Natasha Romanoff woke the feeling that she dissolved bit by bit from her sleep. She promptly drove up and tried to suppress the images from hers. The images of her past, mixed with the moment when Thanos had put his terrible plan into action. He wiped out half of all living creatures with a gesture of his hand and irrevocably crushed their friends, their teammates, their trust, to dust.
Slowly the young woman rose from her bed, grabbed her dressing gown and left the room and the demons who had hidden in it without hesitation. She wrapped the silk fabric of the garment around her body and walked through the dark hallway of the tower. The Avengers had made it their home again, but still they felt less like a family. Much more they had become strangers since the people they cared about disappeared. So Natasha's only trusted partner remained her long-time team partner Clint Barton.
She opened the door to the Stark Tower runway and stepped out, hoping the fresh air would clear her head.
As she glanced across the surface, however, she realized she wasn't the only one who seemed to have come here in that hope.
Clint Barton sat at the edge of the platform looking down at the lights of New York. He didn't seem to have noticed the red-haired woman entering. For this reason she decided not to approach the man and just slowly approached him instead. He seemed so peaceful that the thought of destroying this peace didn't feel right. But at that moment she needed him by her side, was selfish herself. He would surely be able to forgive her this short selfish moment.
Arriving at his place, she gently put one hand on his shoulder. Instead of frightening, he raised his head and scrutinized her face for a few seconds. "Hey," she greeted him with a thin voice and then dropped next to him: "Can't you sleep either? Silently he shook his head. There was something on his facial expression that made her listen, a sadness she hadn't seen in him for a long time. Finally, ... yes, at last after he was under Loki's control and in the wake of whose self was completely doubted.
"What's the matter, Clint?" she sounded surprisingly worried. Her gaze became soft and the young woman moved a little closer to him to show him that she was there for him, no matter what depressed him. After all, he had done the same for her countless times and her heart told her it was right.
It took a few seconds, but then he opened his mouth and began to speak slowly: "I keep seeing these shreds of memories flash up in my inner eye. Snippets from the time when I was controlled by Loki." She swallowed. Actually, she thought he had chopped it off, accepted her words and believed that nobody blamed him. But the dicey situation she was in at the time seemed to tear open old wounds in all of them, the survivors.
"And what about you", he gently reached for her hand and they instinctively laid her head on his shoulder: "What keeps you awake at night? At the thought of her own nightmares, her heart immediately began to beat faster, but she didn't hesitate a second with her answer. Her trust in him was endless and the, otherwise so cool, woman felt the urge to talk to someone about her feelings. And if not with Clint, then with whom?