Steve Rogers finds the tiny ginger bit of fluff in an alleyway, hissing and spitting at the biggest damn rat he’d ever seen.
(If Bucky had been with him, he’d have given Steve a pointed look and remarked, “This looks awfully familiar.”)
Steve throws a rock to get the rat away from the kitten and cautiously approaches.
“Hey, buddy - it’s okay. Let me help you.”
It takes him a while but eventually, the kitten consents to being picked up and enjoys getting head and ear rubs.
The kitten is in dire need of a bath and of course, the bath consequently drowns most of its fleas. The vet helps Steve take care of the rest, adds a vitamin shot into the mix and tons of advice on kitten care and where to get the appropriate kitten necessities.
Steve thinks he’s just helping one poor stray animal - even if he can’t save them all.
He doesn’t think about getting this one thing, this one tiny thing right, when his nights are plagued with nightmares about Bucky and the train and the photos of the “Asset” from HYDRA’s files burned into his memory.
Steve gives ear rubs and head rubs and scratches a tiny fuzzy belly and gets purrs for a reward and for a moment, just a few more moments, he’ll forget hearing Bucky’s screams.
(Bucky is back, Bucky is home, Bucky will heal and recover and Steve will do whatever it takes to help him. )
Steve can help this kitten and draw him in his sketchbooks and smile at feline antics and take pictures on his phone. He’ll post it on his Instagram and it will make his friends laugh and tease him about being social-media savvy and they won’t have to ask prying questions about him being all right.
Steve is all right. He wasn’t the one who fell from the train. He wasn’t the one who was captured by HYDRA.
He survived the ice. He survived the war. He’s alive and he’s whole. Bucky’s the priority, not him.
The kitten settles in the crook between his neck and shoulder and will purr purr purr, soft and fluffy and warm and the little guy is well.
Steve got this right. He did.
(Later, Bucky will take him aside and tell him, “God damn it, Rogers."
And he’ll hold Steve, press kisses into his hair, to his cheek, the corner of his mouth, his lips and whisper swearwords like endearments and tell him it’s okay that Steve also isn’t well. That Steve needs help too. That Steve is loved.)
The kitten finally gets his name when he hisses and spits at Bucky’s ginormous gentle giant of a service dog. FUBAR gently whuffles at the kitten and gives him a lick and they soon become fast friends.
The little guy ends up riding on the dog and this sends everyone into paroxysms of laughter apparently because it’s straight out of some classic Looney Tunes cartoon.
Of course, the kitten’s name is SNAFU.