Avengers: The Hunted (Avengers × Reader)

8- Midnights

You wake up suddenly around 3:45 am and start panting. You often have flashback nightmares from your missions, usually missions are no problem but there was one you could never forget. No matter how hard you tried, something would always remind you and if not in real life then you would be hunted by it in your dreams.

The rest of the team knew you took it hard but you started to pretend to them it was all fine now, but in reality, you could never truly eradicate that calamitous event for good.

You hear a knock on your door and Bucky enters with his black t-shirt that brought out his metal arm that he always covered.

"Hey, I heard a scream and I thought I'd come by." He walks toward you and sits on your bed, as he used to do when you were together and it would happen.

"The nightmares, they're still not gone are they"

"No, i- I don't know anymore, you'd think I'd get used to them but I can't"

"Hey" He says softly wiping away the tears you didnt realise were flowing from your face. "I know what your going through, you know best how hard it used to be for me to sleep let alone be awake. You can tell me anything you know"

You may have been closest to Bucky than the whole group as he was the one youd talk your problems with before Bruce, but the only thing you refused to talk about were the nightmares. They often were the same but in different forms, the team knew you had them but not what they were specifically about. They tried to get you to open up so they could help you but you always avoided it.

You wanted to speak but began stuttering and couldn't get your words out. Bucky notices you shaking and pulls you into a hug, you always felt comfort in his arms, even after the split you wouldn't let that get in the way Of your bond.

He strokes your hair and plants kisses on your head as you cry into his shirt.
"It's okay, I'm here"

~

You assure Bucky you're fine now and that he can go back to sleep, when you said that he smirked at the word.

After about 15 minutes you decide to go down for a snack and see Tony in the kitchen pacing around the counter.

"Hey Stark, what're you doing up"

He looks at you with a similar distressful look in his eyes you had moments earlier when you awoke.

"I could be asking you the same thing, except I know why"

"And what is that?"

"You were having your little reunion with Barnes, you know the typical romance that ends with a split then the secret meetings in the weirdest times and places and denying your feeling, then deny to everyone else you've been seeing them. Then you stick up for eachother behind eachothers backs. Then it all ends with another meeting where you confess that you still have feelings for eachother. You get the jist"

You look at him in confusion and dont know how to respond

"Yeah um my new interns, one of them, Peter, has this movie obsession. And um yeah" he says awkwardly after that outburst that he realises he got wrong after seeing your reaction

"No Bucky just came to see if I was alright, nightmares again you know" you say quietly as you reach for the juice.

"Oh um right. I forgot you still get those. How are you?" He asked regretting his earlier statements

"Could be better but, you know, you can't control the past"

It went quiet for a bit until Tony speaks again

"Remeber the battle of New York? How i fell from the sky and the whole thing where I saved the city"

"Oh yeah who could forget" you smirk

He looks to the floor and exhales, "well everyone's been calling me a hero and been praising me so much which is cool I guess cause I mean I am Iron Man and apparently have everything I could ever want"

he then looks up at you with a slight glimmer in his eyes revealing his vulnerability

"Well its not true most of it is but not entirely." He carries on "I wish I didnt get nightmares or these anxiety attacks in the middle of the night, I wish I could have a peace of mind and to clear my guilty conscience. I feel like if I wasnt there at that specific moment of time then what couldve happened to all those people, and even worse what actually happened to half those people after we so called 'saved the city'. Y/N people died, their homes got ruined, they lost their families to our 'success' and we still get called heroes. I- I just don't understand any of it"

You immediately run into embrace him. You have never hugged Tony in your entire time here, even on missions you just sort of wave eachother off but he needed this, he needed you right now.

He hugged you back burying his head into your shoulder as he calms himself down. "I'm sorry I shouldn't have burdened you with all that, I jus thought-"

"No, its okay, I just didn't know you felt that way about everything. Look Tony we can't change the past, those people who died, what would have happened to them if we didn't save them, that would have only be a minority of them. I know what you mean, and I get that sometimes too, but we can't do anything but try and help the rest. Isn't that what you told me when, you know, when that happened"

He knew what you were referring to and agreed to his own advice. You stood with him in the kitchen for a while until he felt better and you returned to your room.