Mine Would Be Him (Clint Barton x reader x Everett Ross)

Chapter 5

Work somehow managed to always be the same, yet always different. It was a consistent formula. The team would browse through a stack of file folders containing various assignments, put them in order based on priority, and then start working from the top down. Some of the missions kept you close to home, others sent you to the far side of the world. Wherever you went, whether it was a frozen wasteland or one of the finest cities on earth, Clint Barton was forever at your side. The pair of you handled all the field work, while Coulson and Ross were responsible for the more administrative side of things. Your team performed together like a well-oiled machine and it took no time at all for you to build quite the reputation at SHIELD.

Your off time was spent trying to keep your promise to your mother about getting a college degree. Working a full-time job that required you to be away sometimes weeks at a time made it extremely difficult to keep that promise, however. Your boys, Everett especially, dedicated countless hours to helping you study and complete your assignments. You lost track of the number of times you'd come back from a mission to find that, on top of everything else he had to do to make sure everything ran smoothly, he had somehow managed to write all of your papers.

The years passed in this way until it was the very end of your last semester. All you had to do was get through one more final and you would be done forever. Clint and Everett had been drilling material into you for the past five hours until Clint finally passed out on the couch. Of course, that wasn't enough to make Everett relent in his torture of you.

"Please?" you begged him. "Please let me stop. I can't do this anymore!"

"Let's just cover a little bit more. I'm not sure you have a firm enough grasp on those last few chapters."

"I don't care about those chapters. I don't care about this test. I'm done with it, Ev. Done. It is what it is at this point," you said, jumping up and hurrying off to your room. If you weren't so mentally drained, you would have had sense enough to lock the door behind you.

"You have one more test until you are a college graduate. I'm not going to let you mess it all up now," he said, following you into your room and watching you crawl into bed.

"Fine, you have until I fall asleep, and that's it," you said, pulling the covers back as an unspoken invitation for him to join you.

You watched as he hesitated a moment before getting in the bed with you. He was stiff and rather awkward about the whole process, and you were pretty sure he turned a slight shade of pink as he settled in.

"Does this make you uncomfortable, Ev?" you asked, nestling up close to him.

He cleared his throat before replying with, "No, not if it doesn't bother you. Does it bother you?"

"Honestly, I've gotten so used to sleeping with Clint when we're gone that I hate being in here by myself now."

You weren't sure if it was your imagination or not, but you would have sworn you felt his body tense.

"You and Clint sleep together on missions?"

"We like using the 'happy honeymooning couple' cover when we are trying to be inconspicuous. I don't know of many honeymooners who get separate hotel rooms, and they only ever have one bed, for obvious reasons."

"Oh."

You didn't know why, but you felt an intense need to lay out the whole truth for him.

"Nothing has ever happened, Ev. Clint and I love each other, but not like that. What we have is too important to both of us to chance messing it up by getting sex and romance involved. That's not always a sure thing, and we need to always be sure about each other." Then you added with a laugh, "So you don't have to worry about your two operatives having a lovers' quarrel in the field and messing everything up if that's what's bothering you."

"Yeah, that's me," he said, staring at the wall opposite you. "Everyone knows I only care about work." After a few quiet moments, he turned to you and said, "You need to be well-rested for tomorrow. You better go to sleep."

As he got up to leave, you lazily grabbed his arm and mumbled, "Don't go. Stay," before drifting off to sleep beside him.

————————————————————

You awoke to find Clint looking down at you smiling his "cat that ate the canary" grin.

"Did you two sleep well last night?" He asked. "You obviously must have been exhausted from something or other, because you overslept. If you don't hurry up, you're going to miss that test."

"Oh my god, what time is it?" You yelled, scrambling out the bed while checking the clock on the night stand. "I'm never going to make it in time!"

You quickly grabbed the first clothes you could find and ran into the bathroom to throw them on.

"Don't worry, baby," Clint said from his spot in the bedroom. "I'll get you there. You know how I drive. I'll meet you in the car."

Most of the car ride was spent with you fussing at Clint to change lanes and drive faster and not get you killed, all of which you wanted him to manage to do at the same time.

He finally interrupted your back seat driving to ask "So what happened after I fell asleep last night? I wake up to find you and Everett all snuggled up together. It was rather adorable."

"It was not adorable. Everett came in there to harass me into studying some more. We ended up talking instead. We fell asleep. End of story."

"Then why do you sound defensive about it?"

"I do not sound defensive about it. It is no different than when you and I bunk together, which is what he and I were talking about last night if you must know."

"You told him about that?"

"Why? Was I not supposed to?"

"I wouldn't say that. It's just...well, never mind."

"No, you've started now. You better finish."

"I don't know how to put it exactly. I just get the feeling he doesn't like how close we've become the past few years. I mean, we've always been close, but we're partners now, and all of SHIELD knows it. I think he just wants more attention from you is all. He feels like a third wheel."

As he finished his sentence, he stopped the car at the sidewalk outside your testing building. Before you opened the door, you leaned over and gave him a quick squeeze.

"Once I ace this test, we will all go out and have a good time together. Everything will get better after this. I know it."