A/N: Sorry it's taking so long for the next chapter, but I wanted to write something cute and decided to give you a scene I had planned but never found a place to put it in the story.


"Thank fuck you're back!" Lani said as she stood from the doorway of their rundown motel room, which was the first sign was something was wrong.

Lani never waits for him outside of the room, and it was pouring down rain in the middle of winter. There was no reason for her to not be inside and yet there she was. He couldn't see or smell any blood on her, but that didn't mean much.

"Is our location compromised?" He asked, getting reading to put down the bags of groceries and get to the bike.

"No, I mean, kinda? But it's not Hydra just... come see for yourself."

He followed Lani inside and to where she kneeled on the ground beside the bed.

"Look I didn't mean to freak you out, but I have no idea what to do here." Lani whispered, waving a hand at the area under the bed.

Which, as he bent down to look, was occupied by a large white cat.

"You invited a cat inside?" He asked in disbelief.

Lani may try to pet every dog, cat, and occasional reptile they come across, but she knows better to try to keep one.

"She invited herself in, but I'm more worried about the kittens."

"The what?" He asked, but even then his eyes caught the movement of four other fuzzy shapes.

"Yeah, like, do we have to wash them or keep them warm? Their eyes aren't even open yet Buddy!"

"What was I supposed to do? Leave him out in the snow? His eyes aren't even open yet!"

"Did your dumbass forget you're allergic to cats? What the hell Steve? We are not caring for a cat that makes you sicker than usual."

He blinked and the memory (?) was gone. Lani was still staring at him like he knew all the answers to her questions. Which he didn't.

"Can't you google that?" He asked and watched in slight amusement as the realization reached Lani's face.

"Oh, I didn't think of that. The library is probably still open, right? Closes at 5 or something..." Lani said before she was done with a slight pop.

Leaving him alone with the cat and her babies. Him, the winter soldier. This was probably just as bad as an idea of him trying to take care of Lani. So he went to the cabinet of their little kitchen and pulled out one of the bowls provided to them for water. Then he used some of the chicken that he was planning on using for sandwiches for the mother cat.

They looked like stays, and the cat hissed when he left the food and water in front of the bed so he left them alone. He sorted the food in their backpacks, since Lani forgot hers in the need to do research, and started cleaning his weapons when the cat finally came out from under the bed.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as the cat ate the food and water before heading back under the bed. Thinking that would be the last of it, he was surprised when the cat came back out only moments later, this time carrying one of the kittens.

And dropping it at his feet.

The cat Meowed at him before heading back under the bed and doing the same thing.

When Lani came back 20 minutes later, all four kittens and the mother cat were making their home on top of his boats and he hadn't moved in the last ten.

"Okay, so there isn't much we need to do until they are four weeks old, but I did find the address of the animal shelter so... ohmygod."

Lani caught sight of the cats.

"Oh. My. God. They are so cute!" And with that, Lani dropped to the floor getting slowly closer until the mother cat hissed at her.

"Buddy are you secretly a cat whisper and never told me?"

"No. I didn't do anything."

"Huh, maybe they can sense that they would be safe with you," Lani said, and he felt a weight in his gut from that miss-truth.

He is the opposite of safe. Lani only thinks that because she doesn't know anything better. He is only starting to remember what being safe was like, and it's not this. It's not him.

"Where did you say the shelter was?" He said instead of revealing any of his thoughts.

There was no reason to ruin Lani's good mood after all.

That night Lani refused to sleep in order to keep watching the kittens. He hoped it was just the cause of childhood excitement and not because she didn't want to 'save' in case something bad happened to them. Come morning, they backed up and Lani found a box to put the kittens while he held the cat in his jacket.

Lani took a picture of it with her phone, making sure his face wasn't in the frame.

The animal shelter was small and only had one worker at the counter.

"Hi there! We found some stray cats in our motel room last night, or I guess one stray cat and her newborn kittens." Lani explained as she heaved the box over her head to place on the counter.

He also removed the mother cat from his jacket who was only now starting to act up. Probably from removing her from the warmth.

Two more workers soon came out to take the kittens and give them check-ups, and the mother cat once she stopped trying to scratch them.

"Before you leave, do you have any names for them?"

"We can name them?" Lani asked in shock.

"If you want. Most of the time they are given new names once they're adopted, but we like giving them secret names."

Lani for some reason looked to him, but apparently got what she was after and turned back to the worker with a smile.

"Okay, So for the kitten with the black ears I was thinking Aristotle, then keeping the greek theme maybe Cassandra for the light brown one? Well, I don't know any of their genders so maybe a genderneutral name like Noodle."

"Noddle?" He had to ask and Lani just gave him a huge grin.

"Noodle is a very good name." The worker said, so it must just be him who thought it was a silly name.

"Then, Taco, but spelled T-A-K-K-O, for the one with the one grey foot. And the last kitten can be called Kitten." Lani finished, and the Worker wrote the names down with a smile.

"What about the momma cat?"

"Oh, uh, do you want to give her a name?" Lani asked him.

First thought was Steve, the name he keeps dreaming about, but that wasn't a great name for a female cat. Honestly thinking of the white cat just made him think how well she would be camouflaged in the snow.

"Alpine." He ended up saying.

Lani blinked a few times before exclaiming, "Wait, that's actually a good name. You're not meant to give good names."

"I think all your name choices were good. You sure you don't want to adopt any of them?" The worker asked again, and he hated how sad Lani looked.

"We can't right now. Maybe later." He said even though he doesn't think later would be any time soon.

Later would have to be when Hydra stops hunting him down. That was unlikely to ever happen.

"Well, it was still kind of you two to make sure they got here safe. You'll be surprised how many people will turn a blind eye to this kind of stuff, but I like to think more people would be willing to help in the end."

With that last remark, they left with Lani waving goodbye to the cats.

Then they went to the next town.


A/N: This is just a little something I wrote after seeing a few pictures of comic Bucky with his cat Alpine. I hope everyone is doing well in this pandemic we are in.

I'll do my full thank yous once I have the next chapter finished, but I do want you all to know how much I appreciate all the reviews and follows and favorites. Every time I look at the stats I'm in shock about how many people read this. I am half thinking of starting a marvel/mcu fic writer discord since I'm in something similar for other fandoms and it's a great place to make friends. If enough of you would be interested I would include the server for the next chapter.

Until then, hope you all have a good day/night!