InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Don't make me use my numchucks"

damian wayne has a predilection for sharp objects (entitled_bat) wrote in newalliance,
@ 2016-12-18 20:16:00

Entry tags:

damian wayne, nightwing, red hood, red robin

Who: The Bat Boys (Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian) & NPC!Sin
What: Last minute Christmas shopping or something like it.
Where: Gotham City Mall
When: Sunday, December 18th
Rating: PG

Normally, going to the mall was an uneventful affair but not the week before Christmas. It had officially become an Event or perhaps and ordeal. The parking lot alone was ridiculous. A few hours after the place had opened, people were reduced to driving around at 3 miles per hour stalking any shopper who looked like they were leaving. (It had happened to them a few times when the shopping bags had become too unwieldy.)

Drake had planned out the whole day with careful precision which Damian had found ridiculous... at first. At the moment, the group had gathered at the food court. They'd all split up. One of them standing by to pounce on an empty table, one to get food, and another to get drinks. Damian was walking back from Starbucks with a tray in his hand. Two coffees (one of which may or may not have been 'accidentally' decaf and a black tea for him. Sin was trailing close behind her two hands wrapped around a cup of hot chocolate.

It was slow going as they weaved in and out of the crowds, dodging shoppers and overstuffed bags alike. Finally they reached the edge of the food court and the duo stopped. Now it was a matter of who they could find first in this crowd.

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fliesbynight
2016-12-18 09:10 pm UTC (link)

The boys could be awful procrastinators. Honestly, there was so much going on that they didn't get a lot of time to get together for the 'normal stuff', which included shopping for the holidays. So when it finally became obvious they all still had lists, that Dinah was really too far enough along that walking hours in the mall was not high on her 'want to do' list, and Sin still needed to discover the joys of shopping, Tim had found out their schedules, informed them of the plan like they were going into battle (close enough), and the three had pulled up early to the massive store structure and taken their routes Tim had outlined.

Of course Sin had chosen to go with Damian. Dick decided this was adorable, and couldn't help but think that this was a good thing for Damian, to be responsible for her and thus unable to hide away from the crowd and ditch them there. It was good for Damian as well, to be stuck in the 'unwashed masses'. He had come so far over the years.

Tim had taken a table and cleaned it up, and was now on his phone, scrolling through items after texting his location and order. Dick set the laden tray down just as Sin and Damian were coming up (to Tim's dismay he had deviated from the plan and doubled back to get coffee an hour earlier so was now ready for soda instead, but honestly, Dick didn't do things by strict linear plan unless necessary). It wasn't too hard to spot Damian. Dick just had to scan the crowd for two dark heads and someone with a personal bubble the size of the Atlantic. He gave a short, high pitched whistle to catch Damian's attention, waving with a big smile, seemingly entirely happy to be in all the noisy chaos of the mall.

Tim didn't look up when the other three approached. "How are we doing?"

"About 70 percentish done," Dick said with a waver of his hand before sinking his hand into a pile of fries.

Tim looked to Damian, seeming surprised that he had actually gotten him the requested coffee, reaching out with a thank you. Wow, even seemed to be what he ordered. Then to Sin. "Handling everything okay?"

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entitled_bat
2016-12-18 09:59 pm UTC (link)

Sin gave a firm nod then situated herself on one of the empty seats. The people in the crowds were more a curiosity than anything and the decorations were fun to look at. There seemed to be garland and snowflakes and even a few Santa hats everywhere you looked.

Damian handed Dick his drink then took his tray off the food. The crowd didn't seem like it was thinning out at all. In fact, the food court was even more crowded than the rest of it. There were flocks of teenagers just loitering about and queues in front of every fast food area.

"I think the question is more whether these stores will run out of inventory before we arrive," Damian pointed out. There was, he was learning, a lot to be said for online ordering and overnight delivery.

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red_detective
2016-12-19 08:10 pm UTC (link)

Tim smiled approvingly at Sin. It was such a different world from where she grew up, and she was handling it with wonder instead of fear. "Good. You just let us know if you get uncomfortable or have questions." They were always happy to answer questions, though sometimes things that they just knew as part of their culture were hard to explain at times.

"He pulled his pita bread and soup toward himself after taking a sip of drink. He then immediately took another drink, brow pinching ever so slightly before stirring the soup with a spoon. "It's the season, Damian. They should be well stocked for the demand."

Dick took a much different approach to his food. He was shoveling fries in his mouth before grabbing up the burger and yawning his jaw open to cram a third of it in his mouth, chewing with puffed cheeks before sucking at his soda, things rapidly disappearing.

Tim had meanwhile looked at Dick's bags, brow raised. "What could you want from Vic Sec?"

Dick chewed while thinking, then swallowed and grinned. "Maybe I have sensitive skin."

Tim looked deadpan at him. "Never mind. I feel dumb for asking now and don't want to know what you got Babs."

"For your information, they have some cool sporty tops that I thought she'd like that actually look comfortable."

"Nope! Don't care now! Damian, how much have you gotten done?" Tim looked at him, hopeful of being spared any jeering from Dick.

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robin_outa_hell
2016-12-19 09:44 pm UTC (link)

This was not the worst decision he'd ever made. Jason reserved that description for times when he actually almost got himself killed due to severely misjudging exactly how many guns he was going up against. As bad as it was, this was just realized that if he stayed in the same apartment as Eddie and Cap much longer he was going to drive himself insane, and jumping to the conclusion that going to the mall the week before Christmas was in any way better.

He snagged a coffee, hunkering into his jacket - still leather, even if the weather really wasn't suited for it anymore, even with the hooded red sweatshirt beneath it - and as he threaded his way through the knots of people, he could admit that there was something stupidly normal about teens hanging out, being cool, while parents rushed through to get the last gifts for Christmas.

He should probably put some thought into that himself. Way things were going, he should at least give a token gesture or whatever to Cap and Eddie. Cap for sure, given how he'd helped clear a HYDRA nest, and Eddie at least to keep him entertained in a manner that didn't involve governmental servers until they were ready. Come to that, he should probably throw Tim something for doing the translations and code-breaking and bringing pie, and Dick to fend him off from any excesses of holiday spirit.

Taking another long swallow of coffee, Jason had just resigned himself to wading into the crowd and seeing if a half-hour at the mall would net him any ideas about an kind of gifts or if he should just buy online like everyone did, when there was a very specific voice that just managed to cut across the chatter and clatter of the food court.

And of course that was Dick and Tim and Damian at a table not entirely far from him. Because that was how his life worked.

He had options. Option one was pulling up his hood and turning away and pretending that he hadn't noticed them. It might even worked. Option two... He sauntered up to the table, swiped a chair and straddled it backwards. "So," he said, as if he'd always been intending on meeting them here.

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entitled_bat
2016-12-20 05:51 pm UTC (link)

"Tell that to the angry customers," Damian had retorted to Tim's comment that stores should be able to meet demand. There had been quite a few conversations he'd overheard containing the phrases'could have bought this online' 'but my daughter needs this for Christmas' and 'this is why you're going out of business.' Holiday cheer seemed to be optional.

Though he was loathe to give Tim a sitrep, it was far more preferable than letting Grayson talk about a lingerie store. Or his lovelife. Still, no reason to hurry. Damian took another sip of his tea right when Jason decided to join them.

Damian spared him a look then ignored his dramatic entrance and turned his attention back to Tim. "I still need to go the electronic store and the pet store."

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red_detective
2016-12-20 07:59 pm UTC (link)

"No thank you," Tim said with quiet politeness. He'd managed to avoid being irritated or reacting to irritated people, and he could pull off the pleasant, cheery shopper when it suited him to get the best customer service.

"It's really shirts!" Dick was saying while Tim internally counted at Damian's procrastination. And hey, if there were other presents lurking in that bag with the honest-to-gawd tops, Dick wasn't giving any tells. It was the safest place to hide them when Tim seemed to make a smooth hobby out of averting his eyes and Damian seemed so utterly disinterested. (It was totally worth Tim's earlier, irritated texts when he'd disappeared elsewhere in the mall, too.) "Sin, you believe me, right?"

Tim was about to tell Damian never mind. What did he care if Damian got his shopping done? So long as Sin was getting presents, that's what...

Then Jason sat down.

Dick had another mouthful of burger, so he stopped mid chew. Tim had been about to take a sip of soup, the spoonful dribbling back into the bowl when he stopped paying attention to it, giving away the surprise despite his face's seeming composure. Damian spoke, and suddenly the stills that were Jason's sibling-sorts went into motion again, Tim dropping his spoon into his untouched soup and pushing it toward Jason the same time Dick pushed the rest of his fries Jason's way.

"So," Tim said, taking up the narrative (because Dick couldn't, struggling to get his giant bite down his throat quickly). "We still need to hit the North and West side of the mall, than, which is great, because it takes us right by the tea store, entertainment, and Legos." He took a sip of his coffee.

"I wanted to go to the LEGO store first," Dick complained, having finally won his food down.

Tim looked at his coffee suspiciously. "That's precisely why we didn't hit that side first," Tim said, brow pinched. "What about you, Jason? What do you have left?" As though he'd been there all along and was just fashionably late.

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robin_outa_hell
2016-12-21 07:37 pm UTC (link)

It was always nice to see he could have an effect on people, particularly people like them, who made it their life's work to not be surprised, for one reason or another. Well, except for Damian, but the little demon assassin didn't let much get to him. Jason rather thought Tim's eyes actually glazed over as he tried to make sense of what just happened, which was probably fair as Jason was trying to figure out what just happened, too. There was not taking shots at them, and then there was actually sitting at a table with them.

Still, he wasn't going to be able to avoid them, even in this mess, so he may as well join them. He glanced at the bowl being pushed his way, because that was really fucking obvious, Tim, and nudged it right back. He did eat, and not always crap takeout. But the fries were there, so he stole a few, as if this was a nice normal thing they did because they were all...what, in the same foster home?

"Couple of co-workers," he said, which really was the easiest way to define what Cap and Eddie were to him. "Electronic store might have something for one of them," he added. Not Eddie; he'd have to slip into the tea shop and get him something soothing from there. Cap, though, might like something shiny, for all he'd been born in a different time.

Then he just had to actually get these guys gifts. This was why he didn't like doing family shit, it sucked you in. He scowled at the fry, and swiped another. "LEGO store's going to be swamped with the under-three-foot crowd," he informed Dick. Then again, they had the young girl with them, so maybe that was the point.

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