Sing to the Sky {31 Days Of Peter Parker Whump}

24-Peter Parker's Guilt Complex

{I originally saw this as a SPN Headcanon but thought it was a good idea to turn into an irondad oneshot :) }

Tony's day started just as any other would. Rolling out of bed at noon, chugging some black coffee, answering some emails, having some toast for 'breakfast', heading down to the lab to slave over something minuscule for way too long and blasting some classic rock to keep his mind from wandering.

It's not a Lab Night, Pepper and Rhodey are out of the country for business stuff, and Tony's basically caught up in his work- for SI and for superhero.

So he decides to do some cleaning instead. Sure, there are robots to do it for him, and it's not even that messy anyways, but there's laundry to do and dishes to clean from him piling them up in the sink while Pepper's not here to keep an eye on him. There's dust on some of the less used pieces of furniture in the penthouse and little knickknacks lying around.

Normally when Peter would come by, he would've insisted on doing more than just Lab stuff and clean up around the kitchen and living room, but he had to skip their last Lab Night because of homework. So it's a little messier than usual.

Tony's never minded the mess, but Pepper and Peter do. A lot. They hate it being messy. Pepper's logic is a messy house is a messy mind. And Pepper wants them to have clearer minds. Peter's logic is more flawed than Pepper's. He thinks that people will judge them if the house is messy. He thinks that things have a place for a purpose, they should be in their place. He also says he likes to do the chores, so Tony lets him. Sometimes, he'll even forget to do the dishes just because it makes Peter happy to be doing something in return. It seems to make his mind at ease for always being around the tower.

Tony figures it might follow Pepper's logic because, let's face it, Tony's mind is normally pretty messy. Maybe it's because his house is always messy.

So he cleans up, starting in the living room and working his way to the kitchen. Including dusting, sweeping, tidying, and cleaning. He even slaves on his knees over some stains on the hardwood. He's pretty sure they're bloodstains from the last time Peter came flying through his window with what should have been a lethal injury, but barely even fazes Peter.

Around six or seven pm, Tony decides he'll start a load of laundry and then have dinner. He decides he's doing all of this to make his family proud. Pepper, Peter, and Rhodey are constantly badgering him to be caring of himself. Showering, eating, drinking water, sleeping, wearing clean clothes, not picking them up off the floor, leaving the house. He's getting better at it, for the sole reason that he doesn't want to let them down.

He gathers all the jeans and t-shirts that had been discarded across his floor over the past week and a half, having found his socks lying pretty much everywhere throughout the penthouse already. He tosses the bundle of clothing into the washing machine, deciding it isn't full enough, heads down the hall to Peter's room. From how often he stays at the tower, he's probably got a collection of dirty clothes lying around.

And he does. When Tony pushes the door open, there's a basket full of dirty clothing. Tony winces when he picks it up and realizes most of them are bloodstained from patrol injuries. That might be difficult to wash out.

He's about to leave the room when he sees a notebook on Peter's desk. Peter hates leaving things out in his room, everything has spots and drawers. But he stayed the night last week and left in a rush to get to school on time.

Maybe it's the oddity of having a blue notebook on his desk. Maybe it's purely curiosity. Maybe it's the black swirling doodles across the front cover and Peter's name scratched big in the black ink. Maybe it's what looks like water stains on the corners that catches Tony's attention.