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So here’s the thing. Duke Thomas is a cuddler.
He’s not a cuddler like Stephanie who pounces on people at impromptu times with her overexcited affections and extreme strength. He does not hug or cuddle like Dick who only knows how to wrap people up in extravagant and impactful hugs that drain every bit of breath from their lungs and makes them feel happy for as long as they last. No, Duke’s hugs are gentle and caring and magical.
It’s not like the rest of the family isn’t affectionate with each other or anything. Bruce likes to pat them all on the head, Jason is prone to slinging an arm around the shoulders of anyone standing next to him, Cass likes to come up and randomly kiss people on the cheek or forehead, etc., etc.. Things like that are common for most of them, they all have their thing, but those are casual and slight forms of physical contact that last for no more than a few seconds and only happen every once and a while.
However, when Duke hugs them, whether or not it’s a side hug or a full an all encompassing swallowing you with his whole body hug, they can last from anywhere to a few seconds to a few minutes . When Duke comes into one of the sitting rooms to hang out and someone’s already there, he won’t choose to sit in any of the many other seats available, he’ll sit directly next to whoever’s there and spend the duration of their shared time in the room pressed into their side cuddled up next to them. He’s even garnered a habit of sometimes going into his family member’s rooms when he’s bored and no one’s doing anything just to sit and cuddle with them, same thing with Babs when she’s spending late nights at the Batcomputer.
Duke, when compared to most of the family, is ridiculously affectionate. Even more so than Dick, Cass, or Bette who were, before Duke’ entrance into their lives, known to be the most cuddly people in their weird little clan. He always seemed to be touching them somehow. With the nervous and standoffish attitude he presented them with in his first few months working with them, the boy barely wanting to spend longer than necessary in the cave when the occasion brought him there, it was a shock to find out how physical he was with his affection.
It started with Bruce and Cass, because of course it did. Bruce likely qualified for the least physically affectionate of any of them, opting to show his love instead with acts of service and unsaid words, and Cass, while affectionate, didn’t do hugs so much as warm and affectionate touches. Ones that, for the safety of those that knew better, were almost always initiated by her. Despite this, it made sense that Duke started his showers of affections with those two. He spent more time with Bruce and Cass, and he trusted them the most. He worked with them more frequently while suited up than he did the others before he moved in, and Bruce made it a point to be equally as involved in his civilian life. Cass didn’t shy away from popping up as Cassandra rather than Orphan to spend time with him either.
That’s why the others thought it to just be a one off thing when Duke moved in and they could constantly see him hugging and touching them. An armed wrapped around Cass here and there, a quick hug given to Batman after an emergency assist from Signal during an Arkham breakout, curling up next to either one of them during mandatory monthly family movie night, and even more. Babs once even caught him sitting with Bruce in his office talking about suit upgrades and his AP science classes while he worked, all the while Duke’s head is in Bruce’s lap and his feet are in the chair he likely pulled up with the intention to sit in before his change of plans.
Were they all a little confused about how openly Cass and Bruce (let’s be real here; more so Bruce than Cass) allowed and accepted the physical affection Duke offered? Absolutely, it fucked with their minds for a while if they’re being totally honest! But they were also confused when Jason and Dick started having petty arguments in Shakespearean English, and they got used to that easily enough….eventually! Harper did threaten to become an anti-hero just to rightfully shoot them both with her Bluebird Rifle, but they got over that and they could get over Duke showing his familial closeness with two of their scariest family members by hugging them! It wasn’t that unusual!
At least, they thought that before he started doing it with the rest of them as well.
Within 5 months of him living at the manor, as he got closer and closer to all of them, all of Duke’s nearly constant hugging went from being something he did only with Bruce and Cass, to something he did with Dick, and Jason, and Steph, and Tim, and Harper, and hell, even Damian was letting him subject him to all the lovey dovey brotherly physical contact. He had basically roped everybody in the family into complying with his little hug monster habits, which absolutely bodied most of them with how shocked they were by this. What shocked them even more though, was how good the kids fucking hugs were.
Hugging Duke was like hugging the sun if the sun stood at 5’9 with the grip strength of a panda bear. His hugs were somehow strong and gentle at the same time, pulling you into the warmness of his body with an unwavering kind of care and love. He seemed to fit perfectly around every person he subjected to one of his sunshine hugs, molding himself around them like clay until they were perfectly fit together in one of the most comforting hugs you’ve ever had. His hugs were never anticlimactic, nor were they ever too overzealous, they were just right . The little motherfucker literally had hugs that were the equivalent of the little bear kid from Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and it would almost be frustrating if not for the fact they never wanted him to change ever. His hugs were magical perfection that they were all exposed to differently
Surprisingly enough, Damian happened to be the first of them to be exposed to the wonders cuddling with the human form of the sun. It happened after the assisted rescue of a ball python they found discarded on the road (said snake now lived with them under the name of Matthias by Duke’s suggestion and his pleading with Bruce). They’d just brought the tiny thing home from the emergency vet, and Damian had absolutely refused to leave the side of his cage. This led to them piling the cage onto the coffee table in Damian’s favorite sitting room, and Duke pulling Damian into a cuddling position on the couch while they watched Disney movies. Bruce found them both the next morning asleep on the couch, Damian half on top of Duke, and Duke’s arms wound around his little brother’s torso with one hand tangled in his hair. Damian hadn’t even been embarrassed when they woke up. He just went back to watching after the snake.
Jason received his first hug from heaven after aiding a very exhausted Duke with a particularly rough day shift. Duke had refused to take the morning off despite the taxing mission he’d done with the Outsiders the night before, but he’d allowed Jason to go out with him as backup. During said assist, the trigger happy anti-hero ended up helping his sunshine and chaos headed brother rescue a bunch of people from an apartment collapse where he also had to stop Duke from passing out from over exertion over the edge of the falling building. After, when they got back to the manor and were both freshly showered and wrapped up in sweatpants and t-shirts rather than hot armor and tight spandex, Duke shuffled into the library where Jason had decided to set up shop. Without preamble, the still exhausted teen plopped down next to Jason and wrapped his arms around his stomach, mumbling out a thank you for his help into his brother’s shoulder before wiggling around to make himself more comfortable. Jason, a little shocked and a little in awe, took 60 selfish little minutes to let Duke nap on his shoulder before nudging him awake to go back to his room to sleep more comfortably.
Harper got her first hug after running into the manor like a madwoman on several different uppers while screaming in pure joy. She’d just learned that she had been selected for a super amazing paid engineering internship at an engineering based company led and run by a staff over 70% female, one that she had been gushing about for months at that point. Duke had been the first to walk in to see her screaming with nearly unintelligible cries of excitement, seeming excited for her even if he didn’t know what she was saying behind the heavy panting that was jumbling up the thickness of her Gothamite accent even more. The moment she finally regained her composure long enough to tell him the news, his face lit up like an actual star. Duke wasted no time in wrapping her up in one of the gentlest, most high energy hugs she’d ever had, and it somehow made all of her emotions flare even higher. They’d jumped and spun around while still hugging for a solid three minutes, even as the rest of the family ran in asking what was going on.
Stephanie and Dick were a two for one special when receiving a hug from Duke for the first time. One night, after getting hit with a heavy mist of scarecrow gas and getting sent home early, they ended up curled up next to each other in the darkest sitting room in the manor. After an hour of staring at the pitch black tv with nothing but the sound of their breath filling the echoing room, Duke wandered in. He took one look at their sunken and exhausted faces, and turned and walked out. Not even 5 minutes later, he walked back into the room with the softest blanket in the house pulled off Bruce’s bed and folded in his arms, and a tray piled full of snacks and drinks on top of that. He laid the snacks out on the coffee table in front of them, and wiggled his way into the space left between Dick and Steph before laying the blanket across all three of them. He turned on some mindless cartoon and wrapped his arms around their shoulders, pulling them into his sides. Alfred found them like that a few hours later, Duke awake and smiling contently while the other two slept against him with their heads on his shoulders.
Tim was a bit more…loopy when he was finally given his first sunshine hug. He’d been holed up in his room flipping back and forth between working on case files and working on WE business…for 43 hours. In retrospect it shouldn’t have surprised him when someone finally took notice that they hadn’t seen him in nearly two days and decided to check on him. If anything, he should have been more shocked that it was Duke of all people, the one who’d just gotten off of his day shift and an emergency call in for the night shift, who came in with a full plate of food and an ungodly amount of water bottles to set in front of Tim and watch him eat. He sat in the chair next to Tim’s and put his feet up in Tim’s lap while he ranted about all the stupid stuff he saw on patrol that day, not even caring that he wasn’t responding. The moment Tim scarfed down the last bite of his food though, Duke stood up, pulled Tim up with him, and wrapped his brother in a hug. Tim could barely stand on his own without swaying, plus Duke was so goddamn warm , so he kinda just held on and enjoyed it. Then, Duke very firmly told him to go the hell to sleep whilst very gently pulling them both down into his bed. Tim fell asleep as soon as he felt the mattress beneath him.
Similar instances happened with the others– with Cullen and the cousins and friends like Kate, Bette, Babs and Helena, and even with Clark and his family (their family really, the superkids were just like more siblings at this point in Clark and Bruce’s relationship)– not too long after the instances with Duke and the siblings struck, but once he’d hugged them once, the floodgates were open. Duke hugged them in unapologetic, almost unrealistic amounts. Really though, with a kid as sweet, albeit batshit fucking crazy, as him they got used to it really fast and tended not to question it much. I mean, Bruce always seemed like every bit of pain in his life had just melted away when Duke hugged him, and man, the look on Clark’s face the first time Duke hugged him? He nearly cried when it happened, and most of them think he did when he and Bruce finally retreated to their room for the night.
Still, since they didn’t bother questioning Duke’s hugging habit, that means they never really bothered asking him about it either. With their family though, things like that tended to change very quickly. Especially when 5 out of 9 Batsiblings have been microdosed with an irritating mix of scarecrow's fear gas and one of Ivy’s body affecting pollens. They’re kinda just…. glad she didn't use one of the weird ones.
“Hey, you’re all back online! Everybody sound off! You all better be alive and kicking, because if you got exploded I’m gonna be soooo mad!”
Cullen’s worried voice rang out over the comms into their ears. They were currently standing amidst the rubble of a half exploded warehouse. Batman and Orphan were pulling a slab of concrete off of Bluebird, Spoiler, and Red Robin who all looked bruised, battered, and loopy, but not injured beyond repair. Signal walked over to where Nightwing was sprawled out and breathing heavily, and offered his brother a hand that he took readily. He stumbled a bit as Signal pulled him to his feet, but Signal was quick to grab at him and let him lean against him for support.
Ivy had decided teaming up with Scarecrow and the Riddler would be a fun game this time of the week, and they’d all just been nearly blown up because of it. The explosion wasn’t even the worst part, no. The explosion was tiny in comparison to some of the others Nygma has set off, let alone his teammates of the week. What messed them up was the odd little combination of fear toxin and one of Ivy’s pollens that made you feel like you were ascending without all the trippy little hallucinations that made you feel like you were on an acid trip. This one just made you lose most of your equilibrium and fine motor skills, as well as the ability to think clearly.
The effect of the two things when combined made for a fucked up trip, and apparently, an even worse come down once the fear hallucinations receded. They were learning this rather painfully less than an hour later. Bruce, Duke, Cass, and Jason had been lucky enough not to get hit by the spray, but the rest were not so lucky.
Bruce sighed heavily, Harper and Stephanie now slung over both his shoulders where they hung like drugged sacks of potatoes literally talking behind his back.”We’re all still alive, Cardinal. No serious injuries, but Red Robin, Bluebird, Nightwing, Robin, and Spoiler have been gassed, and I’m pretty sure Red Hood broke his wrist in the explosion.”
“I’m fine old man!”Jason interjected snappily from where he had a half knocked out Tim slung over his right shoulder the same way Bruce had the girls thrown over his. His left hand was cradled to his chest in a less than inconspicuous way, clearly broken with how he clutched at it. Cass looked at him from where she was lifting Robin up off the ground into her arms, the deadpan glare clear even behind the full face mask
Bruce, being Bruce, ignored him, “This team is out of commission as of right now Cardinal, we’ll be heading back to base soon.”
“Got it Batman. Do you need me to alert our secondary team?”
“No, I’ll make contact with Batwoman and the others and fill them in. I need you tracking down Ivy, Scarecrow, and the Riddler so their team can finish up what we started when they get here.”
Cullen hummed.”Got it. I am no Oracle, but I will do my bestest B! You dummies get home safe!”He chirped, though there was steel behind his voice that made them know there would be consequences if they weren’t back at the manor with no new injuries in under 30 minutes.
“Got it kid.”Jason snorted, as amused as he always was with Cullen.”Thanks for your help tonight. You do nice work! You’re getting better at this whole mission command thing.”
“Aww thanks Hood!”Culllen laughed, the steel still hidden in his voice.”Now get your asses back home before you destroy your bodies anymore, or I will tie you all up until you’re healed, well nourished, and well rested! Love you guys, bye!”Cullen’s comm channel went dark, leaving some of the loopier members of their party giggling at his humorously intense care.
Duke chuckled, shaking his head. He moved around and steadied Dick more, as well as his hold on him.”Well, y’all heard Cardinal. Our dear mini-Oracle-Alfred hybrid demands our presence! Let’s get out to the Batmobile, we can all ride back in that.”Bruce nodded, giving no verbal response before he started walking out towards the only unblocked exit. Duke and Jason followed easily, as did Cassandra who moved lithely even with the bruises coating her body and the barely aware Damian wrapped around her front like a koala. Their drugged companions were not so keen to comply as they were though. Despite the fact that, you know, though they were coming down from a high so bad they couldn’t really walk on their own.
“Hey, no, what about our bikes?”Stephanie whined groggily. She lifted her hands which were barely balled into fists and weakly bumped them against Bruce’s thighs.”Most of us rode our own stuff here unlike your favorites! What happens if a modern day Jay decides they want my sweet baby’s wheels?!”
Jason looked like he was barely restraining the urge to slap her on the forehead.
Dick gasped.”Nooo, I love my bike’s wheels! I’ve decorated them and everything! The mini-Red Hoods can’t have them!”
“....You are lucky…that I don’t shoot drugged up idiots you fuckheads.”
As Jason started to argue with Stephanie and Dick from behind Bruce despite them barely being able to string full sentences together anymore, Bruce gave a long, suffering sigh, staring up at the ceiling for a moment. Him collecting himself always looked almost as if he wished a large creature would come and carry him off into the night. Too bad he loved them too much.
”Your vehicles all have recall systems in them, just like the Batmobile.”He said, loud and sudden which effectively cut off the argument between his three overdramatic children.”Since, none of you are fit to drive right now, I will have Cardinal call them back to the cave once he’s done tracking down the Rogues, and for now we will pack into the Batmobile. Got it?”
His voice was firm, more of a ‘Bruce the Dad’ tone than a ‘Batman the Scary Protector of the Night’ tone, and they knew better than anyone that that left even less room for argument than the second tone of voice, so they had pretty much no choice but to pout and acquiesce.
“Fine.”
Bruce grunted, which was a response all in itself from him. They finished the trek out of the half ruined warehouse building out to the batmobile, still clean, sleek, and black as always. The problem with the Batmobile is that Bruce really wasn’t kidding when he said they’d pack into it. The car, while it looked big on the outside, was really just a super expensive five seater with slightly larger seats, way too much flair, and a lot of illegal weapons installed in it. Bruce, Damian, Duke, and Cass were the only ones who rode onto the scene in the Batmobile tonight. The others had rode in on motorcycles that were parked around the Batmobile, and were being heavily mourned as all 8 kids squeezed inside of the 4 available seats.
The seating situation ended up like this; As the biggest and stockiest out of all of them, Jason sat in the front seat with smallest and shortest of them all, Damian, in his lap. Damian grumbled a bit about the embarrassment of it all before all but passing out against Jason’s chest. Duke volunteered to take the middle seat and hold onto Harper for the duration of the ride. Cass and Dick ended up sitting on either side of him with Stephanie on Cass’s lap and Tim tucked against Dick’s chest being subjected to one of his clingy hugs. They were all packed in tight back there, but it was hard to care with how beaten up they all were.
As Bruce drove off at his normal insane speeds, the kids in the back took advantage of their proximity to the warmest, best hugger in the family. About all of them were leaning against Duke in some way, even Cass who was basically uninjured. Stephanie had slumped over to put her head in Harper’s lap, and pulled one of Duke’s hands into her hair. Cass and Tim had their heads on both of his shoulders, and Dick had his arm stretched across his shoulders and his head leaning against his.
Harper hummed, comfortable in her place against Duke’s chest with her face pressed into the crook of his neck.”At least one good thing about being drugged and injured is we get the good good Duke hugs.”She mumbled sluggishly. The others hummed their assent.
Duke, who was quite busy gently pulling at the knots attempting to form in Stephanie’s dirt caked hair, blinked a bit at the confession.“Aw, guys! You know you just have to ask if you want hugs right? You don’t gotta be drugged or nothing.”He laughed sheepishly and his face contorted a bit in his confusion, but the smile on his face was unfaltering.
“Yeah, but that’s the best thing about you.”Stephanie yawned, turning over a bit in Harper and Cass’s lap and blatantly ignoring both of their irritated grumbles.”We don’t gotta ask you for hugs, you just give ‘em! You’re like…always huggin’ us!”
“Do I…really hug you guys that much?”
“The amount of hugs you give in only a day is insurmountable.”Damian called flatly from the front seat.
Tim nodded in agreement, head moving against Duke’s shoulder.”You give more hugs than Dick . And he was dubbed the family hugger just for hugging people hello and goodbye whenever he came to visit the manor!”He exclaimed.”At first we thought it was just a thing you had with Bruce and Cass, but then you started doing it with everyone like all the time, so we kinda just figured you were a hugger.”
Dick laughed, “Yeah! It was weird when it started because we kinda thought you didn’t like us for a while, especially when you moved in, but you give such nice magical sunshine hugs nobody was gonna question it!”
Apparently being drugged had also left them all loose lipped. Between owlish blinks of surprise Duke could see the tiny smirk on Bruce’s face from the rear mirror, and Cass and Jason were barely holding back laughter at the whole situation. The drugged parties looked none the wiser to the oddness of the situation and the things they’d just admitted, but Duke could feel the heat in his cheeks and was quite happy blush didn’t show quite as well on his skin. A miniature version of himself was scrambling around in his brain looking for a response to all of that, but he couldn’t seem to come up with one and they all seemed to have gone silent anyways, so he simply let it go and leaned more into the mass backseat hug his siblings seemed to have enacted.
It didn’t take too long to get back to the cave at the speeds Bruce drove. It honestly took longer to get out of the carm what with the majority of their group tired and loopy from coming down from a horrible high and fear hallucinations. Damian had fallen asleep during the last stretch toward home, and Dick had even more trouble walking now than he did back at the warehouse. Alfred and Barbara were waiting out by the carport when they pulled in, so the moment they were out of the car there were concerned eyes on them and more helpful hands.
“Duke, give me Harper. You help the wobbly blue idiot who still thinks he can walk on his own.”Barbara said in lieu of any greeting. She gestured quickly for Duke to hand over the blue haired vigilante, and since Duke was not an idiot, he obeyed. He set Harper down in Barbara’s lap gently and went to help Dick, taking on most of his older brother’s weight when he wrapped one arm around his waist and put one of Dick’s arms over his shoulder.
“I am not an idiot, and I can walk! Just not well!”
Barbra exhaled from her nose, glaring up at the sky. Without a second word she wheeled off toward the infirmary with Harper curled up in her lap. Alfred, who had busied himself with aiding Stephanie, followed behind her and beckoned for the rest of them to follow as well. They passed up Cullen clicking away at the batcomputer on their way. He looked up their marching line of injured people up and down, and nodded at their seeming lack of fatal injuries before turning back to images of Pamela Isley, Jonathan Crane, and Edward Nygma floating around the screens in front of him.
There were more than enough beds in their little bat-infirmary for all of them, enough for every vigilante in their little Batclan to stay there at once actually, but with only two people to take care of 9 beat up vigilantes they ended up sitting two to a bed anyways. Damian, still refusing to let go of Bruce in his sleepy, childish daze, sat on Bruce’s lap in their shared bed. Jason got stuck with Dick, who he was quietly bickering with like an angry old man despite the other’s near total dissonance from the world at the moment. Cass stuck herself with the surprisingly complacent Stephanie, and that left Duke with the two tiredest of the five drugged up Bats leaning into him from either side. He didn’t bother faking a dislike of this, just wrapping his arms around Harper and Tim’s waists and humming while he waited for his turn to be checked over.
“Well, you guys got beat to all hell, but it’s nothing that won’t have most of you back out on the street in the next two to five days.”Babs announced. She rolled back a little and looked them over, appraising her work. While she’d been busy obliging Cullen’s very eager request and teaching him all she could about what they dubbed the ‘Oracle’ sides of their batwork, she’d been spending some of the off time she got from him taking over for her for a few hours every few days to learn more extensive first aid and medical care from Alfred. Alfred was happy to oblige his young old companion, and luckily for them they always had live idiots for Barbara to practice her new skills on.
”Jason, you know how long your healing time is with that wrist. It’s just a sprain, not a break like we thought, but don’t go doing anything that’ll make me have to remind you how bad it could be, jackass.”
Jason rolled his eyes, less irritated than he was amused.”Yeah, yeah Barbie I got it. 2 week healing period minimum, more than that if the pain and dexterity hasn’t returned upon our check up in two weeks.”He rattled off the protocol as if he’d heard it a thousand times before. Which honestly didn’t sound like an exaggeration when applied to Jason.”I know the drill. Thanks for the patch up. You too Alfie.”
”You’re very welcome, Master Jason.”Alfred bowed his head slightly.”Now, you all should go ahead and get cleaned up so you can get some rest. That healing period you just spoke of begins immediately, and I want you upstairs resting sooner rather than later.”
“Yes, Alfred.”
Knowing better than to ever try and argue with Alfred, they all headed off toward the showers. The five that had been drugged were slowly starting to regain motor functions after being given oxygen masks and more antidotes to bring them back to their senses, so they were able to handle getting to the showers at least. Once they took off their suits they got put away to be cleaned and repaired before they were needed next, and all of them were all able to stand under the blessed waterfalls of hot water and scrub away the yuck, grime, sweat, and blood of a full night of vigorous and exhausting crime fighting.
Duke came out of the showers before any of the others, dragging a towel over his head roughly. He would show his hair some love and attention later. He was too tired for a hair care routine right now. Duke’s eyes scanned over the cave, landing on where Cullen still sat at the batcomputer scanning through pictures from street cameras, videos from security cameras, and even sighting tips from online forums on the lookout for their baddie trio of the night. Babs wasn’t seated too far from him. She had her ‘I’m timing you for the task and when I’m done I will be forcing you to practice self care’ book splayed open in her lap. She always read that same book when she was waiting for them to finish stuff up. If you took longer than approximated, or if you started another task instead of taking a minute to rest when you were done with the first, she would snap the book closed and start bullying you into caring about your health. It was a cruel but effective practice of enforcing self care in a bunch of stubborn vigilantes.
“...-can take off, Cullen, I’ve got it covered.”
Barbara’s book of self care and wrath was closed before Duke even made it all the way to the batcomputer. He watched Barbara slip an ear piece on with ease as she slid her wheelchair into the space Cullen vacated for her in front of the batcomputer. Cullen was standing now to stretch, pops sounding from his arms and his back as he stood on his tiptoes and held his arms in the air while he yawned. He hadn’t bothered trying to argue with Babs, only Bruce and the four core Robins ever tried, so Babs was able to dive right into work.
Duke slid up next to Cullen and wrapped his arm around his shoulders.”Looks like we’re both off of work for the night C!”He cheered, pulling Cullen closer to his side.”You down to watch that horror movie you told me about? I’m way too wired to sleep.”
Cullen frowned, the look on his face clearly painting Duke as a madman in his head.”You’ve been awake since 4:30 yesterday, and you’re ‘too wired to sleep’? I literally do not get you!”
“I’m an abnormal person Cullen! We literally have an assassin as a baby brother and an alien step-family. Like, be for real, weird people are not uncommon in this family at all! Now do you wanna watch the movie or nah bruh?”
Cullen stared at him for a minute, more gawking than anything, before eventually he sighed.”I’ll make the popcorn. You put way too many things in yours like a weirdo.”He muttered. He rubbed a hand over his face, ”Still can’t believe you’re from Gotham, the Narrows of all places, and you’ve hardly seen any damn horror movies.”
Duke grinned at his victory. He hooked his arm tighter around Cullen’s shoulder, pulling him into a fuller hug than the side hug he already had him trapped in. He patted him on the back and gave him a playful, sloppy kiss on the forehead that made him squawk his annoyance.”That’s why I got you to force me to watch them bruh! Come on, let's go watch fictional versions of our lives as citizens of Gotham play out on the big screen!”
Barbara snorted from behind them, “Night guys. Make sure you actually get some sleep and don’t waste your few off hours watching a screen, please and thank you.”
Duke detached himself from Cullen, still grinning as he instead bent down to wrap his arms around Barbara’s shoulders and hook his chin on her shoulder.”You got it O. We’ll probably end up asleep halfway through this movie, so I promise we’ll be catching some sleep either way.”He assured her. He leaned forward and gave her a quick peck on the cheek before moving away and grabbing Cullen by the arm to drag him away, “Night night Babs! Don’t overwork yourself please! We love you!”
“Goodnight, I make absolutely zero promises, and I love you too! See you in the morning Dayshift.”
Duke and Cullen were still laughing as they hopped the stairs two at a time and walked out from behind the clock. True to his word, Cullen made his way to the kitchen where he beelined toward the Batkid secret stash of packaged snacks where they kept all the processed stuff Alfred always demanded be made fresh and from scratch. They had plenty of microwave popcorn tucked into the stash thanks to Dick’s obsession with it (he didn’t even live there, and somehow they still always had it. Fucking crazy.), and Cullen took fighting off Duke and all of his desired additions for the popcorn very seriously. No one needs to add sugar and salt, let alone sugar, salt, butter, caramel, and m&m’s into a single bowl of popcorn ! That’s villainous behavior! Grounds for immediate admittance to Arkham, even! Absolutely vile!
They ended up in the sitting room with a flat screen in it rather than the home theater, their huge bowl of popcorn and the smaller bowl containing Duke’s insane additives sitting on a tray amidst a pile of snacks and drinks on the coffee table in front of the couch. Duke grabbed two of Steph’s emergency snuggie blankets (both coming from a set of 97 snuggies she convinced Bette to buy with Bruce’s credit card while they were drunk and freezing in the middle of a snowstorm 4 months ago) from a hall closet while Cullen queued up The Mist and cackled like a madman under his breath. Suspicious, but Duke didn't quite have the energy to question his life choices this early. Soon enough the two of them were sat next to each other with blankets with arm holes in them pulled up to their shoulders, and the opening scenes of Cullen’s favorite horror movie playing on the flat screen in front of them. Only 4 minutes into the movie, Duke ended up flopped over on his side with his legs stretched across the couch, and he didn’t even bother with any false hesitation and useless questioning before he dragged Cullen over so he was half on top of him. Cullen, a common victim of Duke’s cuddler instincts after 8 months of their standing Sunday night ‘new kids’ movie nights, didn’t even cease his ramblings about the movie as it happened.
Cullen quite enjoyed all of Duke’s hugs to be honest. There hadn’t ever really been a moment where he was perturbed by receiving a hug from his brother, let alone bothered by it. For most of his life he’d had only Harper as a source of positive physical interaction and affection, but now he had like a gajillion brothers and one of them gave hugs that were the equivalent of being swaddled by clouds in heaven. So, laying down half on top of said brother with his head on his stomach and nearly incoherent ramblings about a fifteen year old movie coming from his mouth, was a comforting and common position for him to be in. Eventually though, the effects of having a nearly 24 hour day hit the both of them like a freight train with four elephants and a particularly spicy feeling rhino inside of it. Their banter and Cullen’s rambling eventually fell off into a comfortable silence filled only by the occasional screams coming from the tv, and snores that were definitely coming from Cullen. Duke’s wires were still sparked, and so despite his drooping eyelids and heavy body, sleep continued to escape him.
Probably 20 minutes had passed and he was an hour and some change into the movie when Duke heard heavy footsteps full of exhaustion behind him. He craned his head back, careful not to disturb Cullen as he sat up on his elbows, and was met with Cass and Bruce standing in the threshold of the sitting room. Bruce, looking just as exhausted as he was before they all headed for the showers, had his arms full of a sleeping Damian again and Cass wound up into his side. Despite that, there was still a soft little smile and a fond sparkle in his eye as he looked down at Duke and Cullen, “I thought you both would be in bed by now.”
Duke grinned back lazily, warmed by the content expression on his father figure’s face.”By all standards, Cullen technically is.”He yawned, waving vaguely at Cullen, “Are you guys just now getting out of the cave? It’s been like an hour.”
“Helped Babs. Took awhile.”Cass explained, simple and short as always. Her eyes flickered toward Damian as he made a soft sound in his sleep, and she reached over with light hands to smooth a hand over his damp hair. She smiled down at all three of her brothers.”Couldn’t find you and C. Not upstairs with the others. Missed you both.”
“Yeah sorry.”Duke laughed sheepishly.”We both were too wired to go straight to sleep, so we decided to watch a movie. Cullen conked out before we even got 30 minutes in.”
“Well I guess that means it’s time to head to bed now. Come on kid.”
Bruce moved toward the two of them on the couch. With an unbelievable amount of ease for a man who's already holding his 130 pound 13 year old, and who has been awake for 48 hours, he reached down and picked Cullen up with one arm. Duke blinked at him incredulously, lips parting in his confusion and awe. Somehow, despite Bruce being 6’3 and built like fucking Godzilla on a bad day, the naturally awkward, wet cat demeanor and clear lack of genuine social skills Bruce presented at home around his family sometimes made Duke almost constantly forget that he actually knew how to use those muscles for anything but beating up the flamboyant menaces Gotham calls criminals. Bruce adjusted his youngest sons to make them more comfortable and hold them more stably, moving them with a gentleness unexpected from a man who looked like he should be body slamming people in an MMA cage.
Cullen stirred in his arms, groaning and peeling his eyes open, “Huh- wuh- oh. It’s just you Bruce. Time for bed?”
“Yeah kid. Though you’ve already been conked out for a bit of time now, so I think it’s been time for bed for quite a while.”Bruce barely held back his laughter at Cullen’s slurred words and squinted eyes.
“Yeah yeah, whatever, goin’ back to sleep now big guy.”
Damian grumbled from beside him, “You’re a fool.”
Cullen tucked his face into Bruce’s shoulder without even responding to him. Cass giggled, patting their backs as she walked over to Duke. Without a word and without preamble, she grabbed Duke by the hand and pulled him to his feet, and he went up smoothly. When he was standing at his full height and had popped all the knots out from his arms, he wrapped his arm around Cass’s shoulders and leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. She beamed up at him and nuzzled her head into his shoulder. Bruce walked off with only a nod of his head. The two of them followed him with dragging feet and light laughs, talking through their exhaustion in low tones as they made their way up the grand staircase and the even grander hallways that led to Bruce’s room. Sometimes it was a pain how damn big this ‘house’ was.
When they walked into Bruce’s room, dark and cold as it always was with only the slivers of moonlight spilling from the half drawn curtains to light it up, the silhouette of five other bodies sprawled across the large expanse of his stupidly fancy bed beneath his nice and fluffy comforter were clear. All five of them somehow managed to take up most of the space in the bed. Even with Harper and Steph being sprawled out across as much of Jason’s body as they were the bed, and Tim and Dick being practically melded to one another, a little bit of them was in every space of the bed. They all looked up when they heard the door click open and closed, four wobbly heads snapping up to stare at them and one steady one merely turning where it rested to see them clearly.
Steph, still all wobbly and groggy, grinned at them.“You brought Duke! Oh, and Cullen! We were wondering where you were, you were missing the cuddle pile!”She cheered with that loopy sort of joy, not even phased by Jason grumbling his sleepy discontent beneath her. He had an arm wrapped around both Harper and Stephanie which pinned him to the bed, so all he could really do was incline his head slightly to look at them all.
“Hi guys.”Duke laughed, barely keeping it from turning into the full body cackle that threatened to explode from his chest.”We didn’t know you were up here, you guys were still in the showers when Cullen and I went upstairs. We decided to watch a movie.”
“Hm, yeah, well you’re here now so get your asses in the damn bed.”Jason grumbled, head flopping back onto the pillows.”These jackasses are all so cold they’re clinging. Maybe more warm bodies will get the purple and blue jackasses to un-fucking-cling .”The familiar sound of him whacking either Steph or Harper or probably both on the head sounded in the room.
“Yeah, not happening Jay. But yeah, come on, come on! Join the pile!”
“Make some room then you heathens.”Bruce shot back in a deadpan tone, already crawling into the space beside Harper. He flopped down onto his back, one arm spread out and the other wound around Damian. With grumbles that came straight from the pits of hell, Damian wriggled around and flopped onto his side on Bruce’s chest. The arm beneath him ended up thrown above him and beneath Bruce’s head, wrapped around his neck.
Once they were both all laid down and comfortable, Harper flipped over from her place atop Jason to take Cullen from Bruce, smacking an obnoxious kiss on his and Cullen’s cheek before pulling an unfighting Cullen into the little bit of space between her and Jason. Jason managed to drag the two girls, and now Cullen, closer to Tim and Dick who were nearer to the edge of the bed to make room. Tim took Steph into his space easily, dragging her the rest of the way so he could nuzzle his head on her shoulder even while she mumbled all kinds of stupid nicknames aimed at him in his ear. Dick accepted the extra cuddle buddy too, extending his long arms the rest of the way so they wrapped around Tim as well as Steph. Duke crawled into the mass of bodies with no problem or hesitation, squirming into the now empty space between Harper and Bruce with his arm flopped over his brother and their dad. Cass didn't think twice about following his path and sprawling out across his chest, arms spread over Harper, Damian, and Bruce, and her face smushed into Duke’s neck with her legs curled up close to her.
They didn’t really do things like this often. Not even the social vacuums by the name of Duke Thomas, Richard Grayson, and Stephanie Brown could stand to be surrounded by this many people more than every once in a while, but being surrounded by each other like this for a bit did serve its purpose. In this case, five of them were dealing with withdrawal chills after being dosed by supervillains and having a building blow up on top of nine of them whilst their one outlier tried to hack is way through the entire online underground, the bone deep exhaustion burying itself into their bodies called for a bit of family comfort. Or rather, quite a lot of it.
“You know, you never told us why you like hugging people so much Duke.”
The groggy voice of Tim ringing out into the silently still room, Tim who had barely talked since they got back to the cave, surprised most of them out of the near sleep they’d been close to. He hadn’t lifted his head, or even moved like an inch to say his statement. It came out muffled as well as groggy with his face pressed against Stephanie’s skin.
“Dammit Timboree, why would you ask that now?”Jason groaned.”I was so fuckin’ close to falling asleep you jackass, fuck youuuuuu.”
“Hey, hey, hey, cease your whining big red wench, Timmy has a point.”Stephanie argued, slapping a lazy hand over Jason’s mouth. She didn’t even seem bothered when he started trying to bite and lick at her hand to make her move it.”I too am curious as to the reasoning for our yellowest batboy’s hugmaster tendencies! You got an explanation for us sunspinner?“
Duke had definitely been tempted to ignore them. He was tired after all, and he really didn’t feel like having an intense conversation with all the exhaustion weighing his brain down. He would have succeeded in ignoring them too. He’d always been good at avoiding things that irritated or inconvenienced him until he was ready to deal with it. The moment that name spilled from Stephanie’s lips though, he lifted his head to look at her with an incredulous stare at a speed that rivaled The Flash and Superman combined, because–
“Fucking sunspinner ?! Really Steph?!”Duke exclaimed, reaching over his three siblings to flick her on the forehead with each word.”Where the hell did that come from, and immediately tell me I never have to hear it again so I don't have to whoop the nonsense out of your ass!”
Their audience immediately broke out into a cascade of laughs, snorts, and giggles. Duke could feel Cass snickering against his chest, and he heard the single snort Damian let out. Even Bruce couldn’t completely fight the waterfall of chuckles coming up his chest. Steph herself broke out into one of her ugly full body, breath stealing laughs that made her whole body vibrate like a broken washing machine.
”I don’t know where it came from man, sunshine just seemed too basic! I wanted to be unique!”
“I would have preferred sunshine, blondie ! Keep your uniqueness to yourself if fucking sunspinner is what’s comin’ outta it!”
Dick’s familiar witch cackle of a laugh broke through all the other laughs, louder than all of them. He did his best to pull himself up on his elbow without separating from Tim and Stephanie, still laughing as he addressed them, “Okay, okay wait! It’s late and we’re getting off topic! Answer the question, Duke! Pleeeeease?”
“Yeah lightbringer, answer the question.”
Duke gawked. Cullen that absolute traitor. Just when you thought you could trust a man!“I– Ay yo, if I hear another light related nickname y’all ain’t hearing nothing from me!”He threatened.”On my life– no, you know what, on your lives, I will disappear! Say I won’t!”
Bruce sighed into a laugh, rubbing a hand down his face.”Duke, for the sake of all of our sleep schedules, will you please just answer the question so they’ll let it go and go to bed?”He eyed his still disbelieving looking son with pleading eyes and an amused smile.”Please, son, for my health.”
Duke narrowed his eyes, glancing back and forth between his snickering siblings and exasperated dad. He sighed, dropping his head and flopping back down on the pillows with a fake scowl plastered across his face.”Alright fine. But if I hear one more light nickname, on god y’all won’t see me for a month.”He grumbled, folding his hands over Cassandra’s back since he couldn’t fold his arms with how she lay plastered across his chest.”Are you sure you’re really all that interested? It’s really not a super special interesting reason or anything if that’s what you’re expecting.”
Damian scoffed. He tilted his head.”We just want our question answered, Thomas. No one cares if the answer is interesting, so out with it.”He insisted.”The faster you answer the faster they all leave you alone so we can finally sleep.”
The others mumbled their assent, and slowly silence filled the room as they waited for Duke to answer. Meanwhile, Duke just laid there and hummed, struggling to find the words to satisfy their curiosity. He wasn’t lying when he said he didn’t have an interesting answer. He didn’t even really have an answer at all! He’d never really thought much about how much physical affection he doled out amongst his adoptive family until they said something about it. To them his hugging had apparently been seen as excessive for a while, but to him it had never not been normal. Duke couldn’t remember a time in his life where hugs weren’t given freely to loved ones who wanted them, or where what most people considered to be special affectionate touches weren’t tossed around wildly and casually to every friend and family member nearby.
When it came to Duke and his people, friends, family, or otherwise, touch had always been… customary. They would sit on each other on packed subway and bus rides across the city where there weren’t enough seats for all of them, link arms or wrap an arm around one another as they made their way through shops and malls or across sidewalks, fall against each other on couches and in cars during late nights, etc., etc., etc. A wide variety of physical affection was tossed around amongst those he loved, and each gesture was filled with warmth, adoration, trust, and care. Looking back at it, every joyous occasion he could recall from his childhood had some form of touch attached to it. Love in its physical form was tied to euphoric memories and used to push them to the forefront of his mind.
“Honestly…it’s just how I was raised.”Duke answered lamely after a long stretch of empty silence. He cleared his throat awkwardly, ”I had a lot of family growing up, though pretty much all of them have died or been lucky enough to move out of Gotham before they died, and hugs and cuddling were super common with them. My friends too. In Narrows it’s pretty common to be all sorts of touchy with people you’re cool with as a show of trust and appreciation. Narrows is considered to be almost worse than the Bowery because of how close it is to Arkham, but the people down there usually have an understanding with each other that makes living in such a shitty place easier.”
Harper hummed curiously. She hadn’t expected all of that as a part of his answer, and she certainly hadn’t expected to learn all of that about her old home. She laid her head back on Duke’s shoulder and looked at him upside down, “Hm. I didn’t know that. C and I transplanted in from the East End, and we never really made friends while we were in the Narrows.”
“Knowing you two, that’s a fucking understatement.”Jason snorted, ignoring the lazy arm Harper threw toward his face and the elbow Cullen dug into his ribs.”So, what Narrows, you’re all huggy because it reminds you of home and shit?”
”I mean that, and I just like to hug people. It’s just how I am man, I am a tactile human being.”
Damian huffed.”Yes, we’re all well aware of that now, but…you didn’t behave in such a way when you first arrived.”He said hesitantly.”Not with the rest of us at least, not for at least 6 months. You only did so with father and Cassandra. Why?”
Duke opened his mouth, struggling and grasping for an answer like a fish out of water, adn all of them were looking to him for an answer to this new question now. After all that self reflecting to answer that first little question, he already knew the answer to this one, and it was mushy and embarrassing. Back in the Narrows touching and hugging was a sign of closeness, a sign of trust and care between you and another person. It didn’t take a genius, a detective, or a genius detective to figure out why, after five months, Duke would suddenly start doling out hugs like a madman to people he’d barely brushed shoulders with.
“Well…I…started trusting you guys more.”Duke said slowly. His face was reddening quickly, but his expression had also grown soft.”Truth be told, the only people I’ve ever been as affectionate with as I am with you guys are a few of the kids who did the whole Robin War thing with me…and my parents.”A heavy tension fought to fill the room the moment he brought them up, just like he knew it would, but it was the truth. He knew himself, and he knew why he did what he did. Even in a situation like this, they were a piece of his motivation.
“They’re the people I’ve trusted and loved the most in my life, and a lot of happy memories I have are attached to ties of physical affection with all of them too. The more I got to know, trust, and love you guys, the more willing I was to make those ties with you too. Every hug is a different memory to anchor in my head, and I like having those anchors to the people I love.”
“And since I love you guys, hugs for memories.”Duke finished. A small smile made its way onto his face as they all settled into silence. The heavy caress of tension still floated over them in the air as he waited with anxiety bubbling in his chest for any of them to say anything. Logically he knew they wouldn’t have anything bad to say about all of the really personal and kind of painful stuff he’d just unloaded onto them at like 4 in the morning, but any man’s heart could get the best of their head at the best of times.
“I think that’s beautiful, Duke.”Bruce said, finally breaking the heavy silence and cracking the tension in the air in half. Duke could hear the smile in his voice and the shine in his eyes even before he turned to look and see it for himself.”I’m happy you trust and…love us enough to make such important ties.”
Damian hummed his agreement.”It’s similar to things mother used to tell me. Some cultures make memories of people and loved ones from physical objects those people have loved in their lifetime. You make your memories through your physical affections,” He said. A tiny smile threatened to tug at his lips even as a yawn took over his body.”It’s…nice.”
Dick laughed.”Yeah, what Dames said. I’ve never heard something so corny that I love so much! I’m sure I speak for us all when I say we’re touched…Sunspinner.”
“Wing, I swear to all the gods–”
Bruce cleared his throat loudly, stopping them in their tracks and drawing their eyes to him.”It’s far too early and late for any of you to be fighting. Or disappearing.”He added with a pointed stare at Duke.”We’ve gotten our answers now, so how about we get some sleep and finish the discussion in the morning?”
“One your only ideas I love old man. Good fucking night.”Jason huffed, flopping his head down and burying himself deeper into the bed and the cuddle pile with his eyes shut.”And Narrows? That’s some real nice shit you’ve got going on in your head. Love you kid. Night.”
Duke had to blink back a few tears at that.“G’night, Jay.”
Slowly they all made themselves comfortable again, burrowed in blankets and bodies in an incredible cocoon of warmth molded from care and love. The slivers of moonlight seemed to illuminate them all in a heavenly glow that made the warmth blooming in Duke’s chest feel palpable. As he was about to fall asleep, his head pillowed on Bruce’s chest, one arm over Cassandra’s back, and his other arm reaching upwards so his fingers could thread through Damian’s hair, a thought suddenly struck him. So with a smile plastered on his face, he called out,
“Night guys. Love you.”
The following echo of all their voices ringing back out at him was like a choir, and it quickly lulled him into one of the most peaceful rests he’d had in years.