Imagine If You Assembled the Avengers: Volume 1

Who's Scruffy Lookin? (Bucky Barnes x reader)

"(Y/N)! Let me in!" The loud banging on your door and yelling jolted you from your nap, shaking your head to regain your sense of what was happening. "Quick! Let me in!"

You stumbled over your own feet a bit as you made your way to the door, clumsily unlocking the final bolt just before Bucky turned the knob and burst through into your apartment with a scruffy looking dog trailing close behind. "Buck, what the hell is going on that's so urgent?" You looked out at the hallway but found nothing, groaning and closing the door to turn and wait for him to answer.

"Well?"

"You said you always wanted a dog...right?"

You shook your head as if you hadn't heard him correctly, now completely confused and still barely awake. "What?"

"Okay, so here's what happened," he began, his words falling so quickly from his mouth that you had trouble following along, "you should have heard the names she was calling this poor pup, and all she would do every day when I saw her was yell, and she just didn't seem like a nice person, (Y/N), I swear. So today when she tied her...I think it's a her... to the lamp post and went for her paper I grabbed her and ran, and I've been looking back the whole way here in case she saw me. But even if she did, I don't care because she doesn't deserve her and I know you can give her a better home, right? But you have to call her Fluffy, because...well, she's pretty fluffy. Oh, and that park on Third? You can't go there because that's where we just came from. Okay?"

It felt like an out-of-body experience, sitting on the edge of your couch as you listened to his story of dog theft, envisioning what it must have looked like for the once-deadly assassin to tuck a small dog under his arm and run for it's life to save it from the mean lady. Your mouth was hanging wide open and you hadn't so much as flinched as he spoke, completely in shock at what you had woken up to.

"Take her back, Buck," you finally mumbled, shaking yourself to attention.

"No, no way! You need to take this dog, (Y/N). She needs you to take her."

"You take her! How is this suddenly my problem?" You stood and walked heavily to your kitchen, in desperate need of caffeine to get you going again. "Sure, I said I wanted a dog someday. Someday, Buck. Not today." After pouring your coffee you took a seat at the table, watching as he played with the dog on your floor, trying really hard to not smile at the sight. "Is that thing even housebroken?"

"Sweetheart, I'm barely housebroken and you took me in," he snickered, rolling the mutt over to scratch her belly, amused that his metal hand was more welcome than his still human one. "This can't be any worse, right?"

"Hmm, I'm not so sure." You set your cup on the table and leaned forward, dropping your hands down to summon the dog to you, albeit reluctantly and only to make Bucky feel like you were trying to entertain his idea that you might keep it. "Come here, puff ball."

"Fluffy."

"Same thing."

The dog slowly made its way to you and cautiously sniffed your hand, deciding if you were trustworthy or not. After a moment the decision was made and she jumped into your lap and began licking your face as you tried to turn away. "Hey puppy, yeah, that's right, I'm not so bad." You glanced over at Bucky, who was watching you intently and eagerly, waiting for you to give him the word that you would go along with it. "You know what you're doing, don't you?"

"Not sure what you mean."

"Between the sad eyes from the mutt and the ones you're giving me, it's making it harder to say 'no' to this." You scratched lightly behind the dog's ears, grinning to yourself as she closed her eyes and her body began to relax at your touch. It was only a matter of seconds before she was sprawled over your lap and breathing heavily as she slept with her little pink tongue sticking out. "Oh, yeah, she knows exactly what she's doing," you whispered.

Bucky simply smiled at his victory, grabbing your phone from the table to snap a quick picture of you with your new housemate. "You're a natural, I knew it."

"Okay, here's how this is going to work," you said sternly, pointing at him with your one free hand, "you brought her here but you're not off the hook. We split costs and she's with you half of the time. I'll agree to co-parent this kid, otherwise no deal and you take her back."

"Well, if that's the case," he said quietly, pulling up a chair to sit next to you, "parenting is really done best when both are together. In the same home..." His voice trailed off as he looked to the floor when his nerves began to rise, "or so I've heard."

"Oh, okay, I see," you gasped in mock surprise, "this was all an elaborate plan to ask me to move in with you. Very clever, Mr. Barnes. Very clever."

"It wasn't," he sighed, "honestly. But she sure is a great accomplice if it was. Check it out." He gently took the dog from your lap and slid her over to his, taking her front paws into each of his hands and holding them together in front of her small face.

"Please, mommy," he whined as he held her up towards you, "please move in with daddy." You had to cover your mouth as you laughed, trying to not wake the still-sleeping pup. "He promises to be good."

"Stop, you got me," you whispered with a quiet laugh, "no need to make promises we know you can't keep."