Chapter Text
Laying back atop a black chair that highly resembled a dentist’s chair, DUM-E hovered above a shirtless Toni as she groaned in irritation, a new and improved arc reactor resting in her left hand.
Between one blink and the next, a familiar form appeared on the other side of the lab. At his appearance, Toni grinned. “Perfect timing!” She proclaimed, spreading her arms out wide in glee.
Tearing his attention from his thorough study of his surroundings, Loki looked over at Toni, his gaze briefly lingering over her exposed breasts, before steadfastly landing on the arc reactor that rested between them.
Toni’s eyebrows wiggled playfully. “Like what you see?” she questioned jokingly with a smirk.
Loki’s eyes darted up to meet Toni’s, his expression unamused. “Hardly,” he answered dryly, before looking back down at the arc reactor. “What purpose does it serve?”
Realizing where he was truly looking, Toni fought the urge to cover the arc with her hand in the face of such intense scrutiny, despite knowing, logically, that she needed his help. “It keeps me from dying,” she revealed vaguely, before tilting her head, “or, well, it did . Now, this one will.” She looked down at the new reactor in her hand, twisting it this way and that. “But I think I’ll need your help for that bit. Show me your hands?”
Loki slowly raised his hands uncertainly, confusion etched in his features. Toni inspected both from afar, before giving a singular nod. “Perfect,” she declared, “Your fingers are daintier than mine, funnily enough.” Without hesitation, Toni pulled out the old arc reactor with a soft grunt, ignoring the anxiety and fear that gnawed at the back of her brain at the absence of the technology.
At Toni’s actions, Loki rushed to Toni’s side, a quiet curse in a language Toni didn’t understand escaping his lips. Seeing his concern, Toni placed the device in his hand, “Like I said, obsolete. Place that on the table over there, will ya?” Sending a light glare toward Toni, Loki did as asked, discarding it on the nearby table. “Awesome. Now, there’s an exposed wire in there that’s contacting the socket wall and causing a bit of a short. I need you to reach in and gently lift the wire out, but don’t let it touch the socket wall.”
Loki nodded, before slowly reaching his hand into the cavern carved into Toni’s chest. Gripping the wire, he grimaced at the feeling of some sort of liquid encasing his hand, before slowly lifting it out, “I’ve got it.”
Toni smiled encouragingly, if not a bit wobbly. “Great, now make sure when you pull it out that you don’t-” She cuts off as the surrounding medical equipment starts beeping, the wire dangling from Loki’s grasp with a magnet connected to the end. “Okay, well, I was about to say don’t do that , but you’ve gone and done it so I guess that’s a bust,” she breathed anxiously, “In other news, I’m now going into cardiac arrest.”
Loki’s eyes widened with panic. “ What ?!” He shouted, “Why would you not tell me the risk prior?! What do I do??”
“Take this,” she told him, shoving the new reactor into his free hand, “and attach it to the base plate. Quickly, please, because every second it’s not in, there may or may not be shrapnel inching closer to my heart, but, y’know, no pressure.”
Loki tossed the wire and magnet to the side, using both hands to insert the device into the socket as he cursed Toni to Valhalla and back under his breath. Once the device was connected properly, a sharp yelp escaped Toni, before she cleared her throat and grinned at Loki. “There we go! That wasn’t that hard. Fun, right?”
Loki glared at Toni. “If you ever ask me to do that again, I will kill you myself,” he growled angrily.
Toni gulped, nodding quickly. “Yep. Got it. Noted.”
Now that the excitement had ceased, Loki’s attention turned back toward the old device sitting on the nearby table. “What will you do with this one?”
Toni raised an eyebrow, looking at it. “That? Probably incinerate it.”
Loki hummed thoughtfully, before taking the item in hand, placing it into a pocket dimension with the flick of his wrist. Toni blinked. “Handy,” she mused, earning a wry grin from the God.
“How do you fare?” Loki asked after a moment, “Other than the obvious.”
Sitting up, Toni shrugged, grabbing her shirt from the back of the chair and slipping it on. “Physically? Alright. Some leftover bruises and lacerations here and there, but nothing monumental.”
Loki raised an eyebrow. “And mentally?”
Toni grinned all teeth as she jumped to her feet. “I’m great. No, better than great. You couldn’t find someone more mentally sound than I am right now,” she said, her words practically tripping over themselves in their advance towards Loki.
Loki simply stared at Toni in response, his face unamused.
Toni cleared her throat, pausing as she drums her fingers anxiously on her leg. “Not great. I tried to take a shower. Took one look at it and almost passed out,” she sighed, “Plus, someone in my company is dealing under the table to terrorists, so that’s… that , I guess.”
“Terrorists?” Loki questioned in confusion.
Toni nodded. “Those guys back in the desert. I was there for a demonstration with a schedule and route that was only distributed on a need-to-know basis, and yet they were able to intercept our convoy. I’ve already ruled out the military’s involvement, which means someone in my company sold me out. Lucky for me, I have J.A.R.V.I.S. combing through the STARK ENTERPRISES servers for anything that fits the bill.” At Loki’s continued confusion, Toni smirked, leaning back against the workstation and crossing her arms over her chest. “J.A.R.V.I.S? Say hi to Loki.”
“Good afternoon, sir. How would you like me to address you?”
Loki’s head shot toward the ceiling, eyes darting to and fro in search of the unfamiliar voice, a common reaction when first faced with JARVIS. “My name is Loki Odinson,” he answered warily, glancing at Tony, who simply smiled approvingly, “If I may ask, where are you?”
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Odinson. I am not corporeal, instead, I exist in the internal systems of all Miss’ properties, as well as STARK ENTERPRISES. I am artificial intelligence created by Miss to assist her in all things,” JARVIS explained, causing Loki’s eyes to widen at the AI’s words.
“Truly? Asgard is leagues ahead of Midgard, and even we have not yet achieved the successful creation of artificial intelligence, at least, not to the point of self-directed learning, as it seems you have. That is quite the feat,” he praised, “Are there more like him?”
Toni scoffed, “More like JARVIS? Not quite. I mean, we’ve got the bots, but they’re pretty rudimentary - no offense, boys.” An outraged beep rang out from deeper within the workshop, followed shortly by a despondent chirp as two metal amalgamations rolled toward the pair. “DUM-E, don’t make me wash out your circuits with soap, we don’t use language like that,” she scolded, waggling a finger at them, “and where’d your dunce cap go? Your time-out wasn’t over yet.”
Ignoring their creator entirely, the mechanical arms rolled closer to Loki, whose eyes darted between them and their mother. Waving away his perceived wariness, she smiled. “They just want to say hi. They’re basically harmless and, in all the ways that matter, children,” she explained with a fond tone, “Although, U struggles with his strength sometimes and DUM-E tends to make smoothies out of motor oil, so maybe don’t drink anything he gives you, unless you’re prepared to become very ill.”
Loki simply hummed in understanding, a small quirk of his lips the only indicator to how humorous he found her statement. When one of the two creatures lightly tapped at his arm, he allowed the quirk to become a welcoming smile. “Well, hello there. I’m assuming you are DUM-E,” he mused, before the second being practically rammed into his side, causing him to stumble slightly and let out a quiet huff, “which means this must be U.”
His words earned him an excited trill from the bots. Glancing over at their creator, Loki mused, “Creating artificial intelligence like you have is quite the feat, even if you say they aren’t as advanced as JARVIS. They truly are your children in all the ways that matter.” Toni felt her cheeks heat at the rare observation. Her bots had only met a handful of people in their lifetimes - Obi, Rhodey, Happy, and Pepper - and none of their reactions had been as positive as Loki’s.
When Obadiah met them for the first time, he immediately started talking business, only seeing them for the potential cash cows they could be. “This could be revolutionary, Toni,” he’d beamed, clapping her on the back so hard she knew she’d bruise, “Think of the ways you could implement this into UAVs! You’d eliminate the need for drone techs almost entirely!” It had taken two weeks of endless time spent in the lab for her to create something that distracted him enough to put the idea out of his mind.
Toni strongly suspected Rhodey held a small measure of disdain for her firstborn, although she also suspected he would never admit it. Since he’d first met DUM-E while dragging her from deep within an inventing binge where she’d almost needed to be hospitalized, she didn’t fault him for it. In his defense, if she’d been in his position, DUM-E wouldn’t exist anymore.
Happy was the newest member of their hodgepodge little group and, arguably, had the most tame reaction. After meeting JARVIS, he’d taken one look at the bots, raised an eyebrow, and said, “Are those supposed to be the grand finale? Because I hate to break it to you, but I don’t think you’re gonna top the ghost in the walls.”
Pepper, after being snuck up on by U, had screeched so loud it ruptured one of Toni’s eardrums for a week. After that, she’d kept a healthy distance between her and the bots, but had slowly begun to warm up to them after noticing just how much they tried to help and sustain Toni during her inventing binges. Now, she treated them both like one might treat a particularly yappy chihuahua.
Suffice to say, Loki’s brand of intrigue and awe was a welcome change, especially with the healthy sprinkling of genuine understanding on the side. Toni wasn’t sure if she could even recall a time someone close to her had honestly expressed an understanding of the depth of her feelings regarding her more sentient creations. Not wanting to linger around that rabbit hole for much longer, Toni discreetly cleared her throat, willing the redness that had overtaken the apples of her cheeks to settle.
“So,” she clapped her hands together, using the sound to signal the end of the previous conversation, “It seems like you’re settling in to stay for a little bit. Why don’t you lend me those dexterous fingers of yours for science?” She smirked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.