Chapter Text
“And what are you doing here, little sunflower?”
Duke looked up from where he was sitting at Poison Ivy, standing over him in her leafy costume, a bit roughed up.
He shrugged, a bit stiff in his armor, looking back down at the cherry tomato plants he was watching slightly sway back and forth. He sighed into the Gotham nighttime air, which was significantly fresher inside of Ivy’s greenhouse.
“Ya’know im kinda fightin’ ya team out there, right?” Ivy sprouted a giant flower to sit on, tilting her head to the streets of Gotham where the bats were fighting off vines and weeds.
The bats were sneezing as they fumbled with their gas masks. Those who had any hint of skin showing were scratching at mild ivy rashes. He should probably tell Alfred to start up the oatmeal baths. But they had it handled, and Ivy’s heart wasn’t really in the fight
Duke’s shift was just ending when Ivy started to attack, so he stayed behind to help out, but he was just kinda bored. It’d been a little over half a year since officially being Signal and moving in with Bruce, and it was a whole lot at first, but now it’s settled to just a mechanical day to day. Which is crazy cuz like, he’s the Signal, he’s living with Bruce Wayne, and he has to handle day shift while being at a fancy new rich school! Like, that’s anything but boring! But he’s just felt out of it the last couple weeks.
Like, of course there’s always something going on, and he and the bats are chaos incarnate, but it feels like he’s working towards nothing at the moment? Like of course he is there’s so much he’s working towards but it just feels like he’s at a standstill. Like he’s having a mid-life crisis at the ripe age of 17.
Duke changes his sitting posture, and pulls his knees up to his chin and continued staring at the bright red tomatoes. Wonder how long it took them to grow, must’ve been a lotta work.
“They’re actually pretty easy to grow, a little too easy,” Ivy shifted towards the plant and plucked off a tomato, wiped it off on a handkerchief. Duke startled, he didn’t mean to say that out loud.
“Ya accidentally step on one and before ya know it, boom! 3 more plants that ya didn’t need” the green woman snorted as she handed him the tomato, and went to grab another for herself, popping it into her mouth.
Duke did the same, Batman would scold him for taking plants from Poison Ivy, but that thought went out the window when the fresh tomato flavor hit his tongue. He barely refrained from groaning in pleasure, immediately imagining covering some with salt, maybe on a charcuterie board? In a salad? Just a bowl of them by themselves?
He wasn’t even one to eat tomatoes by themselves. I mean, he liked tomatoes, ate them on his sandwiches and stuff but holy shit that was a good tomato!
“Is that, like, I dunno, special plant magic??” Ivy chuckled as she handed him another, “that’s so good!”
“Nope! Some of the plants in here I just grow myself, some kids help plant the easy ones like the tomatoes and cilantro. Have you ever grown anything before?”
“Mm, not myself,” of course there was the lemon seed in a paper towel or Lima bean science project when he was younger but they never really lasted. But- “My mom had an herb garden, a small one on her windowsill. She had cilantro and basil and parsley I think. And my dad had an aloe plant cuz he kept burnin’ himself on the stove.” He let out a bittersweet huff.
Ivy hummed before standing up and walking away towards the shed in the center of the greenhouse, before stopping and gesturing to him to follow. Duke hopped up and trailed behind her.
Inside the shed she tittered around, grabbing a few brown, cardboard looking small pots.
“Biodegradable pots, when you're ready to repot you can just plant the whole thing into the soil, easy peasy!” She shoved them in his hands and grabbed a bag of soil from a stack, giving it to him as well, then grabbing a small baggie and throwing in some tiny seeds, created straight from her hands.
“Cilantro, or coriander technically.” Giving him the baggie and a rectangular planter as well. Duke started to tilt as he tried to grab them between his fingers. Ivy snickered and grabbed a large yellow pot and put everything in there.
The yellow clad boy followed her around the greenhouse, very confused, as she pulled out a couple baby aloe Vera’s from the bottoms of the larger plants, and back to the cherry tomatoes, plucking a good handful from it and adding them to a mason jar.
“Um” Duke cradled the pot to his body, adjusting so it doesn’t fall, “sorry, I’m kinda confused…”
“Soak the cilantro seeds for like a couple hours, and then crush them, and put them in soil. Just plant the aloe in soil, keep it outta direct sunlight, if it turns yellow, it’s burnin’. Crush the tomato and plant it and keep it wet. It’s light work!”
Duke stares at her for a moment. The battle outside died down he thinks, hearing the Bats reconvening on comms.
“…why?”
“Take it as a thank you for bein’ my lil’ grow light so often.” She was referring to the times he’d helped provide specific lighting for certain specific species (holy tongue twister Batman) of plants.
Duke looked her in the eye, and she squinted knowingly, as if she could tell what he was going through by the way he looked at those cherry tomatoes.
“Ok, thanks..” Batman was asking if anyone had Ivy’s location over comms, “I’ll let ya know how it goes”
Ivy cooed at his shy dimpled smile and pinched his cheek, and he glowed in embarrassment as he tried to escape her fingers.
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Luckily, Duke was able to get back to the bat cave before the others, and immediately ran up to his room to deposit his gifts. Alfred was in the bathroom heating up some oatmeal baths, and gave him a quick glance as he ran past.
Duke stashed the pot in the corner of his room, ran down to the kitchen to put up the tomato jar. He started to leave before turning around and quickly writing a sticky note saying “DO NOT TOUCH -ALFRED” and sticking it to the jar, pushing it to the back of the fridge. Jason was probably staying over tonight, and his big ass would start clearing out the fridge after how tonight drained them.
Duke went back into the cave, where the bats were finally starting to shuffle in. He changed out of his armor and pulled on long sleeves and sweats. Alfred handed him long yellow gloves and a face mask, and they began helping the others out of their suits and into decontamination.
A few hours later, everyone was squared away and exhausted heading their separate ways to get to bed.
The next morning was a Sunday, and Duke did the same as always.
Wake up, brush teeth, wash face.
If Damian is awake, move to breakfast. If not, feed Alfred (the cat) first.
By the way Alfred was pawing at his leg and meowing loud enough to wake the manor if they weren’t nocturnal, Damian wasn’t up. Duke prepared her breakfast, scrunching his nose at the smell, and then prepared his while she ate.
It was around 5, and on weekends Alfred started breakfast at 7, so Duke usually made his own before patrol. Alfred obviously offered to make his breakfast early since he’s up at 5 anyways, but Duke honestly liked the quiet time to himself. He’s alone a lot, since the other bats do night shift, but hearing the sounds of life throughout the manor while alone was kinda comforting. It reminded him of helping his dad make breakfast and trying to keep quiet so he didn't wake his mom up.
He opened the fridge, looking for a nutrient shake. His eyes landed on the tomato jar in the back, and he remembered the plant task he was assigned by Ivy. And he was…. excited? Excited! He hasn’t been excited to do something in weeks! He went to grab the jar before pausing. Maybe he should plant the aloe first?
He put it back and started to leave the kitchen.
‘WAIT, do I need to propagate them first? Do they have roots? Should I have done that last night?’
He turned back towards the kitchen, shaking extra energy out his hands.
‘No, they do, I saw they did, duh’
He started back up towards his room,
‘Oh wait but, should I put them in water anyway?? Maybe they’re gonna be dried out by the time I get back!’
Duke’s mind overflowed with decisions to make. Why does he start freaking out over such small things?? Lead a team of robins on a life threatening mission? Light work. Start planting some aloe? He’d rather fight Bane one-on-one while blind!
He dug his palms into his eyes as he twitched in the doorway, trying to hide from the annoying flickering of the kitchen lights.
“Mrow!”
Duke peeked through his fingers at Alfred (the cat. Alfred the Butler doesn’t meow.) at his feet.
The cat pawed at his calves, going out and around his legs, making sure he was rubbing against him. Duke can’t remember if Alfred’s a therapy cat or not, but he was helping nonetheless.
The boy bent down and held out a fist, letting Alfred come up and rub his head against it. The lights stopped flickering and Duke's breathing slowed, though he still felt the buzz of excitement at the plans he had for after his shift.
“You’re right lil’ A, I should prob’ly eat first.”
“Mrow!”
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Duke's shift was chill, a couple attempted robberies, few creeps, some car accidents, buncha clayfaces.
The clayface thing wasn’t chill, actually. Duke smells like a ceramics studio now. An abandoned rotting ceramics studio.
BUT, forget all that. Now he’s clean as a whistle and sitting on the floor of his carpeted room.
Before him he has all his items: planters, soil, aloe, seeds, tomatoes, water, big yellow pot (he doesn’t know what to do with that actually), a paper plate, and a spoon.
Under all of that is today’s newspaper spread out to protect the carpet. He should probably be wearing gloves but like, he’s probably touched worse with his bare hands.
And this was all so much fun! The boy was practically glowing (well, literally) as he moistened the soil before putting it in pots. His phone was dirtied from barely wiping his hands on the newspaper and looking up how far down to plant things. And he definitely inhaled dirt, he could taste it in the back of his throat. He can also taste it because he ate some. The tomatoes were tempting him! Not his fault he forgot to grab a towel.
He stared at the planter with the aloe for a good five minutes. He knows it was already a plant when he planted it but like, sue him for being kinda proud. It looked so… planty?
He eventually went down to grab paper towels to help crush the soaked cilantro, moving quickly and carefully so he didn’t drop dirt on the floor. He was so focused that he didn’t see Damian until he speedwalked into him turning the corner into the kitchen doorway.
“Wha- damnit! Thomas!”
“Aw crap, my bad dude!” Duke apologized, but he was distracted checking for dropped dirt
“Why is there dirt on your hands? Did you get dirt on me!?” Damian began checking his clothes and hair for soil.
“Oh wait yea! There’s some on your face,” Duke smirked as Damian ran his hands on parts of his face to check, “riiiiighhtttt…there!”
Duke swiped his finger across Damian’s nose, leaving a smear of soil. The boy paused for a moment, clearly recalling where the soil was coming from in the first place.
“ASSHOLE!” Damian wiped his nose with his sleeve while kicking a giggling Duke, who was entering the kitchen to get away and wash his hands.
“Sorry man, chill,” he pleaded between snorts, “what’re you doin here anyways? You benched?”
“No? It’s a school night genius” Damian sniffed
Duke hummed. He had completely forgot about that, he totally doesn’t wanna go to school tomorrow
“What are you doing?” Damian asked while typing on his phone.
“Washing my hands? Drying them now.”
Damian rolled his eyes, “tt, with the soil obviously. I haven’t seen you all day, are you helping Pennyworth in the garden? …Thanks for feeding Alfred, by the way.”
“S’no problem!” Duke gave him a smile as the younger kept looking at his phone, trying to keep from eye contact. “Nahh I’m just workin’ on a project,”
“What project? For school? Is it a mission?”
“Oh nah, it’s for nunya”
“What is nunya??” Damian scrunched his face in confusion, then it morphed into defeat seeing Duke’s widening smirk
“Nunya business dude!” Duke ruffled his hair and scurried towards the stairs before Damian decided to retaliate. “Keep textin’ Jon and mind your own!”
“Wha! How’d you- I mean, I’m not! You suck!” Damian yelled after him as the glowing boy ran back to his room, paper towels in hand.