BruSteph

BruSteph is the friend ship between Bruce Wayne and Stephanie Brown from the DC Comics fandom.

Canon
Steph is Bruce's first female Robin in the main prime universe (and an elseworld story), as well as her being the Robin who doesn't get adopted by him. With Tim being forced to quite by his father, Bruce was in need of a new Robin, who ended up being the daughter of a criminal. Steph jumped at the chance to be a hero than a villain. Bruce, however, didn't approve of her disobeying his orders and had to depend her for a week, before finally deciding to fire Steph as Robin after two months. Despite being angry at Bruce for firing her like he did, Batman and Spoiler were still able to form a truce and work together again.

Batman first met Steph when she was using her Spoiler persona as a means to take out her villain father and soon became an ally of the Batfamily. Lending them a hand, before deciding to make herself the fourth Robin, since Batman was in need of one. Seeing Steph in her self made Robin suit and knows that she already has experience as a vigilante, Bruce decided to give her a shot. Training her up before taking Robin back into the field. After Steph was fired and went back to being Spoiler again, despite Bruce telling her that he doesn't want to see her as Spoiler either, she began to seek the Dark Knight's approval. Resulting in her stealing info from the Batcave and tried using Batman's consistency plan that goes terribly wrong. Steph being a lose canon and the number of deaths that her actions had caused, before finding her being badly hurt from the torture she suffered from Blackmask, Batman asks Leslie to let Steph die. He stays with her as the Dark Knight waits for Steph to sucome to her injuries. Steph asks him if her brief time as Robin was real or not, before she dies.

Even though Bruce wasn't fully aware of Leslie's plan to fake Steph's death, in order to free her from Bruce's war on crime, he did have his suspicions. That's why he didn't make a memorial for her after she was made legally dead. Nor was he too surprised when Spoiler returned, with Stephanie Brown behind the mask. As he welcomes her back to the Batfamily. Although Bruce and Steph weren't the ideal Batman and Robin duo, Steph would pick her mentor over her father. With her still wanting to good than bad, and Bruce can except of that choice.

Moments
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures
 * Seeing Steph prefer Green Arrow over Batman upsets Bruce.
 * Bruce tells Alfred that when he asked Steph if she would like to attend a gala party, she laughed in his face.

Fanon
Because Steph is limited to the comics and a small number of DC medias, that don't have her interact with Bruce on screen a lot, this friendship has been overshadowed by more well known Batfamily ships. Like BWDG and BruDami. Along with Bruce firing Steph as Robin, and had asked Leslie to let Steph die from her injuries in the earlier comics, has made the idea of this ship appear tens. Although, the two were able to call a true of sorts, like Bruce has done with his other young partners. Which has helped to give the ship some support and hope that DC would give its fans BruSteph moments outside the comics.

Even though Steph isn't one of Bruce's wards and her time as Robin didn't last very long, some people still like to think of her as his first daughter. Long before he adopted Cassandra Cain and the fact that Stephen is one of the BatKids beside Cass and the others. Along with the fact that Bruce has served as a father figure to most of his young partners. That is why some people like to portray this friendship as a familyship instead. There have been a few fanfics and AUs that do have Bruce adopt Steph, like he does before the events of the Wayne Family Adventures web comic.

Like with BruBabs, there have been rare occasions when BruSteph is treated as a het ship. The age gap and those thinking that Bruce is old enough to be Steph's father or uncle, however, prefer to keep it as a friendship or present it as a familyship instead.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

Trivia

 * Steph is best friends with Bruce's adopted son, Turner Hayes in the Gotham Knights TV series.
 * The Wayne Family Adventures web comic has Steph as one of Bruce's wards, but was yet to add her to the family tree portrait of him, Damian and his other wards.

Variations

 * Batfamily refers to the ship between the two and the rest of their Gotham city allies