"You're not being serious right now," Phil says.
The agent is standing beside the bed, staring disbelievingly at the lump in the center of it. After being released from the hospital, Steve had been placed on a heavy regiment of medication. While it was true the serum was slowly working the toxin out of his system, the medication helped speed the process along, as well as helped to deal with some of the symptoms. Or it would, if only Steve would just take it.
It's not as though Phil doesn't know of Steve's history. After so much of his life spent sick and weak, it's not surprising that the soldier isn't overly fond of medication or doctors or hospital stays. But still, Phil hadn't expected the man to be quite so stubborn about it. It's borderline childish, if he's being honest.
"I don't need it," comes Steve's muffled reply from beneath the sheets. "The serum's taking care of it."
"But not quickly enough," Phil reminds him. "You'll recover three times as quickly if you just stick to Bruce's plan."
"I'm fine," Steve huffs.
Phil sighs slowly, setting the pills and glass of water on the nightstand. He sits himself on the side of the bed and pats the lump beneath the sheets.
"Can you come out from under there so we can have an adult conversation, please?" Phil asks.
He watches the lump shift with great reluctance before the covers are pulled down just enough for sleepy looking blue eyes to peek at him. Steve doesn't lower the covers past his nose, like he's expecting Phil to try to force feed him those pills if he lets his guard up.
"Since you clearly despise this so much that you're willing to hide to avoid it, I propose we do something to make the situation more… desirable," Phil explains.
"What are you suggesting?" Steve asks, looking genuinely curious.
"I was thinking of establishing a reward system," Phil says. "You do this, and I reward you. What do you think?"
"I think," Steve says, sitting himself up a bit, "that would depend on the reward."
Phil hums thoughtfully. It would, wouldn't it? Thankfully, he thinks he's got something that will meet with the other man's approval. With a slow smile, he gently pushes the covers aside and leans in to kiss his partner on the forehead. Steve is quite obviously confused by Phil's hand on his chest and the enigmatic smile on his face.
"If you swallow your medicine," Phil says lowly, his hand traveling down to cup the other man through his boxers, "I'll swallow mine."
His grin widens when he feels Steve shiver and he knows he's won. Twenty minutes later, the glass of water on the nightstand is empty, the pills are gone and Steve has his hand pressed to the back of Phil's head, moaning and cursing as the agent swallows around him.
"A satisfactory reward, I take it?" Phil asks, sitting back on his haunches and looking immensely pleased with himself as he licks his lips.
"You drive a hard bargain, Agent Coulson," Steve answers with a breathy laugh. "But what do you plan to do tomorrow? Or the day after that?"
Phil's mind wanders to the locked box at the back of his closet. More specifically to the contents of that box. They've kept their relationship fairly vanilla thus far and, ironically enough, this might present as a good opportunity to introduce Steve to something new. He pats the soldier's thigh fondly, his tone ringing with amusement as he says,
"Oh, I'm sure we can come up with something."