"...One man can accomplish anything, when he realizes he's a part of something bigger. Get a team of people who share that conviction, you can change the world."

Nick Fury ended the day's training with his later to be famous "one man" speech, and sent the boys Coulson and Garret to the parring gym with homework. Coulson had listened staring bright eyed at Fury, and Garret was busy playing the newly learned fighting techniques in his mind. Coulson had to snap Garret out of his day dreaming to take him to the gym, and John explained to Phil the moves he was going to do and how. As they were discussing technique, they became momentarily oblivious to their surroundings, and had to quickly split apart to allow a couple of NATs carrying one very wounded agent between them. Coulson and Garret stared at the passing group and then at each other, and hurried their pace to the gym.

In the gym, there were quite a few people already parring on all the mats, so Coulson and Garret had to wait on the bench. They watched as Jasper Sitwell lost his match to a female agent with pink hair, and the both walked over to the bench to refresh. Felix Blake had joined and was helping Garret tease Sitwell, but this time it was Coulson lost in his own world. He was glued to the one mat in all the gym that only had one person on it. A woman of Asian descent was hard at work by herself with a dummy, but while every other sparring person's moves and techniques were brash and quick, hers were concentrated, slow, peaceful but deadly.

Maria Hill came up next to Coulson and followed his line of sight to the other woman.

"And you thought I was impressive? Meet Melinda May, top of her class in aeronautics*, multi-black belt martial artist, aand champion ice skater," Hill introduced May as she stood next to the bench with her hands crossed.

"I'll take a shot and say she sent the guy out limping and toothless, you know the one we saw on our way in." Garret shook his head, impressed by Melinda May. Hill gave him an affirming nod.

"Wow! Ice skater huh? Whatever made her into a martial artist?" Coulson asked Hill.

"I heard the ice was too hard," a new female voice joined in as the lady with the pink hair finally spoke.

"Victoria Hand," she introduced herself, getting a round of introductions from everyone, and she was fascinated by Phil.

"You're Phil Coulson? Fury's NAT."

"Why, you don't like him?"

"Don't like him, I wanted him as my S.O.! I have always been the top logistician and strategist. I've been the captain of all of my scholastic bowls in college and high school. And I didn't get Fury," Hand slumped on the bench next to Sitwell.

"Maybe it's your criticism of his approaches, and your ideologies didn't match with his," Garrett reminded her of her widely known criticism of Fury and offered Coulson a hand as he stood up to go on the mats. Coulson took it and pulled himself up just as Hand let out a scoff.

"But what makes you so special?"

"He's the underdog," they all turned and stood up as Melinda May walked up behind them, her mat rolled under her arm.

"Don't ever underestimate the underdog, Hand. Who knows, maybe he could turn into a Captain America one day." Melinda smiled at Phil and walked out the gym, leaving Phil starstruck in her wake. She hadn't even seen him at work, and already she thought he'd be great, great enough to compare him to Captain America.

Garret stopped on his way to the mat and stared at the door and back at Coulson, then slapped his partner on the back and broke him out of his trance.

"Come on, lover boy. If I don't have a shot with her, you're way below the league. Move, lets go on the mat. Beat me, and you May have a chance with her."

Coulson suppressed a blush and play punched at his partner as they finally got their shot on the mat.

 ___________________

After dinner, Garret had dragged Coulson back to the gym, and the two were the only person in the gym at night, practicing their fighting. They had set up an area of the big room as a war zone, using mats and gym tools as obstacles and blindspots, and staging the dummies as the opponent. They made a map of their scenario together, but were at odds at how to play it out. While Garret wanted to go out fighting, Coulson wanted to make a strategy and gave the dummies extra characterization that would be in a real situation. As the two argued, the lights turned back on and Fury ordered them to stand at attention. He commended their battlefield and map, also pointing out the goods and the bad of each of their tactics. While he criticized them both, Fury was much harder on Garret, which the NAT noticed. Fury lead them back to their dorm and the two bickered behind him.

"You just gotta be teacher's pet, don't you?" Garret teased.

"Careful, this teacher's pet can put you in a deathlock." Coulson defended himself.

Fury went away as they neared the dorm building, and while Garret walked on up with the term stuck in his head, Coulson had stopped at the sliding doors, watching as Melinda May was doing yoga beneath a big tree. Seeing that his partner had gone back and the coast was clear, he stepped through the doors.

With his hands behind his back, Coulson walked up to where May was doing her tai chi, and leaned his back against the tree.

"Hi there, agent May. I'm Phil Coulson, from the gym earlier today? Captain America?"

May stayed silent as she stared at him through her yoga.

"Anyway, I appreciated you standing up for me against Hand today. You don't understand how much I really appreciate you calling me Captain America. I want to thank you, so I'd like it for you to join me for dinner tomorrow night. We're allowed off campus tomorrow and there's a DJ's a few blocks down. I'd love to take you there, well I'll be there whether you would like to come or not, it's my favorite place after all, but I'd rather like to have you accept my invitation."

Coulson gave her an awkward invitation for dinner, and soon realized she hadn't said a word. He pushed off from the tree and straightened up his iron pressed tie.

"I'm sorry, I think I may be bothering you. I'll leave you to think about my invite for dinner tomorrow. Good night."

Coulson mentally kicked himself for bumbling as he walked back, and then actually punched the air once he was inside. May finally stopped and smiled at the naive Coulson, then made a note to keep an open schedule for the next night.