It's not that Steve doesn't like hugs - he's just not used to getting so many of them. He's caught a little off guard for a second, though it's only a second before he's laughing softly, helplessly, and wrapping his arms around Rue as best he can.

He's not the kind of guy who's ever thought much about his future with specific regard to joy. He thinks that might have been changing, before he'd gotten here... and now he's here, and things are bad, but also good, in ways he couldn't have ever predicted. Or even imagined.

"Well. It'd better be, if you plan it," he teases back, gently, but mostly because for Steve, teasing like that is one of the ways he shows he cares. It had always been the safest way, after all, with Bucky.

"Thank you," he finally adds, softly, slowly. As genuinely as a person can be.

"But today is your special day, and I should let you get back to it."