Author's Note: This fic will be Coulson/May friendship centric, though, you know … hints of romance there as well, because that's what the show says, and I'm nothing if not obedient. But the idea is it'll all be sort of random missing scenes or thoughts from pre-series and what we've seen so far in no particular order.

This chapter takes place preseries, but with reference to the flashback from 4x14.

Disclaimer: Agents of SHIELD and all affiliated characters belong to Marvel, those brilliant bastards.

Chapter 1: Partners

Coulson sighed as he opened his fourth filing cabinet drawer to find it as stuffed full of disorganised paperwork as the other three. Bored, he reached for a stack of papers and flipped through it without interest.

"Anything?"

He glanced up at May, who had been scoping the rest of the secure floor on the off chance there were any hidden safes or suchlike. They didn't have much hope. This seemed like a long shot mission, a waste of time, searching for information that almost certainly wouldn't be here.

"He needs to renew his subscription to National Geographic," he said. "And he's kept all his bills for the last two thousand years at the very least …"

She smirked.

"Exaggerate much?"

"Well, I feel like I've been going through these drawers for about that long," he muttered. "You?"

"Nada."

She walked forwards and opened the top drawer of the filing cabinet next to his.

"Oh good. Carpet cleaning fliers. Should I alert backup now?"

"This is stupid," said Coulson, dumping the stack back into the drawer and reaching for another. He was feeling distinctly uncharitable about things this evening. He had had plans. "We predicted exactly this. What a waste of time."

"Well, that's not up to us," May told him, but she was smiling slightly.

"Don't know why you felt the need to follow me on this one," said Phil grumpily. "Unless you want to have a go at my drawer opening skills."

"Because it's fun watching you roll your eyes every thirty seconds. And anyway, we haven't gotten the chance to work together much recently."

He gave a small nod of agreement and returned her smile.

"Checking up on me, huh?"

"I think we've proved more than once that that's necessary."

He grunted in response to her smirk, but didn't bother arguing. It would only earn him a long and painful recitation of all the times she was convinced she had saved his ass. She never let anything go. At this point, she was practically bragging about the fact that she was requesting to work with him.

They each worked through their respective drawers in silence and then opened new ones.

"So, you know the guy I'm seeing?" May said suddenly.

Phil glanced up.

"No."

She frowned slightly.

"Yes, you do. The shrink."

"Oh, right," he said with an apologetic smile. "I didn't know you were still seeing him."

For some reason, this earned him a pronounced scowl.

"What?" he asked defensively. "It's been a long time. No offence, but I think it's fair to have assumed you would have moved on several times by now."

She broke the scowl to roll her eyes.

"Well, you would've known if I had moved on, wouldn't you," she said snappishly. "Since we agreed to have drinks if I did."

It had been almost a year since that mission in Russia where she had told him about the shrink. He had felt at the time that she had been dropping hints, so he had suggested they have a drink if things didn't work out with the other guy. She had seemed receptive to this offer, but he hadn't heard from her about it again and in the few times they had worked together since, she hadn't brought it up.

"Frankly, I just figured you changed your mind," he said lightly.

"Because I don't keep my word?"

"Don't twist my words," he retorted. "It's not as though you've been keeping me up to speed on your love life."

She emitted a huffy sigh and slammed her drawer shut a little too hard. He decided to let her fizzle down a little.

"So, what were you wanting to tell me about your shrink?" he said after a couple of minutes.

She gave him a dark look, but he could see that it was more for show this time.

"His name's Andrew," she said. "And … he wants to get married."

Phil couldn't help raising his eyebrows in surprise. Somehow he had never thought of May as someone who would embrace a life of domestic bliss.

"You gonna do it?" he asked, curious.

"I don't know yet," she muttered, fishing around in a fresh drawer. "Told him I needed to think about it."

Unable to suppress the smirk playing around his lips, he asked, "And how long since he's asked?"

She gave him a sideways glance and mumbled, "Couple of weeks."

Phil laughed and she gave a reluctant smile.

"Wow, you're really due to give an answer soon."

"Yeah, really soon. Like last week soon. So, what do you think?"

His amused smile turned to a puzzled one.

"What do I think?" he asked, at a loss.

"Yeah. Do you think I should do it?"

He was now completely nonplussed. She was watching him very seriously.

"I don't know," he said with a frown. "Shouldn't you be asking someone else?"

Her eyebrows shot up.

"Like who?"

"I don't know," he scoffed. "Your parents? Friends who have actually met the guy?"

"No-one's met him. And I want to know what you think."

He studied her for a moment and then sighed.

"Well, I mean, I seem to remember expressing a hope that things between the two of you would end in disaster, so I'm probably not the best guy to ask," he pointed out with a smile.

She was smiling again as well.

"So, that's a no?"

He thought for a moment. The truth of it was that he wasn't sore about missing his shot with May. In some ways, he was almost relieved. He doubted he would have been able to keep her around for all that long in the end; he had a suspicion that her preference for civilians ran deeper than "It's less complicated". Worth it to preserve a decent working relationship and something approaching a consistent friendship – a sad rarity in their line of work.

And while he was certainly attracted to her (who wasn't?), he had never dreamed that he would find himself asking her out at all, let alone for this request to be met with anything other than an ass-kicking. Instead he had borderline gotten a yes.

And now she was here, practically stalking him on such a menial job, presumably just so she could get an honest opinion out of him. He got the impression from the look in her eyes that whatever he was about to say would matter to her. So, despite his personal lack of experience in romantic commitment, he decided to give it a sincere shot.

"He's a good guy? He makes you happy?"

"Yeah."

"And he's … good for you? He brings out a good side in you?"

There was a small pause this time, before she said, "Yes," with a little smile.

"So do it."

"Really?" she asked, surprised. "That simple?"

"What's the worst that could happen?"

She laughed.

"How romantic."

"Well excuse me, I was trying to speak May. Were you hoping for me to wax poetic about the awesome power of true love?"

"God, no," she said in disgust.

"So there you go then. You wanted to know what I think; that's what I think."

She studied him for a moment and then nodded.

"Thanks."

He shrugged and returned to the filing cabinet. Predictably, they found nothing of consequence and after a couple of hours they left the quiet office building with Coulson muttering about beaurocracy and wasted evenings. May had been quiet since their conversation, but he supposed she had a lot on her mind. He was also coming to terms with the thought of a married Melinda May.

They walked through the cool night air to the train station. There was a light drizzle and the damp streets reflected the street lights. Their footsteps tapped softly in the thin layer of water covering the sidewalk.

"I'm Level Four now," May announced suddenly, taking him by surprise.

"Oh. Well, congratulations," he said uncertainly, but she didn't appear to hear him. She was studying him closely again.

"And you don't need to confirm, but I have a source that tells me you're Level Five."

"A source?" he asked, amused.

She ignored this.

"And I notice you haven't requested a partner."

Lower level agents were usually dispatched to work with whoever the superiors decided. But from Level Five onwards, it became possible for agents to request partners. This wasn't compulsory, of course. Specialists, for instance, almost always chose to work alone, and while partnering up was most common among field agents, Phil had barely thought about it. He didn't mind working with whoever else was on the job. It actually allowed for more variety in his assignments and as such, finding a permanent partner had never seemed much of a priority to him.

"And how did you come to notice this?"

"Well, for one, there's nobody else here."

"Could've given my partner a night off. I'm a nice guy like that."

"For another, I'm always approved when I request to work with you."

"Which is how often, exactly?" he asked, not for the first time.

"Plus my source confirmed it."

"Should I be concerned that you're digging for confidential information on me?"

"I think you should put in a request for me to be your partner."

Somehow, he hadn't expected that. He stopped walking and she turned to look at him. He thought that she almost seemed nervous, although she was hiding it well enough.

"Really?"

"Yeah, we work well together, don't we? And it's not that uncommon for Level Fives to request Level Fours, I checked."

"That's quite the source you've got there."

"What do you think?"

He studied her thoughtfully.

"How often do specialists partner up with field agents?" he asked.

"I don't know."

"Because you realise you'll be stuck doing a lot more run of the mill field work than specialist work, at least until we're at the same clearance level."

"Specialist work can crop up anywhere. Besides, you could use someone like me to have your back."

He gave the obligatory snort, but didn't bother denying it.

"And speaking of clearance levels, you know I'm technically your superior, right? Like you'd actually have to listen to me? Do what I say?" He paused here, and then amended realistically, "Or at the very least, consider what I say?"

She looked oddly sincere for a moment as she gave a curt nod. "I can handle that."

This was almost too much for him. Seriously, the notorious Melinda May, was actually asking to be his partner? Was this just one of her practical jokes?

"But … why would you want to work with me? Do you just like laughing at me that much?"

She grinned. "Partly. But mostly because I just ... I don't like anyone else and I'm sick of working with them."

She spoke so matter-of-factly that he struggled to digest this revelation.

She rolled her eyes at his lack of a response, and then continued, "And you're pretty much the only person who can stand me."

Now he rolled his eyes.

"Please."

"I'm being serious. People don't like me."

This time he laughed but stopped at her serious expression.

"That's not true," he tried to explain. "People don't dislike you. You're just too good. They're intimidated by you."

He saw the taken aback look flicker across her face, but then she covered it with a smirk.

"Are you intimidated by me?" she asked teasingly.

"Sometimes," he said truthfully.

"Probably a good thing."

He smiled at her and thought about it. He supposed that she was right. Despite their habit of bickering much of the time, he liked working with her and he knew she felt the same. He found her oddly easy to be around and, more importantly, they made a good team.

Plus, the fact that she was asking him to do this must mean it was important to her. May didn't ask for favours.

What's the worst that could happen?

"Okay."

"Okay?" she asked with a bright smile.

"Yeah, I'll put in the request."

x x x

Coulson walked into his SO's office as summoned. As usual, Nick Fury opened the meeting with a glare. It was just his way, a kind of preventative measure.

Then he said, "I got your partner request. Agent May?"

"Yes, sir," said Phil mildly.

"Seriously?"

Phil said nothing and simply smiled. Fury sighed, and flipped through the request on his desk.

"I see she's only Level Four," Fury noted, as though he didn't already know that.

"You and I both know that's just a formality," said Phil. "She'll be Level Five as soon as she hits her minimum time."

"But why a specialist?"

"Makes for good skill distribution?"

"This will probably change the nature of your assignments, too. You're likely to be moved to ops."

"Sounds exciting."

There was a heavy pause and then Fury leaned suspiciously forward.

"Coulson. Does May know you requested her?" he asked.

Phil couldn't help a grin.

"Of course she does. I don't have a death wish."

Fury looked impressed in spite of himself.

"Wow. She usually insists on working alone, you know. It's caused headaches among many a supervisor, let me tell you. Myself included."

"Well, I don't know about that," said Phil, still smiling slightly.

"I didn't even know you were looking to partner up."

"I wasn't. But I guess it can't hurt to have someone watching my back. Anyway, it was her idea."

Fury's eyebrows rose so high, they seemed to be crawling over the top of his head.

"Is that right? Nothing I should know about there?" he asked, eye narrowed.

"I don't think so," said Phil mildly.

Fury eyed him for another moment and then gave a shrug, as though he had given up on understanding his protégé.

"You're a brave man, Coulson," he said, scrawling a signature on the request form and handing it over.

"That's kind of you to say, sir," said Phil, taking the page and getting to his feet. "But I prefer to think of myself as fortunate."

"No doubt about that," Fury muttered, shaking his head and returning to the paperwork on his desk. "If you want anyone to have your back, it's Melinda May."

x x x

A/N: Thanks so much for reading. I'd love to hear what you think 😊