Author's Note: I have been drowning in school work lately so I haven't been able to even think about writing but since it's Father's Day today (in Sweden at least) I decided to write a quick chapter.
I'm currently visiting my brother and celebrating my birthday (which is on the 13th) so I didn't have much time to write this and barely no time to edit it.
Hopefully you will like it anyway! :)

Also I just had to include the new Joker movie...simply because I watched it last week and absolutely loved it and I'm going to watch it again tomorrow.

Okay enough from me, I hope you will like the chapter despite it being written in a hurry and I will try to get another update out soon!

Happy Father's Day!

Neal had never been the best at keeping track of dates, that's why he had no idea that Father's Day was coming up until he saw Sara making a card in their art class.

"Who's that for?"

He asked, curiously, as he watched her colour in a car that she had drawn.

"It's for my daddy, for Father's Day."

Sara answered and Neal froze, feeling bad for not knowing.
What if Sara hadn't told him and Father's Day had passed without him giving Peter anything or even wishing him a happy father's day?
That would probably make Peter feel unappreciated.
Neal looked down at his drawing, where he had started to draw the characters from The Lion King, and decided to put it aside and start on a card for Peter.
It wasn't the first time that he had made a Father's Day card, he had made cards for James before, hoping to at least get a smile from the man, but no matter how much time he spent on the cards he always watched it end up in the trash can.
At least he knew that this time his card would be appreciated, the Burkes had never thrown away a single drawing that he had made, the newest ones were covering the fridge, while the older ones had been collected by Elizabeth and put into a folder.
He started to draw his family, making sure to put Peter in the centre, while Sara started to talk about what she and her parents were going to do on Sunday.

"We're going to a restaurant and we're gonna go bowling and we're gonna go to a car show."
"You said cars were boring."

Neal pointed out.
Sara's dad loved cars and loved to talk about them, which always bored Sara to death.

"Yeah, but daddy likes them and it's his day."

She answered with a shrug before she left their table to go and fetch something.
For James Father's Day had meant that his wife and son had to do every single little thing that he asked for and they were not allowed to even think about saying no.
He had always used it as an excuse to boss them around more than usual, so Neal hadn't even considered that you could do fun activities on Father's day.
He thought about what Peter would like and since he wasn't that good at writing yet, he got a scrap piece of paper and started to draw things on it.
At first he drew a TV with sports on it, knowing that Peter enjoyed watching sports whenever he had a day off, and then he started to draw more things until he had a whole day planned out.
Now he just needed to get Elizabeth to help him to actually make it happen.

Peter was the one to pick him up from school and it was almost impossible to contain his excitement.
He was scared of accidentally saying something that would give his plan away so instead he stayed quiet, something that Peter found very suspicious since he normally talked non-stop when he was picked up from school.

"You okay back there, buddy?"

Peter asked and looked at him in the rear-view mirror.

"Yeah, just tired."

Neal answered and looked away.
Peter didn't say anything more but he kept glancing back at him, sensing that something was going on, and it was at times like this that Neal hated to be the kid of an FBI agent.
His intuition really made it hard to keep secrets from him.
Once at home Neal shut himself in his room to continue to work on the card and once he heard Peter leave the house for his walk with Satchmo, Neal ran out into the hall and called for Elizabeth.
He explained everything in a hurry, scared that Peter would return any second now, but Elizabeth managed to understand everything despite him talking way too fast and once he was done explaining his plan, she wore a huge smile on her face.
"That sounds perfect, sweetie. I'm sure he will love it."

Sunday finally came along and Neal woke up when it was still dark outside.
Unable to fall asleep again, because of the excitement, he got up and put some finishing touches to his card,
He had spent the past couple of days working on it, making sure that it was the best card that he had ever made.
After what felt like decades, he felt that he could finally wake Elizabeth up and carefully walked into their room, hushing the dog who happily greeted him.
Neal shook Elizabeth awake and together with the dog they all silently left the room.
Elizabeth started to make breakfast while Neal, with some help from Elizabeth, started on the blueberry muffins, which he knew was Peter's favourite.
When it was all done they placed the breakfast and a couple of still warm muffins on a tray and brought it up the stairs.
Satchmo ran ahead of them and decided that it was his job to wake Peter up and he did so with a loud bark.
Neal giggled as Peter practically jumped up, looking very startled by the sudden, loud noise.
He then spotted them and the tray in Elizabeth's hands.

"What's this?"

Peter asked in confusion while Elizabeth placed the tray on the bed and Neal silently handed him the card.
Despite knowing that his card would be appreciated, he suddenly felt very nervous, wondering if it would actually be appreciated and if he should have spent even more time on it.
The drawing depicted Peter standing in the middle proudly showing the FBI badge in his hand, while Elizabeth was standing on one side of him with her arm around his shoulders and Neal was on his other side, holding his hand. He had also included Satchmo who was sitting by their feet with his tongue sticking out of his mouth.
With the help of Elizabeth he had written 'Happy Father's Day Peter! You're the best dad ever love Neal' inside the card and he had drawn some flowers, hearts and stars around the text just to make it look a little prettier.
After what felt like ages, Peter looked up and his brown eyes were now filled with tears.

"This is amazing."

He said and looked at the card again before putting it aside.

"Come here."

He said as he opened his arms and Neal happily obliged and went over to him, giving him a big hug.

"I love you, kid."

The agent said and placed a kiss on the top of his head.

"I love you too."

Neal almost felt like crying too.
When their moment was over Neal pointed at the tray.

"Look I made you muffins."
Neal said and they both laughed as Peter, after realizing that it was his favourite, quickly grabbed one and practically inhaled it.

After breakfast Peter spent the morning watching a baseball game on TV with a cold beer in his hand.
At first Neal had been very anxious every time he saw the adults drink some type of alcohol but with time he had learned that it was a big difference between when James was drinking and when the Burkes or Mozzie were drinking.
When his first beer were out, Neal quickly ran to the fridge to get him another one and Peter smiled and thanked him.
That was the big difference with James and Peter.
James had forced him to do things for him without ever even thanking him while Neal volunteered to do things for Peter and he was always rewarded with a thanks which caused him to feel appreciated.
After the game had ended they all went to the park together to play catch.
Neal wasn't a big fan of the activity, he had never been the physical kind and would rather do something creative, but he knew Peter liked it and therefore it was a perfect activity for his day.
While they played catch, Elizabeth played fetch with Satchmo who happily chased after the stick.
At one point though Peter accidentally threw the ball too far which caused the dog to go after the ball instead.

"Give me the ball, Satch."

Peter said but the dog just wagged his tail and avoided his master.
Satchmo found it quite amusing when they tried to get the ball back and decided to turn it into a game where the humans chased after him and tried to get the ball back.
They tried their best, trying to circle the dog but Satchmo managed to avoid getting caught every time.
Eventually the humans got tired and they had to admit defeat.

They spent some time at home, playing some board games before the doorbell rang and Peter looked confused as June walked through the door, not sure how she fit into the schedule that Neal had created.

"We should get going if we want to get there on time."

June said, which only caused more confusion.

"Where are we going?"

Peter asked but all he got was three identical, cryptic smiles.
June volunteered to sit in the back seat with Neal, something that she started to regret after a couple of minutes since the kid wanted to play a very intense game of rock, paper, scissors.

"We're here!"

Elizabeth announced and Peter, who had been keeping his eyes on the game in the back-seat, looked up and realized that they had arrived at the movie theatre.
He got out of the car, still confused, before he stopped in front of all the movie posters and he connected the dots.
For the past couple of weeks he had talked about he wanted to watch Joker but it had never happened, until now apparently.
He looked back at his family, just to get a confirmation on what he was thinking and they nodded at him.

"I heard you talking about it, Peter!"

Neal exclaimed excitedly, he had hear him say to Elizabeth several times that they should go see it but something always got in the way and no plans had ever been made.

"Me and June are gonna watch another movie."

He then said and pointed to a kid-friendly movie that were going to play in another theatre.
They walked inside and June insisted on paying for everyone's snacks, giving the excuse that she didn't have her own dad to spoil, so she wanted to spoil the best dad she knew instead.

When the movie was over Peter and Elizabeth walked out to find June and Neal waiting for them, their movie having a shorter run time.
They were sitting on a bench and June was sitting perfectly still while Neal was drawing a portrait of her in a small notebook that June had brought, knowing that they had to wait and that letting Neal draw was the best way to keep him entertain.

"Neal"

Elizabeth scolded lightly as she saw the drawing of June.
Neal had decided to draw her portrait but to give her a silly face instead of the serious expression that she actually wore.
They all laughed about it though and June asked to keep it and put it up on her fridge.

"Did you love the movie?"

Neal asked Peter, thinking that if the movie wasn't good then it would ruin his plan to make Peter's day as good as possible, but luckily Peter nodded and said that he loved it.
They left the cinema and went to one of Peter's favourite restaurants before they all returned to the house and said goodbye to June.
To end the day, Peter got to choose a movie to watch and he chose to watch Peter Pan.

Neal only lasted for a couple of minutes, since he was exhausted from their busy day, and Peter only lasted a little longer before he fell asleep as well.
Elizabeth looked over at them, Peter still holding the remote in his hand and Neal snuggled up under his arm.
She quietly got up and took a couple of photos, from a few different angles, before she gently nudged Peter awake, realizing that he would have a serious neck pain if he continued to sleep like that.
The agent looked around him in confusion before he saw the movie playing and realized that he had fallen asleep.

"We should get him to bed."

She said quietly and Peter nodded before he carefully got up and then lifted the child into his arms.
Neal stirred a little but quickly settled when he pressed his head against Peter's chest.
Peter put the kid into his bed and tucked him in.
Just as he was planted a kiss on the boy's forehead, Neal spoke in a tired, groggy voice.

"Did you have a good day, daddy?"
"The best."

Neal gave him a small smile before he turned to a more comfortable position and fell asleep again.
Peter walked over to the doorway and put his arm around Elizabeth.

"Thanks for today, hon."
"Don't thank me, it was all Neal."

They both turned to the kid and watched him with matching smiles on their faces.

"We were incredibly lucky to end up with a kid like him."

Peter commented and Elizabeth agreed.

"I can't wait for Mother's day."