Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Day One (Saturday)

Logically Duke knew he wasn’t doing well, and it was very obvious he hadn’t been hiding it because he straight up disappeared right in front of Jason over some spilt tea and his kind of brother didn’t even seem phased. Literally a week later he flung open his closet one morning only to find a fully custom tailored Red Hood outfit. So reasonably he freaked out a bit.

After trying his absolute damndest to chill out he actually took a look at the suit which was literally wrapped with the neatest bow he had ever seen in his life. 

Because Duke wasn’t about to destroy literal art he took a pair of way too fancy scissors from his way too fancy desk and cut the bow off, putting it neatly on his desk. He then took to picking up the helmet on the top of the pile and was careful not to leave any fingerprints on the rim as he also placed it neatly on his desk. On top of the actual clothes was a note which he quickly pried open.

Bruce says Signal can’t be out on his own, too bad I don’t have that problem. Anyway I'm going to put this in a very simple way that even your anxiety riddled ass can understand. Break shit until you feel better. When you don’t feel better explode some Black Mask drug deals, those are a treat! Patrol or don’t, day or night, you can't go wrong and each of you is getting a turn so use it wisely. Now I’ve gotta fuck off to Europe with The Outlaws so get to breaking. Fuck up Crime Alley, fuck up Bruce, never elaborate.

P.S; I roughed up your suit so you can put it on without feeling like you need to run around like a wooden doll. I know how you are about new stuff.

Yeah so Duke would definitely be freaking out well into the night but he got this itching feeling that he desperately needed to explode something the moment he got his hands on what was basically a free pass. Also after basically getting benched for a month he did not need to be told twice that he could fuck with Bruce.

Breakfast was a horrible nightmare of trying not to let Bruce figure out that there was a whole new panic attack sitting just a floor away. Duke would also argue that he definitely didn’t jump when Bruce spoke to him directly.

“Are you excited to get back out on the streets, Duke?”

“What? Oh! I- uh… well I’ve got a uh- big test coming up. I was actually planning to stay at one of the safehouses closer to the library so I don't have to spend so much time going back and forth. I probably won’t be out for at least another week. I just really want to make sure I do well on this test.” Duke was officially a shit liar although he did have a pretty big test coming up he was bullshitting the rest. He was also well aware Cass knew he was lying by the way his hands were totally flickering and she was pretending not to notice. Actually all of his sort of siblings were averting their gaze from Bruce and Damian was staring intently at Duke which finally made the gears turn in his head. They must have been the ‘you all’ Jason had mentioned in his letter.

“Ah well i’m happy you’re valuing your education over your work, it's nice to know there's at least one child in the house who does.” Bruce said with a horribly genuine and warm smile that definitely had Duke needing to drop his fork so he could hide the fact that he both physically and mentally noped out of the room and went invisible. Tim almost choked on his food next to him and Dick actually did. 

Duke officially decided that this meal would be impossible and quietly crawled under the table until he found an open spot and booked it out. He was determined to hide away in the ever beautiful Wayne library and mentally adjusted his course for one of the few rooms in the house he could confidently say he knew how to get to.

“No running in the halls Master Duke.” Alfred’s voice called from behind him. Duke nearly had a heart attack and quickly skidded to a stop to stare at Alfred who was staring at him. He took an impossibly silent sidestep and the man's eyes followed. Duke was really starting to question Alfred’s status as a normal human, although then again normal humans shouldn’t glow in that strange way Alfred does when they’re happy or be able to keep the manor just as clean as he keeps it. But in the end everything just sort of falls under ‘its Alfred are you really going to tell him he can’t clean?’ or ‘What kind of a man would I be if I didn't keep track of my grandchildren’s comings and goings?’

“S-sorry Alfred, just a little eager to get out of there.” Duke eventually stammered.

“Perfectly understandable Master Duke, ah and do be careful out there tonight.” and then Alfred just left, because it's Alfred and of course he leaves after dropping ominous knowledge.

“R-right…” Duke decides to just continue to the library and pretend he doesn’t exist when he gets there.

Day Two (Sunday)

It isn't until the next morning that he actually leaves for the safe house address Jason left him. He is however stopped by Cass who is holding a very large pile of books and attempting to pick out words. Duke takes the stack from her and watches as she signs to him ‘Drop off with Barbara, she will like them, bring coffee and she will accept you, black coffee.’

“Understood.” he says adding the Clocktower to his list of stops for the day.

Nothing could have prepared him for what happened when he actually got to the Clocktower though.

Barbara had straight up walked up to him and said they were going to spar, which they did. He could make sense of the walking because she was covered in magic stuff but every time he moved while they spared it was like she absorbed it. Every move was another line of text in a book on a shelf in a library that spanned from the first time Batman threw a punch to now. He was countering his own jabs, he was dodging Dick’s flips and ducking Steph's kicks. Sparring with Barbara was fun, like really fun!

Eventually they did tire and swapped to showing off their new suits, both courtesy of Jason. After that Barbara roped him into taking her shopping which in all honesty was sort of sad.

Barbara only had $1000 which was an absolutely stupid amount considering it was worth like four good pieces of clothing. Duke had however been benched by Bruce for a month and thus had ungodly amounts of money from the man. 

With his lovely BatPhone that he definitely wasn't supposed to have in public despite the fact that it looked just like a regular phone, he took a picture of everything Barbara commented positively on. 

His plan went into action when they stopped for lunch he left Barbara with a trustworthy and extremely buff man named Tim (it was very funny to imagine Tim standing next to Duke's stick of a brother whom he shared a name with. He had also made it to adulthood with black hair and blue eyes, meaning he was a good citizen that stayed out of trouble). He got both of them food and excused himself to the bathroom. 

Then he ran about half a marathon in fifteen minutes through the mall and ran through probably a solid half of the money Bruce left him at record breaking pace. He was apparently moving around sporadically enough through the mall that one of the bats thought there was something going on because he received a call from Dick on his way back to Babs.

Sighing he slowed and caught his breath before answering.

Is everything alright Duke? The computer thinks you're dealing with a hostage situation or something?

What yeah I'm fine just on an impromptu shopping trip with Babs and running back to buy the stuff she actually wants because she can- she uh- deserves to wear what she wants.

Is she in her chair or not?

Duke was taking that as Dick being the other person who knew aside from Damian which he saw from the suit cameras Babs showed him.

Before I answer that I just want to make sure we're both thinking on the same page.

She can.

Duke knows he isn't saying anything more because Bruce does have access to these calls if he needs to and Dick is trying to avoid Babs' secret getting out.

Yes. Now I gotta go before she gets worried and tries wheeling around the mall looking for me alright?

Ok, I'll see you around Duke!

Duke practically killed himself running back after that and luckily Barbara was content to accept the clothes. 

Barbara didn't exactly have the room in the Clocktower for all of her new clothes but she refused to let Duke put them in her actual apartment across the street. He left shortly after as he knew he still needed to get to Jason's safe house and he wanted some time to settle before patrol.

The safe house was actually pretty nice, two full floors of weaponry, supplies, and near Alfred level care and preparation. 

The fridge had 8 weeks of easy to make meals that required little more than a microwave and there was a clear chart on the fridge of what kitchen appliances everyone was allowed to use. Duke was pleasantly surprised to find that he was one of the two people allowed to use the stove, he wasn’t surprised that the other person was Cass as she was also granted near free roam of Alfred's kitchen. Jason is the only person in the whole house Alfred lets make use of the full extent of his kitchen.

Duke spent the remainder of his evening familiarizing himself with his suit and attempting to take a page out of Echo/Barbara’s book in doing his best to copy Jason’s march. He was more than happy to put his muscles to use in heavier hits and stomps. Being acrobatic has always been a Robin thing because when a Gothamite sees something bright do a flip there's a pretty obvious divide between who is guilty and who isn’t because the guilty ones are running away screaming or desperately trying not to look like they pissed themselves. Innocent people take the flips as a meaning that they are safe and as a daytime vigilante Duke just always thought it would be better for him to be all flippy.

Eventually the sun finally set and had actually been set for about an hour now. Duke was staring at the helmet Jason gave him with the rest of his suit and a domino already on him. He never cared for the dominoes since he had his cowl but if he was going to be the Red Hood he was at least going to be on brand.

Duke had only just barely finished psyching himself up when there was a knock at his window. With an ease that felt worryingly practiced he slipped his helmet on and silently threw his hands into his leather jacket. He kept his hands resting on the guns strapped to his thighs but found himself unsure just how well the rubber rounds might hold up against anyone smart or dumb enough to announce themselves to the possible Red Hood inside. 

Duke drew his weapon carefully and ducked behind the kitchen island just before he heard the shhhhk of the window being slid open. His heart didn’t race with the same nerves he was used to as Signal, his heart was racing with excitement and he was actually itching to fight. There was a near silent yet solid thud of boots making their way inside.

“Are you around Nightlight?” Evidently it was Echo who had broken in, “well I know you are. I asked J to give me your suit tracker codes, not that I needed them but it was more so out of respect that I asked!”

Duke stood facing the window with his weapons still drawn, considering he had spent a solid hour of his day learning about Barbara’s Echoing suit mechanics he wouldn’t be taking chances any time soon. Seeing the glowing white eyes of her costume he did lower his weapons in the end.

“Surely you have to know better than to approach a Gotham vigilante like that, or any Gothamite really, don’t just waltz in!” Duke sighed, he was almost disappointed it was Barbara and not a Robber or whatever.

“Yeah yeah whatever, want to bust a drug deal going down between a couple gangs from the Narrows and Alley? J mentioned them as a good first run for you when I was talking to him on the way.”

“Oh yes I absolutely do.” 

It was uncanny just how well his voice changer masked him into Jason. Duke sorta knew Echo was jealous. Duke knew it wasn’t perfect but he also knew that Babs had most certainly whipped her head around every time he turned on the voice modulation. He knew he and Jason had probably the closest voice aside from Dick or Tim (when he was being especially petty he could do any of their voices perfectly) and it left him curious how Jason had intended on handling Stephs. As they neared the warehouse set for the deal, Duke resided himself in just having to wait for glitter to start appearing around Crime Alley in a few weeks to go and see.

The warehouse itself was a mess of broken windows, unstable walls, and a metric shit ton of goons. Duke couldn’t help but turn his head back to his bike which he had loaded with weaponry for any situation and he swore he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end when he thought of the explosives. Although neither of their faces were visible when he and Barbara locked eyes he knew that both of them had the exact same shit-eating grin flung across their faces.

Duke and Barbara set the charges and made their way to the roof next door as they both ran through facial recognition on each of the goons. There was a conglomerate of abuse, rape, and murder charges plastering almost every face. The ones without charges had absolutely nothing and no medical history under their names. So yeah this would be an absolutely Jason sanctioned explosion.

Barbara planted one last charge and handed Duke the detonator insisting he ‘do the honors’

He couldn’t exactly press down on the trigger. He was still Signal under that helmet he was still sort of a robin, Duke followed Bruce’s rules. God he was speaking in the past tense nope no he could not be doing this. These people are bad people, like really bad. What was Jason’s way of putting it ‘some of these bastards won’t get better, Bruce.’ yeah that one. 

It’s literally just one button, think of all the people he’s saving in the future with that one press. Is it really that easy? One little flick of his finger and that's it for all of them. Is it just that? What if there's a cat or Krypton forbid a kid just sneaking around in there?

“You don’t have to explode the place if you’re not up for it, you know.” Barbara says it like it's the most casual thing in the world, “killing is far from easy, even J doesn’t love doing it up close and personal. He saves that for the truly heinous which if i’m being honest some of them in that building are. The explosions are a nicer death than they deserve a quick one at that, but if you don’t want to then we’ll just go in and vegetise them like usual.

“Ok ‘vegetise’ is not a word, and… yeah i think that would be nice.” The detonator was way too heavy in his hands so he passed it back to Echo. She took it with what Duke assumed to be a reassuring look because she had always been good at those.

“Alrighty then! Hey I think Dickie-Bird is nearby, want me to reroute him here?”

“Nah I think he is probably on his way to his brooding spot on the East end of the Alley.”

“I would not be surprised if that was the case, I bet I can take out more of these losers than you!” Barbara called, making a sudden leap off the roof.

“You’re on!” Duke replied, jumping after her. 

They both entered in their own fashion. Barbara knocked politely on the door and proceeded to wrap herself in a spiral around the man who opened the door.

Duke, in true Red Hood form, crashed through the obligatory skylight courtesy of Gotham architects being a little autistic, and was followed by the intro of ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ by Guns n’ Roses. He proceeded to bust the shit out of the nose of the guy he landed on.

Barbara bashed her fist into the man she was on and danced through the rain of bullets that followed with Cassandra’s grace. Duke shot rubber bullets into the necks and hands of any armed criminal he saw. While Batman didn’t use guns himself, Bruce would never let his children become victims of them. So the bats and birds all knew the intricacies of every gun Gotham had           ever seen and how to both disable and fire them. Nobody was as good a shot as Jason but Jason also took the shots nobody else was willing to.

Bruce still couldn’t approve of Jason’s methods but there was some sort of recognition in his eyes even if it was a little sad when the Gazette posted another list of drug rings crushed or crime rates down in Crime Alley. Bruce's methods never worked in Crime Alley but then again Jason’s methods have never worked all too well outside. Gotham is in a place where its vigilantes can afford to foster some sort of hope for better even for the worst. Crime Alley isn’t there yet, Crime Alley needs fear before it can even begin to hope for hope. Jason was making that fear and honestly people were really starting to hope.

We Are Robin wouldn’t have happened without that hope. 

Cass, Damian, and Dick are still better than Duke with a gun but that also places Duke above the rest of his family which is no small feat. He had yet to miss his shot and the loud bang of each bullet leaving the chamber was rhythmic and matched nicely with ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ blasting over the speakers on the roof.

Somebody charged behind him and Duke proceeded to tackle the aggressor and knock him out with a solid punch. Another attempted to kick Duke in the side only for him to roll out of the way and shoot rubber bullets into the man's neck. 

Across the room Echo was flipping acrobatically from goon to goon disabling them and leaving more than a few of them with arms bent at fancy angles. 

“Come on! Who’s next? Try me!” Echo called out in what appeared to be Dick, Tim, and Steph’s voice. Flipping the next challenger over her head in a manner similar to Jason, she repeated, “Who’s next?” 

They’ve knocked their way through the last of the criminals by the time the song wraps up and the two of them couldn’t be happier honestly because that was exhilarating and so much fun. Duke couldn’t remember a time when he had that much fun crime-fighting. He was feeling powerful too, punching the lights out of a goon carries a lot more weight than just kicking and flipping till people stop getting back up.

Duke and Barbara then took to the ever tedious task of tying up everyone. The biggest downside to the no kill rule, you gotta round 'em up after. Duke had some slight regrets about not just using that detonator when he had the chance if he was being honest, but with both gangs tied up and some new back pain, Barbara sent out the call to the police.

Duke and Barbara parted to deal with a fire and bank robbery after the goons were taken away.

Why does Crime Alley even have banks?

For a bank heist it was rather straight forward which was always nice in Gotham. Just a couple of guys who were desperate and really at a breaking point, an unfortunately common problem in the Alley. His helmet systems identified them both with no priors, one had a young daughter and the other was younger with a grandmother as his only listed family.

Duke felt bad for them and considering the both were definitely not in the best place Duke decided to go with the talking approach. He also knew Jason to take these kinds of people into his gang and was planning gift baskets similar to the ones he helped Jay make a few weeks prior to his trip.

Talking them down was no problem, they weren’t even threatening anyone really. Duke just told them to follow him and they did. When it actually came down to it he wasn’t exactly sure how to go about recruiting them. And considering it was Jason’s gang he figured he would try his luck and gave him a call. The two sorta criminals were trailing pretty far behind and Duke was pretty sure they were doing so out of fear.

“S’up Dukes?” Jason answered far too calmly for all of the gunfire going on around him.

“Oh you’re busy I’ll just figure this out on my own sorry to bother you!” Duke was slightly worried about his brother talking on the phone while getting actively shot at.

“Biz come cover me a minute I need to take this,” Jason shouted, assumedly to his team or at least Bizarro, “So how can I help mini-me?”

“O-oh uh so I've got two guys here, stopped them from kinda robbing a bank and they fit your usual underlings resume. One just has a grandmother, no priors, the other has a daughter also no priors.”

“Names?” Jason asked, following some returned fire.

“Jesse Lindsay, and the one with the daughter is Adrian Nors.”

“I recognise Nors, don’t think I know Lindsay, what do you think of him?”

“You’re asking me?... well he seems pretty nice and he was sorta polite too, I like him.” Duke wasn’t lying, he did actually find Jesse pretty nice.

“Alright I’ll give Lyss a call, bring them to the base on 36th and Toby will deal with the rest,” Jason said, pausing to think, “actually I’ll have Lyss head there too.”

“Lyss is a new name for me, who's that?” He can’t help but be curious since Jason mentioned her before Toby who was practically his right hand man.

“Oh She’s like Crime Alley’s personal Bruce, except she adopts kids without the requirement of black hair and blue eyes,” Jason jokes in the middle of his firefight as per usual.

“She has the money for that? Also I am totally getting blue contacts for the Gala.” Duke laughed out loud which caused the two behind him to stumble.

“Finally pining for adoption are you? Anyway B used to fund her family when I was still Robin since she left me homemade snacks on her roof and took care of a lot of kids I used to know, and now we both give her a metric shit ton of money to make sure those kids get a good life.”

“She sounds cool, if she just takes care of kids how come you’re sending her to the base?”

“The Nors guy is a good father in my book and Lyss always needs extra hands in the winter plus it's basically free daycare for his kid,” Jason continued, “Toby has been asking for someone to help him with handouts so I’m going to put Lindsay with him, they will both get solid pay and all that shit so no worries.”

“Does this happen to you a lot or something?” He questioned, turning to glance at the two men who were chatting idly now.

“Not every week but it’s not the first time, oh and if you see a kid that looks hungry you can take them to Lyss any time, and get to bed after you drop the new guys at base.”

“I’ll keep that in mind and I'll try to sleep with minimal crime stopping after okay?” Duke couldn’t help it; he really wanted to spend the whole night helping the Alley. 

“Sleep Nightlight, Crime Alley won’t magically fix itself because you stayed up some extra hours. Rome wasn’t built in a day and all that plus Babs told me she was staying out till you went down and she has work tomorrow. Alright I gotta deal with the rest of these guys, see ya in a while Duke!” 

“Yeah see you around J, bye!” Duke responded and hung up the phone. 

It was probably another five minutes till he made his way to the base on 36th. Toby was waiting outside and flagged the two soon to be goons inside.

Toby was about 5'8, which was pretty short considering the majority tall population of Gotham but he was a very strong man. As Jason's right hand he had been taught all the special moves and on his own he was a good boxer and taught self defense in the basement of his apartment complex.

When Jesse and Adrian were ushered inside Toby turned to Duke and held up a hand to stop him from going inside, saying “Boss says yous to be goin’ home after I take them two so get goin’ Mini-Boss.”

Duke was not about to correct the man on his mini accusations as he actively looked down at a man who could probably send him home with a broken arm.

“Right… have a good night Toby,” Duke said, rubbing the back of his neck. It was a nervous habit he never cared to notice but it seemed to give him away to Toby.

“Oh jeez kid, don't let Lyss know yous is under age when ya talk to her she’ll have another meltdown over child crime bosses and I don't want ta hear it.”

Hiding his surprise behind a laugh Duke responded, “I won't and I'm not a child you know?”

“Boss would kick my ass if I offered ya a cigarette so yous a kid. Now get home already.” His order was a bit more stern this time and Duke took that as his cue to leave.

The streets weren't actually bad on his way back. 

He probably did ‘vegetise’ that mugger who was attacking a literal kid. When he drew the mugger's attention they started flailing their pocket knife violently making Duke dodge in weird directions as he pulled him further from the kid.

It was a quick one punch thing once he was far enough away from the child. Then Duke had to actually deal with the kid, who had curled up against a dumpster.

He moved slowly until he was about three feet away from the kid and attempted a greeting. “Hey kid are you alright, not hurt?”

Her answer was Cass levels of silence “fine…”

“That's good, do you know who I am?” Duke said, lowering his voice and crouching down.

“Hood…” her answer was nearly audible this time.

“Yeah I am, can you tell me your name?

“Eira...”

“Well it's nice to meet you Eira” Duke says offering a handshake, “can you tell me why you're out so late?”

“Ran.” Eira says, like that's normal.

“Are you running from home or something else?”

“Home…” Eira says, “can't go back.”

“Are you sleeping anywhere?”

“Inside.” She says putting a hand on the dumpster.

“How about you stay at my place tonight? A friend of mine takes care of kids like you but I think she's busy at the moment.”

“Safe… right?”

“Safe.” Eira takes his hand at that and after a light shake Duke helps her to her feet and winces at his side.

“You ok?” Eira says, holding the hem of her shirt tightly.

Duke hadn't noticed but the guy had slashed his side. He wouldn't be bleeding out or anything but he would have to stitch it up by himself since he's supposed to be cramming for a test now.

“I'll be ok, it's nothing I can't deal with!” He can finally understand why Jason still keeps a domino under his helmet as he takes it off to give a reassuring smile.

“Okay…?” Eira seems cautious but one of the many upsides of being the Red Hood is that Crime Alley children have come to trust him and believe the promises he makes.

Duke offers his hand so they can walk back and asks her if she needs anything from her dumpster. The response is immediate as she jumps in and comes back not a minute later with an old backpack and what seemed to be a metal hairstick. On her wrist was a golden bracelet with what looked like a bird engraved on it but he couldn’t tell what kind.

She takes his hand and they both turn to leave the alley. Duke pulls up the actual hood attached to his bodysuit and considering the freezing cold of Gotham nights he gives his beautifully tailored leather jacket to Eira. 

The safe house he had set-up in was probably not the best for a child but she didn't seem to mind. Duke gave her the master bedroom and took to sewing up his slash at his side once he convinced her to shower considering she was covered in dirt and grime (she had also been sleeping in a dumpster for who knows how long)

For once in his career the wound was actually better than he thought and only required two stitches but he put in a third for good luck. 

Once he was sewn and bandaged he changed fully using the clothes from his duffel. He would apologize to Jason for letting a kid in his safe house later but for now he figured since he was hungry Eira definitely was.

He went into the kitchen and tried to figure out what to make her when Eira popped out of the bedroom. She was bundled up like a burrito in a Damian sized robe which Duke knew was the smallest one she could find. 

“I'm going to make some food. Will you eat scrambled eggs? Oh hang on you need something comfortable to sleep in” Duke said pulling out his phone and sending a text to Alfred

“Yummy.” Was Eira’s response to the eggs

Any chance you happen to have clothing that would fit a very small female child? Cuz I sorta ran into one and now she's at the safehouse for the night so like do you have any I can come grab???

Duke grabbed the eggs and a pan to start cooking before looking back to his phone.

Five minutes Master Duke.

He assumed Alfred was going to check and he continued making eggs as Eira watched intently. Once they were finished Duke served them both and ushered Eira to the table to eat. The girl practically inhaled her food which Duke took as a good thing.

There was a rhythmic knock to the door 

‘(–•)(•)(•••)(-)’

Eira paused at her plate and stared at the door visibly tense. Duke just stared a moment before vaulting the couch and throwing open the door.

“Alfred!?”

“Sleepwear and clothes for tomorrow, ensure the two of you are eating and sleeping properly.” Alfred said holding neatly folded silk sleepwear and a backpack Duke assumed probably had more than just clothes for tomorrow.

“Ok how did you even get here man,” Duke questioned as Alfred passed the bag to him and the sleepwear to Eira who had found safety in Duke's leg, “ah- alright thanks Alfred.”

“Of course, call me if you need anything else, Red Hood Sir.” He said with a sly smile on his face.

“O-okay?” 

Alfred waved kindly to Eira which she timidly reciprocated. He then closed the door.

“Here uh why don't you go get dressed?”

“Okay” she says, already going back to the bedroom hugging the clean clothes close.

Duke returns to the table and finishes his eggs. Looking at Eira's plate he saw it was practically cleaned and tried his best to not question any of Alfred’s Alfredness.

Eira came out shortly after in a matching purple silk pyjama set. Now that she wasn't colored in dirt Duke found she had curly brown hair and green eyes, her skin was a warm caramel color. She seemed a lot happier now that she had food and nice clothes.

“How old are you Eira?” He questioned.

“...Eight,” she said looking at her feet.

“Nice, want to watch a movie?”

“Frozen?” She asked with a gleam in her eyes.

“Sure, let's watch Frozen.” Duke replied, grabbing blankets and leading her to the couch.

They had barely made it to ‘Let It Go’ before Eira was completely asleep, snoring softly. Duke turned up the movie just a little and itched his face, resisting the urge to remove his domino. 

He got up slowly and investigated the bag Alfred had given him. Inside was a hairbrush, toothbrush, coat, and a weighted cat plush.

He placed the plush on top of the sleeping Eira and chose to ignore that her name was embroidered in cursive on the paw. He scooped up the bundle of Eira and blankets from the couch and brought them to the bedroom alongside the bag. Duke continued and washed their dishes.

He set an alarm for 10:00 am And crashed into his bed for the night.

Day Three (Monday)

He was awoken at the ungodly hour of 9:00 am by his BatPhone ringing with an unknown number. Against his better judgement he decided to answer.

“Good morning Temporary Boss! I'm Alyson or Lyss, the Boss says you've got a kid that needs picking up?”

“Oh uh yeah, forgot he was probably watching my every move. Uh yeah once she wakes up I'll get her to you. Where should we meet?”

“I’ll be at the diner across the street at noon. Food is a good way to gain an Alley kids’ trust.”

“Alright then?” Maybe it was all the time with Bruce but he felt a bit sad about giving Eira to Lyss.

“I'll see you then Boss!” She promptly hung up the phone.

Getting Eira out of bed was surprisingly easy and getting her ready wasn’t all that bad, he had taken care of curly haired kids in other foster homes so it wasn’t bad fixing the girl’s horrible bed head. Once her hair was alright Duke sent her to change which she happily obliged. 

She was stuffed into a large yellowish gold sweater with thick sleeves of black and an occasional line of white, her sleeves connected to the base of her sweater like wings which was something she seemed to notice as she flapped her arms around. Duke knew the look of a carefully made Alfred sweater and knew he had originally made it for Duke when he first came to the manor but Duke had managed to rip a hole in the spine area and a knife thrown by Damian had put a large gash into the previously yellow sleeves. The area of the previous hole in the spine was covered up by a carefully crafted white bow with long ends that tapered off into black feather shapes. 

She had warm black pants and a pair of black and white sneakers on as well as her bracelet with the bird engraved on it.

Alfred was scary.

 She had been holding her plush since she woke up and constantly traced her finger over the cursive of her name along the paw. 

Duke was happy to know that she could at least sort of read and considering he was a hardcore bookworm he had to ask, “Do you like Reading Eira?”

“Yeah… I like books about the world.” She said averting her gaze.

“Like history or just people?”

“Both… I really like the ones about old heroes and knights and stuff!” The end of her sentence was marked by a mouthful of eggs because that was apparently the only food she liked in the fridge. Seems like books were a good subject for her so he made a note of that. 

“Well, do you have a favorite book?” He asked.

She pondered for a moment, similar to Jason recalling how many books he’s read in a week, “Hmm, probably ‘The Arabian Nights’ or ‘The Song Of Roland’ I guess?” 

“Where did you read those?”

“Tati had them, he used to let me borrow ‘The Arabian Nights’ before the fire.”

Duke kinda forgot the child was definitely traumatized considering it was pretty common for his family to ignore their feelings and trauma. Eira was staring hers in the eye and calling it by name, at least to some extent, and Duke couldn’t tell if that was good or not. 

Wait, didn't Dick call B Tati before? Maybe Eira was Romani too? Although it would probably not be the best idea to press further on her family.

“I see… Here, why don’t you grab your things and we can go to the library before we meet my friend?”

Eira’s eyes lit up at the idea of the library and she started running around the house collecting her stuff without even answering. She was completely packed by the time Duke had finished washing their dishes.

He took his time getting the rest of his Red Hood gear on considering he couldn’t just go out in his domino. He also gave little Eira a domino for civilian safety purposes. Definitely not because she would just look sooooo cute. Civilian safety was important.

An upside to having Bruce Wayne as your Foster Parent (Dad? Mentor? He honestly wasn’t sure where to put Bruce but he did see his children like siblings so?) is that all of his vehicles come equipped with child booster seats including the ones that he buys all of his kids.

He buckled Eira into the seat and headed towards the library thoroughly questioning if the kid was actually part speedster with how much she was vibrating with excitement. 

It had been just about two and a half full days outside Gotham and Jason was already desperate to go home. His two month long mission had already been Tim levels of workshopped and he was determined he could beat the shit out of every single person that had ever looked at these weapons in a month, probably less.

Duke had not blown up the warehouse and instead he cracked about 50 skulls in beat to Guns N'Roses. He also then pulled something Jason had done just two weeks into being Red Hood and brought home a child with trauma. Apparently Duke was taking the whole trying to get Bruce to adopt him thing seriously, because the kid was pulling just about every Batmove he could think of.

Speaking of every Batmove, why in the world was Barbara so damn good at copying their shit. Yeah, yeah she was ‘Echo’ and all that but even then it's taken years of not fighting his family (because Bruce still won’t accept the fact that Jason was all too content killing them before) to be able to fully master replacing Batman on the field.

Bruce was certainly a hell of a fighter and no matter the bird they were always trained to fight in tandem with Batman’s attacks. Dick as per usual had always put it best ‘B says weapons are just an extension of yourself, when we are fighting Robin is another extension just way cooler. When B throws a punch you throw a kick, he goes low you go high. He is going to help you hit harder but he can’t do that if you don’t take the chances he gives you Little Wing.’

Replacing Batman in the field was no simple task but Babs seemed perfectly content to replace any of them at any time depending on which of their styles would get her to the next goon faster. The idea kinda scared the shit out of him but at the same time he was so eager to get to fight with Barbara that his schedule had moved at a rapid pace.

Jason paused his thoughts for a minute as Artemis rolled over on the couch, and dropped her hand off the side with a resounding smack to Bizarro’s face. Why was Biz asleep on the floor when they had a third couch? 

On the second couch of three was Arsenal (Roy Harper) passed out sitting upright on the middle cushion while Starfire (Kori Anders/Koriand’r) was curled up next to him. She had stopped to visit so she could gossip her ass off with his team and fell asleep not even an hour after.

Jason scurried around Bizarro and over to his tablet and sketchbook, neither of them were something he planned on showing his friends ever considering they were filled with redesigns of their suits and comments about their shitty craftsmanship. He flipped it open and was greeted by his favorite drawing which happened to be his sketch of Barbara’s suit. He loved the liminal thing and couldn’t be happier with the completely inhuman design. His entire plane ride to Europe had been filled with a renewed hyperfixation nobody had seen since the second robin first learned how a bird's wings worked. The next pages were all perfectly proportioned sketches, some in color others not yet fully complete but all with the same premise. If Jason promised (and lied to Bruce's face) about swearing away killing he might be able to convince the man to finally go full cryptid. He could also just call Bruce dad probably, that would work too. 

Seeing the way Duke fell so easily into his style of combat Jason had already gone full cryptid rebrand for signal and his plan for the tech would absolutely have Tim jealous but that was fine because he had about seventeen times the tech planned for Tim’s. 

Ok he needed to move on from the suits.

He went to his nearest clean page and began sketching the base of a goddess level slim bodied dress before transferring the initial sketch to his tablet and continuing to work out the kinks, fixing the sketch as he went. He didn't sleep until he was thoroughly satisfied and it was well past 3:00 in the morning.

Eira loved the library, Duke had to do his best to avoid Barbara’s mortified gaze which he remembered from Tim's compilation of the family's reactions every time a new kid was adopted. He did reassure her that the kid was not being adopted by him and that he was just watching her for a while to which she sent a disbelieving look his way. 

Eira had picked out a copy of ‘The Odyssey’ and a very much falling apart copy of ‘The Arabian Nights’ that Duke stared at with horror as the corners of the pages were folded. Barbara was about to suggest that Eira pick out a book in better condition while she ordered a new copy but Duke stopped her. He figured if Eira was about to start living somewhere new she would need the comfort of the book, and hey if the book didn’t work Eira was still tracing her name on the paw of her cat plush. 

Duke took a quick picture of her bracelet and threw it into an image search which showed two possible results one being an ‘American Goldfinch’ and the other a ‘Pine Siskin’ he went with the Goldfinch option considering its description perfectly matched that of Eira’s sweater.

Alfred was really scary man.

It was kind of funny how nobody looked twice at Red Hood holding idle banter with a certain (not anymore) wheelchair bound librarian. Who knew Jay was such a bookworm that he went to the library even in his full gear? Duke did and he was absolutely using that as blackmail in the future. Maybe he could force Jason to make him a sick ass, kick ass suit like Barbara's in exchange for not telling B another place his son frequented at strange hours.

They finally returned to the car about half an hour later and made their way to the diner. The closer they got the more Eira seemed to fidget in her seat. She was flipping through the pages in her book like a lifeline. Duke could tell she wasn’t skimming them though, she absorbed every word on every page even though she only spent upwards of twenty seconds before turning another page.

He stopped the car in the small parking lot just outside the diner and circled the car to unbuckle the girl from her seat. Eira got out of her seat before doing something Duke hadn’t expected as she raised both her hands making grabby motions. 

“Yes, yes” Duke said, picking her up where she clung tightly to his neck, “come on Goldfinch, lets go.”

Eira preened at the name and a wide smile fell on her usually nervous face. She even laughed a bit which made Duke smile under his helmet.

Inside the diner was cozy and the inhabitants all seemed either too sleep deprived or too desensitized to care about Red Hood sitting down in the corner booth. A few of the people who seemed to know what coffee was looked at the kid with him for a moment but as people in the heart of Crime Alley they didn’t seem to care once they saw how wide she was smiling as Red Hood conversed with her. 

Eira rarely answered his questions in a full sentence but she seemed to open up a little more after every question where he called her Goldfinch. Bird nicknames were very common in his family and it seemed both via the girl's bracelet and Alfred that the nickname was perfect for her.

After talking for a short while a woman slid into the bench wearing a red domino and a leather jacket Duke recognised to be of his brother’s tailoring. With her came two kids, one was about Eira’s age and the other seemed to be around thirteen, both wore the same jackets and a black domino.

“I’m Lyss, but call me Matriarch” she whispered, before continuing at a regular volume “So this the birdie I’ve been hearing about! What's your name?” she looked down to Eira who blanked.

“I-I u-uh… uhmm…” Eira balled up her hands around the bottom of her sweatshirt and Duke rested his hand on hers till she grabbed it. “I-I’m Eira” She whispered just like Lyss had.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you! This is Emily,” She pointed to the younger child, “and this is Arthur," she patted the older kid on the head and he almost swatted her away but didn’t after glancing at Eira.

“Hi, it's nice to meet you.” Arthur said awkwardly reaching his hand out to shake hers.

“Reciprocated…” She said cautiously, accepting the handshake. Maybe she should be reading less adult books?

“Oh…” the boy’s eyes seemed to light up and his voice grew formal, “It’s a pleasure miss Eira, tell me do you like to read?”

With the formal and quite frankly knightly talk Eira opened up quickly and they seemed to both have an appreciation for ‘The Arabian Nights’ it also appeared they thoroughly enjoyed eggs as when a server finally worked up the courage to ask them what they wanted both kids quickly shouted ‘eggs!’

Emily was actually acting like the Eight year old she was while the two other kids chatted like a medieval knight and queen. At least chivalry isn’t dead? Duke thought to himself attempting to ignore his growing headache. They were worse than Damian and Duke was sure of it. He was however grateful because they quieted down when food arrived.

After they ate it was time for Eira to go with Lyss. She was certainly sad about it to say the least. Eira jumped into Duke’s arms and gave him a strangling hug.

He looked at her until she met his eyes and whispered “Everything is going to be alright, Goldfinch. You’re safe with Lyss, and I’ll be sure to visit!” He turned his head to Arthur and Eira followed his gaze, “You and Nightingale here can hang out and read all the books you want!”

Eira lit up quite a bit at that and hopped out of Duke’s arms to go stand by Arthur. The group made their way outside and Duke collected Eira’s things from his car which he handed to Lyss. He helped her buckle the three kids into their car and took a selfie with Eira and her adorable domino before buckling her into her seat.

“See ya around little Goldfinch,” He whispered, “be safe ok?”

“Okay… Promise you’re gonna visit Mr.Hood?”

“I promise although I might be someone else when I do, I’m only filling in for the moment.” He gave her an honest smile forgetting that he had an expressionless helmet on his head.

“Ok Mr.Man” Eira giggled.

“Bye Eira,” Duke said, patting her head.

“Bye-bye Mr.”

Duke was officially feeling lonely after Lyss took Eira. Like clockwork his phone buzzed with a text from Dick 

Are you okay? Where are you? Alfie sent me out of the house with an oversized sweater and a full tray of warm cookies… Please tell me you aren’t suicidal i don’t think im ready for that i don’t have the good blankets or icecream. 

Oh my god Dick no I’m fine lol. I just had to leave a very adorable child with a different caretaker. She had a bird nickname and Alfred gave her my old sweater with some improvements and embroidered her name on a plush in the span of five minutes after being notified of her existence

Please tell me you got pictures

I have learned quite a lot in my time with Tim

Send me ur location pretty please?

*Location pinned on map*

Be there in five!

Be there in ten please i don’t need you causing car accidents.

You wound me. :(

Bleed out? (but also don’t Jay would kill me)

Fine. See you in five!

Why do we even try?

Dick was there in seven minutes which made Duke feel a little better about whatever chaos was going down in the streets (probably a pileup at least). Duke had spent those seven minutes trying to pretend he didn’t look extremely tired, he also put on a tank top because apparently Alfted had sent Dick with a sweater.

Alfred had apparently also sent Dick in a sweater or maybe it was just coincidence because Dick walked through his door in another one of Alfred’s adorable bird sweaters. Dick was styled after his favorite bird, the Siberian Blue Robin.

Dick was beaming when he saw him and after setting his cookies and sweater on the table he pulled Duke into a Dick Grayson signature octopus hug. Duke managed to swivel his head to the door where he saw Barbara and Tim. Babs was sitting in her wheelchair but the moment Tim closed the door she sprang up and joined the hug that was bordering on chokehold. Tim’s eyes went wide minutely before a knowing smirk swept across his face. Duke assumed Tim must have figured it out on the way and was waiting for confirmation of his theory, it also seems that Babs had figured this out and bribed the kid into silence via the half gallon of coffee he was sipping.

Alright so it was definitely an Alfred thing because Tim and Barbara were in bird sweaters too. Tim’s was a Red-Capped Robin and Barbara’s was a dark, grey-ish brown with auburn striped sleeves but Duke didn’t think he recognized the bird.

Red-Capped Robin for reference (don’t nobody say shit I like birds a lot ok hush) 

Duke had to literally punch his way out of the hug which was to be expected with Dick. Babs stole the first cookie and Tim the second, Duke grabbed three from the plate and Dick stole half of Tim’s cookie. Tim probably would have killed Dick had Duke not handed him another cookie the moment his was taken. Tim turned his head to Duke giving him a smile as he delivered a probably painful jab to Dick’s side. 

“So what was the kid's name?” Dick asked.

“Oh, it’s Eira,” Duke answered, “let me grab my phone. I'll show you the pictures I took!” Duke hoped over the couch and to his bed where he had left his phone and snatched it. He returned to the living room and was presented with his sweater by Barbara.

“Alright birdwatcher, which bird is this?” she questioned.

Duke studied it noting the colors and designs while also considering Alfred was Alfred before answering, “a horned lark I think? Because of the yellow y'know?”

“You are literally the only person here who would know that, you have a bird obsession.” Dick pointed out.

Tim and Duke both looked offended because Tim and Duke’s bird obsession had been the leading factor in determining the identity of the first Robin although that didn’t do all that much for the rest of them. Tim had Dick figured out by the time he was 6 (old enough to start running around Gotham in his eyes) and Duke was sure of the first Robin around the same time ‘We Are Robin got famous’. 

Duke and Tim locked eyes for a moment before Duke stated “I could literally expose all of your identities just by determining your favorite bird,” he took a second glance at Barbara’s sweater trying to draw a conclusion to prove his point. He stared for a decent few seconds as he ran through his mental bird encyclopedia until it hit him, “You’re wearing a fucking Lyrebird, aren’t you? They’re literally like the best mimicry birds out there. Are you getting the point Echo?”

“Hey! I didn’t tell Tim yet, asshole!” Barbara retorted.

“I know what a Lyrebird looks like, I’m the one that helps Alfred put together the patterns for these sweaters you know?” He took a bored sip of his coffee, “also i trailed the shit out of you since the moment you showed up. Do you want a bow staff by the way? My moves you’re stealing work better with those than escrimas and a chainwhip.”

“YOU HAVE A CHAINWHIP!?” Dick sounded so jealous. He grew up in a circus after all but Bruce never let him use a whip to fight because it was weird for a kid to fight with a whip, the conversation had gone somewhere along the line of:

‘How is a whip the line you let me escape the tights?’

‘Because you keep trying to throw the pants in the harbor whenever you get the chance and i haven’t found something you’re willing to wear yet Dick’ 

‘You’re mean! Also pants are an acrobat’s prison!’ 

‘You’re not getting a whip.’

That was an argument Dick hadn’t won and he was still sour about it.

“It’s part of the belt and if you ask Jay he will probably give you one but you’d also probably have to accept some minor rebranding because a chainwhip would not compliment that suit and Jason will say it way more bluntly than I will.” Barbara nudged him on the shoulder and forced Duke’s sweater over his head since he had yet to put it on.

“Sounds like one hell of a plan to me! I'm going to piss B off so bad!” Dick cackled. 

“You could definitely use more than spandex, even B has upgraded a lot these past few years,” Barbara said as she munched on another cookie, “even your best tech isn’t up to date because nobody can get you to sit still long enough to make something work.”

“She’s right, you know. One hit to the right place and nobody could contact you, you’d probably lose a lot of your screens too,” Tim added.

“Wait what?” Dick stared at them looking heavily mortified.

“Well they would have to hit you first which isn’t exactly easy.” Duke interjected, noticing Dick turn up the volume on his earbud. It had a constant stream of beeps, chirps, and other sounds; it was everyone’s heartbeat. As far as Duke knew it was the only thing Dick updated on the constant. Duke inched closer and breathed quite a lot louder. Tim and Barbara took notice just after. 

“Tell you what, I'll fix everything up tonight but you’ve gotta sit still K?” Tim promised.

“No Tim, you've been awake for like two days. It's fine. I've worked with my gear for years, I wouldn't change a thing.” Dick smiled in that way Dick loved to smile when he was a liar.

“You are going to shut your trap and sit with me in the cave until your suit is completely up to date tonight. Do you understand Dick Grayson?” Tim had summoned his inner Damian for that one and Barbara was proud of his mimicry.

“O-okay?” Yeah Dick forgot Tim could do that. Duke had also forgotten Dick could do that, but considering they were currently allied in bird obsession instead of their usual rivalry over it, Duke decided not to let his forgetfulness show. Barbara knew all too well that Tim was such a skilled mimic and was mocking him under her breath.

“Good, now down to more important matters. Show us the pictures, Duke.” At Tim’s words Barbara and Dick snapped their heads to Duke in anticipation.

“You keep staring at me and I'm not showing you guys anything,” he vaulted over and into the couch next to Tim followed by Babs and Dick, “alright wanna see the sweater Alfred made her?”

The answer was a resounding yes as Duke began recounting events from the previous day with pictures accompanying everything after he started making eggs last night. Eira had the sweetest smile in their selfie from before she left and her oversized sweater looked adorable with her curls.

His siblings certainly agreed because they were cooing over each photo for a solid fifteen minutes. Tim was moreso snoring but that just meant he didn't mind his older siblings cooing so all was well in Duke's eyes. Once Duke ran out of pictures Barbara plugged her computer into Jason's tv and pulled up both hers and Duke’s footage side by side starting from a paused frame of Duke with his back pressed against the kitchen island and a hand on his holster. Barbara's footage frame showed her talons hitched under the window as it cracked open.

Barbara then ducked into the bag on the back of her wheelchair and pulled out a tablet. She typed for a minute before she FaceTimed Jason saying they were having a quote ‘watchparty’ and waved his screen at them.

Jason was scarily close to the screen and appeared to be hiding some bandaging on his shoulder. On the upside he looked far more bored than he did wounded. That didn’t stop Dick’s immediate mother-henning over his injuries.

“Little Wing! You’re hurt! I’ll come get you. What's your current location?”

Jason shot him down just as fast as he had started, “I’m literally fine Dick sit the hell down.”

“Jay it looks like someone tried to put a cast on your shoulder, you are not fine!” Dick protested.

“I swear to Wonder Woman if this doesn’t shut you up I don't know what will—” Jason hopped out of his bed and angled his camera towards the empty center of his room, he proceeded to flip off the camera and take two steps back before performing a perfect backflip. He landed on one hand with his feet kicked straight up in the air, he then tucked his uninjured arm into his pocket. Slowly he pushed himself up onto his index finger. He bent his arm into a far past impressive pushup. Jason tossed himself into another flip landing on his feet and flipping off the camera once more.

“O-oh? I guess if you’re all right then I can't exactly stop you, can I?” Dick muttered.

“You’re freaks, all of you.” Tim said, deadpanning at his elder brothers.

“Thats the best part Timbo.” Jason scooped up his phone and hopped back into his bed.

“I already sent you a video of that move, please use it to fuck with B!” Barbara begged.

“You say that like I don't already have twelve plans.”

Barbara set Jason down facing the TV and reigned in the chaos that was her idiot brothers so they could actually watch her and Duke’s footage. Dick and Tim sang some praises about just how much Duke managed to look like Jason and Barbara joined their praises the first time Duke spoke with his voice changer. Duke and Babs preened as their combat styles were complimented in the warehouse. 

Duke did have an internal list of the best moments from the night which included top three highlights such as;

#3: Dick pouting in the corner after watching Barbara nail a grapple he’s been perfecting for years on the first try, followed by Tim dragging him back to the couch by the collar of his sweater.

#2: Rewatching Duke take down Eira’s mugger only to realise that the man's toupee was flapping in the wind the whole time. Everyone was bawling their eyes out in laughter for a solid five minutes.

#1: The most Damian level grammar stream of insults and shakespearian level betrayal monologues that followed watching Barbara say the not-word ‘Vegetise’ where in which Jason lost his grammatical shit. That rant was peak humor to Duke and Dick who spent most of it stifling their laughter every time Barbara managed to stop laughing herself to glare at them. Tim, as a master of coding the most crucial portions of Bat and JL security using activation codes written in 3:00 am gibberish, decided his coffee was very interesting and hadn’t found the courage to look up until Jason finished.

All in all it was a good afternoon but Duke was absolutely not wasting his food cooking for Dick’s bottomless stomach, and Tim still ate like a rich bitch. Barbara was never going to eat dinner with them anywhere but BatBurger no matter what they said. Duke turned the phrase kick them out very literally when Dick realised there were mangoes in the fruit bowl and made a beeline for them. 

Allergies be damned Dick was absolutely obsessed with mangoes, unfortunately both Jason and Cass also loved them. Considering Bruce couldn’t find the heart to tell either of them no mangoes were a battle of hiding them from Dick and then wrestling them away from him before he could take any for himself. Bruce and Tim also had his card set with an emergency flag any time Dick tried to buy a product containing mango. Tim was also a stalker who got put in charge of watching whenever the family went grocery shopping because the entire rest of the family seemed to think allergies were a suggestion.

So yes a few literal kicks to the gut from both Duke and Tim and some mangoes ejected from the window and perfectly into the sewers by Barbara and Duke was free to make his own dinner.

Ok ‘make his own dinner’ was a bit of an overstatement because he sorta just made a depressing omelet and drank an egregious amount of apple juice. 

Getting into his suit was a lot better this time around, faster too. Once his helmet was on Duke ducked out of his window and started sweeping through Crime Alley along Jason’s usual route. Unfortunately Duke was reminded just how much Crime Alley seriously sucked when punching out a seventh mugging shortly after talking down a fifth hostage situation that apparently GCPD couldn’t even spare a negotiator for.

Duke did have the liberty of Oracle (he wasn’t exactly sure what to call her at any given moment but considering He didn’t see any trace of Barbara or Echo he figured Oracle was the correct term) telling him that Bruce was investigating in Crime Alley and had been quote ‘looking for a possible imposter.’

So great only his third day of seven and Bruce was already on his tail. Jason would not be proud.

Day Four (Tuesday)

Okay Duke really needed to do a lot of evasion training with Barbara because he was not prepared for his Tuesday to end with a beautiful, calm, serene, other nice adjective, not at all pants-shiting appearance of Batman directly behind him post mugging.

“And you are?” Bruce growled.

Duke was thankful for the bulky attire as it let him hide his flinch, “You aren’t supposed to be here.” Duke could only hope that his nonchalance had been portrayed like he wanted through the voice changer. He also hoped that for Batman said voice changer sounded like no voice changer and more like his second son. Duke did have the mental boost of knowing Barbara couldn’t keep it in her head even though she knew it was him. 

“Neither are you, so who are you? You certainly aren’t Toby.” Bruce was analyzing every aspect of Duke like there was no tomorrow.

Duke was carefully watching Echo’s fast approaching beacon (Bruce definitely didn’t seem to have access to that one considering he wasn’t). Duke stared down Bruce for a very tense collection of seconds before deciding to take a page out of Jason’s book and become an absolute douche to the rest of his siblings for shits and giggles. He could apologize with gift baskets and maybe a pastry or two if necessary. 

“You know who I am, Bruce.” Duke grappled in Echo’s direction like his life depended on it. He managed to catch her slightly glowing shades of yellow and purple waving him down from a nearby rooftop. Immediately he rolled onto her roof and tucked into her cape with practiced ease. 

The best part of Gotham vigilantism is that you can always rely on a bat’s cape to hide you. The inside of Barbara’s cape glowed slightly but the outside was a complete blackout. There also came the ever impossible and illogical rule of cape that went unquestioned in the same way everything Alfred does goes. That rule being that if a bat needs to hide they hide in a cape, Bruce used to keep monopoly in there but it got banned after Steph set his cape on fire. It was far from uncommon for Damian to spend the majority of a night drawing in Bruce’s cape, there are even news reports of Nightwing and Red Hood both coming out of Batman’s cape at the same time.

Barbara’s cape was like sitting in a yellow galaxy. It was actually really comforting. That was until a pair of unfortunately familiar boots fell to the rooftop.

“Echo? Where did you come from?” Bruce pressed his fingers to his temple, “Have you seen someone dressed as Red Hood?”

Barbara stared at him a moment before speaking in probably the most eerie yet singsong voice Duke had ever heard.

"̷̼̖͔̭̽̋́̽͂̒D̶͉͍̩̹̪̺͛ê̴̫̠̥̮͍͆͜á̵̗̎͛͝ḑ̷̩̩͔̘̠̊̍̊͐ ̷̨̳̲͇̯̻͌͑̿͑͠B̸̛̙̜̫̫͓͕͒ì̸̱̣͖͈͛̌͠ŗ̷̬͉͍̙̓͗̽̅̃͘d̷̰̺́̆͒̌͛ ̵̙͎̫̱̟͛̅͗̏ͅi̸̱̝͖̽̎s̷͕͌̈́̃̿n̵̲̠̰͐́̆̒̾̾'̸̻̭̗̫̤̃t̸̫͍̼́ ̸̂̃̉͜h̸͉̤͌͗̋è̸̞̑ŗ̴͍͎͕̗͋͜ë̵͎̺̙́͆͊̎̚͘"̶̧̭̼̠̤̍͊̇̚͝

Alrighty Dick will be having a mental breakdown across town because Duke’s heart just stopped. Duke will now also be having an extra large mental breakdown now please and thank you with cherries on top.

Bruce just stared deadpan although both of them caught his breath hitch just a little. Apparently there was such a thing as a miracle because for once Arkham was on their side and Firefly had broken out therefore Barbara could mute herself and reroute Batman. Just like that Bruce swung off the roof towards the asylum.

Duke practically fell out of Barbara’s cape and took off his helmet to catch his breath. The best part of having both Barbara and Jason tech on the same roof is that nobody, not even Batman himself gets to see Duke freaking out in 4K.

“WHY. IN THE WORLD. WAS THAT YOUR LINE!????” Duke gasped out, searching the very back of his mind for sanity and coming up empty.

“I’M HEAVILY SLEEP DEPRIVED AND JASON SAID I DIDN'T HAVE THE GUTS!” Barbara shouted.

“STOP TALKING TO JASON HE US A HORRIBLE ROLE MODEL WHEN PETTY!” Duke retorted as he failed to calm himself.

“VEGETISE IS A FUCKING WORD DO YOU HEAR ME JAY?” 

“THAT’S IT I’M CALLING DICK BEFORE YOU HAVE A STROKE OVER THIS!”

Considering that two of his siblings' heart rates were completely through the roof Dick was already halfway there when Duke managed to put his call through. Dick was glad to take Barbara on some acrobat bonding time which left Duke free to return home and pass out half in costume. His heart was beating out of his chest for a solid ten minutes before he actually fell asleep.

Day Five (Wednesday)

Duke woke up to a knock at his door and existential dread seeping through his curtains. He grabbed the tablet by the bed and checked the hallway cameras as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. 

To his bewilderment Dick, Cass, and Steph were at his door with Eira and Arthur stuffed in-between.

He shrugged off what was left of his suit and replaced it with comfy clothes and a domino. He peeled open his door and was crushed by Steph hugging him to death. Cass managed to pry her off while Dick corralled the children into the living room and put on a medieval sounding show.

“Morning? Uh what brings all of you to my house at—” Duke checked his phone, “7:36 in the morning?”

“We heard from O that Echo saved your ass from B so we just had to come see how you were doing!” Steph smiled at him while poking around at his domino.

Cass tapped Duke on the shoulder and signed, ‘Matriarch asked Dick to see if you could make them breakfast because Eira wouldn't eat’ 

“Guess it's more eggs for me today,” Duke cracked his knuckles and headed towards the kitchen, “are you down to help Cass?” The girl hopped to his side in response and the two made their way to the fridge.

Steph jumped over the back of the couch and onto Dick's shoulders. Unbothered, he continued to play some kind of medieval knight game with the kids.

Cass and Duke made an absurd amount of eggs in various forms and brought them out to the table. 

Duke returned to find Arthur and Steph had lost their duels. Duke went with ‘duels’ considering the foam swords and knives that Duke definitely did not remember Dick bringing into the house with him. Speaking of, Dick was on his back on the floor and Eira was on top of him with a foam knife to his neck. Dick’s sword was by his feet and while all of the vigilantes knew Dick could get out of such a situation with ease it was horribly funny to see the look of astonishment on his face. 

Arthur was cheering wildly and Steph was a laughing ball on the floor, “y-you lost,” she said between laughs and desperate gasps for air, “to a-an eight year old!”

“Oh woe is me, I hath been slain!” Dick responded dramatically, laying the back of his hand across his forehead in a deliberate death pose.

“Woe is gonna be all of you if you don't come eat.” Duke said, leaning against the back of the couch to stare at his guests.

To his satisfaction his guests quickly swamped the dining room table and began to eat their fill. Duke followed after and filled his own plate too. He wandered through the kitchen as he ate and paused to grab the tablet for the security cameras. Duke sent the dual footage to himself and Jason considering Barbara was probably watching them right about now.

Eira had actually slipped through Dick’s guard with a worrying level of silence. Even though Dick hadn't really been trying against her, Duke could tell that Eira knew what she was doing when she sidestepped a sloppy swing. There was some kind of confidence in her that Duke hadn't seen in the kid he saved. She shrunk back down when their duel was done and she put down her foam weapon. Duke gave up on attempting to deal with the weird shit Gotham kids knew years ago and would not be restarting that train any time soon thank you very much.

After food his siblings seemed to have the decency to leave his home and he took that in stride. He cleaned their dishes in a calming silence, and moved to fix up the living room. Couches had been pushed against walls and throw pillows were thrown everywhere. The coffee table was against the TV stand. The television was still playing a corny medieval show.

It took the better half of an hour to fully fix up the mess left by the five unruly children that invaded his home. He added the mess to the list of things he had to apologize to Jason for and he decided to simply make a list and put it on the fridge. Duke was sure his siblings would have plenty to add to it.

Duke seriously considered laying low and skipping patrol that night but the moment the sun set he was desperate to vegetise some criminals. He sent out a text from one of Jason's usual burner phones and asked Toby for somewhere that needed some major remodeling. He was chased by Batman last night okay he had to do some kind of stress relief and explosions came highly recommended by Jason, Jason was also the most sane person Duke seemed to know these days soooo.

Duke took to the east end of Crime Alley and towards the location now pinged on his phone as ‘Demo Job’ with copious amounts of weaponry and explosives.

Inside the building seemed to be an up and coming drug ring. Normally Jason would just take them over, but they made the mistake of selling to kids well into Jason's reign so yeah they had to go. 

Duke made quick work of casing the place and identifying every criminal, their records and arrest warrants followed the same basis as the men in the warehouse from before. Their numbers were rather small when it came down to it and Duke's biggest worry was choosing the best music to beat their asses with. In a fit of very dramatic irony Duke chose ‘Stayin’ Alive’ to metronomically fuck the criminals up to.

The group of drug dealers was taken out in a beautiful rhythmic dance of rubber bullets and heavy fists. Duke took to removing them and tossing them across the street into a pile while he searched the rest of the building. Duke definitely spent longer than necessary checking every nook and cranny inside the building, but when he was satisfied in his finding of absolutely nothing he methodically set his charges. 

The building was actually rather structurally sound despite being in Crime Alley, aside from all the lab equipment and drugs it was actually not a bad place. The floors were intact and the walls were solid, Duke struggled to find much mold and the second floor was completely intact as well. There was a large amount of dirt, trash, and grime just about everywhere but the dumpster out back was empty. Duke was already holstering his guns and removing his methodical explosive work.

He found a bed in one of the upstairs rooms and cleaned that up first considering he probably wouldn't be leaving here for awhile and he can't exactly ask Bruce to remodel this place for him while he actively impersonates his second son. He knew better than to touch the drugs and what chemicals and ingredients he could safely remove from the lab setup. Duke moved the tables to the walls and began diligently cleaning the floors as best he could, his efforts were made easy by a mostly stocked janitorial closet. 

Light was seeping through boarded up windows by the time Duke felt content with his work. He returned to his bike and grabbed a can of glow in the dark red spray paint. With a crack of the cap Duke covered each door into the building with Jason's bat symbol, and admired his work.

Duke knew for a fact that there wasn't a person in all of Gotham who would dare touch a building with a fresh coat of red hood glow. Even Black Mask knew not to try it. Jason was very protective of his new buildings and there was a definitive kill count associated with those who didn't believe the claim.

After that Duke was completely tired out and rode back to the safe house at a slower pace than usual to facilitate his slower mind. As soon as Duke was able he wandered through the kitchen eating some already made meal he didn't care to recognize. He shrugged on his pajamas and sent a text to the family group chat that absolutely nobody was to bother him for the next 8 hours, and as Jason had instructed in his initial letter he did not elaborate.

Day Six (Thursday)

It seemed that Thomas was sick or perhaps in some sort of catatonic state as he made his way through the safe house. The man hadn't even noticed him standing clearly in the center of the house. 

Damian tutted his way to Duke's room and paused as his phone buzzed in his pocket. It appeared to be a message from the ever unnecessary ‘group chat’ his siblings had forced upon him.

Thomas: If I hear so much as a creak on my floorboards from any of you I will break B’s no kill rule.

Admittedly Damian hadn't expected such straight forward wording from Duke however he was more than bored of drawing in the annoyingly large manor. It had become a subconscious habit whenever Duke began writing or working on assignments that Damian moved his sketching to the same room. With Duke off ‘studying’ for the week Damian had struggled to find a good atmosphere to draw.

Damian continued into the guest room Duke had claimed with his sketchbooks and art supplies. He silently slid to the floor at the foot of the bed and placed his phone on silent with the screen in view. 

Damian sketched consistently for about two hours and stopped when a rare beam of Gotham afternoon sunlight began to peek through the window and crept its way dangerously close to Duke's sleeping figure. Just as silently as he had entered Damian drew the curtains, collected his things, and returned them to the living room. 

He exchanged them for a sweatshirt and blanket stolen from his own bed before he left this morning. He had been out longer than expected and woken up earlier than he would have preferred so he brought a blanket to insure he could rest at a later point. Damian collected an appropriately comfortable throw pillow from the couch and shrugged his sweatshirt over his head.

He returned to Duke's room and curled up on the floor at the end of his bed again. He slept for three hours on the dot and awoke with three hours still until he was cleared to bother Duke. He pulled out his phone and considering it would be nearing dinnertime in three hours Damian once again collected his things and returned them to the living room. He continued out of the house and towards the nearest acceptable grocery store using his very legal motorcycle and very legal completely logical Don't tell Bruce I made you this -Jason, motorcycle license. 

Jason was under the same opinion as Damian in that if a ten year old could drive the vehicle they deserved a license. Bruce was definitely not under said opinion considering that was very illegal.

He returned half an hour later and began sorting ingredients. He turned to the fridge and looked over the laminated page detailing what portions of the kitchen he was allowed to use. Determining he could use the oven but not the stovetop he mentally altered his recipe and began making dinner. He made an Alfred level spread of foods he had eaten ad League banquets and a steak he recalled Duke preferred at a recent dinner.

There was soft and steamy rice drizzled with a creamy cheese sauce, and the adjacent pile of veggies had been beautifully chopped, seasoned and cooked to perfection. There were juicy and delicious cuts of steak and pork in the next dish. The steak was a perfect brown with a glaze of sauce that could make anyone drool, and the pork had been rolled and breaded before cooking to create an aroma more golden than the food itself. The amazing scents of the food created a perfect harmony that ignited all of your senses from the first bite.

While yes Damian did not eat meat that did not mean he was incapable of preparing it. There was no reason to allow high quality ingredients to be put to waste or else the animal they were harvested from would have been killed simply to rot.

It appeared the scent of the food had stirred Duke who groggily shuffled to the table practically drooling. Two years ago he would have chastised and insulted Duke for being so lazy and unguarded, but in his time with his family he has learned that this tiredness meant good things had happened or were set in motion to happen. Damian had learned this from Jason of all people, he had still been on bad terms with Bruce at the time but had been over to spend time with Alfred and the rest of his siblings. Damian had chastised Bruce and several of the others for falling asleep at the table and Jason had yelled at him about how they had all spent the night saving countless people from a mix of scarecrow toxin and Firefly arson sprees. The table had blanked and Jason had taken Damian out so the others could finish their meals and Alfred could force them to bed.

Damian took his blanket from the couch and placed it over Duke’s shoulders before filling his brother's plate. Duke was barely awake but muttered a warm ‘thanks Dami’ as he slowly began munching on his dish. Damian served himself the rice and vegetables, greedily enjoying his hard work.

He had to pause to get the door for a poorly disguised Barbara in a sweatshirt with the strings pulled tight. She gave him a tired hug and asked permission to eat some of Damian’s dinner. He agreed and walked Barbara to the table. She shrugged off her sweatshirt to reveal a horrid case of bed head. Damian brought her a blanket from the master bedroom and filled her plate. He then returned to his own seat and finished the rest of his meal.

“What was it keeping you both awake last night?” Damian asked as he packed up their leftovers.

“Cleaning an old building, I think could be good shelter for some of the Alley kid groups once I get rid of the old drug ring stuff in there…” Duke rolled into the couch he had landed on after dinner.

Barbara pulled her head slowly from the bathroom with some noticeably better looking hair, “I had to spend the night sending Bruce false leads on Duke and bogus info on Echo, maybe my dead bird line set him into a bit of a detective stint…”

“Ah yes Father was replaying that specific audio for the majority of the night after he returned. I suspect he will not allow me to accompany you in the future,” Damian put their dishes in the sink and began cleaning them, “I did however note he still requested blueberries be placed in his belt alongside his usual snacks last night.”

“Really now?” Barbara said feigning interest as she literally crashed into the second couch and promptly fell asleep. Duke had also slipped back into sleep. Damian finished their dishes and began to sketch on the floor by Duke again. 

He sketched for a while before being disturbed by alarms from both of his siblings' phones signaling it was time for patrol. Barbara screamed into her pillow and begrudgingly pulled herself into the bathroom pulling a bag from seemingly nowhere. Duke groaned and stumbled into his room, closing the door behind him. Damian stood and retrieved his own bag from by the door and slinked into the master bedroom. 

About three minutes later Echo, Red Hood, and Robin emerged with the elder two seeming far more awake.

“Are you joining us birdie?” Echo asked, her voice liminal and static.

“Yes, I believe now would be a good time to follow through on the ‘confuse father’ command left by Jason,” Damian responded checking over his kitana, “if i am not intruding of course.” Damian wasn’t exactly perfect at the whole be nice and informal to your family thing but he had come rather far in these past few months specifically.

“I have a feeling that is not what Jay told you, don’t you know it’s rude to paraphrase such a brilliant man’s writing?” Duke chastised playfully under his own voice changer.

“It is not paraphrasing so much as it is simply rephrasing to achieve a more direct meaning and you know it.” An adorable baby Batglare was sent Duke’s way to follow.

Trying not to coo and Damian’s adorableness, Duke managed to mumble, “Right, right, rephrasing, how could I forget.”

He received an annoyed tut from the boy in response as Echo ducked out of the window and the other two quickly followed.

Robin had barely made it ten minutes before he was following Red Hood catapulting himself into an alley and breaking the nose of whoever he landed on. Barbara executed the same move with practiced ease and Robin followed suit busting a third man's nose and likely portions of his rib cage. The fourth and last criminal got her teeth kicked in by Echo. Robin then turned to the Victim of the attack and gave them simple instructions to assist them in returning home safely. 

Duke separated from them at an abandoned building with fresh red paint on the doors. Damian and Barbara continued through Crime Alley stopping a wide variety of petty crimes. There were three sets of completely unrelated robberies in the span of an hour and a healthy helping of muggings in between.

Echo and Damian took a break on a rooftop in the west end of the alley about three hours into their run. While it was half a break and half a bait for Batman as both Echo and Robin engaged their trackers. It took about fifteen minutes before Bruce dropped out of the shadows in between Damian sitting on the ledge and Echo in a handstand. Echo fell out of the handstand with grace to stare at Bruce with her lovely inhuman eyes. 

Without taking his eyes off of Echo Bruce turned a question to Damion who was still sitting idly on the ledge, “Where have you been?” 

Damian’s answer was immediate, “I spent the day with Signal. Oracle and Echo joined us for dinner and Oracle asked Echo to accompany me on my patrol tonight.”

“Echo has met you in civilian clothes?” Bruce glanced back at Damian then returned his gaze to Echo who was now knelt on the rooftop admiring a shiny rock. Barbara was listening closely to Damian regardless of how distracted she was making herself look.

“To Echo there is no separation between vigilante and civilian, there is no leverage in our identities to them, they only care for what they can learn from us. Echo is no threat and I will not have you treat her as one, Father.” Damian stood in a solid stance and marched around Bruce over to Echo. 

Echo looked at Robin with a small level of astonishment at the boy’s quick thinking before echoing his voice, “Echo is no threat.”

Bruce paused for a moment to ponder before continuing in Echo's direction, “that line, ‘dead bird isn't here’ where did that come from, Echo?”

Barbara strung his words together “that line, that come from, Echo?”

“Are you saying that was your own voice?”  Bruce seemed puzzled considering Echo had already claimed not to have her own voice.

“Then put it this way E, You can be the voice of Gotham,” Barbara’s voice came from Echo, then there was a pause, "̷͔̎͝I̸̡͉̒̆ ̴͇̗͝a̵͙͊̅m̷̲͒ ̷̦̓t̶͕͝r̶͒̿ͅy̶̗͙̐̈ì̶̳ǹ̵̼g̷̽"̵̣̋̔

“Are you… making your own voice?” Bruce seemed genuinely impressed and curious.

“̷̦̓t̶͕͝r̶͒̿ͅy̶̗͙̐̈ì̶̳ǹ̵̼g̷̽” Barbara answered, “I’ll send him your way b-” Barbara cut off the line as she nudged Damian towards Bruce.

Damian wandered to his father’s side and turned back to Echo “I will send aid to assist Hood with that building, will you be joining them?”

“I will- aid- Hood-” Echo said, stringing together Damian’s words.

“Alright, be safe then.” 

“-be safe then.” Barbara echoed. She flipped off the roof and began making her way to the east end.

“Robin you wouldn’t happen to know who is operating under your brother's moniker do you?” Bruce grumbled.

“You know who he is, Father,” Damian said cryptically, also flipping off the building and heading in the direction of the manor.

“I won't get anything from him…” Batman said, sighing and swinging to catch up with his youngest son.

Duke’s to-do list was bulleted to assist him in cleaning a large section of the first floor mostly consisting of kitchens, offices, and bathrooms. The bathrooms were in a rather horrific shape that Duke would not touch without a gas mask which he had unfortunately forgotten so he decided to just clean the kitchens first. There were two full kitchens on the north and south sides of the building and a kitchenette somewhere in the middle between them. 

 The kitchenette was relatively clean so Duke started there. He spent about an hour there and in the north kitchen. Both were relatively spotless save for appliances that needed replacing and a few areas of chipped tiling in the kitchen. He decided to enlist some help at a later date for the south kitchen and moved up to the second floor. 

That floor was a mix of dorm style bedrooms and weirdly enough a decent sized gym. There was a third floor and there should be a fourth but the stairs to the third floor didn’t exactly exist anymore and Duke was not capable of making a staircase. 

He decided he did want to check out those top two floors and seeing as he didn’t find a working fire escape to the next stories Duke made the lovely decision to just break in through the roof entrance door. He scaled his way up the next building over and made a running leap onto the roof. Duke explored his way through the fourth floor finding it seemed to be some kind of penthouse set as there were two apartments taking up either half of the floor and through Duke’s very careful method of throwing a heavy box on the ground every few steps he was content to find the floors were stable. The furniture was pretty old but in a nice vintage way. A more surprising thing was that the water ran upstairs and while the walls were not amazing and most of he lightbulbs were long dead this floor was pretty put together.

He made his way to the stairs for the third floor and found they were both there and stable. The floor itself was mostly filled with apartments about 8 in total he was only able to enter three as the rest were blocked off by mildew filled furniture but all of them had a bedroom, bathroom, and a small kitchenette connected to the living room. Duke was actually wondering weather this place might’ve been a motel before when Jason’s burner phone buzzed.

Dickface: Hey we’re here to help where should we start?

What do you mean we’re here?

Dickface: Dami sent us! The Wayne family cleaning crew hath arrived!

Oh, uh i’ll be right down?

Dickface: We brought you civies Alfie wants to make sure you’re coming for family Friday, also you can’t get rid of us hehe

Duke could feel a wave of comforting dread as he flipped out of the nearest window and onto the fire escape of the building next door. He made his way down onto the ground from there and waltzed in through the front door. Duke found Echo alongside his usual collection of siblings and offered her a smile through his helmet which she likely reciprocated through her own mask. Alfred was poking through the cupboards in the main area and made quick work of assigning roles to everyone. Once Duke changed he joined Tim and Dick on cleaning up the offices. Alfred had sent Cass and Steph to take care of cleaning the floors ad help the boys when they finished. Alfred gave himself the job of dealing with the drugs and lab equipment alongside the rest of the lobby.

As a team they were able to finish clearing out almost all of the first floor and Alfred had delivered all drugs and related equipment to Dr.Thompkins. Once they were removed he let Cass and Steph help him clean up the rest of the area if for no other reason than to convince them to stop asking.

Alfred forced them to stop their work around two in the morning when Cass let out a yawn. Echo gave Alfred a hug and swung back in no general direction. Alfred loaded everyone into his minivan and made a brief stop at Duke’s safe house so the boy could drop off his suit and grab his things. Cass passed out into Steph’s shoulder and Tim fell asleep on Dick’s during their drive out of Gotham Duke eventually gave into his sleepiness and flopped over onto Dick’s other shoulder shortly into Bristol.