polychromatic | But in the end gravity just doesn't really give a damn

DC Universe
More than any other day it's only gravity
Stephanie Brown (Spoiler/Robin IV/Batgirl IV)
Written for a multifandom women comment ficathon
Posted here.
Prompt: DCU | Steph Brown | gravity plays favorites, I know it 'cause I saw/honest to god, officer, it's awful
489 words

The Bat-Family, she likes to say while accentuating the words with a quirk of the mouth and air-quotes, has a not-so-secret love affair with flying. Bruce has all his fancy flying toys that let him hover over Gotham like the over-possessive guardian he is. She's seen Dick throw his body effortlessly through the air like a bird in flight enough times, and if she's going to be honest she's always been envious of Tim's perfectly executed (and probably meticulously calculated) grappling hook and swinging style. Even Damian has a certain bird-like grace, descending like a vicious little hawk on his targets, and then there's Cass, who could probably flatten everyone in three seconds all while launching herself into the air and diving down again, pulling off aerial moves that half of them could only ever dream of.

With her it's different, though; Stephanie and gravity have come to an understanding. She's fallen flat on her face more times than she can count, literally and figuratively, so they're pretty well acquainted. If there's one thing she's learned to depend on, it's that gravity will always be there waiting to welcome her into its painful, humiliating embrace.

At first she'd kind of been resentful, because seriously, it was hard enough basically being the redheaded stepchild (no offense to Babs and Jason) in the already dysfunctional pseudo-family that Bruce had gathered around him. Being the bloated watermelon to everyone else's lithe feather in a contest of who'd hit the ground first was basically the equivalent of having a giant "Kick Me!" sign in that insecure place that told her she just wasn't good enough. Give in and hang up the vigilante hat, Steph, the death knell on your costumed lifestyle is a-tollin'.

Somewhere along the way she learned to accept that she was never going to win her eternal battle with gravity, but that didn't mean she couldn't make it work for her. It wasn't that she was any less begrudging towards its pesky pull (in fact she dedicated many an angry haiku to the subject mid-fall), but if she couldn't manage to soar she could at least learn to stick the landing or roll out of a fall with some panache. Just because she knew she was falling didn't mean everyone else had to know it wasn't just a planned maneuver.

More importantly though, she'd learned over and over how to get up after each fall (again, literal and metaphorical). Each time she'd just pick herself up, dust off the debris, and then take off again. Sure gravity had all that physics gobbledygook that said it could easily bring her down, there was no denying it, but that's where its power stopped. It could pull her down but it couldn't keep her there, and as long as she was gravity's favourite plaything, she'd keep on standing after each fall.

Maybe one day she'll even master how to hit the ground running.

(Bonus Haiku

Dammit, gravity
Way to make a girl feel like
A flailing hippo)