Prompt: Anonymous asked for Max being obsessed with Alex's tattoos. I touched on that in the last one, but here's some more.
It starts when she's still in prison. By the time he's around two, Max usually ends up on her lap during visits, pressing sticky fingers to the tattoos on her arm, and asking at least every few weeks how she got them there.
One visit he shows up and immediately starts squirming against Piper's right hip until she puts him down, even before they've crossed the visitation room.
He runs to Alex with his shuffling, unsteady toddler gait, arms held stiffly at his side, and Alex bends down to scoop him up for a hug, but as soon as she's holding him, Max is proudly holding his arms out. "Look, Awex!"
Both his arms are marked with temporary tattoos, in various stages of fading or flecking off. There are dinosaurs and superheroes and flowers, freckling his skin seemingly at random, from wrist to elbow, sometimes overlapping.
Alex grins, biting her lip to keep from laughing and swapping an amused look with Piper, who shakes her head in a nothing I could do sortof way.
She takes one of Max's hands in hers and examines the tattoos admiringly. "Those look awesome, Monster. Very badass."
Piper makes a delayed, high pitched warning noise at the same time Max giggles against Alex's neck. "Mommy, Awex said ass."
Alex makes an apologetic face at Piper as they maneuver a hug in greeting. "Oops, sorry." Then, sitting down at the table with Max on her lap, she addresses the little boy, very formal, "I'm sorry, Max."
He doesn't seem bothered, shoving his wrist in her face. "See this one? It's a pi-wate!"
"So cool. He's not scary, is he?"
"No. I wanted a flower wike yours. But Mommy said it too big."
Alex smirks at Piper over the top of Max's head. "Hmmm. It is pretty big. But you have way more than I do, Monster. So you're even cooler."
He absolutely beams at that, and under the table, Piper kicks the edge of Alex's boot. "This is entirely your fault, you know."
When she moves in with them, Max becomes fixated on the tattoos all over again. He likes to draw his own in magic markers, or sometimes commission Alex or Piper to give him more accurate renderings. Half their washcloths end up stained rainbow from scrubbing marker off his skin at bath time.
Piper can never bring herself to reign in the habit, not when it's so sweet that Max wants to be like Alex, and not when Alex is so unfailingly patient about letting Max "add" to her own tattoos with marker, anytime he's struck with the creative muse.
She does give Alex no end of shit about being a bad influence - "At this rate, he's going to be trying to get real ones by the time he's in middle school" - finally pushing it enough that Alex picks Max up, carries him over to Piper, and promptly shows him Piper's fish tattoo.
Max immediately names the fish Stanley - seriously, Stanley - and demands Alex draw him an identical one, in the same spot. Which is how she ends up on the couch, smirking way too triumphantly while Max and Piper, with her hair piled on top of her head, sit in front of her on the floor, turned around while she attempts to channel her poor artistic skills into a fish on Max's neck.
When he starts kindergarten, he wants to bring their tattoos for Show and Tell, which would involve both of them coming to class. Alex seems game, but Piper gently shuts down the idea.
"You know how he is...if you came for Show and Tell he'd tell everyone that you used to be in prison, and I'd have to be all noble and admit that I was in prison, too, and then every teacher at school will know he's being raised by felons."
"At least that'll lessen the shock when he ends up being the only fifth grader with real tattoos."
When she gets back from the tattoo parlor, even though they'd talked and talked about this being a secret, Max accosts Alex as soon as she sits down.
"What is it?" he demands impatiently, crawling across the couch and onto Alex's lap for better access to Alex's arm. He starts picking his fingernails ineffectually at the edge of her bandage.
Alex playfully bats the little boy's hand away and gives him a teasing smirk. "I told you, Monster. It's a surprise. I'll show you on your birthday."
"It's only in five more days now!"
"I know," Alex replies, feeling the familiar, bittersweet tug at her chest. Max's knees are digging sharply into her thighs, and almost-six-year-olds are fucking heavy, but all she can think about is that pretty soon he'll be too big to sit in her lap. Pretty soon he won't even want to.
Max pulls his eyebrows together, suddenly concerned. "But, uh...that's not my real present is it?"
Alex pulls a confused face. "We were supposed to get you a present? For your birthday?"
"Momma."
"I hope Mommy remembered, cause I didn't know anything about that."
Max rolls his eyes, long suffering, an expression that is so very Piper it's impossible to remember they don't share DNA. "I know you're just messing with me."
"Me?" She gasps, mock offended, playfully shaking his shoulders. "How dare you?"
He giggles, returning his attention to the bandage, tracing his finger lightly over it in random patterns. Alex winces a little when he presses on the tender area, but she doesn't tell him to stop. "Did it hurt?"
"Not much," she answers honestly, glad Piper isn't within earshot. She's pretty sure the only way to discourage Max from pushing for tattoos by age twelve is to convince him it's exceptionally painful.
She wears long sleeves for the rest of the week, not wanting Max to see the tattoo until it's at least somewhat healed, using his birthday reveal as an excuse.
He still asks everyday, multiple times, and on the morning of his birthday, he wakes them up before the alarm, diving headfirst into bed between them and announcing, "Wake up, we're having a party today!"
Piper wakes easier than Alex, and she's dimly aware of Piper sliding over and pushing back the comforter so Max can settle between them as she whispers a happy birthday and pretends to scrutinize him for signs of aging.
Alex has barely rolled over and given him a bleary eyed smile before Max is on his knees and leaning over her, pulling back sheets. "Now I get to see your tattoo."
Smiling, awake now, Alex sits up and shows him: on the inside of her upper left arm is an illustration from Where the Wild Things Are, the character Max in his wold suit and crown, roaring. The illustration is copied closely, though the features are slightly altered, and you can just see brown curls peeking out from under the crown.
Max delicately touches the tattoo, an awed expression on his face. "That's from our book!"
"It's you, Monster," she says teasingly. The book has been something between them ever since Alex moved in two years ago. The comparison had seemed appropriate considering her nickname for him.
Abruptly, Max grins remembering his part, and he yells with obviously six year old lungs, "LET THE WILD RUMPUS START!"