The Wayne family, that is. That’s obvious enough. At the end of the day, where she packs up her things and rides the bus home or jumps across the empty space between roofs, she goes home to her own mother and creaking bed and stained carpet.
There’s still a room in Wayne Manor that is right across from Cass’s, and just two doors down from where Dick normally stays if he’s spending the night. There’s a soft purple blanket thrown across the bed, and someone has stuck dinosaur stickers up on the window. There’s a pack of colourful bandaids tucked into one of the drawers, and in the adjacent bathroom, there’s the shampoo she always uses.
She’s still not part of the family.
She bends over her own kitchen sink and nearly swears when she can’t get a stain off of a plate that she’s been eating off of for years, she sews up the holes in her own sheets and brings her mom coffee when she asks for it, and the local dogs and cats know her by scent at this point.
There’s still always room at the table for her, whenever she stumbles downstairs after a long night and a short text saying that she’s staying over with Cass or Tim, even when she hasn’t seen either of them in a week. There’s waffles hidden in the cabinet for her, and she always picks the plate with Jason’s clumsy signature scrawled across the rim in ceramic paint, and the fork with the weird eagle logo that’s been half rubbed off by age. Alfred slides breakfast over to her without pausing his conversation with Duke as Steph tucks in like she has a million times over.
She’s not part of the Wayne family.
She sighs over the holes in her jeans and the way her shirts are nearly transparent with age. She swears loudly when the hot water suddenly turns icy, and she counts the change she keeps hidden in shoes and coat pockets whenever she’s hungry, blonde curls wild and bouncing in the wind, or tied up and secured with a bobbypin under the bright purple hood.
But she still stands there, a mild discomfort settling into her arms as she holds them up, Selina eyeing the seam at her waist like it’s a particularly aggravating goon. The tailor adjusting the long, expensive, fabric around her ankles as Steph wonders why she let Selina talk her into shopping, knowing full well her taste meant the highest price tag in the store. Her hair is pushed back casually, as Selina makes an offhanded comment about how her muscles are improving since she last saw them. Steph didn’t realise she’d paid attention to her at all.
She’s the furthest thing away from the Wayne family.
She still gets an invite pressed into her hand, printed words spelling out recital. Damian does not make eye contact, simply tells her to dress well, and that he expects her there. Steph wears a dress Bruce bought for her, for an undercover mission, not wanting to outdo Damian’s real family. To say she’s a little bit shocked when she’s sat next to Dick, and only Dick, is an understatement. She still cheers loudly and claps so hard her hands sting when Damian comes onstage, polished wood of his violin nearly glowing in the stage lights.
Steph’s not part of the family.
But she still gets a call from Jason at seven in the evening, when he’s meant to be having a family dinner, and asks where she is. He nearly laughs out loud when Steph asks why she would be at a Wayne family dinner, and there’s soon the rumble of a motorbike and a voice yelling at her to climb down the fire escape already. She arrives at Wayne Manor with her hair a mess, pain stains on her jeans, and holes in her converse. She’s sat down next to Bruce in a three-piece suit, and Alfred pours her a generous helping of everything. She spends the night laughing so hard her chest hurts, and Duke has to hit her on the back to keep her from choking. It’s the first time Steph met Kate Kane, and she thinks she might want to try bright red hair too.
