"Evangeline Grace Williams-Fallon, what on Earth are you wearing?"
His teenage daughter freezes in her tracks, one hand on the handle of the front door, the other about to grab her jacket. Her shorts are unreasonably short, and the word "shirt" could only be applied loosely to what she had on.
"Uh…"
"No. Absolutely not. There is no way you're wearing that. Go change right now." He knows how teenage boys think, and he knows letting his daughter leave the house dressed like that is a terrible idea.
"Mal," Natara admonishes from her seat on the couch. Beside her, Evan is smirking at his sister.
"Da-ad," she whines. Mal crosses his arms and gives her his best No Nonsense look. A second later she slumps off in the direction of her room, muttering under her breath the whole way.
"Mal," Natara sighs again. "She looked fine. Pretty, even."
"Yeah, you should see what some of the other girls wear to school," Evan grins at him. "If you think what Angie's wearing is bad, you'd have a stroke seeing some of my classmates. I swear, second semester seniors are wild. No one cares about school rules one bit."
"That's different," he grumbles. "None of those girls are my daughter." Evan and Natara roll their eyes in unison. Natara stands and winds her arms around his waist.
"You know," she says, "if you embarrass her the night she has her first real date with a guy, she's never going to forgive you." She gives him a small squeeze, and his breath rushes out of his lungs for a second.
"I don't need her to forgive me," he says stubbornly. "I just need my fifteen-year-old to not look like she's about to go stand on a street corner."
"That's a gross exaggeration, and you know it."
"Is this better?" their daughter huffs from the hallway. She still has the same shorts on but her shirt is no longer clinging to her and it covers everything important, and he figures that's as good as it's going to get without starting an argument.
"I suppose so," he concedes. He makes a face as Angie grins.
"You look beautiful, sweetheart," Natara says with a warm smile, and Angie flies to her.
"Dave will have me back before curfew, I promise," she says, hugging Natara first, then Mal.
"Have fun," Natara says, kissing Angie's cheek. "And be safe."
"I will."
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Mal tells her as she grabs her jacket. "Wait. Actually no, don't do anything I would do. Just don't… do anything."
Angie makes a face at him and pulls the door open. "Sure, dad. See you guys later."
The door pulls shut behind her, and Mal watches through the window as she runs up to the boy's- Dave's- car. Beside him, Natara arches an eyebrow.
"Smooth."