Agent. Agent Coulson. Agent Phil Coulson. The man's name was Agent Phil Coulson, and he was dead.
Truth be told, that one time when the agent barged into Stark Tower, Tony was so buzzed on success and Pepper and the alcohol that he'd had before he left to boot up the Tower – because he's Tony, so what do you expect? – that he honestly hadn't remembered the man's name. At the time, he hadn't seemed like an important man to remember, so Tony didn't bother.
He wishes he would have.
Because now Agent Phil Coulson is dead, and only once he's gone – once it's too late – does Tony begin to realize how important this man is – and not just to Barton and Romanoff, who have long sped off to Thor-knows-where to drown their grief in guns and Russian vodka, because Tony's pretty sure that's how they do things. It's not too far off from how Tony prefers to handle this… issue – in his lab, surrounded by nothing but tech and, yeah, more alcohol. The alcohol isn't doing its job quite right today, though. Usually, Tony is a happy drunk… today he's just getting more depressed. Maybe he just hasn't had enough to drink yet. That's probably it, but Tony's too lost in thought to care about getting more booze for once in his life.
So the tumbler remains where it is, three-quarters empty and ignored, dangling between two of Tony's fingers while his elbow is propped on the arm of his swivel chair and his feet are crossed on his desk – and for once Jarvis doesn't even comment on that.
Tony doubts he would notice if the AI did complain about it; he's just too far gone into himself as he ponders this startling revelation about this unassuming man.
The "unassuming" he realizes now, was only skin deep. "Agent" was as capable of tearing people apart as Romanoff when he wanted to be, even if he did use different tactics then she did.
He'd cared – for each of the Avengers, even Tony – as deeply as Thor did his own bat-crazy brother, in an equally disconnected sort of way. That fact didn't show through very often, but it had been there. The caring eyes behind the sometimes sharp, sometimes witty comments. The times when "Agent" kept his mouth shut, respecting the fact that there were things that people didn't want to talk about, just as easily as he had discussed a battle plan. The times when he had stood back and let them plan the battles on their own – kind of like a parent letting his teenagers make their own mistakes – until it was time for him to step in and clean up their messes. He had brought them all together and he had been capable of making all of their problems go away at least for a little while… and then he had gone away himself, in the worst way possible.
His name – "Agent's" name – Tony reminded himself sternly before throwing back the last of the contents in his tumbler and finally rising to refill it was Agent Phil Coulson. He had been a good man, possibly one of the best men that Tony had ever known… and now he was a dead man.