"Hey Howard." Steve called out when he entered the mansion. It was winter and the snow laid thick outside. In the foyer's fireplace a fire roared and Steve stepped in front of it to warm his frozen hands. "Howard?" Steve inquired again and a moment later the gruff voice of the beast reached his ears.

"What?"

"Can I take a bath at your place?" Steve asked him when he finally stepped into view. Howard looked at him, at the thick clothes he was wearing and the bluish shade his lips were undoubtedly turning. Then he nodded.

Steve watched as Howard went and got a couple of buckets out of a storage room. Together they filled them with snow from outside. Howard then started a fire in one of the larger fireplaces to melt and warm the ice in a kettle. One bucket at a time they filled the bathtub in the bathroom on the second floor of the house until the water was high enough for Steve to step inside.

Steve laid a towel he had found beside the basin and then proceeded to undress. A few years ago he would have been self-conscious of the scars he had acquired in battle. "Wait. I want to ask you something." He called out to Howard, who had abruptly turned around when Steve's shirt had hit the floor.

"What is it now?" He growled with his back to Steve.

Steve opened his trousers and pushed them to the floor, lifting his feet to step out of them. As he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his boxers and pulled them down his legs he answered. "I wanted to ask you if it was alright for me to bring Peggy here in a few days. I want you two to get to know each other." After a few moments of silence in which he stood as naked as the day he was born, he continued. "I could cook something for you two." Goosebumps rose on his skin and made him step into the bathtub. A moan escaped him as the warm water enveloped him and one of Howard's ears twitched back towards him.

"Ah. Alright." Howard stuttered and quickly hurried out of the room. Steve watched him go with a bemused and bewildered smile, before leaning back in the warm water and resting his head on the edge of the tub.
Soon he would have to tell Howard of his other visit.

A few days later Steve stood in the beast's kitchen and prepared everything for the meal he would be serving later in the day. He was going to cook something his mother had taught him. As he continued his preparations, Steve lifted his head and glanced out of the window in front of him. There was still a thick blanket of snow covering the lawn. And there... there was the blue feathered bird again, being chased by the beast.

Howard looked like he was saying something or maybe he was barking at the bird. Steve couldn't tell through the glass. He was swiping at the bird with his claws, unable to catch it. The bird was too swift and seemed to play with him. It was flying slow enough to touch a tip of its wing to his nose or flick an ear but every time Howard made a grab for it, it flew out of his reach. The beast looked livid.

Steve contemplated going outside or taking a shot at the bird, when it suddenly disappeared. Stunned he let the knife with which he had been chopping up vegetables drop. Howard was looking off to something in the distance, but Steve couldn't see anything.

A moment later he shrugged. It wasn't like it wasn't weird for a man to be turned into a beast, even in their world. Disappearing birds were not the strangest thing that he had seen in the last few months. But he couldn't help but wonder what that bird was anyway. An ordinary bird? Even with that unusual color in their part of the world? Maybe it had just flown away too quickly for his eyes to follow.

Smiling, Steve held out a hand to Peggy to help her out of the carriage. "Maybe it would have been better to wait until after you had your child." He mused as he took a look at her round belly.

"Don't be silly. I'm not due, yet, and I doubt I will have a lot of time once the baby is born. And besides, you knew I was pregnant, when you asked."

He looked sheepishly at her and steadied her when she slipped on the frozen ground as they walked to the manor. "We haven't seen each other in a while." He admitted and frowned.

Peggy patted his arm, which he had slung around her, and opened her mouth to say something but froze when she noticed the beast standing at the top of the stairs. "Not going to attack me again, are you?" she challenged.

Howard huffed. "Who do you think sent the carriage to get you?" Steve held his tongue on just how long it had taken him to convince Howard of the carriage being both necessity and a nice gesture, to which Howard had just grumbled but relented at last.

Howard waited until they had come up the stairs until he spoke up again. "Welcome to my manor, Agent Carter." He said and bowed slightly before leading them inside.

While they were walking, with Peggy's arm hooked under Steve's, Howard kept glancing at her stomach until Peggy finally snapped. "What? Never seen a pregnant woman before?"

"Of course I have." He sniffed. "Just never smelled one before." He added after a moment and visibly inhaled her scent to make her uncomfortable. It didn't work. She slapped his nose quickly when he drew too near and made him rear back with a yelp.

"Don't sniff me, Stark." She said and pulled Steve after her and into the dining room with her chin held high.
Steve suppressed a snort and smiled back at Howard who was growling, but followed them.

Howard gently nudged Steve aside when he made to tried to pull a chair out for the agent so that he could do it himself. When the beast helped her sit down, he leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Well played, Mrs. Carter, well played." to which she turned around to smile at him.

Steve left the room and with Howard's help he set the table.

"This looks truly delicious, Steve." Peggy said in delight.

Both men took their seats and silently they ate.

"The father of your child…is he good to you?" Howard spoke up gruffly after a while, looking down at where only barely the top of Peggy's stomach could be seen over the table.

"Yes. Gabe is wonderful." She said and quickly glanced at Steve. He smiled gently at her. After all this time he was ok with it, finally.

"Howard. May I ask you something?" Peggy asked, leaning back in her chair and folding her hands over the bulge of her stomach. The beast gave a nod and looked at her.

"What are your designs on Steve?"

Howard and the man in question both stared at her in surprise. Or rather, Howard in surprise and Steve in horror. Was this going to be 'The Talk?'

When Howard was silent she continued. "If you ever hurt him, I will come and do many painful things to you. Well?" She gave him one of her most sinister smiles, which had made many dangerous man rear back from her in fear in the past. Howard stared her down.

"And what do you, little woman, think you could do to me?" He challenged her and Steve beat down the urge to cover his face with a palm. Instead he fidgeted in his chair and turned his head to the side to take a calming breath and suppress a laugh.

Peggy held Howard's gaze until he looked away. "Oh, I will think of something." She said simply.

Later that same day, after Steve had brought Peggy to the carriage that would bring her home, he and Howard sat on a sheepskin rug in front of a blazing fireplace in his old office. It was still one of Howard's favorite places, along with his workshop; he had told Steve after they had gotten to know each other.

Howard was more lying than sitting in front of the fire, letting it warm his body with Steve leaning against his side and pulling a brush through the tangles in Howard's fur. A ritual they had started after Howard had gotten back from a hunt with it dirty and unkempt and had thrown a tantrum when he had tried to get it clean on his own. In fact the beast looked much cleaner now that Steve was a regular guest in the manor, Steve mused. In the privacy of his own mind he could admit to loving the dark-brown fur, which was almost black in the right light. After it was brushed it was soft and almost silky. Steve enjoyed the feel of it against his palms. When he could get away with it he ran his fingers through it. Sometimes it made Howard purr.

Outside the sun had set and Steve was reluctant to return to his lonely cottage. "Can I tell you something?" Steve asked breaking what had been a comfortable silence.

"Yes." Howard rumbled.

"There will be another visit in a few days but it's me who will have to go." He said quietly.

"This is the second time in only a week that you tell me of a visit." Howard growled in bemusement but asked. "Where will you go?"

"I want to visit my mother beyond the mountains. She's too old to travel so far." Steve explained.

Howard was silent for so long that the soldier started to worry and nervously tugged at a strand of fur under his hand. "Are you mad?" he asked.

"No." Howard said but the beast wasn't looking at him and a few silent moments later Howard got up and left the room.

Steve lay down in the spot the beast had vacated and closed his eyes with a tired sigh.

"Do you have everything you need?" Howard asked him for what was surely the third time, making Steve sigh.

"It's not like I will travel only with the clothes on my back and I don't have a lot of stuff at your place. I need to go to my cottage first anyway." Steve chided and smiled when the beast shuffled his feet and looked to the ground.

"I know that." Howard sulked. "Just make sure that you take anything you need with you." He repeated.

Steve laughed at his sheepish expression. "Take care of yourself while I'm gone." He said with a smile.

"You too." Howard replied. "And send Peggy a message, when you have arrived safely." he added.

Awkwardly they stood in front of each other, both looking towards the ground, staring at their feet. Steve ran a hand nervously through his hair and saw Howard fiddling his claws.

"Travel well." Howard finally said and looked up through his lashes at Steve from his hunched over position.

Steve smiled at him. "Don't do anything stupid until I get back." He teased as Howard growled at him playfully. Without thinking about it Steve leaned forward and pressed a kiss on Howard's nose. Then he quickly turned on his heel and walked away from the beast. Steve stopped at the gate to look back one last time. The strange blue feathered bird had landed on Howard's shoulder and as he watched it stretched out its wings and softly brushed its tip against Howard's cheek.