When Tim accepted the job as COO of Wayne Enterprises, he hadn't exactly been expecting this.

He'd known he'd have to sit through meetings with other company CEOs and executives, of course. That was part of it. And with his adoptive father being busy, a lot of the lower-priority meetings fell to Tim. Normally, he wouldn't have complained. But when the CEO he was meeting with was the childhood friend he'd been estranged from, he minded.

They had been inseparable as young children, both of them kids of neglectful rich parents. His friend had been his partner in everything; they'd played together, studied together. His friend had been there for him when his mother died, when his father grew angry and depressed, when he was taken in as Bruce Wayne's apprentice, when his father was murdered.

And then Tim had been formally adopted by Bruce, and gotten so caught up in following in his new father's footsteps that he'd neglected the only person who understood him, until his friend stopped trying to reach out entirely. He'd meant to apologize, but had never found the courage, and now here they were. Sitting opposite one another in a business meeting, having to pretend they were strangers.

His old friend had inherited one of the many companies that did regular business with Wayne Enterprises. The two were desperately trying not to bring up their shared past, not to let it affect the negotiation. It was so painfully awkward that Tim was ready to just throw up his hands and sign off on anything at all, just so this could be over.

"I'll have the paperwork ready," Tim mumbled, shoving a pile of documents into a folder and standing, unable to look his friend in the eye. "You'll hear from my secretary soon. And..." Damn it, Tim. Say something. "It's been a pleasure doing business with you." Not that! Ugh.

He wished he hadn't given up on his childhood dream of being a detective. At least then he wouldn't be here, standing before someone he'd wronged and didn't know how to make things right with.