Summery: Derek and Mark spend the day with their daughters. A totally plotless fluffy future fic (say that 5 times fast). Takes place a little over 5 years in the future and has no real point except that I think Derek and Mark would be the kind of dads who play dress-up with their daughters. Just for fun.

A/N: I made Zola and Sophia in kindergarten because I figured if they had any other siblings they would be in daycare and not necessarily home at the same time as the oldest two girls. I tried to leave the pairings and other children ambiguous just because I figured this fic wasn't really about that. Not that it's actually about anything other than random fun. I hope you get a kick out of it. Thanks. Oh, and there are a couple moments where this feels kind if Derek/Mark shashy, but I swear it's not. In my defense, I think they get pretty slashy on the show sometimes too. (Remember when Mark said he came to Seattle to get Derek back?)

Pretty Pretty Princesses

Derek was spending the day at home with his daughter. It had been a while since it had been just the two of them alone for a day so he wanted to make the most of it. Zola had just turned six and had started kindergarten the previous fall. He knew growing up was just a part of life but he couldn't help feeling a bit sad that she was growing so fast.

He shook his head and smiled as he watched her eat her breakfast in record speed. She wanted to go outside and play. A sunny day with no school was a rare treat for her and she didn't want to waste a minute of it. After she had placed her dirty plate in the sink she ran over and grabbed his hand. "Come on Daddy! Let's go outside!" He laughed and let himself be pulled along by the little girl.

They spent a couple hours outside playing on Zola's new playset and running around in the huge yard outside the house, but when Derek saw rain clouds starting to roll in he decided they had better go inside. For lack of a better idea he decided that they would watch Aladdin (her current favorite movie) before they had some lunch. As they were watching the movie Zola decided that she wanted to make a castle in the living room out of pillows and blankets. Derek was excited by that plan because he was, as he explained to her, an excellent fort maker. To which Zola rolled her eyes in a very Meredith-like way and said, "Not a fort Dad. A Castle; like Jasmine's." Derek didn't argue, but as he helped her string blankets up from the chairs and lamps and couch and covered the whole floor with every pillow in the house he couldn't help but think that it still seemed a lot like a fort to him.

Next she decided she wanted to do his hair. Derek laughed but he let her do it because he knew he would fix it before anyone saw him. He sat down on the pillows on the floor with her sitting behind him on the couch. Her head pushed against the roof of the castle but she could still fit. They had the blankets wrapped around the top of the TV so that they could still see the movie even though neither of them really needed to pay much attention to it at this point. They'd both seen it too many times to count.

Derek decided that it must really be time for a haircut because she managed to make two little ponytails at the back of his head that held most of the hair that was on top. Then she added two little bows for good measure. When she was done she held up a hand held mirror for him to see. "It's very pretty. Thank you sweetheart," he said with a smile.

He was just about to start thinking about lunch when the doorbell rang. Derek shook his head as he walked to answer the door. He had a pretty good idea who was outside. Sure enough, when he opened the door he found Mark and Sophia on the other side. They had a pizza, a couple of board games and a bag with them. "Hi Uncle Derek!" Sophia called as she waved at him.

"Hey we figured you might want some company," Mark said with a winning smile. Then when he got a better look at Derek he asked, "What the heck is going on with your hair man?" Derek just shrugged and moved to let them in. Sophia ran to find Zola. The two girls were in the same class at school and best friends. They both had the day off because of a broken water main at their school. "We brought Sorry and Uno and Pretty Pretty Princess," Mark explained as they walked towards the sound of the girls giggling in the living room. He said Pretty Pretty Princess with a sort of dainty voice. "Hey cool fort!" Mark said as they entered the room.

Derek laughed as he heard Zola's exasperated sigh from inside the blankets. "It's not a fort Uncle Mark! It's a castle!" she yelled.

Mark just laughed. "A Castle?" he asked Derek with a smirk.

"Yeah, like Jasmine's," Derek explained matter-of-factly.

"Well is pizza allowed in this castle?" Mark asked as he peeked in from behind one of the blankets.

"Yes!" both girls answered happily.

So the four of them sat around the coffee table and ate their pizza. While they were eating Sophia decided that her daddy needed pretty hair like Derek's, so she got him a nice head band to wear since his hair was too short for ponytails. Once they were done eating they played some of the games Sophia and Mark brought.

When they decided to play Pretty Pretty Princess Derek had to have the rules explained to him because he'd never actually played before. He thought it sounded like a really cute game for little girls, but kind of funny for their dads since they had to wear all of the little jewelry to play the game. He just laughed and picked the blue jewelry as he remembered Meredith's advice to him from many years back. When in doubt go with blue. It brings out your eyes. He doubted that she ever thought that her advice would be applied to little plastic earrings but that wasn't really important.

When the game ended Zola got to wear the crown but they all wore the jewelry. Derek couldn't help but laugh at Mark. After everyone picked their colors Mark somehow ended up with the pink jewelry which Derek thought went very nicely with his headband. The ring he was wearing was too small and only fit half way on his finger. Derek laughed and looked at his own ring. He knew he had to look just as funny as Mark, but luckily there wasn't a mirror in his sight. Derek started to take his jewelry off Sophia protested immediately. "No Uncle Derek, you can't take your jewels off until we do our makeup!" she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Makeup?" Derek asked suspiciously. He was starting to think the girls were doing this on purpose.

"Whenever we play with Sophia's mommies we all do our makeup when we're done," Zola explained, "How can I be a princess without any makeup?" she pouted and tried to sound pitiful.

Derek knew she was playing him but it didn't matter. He couldn't say no when she looked at him like that. "Okay," he sighed as the girls cheered and Sophia pulled a makeup case out of her bag. By the time the girls were satisfied they were all covered with excessive amounts of blush, eye shadow, and lipstick. The girls had also used a pink marker to "paint" their daddies' fingernails.

Derek was amused and was good-naturedly going along with the fun but laughed out loud when he looked at Mark studying his reflection in the mirror with a makeup brush in hand. "What are you doing?" he asked with a laugh.

"I'm just trying to get my eye shadow to match my fingernails…" Mark started to explain while still lost in thinking about what he was doing. Then he seemed to realize what he'd just said and set the mirror down hastily before saying, "I mean nothing. I'm not doing anything." He blushed a little, but it was hard to tell with all of the makeup covering his face.

"Okay Princess Zola, is it time to wash this stuff off yet?" Derek asked his daughter who was busy whispering to her best friend.

The girls both giggled and Zola said, "No Daddy! Now we have to have a ball to celebrate!" she responded enthusiastically.

"A ball?" Derek asked with mock exasperation.

"Yeah, like Cinderella," Sophia explained.

"But I thought we were Jasmine's castle?" Mark asked and then laughed at himself for being so familiar with the world of Disney Princesses.

"No Daddy, she's Jasmine and I'm Cinderella," Sophia explained like you would to someone who's a bit slow. "So now she's going to throw me a ball in her castle," she added.

"Yeah and you guys have to get dressed for the ball too," Zola explained.

"We do?" Derek asked jokingly, "I don't know. Why can't we be your Prince Charmings? Just ask your mom, I make a great knight in shining armor," Derek asked with a wink and a smile.

"No, boys are gross. It's a girls only ball so you have to be princesses."

"You know Derek I think we better do everything we can to support the 'boys are gross' philosophy while we still can," Mark said knowingly. "Hopefully it will last until they're 30 or so."

Derek laughed. "You have a point with that, but I still think you just want to play dress up," Derek teased Mark but his actual words were somewhat diminished by all of the makeup he had on his own face.

"Please Daddy," Zola begged, bringing out her pouty face once again.

Derek sighed and knew there was no winning this battle. "Fine," he said, "We can have a ball, but you know there aren't any dresses in the house that will fit us, right?" Derek mentioned, thinking he may have found a trump card after all.

"That's okay Uncle Derek we have a plan," Sophia said mysteriously, "You guys just wait here and we'll be back in a minute." Without waiting for a response from their fathers the two girls scampered off up the stairs to Zola's room.

Derek and Mark just got comfortable by sitting on some pillows and leaning their backs against the bottom of the couch. "You know," Mark said, "When we were kids and we used to say that our kids would be best friends I always kind of pictured boys," he finished with a smile.

Derek just laughed and shook his head, "Yeah me too," he smiled nostalgically and picked on of Zola's dolls up of the floor. "I wouldn't change any of this for the world though," he smiled down and the doll and smoothed her dress out a bit before laying her back down.

"I know, they're really amazing aren't they?" Mark asked rhetorically. "It almost makes me glad that your crazy sisters tortured us so much when we were kids. It gave us a high tolerance for girly stuff," he absent mindedly fingered his clip-on earrings while he spoke.

"I don't know," Derek replied, "They're pretty good at fishing and camping too. They survived all last weekend in the woods. Minus potty time of course," Derek finished with a smile.

Mark started laughing, "Oh my god, I almost forgot to tell you!" he exclaimed excitedly. "You know the fish Sophia took home with her last weekend? Well, apparently she forgot to tell Callie and Arizona about it and somehow it spent a few days hanging out under the sofa! I guess yesterday they spent all day tearing the whole house apart trying to find the smell!" Mark shook his head and laughed for a second before continuing, "Arizona said that if anything like that ever happens again she is going to explain to Sophia why The Captain always calls me a sperm donor."

Derek just laughed. "I'm sure she's bluffing. That conversation would be just as uncomfortable for her as it would be for anyone else," Derek reasoned.

Mark was about to respond when they heard the girls thundering down the stairs. As they came around the corner and into the castle they both had on the prettiest dresses they could find in Zola's closet and Derek and Mark tried to see what they had in their arms. As far as Derek could tell, it was the sheets off of Zola's bed and the pink bathrobe that Derek's mother had gotten Meredith for Christmas the year before.

"Come on, get up!" Sophia said, grabbing each of their hands. Derek and Mark reluctantly stood up, though they had to hunch to fit under the ceiling of the castle. They rearranged themselves so they were standing just outside of the castle instead.

"Okay, this is for you Daddy," Zola said as she held out the robe. When Derek just stared at it she rolled her eyes, "You have to put it on." Derek gave it one more look before he just shrugged and put it on. He tried to look fancy as he tied the belt.

Next, Zola turned to Mark, "Okay Uncle Mark, we only had one robe, so we brought you a sheet instead. But you got to take off your shirt for it to work." Mark was not a man who was shy about taking off his shirt in public and so he proudly pulled it off and looked around the room to see the awe. When they all just stared at him blankly he realized this was probably not the right crowed.

Sophia jumped up onto the side of the couch to pull the sheet around him. They wrapped it so it went over one of his shoulders. This is okay, he thought to himself, I can just pretend it's a toga. He looked down, a pink flowery toga. "I can't get it to stay up," Sophia sighed in frustration.

"I got an idea!" Zola exclaimed before scampering out of the room. She came back a minute later with a chip-clip in her hand. She handed it to Sophia who then used it to clip the back of her father's dress.

All dressed up and nowhere to go. Derek thought with a laugh as he took in the sight of his three companions. They were a sight with all of the over-the-top makeup and plastic jewelry. "Okay now what?" Derek asked, what seemed like the most logical question for the moment.

Zola and Sophia just looked at each other for a moment. They hadn't thought that far ahead. "We need music!" Sophia exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Zola agreed, "For dancing at the ball!"

Derek and Mark just stared blankly for a second. "Dancing?" they asked in unison.

"Yup!" Sophia said happily, "There's always dancing at the ball."

Derek found the remote to the stereo and turned on one of the kids CDs. "How's that?" he asked as a silly song played over the speakers.

Zola just shook her head, "No Dad, a love song." She rolled her eyes again. Derek didn't really think that was something a six-year-old should be so good at, but then, she was her mother's daughter. Derek changed the music to an easy listening station and looked to Zola for approval. She nodded so he put the remote down.

"Shall we dance," Derek leaned down and held his hand out to Zola with a flourish. She giggled and took his hand.

The four of them danced somewhat quietly for a minute or so before Sophia got a spark in her eyes. She pulled on her dad's hands and when he looked down at her she said, "You're too tall Daddy," with exasperation.

"Do you want me to pick you up?" Mark offered with a smile.

"No," Sophia said as she pretended to be thinking about it. "I'm gonna dance with Zola, you dance with Uncle Derek." Zola giggled from the other side of the room. With that the partners switched. Zola and Sophia danced together, but Mark and Derek just sort of looked at each other while they swayed halfheartedly to the music. "Dance like you love each other," Sophia admonished.

Derek and Mark just laughed and grabbed hands. "What the hell," Mark said, "Who are we hurting?" The two men jovially danced together, slowly becoming more comfortable so that a couple minutes later when Endless Love by Lionel Richie came on Mark thought it would be a good idea to lay his head on Derek's shoulder. He was getting kind of tired after all.

Derek just laughed and decided that it was just about time to declare snack time at the ball when a startled laugh alerted him that someone else was in the room. They all looked up to see Meredith and Lexie staring dumbfounded in the doorway. Meredith just stood there laughing while Lexie whipped out her phone and before Derek or Mark really realized what was happening she'd already taken a few pictures.

"What the hell is going on here?" Meredith struggled to ask as she gasped for air between laughs. She was trying to hold it together, but the sight of Derek with pigtails and earrings was just too much for her.

"We're having a ball Mommy," Zola said as though that explained everything.

"Yeah," Mark said, trying to sound offended, "It's Princess Zola's party. Of course we're dancing." He nodded his head with finality.

"Okay," said Lexie, "That explains the dancing and the music, but what about the cuddling and the dresses?" She had them cornered now.

"We're Pretty Pretty Princesses, of course we have dresses," Derek reasoned, "As for the cuddling; that was all Mark. Also, you should ask him about how he got his cheeks to match his nails."

Meredith, who had finally gotten her laughing under control, was the next to speak. "Well I think you all look beautiful," she said with a laughing smile. "Is there room for 2 more at your ball?" She asked, not wanting to cause an end to the girls' fun.

"Yeah!" said Sophia excitedly.

"Actually, it's just about time for tea," Derek explained, "So why don't you two go find your prettiest dresses and meet us back in the castle?" he gestured towards the fort.

When Meredith and Lexie came back down they all had raspberry tea and fig newtons. They stayed in the castle and played more games until eventually the rest of the members for their family all showed up as well. They decided to have a movie night and the kids convinced Callie and Arizona to dress for the ball as well, but the only pictures anyone saved were the ones Lexie had of Derek and Mark dancing, and she kept them as blackmail material for years to come.

End