Bucky had made a grievous error. Truly he had. And the entire fault of it lie totally with himself and his insane need to suddenly please- suck up to- his new daughter for his previous errors.

It had been two days since he had decided to apologize to Ichigo for overstepping about her going to school and stuff and while he'd been sort of putting the apology off- because he wasn't all that sure what to fucking say- because simply apologizing really wasn't as easy as it looked.

Especially when there was a temperamental girl like Ichigo involved.

Which was in part, why he had made an impromptu trip to the local animal shelter. Where he found some really nice and adorable puppies and kittens that he had thought would make good 'forgive me/don't kill me' gifts for his little girl.

Because who the hell didn't like tiny, adorable little balls of cuteness and fluff?

He was betting that since she was a teenager and stuff, she would probably like something small to curl up with whenever she was upset or something anyways. Plus he'd done some serious research on the internet and had read that some animals had a very calming effect on people.

Apparently people tended to find specific animals very soothing.

Which would be all kinds of helpful with Ichigo. Especially after the recent upheaval her life had been put through.

So after wandering around for a couple of minutes, he narrowed down his choices between the pretty wolf-dog puppy with medium length white and black fur, and the pale blue eyes that sort of reminded him of Steve's own.

And a long furred, fluffy black kitten that had the audacity to hiss at him when he tried to pet it. And it's snuggly, sleepy little cream colored Siamese counterpart that apparently didn't give a damn if he wanted to pet it or not.

He chose all three of them. The two kittens for Ichigo, because they just seemed like they'd fit her better than the puppy would. Besides he wouldn't trust her with something that was likely going to grow up to be the size of a wolf anyways. Knowing her like he did, he suspected that she'd train it to bite him whenever she was pissed. And wolf teeth were frigging sharp.

So he decided that the puppy would be for Steve because he needed a dose of his own medicine, personality wise. Plus it would be beyond funny to him to see Stevie matching wits with the little wolf-dog since it was bound to drive him fucking crazy.

So after collecting all three animals and signing some paper work, Bucky headed back home to set the puppy free in Steve's room- cause he was betting that Steve would run out of there screaming excitedly once he saw the dog.

And he still also needed to get the ice cream and head to Ichigo's room so that he could hand her the frozen treat. And then unleash 'Spitter' and 'Sleepy' and watch her fight them for it since the first thing that the two were likely to do was crawl all over her in an effort to get to the stuff.

Grinning to himself, he made sure to stop by Steve's room first and did a quick check to see where his buddy was and noted that Steve was sitting on his couch, totally not paying any attention to anything but the TV. And quietly set the carrier with the puppy down on the floor and then opened it and let it go trotting off as he quietly slipped back out and closed the door behind him.

He got about five steps away from Steve's living quarters before he heard his startled oaths followed by a loud crash that could have only been the coffee table being overturned as the man stood up. Which was also immediately followed by yips and little excited barks and snorted and shook his head before moving on.

Stopping by the common room had been fun.

Especially since Nat had been there watching TV when he walked in with the carrier and the very loudly meowing black kitten, who's little friend was still snoozing.

Nat's eyes automatically zeroed in on him as she heard the kitten let out a particularly loud yowl of displeasure as she asked in a disbelieving tone, "What. Did. You. Do?"

"I adopted a couple of kittens for Ichigo."

"Why?"

"Because animals are supposed to help calm and relax people, and she sort of has a temper and it makes it difficult to talk to her."

"You still haven't apologized to the girl yet." Nat said with a scowl as she turned to face him while he set the carrier aside and grabbed a bowl from the cabinet.

"That's part of what the kittens are for." He said in a slightly defensive tone. The woman rolled her eyes at him and then made grabby hands for the carrier.

"Gimme. I want to see what hellish little felines you plan to let the girl unleash on us all." She said in an overly dramatic manner. Bucky snorted and set the carrier down on the coffee table in front of her and let her open it. The second that she did, she had to jerk her hand back because 'Spitter' damned near tried to take her hand off with it's claws.

"Whoa! Easy there tiger," She said as she tried again to reach into the carrier after a moment or so to try and grab one of the kittens, only to have 'Spitter' launch himself at her face. Nat screamed and fall back onto the couch as the kitten used her to give it a little bit of extra air- and landed deftly on the back of the couch, with it's fur all fluffed up as he growled at the two menacingly.

Nat merely eyed the feline for a moment and then slowly turned her green eyes to him and gave a dark looking that suddenly had him felling very nervous and sweating bullets.

"Congratulations Barnes, you got your little girl a demon. I'm sure that they'll get along swimmingly once they've fully dedicated themselves to killing us all." Nat said sarcastically as she eyed him with disdain.

Bucky merely gave her a nervous smile and then said in a whisper tone, "Think of it this way, Ichigo and the kitten have a fifty/fifty chance of killing each other before they manage to kill us."

"Is that what you really think?"

"No. No it is not."

"We're so screwed." Nat sighed and then blurted out, "You get to tell Tony." And then turned and walked off, leaving him alone with the black furred little demon.