Across || Tim Drake + Avengers Crossover

Chapter 18

Tim matched his fingertips together as he leant forwards with his elbows on the table. He closed his eyes momentarily before opening them again.

The Avengers were still in front of him, most of them with their arms crossed. Tim's eyes flickered to the right. Peter stood in the corner, shrinking in on himself as if he was trying to disappear. Tim could see him fidgeting with his gloves and felt a pang of guilt for roping him into this.

Taking a deep breath, Tim's eyes refocused on the cause of the tension in the room; his machine.

It lay there, a hunk of carefully programmed metal parts, wires sticking out of odd places like a fallen tree after a lightning storm. The cover piece had been placed nearby and was glittering majestically in the golden afternoon sun.

Tim pursed his lips and took another intake of breath. Well this was going to be exciting to explain.

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"Yeah and Tim was helping me with some of the programing, but I think it's actually going pretty well!" Peter explained animatedly to Tony who amusedly looked at the boy and nodded. He shot a sharp look at Tim, but didn't comment in favor of following along with what Peter was saying.

"Oh! You're going to love this."

"Hm?"

Peter hopped over to the left side of the room where all the calculations were. He shifted over some of the papers on the desk, trying to find the specific one he was looking for. Some of the papers fluttered down to the ground in his wake and Tony picked them up, placing them on the bench, eyes focusing on something on the desk.

Seeing him pause in his movements, Tim sat up straighter from the stool he was sitting on. Did he notice something? There was no way that Tony had figured it out, not when Tim had uploaded all his working onto his wrist computer and hidden the contraption itself in the drawer on the opposite side of the-

Wait a moment.

"Aha!" Peter raised the paper up in the air before, heading over to Tony. "Okay so you're not gonna guess how I... figured... this out." Peter trailed off as he raised his head to see Tony inspecting Tim's machine in his hand. Peter's eyes immediately flicked to Tim who sat frozen in his seat.

Tim could feel the cold sweat running down his back and watched Tony in horrified silence, knowing that his face was turning as white as the walls.

Tony looked up at Peter and at the sheet of paper in his hand. He set the contraption down. "Mm? What's that?"

"Ah! Yeah, um this is," Visible relief could be seen on Peter's face as he held up the paper again, showing Tony. "Erm something I've been working on for a while actually." He began to explain his project in further detail, slowly forgetting the previous ordeal and getting gradually more engrossed in the conversation. Tony's eyes briefly flicked to the contraption again and Tim stiffened.

Hopefully he wouldn't question it... however unlikely that was.

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"So you gonna tell me about the little thermos-looking thing?"

Peter spat out the water he was drinking. He choked a little, coughing. "Wh-what?" Tim pretended to look busy, avoiding Peter's panicked look, knowing perfectly well that it wasn't going to help anyone.

They were currently in the lounge area. They'd persuaded Tony to leave the lab with them through the excuse of needing a drink at that instant. It was honestly a weak excuse and Tim honestly couldn't see how Tony wasn't suspicious of them by this point.

"Well, um... it's something er...it-it's an idea I had ages ago. Like a long long time back. And I um, well, you know, uh made it. What I'm trying to say is that it's not that important." Tim cringed as Peter stuttered on. It was almost physically painful to listen to.

Tony tilted his head. "Can I take a look at it?"

"No!'

"Hm? Why not?"

"It's um... complicated?" Peter fidgeted, not able to meet Tony's eyes. Tony looked at him suspiciously, but let it go.

"Fine,"

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Needless to say, before they went out on patrol that night, Tim had made an effort to make it absolutely certain that Tony wouldn't meddle with his machine. He knew that the man was curious and he also knew that Tony was just the type of guy who didn't give up easily when it came to something that interested him, particularly machines.

Tim had carefully relocated the machine to his room, climbing up to the vent and placing it deep enough so that it couldn't be spotted from the room, but not too far from his room. He'd crawled back out, satisfied with the hiding spot. Tony most likely wouldn't think to go to his room, nevertheless inside the vent.

But then why was he sitting here with the machine laid out in front of him, obviously found out?

Tim stared down at his gloved hands in semi disbelief. Had he missed something? It was just so unlikely that Tony would- Ah. Clint. Tim had forgotten to consider the other Avengers when he'd hid the machine, too focused on getting it out of reach from Tony than other potential threats.

Clint had probably come across it while travelling through the vents. Tim really had no idea why it was a habit of his, but decided not to pry. Honestly, with all the strange things Dick did, he'd assume that it was just a circus thing.

Oh yeah, his brothers. That was another problem yet to be addressed. Tim could feel a headache forming just thinking about all the problems he was having.

"We're still waiting for an explanation here." Tony tapped his foot on the ground impatiently.

Tim's brain sped up, trying to find an excuse. He knew deep down inside that this was it. Despite the way he normally behaved, Tony was a smart man and was very likely to have already examined the machine before Tim had returned from patrol. He probably knew that it was tech far beyond the capabilities of this world.

Tim sighed.

"Okay, so it's mine not Peter's. I just wanted to muck around a little. Obviously I was keeping it away from Tony because he hates me doing anything technology related without supervision, which I find really unfair by the way."

Tony looked at Tim sternly.

"I don't know what you mean by 'mucking around' because the coding and the building doesn't look anything remotely like something anyone would do for fun."

"Look, okay I'll explain what it is, but let me do it after my fight with Peter tomorrow. You can ask me whatever you want, but I'll only answer it tomorrow."

Tim was stalling for time. Perhaps he could think of something that wouldn't give him away... though he really couldn't see how he could escape the truth this time.

Tony raised an eyebrow. "And why would we let you do that?"