"Where dada?"

Ignis looked up from his notebook to see Scarlet at his side, staring at him with her big, curious eyes.

"He's at school, remember?"

"Wanna go see dada!" Scarlet said cheerfully.

"He'll be home within a few hours. You can wait to see him then."

As reasonable as that response was, Scarlet didn't seem to like it. She started frowning, giving Ignis a bit of a pout.

"I wanna see dada!"

"Scarlet. Your father needs to focus at school, we shouldn't interrupt him. How about we play kitchen? I can teach you how to make cookies."."

The little toddler lowered her head. "Okay…"

As Ignis got up, he glanced at the clock, noticing the time. In the back of his mind, he went through the schedule he had memorized for Prompto's classes. He hummed before glazing back at Scarlet, who was now following right behind him.

"Actually, instead… What if we went to visit your father on his break? He has an hour between classes today, so I think a short visit wouldn't be too bad."

Scarlet started to jump up and down, a large smile spreading across her face. "Yay! See dad time!"

So, with the plan in mind, Ignis set out with Scarlet to head to Prompto's college. When they got there, the two of them walked in, heading towards the wing that Prompto was most likely to be in.

Little Scarlet held onto Ignis's hand, staring up at the new place she had never been before. As they walked past classrooms and lounge areas she kept letting out soft 'whoas' and 'wows', which admittedly was rather cute to witness.

As they walked through a hallway of classrooms, Ignis stopped when he thought he caught Prompto in the corner of his eye. He turned and looked back at the classroom they had just passed and peered inside. There were a few students already inside, including Prompto, working at one of the computers. He was probably working on some project before the start of class if Ignis had to guess.

"Look, Scarlet, your father is right in there," Ignis said, pointing to Prompto.

Letting go of Ignis's hand, Scarlet ran into the classroom as fast as she could. "Dada!"

Prompto turned around, surprised as Scarlet came crashing into his legs. "Huh, Scarlet, what are you doing here?"

"We thought it would be a good time to visit, I hope we aren't interrupting you?" Ignis asked, stepping into the classroom.

"Oh, no. I got like forty minutes left utill class, so I was just playing around with some adjustments to photos I took earlier last week," Prompto said, picking up Scarlet and placing her in his lap.

"Missed you dada!"

"You missed me? But you know I always come home right after class."

"I know, but I wanted to see you!" Scarlet replied happily.

Prompto gave her a hug. "Aw, well I can't say no to that!"

"Unca Iggy says we gonna make cookies!"

Prompto turned to Ignis, giving him a raised eyebrow. "Is that true? You promised cookies?"

"I thought it would be a good activity while we waited for your return."

"And you think a two year old can cook? I mean, is it safe?"

Ignis nodded. "It can be with the proper supervision, and I believe I qualify quite well for that."

"Alright, but make sure to save me a couple, okay?"

"Okay, dada!"

Promtpo hugged Scarlet one last time before Ignis told her it was time to leave. She looked a bit sad, but she nodded and followed Ignis towards the door to leave.

Before she left however, she turned around and waved at Prompto. "Bye bye, dada! See you!"

"Bye, Scarlet. And thanks, Ignis."

Once they were gone, Prompto turned back around to face his computer. In the corner of his eye he spotted the few other students who also chose to come to class early, and they were all staring at him.

"Uh, is she really your kid?" one girl asked, sounding a little nervous to be asking the question in the first place.

He probably should have seen this coming. Since the start of the semester, he hadn't mentioned that he was a father. He didn't want to be assaulted by questions and prying eyes throughout class.

But now the cat was out of the bag, and he was going to have to be honest.

"Yeah… She is mine. Adopted her about a year and a half ago or so."

"Wow! That's so cool!"

"How do you manage raising and kid and classes?"

Here came all the start of the big questions.

"Well, it wasn't easy at first, but I've gotten into a good pattern. But, uh yeah, that was Scarlet."

The other students, while they asked him many more questions after that, were at least respectful. He was glad that they didn't seem to look at him any differently, except maybe now they looked at him with a bit of awe.

Maybe he could get through the rest of the semester without too much difficulty from the other students.

Though, seeing Scarlet come to visit him was a nice change of pace. He hadn't expected it, and it really brightened his mood. He was definitely going to have to thank Ignis later for making the visit possible.

Back at the Citadel, in Prompto's room, Ignis was setting up ingredients to begin making cookies. He had even bought Scarlet a little toddler sized apron to wear, making the experience all the more authentic.

He set her up a step stool next to the lowest kitchen counter in the room. "Okay, Scarlet. Are you ready to make cookies?"

"Make cookies! Ya!" Scarlet said as she stepped onto the stool.

"Then you need to listen very carefully, alright? Can you do that?"

Scarlet nodded.

"Good. Then let's begin."

Ignis started by carefully explaining that they would need to mix the ingredients into a bowl. Carefully helping her, they were able to mix everything nicely into a bowl. Though, cracking the eggs was probably the hardest part.

Scarlet really wanted to try to do it on her own, so Ignis made sure she cracked the egg into a separate bowl in case it went wrong.

It did in fact go wrong, with Scarlet applying a little too much pressure and the egg cracking and spilling all over her hands.

"Uh-oh," she said in the most innocently cute way possible.

"No worries, Scarlet. We have more eggs, but this time let me show you how to do it," Ignis said, wiping off Scarlet's hands.

Scarlet nodded and the next time they tempted cracking an eye, she watched carefully. She seemed completely captivated and in awe with how delicate Ignis was with the eggs, having years of experience over her.

Once everything was mixed together, the dough was ready to be put onto the pan.

"Now, Scarlet, we must take pieces of the dough and roll them into a ball, as so." Ignis demonstrated and then placed the dough on the pan. "See? Very simple."

"When we eat cookies?"

"We need to bake them first. But, before that we must put them on this pan, okay?"

Scarlet nodded excited and reached into the bowl of dough. She scooped out a lump of it and slowly tried to make it as round and nice as Ignis's was.

Ignis chuckled, watching her attempt. "You're doing rather well, Scarlet. Keep at it."

As Scarlet continued to work with the cookie dough, Ignis quickly snapped a few pictures. He knew all too well Prompto would act completely over dramatic if Ignis didn't at least take a few pictures during the baking process.

Soon they had filled the pan with as many cookie dough balls as they could. Some looked better than others, but Ignis wasn't going to dimiss Scarlet's efforts.

"Now, this is the part where we must wait," Ignis said after he put the pan into the oven. "Is there anything you'd like to do while we wait for the cookies to bake?"

"Hmm, read story!"

Ignis nodded. "I can do that. We'll wash your hands first, and then you can go and pick out a book for us to read."

Once Scarlet was cleaned up, she ran out of the room to find a book and a moment later she held up a book to Ignis.

Together they made their way over to the couch and sat down. Scarlet scooted close next to Ignis as he looked over the book. It was a short but sweet story about a train named Evan meeting and learning about different transportation vehicles. He had seen Prompto read it to Scarlet many times before, and despite that, she wanted to hear it time and time again.

"Alright, Scarlet, let's begin shall we?"

He started to read the story, but a moment later Scarlet was tapping his leg. "Not that."

"Pardon? Not like what?"

"Read like dada!"

"What do you mean?I thought I was doing just that?"

Scarlet pointed to the book. "Speak like Evan!"

"Speak like, oh… I think I see what you mean."

Whenever Prompto read it, he always gave the characters funny voices. It made for a much more lively and entertaining storytime, especially for little Scarlet.

"I'm afraid I've never read stories where I gave the characters voices. I don't think I would be very good."

"Try!" Scarlet insisted.

Even with Scarlet trying to encourage him, he still wasn't too sure of his abilities. When he read stories with Noctis in their younger years, he never read it with any extra voices. He had never tried, and if he was being frank with himself, he felt a little embarrassed.

Even if it was a silly notion, he wondered if he could disappoint a toddler by not providing enough funny voices to the story.

"Reaaaad," Scarlet pleading, flopping herself across Ignis's lap.

With a sigh, Ignis helped her sit back up. "Alright, I'll try my best to read it like your father, but I can't say it'll be very good."

Clearing his throat, Ignis began to read the story, trying his hardest to come up with voices to give to the characters.

Scarlet laughed and giggled, and it seemed that she was enjoying his struggling attempts. Though,whether or not she knew he was struggling was up for debate. A child's mind was young and probably didn't fully grasp the feeling of embarrassment just yet.

But, by the end of the story Scarlet seemed really happy, giving Ignis a big hug as thanks. "Thank you!"

"Well, you're welcome, Scarlet. Now, the cookies should have a few more minutes left. Shall I turn the oven light on so you can see how much they've changed?"

"Yeah!"

When they walked back into the kitchen, Ignis was surprised to see Gladio sitting at the counter.

"Gladio? When did you get here? I never heard the door open…"

Gladio grinned at him. "Heh, you were so engrossed in the book that you barely even noticed."

"You mean… you heard that?" Ignis held his breath, trying to not let himself get flustered over such a small meaningless matter.

"Just about all of it? Never thought you had it in you, or at least the effort to try."

"Oh hush," Ignis muttered, walking over to the oven to switch on the light for Scarlet to see.

Gladio laughed. "What? I didn't say you were bad! Just that you were really trying!"

"Well, not all of us have quite the same amount of theatrics as others…"

"Hey, she still liked it. That should be what matters."

Ignis leaned back against the counter, giving Gladio a skeptical glare. "And just what are you doing here anyway?"

"Was just passing down the hallway when I smelled the cookies baking, thought I might pop in the sample."

Ignis smirked. "Of course you would."

"Cookies ready?" Scarlet asked.

Ignis glanced at the clock on the oven. "Just a minute left. But you'll want to step away. The oven is very hot."

Scarlet nodded and then ran over to Gladio. "Unca Glado!"

Gladio scooped her up and placed her in his lap. "Hey, Scarlet. How's my little niece?"

She pointed to the oven excitedly. "Cookies!"

"Made cookies with Iggy, huh? Did he do all the work?"

"I made cookies!" she declared. "Dada need cookies!"

Gladio nodded, giving her a pat on the head. "Ah, I gotcha. Making cookies for when Prompto gets back from school. Good kid."

The oven beeped and Scarlet cheered happily as Ignis pulled the freshly baked cookies out from the oven.

"Cookies!" Scarlet shouted happily.

She tried to jump off of Gladio, but he held on to her tightly. "Hold on there, girlie. Those are hot cookies. Gotta wait for them to cool down."

"Aww, but cookies!" Scarlet winned.

"It won't take long. Maybe just enough time for Ignis to read you another story," Gladio replied.

"Story!" Scarlet cheered.

Ignis sent a quick glare to Gladio. "Or maybe Uncle Gladio could read you one. I've heard he is quite good at it."

"No! Unca Iggy read!"

"Ha! You heard it, she wants you."

Ignis sighed. "Very well, but you must sit with us. I can't trust you to be alone with those cookies."

"Aw, come on. I won't eat all of them."

"You're joining us for storytime," Ignis stated firmly.

Gladio agreed to it after that, and the three of them made their way over to the couch. Ignis wasn't going to give up yet, he would find a way to get Gladio involved in reading the story. If he was going to act silly while reading children's stories, he wanted to get Gladio to do it with him.