Steve wakes with a large yawn. He stretches his limbs and gets up out of bed. Instead of putting a shirt on and heading down to the kitchen like he would normally do, he walks over to his closet. Something he has been doing more frequently the past week.

He opens the doors and looks over his eggs in the incubator, kneeling in front of the box. He checks the thermostat on the front to make sure the temperature was still right. He opens the incubator and reaches in carefully. He turns the eggs over gently, moving them around as many online sites instructed.

Over the past couple of days Steve has been looking into places to take the chickens in. He doesn't know if pet shelters take chickens, he doesn't think they do. He can't remember if he had ever seen a chicken at an animal shelter. They manly seem to take in cats and dogs, which makes sense, given their popularity. But he was at a loss of what just to door about the chickens in his care.

He was certainly not going to leave them outside in a box, to fend for themselves and just hope that someone would come alone to take them in. And he can't just wonder the streets offering them to people. The internet seems to be the way to go these days. But which site? There were so many and they all looked so simular and he didn't know which one to trust. And what should he say? He didn't even know what types of chickens they were. Should he advertise on more than one site? He wants to give them away for free, but would people trust that? People seem so cynical these days. If he has to charge, how much? Is there a way to make sure they go to good homes? It would certainly be overkill to run a police check on someone for adopting a pet chicken. Did he talk to them? Or was he just to trust that they would look after them, that they would know how to look after the chickens?

He wishes he could ask someone. Maybe he could ask the owner of the store he visited, but the man was selling snakes… what if the man simply fed them to the snakes. Maybe that was unlikely. But he wanted to make sure the chickens would be okay.

With one final turn he closes the incubator and shut the closet. He gets dressed and heads down to the kitchen.

Janet sits at the counter and watches as Steve leaves the kitchen with his breakfast. She turns to Tony.

"Do you think Steve has been acting a little weird?" she asks.

Tony looks up at her, looking a little confused. "What do you mean, Jan?"

Hank scoffs, "Come on, Jan, not this again. I'm sure Cap is fine."

Janet rolls her eyes at him. "I just a little worried. He seems quieter"

"He's a very reserved man, Jan" Tony says, giving her a small smile.

"See, Tony sees sense" Hank says.

Janet sighs, "There is nothing wrong with being concerned about a friend, Hank." She crosses her arms over his chest and turns back to Tony. "Steve doesn't come out of his room as much, and when he does he either just grabs something quick from the kitchen or heads over to the Library."

"Maybe he just has something on his mind" Tony says, but he looks a little worried too. It's somewhat vindicating that she's not the only one worried.

"But, doesn't he also spend a lot of time with you?" She asks. "Has he mentioned anything? Do you think he's been more reserved? Has he been quieter around you too?"

Tony sighs. "He has, but that's understandable. Steve's been though a lot and he's still adjusting to… well… everything. It's expected that he should have off weeks. Its fine, Jan, we are here if he needs us. He knows that."

She huffs. "I know. I'm just worried"

Steve hops out of bed almost as soon as he wakes, tossing the blankets aside in a rush. He quickly makes his way over to his closet, dropping down in front of the incubator with a huge grin on his face. It was time to check on the eggs, one of his favourite times of the day.

It's going to be hard to see them go, Steve's man enough to admit that to himself. Looking after the eggs day after day for the past two weeks has become a soothing routine for him.

He checks the thermometer and gently turns the eggs, shifting them around like they would be if they were under a hen. By his guess, the chicks would be nearly ready to hatch. Any day now there will be little chickens.

Any day now, the chickens will hatch and he will have to give them up.

Steve ignores the sadness the thought stirs up in his stomach. It was what he had to do. He wouldn't be able to look after them, where would he keep them? How would he look after them without the other Avenger's finding out? Who would feed them while he was gone? As sad as it was, he was going to have to give them up.

Steve leans in close to the incubator, as he had been doing the past couple of days. He listens close to see if he could hear anything coming from the eggs.

He hears it. Tiny, little chirps coming from some of the eggs. Gently he runs his fingers over one of the eggs he hears the chirps coming from. It was only a matter of days now before they would hatch.

Steve is grinning so hard it nearly hurts.

TBC

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Review Responses

[Guest] Thank you so much! =D Eggbert is a great name, lol. I have named my own chickens similar things (lots of foods and pun names)

[Story5] Thanks. The other Avengers are going to show up soon (in 4 chapters time).

[FlareOfTheMidnightPanther] ^^ No problem. Speckles is a cute name.