Avengers/MCU Oneshots

Tomorrow Will Be Kinder (Clint Barton)

Set after AoU. You might need some tissues, you might not. I'm sorry. 😢. 1,473 words. The song near the end is Tomorrow Will Be Kinder by The Secret Sisters.

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Clint bowed his head, tears threatening to spill from his closed eyes as they put the lifeless body of Pietro Maximoff on a gurney. The other Avengers, along with Rhodey and Sam, came over, all of them falling silent. Natasha wrapped her arm around Clint, trying to comfort him. The agents handling the gurney were about to push the boy away, when a young woman's heartbroken voice cried out.

"No, no! Stop! Wait, please!" Pietro's twin sister, Wanda, ran over, placing her hands on the gurney. Her face was streaked with tears and mascara, her hair disheveled. She put her hands on the side of Pietro's face, stroking the loose strands of hair out of it. Tears streamed down her face. She ran her hands along his hair, and leaned over, kissing his forehead. She whispered something into his head.

She wrapped her arms around her brother, pulling him against her chest, sobbing. "Ne! Ne! Nechoď! Vrať se prosím! Prosím vrať se! Nenechávej mě na pokoji! Potřebuji tě!" (Roughly translates to: "No! No! Don't go! Please come back! Please come back! Don't leave me alone! I need you!")

Clint had no idea what she was saying, but he doubted it was happy. Given his teammates' confusion, he was fairly sure she was speaking Sokovian. The few Sokovian citizens whom they had taken to America were giving her pitying looks.

Pietro needed to be taken away, but they decided that Wanda needed a few minutes. She'd back off when she was ready to. She just sat on the gurney, her bother's body pulled into her lap, rocking back and forth, sobbing. "Ne, ne! Řekl jsi, že budeš tady pro mě! Nelžeme si navzájem! Proč jsi mi lhal?!" ("No, no! You said you'd be here for me! We don't lie to each other! Why did you lie to me?!")

After a few minutes of harsh, gasping, ugly crying, she ran her hands over his hair again. She gave his forehead one last kiss before choking out some more sobs and setting him down, getting to her feet. Clint instinctively reached out his arms, and to his surprise, she flung herself into them. He squeezed her tight, not caring about the tears and snot getting all over his shirt. He could care less as he cried himself. "Všechno je to moje chyba." She said. "It's all my fault."

"No, honey, it's not." He gently assured her. "You didn't shoot the bullets. You didn't control the bot. It wasn't your fault. This is just grief and survivor's guilt." He said, feeling like a hypocrite, as he blamed himself. He tightened his grip on her as they pushed her brother away.

She noticed and screamed, trying to pull out of his grip. "No, no, no!"

Clint sighed, picking her up, and carrying her into an empty area of the helicarrier. He sat in one of the seats, placing his in his lap as she clung to him like her life depended on it. He stroked her hair and said nothing, not wanting to lie to her. No 'it will be ok.' he didn't know if it would be ok. He had no right to tell her that. But he had to say something to calm her down.

He thought of his daughter, Lila. What would he do for her if she was crying like this?

'Sing to her,' His mind answered. 'You'd sing her to sleep.'

Clint wasn't the best singer, and he didn't know if Wanda would find it helpful at all, but he took a shot in the dark and started to sing the first thing that popped into his head.

"Black clouds are behind me, I now can see ahead. Often I wonder why I try hoping for an end. Sorrow weighs my shoulders down. And trouble haunts my mind. But I know the present will not last, and tomorrow will be kinder.