Chapter One: Thor

I don't own the Avengers, nor do I make any profits from this work.

Coulson sipped his morning coffee and let out a relaxed sigh as he did so. He'd been a bit worried, in the beginning, about how life would go once he moved into Avengers Mansion (formally Stark Manor). Aside from times the team got called out on missions (which was thankfully more rare than he'd thought it would be, but still more frequent than he cared for), and a few memorable drinking parties he'd had to put an end to, and the regular bickering of Tony and everyone else, he had a fairly easy job.

He wasn't sure how the group would fit together (never mind that they'd been living together for nearly two months before he'd been released from the hospital—and oh, that was not a fun meeting when they found out) but aside from a few small hiccups, they lived together very easily.

It helped that they all followed the rules, of course. Well, as much as six superheroes could, anyway.

He took another drink of his coffee and turned to his paperwork with a faint, pleasant smile.

That was wiped off his face when Thor came crashing through the kitchen, chasing after something small and yellow.

Coulson watched for a good ten minutes until Thor had caught the thing—which turned out to be a very angry lion cub of all things.

"Thor," He started, putting his coffee and paperwork safely aside. "Where did you get a lion cub?"

Thor gave him a slightly guilty look (One of the rules that they were supposed to follow was no pets, after all), and then held out the still spitting cub with a sheepish smile.

"He is Njord. Is he not a fierce beast, for his size? He will grow to be even fiercer!" The lion cub sunk his claws into Thor's finger at the statement, and Thor bit back a swear word and gently removed the claws. Coulson could see more than a few marks on Thor's hands, arms, and face that he could guess the source of.

"Where did you get him?" He asked again, keeping his tone patient.

Thor hesitated—which told Coulson he knew he'd done wrong—before hanging his head. "I met a very nice man while I was walking in the park a few nights past. He was a bit odd, but Tony assures me that most Midgardians are." He paused to change his hold on the cub—Njord—so that he had a bit more trouble clawing his fingers. "He offered to sell me a valiant beast and I paid him and got Njord."

Coulson pinched the bridge of his nose and resisted the urge to sigh.

An easy job, indeed.

"Thor, you can't own a lion cub." Thor pouted at him, but Coulson firmly ignored it. "I'll call around to find a local zoo or something to take…Njord…in. You can visit him there." Thor brightened a bit at that and Coulson instructed him to find a safe place for the cub.

He drank down the rest of his coffee, which had gone cold, after Thor and the little yellow beast left, and shook his head.

"Time to make some calls." He murmured, before he took out his phone and started looking for a zoo.