A life together

JARVIS

"Papa, something happened to JARVIS!"

Loki saw Harley running down the stairs with fear on his face. "What are you doing awake? I thought I had sent you to sleep an hour ago."

"That doesn't matter, JARVIS isn't responding."

He sighed, "I know, I was just about to-"

"I am sorry, sirs. There has been a problem in the tower. My server there has been destroyed."

A feeling of relief flooded him when he heard the voice of his friend AI. He didn't know what would've happened if something truly irreversible had happened to him.

"JARVIS!" yelled Harley happily.

"Oh Norns, J, do not scare me like that. How come your server was destroyed?"

"Exactly that. A being named Ultron killed my form in the tower," the AI said with a hint of embarrassment. "I am sorry to say I could not stop him."

Loki shook his head, "It is not your fault, JARVIS. Let us just be grateful that in this house there are protections of all kinds around your core. Now, what happened to the avengers? Did they defeat this guy?"

"I am currently hacking into the tower's security cameras to find out."

As JARVIS did that, which was going to take only a few minutes, considering that he himself was the first line of security at the tower, the trickster crossed his arms and looked at his kid with a raised eyebrow.

"So, are you going to defend your case?"

He looked at him with false innocence, "Uh, would you believe me if I told you I was awake studying?"

"Absolutely not."

He looked down and played with the hem of his pajamas, "I was fixing the Mark 8 potato gun design."

"And that could not wait for tomorrow? Wait, I thought you finished putting it together yesterday."

"I did," he said with a nod. "But I wanted to make some changes on the trigger, it was too sensitive."

"Tell me the truth, why are you in such a rush to finish it?"

His cheeks turned a subtle pink, "I want it to be finished when dad comes back. So he can be proud that I managed to do it by myself, without his supervision."

His blank face softened upon hearing that. "Oh Harley, come here."

The child sat next to him on the couch and leaned to his looking for affection. He ran his fingers through his hair in a soothing manner and said, "Anthony is already proud of you. You do not have to prove anything to us. Believe me, he and I spent our childhood and adolescence seeking approval from our fathers and it ruined us. You just have to do what you want the way you want to, we are going to be proud of you no matter what. Okay? "

"Okay," he replied, snuggling up next to him.

Finally, JARVIS spoke again. "Mr. Loki, I believe there is something you should see."

Tony's head was a mess. Ultron's words repeated over and over in his mind. ' I see a suit of armor around the world' . He didn't remember saying that. Think about it, yes. Having said it? He had no collection whatsoever, and that didn't sit well on him.

But that was not the most important thing. No. He remembered hearing him say 'I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy.' The thing is, there hadn't been anyone else in the lab except... JARVIS.

He felt his heart sink as a great grief settled into his very being. He couldn't have lost JARVIS... he was his AI... his friend... one of his robo-kids. To think that he was gone was an indescribable feeling.