The best things in the world- Dad!Hellinois
This was wholly because I caught the domestic dad hellinois brainrot from Echo.
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"Baby, you need to hold still. If you keep moving it's gonna take me longer to do your hair." Illinois sat behind his daughter, trying to still her long enough to finish working through her hair.
"But Papa," Rosa whined, "Why do I have to dress up anyway?"
"I told you, Precious, one of my students is having an exhibition at the museum. He found some amazing things at a dig site."
Markus laughed at her impatience, "Now sweetheart, we want to be there to congratulate Papa's student with him, don't we?"
"Yeah," she huffed as she crossed her arms.
Illinois finished the braid he was working on and patted her shoulder. "We're all set. You wanna pick a ribbon to put in your hair?" She nodded and rushed off to pick one of her hair ribbons.
"Where'd you even learn to braid hair?" Markus asked. "I thought you didn't have any siblings."
"Mama didn't raise no slouch. She taught me so I could help out my little cousin when we all went out. Came in handy, didn't it? You're awful at doing anything but tying her hair in a ponytail," Illinois teased.
Rosa rushed in, "Dad, Papa, I picked one!" She proudly presented a pretty blue ribbon to them. Markus took it and swiftly tied it onto the end of her braid. She twirled to show her parents the whole ensemble. "How do I look?"
"Amazing," Markus replied.
"Most beautiful girl I ever seen," Illinois scooped her up into his arms to kiss her on the forehead.
She threw her arms around his neck with a bright smile on her face. "Can we get ice cream after this museum thing?"
"Sure," Illinois laughed, "But first we have to actually get to 'this museum thing.' Go get your shoes on so we can head out. You too, Markus."
Markus chuckled and led Rosa to the entryway to get their shoes on. A soft smile spread across Illinois' face. He may have stopped adventuring so he could settle down, but he found all the treasure he could ever need. He wrapped an arm around each of them as they headed to the car.
Yeah, the best things in the world are right here.