Disclaimer: Unless you don't recognize them, I don't own them. No money or other profits are being made from this attempt at entertainment.
******
Tony had forgotten how intriguing he had previously found Bruce Wayne. He was magnanimously willing to cut himself some slack on it; he figured that near-death experiences and life-changing epiphanies were apt to make anyone slightly forgetful.
Finding himself once again sitting across the table from the other man, however, it didn't take long for his previous ponderings to return. He and Pepper – along with his top R and D team - were once more at Wayne Enterprises, this time in front of the entire Board, to make a presentation for a new proposed joint venture. After giving his typical peace-on-earth, goodwill-towards-men spiel Tony had sat down and let his team take over the presentation.
This left him free to concentrate of the members of Wayne Enterprises, and he soon became enthralled, most atypically for him, in watching one Bruce Wayne.
Tony still found himself comparing Wayne's performance to watching an actor, but now the other man was obviously far more experienced and comfortable with the character he was playing.
And it was a truly masterful performance. If Tony hadn't noted Wayne's irregular behavior at their previous meeting, when he was obviously less in harmony with his role, he probably would never have picked up on the now incredibly subtle inconsistencies that reassured him that he hadn't imagined Wayne's duplicity.
Still, they were still there, if one knew to look. The slight tightening around the mouth when one of his Board members made a joke at his expense, assuming it would be too cerebral for him to understand. The boredom in his eyes as during the presentation – not the boredom of one who neither understood nor cared about what was being presented but the boredom of one who already knew everything that was being discussed, and in far more detail.
It made Tony glad he had made the trip, regardless of whether their proposal was accepted. Lately all his projects were either of the 'save-the-world' or 'save-the-company' variety. It would be nice to have something to work on just for fun again.
Frankly, he appreciated having something to take his mind off of the disastrous meeting with Batman the previous night. Though meeting Superman was pretty cool, he had to admit. Tony had had high hopes for a relationship between Ironman and Batman, however. It was obvious from his modus operandi that the man was incredibly intelligent with a logical, deductive mind. And his toys! They were enough to make Tony drool.
Beyond that, it would have been nice to be able to talk to another non-powered hero. Sure, Tony had the suit, but underneath it he was still a regular guy – albeit one with an arc reactor mounted in his chest.
It was odd for Tony to desire a bond. He had never cared much for other people. Sure, he could schmooze with the best of them, and he had no qualms in making use of the beautiful women who threw themselves at him. But when it came to actually trying to get to know a person – to develop a relationship beyond the casual, he had never seen the point.
After Obadiah's betrayal Pepper was the only true friend he had, and he had been fine with that for a while. The more time he spent as Ironman, however, the more he found himself wishing for someone to talk to who would understand what he was going through - trying to balance being a hero with his normal life. Someone to whom he could go when continuously facing the worst of humanity got to be too much.
He had hoped that in Batman he might find that companionship, but that was obviously not going to happen. The other hero had made it quite clear that he had no interest in developing a relationship of any sorts.
Polite clapping brought Tony out of his reverie.
"Thank you for your time and attention," his lead presenter was saying, nodding his head to the group. "Please feel free to ask any questions you might have at this time."
An involved…and incredibly boring… Q and A period followed. Looking at his watch, Tony had to stifle a sigh as he noticed it was nearly six o'clock. He supposed he only had himself to blame – he had been the one to insist on the afternoon meeting. But he hated mornings…
Forcing his thoughts away from his bat-musings, Tony turned his attention back onto Wayne. He was relatively certain the man had just barely aborted an eye roll at a particularly dense question from one of the Wayne Enterprises' Board Members.
More and more curious…
Acting on impulse, Tony straightened in his seat and turned to fully face Wayne, who was sitting at the head of the large table. "Mister Wayne, what do you say you and I leave the rest of these boring details to our respective teams and head out to grab some dinner?"
A shocked silence met his words.
Pepper looked at him in horror, muttering out of the side of her mouth, "Tony, what are you doing?"
He ignored her, however, keeping his eyes on Wayne who was studying him with a blank expression on his face.
Abruptly a vapid smile appeared, and the other man turned to his right where Lucius Fox was sitting. "That sounds like a wonderful plan! I never did get lunch today; I could certainly go for some food. Lucius, can you and the others handle things from here and just fill me in on the details later?"
Fox gave an indulgent – though suspiciously knowing – smile to Wayne. "Of course, Bruce. We don't have much more to discuss today at any rate."
"Excellent!" was the cheerful reply. "I'll check in with you tomorrow then to find out what we missed."
"That would be fine," Fox agreed, warmth suffusing his face as he regarded the other man.
With that Wayne stood up and moved towards the door. Tony followed suit and made his way over to meet him. Wayne opened the door and motioned Tony trough it, "Shall we, Mister Stark?"
Tony replied with one of his own carefree grins as the two left the meeting room. "Let's shall."
******
The two men wound up at a nearby five-star restaurant with a superb view of the Gotham skyline. The staff obviously knew Wayne, and they were seated in a moderately private booth upon arrival. After placing his drink order, Tony began to peruse the menu until he felt eyes on him. Glancing up, he found himself staring into disturbingly piercing blue eyes, though a vacuous expression masked the rest of the face. Those penetrating eyes told another story.
At that moment the waitress returned with their drinks, a glass of red wine for Wayne and one of scotch for himself, and to take their orders. As soon as she left, Wayne turned his gaze back onto Tony, casually swirling the wine in his glass.
"So just what is it you're hoping to weasel out of me, Mister Stark?"
"Tony, please, and I'm not sure what you mean," Tony replied, unwilling to incriminate himself unless the jig was really up.
"Alright, Tony," Wayne agreed. "Then please, call me Bruce. And what I'm referring to is the fact that the only time businessmen – be they partners, potential partners, or adversaries – ask to go speak with me alone is when they are tired of dealing with Lucius and have decided to try to take advantage of me to get what they want," he explained, a self-depreciating grin curling his lips.
"I hate to break it to you," he continued, shrugging his shoulders as if in apology, "but I've got clear orders from Lucius to not agree to anything that he hasn't ok'ed first."
Tony regarded the other man over the rim of his glass, trying to discern what was actually running through his head. "Then it's fortunate that I have absolutely no intention of trying to get you to agree to anything."
Honest surprise colored Wayne's response. "You don't?"
"Not at all," Tony shrugged, taking a sip from his own glass. "I'm fairly confident that your Board will agree to my Company's proposal. It's sound, and both sides stand to profit a great deal – and it has nothing to do with weaponry." The last was added with a depreciating smile of his own as Tony tilted his head and glass towards Wayne in acknowledgement.
The look of surprise on Wayne's face increased. Tony thought he could detect a hint of suspicion underneath, but couldn't say for certain. The majority of the discrepancies he was seeing in Wayne's façade were so subtle, he found himself wondering if he was imagining some of them. "Then if you don't mind my asking, why are we having lunch?"
Tony shrugged and decided to be blunt; it was what he was best at, after all. "You intrigue me, Mister Wayne."
"I'm afraid you're reading the wrong sort of papers, Tony," Wayne interjected apologetically.
"Not like that, I assure you," Tony chuckled. "Not that you're unattractive. But I try not to get involved with business partners…at least not so early in the partnership. No, it's your acting that I find so fascinating."
Tony was certain that he hadn't imagined the guarded look that flashed across Wayne's face at that. "What are you talking about?"
"Come now, Bruce. You're the one people think is the idiot, not me. I admit, you're pretty good at hiding it, but it's not really that hard to see that you're not nearly as superficial and obtuse as you pretend to be."
A shallow laugh was his response. "Why thank you - I think. Though I have to admit, I wasn't aware that it seemed as if I were 'pretending' as you say. I do have to ask…"
A sudden alarm-like ringing interrupted whatever Bruce had been going to say. Tony noted that the other man stiffened immediately, expression freezing on his face for a moment before an apologetic grimace was put in place. "Sorry, Tony, one second."
With that Bruce pulled a cell phone out of his pocket, pressed a button and put it to his ear.
"Yes, Alfred? Yes, I'm having dinner with Tony Stark tonight….Sorry I didn't call to let you know earlier; it was a spur of the moment thing. Ah, I forgot all about that. Could you please give him my apologies….yes, alright…yes, I'll be home in a few minutes…alright, Alfred, thank you…"
Bruce disconnected the call and replaced the phone. "Sorry about that, Tony. My butler was just inquiring as to my delay, as I had had a previous engagement scheduled for this evening. I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut out early on you."
"No problem, Bruce. I understand."
"How long are you in town? Perhaps we can reschedule?"
"Actually, I had planned to leave tomorrow. Unfortunately the business doesn't run itself, you know."
"Actually, I have to admit that I don't. Lucius does a wonderful job of keeping Wayne Enterprises running without me having to bother with it too much. You should try to find someone to help you with that."
Pain cut into Tony as he was reminded of Obadiah once more and he grimaced. "Actually, after what happened with my last CEO I'm not inclined to go down that road again in the near future."
Wayne at least had the grace to look sheepish. "Ah, yes…sorry, I wasn't thinking…"
Tony waved his left hand negligently while taking a long drink of scotch, draining his glass. "Don't worry about it. No harm done."
"Thank you," Bruce said, smiling. Grabbing his wallet out of his pocket, he pulled out two hundred dollars and placed it on the table – more than enough to cover their tab and a generous tip. Then Bruce reached out towards Tony with his right hand. "It was a pleasure getting to talk with you again, Tony. I really am sorry to have to take off so soon, but I'm already very late."
"It was nice talking with you as well, Bruce," Tony politely returned, shaking the other man's hand and absently noting his rather weak grasp. "We'll have to meet up again soon. You don't have to get the tab, though."
"Please, I insist. It's the least I can do, for cutting out on you. And it is my town."
"Fair enough," Tony acquiesced, not wanting to make a scene. "I've got the next time, though."
"It's a deal," Bruce agreed amiably, rising from his seat. "I hope that you have a safe flight back to Malibu."
Motion in the corner of his eye drew Tony's attention to the waitress who was approaching their table, their entrees in hand.
Bruce noticed Tony's moment of distraction and turned to face the young women. "Ah, Shelly, I'm afraid I'm going to have to run. Could you please give my food to Joe and tell him I said hello?"
The woman smiled warmly at Bruce, not even blinking at the strange request. "Of course, Mister Wayne. I hope that we'll be seeing you again soon."
"Undoubtedly," he grinned, moving off towards the exit with a quick over-the-shoulder wave.
Seeming to forget entirely about the plates she carried, the waitress turned to watch in obvious appreciation as Wayne moved gracefully towards the exit.
"Excuse me, Miss?" Tony called out to the still enthralled woman, who shook herself out of her stupor at his words.
The waitress blushed at being caught but continued to his table, placing his food in front of him. "I'm sorry, sir. Here's your lamb. Can I get you anything else?"
"Yes," he replied, motioning towards his empty glass, "another scotch, please."
"Of course, sir, " she replied, picking up the glass.
Before she could leave, Tony asked, "Who's Joe?"
"I'm sorry what?" she returned, confused.
"Bruce asked that you give his dinner to Joe. I was just wondering who the lucky guy was."
Understanding bloomed on her face. "Oh! Joe – he works here. He's autistic, and the sweetest guy you'll ever meet. He got the job here thanks to the Wayne Foundation – they have a group that works to provide job training and placement for people with disabilities. Mister Wayne makes it a point to talk with Joe whenever he comes in."
And yet another layer of Bruce Wayne was revealed. "Ah. That's certainly very nice of him."
The woman just shrugged. "That's Mister Wayne for you. I'll be right back with your drink." So saying she made her way to the bar, checking on several tables on the way.
Tony slowly began eating his meal – Wayne had made a good choice in restaurant, the lamb was phenomenal – and contemplated what he had learned about Bruce Wayne that day. It admittedly hadn't been as fruitful an interrogation as he had hoped, but he did feel he had gained a slightly better understanding of the man.
Though no closer to understanding why, he was now certain beyond doubt that there was far more to Wayne than he let people see. Tony had to wonder if it had something to do with the other man's parents. When researching Wayne Enterprises he had come across several references to Thomas and Martha Wayne. It was obvious that even now, so many years after their deaths, the two were held up on a pedestal higher than what any living person could hope to match.
It was also just as obvious that no matter what Bruce did – and Tony had surprisingly found that Bruce Wayne was actually even more involved in charities and trying to better Gotham than his parents had been – the people of Gotham always found him lacking when compared to said parents.
Had Bruce gotten tired of not being able to live up to that those unreasonable expectations and finally decided to just give people what they seemed to want, only letting in those people who proved they could see him for himself? There certainly were fewer comparisons being made to his parents since he had returned from his extended holiday and assumed his current persona. Of course, there were the occasional pieces - particularly around the date on which the Wayne's had died - bemoaning how disappointed the two would be in their progeny.
Tony took another drink of scotch, letting his thoughts tumble unchecked through his brain - random musings coming and going, patterns forming and unraveling again. While some of his hypothesis had a certain ring of truth to it, his gut was telling him that there was more to it. There was something he was missing…something that would bring all the pieces together…
Whatever it was, he knew he would figure it out eventually. A genuine smile on his face, he continued to enjoy his meal while outside, unknown to Tony, the Bat-signal illuminated the evening sky.