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"So. The Tower's now fully operational - thanks to my hard work and funding. You're all welcome."
Ava barely keeps herself from outright rolling her eyes at Val's not-so-humble brag. In front of her sits Walker, who has no such compunction - so he does.
"Ground rules are necessary, of course. The first: absolutely no animals allowed. Which I don't think will be a problem, considering--"
From the other end of the table, Yelena actually laughs without prompting.
Val pauses and stares at her. "Is there a problem, Yelena?"
"No, no. You may continue, Val," Yelena replies, now wearing a shit-eating grin.
Ava's beginning to learn what that look means.
And usually, it means trouble.
It's proven true when the very next day, Yelena brings with her not just a guinea pig, but also a dog to the Tower.
"Everyone!" she announces to all those in the common room with a flourish. "I'd like you all to meet Cucumber--" she lifts the small carrier she has with her, "--and Fanny." She inclines her head towards the whitish brown dog she has on a leash. "My daughters!"
"Whoa," Bob says, immediately moving towards Yelena. "Is that--" He peers inside the carrier. "You have a guinea pig?" He makes it sound like the coolest thing in the world, right then.
"And a dog?" Walker comments, drawn towards the other animal himself.
And Ava just couldn't resist it. "Good to know your eyesight's actually working properly, Walker," she says, grinning at him.
"Oh ha ha." He rolls his eyes at her.
"Yes," Yelena replies, allowing Bob to take the carrier from her hand and letting Walker pet her dog however he likes. "Ever since we got permission from Val herself to bring our animals here--"
"Which did not happen at all," Walker butts in, though a bit distracted by the dog actually licking his hand.
Ew.
Yelena glares at him. "Like I said, when she 100% said to bring our pets here, I thought, you know what? I just might. I am model worker, after all. What better way to set an example for the rest of you?"
"Like we needed more reason for Val to actually want us dead," Ava comments, eyeing the scene in front of her with something a bit close to distaste.
Yelena finally relinquishes the leash to Walker before moving towards the sofa. She shrugs. "Eh. What's one more reason, right? Besides, it's her fault for wanting us to call this place home. And home? Is where pets are. Everyone knows that."
"Cucumber is the cutest little thing, Lena," Bob gushes, giving little waves to the guinea pig still inside the carrier. He glances at Ava. "You want a peek at her? She's beautiful."
"Oh no, no thank you," Ava quickly replies, holding her hands in front of her. "I'm not really a... guinea pig-person, myself."
"You a dog person?" Yelena asks curiously.
Ava glances at the dog in question, who by now has actually managed to tackle Walker to the floor and is giddily licking his face.
Ewwww.
"No. I don't think so," she replies. "But if she bites Walker's neck hard enough to draw blood, then I just might become one."
"Let me guess," Walker says with a laugh as he continues to playfully wrestle with the dog on the floor. "You're one of those snooty cat people, aren't you?"
"Don't ever guess again, because you'd be wrong - though that's hardly surprising," she tells him lightly. "I'm not one of those, either."
Yelena just gives Ava a look, which somehow prompts her to admit, "I'm not really a... pet-person. Grew up in a lab prison, remember? I've never..."
Never really had the opportunity to experience having one.
And then she pauses, hyperaware of three sets of eyes - actually make that five - currently on her person. She fights the urge to disappear through the floor and just clears her throat. "Besides, it feels like too much work, taking care of them." She gestures at the pets.
Yelena exhales at that. "You aren't wrong. They can be very expensive."
"I can help! With the expenses,” Bob volunteers quickly. He pauses and says, "Well, some of them, I guess. A little."
Yelena gives him a soft, fond smile. "Thanks, Bob."
"And, you know. I can help with this one," Walker says, sitting on the floor, still petting Yelena's... Fanny... beside him, and trying hard to appear nonchalant. "I mean. If you want."
Yelena cringes and whispers to Ava, "Never thought I'd be co-parenting Fanny with Walker, of all people, but here we are."
"I heard that, Belova."
"I know you did, asshole."
"--what's all this?"
Six sets of eyes swing towards the door that Bucky's now occupying, standing there with an unreadable look on his face.
Ava cringes, almost anticipating him getting angry at the sight before him. Or maybe not angry angry, per se. Inscrutably disappointed, maybe?
But Yelena merely grins, almost challenging him to react. "What's it look like? I brought my daughters home, Bucky. As per Mama Val's explicit instructions."
Bucky draws his brows together, eyes darting from the dog to the pet carrier and back again.
From his place on the floor, Walker straightens his spine and asks, almost snidely, "You got a problem with that?"
Instead of replying, however, Bucky just turns to leave without a word.
Bob releases a loud breath, hands clasped in front of him. "You think he's mad?" he asks Yelena, his voice a bit shaky.
"Eh. I don't care." And to Yelena's credit, she does sound like she means that. "Let him be mad."
She goes to her feet to collect Fanny from Walker and Cucumber from Bob. "Anyway. Better set them up in my room. Feel free to visit them anytime you want." Yelena glances at Ava. "That includes you, too, you not pet-person you."
No, thank you. "I'll... keep that in mind, thanks."
Soon, life returns to normal in the Tower, with the exception of a loud bark here and there and "Oh no! Cucumber's gone missing again!" from Bob every now and then.
And things weren't as... irritating as Ava thought they would be. It was certainly nice, seeing Yelena, Bob, and Walker so... occupied.
And relaxed.
They're all in the common room, with Walker playing with Fanny and Bob watching Cucumber in his cage with barely contained glee, when the dog's attention is suddenly drawn to the door.
She starts barking.
Frantically.
Ava flinches from the noise, hands automatically covering her ears.
"Fanny!" Yelena cries, going to her feet, almost in alarm. "What the hell's the problem?"
And the answer to that soon comes in the form of one Bucky Barnes.
Who's holding an animal carrier even bigger than Yelena’s had been.
He doesn't look at any of them. Bucky just crosses the common room - like they were all invisible - and goes to the one elevator on the other side that will bring him to his room upstairs.
They all just stared at him.
And before the elevator door closed on his face, Ava could swear she heard something from the carrier loudly hiss back at the dog.
"Holy shit," Walker says, exchanging stunned looks with Yelena.
Bob scrunches his face in confusion. "Is that--"
"What the hell was that?" Ava asks them. "A snake?"
Yelena's mouth is still hanging open.
"I think--" she starts, sounding unsure.
And then she looks at Ava. "--I think Bucky's got a cat in there."
At dinner, Bucky seems totally unmindful of the stares he's getting from the rest of them.
Alexei just looks at the group, like he's unsure why there seems to be some existing tension in the first place.
Then Bucky wipes his mouth with a napkin, exhales rather noisily, and says directly to his plate, "Yes. I have a cat. Her name's Alpine. No, you can't see her. And yes, I'll keep her away from the dog and the guinea pig."
Silence.
"Okay," Yelena acknowledges quickly. "So that's that."
Ava shrugs and goes back to eating her fruit.
Although truth be told, she can't seem to reconcile the thought of Bucky being - in Walker's words - an actual cat person.
Whatever that means.
So now, the Tower hosts not just six people - who, at one point in time, tried to kill each other - but also three animals - who, at one point in time, might try to kill each other.
Except for the guinea pig.
Interesting turn of events, she thinks.
Not that she particularly cares or anything.
So long as the animals and their respective owners keep away from her and hers, then she doesn't give a flying fuck about them.
Soon, Bucky's coming to the briefing room looking a bit... disheveled.
Fond as he is of wearing black shirts, Ava can't help but notice tufts of fur actually clinging to them in some areas.
And surely, she isn't the only one who does so.
In front of her, Walker coughs into his fist. Loudly.
Which tells Ava he's about to start stirring shit.
"So, Barnes," Walker says, almost lazily. "I'm guessing the cat we're forbidden to see is a white cat?" He uses his pen to point at a particularly noticeable clump of fur on Bucky's left sleeve.
"Why?" Bucky straightens in his seat like Walker's just personally insulted his lineage. "Got a problem with that, Walker?"
"No," he replies with a grin. "Not really." Then he mumbles under his breath, "Typical cat people."
Do cats actually shed like that? Ava wrinkles her nose in distaste, but doesn't say anything.
"You know, Buck," Yelena says, leaning closer, "you don't have to keep your cat prisoner in your room. You and I, we can have schedule, so Fanny, Cucumber, and Alpine don't see each other. I'll keep pets in my room some days so your cat can explore her new home, yes?"
"Good idea, Lena." Bob nods at her before looking at Bucky. "I don't think it's good to keep her cooped up in your room like that."
Bucky looks at Yelena and Bob, like he's gauging the sincerity of their offer.
Then he exhales and says, "Fine."
Yelena grins at him. "Good."
Then Val chooses that moment to saunter into the room, opens her mouth to start the briefing, only to sneeze uncontrollably.
Turns out, Val's deathly allergic to cat fur.
At least, according to Mel.
"...Huh," Bucky says, face unreadable.
He keeps coming to briefings looking disheveled anyway, making Ava wonder if he plans to kill Val this way... and whether Alpine even has any fur left at this point.
Eventually, Val starts conducting her briefings online, muttering about 'ungrateful assholes' every now and then.
And Bucky?
Chooses that time to start wearing white shirts.
The first day Bucky allowed Alpine to wander out of his room turned out to be a huge disappointment.
To Bob, mostly.
He keeps looking around the room, like he's half-expecting to see Bucky's cat show itself to them any moment now.
Except--
"Still nothing?" Yelena asks, looking up from her tablet at Bob.
"No." Bob's shoulders sag dejectedly.
Walker looks at Bucky. "You sure you left your door open?"
Bucky doesn't even look at him, busy as he is reading one of Tolkien's books. "I'm sure."
"Well," Yelena says, patting Bob's shoulder. "You know cats. They appear unexpectedly - like hired killers. Just be patient."
"Uh. Thanks. I think."
"See, this is exactly why I prefer dogs," Walker says, crossing his arms in front of him. "At least dogs come when you call them."
"Nobody asked, Walker," Bucky says, still using that flat tone of his as he turns another page.
Ava rolls her eyes at the scene. Really. She doesn't understand what the big deal with this was. It was just--
--and then something extremely soft brushed against the back of her calf. She can feel it, even through her pants, and it makes her jump to her feet.
"What the--" she says, looking down at the floor to see what the fuck it was.
Only to find two extremely blue eyes on a round, white face staring lazily right back at her.
Bucky glances at her, then at the creature near her feet, and tells Bob: "There's Alpine."
Excited now, Bob goes to his feet and comes closer to the cat--
--except it caught sight of him approaching, hissed, and slunk away immediately.
"Bye, Alpine," Bucky says, almost dryly.
Yelena watches the cat go, sees Bob become even more dejected, then turns to Bucky and tells him, almost accusingly, "That was anticlimactic."
He shrugs. "Not my fault she doesn't like any of you. She likes people of a certain... quality."
Yelena snorts. "Yeah, right. Keep telling yourself that, grandpa."
Ava goes back to her seat. Every now and then, she checks the floor to see if the cat has somehow made its way there without anyone noticing it. It felt.... disconcerting, rubbing itself on her like that. Certainly wasn't a feeling she liked, that's for sure.
When she looks up, she catches Bucky's eye somehow.
"Don't worry," he tells her, almost smirking. "She doesn't bite."
Alpine does, however, know how to commit attempted murder.
Ava learns this firsthand when she comes to with a furry, fluffy body just lying comfortably on her head, nearly suffocating her in the process.
She phases down the bed, rolls to the side, and solidifies just as she was clear. Then she jumps to her feet again - and sees the cat just staring at her unblinkingly.
"What the hell are you doing in my room?" she asks.
Then Ava realizes what she'd just done and nearly smacks her forehead. Please. Like it's going to answer her?
She debates what to do next. One, she could probably pick the cat up and toss it out the door. Except she's not sure how, exactly. By the head? Tail? Body?
Two, she could get someone else - maybe even Bucky - to get it for her. And he should, considering it's his bright idea to bring the cat to the Tower in the first place.
Mind made, Ava marches to his room, hellbent on giving him a piece of her mind.
Except she doesn't even have to wander far to see him.
She spots Bucky in the common room, on all fours, peering down the table - like he's looking for something.
And she doesn't even have to guess what he's looking for.
"Alpine?" she snaps.
Ava sees the moment he actually freezes. Then he looks up and stares directly at her.
"Why are you up at this hour?" he asks, still from his position on the floor.
"I have a better question: why is your cat trying to kill me?" she demands.
He frowns. "What?"
She crosses her arms. "Your cat's in my room, Barnes. I'd advise you to get it before something happens."
And then she marches right back to her room, half-expecting him to follow her.
Ava sees the cat has made itself comfortable on her favorite pillow, curled into a ball on top of it like a snowy gargoyle, and is sleeping. Really. It had the audacity to sleep like that after trying to suffocate her? The absolute gall?
Bucky charges into her room, sees his cat on the bed - and freezes. Again.
She gestures at Alpine. "Well?"
And she swears she sees Bucky cringe.
He scoops the cat up carefully into his arms - like it's made of glass, or something - and then turns to her. "Sorry," he says, and to his credit, he does sound genuine. He opens his mouth to say more, snaps it shut, and then just stares at her.
She nods once. "Good night," Ava tells him pointedly.
And she closes the door behind them, hoping that was that.
Except it wasn't.
The days that followed when Fanny and Cucumber were in, and Alpine was out? Were days when the damned cat could be found in Ava's room. Usually on top of her bed. On her one comfy pillow.
And even after Bucky comes to collect it, the cat will just be back in her space again. And again.
Like now.
"Bloody hell," she mutters under her breath.
The cat just blinks at her.
They stare at each other for a long moment.
"Go away," Ava says loudly. "Or I will have to make you."
Alpine merely yawns at her.
And something in Ava just snaps.
"That's it," she says, pointing at the cat. "I warned you."
And then she goes and tries to find something to shoo it away with.
When she returns with a broom in hand (not for violence, but for guidance... probably), the bed is already empty. And Alpine's already on the floor, stretching its legs. Then it slinks towards Ava, curls around her calf, then walks out her door as if it's already done blessing the place.
"Well fuck you, too," she says, snapping the door shut.
"Bucky's cat," Ava complains to Yelena during breakfast, "is actively trying to kill me. Either through suffocation or a stroke, I don't think it's chosen a proper method yet."
Yelena smiles. "Should I be surprised? It's Bucky's cat."
Beside her, Bob's eyes widen at that. "Wait. You mean you see Alpine? Like. Actually see her in person? Or cat-son?"
Ava sniffs, not bothering to dignify that with an answer.
Walker, asshole that he is, laughs in her face. "Yeah, typical cat behavior. They often gravitate towards the one person they think hates them."
"Gee," she says dryly, "I feel so honored."
And she kicks him on the shin just to make herself feel better.
There's a knock on her door in the middle of the night.
Ava swings it open and positively glares at Bucky.
It's ridiculous how this is becoming a habit.
He clears his throat, looking contrite. "Good evening, Ava. Have you seen--"
She opens the door wider - and points to the cat sleeping very comfortably on a chair at the other side of her room.
"Thanks," Bucky replies shortly before charging in and getting his cat.
Or at least, attempted to.
The moment he scooped Alpine up, the cat twisted and bent until it managed to free itself from his grasp. It then goes to Ava, curls around her legs - and actually sits behind her, as if using her as a human shield against its actual human.
"...huh," Bucky says, frowning openly now.
Ava straightens her spine. "Don't."
"I didn't say anything."
"You were thinking it."
"Oh," he says, so very casually. "You read minds now?"
She sighs. Loudly. "Look. Just get your damn cat, Bucky. It's late and I want to sleep."
"Well," he says, massaging the back of his neck, "I would, except I think she took a liking to you."
"And?"
"She'll just... come back again. And again. And again. Have you never had a cat?”
“You mean before, during, or after SHIELD, Hydra, and OXE used me as a weapon?” she snaps.
He doesn’t reply immediately.
But his look softens just the tiniest bit. “That was… sorry.”
She waves his apology away. Back to the matter at hand. “So what, she’s just going to keep haunting me forever?”
Bucky meets her gaze. “She’s got good instincts. She doesn’t pick just anyone, you know.”
She likes people of a certain... quality.
“Right. Because suffocating me in my sleep is a sign of affection,” she scoffs.
Bucky shrugs. “Could be her way of moving in.”
Ava blinks. “Moving in?” she repeats.
“Looks like it,” he says, nodding toward the cat now curled behind her. “She’s claimed the territory.”
“Well, she can un-claim it for all I care.”
“Good luck telling her that.”
Ava pinches the bridge of her nose, annoyed that Bucky seems so unbothered with the crimes his pet was committing. “Bloody fantastic. So you're telling me I now have to live with your cat?”
“You could do a whole lot worse,” Bucky says. “At least it's not Yelena's dog. Alpine's quiet, doesn’t complain, and only tries to kill you occasionally.”
Ava shoots him an unimpressed look. “You describing your cat or yourself?”
He grins. “Guess we cat people have that in common.”
“Except I’m not a cat person,” she deadpans.
“Yet.” He points at the cat near her feet. “Since Alpine would like to convince you otherwise.”
Ava stares down at the cat, who only meows loudly like she’s seconding the statement.
“Oh no,” she mutters. “No, no, no. I am not becoming part of your pet cult.”
“You should consider it,” Bucky says, moving to the door now. “We have jackets and everything. Meetings on Thursdays.”
“Barnes,” she seethes, “if you don’t get your cat–”
“Good night, Ava. Try not to kill each other.”
And the damn man closes the door behind him.
Ava stares at it.
Then at the cat.
And for a long moment, neither moves.
Finally, she sighs and sits on the edge of the bed. Goddamnit. “You know, I wasn’t kidding. I really don’t do pets. I don’t--" She pauses. "I don't know how.”
The cat just hops onto the blanket beside her, curls up, half-on, half-off her body, and closes its eyes.
Ava watches Alpine for a few seconds — the gentle rise and fall of her fat tummy, the faint, rhythmic purr — and something about it settles the noise in her body more than she wants to admit.
It feels… strange. Not bad, just unfamiliar. The weight against her leg, the quiet warmth, the steady pulse of something that isn’t trying to hurt her or ask for anything back. It’s soft in a way she can’t remember getting used to.
She looks away. “You’re lucky your owner’s an even bigger pain than you are. Imagine not getting you back from a not-pet person like me.”
The cat doesn’t answer her, obviously.
Still, Ava lies back carefully, letting the warmth by her leg remain where it is.
Just for tonight.
The next morning found Ava in the kitchen quite early.
With Bucky’s cat still weaving lazily between her legs, purring all the while.
Yelena raises her brows at the scene. She picks some white fur off Ava's shirt as she says, “So. You and Bucky are co-parenting Alpine now or…?”
“Quit it, Belova.”