Title: Save Me, I'm Naked and I'm Far From Home
Rating: PG-13/T
Originally posted: January 2019
Originally written for: Hecate, based on her prompt, for HetSwap 2019 on Dreamwidth & AO3
Characters/Pairings: Tony/Nat
Notes: based on the trailer for Avengers: Endgame; refers vaguely to Unstoppable Forces & Immovable Objects (#14 in this collection)

In the place between sleep and awake, they come to him, more and more often as the lines between reality and hysteria start to blur.

Different faces with different messages, some more welcome than others, but lately, more often, it's her.

"It's brighter than I imagined," she says, walking silently across the floor. "People talk about space and you think of dark, cold, empty. Even up here, there are bright spots."

A slight smile curves her lips, her gloved fingertips barely making contact with the inch-thick glass.

"Of course," she continues, "I guess it depends which side you're on."

Pulling himself up from the floor, he staggers a little then reaches her side. She doesn't comment on the state of him, even as he marvels at the very presence of her.

"Should've known you'd make the cut, Romanoff. Slice you open, 'survivor' runs right through the centre."

"Don't act like you're not in the club, Tony," she says without shifting focus from the view at all.

He wonders what she sees, if she sees at all. Isn't she just another figment of his unwinding mind? He's lost track, but prefers to believe she's come through for him one more time. She might switch sides here and there, but she's never really failed him yet. A shiver runs through him as he exhales.

"I'm only here because of you."

That gets her attention. She blinks at him in that way she has when she's surprised. It doesn't happen much but if anyone can achieve it...

"If you hadn't pulled me out of that Siberian bunker-"

"You'd have found another way," she finishes smoothly, never dropping a beat - as if she ever would. "You're stronger than you think."

She turns toward him, face so close he would swear he could feel her breathing, but his is the only mist against the glass, and he wonders how long that will last. His eyes fall shut a moment, head swimming, world fading. He keeps thinking that maybe this time it would be easier to let go, but she won't let him, she never does.

"People like us, we're not supposed to need anybody," she says, her words so clear, the feel of her hand against his cheek so real, in spite of the truth.

"C'mon, Widow," he replies, opening his eyes to the depths of her own, finding a smirk in the debris of his own pale face. "Wouldn't your life be just a little bit easier without me hanging around?"

"Easier?" she considers, one tear escaping and streaking down her cheek. "Maybe, but we're not built for easy, Stark. We're in the middle of the fight of our lives."

He slowly shakes his head. "Already feels a lot like the end came and went."

"It's never the end." She smiles more like she means it. "Not for us."

She leans in closer, just starting to go completely out of focus, but before their lips ever meet, Tony jolts awake again. It's always this way. He doesn't get the best part until he proves himself worthy, and he knows it.

The metal floor is hard and cold, the view from the window is much the same, cold and dark... but there are bright spots... and Tony Stark is a survivor.

Pulling himself up to his knees, he reaches for Iron Man's helmet. Shaking fingers prise at the wiring, as tired brain cells desperately work to fire again. He knows how to do this, knows how to make it work, knows how to fight back. Some of it has been in him all the time, and more still he knows he gleaned from her.

In his mind's eye, he sees her clearer than ever. She looks up to the distant galaxy and calls him home, and he's going to make it, for that reason, if no other. After all, somebody has to save the world. Since she's gone to the trouble of saving him, again, it seems only fair that he makes a little more effort to keep trying, to never stop.