HEROES ─ fallen warriors series one shots

27| Wolves In The Kitchen

(Takes place between sections 4 and 5 of "Fallen")

Bucky

When you live in a house full of shapeshifters, you see some pretty odd things. Now, after all these years I've gotten used to these things, but there are still times when I find myself taking a step back and realizing how strange my home life is. Like right now.

It's eight in the morning, I've come down stairs in a t-shirt and pajama pants to get some coffee, and this is the scene I am met with: a large grey wolf sitting in the kitchen communicating with two baby wolves using intricate head and paw gestures. The large wolf is trying to get the baby wolves to do something, but I have no idea what. To an outsider, this would be a truly terrifying sight to wake up to, but to me it's just my wife and children. Just another day in the Barnes house.

I really need coffee.

I walk towards the coffee maker and pour myself a mug, and as I do so, I hear a bark from Lena, still in wolf form. I look over towards her and see her staring back at me, gesturing with her head to the counter. There's a note resting on it's surface. It reads:

I'm trying to teach Livy and Stevie to not only control their shifting but also to follow instructions while in animal form, to keep hold of their humanity for extended periods of time, not just enough to shift back and forth.

I look back at my wife. "Why are you in wolf form yourself?"

She nods to the note again, I turn it over and find that there's more written on the back:

After twenty minutes of trying to teach them in human form I have concluded they're only going to listen to me today if I'm in the form they are. I have also concluded that it's much harder to train shapeshifters when they are 3 and 5 years old.

I chuckle softly as I set the note aside, then I place my coffee down and walk towards them. My children scramble at full speed towards me, their tails wagging in excitement. I get down onto my knees and place kisses on their heads, scratching behind their ears. Lena barks at them and they both run back over towards her, she then shoots me a glare. I grin at her in return, closing the distance between us and kneeling down in front of her. I then say in my sweetest tone:

"Anything I can do to help?"

Lena shifts back into human form, glancing between me and our children. She then stands up and gestures for me to wait there, saying as she walks away from us: "I'm going to get some treats, gives them an incentive to listen to me. Once they retrieve the shirt I told them to get, I want you to give them two treats each."

She retrieves the bag of dog treats from our pantry and tosses it to me, then shifts back into a wolf, stopping next to me and sitting down. She gestures with her head to the treats and then to the hallway leading towards the stairs. Both kids nod, then once Lena barks once, they run around her and towards the stairs. When they're out of sight, she shifts back into human form, letting out a sigh.

"I didn't give Julian enough credit, training a shapeshifter is hard work," Lena sighs, placing a soft kiss on my lips. "Good morning, Liebchen."

"Morning. What brought about this early morning training session? And why didn't you wake me? I usually help out."

"I had a nightmare and couldn't get back to sleep, so I came down here to get some water only to find our children out of bed watching a movie. I figured since we were all up we might as well be productive. I didn't get you because I wanted you to sleep, I know you had a nightmare last night too."

"I appreciate that, sweetheart, but next time please wake me and let me help."

"One of us should get some sleep." She replies, fighting off a grin.

I chuckle at that. "We haven't slept in years, long before we ever became parents. I don't think I've slept in since I was under cryo."

She shoots me a look. "Not funny."

"It's a little funny."

She holds her hands up in surrender. "Fine, you want to help out? Go retrieve the little troublemakers for their next lesson."

I place a soft kiss on her nose. "They did say parenthood would make your life interesting."

Now she's the one to chuckle. "My life has been interesting since the day I met you."

"Good interesting or bad interesting?"

She covers my mouth with hers, stealing my breath away even after all these years, and replies. "Always the good kind."