Chapter Text
He was confused and that was saying something.
He felt so helpless and distraught but what could anyone do in his situation.
He was in love.
He was so in love that at times it hurt to know that there was something he could do to make all the ache and the hurt of not being able to express what he was feeling go away.
Not that he couldn’t express himself, he was just too scared to do it.
He was too scared of the outcome.
You see, he was in love with not one but two people.
Two people who happened to be his best friends, his siblings, his favorite siblings and unfortunately, his “crushes” which is what he was tagging them as for lack of intimacy amongst the three, the same two people who were curled up on his bed, Cass’s legs entangled with his own like a koala bear climbing a tree, her arms locked around his waist as she was curled up by his side, her breath even and soft as she slept peacefully, then there was Stephanie, her head bobbing rhythmically on his chest as he inhaled and exhaled, her hand placed gently on his stomach, hair splayed across his chest. His fingers slowly raked through her hair -which was now at her waist length after deciding to let it grow- loosening every strand that had gotten tangled with others as she snored softly.
They had been doing this for a while now, the three of them, he, Cass and Stephanie, always ending up in the other’s arms or beds for a short nap or for comfort, not that they minded each other’s presence.
It was okay at first, at least that was what he had told himself, siblings do this all the time, there was nothing weird with Stephanie occasionally using him as a human pillow, burrowing into his side anytime she couldn’t sleep and always ended up in his bed, Cass giving him a peck on his cheek anytime he did something for her or whenever she felt like giving him one.
There was also nothing wrong with finding the both of them, Cass and Stephanie every morning, passed out on his bed fast-asleep after their night job as vigilantes had come to an end in the morning taking a toll on the both of them. It wasn’t “unusual” for some siblings to spend more time with a particular sibling than any other sibling. He was totally fine with it. Besides, he loved the attention, it made him feel special.
Looking back on those “brief”(they got longer the more he thought about them) moments, he should have realized that was when he began to fall.
His cousin once told him this, ‘It’s okay to fall but sometimes there is just no telling if you’ll ever get back up’
Duke in this case definitely didn’t mind not getting back up.
He had fallen, period.