A/N: Prompt was markson having a "dad-off" to see who could make their baby laugh the most, though this is more of markson trying to get their baby to stop crying xD

~~

The piercing cry of an inconsolable baby rang out through the apartment, shattering the hard-earned peace that had been present before. Within seconds, matching footsteps thundered across the floor, approaching the same destination from opposite directions.

Jackson arrived back in their living room first, sighing as he laid eyes on his bawling one year old son.

“Hey, Bam, what’s wrong there buddy?” Jackson immediately scooped the child into his arms, bouncing him up and down in an attempt to calm him, but if anything the cries only grew louder.

“What did you do?” Mark’s breathless voice joined them just moments later, his ruffled hair indicative of the fact that he’d just been startled awake from his afternoon nap. The dark circles under his eyes hadn’t lessened by much, either, though Jackson knew he probably looked just as exhausted himself.

“I didn’t do anything! I just went to the bathroom,” Jackson mumbled defensively, though he kept his volume low out of fear of further aggravating their son. Mark looked him skeptically, dropping down onto the couch next to Jackson, reaching out a hand to smooth Bambam’s hair.

“Sure, right, and that’s why Bam started crying again,” Mark was clearly disgruntled by being woken up, but was already resigned to this reality.

“Pft, you act like he cries less when he’s with you,” Jackson snorted, turning away from Mark’s hand so Bambam was now out of his reach. “Go back to bed, I got this.”

By this point, Bambam’s cries still hadn’t lessened by the slightest, and Mark only looked at Jackson, unimpressed.

“Yeah right, as if you got this. Here, let me,” Mark reached out again, but this time with both arms to take Bambam from Jackson.

“Hey!” Jackson shot to his feet, Bambam cradled to his chest but the sudden jolt still tore a startled cry from the child, a high pitched wail warbling in his throat.

“See!” Mark jumped at this opportunity to snatch Bambam from Jackson, cooing as he cradled the baby to his chest. “It’s okay, it’s okay, Daddy’s got you.”

“Hey, that’s not fair! You’re the one who startled him,” Jackson accused, earning another pointed glare from Mark. Jackson huffed, giving up temporarily as he flopped onto their couch.

Mark continued to coo at their son, rocking him back and forth but the baby wouldn’t be consoled. His sobs continued on, only stopping when he need to take another breath, after which they’d promptly continue.

At this, Jackson grew smug, propping himself up on an elbow as he stared at them, smirking.

“I don’t see Bam liking you holding him anymore than me. You sure you got this? Just give up already and admit you can’t do it, and I’ll have Bam back laughing again in a minute.”

“As if,” Mark dismissed the statement without a second thought. “I don’t need you making this worse. Jinyoung and Jaebum are coming over for dinner tonight, too, you should just go make yourself useful and clean up.”

“The house is clean!” Jackson insisted, pushing himself up off the couch again to approach his husband. “Oh come on, I’m sure I can make him laugh again faster than you. If you think the house needs cleaning, you go clean.”

Mark backed away from Jackson’s approach, eyes narrowing.

“I bet otherwise.”

Jackson stopped in his tracks, a competitive gleam lighting up in his eyes.

“Well, then let’s prove it.”

~~

An hour later, Jackson was just barely hanging onto the last shreds of his sanity, and he knew Mark wasn’t faring much better.

He loved his son, god he did, but he swore if Bambam didn’t stop wailing soon, like immediately, he was going to lose his goddamn mind.

Currently, the inconsolable child was nestled in Jackson’s arms, his tiny face scrunched up into the most pitiful expression, face awash with tears and...well, a crap ton of snot.

“Bam, look, look, it’s your favorite rattle!” Mark shook the plastic toy weakly, the cheer in his voice utterly forced.

They’d tried everything. At first, the two of them had traded the baby boy back and forth in their arms, putting their all into coaxing him and rocking him and bouncing him. At that point it’d still been a competition, Jackson even insisting on keeping a timer that made them switch off every minute so things were “fair” and they could accurately determine a winner.

When it was clear neither of them were making any progress, however, the timer had been slowly forgotten and eventually abandoned. They’d turned to toys next in an attempt to comfort the baby, each snatching up different stuffed animals or props. And yet here they were, exhausted both physically and mentally, and still nothing.

“Shhh Bam, it’s okay, it’s okay.” Mark’s voice was strained, dropping a kiss on Bambam’s wet cheek as he continued to shake the rattle.

Bambam hiccupped, his screams finally taking a pause as his face slowly unscrunched, eyes blinking open to focus in on Mark’s face right in front of his.

Mark and Jackson looked at each other, eyes wide with hope. Immediately, Mark leaned in even closer, clutching the rattle more tightly.

“Bambam, look at this~” Mark cooed, the sweetness in his voice genuine again as he shook the rattle excitedly. “Isn’t this your favorite?”

Bambam blinked, his lips parting slightly and Jackson watched on with bated breath.

“WAAAAAAAAAAAA-”

Jackson sighed deeply, wincing at the dull thud the rattle made when Mark let it drop to the ground. He fought the urge to cover his ears, their poor child’s voice grating and hoarse from the incessant use as he resumed his terrible crying.

“What else are we supposed to do?” Jackson asked helplessly, not even bothering to conceal his exhaustion. “He’s not sick, he doesn’t have a fever. We tried all his favorite toys, I even did all twenty of my goofy faces. Those always make him laugh.”

“He doesn’t want milk, either, and his diaper was just changed. I even ripped through a whole stack of newspapers, that always makes him laugh!” Mark was equally distressed, tugging on his hair in frustration. He suddenly turned to look at Jackson, panicked.

“You don’t think he’s sick with something we can’t see, right? Should we take him to the hospital just in case he-”

Shake it shake it for me~ Let me see you shake it shake it for me~

The familiar music was almost inaudible under Bambam’s loud crying, but luckily Jackson’s phone was close, causing Mark to break off mid-sentence, frowning. Jackson grimaced at the ringtone, handing Bambam off to Mark before attempting to locate the source.

There was a time when he actually enjoyed that song, but ever since Jinyoung had forcibly set it as his special ringtone, he’d come to absolutely loathe it. Although, it could be said that it was his own doing, after purposefully ignoring Jinyoung’s calls one too many times during his honeymoon with Mark.

It wasn’t like he’d been ignoring Jinyoung specifically, though, it had been his honeymoon for god’s sake. Jackson had been ignoring calls from everyone, regardless of who they were. But Jinyoung, of course, had a penchant for taking everything personally.

It didn’t help matters that he had really needed Jackson then, being right after his first big fight with Jaebum. It had been their first real relationship crisis that almost ended terribly, but that was a whole other story. What mattered was that the two of them managed to work things out eventually, thank goodness for Jackson’s sake. Otherwise, Jackson would’ve most certainly lost his title as Jinyoung’s number one best friend.

Still, when they’d returned from their trip and Jinyoung had finally gotten a hold of him, the younger man had promptly set a special ringtone for himself on Jackson’s phone, and made it very clear that if Jackson ever avoided his calls again, there would be very serious consequences.

While Jackson didn’t know exactly what those “consequences” would be, he knew better than to disregard Jinyoung’s bottom line. Besides, he’d also felt guilty for not being there for his friend when he’d needed him most, though he was starting to regret his leniency now.

“Godammit, where is it,” Jackson muttered as he tried to trace the sound of his phone, sighing when he realized it was coming from the couch. It wasn’t in plain sight, meaning it’d probably fallen between or under one of the cushions again.

Grunting, he began to check each crevice, sighing with relief when he finally managed to snag it between his forefinger and thumb, drawing it out from between the padded fabric.

Just as he was about to answer, Mark stopped him.

“Wait!” Mark hissed, and Jackson looked up, confused.

“What? I can’t not answer, you know how Jinyoung gets and-”

“No, wait, Bam…” Mark’s voice was low, kept just to above a whisper and Jackson’s brow furrowed, uncomprehending. He glanced down at his son in Mark’s arms, about to ask what exactly Mark was talking about, when it hit him.

Bambam was staring right back at him. His face was still splotchy, his eyes wide and full of tears but heartbreaking sobs no longer wracked his tiny body. He was hiccupping slightly but otherwise silent, and Jackson followed his gaze to the phone in his hand.

“You think...it’s the music?” Jackson, too, lowered his voice to a whisper, in fear of accidentally breaking the moment.

“I don’t know, but it looks like it,” Mark breathed, taking careful steps towards Jackson, Bambam held carefully in his arms. “Just-”

Mark broke off abruptly when Jackson’s phone finally stopped ringing, immediately looking at Jackson with alarm. They both held their breath, now turning their attention back to Bambam.

The baby was still silent, simply blinking, until he wasn’t silent any longer.

“EUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”

“Turn it back on, turn it back on!” Mark immediately yelled, bouncing Bambam up and down to calm him, but as before, to no avail. Jackson fumbled with his phone, fingers uncoordinated as he tried to navigate to his music player.

But before he could, his phone sounded again.

Shake it shake it for me~ Let me see you shake it shake it for me~

“Jinyoung’s calling again, Jinyoung’s calling again!”

Jackson had never before in his life felt so relieved to see his phone screen light up with Jinyoung’s name. And sure enough, within moments, Bambam quieted again, his eyes still almost overflowing with tears but his desperate cries having ceased.

“Jackson, you should pull the song up on your phone, for when it stops this time.” Mark paused slightly, uncertain. “Do you think it’s this specific song, or would any music work?”

Jackson shook his head.

“I don’t know, but since we know this works I’d say let’s just stick to this,” Jackson sighed, grimacing slightly but resigned. “Also, I think we should be fine, actually. You know Jinyoung, if I don’t pick up he’s just going to keep calling me until I pick up, or until…”

Jackson gulped, remembering that Jaebum and Jinyoung were already supposed to come over for dinner. He was so dead.

But when he looked back over at Bambam who was finally beginning to calm, and also at Mark, a wan smile spreading over his face as he held their son closer to his chest, he could only feel a warmth spreading in his chest.

It only took two short strides for Jackson to reach the two loves of his life, and just two more for him to guide them to sit down on the couch. Mark sank down onto the cushions gratefully, and Jackson quickly adjusted so Mark could lean back against him comfortably. His arms came up to wrap around Mark’s own, hands easily finding Mark’s as they held Bambam together.

The nonstop crying had finally started to take its toll, Bambam’s eyes starting to droop in a telltale sign of nearing slumber. A soft giggle still managed to escape, though, and Jackson couldn’t help the burst of joy that ignited within him at the sound.

Mark sagged back into him, exhaling with a happy sigh as his eyes slipped shut, tilting his head slightly to press a soft kiss against the base of Jackson’s jaw.

Jackson smiled, dropping his own kiss onto Mark’s cheek.

He could deal with Jinyoung’s wrath later.