[ Steve breathes out. Not a sigh, but a tired breath anyway as he focuses his energy on calming down. ]

Being good and being successful don't always go hand in hand. If that were true, everyone would probably do it a lot more often and no one would have to suffer. Helping people, doing good for anyone, including yourself, is hard. It's not guaranteed to work out even when you try. But if you do try, that's all anyone can ask of you. You tried. You made an attempt, which is something not everyone does.

Not just you, Loki. You're not the only one who's ever gotten people hurt when they've tried to help them or failed to protect yourself when the danger got too great. Those things don't cancel out what you do. You don't mean less because of them. What happened to you... I'm sorry it did. I can't make that right for you either.

But I would have tried.