Nightmares and Hot Chocolate

Since Pepper has left Tony, again, and Rhodey busy with the army and only managing phone calls, Tony has become a little lonelier. He wouldn't outright admit it, Tony never admitted his weaknesses.

Peter noticed though. He knew Tony appreciated his company, there were plenty of times he expressed that. The problem was, Peter couldn't be there every second of every day, no matter how much he wanted to be. Peter made sure to take it upon himself to visit Tony as much as possible and make their time as special as possible when he was around. He owed it to Tony for Tony had done so much for him.

It was currently one of the weekends where Peter was allowed to stay over. Of course, part of the deal was he had to finish his homework by Sunday night. Thankfully, he had two days before he had to do anything.

Most of the day Tony was sharing some stories that happened to him and Rhodey in college and now Peter had a whole roster of blackmail to use against the colonel. Little did Tony realize that Peter also picked up some embarrassing moments for him too.

Then later the two of them had a movie marathon that consisted of Back to the Future, Ghostbusters and of course Star Wars.

Because it was a weekend, Tony didn't force Peter to go to bed early and let him stay up until one in the morning. Perhaps not the most responsible thing to do, but Peter had stayed up later before during sleepovers with Ned. And when he had a hard time falling asleep.

It was around 2:00AM when Peter's enhanced hearing picked up sound coming all the way from Tony's room. Peter wasn't that deep in sleep anyway, so he didn't mind doing a little check-up. Besides, even if he had been in a deeper sleep, he was worried about the noises coming from Tony's room.

Peter slid on some slippers, threw on a housecoat, and made his way to Tony's room. He silently pushed the door open. His heart stuttered when he saw his mentor, his father figure, trembling and moving in jerky motions in bed getting trapped in his blankets.

"Mister Stark," Peter whispered, coming up to his bed.

Tony was sweating and his heartbeat sounded terrible. He had only been asleep for an hour…How could this happen so soon?

Tony's groans and whimpers broke Peter's heart. He placed a gentle hand on Tony's shoulder.

"Wake up, Mister Stark," Peter said, a little louder.

Peter touching him seemed to make it worse because Tony's body jerked worse now and his breathing became more panicked. Peter grabbed his wrists when Tony started flailing his hands up to push Peter away from him, his eyes still screwed shut.

"Mister Stark, please wake up!" Peter yelled.

Tony was not giving up this nightmare without a fight and tried to get free of Peter's grasp. Peter tightened his grip just a little so as to not hurt him and pinned his hands to the bed.

"Tony!"

Peter felt a sense of relief wash through him as Tony finally opened his eyes, even if they were wide and confused as to what was happening. It took Tony a moment to process that it was Peter who was there with him and not someone else.

"You're okay," Peter said, softly. He gently ran his fingers through Tony's hair. It was sweaty. "You're safe here."

Tony swallowed hard. His body became lax and his eyelids lowered. His heartbeat was still taking a moment to settle but at least Tony recognized Peter and felt safe enough to relax his body.

"What are you doing here?" Tony asked.

"I heard you from my room," Peter replied, honestly. "I was worried so I thought I'd check on you."

Tony chuckled but there was no humour in it. Peter helped Tony get untangled from his blankets and then proceeded to help him sit upright.

"How long was I freaking out?"

Peter shrugged. "That part doesn't matter. What matters now is that you're awake."

Tony nodded silently.

"Uhm, I guess you don't want to talk about it," Peter mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

Tony sighed. "Not really."

"I'm here for you when you are ready though," Peter reassured with a smile.

Tony smiled, a genuine smile this time. This was usually the other way around. Tony was usually the one who had to help Peter. Either way, Peter was going to do what he could and if Tony didn't want to talk about his actual nightmare, he had another idea.

"You always offer me hot chocolate after nightmares, so how about we do that?" Peter suggested.

"Hot chocolate sounds good." Tony nodded.

"Great! It's better than coffee at this hour because then you won't get to sleep again until like twelve in the afternoon and-"

"Okay, I get it. Stop talking for a second and breathe."

Peter took in a deep breath and then exhaled. Tony rolled his eyes fondly.

And so they went to the kitchen and Tony instructed Peter on how to make hot chocolate even though he knew how to make it. Peter felt a warm feeling spread through his body when he saw Tony use his World's Best Iron Dad mug that Peter made for him.

After a moment, Tony came to a realization.

"You shouldn't stay up just for me," he said, narrowing his eyes. His tired eyes, Peter noticed.

"I want to." Peter shrugged. "I was barely asleep anyway."

"And so you should try to sleep again," Tony pressed.

"Nope!" Peter chimed, innocently.

Tony, once again, rolled his eyes.

Once their hot chocolate was done they went to the living room and had FRIDAY put on a random TV series. Peter leaned against Tony's shoulder casually. And just as casually as Peter leaned against him, Tony wrapped an arm around Peter's shoulder.

"Thanks, Underoos."

Peter smiled and snuggled into him. Tony kissed his temple.

It was a pretty relaxing night after that.

Author's Note: Hey, ya'll. Back again. It's just a quick, shorter one this time. The idea just popped in my head and I wanted to write it down so I did.

That's all for now. I'll see ya'll in the next one.

Thanks for reading!

~Kurosaki