Steve was awakened the next morning but the loud blare of the alarm and Jarvis' announcement that the team was summoned to the den for a message from Fury.

Bucky groaned and pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes. "Are you fucking kidding me right now?"

"Afraid not, Buck." Steve nudged Bucky's leg. "Up and at 'em, babe."

"I hate you," Bucky muttered. "It's too early for you to be so awake. It's not even morning yet."

"It's 5 a.m. I'm pretty sure that counts as morning."

"Still dark outside," Bucky muttered. "And I'm not getting up while it's still dark out. Why don't you go and find out what the hell Fury wants and Tony and I will just stay nice and warm in bed. Sounds good to you, doesn't it, darling?"

Tony purred and nuzzled into Bucky's chest.

"Nice try, Buck. But Fury specifically asked for the whole team. Tony can stay in bed though. No sense in making him come to a briefing he can't understand."

"Not fair," Bucky grumbled. But he rolled out of bed and slipped into a pair of jeans and a navy blue hoodie.

Tony yawned and stretched luxuriously, then slid off the bed.

"You coming to give us some moral support, baby?" Bucky asked. He scratched Tony under the chin. "I appreciate it, sweet thing."

Steve snorted. "He probably just wants some breakfast. Jarvis, could you start up the coffeemaker and the electric kettle before the rest of the team gets downstairs?"

When dealing with Nick Fury, it was best to be caffeinated.

"Certainly, Captain," Jarvis said. "Shall I start up the electric griddle as well?"

"Yes," Bucky said with a groan. "I need a reward for dealing with Fury's shit. Goddamn early morning team meetings. Can't these things wait till a reasonable hour?"

Steve shrugged. "Must be important." He pulled a grey sweatshirt over his head. "Just be thankful it's not an actual mission."

Bucky muttered something under his breath that didn't sound thankful at all, but Steve decided to ignore that. At least he was out of bed. And at this hour, it was a small miracle.

By the time they made it downstairs, the rest of the team had already arrived and were in the process of pouring themselves either coffee or tea.

Tony squealed with delight and made a beeline over to the coffee machine.

Steve burst out laughing. "Can you believe it, Buck? He made the same sound you did last night."

"Shut the fuck up," Bucky muttered.

"Jesus Christ," Clint said. "I get your whole eternal love thing, but after all this time, you shouldn't still be so excited to see Steve's dick."

"Barton," Steve groaned.

Bucky snorted. "Steve's dick is great and all, but I've learned over the years that he's a huge dick and he'd make fun of me for the rest of my life for getting excited about it."

"That's because it's cute when you get excited over things," Natasha said

"I'm not cute," Bucky insisted. "I'm sexy as hell."

"Uh-huh." Natasha took a delicate sip of her earl grey and gave Bucky a disapproving look over the cup. "You keep telling yourself that. But I've heard you gushing about how Tony styles his hair. And if that isn't adorable, I don't know what is."

"You're imagining things," Bucky said sourly.

"Oh, I've got it all recorded," Natasha said with a smile. "You drunkenly debating whether Tony looks better with his hair nice and smooth at an event, greasy and disheveled after a couple days in the lab, or all messy and sticking up when he first stumbles in for morning coffee."

"You talked about Tony's hair with Natasha, but not me?" Steve said with an exaggerated gasp. "Bucky, baby, I thought we shared everything."

"I hate you both," Bucky growled.

"Pardon the intrusion," Jarvis cut in. "But Director Fury has asked me to remind you all to proceed into the den for your team meeting. He does not want to be kept waiting."

Bucky grumbled, but he grabbed the coffee cup Steve offered him and plodded into the den.

Everyone settled into their customary seats for movie nights, except for Tony. Instead of taking his favorite armchair, Tony sprawled across Steve and Bucky's laps.

"Now, that's cute," Natasha said approvingly.

"Shut up," Bucky hissed. "Jarvis, let Fury know we're ready."

The screen flickered on, displaying Fury's image.

Tony hissed and scrambled on top of the couch, his fur bristling as he glared in Fury's direction.

Clint cackled. "Hey, he recognizes you."

Fury looked distinctly unimpressed. "I see Agent Spaulding wasn't exaggerating Mr. Stark's condition. Any word on when he'll be back to his normal, irritating self?"

"I had hoped the transformation serum would wear off within the day," Bruce said. "But at this point, we're looking into an antidote. I've got some tests running in the lab as we speak. As soon as we get a breakthrough, we'll give you a call."

Fury nodded. "In the meantime, call up Wilson and Rhodes. Make sure they know they'll be backup if anything goes south the next few days."

"I'll call Sam," Steve said with a heavy sigh. "Nat, you want to get ahold of Rhodes?"

"Hell no," she said. "The two of us aren't on good terms either."

"I don't care who does it," Fury said. "But one of you motherfuckers needs to get on it."

"Is that really why you called a meeting?" Bucky demanded. "To remind us that we're down a member at the moment? I think we could have figured that out ourselves."

Fury fixed Bucky with a steely look. "You still need to send in your mission report, Barnes. But at least Rogers managed to find the time. And based on his report, we've sent agents out to round up the rest of Hydra's soldiers and retrieve whatever it was Mr. Stark was injected with."

Bruce perked up. "If your agents have the formula, I should be able to break it down and come up with a cure a lot more easily."

Fury shook his head. "There's no trace of any serum on base. All the labs were empty. Whatever it was, it's been smuggled out before we got on site."

"That's impossible," Bucky said. "Tony killed the scientist when we were making our escape. There's no way he could run off with the stuff."

"One of his assistants could have," Steve said. Tony had only maimed them. It was possible they could have been dedicated enough to the cause to retrieve their leader's work, even if they were in excruciating pain.

"So until we know where this formula ended up, we're keeping an eye on the situation," Fury said. "If any other human-animal hybrids pop up, we're going to be the first on the scene."

"Yes, sir," Steve said.

Bruce sighed and stood up from the couch. "I better start working on that antidote again. I have a feeling we might need it sooner than later."

"After breakfast," Steve said firmly. "You're not going to get very far on an empty stomach."

"I call dibs on the pancakes," Clint said eagerly. "And the bacon."

Steve sighed as Bucky, and Thor immediately began arguing with him over the last package of bacon. They were children, the whole lot of them.

He checked his watch. Sam usually woke up around this time. He could do his duty and alert him about the situation while he waited for the breakfast arguments died down.

Sam picked up on the first ring. "Hey, Steve. Long time, no talk. Tired of running circles around your boy? I can have my running shoes on in fifteen minutes."

"Actually, I have to ask you a favor. Our last mission went a little wrong."

To his surprise, Sam started laughing as soon as he described Tony's transformation.

"It's not funny, Sam."

"I'm not laughing at Tony. I'm laughing at your boy. Has he died of blue balls yet?"

"No, he just acts like he is." Steve gave Bucky a sidelong look.

"Is he talking shit about me again?" Bucky demanded.

Sam chuckled. "It's probably not fun living with him and all his whining, but it's good for him to suffer a little bit."

"What about me?"

"You're sleeping with Bucky. I'd almost say that's suffering enough, but you can handle a little more. And when it's all over, you'll know for sure just how strongly you feel about Stark."

"What are you talking about? Of course I have feelings for him."

"Of course you do. But you practically live in the guy's pocket. You're all living, breathing, working together all the time. A little space apart will tell you whether it's just a crush or something more. But you're not calling for my advice, are you? You want the Falcon. I leave for Florida this evening for two-day training seminar. But once I get back, I'm all yours."

"Thanks, Sam," Steve said. He ended the call and raised his voice to address the kitchen. "So, Sam's going to be available in two days."

"Hopefully we'll have an antidote by then," Bruce said.

"Sam also thinks Tony being a cat for a few days is a good thing. It'll supposedly prove whether Buck and I actually have feelings for him."

"Fuck that guy," Bucky muttered. "I don't know why you're friends with him."

"He means well, but he doesn't know you like we do," Natasha said. "I can imagine what he thinks when he sees two men in a committed relationship start drooling over someone else. He probably thinks you're just after a threesome. But I've watched you moon over Tony for years. I could have set you up with a number of people, but you were only interested in him. And even though Barnes is back, you're still interested. I don't know much about love, but that's what it looks like to me."

"See?" Bucky said. "We need to listen to nice, reasonable people like Natasha and ignore assholes like Wilson."

Natasha raised an eyebrow. "So I'm nice and reasonable now but when I said you were cute, I was the crazy one."

Bucky stuck out his tongue. "You have your moments."

"Can we have one morning without fighting, please?" Steve said with a heavy sigh. The team was almost too much like a family sometimes, with most of them taking on the roles of squabbling siblings.

"Yes," Natasha said. "But don't hold your breath." She stepped in and grabbed the package of bacon and divvied it up into three portions. "Would you boys hurry it up? The rest of us want to use the stove, too."

Under Natasha's leadership, the breakfast chaos finally sorted itself out and Steve was able to cook himself up a nice plate of scrambled eggs, ham, and toast. He sat down at his usual seat next to Bucky, but his boyfriend seemed far too interested in sneaking bit of bacon onto Tony's plate to notice that he was there.

Natasha caught Steve's eyes over the table. "Cute," she mouthed at him.

Steve grinned. He was inclined to agree.