long overdue

[watchesthewatchers]

It's Ricki's little ramshackle apartment, but there Peter is one morning, perched on the loveseat, reading a file, waiting for Bruce Wayne to arrive.

He has a gun, but tucked out of sight, not on his person. Just in case.

Comments

[lasiurus]

It's been a fantastic month-and-a-bit. He gets to see Ricki more often, he's been out of the house on non-Batman-related errands. And he likes staying at Ricki's, despite his spoiled rich boy facade. It reminds him of the years he'd spent abroad.

He gives Alfred the day off and goes to Ricki's, knowing he probably won't be home yet. He plans to clean up, make them some dinner, play the night by ear....

He has a bag of things from the market, and he stops short in the doorway when he sees Peter. Typical of Bruce, he hadn't been minding those surroundings or he might have known something was different before he got to the kitchen.

[watchesthewatchers]

"Tony says you're a nice man."

Comments Peter, eyes narrowed at Bruce's back. He decides to play it soft, closing his book standing up and steppping up to the partition that separates off Ricki's little kitchen.

"I'm sorry. I'm Peter- we met the once, when he was missing? At my boyfriend's place."

Sliding onto one of the stools, managing just the faintest hint of gangliness. Nothing too thick, just a teaspoon of defensiveness that reads as youthful.

[lasiurus]

"Right..."

He has an act, too, like he can't quite remember. He doesn't offer a hand for a handshake (that he can attribute to eccentricism, since Tony doesn't shake hands much either).

"Bruce. Uh, does he know you're coming? He didn't say anything to me about a guest."

[watchesthewatchers]

He subsides onto one of Ricki's rickety stools, biting the inside of his cheek and looking at the clock.

"Half an hour, I think, maybe a little more? I don't think he realized you were coming, he was going to get take-away on his way back from working. Whatever he's up to for Tony nowadays."

A faint smile.

[lasiurus]

"He might just be at the gym or something, I dunno. I try to stay out of Tony's business with him."

Not quite a lie. He tries, but as they've learned sometimes Batman's leads cross Ricki's.

He puts the groceries away, since Ricki's bringing food, but he leaves a bottle out on the counter and jerks a thumb at it.

"Wine?"

[watchesthewatchers]

"Lovely, thanks."

He tells him, smiling more in earnest now, like he thinks the offer means he's forgiven.

"Did you find him, by the way? In Indonesia?"

[lasiurus]

"Nah, didn't have time to fly over there."

Another lie but since his back is to Peter when he says it (popping the cork) it'll be almost impossible to tell.

"Can I ask what you're doing here? Don't mean to be rude, but it's a Friday and I haven't seen him in a few days so..."

It's classy to trail off and let the imagination take over, right?

[watchesthewatchers]

"I was in town, he asked me to dinner. We worked in the same building for years, I thought it'd be nice to pop by while I was in town."

Looking up at him, with big, anxious eyes.

"Am I intruding?"

[lasiurus]

He slides him a glass. Bruce has one, too, but he plans to hand it off to Ricki once he gets there since Bruce never has more than one sip. If that.

"Uh...no. No, I was just going to surprise him or something. What building did you say it was?"

[watchesthewatchers]

"Off Shaftesbury Avenue."

Peter explains, smiling.

"One of those old, drafty things. Not that Ricki came in a great deal, mind."

[lasiurus]

"He was always a field guy, huh? What'd you do there?"

He sits on the edge of the sink, balancing there as easily as a bird despite how narrow it is.

[watchesthewatchers]

"Data entry and coding, and then I was moved into human resources."

He explains, both somewhat true, neither really real.

"A floor or two beneath his cloak and dagger business, I'm afraid. Ricki was always the mysterious one."

[lasiurus]

Bruce laughs, aware he's being lied to. Ricki has told him that Peter was his handler--what all that means, he doesn't know and hasn't asked, but it couldn't have been as bland as Peter put it.

"He still is, Paul. Sorry to disappoint but he's even more tightlipped since Tony hired him."

[watchesthewatchers]

"Peter."

He corrects, faintly, into his wine, heat rising up in his face.

"I'm sorry, I'm making a fool of myself. I really should leave you two, let me-"

[lasiurus]

Bruce needs to maintain the airhead act, but he feels a little bad for it now.

"No, stay. He'll want to see you. I'm about the only person he knows here. How did you find this place though? I didn't know Tony was sending anything to this address. ...I sound kind of like a Norman Bates stalker figure there, don't I?"

[watchesthewatchers]

"He found me at Tony's."

He explains, settling down a tiny bit.

"I was visiting him there when Ricki came in for one of their meetings. We arranged that I'd come by for a day or two. He's been working, but I've been visiting the city, a little."

[lasiurus]

"Come by for what?"

And this time, Bruce is more serious. There's a small touch of a threat there.

[watchesthewatchers]

"I'm sorry- I didn't realize. Are you monogamous?"

Doe eyed surprise. Drop a bomb, avoid a question.

[lasiurus]

They're not, but Bruce has slept with exactly two people in the last twelve years. It does skew his view of polyamory a bit.

But mostly, it's the fact that Peter was Ricki's handler, and he knows exactly how dangerous and manipulative those people are. He sets the glass aside, and appears loose and relaxed--it's actually more dangerous than if he had been tense.

"What do you want with him, Peter? To tempt him back to the fold?"

[watchesthewatchers]

"To make sure you don't get him killed. You're good at that, Mister Wayne."

Peter answers, sweetly, lacing his fingers together and setting his chin on his hands.

[lasiurus]

That hits home. Hard.

"I'm not the one who dangled his daughter's welfare over his head so I could send him into warzones, Peter. I'm not the one who lied to him about his informant being dead. And I'm not the one who cut him loose and burned him when his cover was blown. If you think you're going to show up here and manipulate him again, I will stop you. I don't care what you are to Tony."

[watchesthewatchers]

"One, I found out about his daughter seven years into our working relationship. Two, the second thing never happened, but it's interesting that he obviously hasn't told you a single thing about how the end of his career came. Three, he asked me to come. I'm not recruiting him. As you so astutely pointed out, he no longer has a cover."

Ticking off on his long, graceful fingers.

"And Irena wasn't an informant. That was an ugly necessity that saved hundreds of lives. You may not care what I am to Tony, but he knows where I am and he'll kill you if I disappear. Amateur."

[lasiurus]

"He could try."

It looks, though, as if Bruce is going to just swallow back what Peter had said.

"The thing is, I wouldn't make you disappear. I'm not a murderer."

And then with dangerous precision, he's thrown his wine glass into Peter's face and using the distraction (and potential wine-blinding) to leap forward to tackle him onto the ground.

[watchesthewatchers]

Peter goes down and lands badly, stool and his own wineglass coming with him in a tinkle of cracked glass.

He knows he's outmatched, so stays limp as a ragdoll underneath him, breath punched out of his lungs by the impact.

He manages to gasp out;

"Feeling strong?"

[lasiurus]

Bruce punches his jaw, and then again in the same place. Just a little higher and he could have dislocated it, but he wants Peter to keep talking.

Spies come armed, he knows that, so he pins one of Peter's arms under his knee and forces Peter's other wrist around so if he struggles it will snap. This way he can search him with relative ease with his remaining hand.

"Who told you?"

About Rachel. About it being his fault.