Epilogue

Tony had an unofficial rule. No one in the HQ was allowed to be up at ungodly hours of the morning except himself, whoever might be having nightmares this time, and Vision, on the android's nightly rounds.

So when Tony shambled out into the hallway to see faint light coming from under the door of the computer lab—and when he poked his head into the dark room to see a fluffy head of brown hair, and a teenager's face looking exhausted in the blue-white light of a computer screen—he took a personal offense.

He flicked on the light. Peter yelped in the sudden brightness.

"What are you doing?" demanded Tony.

"Oww," groaned Peter. "Ugh, my eyes."

"Computer lab is off-limits after dark." Tony strutted to the desk where Peter was sitting and stood close enough to make a point. "I thought Happy already took you home."

Peter shook his head. "May said I could stay. I've got homework."

"What the hell is this?" An aluminum can had fallen on the floor by the trash can. Tony kicked it over and wrinkled his nose. "Monster? Are you even allowed to drink this much caffeine?"

"I didn't mean to finish the whole thing. I'm just tryin'a stay awake." Peter frowned and ruffled his own hair. "Took a five-hour energy earlier, but it's not really working..."

"Okay, no." Tony reached to shut the laptop in front of him. "You need to go home and go to bed."

"No," Peter protested sleepily, shoving him away, "it's all right, I'm fine..."

"When was the last time you slept?" demanded Tony.

Peter rubbed his eye with one finger. "I think I got a couple hours last night. But that was after the gas station got robbed and..." His jaw creaked open in a wide yawn.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Home. Now. Only I'm allowed that level of self-destructive circadian rhythms."

"But it's midterms," whined Peter. "I need the computer lab to study."

Tony sighed and pulled the Stark-Phone out of his pocket. "Do you need me to call May?"

Suddenly awake, Peter sat up straighter. "No!"

"Because I will. And she won't be happy with you."

"Look, it's fine, it's just—she knows I'm out studying. Don't make me go home, Mr. Stark," Peter begged, "the wifi sucks there."

Tony sighed. He couldn't believe he was losing a battle to the kid's puppy-dog eyes. And over sleep, at that; it wasn't lost on him just how much of a hypocrite he'd become.

"Well, at least promise me you'll take a power nap or something," he grumbled. "Nothing is gonna get through to your brain if you're too asleep to process it."

Peter slumped in relief. "Thank you, Mr. Stark."

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about it, kid." Tony reached to dim the lights on the way out, his tone a little gentler than his words. "I'll make sure you get a beanbag in here or something."

When Tony returned with a spare pillow and blanket, Peter was passed out on the desk, drooling into his keyboard.

Tony sighed. The kid really pushed himself too hard. He couldn't judge—he'd done the same thing, panicking and crunching and developing a coffee dependency on those long nights before exams at MIT—but somehow, in hindsight, it seemed kinda silly and sad to put kids through this kind of stress.

Dammit, now he was thinking like an old dude. Pepper was right. Maybe those really were grey hairs.

Peter really must have been wiped. He didn't wake up when Tony pried him off the laptop; the keys had left little red squares in his cheek. Tony shut the laptop, slid it out of the way, and tucked something more comfortable under his head.

The kid's face, as he sank into the pillow, softened into a little smile.

Tony dropped the blanket on Peter's back and shuffled away as fast as he could. He couldn't quite ignore the odd, warm, pully-achy feeling in his chest.

What was that? Where had that come from? Probably the arc reactor acting up again. Yeah. Definitely.

He hadn't meant to get this attached when he dropped in on a three-star apartment in Queens. He'd only meant to get a quick upper hand, guilt Steve into backing down, and never call again. But somehow, the kid had carved out his own place in this odd little family they called the Avengers. Somehow, he'd filled a void that none of them even knew was there.

When Tony first set foot in Queens, he never thought he'd end up here, turning off the light so a kid could catch some Z's in his computer lab.

But, well...in the end, he wouldn't trade it for the world.

A/N: Aaaaaand that's it! In this AU, rather than Peter keeping his "internship" a secret, Tony has May on speed dial. I figure that's more responsible.

Thanks for reading! Reviews are pillows.