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You were busy today, like really, really busy. Any and all plans you had to spend time lazing around at home with your family was out on hold for tonight -something you can curse whatever force is at play for. Why did you have to be a responsible adult!?
Jason decides to take this opportunity to have a father-son day with Maxwell. It was going to be perfect! They'll go to the park, go to Batburger for lunch, and pick up some groceries to bring back. Anything Max wants to do, they'll do it! But, it seemed like everywhere they went, someone from their family was there to intrude on the day.
Most people at this time of day are at work or school, the perfect time to head to the park and play. Jason pushes Max in his stroller with the umbrella over his eyes to keep the sun out. It's pretty peaceful outside with most people just minding their own business -except for this one lady who came up to him and asked if he was babysitting and then, after being told he's the father, asked if it was his weekend. That lady nearly ruined his mood, but seeing how excited his son was for the park, he decided to let it go.
They stop by a bench and Jason lets Max out of his stroller, "Alright, Angel, what do you want to do first?" His hands carefully fix the overalls' strap falling off Max's shoulder.
"Slide! Slide!" He points his finger toward the yellow slide. A look of excitement is written all over Max's face.
Jason chuckles at his excitement while picking him up, "The slide it is then," He walks over and sets Max down at the top, "Do you need help going down?"
Maxwell looks down the slide then curls into himself a little. Something he usually takes after you is your willingness to try everything at least once -with only a few exceptions to this- however, this seems like a bit too much to try by himself, "It scary..."
"Don't worry, I'll be right here to help you," He climbs up to the top then pulls Max into his lap, "Whenever you're ready, we'll go down."
Maxwell holds onto Jason's forearm with a nervous look on his face. He looks up at his papa for some confidence then stares down the slide, "I ready."
Before they could go down the slide, Jason heard a familiar voice call him out, "Jason? Is that you?" Duke walks over to him while holding a pencil and notebook. He notices Maxwell in Jason's lap and smiles, "Hey, Max," He playfully boops Max's nose.
Max giggles and grabs Duke's hand.
Jason furrows his brows in confusion at Duke's presence, "Aren't you supposed to be in school?"
Duke shows off his notebook, "My science class is doing field research at the park," His eyes quickly glance over his notes then look around and ask where you are.
"She has exams, Max and I are having a father-son day," Jason answers as he gently squeezes Maxwell, "It's a nice day so why not take advantage of it," He doesn't want to be rude, but he does want Duke to head back to his class so he can continue to spend time with his son.
Duke pinches Max's cheek, "I bet he's going to have the time of his life with his papa. Isn't that right?" He leans in closer to Max.
Maxwell cheers and nods his head excitedly, "Yeah! Fun, fun!" He leans back against Jason's chest.
Jason smiles softly -a smile barely noticeable, but only Maxwell saw it- He ruffles Max's hair, "Fun, fun," He quietly repeats.
Somewhere behind Duke, his teacher calls him back to the rest of the class.
"Oh, right, right... Field research," Duke scratches his skull with the eraser of his pencil, "I'll head back to my class," He waves and takes a few steps back, "Have fun, Max," Then he heads back.
A soft sigh escapes Jason once Duke leaves before looking down at Max again, "Alright, let's go down the slide."
Maxwell holds onto Jason's forearm tight as the two go down the slide together. Once at the bottom, he looks up at his papa with such a big grin on his face.
"See? That wasn't scary," Jason stands up from the slide with his son still in his arms.
Max shakes his head, "Not scary."
Having Duke appear wasn't too bad, he didn't overstep anything and let them be quickly, unlike the next few family members...
It's lunchtime now, Jason and Maxwell went to Batburger. Jason ordered a batburger deluxe for himself and a Bat-mite meal with Robin nuggets for Max.
Jason helps open the box for him then takes out the food and sets it down in front of him, "Look here," He picks up the plastic toy inside the box, "You know who this is?"
Maxwell reaches out and grabs the leg, "Bagirl," He glances up at his papa for confirmation.
"That's right," Jason lets him take the toy before tearing the skin off the nuggets and cutting it into smaller pieces. He watches Max play with the Batgirl toy while eating his burger
From the corner of his eye, Jason notices Stephanie and Cassandra entering the room. He quickly looks away from them and uses his body to cover Max in hopes that the two wouldn't notice them, but Jason's size isn't something that can go unnoticed.
Steph drags Cass over to the table with Jason and Max, "Hey! What are the chances of running into each other here," The two girls sit across from them.
Jason gets a bit annoyed by this intrusion, but decides against commenting on it, "Yeah... How fun..." He swirls his plastic straw in his drink.
Maxwell holds up his toy to show it off to his aunts, "Look Bagirl!" He's really excited to have a new toy for him to play with. He waves the toy around to show it off.
"That looks really fun," Cass says as she watches him play, "Who is your favorite hero?"
He stops moving the toy and looks up in thought, "Um..." Max chews on a french fry, "Baman?" He didn't sound sure of his answer, but he felt like it was the right answer to say.
Jason quietly cringes at the answer, but just smiles and ruffles his hair, "Well, the toy does have a cool feature to it."
Steph rests her chin on her fist as she sends a sky look toward Jason, "Hey, Jay~ I was wondering if you can buy-"
"No," He cuts her off without letting her finish then takes a few more bites of his burger.
Steph pouts and half-heartedly glares at him, "You didn't let me finish..." When Jason doesn't answer her, she decides to repeat her question, "Can you buy us lunch?"
Jason shakes his head, "No, you have your own money," He leans back in his seat, "My money is for me and my family only."
"Aren't we family?" Steph asks as she quickly grabs one of Jason's fries.
Maxwell nods his head, "Yeah, yeah!" He offers some of his fries to Cass but she declines it.
Jason can't say anything to go against his son so he just sighs and gets up to order Steph and Cass food.
Seriously, can't he just spend time with his son without anyone intruding on them?
Stephanie and Cassandra ended up sticking around longer than Jason would like and only left long after they were done eating their food. He couldn't tell them to go away when Max liked having them there.
There is only one last place left, Jason is confident no one would make an appearance. If only he knew who was next...
Jason pushes the shopping cart while Maxwell sits inside the plastic toy car attached to the front of the cart. Max loves this type of shopping cart, it feels like he's actually driving and going wherever he wants to go, even if the cart doesn't actually go where he wants.
The two turned down the pasta and sauce aisle, he was going to make spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner tonight. He stops right at the entrance from the sight of another one of his siblings. Why are they everywhere!?
Jason whispers, "Son of a..." Then he mouths the final word, "bitch," He quickly turns around to leave, but he is immediately spotted by the person he wanted to avoid.
"Hey, Little Wing," Dick walks over to Jason and pats him on the back, "What are you doing?"
His eye twitches in annoyance before he looks over at Dick and answers, "Just buying ingredients for dinner tonight."
"Unca Dickie?" Maxwell calls out as he looks out the little car window. The moment he sees his uncle, a huge smile grows on his face, "Unca Dickie!"
Dick kneels to Max's level to talk, "There he is! Tiny Wing, are you having fun driving around the store?"
"It fun," Max rests his head against the plastic car, "Fun, fun."
Jason leans forward and lays his crossed arms over the handle, "Every time we go to the store with one of these carts, we have to pick them," It definitely helps keeping Max with him and not worrying about him wandering off on his own.
"I would pick this cart too, it's super cool, huh?" Dick stands back up to full height and looks over at Jason, "Do you want to do the rest of our shopping together?"
Just as Jason was about to say no, Maxwell shouts, "Yeah, yeah!" Now how can Jason say no?
Jason takes in a small breath and nods his head, "Sure, let's do it."
Dick smiles and kneels to Max's height, "Let's see if we can convince Papa to buy a few toys," That suggestion made Max even more excited to have his uncle shopping with them.
"Dick, we don't have that much room in our apartment for more toys," Jason says as he starts pushing the cart, "Every time we pick Max up from the manor after an afternoon with Bruce, we end up with more toys."
The toy situation has become a bit of a problem at home. Hell, they might have to move to a bigger apartment just to dedicate a whole room to Max's toys.
Dick shrugs and falls into step beside Jason, "It won't be anything too big, just a few small toys."
Jason stops walking to look through the different types of sauces for the right one as he continues talking, "Do you know how big toys are for toddlers?"
Dick thinks for a few moments then answers, "You're right, no small toys for Tiny Wing until he's a bit older," He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a folded piece of paper, "I should get what I need too before I forget..."
That's when Jason realizes the strangeness of Dick being here, "Why are you in Gotham?"
"I'm visiting the manor and staying for dinner," Dick answers as he looks over the products for anything on the list, "Alfred set me out to pick up a few things."
Jason nods his head and glances over to where Max is sitting to make sure he's still there. Luckily, he is just turning the steering wheel.
The rest of the shopping trip went by without any more problems. Had to avoid the toy aisle to not tempt Max to yearn for another new toy.
Finally, it was time to go home, Jason set the grocery bag in the passenger seat and buckled Maxwell into his car seat then off they went.
Jason opens the door to their apartment then steps inside. He carefully puts Max down before kicking the door shut behind him and heading toward the kitchen.
He notices you lying on the living room couch with a random episode of a show you like on, "Hey, babe, how was the exams?" He places the bag on the kitchen counter.
"Mind melting..." You mumble. Max comes over to the couch then climbs on top of you with your help, "For the first few minutes, on information had evaporated from my mind, but it eventually came to me," You shift your body a little to be sitting up while Max sits in your lap and snuggling up against your chest, "I feel like I did pretty good on it."
Jason softly smiles, "That's great," He moves closer to you and presses a kiss against your forehead, "You've been running yourself a bit ragged over this exam."
You nod your head a little in agreement, "It's over now, more time to rest," You lean back a little to catch Jason's gaze, "Tell me about your day together."
"Well..." He sits down next to you on the couch, "We went to the park first and-"
Maxwell cuts him off to add, "Unca Duke!"
Jason chuckles and nods his head, "Yes, Duke was there for class while we played on the playground. Then we went to Batburger for lunch, he got a-"
Once again, he pipes up to add, "Auntie Steph! Auntie Cassie!"
"Angel," Jason crosses his arms and gently explains, "You can't keep interrupting like this when someone is talking," It's better to explain now then let the problem get worse later on.
Max nods his head and keeps quiet with a big grin on his face.
He ruffles Max's hair affectionately before continuing to speak, "Max got a Batgirl toy -we'll put it somewhere high so Max can't get it- and he showed it off to Steph and Cass. Then finally went to the store and ran into Dick."
"That sounds like a fun day," You peer down at your son in your lap, "You like having adventures with Papa?"
The smile on Max's face couldn't get any brighter than it is right now, "Yeah, yeah!"
Jason leans in a bit closer to them then pulls them both into his lap. He can't help thinking to himself that this is the best way to end the day, all of you together in peace.
Soon Max falls asleep in your lap and gives you time to talk to Jason, “So,” You rest your head against his shoulder, “What did you think about spending the day with Max?”
He takes in a shallow breath, “I wanted it to be just us, but everywhere we went, another one was there,” He runs his hand through his hair, “Max had fun so that’s all that matters.”
You smirk and teasingly ask, “Are you sure he’s the only one who had fun with his family?” Your fingers trail up his chest before cupping the side of his face.
Jason’s breath catches for a moment then he quietly laughs, “Okay… It wasn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be a bit selfish have him to myself the whole day,” His hand rests on top of yours on his face, “The people I unfortunately call my siblings didn’t have to be everywhere.”
“That’s just the joy of having a large family; they’re everywhere, but you have somewhere to retreat to,” You press a kiss against the corner of his mouth, “I’m glad you had fun today, Jase.”
“Me too,” He mumbles with a smile on his face.
Guess today still ended up being perfect to him.