Buck reads people, and these pilots are tired and drunk and a little pissed off because they wanted to do the jobs themselves. He can sympathize. He really can.
But it’s one thing to tease about how Bucky touches. It’s another to imply that it’s wrong somehow. Bucky’s touch is one of the few things that brings Buck a little quiet in this fucking war, and he won’t have it insulted.
So, there’s going to be a fight.
G, canon-divergence. So, what if Buck had taken the fight against the RAF guys? This is a short, gorgeous, slightly feral Buck POV.