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The Skrull flagship visited Earth as often as the conflict with the Kree allowed. That wasn’t very often at all, to Carol’s ongoing frustration, but they’d made enough trips that they had a good routine going. She’d signal Maria once they were in comm range, usually somewhere around Jupiter’s orbit, and once they made it to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere they’d take a cloaked shuttle down to a field far enough that they wouldn’t draw too much attention. The shuttle was cloaked, but it still made a lot of noise for the normally quiet neighborhood. Talos was with her this time as Keller, his favorite human-shaped disguise. Some of the others would come down later, once they were done with things on the ship, but Carol didn't like to wait around when they were so close to home.
A soft breeze blew dry air across her face as they walked through the neighborhood. It wasn't really cool yet, but they were past the oppressive heat of the Louisiana summer. Nice fall weather, even if all the trees still had their leaves.
She wasn’t surprised to see Maria waiting for them on the porch. Maria always waited outside for them if they called ahead. Carol was surprised to see Fury sitting beside her, though, waving at her as they got close. He must've hauled ass to get to Louisiana so fast. Normally it took him a day or two to show up, and that was only if he managed to get away from SHIELD at all. Sometimes their schedules didn’t quite line up.
“Carol!” he said, standing up to lean on the porch railing as Carol came up the sidewalk. “I’m glad you finally showed up. I was this close to paging you.”
“Why? Did something happen while I was gone?” asked Carol. She would have been alarmed, but Maria was finally beside her for the first time in nearly a year, wrapping her in a hug, and she didn’t seem upset. She mostly just seemed happy to see Carol.
“Come on in,” said Maria, ushering her towards the door. “You can see for yourself.”
There was a large box set out in the middle of the living room, and inside it was Goose. Goose and six plump little kittens curled up around her.
Well, not exactly kittens. Kittens didn’t have tentacles slipping out from between their tiny kitten teeth.
“I brought them down here right after she gave birth,” said Fury. “It’s one thing having a cat in the office. That’s just eccentric. People can handle that. But the kittens? They aren’t as good at blending in with the local fauna as mama. I wasn’t about to try and explain where a bunch of baby aliens came from.”
“They’re so cute,” said Carol. She reached into the box and very gently poked one of the kittens in its plump, fluffy stomach. It sleepily kicked out and made a soft little mewing noise muffled by the tentacles lolling out its mouth. “And kind of gross. But gross in a cute way.”
“You keep poking them and you’re gonna lose that hand,” said Talos from several feet back.
Carol rolled her eyes. Curled up asleep next to their mother the kittens all looked like fat little pumpkins. Aside from the tentacles, that was. She picked up a kitten from the edge of the pile and it squirmed in her hands. It yawned, its jaw unhinging, and wrapped a tentacle around her wrist.
“See? It’s friendly,” she said. “I think it likes me.”
“Carol,” said Talos, disbelief in his voice, “it’s clearly trying to eat you.”
“No it’s not,” said Carol, and then the kitten sank its teeth into her skin. “Well, maybe a little. It’s still a baby, though, it’s harmless.”
“How come they all look so much more alien than Goose?” asked Maria. "She usually keeps her tentacles on the inside."
Talos walked into the living room, edging around the walls to give the box of a Flerkens as wide a berth as possible. “They’re still too young to manage the pocket dimension,” he said. “They can’t fit the tentacles all the way inside their mouths yet.”
“How did this even happen?” asked Carol, gently rubbing the kitten’s head as it tried to gnaw off her thumb. “You said you were going to be a responsible cat owner when I left her with you, Fury. Didn’t you get her fixed?”
Fury laughed. “If you know a vet you think deserves to be eaten let me know and I’ll give it a try.”
“Still. Goose is the only Flerken on the planet, right?” Maria asked. “So how did we end up with a handful of baby geese?”
“They reproduce asexually,” said Talos, who had positioned himself so that both Maria and Fury were between him and the Flerkens.
“You know more about them than I thought,” said Carol. She put the mewling kitten back in the box, where it promptly climbed over its siblings to get up next to its mother.
“Yes. Because they’re an invasive, predatory species that can eat anyone not made of cosmic energy.”
“Cutest invasive species I’ve ever seen,” said Fury. He looked for a moment like he was going to reach in and pet Goose, and then thought better of it when when of the kittens yawned wide enough that its tentacles slid over the edge of the box. “It's a shame we can't keep them."
“Fury's right, we really can’t keep them here forever,” Maria told Carol out on the back porch. She had a bowl of cat food in one hand as they walked back to her shed. “Aside from the fact that they might eat somebody, Monica took in a stray a few months ago and the poor thing has been too scared to come anywhere near the house since Fury brought Goose.”
“Understandable,” muttered Talos. Carol half expected him to avoid going back into the house too.
“They aren’t that bad,” said Maria.
She set the bowl on the ground, and a few moments latter a lean little gray can poked its head out of the bushes. It took a few hesitant steps toward them, and then stopped when Talos crouched down and held his hand out. “Come here,” he said. “I’m not a Flerken, I’m not going to eat you.”
“Really?” asked Maria, incredulous. “I waited all this time for you to finally see a cat and that’s it? You didn’t even flinch!”
Talos looked up at her as the cat gingerly sniffed his outstretched hand. “Wait, this is a cat? You said they looked like Flerkens.”
“Are you kidding me?” asked Maria.
“Come on, Talos, look at it. It looks exactly like a cat,” said Carol. “The ears, the whiskers, everything. They’ve even got the same cute little foot pads.”
The gray cat bumped its face against Talos’s hand, and he scratched it behind its ears until it started purring. “Are you people blind? It’s not even the same color.”
“They come in a lot of different colors,” said Maria. “They still all basically look like cats!”
Talos looked unconvinced. “Well, Flerkens don’t,” he said. “They only come in orange.”
Later Carol sat curled up on the couch with a mug of coffee steaming in her hand. She had a sweater on even though it wasn't really cold enough for sweaters in October here. She wasn't sure if she’d be back before winter was over, though, so she had to get her seasonal coziness in while she could.
“We’ll take them with us,” she said, ignoring Talos frantically shaking his head. “They belong in space anyway, and out there we won't have have to worry about the kittens accidentally eating someone.”
“Or,” interjected Talos, “we could not do that. They seem very happy in their box.”
Goose popped her head out the box as if she could hear hear them talking about her. Her kittens were asleep, and she seemed to consider it a good opportunity to stretch her legs. She walked up to Carol, rubbing against her legs, and then slunk right past her so that Carol only had a chance to briefly stroke her tail.
“Please don’t,” said Talos softly, and Goose jumped into his lap anyway.
“Come on, man, don't be like that. You’re gonna be fine,” said Fury. “Besides, even if she does get mad, you’ve still got two good eyes.”
Talos glared at him as Goose started purring. And, very gingerly, he started to pet her, as if he was hoping that might keep her satisfied and complacent.
"See? She likes you. And we've only ever seen her eat Kree soldiers, right?" Maria and Fury gave each other looks that clearly indicated Goose had expanded her diet while they were gone, but Carol gently shook her head and they stayed quiet. Fortunately all of Talos's concentration was centered on the Flerken. "She's our friend. We owe her one."
Goose kept purring, kneading her paws into Talos's lap, and Carol thought it might be fear of offending the Flerken more than anything else but Talos eventually managed a strangled, "Okay."
"I'm going to miss you, Goose," said Fury. He looked a little dejected that she'd gone for Talos's lap over his.
"Don't worry," said Carol, "We'll-"
"He's not the one who needs to be worried," interrupted Talos, and Carol sighed and talked over him.
"Don't worry," she continued. "We'll bring her back when we visit. And the kittens, too. You'll like that, won't you, Goose?"
Goose purred, content with the plan.