Tony jerks awake to a scream. He thought it might've been his imagination, but he hears it again. He assumes it's Clint because it's not the first he's heard Clint suffer at night.. Each time before Tony could get there, he was woken up. Plus, it's probably coming from the common room. Which is where Clint sleeps a lot even though he received a perfectly good bedroom. Tony hops out of bed and walks towards Clint's couch quietly, near the end of the hallway.
Tony puts his ear up to the door and hears thrashing underneath the bedcovers. Nightmare, his brain supplies him. He's had enough of his own to know.
The door opens with a creak and Tony peeks inside. Clint is on the pullout couch in the center of the room, sheets tangled around him, restraining him. Clint shouts once again and Tony runs over.
"Clint! Clint wake up! It's just a nightmare." Clint jerks to the side again and a tear rolls down his cheek. "No! Natasha!' Clint yells. He tries to throw a punch but his comforter restricts him. Tony acts quickly and rolls Clint over so the comforter releases him. The movement wakes Clint up, but that also makes it worse.
His breathing picks up and his eyes lose focus. "Shit." Tony recognizes the signs of a panic attack anywhere.
"Clint, calm down. You need to listen to me." The harsh breathing doesn't calm at all. Clint stops breathing between each breath due to panic, and each breath is getting more desperate than the last. "Clint!" Tony picks up the fisted hand and places it on Tony's chest. "Match your breathing to mine." He says calmly but sternly. Tony starts to exaggerate his breathing.
Eventually Clint manages to calm down enough to breathe properly. His eyes jerk around the room and find Tony. Clint's eyes are red and filled with unshed tears. "Tony?" His voice breaks and another tear falls. Tony's heart breaks for the man.
Without a second though, Tony gathers the man into his arms and tucks Clint's head in his shoulder. "It's okay Clint. I don't know what you saw but I know it was freakin' lollipops and unicorns." Clint chokes on a sob.
"I s-saw you." He gasps for air again. "You...you died." His breathing picks up before Tony manages to calm it down again with soothing words of encouragement being whispered in his ear.
"So did t-tasha." Clint lets the tears fall, wetting Tony's black sabbath t-shirt. Clint chokes out sobs and was clutching onto Tony's shoulder like his life depended on it. The man was shaking and couldn't form proper words.
Tony lets a few tears loose himself as he witnesses the man's grief. His heart aching with him, not for him. About twenty minutes later, Clint's sobbing dies down and his grib releases.
Tony thinks that Clint fell asleep and goes to get up. A croaked "Stay," has him changing his mind. He turns to Clint, who is laying on his back with red and bloodshot eyes. Wide blue eyes that have seen too much pain in their short amount of time.
"Please." Clint's eyes are already closing, it's an unconscious plea. Tony lays next to him awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Clint's eyes close and he instinctively wraps himself around Tony.
Tony tenses then relaxes at the touch. Then he sighs and leans back, promising himself that nothing else will ever happen to Clint because so much has already happened to him.
…
Steve and Natasha walk into the common room. Nat was planning on going on a run with Steve, seeing if she's able to keep up with the old fossil.
They walk in chatting and laughing, the conversation stops short when they see Tony and Clint huddled together on the couch. "Oh?" Steve says.
Tony wakes up with the sense that someone is staring at him, his feeling is right because he wakes up under the watchful gaze of Natasha and Steve.
"What are you doing?" Natasha asks. Tony shushes her, then gestures to Clint's sleeping form. "He's sleeping." Natasha rolls her eyes. "I see that. You don't have to worry either. He has some sort of habitual thing where he doesn't wake up unless he is ordered to. I think it's left over from the army. He one time went a couple days without sleep because this group of newbies as shield found it as a power over him. They also figured out that Clint won't disobey any order." She chuckles as she recalls memories. Clint, lying on the couch, practically half dead and drugged out of his wits, and Coulson comes over and orders him to clean the dishes. It knocks him out of his drugged daze and he actually starts scrubbing the dirty plates. Coulson was so confused.
"Anyways, why are you two cuddling?" Natasha asks again. Tony blushes. "We're not cuddling. He had a nightmare, he asked me to stay." He says the last part defensively.
Natasha thought this was the reason, just wanted Tony to embarrass himself. She's happy that Clint is starting to trust the team. Steve chuckles, he knows what Nat was doing to Tony.
"Anyways, not that you're here and I'm awake, can you get me a cup of coffee?" Tony practically begs them. Steve chuckles and heads to the kitchen.
"Thanks Tony," Natasha says when Steve leaves. "Clint really trusts you, don't abuse it."
Needless to say, Clint was perfectly fine in the end. I'm sorry if this is terrible. I wrote this in like a half hour.
Thanks again to those who reviewed, especially Katie MacAlpine who gives me a lot of feedback.
Any suggestions? Comments? Concerns? Please somehow contact me.