Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to thee Ch. 2! Apologies for the short delay.
CHAPTER TWO: Bats Are Nocturnal
It was a quarter past 6 A.M. when the first beam of sunrise streamed through the windowpane of Alfred's bedroom. The downpour of light gently bathed his face, prompting his gradual awakening. Settling upright on the bed, Alfred pivoted his gaze toward the clock in the room. Spotting the set time frame of the hands, Alfred rose to his feet and swiftly stripped his nightgown off, revealing the classic butler outfit underneath.
"Very well, I suppose I must commence the early bird procedure," Alfred candidly affirmed, departing from his bedroom to launch the morning. The Wayne Manor was silent, and Alfred's soundless movement across the hallways and down the staircase added to the silence, a plus considering Alfred sought to carry forth the routine without disturbances. Traversing the dining room, he entered into the kitchen and went straight for the sink to scrub his hands. As soon as his hands were dried, Alfred opened a cabinet above him and pulled out a coffee canister. He took the canister to the coffee maker nearby and decanted the desired amount of grounds to the filter. He picked up a measuring cup beside the coffee maker, made a second trip back to the sink, and returned to fill the reservoir with water. After he turned on the coffee maker, Alfred went to the stove and turned on the heat. Next, he went about opening the cabinets, the drawers, and refrigerator to retrieve the necessary ingredients and tools. With proper preparations, Alfred successfully produced the pancake batter, which he proceeded to pour on top of a griddle. Under 10 minutes, a sufficient supply of pancakes were made and placed onto 3 plates, along with a cup of orange juice for each plate. By then, the coffee was finished, applied specific final touches, and satiated into two black mugs. An exclusive cup of French Vanilla tea was fixed just in case. Alfred precisely positioned each dish on the table in the dining room, and voila! The breakfast meal was set. Part one of the early bird procedure was complete! After giving a look-over of the dining room, Alfred straightened himself and approached the staircase to embark on part two.
Now upstairs and crossing hallways once more, Alfred arrived to his first stop. With all his butler nonchalance, Alfred twisted the knob of the door in front of him entered into the dim room. It was a surprisingly tidy area regardless of the array of sharp weaponry lodged onto the walls. They weren't necessarily utilized per se (thank heavens!), merely a collection up for exhibition. On the ridiculously large bed, a small body wrapped under a cotton blanket squirmed lightly in their sleep, murmuring something along the lines of 'I am the greatest' and whatnot. Alfred minced toward the veiled window and fleetly drew back the curtains, revealing the blinding rays of dawn.
"Time to rouse, Master Damian," Alfred announced, the luminosity engulfing the entire room.
A blatant hiss was the only response Alfred received before Damian sprung off the bed, tugging the blanket along with him, and scurried into the closet adjacent to the bed, shutting the door behind him. Expelling a simple sigh, Alfred ambled to the closet, extended his hand, and flipped the light switch. He regarded the blink of light beneath the door before he heard another shrill hiss. The door swung open, with a blurry image of Damian dashing out of the closet and crawling under bed for refuge. Another sigh slipped from Alfred as he crouched to the floor, unsheathed a penlight from his suit pocket, and shone it right below the bed. The light made a direct hit on Damian's face which caused him to hiss again, scrunching his eyes and baring his teeth in a beastly manner. Though Alfred could hardly take Damian seriously when he was all bundled in the blanket like a cottony caterpillar.
"You have to get washed up and dressed, Master Damian," Alfred reasserted, grabbing at the blanket until he felt the form of an ankle. He tugged Damian out of the bed and dragged him all the way out of his room.
Damian bellowed a lengthy "Noooooooooooo!" while he ineffectively clawed at the carpet to overcome the butler's grip. Finally reaching destination, Alfred pushed the bathroom door open and flung Damian inside, where a fresh selection of clothes awaited him. Alfred left Damian to it (who huffed the usual 'tt!' sound from behind the door) as he progressed forward to his next target. He reversed his direction and headed for the room opposite to Damian's. Alfred prodded the door open when it was jammed halfway by a stack of books. Alfred peered into the dark room, and distinguished from the glints of light behind him a mishmash of investigation reports and comics on the floor, the desk, and the bed. That was normal. A body laid near the bed-must've unconsciously rolled off-with a comic in hand, snoozing away. It was indeed apparent that the teen had, instead of resting at the appropriate hour, stayed active overnight to occupy himself with leisure. The room possessed the advantage of having no windows and a light switch stationed at the far end of the room, but Alfred always packed contingencies. Rather than struggle with the door, Alfred extracted a flash bomb from his suit pocket, unpinned it, coolly alerted "Wake up, Master Tim!" and tossed it inside. Alfred closed the door and continued onward to his third target, although not before he noticed from the corner of his eye a white radiance from beneath the doorway and the sound of Tim's startled "Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!" that followed.
Taking a left turn down the hallway, Alfred reached the destined room where the entrance was commonly open. An orange glow from the window imbued every corner of the bedchamber, however it has yet to evoke the torpid body in a bed full of various stuffed animals. The young lady seemed to have sunk within the heap of plushies to evade the incoming daybreak. Alfred rose an amused eyebrow at the scene. He gave her a few minutes of peace before he detoured the bed, examined the layer of animals, recognized a fringe of black hair in one of the gaps, and deliberately hovered a hand over a fluffy panda.
"I'm afraid you can't hide forever, Miss Cassandra," Alfred softly informed, lifting the plushie from Cass's face.
Cass wiggled and writhed to the abruption of her dormancy, whining painfully, "My eyes!"
Alfred nodded approvingly, having done his deed for the third round, and made his departure from Cass's room to conduct his next stop. Passing through two hallways, Alfred eventually neared the master bedroom with the double doors. He thrust both of the doors open, entering the pitch-black, almost barren room excluding the grand dresser and the king-sized bed. Detecting that the man of the house did not stir from the din of the doors (and he pledged to have the keen hearing of a bat), Alfred rolled his eyes and edged up to the window closest to the bedframe, drawing the thick curtains immediately. The body in bed growled in annoyance to the maximizing sunlight, shifting right to move away meanwhile pulling a pillow over his bed as cover.
"Bats are nocturnal, Alfred," Bruce's muffled voice grumbled to the elder in the room.
"Bats may be, but Bruce Wayne isn't, sir. I won't accept any further nagging, so be best that you stand on your feet and get yourself groomed for work," Alfred replied, exiting the master bedroom to offer Bruce his privacy. Descending the staircase for the second time, Alfred strode to the main entrance of the manor and stepped outside to collect the morning paper in front of the gates. After 5 minutes, Alfred regressed into the building, knowing fully well that the others have fixed themselves up and relocated to the dining room for breakfast. Though just before Alfred steered to their location, he made a quick trip to the living room where, laying on the couch, was an infrequent guest of theirs at rest. Pausing behind the couch, Alfred loomed over to find the young man still asleep, with the helmet still worn on his head to probably shield himself from any kind of light. Alfred analyzed the headgear until he acquired what he was looking for.
"Rise and shine, Master Jason," Alfred cordially declared, pressing a specific button on the helmet to activate the optical lights.
Jason jerked from the sudden brightness, clasping his hands onto the helmet to struggle out of the blinding trap. A gruff "What the fuck!" was snapped before Jason swayed too far to the border of the couch and consequently flopped onto the floor. Alfred professionally managed to contain his amusement.
"Breakfast is prepared for you at the dining room, so hurry along," Alfred advised as he made way to the dining room. Naturally, the other four were seated at the table presentably garmented and neatly cleansed. However, the atmosphere was groggy and bitter. Cass slouched in her seat with dazed eyes, poking at the her stack of pancakes with the fork. Beside her, Damian grouchily sliced his pancakes with two knives, rumbling expletives under his breath. On the other side of the table, Tim dozed off under brief moments, drinking from the mug at times to forcefully stay awake. At the end of the table, Bruce sat with his chin rested on his entwined hands and his elbows atop of the table, wearing a scowl on his face. During the interval of Alfred delivering the newspaper to Bruce, an ungeared Jason shuffled into the dining room and unconsciously drooped next to Tim, seizing the pancakes hands-only and stuffing them in his mouth. Alfred mused at the quiet environment before disappearing into the kitchen. Exactly when Alfred reappeared with the French Vanilla tea in his hands, Stephanie (who Alfred purposely let in when the two met at the gates of the manor) cheerfully skipped toward the group and did an upbeat debut. "Good morning everyone," Stephanie chirped, while Alfred sipped his tea as the bat clan groaned an "Uuuuuuuuuuuuugh!" in unison.
Part two of the early bird procedure was complete!
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