Chapter Text
Sam didn’t know why he was surprised. He had always enjoyed his days in the gym. His memories of his teens are peppered with afternoons spent in the sweaty weight room under the high school gym, laughing and rough housing with his teammates. He grew up in that room, a new sense of belonging he wouldn’t feel again until those first weeks of boot camp, when shared bemoaning over sore muscles became the ice breaker between his bunkmates. There was nothing new to this deep ache, the tension under his skin, the unique stench of his own sweat under his nose. And yet he expected to resent this, to struggle with the exertion as much as he had with the reason behind it. But this? This is like coming home.
His feet hit the ground, the impact reverberating up his shins while his stomach adjusts to the vertigo and his hands reach out, bracing for impact. The shield lands in his hold, the metal sliding against the new calluses on his hands. Yeah. This he can do.