Avengers Stories //Oneshots//

"Go to sleep, Tony."

The Avengers, minus Tony, did not believe anyone told the truth about their engineer's sleep schedule. How could a man stay up weeks at a time with little sleep, be a great showman in front of the press, and create top notch gadgets? It just wasn't possible.

They didn't believe it until they actually saw it. Tony Stark hadn't slept in four days and they had a meeting with Fury. They sat in the conference room, watching the clock tick, someone might've thought Tony to not even arrive since it was already fifteen minutes past, but that's about Tony's usual lateness.

"Maybe we should just get started," Steve says, turning to face Director Fury.

As soon as he said that, the door opened. The team expected a swaying man with bruised eyes, but were entirely shocked at what they saw.

Tony Stark stood ramrod straight, sunglasses on his nose and not a hair out of place. He's wearing a crisp suit, tailored to fit him, and an easy grin on his face, twirling his car keys on his index finger as he strided in with the confidence of an experienced showman.

That's when they knew it wasn't a lie.

The first few times they tried to get Tony to sleep failed. The ones that did work involved a coffee bribe but slinging him over their shoulder when he least expected it and carrying him to bed. Sometimes if someone, say Cap or Thor, gave him puppy eyes he would promise to go to bed, but kept the promise only half the time. That resulted in one of them picking up the genius and carrying him to bed.

Every time, every time the genius's head hit the pillow he was out like a light despite struggling at full force. It baffled them.

Other times, he didn't even get to bed before falling asleep. They've seen him passed out in the lab, at the kitchen table, on the floor of the laundry room, in the suit, during meetings with Fury just to get the director mad, all kinds of places. And always with a pillow and blanket, courtesy of the Super Spy Twins and Bruce.

What they didn't know was how. How did it Tony look so awake after so long without sleep? How could he slay the crowd on so little sleep? How did he fight without sleep?

They found out how long the sleep schedule had lasted through Howard Stark's journal.

He wrote of Tony's sleep schedule, of how it seemed like he was always awake. Always running around, building. He would be in the lab at midnight and Howard would have to pick him up in order to get him out, only to find him there at 4 am, picking apart an electronic of some sort.

Jarvis gave them the other answers. Tony says he thinks of sleep as something that stops him from working, but Jarvis has been forbidden to tell then the real truth, so he gave them a hint. 'Terrors that start with N'.

Nightmares.

Tony is a great showman because it has been embedded in his brain on how to please a crowd, how to ruffle feather and then smooth them, cracking jokes and smiles all the while. He's an amazing actor. He hides his tired eyes behind make-up and sunglasses.

They decided to be a united front to get Tony to sleep. Thor used his 'puppy -eyes- powers to get a promise, and when Tony broke it, Steve lifted him up and carried him to the livingroom where everyone else was waiting.

"Before you go to sleep, how about we watch a movie?" Bruce asks and Steve dumps Tony onto the couch to sit beside the doctor. The captain ruffles Tony's hair before going to his seat.

"Fine," Tony grumbles, trying to get his hair back into place. Clint turns on a random movie and Natasha sits down beside Tony.

As the movie goes on, Tony starts to lean more heavily on Natasha, who evantually pulls him down to lay his head in her lap. Bruce moved Tony's legs so they were lying across him. Thor and Steve grabbed a blanket and smoothed it out over Tony.

The genius's breathing evened out and his eyes slipped closed.

Mission accomplished.

They decided to stay in the livingroom that night, partly so they wouldn't wake Tony by carrying him to his room, but mainly to keep the nightmares at bay.

It was at the end of the second movie that Tony started to shift and whimper. Natasha ran a hand through his hair and Bruce rubbed his back, concerned.
Thor and Steve watched them from their seats and Clint turned down the movie.

Tony woke up, his eyes opening in pure panic. Natasha shushes him, petting his hair. Everyone held their breath until the brunette was asleep again.

"Thanks for the hint, Jarvis," Steve murmured, knowing the AI could hear him. Thor turned to them, his voice a low rumble instead of his usual bellow.

"I might can get a potion to stop friend Tony's nightmares, at least temporarily. Asgard has many remedies and healers, they could do something."

"Alright Thor, but not tonight. It would be best we are all here if Tony wakes up again." Says Steve, looking over at the peacefully sleeping genius. Thor nodded.

Tony's nightmares came every two hours, waking him before they soothed him back to sleep. They took turns sleeping, Natasha's hand always resting in Tony's hair. They were late for a meeting that morning, still sleeping on the couch with a movie playing softly in the background.

Director Fury came in, mouth open to yell and demand a reason they didn't show up, but closed it when he saw them all, surrounding his nephew. He smiled and brought out his phone, snapping a picture. This would be framed in all it's glory.

And none of the Avengers would never know why some agents snickered around them.

-

Thor didn't manage to find a remedy. Nightmares and the complexity of a human brain made that hard. Nightmares were a fickle thing. But they now had a code with Jarvis, code Nightmare Red that meant Tony was having a nightmare.

They would rush to his room to comfort him back to sleep.

It wasn't long before they found out Tony had codes for their nightmares, too.