STEPHANIE

“Pretty much, and thanks to my power set it was kind of a no brainer to do this sort of thing.” Lark said as his fingers kept working on the fabric he was trying to create. “Why not just ask if you could use the name? The worst thing they could say is no, and then you could just look for a brand new name that speaks to you. Of course we’d have to work on a color scheme design, and make sure you look good while making it optimal and safe for you.” he finally said turning around with a smile. “I know a lot about people wanting to live up to legacies and names, my boyfriend is technically mutant jesus.”

-

“Wow, must be nice to have a power set,” Steph teased, smirking as she crossed her arms. It was interesting to watch him work. “Yeah, I’m allowed to use the name, but that doesn’t mean I can change up Batgirl’s suit too much.” Over the years she’d made it her own, the purple hadn’t been there before, and she considered other ways to make it more unique. Now that everyone knew their identities, it didn’t really matter anymore if she blended in or not. “Mutant Jesus, huh? Didn’t know you guys had one of those.” 

“Yup, I am. Good, because I seriously need to think about what the hell I’m going to do when he start getting bigger.” Lark smiled, before looking at his ball of fluff. “Anything you want, I specialize in making suits for supers, and I might be able to create self repairing fibers without the need to use nano technology. So um, you could ask for a custom design and or one of the prototypes to this.”

-

“That’s something you do for a living?” Steph gaped at him, eyes wide. Most of their outfits came from Bruce’s mysterious tech. None had been made with the idea of fashion in mind, although there were elements to both the Robin and Batgirl suits that made each of them meaningful in their own right. “I dunno. It’s not really up to me. I’m not the, uh... original.” Not the original Batgirl or the original Robin.

Chuck had been real upset when he heard about Batman, the guy had been nice to him and it was awful he was gone; Charlie had cried about it all night and Chuck had held him till he fell asleep.

Not wanting to bother any of the family he’d kept to himself but he had reached out to Stephanie, his niece, the thought still making him smile. However, when she didn’t respond he figured she just needed space so he’d carried on as best he could. Hearing from her a little while later brought a smile to his face and he’d gotten up early and been for a run to work off some excess energy.

When he arrived (wearing jeans and a tight-fitting tank top) he got several looks of interest from other customers that went completely over his head and he sat and waited. As Steph arrived he was up and pulling her chair out straight away, “Hey,” he said quietly, not hesitating to take her hand in both of his and squeeze, “Don’t worry about it kiddo. How are you?” he asked, expression open and earnest.  

-

Steph wasn’t used to people that checked up on her. Maybe her mom used to, once upon a time, but that was before the drugs took over. Her father had been in and out of jail for most of her life. She’d never relied on him and took pride in actively rebelling against everything he stood for. 

It made sense to her that she wouldn’t have known much about Chuck. Her dad didn’t exactly share things with her easily or readily. Then again, she hadn’t ever asked. If there were family on his side, it stood to reason that they’d be more like him, and that wasn’t something she wanted to invite into her life. However, Chuck was... not that.

He wasn’t like her dad at all. The fact that Chuck hadn’t even gotten along with her dad when they were kids, according to him, further cemented the idea. It certainly made her realize that she’d been quick to judge that side of her family as crazy without actually ever meeting them. 

Though it made her sad to know that she hadn’t been there to meet Charlie, or even known about it until she’d read it in Bruce’s file. Charlie had been her cousin.

Relaxing, she folded her fingers over his tightly. “I’m okay,” she said with a tired smile. “It’s just... weird. Um, you know. A lot to decide and deal with. Also, I’m... a little out of shape.” She’d been doing patrols, but being expected to keep up with Batman demanded a level of physical conditioning that she hadn’t operated on in while. Ted Grant had offered to help and she was going to take full advantage of that.

When the question had come up of how long they were supposed to keep filling the role of Batman, nobody really seemed to have an answer. Jason sure as hell didn’t. He’d do it until he wasn’t doing it anymore, and that was the only handle he had on it. Regardless of if it lasted for a month or ten years, though, he didn’t know if he’d ever actually acclimate to it. It wasn’t that he had never headed up a team before. He had. He’d had people answering to him at a variety of different levels, but that was Red Hood. They’d been working with or for the persona he’d made himself, not the one he was trying to fit into.

“And you look like a twelve year old playing dress up in that one,” he answered without missing a beat, “so we’re even.” There was one benefit to the cowl. Jason hadn’t had much chance to work with some of the others before. They’d all mostly fallen in line with the League, so he’d antagonized more than helped until recently, and he’d steered clear of most of the shit they did back in Gotham unless he couldn’t help it. He and Steph hadn’t done much of anything together in an official capacity. Part of him looked forward to it. Of all of them, she was the one he expected to adjust to the easiest.

“We’ve got a lead on Bliss production. It’s the first local hit we’ve had. Everything else has been coming in from the outside, and the last shipment in was a bust.” He didn’t go into details. That was between him and Dick. “But if they’re cooking the stuff up in Star City, whoever’s behind it is getting more ballsy.”

Maybe this was supposed to be the new normal. Steph didn’t know when it would feel normal, but she was happy enough to fake it till she made it. Whatever that involved. For her it typically included punching things, so she was excited to get the night started so she could exercise some poor coping skills. The funeral hadn’t been easy to get through, but at least she’d managed to cry. She was pretty convinced none of the boys were even capable of that.

“Well, at least I’m not wearing the shorts. I’ll never understand how you fit your legs through those little holes.” She was just as capable of dishing it back if she had to. Thankfully Tim had made some improvements on the Robin costume before it fell into her hands. It left her with the perfect fodder for taking jabs at Jason - and at Dick too, when he got on her nerves. Usually those reasons were very different ones, but the sentiment was the same. “They’d look cute on me though.”

It was surreal, frankly. Tim had set to redesigning the batsuit to fit him almost immediately after the decision had been made. Unlike Dick and Jason, Tim wasn’t built like a brick house. He’d always been more for agility or speed than that. He was smaller, more compact. So much so that part of him feared that he looked stupid in the cowl. That they’d never take him seriously. Still, he pushed it aside. He had work to do. They all did. There was no time for the insecurity, even if he was rife with it. 

Fitting another gadget onto the belt and checking the commlinks and other electric components, he barely noticed Stephanie when she had come in, and he certainly didn’t see her little pep talk. But when he was finished and all that was left was to pull the cowl up, he turned to make his way over to her. 

She looked natural in the suit, even if Bruce hadn’t let her have it for very long. Seventy-two days. It was almost insulting. She was so much better than that, but Tim knew that Bruce had been afraid of another Jason. Stephanie had been green then, but he knew that the decision to fire her had forever shaped her lack of confidence. If anything, he truly hoped that this redeemed her in her own eyes. She deserved that. “He does,” Tim agreed. “And I couldn’t ask for a better one.” 

In spite of everything, Stephanie had been consistent with Tim since they had arrived in Gotham. Stephanie was always something he could look for for grounding. A good part of a foundation to return to when he needed to not lose control. After losing Bruce, they were all barely dealing, but she gave him something else to focus on. “It felt weird for me,” he offered. “Putting the suit back on. Is it for you?”

There was an undeniable difference in how each brother looked in the Batsuit. Steph could tell them all apart by their little tells. Still, each of them would occasionally remind her of Bruce, and it always made her heart twinge. Not that she could tell any of them that without risking the entire night going to shit. It wasn’t easy to fill Batman’s shoes, she knew that, and she was doing her best to be as supportive as possible. That was what Babs said they were here for, right? So she’d swallow down her own feelings about it, even though working so closely with Batman again was bringing up a host of memories.

“Really?” She grinned, turning to and fro in front of Bruce’s display cases. She could catch her reflection in the metal.  “I dunno, my butt is a lot bigger than it was back then. I might need to watch it if I bend over.” Ripping her pants down the middle was not on the agenda for the evening, even if it might introduce a small moment of levity.

The suit didn’t have the same significance to her as it did for the others, Steph knew that, but it still meant something to her. It was something she’d gotten to contribute to at least in part, even if it had only been for a short time. Bruce had trusted her with it in spite of everything that happened later. That meant something to her. It meant a lot more than she ever admitted to him - and if she harbored guilt for anything, it was that.

@clickforspoilers​

“Hey there, I know you just walked into my shop and this is probably gonna be really weird to ask, but could you play with my puppy while I finish my latest project?” Lark said to the girl as he waved with his puppy’s hand at her. “His name is mochi, he’s trained, but he’s very hyper, and if you do this I’ll let you have whatever you want for free. Cause if I get this done, well I might just become the number 1 hero costumer in the world…or y’know, the tri-state area.”

-

“Are you seriously asking me to play with your puppy? Because uh - duh - you don’t even have to ask.” Steph was already cooing and kneeling down on the floor. Motioning to the puppy, she grinned up at Lark. “Mochi? That’s adorable. And you’re lucky, because free things happen to be my favorite things.” And if a chance existed for something as simple as playing with a puppy, then she was down.

“You look like such an asshole in that thing,” Steph said with a smirk, adjusting her own mask as she shuffled up to the edge of the roof. She’d already given Dick the typical ribbing, but this wasn’t the first time seeing him in the suit. It was her first time seeing both Jason and Tim in it, however, and she couldn’t resist a jab or two. 

Holding dual roles turned out a lot easier than she expected. Steph didn’t have to change a lot to adjust from Robin to Batgirl and vice versa. If anyone could handle the role solo it would be Tim, but she didn’t think it was right that he be the only Batman without a Robin. With Jason she got to be Batgirl, who basically just wore a tighter costume. “What’s the situation, Bats?” Surreal. Here she was, taking orders from Jason, and somehow it felt normal. It’d been like that with Tim and Dick too, but there was something eerie about standing next to Jason specifically, who was similar in build to Bruce.