It was a month into his stay at the manor when Duke first met Cassandra Cain.

He was eating his breakfast- his favourite, scrambled eggs with buttery toast- and was quietly listening to the argument going on between Tim and Damian. There was always an argument going on between Tim and Damian, to the point where Duke thought they weren't even actually mad, it was just a habit.

"Drake, I swear, if you touch my plate again I will slit your throat."

Tim rolled his eyes. "Oh, I'm so scared."

"I'm serious!"

"If I had a nickel for everytime you said you were serious, I'd be richer than Bruce."

"Stop touching my plate!"

"I'll stop touching it once you stop taking up my space."

"Well, I am the blood son of Batman, I deserve more space than you."

"If I had a nickel for everytime you said you're the 'blood son', I'd be-"

Duke finished the last of the toast and stood up to bring the plate to the sink. He found it weird when the others left their plates on the table- it was something his father had drilled into him, to always clean up after himself.

He bit his lip and forced himself not to think about his parents. To not think about the way they used to be, loving and beautiful, before the Joker and the laughter and the-

"Duke?" Tim's concerned voice sliced a scar through his thoughts. "Are you alright?"

Duke blinked and found himself holding his plate so tightly it was almost shattering. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Just... thinking about stuff."

Tim frowned and opened his mouth as if he were about to say something, but before he could the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" came Dick's voice from the corridor, as he skid across the hall in his Superman socks towards the door.

He opened it and practically squealed with delight at the girl standing on the porch.

"Cass! It's so good to see you!"

Cassandra smiled. "Nice to see you, Dick."

"How's Hong Kong? It's been so long since you've been here, I've got so much to tell you..."

Tim and Damian got up from the table and went to greet their sister. Duke placed the plate in the sink, watching warily from his spot in the kitchen. He had heard about Cassandra Cain, of course, and had seen her in the pictures, but he had no idea what she was actually like.

Cassandra looked across the room and locked eyes with Duke, and Duke felt himself swallow.

"Brother?" She directed the question to Dick, pointing a finger at Duke.

Dick grinned. "Oh yeah, you haven't met Duke yet! He's our newest baby brother, except he's not a baby because that title still belongs to Dami."

"I am not a baby, Grayson!"

"Aw, you're so adorable when you whine."

Cassandra Cain made her way across the room towards Duke. He stood there, shuffling slightly. It felt weird when you had to meet your family; it was never something he considered growing up. Most people knew their families their whole lives, after all.

"Hello," she said.

"Hello."

"Cassandra." She held out her hand.

He shook it gently. "I'm Duke. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you," she repeated. He remembered that Bruce said she was never taught to speak or to read or write, and was somewhat amazed at how she learned it so late in life.

"So, uh..." Oh damn. What was he supposed to say now? "Nice...hair." He wished he could smack himself in the face.

Cassandra laughed, though, so at least it wasn't a total failure at conversation. "You nice hair too," she complimented warmly.

And then she was swept away by the others, talking and laughing under the high-vaulted ceiling. Duke smiled.

He'd always wanted a sister.

There was music playing through the hallways.

Duke furrowed his eyebrows and shut the TV off, poking his head out of his room. The music swelled and ebbed like the tide, high scratchy violins playing a jaunty tune, while low cellos bellowed a bass line. He slipped out and followed the sound, feet padding softly on the floor.

The melody lead him to a small room in the just three doors to the right. The door was slightly ajar, a line of light spilling across the wooden floorboards. He peeked through the crack.

The music came from a radio, sitting on the floor in the center of the room. Beside it was Cassandra, dancing, twirling across the carpeted floor. She spun and leaped, seeming to hover in the air for a moment, before landing back down without a sound. Her hands arched above her, graceful and elegant. It was the purest form of ballet- smooth, effortless, and yet the strength and pain was rippling just under the surface.

Suddenly, her head snapped towards the door, and her eyes locked on his.

Duke flinched and fell onto his butt just as she opened the door, her head cocked to one side. He blushed fiercely.

"I- I'm so sorry," he stuttered. "I didn't mean to look- I just heard the music, and..."

She shook her head and held out her hand. He took it warily, and she pulled him up in an effortless motion.

"...Thanks."

"No problem."

She held out her hand again, and he stared at it uncomprehendingly.

"Dance?"

He blanched. "What- you mean me? Dance with you?"

She nodded enthusiastically.

Duke blushed an even deeper shade of red. "I can't really dance, sorry. I mean I took some lessons once but I think they kicked me out cause I was worse than everyone else? I mean, I don't really know, but-"

Cass took his hand and dragged him into the room, where the music had changed to a jazzy, upbeat tune. She immediately started swaying to the rhythm, swinging Duke's arm in encouragement.

"No, really, I can't dance- I'll just end up stepping on your foot. I'll do it all wrong-"

"No wrong," Cass said determinedly. "Just dance."

And she leaped into her own little routine, not ballet anymore but no less beautiful. And she reached out with both hands and started spinning him around, laughing, and it turns out her laugh was contagious because soon Duke was laughing with her, doing his own little spins. And it was ridiculous and he was pretty sure he wasn't doing it right, but it felt right, anyhow.

Well, at least until he tripped and smashed into the radio.

The music cut off with an abrupt screech and Duke groaned, rolling over to lie on his back on the floor. Of course he had to have two left feet. Of course he had to ruin Cassandra's dancing.

He sat up and stared forlornly at the broken radio. "I'm so sorry, Cass. I told you I can't dance!"

But Cassandra just laughed, sitting cross-legged in front on Duke. "You dance well. Lots of energy."

"Maybe too much," he said sheepishly.

"Tim will fix," she assured him.

"Oh, great. You're not going to tell him I did that, are you?"

She winked at him. "Secret."

"Good, because I don't think I'd ever live it down."

He watched as she gathered all the broken bits and formed a pile next to the intact part of the radio. He noticed her hands were scarred, like almost all of the family's, and looked down at his own smooth brown palms.

It was only a matter of time before he became scarred like them. He wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not.

"Hurt?" Cassandra was looking at Duke worriedly.

"What? Oh, no. My back's a bit sore, but that's it." He avoided Cass' gaze. "Anyway, you're a really good dancer, you know that? How'd you get so good?"

The pleased look on Cassandra's face made him feel fuzzy. "Talking."

"Talking?"

"You with mouth. Me with dance."

"Oh. So, it's as easy as talking for you, huh?"

"It is talking."

"So...what did I say, when I danced?"

She smiled but didn't say anything, instead standing up and walking over to a desk on the far side of the room. He sat there, unsure whether to follow her or not. Suddenly, music filled the room once again, a soft piano sonata weaving through the air.

"One more time?" Cass asked, holding out her hands.

He looked at the phone playing the music and decided that it was near impossible to break that, too.

"Sure," he said, taking her hands. "One more time."

Duke zipped up the duffel bag as Cassandra came back into the room.

"So, this is everything, I think."

"Thank you," she said warmly. "Big help."

"It's no problem. I kinda have a lot of free time, what with it being summer and everything."

Three days had passed since Cassandra had come to the Manor, and now it was time for her to leave again. Duke had offered to help her pack up while the others prepared a surprise cake for her, which he was pretty sure wasn't a surprise since Dick had accidentally yelled out 'let's bake a cake for Cassandra!' and then proceeded to get punched by Tim.

It was strange in a way- he felt like Cassandra learned more about him than he ever learned about her in these few days. It was like what Damian had told him, about the way she read body language. He still hadn't quite wrapped his head around it yet.

"Let's go," Cass called. "I want cake."

"It's supposed to be a surprise, by the way."

"I know," she smiled. "Brothers are bad at surprise."

They entered the main hall and were suddenly bombarded by confetti. A colourful streamer hung above them, reading 'GOODBYE CASSANDRA!' in bold letters. Bruce stood with the others, holding a only slightly misshapen chocolate cake.

"You may want to be careful, Master Cassandra," Alfred remarked dryly. "They made it themselves."

She cut into it and shoved a big chunk into her mouth. "Delicious," she said around a mouthful of chocolate.

Dick beamed. "See, with our collective strengths we can make something edible!"

"You mean, if we locked Bruce out of the kitchen," Tim deadpanned.

Bruce huffed but didn't deny the truth. He wrapped his arms around Cassandra instead.

"Goodbye," he said gruffly. "Try to visit more often."

"I will," she murmured into his shoulder.

"Goodbye, Cass!" Dick cheered, followed by a chorus from Tim and Damian. "Buy me some more souvenirs!"

"Of course. Jason will come next time?"

"We'll kill him if he doesn't," Damian said, without a shred of humour.

Cassandra turned to Duke and smiled, a smile that lit her eyes. "Goodbye, Duke."

"Goodbye, Cass." He felt that lingering sadness at saying farewell. "Come back soon. I'll look forward to more dancing lessons."

She laughed. "Me too."

Duke watched as she left through the door, making her way through the gardens accompanied by Alfred. There was a grace in the way she walked, the same grace Dick possessed too, like they were always swimming. Looking back, he saw the rest of the family eating the cake, not bothering with utensils and just using smudgy fingers. He felt a weird kind of contentness, if that was even a word, at looking at them.

He never imagined it could shatter so easily.

Soooo wow, this was a fast update by my standards! I know I don't write nearly enough of either Cass or Duke, so here's both of them together in one chapter! And yes, the next chapter will probably be more angst than fluff, whoops (I always slip back somehow).

If you enjoyed reading this, please like/follow/review! Thank you to all those who have done just that on the previous stories, I really appreciate the feedback. I know I don't always take the time to reply to them, but they really do mean a lot to me and I'm so grateful for everyone who has done that!

P.S: I was looking through my old stories and stumbled back onto One Call Away, which I said I might do an epilogue on and it seems people want that, but I haven't and it's been like two years (whoops). I actually fully intended on doing it, but stumbled into a MASSIVE case of writer's block, going through like 3 different versions! I really loved the first chapter, which is why I wanted the epilogue to be really good, but I guess it didn't work out. But I'm determined to start working on it again, so hopefully it will be out soon! Keep your eyes peeled!