Work Text:
The air in the workshop usually smelled like expensive solder, a scent Penny normally loved.
Today, it smelled like irritation.
Every click of the pneumatic driver was too loud. The fluorescent lights were too bright. And the dull, rhythmic thrumming in her lower back felt like someone was trying to tenderize her spine with a sledgehammer.
"Okay, P-Stark, look at the torque on this. If we recalibrate the stabilizer by even point-five percent, we get…." Tony stopped, glancing over his StarkGlass. "Are you grimacing at my engineering? Because that hurts, kid. Deeply."
Penny didn't look up from her workstation. She was hunched over a circuit board, her jaw tight. "The stabilizer is fine, Tony. Everything is fine."
"Right. And I’m the Mandarin," Tony quipped, spinning his stool around. He was in high spirits today, which was unfortunately making everything worse. "You’ve been staring at that same capacitor for twenty minutes. You’ve got the 'I want to fight a God' look in your eyes. What’s the deal? Did Flash say something? Do I need to buy the school and turn it into a parking lot? Because I’ll do it."
"No," Penny snapped, her voice sharper than intended. "Just... drop it."
Tony, being Tony, did not drop it. He spent the next ten minutes trying to "cheer her up." He cracked jokes. He offered her a chance to test-drive the new flight stabilizers. He even did a questionable impression of Captain America giving a lecture on safety.
"Seriously, Penny, you’re bringing the vibe down. Is it the internship? Do you need a raise? I’ll give you a raise. Look at me, I’m being charming."
The next cramp hit like a bolt of lightning.
Penny dropped her soldering iron with a clatter and stood up so fast her chair screeched against the floor.
"Tony, shut up!" she burst out, her face flushing a deep, angry red. "I don’t want a raise! I don’t want to test the suit! My uterine lining is currently shedding itself like a horror movie and it feels like I’m being stabbed from the inside out by a very dull knife! I’m bloated, I’m exhausted, and I honestly hate everyone on the planet today, including you! Especially you and your stupid jokes!"
The outburst left a vacuum in the lab, the only sound left being the frantic, high-pitched whir of a nearby 3D printer.
Penny’s chest heaved, her eyes wide as the realization of what she’d just screamed at her mentor, her hero, sunk in. She felt the sudden, stinging urge to cry, which only made her angrier.
"I'm…I'm going home," she whispered, her voice cracking as she turned to grab her bag, her face burning with mortification.
"Whoa, whoa. Easy, Secretariat. Sit back down."
Tony hadn't moved. He didn't look grossed out. He didn't look awkward. He just looked at her with a calm, analytical expression, like she’d just told him a sensor was miscalibrated.
"I'm sorry," Penny choked out, shielding her face with her hair. "That was... I shouldn't have said that. It's embarrassing. I'll go."
"Penny, look at me," Tony said, his voice dropping into that quiet, grounding 'Dad' register. She peeked through her hair. "I lived with Pepper Potts for years before we were even dating. I have been through the 'Uterine War' more times than I’ve fought the Chitauri. You think I’m scared of biology? Please. I’ve seen gods bleed green."
He stood up, tossing his tools onto the bench. "Workshop is closed. We’re going to the penthouse."
"Tony, you don't have to…."
"I have a billion-dollar AI and a private chef. I think I can handle a cramped up spider-kid. Let’s move."
Ten minutes later, Penny was horizontal on the massive velvet sectional in the living room. Tony had disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a strategic kit.
"First," he said, handing her two small white pills. "These are Steve’s 'Super-Soldier Lite' painkillers. Bruce formulated them for when the big guy gets a headache. They’ll knock out the cramps in ten minutes, tops."
Next, he produced a heavy, plush heating pad. He plugged it in and draped it over her abdomen. "Second, heat therapy. Old school, but effective."
Finally, he set a mug of hot chocolate on the coffee table, extra marshmallows, exactly how she liked them.
"Third," Tony said, grabbing the remote. "Distraction."
Penny watched him as he moved around, fussing with the pillows behind her head and making sure the duvet was tucked around her feet. The embarrassment was still there, a low hum in the back of her mind, but it was being drowned out by the sheer, overwhelming safety of the moment.
"Thanks, Tony," she whispered, leaning her head back as the painkillers started to dull the sharp edges of the pain. "I really did feel like I was dying."
"Periods suck, kid. I’ve been told it’s a design flaw in the human body. If I’d built it, I’d have put in a 'mute' button," Tony said, sitting down at the other end of the couch. He didn't make a big deal out of it. He didn't make her feel "gross" or "dramatic." He just reached over and gave her shoulder a quick, supportive squeeze.
"Friday, pull up A New Hope," Tony commanded. "And if anyone calls for me, literally anyone, tell them I’m in a high-level meeting regarding global security."
“Global security?” Penny let out a small, tired laugh, finally letting the tension leave her shoulders.
“Ensuring the continued survival of my favorite intern counts as global security in my book,” Tony muttered, settling into the cushions next to her.
Penny looked at him over the rim of her mug, a faint, teasing smile tugging at the corner of her mouth despite the exhaustion. “I’m your only intern, Tony.”
“And that’s by design, kid. One is a manageable disaster. Two would be a hostile takeover.”
Tony didn't even look up from the remote, his expression one of mock-seriousness as he reached over and snagged the edge of her duvet, pulling her and the entire mountain of blankets firmly into his side.
He tucked her under his arm as if she were a piece of vital tech that needed shielding.
He nudged her mug with his knuckles, his voice softening. “Now drink your cocoa and stop apologizing for being human. It’s a waste of both our time.”
Penny sighed, the warmth of the heating pad and the sugar finally winning the battle against the war in her uterus.
With Tony acting as a literal human pillar, she didn't have to worry about holding herself up anymore. She drifted off halfway through the trench run, her head coming to rest securely on Tony’s shoulder.
Tony didn't move. He didn't reach for his tablet or start checking Stark Industries' stock prices. He just sat there in the amber light of the penthouse, watching over a sleeping girl, knowing that even on her worst days, she finally had a place where she didn't have to be "fine."