A/N: My first foray into Mr Selfridge fic, and it happened quickly so I'm not too sure about it, but here it is. I really love Kitty and Frank and the chemistry between them. There should be more of them, and I suppose that's why I ended up writing this (also fuelled by a rewatch of S2 and getting all the Kitty x Frank feels)...
Nothing about Mr Selfridge belongs to me. This includes some S3 spoilers but is set between series, after S2.
Sweet Talk
The night was fine, warm enough for them to walk back from the dinner they had enjoyed in town without their coats. It was almost as though their celebration had been anticipated and their happiness had exuded throughout the city, bringing it to a peaceful lull.
After a clean start, over two and a half years ago now, they'd had a proper courtship. There had been dinners galore, Frank would come to the store it seemed every other day keen for some conversation and the hope of a smile or two from Miss Hawkins. When a few months had passed, she allowed him to call her Kitty again and he had never felt more privileged. She was special indeed; not only had she been the saving grace so vital in restoring the good name of Selfridges, but she had woken him up to a few things too. Not least how wonderful she was, and how he had been quite besotted with her ever since their paths had crossed in that very building, over a box of ivory-tipped pencils, of all things.
The war had changed the country and the people within it, some for the better and some for the worse. While men fought and put their lives on the line thousands of miles away, women ascended and kept the home fires burning fiercely. None had quite so much fire as Miss Hawkins. Already growing more assured and openly considerate, Kitty had matured in the years that had passed. It wasn't to say that she had sacrificed her exuberance completely. She had let out that surprised and almost childlike shriek of excitement that was still familiar to her only days ago, when Frank had presented her with the engagement ring he had bought. Though their relationship had become solid, a part of him had wavered when he considered whether she would accept. She knew how to keep him on pins, and those few moments of waiting had been no different. When she had finally told him yes, several times over, he felt more elated than he ever had on gaining any scoop.
They strolled down Oxford Street, her arm through his, the dainty ring on her left hand proudly on display. Their steps went past the great windows of Selfridges and Frank beheld Kitty's face as it lit with the same wonder as always. She looked breathtakingly beautiful, two dreams in culmination within her and knitting closer with every step she took, clinging onto the crook of his arm.
Her light framed her features as she turned towards him. The look in her eyes both asked and answered a question he didn't have the time to reply to.
"You do know that I won't be giving up my career to stay and wait for you to come home of an evening." Her sapphire eyes went wide as her head tipped slightly to one side. "Sitting primly and making a house look pretty isn't in my repertoire."
"But making yourself look pretty comes completely naturally."
He chuckled at the half-pout she gave him, glimpsing the blush as it crept up on her cheeks at his compliment. Her indignance was completely expected of course, and he loved her fiercely for it.
"I wouldn't expect you to. Heaven knows no man or force of nature could stand in the way of your ambitions, Kitty Hawkins. They know no bounds."
That violet flash in her irises cooled to a calmer hue and she gave the demure kind of smile that she would only ever bestow on him.
"I've done many a foolish thing in my time but that would be beyond even my limits."
"I dare say you've learnt your lessons incredibly well in these years, Mr Edwards."
Her smile turned impish as she twirled her purse around her wrist. In the next second she leaned tantalisingly towards him, close enough to discern the scent dotted upon her collarbone, something he recognised from sitting atop her counter recently. However, her natural and utterly delighting aroma lingering beneath was all the more enticing to him.
She turned her gaze towards the few stars that lined the sky above as though she had found another wish to chase, fixating on one shining spot in particular.
"Not to say that I don't adore what I do, but who knows where life takes us. I might want a change of direction in future."
Her eyes sparkled as bright as those stars and he was quick enough to catch the glow, listening intently to her every word.
"Perhaps I could even start my own column," she trilled, causing the corners of his mouth to rise in a smirk, "if I knew somebody who was able to assist, of course."
"Well, you know I am rather rusty in that area," he quipped. Freelancing wasn't the most reliable of positions, but he was satisfied that it suited his character much better than peddling sheer sensationalism designed to sell papers.
Kitty chose to shrug off his comment, running her fingers along his arm. "Beauty tips, the latest trends and fashions for every woman, whoever she is and whatever she spends her days doing. I think it may catch on."
"Oh, I have no doubt about it," he rasped, his head arching closer to her ear. "I do believe you could do anything you put your mind to, and excel further every single second, Miss Hawkins."
She giggled, pulling his arm tighter against her. Giving a brief shake of her head she sent her crimson curls bobbing.
"You don't half talk a lot of sweetness, Frank Edwards," she fluttered her eyelashes towards him as she spoke. "It's a wonder what you write doesn't melt from the page."
"Ah well, writing and talking are two very different things."
"You teach me something new every day."
She suddenly halted them both, turning her body into his and walking her fingers against the edge of his blazer, seeking his gaze like a moth to a flame. He heated considerably as she pressed her palm to his chest, and he looked down for a moment to follow her movements. Breath passed between them, coming as further permission from her. He hooked his hand carefully around her waist, palm fitting snugly at her hipbone. She was far too close now and yet still unbearably far, her lips pursing and then prising a little apart, his eyes pinned there, watching her form her words before she said them.
"But then, I've always liked finding things out for myself."
The moment was filled with delicious tension that he felt coursing through his veins, and it was then that she closed the space between them, capturing his lips with hers. His hand slid to the small of her back, pulling her closer and sending their kiss spiralling deeper, searing with all that had been building this evening and filled with the promise that had been sealed between them before it.
Frank opened his eyes slowly to see Kitty, utterly radiant, a rosy flush upon her cheeks and her mouth distinctly redder than moments before.
"And your verdict, Miss Hawkins?"
She paused teasingly, reply held on her tongue before she broke into a beautiful and beaming smile.
"Very sweet indeed. Much more than I've ever known before, in fact."
"That'll be the dessert. Or alternatively the company I keep."
He grinned at the way she rolled her eyes at him, as well as at her unending charm. They remained standing frozen at the street's edge, his hands placed either side of her waist as she moulded for a few moments against his touch.
"And we'll both have to get out of that habit," she exclaimed, looping her arms decisively around his shoulders. "Will six months be long enough to start thinking of me as Kitty Edwards?"
The coupling of the names on her lips made him truly ecstatic and left him wanting to kiss her again, for yet longer this time.
"More than adequate, I'd say," he smiled.
"Good," she leaned in anew, her warm breath drifting pleasantly upon his face. "Because I don't reckon I can wait much longer to be your wife."
He was certain that she had never been more beautiful, and he fell more in love with her every second.
"Well, I know from experience that it doesn't do to keep you waiting."
Before he could say any more, she pulled him forward by the lapels, smiling before she kissed him deeply once more.
A lot of things were changing in the world but Kitty's spirit thankfully would remain the same, even if her last name wouldn't for much longer.