A Second [Clint Barton x Reader]

We Can't Change the Past... Yet

Part 14
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Author Note: Merry Christmas everyone! My gift to you is an update. I hope you guys enjoy this new chapter <3
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You and Clint entered the lab together, and you had to stop in your tracks when you saw all of what Tony had managed to build. Last you'd seen the time machine, it was a mess of loose panels, parts and wires. Now it was completely put together and took up a good portion of what once was a training room for flying drills. Of course it shouldn't have surprised you that Tony had managed to get a bunch of work done on a machine over night. He had a history for that.

Pretty much everyone had gather in the room, minus Thor. You figured he'd probably be up some time after noon.
Which was probably for the best anyway since he liked to sneak in bottles of whiskey wherever he went, and Tony seemed very protective over his machine at the moment. The second Tony spotted Clint with the mug, he had stopped him.

"Ah-Ah! Kabob master chef, I swear unless there is only air in that mug, you need to dispose of it." He says the second he laid eyes on his coffee thermos.

"It's not a mug though." Clint replies, wiggling the cup a little in reference to it. "Its a coffee thermos." Tony rolled his eyes. He hadn't missed Clint's smartass humor. "Whatever. Not in my lab and not around my time machine."

"Oh, come on Tony." You hum, seeing that he was already starting to get stressed. Staying up all time to build a time machine probably did that to you. "It's a no spill thermos. It'll be fine. Just let him have his coffee. Besides, you really want to try and take it from him?" You point out. Clint just raised his brow at Tony when you said that, almost like he was challenging the man to even try.

Tony hesitated a moment, looking between the both of you before just sighing heavily and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Fine. But if you so much as spill the tiniest drop, it's going in the trash. I'm serious." He threatens, shaking his head as he walked away from the two of you.

Clint chuckles next to you a little bit and shakes his head, lifting the cup to his lip. "Just like old times." He mumbles before taking a sip and heading further into the room. It made you smile softly as you thought about the old days. About Clint pretty much doing everything he could to stress Tony out. And all the playful banter that the two of them used to share.

You followed Clint to the group of Avengers gathered around the time machine's control console. You stood by Natasha and Steve, and they moved slightly so that you could have a better look. Clint let you stand in front of him, both because you were shorter and probably so that Tony wouldn't stare him down for being too close with his coffee.

"Great, is everyone here now?" Bruce asked, looking around at everyone. "Cause I wanted to go over kind of how this thing works, what buttons not to press and which ones to press for different emergencies. We got a lot of tests to run before we send someone through it, and everyone will need to get fitted for a special suit to use for when we go Quantium." He starts, and you wondered if he stayed up all night to help Tony build it. He looked as though he had some dark circles under his eyes.

Steve was looking around the group and frowned a little bit. "Uh, Thor is not here. I think he is the only one missing." He points out, though Bruce just kind of shrugs and waves him off.

"That's fine. There probably isn't much he could help with at the moment anyway. He just.. yeah." Bruce shrugs again, not wanting to state the obvious that Thor in his current state would not be the best around delicate machinery. "So anyway, the way this machine works is that..."

You wanted to say that you understood the science behind the machine and the whole time travel thing, or that you even cared about how the machine worked, but you really didn't. As long as Bruce and Tony seemed pretty set on how it worked, all you needed to know was how to do your part of the mission. Plus, it was still hard to focus with Clint being around the tower. And who could blame you? You haven't seen him for 3 years and now he was around again. It was all your mind wanted to focus on now. And with him standing right behind you, so close, it made it even harder to listen to Bruce talk science.