I Forgot to Mention

An Unscheduled Meeting

"...Then he went all 'You're not even my real Dad!' and he hung up on me!  But, I guess we've all been there before.  Right, Bruce?"

Bruce gave the most disingenuous hum of agreement that he could muster, as Oliver Queen lightly cuffed him on the shoulder. Luckily, his true level of disinterested in their conversation seemed to escape Queen. It's not like he was busy or anything, running a multibillion dollar company, (not like Queen would ever know what that's like) when Oliver randomly showed up to his office.

Bruce had suspected that Oliver would approach him about the tabloid article, which he had already gotten taken down with a nice cease and desist letter from his lawyer. Jason was given one as well, though he was ordered to cease and desist from partaking in any dessert for the next month.  However, Bruce had assumed that Oliver would have reached out with a phone call. Not with an in person visit justified by the flimsy excuse of being in Gotham for a business conference (as if Queen had ever actually attended one of those events himself!)

Still, Bruce politely invited him in for a drink. Behind closed doors, of course. He couldn't have anyone see him fraternizing with the owner of one of their biggest competitors. Someone might get the wrong idea and spread rumors of a merger...again.

(For the record, Queen found the whole thing far more amusing than Bruce ever did. Stock prices were a mess for months, and he was nearly decapitated by the union representative at the prospect of sudden layoffs. With how mad she had been, Bruce didn't think she was being figurative with her threats.)

"Well," Bruce said as he sipped his glass of bourbon colored water, "that's what tends to happen when you forget to actually pay Roy for his service.  What was it again? Pet sitting?"

Oliver slowly swirled his own glass. He gave a short chuckle. "Yeah, pet sitting. That's it."

"I wasn't even aware you had any pets."

"O-Oh, well umm, you see—" Oliver stammered out. "They're mostly Dinah's, actually. She's gotten really into umm...pet care, recently."

Bruce was enjoying making Oliver squirm a little too much. But, if he had to suffer through being in Queen's presence all alone, then he was going to at least make it a little bearable for himself.  Unfortunately, this just sent the other man into a bit of a spiral.

"I guess it helped to fill the void from when Roy left. But we had that emergency business meeting in Goth—I mean, New York City, and the only person I could think that would be able to get to...our house in time was Roy.  I was hoping that it might get Roy to reconsider coming back permanently, being surrounded by all those...pets.  Although, I think it might have had the opposite effect.  He won't even read any of my texts!"

Again, maybe it was because you FORGOT TO PAY HIM! 

Bruce mentally rolled his eyes at Oliver's blatant inability to grasp the obvious.  He didn't blame Roy for wanting space after he was shown to be nothing more than a sidekick, despite what Oliver always claimed.  Actions speak louder than words, that's what he was always trying to teach his sons.  And right now, Oliver's actions were plenty enough to send anyone under his care packing.  Speaking of, Bruce decided that it was probably best that they shift subjects to something more relevant before he needs to start charging Oliver for his time as well.  Of course, he probably wouldn't see a dime from Queen either.

"How has your niece been?"  Bruce deftly asked.  "I believe that Dick mentioned seeing her at school."

That seemed to catch Oliver's attention.  While Artemis had not been officially introduced to the Wayne family children, Bruce had been able to meet her outside of being Batman.  Oliver was eager to show off his newly discovered "niece" after Bruce promised to put a good word in for her to the Gotham Academy admissions board.  At the insistence of Batman, of course.