InsaneJournal

Who: Tony Stark and Jarvis
When: After These texts
Where: Tony’s office
What: Discoveries and SCIENCE... oh, and a SUIT.
Rating/Warning: Low/None
Status: Complete


This morning, Tony woke up from his insane dreams with an Arc Reactor in his chest. It was blue, and glowing, and metal, and whatever. He wondered if that meant that the shrapnel was also in his chest, moving slowly toward his heart? No. Couldn’t be. This was just too… too bizarre.

He didn’t wait for long before texting Jarvis, who he knew was still in the building. Everything was closed down, even the streets now--with the ash in the air--so it was good that Jarvis and Pepper were close at hand. He sat in the chair behind his desk, shirt off, and waited for Jarvis to come in. He wasn’t even drinking. His hands might be shaking too much to pour a drink without spilling.

Following Tony’s last text, Jarvis all but sprinted out of the elevator and down the hall. Arc reactor? The arc reactor? It seemed impossible, and Jarvis was actually mildly worried that Tony had tried installing one by himself. He burst into the office and paused, looking at Tony, sitting at his desk, and just blinked.

“Oh my God,” Jarvis said. He couldn’t think of what else to say. “That’s - Incredible.” He walked across the office and stood on the opposite side of the desk. “How did - Where did it come from?”

“I don’t know.” Tony said after a moment. He turned his own attention down to the glowing circle on his chest. He stood up so that Jarvis wouldn’t have to bend down to get a good look. “...It was just there when I woke up this morning. Must be a Dream thing. Check it out.” He reached up and took the thing carefully out of his chest so that Jarvis could see--it was just like in the dreams.

Jarvis took the reactor as if it was something fragile and old and likely to break, and held it so carefully as he turned it over in his hands. He was a bit pleased to see, at least, that he was on the right track with his own devices, but of course they weren’t anywhere near the one he was holding.

“You realize that this means that as soon as the suit is in working condition, we won’t need to wait for a sustainable power source?” Admittedly, he knew he should have been worried about how Tony was doing, but it was hard to focus on that. “We can use this and develop a back-up and everything. This is amazing.”

Even Tony wasn’t really worried about how Tony was doing. He would be later, sure, when he realized what this all meant, or could mean, but for now the excitement was much more over-powering. He was … giddy, actually. He wanted a working suit rightthehellnow.

“That was one of my first thoughts, yes. We should… get it running. Tonight. I want our first trial tonight.” Tony said. They were probably forty hours’ work away, but could likely squish it into twelve or eighteen if they pushed themselves. “Red Bull.” He added with a nod.

“Red Bull,” Jarvis agreed. It would certainly help, though the fact that they were both workaholics and clearly were full of excitement would likely push them through. “Have you realized that this will totally revolutionize the future of energy, too?”

“The thought had crossed my mind,” Tony said, smirking softly. “For now, though, let’s get the suit working. Then we can work on other things.” He was fairly focused on that goal for now. “Let me show you how far I’ve come.” He said, and moved around his friend to lead the way into the laboratory.

“I can’t help it,” Jarvis said, albeit a bit apologetically. “I constantly have several things going on in my head at once.” But he was more than happy to follow Tony. Though, after a few steps, he paused and handed back the reactor that was still in his hands. “Uh. I’m not sure if you need this or not.”

“You can start working on whatever you like. I’m going to focus.” Tony said, giving his friend a smile. Then he paused, too, accepted back the reactor and gave a little nod. “Yeah, I should probably…” and he clicked the thing back into place. How weird to have a huge hole in his chest. Bizarre. Anyway.

Tony turned to the contraption he was working on, and pulled off the large drape that had been hiding it. It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t red and gold, but the suit was mostly finished. It just needed tweaking and perfecting.

“I think my priorities right now are the same as yours.” Jarvis walked up to the suit and studied it closely, touching the joints and the places that would likely feel the most stress. “This is looking amazing. You’ll be up and running in no time.”

“It needs a little bit more work. We’ll have to perform a few duress tests, to make sure the thing won’t fall apart with me inside. And I’m not sure about the hand and foot jets, but… I think she’s nearly there.” Weird to call his suit a she. Tony would have to log that away for more thought later. “What do you think? Ready to work? I can call up for some coffee.”

Jarvis was already rolling up his sleeves and making mental notes when Tony asked if he was ready. “Oh, completely. We’ll need to run some tests on that reactor in your chest, to get some real world numbers and everything for it, too.”

They were definitely on the same page. Insert montage sequence. Working with Jarvis was pretty swell. The other seemed to know what he was thinking before he even said it aloud. They made it through the stress tests on the joints of the suit pretty quickly, then the diagnostics on the arc reactor.

It was just about two when Tony couldn’t ignore the growling in his stomach any longer. “...there’s food downstairs somewhere, isn’t there?”

They had always worked well together, but it seemed that, since the dreams, they worked even better than before. Jarvis didn’t even notice his own hunger until Tony mentioned it, and he frowned, feeling his stomach grumble. “Yes. Unless somehow everyone’s eaten it all, which would be quite a feat.”

"I might have a few things stored away up in here, just in case." Tony added, though he was fairly certain they could find something good downstairs. "Not that I want to set this aside, but I think Pep would be cross if we didn't take a lunch break."

“I agree.” Jarvis couldn’t help but laugh. “She’d get on my case for letting you go without food, too, and that’s something I’d rather avoid all together. Anyway, we’ve made remarkable progress with this. I think we can afford a bit of a break.”

“It’s pretty amazing what we can do when we put our minds to it.” Tony said, breaking into something of a grin. “I’ve got a bottle of scotch around somewhere. We’ll have to toast how far we’ve come. You want to phone your assistant to send up some meals?” He would absolutely go down if they had to, but nearly every Stark Employee was still in the building, so… why elevator if you didn’t have to?

“I’m fairly certain that’s misuse of my assistant,” Jarvis said, looking even more amused. “I’m perfectly fine with seeking out some food, if you’d rather sit here and not mingle.”

“Yeah. Go on, then. I’ll run this last diagnostic.” Tony said, finding that bottle of scotch to pour himself a finger. “Then we can start talking about getting me inside the suit after lunch.” Human trials! Exciting!

“Hold your horses, Mr. Stark,” Jarvis said. But he’s laughing as he heads out, and he shakes his head in amusement.