The MP3 player is one of his few indulgences.
He's had it for years and he could upgrade to a newer model but this one works fine and he sees no reason to replace it.
It's almost always in his SHIELD-issued car and when it's not, then it's in his inside jacket pocket or on his bedside table.
Road trips are long and despite what everyone might think, he does enjoy creature comforts. Music is a big one.
He hasn't found a genre yet that he won't listen to although of course he has his favorites. Nothing will ever replace classic rock on his top songs.
He enjoys the myths about his own invulnerability and has worked hard to cultivate the image that he presents, so the MP3 is kept a secret. He'll update his songs every once in awhile but it's not a priority.
Each playlist is a genre and that's all he really needs. In a whimsical fit, he'd named the playlists after file classifications based on his own system. Somehow "New York City Subway Regulations" became his title for jazz.
And other agents said he didn't know how to have fun.
The little music player stayed with him during the New Mexico incident, and it was always nearby as he drove back and forth between bases while the Cube was being secured and tested.
The implosion of the Dark Energy Lab had come too quickly to fully process and then he was on his way to bring Tony Stark up to speed.
Things snowballed from there and he never realized that in his haste, his MP3 player was still in his pocket from his initial car ride to the now-destroyed base.
Loki escaped and the only thought running through his head was to protect everyone onboard from the god for just a little longer.
When he opened his eyes three and a half weeks later, the MP3 player might have been the absolute farthest thing from his mind. He doesn't ask what happened to the suit he'd been wearing, but he does file a request to make one of those Destroyer-esque guns his personal weapon.
When he's reassigned to the Avenger Initiative he's in the car almost as frequently as his new room in the Tower.
With four new charges, plus Clint and Natasha, under his care he's either at a SHIELD base monitoring a mission in progress, assisting in paperwork and coordinating cleanup after they succeed, or in the Tower, keeping an eye on them in the best way he knows how.
So it's surprising, when, three months after fitting into his role as the Avengers' handler, he finds his MP3 in Tony's lab one morning.
Knowing that Stark wouldn't have left it out if he'd wanted to keep it hidden, he pockets it with a small smile.
Later that day he's heading out for a meeting with Director Fury and decides to drive himself there.
He plugs the player in and sets it to pull randomly from his library. Ten minutes in to his trip he frowns in confusion as a song comes up that he knows he didn't put on his device.
"Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want."
"So tell me what you want, what you really, really want."
"I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want."
"So tell me what you want, what you really, really want."
"I wanna, ha, I wanna, ha, I wanna, ha, I wanna, ha, I wanna really, really, really wanna zigazig ah."
He lets the song play out, bemused, but he already has a good idea of what happened.
By the time he arrives on base, three other pop songs from the 90's had played.
He scrolls through the playlists as he walks to Director Fury's office and he smiles when he sees one innocently labeled "Coulson's Favorites."
He smirks and tucks the MP3 back in his pocket, humming one of the tunes under his breath and wondering how much time Tony dedicated to tracking all the songs down for him.
Prompt inspired by the Fuck Yeah Avengers Headcanon Tumblr page, post #61.
Always,
Sinkme