Together

Ballgown Stash

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Here's a sweet little fluffy update to celebrate the occasion.... I hope you all had a nice day full of chocolate and cuddles. Love you all! Enjoy/comment/vote x
-ab

————————————-

November 30, 2025

Harper

Once we are in the photography studio, Gus whisks Patrick and I away to a small room with a bright green backdrop set up. We take our last few shots, then Gus plugs his camera into his computer so that we can take a preliminary look at some of the pictures, just so that we can know that they're satisfactory.

As Gus shows us all of the shots that he has taken, Patrick and I look at each other, our smile growing bigger and bigger.

My absolute favourite shot is the one where we are kissing in front of the Tower Bridge.

"We've got to get that one framed," I whisper to Patrick.

"Absolutely," he tells me, giving my arm a squeeze. With his arm snaked around my shoulders, I feel so safe, and so content.

As we are finishing up going through the pictures, I start to fiddle with the engagement ring on my finger. It's a little bit of a habit that I've picked up recently. I never wore rings until a few months ago, when I received this one from the love of my life.

Patrick places his hand that isn't around my shoulder on top of mine, and begins to speak. "All of these look really great, Gus."

"I'm so glad that you like them," he tells us. "I'll edit them all, of course, and then send any of them that are any good to you. It'll be most of them, but as you saw, there were a few that were blurry, or pixelated, or had some weird background action, or whatever it may be... you're not going to want those, I promise."

"Alright," Patrick laughs. "Thank you so much."

"Let's just take you up to the front desk and get you all payed up, and then you can be on your way, alright?" Gus suggests.

"That sounds perfect," Patrick replies. He grabs my hand, and the two of us follow the photographer to the desk, where he accepts Patrick's credit card and swipes it.

"Wonderful," Gus says. "Thank you so much for a wonderful session."

"Thank you," Patrick and I reply, each of us shaking his hand before we walk out, with our fingers intertwined together.

After catching the next tube through the station, we find ourselves back at our flat quite soon.

"Well, that was exciting," I remark, flopping down on the sofa. "I need a nap now."

"Just be glad that you don't have to do a show tonight," he tells me, sitting down and placing my feet upon his lap, where he begins to mindlessly rub them.

"Yeah, about that..." I start to laugh.

"What?"

"Tomorrow night, we sort of have ballet tickets."

"Oh, Harper," he groans. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"It totally slipped my mind until I got a text this morning from Kath, reminding me that our tickets are at will call."

"Well, if Kath is in it, then I can't complain," he winks. "I guess we are going to the ballet tomorrow, then."

"It's sort of their opening night, so it's going to be like... really fancy... you still have your nice suit, right?"

"You're lucky," he laughs. "And what are you planning on wearing? It's not like you've got a stash of ballgowns in your closet or anything."

"Excuse you, I happen to have a few sitting around."

"Are you kidding me?" Patrick laughs.

"No. I'm probably going to wear the one from when I was at the Royal Academy of Music and gave my final recital."

"Well, alright then," he tells me. "It sounds like a plan."

"I'm so proud of Kath... she's playing her dream role tomorrow night, you know. She's going to be amazing." I pause. "Do you know the story of The Nutcracker?"

"I didn't even know that was the show we were seeing, much less anything about it. But I'll be fine. Kids see this show, right? How hard can it be?"

"If I were you, I'd learn the story first. It's sorta weird when you first learn it."

"I'll be fine. I've seen many a musical without knowing the plot."

"Alright..." I reply, skeptically. "Have you ever seen a ballet before?"

"Oh my god, did you not know this story?" he laughs. "Well... when I was really little... probably four or so, I was really uncoordinated, so my parents thought about getting me some ballet lessons, just enough to keep me from falling over every other step, but before they started, they decided to take me to a ballet to see if I'd be at all interested. I think that we saw Alice In Wonderland, but I'm not entirely sure, becuase I slept through the first act, and we left at the interval."

"Oh my god, Patrick!" I squeal, biting back my laughter. "No sleeping through Katherine's show! Nessa will probably kick you!"

"Is she gonna be there?"

"I think she's sitting right next to me."

"Well, then I'm going to have to be on my best behavior. She's a feisty one," he tells me, giving a cheeky smile, to which I simply roll my eyes.

"Just... it's incredibly rude to sleep if you're over about... ten years old."

"Noted," Patrick tells me with a wink. "I think that I have a bit more of an attention span now."

"But you're still just as clumsy."

"Hey!" he protests.

"Don't deny it."

"I'll have you know that I got better when I was about eight or so and started playing football. That only lasted like three years, but it did help."

"That's good," I tell him, pushing myself up into a sitting position where I lightly kiss his cheek.

"So," he says to me, "about this ballgown stash of yours..."

"It's really not huge, but there's like four of them in the back of the closet. I'm serious!"

"I don't believe it until I see it."

"Fine," I roll my eyes, standing up and grabbing Patrick's hand, then dragging him toward our room.

I open up my closet door and push all of my daily clothes aside to revel four garment bags. "You can feel free to look inside if you want. I've got my prom dress, my university recital dress, and two gowns from various events that I had to attend... I don't even remember what, in all honesty."

To Patrick's surprise, I'm not lying. "Alright. You win this one, Kennedy."