Chapter Text
Kyra plopped down into the seat next to Duke.
“Wait, so he just left??”
Duke sighed. Kyra was his girlfriend, but she had a habit of repeating already said things.
“Yep. He just… vanished. Dick has been frantically calling literally every person Damian has talked to in his life, Jason has grabbed three random children because he thought they were Damian, Tim and Barbara have hacked into every security camera they can and have broken about four laws, Stephanie has been jumping out at random people and shoving Damian’s school photo in their face, and I haven’t seen Cass or Bruce since Damian vanished.”
Kyra whistled.
“Damn. Your family is really taking this hard.” Duke swirled his straw around his milk thoughtfully.
“Yeah. I never thought I’d miss the little guy so much. Usually, he’s a terror.” Kyra laughed, resting her hand on Duke’s arm.
“You guys will find him. Remember the great kitten fiasco?”
Duke groaned. He’d been trying to forget that time Damian had run after a stray kitten without telling anyone and hadn’t returned for seven hours. It also didn’t help that Joker had just broken out, pushing Red Hood to a panic attack at the thought that Joker had gotten to Damian. Damian showed up later covered in ketchup and had refused to elaborate.
Suddenly, Duke’s phone rang, pulling him out of his memories. He glanced down at the contact screen. Dick Grayson (Circus Jokey).
Duke stood up abruptly. “I have to take this.”
Kyra stopped mid rant about how cherries are a government hoax, waves Duke off, and yanks a poor guy down to sit next to her so she can finish.
Duke chuckles slightly and ducks into a hallway. He pushes the accept button, puts it to his ear, and then yanks it back.
“Woah, stop screaming- hey man, what’s up?” Dick was screeching through the phone.
“What’s up?! Did you know that the chances of being found after being kidnapped goes down by 48% after 24 hours? That means that we could never see Damian again!”
“Woah,” Duke repeated, “chill. We’ll find him, Dick, I pr-” The bell cuts Duke’s sentence short and students begin filing into the hallway for the next class.
“Hey, I’ll talk to you later man, class is starting.” He hangs up right as Dick inhales for the next rant and puts his phone away.
Several older and younger kids push past him, but Duke pays them little to no attention. He scans the hall for Kyra’s black hair. Someone bumps into him and Duke looks down briefly and then away.
Wait. Was that- Duke looks back. Fucking Damian.
The kid who ran into him was Damian. The kid looks back too when he realizes Duke has stopped completely, recognition replacing judgement. Damian grabs the girl he had been talking to, Maps, and starts hurrying away.
Duke does a full 180 in the middle of the crowded hallway and begins to chase after Damian and Maps, who he now remembers as one of Damian’s friends.
Maps gives Duke a confused little shrug and follows her friend. Duke (the senior) begins to sprint after the third graders leaving many high schoolers wondering if this was a deranged senior prank.
Some senior jock slams into Duke and the vigilante not so gracefully falls onto the ground. By the time he scrambles to his feet, Damian and Maps are gone.
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“Wait, what?!”
One iced coffee on the ground later, Stephanie Brown finally speaks.
“What do you mean Damian’s at school?! What’s he doing there?”
Duke sighs for what feels like the twelfth time today.
“I don’t know, he just walked by me. And be quiet, the guys are giving me weird looks.” When he called Stephanie from a boy’s bathroom stall, he had expected her to be somewhat quiet.
Clearly, that didn’t work.
“So, he didn’t leave?”
“I guess not…”
“Then where the fuck has he been?!”
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Bruce just stared at Duke for a long second.
“So, let me get this straight. Damian was at school today?”
“Yes! God, why is everyone doubting me?” Duke groaned, rubbing his nose, which still hurt after the collision.
Bruce pinches his nose. “I’m not doubting you, son, I’m just shocked. I assumed Damian would be going back to Nanda Parbat.”
Duke threw his hands up. Usually, he prided himself on being the ‘chill’ guy of the Batfamily, but this was too far. He had been building this reputation for months and it had all crashed down the moment the Rumpelstiltskin of the family had just shown up at school like it was no big deal. Like Jason wasn’t currently committing crimes on Deadshot for breathing wrong when he was agitated.
Bruce pressed his forehead to the table and kept it there for a considerable time.
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Jason is pissed beyond belief when Duke tells him.
“You’re telling me-” thunk as a crook’s head is slammed into the wall –“that Robin-” THUNK –“is just traipsing around Gotham-” THUNK –“while we’re freaking out?”
Red hood finishes his assault on the trafficker, looking up at Signal.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
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Cass just shakes her head and walks away.
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Tim and Babs already knew, having hacked into the school website that afternoon. Duke is only mildly concerned.
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Dick immediately went to Gotham academy to see if Damian was still there and spent a solid two hours staring intently from his car, getting a cop called on him eventually.
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Duke just wants this nightmare to be over. He has considered just breaking into the League of Assassins and making Talia take the bounty down about ten times. But even Duke knows that Damian’s mom is a force of nature that should only be crossed when you have a death wish.
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Bonus scene:
“Stop pushing!”
“It’s your fault we’re in a locker, Damian!”
“I had to evade Thomas!”
“God, I was supposed to walk Maya to class!”
“You will live without your girlfriend for twenty minutes.”
“Easy for you to say, you single bitc-”