Bucky comes home the next day from his run, to find a Hawkeye on his couch again. This one isn't the one he's used to though. Not really.
"Um, hey," Kate Bishop waves at him awkwardly.
She's dressed for battle, well as much as those gals with the costume windows ever are. Bucky idly wonders if he can convince Steve that there is some practical value to costume windows.
She's got Barton's dog with her.
"Can you um… look after Lucky for like six hours? He ate some irradiated super serum stuff and um… please"
Bucky blinks at her. He thinks he understood what she's asking of him. Mostly. Bucky likes the dog. Mostly because the dog unquestioningly likes Bucky. So he's going to say yes, but young Hawkeye is still mildly afraid of him. He likes the way she doesn't let it stop her. So he waits a bit longer before responding.
"Oh god," Kate says eyes going wide. "I can't just asked Captain America's boyfriend to babysit my dog. What is my life, even."
Bucky shrugs. "Welcome to the Avengers. And yeah, I'll look after the dog incase it hulks out. You're welcome."
"Thanks," She grins a bit more naturally this time, and salutes him with her bow. She's already a lot less awkward when Steve comes back into the room in uniform.
Steve kisses Bucky on the cheek as they leave with his normal request for Bucky not to worry and not to watch the news stations while he's working.
Bucky ignores the warning not to watch the TV. He's not disappointed. Steve and the Baby Avengers vs Mole Man. It's pure entertainment. And they're close enough that Bucky could get out there and have Steve's six if he needed to. So his heart only almost stops once. It's fine. Knowing there are two purple clad arches in the roofs helping keep Steve and mini-Steve (sorry, Patriot) safe is kinda comforting too.
Sadly the dog doesn't hulk out. But it does help Bucky finish off last night's pizza, so there's that.