Winterwidow One-shots

Insomnia

My eyes shot open. I can't remember any nightmare, but It's likely that that's what woke me up. I glance at the clock on the night table next to me. It's three a.m. Ah yes. Another few hours of insomnia I have to sit through doing nothing. I've got to wash my face to reset. I got up slowly. Careful to be quiet. I don't want to wake anyone. When I get outside my room, the Avengers facility is silent. It usually is when I get up this early. However, when I reach the bathroom, there is a light coming from underneath the door.

Someone's in there. I can hear stifled crying. Then I hear someone throwing up. The only person who's ever up this early is Nat. I knock as quietly as possible. "Nat? Is that you? Are you okay in there?" I whispered. The crying stopped, but there was no answer. Only silence. "I'm coming in." I slowly opened the door, and there she was. On the ground, eyes red from either crying or lack of sleep, puke on her lips. She looked disturbed, but not embarrassed. She just looked up at me with a blank expression. "Are you just gonna stand there and stare at me, or are actually going to say that I look like shit?" I realized I had been standing there for a moment so I quickly closed the door and slung a towel over my shoulder. I sat down on the ground with her. "You don't look like shit. You just look really pale. What happened." Just as I said that, she leaned back over the toilet and puked. Not much, but something was definitely wrong. When she put he head back up, there was a tear rolling down her cheek. "It's okay. I know how this feels." I wiped her mouth with the towel. "You didn't do anything wrong." I hugged her. She was hot. Her shirt was soaked with sweat. "I was hearing their voices in my sleep... I definitely did something wrong, James."

"No you didn't. You didn't do anything wrong because you didn't know any better. You can't act on something you've never been told. We're not bad people, we just come from a bad place." Another tear went down her cheek. "Have you slept at all tonight?" I asked. "I woke up two hours ago." she said. She was just staring at the ground. If you've ever loved someone, you know how hard it is to see that person in pain. "Do you think it's out of your system now?"

"Hard to tell." she responded. "Well, you're definitely running a fever, so please get to bed as soon as you can. I know that won't be easy, but you need to rest." She smirked. "You know you don't have to look after me right? I can take care of myself." I knew she didn't like help, but I wanted to...help her. "You see, when someone wants to look after you and you give you some advice on how to better your health, that's called caring for someone." We both smiled. "Yeah well, I've never been great at that." There were a few moments of silence. I could tell she didn't want to go back to her room. "Nat, I can't sleep either. Do you want to go back to my room and see if that makes a difference?" She showed the slightest bit of a smile. "That sounds okay."

I don't remember falling asleep. I did though, because the next morning, I woke up with her head on my chest and her hogging all of the blankets.