"He's just a dumb kid. Didn't need a permanent injury." Bucky could have disarmed him, in the quite literal sense of the word. It seemed unnecessary.

But he is rethinking having intervened thus where people could see. Or at least, where one particularly, stubbornly interested person could see. He makes a mental note to do more observation of the fighting lessons at the palace; it might be worth adapting his own style to blend in more. "Sometimes you want your target alive and mostly unharmed. That's all."

Bucky, normal people don't refer to others as targets.