Little Maxie

Chapter 31

Like Brad had expected, the rest of lunch was very interesting. It wasn't as if Max was trying to get dirty or to not cooperate, but his headspace was just a little on the young side, enough to make it difficult.

The big pieces were clearly disliked, and even though Max tried his best to chew them, it seemed like it just kept on slipping out of his mouth and down his chin, adding more stains to his shirt.

By the time that lunch was done, Max seemed to be wearing more than he had eaten, and Bradley had taken out the packet of wipes, trying to clean Maxie as good as possible, and even thought he face wasn't much of the problem, the shirt seemed to be unsalvageable.

"There, that's already a bit better," Brad said.

"Still sticky," Max said, pulling on his shirt and looking at it with a frown.

"I know," Bradley answered, having hoped that the little wouldn't have minded. A snort left Christian at those words, the man not looking to them while they were busy, and Brad ignored him for the moment.

"Don't like it," Max wanted to make clear, putting extra effort to pronounce the words very clearly?

"Well, how about we try to fix it then?" Bradley said with a smile, sounding more sure than he actually was.

"How?" Max asked, looking doubtfully at the caregiver.

"How indeed?" Christian muttered, keeping his eyes trained on the tablet on his lap, but an amused smile on his face, even when Bradley took a moment to glare at him. Max tried not to shrink in himself at the look, thinking that he had said something wrong when the sudden angry look appeared on Brad's face.

Feeling slightly nervous, Max put his thumb in his mouth to try and calm down, to not let anyone notice that he was feeling anxious, his hand going to the little sack with his bunny ear in. Bradley had made sure to put it back in there during lunch, and Max had listened, scared that he would dirty it otherwise, but now he wanted it back. But he was still dirty, so he couldn't.

Bradley turned back to Max, unable to hide a smile when he saw the little look up at him with big eyes, his thumb in his mouth. He looked so adorable for the moment, and Brad was glad that he had dared to put his thumb in his mouth.

"I think I got an idea," Bradley said with a smile, and Max blinked up at him, puzzled.

"You do?" Maxie asked, and Bradley nodded, ignoring the disbelief in the voice.

"I think we can take off your shirt, and then replace it with my sweater," Bradley said, and Max eyes widened, thinking it over. He would at least be stuck in his dirty shirt anymore and he could take out bunny ear again and whisper all that happened to it.

"Is good idea," Maxie said, happily surprised, and now feeling impatient to get out of his dirty shirt.

"Well, let's do it then," Bradley said, taking off Max's shirt who lifted his arms to help. The shirt was put inside out to make sure it wouldn't dirty anything and put to the side. Another wipe was used to clean the rest of Max's chest and then the oversized sweater was pulled over his head.

"Is warm," Maxi said, snuggling into it, liking the thick, soft fabric.

"Yes it is," Bradley said, sitting down next to Max, smiling at the little, "do you want something else?"

"Can I have bunny ear now?" Maxie asked hopefully and Bradley nodded, feeling sad for Max to only have that little thing of comfort.

As soon as Maxie got permission, he didn't waste a second opening the bag and hugging the ear close by, turning a little bit away. He curled up his legs on the seat, and tried to make himself comfortable as possible on the small space. Hugging the ear close, he made a startled noise when suddenly the seat went down a little.