Chapter Text
The elevator to the common area of the Tower pinged open and the team poured out, all in varying levels of injured, all several steps past pissed off.
“That should have been easy! Instead it was a clusterfuck!!” Natasha fumed, the smoke pouring from her mouth with the words making everyone else uneasy. “What the hell went wrong?”
“Hey honey, why don't you shift back all the way so you don't accidentally light my couch on fire like you did last week, hm?” Tony called from his position in Steve's arms, cradled close to the big blonds chest. “I know it's an ugly couch but it was just shockingly expensive and no amount of Scotch-guard protects from burns.”
“Tony, just be quiet and let us check you over.” Bucky interjected, and sent a steely eyed glare at Natasha. “Shift down , dragon lady, before you singe something. Steve, put him on the couch.”
Steve set Tony down carefully, tucking a pillow behind his head, and then bent over and ripped Tony's under armor right down the middle, tossing the shredded pieces aside so they could see the mess of bruises and scrapes down his abdomen.
“Steve!” Tony yelped. “Easy on the clothing!”
“Damn it, Tony.” Clint flew in through the window, still partial shifted in his hawk form, tucking his giant wings behind him. “Stop yelling about your shirt. We told you to stay back and away from the fight. You could have seriously gotten hurt!”
“Oh yeah.” Tony rolled his eyes and tried to sit up, grimacing when everything pulled. “Tell the man in the suit and with all weapons to stay back and let the animals handle it. That sounds like a great idea.”
“Yeah well, if you would have listened you wouldn't be all banged up, would you?” Clint pointed out, shifting back into his human form, the wings and golden eyes disappearing. “Tasha, shift down baby, you're smoking up the room.”
He grabbed a blanket for her, and Natasha took a deep breath as she began shifting, the scales on her body rippling and shimmering before disappearing, long claws retracting and horns fading back into her hair.
Within a minute she stood at her usual five-two, green eyes and red hair. It was a far cry from her dragon, and everybody relaxed once she was wrapped in a blanket and headed to the kitchen to make coffee.
“Anything broken?” Steve asked and Bucky felt over Tony's ribs gingerly, mindful of the bruising and cuts, his fingers probing gently, blue eyes worried when Tony flinched away from even the light touch.
“Nothing cracked, just some hard bruising. Damn it, Tony what the hell were you thinking ?” His voice dropped into a growl, his Wolf still close to the surface after the battle and Tony swallowed hard, pushing back the jolt of want at the sound.
“I didn't want you guys to get hurt.” he said timidly. “So I stepped in.”
“We were fine, Tony.” Wanda finally appeared from the elevator, leaning heavily on Vision. “Even though, perhaps these boys--” her deeply accented voice sharpened as she glared at Bucky and Steve. “--should be grateful we have you looking out for us, instead of yelling at you while you are hurt .”
“Yeah see?” Tony closed his eyes against a fresh wave of pain. “Listen to snake lady. She knows I was right. How are you by the way, Wanda? You took a pretty hard hit.”
“Better now.” She touched her leg carefully, where a ricocheting bullet had plowed into and right through her body while she had been shifted. As her Constrictor, she was such a hard target to hit that it was always surprising when she got hurt at all, and by the look on her pale face she was definitely feeling it.
“Shift back into your snake.” Bucky instructed. “You will heal faster as your Constrictor, yeah?”
Everyone in the room exchanged an amused glance over the command, knowing it was less about Bucky telling Wanda what to do, and more about him genuinely being concerned that she was alright.
As more and more of his Winter Soldier conditioning left him, Bucky had changed from sullen, quiet and dangerous into a sweet, kind hearted man, who always was looking out for everyone else. Being a Wolf shifter meant his protective instincts ran deep and he had no problem bullying his way into a situation just to take care of whoever was being picked on or was hurt.
During a battle, he was nothing less than a killer, both in his shifted Wolf and in human form, but post battle? Basically a giant marshmallow.
Steve loved it, loved seeing so much of his best friend back after thinking he had lost the old Bucky forever. Natasha tended to roll her eyes over it, while Clint was just relieved that someone else on the team besides him fussed when they got hurt. Tony ignored everything Bucky said, even when Steve was agreeing just as loudly, and Vision and Wanda took it all in stride.
Right now, Wanda let her eyes soften and warm in his direction. “Thank you for your concern, Bucky. But I wanted to check on Tony before I went to bed. Make sure he was alright.”
“I'm fine.” Tony waved her off. “You guys get out of here. Vision, take her and let her shift again, help her though so she doesn't sprain anything. Clint, you take the resident dragon and get some sleep. Steve and Bucky, go wrestle or something, get rid of all that post- battle energy. I'm going to sit here and whimper over my probably broken ribs. Alright? Everyone good?”
They all mumbled in agreement, and started leaving, always ready to listen to Tony since he spent so much time taking care of them. Tasha and Wanda bent to kiss his forehead as they passed, Clint ruffled his fingers through Tony's hair affectionately, and Tony preened under the attention.
He loved his team. His family.
An annoyed growl brought his attention back to moment at hand, and Tony fixed Steve and Bucky with a glare, huffing angrily.
“Bucky, if your Wolf growls at me one more time I'm gonna slap a muzzle on it, so stop. And Steve, I know you think you're purring comfortingly, but that noise is also just a growl. Lions don't purr, so either dial it back, or shift completely because I'm getting weirded out. You both need to leave me alone. Go back to your room and leave me in peace. Your hovering and mothering me and it's pissing me off. ”
“Not leaving you Tony.” Steve bent and picked him back up, and Tony tried his damnedest not to be thrilled at the show of strength as they headed for the elevator that would take them to Tony's penthouse. “Just gonna put you in bed, alright? Need to make sure you're alright.”
“Stop babying me!” Tony demanded. “Just because I don't shift into a big scary animal doesn't mean that you get to treat me like I'm a child!”
Steve ignored him, as did Bucky, who had a hand to his forehead checking his temperature, another hand resting carefully over his hurt ribs.
Tony just sighed in frustration and closed his eyes again.
If he were telling the truth, he'd admit that the over protectiveness from the two soldiers actually made him happy as fuck .
Steve was all things beautiful, and Bucky was gorgeous in such a wild way it made Tony ache, and if he were telling the truth, he'd admit that every time either of them touched him his whole body hummed. Anytime either one of them smiled he just wanted to melt. If he were telling the truth, he'd admit that he wanted both in his bed all the time.
But he definitely wasn't admitting to any of that while he was this annoyed.
He wasn't annoyed that they cared about him. That wasn't it at all.
The problem was, they were so protective and possessive of him both in human and shifter form, that it was starting to interfere with his life, both on and off the field.
Both the super soldiers were considered Alpha Level Shifters, which meant they were lethal as a human, and even more lethal as an animal.
Steve's Lion stood a shocking five and a half feet at the shoulder, and Bucky's silver Wolf stood just a few inches shorter. A roar from Steve could burst an ear drum if a person were too close, and once Bucky had thrown his head back and howled and every dog within a three mile radius had turned tail and bolted. They were unparalleled on the battlefield-- two super soldiers who could tear someone apart with their bare hands, two Alpha Level Shifters that could kill you with a paw.
They were intimidating and wild and gorgeous, and every time Tony saw them shifted he wanted to make grabby hands and roll over and--
--Well anyway.
Unfortunately along with all that power and strength and beauty, came an Alpha sized dose of hormones and aggressiveness and instinct to protect what was theirs .
And both the shifters were positive that Tony was theirs.
When Bucky had come to the Tower a year ago, he had decided instantly that Tony needed the most protection and had set himself to provide that protection. And since Tony was Steve's family, that meant he was also pack, which meant Bucky would happily kill for him in a heartbeat.
Steve had come out of the ice, taken one look at the man who scented like Howard, scented like a friend, and promptly decided that Tony was due the same amount of devotion he had given Howard, and more because he hadn't ever wanted Howard the way he wanted Tony.
It had been a loud conversation between the two Alpha Shifters once Steve had realized that Bucky had put a pack claim on Tony, and it had lasted all of three minutes-- Tony was theirs, and they weren't letting him out of their sight.
So now Tony was followed by two giant soldiers most hours of the day, whether he was eating breakfast and Steve was sitting next to him, or going through a meeting and Bucky was watching from the corner.
On the battlefields, Steve's Lion was never away from him, and when the Lion was busy, Bucky's massive Wolf was standing guard. Tony had literally been snatched out of the air more than once, batted down by a giant paw when he had ignored Steve's orders and tried to fly into a skirmish.
It was over bearing, and more than a little annoying but it was also sort of... sweet. And Tony understood enough of the Alpha Shifter's biology to know that most of the time, they couldn't help it.
The rest of the team took the overt protectiveness and possessiveness in stride. They all had a great deal of affection for Tony as well, even if it wasn't to the level of the two Alpha's. And after a few near misses, with Bucky or Steve partial shifting and snarling, they had learned which things would trigger the pair and which actions to avoid.
Of course, the first time Steve slid into his partial shift and roared at Natasha for upsetting Tony, the tiny redhead had burst into her partial dragon and burnt every hair off of Steve's mane for daring to try and intimidate her.
Steve didn't shift for weeks after that, and every time he walked in a room, Natasha blew a smoke ring at him with a satisfied grin.
For the most part, it was fine. Tony put up with the over-the-top behavior with a patient smile, and since the rest of the team were lower level shifters, Bucky and Steve didn't feel as if they had too much competiton.
Clint and Wanda were Beta level shifters--still not to be trifled with, but not considered to be the same level of danger attributed to Steve and Bucky. Clint's Hawk had a wingspan of nearly twenty feet, and Wanda's Constrictor pushed thirty when she stretched out from end to end.
Natasha had yet to be classified, since no one had seen her fully shift. A full dragon would absolutelybe an Alpha Level Shifter, but since she never fully shifted by choice, and no one was willing to antagonize her to that point, her classification remained a mystery.
Not that she needed an official classification to be dangerous, of course. Alpha level or not, Natasha would burst into a fire breathing, scale covered partial shift if someone so much as looked at her, or anyone she loved wrong.
She was not a Shifter to be taken lightly, and yet anytime Tony even smiled at her, she was nearly melting, just like Clint did, just like Wanda and Vision did, just like Steve and Bucky.
It was a tough job, being the center of attention of the group of Avengers, but Tony was happy to do it. They looked out for him, spoiled him, protected him, and Tony enjoyed every minute of it.
Well, almost every minute of it.
Steve and Bucky were getting worse with him as time went on, and Tony didn't know if he could handle much more before having to put his foot down.
He wasn't even really sure what their whole deal was.
Bucky had moved into Steve's room a year ago and had never left, even though there were no signs of intimacy beyond that. In fact, Steve had politely requested a second bed be added to his room shortly after Bucky had arrived, which had shocked.... everyone.
Clint of course, had opened his mouth made a crack about dogs just sleeping on the floor, and Bucky had shifted and pinned Clint down on the floor with his teeth bared before anyone even realized what had happened.
It had taken Steve in full Lion form and Natasha partial shifted into her dragon to pull the Wolf away, and now Clint watched what he said very carefully.
Tony had had to excuse himself from the room shortly after that because… well. Wow to that display of dominance, and wow to Steve's beautiful Lion roaring in the living room and just wow to all of it.
Sure, if Tony were telling the truth, he was more than infatuated with the Lion and the Wolf, and pushing head over heels in love with their human counterparts.
But God help him, if they didn't chill out soon, he would chain he would their Alpha Shifter swaggering, super serum jacked selves to a dog house on the lawn and make them sleep in the rain.
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Tony pulled himself out of his thoughts and back to the moment when the elevator doors opened into his penthouse. He hissed in pain as Steve lay him out on his big bed, and smacked at Bucky as the Wolf shifter started grabbing pillows to arrange around him.
“I am fine!” he insisted. “Just get out and let me sleep!”
“Alright, Tony.” Steve brushed a curl off his forehead in a tender gesture that made him want to bat his eyelashes and fucking swoon . “We'll leave, but first I want you to shift, it will help you heal faster. We'll give you some privacy.”
“Don't want to shift.” Tony grumbled. “Just want to sleep.”
Bucky's blue eyes narrowed. “Tony, it doesn't matter. You need to shift so you can heal. There might be injuries we can't see while you're human, and you know we aren't we aren't going anywhere until we know you are safe, so just get to it.”
“No.” Tony insisted, and both of the Alpha hifters bared their teeth and snarled. “Dammit you guys!” He twitched uncomfortably. “I don't want to shift! Leave me alone!”
It really didn't have anything to do with the soldiers, Tony just didn't like shifting in front of anyone.
In fact, no one besides Pepper and Rhodes had ever seen his shifted form at all, and not very often at that. Some people didn't care who saw them shifted, but for him it was… personal. To share yourself in animal form-- when it was all instinct and emotions and no real rational thought-- that terrified him.
Plus, he was fairly intimidated by the big shifters in front of him, and knew that once they saw his animal form, they would do one of two things-- laugh and walk away, or never want to leave him alone again because then they would REALLY be convinced he was helpless.
And honestly, he wasn't sure which one would be worse.
“I'm not shifting!” he announced, folding his arms. “So you might as well leave now.”
“Shift, Tony.” Bucky demanded. “We will leave, give you a few minutes, then come back in to check on you.”
“Please, Tony.” Steve added, softer. “We just need to make sure you're alright. Please.”
Tony glared up into two pairs of pleading eyes, and sighed in defeat. He knew they couldn't help it, that they couldn't do anything to control the instinct to take care of him, so maybe he would just shift and get it over with.
It had to happen eventually, right?
“Fine.” he grumbled. “But get out. I need five minutes and I don't want you in here.”
Bucky and Steve agreed quickly, and Tony waited until the men had left before groaning out loud and getting ready to shift.
He stripped the rest of his clothes and sat cross legged in the middle of the bed. Closing his eyes, he focused on his breathing, centered himself into a state of calmness, and let himself shift.
It was an odd feeling, his bones morphing and sliding into position, the odd shiver that always accompanied his ears and tail appearing, and finally the feeling of freedom as his rational mind slipped away, replaced by pure instinct.
Tony always forgot how good this felt. Maybe he did need to shift more often.
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Steve knocked on the door exactly five minutes later and together, he and Buck re-entered the room, unsure of what to expect.
They knew of course, that Tony was some sort of cat because he scented feline, and no one except cats cared so much about how they looked and were so fussy about their clothes.
Tony was definitely a cat. But would he be a tiger? A leopard? A panther with all that dark hair? A bob cat since he he was short? Or maybe he would be--
“Good Christ.” Bucky's eyes flew open wide and he grabbed Steve's arm. “Are you-- Stevie-- look.”
“Is this a joke?” Steve asked, but already knew it wasn't. “Tony? Is that you?” The dark eyes narrowed in irritation were definitely Tony's, and Steve scrubbed a hand over his mouth in disbelief. “Are you serious?”
“You are the cutest thing I've ever seen.” Bucky actually dropped to his knees and Steve tried hard not to laugh. He had forgotten how much of a sucker his best friend was for little puppies and adorable kittens and the tiny black scrap of spiky fur with big eyes was definitely the most adorable kitten ever .
“Tony.” Steve tried to say, but the word came out on a chuckle, and the cat arched his back and hissed in annoyance.
“Oh stop, you're making him angry.” Completely in ball of mush mode, Bucky made a coaxing motion with his fingers. “Here kitty kitty kitty, pretty kitty, such a sweet kitty, come here puss puss puss.”
Tony's claws shot out and he yowled furiously before throwing himself at the super soldier, intent on scratching those perfect blue eyes out, all of six pounds of unholy rage.
"Oh look at him!” Steve gave in and knelt beside where Bucky was laughing and batting Tony's tiny paws away. “He's like a baby on a rampage! Too much anger for so much fluff!”
Hearing the soldier baby talk set Tony off with another screech of anger, and he redoubled his efforts to maim them, claws swiping and tail whipping around.
“ He is gonna kill us for this later!” Bucky said in between trying to scratch the furious cats ears. “I mean, really going to kill us, Stevie.”
“Worth it.” Steve countered. “Worth it. Now let me hold him.”