Trouble (Marvel Whump Madness 2019)

Trouble

Entry for Day 13 of Marvel Whump Madness, hosted by Trekkiehood

Pepper had just needed some time away from the insanity of life at Headquarters. She'd just gone to visit her mother for a few weeks. He hadn't even done anything to make her angry. She wasn't at all upset with him. She was coming back.

Tony knew all of that in his head, but somehow, he couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't true. They were engaged now, and beyond that, they were doing well. They hadn't even squabbled beyond playful bickering that was normal for them in well over a month. He tried not to burden her too much with anything, tried to deal with it himself so it didn't stress her out and strain their relationship. But just having her there made it all seem a little bit easier. Even if he did everything he possibly could to keep from waking her up when he was pulled into consciousness by the nightmares, just knowing she was there made the demons slip away a little faster, made his breathing slow a little easier.

Without her there, he felt like he was completely alone dealing with everything that had only gotten worse since the Avengers had split. So he went straight back to all his bad habits... not sleeping, and consuming nothing except the occasional shot of strong alcohol to take the edge off of everything.

He'd been at it for four days straight when Peter came over, as he did each week, to work on suit upgrades with Tony. That also gave Tony an opportunity to make sure Peter was eating and sleeping enough, and to lecture him for anything overly dangerous he'd reported doing that week.

He felt terrible, but that was his choice and he knew that. The mere thought of eating made him think he was going to throw up, and he got the same sick feeling whenever he thought about sleep and remembered the feeling of waking up to nightmares with no one beside him.

And if there was one medication that could actually make him feel better, it was Peter Parker, so cancelling for the week wasn't an option that had even crossed his mind.

They spent the first hour working on the newest version of Peter's suit. He already had two he'd never used and was still happy with the original one Tony had built for him, but they just kept making new ones, because it was therapy for both of them and neither of them wanted to stop.

Finally, Tony straightened from where he'd been bending over the prototype, deciding that was a good place to stop for the day. He'd fallen into a rhythm as they'd worked, but his head immediately started pounding once more as he stepped back from the worktable, and dark spots threatened his vision. Quickly, desperate for Peter not to notice his condition, he leaned casually against the wall.

"So, Kid," he said when he felt like he could speak like a normal person, "report time."

Peter straightened as well, setting down his tools, and shrugged. "Uh... there's not much to report. Just the usual... you know, hold-ups and stuff like that."

"How's school?"

"Boring, I'd rather be on patrol."

"Uh-huh. But if I catch you doing that while you're supposed to be in class..."

"Yeah, I know," Peter sighed, "you're taking the suit away."

"Exactly. So, you had a lot of homework?"

"No, not really. I mean, not any more than usual."

Tony nodded slowly, looking Peter up and down for a long moment. There was something off about the kid. He didn't know what it was, but he knew there was something wrong.

"When did you go to bed last night?" He continued with his usual line of questions, watching for clues in the boy's answers.

"Uh... one, I think."