There is maybe some measure of relief that washes through Steve at that, if only because, "I don't think he - I don't want to ruin anything," he confirms. He doesn't think B feels that way, and it's fine. He doesn't doubt that B loves him as a friend. As a brother. And that had always been more than enough. It's not measuring one kind of love against another. Steve will always love that man, every permutation of him, in every possible universe. But he also loves B for being B.

And he doesn't have to do anything about it.

"I don't know how long we'll get." He knows they plan to stick it out, till the end of the line. He knows the universe usually has different plans. "I don't like it being on someone else's terms," because he doesn't trust the Admiral's utter incompetence, "but I trust B." And what he wants. What he needs. "I won't take this place away from him."