Definitely Alex (not that I'm biased) followed so closely by April - he often finds things she does like wanting to play with makeup and shit like that which he doesn't jive with which is why she's second. Sometimes Alex is waaaay too much for Jackson though, and he needs breaks and will play by himself or with his real best friend Milo
🌈Preferred theme for regression gear?
He has two different ones - one is inspired by your Jackson because you write him perfectly - which is like retro 90s/early 2000s children's tv: like barney, Arthur, Sesame Street, etc
the other, when he's more overwhelmed and needs to have calmer things, (or is hyperfocusing on it) is space- he wanted to be an astronaut when he was very young - he doesn't like small spaces unless he's putting himself into them, plus it wasn't his family's plan to have him be one so that was ruled out entirely - he still loves space though, when he's big he reads a lot of articles, while when he's little he loves things like stars and rockets and things like that.
💐Clingy or independent?
He's pretty independent when it comes to playing - he doesn't need Addison or Mark to be there playing with him all of the time, but generally he's mostly in between clingy and independent - he loves Addison and Mark and is typically around them doing his own thing when they're doing theirs, Mark and Addison are clingy when it comes to him (considering his history) so they like to be involved with him even if it's just sitting beside him when he colors.
🪁How do they play?
He loves playing with things like lego as he loves building things, he also loves arts and crafts (though he hates certain things to do with crafts due to the textures) he also loves playing board games (very young ones when hes dropped and any when hes bigger) even when it's just Mark, Addison, and him which is a too small group to play with. He's not super into rough and tumble things, but he does love going to the playground with the other members of the terrible trio
He's also getting better at using his imagination to play, as that was never encouraged by his family
🌸Are they open about their regression?
I tend to write verses where littles are common/ a known and accepted as part of society/ a biological change etc buuuuuuuut he tends to keep it quiet around people he doesn't know. For a long time that was because he was embarrassed over being a little, but he's getting much better at accepting himself, he doesn't go around telling everyone though, because it's nothing to do with them in his (correct) opinion
as i didn't answer this for two and a half months i made you a lil moodboard for jackson
The vacation to Disney World in Florida had been a reward for all of them for putting up with the Shepherds, Sloans, and Montgomery Shepherds for a whole week, and frankly a week vacation to Disney wasn’t even close enough to the reward they deserved after that whole ordeal. The Hunts had also joined them, like Mark and Derek would let him out of that suffering when he was another honorary Shepherd.
None of the kids had even gone to any of the Disney Parks - April had a big group of siblings it would have cost them way too much to get her whole family from the midwest to either park in the USA, let alone on tickets and accommodation. Jackson had gone on vacations, sure, to all different countries, depending on where his mother or grandfather were asked to do talks and symposiums. His vacations had been traipsing through museums after being made to listen to all of the identical talks despite knowing them off by heart, because he was ‘so mature’ he didn’t need to go to things aimed at families… according to his family anyway. And Alex had all of his family and money issues, Derek didn’t think that getting a vacation had ever even crossed his mind.
Their first looks at the park had been Magic Kingdom, all three of them dropped, all three of them completely enamored by the magic of the place, and that was before getting to go to their themed suites.
Their third day at the park they had planned to take easy, after the day at Animal Kingdom the day before, and after everything in New York they’d expected the kids to stay dropped for a third day, but no, all three of them had woken up fully big like they’d conspired together, and none of them happy to just stay by the pool.
They’d gone to Epcot, it had been a compromise - a lot of rides which all three of them wanted to go to, but also a lot of places for them to relax and hide out from the sun… and most importantly a lot of places for the adults to just sit and drink, while letting the other three go do the rides alone, with the reassurance that they were tracking them using their Little park bracelets.
…..Still, it was hard for both Derek and Mark, that wasn’t really a surprise, they’d been the two who took the sober shift while their wives and Owen drank, and they were the most overprotective parents. It was hard to let them have their independence, sure they trusted all of them to perform major surgeries, but outside of their medical expertise they really were just kids.
Three hours, that was the plan, then they were going to meet up with them, check that they hadn’t somehow found themselves in a Final Destination situation.
They ran into the kids, literally, Derek having to catch Alex before he stumbled to the floor. Alex had left them wearing a nearly entirely Marvel outfit - he deliberately made sure that Alex was wearing a cap, that was what he’d stressed to him before they split ways: Keep your cap on, we’re in Florida.
Now his cap was gone, his light backpack hanging half off of his back, and his shirt had changed to a much darker shade of red.
“Dad?”
Derek didn’t take his hands off of Alex, who looked happy enough to see him, or as happy as he could be while looking halfway dead. He heard his brother already start to ask Jackson and April if they were okay, so Derek allowed himself to focus purely on Alex.
“Are you okay?”
“Ye-yeah? I just…” he looked around as if seeing the place for the first time, “Wait, were we meant to meet you?”
“Yeah,” Mark answered before Derek could, he’d pulled Jackson into a side hug, and placed his hand on April’s forehead, “time goes fast when you’re all poisoning yourself with the sun.”
“You put sunscreen on me earlier,” Jackson pointed out, a whine in his voice.
“Your dad has a point Jackson,” Derek told him, then looked back at his own sun, “Why are you so sweaty?”
“I… the sun, like uncle Mark said…”
“Well uncle Mark and I both told you that you were supposed to be taking breaks in the shade or in quick stops. Considering you’re dripping with sweat I don’t think that’s been happening, now has it Alexander?”
He almost felt bad that Alex’s smile fully dropped, but the worry took over instead. “Where’s your cap? And do you have any water in your bottle? All three of you drink water, now .”
Alex frowned, he shrugged off his backpack, Derek let go of one of his arms so he could do so, and watched him root through his backpack, frowning as he did. “I don’t…. They’re not in here, and my headbands not too….” He looked up at Derek, exhausted and upset, “I lost them.”
Derek looked across at Jackson and April: Jackson still had his cap, which he put on before Mark could tell him, and April had her bottle, but when she shook it she frowned. “I’m out of water…. And my caps not in here… my dad’s going to kill me.”
Derek sighed looking at his niece, “How about your cap, April?”
She shook her head, “I’m not sure… I think I took it off earlier, but I thought I’d put it in my bag, I was sure I had.”
“We took them off for the photos with Starlord,” Jackson reminded her, he looked up at his dad blushing a little, “I think I set my bottle down at some point, and then… I don’t know, I think we saw a ride queue vanish so we kinda dashed.”
“You’ve been running around in the Floridian sun for three hours?”
“No,” Alex answered quickly, stepping in to explain and get his cousins out of trouble, the same as they all did for each other, “only to get to the rides, like to go between them, but the rides we weren’t running around.”
Now it was Mark’s turn to sigh, looking at his nephew the same way Derek had their niece. “That’s not what I meant, Alex, I just meant that between the rides you weren’t resting like you were supposed to be. And if you lost your caps and bottles then it means you’ve not been hydrating like you were supposed to, or protecting yourselves.”
Derek felt Alex lean heavier against him. Despite being part of their family for a while now there were still times when he was in trouble that he forgot that it wasn’t how it used to be when he was a kid, at least now he instinctively reached out for him or Meredith, rather than pushing them away.
“Okay first off we’re going to go and cool down - we’re grabbing you all clean clothes from the store-”
“-Yeah, your skins probably all irritated as it is,” Mark added. “Then back to the hotel.”
“What! Dad , please!”
“Uncle Mark!”
“Dad,” Alex’s voice was more of a whine than Derek noticed either of the other twos to be, but then again he was the only one who directed it towards him, “please, we really didn’t mean to do this, can we just stay a lil longer, please ?”
Derek shook his head, rubbing Alex’s arm with his thumb as he kept him close into his side, “Uncle Mark’s right, odds are you all have heat stroke-”
“-We’ll drink drinks-”
“-I know you’re going to drink a lot, but you’re all going to need to rest, you all remember what heatstroke is like when it gets bad, right? You did all go to medical school.”
Alex huffed, “Yeah, of course we do, we’re not idiots, it’s just we’ll drink, and it’ll be getting dark soon anyway, let’s just-”
-”Alexander Michael, this isn’t a negotiation, this is your dad telling you what is going to happen. Unless you’d rather we just head back to the hotel now, grab a water on the way and rush there.”
Derek was slightly bluffing there, he did think it was best for the kids to rest somewhere cool and indoors before they headed on the monorail home, plus they needed to meet up with Meredith and the others, and they should feed the kids before the full effects of it hit.
Alex pouted up at him, “No, I…. the first option.”
“Good choice. Now let’s go-”
“-I can make it back over to my dad, he’s in the the-”
“-You’re staying with us too, April.” Mark told her, sending her his dad look.
“Definitely. You need the same as the boys, you look just as exhausted as they do, you’re not about to go across Epcot like this all on your own. We’ll let your dad know what’s happened-”
April looked exactly like a teenager, an embarrassed wince on her face, and she was just barely stopping herself from rolling her eyes. “He’s going to come and track me down, he’ll be freaked-”
“No, what he’s going to assume is that your uncle Mark and I are being overprotective-”
“-You are-”
“Lex is right you both are-”
Derek sent the pair of them a look, but they still pouted, he met Mark's eyes, sharing an exasperated look with his brother… It was muscle memory to grab the back of April’s shirt as she tried to sneak off during her cousins complaining. He swore that he could see a few new strands of grey pepper through Mark’s hair: At least he wasn’t going through this alone.
“If you guys want to see overprotective then I know for a fact that every single store here has at least one disney themed child leash, hell we can connect three of them together for the rest of your vacation.”
“That’s-” Alex was cut off by Jackson shoving him slightly. “Hey!”
“Jackson Montgomery Sloan, why do you think that now is the right time to push your cousin?”
“He was about to step us in it!” Jackson protested to his dad, the whine fully in voice as he pouted up at his father, “And I know that you’re not lying about the whole leash thing…”
“Damn right I am. But again, do not hit your cousins, understood?”
Jackson dropped his head, “‘derstood,” he mumbled.
Derek ran his hand through Alex’s hair, not surprised that it was sweaty, it was gross but he was used to gross things since he’d become a dad. “Okay, April I’ll text your dad when we’re inside, don’t worry, I can handle him.”
Derek led the group inside the nearest gift store, his arm still around Alex, who Derek was pretty sure was mostly embarrassed about the fact that all three of them had simply forgotten to do everything which they were supposed to be doing.
“Okay, kids,” Mark told them firmly, “shirts, and caps, Derek I’ll take them while you text Hunt.”
“Sounds good,” Derek nodded moving his arm from Alex’s shoulders.
“Can I stay with you?”
Derek blinked a couple of times, he waiting to see if he had simply misheard Alex’s quiet question, but Alex blinked up at him sheepishly, which was confirmation enough. “You don’t want to go and pick out a shirt?”
Alex shook his head.
Derek looked across at Mark, his own arm was around his son, and he placed his other hand on the back of April’s neck protectively, he sent Derek a small smile. He could see written on his brother’s face how worried he’d been about the kids. Sure, they were technically fine, they’d probably be a little miserable later on but they were fine… Derek was just glad that Mark was there, that he outright worried as much as Derek did, Meredith and Addie tended to hide that worry, at least around the kids, and Hunt was still enough of a mystery that Derek could never be sure if he would outright worry, or be more frustrated parent at the kids.
“I’ll pick him out something,” Mark promised.
“I’ll venmo-”
“Don’t bother, it’s fine-”
“-I’ll find the kids some bottles, you do the shirts and hats, then it’s fair.” Mark rolled his eyes dramatically, and Derek had to force himself to not do the same times ten.
“I’ll-”
Derek shook his head as soon as April opened her mouth, he knew what she was about to say, “Nope, we’re buying you things.” He watched as confusion filled her face, she opened her mouth again to protest, “You’re our niece,” Derek told her firmly, “it’s part of the job.”
She blushed but stopped trying to protest, sending Derek a little smile, he reminded himself that April had issues with her childhood just like the boys, sometimes it was hard to remember that considering she was always so mature.
“Okay, c’mon, let’s find you three the most embarrassing shirts I can find.”
“Dad!” Jackson whined as they were led away.
Derek chuckled, shook his head, and wrapped his arm back around Alex’s shoulder. He led him over to a whole aisle of cups, “We’ll get you a replacement for your owala,” Derek promised him, “for now pick a stand in, I know you don’t like these kinds as much as your one.”
“‘Kay,” Alex mumbled quietly.
Derek pulled out his phone, and started to send a quick text to the parents group chat, filling them in on the fact that the kids were a little sun exhausted, probably close to actual heat stroke, but they were okay, that they were going to get them drinks, and sent his location for them to follow him and Mark to wherever they chose to grab drinks at.
Naturally they all responded as soon as the text went through, all asking if they were okay, which he assured them, yet again, that they were. He looked back down at Alex who was chewing on his lip as he just stared at the bottles.
He quickly sent a text proposing that they have a meal before they leave, that way the kids had eaten before they got too exhausted, and would sleep. Addie was the one to immediately say yes, which made sense considering she and Meredith had been making their way through the drinks across Epcot.
Alex still hadn’t even touched a single cup.
“You’re not in trouble,” Derek told him softly. Alex looked up, surprised, but Derek knew Alex better than Alex thought he did. “You’re going to feel a little crabby later, but that’s the only consequence or punishment you’re getting.”
“I worried you though… and mom.”
“Yeah,” Derek nodded slowly, not about to lie to Alex, “but we worry about you all the time, it’s just part of being a parent.”
“I didn’t mean to lose my bottle.”
“I know,” Derek told him just as softly as before. He gently cupped Alex’s face, getting his whole attention. “Look, things like this happen, you were caught up in the excitement of the park, you probably didn’t register that you were thirsty, or that you were overheating.”
“You’re sure you’re not mad?”
“I’m not mad. I’m also not disappointed, I was just concerned. I promise.”
“Okay… then I’m blaming you.”
Derek laughed, “Oh really?”
“Yeah, you’re always so worried about me I don’t have to worry about myself.”
Derek ruffled his hair, "I guess you’re stuck with me then.”
“I guess.” Alex leant into Derek’s side, “Hey, dad? Can I get a surprise pin pack thing? Y’know cause of the trauma.”
“The trauma of being alone in a theme park?”
Alex shook his head, “No, the trauma of me being so sweaty.”
Derek chuckled, shaking his head, “I’m the one who’s touched your sweaty gross hair.”
“You can get one too?” Alex offered, fluttering his eyes hopefully.
Derek sighed: Alex had him wrapped around his finger and he knew it, still, Derek knew he was going to be not feeling great the next day, and they were going to be in the hotel pool tomorrow, they all needed a break. “Pick out one toy, pick out one each for your cousins too, nothing massive.”
“Wait for real?!”
“Yes, but , Alexander, bottles first, and we’re going to be quick because you need to drink something.”
Alex sent him a quick salute, making Derek roll his eyes as Alex quickly chose three bottles - if Derek didn’t know him better he’d have thought that this had all been a plan to get a toy.
