A/N: So I'm not entirely sure if this fic is meant to be a chapter fic or a oneshot so I'm just going to write and see where it goes. The inspiration for this came to me the other day after finding out one of my friends died. This is my way of dealing with his death and in a way, the story is sort of dedicated to him. On that happy note, on with the show!
Disclaimer: I own nothing and the Avengers is most certainly not mine. I am but a poor college student with nothing but a computer and her dreams.
Warning: This is a slash fic so if you don't like Clint/Phil being together than don't read it. There may or may not be other couples in this, I haven't really planned anything.
Wish
It was all over; the fighting, the war, everything. In a way, Clint was kind of sorry for that. The battle with the Chitauri had ended in a victory for the good guys, of course. That's the way it always happened, even if it hadn't seemed like it was going to go that way for a while.
Clint had to admit that even he was a bit worried when Stark was falling out of the sky. He was more worried when Stark didn't move to slow himself down. Thank God for the Hulk and his lifesaving abilities. Clint thought it was ironic that even when Bruce was a giant green-rage monster he was still a doctor. He did save Tony's life after all.
Not only were the Chitauri defeated but Loki was safely in the custody of Thor and headed back to wherever the hell Asgard was. Somewhere in space Clint guessed, though Thor said it was a different dimension.
Whatever, all Clint knew was that it was all over and he was now totally alone.
When Clint had woken up after his "cognitive recalibration", he had known something was up. The way Natasha had looked at him, the way that her small smile didn't reach her eyes even around him, he knew that something more than having a crazy god with an alien army on the loose was wrong.
However, he hadn't expected the news that she broke to them in the quiet of his recovery room. Phil was dead. Phil was dead all because of him. Well, not technically him, Loki was the one that did the stabbing, but because Clint had helped lead the attack on the hovercarrier, Phil was compromised.
If that wasn't enough, Clint had to hold Natasha as she brokenly sobbed into his arms.
Clint could understand how she felt. Aside from each other all they had had was Coulson. That was it. And now he was gone. A part of the two super assassins was gone and it was never coming back.
And now that the war was over and all the Avengers had gone their separate ways, leaving Clint to truly think about how Phil was really gone.
After the debriefing it had really hit Clint hard. There was no one to tell him to fill out paper work and no one to force him to go down to medical.
Most of all, Clint couldn't go to the agent's office and crash on his couch, still dirty from his latest mission and smile as the agent would give him the look that said 'you know you should be at medical and getting a shower and then doing your own paperwork' before smiling and shaking his head and going back to his own paperwork.
Clint would never have that again. And what's worse, he never got a chance to tell Phil how he felt. How he really felt. None of the sarcastic comments and lies from before. He knew Phil had never really believed those anyway.
Phil knew Clint inside and out in a way that no one, not even Natasha did, and that was scary. Natasha and Clint had been through a lot. Clint had saved Natasha, their pasts were more similar than either of them would like to admit.
And in spite of all that Clint still felt closer to Phil than to Natasha. Now that was scary.
And now Phil was gone.
After the debriefing, Clint returned to his cold S.H.I.E.L.D. barracks and collapsed onto his bunk. He had heard that Stark was planning on turning the top floors of Stark Tower into rooms for all of the Avengers but until then, Clint was living in his barracks. Alone.
Clint had just started to fall asleep when he heard a noise. His first instinct was to reach for his bow, feeling the familiar weapon in his grasp. He leapt into his stance just in time to hear a familiar booming voice.
"Man of Arrows! Do not be frightened! It is I, Thor, son of Odin!" Clint relaxed slightly before he noticed the other shape standing next to the thunder god. He immediately tensed up as he realized who it was.
He knew that underneath the muzzle, Loki was smirking at him. Thor smiled broadly at Clint, "I have returned with my brother. He is under order from father to repent for his actions. As you may be aware, my brother possesses powerful magic from his heritage as a Jӧtunn" Clint liked that Thor just assumed he knew what that was.
"Because of his magic, father has commanded that I return to Midguard and visit those personally harmed by my brother's foolishness. I sense that that would be you man of Arrows!"
Thor used the handle of Mjolnir to thrust Loki forward towards Clint which earned the smaller god an arrow pointed in his face. Thor smiled "Do not fear man of Arrows! Loki is to grant you what you mortals call a wish!"
Clint frowned in confusion at this. He did, however, lower his bow and relax his stance a little bit. "What exactly do you mean a "wish"?"
The thunder god laughed. "Anything that you would like man of Arrows! But I must caution you man of Arrows, my brother's powers are great but they are still limited."
Clint knew this had been coming but he was still curious if the wish that he had had in mind would work.
"What exactly do you mean by "limited"? How limited?"
Thor looked down as if he knew what the archer had been thinking of. The god was really smarter than anyone gave him credit for. "My brother is not able to bring anyone back from the dead. I am sorry man of Arrows." Clint nodded, knowing that that would be the case. Still he wasn't able to stop the slight pang in his chest as he realized that he would never see Phil again.
Thor smiled and clapped the archer on the back. "But do not worry man of Arrows! There are still many other things that you could wish to have!"
Clint thought about it. The one thing that he wanted he couldn't have…unless…"Thor! Can he turn back time?"
The god smiled "Yes man of Arrows! That is a simple task for one such as my brother! Is that your wish? Then it shall be done! But I must ask, how far back would you like time to be turned?"
Clint thought about it. "One month. I want time turned back one month." He figured that that should give him enough time.
Thor nodded and poked Loki with Mjolnir again, signaling his brother that the wish was made.
Before Loki started the spell though, Thor turned a serious and grave look on the archer. "Man of Arrows, you must remember the consequences your wish may bring. You will still have all of the knowledge that you have gained in a month but you must be very careful. There are certain things that you can do that will change life as you know it. No one but you will know what is going to occur man of Arrows, so you must be careful."
With that warning, Thor forced his brother to begin the spell. The room went darker than it had been before being lit by an unnatural green light. That was the last thing that Clint remembered before he blacked out.
When he came to, it was morning and his head hurt. 'Shit' he thought as he crawled into his bed. 'I wonder if it worked? I wonder if…' The archer's thoughts were interrupted by a soft sigh from the door.
"Barton? You're still asleep? You know that we have a mission departing at 0900 and it is currently 0800. You never fail to surprise me. Now get yourself together and get to the hanger. Don't be late. And yes, I'll bring you a coffee."
The other man gave the archer a stern look that didn't quite reach the soft smile in his eyes. All Clint could do was stare at the agent, his mouth stuck open in a gape.
His wish had worked. Time had turned back and Coulson was alive once again. He had tricked the gods and managed to find a way to get around the 'no bringing people back from the dead thing'. He had his second chance! And Clint swore to himself that he would not screw this up.
In the time it took him to get his ass out of bed, dressed, and ready with his bow and quiver of arrows, he had one minute left to get to the hanger. He sprinted faster than he had in a while and managed to make it to the hanger right at 0900 on the dot. He was good.
He noticed Coulson sigh. Clint just shrugged and fixed him with his best silly lopsided grin. The other man just shook his head and walked over to the archer.
"Since I'm guessing you also didn't bother to eat, in addition to the coffee that I promised you, I also brought you this." The agent held up a donut and Clint felt his heart leap a little. Phil cared about him enough to bring him breakfast.
"Thanks Ph…Coulson." Clint said smiling as he took the donut and the much needed coffee.
The agent pretended not to notice the slight slip-up as they loaded on to the plane, ready to head for Karachi, Pakistan.
As soon as they settled into their seats Clint glanced over at Phil. He noticed the man had a slightly tighter grip on the arms of the chair. It was not a well-known fact that Phil was afraid of flying but Clint knew. Clint knew the man better than anyone. They knew what made the other tick. Phil even knew Clint's past.
"Hey Phil?" They were alone now, well sort of, so Clint could address the other agent with that kind of familiarity.
The other man glanced at the archer with a questioning look. "Where are we going?" Phil shook his head. "Did you listen at all when we were informed of this mission Clint?" Clint grinned sheepishly. "Of course you didn't." Clint saw that fond look in the agent's eyes again, the same one that he had seen that morning. He knew that that was all that he would get out of the stoic agent in this public of a setting.
Phil took out the dossier for the mission that contained their location and the name and pictures of Clint's targets. Ah Karachi, Clint remembered Karachi. Well, he remembered how it went the first time around.
Clint sort of half listened to Phil as he rambled on about the mission, agent mode having taken over. Instead, Clint watched the man as he went through the case with him.
After they were done, Clint waved the dossier away, assuring Phil that he knew what he was doing and why didn't the agent trust him. That just earned him another look before the archer turned to the window and went to "sleep".
Sooner than Clint thought possible, Phil was lightly nudging his shoulder letting Clint know that they had arrived.
A/N: So this is for sure becoming a chapter fic. I already have a lot more written and it just keeps coming! I'll for sure try to update once a day. This is an epic story now and I would love for some feedback! Thank you and hope you like it.