"Awesome," Maeve said. She smirked. "You know they actually have a training seminar at SHIELD about you and your tinkering habits?"

"Do they really?" Tony looked delighted. "What do they say? What's the seminar about?"

"Things like 'The Habits and Eccentricities of a Genius'," Maeve replied, grinning. "'What To Do If Tony Stark Won't Come Out Of His Lab.' 'What To Do When Tony Stark Is Being More Stubborn Than a Tauros.'" She grinned more. "A couple of those might have been slight exaggerations."

Tony snickered. "Ah, putting the fear of me into all SHIELD agents," he said, looking far too pleased. "Good to know I've made such an impression."

"I admit Julie and I may have gone into the seminar with a very slight advantage," Maeve said with a grin.

"Considering you'd both met me already? I bet." Tony grinned. "And Coulson probably didn't even play favorites, huh?"

"Coulson? Never," Maeve replied, grinning. "Although he may or may not have mentioned that he would rather agents with the right experience, even if they were still considered greenhorns. And he may or may not have had a hand in the final testing and paperwork, but that's still speculation."

Tony snickered. "That's because Coulson is the best damn agent they have," he said with a grin. "Hawkeye and Widow be damned, I'd be more terrified of Coulson if he was coming after me. Did you hear about the flour incident in New Mexico?"

"Everyone heard about the gas-station incident," Maeve replied, nodding and grinning widely. "It sparked a new bit of paperwork in the form of the 'non-standard weapons use' sheet." She snickered. "Half the agents think he's some sort of undercover ninja-god, the others keep trying and failing to replicate the flour move."

Tony laughed at that. "That is because they are Not Coulson," he pointed out. "And I think I'd go with the super-secret ninja-god theory myself. No one knows how scary he really can be."

"This is true," Maeve replied, grinning. "Agent Sitwell is getting to that level of amazing, too. He's Coulson's second."

"I think I've met him. He learned that sass from Coulson." Tony grinned. Because even he could admit that SHIELD did pretty damn well with their agents.

Sometimes.

"Yes he did," Maeve agreed, grinning. "Couson and Sitwell are the sassiest agents SHIELD has to offer."

"At least there's some sass with them around," Tony muttered. "SHIELD without Coulson would just be too dry."

"You've got that right," Maeve muttered. "Hopefully Julie and I can make up the slack."

Tony grinned.

"So I had an idea."

"That's one of those phrases they told us to watch out for in the seminar," Maeve teased, grinning. "What's this idea?"

"Julie's gotten all buddy-buddy with Bruce, which is cool, he needs a bigger fanbase anyway, and I know she was talking to Peps about the continuing education program, also cool, but she's the R&D gofer, doesn't really have her own spot, right? Like you work with me now basically. So I think I should go see how she does babysitting a God of Thunder for a few days. Or babysitting Steve, he needs a surprising amount of babysitting, otherwise he just wanders off or talks to people or helps random people for no reason and is all patriotic and noble and stuff."

"That's rambling, that's not a real idea," Maeve pointed out. "But I think I see what you're getting at. You want to give her a spot as a babysitter for the two most in need of babysitting." She considered that for a moment. "Just keep in mind she's trained as a field agent, not as a handler."

"With those two, it might not be a bad thing," Tony pointed out. "Besides, I have her whole file, she used to work at an elementary school part-time, that's perfect experience for working with those two."

"Point," Maeve conceded. "I'll talk to her about it and see if she's game for it."

"Good, I'll let Steve know he'll have company tomorrow." Tony grinned. Because of course he was used to having his way.

"Let me talk to Julie, first," Maeve said. "Once she agrees--" because she knew her friend would agree, "--then tell Steve he has a new guide."

"Alright, fine, I'll tell him in the morning." Tony huffed. He knew it was going to happen so really he didn't get why he had to wait.

But he also knew that sometimes it was better not to argue. Especially where women were involved.

"Good plan," Maeve said. She stretched a bit. "So, what now? Or are there no other genius-level projects happening today?"