It had been a couple days since Natasha had talked to Steve since he was sent on a mission with Tony. What a lovely pair, I'm sure they would be fighting with each-other on the way to wherever they were going. Natasha was just a little hurt that Fury didn't assign Steve and her to go on the mission together; did he not want them to get compromised? Or did he not even know they had feelings for each other?
A knot formed in Natasha's stomach while she thought about this, and about Steve. She didn't want to admit it, but she was missing him terribly. And more and more with each passing day that he was gone on his mission. She had been sending him transmissions on his communicator, but he hadn't replied back and neither had Tony.
After a couple hours of peaceful sleeping, she started to toss and turn in her sleep. She was having a nightmare. It was vivid. Natasha almost thought it was real. Her nightmare consisted of her laying on the ground in an abandoned warehouse, covered in blood. Her shoulder oozed blood, having the blood drip down her arm. She was screaming in pain but it seem like no one could hear her. Her consciousness waned as her attacker approached her, with a smirk on his face. He was carrying a gas can in his hands and started to dump in around where Natasha was laying, and then pulled out a match.
"This is exactly how your parents died, isn't it?" The man smirked at her and dropped the match on the fire, and then everything had gone black.
Natasha jolted awake with a small scream, then pulled her knees to her chest. The nightmare had ended, but started days of restless sleeping.
Natasha sat for hours in her room just staring at the same four plain walls, hugging her knees. The stillness and silence was killing her, even though her body screamed for sleep, she wouldn't allow herself to go back to sleep. She pulled herself from her bed and slipped out of her pajamas, quickly changing into a pair of sweatpants and a black tank-top. She needed a distraction and the gym was going to have to be it. She grabbed her gym back and slipped it on her shoulder, the left her room and walked down the hall to the gym.
Natasha tried holding herself together as she walked down the hall of the headquarters. She must not show weakness, it was out of character for her. She quietly choked down a sob and rushed down the hall. She quickened her rushing into a sprint and skidded to a stop once she was inside the gym. It was spacious, clean and almost no one was inside. Except for one person.
Clint Barton.
He was one of the only people who could see past her hard exterior, her emotionless façade. Soon, however Steve would be able too, but she wasn't going to get into that.
She quietly started to wrap her hands up in tape, her arms shaking as she tried to contain all the feelings she had. However, Clint was in his own little world of only paying attention to the bulls' eye and his basic bow. Natasha finished up tapping her hands up, setting the roll of tape down quietly back into her bag. She glanced around before settling her eyes on a punching bag and decided it would have to do. She would have rather gone a couple rounds with Clint or one of the agents but that would only leave them hurt and not her.
She walked over to the punching bag and set her stance, aggressively and started to throw punches, unaware of how loud they were and how they echoed around the room.
When Clint heard the sounds of fists hit the punching bag he dropped his load bow to his side and whirled around to face the sound.
"Nat? You alright?" He said, he voice laced in concern.
"What…?" She blinked and dropped her hands. She barely even started to punch the bag and he had already noticed her.
"Are you alright? Did something happen?" He asked again, this time more persistent.
"I'm fine." Her voice laced with a tinge of sadness as she dropped her eyes to the floor. She felt like she was going to lose it.
"You don't sound it," Clint walked over to Natasha while thinking for a brief moment, as if he knew what she had dreamed of. "Nightmare?"
Natasha nodded and closed her eyes that had started to swell from the reoccurring images that flashed in her head from her nightmare. "Yes…" She said quietly, her breath getting caught in her throat as she spoke.
He nodded, and understood what she was going through. This wasn't the first nightmare she had. Actually, Clint was with her most of the times she had her nightmares. He sighed and pulled Natasha into his arms, hugging her tightly to his chest and started to sink to the ground.
Natasha buried her face into his shoulder, weeping quietly into it while curling up in his arms. She was just letting go of all her feelings she bottled up and let Clint sooth her and try to help her cope.
How she wished this was Steve.
Though she didn't mind Clint doing this for her, it's not like she didn't have feelings for him and it's not like he hasn't done this for her before.
She looked up at Clint, taking her face from his shoulder, "I owe y—." She blinked as she was cut off, by Clint pressing his lips to hers in a soft but tender kiss with his arms still around her. Natasha was somewhat surprised, but kissed him back with not as much intensity as he had kissed her. Clint smiled against her lips, pulling away ever-so-slightly to where their lips just brushed against one another's.
"Better now?"
"Yes." She smiled for once that night, resting her head back on his chest.