Tessa went with her, this time in her own shape. She could feel the tension at the menagerie, and decided not to cause any more trouble for the time being.

Anna knew some of the team were watching, so she wasn't surprised when Steve came out around lunch time to check on them. She also didn't immediately look over from the Hellhound she was giving a physical.

"You two have been out here a while," Steve said, glancing between the two. "You could take a break and come inside."

"Soon," Tessa said, staying near Anna just in case extra hands were needed. "Be done in a bit."

"Alright." Steve hesitated a moment. "There's plenty of food in the fridge and pantry, so help yourselves, if you want." He headed back inside, although he kept an eye on them.

Tessa nodded. She would make sure Anna got something, once they were finished with the Hellhound. She growled a bit at the hound when he bared his teeth a little at Anna.

Anna ignored that and gave the hound a little prod with her power. Her parents hadn't left her much, but they had each given her a little of their power, so at least she could bully around animals much better than she should be able to.

Tessa could feel the little bit of power, and she wasn't the only one. Natasha watched from the window, keeping an eye on the newcomers.

Anna waited until she'd gotten that Hellhound back in the run to stretch and shake herself a bit.

"Pause for lunch?" she suggested. She didn't always, but she was feeling kind of nibbly.

"Just waiting for you to say the word," Tessa said, standing up and stretching. "Or waiting for you to hit a good stopping point, whichever came first."

"This is a good time to stop. He'll tell the others that I mean business and I don't take shit." Anna grinned briefly. It was good to have a proper challenge again. Normally the creatures, especially intelligent ones like dragons and gryphons, felt what she was and (mostly) listened.

"Good," Tessa said. She nudged Anna inside. "Time for something to eat. Are you actually hungry?"

"Not really," Anna said with a shrug. "I was just going to see about a snack." But she didn't protest Tessa pushing her inside, just going along.

"It's been hours since breakfast," Tessa pointed out. "You should have something more substantial than a snack."

"I suppose," Anna agreed rather grudgingly. "We'll see what we find." She was not surprised to find Steve and Clint in the kitchen already.

Although she was surprised and amused to see Steve trying to bully Tony into eating.

Tony was not having any of it.

"I'm fine, leave me alone, I just need coffee," he said, trying to wave them both off.

"You haven't eaten since yesterday," Steve said. "You need to eat something. An apple, or a sandwich."

Anna blinked. That... sounded oddly familiar, actually, even though she usually preferred tea as her form of liquid diet.

Tessa paused as well. She hadn't realized that they went through the same thing she did when it came to getting someone to eat.

"You speak as if I haven't gone longer before," Tony said as he tried to sidestep Steve and Clint at the same time.

"You have, this is when things like sentient stoves happen," Clint piped up.

"You can't live on coffee, Tony. Eat something. Some eggs or something." Steve got in his way again.

"Sentient stoves?" Tessa finally piped up. She'd resisted drawing attention to them, but she couldn't help but be curious about that. She nudged Anna towards the fridge. "Go forage," she said. "At least an apple."

"Peggy," Steve and Clint said at the same time. Steve sounded fond; Clint sounded exasperated.

"There's a whole story behind that, I can tell," Anna said as she obediently went to rifle through the fridge and see if anything looked good.

"Okay, you're going to have to start this one from the beginning," Tessa said, leaning against the counter.

"Tony hadn't slept for a few days," Steve said. "Too much coffee, not enough sleep, and his normal level of insanity but without a focus, and we ended up with a sentient stove."

Peggy beeped at them. Anna just blinked.

Tessa eyed the stove warily, inching away from it a bit.

"That is exactly the reason I make you eat regularly," she said to Anna. "That is exactly why." And now she had proof that not eating and not sleeping resulted in weird shit happening, even if it wasn't Anna who had done it.

Anna shrugged. "I don't usually argue, do I?" she asked, setting an apple on the table near Tony but not actually going back for it. "I'm relatively good."

"Most of the time," Tessa agreed. "Except for times like the squirrel incident."

Tony eyed the apple speculatively for a moment and then reached out to grab it. Hey, it had been put near him, and he was suddenly a bit peckish.