fics where Steph isn’t legally adopted but is still Part Of The Family are so fucking funny to me. like why is this teenager at all these fancy galas? nobody knows who she is. Bruce Wayne just keeps showing up with a gaggle of children and half of them aren’t even his. people keep stopping him at the door and trying to tell him that ‘these are prestigious events, Mr Wayne, you have to be invited or related to an important invitee in order to come inside.’ and Bruce just keeps going ‘prove to me she isn’t my daughter and i’ll kick her out.’ and then the doormen have to start frantically googling to see if there’s any articles online about Bruce’s 6th legal adoption. there isn’t. he’s bluffing to buy time. by the time the staff realise Steph is indeed just a random unrelated child Bruce let tag along, she’s already missing in the crowd and they can’t fucking get her out.
i would like to see more fics centred on Steph sneaking into Gotham high society by using Bruce as a shield. she walks in half under Bruce’s coat or blocked from security’s sight by a line of Legal Wayne Children and then has to spend her evenings as an outlaw/gala-stowaway because if she gets caught by the guards she will get her ass thrown out for not being invited. i want to make it very clear that Bruce reminds her on a weekly basis she Does Not Need To Do This. not only is Bruce fully willing to adopt her on the spot but she also just doesn’t have to attend all the events if she doesn’t want to. Steph’s doing this for the love of the fucking game.
there has to be an occasion at a gala where Bruce does his usual bluff of ‘she might be my kid you don’t fucking know’ to get Steph in, except the head of security for this event is so sick of Bruce’s shit that he’s prepared for this exact scenario ahead of time and brought a lawyer with proof of Steph’s legal status. three minutes in when Steph hasn’t even had an opportunity to slip into the crowds she’s being held back and told she isn’t allowed to attend. the security team are really smug up until they have to watch the entire league of Wayne kids spending the entire event all crowded around one slightly open window so they can talk to and pass food/drink to Steph, who has decided to attend the event from outside.
there also has to be an occasion after people start catching on to Steph’s game where the kids are trying to come up with ways around this without giving in and letting Bruce adopt Steph, and there’s a point where Jason just pauses and then goes ‘what about if you’re a legal child, of a legal child….?’
cut to the head of security at the next gala genuinely considering quitting his job and going back to retail as he stands in front of the Wayne family which includes Stephanie with Jason’s arm wrapped around her as she holds out an adoption certificate.
“This is my daughter.” Jason says calmly. “Let her in.”
“She’s four years younger than you.”
“Don’t harass my son for having my granddaughter young, you don’t know his story.” Bruce calls out from the back of the crowd.
“I’m seventeen,” Steph tells the doorman seriously. “I’m just a child. You can’t separate me from my mom and dad.”
“Whose your mom?”
and Dick lays a comforting hand on Jason’s shoulder, “We co-parent.”
the entire wayne family is slammed online for bullying event staff.
