Phil brushed off all of the doctor's and his staffs' questions with apparent ease, blithely moving through their tests they were putting him through without any visible strain. It was thoroughly vexing them as he shouldn't have been as fit and healthy as he was just yet. He obfuscated his way through Maria Hill's questions and returned Director Fury's glare with an impervious bland face that didn't change despite the escalating strength of the glare leveled at him, making them hold all of the inquiries for later. Facing Captain Rogers and Natasha's disappointed and angered faces were more difficult to deal with, especially since Natasha was a good friend and the Captain an old idol he still held high esteem for, and even more daunting were all of the others standing behind them. Oddly enough, or perhaps not when he was able to think on the matter later on, Stark, Banner, and Clint had understanding mixed with their ire at his disappearance.

Phil couldn't help but want to let out the sigh that built up in his chest at their confrontation, but he'd been Agent Coulson too long and the exasperated teen who'd once rolled his eyes and sighed with regularity was buried deep beneath his training and experience, his lips twitched instead and only Natasha and Clint noticed and understood its significance, Stark merely filing it away to puzzle out the meaning of it later. Instead of saying something about being his own person, Phil merely straightened his clothing, a blue button down with the sleeves rolled up and black jeans which was definitely something none of them had seen him wear before, and said, "I'm fine, healthy actually and able to move without any pain or impediments to movement, and I felt like getting lunch with my sister. I wasn't under any orders to stay put and she didn't know that I hadn't been discharged yet, so do not blame her. I apologize if my leaving distressed you."

Stark snorted before pulling out his phone, "Never would have guessed you'd be an unruly patient Coulson. It's nice to know you're not the mindless automaton I thought you were." He flashed a sharp grin at him, eyes filled with mischief, before he walked away. Pepper just sighed with an exasperated smile of her own as her heels clicked loudly in the mostly silent room as she walked to him, a question in her eyes. With a discrete nod she smiled and pulled him into small hug before bussing him on the cheek and handing him a key card for Stark tower, "All of the Avengers have their own floors in the tower, including you. Tony muttered something about not trusting SHEILD and you know him, he likes hording all of his things in one place. The only reason Rhodey isn't living there is because the man is as stubborn as Tony and has known him longer than any of us. Congratulations, you're now part of the Tony Stark collection of important humans, he'll irritate you and harass you but it's his way of showing he cares. Thankfully it comes with perks like tech yet to be released and a robotic butler with a cunning and dry sense of humor."

The others in the room laughed at that and even Phil couldn't hold back the chuckle at Pepper's assessment of Stark's behavior, "I doubt I have much choice in the matter, knowing Stark he's found all of my bolt holes and the two apartments I stay at most frequently and moved all of my stuff?"

Pepper nodded, "I'm sorry about that. Tony had already had your leases canceled and most of your things moved before I even knew what he was doing, and this was mere hours after learning you were still alive." Phil just let his lip quirk up again as Pepper patted his arm and left to follow her beau.

Captain Rogers let out a rather explosive sigh as he pinched at the bridge of his nose, his eyes closed in consternation. When he looked up his eyes were stern and his voice full of authority, "Next time, leave more than a written note. Call or-" Phil almost saved him from floundering but the Captain rallied his strength and continued, "Or text. Something more immediate at the very least. As Ms. Potts insinuated, you're part of us and we just got you back after thinking you dead. I may not have known you long but you left one heck of an impression and we're not ready to let you disappear again so soon or suddenly."

Phil nods at him, his back a little straighter though he'd deny it if you pointed it out, and the Captain leaves, Natasha standing in place as he brushes past her. Her right eyebrow is quirked up high, her gaze fierce and intent and her arms crossed tightly before they relax and she walks towards and then past him, her finger tips brushing against his bicep in acceptance of his apology. He brushes his own against them before their no longer touching and he knows they're going to be fine, even if she will grill him later about his disappearance and how he did it.

Bruce has a crooked grin on his face as he watches the others leave and when they can no longer hear Natasha's footsteps he speaks, "Can't be a time bomb without one of the vital chemicals needed for the reaction. Well, not as lethal a time bomb, at least." Phil gives the doctor a small smile and nods at him as well as the man walks away. It feels good to be considered part of the mixture to make their 'time bomb', really good actually, and he's not quite sure how he went from the background support character to one of the integral components but he isn't fighting it.

There is a fission of fear and anticipation in his stomach as he and Clint lock gazes and he realizes he's never thought this far ahead, for once hasn't planned anything and doesn't know how to broach the subject he knows they need to talk about. Especially since it's so tangled up with everything that is them; their feelings, their actions towards each other, their relationship, working and otherwise, it's a very messy complicated tangle he's not exactly sure they can ever tease straight again.

He doesn't think he wants to straighten it and undo all of the knots that have been made since.

They've been standing in silence for a good ten minutes when Clint speaks, shattering the tense atmosphere but also adding to the tension at the same time. "It was like someone had lodged an iceberg in my chest when I learned you were dead. I wasn't sure if it was freezing me or burning me up from the inside out, it hurt so much," Phil can't find anything to say to that and doesn't get the chance to even try before Clint is speaking again, "It was like someone had taken that normal familiar chill I associate with you and home and turned it into something sharp and painful, condensed it into a ball of liquid nitrogen and I'd never escape it and the cage it was building in and around me."

Phil doesn't even try to speak this time, he just grabs Clint's hand and mass texts everyone that he was going out for a bit at the same time, dragging the younger man behind him. When they're two streets away, Phil pulls him into an alley and let's go of the hold he has on his otherness and tugs both of them into a world of greys and red and death. When he turns to look at Clint, their hands still loosely held together, the other man's eyes are wide with wonder and a burning red instead of their usual cool blue. He lets go as Clint walks out of the alley and spins around, his sharp eyes taking in everything that is different and everything that's the same, and he feels something tight he didn't know was in his chest loosen as nothing adverse happens to Clint. He'd hoped, no wished, that he was right, that Clint was like he and Penny, but he was never a hundred percent sure and he hadn't realized until just then that he'd desperately wanted him to be, wanted to be able to share all of this with him and more.

Red eyes lock with his and he can almost taste Clint's surprise at the change in his own eye color, where once blue-green looked out now his own eyes were a deep, almost fathomless, black.

"You know, if I wasn't so sure that everything I've seen on Supernatural wasn't a load of shit, I'd totally try to exorcise you right now." He knows they have similar, though not the same, taste in shows so it isn't odd when he hears the comment and can't help it as his lips lift up in amusement in a facsimile of his high school self and shrug, letting himself relax more than he has in front of anyone besides Penny in years.

Clint's eyes widen minutely and Phil finally speaks, "I figured I should explain it to you before I did anyone else. After all, we have a lot in common and," he twitches his fingers slightly, a nervous tick he usually had good handle on, "more that's needs to be talked about between us."

Clint just looks at him before he nods his ascent. "Are you going to explain all," he moves his hand in an arc at their surroundings, "of this and what it has to do with you, me, and Penny first? Or are we going to talk about our . . . Complicated first. 'Cause Phil," a small rose to his cheeks realizing he'd called this man by his given name in front of him for the first time, "I have a feeling either conversation is going to need drinks, the second more than the first."

Phil just looked at Clint for a moment before tilting his head in a direction leading farther away from the SHIELD safe house, "Alright. How about we start with the first, beginning with introducing you to food and drinks here at a good pub I know called Crawlers and we'll move on from there." Clint grinned and slapped his hands together, "Well, it sounds like it'll be interesting if it's called Crawlers, like my kind of place actually. Lead the way boss-man." Phil Just shook his head and began walking, "I'm not your boss here, Clint, especially if we're going to be talking about Complicated."

Clint froze at hearing Phil call him by his first name instead of the usual Barton and blinked a few times before he grinned and began jogging to catch up with the swiftly moving older man, hope bubbling deep in his gut that this was going to go much better than Complicated had ever gone for him before.