Castle Of Glass | B. Wayne

[21]

Calmia had gotten a bit held up at work so she texted Bruce that she would get late coming back home. That gave him enough time to prepare dinner for her with Alfred's help of course.

"Master Bruce, when was the last time you came to the kitchen?" Alfred asked with a smile as he watched Bruce look around the cabinets.

"Considering even you don't remember, it must be a long time ago."

"Perhaps it was Christmas about three years ago," Alfred reminded him because of course he hadn't forgotten, "Master Clark and his family had come for a visit. And he challenged you to who could cook better breakfast."

"Oh... Right," he shrugged, just then remembering that Clark had won that challenge which resulted in Bruce getting competitive and learning how to master making breakfast.

But right then breakfast was out of the question, he might have mastered everything that could be prepared for breakfast but dinner was definitely not his specialty.

"There's no need to worry," Alfred reassured him and gestured for him to take a seat by the counter, "you can help with the salad."

His face fell, knowing that was the easiest task out there. But then perhaps it was better if Alfred looked after the main course and Bruce kept to the task he could not mess up.

So he got to work, rolling up his sleeves he picked up the knife and began to chop the vegetables. As that was the only task he was doing, he intended to give his all to it, so he was quite focused on making each piece uniform in size.

"Father, what are you doing in the kitchen?" Damian's voice startled him and he almost cut his hand.

The boy was standing in front of the counter, curious emerald eyes focused on him and then diverting back to the chopped pieces of vegetables set on the plate.

"Nothing, just helping Alfred with dinner," he replied.

Damian nodded, taking the other stool, "can I cut the carrots?"

"Sure."

Alfred smiled, seeing the father and son working diligently on cutting the vegetables for the salad. Both of them were like mirror images of one another with the only difference being their age and eyes.

"Smells like heaven in here, who's making dinner?" Tim showed up as well, following the aroma of the delicious meal Alfred had cooked. "Oh wait, Bruce, you're in the kitchen too? Wow."

The salad had been set and Damian slapped Tim's hand away as he was about to pick up a carrot piece, "keep your hands to yourself, Drake. Don't spoil it. Father and I spent hours on this."

"Hours? On a salad? Who's the lucky person getting to try how it tastes," he teased, "oh, of course, this seems to be like a surprise dinner for Calmia."

"It is," Damian remarked, "which means both of us are not invited." But then he turned to face Bruce, "no offense taken, Father, it's alright."

Bruce hid the smile about to break on his face at that remark, "thank you, Damian."

"Okay, point taken. I won't disturb you guys," Tim spoke up as well, "we'll just have a party in the cave. You in, Dames?"

"Call me that one more time and my katana will slice through you," the boy glared at him, threatening him to take back his words.

"Fine... You in or not?"

"I'm coming," he remarked, "but no stealing from my plate. You will take your own share and carry it down there yourself. I'm going to take mine from Pennyworth."