Something shiny...

A soft burn in Robin's chest woke him from sleep, and he momentarily pawed at the bed next to him before remembering that he was alone. For a moment, he couldn't remember the details of why he was having a serious heartburn, before he remembered the booze. Ugh. Age did have its way of catching up to you, and sometimes it's the simplest ways.

He blearily looked at his bedside clock, and noting the time at a nice and appropriate Six Am decided to get his morning schedule out of the way. As always, he didn't even think about it, and was halfway through making breakfast before actual conscious realization of the wonderful time he'd had with Viola and Lauren and ... uh... what were their names?

He desperately tried to remember. He had remembered conversation, smiles, and Lauren announcing that he and Viola had.... actually no, she had announced that it was the three of them. It felt... right, somehow, like Viola filled a niche in their life without taking anything from Lauren.

Robin cracked an egg one handed, separating the shell between his middle fingers and flicking the residue into the trash can with a quick toss of the hand. The egg cooked slowly, as the elderly electric burner was temperamental at best, and not working at all at worst. Fortunately though, the not working part was easily solved by two minutes with some steel wool on a semi regular basis.

"Hey, either of you want actual food before class?" Robin shouted up at his daughter's bedroom to a loud thump of somebody rolling off of a bed. The calls of acknowledgement afterwords were pretty much expected. His head pounded at the sound, and he momentarily wished he hadn't shouted.

Robin pulled the baking sheet from the oven at the appropriate time, and quickly fried up a few small sausage patties. The resulting little breakfast sandwiches wouldn't have looked out of place at a fast food joint, and Robin knew it. However, the difference was that he actually cared. At least he hoped that was the difference.

"Hey Dad! You have fun last night?" Miranda nearly shouted at Robin.

No wait, she hadn't shouted. Fuck... he had a hangover. Water... and eat. His stomach roiled at the thought but he **** himself to stare at the sandwich he had made himself. It had been far too long since he'd been drinking, he reminded himself, as he fumbled in one of the cabinets for a glass tumbler.

"Pipe down kid, the old man's hung." Robin spoke the line reflexively, spinning and leaning against the sink as he took a long drink of water. Damn that felt good. Miranda's eyes dropped in response and he realized exactly what he had just said. "Hung... hung over. Shit. I not speak good."

Miranda for her part was shocked to see her dad like this. It had been a long time since he had been drinking, and for the most part afterwords he never got up on time and made breakfast afterwords. She almost didn't want to notice that he was sporting a rather large semi, but he had drawn attention to it with the comment, and she couldn't help but blush as she thought about how Sam had made a few jokes about her Dad being cute the previous evening.

The smell of the food drove the thought from her mind, and she grabbed at one of the small red ringed plates that her father had placed out for her.

"Sorry Dad. Thanks for breakfast." Miranda said considerably quieter. Robin acknowledged the reduction in volume with a wave, and nodded his head happily, taking another sip of water, before trying to focus once again on the food and overcoming the natural desire of his stomach to want more booze instead.

"Welcome..." He mumbled quietly, before taking a bite. It wasn't as bad as he had expected. "Little headache... but I'm ok. Had a great time."

"Yeah, I noticed. No Soda." Miranda shrugged, yanking the coffee can out of the freezer. "Mind if I make coffee?"

"Read my mind..." Robin agreed, taking another long drink of water. Coffee sounded good. "Was it you or Titania that fell out of bed?"

"Her. And I didn't make fun of her. Like you asked." Miranda acknowledged.