The red
suit.
The green
tights.
The yellow
cape.
It had been a full week and she could still barely believe that she,
Stephanie Brown, Nobody from Nowheresville, Gotham, was Robin.
For realsies, in the Batmobile, beating up bad guys with Batman and Batgirl,
ROBIN!I mean, yeah, sure, she did those things sometimes as Spoiler, but who the heck was Spoiler?
No-one! That's who! But now!
"Take five, Robin."
"Huh? Oh. Uh. Sure. Alright Boss! Can do, B-man!"
"And stop humming."
"I can only try!"
Steph beamed as she pushed herself away from the counter top, where they had been running timed drills of matching pairs of fingerprints in forensic slides with a microscope.
By they, it was really Steph running the drills, while Batman chastised her for not being fast enough. Not being Tim. But that didn't bother her. Why?
Tim wasn't the one here in the suit right now, was he?
No.
She was Robin now.
Wandering around the cave, swinging her arms, finally realizing what she had been humming the entire time.
Slowly breaking into a grin, she knew what she had to do.
"I am the one and only, oh yeah~
Call me, call me by my name or call me by number
You put me through it
I'll still be doing it the way I do it-"
Whipping back around to point at the only other visible member in the cave, Batman, the pitchy, purposely annoying voice that would go on to be used over comms for years to come continued.
"-And yet, you try to make me forget
Who I really am, don't tell me I know best
I'm not the same as all the rest-"
Running, and sliding across the floor to the display cases, as if to make a point along with the lyrics, almost pressing her face against the glass for a split second, before shaking her head, shoulders and hips in a wild, ungainly dance, her heavily gelled, spiked hair unmoving.
"-I am the one and only
Nobody I'd rather be
I am the one and only
You can't take that away from me
I've been a player in the crowd scene
A flicker on the big screen
My soul embraces one more in a million faces-"
Turning from the case, melodramatically miming at her face, then to the sky, twirling once.
"-High hopes and aspirations, and years above my station
Maybe but all this time I've tried to walk with dignity and pride
I am the one and only
Nobody I'd rather be
I am the one and only
You can't take that away from me
I can't wear this uniform without some compromises-"
Grasping the cape in both hands and holding it to her, pirouetting before letting the cape go to flare out, motioning to the cases again.
"-Because you'll find out that we come
In different shapes and sizes
No one can be myself like I can
For this job I'm the best man
And while this may be true-"
Running back over to the counter, closing the distance her dancing has caused, slamming her hands down on it, scattering all the practice slides she had been matching.
"-You are the one and only you-"
Twirling back away, vocalising the guitar solo, playing the most wicked air guitar the Batcave had seen maybe ever, still trying to stubbornly shake her stiff hair.
"-I am the one and only
Nobody I'd rather be
I am the one and only
You can't take that away from me
I am the one and only
Nobody I'd rather be
I am the one and only
You can't take that away from me!"
Finishing her joyous number, shaking her cape untangled from her arm, the Bat who sat unmoving spoke after a beat of silence.
"... are you quite done?"
Lowering her eyes to the scattered slides, Steph sighs slowly.
"... yeah, I'm good."
"Good. Don't sing in the cave. Or the suit. It's not a game, Robin."
[Patrol, January 1st, 2020.]
"Oh, only you and me available tonight, huh B? That's a real shame… a damn shame. You are, one could say, the one and only..."
"Don't you dare, Batgirl..."