Irondad Oneshots

Dad's Nightmare

Remember in Iron Man 3 when Tony had a nightmare and a suit almost attacked Pepper when she touched him? Yeah, that but with Steve. Also, trigger warning: self-harm

Tony and Steve lay sleeping in bed, their five year old son asleep in the next room. Steve heard gasping and whimpering, causing him to wake up and see his husband having a nightmare beside him.

"Tony? Tony. Tony wake up." He spoke firmly, shaking the man to get him up. Suddenly something grabbed him, shooting panic through him before he saw it was one of Tony's suits.

"Stand down!" Tony called, now awake and standing. The suit released Steve and Tony destroyed it before pacing and trying to catch his breath.

"I must've called in my sleep. It wasn't supposed to happen." He explained breathlessly.

"Unbelievable. What if Peter had come in here?" Steve sighed exasperated before shaking his head.

"Let me catch my breath, please. Then we can talk." Tony begged, still trying to calm himself down.

"I can't right now. I'm going to sleep on the couch." Steve spoke sharply before leaving behind a panicked and self-hatred-filled Tony.

Tony fell onto the bed and pulled on his hair. Why did he keep screwing everything up? He didn't deserve the life he had, especially not the husband or child he had. They shouldn't be stuck with him.

He grabbed a piece of the shattered metal suit and sliced his wrist with it, watching the blood bubble up to the surface of his skin and begin dripping down his arm. He repeated the action four more times before he heard a small gasp.

He turned and saw Peter in the doorway. "Pete...Dad's okay. I'm fine, okay?"

"You're hurting you, Dad. There's blood! I gotta get Pops." He said before running out of the room despite Tony's weak protests.

Steve was on the couch wide awake when he heard Peter running towards him. "Pete? What's wrong?"

"Daddy hurt himself and he's bleeding!" Peter spoke breathlessly before grabbing Steve's arm and pulling him upstairs, although he didn't have to do much pulling.

"Tones?" Steve called as he walked into their room and saw Tony sitting on the edge of the bed, squeezing his eyes shut.

"I'm sorry." Tony spoke with pain in his voice, but not so much from the physical pain of his arm. "I didn't mean for Peter to see and I didn't mean to call for the suit. I just-I keep screwing up."

"I'm so sorry." Steve spoke gently, kneeling in from of his husband and resting a hand on his cheek. "I shouldn't have left you alone when you were upset and made you feel so bad. Can I clean your arm up so we can all go back to bed?"

Tony nodded, opening his eyes finally to see Peter standing behind Steve. As Steve went to get the first aid kit, Peter crawled onto the bed beside Tony and rested his head on his bicep. "I screw up a lot sometimes too, but you and Pops always say that it's okay and that's how we learn. You can just learn next time instead of hurting yourself, Daddy. I don't like when you hurt yourself."

Tony kissed the top of Peter's head. "Okay buddy, I'll just learn next time. I promise."

"Good." Peter grinned as Steve reentered and bandaged Tony's arm.

"Let's go back to sleep now, huh? All of us." Steve said, climbing back onto the bed. Tony laid down in his spot beside Steve and Peter climbed between them.

"Daddy's just going to learn next time when he screws up instead of hurting himself. He promised." Peter informed Steve proudly as Tony turned the lights off.

"That's fantastic." Steve smiled, making eye contact with his man.

"Peter is one good teacher and the best child I could've ever dreamed of." Tony spoke, wrapping his bandaged arm around his child and husband.

"That's because I have the best dad and the best pops ever." Peter claimed, kissing Tony's bandaged arm before rolling over and going to sleep.