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Duke was usually a calm guy. Sure, he had his moments of anger, but he wasn’t a crashout. Despite what Tim said. He left that job to Damian and Jason.
At least, that's what he liked to tell himself.
He dragged his feet through the halls, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He was just glad the day was over. He means, seriously, what asshole decided school needed to start at 7:00am? As a matter of fact, which idiot decided that school needed to be seven hours long?
It was torture.
Alright. Maybe it wasn’t that bad, but still!
He smiled at a friend as he passed, and the guy slapped him on the back with a “What's up Thomas?”
He rolled his eyes. “Hey Dave.” He said. “How was the game last night?” He already knew what the answer would be. The Gotham Knights were notorious for sucking at basketball.
Actually, they sucked at all sports.
“Man, we lost, thirty to five! I did get a nice three-pointer in though, even got fouled and made those extra two points.” Dave threw his hands up into the air, before smirking.
Duke grinned. “Good for you man,” He said, shooting a thumbs-up.
“Yeah, I guess. You hear about the fight?” Dave asked, changing the subject.
Duke raised an eyebrow. “No. What happened?”
“Apparently some seventh grader got into a fight with Jack Daniels.” Dave said, waving his hands exaggeratedly. Duke's eyebrows shot up. He had met Jack once—a rude, obnoxious brat—when picking up Damian. Speaking of picking up Damian, he needed to get going. Middle school didn’t have an art class, but Bruce pulled some strings and “convinced” the administration to let Damian join the freshmen class. Jack was supposed to be a junior, but got held back in freshman year.
Wait.
Duke nearly groaned. Don’t tell him.
“Any idea who he got into a fight with?” Duke asked.
Dave shrugged. “Some kid whose name started with D. Though now that I think about it, it could hardly be called a fight.”
Yup. That sounded like Damian. “How bad did Dave get beat?” He asked tiredly.
“How bad did Dave get beat? Dude, he barely has a scratch!” Duke froze. Okay. Now he was lost.
“Explain.”
Dave leaned back against a locker. “Apparenly Dave had been bothering this kid for awhile, right? Anyway, from what my little sister told me—shes in that class—he went up to this kid at the beginning of class, and was talking to him like they were buddies. My sis sits right next to Damian, so she could hear everything. Jack asks the kid if he’s ‘got it—’”
“Got what?” Duke asks, slowly becoming more worried.
“I’m getting to it! Apparently the week before he told the kid to do his project for him. The kid says he doesn’t got it, because he didn’t do it, and Jack gets all pissed. He’s got real rage issues, man. Anyway, he grabs the kid by the shirt, ‘cause Mrs Williams ain’t there yet, and starts yelling at him, and then he tries to take the kid’s art project for himself, so the kid just grabs it, and this girl was washing her hands, and so he throws it right under in the sink so neither can have it. So then Jack starts swearing at him, and the kid makes some remarks and so he just BAM!” Dave punches his fist into his hand. “Right in the cheek bone. Then the kid doesn’t even fight back, and you know, Jack’s on our football team, and he’s a big guy, so a few kids get up and try and get him off the kid, but he’s just not budging. I hear he busted up the kid's face pretty badly.”
…. Huh. That… both did and didn’t sound like Damian. The remarks, the art, that sounded right. But just taking a beating? That…
“We don’t hurt civilians, Damian.” Bruce said. “No matter what.”
Ah. Right. The talk. The talk Bruce gave him. The talk about not hurting civilians, no matter what. The talk he got after a kid insulted him and he punched him. Damian’s talk.
“When did this happen?” Duke asked, anger beginning to boil under his skin.
“Just at the end of last period—”
Duke turned and began walking away. He heard Dave call after him, but he ignored him. He had to check if it really was Damian, because if it was, he was going to beat Jack so bad, he would need a straw to eat for the next month.
He heard the bell ring over head, but ignored it. Students filed past him, barely dodging to get out of his way.
Who the hell did this guy think he was? Picking on a thirteen-year-old when he was what, sixteen?
Duke was gonna kill him. Which he would probably regret because then Bruce would be disappointed but he could convince Jason, Dick, and Tim to his side because they were stupidly protective of the kid now that they were past the whole ‘killing’ thing.
He was making his way to the art room when he paused. Because that's not where Damian would be if he was beaten as badly as Dave said he was. He turned on his heels and instead began heading towards the nurses office. Rage thumped under his skin with each step, because Damian really was just a kid, especially compared to a guy three years older than him—
He paused as he stepped into the nurse's office. The nurse was gone, probably grabbing something. That wasn’t what Duke focused on. His eyes instead landed on Daman, because… wow. Damian was sitting on the bed, his right cheek bruised a dark purple in the shape of a fist and his eye swelling shut. Bruises littered his arms and torso, which Duke could very clearly see as his shirt was off.
Oh hell no.
“Where the hell is he?” Was the first thing that came out of Duke's mouth.
Damian raised an eyebrow—or attempted to before wincing, which only made Duke more angry. “Who, Thomas?”
“The asshole that did… that.” He said, waving his hand towards him. Damian stiffened.
“... the office. Why?” He demanded.
“Because I’m gonna kill him.” Then Duke turned and began walking towards the office, which was across the hall. He heard Damian mutter “wait-no-” but he ignored him in favor of swinging the door open, his eyes landing on the shit stain.
“Hi!” He said brightly. Then he walked forward and punched him square in the face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce sighed, staring at the two. The principal had called him furious, explaining the situation. First, he turned to Damian, his heart aching at the bruises on his body.
“First of all, Damian. I fear I wasn’t clear enough when I explained this. Self-defense is always okay so long as you don’t initiate the violence. Words don’t need to be met with punches, but if anyone ever tries to physically hurt you, you have permission to protect yourself.” Then he turned to Duke.
“Duke.”
“Yes?” His second youngest and fourth oldest son said innocently.
“You beat the kid so bad his parents are threatening to sue.” Bruce sighed, pinching the brim of his nose. Duke's face darkened.
“Bruce. He beat Damian first. You’re Bruce fucking Wayne, sue them back.” Then he turned and began to walk away.
“Wha—Duke. Duke!”
Duke ignored him. He heard the sound of the front manor door closing—presumably to tell Jason and Dick what happened—and groaned. Then he heard a soft giggle from Damian. He sighed, his lips quirking up
These boys would be the death of him.
He opened his eyes back up, raising an eyebrow at Damian who suddenly found the wall very interesting. Hm. Maybe not the worst way to go.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (later that night)~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Duke sat up in bed and heard a knock on his door. Jason, Dick and Tim had reacted… expectedly. Jason wanted to shoot the guy, Dick was pissed and wanted to beat the guy, and Tim found his address before Duke was done speaking. Luckily he had managed to calm them down (barely) when he explained he took care of it.
He quietly opened the door, raising an eyebrow at finding Damian standing there. “Uh… hi?” He asked. Damian didn’t respond at first, his posture stiff. Then, quick as a dart, he lunged forward and wrapped his hands around Duke’s torso.
Oh shit. He was hugging him. It took Duke a second to process this.
“Richard says hugging is a sufficient way to express gratitude to family members. So… here.” He muttered, face turning red.
Duke couldn’t help himself. He cooed. He felt Damian stiffen indignantly, and his grin widened. He felt Damian try to pull away, but he wrapped his arms around him and pulled him into his room.
“What—Thomas!” Damian shouted, his face turning red. Duke just shrugged, practically throwing him onto his bed as he turned on the TV he was allowed in his room.
“Movie night!” He announced.
He cheered internally as Damian only grumbled a bit.