"Boss, you have not eaten since 6 PM yesterday, and your blood sugar is low. You should eat something."

Tony rolled his eyes at FRIDAY, and continued to mess with the toaster. It had been sticking lately, and Tony had it in pieces across the counter. Should be an easy fix, which he desperately needed right now.

Ugh. What a week it had been, and it was only Wednesday. Tony had been in Washington D.C. since Monday trying to work through more Accords issues, and Ross had been especially obnoxious. He still hadn't let go of the idea that Tony had something to do with the Raft escape (more, he just removed certain obstacles…) and had made it his personal mission to block everything Tony tried to do. He was also upset that Tony wouldn't bring Spiderman in to sign the Accords, though the level of road blocking that was taking had gotten ridiculous.

Plus, Pepper was in Malibu today, and hadn't had time to go to D.C. with him, so he hadn't even had her calming presence to help him deal with any of it. He'd also sent Happy with her, because he'd been a little extra worried about something happening to her lately. Just chronic anxiety, rearing its lovely head because he didn't have enough real problems to worry about.

Now it was Wednesday afternoon, and he'd only been home for about an hour after their "morning" meeting had gone straight through lunch and then jumped on his jet, ready to be rid of the city. And Tony had been so eager to be in a different state than Ross that he hadn't even stopped for lunch. He probably should eat something.

Just then, his phone dinged. It was the kid.

Hey Mr. Stark!

Happy said he's out of town today, and he didn't know if you'd be back or not

Do we have to cancel today, or should I just swing over, or take the subway, or…

Oh, right. Wednesday was an internship day. He really should cancel. He was in no condition to be mentoring anyone today, and the kid didn't deserve to deal with him in this state of anxious overthinking. And he wasn't sure how well he'd do at pretending he wasn't a mess today.

But his fingers weren't listening to him, so instead he said,

Sure, kid. I'll pick you up. Give me 45 minutes.

I can really take the subway, sir. It's no problem.

I'll be there. Don't make me wait.

Tony wasn't sure what he'd been thinking, volunteering to deal with mid-afternoon traffic between Manhattan and Queens. It had done nothing to lower his anxiety levels. Or maybe he should have grabbed a protein bar before he headed out the door. Whatever. He'd eat while the kid snacked at the Tower later, maybe. Food just didn't sound good today.

He pulled up to the curb near Peter's house and let Peter know he was there. Within just a couple of minutes, the enthusiastic teen was climbing into the front seat and settling his backpack at his feet. Just seeing his excited face made Tony smile as well.

"Hey, Underoos, how's it going?"

"Great, Mr. Stark. Ned and I rebuilt most of his LEGO Death Star last night while we watched a couple hours of the Clone Wars series, and it was awesome. How was D.C.?"

Tony lost his good mood. "Ugh. It would be so much better without the politicians."

That made Peter smile, but he was immediately distracted by a text which turned his face more serious, and then calculating. Tony only saw it because he was looking that direction to see if it was clear, but now he wondered what was up.

"Hey, Mr. Stark?" Peter suddenly spoke up. "I'm starving. Any chance we can grab something to eat before we head to the Tower? Maybe Delmar's?"

Tony still hadn't pulled out into traffic yet, and he turned his body to scrutinize Peter's face. The kid could always eat, but usually waited for Tony to offer, rather than asking for food. Something was up. Peter's expression was pure innocence, but then his attention returned to his phone, which had dinged with another message.

Suddenly Tony knew what was happening.

"FRIDAY, you have a big mouth," he grumbled in annoyance.

"Boss, I don't have a mouth at all, so it is impossible to assign it a size."

Tony had given FRIDAY access to text and receive messages from Peter's phone several weeks before when he'd been out of communication and Happy had been in a meeting and Peter had ended up stranded somewhere briefly. Apparently his AI was now using that access for nefarious busybody purposes and had probably tattled to Peter about Tony's blood sugar.

"She said I haven't eaten yet, right?" Peter's face indicated that wasn't all. "What else, FRI? Spit it out."

"I merely informed Mr. Parker that your stress levels have been elevated the last few days, and that since you got back from D.C. that your cortisol levels have been unusually high. That indicates a combination of stress and sub-standard sleep. Combining that with low blood sugar is an especially bad idea."

"Why are you bugging Peter about it, though?" Tony growled.

"Because according to historic data, Mr. Parker has a 72.5% higher chance of influencing you to improve your cortisol levels than I do."

"C'mon, Mr. Stark," Peter said softly, "you know I'm always hungry anyway, and I haven't had Delmar's in weeks. Please?"

Against his better judgment, Tony turned his head back to look at the kid, whose big, beseeching brown eyes were full of concern. Tony swore under his breath.

"FRIDAY, I'm going to reprogram you to only speak in rhyme." The AI was silent for a moment as she considered his threat.

"That seems like it would be more of a punishment for you than for me, Boss," FRIDAY said dryly. Dang it. She was right.

After they'd both eaten a sandwich, Tony did feel a little better, and FRIDAY stopped nagging him, so he decided to forget the whole thing.

Peter was especially excited when they got to the lab that day, because Tony had promised he could do the final programming on the new webshooters they'd been working on. Tony wanted him to have something like his watch-gauntlet, that he could always have with him for emergencies, but that were more portable and less obvious than when he'd seen Peter wearing the web shooters under long sleeves or something. It's like the kid wanted everyone to find out he was Spiderman.

Peter had actually gotten really good at manipulating his holo tables, and Tony enjoyed sipping his coffee and just watching the boy work, offering advice or answering questions when needed. It had been slow going at first as he learned how to manipulate everything. Since Tony had designed everything himself for his own use, it's not like there was a manual the kid could study. He just had to learn by doing. But by now, he rarely needed help to manipulate existing designs, and was starting to figure out how to build his own designs, or at least pieces of them, using Tony's tools. It was more gratifying than Tony would have expected to watch someone else working in his space so easily. And Peter got carried away as readily as Tony did himself when a project was flowing and nearing completion like this one.

Which is why Tony was surprised when Peter glanced at his watch at about 7 PM and said, "FRIDAY, please save project, including all existing changes, and store." Tony usually had to drag him away, so what was…

His question was answered when Peter turned to him, bright-eyed and cheerful, and said, "Hey, Mr. Stark, are you up for a movie night? May is working until tomorrow morning, and I'd rather stay here tonight, if it's okay with you? Can we order like… burgers and salads or something?"

Tony narrowed his eyes. That was another first. Peter stayed over probably twice a month, but it usually only happened if Tony suggested it, or they got so involved it was too late for Peter to go home easily. Normally he'd be thrilled that the kid had taken the initiative to ask, but he was feeling pretty suspicious tonight. And salads? That wasn't something either Peter or Tony usually ate unless Pepper was here to guilt them.

"Peter Benjamin Parker, are you trying to handle me? Trying to get me to eat salad and probably fall asleep during a movie, because of what FRIDAY told you?" He glared at the boy as menacingly as he could.

The boy's face fell. "Oh, sorry, sir. If you don't want me to stay here, I can totally just stay at the apartment by myself. I think we have some leftover mac & cheese in the fridge too, so I'm good to go." The kid then headed over to get his backpack, shoulders slumping, throwing a parting, "Hey, I can just catch the subway, so you don't have to drive me too, because-"

"Parker, you are undeniably the worst teenager to ever exist. I don't know why I even put up with you. Get your butt upstairs and order whatever ridiculous healthy-ish thing you think it's your responsibility to make me eat tonight. But I am picking the movie. And Star Wars is not one of the possibilities."

Peter glanced back over his shoulder, a sly grin on his face. Then he turned, dropping his backpack, and walked back over to Tony. "Since apparently you're too smart for me to pull anything over on you, can we skip the pretend-play, and can I have a hug?"

Tony's brain short-circuited. "Excuse me?"

"Hugs reduce cortisol levels. I can send you the journal articles if you want." And then the kid stepped right into his space and wrapped his arms around Tony's middle and squeezed, while the mechanic sputtered a non-reply. But after about five seconds, Tony gave into the warm feeling growing where his arc reactor used to be, and he returned the hug, leaning into the physical reassurance he hadn't even known he needed tonight. Peter didn't let go until Tony did, and he pushed the kid away with a rough tousle of his hair.

"Okay, okay, I'm all hugged. Can we please go upstairs now? Because we are watching the Star Trek reboot, and you don't get to complain about it at all."

"Ugh, Mr. Stark!" Peter whined, grabbing his backpack and following his mentor out into the elevator.

The same awful teenager smiled smugly at about 10 PM that night when Tony started snoring softly next to him on the couch. He tugged the soft blanket up a little higher around his mentor's shoulders.

"FRIDAY, play Star Wars Episode VI."