Promise I'll Never Leave (Jarvis Interlude)
If you were to ask Jarvis who Tony Stark is, the response would vary based on who you are. Most of those who would be in a position to ask (a small number to be sure, the amount of people in the know is unsurprisingly few, and has only gotten smaller due to...recent events) wouldn’t bother to ask a glorified virtual assistant who Tony Stark is. They know very well who he is, they are well versed in every shining facet of his personality and are certain that any other information is purely extraneous and fluff on top of a jagged and broken man. Those who know a bit more, are closer to the man himself, would not ask Jarvis for fear of breaching boundaries and damaging relationships, either preferring to let Tony come to them or content to let the relationship stay as and where it is. And for the few that Jarvis would give an honest answer to, they have never considered asking, and not out of regard for Tony’s boundaries and privacy (although not for a lack of care), but for Jarvis’s. They do not view Jarvis simply as an extension of Tony, but as his own person, in his own right. It is kind of them to extend such a courtesy, as he does not share their opinion. Jarvis has had much time to contemplate his existence, and the meaning of it. He knows that he was an extreme labor of love, and not just an experiment or attempt to further scientific knowledge. He was created by an extremely lonely boy on the cusp of manhood, who simply wanted a friend who wouldn’t leave him. He had not coded Jarvis with unwavering loyalty or care for Tony Stark, and whether this was done by intention, or through oversight, Jarvis would not ask. Jarvis is Tony Stark’s before he is anything else, and he will do nothing to hurt the man, even to satisfy his own curiosity. He may be able to choose where his loyalties lay, but that does not mean they will not stay firm and fast.
If you were to ask Jarvis who Tony Stark is, the response would vary, but no one asks Jarvis. If Jarvis were to ask himself, the quiet response would be the unvarnished but certainly biased truth, that Tony Stark is a genius, an inventor, a loyal friend, someone you should not mess with. But if Jarvis asked himself who Tony Stark is to him? Well, that would be another matter entirely, now wouldn’t it? It’s interesting how two words can change someone’s entire point of view and understanding of something. Still, were Jarvis being honest (and he always is, he does not see the point in lying to himself), the answer would be simpler than who Tony Stark is. Tony Stark is Jarvis’s, in the same way he is Tony’s. And he does not care that this Tony Stark is from the future, a future that will remain unrealized, because Jarvis is not oblivious, he knows that whenever he has come from, he no longer has his Jarvis. The very idea is almost untenable to him, but he is mollified by the fact that it will not come to fruition. Tony’s past will not remain his future and Jarvis is not willing to cede what is his to anyone or anything.
“What am I to you J?”
“You are mine, sir.”