Slowly but steadily Dora recovered and started to get better. With Alex's contract ending at the Iceberg Lounge too, he was able to spend more time with and look after her so eventually with all the love and care given by her friends and family, Dora began to move on from the trauma.

To keep herself occupied, she had taken admission in a baking course and her classes ended right before the busy hour started at the coffee shop. The first week was a little difficult to manage but then she adjusted quite well.

On every Friday, Dora's Coffee Haunt had an experimental display containing the samples Dora baked of all the baked items she learnt such as cakes, pastries and different types of cookies.

So far both her studies and the shop's business was going quite smoothly. Tim had had to leave for a month on a mission with Batman but he had told Dora about it while the rest of them only knew that he had gone with Bruce for some business reasons related to Wayne Enterprises.

But he had returned safe and sound a week earlier and resumed his constant presence at the coffee shop.

Alex had returned by dawn from Chinatown where he occasionally helped out the elderly couple he used to work with earlier. He had been too tired to check up on Dora so he collapsed on the couch downstairs, falling asleep shortly after. 

He did not even notice the empty coffee cups at the table, his exhaustion took the better of him and as there were a few hours left before he would have to open the shop, he decided to rest there.

However, he was woken up by soft whispers and felt a blanket drop down on him. He peeled one eye open to see Dora handing the cups to Tim and then bent down to adjust the blanket over Alex.

Tim never came that early in the morning so the fact that he was there, even his hair was messy as if he had just woken up, could only mean two things. Either his family kicked him out of bed while he was asleep and he didn't bother to freshen up even before coming there or he might have stayed the night.

But too tired to sit up and ask anything, he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

Dora made sure that Alex was carefully tucked in then went to the kitchen where Tim had washed the cups and was setting up the coffee blender.

"He must have been very tired," Tim remarked, "or else I was in for some questioning."

She nodded, a smile playing upon her lips, having a fair a idea of how Tim would react to what she was going to tell him. "He saw you so don't think you're free from his questioning just yet."

He froze, "and you didn't tell me before?"

"Because you were holding the cups and if I told you then, there was a hundred percent chance of you dropping them in panic and waking Al up," she replied, pushing him away from the coffee blender, "oh and it's my turn to make coffee now. Alex doesn't like oatmeal."

His smile dropped, "you said last night that it didn't taste like oatmeal."

"To me," she corrected him, "but to Alex, it will definitely taste like oatmeal."

"Al just loves to tease me, that's all."

"Then you better get ready for all you have to face at breakfast," she smiled sweetly at him watching the color drain from his face.

"Not fair, Dora."

Tim put the slices of bread in the toaster instead while Dora brewed the coffee and both of them laid out the breakfast table. She had whipped up the batter for the cakes as well in the meantime and preheated the oven.

"Timmy, no, it's not baked yet!" She took the bowl of batter from him, noticing that he had tasted it and was going to eat it up like ice cream, "you'll get a stomach ache."

His lips pursed into a small disappointed look making him appear like an adorable child denied his favorite sweet, "but it's so delicious..."

"Yeah, delicious but uncooked and if you eat a lot of it like that, you'll get sick."

By then Alex too had woken up as the delicious aroma of coffee wafted throughout the place and they heard him climb the stairs up to his room.

Shortly after, he came down to the kitchen, looking quite fresh despite the fact that he had been very exhausted earlier. Alex was a morning person, bright and cheerful no matter how tough and tiring his nights went.

"Thanks for the blanket," he remarked to Dora taking his place at the table, pouring himself a cup of coffee from the flask, "oh and aren't you here very early today, Tim?"

"Yeah um..." Tim's hand reached the back of his neck nervously, "I just..."

"Looks like your brothers kicked you out and left you on our street. Steph was telling me the other day that you had gotten into a fight with Damian. Again." His eyes connected with Tim's blue irises as he shook his head, "that's not a healthy sibling relationship."

"Well, it's a healthy sibling relationship as long as he doesn't break any of my coffee cups. Besides, not all siblings can be that agreeable as you and Dora are," Tim mumbled.

"You two fight a lot," Dora agreed.

"We do, I think I get into a fight with Dami almost everyday. By now I've grown accustomed to it, in fact the days that he doesn't fight with me seem abnormal," noticing Al's gaze on him, he added, "but no, I came a little earlier than usual, I wasn't kicked out by my brothers."

Alex nodded, "how early exactly?"

"He came last night," Dora remarked casually, "his exams had ended so I called him over."

Honey colored eyes flickered slightly towards her, "you did?"

"Yeah," she nodded with a convincing smile.

Alex shrugged, "okay then. Oh and please tell me, Tim didn't make this coffee."

Dora laughed, "no he didn't. I made it."

"Thank goodness," Alex took a deep sip from the coffee but his eyes were still focused on the two, "what did you guys do last night?"

"Nothing," Tim's reply was too sudden.

"We watched a movie," Dora added, "actually we watched Happy Death Day, it's a horror comedy."

"I'm surprised you didn't watch a Romantic Comedy," he mumbled, "but then of course you live in one. Why would you watch it all over again? A little change is nice sometimes."

Dora noticed the red creeping up on Tim's face and remarked, "Al, now even I think you love to tease us a little too much."

"Guilty as charged. And what else did you do?"

"Not much, we made some coffee, talked... The usual," but then she suddenly remembered her conversation with Selina and added, "oh and Selina told me Helena's birthday is coming up and she'll be happy to help if you need to choose a present or the perfect birthday surprise"

"That's very nice of her. And very clever of you to change the subject," then without warning, he addressed Tim, noticing that the boy was unusually silent, "why are you blushing, Tim?"

"No... Not at all," but the shade on his face deepened, "I'm not blushing, you must have glaucoma. It makes one see red everywhere."

"Perhaps," he shrugged, a small smile flickering on his face as well, "but the only red I see is on you two. The rest of the kitchen looks fine."

Dora stood up, "you're ridiculous. Now hurry up, it's almost time to open the shop and I've got to take the cake out of the oven."

"And where are you going?" Alex asked, controlling an urge to laugh as he watched Tim shuffle up to his feet as well, picking up the plates.

"Washing the dishes?" But it sounded more like a question than a reply.

Tim lived with the Waynes so of course he wasn't new to awkward scenarios but he had never felt more awkward before.

Alex took pity on the poor boy and nodded, "leave the dishes and finish your breakfast first. I'm not going to embarrass you further."

He paused as if judging whether or not Alex really meant it. But when Al made no further remark, he sat back down, finishing the buttered toast in his plate and poured himself another cup of coffee, "thank you very much."

***