parentheticalmess:

okay so, i’ve been seeing David as Max’s foster Dad au and I think I’ve seen a few fics where David just finds out that Max is gonna be his kid and vice versa but I haven’t seen a fic where it’s like, a few years into the actual fostering which is a shame because

• imagine David dropping Max off at school, imagine David hugging Max in front of everyone every day. David’s the kind of parent that will go to all the PTA meetings and bake cookies and pop into Max’s classroom just to give him his bagged lunch that he (purposefully) forgot at home and heck he’d probably even be a substitute teacher at one point and at first Max would be like I do not know this man and zip his hoodie all the way up and slump in his chair from embarrassment but eventually it gets to the point where he doesn’t act positively to David’s greeting at school but not negatively either

• talking about school, David is the kind of parent where it’s ‘homework now, play later’ and Max is the kind of kid where it’s like ‘fuck homework that’s just plain bullshit’ so initially Max is failing all his classes and it gets to the point where he’s getting calls from the teachers and he’s like “nu uh mister we are working on homework right now”. Eventually they reach an agreement where Max tries his ‘best’ and David helps him with any trouble he has and Max gets a longer bed time. (Honestly Max is just working enough to do straight C’s when he *could* do straight A’s but David is fine with that as long as Max gets better grades in high school in preparation for college.

• okay but no, imagine teenage Max having had David as his foster parent for a while now. David wakes him up at seven chipper as ever as always, they have cereal together while David talks about his job at the youth center and asks if Max slept at his agreed bedtime (no) and if he studied for the test he has today (Max didn’t even know he had a test today) and after they’re done David hums as he packs up Max’s lunch

• “here you go Max, I put in your favorite: peanut butter and jelly sandwich, with a little capri sun and some m&ms. I added an apple cause you know what they say, “An apple a day keeps the doctors away.”

• And it’s routine at this point right? Four years of this shit and Max does what he always says. He says, “Thanks David,” and goes to the car to wait for David to come out three minutes later to drive him to school. 

• Except this time: this time he says, “Thanks Dad.”

• IMAGNINE DAVID’S FUCKING PURE SCREECH OF JOY, IMAGINE HIM HOLDING HIS BULGING CHEEKS AND THE WRINKLES OF HAPPY IN THE CORNER OF HIS EYES AND IMAGINE MAX REALIZING HIS MISTAKE.

• “I said THANKS DAVID, thanks David,” Max says panicked though at this point they both know he meant it. It’s just tradition at this point to try and discourage David at every possible route.

• “No, I heard it. I heard you!” and David’s doing a little jig in their tiny ass kitchen before going in for a hug, “You called me Dad! Oh, I don’t know wether to jump in joy or cry in joy.”

• “Neither. And let go, you’re choking me.”

• David lets out a little sqeak of joy, “Oh I dreamed of the day you would call me daddy-”

• “That sounds so wrong. Don’t phrase it like that ever again-”

• “And it’s finally happened oh my gosh, I have to call Gwen.”

• And yeah, David calls Gwen at like seven in the morning just to gush about Max calling him Dad while Max is waiting impatiently at the door with his lunch bag like, “Come on David, I got classes to go to.”

and yeah. yeah.