The team was winding down on the Bus after a long, difficult mission. Skye, as usual, was tapping away on her laptop. May was taking a rare moment to wind down and was sipping at a beer.

FitzSimmons were arguing quietly but passionately in a corner about the practical applications of this or that. Coulson wasn't sure exactly what it was that they were discussing. He supposed he should ask them about it sooner rather than later, in case something went wrong.

Coulson himself was sitting on the couch with his shirt sleeves rolled up and his tie loosened by a quarter of an inch. He had paperwork (it was always paperwork with SHIELD) laid out on the coffee table in front of him.

May turned on the television. It momentarily distracted FitzSimmons, but they soon returned to their argument.

Coulson had done enough paperwork for now; he deserved a break. He turned his attention to the television.

The show switched to breaking news about a celebrity. Normally Coulson didn't care about celebrities, "breaking news" or otherwise. However, Captain America appeared on the screen and began to speak. Coulson took off his reading glasses. He listened closely as Steve Rogers addressed a concern that had been put forward: that he was a woman.

Coulson shook his head and re-focused his eyes to make sure he had heard that right. He had. At the moment, Rogers was explaining that he was a man, even though he did have a female body.

May's beer was still in her hand, but she seemed to have forgotten about it. Skye had looked up from her computer. Even FitzSimmons were silent.

Coulson turned up the volume on the television. He had stopped caring about his unfinished paperwork entirely. On the screen, Captain Rogers raised his hand in salute and marched away from the podium. The screen cut away to a coiffed and overly smug commentator from Fox News. Coulson shut it off before they could start talking. He wasn't in the mood to put up with that garbage.

FitzSimmons burst into noise right away. Skye started babbling to nobody in particular.

May did nothing. Instead, she just sat there and stared at Coulson, whose brow was furrowed. May moved a little closer.

"What's on your mind?" she murmured.

At the sound of her voice, Coulson snapped out of his thoughts. He just shook his head. He would need to think more about this sudden new development.

None of the Avengers knew that Coulson was still alive, except for Agents Barton and Romanoff, since they were both Level 7. However, Coulson had not yet been allowed to go back and reunite with Clint. And, of course, with the rest of SHIELD and the Avengers, but Clint was the most important, especially when Coulson felt so alone.

The newly learned fact that Captain America – one of the greatest American heroes ever – was transgender was the only thing that Coulson's team could seem to talk about. The general consensus was that it was amazing. Only Ward didn't like it. He kept saying, "But why didn't somebody find her out?"

Finally Skye snapped. After Ward made those comments at dinner, Skye yelled at him, "Stop being such a jerk! Just because he has a woman's body doesn't automatically make him a woman! Learn some respect already!"

Everyone shut up immediately. They were not used to seeing Skye yell. Whine, yes, but not yell. Ward looked especially shocked. Coulson felt a vindictive burst of pleasure. Ward had deserved that.

Later that night, Coulson took a call from SHIELD. They wanted him and the team to come back to New York City just for a little while to help the Avengers with all the media fallout (and to help make sure that nothing bad happened to them, especially Captain America). Coulson suspected that they were really just taking pity on him by letting him return from exile.

May brought them to the Helicarrier. They all went to the conference room where they had been ordered to go. Even Skye was too excited to whine about having to obey orders.

Coulson's team was the first to reach the conference room. They settled in, and Skye had just poured a cup of coffee for herself, when one of the Avengers arrived.

"Hello, new minions!" Tony Stark boomed out. May snorted. Ward looked angry. Skye spilled her cup of coffee all over her front and let out a cry of dismay.

Stark looked surprisingly disappointed at the lack of good reactions to his presence. Coulson raised a sardonic eyebrow in his direction.

"Where are the rest of your teammates?" he asked coolly.

Stark shrugged. Not the reaction that Coulson had wanted.

Just when Coulson had started considering taking out his taser, Thor, Dr. Bruce Banner, the Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Steve Rogers walked into the room. Skye gasped and dropped her now-empty coffee cup. Steve reached out and caught it just before it hit the ground. Skye took it from his outstretched hand and batted her eyelashes at him. Steve looked disconcerted, and looked at the Black Widow for help. She just smirked.

However, Coulson wasn't paying much attention to the scene unfolding in front of him. Hawkeye had just walked in front of him and gotten his attention.

"Clint," Coulson whispered. He extended a hand out to his lover, then withdrew it. He wasn't sure if Clint wanted to be touched by him again yet.

Apparently Clint did want to be touched again, though. He hugged Coulson tightly, and Coulson hugged back just as hard. The pair clung to each other for several minutes until someone cleared their throat behind Coulson.

Coulson reluctantly let go, and they all sat down at the table, but Clint and Coulson held each other's hands the whole time.

After the meeting, everybody went to Stark Tower together. Stark ordered pizza. Clint led Coulson into a small room away from everybody else.

"I'm so sorry I didn't come see you in the hospital," whispered Clint.

Coulson laughed and shook his head. "No, Clint, I'm sorry," he whispered back. "I didn't even try to contact you, not even after I got better."

Clint giggled. It was so ridiculous, but it was so much of a familiar and comforting sound that Coulson never wanted to let Clint go again.

"Come home with me," Clint murmured into Coulson's neck. "I just want to spend more time with you."

Coulson nodded. "Of course." Then he remembered something important. "Of course, but I want to talk to Steve first."

Clint tensed. It would have been almost imperceptible to somebody who didn't know Clint as well as Coulson did.

"What's wrong?" Coulson asked. "It'll only take a minute, I promise."

Clint wasn't meeting his eyes. "Don't be mad at him," he muttered. "He was just doing what he had to. Do you think he had a choice or something?"

Coulson just stared at him, until suddenly he realized what Clint was talking about. "No, of course not!" he exclaimed. "I'm not mad at him! I just wanted to congratulate him! And . . . well . . . just because he's transgender doesn't mean he's not Captain America anymore."

Coulson must have looked particularly sheepish, because Clint burst out laughing. "Of course!" he cried out. "Nothing changed for you, has it? You're still a giant dork with a case of hero worship!"

They left the room after Coulson finally managed to calm Clint down.

All the other Avengers were milling around a large table that now held pizza. Clint crowed in delight and helped himself. There was already a considerable amount gone from the twelve large pizzas that Stark had gotten.

Phil soon realized where most of it had gone when he sat down next to Steve. Judging by the pile of discarded pepperoni, Steve had probably eaten at least eight slices already. He was working on more.

Steve nodded in greeting when Coulson sat down. He looked nervous and even set down his current slice of pizza. Coulson smiled at him to try to put him at ease. Steve smiled back, but he didn't look like he felt much better.

"Congratulations," Coulson said quietly to Steve.

Steve said, "Thank you . . . ?" and swallowed audibly.

They sat quietly while Steve picked at his mountain of pepperoni. Finally Steve blurted out, "Congratulations for what?"

Coulson raised an eyebrow. "Congratulations on coming out, on telling everybody that you're transgender. Doing something like that is difficult to do, I know. I've been there."

When Steve figured out exactly what that meant, his mouth gaped open. "Wait, so you're . . ." he didn't even finish his sentence; he didn't seem to know how to.

Coulson smiled and finished, "Yes, I'm gay. So I, too, know a little bit about hiding who you are and about how good it feels when you come out."

Steve looked like he was about to say something else, but he got distracted by somebody behind Coulson.

Coulson looked over his shoulder right as Clint threw an arm around him. Coulson smiled and reached up to touch him.

Much to Coulson's surprise, Clint didn't stop there. He swung his body out so that he was sitting in Coulson's lap.

Steve quickly averted his eyes. Clint snickered at him.

"I told you I'm not the only gay one," Clint boasted. "You don't have to feel so weird about it about it, either. This isn't illegal anymore." He waved his hand to motion that his words meant not just Clint and Coulson's relationship, but also Steve defying traditional gender norms.

Coulson stayed with Clint, Steve, and the Avengers for a week. During that time, he watched Steve slowly grow more comfortable around his teammates.

Steve still didn't really talk about his identity as a transgender man, but that seemed more out of habit than anything. He was gaining confidence, though.

Once, in the middle of the night, Coulson went into the Avengers' communal kitchen and found Steve eating a midnight snack. Coulson dropped into a chair across from him. Steve stopped eating, startled, then hunched down. His chest was almost completely hidden by the table by that point.

Coulson gave him an odd look. He looked a little closer and realized that Steve was wearing a t-shirt and nothing else underneath.

Steve wasn't meeting Coulson's eyes. His breathing sped up. He crossed his arms in front of his chest. They were much more effective at hiding his unbound breasts than the table had been.

Coulson snapped his eyes away upon realizing he had been staring. He didn't know what to say.

Steve broke the silence first. He muttered, still not looking at Coulson, "I figured it's safe enough here that I could leave my room without it."

Coulson knew that by "it," Steve meant his breast binder. He nodded. "Of course it's safe," he said gently. "You'll never have to worry about that here."

Steve nodded. He looked back down at his food, but his arms were still folded tightly across his chest.

Coulson got up, said good-night, and left the kitchen. When he looked back, Steve had already gone back to his meal.