📍NEW YORK CITY
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An explosion. Two more explosions after that.

People screaming, her friends were screaming.

I need to find Tony, (Y/N) thought desperately. Tony! Where is he?

There he was. He was, sitting between the rubble with his eyes open, yet the light in them was gone. They didn't have a soul behind them. Nothing. People were huddled around him, as if trying to create a barrier around him.

Let me through, (Y/N) yelled out.

But then she saw him and her world crumbled.

No — He had to wake up.

(Y/N)'s eyes opened in a panic, and her entire body jolted awake, trying to pull herself out of the torment she was seeing behind her shut eyelids. She woke up in a cold sweat, her skin clammy and her breath unsteady, as she did her best to adjust her eyes to the pitch darkness of her room.

She let out a quiet whimper and reached out to the right side of the bed, searching for the person she had just seen in her nightmare. Maybe if she heard him speak, it would calm her down. Maybe —

But she felt nothing but empty sheets and blankets on the side of the bed. Her eyes were fully adjusted to the darkness, and her mind wasn't playing tricks with her. The dent of his presence on the bed was still there, but no sign of him.

Where would he be? she asked herself. She pulled her body out of bed and placed on her slippers on, wrapped a robe around her form and walked out of the room in search for him.

The entire facility was silent. (Y/N) didn't have to glance at a clock to know it was late, since the full darkness of the hallways was enough clue. The compound was enormous, and she knew it would probably take her all night to find Tony in the midst of a thousand rooms.

Unexpectedly, a clattering noise came from her right side, and she snapped her head in the direction of the sound. She didn't have to be a genius to know who had caused it.

The noise came from the place where she should've searched first. With quietened steps, (Y/N) walked towards the workshop inside the compound, her eyes having to adjust to the lights' brightness in the room. Even though her eyes were squinted together, she could still recognize Tony's figure a few feet away.

He was wearing a black tank top, the same one he had gone to bed in. There were glasses covering his eyes, probably to protect them from whatever he was working on at this remote hour. He was too focused on his task that he didn't hear the door of the workshop open, and didn't raise his head at the sound of (Y/N)'s steps in.

"Can't sleep?"

The sound of her voice made him jump in surprise, which made him drop the metal wrench that he had in his hands. The wrench clattered in the ground loudly, and (Y/N) was pretty sure that the sound woke up the entire facility in one try.

"What are you doing here?" was the first thing Tony asked, leaning down to grab the wrench again and proceed with whatever he was doing.

"Can ask you the same."

He exhaled a long breath, and his shoulders dropped in exhaustion. "Had a nightmare. Didn't want to wake you."

(Y/N)'s eyes softened at his words and pressed her lips in a thin line. She forgot that she wasn't the only one in the house with nightly terrors, but she take them all if it meant that Tony could have a good night's sleep for once.

"Want to talk about it?" she asked carefully, taking slow steps toward where he was standing.

He didn't even move from his position. His hands had stopped moving, and (Y/N) could now see with clearer eyes that he was fixing an old suit of his, tinkering with what he wanted fixed. Tony brushed a bead of sweat from his forehead, and reached out for (Y/N) once he heard her footsteps had gotten close enough to him.

(Y/N) wrapped her arms around Tony's middle from the side, enveloping him in a side hug. His muscles immediately relaxed under her fingertips, and he placed his own arm around her shoulders to pull her even closer.

"Not really," he finally confessed. He cleared his throat, still not used to show this amount of vulnerability with someone.

(Y/N) didn't press on the matter and instead hummed in reply. They both stayed in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the comfort of each other without having to say a single word. Both of them had their demons, but at the end of the day, they had each other to hold onto during their toughest moments.

"What were you doing?" she broke the silence again, her eyes on the dismembered suit on the table.

"Oh, just tinkering here and there," he was startled by her forward interest. "Just seeing what I can fix or improve on the new suit."

"New suit? What is this? Mark 80?"

He scoffed in offense. "No! I haven't even decided on the name yet."

(Y/N) gave him a knowing look, since she was sure that he in fact had thought of a name for the suit. She didn't pry on the subject after that, and instead decided to change the subject.

"Can I help?"

Tony turned his face to look at her incredulously. It was the first time she had offered to do something like this, yet he couldn't describe or pinpoint why he was thrilled when she asked.

"S. . .Sure!" he stumbled on his words, and didn't know how he got so nervous out of the blue.

(Y/N) removed her arms from Tony's middle and instead placed herself in front of him. Her back was pressed to his chest, and she slightly jumped when her arm grazed the cold metal from his arc reactor. With a newly gained confidence, (Y/N) grabbed the wrench that Tony handed her and frowned in concentration.

"Ever done this before, Vaughn?"

She shook her head. "No, but there's a first time for everything, right?"

He scoffed a laugh. (Y/N) still hadn't moved an inch since she changed her position, her eyes trailing over what to fix first. Tony misinterpreted her silence for cluelessness, and he lightly pressed the weight of his chin on (Y/N)'s shoulder to see what she was doing.

"You have to tighten that nut over there, honey — "

"I was going to do that!"

"Sure you were."

(Y/N) gave him a side eye from her position, staring at his head still adjusted in her shoulder. She inhaled a long breath before grabbing the wrench sideways and placing it over the nut and bolt that Tony had gestured to, and started moving it to the side to tighten it up.

Tony hadn't removed his eyes from her hands. "No, no. To the other side."

He reached for her hand holding the wrench and covered it with his larger one. With his unoccupied hand, he reached for the one where she wasn't holding the wrench and brought them closer. "It's better to use both hands."

She hummed in reply and allowed him to help her moving the wrench in the right direction. His arms were now wrapped over her own, working on tightening the nut and bolt together in silence. If Tony wasn't concentrated on assisting (Y/N), he might've grown distracted by the small distance between the two.

The only sound in the workshop was the clinking of the nuts and bolts getting tightened by the wrench, as well as the steady breathing coming from Tony and (Y/N). It was soothing in a strange way, and it gave Tony a sense of domesticity that he didn't know existed.

"You were dying," Tony blurted out of nowhere, which made (Y/N) almost drop the wrench again because of his unexpected words.

She stopped moving and turned her head to the side, looking at him for an explanation.

"In my nightmare," he specified. He swallowed the lump in his throat. "It was the same one as always, the Chitauri army coming again. But this time, a tall figure got to you and I couldn't do anything about it. I was just there to watch."

(Y/N) shifted on her position to face him completely. Her hands raised to grab onto the sides of his face, brushing through his curls and his stubble. His eyes closed in relaxation at the touch, yet his eyebrows were still furrowed in worry.

"It wasn't real," was the first thing she said in reassurance. "I'm here, you're here and we're safe. That's all that matters."

"I know," he sighed. "But a part of me is afraid that it's going to come true."

"Hey," her tone grew with a much determined voice. "If the Chitauri and their leader come back, I know for a fact we're not gonna go down without a fight. I'm not going to let them hurt you again, got it?"

If Tony's eyes were already softened by then, they softened ten times more with that sentence. "Got it, ma'am," his voice was quiet, but she still heard him.

They spent the rest of the night inside the workshop, jumping back in forth between fixing the suit and confessing to previous nightmares that they hadn't told anyone about. They shared laughs, jokes, even tears, and lost sense of time throughout all that. Since the workshop didn't have any windows, neither of them could tell when the sun was rising through the horizon.

It wasn't until it was 8 o'clock in the morning that Pepper didn't find a sign of (Y/N) or Tony in their bedroom, so she scavenged through the entire facility in search of them. When she finally reached the workshop, she found the couple passed out in an uncomfortable position on a table. (Y/N) was laid on top of the table meanwhile Tony was sat on a stool with his face buried in between his arms placed on the table.

It took all the strength inside Pepper's body not to laugh out loud, but she contained herself. She even pulled out her phone to take a picture before returning to her natural scolding self and woke them up.

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"You look like shit."

(Y/N) gave the woman in front of her a blank look. "Gee, Nat, thanks. You look pretty too."

The woman laughed not so loudly across the table, moving the cup to her lips to hide her usual smirk. Her eyes were covered with a pair of sunglasses, so (Y/N) wasn't able to see the mischievous glint behind her eyes.

Natasha had contacted (Y/N) earlier in the day to meet up, taking the risk of being spotted in a public location, but her sudden change of appearance was enough to not draw eyes in their direction. She, Steve and Sam were still fugitives of the law, no matter how hard (Y/N) had fought Secretary Ross on removing the charges. Both men were still back in Europe jumping from motel to motel, not accepting Nat's invitation to go back to the States for a couple days since it would be too risky.

(Y/N) felt guilty about being able to walk freely through the streets without being accused of being a criminal like they had to go through. She imagined how much Sam and Steve wanted things to cool down and return back to normal, and there was nothing in her power to change that.

"Rough night?" Natasha questioned, brushing her hand through her newly short, blonde hair.

"I accidentally slept in a table," (Y/N) groaned as she adjusted in her chair. "You can imagine how that went."

Natasha raised an eyebrow in suspicion, which made (Y/N) shake her head in denial. This made her smirk again and place her cup back on the table. "Looks like you and Tony got over your troubles, huh?"

"Not in that way!" (Y/N) defended, crossing her arms. "Things were awkward for a month before everything turned back to normal."

"Well, that's good to hear," Natasha offered one of her reassuring smiles. "I'm glad that some of us get to return back to normal."

(Y/N) pressed her lips together in a thin line. "How have you guys been doing?"

"Hard at first, but I got used to it," Natasha shrugged her shoulders. "If you think I did a huge change on my appearance, wait until you see Steve."

This caught her interest. "What did he do?"

"He has a beard."

"No way."

"Yes, way! It's so weird."

"You have to send me a picture," (Y/N) told her friend, trying to refrain her laugh.

"I would, if I had a phone."

"Oh, crap. I forgot."

Natasha smiled and shook her head. "Don't worry. I'll find a way."

"Of course you will."

(Y/N) was about to say something else, but her cellphone pinged in her pocket. Not knowing who it could be, she pulled her phone out to see it was a message from Tony, asking if they could meet up in approximately 10 minutes because it was an emergency. She hadn't told him about Natasha's visit, since the woman had specifically asked her to not say anything to anyone.

The look on her face made Natasha drop the playfulness in her tone, and instead stared at her friend in worry. "Something wrong?"

"I gotta go," she apologetically said. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Natasha dismissed. "It's almost time for me to leave too."

(Y/N) gave her friend a sad look, upset that their meeting was cut short. "When can you come back?"

"I'm not sure. It might take some time."

This made her shoulders drop. "Oh."

Natasha stood up from the table and embraced (Y/N) in a tight hug, wanting this to be the memory she had of her when she went back into hiding. Both friends melted into the hug, knowing it was going to be a long time before they saw each other again.

"Take care, Nat."

"You too," the blonde smiled. "And say 'Hi' to the boyfriend for me."

"I'll see what I can do."

the chapter started out weird i'm so sorry lol.
wanted to write more fluff between them so here you go. only one or two more chapters to go before everything goes downhill, so appreciate this.

- see you soon, bex <3