Being promoted to a team leader is one of the coolest things that has ever happened to Phil Coulson. He was just some guy, and now he's making actual contact with aliens, alien cultures, alien worlds all the time. He's not, strictly speaking, one of the military guys, more like a civilian consultant, but his area of expertise lines up more with theirs than the scientists and archaeologists. He's - a bridge. A master of creative problem-solving. He was one of those people who deal with the unusual problems that crop up back home on Earth, and now he's on the front lines.

He can work with most of the people here. The military know that he's got their backs, that he'll risk himself for them and not risk them for stupid goals. The civilians know that he has respect for their expertise. This is something he goes to great pains to express, because he needs them. His job is useless without the people around him.

But it's only mostly worked.

One particular person has him frustrated.

Okay, it's not that he thinks he deserves respect from everyone he meets. Even less, that he thinks he'll get it. But this person in particular is extremely competent, has surpassingly good ideas, and thinks well in a crisis. She's abrasive. But he doesn't give a damn. He wants her to work with him.

He wants to work with her.

He has a fair few more tactics up his sleeve to try and get her to like him, but, somehow, it feels disingenuous. Maybe she'll take better to something that's not quite as manipulative.

Which is why he approaches her in the gym.

"Doesn't look like it's putting up much of a fight," he remarks, of the bag.