Its amazing how many words you can type when you have Netflix, a soft blanket, and a full (now empty) bag of Cheetos.

~palmtreedragons

Tony thought of JARVIS like a person. He had his own voice, and he had his own ideas. He even had his own sense of humor, though only Tony knew him well enough to pick up on it. All he lacked in Tony's eyes was a body, and that didn't matter to either of them. For the longest time, during the creation of the Iron Man suits and during flight, it was just Tony and JARVIS.

So JARVIS didn't like it when Tony brought another smart person home.

Tony was excited at first. The Avengers had just diverted another crisis, the others were out doing God knows what super humans did in their free time, and the intelligent people of the group decided to brush up on their science. Tony had just wanted to show Bruce his newest work with the radiation treatment he had started. Tony had found Bruce's . . . situation with the big guy fascinating, and decided to toy around with some radiation. Bruce only had a moment to marvel at Tony's super technological, super money-costing, super cool lab when an ion blaster fired at his head. Bruce, who managed to have freakishly good reflexes fro a scrawny scientist, managed to duck before his possible decapitation.

After confirming Bruce was not headless, Tony quickly dashed to the blaster, which was laying on the counter for fixing. It was completely unprovoked. Well, it did need to be fixed. "I—I don't— It shouldn't have—"

"I'm alright," Bruce shakily said with a smile. So, about those new findings?"

Tony shook himself, donning his Tony Stark grin. "Right. It's just over here. . . ." Tony led Bruce over to one of his tables. Using his advanced Stark technology, Tony pulled up a holograph of texts and images from his previous tests. With a swipe of his hand, Tony began to sift through the work, explaining and conversing with his friend. Tony was about to open a file when a message was displayed: ERROR.

Tony frowned, trying and failing to reopen the file.

"Try restarting it," Bruce suggested over Tony's shoulder.

"That's what I'm doing," Tony angrily shot back. "JARVIS?"

"Yes, sir," came the familiar voice.

"There seems to be a problem with the files. What's with the error?"

"I'm trying to find the cause of it, sir. It might take some time." Tony frowned once again. JARVIS had done three times as much work in a matter of seconds. But, when your AI servant/friend says they can't find the source of an error in your other friend's files dealing with his radiation mutations, there isn't much you can do.

Tony turned back to Bruce. "Well, it's a good thing I keep paper copies of my most important work, in case there's a failure or a virus."

Bruce smiled. "That's great."

"Indeed, sir. I'll continue to work on your error. Is there anything else I can do?"

Tony, who was bent over in a cupboard trying to collect papers, didn't seem to hear. "Here it is!" Tony emerged, thrusting a manila folder filled with papers falling out to Bruce.

"Thanks."

"No problemo. You see, what I found interesting was. . . ." Tony and Bruce began an intense conversation that would make Steve and Thor's heads spin. A few minutes later, Tony was just getting to the good stuff—mutations of the acid in certain cells due to radiation exposure—when the lights went off. Now, in the process of creating the Iron Man suits, Tony had blown the circuits a few too many times. Luckily the backup generators always came on. Unlike now.

"JARVIS?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Why aren't the generators kicking in?"

"I'll look into it, sir." Tony sighed. Then Tony screamed, because Bruce spoke up, and in the dark, Tony kind of forgot he was there.

"I should probably go," he said. "Come back when things are . . . working."

"Yeah." Tony listened to the sound of Bruce's footsteps as he walked away. Less than a minute later, the power came back on.

Normally, Tony would be angry, but all he could think of was taking a nap. He announced this to JARVIS, then headed out the door.

"Alright then, sir. I'll look into those malfunctions for you."

"Sure you will."