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Bucky was in his animal shift, rolling happily around on the floor.
He looked like a real dog in that moment, Tony noted from his perch on the table-- safely out of the way of flailing limbs. His nose twitched, only for him to still in worry a second later.
Bucky had turned onto his side and was rubbing his head against the rug. Not just his head, but his ear, specifically. Like it itched.
Tony hopped off the table and transformed back into human form. "Honey, what are you doing?"
Bucky tilted his head to Tony for a moment, panting happily, then went back to rubbing his ear against the rug.
"Okay, you need to not be doing that," Tony said, mostly to himself. He knelt down and put his hands on Bucky's stomach. At his touch, Bucky stilled. Tony nudged his head to the side so he could get at the ear that was bothering him. He hesitated for a second, then dug his fingers in, giving the ear a good, hard scratch. Bucky let out a sigh of relief. Now, he was no canine expert, but it seemed to him that his boyfriend might have ear mites. "You might need to go to a real doctor." He let go of Bucky's ear and sat back.
Bucky whined.
"I know you don't like it, but you have to. There's something wrong."
Bucky huffed and pointedly turned onto his other side.
"You realize I'm bigger than you right now, right?" Tony said. He didn't even have to stand up to walk around to Bucky's other side, he could just lean forward.
Bucky pretended not to hear him.
Tony wasn't above playing dirty, so he texted Steve for help. Playing really dirty would be picking up Bucky, but the two of them had rules about that sort of thing; if Bucky wasn't allowed to pick Tony up-- which he wasn't, even though he was aware that he made a very adorable bunny-- then Tony wasn't allowed to pick him up.
Bucky turned back as Tony was putting his phone away, and it was only to peer at Tony suspiciously. "What were you doing?"
"Nothing," Tony said, eyes wide and tone far too innocent-sounding to be real; it was the only way he lied to Bucky-- when he knew for a fact that Tony was lying.
He narrowed his eyes, then transformed back and crawled into Tony's lap.
Tony pet his head, but he was very careful to avoid touching his ear again. He was going to let someone else handle this, someone who was actually qualified to deal with it. In this case, Steve. Not that he was ever going to call Steve 'more qualified' to his face. They didn't have that kind of friendship.