Wip ask game: Poker night 👀👀👀👀
Bruce flexed his hand again as the elevator rose, taking a deep assessment of the tingling burn up his forearm and the brown stain now donning his dress shirt sleeve. The burn on his abdomen had been lessened by the waistcoat he wore, thankfully. He hoped it was just a simple first-degree and that the annoying burning effect would calm down once he'd treated it.
It had been his fault, really. He should've been paying more attention outside his conversation with Lucius on his cell when the intern had rounded the corner in a hurry and slammed right into him, the four fresh hot coffees for the Tech leads meeting crushed between them.
The immediate pain washed over him and he'd sucked in a breath, while the intern warbled out, "Oh my god! I-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to—Mr. Wayne!?!"
He had been more concerned with her face and how horrified she'd looked than any injury he'd gotten. Shaking his burning arm out and holding back the hiss between his teeth, while righting her from their collision with his undamaged hand, he looked her over and asked, "Are you okay? You didn't get burned?"
"No? No I'm fine, but, Sir you're—"
"I'll be okay. Accidents happen." Bruce assured her, ignoring the pain while bending down to help collect the now-empty paper cups. Jerry would have some extra work today cleaning the sugary, caffeinated mess out of the carpet. He'd planned to get the man a gift basket as recompense. "Next time, despite what they say, don't rush. If they get testy about it you can say I gave you permission to take your time."
The intern stared at him with wide eyes, scrabbling to help with the remains of the coffee run. She still seemed unsure about his nonchalance at the matter. "Aren't you hurt? I-I totally understand if this is grounds for termination, or a warning…?"
"I'll be fine. A little coffee never hurt me before." He stood and eyed the nearby sanitizer station and grabbed a few paper towels. Then handed them first to her, incase she got any of the coffee on herself, though he hadn't seen any, then some for himself and the soaked spot on the floor.
The intern blinked at him and helped pat the carpet till it was damp, eyes darting between Bruce and the floor.
"What's your name?" He asked, small smile on his face.
"Anastasia. Anastasia Yurin, I'm an intern in the WayneTech R&D division." She said, speaking small and adjusting her glasses. She looked a little worse for wear, messy hair sticking out of her bun and baby hairs curling around her forehead, dark bags under her eyes. Her suit was a more than a little mussed, but not from their collision. It was only three in the afternoon. What the hell were the Tech leads having her do?
"Anastasia, here." Bruce discarded the soaked paper towels into the trashcan near them and pulled out his wallet, slipping a hundred dollar bill into her hand before she even realized it. Her pupils practically shrunk to pinpricks, nervousness seeping off of her. "For the new coffee's. You work under Robertson, right? His team can get a little touchy in the afternoon without them, as I'm sure you're aware. I'll talk with them about the delay and to stay off the intern's backs. Keep the remainder and get a treat for yourself, okay? Your job is not on the line. I just want you to be safe."
She meekly smiled back at him and her gaze went between the bill in her hand and Bruce's face. Anastasia nodded her head and appeared to calm down more. "Are you sure this is okay? I mean, it was my fault, I ran into you, and…"
"I should have been paying more attention to where I was walking. It's alright, truly."
She finally calmed down completely and he sent her off to the coffee shop on the second floor free of any lingering anxiety. He'd really needed to look into whatever it was that team was doing. Putting the new interns under this kind of insane pressure over a coffee run was asinine.
But first, he'd needed to get cleaned up.
It would be a hassle to go all the way back to the manor just to change and get bandaged, so he'd opted for the penthouse he'd owned nearby instead. There was still work to be done before evening came. As he rode the elevator up to the apartment, he'd already been plotting his remaining work and then subsequent cases he'd needed to get updates for while easing some of the burning from his skin. Though, in a way he was glad for the burn. The exhaustion of the past week was catching up with him. He actually didn't remember if it was the day before, or the day before that when he'd last slept more than an hour.
What he saw when he walked into the penthouse, he had really, really not been expecting.
He ended up blinking multiple times just to make sure this wasn't a sleep-deprived hallucination.
Only three steps inside and he spotted, across the open floor plan, that he was not alone. Not by a long shot.
Sitting at the dining table in a circle was Penguin, Killer Croc, Harley, Ivy, and Kite Man.
It seemed he had interrupted them on poker night, of all things.
"Oh look, a guest." Penguin grunted, putting down his cards to look over at Bruce. "We weren't expecting to see you, Prince."
"Hiya Brucie! Oh wow you look like ya just walked outta the sewers, like Crocky here."
Croc sniffed and gave him a side eye before going back to his cards, turning a poker chip on the table. "Hmm. Doesn't smell of sewer."
"What happened to you?" Ivy looked him up and down from her turned shoulder. She was still holding her cards close.
"I walked into an intern and decided to try a new fashion trend." Bruce said, letting a small hollow smile flash across his face.
He was still stiff standing near the kitchen as he put his good hand against his hip, marking all the exit points besides the one directly behind him. He didn't know if they were here because they knew about the Bat, and wanted to reveal this in some odd cheeky manner, or for some other reason. He certainly didn't think he and Anastasia had bumped into each other because she was being paid to do so by Penguin, but in Gotham one could never be too sure. "May I ask why you are playing poker in my dining room?"
Ivy waved her hand at him and went back to looking at her cards. She looked awfully relaxed, one arm over the back of her chair, tone of voice even. "It's poker night. Penguin's floor has a water leak problem that's being fixed, so the manager let us in here. 'Said you never really drop by and that it 'should be fine'. Seems they were wrong."
He couldn't completely verify if that was true, but he knew that at some of his other properties, some managers had tried doing similar things before, AirBnB style rent-for-a-day experiences. Very intriguing to the masses when it was one of Bruce Wayne's properties. Needless to say those managers hadn't kept their jobs afterwards. The last thing Bruce needed was use of a safe house only to find a frat party inside. He only needed to go through that experience once in his lifetime.
He'd have to have a talk with management about this.
"You gonna keep staring at us, Wayne, or are you gonna do what you came here to do?" Croc growled as he looked at his cards.
"That depends. You guys aren't…breaking any laws? Plotting to rob the bank?"
Harley very enthusiastically hopped up in her chair and turned to face him with a bright smile. "Nope."
Bruce stood there and processed this information for a solid thirty seconds. "So, to get this straight—you're just playing a game of cards?"
"Yep." Harley said with a pop of her bubble gum, setting some cards down and tossing a large amount of her chips on to bet.
None of them had been especially villainous in recent months. He knew most were out on parole, Croc had actually taken to the sewers two years back and been relatively quiet, after all he really just wanted to be left well alone. Bruce couldn't imagine they were really plotting much of anything at this moment in time, at least. If they were, this was still a strange way to do it.
So if they were just here for poker…
"Okay then. Carry on." And Bruce made to turn towards his bedroom so he could finally get out of his wet, stained clothes. As long as they weren't causing any trouble, he didn't see why they couldn't stick around and play their game.
"Aren't you gonna, like, call the cops or something? Cry wolf, whatever?" Ivy started, pushing her smaller bet forward with two fingers pressed onto the stack.
"Yeah, you're not gonna call the Bat on us, are you?"
Bruce only moved into the kitchen and set his suit coat onto the counter. "Nope."
Harley looked at him for a second, tilted her head, then asked, "Why not?"
Bruce paused in his walk, turning back to the table. "Are you plotting to kill a bunch of people or hold them hostage?"
"Not currently." Penguin spoke up, revealing his hand that Bruce couldn't see from here, one that made Croc huff and sigh as he put his own hand down.
"None of you are breaking parole?"
"Nah." Kite Man added, finally deigning to join the conversation.
"Plotting to poison people who eat salads?" Bruce eyed Ivy in particular.
She sighed and murmured, "That was one time…No."
"And you're not here to, I don't know, kill me or kidnap me or…well. The usual?"
They all shook their heads in unison.
"Then as far as I'm concerned, as you're not conceiving new ways of blowing up the chemical plant, or trying to make the botanical gardens stand up and walk across the city--you're not my problem." Bruce said and made to walk clear across the remaining sprawling kitchen towards his bedroom. "Just clean up after you're done. I'll be out of your hair just as soon as I change out of the three macchiatos and one latte I walked into."
Harley started giggling back at the table, and he could hear the chairs scuff the floor as she most likely tipped it back where she sat. Bruce only walked into the bedroom and shut the door tight behind him.
He had a shower to take and burns to treat, after all.
Basically, Poker Night is just Bruce having a relatively normal interaction with the rogues. They may or may not know about the Batman thing, shrug. There's probably more substance I could get out of it, based on the little ideas I've jotted down, underneath the plot above and few scenes i've disjointedly written. But otherwise...this is it. For now. Cause it's so short and a crackficy idea, you get all of it on tap for now!
Hope you enjoyed it, Urk! Thanks for the ask.