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“Look at you smiling, Ava Starr, like the cat that ate the…pigeon or whatever.”
“Canary, I believe,” Ava answered Yelena, her crisp accent wrapping around each word as she surveyed her surroundings in satisfaction. “It’s just…I’ve never had a home before, you know? And now, we’re all living here. Together.”
“Me either,” Bob said from the doorway, dressed in a pair of gray sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt. Not the most stylish or flattering of fashion choices, but still a huge step up from the hospital garb he’d wore for most of their acquaintance.
“I don’t suppose I have either. At least not for a very long time,” Yelena acknowledged wistfully. Was this really happening? Were they all really a team? Were they all really going to live in the Tower together?
“I’ve already called dibs on my space!” Walker’s very loud, very obnoxious voice carried from somewhere beyond.
“It’s not perfect,” Yelena sighed.
“No, it is not,” Ava answered with a sly grin, before raising her voice to answer him. “Let me know where, so I can be sure to find a separate floor far away from you!”
“Who’s this little guy?” Bob said happily as if unaware that Walker was causing an annoyance, his gaze transfixed on the guinea pig hiding in Yelena’s jacket.
“What an adorable little menace,” Ava gasped, noticing it for the first time.
“Thank you,” Yelena smirked. “I am flattered.”
“Oh, not you. Get over yourself,” Ava retorted, reaching a finger out to gently rub the creature’s forehead. “I meant this wee little fellow. What’s his name?”
“Can I…uh…” Bob reached out a hand but hesitated. “Never mind.”
Yelena and Ava shared a look, before Yelena extracted the animal. “Actually Bob, do you think you could hold her for me? I will have to get the enclosure, the food, the water bottle, the toys, so many things for such a small animal.”
Bob beamed as she held the animal out to him.
“Does he have a name?” Ava asked again.
“No, there has been no time. I rescued her from a lab and then well, I have been very busy with you all.”
“A lab? She was experimented on?” Bob asked in dismay.
“He will need a name. A name is very important.”
Yelena shrugged at Ava. “I don’t know. Guinea? Oooh, Ginny. Ginny the Guinea Pig. It rolls off the tongue, yeah?”
“Do you know for certain it is a girl?”
“No.”
“Well, you should know, don’t you think? I’m sure there’s a way to look.”
“You look.”
“It’s not my pet!”
They both turned to Bob. “I’m fine not knowing,” he answered quickly.
“Well, if it’s a male, I think Reginald is a fine choice. That is a very stately name.”
“Reginald?” Yelena scoffed, her gaze softening as she watched Bob nuzzle the animal. She let out a mournful sigh. “It’s such a shame I can’t keep her. Or him.”
“You can’t?” Bob’s brow wrinkled with worry.
“I’m afraid not. She can make quite the racket at night. All that noise. I need my sleep.”
“Oh well. Yes. That’s bad.” He bit his bottom lip. “I mean, I could…you know…maybe he could stay with me. I’ll be here more. I won’t be able to go out with you all until I get everything under control. I could maybe keep him? Or her. I guess we do need to figure that out.” His face was carefully blank, as if he was afraid to hope.
“I, for one, think that’s an excellent idea,” Ava chimed in, immediately picking up on what Yelena was doing. “I mean, this one needs her sleep. We do not need her even more moody out there on assignments.”
“Hey now! What’s that supposed to mean? I’m not moody.” She frowned at Ava, before turning to Bob. “If you’re sure it will be no trouble?”
“Oh none. No trouble at all.”
“Well then, Bob, maybe you should name the guinea pig, since you’re keeping her?”
“Fluffy sounds good,” Bob said with a nod, before grinning at them both. “Actually though…you like Ginny. You like Reginald. How about Gin? That works for both.”
“I like the way you think, Bob,” Yelena nodded.
“And that reminds me of something else we need to get for the tower.”
“I like the way you think, too, Ava Starr.”
********TWO DAYS LATER**********
“I’ve lost Gin!” Bob fretted, bouncing from side to side, eyes frantic as he stared from Yelena to Ava, back to Yelena. “I don’t know what happened. I thought she was just in her hideout, because I understand needing to get away sometimes. But I didn’t see her for a long time, so then I checked in the hideout and she wasn’t in there. I don’t know how long she’s been gone. This was a bad idea. I never should have taken her. I should have-”
“Bob. Bob, it is okay. It will be okay.”
“I lost her,” he returned, shaking his head in misery at Yelena. “I wasn’t careful. I don’t know how it happened. Her enclosure was still latched. I don’t know how she got out.”
“We’ll find her,” Ava promised.
“Listen to her. She disappears all the time, but she always shows back up,” Yelena joked to lighten the mood. “Just poof. There she is.” Bob smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Let’s start in your room and see-”
“OMG! I SEE A RAT!” They all heard Alexei’s voice thunder from the main room.
“KILL IT!” Came Walker’s booming reply.
“NO!” Yelena, Ava, and Bob all yelled at the same time, taking off at a run when they heard a single gunshot.
“Who fires a shot!” Ava said aghast.
“You did not just kill Gin!” Yelena growled, ready to brawl.
“Who the hell is Gin?” Walker asked. To be fair, he and Alexei had not been there the day they brought the guinea pig into the tower. And honestly, they’d kept it under wraps afraid that Bucky would balk at them keeping animals at the tower.
“Bob’s pet!”
“Bob has a pet rat?”
“I got it!” Alexei announced boisterously as he entered the room, thrusting something at Walker.
“I don’t want it!”
“We must get place fumigated. Very displeasing we live with rodents!”
Walker made a retching noise as he held the animal up.
“My gawd, it’s an actual rat,” Ava gulped as she and Bob both jumped behind Yelena.
“You kill people for a living,” Yelena admonished Ava.
“I don’t,” Bob said, peeking at John from where he crouched behind Yelena’s shoulder.
“I don’t like rats. Or snakes. Or spiders,” Ava said defensively.
“You just gave us way too much ammunition, Starr,” John said holding the rat as far away from him as he could.
“Oh bugger,” Ava winced, because it was true. Why had she let her guard down like that? She barely knew these people. She felt the need to bully John to make herself feel better. “You’re holding a rat. Fitting that.”
“Ha, ha. Very funny,” Walker sneered.
“We still don’t know where Gin is,” Bob said worriedly.
“Again, who the hell is Gin?”
“I have gin in my room,” Alexei announced proudly. “Not as good as vodka. I have that too.”
“Could you do something with that rat,” Yelena grumbled.
“And don’t fire shots in our home!” Ava scolded.
“I didn’t kill it or shoot it!”
“Who the hell fired a shot in the tower?” They heard Bucky bellow.
“Great. Look what you did,” Yelena scowled at Walker.
“I didn’t-”
“Great going, Walker,” Ava snapped.
“I didn’t-”
“Who fired the shot?” Bucky stalked into the room.
“You found Gin!” Bob exclaimed, pointing to the little guinea pig resting in the crook of the Winter Soldier’s arm.
“Where did you find her?” Ava asked.
“She was climbing up the wall of the training room. Literally. She was halfway up it. Why is John holding a rat?”
“Guinea pigs do not climb like that,” Yelena frowned.
“They also don’t somersault down into someone’s hands when you say it’s time to get down, but this one did.”
“Bob, you said you couldn’t figure out how she got out. That the enclosure was still shut,” Ava began. “Do you think she opened it, let herself out, and then closed it back?”
“Are you thinking Gin is enhanced?”
“I don’t know. Maybe?”
“Where did you get this thing?” Bucky asked, looking down at the guinea pig in his arms in consternation.
“From Val’s lab,” Yelena answered.
“The same lab that was doing work like, I don’t know, the Sentry project?” Bucky’s accusing gaze raked over Yelena.
“Maaaybe.”
Alexei let out a rowdy peel of laughter. “We have a super-pet! A super-pet fit for a team of super-heroes!”
“Walker, could you please do something about that rat!” Ava said again.
“And don’t shoot in the tower,” Bucky warned.
“I didn’t kill the rat,” Walker said stomping off. “Or shoot it!”
“We can still keep the guinea pig though, right?” Bob asked worriedly.
“No, we can’t keep it!” Bucky answered.
“Of course we will keep it,” Yelena said at the same time.
“Let’s do the vote,” Alexei said. “All in favor of keeping the super-pet, raise the hands.” Bucky gritted his teeth as everyone’s hands shot up. He arched a brow at Alexei. “It is a super-pet. We need to keep the super-pet.”
“I’m with Bucky,” Walker called from another room, hearing the conversation with his enhanced hearing. “We can’t keep-”
“Fine. We’ll keep it,” Bucky interrupted, always ready to disagree with Walker.
“Yaaay! We have super-pet,” Alexei declared. “This is great team, with great, super-pet!”