Prompt from Tumblr: Tony is worried about Penny not sleeping.

This one is VERY short because...well because I worked 2 jobs today and am exhausted.

Day 21: Insomnia

Tony Stark stepped out of the elevator, yawning a little as he glanced at his watch and wondering when he'd gotten old. Penny would say years ago, and he smirked a little at the thought. He liked having the girl around, especially in these last few weeks considering he had been meeting with the rogue Avengers and he'd been too busy to really spend much time with her. So he stepped into his lab, wiping a tired hand over his face...he'd been awake since three in the morning.

He found Penny sitting in her normal spot in the lab, staring down at her webshooters. When he got closer, he frowned. The girl had dark circles under her dark circles and Tony stared as she squinted through the safety goggles, doing her best to connect two wires with shaking hands. Her suit lay discarded on the table, and he could see that she had a dark bruise all along one arm, most likely from patrolling. She often stumbled into the tower after a day of school and a night of fighting and he would worry over her, but she never made a big deal of any of it, waving him off and promising that she would be fine in a few hours.

And she usually was.

So he didn't worry too much about the bruise, instead worrying about the pale, drawn look on her face. The dark circles under her eyes. Her shaking hands. The way she looked like she was roughly five seconds from falling over.

"Uh...kid?" She didn't look up. Frowning, he glanced over at Dum-E who was moving his arm worriedly. "Me too, buddy." The girl had been burning the candle at both ends according to her aunt and, while Tony didn't make it a habit to get involved in the personal business of his interns/Spider children, he felt like this might be a problem. "Pen." He prompted again, but she didn't seem to hear.

According to Friday, she'd crawled in through a window about an hour ago while he'd been in a meeting with Pepper and Rhodey. He'd waved off the notification, sure that the kid would be fine. She'd been doing her spider thing but Friday hadn't said anything about him being injured so he hadn't worried. When he'd finally gotten out of the meeting, he'd asked where she was, and had been informed that the girl had wandered down into his lab. So he'd headed down to find her and ask if she wanted to watch a movie or something, considering it was almost ten and she had been at school all day, then patrolling. So he figured she might want to relax for a while.

Approaching, he placed a slow, hesitant hand on her shoulder, and the girl practically jumped out of her skin, dropping the webshooters and spinning in her chair, nearly falling. He put his hands up, taking a step back, snorting a little. "Take it easy, kid." He said with a chuckle, slowly dropping his hands. "You alright?"

"Yeah...yeah, of course. I'm...uh...I'm just fixing my webshooters and...and I think one's broken but I can't remember and I don't...I'm not sure." She trailed off, blinking heavily. "Um...right. So...I need to fix this." He nodded, eyes narrowing once more.

"I was wondering if you wanted to come upstairs. Watch a movie."

"Oh...I really need to fix this...they...they're broken. I think."

"Yeah. Got it. When was the last time you slept, kid?"

"Oh, slept. Right." She widened her eyes, then blinked a few more times. "Um...what day is it?" He lifted an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Saturday." He told her flatly.

"Oh. Then, uh...Thursday...I think? But it's fine. I'm fine. I just need to...finish this. I need to finish this and homework. I have...like...so much homework." She shook her head, laughing a little. "AP Bio and AP Chem...and English...I have to read Of Mice and Men...or...maybe it's Grapes of Wrath. It's definitely Steinback. Anyway, I need to write a paper too and…" She started to list to the side, leaning against the table, and he reached out, gripping her shoulder.

"Okay, yeah. New plan." He cut her off, leading her over to the elevator. She didn't protest, just stared up at him in confusion. "You're going to bed."

"No! No, Mr. Stark, I can't go to bed! I have so much homework and…"

"Bed." He said again, punching one of the elevator buttons.

"Mr. Stark, I have to patrol tomorrow and I have to fix my webshooters and…"

They stepped out of the elevator and into the living room of his floor, his arm around her shoulders. "Bed."

"But if I don't finish my homework then I won't be able to…"

He opened her bedroom door, leading her into the room and pushing her toward the bed. "Bed."

"You stay up late all the time. You can't tell me…"

"You." He pointed a finger at her, then at the bed. "Bed. Go."

"But…" He lifted an eyebrow, well aware that he had was Rhodey called his 'dad face' on, but not caring. She looked like she might pass out at any second...finally, she stumbled over to the bed, sitting down and crossing her arms, looking more like a petulant toddler than anything. He had to chuckle, then moved to sit beside her.

"Are you okay, kid?"

"Yeah. I just...I have a lot of homework."

"I got that. You never have this much trouble. What's going on?"

"I'm just...I have to go on patrol and homework, and I had decathlon after school and I had to study for my midterms…" She trailed off, staring down at her lap, eyes getting wet. "I'm sorry. I...I just...sometimes I feel like I can't do all of it and…" She sniffed, and he tightened the arm he had around her.

"Pen, you can't do it all." He told her softly. "It's too much. You're just a kid."

"I'm Spidergirl." She whispered.

"Yeah. You're also fifteen. You need to sleep. Every night. Out of every habit of mine I don't want you to pick up, this is number one." She shrugged instead of answering, staring down at her lap. "Look, I know it's a lot. You've got patrols and school and your friends and the internship. And I know it must be hard to hard to balance all that. So...how about, tonight, you sleep. And tomorrow morning, when you wake up, we can talk about it. Maybe figure out a better system."

She yawned, leaning against his side, head dropping onto his shoulder. "Do we have to tell May?"

He chuckled a little, rubbing a hand up and down her arm. "Maybe. Go to bed and we'll discuss it in the morning."

"Mkay." She muttered, starting to turn and fall onto the bed. He pulled the covers back, helping her get situated, then pulled them back up to her shoulders.

"Alright, kiddo. Get some sleep." He murmured, running a hand through her hair.

"Thanks, Mssr. S'rk…love you." She muttered. He froze at her side, hand shaking just a little before it landed on her shoulder, patting her arm gently.

He loved her too. He'd never said it. Not to anyone. But of course, he loved her...she was his kid.

"I love you too, kid." He whispered, leaning down and pressing his lips to her hair. "Fri, lights. Soundproof the room. I'll see you in the morning, Pen."

He was unsurprised to find that she was already asleep. Smiling softly, he closed the door behind him, leaning against it for a moment. "Fri, you get that on film?"

"Yes boss."

"Save it to the archive, please."

"Already done, boss."

Thank you for reading!