Work Text:
1.
Peter Parker couldn’t sit still with excitement. His dad had finally told him that he could stay up until 9pm. A whole 30 minutes after his bedtime! He knelt in Tony’s big deskchair, leaning over his giant desk with his coloring book and crayons.
“D-Daddy?” he called, sticking his curly head up from his page.
“Yeah, bubba?” Tony asked from where he was tinkering with one of his suits.
“Da-Daddy, lo-look at my picture! It’s-It’s you and Uncle Bwuce!” he exclaimed, struggling to hold his large coloring book up enough for Tony to see.
Tony dropped his screwdriver and stood up from his suit, crossing the room to peer at his five year old son’s work.
“That looks awesome, buddy,” he winked. “I think we should go down tomorrow and show him, huh?”
Peter grinned up at him, all crooked teeth and squinted eyes. Tony ruffled his hair, smiling as the boy yawned and rubbed a hand across his eyes.
“You getting tired, bud?” Tony asked softly, a knowing smile on his face.
Peter just shook his head, moving his attention back to his Avengers-themed coloring book to find a new picture to work on.
“Petey, if you’re tired we can go to bed, you know that, right?” Tony insisted.
Peter just nodded as he picked up a blue crayon. “‘M not tired.”
Tony just shook his head. “Yeah, alright, buddy,” and turned back to his work.
It wasn’t 20 minutes later when Tony glanced towards the desk and found his five year old son sprawled across the top of it, fast asleep with a crayon in his hand. Tony chuckled, and turned towards the clock.
8:20pm.
He didn’t even make it to his regular bedtime.
Tony rinsed his hands off in the sink with a smile. “Alright, kiddo, lets go to bed,” he murmured, hauling him upwards, shushing him as he startled but soon settled against his father’s shoulder.
“We’ll try again some other time,” he hummed as the child pulled his thumb into his mouth.
——
2.
Holed up in his lab, Tony often found it difficult to keep track of time passing, he’d noticed.
It didn’t used to be a problem for him, he rarely had things to wake up in time for. Which wasn’t a bad thing, sometimes he missed his lawless, unscheduled life.
But he’d be lying if he said that his now 8 year old son hadn’t changed his life for the better.
He knew it was getting late by just knowing it’s been a while since the sun had gone down. He figured it was time to be heading to bed when a small voice called out to him.
“D-Daddy?”
Tony jumped at the sound in the otherwise silent lab and turned to the door to see his pajama-clad son, watery-eyed and trembling in his bare feet.
“Petey? It’s late, you should be asleep,” Tony began, despite already knowing what was wrong.
“I-I-I h-had a-a-” he stuttered, scrunching his face up as tears began to fall.
“Hey, hey, hey, buddy, it’s okay, you’re alright,” he shushed as he scooped the boy into his arms. “Just a nightmare, bubba, it’s over now.”
Peter’s sobs were muffled by his father’s t-shirt as Tony rocked him back and forth.
It took a few minutes before Peter could lift his head, his eyes red and watery, his breath hitching with every inhale.
“It’s alright, buddy,” Tony hummed into the kid’s hair. “Do you want to tell me about it?”
Peter’s face just crumpled again as he shook his head.
“Okay, okay, you don’t have to,” Tony murmured. “You want me to bring you back to bed?”
Peter shook his head again into his father’s shoulder, clutching him closer.
“Alright, sweetie, you can stay down here with me for a bit,” he said, sitting down in the desk chair and clutching the child close.
Tony hummed into the kid’s hair as he rocked him, calming his shuddery breaths.
“You wanna sit here and watch me work?” Tony asked quietly, knowing that the child was on the verge of sleep as it was.
Peter just nodded into his chest and Tony slowly stood up and placed him into the desk chair, watching as he folded his arms on the tabletop and rested his chin on it, blinking heavily.
Tony had only just found the screwdriver he needed when the kid’s eyes slid closed with a sigh.
Tony gave him a few minutes to really fall asleep before carefully picking him up and carrying him back upstairs, laying him down in Tony’s kingsized bed rather than his own, just in case he woke up again.
3.
———
“Whatcha doing?” an eleven year old Peter asked as he peered over his father’s shoulder in the lab.
Tony turned to him with a stern look. “Homework, Pete, I’m not gonna tell you again.”
Peter groaned. “But Daaaaad,” he whined, dropping his forehead onto his father’s shoulder. “You know I know how to do this. It’s basic algebra, I’ve been doing this since I could write.”
Tony smirked. “You can do it, can you? Then prove it, finish your homework.”
Peter shut his eyes in frustration. “But she gave me 100 questions, and they’re not due until Monday. Just let me help you here and I can do it tomorrow.”
Tony sat back from his work station. “Buddy, I get that you find math boring right now, but you don’t wanna fall behind by not doing it. If you just put your mind to it you’ll get it done in 20 minutes.”
“And those 20 minutes can be tomorrow,” Peter insisted, picking up his father’s discarded screwdriver.
Tony scoffed and plucked it from his hands. “It’s getting late, Pete, finish your homework and then we’re getting ready for bed. This isn’t a discussion.”
Peter groaned, turning back to his desk in the corner of the lab.
Tony smiled sympathetically at him. “Thanks, buddy.”
Peter just grumbled bitterly and picked up his pencil with a huff.
30 minutes later, Tony looked up from his work, knowing that despite his reluctance, it definitely shouldn’t have taken his son this long to do his math homework.
He glanced over at the desk to find Peter leaned across it, fast asleep, pencil and unused eraser in his lax grip.
Tony glanced at the clock and figured that maybe it was in fact a bit late for homework and he probably should have sent the boy to bed a while ago.
Tony mentally kicked himself, knowing that it wasn’t unusual for the boy to become whiny when he was tired.
He packed up his work and gently coaxed the stationery from his son’s hands before pulling him up to rest against his shoulder.
Peter shifted in his father’s grip before settling into the man’s neck with a sigh. Tony rubbed his back while he murmured, “We can finish tomorrow, buddy.”
————
4.
Tony stood in the kitchen, stirring the pasta he was making him and his son for dinner when he heard a thud from the living room and rushed footsteps across the floor.
“Pete?” Tony called, sticking his head through the doorway to see his fourteen year old son frantically pressing the elevator button.
“No, no, no, no, no,” he mumbled.
“Pete? What’s going on, what’s wrong?” Tony asked with a frown.
“5,000 word essay due tomorrow, not next week,” he whimpered, slamming his hand against the button again. “I haven’t started.”
“Go ahead, buddy, I’ll bring your dinner down when it’s ready,” Tony laughed. Peter just looked at him with wide eyes as the elevator doors closed between them.
Close to midnight, Tony felt it was time to check on his son, having not heard anything from him in about 5 hours. Tony poured the hot chocolate he’d been making into a mug before setting off towards the lab, where Peter had set up his workstation at 5 years old and never moved.
As the elevator doors opened, Tony couldn’t help but smile as he saw his kid curled up with his head on top of his laptop, fast asleep.
Tony set the mug down and checked the still lit screen, specifically the word count, which thankfully read ‘5,006’. Tony made sure to save and print the essay, placing it neatly into the kid’s folder before rubbing a hand across his shoulders.
“Hey... hey, buddy, it’s time for bed, let’s go,” he hummed. Peter just mumbled and tried to turn his head downwards, frowning as his cheek rubbed against his keyboard.
“Pete, lets go, buddy, you did it. It’s finished,” Tony soothed. Peter’s eyes fluttered and he sighed before opening his eyes to peer up at his father.
“Let’s go to bed, huh?” Tony mused.
Peter just nodded, lifting his head to reveal the track of his keyboard down the right side of his face.
Tony kept a hand on the kid’s shoulder as he led him towards the elevator. “You did good, kid.”
—————
+1
Perched on top of a table in his lab, Tony stared at his blueprints projected across the room searching for his problem.
Or at least he was trying to.
Tony flinched as his 18 year old son burst into yet another coughing fit.
“Buddy, that really doesn’t sound too good, you got your inhaler?” Tony asked, a worried frown on his face.
Peter nodded, still coughing into his elbow as he held up his inhaler for this father to see before taking a deep puff, which did nothing for the hacking cough.
“I’m fine,” he wheezed.
“Fine, my ass,” Tony grumbled. “Let me take you down to the MedBay,” he insisted, hopping down from his perch.
Peter shook his head as he coughed again.
“I’m fine, Dad,” he wheezed. “We don’t need to bother them, it’s- it’s not my asthma, it’s just a cough.” He barked again. “A real bad one,” he choked out.
“Kid, I’d feel a lot better if we got that checked out,” Tony hummed, placing a hand on his son’s forehead. “You’ve got a bit of a fever.”
Peter just shook his head, moving to rest his head on his folded arms on the desk. Tony was about to give in when Peter coughed again, a deep, barking cough that came from the depths of his chest and rattled his entire body as it forced its way out.
“Pete, come on, that can’t feel good, let’s get you downstairs,” Tony said, cupping the back of his neck soothingly.
Peter was about to argue when his breath caught in his throat and it took all his strength to not bang his head against the table as he hacked away at his lungs.
Tony grimaced when the kid couldn’t even catch his breath enough to agree, just nodded his head as his chest heaved with more coughs.
Tony helped the kid stand up and within 20 minutes Peter had been brought downstairs, medicated, and put on oxygen (‘just a precaution’, Cho had said, which put Tony’s mind at ease slightly). Although it still made Tony’s heart ache at seeing his son lie on the MedBay bed with the oxygen tube connected to his nose.
Tony watched as the kid’s eyes fought to stay open. “It’s alright, bubba,” Tony hummed, running his fingers through the boy’s curls. “You can rest, I’ll be here when you wake up.”
Peter just blinked heavily before letting his eyes slide shut with a sigh.
—————
5.
“You’ve had a busy week, buddy, go to bed,” Tony smiled fondly, watching as his 18 year old son stifled yet another yawn, sat at his old desk in Tony’s lab.
“I’m fine,” he insisted, rubbing a hand along his jawline. “I hardly got to see you while I was home, we didn’t really get much time to ourselves.”
Tony just smiled, mindlessly tweaking his current project as if he was actually interested in it right now.
“So, how’s MIT? Like, does it live up to your expectations?” Tony asked, choosing to keep the conversation light.
Because he knew his kid. And he knew that he wouldn’t last much longer.
“‘S good,” he mumbled, resting his head on his hands. “Classes are interesting, I guess.” A heavy blink. “Finally with people on my- um, my level.” A short sigh.
“Oh yeah? Tell me, does that old coot still work there? Oh, what was his name? Uh, Spider-Man?” Tony said nonchalantly.
“Uh-huh,” Peter mumbled sleepily.
Tony stifled a chuckle. “Oh, he was the worst. He was an idiot, was never on time, wore this godawful red and blue suit-“
A snore.
Tony took that as a win, standing up and moving towards the boy.
As he watched Peter’s chest rise and fall softly, he was reminded of all the other times he watched his boy fall asleep at his desk. All the times he tried so hard to fight sleep just to stay up with his dad.
He wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Tony cupped his cheek gently, shushing him as he startled. “Come on, buddy, lets go to bed, huh?”
Peter just nodded tiredly. “‘M sorry,” he mumbled.
Tony just scoffed. “For what? Definitely isn’t the first time you’ve fallen asleep in here, and I hope it’s not your last. I love knowing that you care enough to try to stay up to spend time with your old man.”
Peter just smiled sheepishly. “‘M sorry that I didn’t get to spend much time with you this week. I just- got busy.”
“We have forever to spend time with each other, you know that, buddy. I’m not going anywhere,” Tony hummed.
Peter just stifled another yawn.
“Let’s go to bed, huh?”