"Dick."

Dick zipped up his jacket, deliberately avoiding eye contact as he slung his backpack over his shoulder.

"Dick, please, you can't be serious."

"Oh, he's serious all right," Tim snorted. He was also getting dressed, pulling on his shoes at the doorway. "Sorry Duke, but there's no getting out of this one."

"But- alone. For a whole day!"

Dick shrugged and smiled at Duke sheepishly. "I'm sorry about this, I really am. It just everything kinda collided together, and you're the only one available right now."

"But you can't leave me alone with him! He- he's-"

"An adorable little child who needs love and affection to flourish," Dick interjected. "He's really not so bad once you get to know him."

"He's worse," Tim deadpanned.

"Tim."

"What? It's not like he tries to kill me every few hours or anything!"

Dick flicked Tim in the arm. "He's just got a tough outer shell. Once you break through, he's as soft as a bunny."

Duke's stomach did a helpless flop. It had been three weeks since he'd come to the manor, and he was finally getting used to things around here. He knew when to dodge knives coming out of the doorway, knew how to locate the source of Dick's singing and run in the opposite direction as fast as he could, knew how to detect if Jason had arrived- usually, all you needed to do was look at Bruce's face. More constipated than usual? Jason was here.

So he wasn't a total stranger anymore. But he definitely wasn't yet comfortable with spending a whole day alone with Damian.

"Tim," Duke pleaded, "can't you stay?"

Tim looked at him sympathetically. "Sorry, but I think my presence will only make things worse. Besides, Bruce would skin me alive if I miss this meeting."

"Babs would, too. Only it's a date, not a meeting."

"We know, Dick, you've been talking about it for ages."

"Well excuse me for being excited!" Dick took a look at his watch. "We'd better get going now. Call us if you need anything!"

"Wait, you're going now? Can't you wait a bit longer?"

"Nope," Tim grimaced, "definitely going to be late if we stay. You'll be fine, Duke. Just don't drink anything he's prepared for you, and you'll be fine."

"What? Tim, wait, don't just say that and-"

The door shut in his face.

Duke sighed and ran his hands through his hair. He decided that, maybe, it was a good time to write his will.


Duke checked his watch.

2 hours. Okay, so far so good.

He was in the living room, munching on some biscuits he'd found in the kitchen. Of all the days Alfred had to be on vacation, he thought bitterly, stuffing another batch in his mouth. But he supposed it wasn't so bad so far.

Well, it only wasn't bad because he hadn't even seen Damian all day. He'd just stayed in the living room, watching TV or reading or just lounging about. Damian hadn't come down to bother him, so he supposed everything was okay. And if it stayed like this for the rest of the day, he might even survive to strangle Tim and Dick for leaving him here.

Of course, just as that thought passed through his head, he heard a small shuffling sound coming down the stairs.

"Thomas."

Duke mentally cursed whatever god was up there in the sky, and turned around to find Damian standing at the bottom of the staircase, stroking his cat like some cliche supervillain.

"You- you don't have to call me that, you know. Just Duke is fine."

"Thomas," Damian repeated, blatantly ignoring Duke's words, "I need a sparring partner."

"Oh, you do?"

"Yes."

"Well... that's very interesting."

Damian just gave him a look, until Duke's brain finally kicked into action. "Oh- you want me to-"

"Yes. I will meet you downstairs in 5 minutes." He looked distastefully at Duke's sweats. "You should change."

Duke stared as Damian left, heading for the clock that lead to the Batcave. He sat there uncomprehendingly for a few seconds, before the horror of what he had (not) agreed to finally sank into his mind.

He was going to spar. With Damian.

Oh, he was definitely dead. He had been training with Bruce, but only sporadically, and he was nowhere near the level of any of the Robins- especially not deadly, trained assassin Damian.

He sighed as he stood up. On the one hand, he could accept his fate and go downstairs to spar with Damian, and probably die. On the other, he could hide out in the manor until someone comes back and lose any dignity he had in the eyes of his new family.

He shook his head. He was a Bat now, and Bats weren't supposed to be scared of anything. So Duke sucked up all the courage he had in him and marched towards the clock.

He hoped Bruce would buy him a nice casket.


"Thomas. Took you long enough."

"Yeah, well... I had to change."

"Are you sure that outfit will not limit your dexterity?"

Duke shook his head, then almost fell backwards from the weight of all his armour. He windmilled his arms until he stood back up straight again. "Nope, I'm sure this is fine."

Damian made a face that Duke couldn't read, then got into his fighting stance. Duke mirrored him.

"Just to let you know," Duke said nervously, "Bruce hasn't taught me everything yet. So I'd appreciate if you'd take it-"

Damian lunged, and Duke heard himself shriek as he narrowly sidestepped the blow. The kid turned around in lighting speed, sweeping out his foot to trip Duke up. Duke jumped just in time, before countering with his own clumsy punch. It missed, and Damian grabbed Duke's arm and flipped him onto the mat.

Duke felt the wind rush out of his lungs, and he pushed himself back up to a sitting position, panting heavily. He removed the plating on his chest and took several long, deep breaths.

"Okay," he panted, "maybe there was a little too much armour."

Damian was watching him from his side of the mat. When he saw Duke looking up at him, he crossed his arms.

"I am superior," he stated.

Duke blinked. "Uh... okay."

"I have bested you in combat," Damian continued. "You have lost."

"Uh, yeah. I did. In all fairness, though, Bruce hasn't-"

"You will never be Robin."

Duke paused, hearing the slight waver of Damian's voice. There was that same unreadable expression on Damian's face, eyes never leaving Duke's sitting form. Duke tilted his head.

"What- you thought I was going to become Robin?"

Damian's hands clenched into fists. "If you weren't, then why are you here?"

"Well, of course I want to fight crime, but- why would I become Robin? Why would I take that away from you?"

"I don't know," he bit out, "but that is how it always has been. I took this title from Drake, who took it from Todd, who took it from Grayson. And now-"

He looked away from Duke, hands still clenched tight. "And now you're here. But you're incompetent, highly so, and not worthy of the title."

Duke shook his head. "Damian, I'm not going to become Robin."

"Really?" Damian looked at him distrustfully.

"I'm not. We- me and Bruce talked about it, actually. I mean, Batman's my hero and all, but it would just feel weird being his partner, you know? I think- I think I want my own thing. Besides, I'm not going to take anything you won't give to me. And you're Robin, aren't you?"

"Yes. I am the best Robin." He paused. "Besides Grayson, of course."

Duke smiled. "So, now that we cleared that up, you don't want to murder me anymore, right?"

"If I wanted to murder you Thomas, I would have done so already."

"That's... reassuring."

Damian shrugged. "No. I am... not a murderer anymore. No matter what Drake says."

"Nice to know," Duke said, relieved. "So... if you don't wanna kill me anymore, wanna help me survive?"

"What?"

"Show me some moves! I mean, you've trained with the League of Assassins since birth, you must be even better than Bruce at fighting!"

Damian couldn't hide his pleasure at the praise. "Well... I suppose I am the best mentor in this household. Perhaps you have some sense after all, Thomas."

Damian offered him a hand, and pulled Duke up to a standing position.

"Now," Damian declared, "we begin."


They came up sweating from the Batcave, stomachs ready for a full dinner. They headed into the dining room, where Dick, Bruce, and Tim already sat at the table. Bruce raised his eyebrows when he saw them.

"A nice workout, I presume?"

Duke nodded, stumbling a little from exhaustion. "I'm thinking I might go to bed straight after dinner. And maybe never wake up again."

Damian scoffed. "You need to build up endurance, Thomas. We can work on it on our next session."

Duke sat down at the table and promptly fell asleep, face down in the tablecloth. Damian shook his head and turned to Bruce.

"Father, I usually deride your unusual choices for children. Drake, for example."

"Watch it," Tim mumbled from his side of the table. He had had his coffee revoked, and was now looking like a zombie.

"But in this case," Damian continued, undeterred, "I suppose... you did not choose incorrectly."

Bruce and Dick smiled, both knowing that was a seal of approval from Damian.

And Duke smiled, too, dreaming about cotton candy and flowers and a family he thought he'd never have.


Hey guys! Wow, two updates in pretty quick succession (at least pretty quick for me haha). Usually my fics are all super angsty, so it's nice to have some light fluff. I'm kind of annoyed that I can't list Duke as a main character, but I don't really know what to do about that. His name is in the description (and the title, sort of) so it should be obvious enough.

Thanks for reading this! Please like, follow, or review if you enjoyed!