Insomniac

1

The clock -yes he has a clock, its not odd, he's been told it's rather charming- strikes 4 -specifically 4am- marking it the 96th hour since Tony got any sort of sleep. It was getting sort of ridiculous really. A grown man should be able to hold his caffeine, or at the very least his nerves. Especially seeing as theyd kept the wonderful joy of a deep sleep from him for the last what? Four days? Who was counting anyways, why not make it a week. But back on track, not even the semblance of the thing called sleep had dared to touch him. Others had worried about this singular fact but he would not let them blame his son -coffee- Gregory for that. Gregory was blameless in all his caffeinated ways and besides, Tony was the one who had been awakened by nightmares each and every miserable time he even attempted sleep. So no, his caffeinated son Gregory was not to be blamed. Though he might need the sleep seeing as he had started to name the coffee that filled his cups and similarly start to become quite attached to them. Mourning each sip. Quite honestly Tony was surprised he hadn't fallen over either dead or comatose yet. Either could be arranged with enough effort. All things were possible with his genius, even if he was slightly off his rocker and starting to see things. Well see things wasn't quite the right word, it was more like his eyes were so dry he couldn't even blink them without a particularly awful squelching dry sound. It was really terrible but what could you do? Genius -insomnia- neither waited or catered to anyone and he had both in spades. This did however leave him in a particular dilemma, one where he could not physically move from the spot and the spot was really quite uncomfortable.

Tony's hands were currently the only things keeping him from faceplanting straight into his workbench, the workbench covered in lots of sharp little things that could get stuck in some really very unpleasant places. Believe him, he had experience with here sort of things. This wasn't his first rodeo and all that blather. Back to the subject of what was currently keeping him from faceplanting into those little sharp things that littered his workspace. Those things were only keeping up by both the grace of God and sheer determination. Well that or hey had forgotten that they could actually move. That would pose a problem however because they were currently simultaneously holding up his chin and the rest of his body which was honestly a feat in itself. Tony really couldn't ask more of his poor arms which were already leaning dangerously to the side. The most he could ask of them was to please make sure that he didn't fall forward.

Especially since simply the act of keeping his eyes open by this point was an unfathomable task. So Tony did what Tony did best after four plus days of absolutely no sleep, Tony blacked out. Coffee and insomnia finally handing him over to his bodies sheer need to sleep with the poutiness of a child whose favorite toy had just been taken away. Selfish things. Tony, was however, proud to say that he didn't even feel the floor meeting his left side. He'd conked out mid fall.

It was the ever reliable Dr. Banner who found him, curled up on the floor of his lab, in the middle of all his slightly -very- dangerous toys, like as if it was his very own feather bed, and if he had been sucking his thumb no he hadn't. Banner simply had an overactive imagination.  Actually, Banner had at first tried to carefully, ever so carefully lift Tony up from the middle of the mess to no avail. Tony's dead weight was simply too much for the scientist which was honestly a surprise seeing as Tony happened to both eat less than Banner and be smaller than Banner by a noticeable height. Maybe Banne should just start hitting the gym. That's what Tony did, in fact it had been the first thing that he'd done the moment he'd learned about his new super-powered roomates. Banner still gave it an admirable shot only to have to give up moments later when Tony began to stir. Banner really didn't want to disturb the only sleep Tony might be getting in godsknows how long. So he called in the big guns "Friday?"

A quiet voice reverberated through the room almost painfully loud "Yes Dr. Banner?"

Flinching Banner tried to wait a moment and make sure that Tony didn't try anything silly, like wake up "Is there anyone currently in the compound who could carry Tony without any difficulty Friday?" Stealing a quick glance at the genius who was currently on the floor and still sucking his thumb -Tony would deny this to his dying day- "And make sure to ask them to come help me out, please" Banner crouched down and watched Tony silently. The bags under the other man's eyes could hold all the cups of coffee Tony insisted on carrying around with him. The man needed this sleep. Desperately.