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It had been a long month. Missions all over the world infiltrating and taking down more Hydra bases than you could remember. Some were purely scientific, some were armed to the brim with enemy agents, but all were dangerous. All the Avengers had been required to help out, which meant you and Natasha had been sent on back-to-back missions, with no time to even come home in between.
It would have been fine usually, but now you had Jeff.
He had actually wanted to come, and his vicious bite might have come in handy a few times, but being the responsible land shark owner you were, you couldn’t allow him to accompany you into life-threatening situations. Natasha convinced you to drop Jeff off at Yelena’s house, only at the promise that her sister would send frequent updates on Jeff’s situation, and that she wouldn’t traumatise Jeff again.
It was the first place you were going now that the missions were over, before even going home. Jeff was your priority.
“You know, I think we should take a holiday,” Natasha said suddenly, midway through the drive to her sister’s house.
“Oh yeah?”
“Well we’ve got those two weeks off on Fury’s request, I just think we might as well do something with it”
“Alright. Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know, maybe a cabin somewhere. We don’t even have to leave the state, I just think a location change would be good”
“Yeah okay. We’ll have a look once we pick Jeff up”
Jeff was outside the house when you pulled up. His head shot up at the familiar-sounding car, and he raced towards you two once you got out, his whole body shaking with excitement.
“Hey buddy,” you smiled, crouching down to pet him while he purred in contentment, “yeah I missed you too”. He let you pet him, before hopping between you and Natasha, unsure which one of you to greet after such a long time apart.
Fanny came running over a minute later, greeting you both almost as excitedly as Jeff, before springing down to a crouch, goading Jeff into playing again.
Yelena invited you and Natasha inside, leaving the two of them outside to continue to play outside.
Despite that, the three of you wound up by the window, seeing Jeff and Fanny running and tackling each other on the other side,
“Have they been doing that a lot?” Natasha asked
“Mm, Fanny likes to play, it took your shark a couple of days to get into it. He likes it now, you should get another one so he can play more.”
“I’m pretty sure Jeff is one of a kind” you stated
“Get a dog then”
“No.” Natasha stopped instantly, before you could even think about it.
“I’m just saying, he could use a friend” Yelena shrugged, finally turning away from the window and changing the topic to how the missions went.
An hour later and you were finally heading home. You talked to Jeff as he sat on your lap, with Natasha doing the driving.
“Yeah, Jeff would like to go on holiday with us too, he likes your idea”
The Russian smirked as she shook her head slowly, “I’m sure Jeff would”
“Yeah that’s what I just said”
She opted to ignore you. “I found a nice place up North we can book for the week, it’s available as soon as tomorrow if you’re up for it.”
“Absolutely”
“Mrrr”
“Jeff is up for it too” you translated.
“Great”
You packed the suitcase with clothes, before going off to grab other objects from around the house. Jeff had been sitting with you the whole time, and that was you first mistake. Leaving him to his own devices for so long was the second one.
“Jeff,” you sighed, “what is this?”. By the time you returned to the room, the bag was overflowing with various items, and Jeff was in the middle of dragging his bed towards the pile. He paused when you entered though, dropping the bed to ‘mrr’ at you.
“No, we don’t need all this”
“Mrrr”
“We’re only going away for a week, we’re not moving. And why do you even want your bed anyway? You never use it, you always sleep on ours”
“Mrrr” he explained, flopping onto his back legs.
“We won’t kick you off it’s okay, now help me put everything back, we can keep Jeff Jr. but not the bed”
The next day and you were on the way to the cabin, your bag still slightly too full since Jeff wouldn’t compromise on what to take out, but since you were driving, it wasn’t too big an issue, although Natasha did roll her eyes at your compliance with the land shark. It was a struggle to carry into the cabin once you arrived, even with Jeff offering his help and lifting it from below with his head.
It was a cozy space, with a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living room. Everything you would need for the week. It was in the middle of a forest too, giving you isolation from the outside world, a nice change from living in the city.
“I’m just gonna use the toilet” your girlfriend called, darting off as you finished unpacking. Jeff whined, hopping urgently.
“You need the toilet too?” you sighed, “Jeff you’re a shark, you can go outside if you’re desperate”
“Mrrr!!”
“Yeah okay I’ll let you out”
Jeff ran out quickly and you sighed, flopping onto the sofa. You hadn’t had much time to relax between the missions, but now you were free to do what you want, so you could just sit, scroll on your phone, and watch TV.
It was a while later that Natasha came down, and you looked up from your phone when she did. Your smile met with her anxious glances around the room.
“You okay?” you asked, diverting your attention to her completely,
“Have you seen Jeff?”
“Uh, I let him outside a while ago”
“You let him outside? Unsupervised?”
“Yeah?”
“We’re on holiday! In the middle of the woods! It’s not just our garden outside, he could wander off anywhere!”
“I don’t think you’re giving him enough credit, he’s a very smart shark. And he always knows to knock when he wants to come back in.”
“We need to go find him” she scolded, uncompromising.
You sighed, nodding as you got up off the sofa. A knock on the back door interrupted you first, followed by Russian yelling.
“Woah, what’s- oh” you finally saw what it was. Jeff had knocked to come back in, but he wasn’t alone. By his side was a small black bear cub, the two animals smiling happily and innocently.
“No. Shoo” Natasha waved from inside, signalling the bear to go elsewhere. Jeff mistook that though, and nodded for the bear to follow him away to go play, just like he had been doing with Fanny. That only panicked the redhead more, with the bears claws and teeth flashing dangerously close to Jeff.
“It’s okay, I’ll go talk to him” you reassured, only managing to get a step outside before Natasha grabbed your wrist to stop you.
“You can’t just talk to a bear, have you seen how sharp it’s claws are?”
You stared at her blankly, opening your mouth to talk and then shutting it again. “My whole thing is talking to animals, that’s my superpower”
Jeff and the bear had noticed you coming out, and made their way to greet you now, much to Natasha’s displeasure. She jumped back as the bear cub got closer, while you knelt down to pet it.
“He’s very friendly” you smiled, looking back at Natasha, “he enjoys playing with Jeff, they’re good friends now apparently”
“wait, you can actually talk to animals?” Natasha asked,
“Yeah?”
“Since when?!”
You looked over at Jeff, trying to work out how long, “maybe a couple of months, I’m not sure, it took a while to develop”
“And you didn’t think to tell me?”
“Well I talked to Jeff about it, he helped. And you’ve seen me talk to Jeff and never questioned it, so I just thought you knew”
“The bear says that sounds reasonable” you added after the cub growled.
“The bear is wrong. It’s not. And you’ve always talked to Jeff, I thought it was just a joke, like how Yelena talks to Fanny!”
“Oh no, although Fanny said that Yelena is pretty accurate at telling what she wants, so maybe you should talk to your sister about that.”
Natasha sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. Jeff and the bear both wished you luck, sneaking off to go play in the forest again because she looked annoyed. “Did you even go to medical?” she asked at last,
“No. I’m not ill, why would I?”
“You’re a child. A literal child.”
“You’re dating me. That makes you a paedo.”
“I didn’t mean- oh god”
You laughed, finally getting Natasha off of the topic of your new found powers.
“Where’s Jeff now, and the bear cub?” the redhead diverted, scanning the woods.
“They went to play, they thought you were mad.” You began walking, going deeper in search of them, Natasha sticking to you closely.
“I’m not mad” she stated,
“Just disappointed?”
“No, not even that, just confused. Oh! There they are!” she added suddenly.
The bear cub was on his back, Jeff jumping all around him and over him at times. A loud growl, one that definitely didn’t come from the bear cub, sounded out. The cub jumped up sheepishly, and even Jeff backed off. You followed their line of sight to see a fully grown bear, which you took to be the mother.
“Uh oh, someone’s in trouble” you whispered as the bear cub got scolded, at least until you heard the reason. “Hey! Jeff’s not dangerous!”
Natasha grabbed the back of your shirt before you could storm to defend your land shark.
“Do not fight the bear Y/N”
“Yeah well the bear is being rude. She doesn’t want her son playing with Jeff because he’s ‘vicious’”
“He does have pretty sharp teeth, and I wasn’t so sure about Jeff playing with a bear. Maybe use your abilities and just talk to the bear politely?”
You frowned, calming down enough that Natasha let you go. “Fine. Look, Jeff will not harm your son, they’re friends, and he’s very in control of his teeth, he doesn’t bite.”
The mother bear growled again.
“Yeah I’m not sure how you can understand me. But we also mean no harm, we’re just staying in that cabin for the week,” you indicated behind you as you spoke.
She nodded, picking the cub up and walking deeper into the woods.
“What happened?” Natasha asked.
“She says they can keep playing while we’re here, but he needs to go eat now”
“So we’re going to get a bear showing up on our doorstep every day”
“Pretty much”
“…we’ve had worse”
And so it was. You and Natasha got your time to relax alone, letting Jeff out in the morning to a whole litter of bear clubs ready to play, and bringing him back in when the bear wanted her cubs back.
“You know, maybe Yelena was right about getting another pet” Natasha mused,
You beamed, already excited at the prospect.
“But not a dog. Jeff is already close enough to that.”