Author's Note: I CAN'T BELIEVE THERE'S ONLY ONE DAY LEFT UNTIL ULTRON. I'M TOO EXCITED TO HANDLE IT. As a side-note, I'm posting early today because I have a long-ass event to be at tonight, and I expect that it will drag on past the regular posting time for this week. Anyway, happy reading!

….

Day One: An Agent for the Ages

It was Thursday night, and all of the men in the tower had just come upstairs from an all-day training session in the basement gym. They all flopped down on various couches and chairs, too tired and sweaty from their workout to bother turning any lights on.

"JARVIS, is Natasha back yet?" Clint asked, wiping his brow with a towel.

"Not yet," the AI replied cordially. "Oh, wait- Miss Romanoff has just entered the lobby."

"Do you think she'll let us order pizza tonight?" Tony asked Clint hopefully.

"You're forgetting that we already ordered in last night," the archer said, shaking his head. "I tried to eat a piece of cake for breakfast once and she almost ripped my hand off."

The elevator doors dinged as they opened, alerting the group to Natasha's arrival. The assassin made her way down the hallway, moving quietly and slowly so as not to jostle the package she was holding. All of the lights on the common floor were off, and Natasha assumed that everyone had gone back to their own floors to sleep, seeing as how late it was. As she was creeping past the living room doorway, the clearing of a throat stopped her short. Natasha turned hesitantly towards the sound, and flinched when the bright light of a lamp was clicked on.

"And where have you been?" Bruce asked suspiciously.

Natasha was unable to shield her eyes due to the large box in her arms, so she was stuck squinting at seven silhouettes. "Nowhere. Nothing. Why?"

"It's pretty late to be getting mail," Sam's voice pointed out.

"Yeah, Nat. What's in the box?" Clint inquired in an accusatory tone.

The assassin shifted uneasily from foot to foot. "Um… nothing. It's just some… bras…"

"Sure it is."

Suddenly, the box tipped to one side, and Natasha scrambled to save it from toppling out of her hands. As soon as it was righted, a rustling sound came from within.

"Bras," Tony said, raising an eyebrow.

Natasha sighed, getting a better grip on the box. "Guys, I did a bad thing."

With a bit of a jolt, a small furry head popped out of the top of the cardboard, looking at the rest of the group with big brown eyes. The puppy stretched its neck up, and licked Natasha's cheek with a long pink tongue.

…..

Soon, everyone was sitting in a large circle on the floor with their legs stretched out to provide a fence to stop the German Shepherd puppy from wandering away. Said puppy was running happily around in the circle, excitedly wagging its tail and sniffing all the new feet before dashing back over to Natasha.

"We can't keep it, Nat," Steve said apologetically. "You know that, right?"

"Her. The dog is a she, not an 'it'," the assassin insisted as she rubbed the puppy's ears. "And we can keep her."

"Maybe for a little while, but what do we do with her when we have to go away on a mission for three weeks?"

"Pepper lives here too! And I'm sure it would take Tony all of five minutes to build some kind of short-term dog care robot."

"Well, I mean if I installed JARVIS in an android-type thing…" the billionaire genius said in a contemplative voice.

"I like this dog," Thor decided, as the puppy ran over to him and started a fight with his sock. "I am in favour of keeping her."

"Me too," Tony agreed.

Bruce shrugged. "I like dogs."

"Plus, she is pretty cute," Sam added, reaching out to rub her back as she ran by.

Clint was trying hard not to be won over, because he too agreed with Steve. However, when the puppy pranced over and started licking his fingers, the archer was gone. Bucky also surrendered as soon as the little dog flopped down in his lap and rolled over onto her back for a belly rub.

"Please, Steve?" Natasha asked again, shooting him puppy dog eyes. "I found her alone in an alley- she has nowhere else to go."

The Captain hung his head in defeat and sighed. "Fine. Now give me the puppy, I want to hug her."

…..

The next morning, everyone reconvened in the living room and got back into the circle formation so the puppy could bound around from person to person.

"So, what should we name her?" Bucky asked, letting her play with his fingers.

"I think Tony is a good name," Tony stated immediately. "Nice and strong."

"We are not naming her 'Tony'," Bruce ensured. "How about Beaker?"

"You can't take a dog named 'Beaker' seriously. No, Tony is definitely the way to go."

"Tony, if you say Tony one more time…" Natasha threatened.

The billionaire genius put his hands up in surrender. Across the circle, the puppy was attempting to jump over the barrier of legs, but kept tripping and falling over instead. Steve picked her up and turned her around to send her in the right direction.

"What about Sandy?" Steve suggested.

"Like from Annie? Nah, that doesn't suit her," Clint said, watching the puppy as she barrelled past him. "I've got it: Nick Fury Jr."

"No," Natasha said, shaking her head. "Just no."

"I believe that Pop Tart is a fitting name for this small dog," Thor declared, picking her up in one huge hand. "This is my vote."

"That's actually not too bad, I guess…" Clint conceded. "But still not perfect."

Sam got a hold of her next, and raised her up to his face. "Brownie, maybe? Because of her big brown eyes?"

"I kind of like Penny, 'cuz she's small, like a penny?" Bucky suggested.

"Yeah, but she won't always be this small," Bruce pointed out.

"That's true. How about Frances?"

"No, that won't work, it was my grandmother's name," Sam said, laughing.

For a while, the eight of them sat and watched the puppy run around the circle, and play with the tennis ball that Steve had found for her. Eventually, she fell asleep in Natasha's lap, and everyone else drifted back to the couches while the assassin remained on the floor, still pondering over a name for their new puppy.

"I think we should name her Agent," Natasha said finally.

"Agent…" Steve said, testing the name out. "I like it."

Everyone gave noises of assent, generally agreeing that it was an excellent name for the puppy. Suddenly, Tony shot straight up in his seat, sending an accusatory stare at Natasha.

"Wait a minute…" he said, the wheels in his head turning quickly. "Agent… as in 'her first name is Agent'?"

The puppy barked happily.

….

Author's Note: PUPPY PUPPY PUPPY! THEY HAVE AN ADORABLE PUPPY! I'm excited about this development, if you couldn't tell. She's going to make a great addition to the Avengers household, that's for sure! One day of countdown left!