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They noticed it one day when they were coming home from school. A fat black thing with a spot of grey at the tip of its jaw and the pads of its paws, the cat was stretched across the top step, lounging in the sun and completely in the way. Bucky scowled at it as they stood there, trying to figure out how to open the door without disturbing it.
"I think that's the fattest cat I ever seen in my entire life," Bucky murmured as Steve tried to shoo it away, to no avail.
"Yeah, an' it's blocking the door." Steve nudged at the cat with the toe of his shoe, eyeing its paws and watching to see if it extended its claws.
The cat blinked lazily up at them, and both boys held their breath as it stood. Stretched, and took its sweet damn time doing so, before laying back down, curling itself into a ball this time. Steve stifled a laugh as Bucky groaned.
"C'mon, we got homework to do!" It was just a low grumble before he gave up and scooped the cat into his arms. It made quite the sight: Bucky with his scuffed up knees, a big mass of cat melting out from between his spindly arms. He turned to Steve as the cat meowed happily. "Let's go, Stevie."
As it turned out, the cat was the friendliest creature in the world, and after finishing the saucer of milk Steve set out, it made itself comfortable in the sunniest spot on the windowsill. They got most of their homework done before getting distracted and dozing off; when Steve woke a little later, it was to see Bucky slumped back against the couch, fat black cat curled on his chest with the tip of its tail tapping lightly against his cheek. There was a frown on Bucky's face as he mumbled quietly in his sleep, but the cat at least looked happy as a peach, the purring audible as it rumbled along.
Steve couldn't help grinning at the sight, quiet as he shifted, trying to grab for his sketchbook without waking either of them. One yellow eye opened slowly, and the cat watched him silently for a moment before deeming him harmless. He set about sketching the two of them, getting lines down and starting to set into details when a loud whistle rang throughout the little apartment. Both Bucky and the cat jerked straight upright at the sound, the former blinking around owlishly as the latter made a dash for the window. It paused on the threshold, turning back to look at them, and Steve liked to imagine that the drawn-out meow was a "thanks", before another whistle summoned it out the window.
Bucky blinked, frowning at Steve as he scratched absently at his chest. "What happened, Steve? Felt like there was a two ton weight crushing me."
"Probably there was," came the reply, and Steve just grinned as Bucky stared at him.
They didn't get any homework done after that, wrestling as Bucky tried to get Steve to tell him the truth. Sarah Rogers opened the door to find them wrestling over it, and later that night, as he lay in bed, Steve couldn't help wondering just where the cat had gone.
It hadn't escaped anyone how attached the cat had become. It was a little thing, black-furred and sleek, and just as silent as its owner. No one knew just when Natasha had brought the cat to the Tower, only that it'd started showing up one day, and though they couldn't figure out why, most everyone accepted it as simply a thing that had happened. They hadn't, however, been able to predict how much she would like Bucky.
He sat slouched at the end of one of the couches, dark grey hoodie enveloping him and making him look more like a shapeless blob. The cat was on the floor, purring and twisting her way between and around his feet, to his perpetual consternation. Steve, Tony, and Natasha watched in silence as Bucky hissed at her, muttering darkly in a mix of Russian and English, but otherwise not doing much to dissuade her.
"Stop that. Get out of here!"
"Go away, I could kill you!"
"Why do you keep doing that?!"
"Y'know, it'd actually be kind of endearing if he wasn't right about that whole 'I could kill you' thing," Tony drawled quietly, frowning. "Shouldn't one of you go save it? Natasha, it's your cat, right?"
She shook her head, a little smile settling onto her face. "Liho's not mine. She just started following me one day."
"Cap, you have to do something about this," Tony insisted, gesturing toward the couch.
Steve just shook his head, a smile on his face as he watched Bucky with the cat. She'd jumped onto his lap now, and he'd stopped threatening her, furtive as he let her play with his fingers. His left hand, Steve noticed quietly, his heart swelling. He averted his gaze just as Bucky's swept the room, the group of them narrowly missing getting caught. "I think it's good for him."
Natasha smiled at him, and he could see it in her eyes that she thought so, too. There was a different sort of air about her ever since the cat had first started appearing; he wondered if she noticed, figured it best not to tell her if she hadn't. She was a touch more relaxed now, and if the cat - Liho - could have an effect like that on Natasha, then Steve could only hope she'd be good for Bucky, too.
Tony threw his hands up in the air, rolling his eyes, though his voice was still pitched low. "I can't believe this. The world's most prolific trained assassin, and- and you guys think this is cute."
"Well," Natasha looked over at Tony, expression gone flat. "What's wrong with that?"
"He's right," came a voice from behind them, and the three turned to see Bucky had abandoned the couch and was standing a couple feet away. Liho was noticeably curled around his shoulders, her tail trailing along one cheek as she purred, and her head tucked under his chin. "She won't leave me alone," he muttered, visibly perplexed, before turning and padding softly down the hall.
The three Avengers stared as he went, the image of the cat on his shoulders refusing to leave their minds. Tony was, as always, the first to speak up after a moment.
"Okay. I give. God help me, that was. Adorable."