Sour Candy | T. Drake ✔

[46] A Mini Tim With Blue Eyes

"I don't want to go home."

Tim was forking at his breakfast, face set into a slight frown as his attention was elsewhere.

Alex and Dora exchanged a look before the elder one remarked, "at least eat your breakfast first, Timothy, we can discuss whether or not you should go home later."

His blue eyes flickered towards Alex in alarm, as if suspecting that he knew the reason to why he was so troubled. But Dora squeezed his hand reassuringly, letting him know that wasn't the case.

She had briefly told Alex that Tim had been troubled due to some family issue but hadn't elaborated on what the reason was exactly. While Alex thought he had probably gotten into an argument with either Bruce, Jason or Damian which was honestly not uncommon.

However, Dora noticed that his phone was on silent mode and he was intentionally ignoring the calls from his family. Before he could reach out for it and shut it off, she took his phone, looking at the number of calls he had ignored.

"Dora, don't..."

"You really shouldn't ignore them like this, they're probably getting anxious about you," she remarked and his phone vibrated again on a call from Steph, so she picked it up.

Tim let out a disappointed groan, his head dropping onto his hands, "it's no use listening to what they've got to say..."

"Pull yourself together, kid," Alex patted his back, honey-shaded eyes flickering in concern, "I know you're a dramatic ass but right now it's not gonna help with anything."

"You know nothing, Alexander," he mumbled, burying his head deeper into his palms.

Steph, on the other hand, didn't know that it was Dora who had received the call and not Tim as she started talking immediately. Her voice clearly sounded worried, "Timothy, where are you? Do you have any idea how worried we've all been? And how dare you ignore all our calls like that?"

"Steph," Dora spoke up, attempting to calm her down, "he's here at the shop. And he's fine, you can tell the others there's no need to worry."

She let out a sigh of relief, "oh Dora... Thank God he's with you, we've all been so so worried that he might have..." However, she stopped herself in time, realizing that probably Dora wasn't aware of the situation. "Can you give him the phone? I want to talk to him."

"I don't want to talk to anyone," Tim groaned again, pushing his breakfast plate even further from him.

Alex was looking at him just like a tired mother looks at a stubborn toddler. He pushed the plate back towards him, giving him a glare that clearly meant either he started eating or he would suffer consequences. "Timothy, stop being a stubborn little nuisance or I will ban you from getting any coffee or sweets from here."

Tim flinched at the threat, picking up the spoon but still couldn't bring himself to eat anything.

"I guess you heard him," Dora spoke up, though she felt bad that Steph was worried yet she couldn't do anything about it.

"Well, tell him he better come home quick because he's got a visitor." The call disconnected and Dora could sense Steph was ticked off at Tim by then.

Dora glanced over at Tim who was looking back at her with an unfathomable expression. "Tim, she said you should come home. You've got a visitor."

She watched him stiffen at that remark, his blue eyes hardening and his fists clenching such that his knuckles had gone white. He knew very well who that visitor was and he didn't want to go back at all.

Isadora didn't know if he was angry, pained, frustrated, or all three. But she could see it wasn't going to end well.

"Timmy," she reached out towards him but he stood up, hastily getting away from her.