Standard disclaimer, I only own Pips and my ideas and I borrowed most of these anyway.

Pets

When Phil Coulson was a young boy his family had had a dog. Of course they did, it was a golden retriever called Liberty because that was what his stereotypical American family was like. Phil loved Liberty and he always used to play that he was Captain America and she was an enemy soldier trying to steal his shield. When Liberty died Phil was away at university and he was in the middle of his first tour and he was surrounded by death, Liberty's was just a bit closer to home.
Once Phil settled down as an agent of SHIELD he never really had time for pets. It was probably because 'settling down' for SHIELD constitutes as choosing an apartment close to the HQ that you pretend to live in when you aren't away on a mission or sleeping in the on base barracks because you've to be in a meeting in half an hour.

Pips had never had a pet at all. Well, there was that goldfish that her mother used to watch for inspiration but it hadn't lasted extremely long. It didn't seem fair to have a pet when they spent most weekends touring the country with various orchestras. That hadn't always been the case. Pips could only just recall very hazy memories of a dog, a big Alsatian that no parent in their right mind would let play with a tiny toddler. She couldn't remember what it was called or whose it was and her mother never told her when she asked. Eventually she put together enough pieces of an incredibly fragmented puzzle, most of her information gathered from her mother's best friend and conductor at the time.
The dog had belonged to her father, or at least they were always seen together and they both left at the same time. Pips didn't ever want a dog after that, when she saw similar dogs she always felt faint and her hands started to sweat. Anything that reminded her of her father was better off avoided; she just didn't want to know.

With Pips living in the tower as a charity case she didn't want to push her luck by asking for a pet, she didn't really want one so she was okay with the arrangement. Until of course the SHIELD therapist, she wasn't allowed to stay with Clint unless she had regular sessions, decided that it would be a good idea for there to be an animal in the home. Pips didn't try to convince the therapist that the 'home' was not a home at all and just a collection of very broken peoples all surviving under the same roof.
Pips thought the process would not advance any further but the therapist went to Potts instead of
Stark and so a tower meeting was called to address the issue

"I reckon we should just put Katniss here in a cage and have a pet hawk," Stark joked drinking a cup of painfully strong coffee since Barton had asked him not to drink in front of 'baby agent' as the billionaire referred to her. In reply to the remark Barton folded a paper aeroplane and flew it straight into the engineer's cup. Stark retaliated with a paper plane that resembled an F-22 and although his aim wasn't perfect his plane was and it hit Barton between the eyes. The resulting paper plane battle lasted about five minutes until one of them accidentally hit Tasha and she glared at both of them. They both sat down silently.
"I for one think it would not be a bad idea to have a cat, they take care of themselves mostly and they are delightfully violent." Tasha didn't add to her creepy statement but simply leaned back into her armchair and continued to read the novel she had been reading before the meeting.
"Indeed the felines you speak of have the spirit of a berserker warrior and are truly honourable creatures." Thor seemed to want to start one of his Sagas, or perhaps an ode to the feline so Bruce slipped in.
"Cats are helpful for lowering stress and they don't need walking" everyone in the group agreed with Bruce and since everyone seemed to be in agreement Cap stood up and said in his 'I am in charge so just get on with it please, thank you' voice.
"That's that then, we're getting a cat, from a rescue shelter and Pips can choose which one because it's for her. Dismissed." He walked away, along with the rest of the Avengers, leaving Stark in shock with his mouth opening and closing like a goldfish.

The next day after school Cap and Tasha took Pips down to the nearest animal shelter and they looked around at some of the kittens, Potts had already had someone approve the tower and they just had to buy a few toys. There were so many cats of all shapes, colours and sizes that Pips didn't know where to start but after an hour of searching she found her. There was a black kitten with white paws and a white triangle on his head that looked like a witches hat, Pips know right then that this kitten would be coming home with them. The name on the kennel said Merlin and it suited the kitten so they decided to keep it. When they asked about the kitten they learnt that there was another kitten with it, a kitten that refused to be parted. The unnamed kitten was golden and shiny and rather regal if a bit lazy and it had such cute and begging eyes. Tasha and Cap had a quick chat and they decided that two kittens would be okay because there was a lot of space in the tower and they were such cute kitty cats.
When they got back to the tower Stark was in his workshop and so missed the news about the second kitten. He stumbled up in the early hours of the morning and saw a tiny golden kitten asleep on his chair; he let it slide because it was kind of cute. Tony decided just to go to bed and turned to put down his empty cup, when he turned back he saw a kitten but this time it was black.
"I'm hallucinating," he muttered under his breath as he walked to the elevator, "I've started seeing things."

Thank you for putting up with me I am having a very busy few days but should be back on track tomorrow. Please review, there are over 1000 people reading this, some of you must have something to say.