She Lives On

Peaceful Sleeps

(Steve's POV) - continued form last chapter.

They had been trying to locate Clint for weeks, but they had been unsuccessful. It pained him to see how heartbroken and lost Natasha seemed without knowing if Clint was okay or not. For the first few months after Clint had gone off the grid, Nat had managed fine, believing that he would return soon. But he never had. I could tell that she still believed that was alive and that he would one day return to her.

I knew that the love between Nat and Clint wasn't romantic. Instead, is was the love of friendship and family. Clint had saved her from her past and had given her a family and a purpose. She cared deeply for him, which is why I never stopped trying. Of course I wanted to make sure Clint was safe too, but I knew that if he was off the grid, it was because he wanted to not be found. Most likely because he had lost his family, though he did still have family here.

Natasha had nightmares almost every night now. She didn't like explaining what they were about, so I stopped asking. Each night, we would start out in separate beds, then when ones of us would have a nightmare, we would find each other in the dark and end up together in one of our beds. My nightmares were less frequent than Nats, they were usually about losing her or having to watch her die. The only thing that could comfort me when those nightmares happened was seeing her in front of me. Real and alive.

One night while laying on Nats bed and watching a movie, she feel asleep with her head on my shoulder. I didn't want to wake her so I stayed in her room and finished watching the movie. In her sleep she turned onto her side and curled up into me. I couldn't help but smile. I reached out with one arm to gently stroke her hair. My eyelids started to droop and soon, I fell asleep too.

The next morning when I woke up, I noticed right away that I was still in Nats room and that we had fallen asleep together and had spend the whole entire night together. A small smile plays on my lips. I feel even better when I realize that neither of us had any nightmares, which is rare.

Normally at least one of us has some sort of panic attack or nightmare in the middle of the night and has a hard time falling asleep. Some of the panic attacks and nightmares and small and can easily be moved on from, but others take hours for us to calm down and finally fall back to sleep. Often though we aren't even able to fall back asleep and spend the rest of the night awake. But last night, we had no nightmares or panic attacks and I actually feel well rested for the first time in a while.

Was it because we had fallen asleep in each other's arms? I wasn't sure, but that seemed to be the only explanation. I tighten my arms around Nat, who is sleeping peacefully with her head on my chest. I reach out with one arm and stroke her hair gently and she wraps her arms around me in her sleep.

I can't believe it took me this long to realize how much I cared for her and needed her. She had always been very important to me, but this was something new. It was all still new to me, but I was pretty sure I loved her and staring down and her breathing softly on my chest only confirmed it. I could feel a stirring inside my chest whenever I looked at her. She was just so utterly amazing and sometimes I wasn't sure that I deserved someone like her.

A few minutes later, Natasha starts to wake up. She lets out a cute little yawn before pushing up into a sitting position. She looks over to me and our eyes meet. She smiles softly.

"I slept really well." She says.

"Me too." I tell her my theory: "I think it's because we were here to comfort each other the whole night." She stares at me for a few more seconds, deciding her opinion on this.

"Perhaps Rogers, or you just want an excuse to sleep with me." She smirks.

I turn bright red. That's not what I was trying to say, but she's definitely not wrong. Natasha stares at me for a moment before her expression turns soft and she smiles slightly. Then she tilts her head up and connects her lips to mine. I respond immediately press my lips hard and passionately to hers. Her hands reach up and run through my hair as she pulls lightly. I place one hand on her waist and pull it closer to me while my other hand cups her head gently.

After a few minutes of kissing and rolling around on the bed, Nat pulls away, her green eyes shinning as she smirks at me and says. "Yeah Rogers, I'll sleep with you every night."

A/N
Hey! I hope you guys enjoyed this one. Please comment if you have any ideas for one shots. Also I'm so sad that Wandavision is over! Wanda deserved so much more.