Titles: Bear's Babies (Fic and Art)
Characters: Bear, Reese and Finch.
Word Length: 619
Rating: G
Summary: Bear adopts.
Bear was in The Book-House. He was sniffing around looking for rats. Alpha-Finch disliked rats and Bear wouldn't be a very good pack-mate if he didn't look out for them.
He walked into a room and suddenly three sets of eyes stared out from inky shadows.
Bear growled.
Out of the darkness stepped three small cat-pups. They looked up at him with wide eyes.
They mewed. They wondered where their mama was.
Bear stopped growling. He didn't remember being in the whelping box but he remembered how sweet his mother's milk had been.
He went over to each cat-pup and told them everything would be okay.
Picking up each cat-pup in his mouth he carried them to his bed and set them gently down. After he put the last one in his bed he laid down and let the cat-pups snuggle into his side.
He might not have sweet milk, but he was going to be a good mama.
*************
John walked into The Library and was attacked by a ball of fluff that climbed up his leg.
He stared down at the white and orange ball of fluff. He thought about shaking it off his legs, but it seemed very attached. Those claws might have been small, but they were sharp. Seriously he'd rather be stabbed... Again.
'What's this?' John asked as he grabbed the kitten and held up to his face. It stared at him with big green eyes and made a mewing sound.
'It's a kitten,' Finch said from where he was sitting. A black kitten was curled on his lap and he was stroking its head.
'I can see that. Why is it here?' John felt like he had walked into an alternate reality, he just hoped cats weren't his new overlords.
'Apparently Bear adopted a litter of stray kittens.'
John looked at the kitten he was holding. It started to purr. He couldn't stay mad at it, only a heartless bastard could stay angry at a purring kitten.
After a few days John got used to seeing the cats around The Library. The black one seemed to love Finch's lap, the orange and white one spent a lot of time climbing up on book selves. Sometimes he would look up and was surprised when green eyes met his.
There was also a white and gray cat, but John never saw it. All he saw was a flash of color as it ran to hide.
Now, John had the orange cat asleep in his arms. Every once in a while its ears would twitch.
'Hey Finch. Are you going to name these little guys?'
'Bear has already chosen names. The one you're holding is Tony. The black one is Steve and their sister answers to Coulson.'
John laughed. He knew Bear watched The Avengers, but he had no idea Bear was that big of a fan.
'What's so humorous?'
'Nothing. I just didn't know Bear was such Marvel fan. You know, Marvel as in comic books.'
'Of course. I've always had an affinity for Batman and DC myself.'
John walked over to Bear's dog bed gently sat Tony down next to Bear. Tony snuggled into Bear's side and Bear licked Tony's head.
Later that night, John walked into The Library and slumped in a chair. It had been a bad day.
Tony jumped onto John's lap and started to purr. He rubbed Tony's ears and felt the tension leave his body. Coulson came out from her hiding place and jumped on his shoulder, she nuzzled his head and purred like a motor boat. Despite himself John smiled and petted two cats at once.
Fur was soft under his fingers. Maybe having cats around weren't so bad.