Son of Koul

Summary:

Let it never be said that Agent Phil Coulson is just a suit. That is not true. Phil Coulson was BORN a suit. Phil Coulson was raised a suit. Phil Coulson embodies the suit.

So if you want to say that Phil Coulson is a suit, you should at least have the decency to say that he's a damned fucking good suit.

But then again, if you knew his father, you would not even question that.

Notes:

Things to know:

1) As I'm not a native English speaker, I do apologize for any mistakes and any... incoherence that may occur within my writings.

2) I would like to thank my wonderful beta Karen for... Well everything.

3) I decided to take some liberties on the Marvel movies and the MIB timelines but I'll try my best to respect them.

4) I based my MIB characters on the movies (hence the Kevin Brown problem. I know it was later changed to Kevin Cunningham but I am still using the movie's name I recently rewatched the movies in original version, but the French voices will still hold a big influence on my perception of the characters.

5) I hope you will enjoy the following story. It was inspired by the wonderful gif set that roams around tumblr. For any reclamation, observation, thoughts whatsoever, feel free to send me a message.

6) Due to a wrong rating, this story was deleted from Ffnet. I'm sorry i'm not really familiar with them.

Chapter One: in which someone reappears after 35 years and initials are explained.

Let it never be said that Agent Phil Coulson is just a suit. That is not true. Phil Coulson was BORN a suit. Phil Coulson was raised a suit. Phil Coulson embodies the suit.

So if you want to say that Phil Coulson is a suit, you should at least have the decency to say that he's a damned fucking good suit.

But then again, if you knew his father, you would not even question that.

Who is this father that I speak of, you say. Well, that's where it gets complicated. See, if Mr Coulson's employing company had a take your children to work day, young Phil would have had to be driven there blindfolded, or possibly stuffed with candies with a strange taste of sleeping pills. Child abuse, you scream in horror, and yes, yes, maybe. But, on the bright side, the company for which Mr Coulson works does not have a take your children to work day, so, see? No harm done.

Also, it must be noted that Mr Coulson's name isn't actually Coulson, and Phil Coulson never actually met his father until he was 35. How is that? What happened then?

Well, that's what our story is about.

Philippe Coulson best known as "cheese" or "agent" or "Phil has never been a very expansive person. In a life where anything could happen on a daily basis, where Armaggeddon is only one of the explanations possible, he is a rock of discipline and patience. And you need patience when your job consist in babysitting wrangling demi-gods, multibillionaire five years old, super dangerous secret agents with pointy weapons and other great big chunks of romanesco broccolis stuffed with amphetamines.

Surrounded by superheroes 24/7, he seems quite "ordinary". On the wrong side of thirty-five, with an average height, average weight, and average face, he does not stand out. Few are those who can remember the kind man in a suit that looks a bit like a fed, but with a more accountant sort of vibe. But, you know, the nice one, not that one that comes knocking on your door to ask you how you bought that new shiny car that's gracing your driveway.

The story behind Phil's childhood is quite simple. At least, it appears quite simple. Phil grew up with a single mother. His father? Well, he never had a chance to know him (at least until much later, when Phil was already working for S.H.I.E.L.D.) He disappeared one night in 1961, when, adolescent, he was supposed to meet Phil's mom for a date. She waited the whole night in the porch in her lovely yellow dress. Then, she discovered that she was pregnant and Phil was born without a dad; her parents were furious.

Oh, he did have a happy childhood. In the countryside near Truro, Nova Scotia, he grew up a healthy boy, full of mischief and energy. His grandparents from both side liked him very much, and he never felt unloved. Sometimes he wondered where his dad was, and imagined him on a desert island, escaping terrible pirates. Or on a secret mission, killing those damned Ruski, like granddaddy Brown used to say. Curiously, he was not really far from the truth.

Phil doesn't have many memories from his childhood. It is more a big fuzzy ball of feelings and colors and odours that sometimes bring back a scene so clear he could swear it happened only yesterday. And in the middle of these you could find the suit.

The suit or actually the man who wore it- is a permanent figure in his memories. The suit appeared when he was five years old and he got lost in the woods and he couldn't find his way back to the farm. The suit was here again at his first baseball game where he did his first home run and nobody from home could come and see him. The faceless man had patted his head and told him "Good Job, champ" and then had disappeared in the crowd. He was here again when he's 9 (when Phil found an Appollo11 keychain on his pool bag), when he's 12 and when he graduated. The same black suit, the same black tie, the same glasses that hide the features of their owner.

Maybe that was the reason why Phil becomes a federal agent. The suit had let such an impression on him; he just wants to wear it. Maybe a little part of his reasoning is not that simple. Maybe he has wanted to know who this man is. Maybe.

And then Phil meets Nick Fury. He is young, he is promising, he never complains and shows the best results of his promotion. He is the perfect agent. Of course his path would cross Nick Fury's.

His new job is absolutely brilliant. Once the novelty wears off, he is still running across the country on secret missions, no paid holidays and no fixed time tables. He lives on coffee and protein bars. And he loves it.

And then one day, it happens. A call, from his mother's house. Choked words in between sobs.

"Your father has returned. Come back home"

And he runs, he flies to his childhood house, to this man he always knew would come back. But instead of a hero, he finds a strange middle aged man, who just woke up from a 35 years long coma. A young man suddenly old, with no memories whatsoever of what happened to him.

To say that it is a disappointment might be a little strong. Phil has been praised countless times for his ability to blend in, to smile benignly and look as unthreatening as a box full of babies —cute, asleep babies, not the hungry, roaring monsters that you always get stuck behind in line at the supermarket while their parents flail around completely useless—So, all in all, it's not the deceptively placid appearance that makes his enthusiasm waver. No. What makes him pause and hold back his warm welcome is the irrepressible feeling that there is something missing. Phil is an agent, he knows people, it is his JOB to know people from the first glance. And there is something wrong with this man. Something huge.

Maybe it is something in the way Kevin Brown looks at the sky, but some weird dread in phil's gut makes him very uncomfortable. Kevin he doesn't know if he can call him his father yet- has a way to stare at the stars like they are… well the answers he can't find anywhere else. It is pretty unnerving. He can see his mother growing paler and paler, and Kevin's confusion and coolness doesn't seem to help her coping. Sometimes Phil wonders if him coming back is really for the best.

And in the end they get used to it. Kevin finds a job in the town's post office. Oh it's not a great job, and he has to wear hideous grey shirt and shorts. But it's a job where he seems to… well, belong. His co-workers are a bit strange but there is one day when Phil decides to visit and he finds Kevin… well, not quite smiling but at least responding positively to a joke someone made. And this not-quite smile reminds him of a similar expression he's seen one day, when phil was batting his first home run… So he just smiles and takes his father yes, this is definitely his father- to the diner to get some pie. And when his mother can't stand anymore of his fathers' antics and they decide they aren't the same they were at 21, Phil comes back from whatever hole Nick Fury's been sending him and helps him move in the small flat above the diner.

And then one day, Kevin Brown disappears.

Phil has just come back from New York. A scientific working on a gamma bomb just had a bit of a mess up transforming himself into a gigantic green time-bomb and blew up a huge part of Harlem. Agent Coulson managed to single-handedly smother a great part of the affair. Of course, after that, Nick Fury offers Phil a day off.

When he picks up the phone to call his father, he is a bit surprised to hear the cold metallic tone of the pre-recorded voice that informs him that "the number you are calling does not exist". He is even more surprised to find that the flat he rented for the man has been emptied and no one seems to remember a Kevin Brown. But the cherry on top, the iceberg in the swimming pool is the call he makes to his mother.

"Mother? Do you have any news from father?"

"Honey! How are you? He doesn't remember the last time she sounded that happy.

"I'm fine. What about father?"

"Well what about him? You know he disappeared when we were 21. I have never heard from him since. Oh darling, are you alright?"

"I'm fine mother… it's… well it's nothing. I'll call you later. Goodbye"

He hangs up and furrows his brow. Something is definitively wrong and he will find out what is going on, or he isn't Agent Phil Coulson, of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.

When the kid opened the post office's door just a few days ago and told him he would tell him why he kept staring at the stars, Kevin Brown knew he had to follow this… cowboy. Agent J was a tall young man, maybe a few years younger than his son, but he had the biggest mouth he'd ever heard. Had anyone ever ask this guy to just shut up? The kid was annoying, but he kept his promise. Even if it meant running through the end of New York to a really weird secret agency full of all sorts of creatures that talked and even seemed to remember him, getting flushed in a giant toilet when said agency was under attack by a weird woman with tentacles and finally getting electrocuted by a weird illegal de-neuro-something that nearly blew his head off. Courtesy he gave to the owner of said machine before he learned this guy could grow it again. Some guys were really lucky bastards.

And that's how he ends up here, on the streets in front of Jeeb's store, looking at the sky. And then, he remembers.

The light of Zartha is finally were it should be, and he feels a slight pang in his chest. The kid just got his heart broken, maybe he should have known better. Look at himself, he doesn't really need…. Well, he is in the last suit and that's what he'll ever need. Nothing more, nothing less.

The kid is covered in a green slime and doesn't look really bothered by that. Maybe he really learnt some tricks while he was away.

"Come on, ace, let's hit the diner. I'm in the wood for pie."

"Oh, look at you, the mighty Kay is in the mood for pie. Let's hit it, then."

"Jay. The keys."

"Come On K! I earned it! I just smashed a very hot evil chick in little bits! And she was in lingerie! "

K doesn't smile, no, he doesn't at all, but there's a shift in his stern expression that makes the kid's face brighten.

"See! You smiled! You totally smiled, man!"

Kay just shrugs and sits behind the wheel. The radio blasts an old country song. An old feeling of finally belonging gets stuck in his chest. Yes, he is home. He just had forgotten how "home" felt with the annoying chitchat of his partner.

"And then, there was the Vinean exodus last winter, and the Alphaian's spring revolution and…."

The kid would not shut up. Two days he's been back, slipping into his old life so easily it is pretty scary. He really missed it. He lets his mind wonder, not really listening to the exploits of his partner. He knows the kid is good. That's why he chose him. He doesn't have to listen to all of his rubbish. Now, Phil, on the other hand, he is a pretty quiet kid. He has always been.

He sighs.

Maybe he should have done something. But his son is 35, not a child anymore, with a good job in insurances (that's what he's been told, but he knows it's something more). He has been neuralysed along with his mother and has no idea whatsoever that his father came back…. That is the part of the job Kay hates. They are erased, never born, nameless heroes that no one will mourn. He has not missed this part.

"And the Kumerian… did you just sight ? I'm telling you all the exciting stuff you missed and you just sight?"

"I forgot how the coffee here tastes like shit"

"See, that's what I always say to Zed. Look, Zed, The coffee tastes like crap. Now, if you want to know, I've seen this nice expresso machine just half the price…"

The kid doesn't finish. Zed is standing in his office, talking with a man in a suit. A dark BLUE suit. K can't see his face, but he's got the feeling there's something wrong going on. Zed smiles at the man. A forced, cold smile, like he just swallowed at least a dozen lemons.

"Kaaaaaaaaay….. I suppose you remember our sister agency S.H.I.E.L.D."

"I do."

"Now, it seems Nick Fury would be interested in restoring the contacts with S.W.O.R.D"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. What? What's this shield and sword thing you're talking about? Are we going to go all medieval? No way, I'm keeping my baby. Don't you think it's… a bit… too much?

"S.H.I.E.L.D., not shield, cowboy. It stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. They deal with espionage and military for the government. "

"Oh… okay. So they are a bit like James Bond then."

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent's shoulders shake imperceptibly. He must think the kid is a moron. And K won't correct him. Oh, no.

"Okay… so I imagine S.W.O.R.D. stands for….."

The agent turns around, a quiet, kind smile on his face. K doesn't really know if he's dreaming or not. The man is in his thirties. With an average height, and average face, he would not stand out in a crowd. Yet, K would know him anywhere, and with good reason.

"Sentient World Observation and Response Department. This organization, who specializes in extraterrestrial threats, has worked with S.H.I.E.L.D. on several projects of joint interest over the years but the relations between our two agencies have been deteriorating for a long time. I am here to remediate to that."

"Wait… OUR?"

"Well, yes. S.W.O.R.D's name being what it is, it seems its leaders decided to use the nickname they coined from their infamous suits. Hello, I am Phil Coulson and will be your S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison. I am also Agent K. 's son."