Work Text:
Ned Leeds was a tired man.
After working tirelessly on three projects and a midterm essay that he was assigned in the same week, Ned finally stood up from his dorm desk for the first time in hours, reaching his arms up to stretch until he heard a satisfying crack that made his back feel fifty times better. For only being nineteen years old, he felt like he should be moving into a nursing home, the way his bones creaked when he moved now. Sitting down all day to study was really not good for long-term health, but it's college. You do what you must.
Except, right now, Ned smiled and reached out to shut his laptop. All of his projects had been completed, and that stupidly long essay his linear algebra professor wanted was finally done. (Essays in a class with mostly STEM-focused students was really just cruel, but ten page essays in a math class should be considered torture.) But, no matter. The beast was slain, and Ned stood silently by his desk for a moment before victoriously punching the air with a quiet yesss!
Take that, Professor Emmerson.
He skipped over to his dresser, slightly delirious and happy, grabbing some pajamas and heading over to the bathroom to change and brush his teeth before he slept.
Oh, blissful sleep.
As an added bonus, it was early too, earlier than he had been sleeping, anyway. If he got ready quickly, he could get a whole extra hour in before he had to wake up to make his next class. It had been too long since he'd been able to do that, and he almost felt like Christmas had come early.
Ned rushed himself, yanking his toothbrush over his teeth and flying into his pajamas at lightspeed before rushing back to his room and shutting off the light. Finally, he pulled back the stupidly thick Star Wars covers on his bed, his little piece of home, and threw himself into bed with a tired but satisfied sigh. He smiled to himself and closed his eyes, beginning to drift.
Zzt zzt. Zzt zzt.
From his nightstand, Ned's phone lit up and splashed his ceiling with light. He scrunched up his face and groaned. Seriously?
Woe be to the person who had decided to text him at ass o'clock in the morning after he had finished that monster of an essay. Ned wasn't moving. Whoever it was could wait until morning; hopefully it wasn't anything important, but really, what could be, at this time of night?
Ned blindly reached out to his nightstand, hit the lock button to shut the screen off, and sighed tiredly. Please, he begged silently, no more. Everyone leave me alone, just for a little while.
Zzt Zzt.
Ned turned and groaned into his pillow, groggily lifting his head up and squinting at his bright phone in the dark. It went quiet again, sitting innocently on his nightstand like it wasn't trying to disturb the little time he had to sleep before his next class. He thought he had put his phone on Do Not Disturb tonight. Who the hell was going out of their way to push all their messages through manually?
He waited a moment for it to go off again. Nothing.
Rolling over and aggressively snuggling back into his warm blanket cocoon, Ned scrunched his eyes closed.
Zzt zzt.
When the back of his eyelids lit up once again, Ned violently ripped his covers off and turned to glare at his phone. He was ready to give this person a piece of his mind. They had disturbed the one night of peace Ned had been looking forward to, and Laid Back, Chill Ned was about to take a backseat to Tired and Grouchy Ned. Picking up the offending object, he clicked it on and barely held back a hiss as the bright light now staged a direct frontal assault on his eyes. Closing one eye to not completely blind himself, he finally checked lockscreen.
Wednesday, November 3, 3:38 AM. Spoods: 4 New Messages.
Oh, shit.
More awake now, Ned sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, fully unlocking his phone and racing to his message app.
That could not be good. At least it was a series of texts and not a series of missed calls, but Peter texting at any time in the wee hours of the morning almost never boded well. His dumbass, selflessly self-destructive best friend better not be bleeding out in an alley somewhere, downplaying his injuries by texting because he knew tomorrow was one of the busiest days of Ned's week. (Ned thought maybe Tony would help train that out of him, but the two of them shared that particular flaw, and really, he should've seen that coming.) His fingers flew as he navigated to his messaging app and popped it open.
-----Spoods-----
Spoods: broooo
Spoods: i thikn i staerd eharing in colr
Spoods: ts magocal bro
Spoods: im guon flaot awaya now on thais nice clous
Guy in the Chair: ???
Guy in the Chair: dude, are you okay, like actually
Guy in the Chair: I love you but I'm trying to sleep
Spoods: naaaawh okey noaw
Spoods: in mdebay
Spoods: Tony'd got m on teh goos stufg
Ned's eyebrows scrunched together in concern. Getting more worried now, he quickly tapped out a reply.
-----Spoods-----
Guy in the Chair: the good stuff? Peter why do you need to be on the good stuff
Guy in the Chair: Actually are you even coherent enough to tell me? Why are you even on your phone, if youre hurt you should be resting
Spoods: don wortyyyy! In finr
Guy in the Chair: You're really not
Spoods: toatlyl AM
Spoods: jus minr stab wuond
Spoods: yanoo
Guy in the Chair: If it was minor you wouldnt be drugged out of your mind right now
Spoods: it fiiiiiiiiiiin im fiiiiiiine ned goooood
Spoods: yuo sond lik mr.sark rn bro
Guy in the Chair: Dude go look at a clock. Can you even tell the time right now?
Spoods is typing...
The text screen sat like that for a while. Ned thought maybe Peter had passed out with his phone in his hand (which would likely be a good thing, if he was this fucked up), but a few minutes later, another message came through.
-----Spoods----
Spoods: theer i tol th clokc Im fine kay? HE belirved me.
Ned stared at his phone in disbelief for a few seconds, just processing.
-----Spoods-----
Spoods: now yuor trn
Spoods: hatr
Spoods: htaer gater
Spoods: heeeheh taht rihmes
Spoods is typing...
Yeah, no. He was way too tired for this.
-----Spoods-----
Guy in the Chair: You're with Tony, right?
Spoods: Ye
Guy in the Chair: And you're all patched up?
Spoods: Yesd mooooooom im haeling now
Spoods: Ist ithcy
Guy in the Chair: Great. I'm going back to sleep. Tell me in the morning, I don't wanna know right now.
Spoods is typing...
Ned clicked out of the app, relishing the motion. Without waiting for the response, he turned off his phone completely and went back to sleep. Tony could deal with drugged-up Peter by himself for a little longer.