"Aw look at her go! She's pulling herself up all by herself!"
As weeks kept on coming and going, Prompto dedicated himself to keeping a close eye on Scarlet's development. Now that she was able to pull herself up, walking would come before he realized it.
He still felt a sense of accomplishment whenever he saw her performing new tasks. Even though he hadn't been there for the start of her life, he was thankful for getting to be there now, watching her grow. However, part of him did wish that he could have been there from the beginning, seeing her grow from the very beginning.
While he watched Scarlet carefully pull herself up again, and scoot along the couch, a small thought crossed his mind.
'What would it be like to adopt another kid…? Adopting a baby from a younger age probably is like, a hundred times harder, but…'
He wrapped his arms around Scarlet to pull her into his lap. He was only able to hold her for a few seconds before she managed to crawl off of him, resuming her adventure across the floor.
"Aw, come on Scarlet, I wanna hold you!"
Scarlet stopped crawling, turning around as she picked up a little chocobo plush. "Ba."
Prompto sighed with a smile. He'd had to focus his thoughts on adoption later. Right now his little girl wanted to play, and he was going to be in the moment.
"That's not a ba, you goof, that's a bo. A chocobo bo."
"Ba!" Scarlet insisted, holding up the chocobo.
Prompto laughed. "Chocobo. Bo. Come on, you can say it. Bo."
"Baaaa," Scarlet
"Now I think you're just trolling me. You can say bo, but you wanna make it funny, don't you?"
Scarlet giggled, looking very amused with the situation. She then held her chocobo plush over her head. "Bo."
Prompto grinned wider than before. "There ya go!"
"Bo!"
Scooping up Scarlet again, he hugged her tightly. "Oh, I am so proud of you! You're going to start talking before I know."
"Ya! Bo bo!"
"Good job, my little strawberry," Prompto replied, feeling a little teary eyed. "I can't wait 'till you're making full sentences."
He knew it would be probably a year or two before she would be fully talking, the idea of it excited him. Though, mostly he was just happy to hear her start forming words. He knew the day that Scarlet would start saying 'dad' would make his heart swell with joy.
Humming as he watched Scarlet start to crawl around again, he started using more thoughts about the future. In less than two months it would be Scarlet's first birthday. She would be a one year old, slowly making her way into toddlerhood.
"Guess I gotta start planning a birthday party," he mused softly. "We're going to invite all your uncles and your friends! It's going to be so great! I'll message Ignis right away and ask him if he has any tips!
Prompto pulled out his phone, sending a few quick texts to Ignis before resuming playing with Scarlet. He watched as she pulled herself up several more times, this time making sure to get some more pictures to keep for his photo album.
"So, is there a theme you wish to have?" Ignis asked one day at lunch.
"Theme? Like how some kids had pirate themed birthdays or something?" Prompto asked as he ate a well prepared burger that Ignis had kindly made for him.
Ignis nodded. "Yes, that would be correct."
"Oh, okay… never really had anything like that growing up. So I don't really know where to begin."
"It's alright, Prompto. That's why I am here to help. We can find a suitable theme for Scarlet, since I assume that pirates is probably not a good theme for a for first birthday."
"Oh yeah, totally! I'd wait for, like a 6th or 7th birthday for something like that!"
Ignis chuckled. "Okay, so is there a theme you can think of that would be nice?"
"Hmm, maybe a beach theme? Those photos I took a while back with her in a swimsuit and shades are still some of my most favorite ones. Oh! Or maybe a fruit themed party! I could dress her up in her strawberry dress! Well… once I buy a bigger size for when she is actually one."
"A fruit themed party? Most unusual, but given that you call her 'your little strawberry' I think it could fit well," Ignis replied as he began to jot down information in his notepad.
Prompto grinned, already visualizing how the party would look. He already had so many ideas of special photo ops he could take of Scarlet. He definitely was going to have to buy a few more clothing items for that special day.
"Okay! Great, we got one thing done! Now we just gotta get all the other stuff. What would be next on the list?"
"Keep in mind Prompto, as Scarlet is only turning one, we don't need to make it too extravagant."
"Does that include how many people I could invite?"
Ignis hummed. "If we are to have the party here, since the Citadel has plenty of rooms for such occasions, anyone you'd want to invite would need a background check."
Suddenly, the thought for a big grand party diminished. "Oh… guess that makes sense. So maybe for the first birthday keep it small?"
"Unless you wish to have it elsewhere."
Prompto hummed. "I'll see about it. Talk to the moms and see who's available for her birthday. So… get back to you on that?"
"Of course," Ignis replied with a nod. "That whatever time you need. We still have plenty of time to prepare."
"Gotcha, buddy! I'm really getting excited now!" Prompto cheered, pumping a fist into the air. All he had to do now was keep his excitement contained and ready for when the birthday was actually here. If he was already this excited in planning the birthday, he could only imagine how much he would feel when it actually happened. Everything he was thinking of, even if it was going to end up just a small birthday event, he was going to make it worth it.
The day of Scarlet's first birthday was here, and Prompto was bubbling with anticipation. He had just managed to get Scarlet to sit still, putting her in the special birthday dress that he had bought for her. It was, of course, a strawberry themed dress, only this one had the words 'My berry 1st Birthday' across the chest
"Everyone's going to love your dress," Prompto said. "Just hope you don't get a ton of cake all over you… Probably should switch your dress out for something else when it comes to that."
"Ahh ha ha. Booooo!"
Laughing, Prompto scooped his daughter into his arms before heading out of the bedroom. In the last couple of months leading up to her birthday, Scarlet had become far more talkative. Maybe it helped that Prompto was already a rather chatty guy, but the Scarlet was happily talking at almost every given moment. Even if a lot of it was still baby babbles, there were some words starting to form.
She already had mastered calling chocobos 'bo', happily proclaiming it whenever she saw any pictures or toys of one. But most of all, out of all the words she had been starting to say, in the past week she had begun to say 'dada' all while pointing right to Prompto's face.
The first moment he had heard her say the word, his heart felt like it skipped a beat. Never before had he ever felt such a strange moment of excitement and pure joy to hear such a simple word come from a baby's mouth.
But she was his baby. She said 'dada' because he was her dad, and she was acknowledging it.
"Well, I'm glad that you are excited! You're going to see all your uncles today and even Grandpa Regis!"
"Gapa!" Scarlet chimed in happily.
"That's right! Gapa Regis!" Now, can you say Uncle Noct?"
Scarlet grinned, looking up at him. "Naaaa."
"Close enough, but we'll work on that. I know Noct isn't going to admit it, but he's waiting for the day you can say his name. He's such a secret softie," Prompto snickered.
Walking down the hallway, he headed towards the room that had picked out for the birthday party. In the end, Prompto decided to keep the party small and intimate. However, it didn't stop the mothers he had befriended from wanting to send gifts to Scarlet for her birthday. Prompto was going to have to remember to send out plenty of thank you cards to everyone once he opened the presents.
Upon stepping inside, he was greeted first by Regis, who was already happily smiling at Scarlet. He patted her head, brushing her hair to the side slightly. "Oh my, look at this lovely little girl. All nicely dressed for her big day."
"Would you like to hold her?"
"I would enjoy that greatly, Prompto," Regis replied before Prompto let him take her from his arms.
"Gapa!" Scarlet shouted happily as she clung onto Regis.
"Oh aw, how adorable," Prompto said before he pulled out his phone to start snapping photos.
"The dress you've picked out for Scarlet is lovely," Regis commented. "A perfect dress for a birthday girl such as Scarlet."
"Thought so, but you gotta thank Ignis for that. I told him what I was looking for and he found the perfect thing!"
Noctis came from behind, smirking slightly. "So Ignis is a fashion man? Who would've guessed?"
"It isn't terribly hard to pick out clothing for children," Ignis replied. "Perhaps even you could try it sometime, Noctis."
Noctis shrugged. "Eh, no thanks. I'll stick to being the cool uncle."
"If anyone's the cool uncle, it's me," Gladio grunted. "The taller the uncle, the higher she can be for piggyback rides. And I know how much Iris loved those as a kid."
Iris, who had already moved to stand near Regis so she could play peek-a-boo with Scarlet, giggled. "Piggyback rides are fun, but I get to be the only aunt! So you guys can't have that! Scarlet's going to love having me as the best aunt!"
Prompto grinned, snapping another shot. "Can't argue with that logic. Now, let's get the cake and get this birthday party started!"
Moments later, Prompto sat Scarlet down in the highchair, adjusting her properly before locking in the tray. Ignis then came by to hand Prompto a small slice of cake that had one single candle in it.
Prompto held the plate as the candle was lit, and soon everyone started to sing to Scarlet. She smiled, happily enjoying the song as she tried to reach out for the cake slice. When the song came to an end, Prompto blew out the candle for her before removing it and leaving the plate on her tray.
Right away, her little hands started grabbing the cake, bringing little pieces to her mouth. It wasn't long before she had frosting all over her face, which brought quite a lot of amusement to Prompto as he took more photos. He knew he would be printing so many of them to go into an album to look at in the future.
While it was only the first birthday, and there would be more to come in the future, he wanted to cherish the moment. He couldn't help himself, knowing that he was repeating the same thought over and over. Every little milestone was special to him, and he wanted to keep that warm feeling going in his chest.