"I gotta say, Coulson, I did not have you pinned as the type of girl to drink in an Irish bar. Are these free? Great."

Tony grinned and grabbed a peanut from the bowl on the bar, throwing one into the air and catching it in his mouth before grabbing his beer.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sasha asked, a brow raised while Robbie stood in a stunned silence behind the bar.

Tony shrugged, looking Sasha up at down, "I don't know, maybe the fact you drive a car worth more than this entire joint and everything in it? No offence, kid."

Robbie shook his head nervously when Tony winked at him, "None taken, Sir."

"Sir, I like it. More people should call me that."

Sasha sighed and grabbed her drink, walking over to a booth along the back wall, sliding onto the worn down leather seat and placing her bag and jacket down beside her, sipping her drink as Tony joined her.

"I expected a fancy cocktail bar, champagne, even. Full of surprises, aren't you."

Tony scooped another handful of peanuts into his mouth from the bowl he'd stolen at the bar. He was wearing black skinny jeans and a nylon jacket the same colour as Sasha's blazer, a plain black t-shirt underneath and a pair of thick-rimmed glasses covering his eyes.

"We used to come here, me and Phil."

"Ah." Tony nodded, taking a few gulps of his drink before picking up a beer mat and repeatedly folding it subconsciously.

Sasha looked past Tony's shoulder at the empty booth behind him. She and Phil had always sat at the same table every time they came into O'Shea's, a joke running between them that it'd be bad luck for them to sit anywhere else.

It felt strange for her to be in there with someone else, but there was some kind of comfort that Sasha warmed to being around people that had known her brother well.

"I think the surfer behind the bar likes you, by the way. If you hadn't noticed."

"Robbie? No, absolutely not." Sasha shook her head, furrowing her brows in rejection.

"No? How come? Got a man waiting for you at home?" Tony raised one eyebrow, folding his arms as he leant against the back of the booth.

Sasha just shook her head, causing Tony to scoff and roll his eyes.

"I don't believe that for a second. Pretty girl like you?"

Shrugging, Sasha let out an unbothered sigh, "I don't have time. I work so much that I don't get chance to meet people. Besides, I feel like even if I did, I wouldn't meet anyone that really..."

"Gets you?" Tony interrupted, pulling her wandering eyes away from the television screen behind his head to meet his own.

"Exactly."

"I know how you feel. You like baseball?"

"What?" Sasha pulled a face, confused at the sudden change in subject.

"Baseball. You're watching the baseball game behind me, not looking at me."

Sasha blushed and laughed quietly, taking a swig of beer to cool the embarrassed heat in her cheeks.

"Red Sox."

Tony drew in an unimpressed breath through clenched teeth, giving her a rather disapproving look with a disappointed shake of his head.

"Mets. You've let me down, Coulson. Your taste up until now has been faultless."

Sasha held up her hands in defeat, slouching against the red padded leather. Tony's sharp tongue and quick wit had surprised her, making her wonder how her brother with such a gentle soul and mind could've possibly been friends with him.

Tony's personality wasn't a bad thing at all, in fact, it was quite refreshing for Sasha to have a conversation with someone who could tell the difference between being genuine and being sarcastic. It made her laugh imagining Phil attempting to decipher whether Tony's satire jokes were intentional or not, his emotions being far too disconnected from his common sense sometimes.

The longer Tony sat and spoke to Sasha Coulson, the more she reminded him of Phil. They had the same eyes, that was as far as it went physically, but the way she spoke with her hands and didn't hesitate to roll her eyes or cut him off when he was rambling about something stupid made their relation much more obvious.

Phil had been a good friend and one hell of an agent, selfless and kind with a heart made of gold, his intentions and beliefs always in the right place, even if naivety sometimes crept in a little too deep.

Tony thought the naievty was perhaps one of the only places Phil and his younger sister differed. There was certainly nothing naïve about Sasha Coulson, it was clear to Tony that she had an extremely level head and two hands firmly grasped around reality, something Phil occasionally let slip.

"So, how was work? Solve any murders?" Tony asked, rubbing his hands together in delight when Robbie brought over a plate of nachos for them to share.

"I'm a lawyer, Tony, not a detective."

"Yeah, I knew that," Tony shook off his mistake with a smirk, "Send anyone to jail, then?"

Sasha smiled slightly as she watched Tony scoop an unusually large amount of jalapeños onto his nacho, throwing the whole thing into his mouth without wincing once.

"Not today. Hopefully next week."

He dusted his hands off with a napkin and washed down the nachos with some beer, waving over to Robbie behind the bar to bring two more drinks across to them, to which the younger man quickly got to pouring the pints with a delighted grin.

"What do you do for fun, Coulson? Like on a weekend?"

"I erm," Sasha cleared her throat, "I just catch up on work on the weekends, watch a movie, take a walk."

"You work all the time yet you still have to catch up on a Saturday? Do you know how un-fun that is?"

Sasha raised an eyebrow, "You don't get to be able to drive a Lamborghini by having fun."

"I did."

Rolling her eyes, Sasha munched on the last of her half of the nachos before admitting defeat, folding her arms at her chest.

"Alright," she said after she'd finished chewing, "I'll admit it, I'm a workaholic. I don't do anything fun, not anymore, anyway."

Tony tilted his head as he looked at her, noticing her looking past his face again at the flat screen television behind him that was showing the Red Sox game.

He knew there was more depth to the words she spoke, realising now that while it seemed like Phil Coulson had a life filled with family and friends, it had actually been quite the opposite. The dynamic between him and Sasha was special, Tony could sense that, but he knew that now she was alone, Sasha was at risk of losing herself entirely.

Since Phil's untimely death, Tony had often found himself regretting both things he had and hadn't said to his colleague. He wished he'd sometimes been kinder and sometimes been harsher, perhaps things would've turned out differently if he had.

Although Tony knew he wasn't to blame for Agent Coulson's death, there was still a weight in his conscience that held some blame over his head, and he'd be damned if he didn't honour his friend by stepping up and helping his sister, knowing that was exactly what Phil would've wanted.

"Wrong." Tony said, "Party at my place tomorrow night."

"What?" Sasha said, looking back at Tony once the baseball went to a commercial break.

Tony groaned, "Am I really that dull? I said you're coming to my party tomorrow night. Phil would be turning in his grave if he knew how boring his sister was, I won't stand for it."

"I am not boring. How many boring people do you know that drive a Lamborghini?"

Tony narrowed his eyes at Sasha across the table, clenching his jaw to stop him from smirking as she sat with a patronising stare on her face.

"One. You." He grinned as she rolled her eyes again, thanking Robbie as he placed down two fresh beers, "Come on. I think it'll be nice for you to meet some more of your brother's friends. There's also plenty of single guys that-"

"Tony," Sasha interrupted him with a firm glare, "I'm not interested in having you play Cupid."

"Why not? Saving yourself for lover boy over there?"

Sick of seeing his annoyingly dazzling smirk, Sasha threw a peanut at Tony, making him drop his jaw in shock.

"I'm going to allow that, just this once." He said, pointing a finger at her.

Their conversation flowed frighteningly easily for the next few hours. Sasha wasn't sure she'd ever laughed or rolled her eyes so much in one evening, finding herself shaking her head in disbelief at ninety-percent of the self-absorbed comments Tony made, though laughing at the way he laced them with a satire tone.

Tony liked Sasha. He liked the way she wasn't immune to harmless insults and wasted no time in firing some back, some of them actually managing to make him crack a smile, too.

It baffled him that she didn't have a group of friends that she spent Saturday nights drinking away a week's worth of hard work with in clubs uptown or a rich boyfriend that owned half of New York's hotel chain. He saw a lot of himself in her, passion and determination when it came to work, which half answered his question about her scarce social life.

Three beers later and once the baseball game had ended, Tony and Sasha said Goodnight to Robbie and headed out onto the street. The evening was mild and dry, the scent of rainfall on the sidewalks thickened the air as they walked side by side.

"Fancy," Tony said, looking up at the skyscraper Sasha called home with his hands in his pockets, craning his neck as he gazed at the building disappearing into the clouds above them.

"It's not bad," Sasha said, "It's not quite your home though, is it?"

Tony smirked, glancing over his shoulder and seeing the Stark Tower illuminated over the rest of New York City.

"Don't flatter me, my ego doesn't need it."

"You really are insufferable, do you know that?" Sasha said, grinning at him as the doorman pulled open the heavy glass door to the lobby of her apartment building.

"You invited me out, Coulson, remember that. I'll text you the address for the party, or just tell your cab driver to take you to the big building with my name on it."

Sasha laughed as Tony began walking down the street, only getting five paces away before turning on his heels and pointing a finger at her, calling out as strangers walked past him, some doing double-takes as they realised who was shouting on the sidewalk at eleven-thirty in the evening.

"And by the way, don't be late. It's only fashionable when I do it!"

an;;
another little update!! hope you enjoyed, things will pick up soon :)