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Pietro smiles at Y/N emptily as she tells him the reasons they should not go on this mission... no, not mission... revenge trip together. She gets sick of his expression, of the feeling that he no longer can connect with her and walks out the room arms folded stopping the tears that threaten to fill her eyes. The truth is, Pietro does care, but he just does not know how to respond to her opposition anymore so after awhile he decides to follow Y/N into the next room and tentatively puts his hands on her shoulders. She turns to him suddenly and grabs his hand. She says, "Whatever happens, don't let go of my hand."
"Everything will be alright," Pietro says to Y/N after they finish off another Hydra base.
Y/N stares at some far off distant point beyond Pietro's head as he talks trying to reassure her that she will be okay, and it will all be over soon. Y/N does not think so. She does not think that going on secret "revenge-missions" that are unbeknownst to S.H.I.E.L.D. in which her and Pietro destroy any and every Hydra base for the sake of the fact it bears the Hydra insignia is right. They do not know how many innocent people were kept in those bases. They do not know how many people died... or who died. Y/N tunes out Pietro's voice trying to lose herself in her in the silence of her mind. Pietro notices and stops talking. He does not know what to say anymore. Later on that night, as Y/N finally falls asleep beside him, he silently prays, "Whatever happens, don't let go of my hand."
Everyday since then, Pietro begins dedicating himself to S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers. He never gives up. He spends time away from Y/N on mission after mission not because he does not love her, but because he wants to make her happy. He forgets about trying to start a family. He forgets about date nights and romance thinking that Y/N might want him more if we works himself to death. A mission where he actually gets to be with her is his date night. Coming home alive after being apart is his romance. For him, his marriage is in crisis, and it is the end of world. It really is not. It does not have to be that bad. Y/N never stopped loving him. She can see him while they train trying to take out his anger on a punching bag for what Hydra had done to him and his sister, Y/N, and so many others. One night, Y/N sits Pietro down on the sofa. She kisses him. She runs her fingers through his hair. She tries to explain, "It's you that makes me happy."
Pietro turns towards her, eyes shining with tears because he cannot understand. He does not know anymore whether he is up or down. He tries everything, but there is so many struggles he did not know would come with getting involved with someone else- with dedicating his existence to this person not because of any soul-bonding moment like when he and Wanda were orphaned or when he saved Clint, but because he just loves her. Though neither of them say it to each other, they can understand: Whatever happens, don't let go of my hand.
After that, Pietro and Y/N go back to the basics. They love each other. They realize they are no longer in the honeymoon stage, and that there are a lot more obstacles in their way. Loving each other will not be easy. Loving each other might be harder for them than it is for some couples, but that does not mean that what they have is not love. They sort of fall into this habit of holding each other's hand. It could be actually grabbing the other's hand or even squeezing the other's hand whenever either of them felt they just needed the reassurance that they were going to make it through together- that they are making it through together. Their hand-holding was followed up by light hugs, shy smiles, and occasionally kisses. Their relationship was different. It was not hurtful or harmful, just different. They were prepared to live like that their whole lives if necessary. Before any decision they had to make together, when they were faced with an obstacle, and/or when they realized that uncertainty remained about a certain occurrence in their life, they would say, whisper, think, or even write, "Whatever happens, don't let go of my hand."