So anyway; three months after the Waynes' death, Bruce asks Alfred to teach him the exact way he likes his tea, and then they end up using it as a sort of secret second language for when they need company or need to be alone together, or even a way for Alfred to check on him. Alfred gauging how well Bruce is holding up based on how meticulously the tea is brewed, if Bruce spills it a bit while bringing him the tray, if he puts five cookies in the side plate instead of six, if he takes two extra minutes putting the tray together. This is the only thing Bruce asks Alfred to teach him for a long time, and the cookies Alfred tells him he wants with his tea are not actually cookies he likes, he knows these are the cookies Bruce likes. So they sit and pretend that Alfred is taking his sweet time trying the tea for taste, until Bruce is ready to say something and then Alfred drinks the single cup of tea for as long as it takes for Bruce to tell him the little or the lot of it all. And as Bruce gets older he learns new tricks and relearns old ones, but when Alfred tells him it's tea time, Bruce's tea is always brewed perfect for Alfred. And then it's 4 years later and Bruce is rarely home, and when he is home he's so drunk he doesn't know how he ended up there, and Alfred and Bruce fight so much and Alfred ends up breaking Bruce's nose and Bruce wants him gone, now, but Alfred wont leave. "Wednesday tea time it is," he says firmly, and Bruce looks at him for a long time before he turns and disappears in the kitchen, taking 10 minutes too long and when he emerges he's holding a teacup with shaking hands, dried tear stains all the way down his cheeks, the tea a tad too red with nosebleed. Alfred testes the tea temprature with a finger dip and it's still precise, perfect, pure even with blood in it, so he sits and pretends to wait for the tea to cool as Bruce silently slumps on a softa in front of him. He waits until Bruce is ready to talk, until Bruce cries and tells him he hates him and that Alfred is not his father, tells him he can't bear being Bruce Wayne and Alfred being Alfred Pennyworth for another day, and Alfred wont leave. Because Bruce he hates him and he's not sober enough to remember the way back to his own room, but he remembers how to brew the perfect tea for Alfred.
