Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tony doesn't like Metropolis. It's too clean, and the speed limit's too low. He doesn't like the people.

Or rather, he doesn't like the people he gets to meet, when business drags him into the city. He doesn't see why he should go to tedious charity balls with Metropolis high society when he can be just as bored back on the West Coast, and he doesn't have to avoid -

"You don't like being upstaged by Luthor," mutters a voice at his side.

"You're doing that mind-reading thing again, Pepper."

"We can always invite him to that thing with those people."

"Why haven't I fired you?"

"You must be getting sentimental in your old age,' says Pepper. Then, apropos nothing at all, she adds, "Mr Wayne is here."

Tony's seen Bruce already, standing with his arms round the waists of a perfectly matched pair of blondes, champagne in one hand and a sloppy grin on his face. Someone else to avoid making small talk with - he looks at Bruce and sees himself, five years ago. Five months ago.

"...last week," says Pepper, and he glares at her, only to realise she's looking at someone else. "I could have sworn he'd gone back to Australia. If I'd known, I would have -"

Fischer. Oh, now it's a party. Tony grins. "I should go say hi. Say thank you."

"Tony -" He puts a gaggle of Metropolis matriarchs between himself and Pepper before she can finish that remonstration.

~

Bruce dislikes Metropolis. It is too bright, too exposed. His lies seem to stand out more, held in sharp relief in the city's clear sunlight.

He is too far from home.

"What's that, darling?" he says to the shrieking blonde on his right.

"I can't believe you know the Lex Luthor!" Her eyes are wide, and not entirely focussed.

He glances at Lex, holding court in the centre of the room. In Metropolis, there are no shadows to hide in. Luthor plays that to his advantage - he is always visible.

Bruce grins at the blonde. "Yeah? We go way back. I bought one of his companies. Or he bought one of mine, I forget which. It's -" He rolls his eyes for emphasis. "Business, y'know?"

For that, he gets giggles in stereo.

He catches sight of a face in profile, a glimpse before the monied crowd shifts. For a moment his heart races, memory kicking his instincts into gear, until the crowd parts again, and the face resolves into a different memory. Fischer. The same sharp lines as Crane, but gentled by an easy life and a fortunate lack of psychosis.

The blondes are staring at him. "What's wrong?" asks the one on the left.

"We - need more champagne." He squeezes her waist, to provoke anther shriek, and spins them both away from him, raising their hands to his mouth in turn. "You stay right here, and I will be right back."

~

Robert has always liked Metropolis. Its energy and optimism is refreshing after weeks in lawyers' offices and courtrooms from LA to Singapore.

If Metropolis business wasn't so dominated by LexCorp, Robert might have considered this city as the place to start over. As it is, he's happy enough to spend a few idle days in her sunny parks and elegant museums. He hasn't made any decisions - there are other cities worth adopting, ones he could have a real impact on with the proper investment.

He's wary of talking to his host, however. Luthor must still be smarting after losing out on the bulk of Fischer-Morrow's American holdings, left with the scraps after Stark Industries took Morrow Oil & Gas. Wayne Enterprises lost out too, but Wayne seems to be taking it well. Although if his reputation is even half true, he may not have noticed.

Stark has noticed. Stark thinks he's screwed Robert on the deal, and maybe he has - he's certainly screwed Luthor and Wayne, because Stark Industries' offer was the lowest of the three. His lawyers had blanched, and then alternately pleaded and threatened, but Robert has learnt to stand by his decisions. Robert has his eye on the future, and so does Stark. Saito may be preparing to rain down wind turbines across Asia like so much metal origami, but Stark - Stark has something interesting planned for energy.

And Robert owns enough stock in Stark Industries that he can afford to lose a little money on a few half-dry oil wells.

He owns enough stock that he can smile when Stark greets him with a smirk and a cry of "Bobby! I can call you Bobby, right?"

Chapter Text

Tony's genuinely excited by the deal he made, but he's more than a little bemused by Fischer's business plans. The way Fischer smiles back at him only confirms his suspicions that there's more to this than Fischer sticking two fingers up at the old man.

The only problem is that Lex's charity ball is the worst place to attempt to unravel Robert Fischer's plans. Luthor won't want to acknowledge losing out to Tony, but others -

A hand claps down on Tony's shoulder, and he suppresses a wince. "Anthony, my God, how long has it been?"

He slips out from Wayne's grasp, and says, "I have no idea, Bruce. I've been kind of busy."

Wayne nods agreeably. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But, hey, I'm surprised to see you here. Don't you have a small country to level?" Before Tony can react, Wayne throws up his hands apologetically. "No, wait, my bad. You're all about deterrent, right? There was a 60 Minutes special about that, wasn't there. Man, they really made you look bad," adds Wayne in a solicitous tone, shaking his head. "Fucking journalists."

Tony takes it back. Wayne doesn't remind Tony of himself. He was never this much of an asshole. He can't have been. Rhodey would have shot him. Pepper would have shot him.

Fischer coughs delicately, and Wayne turns his uncertain focus on him. "Fischer, right? Bruce Wayne," he says, holding out his hand.

"We've met," says Fischer, but he shakes Wayne's hand anyway, amused. Clearly it hadn't been for any length of time - not long enough for Wayne's alleged charm to wear thin.

~

Bruce met Robert Fischer five years ago, when his father tried to take advantage of Earle's ambitions. They'd arrived from Australia to find Lucius in Earle's place, and Maurice Fischer had taken no pains to disguise his annoyance. Fischer Sr was already sick, but the force of his personality was great enough that one didn't look twice at his son.

Bruce had, and had seen enough resentment under Robert Fischer's calm exterior to be unsurprised when Fischer announced his intention of wiping his father's empire from the face of the Earth. What has surprised him is the astuteness of Fischer's deals. On the face of it, Stark's acquisition of Morrow Oil & Gas is a staggering loss for Fischer, but Fischer holds substantial stock in Stark Industries. Not enough to be suspicious, but enough to make Bruce wonder what Fischer knows about Stark's plans.

Stark says he has grand plans for reinventing energy production. But Gotham is still being torn apart by military-grade weapons bearing the Stark Industries logo, and Bruce - Bruce needs to know if Stark is really out of the arms industry for good.

Needling Stark is easy, always has been. Easier than monitoring him - Bruce would never admit it in public, but Stark tech is still years ahead of anything Wayne Enterprise's R&D department can come up with, and becoming the Iron Man has made Stark even more paranoid than the average billionaire.

"Say, Anthony, I gotta ask, or Lucius'll be pissed - what possessed you to buy that refinery? I can't see you rolling up into Bludhaven -"

Bruce doesn't really expect Stark to blurt out his plans, even to shut Bruce up. Instead, he watches Fischer.

"If I recall correctly, you've been chasing that refinery for years," snaps Stark.

"Sure, to knock it down. The damn thing's an eyesore."

Stark opens his mouth to snap back, but thinks better of it. "You were offering over the odds, then, Bruce."

"Yeah?" Bruce shrugs. "Might have been worth it to clean up that town."

"I'll plant a tree for you."

Fischer doesn't say anything, but there's a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. He shifts as Bruce and Stark snipe at each other, aligning himself with Stark. It be a natural inclination - Bruce is being pretty obnoxious, even for him - but Fischer couldn't hide the flicker of concern in his expression when Bruce asked about the refinery.

Fischer doesn't know what Stark's planning, but he's got a plan to find out.

"Don't be mad, Bruce," says Fischer, the barest smile on his lips. "Imagine how Luthor feels right now."

~

Wayne plays the dilettante so consummately that even now, watching Wayne's smile fail to reach his eyes, Robert finds it hard to see him as anything but a dull echo of Tony Stark. Robert can't quite fathom why Wayne is being so purposefully obnoxious - he only has those cold, sharp eyes to tell him that it's more than simple resentment over the Morrow deal. The man behind the playboy remains unreadable.

Stark, in contrast, is easy to read. He relies on the flash and bluster of his wealth and genius - and the incomparable suit - to obfuscate his motivations, but he's too egotistical to actually hide them. He's doing it now with his obvious interest in Robert's plans, even if his contempt for Wayne is distracting him.

Robert's fairly sure he can use that against Stark. Most people would try to appeal to Stark's ego - or in Wayne's case, provoke it - but the real key to dealing with Stark is to capture the attention of his genius. Robert can't hope to do so by competing with it - instead he must present a puzzle that Stark will want to unravel.

"I thought you and Lex were buddies?" Wayne asks Stark, shrugging a shoulder towards their host. "Didn't you get thrown out of the same private school?"

"Schools," says Stark automatically. "Not at the same time."

Wayne is only half watching Stark, Robert realises. His real attention is on Robert. Robert raises an eyebrow enquiringly, and Wayne just grins back at him, guileless and utterly fake.

Wayne wants to know what Stark's planning, but he knows Stark won't tell him. Instead, he's trying to gauge how much Robert knows. But with this act, he can't think Robert's going to warm to him any more than Stark, so he must have some other means of - he cuts off that train of thought with a shiver. He can't -

The babble of conversation across the room is suddenly cut by a woman's scream. Everyone turns towards the sound, and the woman points, shaking, towards the building opposite. A man stands on the parapet of the roof, one foot poised to step over the edge.

Stark already has his phone to his ear, snapping "Happy! I need the suit -" but he's cut off when Wayne says, "No need. Look."

He points, and after a moment Robert sees a blur of red and blue approaching. The crowd's panicked murmur shifts into excitement as the blur slows and resolves into a figure of a caped man.

"Huh," says Stark softly.

Robert can't deny the thrill of seeing Metropolis' 'Superman' in action, but his attention is caught by Wayne. Wayne doesn't watch the superhero catch the falling man with the same awed excitement as the rest of the crowd. He didn't react to the scream in the same way, either. He turned, like Stark, with sudden grim purpose, and now they both watch the hero fly downwards with matching expressions of what looks almost like professional curiosity.

Robert watches them as they slip back into the casual indifference of their wealth, and realises there's a very different puzzle here.