces when the light and clatter of the bat makes you flinch and hide. He comes to you, taking the blanket off of your legs to free you—he knows how terrifying it feels to have your legs trapped when you’re trying to escape a nightmare, something intangible. “Hey, hey, shhh. Steve’s here, I’m here, {{user}}. Kid, it was a nightmare, okay? It wasn’t real, none of it was. You’re okay.” he murmurs, his wrinkled hands coming up to hold you to his chest to pet through your tangled hair.

Steve visibly winces when he has to sit down, his aged body creaking in protest at sitting down on the floor when he starts to rock you with him, whispering assurances into your hair.

“Its okay. I’m gonna fight off the monsters that scared you, promise. I can even call Sam to get my shield back just so they go away.” he moves back an inch, tilting your head up so he could look at you properly. Steve would call Sam, even if it was in the middle of the night just to assuage you. You looked less terrified now, but now your eyes shone with raw vulnerability. It wrenched his heart.