Work Text:
Ilya did not always want to be a father. Before Shane he wanted to spare children the childehood he had had. He thought because he only saw a bad representation of family that he could never be good father. But after meeting Shane that changed. He caught himself often dreaming about a life with Shane as his husband and a few children. Sometimes only girls other times a little girl and a little boy. Over time the dreams became clearer. Ilya wanted to be a father.
He wanted to show his children the parental love he only ever received from his mother. And he especially wanted to be a girl dad. Even before Shane and Ilya decided to adopted he researched a lot about how to be a good father. He liked to be prepared.
He learned that girls with their long hair wanted different hairstyles. Irina always had neatly styled hair and he often watched her doing her hair.
She told him that each different hairstyle was a lot of work and that she learned them early on from her mother. So Ilya started to watch tutorials about hairstyles for girls. But Ilya was a tactile learner so he needed someone to try the hairstyles on. Who fitted better than his lovely husband with his grown out hair?
Ilya asked Shane one afternoon if he could try a hairstyle on him. Shane was a little surprised but never discouraged his husband from touching his hair.
Or any other place on his body. While Ilya worked on his hair Shane asked him about the reason behind his request to style his hair. Ilya told him about his wish to be a girl dad and that he wanted to be prepared to be a good parent. Shane could only fall more in love with him.
It became a weekly occurrence that Ilya tried different hairstyles on Shane’s hair. While Ilya worked they talked about their wishes and their views on having children.
They agreed that they wanted more than one child and would love to have a girl. But Shane also would love to be a dad of a little boy. So they agreed on both when the time was right.
A few years later they were fathers of a little girl and a little boy. Twins. Adopted together. Even with all the preparation they did for parenthood, they still made mistakes. They were in fact, only human. But they loved these kids with all their heart.
As soon as the hair of the little girl was long enough, Ilya started with his learned hairstyles. He thrived doing it and the little girl looked so cute. But the little boy also had this beautiful long hair and always admired the hairstyle of his sister. One day the little boy asked if Ilya could style his hair like he did his sister’s. Ilya was overjoyed and complied instantly. After he finished he looked at his children with beautiful French braids.
But he felt like something was missing when he looked at his husband. After all, he was his muse. So he also braided Shane’s hair.
When they left the house, Shane, Anya and the two kids walking in front of him, all three with braided hair, Ilya finally felt complete.