InsaneJournal

Who: Jarvis and Gwen Stacy
When: Early December
Where: Stark Industries
What: Workins!
Rating/Warning: Low/None
Status: Complete


Gwen knocked on the door to Jarvis’ office, and stood outside of it, holding a folder on a clipboard, and a new modem. She also had a flash drive on a lanyard around her neck (beside the one that had her employee ID card in it) that she was going to use to update some of the firewall protections on his computer. For certain computers and for certain techno-babble reasons, some of the computers had to be manually adjusted--and the new hardware had to be installed at the site, or else she’d have done it all from the comfort of her own cubicle.

Anyway, she hadn’t really met the Jarvis guy, she’d only randomly seen him in the hallways talking to Tony Stark--and any time she’d ever seen the big boss man, she’d been intimidated. She waited in the hall, wondering what Jarvis was like, and how close his relationship to Tony Stark was.

The computer thing was, in fairness, Jarvis could easily fix on his own. But he reminded himself that there needed to be a reason people were getting paid, and, honestly, he probably had a hundred other things he could do anyway. Besides, if he got lost in his computer, he’d probably find several things to tweak, and he’d waste a day.

When he heard the knock on the door, he got up and opened it with a smile. “Ah, perfectly punctual. A refreshing quality to find in a person. Please, come in.”

“That’s me. Punctual Gwen.” Gwen said, giving a smile. She stepped into the room as he held open the door and glanced around curiously. She’d only been in the office once before, when she was given a tour by the head of her department. Merlin was thorough, and showed her pretty much everything in the whole building when she’d first started at Stark Industries. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything important.”

Jarvis laughed and let the door go once she was inside. The office was large and meticulous, everything had a place and he knew exactly where that place was. His filing habits were tedious but they paid off.

“Oh, not at all. And I’m sorry, we’ve not been properly introduced before, have we?” He had always tried to maintain knowing the various employees at Stark, but there were a lot, and he’s been out of the country so much lately that all attempts have been feeble. So he held out his hand. “Edwin Jarvis. And you’re Punctual Gwen, yes?” Jarvis cracked a bit of a grin.

“No, I don’t think so.” Gwen said, turning to smile at him. She noticed how clean the office was, how crisp his suit was. She noticed his handsome smile, and the kind, professionalism in his voice. “Yes, Punctual Gwen.” She said, blushing just slightly. “Gwen Stacy. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Jarvis,” she said as she slipped her hand into his to shake it. Her skin was very smooth and soft, slightly chilly even though they didn’t skimp on the heating bill at Stark Industries.

“I assure you, the pleasure is mine.” Jarvis wandered over to his desk and gave the computer a pat. “All right, this is it. It’s completely at your disposal. Don’t mind me if I hover. I’ll try not to, it’s just likely more interesting than the stack of paper work I have.”

Gwen moved over to his desk, set her things down, and gave him a little smirk. “Oh, I know. I’m way more interesting than paperwork. Unless it’s… y’know… interesting paperwork.” She said. Okay, lame joke. But everyone gave those every once in a while. “Pressure’s up, Stacy, gotta make this interesting.” She said to herself, still teasing a little, as she sat down at his computer and started it up. She pulled up the program she needed and started it running, then set about putting in the new hardware, too.

Jarvis laughed anyway. He moved around to give her some space, since he wasn’t sure it was exactly easy to have the company’s CFO hovering over you when you tried to work on his personal things. However, after a bit, he leaned against his desk and put his hands in his pockets as he watched. “So tell me, Miss Stacy, how long have you worked at Stark?” He hoped it came off as conversational. After all, he’d recently been told he sounded snooty and like a ponce.

Gwen glanced up over at him. It was a little relief that he wasn’t hovering, but she didn’t really mind. The work she was doing today was the kind of stuff that he could probably do in his sleep, and she wasn’t too worried about getting it wrong. If she’d been doing something intricate or difficult, then having an extra set of eyes on her might make her feel insecure or nervous. Today it wasn’t that big of a deal. Though, she did get a little nervous when he started asking questions.

“Hmm? Oh…. just under a year?”

He nodded, then frowned a bit. “Almost a year? Well, then I apologize sincerely that we’ve not met properly. It’s poor form of me, really. I do hope you’ll forgive me.”

Gwen flushed. “You’re forgiven.” She said, then turned from the computer screen to look up and over at him. She gave him a smile. “It’s no big deal. A little surprising that I haven’t run into you in the hallways more. I think I did an update on your computer a while back, but you were out of the country.”

“I agree. I’m usually lurking about more. Hopefully once the new year comes around, I’ll be able to start that again,” Jarvis said, laughing. “But I have been away quite a bit, it seems. Ah well, we’ve got the chance to chat now, so I suppose that’s something. Also, if you’re the one who’s been taking care of my computer while I’ve been away, I must say you’re doing an excellent job of it.”

“That’s certainly better than nothing,” Gwen said, clicking a couple of things to get the program running on the screen. She entered a pass code and hit the “return” key, then sat back a bit in the chair to smile up at him, bashfully. “Well, thank you. You’ve got a good computer here. She’s a doll. No trouble with her so far.” She leaned over to pat the computer console.

“Stop it, you’ll have me blushing,” Jarvis said, amicably. “I suppose it’d be rather silly, to be in such a high position at a technology company and not be able to maintain a computer.”

Gwen came very close to saying something about how blushing would make him look more handsome, or how not even blushing could improve his looks, or something ridiculous. Her mind was trying to wrap around that phrase--a small flirtation--but it just wouldn’t come. And then she actually chuckled. “You’d be surprised how many times I’ve had to deliver parts up to Tony Stark’s office.” (Because she couldn’t say just plain “Tony,” and she couldn’t say “Mr. Stark,” because that was just… weird.) “He seems to be a bit rough with his parts.”

Jarvis laughed. He could just imagine Tony burning out (literally) several components for some new invention of his own. “Yes, well, I’ve stopped asking what Mr Stark does in his spare time up there. I’m certain last time I saw him attempting to make a robo-dog out of a toaster he’d gotten from one of the break rooms.”

“Is that where that toaster went?” Gwen asked, breaking into a huge grin. It’s the kind of thing she could absolutely imagine Tony Stark doing. And, honestly, the kind of thing she’d pay good money to see. And/or to learn. She’d give her left foot to study directly under Tony Stark.

“Yes. And also may or may not be the reason why the kitchen appliances are properly secured into place now.” Not that Jarvis hadn’t enjoyed it. To be perfectly honest, he’d likely participated in the endeavour until Pepper came to tell them to get back to work. “But that’s our little secret, yes?” Though he looked very much amused.

Gwen laughed. “That’s our little secret.” She stood up from his chair. “It looks like I’m just about finished here. Unless there’s anything else that you need.” She said, dusting her hands on her slacks, then collecting up the leftover papers and/or packaging and/or old hardware from his desktop. --the physical desktop.

Jarvis gave her an amused smile, then stood up properly and straightened his jacket. “No, I think that should be it. Thank you very much, Miss Stacy, I’ve had a lovely time chatting with you.” He held out his hand.

“And I you.” Gwen said. She gave him a smile and shook his hand before heading out of his office.