Avengers In Need [Smut+Fluff] REQUESTS OPEN!

Clint - Nightmares

It's way past midnight as you suddenly wake up. The dark fills your room and you can almost feel all the avengers, sleeping in their rooms.
First nights have always been hard on you, a bad thing when you're often traveling. But that constant awareness of being new isn't what interrupted your sleep.
No, you had heard a whimper from somewhere outside your room. The walls were constructed in a very strange way you had noticed earlier already. Sometimes they are completely soundproof, other times you can hear every sound from three rooms away. Like the silent cry that woke your up.

You sit up in your bed and listen. You're not tired at all, rather filled with energy since you went to bed really early to catch enough sleep.
There it is again. A painful whimper.
After a short while of hearing nothing but your own breath, another whimper reaches you.
You slip out of your bed, careful not to make a sound. Then you sneak into the corridor, bare feet on the cold floor, quickly making your way from room to room. You check in front of every door if you hear something, following the heartbreaking sounds.

Finally you reach the right room, the cries now clearly audible behind that door. You look at the sign and smirk. The hawk's nest. So these are Clint's chambers.
What could possibly be cruel enough to keep the kindhearted playful archer up this late? What can cause a human to produce sounds that contain this incredible amount of pain?
You knit your eyebrows together, you're actually worried.
Then you knock, carefully but loud enough to be heard for sure.
Still looking concerned, you enter.

Clint is a mess.
Sprawled all over the bed, his head buried in the sheets, uncontrollably sobbing.
You hurry to the hawk's side, about sit down next to him. But then you just stand there for a minute, unsure if it is appropriate to just join him. You barely know him, being at the tower for only half a day.
Still you feel the irresistible urge to do something about it. You know you have to calm him. Even more since you seem to be the only other person awake, the only one to hear him.
So you eventually place yourself at his side, carefully placing a hand on his shoulder.

Clint bolts up, his eyes teary. Apparently he hadn't noticed you entering the room.
„Shhh", you try to show that you're on his side, not here to hurt him. „I came to help you...", you add silently, just to make sure.
He stares at you for a moment, his face blank. The only movement the tears that are still running down the archer's face. Then he slowly nods.
Before you can say anything else, he has pulled you closer, wrapping himself around you, his strong arms clinging to your shoulders.
You let out a surprised gasp, but hug him back, careful not to hurt or scare him with any sudden movements.

You stay like this for a long while. Unable to see a clock,you don't know how much time has passed as Barton eventually pulls away again slowly.
His still watery eyes meet yours and you smile at him. He returns it, weak but filled with hope as he takes a sit next to you on the bed.
You stroke his tears away and look at him, waiting for an explanation. But the only sounds to leave his mouth are shaky breaths.
After a while of silence, you decide to ask him for the reason he is laying awake in tears at this unholy time.

Between sobs, he tells you everything. Everything about the nightmares that keep him awake since the mind stone manipulated him. He has flashbacks, cruel flashbacks of what happened and the fear of falling back into that kind of behavior.
Not every night, but often enough.
They come in waves and he's unable to sleep, unable to move or do anything but lay down and cry.

After he finished his explanation, he looks at you, waiting for your reaction. You can tell by the glimmer in his eyes that he expects you to laugh at him, tell him that he's stupid, acting like a foolish child.
But you don't.
Instead you smile at him, warm and open hearted as you pull him into another hug.
Slightly rocking back and forth, you stroke his back, trying to calm him down again.

"Shhh, everything will be alright. Don't worry. You're incredibly strong and as far as I can tell, always there for the others, making jokes and cheering everyone up. It must be hard to be alone with this, always under the pressure to keep up with them. You're doing amazing! But you don't have to be the one to always rescue everyone else. You got the others... Everyone will be here for you. Remember how you saved Wanda and Pietro? Without you, they would've been dead or doing things far worse than that. It's okay to take your time, sit back for a while. You deserve it and you need it to stay you. Don't stress yourself so much. It's okay...
I'm here...
Shhh...
It's going to be alright..."

You keep whispering anything that comes to your mind, hoping it will somehow be helpful for him. Thanks to your studies you know what is the right thing to do, theoretically. You never really had the opportunity to try anything in real life.

But apparently, it works. Slowly he lets his head fall back onto the bed, snuggling into the sheets. He won't let go of your hand while he closes his eyes and you manage to tug him in.
He makes you promise to not leave before he's asleep and you'll be there if he needs you again. You promise that he can come to you whenever he wants to.
Eventually he drifts back into his dreams.
But this time, they are peaceful.

After a while, when you're sure he's actually asleep, you slowly stand up. Careful not to make any sound you cross the room. As you reach the door, you look back one last time at the now calm archer. He's heartwarming cute, sleeping like a baby.
With a smile you leave the room and silently close the door behind you.

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A/N
Request by @Springforever3
Smut will be marked with ❗in the title, just so you know.
Still open for any request
Thanks for reading!