WAITING g a m e., raven/open (:

[Donovan McVane]

This was completely ridiculous. It would have been fine if Donnie hadn't been aware of how stupid he looked (and felt) waiting for his daughter in one of the over-sized chairs of Gotham's mall. There he was, perched in a black armchair that looked better-suited for someone's living room than in the middle of a stretch of stores next to a couple of flashy advertisements for make-up and a huge poster promoting the Pussycat Doll's newest single or whatever it was they were trying to do practically naked- though he had to give it to them, the songs were catchy as fuck. But that was beside the point, and the point was that Donovan felt ridiculous. Or whatever that next shade of ridiculous happened to be.

With a theatrical sigh, he pulled the cell phone out of his pocket, weary eyes wishing that Raven's number would magically pop up on the screen and she would affirm that this nightmare would end and he could go home. Instead of waiting around in the dead center of a large crowd, feeling like a parrot on display more than anything else. Why a parrot? Why not. He wouldn't have been half-surprised if someone threw a cracker his way at this point, and again he mentally bashed himself for sitting down in the forsaken chair at all. How could you expect to be taken seriously?

Nothing. Returning the phone to his pocket, Donnie tried to relax, his eyes scanning the constantly moving throngs of people for the distinctive shock of bright orange hair his daughter was currently sporting. For once he was thankful that she didn't still have the dark, ever-so-ordinary hair she had been born with since it would make it that much more difficult for him to pick her out of a group of people, and he made a note to comment on it. And he would if he ever saw her again. Though he had only been waiting for 15 minutes max, he was already in 'antsy drumming fingers' mode, and he didn't want to burn a hole through the chair or anything.

A toddler toddled up to him, and the small boy was only noticed in hindsight until he actually tugged on the leg of Donnie's pants.

"Hey kiddo," he said with a half-hearted smile, looking down with a distracted interest. Where the hell did you come from he thought, wishing that it wasn't a law that you had to be nice to children even if they weren't yours. The thing gazed up at him, transfixed with big, brown eyes before letting out a gleeful gurgle. Sure, that was cute for two seconds, until he spit-up, covering the pants he was pulling on with a pool of spittle.

Donnie stared as the boy beamed up at him with a giggle. Yeah, little kids were officially scratched off his 'Things I Like' list.

"Oh. Fantastic," he said finally, as he looked around for a parent or some kind of help. Any kind of help.

Definitely not what he signed up for when he had offered to pick up his teenage daughter from the mall.

[Raven McVane]

[ It's poop... XD But I know, 'you love poop'. <3 ]

Quite frankly - Raven did not wanted or needed a day at the mall, or any other crowded place that society wanted you to think were 'good places to cheer you up' rather than saying the truth, which was 'we really don't care if you like it, as long as you spend! spend spend spend'. She was not a fan of crowded places, and unlike her friends seemed to think, she was doing just fine, thank you very much. Also, she wasn't needing any clothes, acessories or whatever they wanted her to come and choose, with them. She tought she had her exit door, tough, when she stated she might not have a ride home, which would have therefore made the whole activity unattendable, for her. But what a shock it was, when her dad told her it was no problem.

Sweet mother of christ on rubber crutches... Sweet. Of course she didn't argue, and went to the mall, looking like just one of those teenagers ready to have a great time, but truly, she had been absent minded most of the day, but she didn't let that show. That was her life, now. She had always been an easy going teenager, laughing, and then sometimes not smiling, and that ahd been normal until her mother died.

Althought that was a while ago, she couldn't stop smiling for a second now, without someone around her flipping out and thinking that she was being depressed and that they had to do something about it. That was pathetic, but she had to play along if she didn't want some cheezy conversation about her life to start!

Truth was that when she was depressed, she'd more often than not get better by staying alone. But that wasn't something anyone seemed to understand... Except her dad, maybe! Yeah maybe he had it all figured out, hence why he'd take any chance he had to go to Arkum. Yeah...not.

She shoved those kind of toughts away as she waved her friends goodbye, turning around rapidly to head for the rendez vous spot her dad had settled. She held a medium sized bag, since she did bought at least a little something, just for appearances. The teenager kept the fact that the ride home would surely be more than a little awkward, out of her mind, until she made out her father's stature, sitting a few steps away.

As Raven got closer and closer, she noticed something tugging at her father's leg, and before she could tell if it really was a toddler involved into a social activity with Donovan, it was gone, rushing away with a loud giggle.

'' You made a new friend, or what ? '' She said, as lightly as possible, when she caught up with him. Only at this sociably correct distance did she notice why the thing had left in such an hurry, and the teenager had to fight off an amused grin with all her strenght as her green eyes traveled down to his pants.

[Donovan McVane]

Of all the luck, was the current expression running through Donovan's mind as he gazed at the mess on his pants with hopeless disgust. As if he was a cowboy who had just missed a jackrabbit with his shotgun out on the prairie, because who the hell used the expression 'of all the luck' these days? Oh, he was a mess in more ways than one, that was for sure- though the unwanted attention from a small child could hardly count as his biggest problem.

'' You made a new friend, or what ? ''

He looked up flatly, "Uh-huh. Hate to break it to you kiddo, but you've just been demoted to number two in my life. Me and my new friend are going to go put back a few drinks at the pub- who knows, maybe even get a little rowdy. Have fun living at the mall."

Frustration suddenly crossed his face as his eyes followed the toddler who was now dancing what had to be a victory dance in front of his parents who looked appropriately amused, seeing as the kid did belong to them and it was only proper to put up with your own child's weirdness. "Dammit," he muttered with a scowl, "He didn't tell me he had other plans."

After glaring at the kid for as long as he figured he could get away with, brown eyes slowly traveled back to his daughter and a smile broke across his face- the same pained, close-lipped smile he always managed to save just for her. "Did you have a good time?" he asked, standing from the seat without hesitation and brushing at the greenish spot on his pants without actually having his fingers come into contact with it, for fear of what it actually was. Some form of Gerber baby food from the looks of it, but he didn't want to invest faith in anything he wasn't entirely sure about when it came to alien stains.

He noticed the bag in Raven's hands, and it brought him some comfort to know that she was still able to function at a normal teenage level when pressured into it. Though he did understand that it couldn't be easy for her to go out and have a good time after everything their little family had been through, he just didn't know what else to do other than usher her off with her friends when he wasn't around, which happened to be most of the time.

And he wasn't an idiot- he knew that what Raven needed from him was more than a ride home from the mall, but it was as much as he could manage for the time being. It wasn't fair for her to have to cope with so much alone, but he just couldn't bring himself to discuss Angelene's death with her, to grieve together rather than alone at least not yet. And that she had so much of her mother in her- her face, her personality, her singing voice...it was hard for Donnie to even bring himself to look at her at times, when his former wife had become such a taboo subject in the McVane home. So he was doing the best he could, really. His best just wasn't cutting it.