Chapter Text
Peter had been working in Tony's lab when the big man himself entered, coming to join Peter.
"Hey, Pete the Cat." Tony said, ruffling Peter's hair as he came beside him. "How's the prototype coming?"
Peter grumbled a half-audible response that Tony couldn't find a single word in, causing him to raise an eye. Grabbing a random gadget from the desk, Tony began to speak into it like a speaker microphone.
"Uuuh, folks we appear to have identified an unknown life form, over." Tony said, imitating a static voice. "This unknown creature does not appear to be able to speak English, and is clearly speaking some alien tongue that is incomprehensible by any human, over. Can we have the alien translator sent over so we may understand what the heck he is saying?"
Peter sighed, but still let out a chuckle. "Sorry, Mr. Stark. Just tired. The prototype is going good, just can't figure out how to make the dispenser trigger in a burst motion instead of a single round."
Tony nodded. "You know what always helps me whenever I hit a roadblock?" He leaned in closer to Peter. "Sleep."
Peter rolled his eyes. "You cannot convince me you sleep more than twenty hours a week."
"Yeah, well that's because I can put a literal battery in my chest." Tony tapped his modified arc reactor, currently equipped with a caffeine-enhanced battery. "And I'm not a child."
Peter let out another near inaudible grumble, but this time at least Tony could recognize the words "not a child" in Peter's sentence. He was about to raise his mock speaker mic to his face again, but Peter took it from him before he could.
"Thank you." Peter slid Tony's "speaker mic" into place with the prototype he had been working on, pushing it into the machine until he heard a click that signalled it was locked in place. Pressing the button again, the prototype preformed the required firing motion three times, paused, three more motions, another pause, continuing on in that burst sequence, just as Peter had hoped.
"Yay, it works!" Tony said in an exaggeration celebration, but not sarcastically. "Now will you get some sleep?"
Peter rolled his eyes. "Fine." Yawning, he turned to leave, but stopped as he turned back to the work bench. "Actually, maybe if I-"
"Nope." Tony said as he picked Peter up, throwing him over his shoulder and carrying him out of the lab.
"Mr. Stark, put me down!" Peter gasped, outraged by being treated like a child. "I have more stuff to do!"
"Unless that stuff is counting sheep, you're not doing it." Tony said firmly. "Seriously, Pete, how long has it been since you've slept?
"Yesterday." Peter said a little too quickly. Tony wasn't buying it.
"Friday?" he checked in with his AI.
"Peter Parker-Stark did in fact sleep yesterday." Friday responded.
"See, case closed!" Peter said, pouting as Tony carried him into the elevator, pressed the button, waiting for the doors to close before putting him down.
"However," the AI continued. "The period for which Peter slept was only a twenty three minute interval, as he fell asleep standing up."
"Case opened." Tony said back to Peter.
"Peter Parker-Stark has not had the appropriate amount of sleep for a child of his age in exactly five months, six days, nine hours, and twelve minutes."
Tony's eyes bulged and he let out a noise of pain, turning to stare at Peter. "What!?"
Peter immediately attempted to defend himself. "Hold on, wait a second, I do sleep! Just not, like, a full eight hours. With patrol and stuff, I usually get like six hours of sleep a day!"
Tony's shocked stare didn't go away. "Friday, lock down fucking ALL of Peter's access to anything in this building other than his bedroom until he gets at least twelve hours of sleep."
Now it was Peter's turn to look shocked, as he opened his mouth to argue. "Okay, now that's a little extreme."
"Peter, I swear, you need to improve your sleep schedule!" Tony said, rubbing his chest. "You giving me a heart attack here! I'm gonna go grey in days thanks to this! I knew your sleep schedule was bad, but I didn't expect you to sleep less then me!"
"I'll have you know that I-"
"Uh-uh, you can't talk your way out of this." Tony shook his head, as the elevator opened the penthouse, the floor Peter's bedroom was on. "Now, will you walk to your room by yourself with dignity, or do I need to carry you there over my shoulder?"
Peter smirked at Tony. "I am a genetically enhanced hero that can bench press over ten tons. You may have caught me off guard with that first one in the lab, but there is not a chance in hell that you will be able to try that on me again."
Tony raised an eyebrow.
Tony ended up carrying Peter to his room over his shoulder.
"I hate this." Peter said, dead inside. "At least no one is here to see me like this."
" 'genetically enhanced hero' my ass." Tony mimicked. "You are a child, now get some sleep."
Peter grumbled under his breath, and Tony chuckled as he dropped Peter in his bed.
"Sweet dreams, kid." Tony said as he left the room, closing the door behind him.