"That was absolutely not my fault," Anna said, pointing a cucumber at her. "So not my fault."

"So what's the story behind that one?" Steve asked with a grin.

"I blame you entirely, the squirrels weren't my fault," Tessa retorted, grinning.

"No, really, tell us about this," Clint said, an eager glint in his eyes.

"I was gone for a week, one time," Tessa said. "I came home to find the house overrun with squirrels and Anna dead asleep in the middle of the hall because she'd gone three days without sleep and only minimal food."

"The house was hardly overrun! There were maybe eight squirrels. Twelve, tops." Anna looked very indignant. "And we had no trouble getting rid of most of them, did we?"

"There was an entire family in the attic when we left," Tessa pointed out dryly. "At least five."

"They were way up in the attic, we never used the attic, besides they had adorable little ones who were very good at keeping the rats out." Anna pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. "And they were happy to have the attic, I'll have you know."

"They scurried across the floor at all hours of the night," Tessa said, quirking a bit of a teasing grin. "I could hear them in the ceiling every night."

Anna shrugged. "So? They're squirrels, it's what they do. At least those ones didn't eat my plants."

Steve looked highly amused by the two. Oh yes, they'd fit in just fine.

Tessa couldn't help but snicker.

"True, that little succulent didn't ever really recover, did it?" she asked.

"Nope." Anna shrugged. "Oh well. Plants are easier to replace than most things."

"True," Tessa said. She leaned back on the counter again, and jumped when the coffee machine behind her chirped merrily at her. A ripple of scales, fur, and spikes flowed quickly down her skin in her surprise. "What the actual fuck was that?"

"That was Spike," Clint said, snickering.

"He's harmless," Steve said with a tolerant grin. "And friendly. He likes new people."

Anna blinked. Nope, that was just too weird for her. She'd been in Faerie before, but this was just nope.

"And that is my cue to go back outside where I know the rules."

"Yeah, no," Tessa said, moving away from the counter. "This place is weird." Spike chirped at her again, and she hissed at it like a cat.

"Outside, before you get more upset," Anna ordered, shooing Tessa out in front of her. Steve watched them go, bemused.

Tessa hurried out the door, shaking herself a bit. That was just too strange.

Clint smirked as he watched them go.

"Well, now things could get interesting," he said.

"Could?" Steve asked, looking at him. "Where have you been and what is your definition of interesting?"

Anna headed back to the Hellhounds, since she wanted to get at least a basic idea on each of them. The others in the menagerie could wait for a few more days.

"Training girl is predictable," Clint said, shrugging a bit. "Part Fae, she's got some of the same triggers as all of us. But the other one, the shapeshifter, we just found out she doesn't like Stark's tech." He grinned. "Just think of all the pranks we could put together with that information in mind."

Tessa stayed with her, lounging nearby while Anna got acquainted with the Hellhounds.

Steve rolled his eyes. "Sometimes I wonder if that's all you think about," he said. He didn't say anything for or against the plan. He thought it had a good chance of ending badly, but he'd let Clint decide on this one.

"Can't help it sometimes," Clint admitted. "Elf thing, it's kinda hardwired in there. At least my jokes are mostly harmless."

"Mostly," Steve agreed. "You seem to like the trainer fine." It was just an observation, mostly to gauge how Clint was taking things. Steve also knew that elves could be notoriously obstinate about places they considered theirs.

Clint shrugged again.

"It's not like she's staying here permanently, all the time," he pointed out. "She comes in, does a job, and leaves." And that was the crux of it, for him. She wasn't a permanent addition, and was therefore no threat to his home. "Nat's gonna be paranoid for a while, though, guarantee you that."

"That I expected," Steve said with a little grin. "I would be disappointed if she was as easy-going about this as you are."

"What can I say, I'm an easy-going kind of guy," Clint said, grinning. "Any and all stress is taken out on ops."

Steve snorted and shook his head. Yeah, he got that.

Fortunately Tony didn't seem to mind them much, either, because he could be oddly picky about people. Even though he had invited the trainer, that was still no guarantee of good behavior.

Elsewhere, Tessa got (predictably) bored while Anna was with the Hellhounds, and decided to go explore the place on her own. She knew not to leave the property, but she was more interested in the manor itself, anyways.

Steve noticed her wandering and went to go see what she was doing. Just because he was curious, though.

"Looking for something or just looking?"