Elitists, rich snobs, the whole lot of them drove the host of the party rather crazy. Sure Bruce Wayne was rich, sure he had inherited much of his fortune, but he knew the value of hard work. He was different then they were, and yet the only person on the planet who seemed to think or know any differently was his trusty butler.<br/><br/>In gatherings such as this one, when he was trying to raise money for an apparently noble cause, he out on a mask, different then his typical nightly attire, no this mask was invisible and more masked his personality. There was irony in all of it, he had to out on a mask to be himself, and his public image was the facade, where he hid everything. All of the womanizing, booze, parties, it got d, though the women at least provided some entertainment.<br/><br/>Tonight though, as he entered from the top of the stairs, there was no charming woman along his side. For the last several days he had been having visions of her, Poison Ivy, he would mistakenly call other women by the name and scare them off. It was for this reason that he had no date for the evening, it was too risky at such a high stakes affair where he would be prominently featured in the limelight.<br/><br/>As he entered the party, fashionably late as usual, which was ironic since he was the host, Bruce was immediately flocked by others. Their dull conversations about a polo match, some new fancy car, or complaining about their maid staff just didn't do it for him. "You gentlemen do realize we are here for a different purpose right? We are not just here tonight to brag about our spoils, or complain about problems most people would kill to have. Remember the focus is on raising money for the park, to clean it up, rennovate it, something noble." Their faces told the story, the snobbish happiness disappeared, replaced with humility.<br/><br/>Bruce didn't hang around that initial group for very long though as he spotted familiar red hair, and a positively equisite black dress that adorned her body. She was near Alfred. At first he thought he was hallucinating again, but as he shook his head and blinked his eyes he realized he was not. She was the real deal, here, at his party. Immediately he became suspicious, but he couldn't just confront her here, and out of costume.<br/><br/>Instead he decided to stick to the age old adage, 'keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.' Bruce approached slowly, and gently placed his left hand on the small of her back as he walked up from behind to turn and face her. "Well hello beautiful, I don't believe we have met." He turned his head to look at Alfred, "thank you for keeping this one company for me old chum." Then he winked at the stunning red head. He doubted very much she would attempt to do anything in this public of a setting however, he would keep on alert just in case.