Winter's Widow

Chapter 24: Play

I woke up to the strange and slightly bizarre sensation of my bed bouncing up and down. I cracked an eyelid to see Natasha, red hair streaming behind her, jumping on my bed. I groaned and rolled back over, shutting my eyes against the daylight only to find the covers being yanked back and the tiny woman collapsing on me in a tackle. I mumbled and half-heartedly tried to push her off, but it was no use and we both knew it. I rolled over, effectively rolling Natasha off of me, and finally opened my eyes fully, only to find myself face to face with her beaming smile. "What's going on?" I mumbled. Natasha bounced off of the bed, walking to the windows and opening the blinds. I squinted at the sudden harsh light before I realized what I was seeing. I instantly sat up, wide awake.

"It snowed! A lot!" I exclaimed, looking excitedly out of the window.

"No shit, Winter. Get your ass up." I threw my pillow at Natasha's head, which she ducked easily, laughing. I crawled out of bed, heading to the closet for clothes that would allow me to go outside and enjoy the winter weather. Natasha vetoed my first two choices, shaking her head. "You're going to freeze to death, have you never seen snow before?" I scowled at her playfully.

"Yes, thanks. Have you?" Natasha raised her eyebrows, and I realized the stupidity of my question a few seconds too late.

"I'm Russian, what do you think?" she laughed, tossing me a coat as we left my room and headed downstairs. The boys were already outside. Clint was shooting snowballs with arrows that Rhodey, Sam and Tony were throwing. We were minutes away, I'm sure, from Tony putting on the suit and blasting them instead when an evil idea popped into my head. I grabbed one of the snowballs from the pile, made sure Natasha wasn't looking – she wasn't, she was deep in conversation with Steve and Bucky – before I gestured silently for the boys to back away, which they did.

"Natasha!" I called insistently. The snowball left my hand the moment she began to spin around to see what I wanted. It was a beautiful shot, really, and the lightly packed ball of snow impacted and splattered immediately as it made contact with...her face. I smirked in glee before I caught Natasha's expression as the snow began dribbling away. Shit.

"Oh shit, Winter – run!" Sam tried to run interference for me as I slid across the snow trying to get away from the clutches of the playfully angry Russian.

"You're so dead," Tony chuckled as I briefly used him as a semi-human shield when trying to catch my breath. Wanda screeched as I slid into her just as she was exiting the compound, and we did a little version of a sliding dance as we both struggled not to fall over from the impact. When she glanced over her shoulder to see a sprinting Natasha with a determined look on her face, she immediately blanched and backed out of the way. Finally, Natasha caught up to me with a flying tackle, sending me face-first into a snowbank. When she finally let me up, both of us collapsed into a laughing fit as the rest of the team looked on in shock and confusion. Natasha finally allowed me to climb to my feet, pointed to the snow on the ground and then at the rest of the team, shooting me a sly wink. Game on.

...

I woke in the middle of the night to more screams. I sat upright in bed, immediately recognizing them. Yelena. I ran out of my room so quickly that I may have gone right through the door – I wasn't sure, but I was then banging on Yelena's door only to find it already unlocked. I cautiously approached the bed, fully aware of what happened last time I tried to wake her up from a nightmare. Instead of shaking or using electricity, I simply lay down beside her instead, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and pulling her into me tight as she continued thrashing around. The sounds coming from her mouth were horrible, and I hated whatever caused them. After a few moments of holding her and rocking from side to side slowly, I felt Yelena begin to tense in my arms – a sign that she was most likely starting to wake up. To my surprise, she didn't pull out of my grasp. If anything, she relaxed further into it, her head resting on my shoulder, blond hair tickling my nose, but I didn't mind. Natasha had been resistant to being held for quite some time, but Yelena seemed to enjoy it. At least, temporarily. When I heard sniffles, I pulled back, holding her by the shoulders so I could look at her. "Are you okay?" I asked sincerely. Yelena sniffled again before dropping her head to her chest, refusing to look at me.