Chapter Text
Tony was packing his bags. He'd been invited to stay in Gotham for a few days, so he’d need more than just what he was wearing. He was leaving by helicopter in an hour.
The missing reporters had started broadcasting again from Gotham a few hours ago. Live, in front of the eyes of the nation, the rich and powerful of Gotham were taken one by one and presented on their knees to Bruce Wayne, where they would swear their allegiance to him.
Tony had this playing in the background; any window in the penthouse could function as a screen so it wasn’t an inconvenience, and he wanted to know what he was getting into.
He may be reckless but he wasn’t an idiot.
He noticed that the people brought in seemed to vary on the sincerity of their vows, but that the majority of them seemed more afraid than sincere.
The fear was valid; they were at gunpoint after all.
Bruce himself mostly seemed bored, and drunk. He had his playboy mask on firmly. He wandered around the ballroom, sometimes sitting, sometimes not, drinking champagne and mooching hors d'oeuvres off the wait staff while they set up for the ball, and he was between supplicants. He even chatted or flirted with the waitstaff. The waitstaff, it was worth noting, looked plenty comfortable around Bruce compared to the elites.
During the vows Bruce would pay more attention, but he still seemed unnaturally nonchalant about the whole situation.
Tony wasn’t really paying attention though; he was busy searching through his cufflinks for ones that didn’t have metal in them. He was told that the only metal object he was allowed was a phone, and that the phone had to be consumer available, not a prototype or modified in any way. He’d even had to send someone out to buy a new suitcase because all the ones he had had metal zippers.
He had just found a pair of vintage ivory cufflinks when he heard something that made him pause and focus back on the screen.
“Wait,” Bruce said.
The couple in front of him had just started their oath. They looked rich; business people, if Tony had to guess, not politicians. They probably ran in the same circles as Bruce. The man looked afraid and a bit confused, like many of the elites that came through had been. The women on the other hand, seemed much more focused; he’d describe her as calculating if he’d had to pick a word. She’d been the one talking when Bruce stopped her. Both of their eyes widened a little in fear when he’d interrupted them.
Bruce was much less the Brucie Wayne than he’d been only a few minutes ago. He looked serious, as if whatever he had stopped them for was very important to him. A pretty terrifying look coming from someone surrounded by armed soldiers willing to do anything for him.
“Yes, my Prince,” she said. She seemed to grind her teeth a bit on the honorific, though she was clearly trying to hide it.
“I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page regarding your son,” Bruce said, tone still serious.
“Oh what about?” she said, trying her best to keep her tone level.
“Mainly that you don’t have one. The boy who shares your name is not yours, not anymore. You will make no claim to him. You will not bother him. You will not even speak to him. He is not yours. He is mine.” Bruce said. His voice was calm. Not casual, but not emotional either. Like he was talking for the first time to the board of a company he’d just acquired in a hostile takeover. Like what he said was important, but not personal.
And like he knew he would be listened to.
“Yes, my Prince, we understand,” the woman said, face unreadable. The man beside her looked even more confused.
“Do you? Good, I want to hear you say it. You do not have a son.” Bruce said.
“We do not have a son,” she said, face still blank.
“Good, glad that's out of the way,” Brucie's smile had returned. “Continue with what you came here from then.”
“I swear my life to you, Prince Wayne. I swear to use…”
“Turn it off, FRIDAY. Off now.” Tony said slightly hysterically.
The screen blanked.
Tony just stood in the silence for a minute. Damn, this Gotham thing kept getting worse and worse. After everything else he’d still been looking forward to meeting Bruce. Had thought that Bruce was still the person he knew. Still doing what he thought was right, just a little off target. A well intentioned extremist and all that. He still would have stopped him in that case: Tony was a dedicated hero; he knew better than to let his feelings get in the way of what was right, but he would have visited him in prison afterwards. Maybe they could have still been friends. Bruce seemed like someone who could be friends with someone who disagreed with him. Even if he also would never sacrifice his cause for it. But taking a child? Forcing a mother to disown their own son at gunpoint? It was pretty hard to justify that as just misaimed enthusiasm. And it wasn’t even related to his cause: they were Gothamites; they weren’t even resisting him.
Bruce must not be who Tony remembered him being.