Protector (EN)

Chapter 24

Loki's view

I was standing in the kitchen with a glass of water. The television, which I had turned on earlier, was playing in the background. As I put the glass to my lips, Juli's bedroom door opened and she then stepped out. She held her hand to her forehead. Her expression looked very pained. She contorted her face when she saw me.

"How embarrassed was I?" She then asked me.

"Embarrassed? Embarrassed is still good" I replied to her with a fat grin on my face. If looks could kill, I would have died twice by now.

"Oh my goodness" she looked at me startled "have I been naked?" She shouted with her eyes wide open. A grin did not escape me. Her eyes widened.

"Oh no"

"Don't worry" I tried to reassure her "nothing happened that you would regret" I grinned widely at her and drank the last sip of the water. With raised eyebrows she looked at me questioningly. I grinned even more at her and then went to the sofa to watch TV. Juli followed me.

"What do you mean what I don't regret? What did I do? What happened?"

I tried to ignore her and wanted to give the TV my attention for once in my life. However, Juli quickly saw right through me.

"Hey. Don't ignore me here! You can't do that!" Juli then said, annoying me like never before. I mean, the girl could be pretty annoying. She definitely got that from her dad.

I picked up the remote and turned up the volume on the TV. Juli walked over to the TV and turned it off completely.

"Nobody ignores me here. That for one thing and for another ... Say. Me. What. I . Yesterday. Did. Did." She attacked me. I fell into laughter. Simply on the one hand because I could not believe what she had done and on the other hand because she did not know what she had done. That was already the cracker.

"Hey, stop laughing! It's rude." She then told me. Rude actually made me stop laughing. I mean, should I care what's rude and what's not? I don't care. Remember?

"Rude? Do you see me scratching anywhere?" I then asked her seriously. She looked at me questioningly and answered me with a "no" which sounded much more like a question than an answer.

"Well... Then I'm not itching." And I fell back into a wide grin.

July's view

I sighed. One minute longer with him and I'm freaking out. I turned around in a huff and went back to my room. I still had to change my clothes.

Half an hour later I met the others for breakfast. I felt so bad, I really couldn't eat anything. It was a very bad feeling. I mean I love to eat, but on days like this, they make me sad.

"Cat?" my dad asked me.

"No, I'd rather have a cat," I answered confidently. At the same time, I was not a cat fan. I always prefer dogs.

"I didn't mean the animal" my dad nagged me, with a tone so high I thought my head might explode at any moment.

"Pssssssssht" I got upset "not so loud. Everyone really doesn't need to know that."

Now Bruce turned to me and my dad "so Mr. Stark ... have you thought about what we're going to do against Viper? I mean we don't know who it is or what it is yet. But do you know how they will go about it?"

My dad said calmly, "I'll go ahead as usual. I mean, if I find out what son of a bitch is hacking into my system, he's definitely in for a treat. But first I need to know how he did it. We all know that my system is the best developed system ever. It was developed by me. No one could hack the server unless they were a genius like me. But it has to be done." I apologize for my dad right now. As you can see he's overly self-involved. And I've never seen anything like it.

"Maybe I'm Viper," dad added. If I didn't have a headache right now, I'd bang my head on the table. Sometimes it's quite exhausting to listen to my dad. And I thought I was exhausting myself. But he tops it all again.

"Mr. Stark? Aren't you worried? What if Viper is actually one of us and would hurt someone. What if your daughter is in danger?" continued Bruce.

Tony's view

When Bruce asked that, I had to put all my sarcasm aside. I had to feel inside myself. Even if it sounds a little wrong right now, but you know what I mean. Hopefully.

If my daughter was in danger, what would I do?

I would do anything so that I could save her. I would do anything to make sure nothing else happened to her. Juli was my everything. She was my daughter, after all. My flesh and blood.

I didn't want anything to happen to my daughter anymore. She had suffered a lot in childhood. But she had always been strong. She was always so brave and courageous.

I blamed myself for many things that happened to Juli. Even when Loki almost killed her. Really, anything could have happened. She could have died. For me, Juli is the strongest person I have met. She is much far stronger than I consider myself.

Around me, everyone was talking to everyone else. Juli supported her head on her hand. Bruce looked at me eagerly. I wonder what he expected in response.

"I would do anything to keep her out of danger. I would stop him with my life. And if Viper actually touches a hair on my little one's head, then I, as Tony Stark, will kill him with my own hands." I then gave as an answer, after a few minutes of silence.

Bruce smiled at me and said, "That's exactly what I expected. You will never let anything happen to your daughter. You are very emotional. You should show that side more often," Bruce then winked at me.

Sounds gay. But I guess he was right. Ok ... he was right. But who knows me, knows that I am the braggart. And meanwhile I also know that my daughter sees me as a show-off. That's not wrong.