Chapter Text
Tony was used to late-night lab binges. Peter, evidently, was not.
It had been a week since the field trip, and their lives had returned to normal. Peter came over for his regular lab days and went home on the weekends. It was Wednesday, and Midtown had the next day off. That was the only reason Tony let Peter in the lab past eleven pm.
Peter mostly stayed over in his corner of the lab, tinkering with his webshooters and the lenses on his mask. At around ten, he rolled over to Tony’s desk to see what he was working on.
“Just a design for another suit, nothing special, Bambi,” Tony had answered when Peter asked, showing him the blueprint he was working on.
One thing that changed after the field trip was the nicknames. Peter now called Tony ‘dad’, and Tony came up with at least twenty more names for his kid. His favorites were ‘Bambi’ and ‘kiddo’, but he liked to throw in a few Italian ones once in a while.
Peter ended up watching Tony design his suit for an hour and a half, leaning forward so his head rested on the desk. Watching his dad move around holographic schematics while Black Sabbath played in the background was oddly soothing, his eyes slowly slipping shut.
Tony hadn’t noticed Peter was asleep until a weight settled against his side. He jumped, swiveling around in his chair to see Peter falling off of his stool.
“Shit, kiddo,” Tony hissed, hoisting Peter up by the armpits like he was a toddler. The boy grumbled, eyes blinking open.
“What happened…” Peter mumbled.
“You fell asleep, kid. You want to go upstairs to your room?” Tony asked, setting Peter onto his knee as he tried to shake himself awake enough to stand.
Peter flushed, still not used to being this close to his father. “No, I’m fine. I want to stay here.”
“Okay, but if you fall asleep again, you’re heading to bed.”
“Ugh, fine.”
Tony chuckled at Peter’s pout. He sat back down on his own stool and sat up straighter so he would stay awake. Tony continued working on his design, eventually printing it out and hanging it on the giant whiteboard in the middle of the lab.
“Pete, you wanna come look at this?” Tony called. He heard the boy groan as he stood up and wobbled towards him.
Peter, despite his exhaustion, managed to ramble about the new design and what they could incorporate that Tony hadn’t thought of yet.
“Good idea, Bambi. Let’s add that second repulsor,” Tony said, leading Peter back to his work area. Peter helped him add a few things, his head resting on Tony’s shoulder. Tony put an arm around Peter’s back, ready for when Peter inevitably fell asleep again.
It didn’t take long for Peter to fall asleep. He slumped against Tony’s side, head tucked into his neck as Tony hoisted him onto his lap.
“Sleep well, buddy,” Tony whispered, kissing Peter’s head gently.