At eight, Bruce knew that the Stark heir would change the world. Not even a year old and the infant was already charming the world. Even his father, who always had a sense for these things, thought Anthony Stark would hold the future in his hands. When Alfred asked how he knew this, his parents shared a mischievous, secretive smile. “Trust me, Alfred,” and the conversation was over.
A few years later, his parents were killed in front of him and all thoughts of the Stark heir had left his mind.
He was a king now and he had no time for infants who may or may not change the world.
***
When Bruce was eleven, America was celebrating four-year-old Tony Stark’s brilliance. He didn’t know why he stopped to listen to the news but he couldn’t help but be awed at this small human creating something he shouldn’t have been able to. But along with the awe, the was a certain dread in the pit of his stomach. Somehow, he just knew the next years would be difficult for the boy. He also knew that the boy would persevere.
***
When Chill’s retrial had been announced, Bruce wanted to go far, far away. He didn’t want to see the justice system fail him the same way it has failed everyone else. He held hope, of course. But part of him was already expecting Chill to receive the reduced sentence he had been aiming for. He would have if there wasn't something in his gut forcing him to stay. It was as if there was a voice in his head telling him to see this through.
When Chill’s blood has dried on the court steps, when Bruce was already limping in a cargo boat out of America, he wished he had not followed that niggling feeling.
Close to a decade later, when Batman first took to the rooftops, Bruce was glad he had followed his gut. He would have never been who he was if he hadn’t watched Chill get shot.
It was also the first time Bruce had wondered if there was more to those feelings his father had.
***
Bruce has been back in Gotham for a few months and has been Batman for a few weeks when the Starks’ accident hit the news.
It’s been years since the Starks crossed his mind. Wayne Enterprises was in the business of medical equipment and renewable energy. Stark Industries was in the war business. He remembered his father muttering how he wished Howard had not been so easy to manipulate. He hoped that the man had not stayed in the war business. “His boy will suffer because of him,” he remembered the concern in his father’s voice. Even his mother had looked despondent every time the Stark heir was mentioned.
Whenever he recalled his father’s mutterings followed by his mother’s resigned smile, he always tried to complete the elder Wayne’s thought process. It was as if the late Thomas Wayne had scattered puzzle pieces for his son to put together.
As he watched an eighteen-year-old Tony Stark bury his parents with a blank face, he hoped his father was wrong.
***
Bruce was twenty-seven when he had the strong urge to volunteer himself as Richard Grayson’s guardian. He still had no explanation for these gut feelings but he has always followed them. They didn’t always happen, the little nudges he felt in his core, but he knew they were important.
His gut was proven correct once more when Dick took the mantle of Robin.
In the back of his mind, there was a whisper that his relationship with the boy would be fraught in the coming years. They would get through those years but it would be a hard-won battle.
At the same time that he was training his new ward, Tony Stark decided to change the rules of the game. Bruce hadn’t figured out what the young Stark was doing, exactly, but there was a sense in his head akin to a purr. He knew the man would come on top regardless and he wanted front row seats.
***
Bruce had just turned twenty-nine when he finally met Tony Stark for the first time. It was also the first time a Wayne and a Stark were meeting for business. Howard Stark was much too willing to create weapons for his father’s taste. Thomas Wayne was too much of a pacifist for the late Stark’s liking.
When Tony turned nineteen and proved that he could lead SI, he started expanding from the weapons. Bruce knew this was when the younger man had completely changed the rules to his liking.
The young Stark started small and produced a variety of military defense gear. He then moved on to computers, promising that soon, computers would be more compact. Not only that, they would be more powerful than the clunky ones they had. Of course, most people thought the young man was insane. But Bruce knew that Tony Stark would make good on his promise.
When SI’s weapons production lessened, the military was initially nervous. The government renegotiated and renewed their contracts with SI yearly. The company could just let these contracts expire and they would still do well. Seeing the defensive gear, though, Bruce was quite certain they wouldn’t complain if SI stopped supplying them with missiles and tanks.
The meeting was for a Wayne Enterprises-Stark Industries collaboration on renewable energy. He could’ve let Lucius handle the meeting on his own but he knew had to meet Tony Stark. There was a thrum of excitement in his veins that he just couldn’t explain.
“Mr. Wayne.” Stark smiled, hand outstretched for a handshake. Impersonal and professional.
“Dr. Stark.” Bruce shook the man’s hand with a charming grin. If he wasn’t looking for it, he may have missed the look of surprise on Stark’s face. He knew most people ignored the fact that the younger man had two doctorates under his belt. It was quite rare for people to acknowledge said PhDs. Only Stark’s academic peers addressed him as Doctor. He also knew that the younger man had never insisted on being addressed as Doctor.
When the young man’s smile into a wide, unabashed grin, Bruce knew he was fucked. A skipped heartbeat was just ridiculous for a man his age. Especially so when it’s caused by a young man nearly seven years his junior.
***
Bruce was a few months shy of turning thirty when he met Obadiah Stane. The only thing he knew about Stane was that he was one of Howard Stark’s closest friends and that he was Tony’s godfather. Although, he wasn’t sure why, but the man always made him feel cold. He wanted to keep Tony away from the man. But the younger genius trusted said godfather and he had no right to tell Tony whom he should keep in his life.
In about a year or two, he would realize he really, really shouldn’t have ignored his gut.
***
When Tony went missing at twenty-five, Bruce felt like he died.
They’ve been growing closer since they first met. Both men have been personally overseeing the project. They knew they could have let someone else head the Arc Project. But that first meeting has sealed some kind of silent pact between them. What started out as business meetings turned into them hanging out. Bruce has seen Tony’s personal workshop and the younger man has known he was Batman. It was odd at first, the knowledge that outside of Alfred and Lucius, someone else knew of his alter ego. But Tony had already known so there was no point in trying to lie.
Bruce had been feeling off since that morning and decided to cut the night short. Gotham has been quiet and he knew he had to let GCPD do their job. He was just getting ready for bed when he received the call from Rhodey. “The convoy was attacked,” there's tension in the Air Force Colonel’s voice . “We don’t know how anyone knew he was presenting today. Any SI dealings with the military have always been on the dl.” He wanted to suit up immediately, to go to Afghanistan and look for Tony himself. But he knew he couldn’t. Batman operated outside of the law and Bruce Wayne had no relations with the military.
All he could do was let Rhodey find Tony while he tried to figure out just how the younger man got abducted. And he knew who to investigate first.
Four months and some days later, Tony came home with traumatized twins.
***
Bruce celebrated his birthday with Tony being granted guardianship of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. The twins were ten and had been held captive for nearly three years before Tony's abduction. The younger man hadn’t told him much. He knew the twins to be Sokovian and their parents being volunteers killed by SI weapons. Bruce was able to form his own theories, though.
The twins were mutants, that much he knew. The Ten Rings massacred the entire camp except for the twins. The mutation most likely activated during the attack, saving them. This would have made them valuable to the Ten Rings. He knew there were technological ways to control mutations. That was most likely how the two of them were subdued and held captive for years.
He could tell that at some point, the twins hated Tony with the way they would curl up in guilt around the younger man. Then Tony would smile and say he understood. He would tell them that they had the right to feel what they felt, but those feelings should not consume them. That alone was a pretty good hint. Pietro and Wanda glaring at any board member who would suggest re-establishing the heavy weapons manufacturing was another.
Seeing the twins with Tony now, it would have never occurred to him that they hated the younger man for years. But they were adjusting well, as children were wont to do. Dick has also been a great help in getting them to open up. His general cheery attitude and daredevil behavior.
Bruce smiled, watching Wanda catch Dick with her powers. Pietro came out of nowhere and tacked the other boy with Tony egging them on. This is what family looks like, he thought to himself.
***
Bruce’s thirty-fifth birthday marked his first date with Tony. Oh, he knew Alfred, JARVIS and the kids had something to do about this date. Dick alone wouldn't know subtlety if it threw him out the window. The children purposely made themselves scarce when Tony and twins arrived at the manor. The media room had been setup for two and the twins made sure Tony looked too good for a small family gathering. The childish giggles and the sound of tires screeching out the driveway were very telling as well.
They’ve always been aware of how they felt for each other. It was the entire reason they’ve both remained single for nearly five years. It just never occurred to them to do something about those unspoken feelings, especially when the past years had been hectic for both of them. Tony had the SI rebranding to worry about, along with the twins who came into his life. He had been adjusting to being Batman, WE’s CEO and a new father. But he knew no matter what, Tony would be at the end of the road for him. The moment the younger man pulled him into his orbit, no one else stood a chance.
Looking at the drooling tech genius sleeping in his arms, he couldn’t help but think that Tony was definitely worth the wait.