Sort of like King Of the Mountain
Stark loosened his tie as he took a seat at his computer down in his home lab/garage/workshop and took a drink of scotch with one hand and brought up the night’s entertainment headlines.
He grinned when images of him with a parade of beautiful women, a couple flashy night clubs, flashed up on screen and a caption that read, “Malibu, Maddens and Millions”.
His e-mail box dinged and flashed before a message popped up on screen.
I declare war.
A moment later the screen in front of him reloaded and a picture of Bruce Wayne flared up on screen, grinning a toothy grin putting what looked to be a pound of diamonds around a blonde’s neck. In another picture his hand had slid down her neck beside the diamonds. Which wasn’t anything special, however the next shot of Wayne getting ‘caught’ with his date for the evening on the hood of his new Lamborghini Murciélago LP640, his pants unbuckled and her dress pushed up, is.
“Huh…” Tony said looking at the picture. He took a drink, “Okay then. A war it is.”
~*~
Their game ,now turned war, had actually been going on for months now, having started with Tony coming out with a new piece of tech for the open market. Some lower AI voice recognition software that turned any smaller electrical device into a highly advanced voice activated piece of technology.
A day later Wayne Enterprises came out with a similar piece of tech that worked not only on smaller electrical devices but on the larger ones as well. Not only that but this version spoke back and there was a downloadable voice synthesizer available online so you could change the voice to sound like whatever, or whoever you wanted it to.
It would have ended there but shortly after that Wayne introduced some new flight stabilizers for commercial jet liners so they could better control themselves in inclement weather.
Tony being Stark, being Ironman, couldn’t let them get that kind market when he’d actually already had technology that was ten times better than anything Wayne Enterprises could come up with.
After that the game was on. Only it wasn’t hard pressed and neither man spoke to the other about it publically or privately. It wasn’t until Wayne took the game outside of their companies, and declared that he was going to auction himself off every day for a week to the highest bidder in the name of 7 different charities, that Stark got serious.
The next day he was having Pepper set up personal lunch meetings with the charities Wayne was donating to and with a few of the ones he’d left out, to see if he could supply them with anything that they still needed, because yes a million dollars was nice, but maybe they needed a new building all together and not just a renovation.
In defense Wayne started up a relationship with one of the girls that had bought him for the day. A blonde Ms. Archer.
So in turn Stark had to pick out one woman from each of the Charity foundations and take them all out for a night on the town.
However now that it was no longer a game, but war, all had become fair it seemed.
~*~
Alfred came into Bruce’s bedroom the next morning with breakfast and the paper as usual, “When I told you 2 years ago what Playboys did, I didn’t expect you’d actually do anything remotely like them. And then I saw this.”
Bruce sat up quickly and took the paper with a grin, “It’s not what you think Alfred.”
“Oh then please tell me what it is then.”
Bruce drank down some orange juice and then smiled, “There’s a little company in Malibu-”
“Ah,” Alfred said, “Just don’t forget who Bruce Wayne is.”
“Alfred about who I am. I’m not my father.”
“I know that sir.”
“There’s more than just the company I want Alfred,” Bruce’s expression was cold.
The butler studied him a moment, “It’s not the company you want at all is it?”
“Not really, no.”
Alfred nodded. He pressed his lips together in thought for a moment, “Then all things considered, this is the closest step to normal you’ve taken since you were young Master Wayne. I hope you get what you’re looking for.”
Bruce relaxed, “You’re not angry? The Wayne line will end with me if-”
“The Wayne line isn’t all about family and children. It’s about helping others when they can’t help themselves. It’s about taking a step forward when no one else will,” Alfred put a hand on Bruce’s shoulder, “and I’m sure that you can find a young heir to do just that, when the time comes.”
Bruce smiled weakly, “Thanks Alfred.”
“You’re welcome.”
~*~
Tony bolted upright in bed the next morning.
“Good morning sir,” Jarvis said pleasantly, plastering the entertainment news up on the large display.
For some reason the picture of Wayne and his blonde ticked him off more now that he wasn’t plied with alcohol, “Find me a party to go to tonight. Something big, huge. Dangerous even.”
“Those type of parties are only scheduled on the weekends sir.”
“Then I’m throwing one. I need to upstage Wayne.”
“I think there’s little chance of that.”
“Why? What’s he up to?”
“The world seems to be in an uproar over his actions last night. You’d have to do something incredibly shocking to get the public’s eye back on you.”
“Shocking? Shocking I can do!”
~*~
Bruce takes out his cell phone in between meetings at Wayne Enterprises and browses the web quickly finding a picture of Tony Stark in his Ironman suit with at blonde plastered to his side. A blonde wearing a pound of diamonds around her neck.
“Wayne did you hear about your girlfriend?!”
Bruce frowned, “Yeah…looks like I need another one.”
~*~
“Toonny.”
“Just a minute honey,” he said as his armor was removed, and he hurried over to his computer, “You get comfortable and I’ll…be right…”
Bruce Wayne was sitting at a table at sunset. With Pepper.
“That is DIRTY,” Stark hissed, storming up the stairs.
~*~
Bruce woke up in his hotel room on the couch. He smiled slightly and sat up, looking over at the red head fully clothed, sleeping soundly on the bed.
His phone started going off on the coffee table, so he grabbed it and flipped it open, “Bruce Wayne.”
“Where is she?!”
“Sleeping,” Bruce said easily.
The line on the other end is silent, but you can feel Stark’s anger through the phone, “I want her back here now!”
“You work her too hard,” Bruce smiles, leaning back, “she needed to relax.”
“You need to get the fuck out of California and go back to Gotham where you fucking belong! I declare this war OVER. Crawl back into that social hell hole of yours and stay there Wayne!”
Bruce frowned, all the of joy he had got from besting Stark the past few months flowed out of him, “Tony-”
“Bruce?” Pepper sat up and rubbed her eyes, “What time is it?”
He looked at her and then at the wall sadly. He got up and took the phone to her, “Tell him I’m sorry. I’m…I’m going home.” He held out the phone which she took and then turned and left.
“Tony?” Pepper stared at the door with a confused look.
“You SLEPT with WAYNE!”
Pepper frowned, “It’s hard to sleep with a gay man Tony, “ and she closed the phone on him.
~*~
Stark continued to hold the phone to his ear even after the phone’s light came on signaling the call had ended.
Finally he pulled it down and looked at it like it didn’t belong to him before he set it carefully down on the work bench. The next thing he did wasn’t logical but he did it anyway.
I didn’t know you were gay.
~*~
Wayne looked at the single line of courier new text for half an hour during the flight home before he closed down the computer and stared out the window at the clouds flying past.
~*~
Pepper frowns at the broken vase she finds in the kitchen and over turned table and potted plant she finds in the hallway. Then she sees the dinning chair through the glass patio door and she sighs, making her way down to the lab.
“Tell me you didn’t do all that upstairs because you thought I-”
Stark had a bottle of Jack Daniels next to him, no glass, “No that would be the lovely young Ms. Archer when she found out that I didn’t want to deal with her this morning.”
She smiled slightly before moving over to stand next to him. Her face now serious, “He asked me to dinner last night to talk business.”
Stark raised his expressive eyes to hers waiting for her to go on.
“He wanted to see if you would think about doing a few joint projects with Wayne Enterprises. I drank a little too much and he took me back to his hotel room, gave me the bed and slept on the couch.”
“You could have called Happy to come pick you up.”
She put her hands on her hips, “What’s this really about Tony?”
“I thought…he crossed a line…”
“What line?! Even if he and I had slept together-”
“We’ve been playing a game. Sort of like King of the mountain with the world Entertainment news headlines.”
She frowned, “That’s where I’d seen that girl you were with last night! She was hanging off Wayne’s arm the night before! You’re the one that crossed a line Tony!”
“Well obviously I didn’t because he doesn’t even like women!”
“He does in the public’s eye! He has to! You gave him no choice! He had to do what he did!”
“He doesn’t have to do anything,” Stark snapped, “And what do mean gave him no choice?”
“Whatever game you two were playing before didn’t mean anything until you stole his girl. He had to go after the one everyone thinks is yours or else they’ll know he really doesn’t care about women at all!”
“Well it doesn’t matter now because he’s won either way,” Stark drank from the bottle beside him. “I can’t best him now.”
“I don’t think he really cares that he’s ‘won’ Tony,” she mutters.
“What?”
“Why do you think he started this with you? To get your attention. It was never about winning for him. It was about-”
Tony frowned, “What?”
“You,” her face a hard mask. “For whatever reason he wanted you and whatever you said to him…by the look on his face when he left this morning, you more than won Tony.”
~*~
Bruce was sitting at his Batcomputer when his communicator went off, “Yes Alfred?”
“You have a guest Master Wayne.”
He sighed, “I’m not in the mood for guests. Send them home.”
“I believe you’ll want to see this one sir.”
The research he’d been trying to do on the Joker stared at him maddeningly, “I really don’t have time Al-”
“Make time,” his butler said easily. “Because I doubt they’ll leave until they see you.”
“Fine,” Bruce grumbled. “I’ll be there in 15.”
~*~
Alfred smiled, “Gets tied up with projects at work I’m afraid.”
Tony held up his glass in a toast, “As a super hero and a business man I can understand that.”
“Yes,” Alfred said with a knowing smile, “I believe so.”
~*~
Bruce came into the entry way, handing his light jacket to Alfred, “So are you going to tell me who my guest is?”
“They’re in the living room sir,” Alfred folded the coat neatly over his arm, “and if you don’t mind I’m going to be out this evening visiting Mr. Fox.”
“Alright,” Bruce nodded. “Have fun. Bring the rolls back with a full tank.” With that he headed to the living room.
“Of course sir.”
~*~
Tony glanced over his shoulder when he heard voices in the hall. Forcing himself to relax he eased himself down onto the couch, drink still in hand. This was going to be anything but easy so rooting in a comfortable base seemed a good idea.
Moments later Wayne strolled in and stopped, “Get out of my house.”
Ok this was worse than he thought, “I came to concede my unknown win.” He shook his glass so the ice could settle more.
Bruce glared at him, face scarily cold for someone who had grown up like Bruce had. Like Tony himself had.
Tony sighed, looking into his glass for answers, like he was so fond of doing, “I didn’t know why we were playing.”
“And it makes a difference now that you do?” Bruce asked, “Why are you here Stark? There’s nothing for you to get out of this.”
There really wasn’t. So why was he here? Why had he enjoyed their little game so much? “Because…I liked having an equal.”
Wayne frowned clearly confused, “An equal…”
“Someone that pushed back when I pushed them. For once my public persona had a goal that wasn’t in my total control. It was…fun. “
Bruce looked away determinedly, “Well fun’s over now.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” Tony sloshed his drink again.
Wayne turned back toward him, “And what’s the next logical move then to best me? Get engaged to Ms. Potts?”
Tony eyed him. He’d thought about it, but she rolled her eyes when he asked and then handed him his agenda for the next day, “I was thinking something more creative.”
~*~
Bruce frowned, “You’re going to go for a threesome with both Ms. Archer and Ms. Potts?”
Tony blinked for a moment before setting his drink down and getting to his feet, moving over toward Bruce, “While that idea has merits, I doubt neither of them would be willing.”
Wayne looked down his nose at Tony who had come to stop, just inside his personal space.
“And I wouldn’t have had to come here to do it.”
“No,” Bruce took a step back from Tony before going over to the windows to look out over Gotham City. “You declared the game over.”
“Then I declare it not over,” Tony scoffed amused, “What’s wrong with you? You’d be getting what you wanted.”
Bruce turned to look at him, “Not like this.”
“How did you think you were going to get it?”
“Jealousy, “ Bruce’s arms were crossed on over his chest.
“What?”
“Endurance,” Bruce went on like Stark hadn’t already voiced his confusion, “You’re not a man of patients. I’d carry the game on longer than you’d like and you’d come here to tell me off. To back off. And I’d challenge that too.”
Tony snorted, “Then what? I drunkenly attack you physically like I’m known to do and then you get the upper hand? Having me pinned under you, you’d what? Make out with me until I surrendered to your overpowering will?”
Bruce glanced over at him.
“And in the morning when I woke up with your arm around my waist or vice-versa, in a panic? Would you pin me down again and remind me how good you were?” Tony was standing behind him, almost touching but keeping back just enough that Bruce could feel his heat through his dress shirt. “That it wasn’t a mistake. That we could be together even if the world didn’t want us to be. Was that your plan?”
The younger man looked away stubbornly.
Tony reached out and placed a hand just above Bruce’s right hip, “I would have fallen for it.”
“Good for you,” but he didn’t move away from Stark’s touch.
“No really,” Tony’s other hand slipped up to mirror it’s mate, as the man himself pressed up against Bruce’s back, “but I ruined it by making you go after Potts.”
“I didn’t have to go after her,” Bruce muttered softly. “I could have taken up with those 11 women that you had.”
Tony smiled into his back, “No it had to be her. She was the only one.”
“So your plan to best me…is to have me?” Wayne’s voice was the picture of calm and collected.
“It’s the next logical step,” Tony slid his hands over Bruce’s clothed abs.
“You’ll need photographers,” Bruce whispered, finally relaxing into Tony’s touch.
Tony hmmed into Wayne’s back, breathing his scent, “No those can wait until I get the ring.”
Bruce turned in Tony’s arms with a furrowed brow, “Ri-“
Stark pulled his head down and kissed him.
“You better not be-”
“While I would like to be a rich playboy my whole life that doesn’t change the fact that I need someone to stand by me and help me run the business.”
Bruce brushed his nose against Stark’s, “You’re not scared one of your enemies will kidnap me?”
“Would you want to be known as the villain that kidnapped a super hero’s gay lover?”
Bruce smirked, “One of them will try.”
Tony shrugged, “I’ll just have to make you a suit then.”
“About that-”
As the words fell from his lips, the cloudy night sky lit up behind them. A bat shaped shadow in the center.
“Looks like you came home just in time,” Tony smiled at the light, “Have you ever seen him?”
Bruce blinked still looking at the light, “Who?”
“Batman.”
“Tony?”
“Hmm?”
“I’m…” He glanced at the shorter man and then back at the light.
Tony frowned for a moment before giving out a bark of a laugh, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“I need to go,” Bruce smiled, brushing his lips over Tony’s forehead.
“Can I see it?” Tony dropped his arms and let Bruce move toward the door.
Bruce raised an eyebrow.
“When you’re not busy I mean? Saving the city.”
“Maybe,” Bruce smirked before turning and jogging away. “If you promise not to steal my idea!”
Tony turned back to the window, looking at the glowing light in the sky, “All’s fair still. No promises.”
~*~