Brown Eyes

Chapter 17

You and Bucky are having a stare-off. Bucky stands in front of where you are sitting on the kitchen island, a collar and leash in hand. You just give him an unimpressed look. He huffs in frustration.

"Look, I get it. You don't want to wear the leash. But I am not taking you outside without it on and I have errands to run," he states. You hiss at him and he rolls his eyes. "You and I both know that I am not going to leave you here by yourself, so we can do this the easy way or the hard way." You shake your head at him. He glares at you and you glare right back.

You meow frustratedly at him, pointing a paw at the pocket of his sweater.

"Yes you can ride in the pocket, but you still at least need to put the collar on." You hiss in disagreement, threatening to scratch him. He rolls his eyes, then kneels down to be eye level with you, giving you a heartfelt look. You tilt your head in question. "I know you don't want to wear it, but it gives me the peace of mind that if for some reason, you get lost, we won't have to wait the rest of the 5 days to find you." You huff in annoyance, but do not try to scratch him again when he moves to put the collar on you again. You paw at it in annoyance, the weight of it around your neck a foreign feeling. Bucky scratches behind your ears in appreciation. You huff, annoyed, but let him pick you up and put you in his pocket.

If anyone at the street market thought it was weird that a grown man was walking around with a meowing kitten in his pocket, especially during the winter, nobody said anything. As Bucky walked around on his weekly trip to the street market, picking out fresh fruit for the tower, you are people watching from his pocket. You make eye contact with a little girl holding her mother's hand. Her mother is talking to the woman behind the stand. The little girl smiles brightly when she notices you and does a small wave. She tries to make her way over to you and Bucky, but is stopped by her hand that is entwined with her mother's. Her mother looks down to see where her daughter is trying to go, and shakes her head when her daughter points towards you, her mother likely only seeing her daughter pointing at some random man. She returns to talking to the woman behind the stand, a small frown on her daughter's face. The little girl continues to look at you, pouting, but still waves at you.

You look up at Bucky and see that he is also talking to the person at the stand he is standing at and make a decision. You carefully jump out of the pocket, landing softly on your paws, and trotting over to the little girl, a huge smile breaking out across her face. She lets you sniff her hand before petting you softly. You nuzzle her hand, happy you could make her feel better.

You sit there for a minute or two before the girl's mother finishes speaking with the stand owner, buying a few things. She turns to look down at her daughter and notices her petting you. She crouched down next to her daughter, placing a hand on her head, the other stretched out for you to smell. When you allow her to, she scratches under your chin.

"Where did you come from, little guy?" she asks you. Her daughter points towards Bucky, who is still at the same stand. She smiles at her daughter, picking you up softly, placing you in her daughter's hands, who quickly cradles you carefully in her arms. She leads her daughter over to Bucky, waiting patiently for Bucky to finish buying from the stand. When Buck turns around, to move to the next stand, he smiles at the woman questioningly when she starts to speak. "I believe my daughter found someone who belongs to you," she states kindly, nudging her daughter forward with you in her arms. Bucky looks surprisingly down at you, but smiles kindly at the mother. He kneels down so he is level with the little girl, scratching behind your ears. You purr in her arms, nuzzling in his hand.

"What a little escape artist," he jokes, making the little girl giggle.

He holds his hand out patiently to the girl for her to hand you over, but before she can, you turn in her arms, booping your nose against hers and giving it a lick. She giggles loudly, kissing your nose. You sneeze from the movement and jump from her arms into Bucky's hand. He carefully places you back into his pocket, and you lay down calmly.