IMPORTANT: THIS DRABBLE IS A PERSPECTIVE STORY, YOU SHOULD PROBABLY READ THE REAL STORY (Baby, we´re a natural disaster, it´s in my profile)
I just wanted some Jarvis feels, ok?
5 times they didn´t notice Jarvis was Tony´s dad and 1 time they did
The kid is always Tony, at least in his mind. Of course when he addresses them they're both Mr. Stark, because he can't let himself acknowledge that this child is much more to him than just a mere future boss.
1.
Jarvis is present at the hospital when the doctors give them the news. Or more precisely, he's at the hospital when the head surgeon calls Mr. Stark and Tony into a separate room,
He stays there with the sudden, unwanted certainty that the house will be much sadder from then on.
Mr. Stark comes out first, blank and stone-faced and gets out the door and into the car without even sparing a look for Jarvis. He takes no offense, instead he gets up and walks through the door the man just came out from.
Tony's sitting on a white plastic chair and he looks small, much smaller than he should be at twelve. He barely looks up when Jarvis gets to his knees before him.
"They said my mom didn't make it, Jarvis." He says, a tremor evident on his voice, but his face is serious and firm, just like his father's a moment ago.
"I'm aware."
"Where's my dad, Jarvis?"
"In the car, I believe." He waits for a sign, for isomething/i that tells him he can do what he so desperately wants to without stepping on a line. He puts a hand on the boy's shoulder and suddenly Tony's surging forward, and Jarvis holds his future boss against his chest and lets him cry his eyes out and the only thing he can do is hug him tighter, try to encase him completely so that the world doesn't get a glimpse at this child that will have to be a man as soon as he walks out the door.
2.
He's not in his bed.
He's not in s bed and he's not in the workshop and he's not in his parents' bedroom, and he knows this last one as soon as he opens the door and sees the hunched shape on the desk and smells the scotch.
He wastes no time trying to shake the sobbing mess that is his boss into coherency, and instead hurries his way back down to the front door. He grabs no coat nor bothers locking the door after he gets the keys and runs to the car.
In the end he decides to drive directly to young Rhodes' house, and the drive is tense and anxious and his eyes roam frantically over the empty street.
When he catches sight of the silhouette sitting on the swing set of the empty playground he sighs and thanks his instinct.
The car comes to a halt and Tony's head turns up slowly, his eyes are tired and sad, but his mouth curls into something reminiscent of a smile when he sees him.
"Hey Jarv." He greets, and lets him take the backpack that lays at his feet.
Jarvis says nothing as he loads the backpack (it's so ilight/i, how far did he think he'd get with whatever he stuffed in there?!) and climbs into the car, but as soon as Tony climbs into the passenger seat and fastens his seatbelt on, he locks the door and clenches his hands around the wheel.
"Just what on Earth were you thinking, if I may ask?" He says through gritted teeth.
"Honestly? I was thinking of getting to the nearest bus station and as far away from here as I could." Tony answers and Jarvis clenches the wheel tighter.
The nerve of the kid.
"And of course you didn't spare a thought for your father, did you?" He tries a different approach.
"Well, did he?" This time the teenager's answer comes with more of a bite and Jarvis sighs. He's been seeing this coming for over two years now, from the moment he brought the child back home from the hospital and his father didn't even look at him before climbing the stairs to his bedroom to mourn alone.
And truly, all these two know how to do is hurt each other.
"And you didn't spare a thought for me either, Mr. Stark?"
Tony stays silent for nearly a whole minute before answering. "Of course I did." He starts. "You're here now, aren't you?"
"Of course I am." Wind and storm couldn't have stopped him if they had tried. "Did you even think of calling Mr. Rhodes first?"
"What for? He's always going on and on about how much he likes surprises." Tony smirks and Jarvis smiles despite himself.
"Perhaps not this big a surprise."
"Yeah, you're probably right."
Jarvis sighs again and starts the car, and the way back is that special kind of thoughtful silence of two people that don't want to or don't know how to say what they're truly thinking. But Jarvis forces himself to break it when they park on the driveway because this child still needs an example to follow and right now his father is not a very good one.
"Please don't do that again, Mr. Stark." He says at last, but doesn't unlock the doors just yet. "You gave me a good scare."
Out the corner of his eye he notices Tony at least has the decency to look ashamed.
"I'm sorry." He mutters. Jarvis unlocks the doors, but the boy doesn't make a move to get out. "... I was making bets on whether or not someone would look for me, you know?"
"Why, I thought you were supposed to be a genius, Mr. Stark." He gets off the car himself and retrieves the backpack before he retreats into the house.
Tony stays in the car for two hours, just sitting there unmoving, and Jarvis doesn't move from his hiding spot at the window the whole time.
3.
"I'm bringing someone over tomorrow." Tony says and from his spot behind him by the door Jarvis can see his hand clenching around his napkin.
Mr. Stark looks up for a second. "Don't you always?" And Jarvis restrains himself from flinching.
Of course he hasn't noticed his son's girlfriend has been going out with the bodyguard for three months now.
"I meant for dinner." Tony answers in a voice that's more bored than irritated. "He wanted to meet you, I don't know why, honestly."
Ah, this is starting to look like one of those fun nights.
"He? Weren't you dating that cute redhead Omega? Virginia, wasn't it?"
"You've lost a few chapters, haven't you?" The grin in Tony's voice is obvious.
"His name's Steve." Tony mutters half an hour later from behind the rim of a mug of coffee.
"We've been going out for a month now, and surprisingly enough he doesn't look like he wants to back off immediately."
"Why would he?" Jarvis smiles without turning to face him. "Is there anything special you'd like to have for dinner? I'd like to inform the cook on time."
"Just get an apple pie for desert and he'll be happy." Tony smiles and it's open and fond like it only has been when talking about Pepper, and when he came home saying they had broken up Jarvis had been afraid he'd never see it again. "Would you like to have dinner with us?"
Of course, iof course/i he'd like to. "I doubt your father would approve of that, Mr. Stark."
"Ah... I guess you're right. Sorry Jarv." He shrugs the matter away. He's gotten good at that, Jarvis has noticed. He turns to keep checking the list of requests from the assorted house personnel, and it's only a minute before he remarks on the heavy silence that has settled on the room.
He looks up to find Tony holding the coffee mug tight in his hands and scratching at the printed porcelain absentmindedly. He rolls his eyes.
"What is it, Mr. Stark?"
For a moment he thinks he won't answer, but he eventually does.
"He's an Alpha too."
And well, of course he wouldn't have mentioned that to his father, he thinks as he silently places a plate with a muffin and sits on the table next to him. Looks like tomorrow's dinner is going to be a thing to remember.
In the end it actually is.
Steve is a charming young man, polite, smart and completely in love with Tony, judging by the way his eyes drift to him and his lips curl into a smile when he thinks Tony isn't looking, and all in all Jarvis can't like him fast enough.
Of course, the fact that he's basically impossible to hate means Mr. Stark is dragging him away to look at late Mrs. Stark's small library as soon as he forks up his last piece of pie, and Jarvis is left alone again, this time with a smiling Tony.
"So? Didn't I tell you he was great?" He asks after they've stopped hearing the muffled conversation of the ascending men.
Jarvis returns the smile and pats his shoulder (just this once).
"Indeed he is, Mr. Stark. Congratulations."
"Yeah..." His smile turns dreamy for a moment. "I really like him, Jarv."
Jarvis feels his heart warming and dares hoping that maybe this one will stay.
4.-
Jarvis isn´t young, by any means, and he´s mature enough to recognize his mistake and his change of heart. This is why whenever anyone asks him he can´t help but to answer with the truth.
The first time he saw Loki walk into the house he iknew/i he was trouble.
At the time it was just an innocent get together. They watched a movie, they talked and by (not) eavesdropping behind the door Jarvis found out his new guest had already been invited down into the workshop and witnessed what he liked to call "that bloody glove thing you´ll tear your arm off with, Mr. Stark." Nothing to be worried about.
Still, he watches the Omega through narrowed eyes and treats him with borderline cold politeness whenever he visits the house, and pretends not to know what´s going on when Steve is around.
However, the end is predictable enough and all his mistrust and disapproval fade immediately when Tony comes in looking like his mother came back to life and died a second time.
"Is everything all right, Mr. Stark?" He asks, and has to remind himself to keep it professional, has to remind himself this is not the boy that waited on a white room and hid into his arms because his fathers´ were closed to him, not anymore.
"Not really, Jarv." He looks up with a pained smile. "I... I hurt Steve."
`Of course you did, my boy, you buggered it up good, now what are we going to do about it?´ He wants to say. Instead he shakes his head and goes with a stiff "I´m sure it can be fixed, Mr. Stark."
Tony lets out a dry laugh and buries his head in his hands.
"Thing is... I´m not sure I want to fix this." He looks up again and his eyes are red rimmed and defeated. "I´m not sure of anything anymore."
The silence that follows is thick and bitter, like the taste in your tongue before tears burst through.
"To..."
"I´m sorry, Jarv. I´m... I´ll just go lay down ok?" He doesn´t wait for an answer, he´s already dragging himself upstairs and Jarvis can read the tense outline of his shoulders and the grip on the staircase. It´s ironic, he thinks, that this young man ifeels/i so much and is so compelled to hide it from everybody.
It hasn´t been five minutes before someone knocks on the door, and Jarvis answers right away, since he´s still rooted to the spot.
Of course it is that thrice damned...
"Mr. Borson. Mr. Stark went straight to his bedroom." He says without missing a beat. He has no clue if it´s an accusation, an order, a demand for an explanation or just a means of informing him.
The young man lets out a sigh before addressing him with a smile that´s no less regretful than the one he saw a few minutes ago.
"Thanks. What door was that again?"
"Third on the left."
"I´ll go check on him."
He sighs again, and his shoulders tense and he looks more like a man about to be executed than a man that´s happy he got what he wanted.
Jarvis waits until he hears the bedroom door closing to follow, and this time he doesn´t feel guilty for eavesdropping, not in the slightest, because he ishould have/i stepped in before it got this far, before ihe/i came out hurt.
Tony starts talking about a picture and a bus stop, Jarvis doesn´t know much but he can guess. Still, he decides to stay.
"I love him, you know?" Tony says.
"I´m sorry." Loki answers, and Jarvis honestly doesn´t know which one sounds sadder. But apparently Loki stays and Jarvis has to admit he´s got to cut him some slack because a man that´s willing to stay the night and listen to a lover that just admitted he loves someone else is, to say the least, a show of strong will.
5.-
The next time he sees Loki, the Omega is wearing a wedding tunic and looks as scared as if ten thousand spiders were crawling under it.
"Mr. Stark is busy." He says, but he´s already stepping back from the door to let him in.
"Please, please tell him I came just... I don´t have much time." The young man is practically begging.
"Yes, looking like that I suppose there´s someone waiting for you at the end of an aisle." He doesn´t even care he´s being nasty at this point, this man idared/i stepping into his boy´s life to wreck the best relationship he´s ever had, just to go and marry someone else, apparently.
"Listen, I know you don´t like me-"
"I don´t." Jarvis interrupts him, but Loki goes on like it´s nothing.
"-But if you love him like I think you do, iplease/i let me see him."
Jarvis frowns and rolls his eyes but he leads him to the workshop and announces him.
"Jarvis?"
"Sir?" He leans in to respond to the call and they´re clinging to each other like their lives depend on it. Tony hands him a credit card.
"Would you mind doing a transference for me?"
And Jarvis knows this is it. Tony´s leaving, probably forever and with this man he couldn´t mistrust more if he tried.
It´s the first time he´s ever regretted having accepted his job, he just doesn´t want to ilet go/i and it´s unfair of life to make him go through this when it was the reason he didn´t even try to get a child of his own in the first place.
He looks back up and smiles because they both look a bit scared and twice as excited, and he likes to think maybe Tony´s waiting for his approval.
"Nothing would make me happier, sir." He lies and walks out to send the thing he loves the most to God knows where.
+1
They´re at their apartment, drinking coffee, and Jarvis relishes in the feeling of having it served to him instead of serving it to someone. He sits back and looks around.
It´s a nice apartment, spacious and tastefully decorated, and there´s a malamute puppy (Fenrir is not quite a puppy anymore, but he´s in that age in which they firmly believe they still are) happily bouncing around.
Loki comes back from the kitchen and sets a plate of biscuits down on the coffee table (he has a spare second of unease because Loki is definitely not a nice, housewife-ish Omega, and surely there´s something going on here?) and sits next to Tony on the loveseat.
"We´re getting married, Jarvis." Tony breaks the silence.
Ah, there it is.
He looks at them. They´re holding hands and looking expectantly at him, and he still remembers how they looked not a year ago in the workshop, young and happy and scared and unsure. He feels a weight lifting off his stomach when he realizes the last two are nowhere to be seen now.
Placing his mug down on the table and pushing Fenrir away buy him a couple minutes to gather his thoughts, and when he looks again they both look a bit pale and he can´t contain his smile.
Maybe he still doesn´t trust Loki, but there´s something to be said about the fact that Tony is willing to take this step after so short a time. His boy is spontaneous, yes, but not stupid, and he knows a good deal when he sees it.
He wants to gather them both into his arms, to tell them how they don´t need to look this nervous and how happy he is for them both, but duty calls first.
"I trust you have told your father, Mr. Stark?"
Loki smiles and rolls his eyes as Tony leans forward to answer.
"I just did."
Thanks for reading!