"Yup, sounds about right," Tony said with a grin. "Although I still think your Gardevoir would rather get to know Coulson's Gallade."

"You have no idea," Maeve said, grinning. "She's crushing on him so hard, and he's so oblivious to it. It's cute."

Tony snickered. "And hysterical," he pointed out. "Even Coulson's commented on it, once."

"I don't understand why Gallade is so oblivious, then, if even Coulson is in on it," Maeve said. Because she was not surprised that Coulson knew.

"Coulson knows practically everything," Tony said with a shrug. "And his Gallade is more focused on work than social interactions, last I saw."

"I'm not surprised that Coulson knows," Maeve said, waving a hand. "That's a given, where he's concerned. I'm surprised his Gallade doesn't know. Gallade form the same emotional bonds that all members of the Ralts line do. It's the next best thing to actual telepathy. If Coulson knows, he has to have some feelings about it somewhere for Gallade to pick up on."

Tony shrugged. "Maybe he's waiting to see how it turns out," he pointed out. "It wouldn't be unlike him to leave things to unravel how they will. Or maybe he doesn't want to influence Gallade's decision." He led the way back inside while Metagross went around back, since the front door wasn't quite big enough for him.

"Maybe," Maeve said. Tony was right, it wouldn't be unlike Coulson to do that. As she walked inside, she reached up and grabbed one of Chandelure's arms as the pokemon drifted by. "Are you behaving?" she asked it. It flared its fires at her and tugged out of her grasp, going to follow Rotom again.

Tony snickered and watched the two for a minute, amused, before he went into the living room to drop onto the couch.

"Talk to me, J. How many calls have I ignored?"

"Four so far, sir. One from Miss Potts, two from Angel Coulson, and one from Dr. Banner."

"Two from Couslon?" Maeve asked. "That can't be good." Pulling out both of her phones, she found a missed call on her personal phone and a voicemail. Cautiously, she opened the voicemail to listen.

"Whoops. Apparently I wasn't supposed to kidnap you to the other side of the country without clearing it with Coulson first," Tony said, though he was grinning unrepentantly.

"No kidding," Maeve replied. She deleted the voicemail with a 'click' and dialed Coulson on her personal phone. Coming from her personal number, rather than her SHIELD number, would be the sign that everything was still right with the world.

"This is Coulson." He answered briskly, even though he knew exactly who it was.

"You rang, sir?" Maeve asked. Even if she was a little bit insubordinate at times, she had to give respect where it was due.

"Yes. I wasn't expecting you two to go to the other side of the country without warning." Coulson put the question in there without actually spelling it out. Because he was 99% sure Stark was to blame, but he wanted to be 100% sure.

"You asked me to keep an eye on Tony, sir," Maeve pointed out. "I didn't get much warning, either." She was quiet for a moment. "I thought it was best to stay where I could keep track of him."

Coulson sighed shortly. "Don't let him drag you into anything else," he said. "And try to keep him from embarrassing Captain Rogers too much."

"I make no promises on the first, and I'll try my best on the second, sir," Maeve said. She couldn't help but grin a bit; she knew exactly which expression was on his face. "And by the way, I noticed something on the message boards this morning..." She trailed off, biting her lip to keep from snickering.

"That was Stark, I know that was Stark," Coulson said. "The videos are from his tower. What I can't figure out is how someone in South Africa got their hands on the videos."

"South Africa?" Maeve asked, still fighting back laughter. "Who's even out there?"

"Not many people," Coulson admitted. "Although if I recall correctly there is one junior agent you and Agent Stone had several courses with."

"Ryder?" Maeve asked. "He's out in South Africa?" She paused for a moment. "Can't say I'm really sorry about that."

"You're not the only one," Coulson said mildly. "Keep me updated on your situation there. And tell Stark I don't appreciate his sense of humor this time."

"I'll let him know," Maeve promised. "And I'll call if anything comes up." With that, she hung up and looked at Tony. "I'm not entirely sure, but I think I might have just managed to bluff my way past Coulson. At least for the moment."

"For the moment," Tony said with a grin. "He'll figure it out eventually. He's the ninja god of SHIELD, after all, nothing gets past him for long."