Hand of the Heart | S. Rogers x Reader - Royal AU

Ch. 10 - The Ball

I changed the cover for this fanfic because @chrisevansfanfiction changed theirs to the one I had (the one up top) and it felt awkward to have the same fanart for our covers. Especially since they have a much larger platform than I do. Kinda upset, I really liked it, but the new one's nice too.

I always imagine "Masquerade (Suite): 1. Waltz - Excerpt" by Aram Khachaturian played by the orchestra when I envision balls.

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As he said in his letter to you, Steve was gone for the entirety of the time the preparations for the ball were being put in place. Which meant you had to spend at least half of the four days he was gone with Brock. You cut most of that time short, using the excuse of "overseeing the ball preparations". You were so incredibly tired of him telling you that he was going to defile you when you married. You found yourself missing your Captain the more time went by.

James' new prosthetic came in from York a couple of days after the third game. The medical team had it attached in no time with the instructions that came with the metal arm, and he was able to return to York the day before the ball. You invited him to attend, but he told you that he'd "rather people not see the ghastly thing just yet."

The fourth and final game was postponed until the day after the ball so that the game could be announced at the event itself. The servants were all busy cleaning, cooking, and decorating to get the castle ready.

On the day of the ball, you were being prepped as soon as you woke up. Your corset was tightened significantly more than usual, your hair was done in a half-up half-down style, your makeup was applied generously, and you still have yet to even see the gown you shall wear tonight.

You had requested that your dress be blue in color, giving no reason other than that you liked how it looked with your complexion. But you had an even larger reason for choosing this color.

It was a symbol. A statement for you and only you to know.

Blue meant that you chose Steve. Even though you had no choice in who would win this tournament, you still had to protest in some small way.

You were anxiously awaiting his arrival back to Evradia. Though you had to dance with all of your past suitors and even more so with your current ones, you looked forward to being in his arms.

That was probably the only aspect of tonight that you looked forward to.

"Your Highness?"

You were sucking in your gut yet again as a handmaiden was pulling the strings of your corset. Gasping, you acknowledged the other handmaiden that had come into the room with a, "Yes?"

"Your dress has arrived, your Highness."

You told the servant that was cinching your corset to tie you up, and once you were, a few more servants came into your room with a large platform with something body-shaped that was covered with a white sheet.

You removed the linen in one downward arm movement, the sheet falling to the side with a whoosh.

It revealed a dress of brilliant royal blue with silver lining. Intricate silver stitches in all kinds of designs lined the bottom of the dress skirt. It was full and large with different tools of different poofy fabrics that made the dress puff out.

"It's gorgeous!" you exclaimed, feeling the material of the dress. You knew it was already tailored to your exact body shape.

It took quite a while to actually get into the dress, but it was well worth the wait.

The bodice clung to the top half of your body like a vice, accentuating all of your dips and curves. The sleeves were off the shoulder and loose, giving you perfect arm movement.