Chapter Thirty-Three | Adopting A Super-Soldier

Two Weeks Later

Alaina

Alaina never thought she would enjoy her time off work as much as she currently was. She was officially living in her new house with a fridge full of food – yes, she even had an ice dispenser – and was out of that shitty two-roomed apartment. After a long meeting with her boss, Principal Morita, Al was originally going to be fired from the school, but apparently his grandfather was part of the Howling Commandos so Steve spoke with him, and then she was able to keep her job.

Stone was sent to The Raft as soon as he landed back in America – Al found out she was taken to a deserted part of Canada – while Billy and Rawlins were in The Avengers HQ prison, where they would be watched 24/7. Sam told her that she was allowed to talk to them face-to-face, but she wasn't ready. Until Frank was out of the hospital and back on his feet, she might, but it would be like picking at a fresh wound doing it now.

Sam was basically attached at her hip when Bruce and Tony performed various tests on her to make sure there was no internal damage, thankfully there was none, and it even got to the point where he literally lived with her. It took a few days of convincing for him to actually let her go outside without company. Not like she had to, anyway, with everything she had in her house.

Now it was approaching midnight and Alaina was sat inside her large living room, watching Orange is the New Black on Netflix – yes, she had a Netflix account now – and silently marvelling at how attractive all the characters were, in their own ways. Even Red was hot, giving off a Russian-dominatrix vibe.

Okay, she definitely had a thing for redhead Russians.

A quiet knocking on the back window caught her attention and she paused the TV, briefly panicked when she thought she was being robbed, but then she remembered who it would be.

Alaina gestured to the man on the other side of the window and moved to the door, opening it. He walked through and closed the door behind him, pulling the hood away from his head.

"Are you hurt?" Al asked, turning on the light to get a good look at him.

"No," Bucky answered, stoically still as usual. Oh, yeah, she forgot to mention the fact that The Winter Soldier basically lived with her now, but never during the day. The complete opposite of a vampire, he only came here at night for somewhere safe and warm to stay, and he usually sat like a statue, but sometimes accepted the food and shower Al offered him.

"Okay." She nodded with narrowed eyes. He looked shifty. "Do you want anything to eat? I have some leftover ramen in the fridge."

"No. Thank you." Alaina noticed that he had a fabric bag clutched tightly to his stomach, like he was hiding something. "Can I use your bathroom?"

"Bucky," she said slowly, "what's in the bag?"

His eyes darted to hers, unusually wide. "Nothing" The bag shifted in his grip and something moved inside it. "Just food."

"Do you have an octopus in there?" Al asked. "Open the bag." He took a step back towards the door. "Bucky, whatever it is, I won't be pissed, okay? You can keep whatever it is, I just wanna know what it is."

Bucky's throat bobbed, the bag moved, his fist tightened around where he was holding, and then he nodded with reluctance. He stepped towards Alaina and held out the bag for her to take.

With furrowed eyebrows, she took it from him and looked down, only to see…

A puppy.

Like, an actual puppy. Inside a bag. That just came from Bucky Barnes.

The dog jumped up to greet the human but fell back down since it was inside a bag, but still, its tail wagged and it stared up at her like she was some kind of Mosiah.

"A dog," Al commented and looked back at Bucky, whose lip twitched upwards at the sight of the animal. An animal person, then. "Where did you find it?"

"Him." He stopped, clearing his throat. "He's a… it's a him."

"Bucky."

"People were ignoring him," Bucky told her with sad eyes that matched the dog's. "I didn't want to leave him alone. It's cold." He shifted on his feet. "I… I can take him to the pound."

Alaina watched Bucky's expression, glanced at the puppy, looked back at Bucky, and then sighed. "Go get my wallet," she said to him. "Take it with you and buy some dog food, dog bowls, dog shampoo- whatever you can find. It's pretty late so Walmart is probably the only thing open. Use my bike."

The assassin's eyes lit up – yes, literally lit up – and he was gone in a minute, bike keys and wallet in hand.

Al sighed and looked back at the puppy. "Why do I get myself into situations like this?" The puppy tilted his head and panted. "God, I hate myself." She pulled the dog out of the bag and he immediately latched onto her neck, licking her face with his tail wagging like crazy behind him. "Okay, okay." She winced and held the puppy by his sides, pulling him away from her face. "That was rude. But you're adorable, so I forgive you."

He was a very tiny dog, maybe the size of her head, and a bloodhound puppy, his fur a leathery brown. He had large brown eyes and such a cute nose, oh my god, she might die, this was so adorable!

Pulling herself together, Alaina sat down on her couch with the puppy in her lap, and instead of running away to explore like she expected, he nestled into her lap with his nose pressed against her stomach, large eyes staring up at her. She almost died but remembered that she had no idea how to look after a dog. A dead puppy wouldn't help anyone.

Sam had a dog when he was a kid. He could help, right?

She grabbed her phone and dialled his number. Despite it being late, he picked up immediately.

"Are you okay?"

"Not kidnapped or dead, Sammy," she greeted, using her other hand to pet the dog's head.

"That's good to hear. What is my fourth favourite gay doing calling me at this time?"

"Fourth?" Al nearly exclaimed. "I can accept third, but fourth? Sammy?"

"Rosie O'Donnell."

"Rosie O'Donn- Okay, I give up." She shook her head. "Right. I, uh, need advice."

Sam sighed. "What advice would you need at midnight?"

"Hypothetically," she started, unsure with how to really explain the situation, "if, um, if I somehow obtained a puppy and had no idea what to really do with said puppy, what advice would you give me to keep it alive?"

There was a beat. "How the hell did you get a dog—?"

"Hypothetically, Sam!"

"You have a dog!"

"No, I don't—"

"Al."

"Bucky tried sneaking him into the house."

"Good god," Sam groaned. Another thing she forgot to mention, The Avengers knew that Bucky occasionally inhabited her home. Steve wanted to see him, but Alaina had to remind him that he needed time to sort his head out. "Where the hell did Barnes find a puppy?"

"I don't even know, he said that he found him on the streets and Bucky looked sad when I was about to reject him, and now he has my wallet and is shopping for dog stuff."

"First you adopt a super-soldier and then you adopt a dog." Sam sighed. She could imagine his head shaking. "Just… soak the dog food in water for a few minutes so it doesn't hurt his teeth, give him some water and let him sleep in your bed. I'll come over tomorrow."

"Okay." Al was about to hang up but then stopped, and chewed her lip in thought. "Hey, Sam?"

"Yeah, babe?"

"How is, uh… How's Natasha?" she asked, scuffing her foot against her carpet. The dog's tail stopped wagging like he could sense her mood.

"Stuck in a constant cycle of regret and guilt. She still hasn't called you?" Sam exhaled, already knowing the answer to that question. "I thought Nat was supposed to be the mature one."

"No, I mean, we've been speaking a lot. She visited the other day, bought me a coffee machine." Al shook her head with a quiet laugh. It was one of her favourite housewarming gifts. "She doesn't talk about what happened, though. About Stone or anything. And we haven't planned a second date, yet. I don't know if it'll even happen."

"It will," Sam assured his friend. "She feels guilty about the whole thing, Tony, too. He's been stuck in his lab for three days now and Natasha keeps going to the gym, won't stop unless she's out with Clint. Superheroes don't know how to deal with stuff healthily, apparently."

"Well, you're the resident counsellor, Sam," Alaina said. "Best get to it before The Tower self-destructs."

"More like the inhabitants," Sam retorts. "I love them and everything, I really do, but…. Ugh." He let out a frustrated breath. "It's like some of them think that problems go away if you just ignore it. You'd think after years of being alive they'd know better."

"Some people are wired differently to others," she pointed out. "Remember what we were like after Riley? He…" The image of him bleeding with the bomb beeping inside him flashed through her mind and her chest constricted. "We were probably worse than they were. Well, me. Since I ignored you for a full year."

Like he could sense her abrupt stress, the puppy sat up on her lap and placed his paws on her chest, giving her as good as a hug as a tiny puppy could. Al used her free hand to rub up and down his back, and somehow felt relaxed by the gesture. It was like he was speaking to her.

"Well, it's not like anyone died this time around," Sam grumbled. "Have any of them even spoken to you since you moved in?"

"Steve and Wanda have called a couple of times, Bruce, too, to check up on my health," she began listing off, smiling down at the pup. "Clint visited with an actual suitcase full of food and he asked me to hide Poptarts in my cupboard so Thor wouldn't somehow get them…"

"Yeah, they're weird about that."

"Trust me, I noticed." Al shook her head and relaxed back into the sofa. "Rhodey called, Natasha, and obviously you since I've seen you every day because apparently you took over my role as mother…"

"Coming from the gal who adopted an assassin."

"… I only talked to Tony after the whole legal shit," she continued, ignoring the comment. "Oh, and Pops and Paul visited yesterday. They pitched in and bought me a life-size cardboard cut-out of Chad Kroeger. He's glued to my bedroom door to warn away intruders." The puppy tilted his head at her in confusion. "He's the leader singer of Nickelback."

"Did you just talk to the dog?"

"Um. No." Clearing her throat, she moved on. "Did I tell you that Pops is getting a new house with a full-time carer?"

"What, seriously?" he asked, a little bewildered. "I know you got a shit ton of money from Stone's company, but enough to get another house?"

"I, uh, did some convincing." She chewed her lip to hide a proud grin. The puppy tried mimicking her action but ended up slobbering all over her pants. He was lucky she was actually wearing any. "I threatened to tell the media and ruin their company that their boss kidnapped me using money from their company if they didn't fund his housing and care. They've already got a shitstorm with Stone gone so it was pretty easy."

"Damn, girl." Sam chuckled. "You're evil."

"Yeah, well, when you work under an asshole, you get shit on."

"Good metaphor, Al."

"It's too accurate, I know." She smiled. "Anyway, I'll leave you to it. See you tomorrow?"

"I'll be there at lunch. Clint has a dog, so I'll bring him over."

"Sounds good- wait, Clint has a dog?" Alaina gaped, offended. "And you never told me?"

"See you tomorrow."

"Wait—"

He hung up.

Al sighed and put down her phone, focusing her attention back on the dog whose ears were perked up.

"What do I do, doggo?" she asked, picking him up under his armpits so he was in front of her. His head tilted, tongue hanging out of his mouth. "I never to name you, don't I? Or should I let Bucky do it since he found you?" He panted in her face. "I don't know what that means, dog." His mouth snapped shut and his eyes turned sad. "Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it in a bad way. Do you want me to name you with, like, a normal name?" His mouth re-opened in a weird puppy-like smile. Could dogs smile? She'd have to ask Clint. "I'm going to give you some names and, uh… I don't know what I'm doing. I'm talking to a dog."

On cue, Alaina heard her bike drive back down the road.

This was gonna be a long night.

Author's Note: Gotta love a time-jump that makes writing things more convenient for the author!

I'm going back to fluffy and cuteness tbh, tell me what you thought about this one.

Thanks for the awesome comments as always!