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Tony Stark was good at a great many things. However, taking care of himself wasn’t one of them. He had so many thoughts and ideas rushing through his head at any given time that he was constantly pushing himself to his limits. He could work in his lab for hours on end without taking much of a break. He'd work through meal times and well into the night, sometimes not vacating the room for days at a time. It was no surprise that his lack of general self-care often ended with him suffering from a painful headache. Especially when Pepper wasn’t there to persuade him to occasionally come up for some air.
Tony had been elbows deep in at least three simultaneous projects when he felt a dull ache form behind his right eye. He massaged it with the back of his hand and kept going, jumping from task to task. “FRIDAY?” he tiredly requested. “Be a dear and run a test sequence on that industrial control system prototype while I start rewiring the circuitry on this gauntlet.”
“Of course, Boss,” the AI cheerily replied.
Tony nodded once in response and wiped the sweat off of his brow. He could feel the throb of his head beginning to intensify. He tried to disregard it. He had too much to do and an insufficient amount of time to do it. There were numerous deadlines looming over his head and a plethora of personal projects he was supremely invested in. He was determined to get them all done at once.
He sat down and leaned over his desk, wincing as the pain in his head doubled with the new position. Fleetingly, he considered going upstairs and taking a few painkillers. Then FRIDAY notified him of the failed startup attempt leading him to sigh heavily. “Right. So, uh- Go ahead and highlight the origin of the errors and project it onto my main console. I’ll take a look,” he said while firmly pinching the bridge of his nose.
FRIDAY complied, and soon a long string of code was taking up the majority of the large screen that was across the room. He stood up and spanned the distance. Once he got there, he blinked a few times in an attempt to force his eyes to focus on the complexity of the programming language before him. Ultimately, he gave up, dropped down into the chair with an audible ‘oof’, and closed his eyes. “Why don’t you just give me the run-down, Darling? Is it the algorithm or a functionality fault?”
As FRIDAY began to drone on about the roots of the system failures, Tony found himself paying less and less attention. The longer he kept his eyes fastened the more fuzzy his thoughts became. He cracked an eye open to look at his coffee cup. He wasn’t all that surprised when it was empty. Yet, he couldn’t seem to bring himself to get up and refill it. Instead, he held up a hand, a silent request for FRIDAY to temporarily pause her analysis, and placed his aching head down on his desk. ‘Just for a few minutes,’ he told himself. ‘Then I’ll get back to it.’
What felt like a few scant minutes later, Tony was awoken by the swoosh of the sliding glass doors. He didn’t bother looking up. He merely lay there, wondering who it was that had entered his space. There were only so many options. Pepper was in Paris for the week. Rhodey was in D.C. doing God knows what and Peter - “Mr. Stark?”- was apparently walking towards him. He sat up abruptly, sending a shockwave of pain through his head. Automatically, he dug the heels of his hands against his eyelids in an attempt to combat it. By the time he’d cleared his vision, Peter was standing before him with a look of deep concern crossing his face.
“Hey, Kid,” he croaked while trying to shift his posture into something a little less pathetic. It didn’t seem to help. The kid was still looking at him as though he was about to keel over. To be honest, he didn’t feel far from it.
“Are you okay, Mr. Stark?” Peter asked.
“Yeah,” Tony flippantly replied. It came out rough. He cleared his throat before starting over. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a headache. Nothing I can’t power through.”
Peter didn't look convinced. His brows stitched together as he began to scan the room. Tony followed his gaze as it trailed over the chaotic piles of tools, hardware, and random sheets of alloy. A rare moment of embarrassment crept up when Peter’s eyes lingered a little too long on one of the numerous empty mugs scattered around the room. It took more willpower than it should have to breeze past it.
“How long have you been down here?” Peter asked.
Tony squinted his sore eyes and tried to think. “What day is it?” he ultimately replied. Peter’s eyebrows managed to scrunch closer together. Tony smirked in an attempt to play the whole thing off as a joke. His attempt fell flat.
“That’s- that’s not a great answer, Mr. Stark.”
Suddenly, Tony felt an amount of guilt that even Pepper had never been able to invoke. The pounding in his head managed to drown out the majority of the self-deprecation that attempted to follow. But the remorse was still there. “Sorry, Bud,” he mumbled. After a few deep breaths, “Just have a lot to do.”
Peter nodded, his mouth clamped into a tight, thin line. It was a look of determination that Tony had seen before. But never directed at him. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. When there was no immediate reply, he arched a single brow in question.
“What all do you have left to do?” Peter finally asked.
Tony took in a deep breath and peered warily around the room. He wasn’t certain he possessed the capacity to go over every single thing he currently had in progress. “FRIDAY?” he tiredly requested. “What are the biggest fish in the fryer right now?”
As expected, the AI began to rattle off a daunting list of incomplete projects, along with their due dates. It didn’t go unnoticed that she failed to mention any of his more personal endeavors. If his head wasn’t hammering so loudly in his ears he probably would have mentioned at least one of them himself.
Peter nodded along while looking back and forth across the various workbenches. “Well. The good news is, I think I can handle most of that,” he said. He hesitated before adding, “If FRIDAY’s willing to help me out a little.”
“You don’t have to do any of that stuff, Pete,” Tony said, the bridge of his nose clasped tightly between his thumb and forefinger. “That’s not what you’re here for.”
“When was the last time you slept?” Peter asked, as though Tony had said nothing at all. “Or like, had some water?”
With a deep sigh, Tony shrugged his shoulders. He’d had plenty of coffee. And he was certain he’d dozed off a little here and there over the last few days. He was equally certain that wasn’t what Peter wanted to hear.
“Okay,” Peter said, sounding resolute. “Let’s start with this. FRIDAY?”
“Yes, Peter?” the AI directly responded.
“Could you order some food for Mr. Stark? Maybe- maybe from that shawarma place he likes? You know. The one around the corner?”
Tony sighed but didn’t feel the need to protest. Predominantly because he knew Peter would need to eat as well. “Feed the kid too, FRI,” he interjected before the AI could complete her previous directive.
The moment the rushed order had been confirmed, Peter said he’d be right back and took off toward the elevator. He was gone for a while. Long enough for Tony to start to think that he might have gotten lost. Just as he was about to ask FRIDAY for an update, Peter reappeared with an ice-cold bottle of water in his hand.
“Alright. So, uh- while we wait for the food,” Peter said while reaching deeply into his pocket and pulling out a couple of tablets. “I brought you some water and two over-the-counter anti-inflammatories. They should help.”
Tony scoffed but cracked the bottle of water open all the same. He tossed the pills to the back of his tongue and swallowed them down. The cold liquid running down his throat felt better than he cared to admit. He drank it all in a few generous gulps.
As Tony crushed the water bottle in his hands, Peter nodded in approval. “What do you have going on here?” he asked, as he studied the large screen in front of them.
“That’s part of the control system prototype FRIDAY mentioned. The code is fu-” Tony began, cutting his eyes to the side before rewording the assessment. “Uh, the code is not where it needs to be.”
Peter inclined his head and took up the chair beside Tony's. “Code isn't really my strong suit,” he said. “But-”
“I’ve got this, kid,” Tony cut in. “I just need to-”
“Take a nap?” Peter said before Tony could complete his thought.
Tony’s first instinct was to roll his eyes. Although he regretted it immediately. His headache amplified and- ‘God, the kid’s right,’ Tony grudgingly thought to himself. He really did need some sleep. If for no other reason than to clear his head enough to focus. He shook that thought to the side and raised one hand flippantly into the air. “I thought you wanted me to eat?”
“I do,” Peter grinned, almost laughing. “Then I want you to take a nap. You can deal with this-” he said while gesturing toward the code. “-later and I can handle everything else,”
“Peter-” Tony sighed. The last thing he wanted was for Peter to feel responsible for him, a fully grown adult. The kid came over to learn, not to handle his workload for him. Allowing it to happen hardly seemed fair.
“I can do this, Mr. Stark!” Peter abruptly shouted. “And you need to take better care of yourself!”
The outburst sent a fresh wave of guilt through Tony’s veins. “I’m fine,” he attempted to placate, but Peter wasn’t having it.
“You’re not fine! You look-” Peter shot back, appearing more than a little frazzled. “I mean, no offense Mr. Stark, but you look horrible.”
For the first time since Peter’s arrival, Tony thought about how he must look at the moment. He feathered his fingers through his greasy hair and looked down at his stained t-shirt. He was confident he was due for a shave and wondered if his eyes were as bloodshot as they felt. The way the pain in his head was making him periodically wince probably didn't help. Another apology welled up at the tip of his tongue. Before he could utter it, FRIDAY announced that the food had been delivered. Without a word, Peter turned around to go collect it.
They ate in near silence. Tony chewed through his food while watching Peter with interest. Periodically their eyes would meet but other than a few comments about the quality of the food, nothing was said. Once he’d finished the majority of his plate, he leaned back in his chair and sighed. He knew from experience that Peter was nothing if not stubborn. Therefore, battling against the kid’s unwarranted assistance didn’t really seem worth the effort. Negotiation seemed like the more reasonable thing to do.
“I’ll tell you what, Kiddo,” he said, his hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. “I'm going to head up to the penthouse to take a quick shower and change clothes. When I get back, I’ll lay on that couch over there. That way if you have any questions, I’m available.” When it looked like the kid was five seconds from protesting he held his breath.
“Promise? Peter asked, his eyes shining with discontent.
“I promise,” Tony returned, releasing a breath of relief when the kid nodded his head.
The shower was amazing. He’d not realized how tense he was until the hot water had begun to pelt against his back. His muscles began to loosen, and he found himself leaning more and more heavily against the tiled wall. The medication Peter had given him had definitely started to work. The pressure was still there. But the pain had receded to nothing more than a dull reminder of what it had been less than an hour prior.
Eventually, he forced himself to step out of the warm enveloping steam of the shower. He dragged one towel through his hair and tied another around his waist. When he looked in the mirror, he frowned at the amount of redness in his eyes and the dark circles below them. He tried not to dwell on it as he picked up his razor to hurriedly neaten his facial hair and moved to the bedroom to dress.
By the time Tony got back to the lab, Peter was already looking over some of the relevant blueprints. He appeared to be comparing them to the chunks of progress that were spread across the workbenches. He smiled just a touch as he traversed the distance between them. “Better?” he asked, putting himself on display with his hands out by his sides.
Peter turned his head and regarded him with scrutiny. He seemed to approve of the more polished look but didn’t go so far as to submit an answer. Alternatively, he asked, “How’s your head, Mr. Stark?”
“Eh,” Tony replied while simultaneously picking up a nearby wrench. Peter promptly extracted it from his hand.
“Resting will help.”
Tony nodded his head and shrugged his shoulders at the same time. “The food and shower did wonders,” he started to explain, and it was true. His eyes still burned but the headache was manageable and he didn’t feel nearly as tense. “I can get back to-”
“You promised, Mr. Stark!” Peter strained and Tony had no choice but to backtrack.
He held up his hands and said, “Alright. Fine. You’re right. I promised.” Then he slowly made his way over to the couch. Peter followed, as though he didn’t quite trust him. Tony knew that was likely his own doing. “I’ll lay down,” he assured as he dropped onto the cushions. “Happy now?”
“Very,” Peter replied. His tone was unamused, but his face was soft with relief. “I’d be even happier if you never did this again.”
“Can’t make any guarantees, Kiddo,” Tony quipped. He tossed a pillow under his head and adjusted it before adding, “I’m a busy man.”
Peter smiled and huffed all at once. Tony grinned back, waiting for the kid to walk off before actually closing his eyes. When he did, exhaustion hit him like a freight train. He yawned widely and melted into the couch while listening to Peter happily chatting with FRIDAY. Nothing really filtered through; he was already drifting off. But at some point, the AI’s voice rang loud and clear into his ears.
“Of course, Peter,” She said. “The ’Even Superheroes Require Self-Care Protocol’ has been activated.”
He cracked a faint smile before finally dropping off into a solid sleep.