AN: Tumblr prompt: Hi sorry for bothering you again but can we have a sequel to the Danny mind control one pretty please? It was amazing!

Drabble 100-Same Old part 2

"Hey, man."

Danny didn't turn away from the rising sun. It had been two weeks since the Loki incident and nothing felt right anymore. The only kind of peace he's been able to find it the watching the sun rise. The warmth of the rays hitting his face gave him a sort of hope for the next day, knowing that the beginning of tomorrow would be just as beautiful as the one today. Clint walked up to him, not looking at him but instead admiring the skies as well, in a peaceful sort of silence.

"Hey," Danny replied after a couple of moments.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don;t want to," Clint said, "But if you do I'm all ears. Or hands, depending on if I can ever remember where the fuck I put my hearing aids."

Danny chuckled at that. That was one thing he really liked about Clint. He was really, really down to earth. He allowed himself to crack jokes and make mistakes. He wasn't some big legend or mythical god. He was human, and he was here in the moment with Danny. Appreciating the small things, because people like Clint and Danny knew that there was a chance it wouldn't be there tomorrow.

"Thanks, Clint. That means a lot to me," he replied. It was a little windy, what with being up so high and all, but it didn't bother Danny, and Clint seemed pretty content as well. He moved his hair out of his eyes and sighed. He didn't want this moment to end. It was the most peace he's had since Loki. He knew the second he walked back inside that bottomless, helpless feeling in his gut would come back. He knew the others were starting to get worried. He knew they saw the bags under his eyes, and how they looked at his stomach warily because he hadn't been eating as much, either. He didn't want to make them worry, but he just couldn't quite bring himself to take care of himself. Not yet, anyway.

"It was like...The thing they never tell you about being brainwashed...The very worst part...Is that you're still in there. Some small piece of you is awake...Watching. Like being a passenger in your own body. You struggle to break free but...You lose...Over and over again, you lose...And it makes whatever you're forced to do that much worse. I know how I hurt my friends, and I saw the look in their eyes and I can't ever unsee that. I have to live with that all the way into my fucking afterlife. It makes me feel helpless all over again, knowing that I can't make whatever I did better."

"Yeah, but they'll heal. They know who to blame, kid, and it isn't you," Clint replied. Danny had thought he couldn't hear. Clint must have been reading his lips, then. "I mean, nobody blamed me for blowing up the fucking helicarrier when the Avengers first formed. The only person I knew was Nat, and nobody else, but they all trusted me to have their backs. They trust you to have theirs, and I know for a fact that they have yours, too."

"Then why won't the feeling in my gut go away?"

This time Danny turned to Clint. There was a sort of raw desperation in his icy eyes. He was on the brink of emotionally collapsing, Clint could tell. His jaw was set and his throat bobbed, and he knew, Clint knew, that if Danny spoke one more word he was gonna break down. But that's okay though, because that just means Danny's been strong for too long. He needed to let the kid know it was okay to be vulnerable with people you trust.

"Because you still feel guilty for something you had no control over," Clint replied. "Because in your head, even though you didn't do it, you still did." Danny was crying now. The first tears raced down his face, and after that his eyes were waterfalls. Before he could protest, before Clint could question his own actions, he grabbed Danny by the front of his shirt and pulled him into a tight hug.

They stayed like that until the sun had long risen. Danny cried into his shirt, and Clint rubbed circles on his back, whispering soothing words of comfort as he did so. Danny would be okay, Clint was sure of it. Danny just needed to believe that, too. And if it took some time to get that through his stubborn skull, well, then so be it.

Clint would be there for him every step of the way.