Brown Eyes

Chapter 16

The elevator doors open to the lab, where Tony, Peter and Bruce are located. Tony and Peter are no longer looking at a StarkPad like they were in the kitchen, but are now scrolling through information on a holoscreen. Bruce is sitting at his desk in the corner, glasses resting on the desk in front of him, his head in his hands. Even from far away, you can tell he is tired. You prance your way over to his desk, elastic still in your mouth and sit at his feet, meowing at him. He startles, looks down at you and smiles softly when he realizes where the sound came from. He quirks an eyebrow at you when he sees the elastic in your mouth, picks you up and sets you on his desk. He takes the elastic from your mouth. He holds it up between the two of you and you tilt your head at him innocently. He snorts.

"And where did you get this?" he questions. You meow at him, as if trying to answer and he laughs again.

"The elastic has been apprehended from Sergeant Barnes, Dr. Banner," FRIDAY fills in, and Tony laughs from his workbench.

"Great. You get into even more trouble like this than you usually do. Bucky is very particular about his elastics. I am sure he will come barreling in here any minute," Tony states with a laugh, looking over at the two of you. You give Bruce your best sad kitten eyes, and he sighs, putting the elastic over your head, under your hood so it can not be seen without removing the hood. You nuzzle his hand in thanks, showing him your dinosaur impression from earlier. He laughs and smiles at you, scooping you up off the desk and onto his lap where you can hide. He does this just in time for Bucky to come barreling out of the elevator, an annoyed look on his face.

"Alright, where is the little furball?" he says, but you can hear the amusement in his voice. You nose your way under Bruce's shirt, who does a good job of pretending that nothing is happening, looking up at Bucky from the file he had quickly picked up when he heard the elevator doors open.

"[Y/N]? Haven't seen her since she left the kitchen with Sam," Tony lies, barely looking away from the holoscreen. "Did you see the little dinosaur costume though? Adorable."

Bucky hums in reply, not trusting the genius for a minute. He takes in a view of the room, focusing on Bruce, who hasn't looked up from the file he is reading but seems suspiciously too innocent to the super-soldier. He slowly stalks over to the man, leaning on the desk, looking down at the file.

"Whatcha' reading Doc?" Bucky questions and Bruce gives him a questioning look, but answers him anyway with a background on the information on the file. Bucky nods along, actually interested, but still on the lookout for the small ball of terror. Bruce thinks he has done a good job when Bucky stands back up with a nod and turns around to go over and investigate the other two occupants of the room. Until, of course, a small feline sneeze can be heard coming from Bruce's shirt. Bucky and Bruce both freeze, and Bucky slowly turns back to face Bruce with a grin and an eyebrow raise. Bruce gives a sheepish smile, but doesn't give an indication of willingly handing over the perpetrator.

"Allergy's kicking in Doc?"

"Must be all the dust in here." Bucky squints his eyes disbelievingly at the Doctor.

"Ahh yes, all the dust in the frequently used and cleaned lab of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner."

"...yep," is the only reply he gets before the Doctor appears to return to reading his file. Bucky gives him a blank, disbelieving look before rounding the desk. Bruce tries his best to ignore him, trying to keep the smile off his face. Bucky sits on the floor next to Bruce's chair, making eye contact with the man before pointedly looking at the bulge in the man's shirt that is very obvious now that Bucky has rounded the desk. Bruce gives a sheepish grin, lifting his shirt a small amount so that you are revealed from your hiding place.