A distant future in the AU…
Reid Akins was well accustomed to the idea that he was a Girl Dad through and through. Some men just had daughters, but Reid was a Girl Dad.
His girls put makeup on him, painted his fingernails, did his hair with barrettes and clips, and convinced him to play dress-up and tea parties with them while wrapped in a feather boa. It did not actually take much convincing, because he adored his two little girls and thought the dressing up was quite fun. Afternoons with the girls in their playroom were the highlight of his days, the highlight of his life. They delighted him with their whimsy and silliness, the intensity of their young emotions, watching their little faces change as they grew from toddlers to girls.
Now they were getting a bit older, they were a little more serious with the makeup. Gone were the days that he escaped with a bit of blue eyeshadow smeared on his lids. Now Ellie would aggressively turn his face this way and that while she put all sorts of colorful products on his face, wielding her brushes as if they were weapons.
“What’s that one?” he asked as she dipped a fluffy makeup brush into a little pot of sparkling dust. It looked itchy.
“Highlighter,” Ellie said shortly. She was concentrating very hard on his face. At eleven years old, she was her mother in miniature, dark hair swept back into a glossy ponytail and that same fierce look to her that had always characterized Cecilia.
“He needs more blusher,” put in his younger daughter. Eight year old Fiona liked to think she was quite grown, like her older sister, and was a softer version of Cecilia. Her hair was not quite as dark, and her moods never as intense as Ellie’s, though she looked just like Cecilia as well.
Cecilia, it seemed, could only duplicate herself when giving birth. Neither of their girls looked much like their father, nor acted like him. He didn’t mind; everything about Cecilia that he loved was featured in new ways in their daughters.
Fiona grabbed another makeup brush and a small compact of bright pink blusher.
“Red is more my color,” he told her playfully, and Ellie pursed her lips disapprovingly at him.
“Papa, be quiet and let us work.”
Cecilia poked her head into the playroom and caught sight of the two little girls and the makeup all over her husband’s face.
“Oh, for the love,” she said, looking like she was trying not to laugh.
He flashed a cheeky grin at her. “Pretty, isn’t it?”
Ellie smacked a hand to his forehead and turned him back to face her, scrubbing the sparkly highlight powder across his cheekbones. It did, in fact, itch.
“He needs lipstick,” said his wife from the doorway. “Fifi, go get my handbag. I’ve got a lovely dark pink in there.”
“Red,” he suggested, but no one was listening to him. Fiona dashed off to get the lipstick from her mother’s purse, while Ellie continued her assault on his face. She pulled a lip liner pencil from the makeup case beside her and applied it with concentration worthy of a general directing a cavalry charge.
Fiona returned with the lipstick, which she slapped into her sister’s open palm. Ellie hadn’t looked away from what she was doing, and opened the lipstick. Her other hand gripped his chin as she applied the lipstick.
“Oh, that’s a nice color on you, darling,” Cecilia called to him from the doorway as Ellie stepped back to examine her handiwork.
Reid turned his head to grin at her. “You should take me out to dinner now I’m all gussied up.”
“I’ll take you somewhere, but it won’t be dinner,” his wife said in amusement. “Girls, it’s time to start cleaning the playroom. Let your papa go, he has his own work to do this afternoon.”
The girls knew better than to groan over being told to tidy up their toys, and Reid was able to escape from their darling little clutches as Ellie packed the makeup away and Fiona started gathering the fallen toys scattered about all over the pale pink carpet of the playroom. He met his wife in the doorway, and her dark eyes sparkled with mischief at seeing him with a face full of cosmetics.
“Look at you,” she said on a sigh. “The things you let them do to you…”
“They’re going to have me in heels soon,” he quipped.
Cecilia looked amused, and pressed a kiss to his cheek as he slid past her, drawing her into the corridor with him. “Don’t worry, darling, I’ll still sleep with you even if they put you in drag as the Queen.”
Reid leered playfully. “Kinky. Let me wash this makeup off so you can tell me more.”
She smirked at him. “You’ve worn that lipstick before, you know. Well, parts of you have.”
He stopped to grin at her, pulling her closer so she was pressed up against him, despite the way her mouth twitched at seeing the makeup up close. “Oh believe me, I remember every lipstick shade you’ve worn when blowing me.”
She gave him a little push, but then put her hands on his hips and followed him to the bathroom. “Wash your face so I can blow you without it being weird. Now I’m thinking of the Queen, you might have ruined the moment.”
“You brought her up,” he reminded her as he ducked into the bathroom. He stuck his head back out a moment later as a thought occurred to him. “The Queen when she was young, or the Queen now? She was never much of a looker, but if that’s what you’re into, I’ll have a go. If you’ve got a kink about Her Majesty, you could’ve let me know ages ago.”
Cecilia gave him a look. “You’re not going to be allowed to wear my lipstick again if you don’t stop talking about the Queen like this.”
“Have I ruined it yet?” he asked with a chuckle.
She smiled back. “Not yet. Go wash your face and meet me in the bedroom.”