Notes: From a prompt by derpmallow and posted by idk-bruh-20 (#70) on Tumblr. Really unsure about how this one turned out, though I like parts of it, and it was good practice. Infinity War and Endgame: Never a thing in my writing unless I explicitly say it is. We don't live in that reality.


The first time Peter scared Tony, they were working in the lab together. After Peter had turned down a spot on the Avengers, Tony had to rethink his approach. It helped him remember that even though Peter had extraordinary abilities, he was still very much a kid, and maybe that wasn't the best or only way to keep an eye on him. He had offered Peter an internship - a real one- working with him twice a week after school. So far, he had been pleasantly surprised with the results. He knew the kid was smart, but his intelligence and insight had already blown Tony away several times as they worked on Tony's projects together.

Tony had never been one to enjoy working with others. Most people couldn't keep up. Bruce was an exception; they had had some great collaborations. But he generally just worked alone, and he thought he preferred it that way. But working with Peter was actually… enjoyable? The kid seemed to know what Tony needed before he did sometimes, and even had some good ideas Tony hadn't thought of sometimes.

He sure did talk a lot, though. Like constantly, all the time. Which is why Tony suddenly felt uneasy when he realized he hadn't heard the kid say anything in 15-20 minutes. He looked over to Peter's workstation, and his heart suddenly jumped out of his chest when he saw the kid sprawled awkwardly along the workbench like he had fallen there. Tony startled and ran over to the teen's side, shaking him gently.

"Kid?! Peter?! Are you okay?" Had he been poisoned? He was too young for a heart attack. Was he- "FRIDAY? Scan him!" It took just a moment for his AI to comply, but the man didn't breathe until she spoke.

"Scans are normal, Boss. Mr. Parker just seems to be in a deep sleep."

"Are you sure? How could he sleep like.. that?" Tony regarded the off-kilter kid in confusion, his head tipped strongly to the side.

"99.2% sure, Boss."

"What's going on with that .8%, sweetheart?" He nudged Peter again, wishing he would just open his eyes, so he could verify.

"There is a minute chance that his spider DNA could be contributing in an unpredictable way."

Tony narrowed his eyes.

"Everything points to him just being in asleep, though," FRIDAY continued quickly.

Tony sighed. He thought Peter probably hadn't been getting enough rest. Maybe it just caught up with him finally.

He reached down and scooped the slack-limbed teenager into his arms, grunting as he did. He was heavier than he looked. He made a mental note to suit up beforehand if he needed to carry the kid again. At least he had elevators.

"FRIDAY, call May Parker." She picked up quickly.

"Tony? Everything okay? Is Peter on his way back? He didn't answer his phone a few minutes ago."

"So, I got a little carried away on a project, and by the time I noticed, he was asleep at his work bench. And I can't seem to wake him. Is that… normal?"

May laughed, sounding more relaxed. "Oh, absolutely. If he falls asleep randomly like that, good luck waking him before morning. He's almost literally dead to the world."

Tony let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding as he had waited for her reply.

"Oh, good. I was actually a little worried. So, any issue if he just sleeps in the guest room? If not, I can have Happy bring him home, but I'm concerned about what your neighbors might think if they see him pulling a body out of the back seat…"

She chuckled again. "No, that's fine. I'm actually covering for someone tomorrow morning, so he can just come home whenever."

Tony was surprised at the rush of anticipation he felt at unexpectedly getting to work with Peter again tomorrow.

"Oh, okay, sounds good. Later, May. End call."

As he (gently) dumped Peter on the guest room bed and pulled his sneakers off (hmm, those needed to be replaced) his hand hesitantly smoothed the boy's hair down. His face was so young, so unlined by the world's cares still. Tony felt grateful again, for the third time in as many weeks, that Peter had turned down his offer to be an Avenger. Even if he eked another six months or so of childhood out, considering everything going on in his life, Tony would consider it a success.


2

It was just a few weeks before Christmas, and New York had been hit with a cold snap. On this ordinary Thursday night, Pepper was out of town overnight and Tony was looking forward to indulging in one of his guilty pleasures that she had zero patience for: watching reruns of "Chasing Classic Cars." There was something soothing about watching them find and restore some old beauties. With all that had been going on, he hadn't had time to actually work on any of his.

As he carried his questionable-nutritional-content snack and a steaming mug of hot cider (because it was almost Christmas) towards the couch, he said, "FRI, be a dear and pull up the one with all the Bentleys."

She blinked an acknowledgement, and the tv screen flared to life. Tony started to sit down, when his body suddenly registered that something wasn't right.

"AAAA-URG!" he exclaimed, doing the crazy start-to-sit-then-shift-your-weight thing as he met resistance much higher up than the couch should be. He inadvertently threw his mug as he fell to the side and forward, and it landed just off the carpet, shattering loudly.

The lump however, did not stir. Without even registering he'd done it, Tony had assembled his wrist gauntlet, and was pointing it at the Christmas-blanket- covered bulk on his couch.

"FRIDAY," he hissed. "WHAT is that?"

"That is Mr. Parker, sir. He came in earlier, because his suit heater was malfunctioning, and he needed to warm up for a few minutes before finishing swinging home. Karen said he was up much of the night last night studying for a final, and he fell asleep approximately 45 minutes ago."

"Why in heaven's name didn't you tell me?"

"There is no protocol that exists to alert you when Mr. Parker enters on non-internship days."

Well. He'd be fixing that.

"Scan him, FRI. Any injuries?"

"He appears to be in good health. Just sleep deprived, and his temperature was too low when he came in. It has stabilized."

"Why didn't Karen notify me about the heater?" There was a pause, maybe while FRIDAY conferred with Karen.

"Mr. Parker asked her not to. He didn't want to bother you when it was already late."

He shouldn't be able to do that. He and the Fred kid must have been messing with the programming in his suit again.

"FRI, make a note for me to upgrade his suit security again this week."

"Yes, Boss." That should buy him a few more months at least. He really needed to figure out how to motivate those darn kids to leave the suit alone. So far he hadn't figured it out. They were just too smart, and Peter was just too set on doing things his own way. He thought Tony babied him.

Speaking of. What to do with the Spiderbaby ensconced on his couch?

"FRI, call May Parker."

"Hello?"

"Hey, May. I just found Peter on my couch doing one of his narcolepsy-tricks. I guess he got cold on the way home and stepped in to warm up without telling me. You need him back tonight?"

She sighed. "No, but he has school in the morning. Would Happy be able to bring him home early enough to change and grab his bag?"

"Happy's off tomorrow, but I can do it. He has stuff here; we'll just have to swing by for his backpack."

"If you're sure."

"Of course. Night, May."

Tony eyed the cider mess, but wasn't up to dealing with it tonight. He sighed, and sat down with his snack, grumbling, "Scoot over, Mr. Benedict, this is my couch."

He did reach over and pull the blanket away from Peter's face so the kid could breathe. There was absolutely zero reaction, and Tony couldn't help but put his hand on the boy's back to make sure he could feel him breathing, even though FRIDAY had assured him he was fine. No one was around to comment if he left his hand there for an episode. Or maybe two.


3

After his heart returned to normal, Tony growled, wiped the coffee off his arm that had splashed with the jump, and nearly yelled, "Peter Benjamin Parker!"

Of course there was no response. How did he even get up there? The kid was in the corner of the lab, stuck to the ceiling in a ball of limbs, and apparently completely asleep. He was dressed in his regular school clothes, topped with one of Tony's old MIT sweatshirts (he had wondered where that one was), and there seemed to be a few papers smashed between him and the ceiling, but otherwise Tony was clueless.

"FRIDAY, how did he do that?"

"Mr. Parker was studying for an exam while he waited for you to come back from your phone call, and must have gotten sleepy."

"Studying seems to trigger that for him," he said dryly. "But the ceiling, FRI? Why is he on the ceiling?"

"He said it helps him stay focused. There are too many interesting things to distract him in the lab."

Tony rubbed the back of his neck. He was getting too old for this. "This" being Tony getting scared or startled within an inch of his life every few months by Peter unexpectedly falling asleep somewhere.

The main problem at this point was that the teen was almost impossible to wake when he had a "nap-attack" like this, especially if he couldn't even reach him. But Tony didn't know how the spider-stickiness worked in this situation. Would it keep him up there until he woke up? Would he try to roll over and hit the floor? Would a new phase of sleep cause him to let go and plummet to the hard tiles below? Should he try to wake him?

Which is why, nearly 9 hours later, Peter Parker woke up in surprise to find the lab couch, surrounded by possibly every throw pillow in Stark Towers on the ground beneath him. Oh. Had he fallen asleep up here? That was kind of weird. He yawned, and checked the time on his watch. Still two hours before he needed to leave for school. He gracefully dropped and landed in the center of the couch, resuming where he'd left off on his big American History review. Ugh, history was so boring compared to science and math.

He heard some scrambling, and Tony suddenly appeared in the doorway from the other end of the lab. He looked worried, but then when he saw that Peter was fine, and was already studying again, he narrowed his eyes and shook his head in disgust. The engineer rummaged through a cupboard next to the door, chucked a protein bar at Peter (who caught it without even registering it) and stalked out of the room.

"I'm going to bed now."

The teenager shook his head, bemused. What was up with him? If he was tired, maybe he should have gone to bed before 5 AM…


4

Tony Stark didn't have the best sleep schedule. He was proud of himself when he actually headed to bed very close to midnight. Not quite soon enough that Pepper was still awake, but baby steps.

He walked through his bedroom into the dressing room and then into the bathroom, leaving the lights off so as not to wake his fiancee. He was mulling over an issue he'd been trying to fix in his newest Iron Man suit, and was just about to climb into bed maybe 10 minutes later when his leg brushed against something that shouldn't have been there. He was familiar enough with his own bedroom that he knew where all the furniture was, even in the dark, and there were "solid" spaces and "blank" spaces in his head that he knew he could walk through. This was definitely supposed to be a "blank" space.

He only barely managed not to yell as he startled sideways and then froze. The "solid" space didn't move at all.

"FRIDAY," he whispered. "Lights at 5%"

His eyes adjusted quickly and he saw that the thing he'd bumped into was a certain spiderling's leg. A leg that looked wet, and probably shouldn't be. He used his phone flashlight to get a better look. Yep, that was his kid, still in the Spiderman suit, sprawled at an extremely ungainly angle in the chair, and his leg was slick with blood. He appeared to have passed out there.

Tony's heart nearly hammered out of his chest for the second time as he said, "FRIDAY, scan Peter. What's wrong with him? Is he unconscious?"

"Scan is normal, other than a 2-inch slash in his right calf. The bleeding has slowed to almost nothing, but some stitches are recommended."

"But why isn't he awake? Did he hit his head?"

"Just sleeping, I think. He came into the room just a few minutes after you and was waiting to talk to you when he apparently fell asleep."

"And why didn't you notify me?"

"Peter didn't want to wake Pepper, and promised he was coming to you immediately, so he said a notification was redundant."

This dang kid.

Ugh. He had promised himself he'd suit up before trying to move the lanky but solid teen, but he couldn't exactly do that if he wanted Pepper to stay asleep. He knew better than to try to wake him, at least here in the bedroom. It took quite a lot of effort.

He pulled him into his arms, trying to avoid jostling the bloody leg, and left his suite, headed for Medbay. Thankfully there were medical personnel on duty at all hours, and they wouldn't need to wake anyone for stitches. Tony could even do it if he had to, but he'd rather not.

As he exited the elevator into Medbay, he heard a slight gasp from the on-duty desk. Then he realized how this probably looked. He was dressed in his pajamas, carrying an unmasked Spiderman, whose leg was almost dripping blood, and who looked completely lifeless in his arms.

"Cool your jets; he's okay," Tony said mildly. "He probably just needs stitches, and he's completely passed out asleep."

"Oh, um, are you sure?" the PA stammered, looking askance at Peter's drifting head.

"Yeah," Tony said ruefully. "FRIDAY says so. I'm actually really curious if the stitching will even wake him. He's usually down for the count when he's like this."

It turns out, the stitches did wake Peter, who came to with a start and an "Ow!"

"Easy Roo," Tony crooned, motioning the PA back for a moment and trying to settle the kid quickly before his super strength caused any problems.

"What, what's going on?" Peter said, holding still on the table now, but still blinking in confusion.

"Well, you showed up in my room, bleeding all over the place, and promptly fell asleep on the chair. Remember that? Scared the living daylights out of me."

"Oh, maybe… yeah," Peter seemed more with it now, and he nodded sheepishly. "I don't remember the falling asleep part though, sorry."

Tony motioned, inviting the woman back over to continue her task, and she resumed the micro injections that should numb the area long enough if she worked quickly. Peter was a frequent flier in Medbay for small injuries like this.

Peter flinched again, and instinctively grabbed out towards Tony, who caught his flailing arm and stepped in closer to support his side.

"Why don't you lay back, Pete, and let her work? You need a few stitches before we can get you back to bed."

Peter swallowed, and obediently tried to lay down, his tension dropping as the local anesthesia kicked in.

Tony moved to his head, running his fingers gently through the teen's damp hair. They had been curls a week ago, but Peter had gotten a haircut a few days ago, Tony recalled grumpily. At least his hair grew fast.

"So, you want to tell me why you decided it was a good idea to stalk me in my room instead of heading down to Medbay yourself and having them or Karen call me?"

"I remembered Pepper was here this weekend, and I didn't want to disturb you, but FRI said you'd already gone up to your room. I was just going to wait until you came out and then let you know I was going to stay the night, and that I got a little nick from a knife-"

Tony snorted at his phrasing and at the babbling. He always had a lot of excuses and reasons on hand at times like this.

"I didn't even really think it would need stitches, Tony, honesty. I wouldn't have even bothered you except last time you made me promise that-"

"Okay, okay, kid. I'm glad it's not too bad, but it definitely does need stitches. And I know how you feel about those; I would have come down with you. For future reference, Pep would understand if she got disturbed briefly. My heart can only take so much, you know. A bloody kid in the dark in my bedroom is horror film fodder."

Peter had the sense to look apologetic, but was also fighting a little smirk.

"At least you didn't try to do it yourself again."

"Didn't want to bother you," sighed the boy. Just barely still a boy. One more year of high school. Tony shook those thoughts away.

"You're not a bother, Roo, not ever." Tony smoothed his kid's hair back as the PA finished up the stitches and cleaned everything up. He mentally rearranged his schedule the next day so he'd have time to repair the spider suit as well. Or maybe he'd make Peter do it. He was probably up to the task these days.

"Let's get you to bed, kid. But I'm not carrying you this time, stitches or no stitches."

Peter rolled his eyes with a grin, and gingerly stood. Despite his grumbling, Tony was fast to get an arm under his and support him over to the elevator.


5

Whatever that thing had been, it had sure given them a run for their money. It had taken Spiderman, Iron Man, Captain America, and the Falcon several hours to finally herd it away from downtown and eventually, finally figure out that electricity was its weakness. By the time they'd blasted it away to nothingness, everyone looked a little haggard.

They were all worn out, but Tony noticed that Peter, especially, was flagging. By the time they got back to the Tower, he was staggering a bit.

"FRIDAY, anything actually wrong with him? Any injuries?" he said quietly, while Peter was talking to Sam about something. FRIDAY knew who he was referring to without him being specific.

"He does not appear to be injured, but his blood sugar is quite low."

Ah, that made sense. At the rate his kid burned calories, it could make for some difficulties in a long encounter. He walked to the fridge, pulled out a Powerade, and tossed it at the younger hero.

"Heads up, bud," he said, almost as an afterthought as Peter caught it. He looked at Tony quizzically.

"FRI said your blood sugar's in the toilet. Drink that before dinner."

Peter rolled his eyes, but obediently drank the offering. Tony ordered copious amounts of pizza (because it was fastest) and a few salads to appease Pepper, and before long the kid wasn't looking quite so trashed. Tony stopped worrying so much about him and moved on to trying to figure out where that weird creature had come from.

Later that night as Tony was heading to his room from the lab, he walked past Peter's room and stopped abruptly at the open door. The spiderling had said he was turning in a little early, but that was over an hour ago. But instead of being in bed, he was sprawled across the floor. Tony didn't even think, but immediately ran into the room, dropping to the ground next to his kid.

"FRIDAY, what's wrong?" He knew he was acting weird earlier. Did he have a head injury? Internal bleeding? Some weird spider reaction to something? What had FRIDAY's scans not caught? Tony's mind was ramping up into overload territory fast as he tried to check Peter's pupils and take his pulse.

Pulse was strong. His eyes weren't doing anything weird.

"He appears to be fine, Boss. Just sleeping."

"On the dang floor? What was he thinking?"

"He seemed to be doing some stretching on the floor before going to bed, but instead he just fell asleep there. I would have alerted you if he was in any danger." The AI sounded a bit affronted.

This dang kid was going to scare him into an early grave. Apparently the mission earlier had worn him out more than he had let on.

Tony had learned a few tricks by now for waking Peter up enough to at least get him to a bed, and he managed to bring him out of it enough to help him stumble over and lay down. Peter automatically scooted in so there was space for Tony to sit next to him, and Tony did, his hand moving into place in his kid's hair.

"Could you please try to find a horizontal surface that's not the floor before you pass out on me next time, tesoro?" He said this quietly, and frankly, rhetorically, because Peter was already 85% asleep again. He reached down and pressed a kiss to his brow before giving his hair one more swipe.

"Night dad," his overgrown teenager mumbled. Tony's eyes widened, and he grinned softly.

"You get that FRI?"

"Yes, Boss."

"Probably worth the heart attack," Tony said softly to himself as he stood up and walked towards the door. He turned back before leaving for one last look and shook his head fondly. What a kid.


+1

Spiderman had been on quite a few missions with the Avengers. Mostly small stuff. Nothing they expected to go badly, though it sometimes did. It was hard to keep him home, honestly, especially now that school was out and he was just waiting to go to MIT in the fall. It was accepted knowledge (among the actual adults) that Tony was excited for him to go, if only so he wouldn't be so accessible for missions and for chances to get hurt.

Usually Tony or Rhodey (or both) also latched on to any mission Peter was involved in and kept tabs on him, as well as kept him fueled up on protein bars and Powerade. But this time neither of them had been available, and the mission was supposed to be a boring one. Just an abandoned Hydra base they wanted to go through for any intel or weapons that had been left behind. Tony and Peter had low-key argued about him going, but Tony had finally given in to him, especially when May wouldn't back him up either.

So Spiderman had come along, joining Steve, Nat, Bucky, and Sam. Except the base hadn't been abandoned like their information had said, and they ended up in a 4-hour firefight before they pried every operative out. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured, and they were able to clear everything out, but it was rough going.

On the two hour flight back to the Compound on the Quinjet, no one noticed that the kid was extra quiet. If anyone had thought to ask FRIDAY if something was wrong with him, she would have reported nothing but low blood sugar and exhaustion. But no one asked FRIDAY, and no one noticed when Peter fell asleep in his seat.

But they definitely noticed as they were getting ready to land. Except he wouldn't wake up, and they didn't like how pale he looked. But no one thought to ask FRIDAY, they just panicked.

"Holy crap. If we killed Tony's kid, he's going to end us." That was Bucky, ever the optimist.

"Sam?" Steve entreated.

"I can't do anything right this second. Let's finish landing and I'll check him out."

"Could he have hit his head?" Nat looked more worried about Peter than she was about Tony finding out, at least.

"Could he have contacted any poison? Wouldn't his suit have reported that?"

"Can we ask Karen?"

"Maybe if we put his mask on…"

At that point they had landed, and Sam and Steve both launched to his side.

"Pulse is fine, if a little slow." Sam performed a few other vitals tests. Everything looked good, but the kid didn't wake with any of the talking or prodding. Something was obviously wrong.

"Do you think it's safe to pick him up? We can take him down to Medbay," Steve said hesitantly.

"Yeah, carefully pick him up, and we'll do that. They can figure out what's wrong."

Just then, from outside the Quinjet, they heard a voice none of them wanted to. "How'd everything go? You guys are back later than you thought." The other Avengers all froze.

Nat was acting weird, Tony thought. She was explaining how the base hadn't been abandoned, and about the fight that had ensued. Tony felt his brow crease in worry.

"Everyone okay though? Nothing serious?"

Nat was silent, and Tony felt his heart rate pick up.

"Where's Peter?"

Sam came walking out of the Quinjet, his hands up in supplication. "Now Tony, he seemed absolutely fine after the mission, and on the way home. Then just recently he-"

Tony brushed the man aside and ran to where he saw Steve carrying Peter out. The youngest Avenger didn't look great, hanging limply in the super soldier's arms.

"Did he hit his head? What's wrong?"

"We just don't know," Steve said forlornly. "He was fine!"

Then Tony narrowed his eyes and his eyebrows crept up in thought. "FRIDAY, scan please."

"Mr. Parker has low blood sugar, and various cuts and scrapes, but otherwise is fine. He's just-"

And Tony finished her sentence with her, finally relaxing, "fast asleep. Yeeaaah, he does this sometimes." He hooked his thumbs in his pockets, rocking back on his heels. "Was no one feeding him?" He shook his head in annoyance, gesturing for Steve to follow him inside.

"Come put him on the couch, Capsicle. I'll see if I can wake him up and get him to eat something."

The other Avengers followed slowly behind, exchanging glances of confusion. This was okay? This was… normal?

"Someone seriously needs to write a manual on that Spiderkid before turning him loose on people. Weirdest crap I've ever seen," Bucky complained.

"I'm working on it," said Tony, as he ran his fingers through the said Spiderkid's curls. "Come on, Pete. Time to rejoin the land of the living. You've caused enough heart attacks today."