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English
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Published:
2022-05-14
Completed:
2022-05-14
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2,948
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10/10
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Pretty Paper

Summary:

Patrick’s first wedding anniversary gift to David didn’t land quite the way he had expected.

Notes:

I haven’t posted anything to AO3 for fourteen months. Eeeek! (It’s been a rough couple of years, folks, and writing didn't turn out to be my coping mechanism during that time.) It feels great to finally break that dry spell and put something creative out in the world again.
:-)

Chapter 1

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Title Card. The words

Patrick hummed to himself as he folded the paper. He ran the nail of his thumb along the crease, ensuring a crisp edge. He smiled. One whole year. The happiest year of his life. Not a day went by that he didn’t thank his lucky stars to have accepted a job, a room, and refuge in this town.

He used double-sided tape to secure the paper and then tied a blue ribbon, a darker hue than the paper, around the perfectly square present before him. He couldn’t wait to give it to David. He was proud of himself, and this present. After all, he’d had success in the past of framing paper and gifting it to this man who knew it was not nothing.

Like the business license and receipt before it, this piece of paper represented the beginning of something. It was the very first step in their shared history. And if their first wedding anniversary, the paper anniversary no less, wasn’t the perfect time to give David the B13 ticket Patrick had saved, tucked safely in his folio where he could (and regularly did) stare at it, he didn’t know when it was. 

He took a moment to appreciate his handiwork. The gift was wrapped beautifully. Unlike his previous attempts, he was confident that the frame beneath this pretty paper was solid, and the mounting was sleek and invisible. It reminded him of how far he had come, of just how far he would continue to go for David. He slipped the present between the bed and bedside table ready to surprise his husband when he awoke the next morning.

*

David, apparently, had the same idea. After being woken by his husband in a rather spectacular manner, when their hitched breaths and racing heartbeats returned to normal, and their mutual messes cleaned, David reached below their bed and presented what was clearly a frame, wrapped in a beautiful, heavy paper with a simple monochromatic pattern. 

Patrick laid it on his lap as he leaned towards his husband and captured his lips in a kiss. “Thank you, David.”

“You haven’t opened it yet.” David shook his head and gestured at the present. “You should probably wait to see if you like it before you thank me.” 

“I wasn’t thanking you for the gift.” Patrick reached for David’s hand and toyed with his wedding ring, spinning it around his finger as he leaned in for another kiss. 

“Oh.” David beamed as they broke apart. “Well, in that case, you’re very welcome.” 

Patrick leaned in one more time–he couldn’t help himself–and planted a quick peck on David’s lips before returning to the task at hand. He slipped his finger beneath the wrapping, and broke the bond between the paper and the sticky tape, revealing a square shadow box, inside of which lay a meticulous origami rendition of their wedding suits. 

Framed Origami Wedding Suits

“Oh, wow,” Patrick whispered. “David, this– this is beautiful .” 

Patrick took it all in. The boutonnière and bouquet. The pleated skirt with asymmetrical hemline. Thom Browne’s red, white and black signature stripes. The white shirts that were made from some kind of textured linen paper. And the tiny tie and bowtie. 

“Jesus, David, how did you do this? That little bow tie is insane.”

“Surely you know how skilled my fingers are by now.” David cocked an eyebrow and smirked, basking in Patrick’s laugh before his face turned soft. “You like it?”

“I fucking love it.” Patrick dragged David’s face to his again, lingering in the kiss. “Thank you.” He turned back to the origami. “It’s stunning. It must have taken you ages.” 

“It was not not time consuming,” David admitted, his face turning soft as he continued, “But I got to think about you and our perfect wedding as I was folding so it was time well spent.” 

This time, it was David who learned in for a kiss. 

“Okay, my turn,” Patrick said as he broke away and reached to retrieve his gift for David. 

“Well, isn’t this pretty?” David admired Patrick’s gift-wrapping prowess for a mere second before discarding the ribbon and ripping through the paper like a man possessed. Then he stopped and just stared at the small frame with a B13 deli ticket inside.

Framed B13 Deli Ticket

“Um. Huh. Thank you?”

Patrick didn’t miss the rising intonation as his stomach sank. He watched David, confusion evident, as he tried to place the significance of this particular scrap of paper. 

“Ticket B13. From Ray’s?” Patrick prodded. 

Silence hung between them for several long seconds before David raised his eyes to meet Patrick’s and said softly, almost a whisper. “I don’t know what that means.” 

“Oh, yeah, no, of course. That’s fine,” Patrick reached for the frame. “It was dumb of me to think you’d remember.”

“Wait, no,” David gripped the frame. “What don’t I remember?”

“Let me have the frame, David. I’ll get you something else.”

“I don’t want something else. I want to know what this is.”

Patrick sighs. “On that day we first met, Ray had you take a number, and this was that ticket. You handed it over to me, and that was our very first interaction. That’s how we met.”

David was silent for several seconds before he found his voice again. His face did that thing that Patrick usually loved, where he could see a whole range of emotions run past until he settled on a single one to emote fully. Only this time Patrick wasn’t sure he could read David’s face.

“And you kept it,” David finally said. Patrick nodded. “And you framed it.” More nodding. “And gave it to me on our first wedding anniversary.”

“That’s right.”

“That’s really romantic, Patrick. I love it. Thank you.”

David planted a kiss on Patrick's lips, which he accepted but didn’t fully reciprocate. 

“David, please let me get you something else. Something that is meaningful to you.”

“This is meaningful to me. I told you I loved it.”

“You’re just saying that. Here let me–” Patrick made another grab for the frame which David failed to rebuff. “Are we really doing this? Are we seriously playing tug-o-war with this silly frame?” 

“We are until you let me keep it.” 

“Fine,” Patrick sulked, letting go and sinking back against the bed. “I mean, it makes sense that you don’t remember it. It’s not like it was love at first sight for you.”

“Wait. Are you saying...? It was… love at first sight for you?” 

Patrick exhaled loudly, a resigned, defeated sound. “Look, David. I know our meeting wasn’t as big a deal for you as it was for me and that’s fine. It wasn’t some singular life-altering, defining moment that disproved all the assumptions you’d previously held about yourself and your sexuality. But–” he sighed again, “I don’t know, David? I guess I just hoped it registered as some level of importance. That you remembered it.”

“Okay. So in my defense, my preferences were already pretty firmly established when we met. But that doesn’t mean that meeting you wasn’t, um, a big deal. And it doesn’t mean that I don’t remember it.” David’s hands found Patrick’s shoulders and his thumbs began rubbing soothing circles there. He looked into Patrick’s sad eyes and tried for humor. “I definitely remember your ass in those jeans as you learned over Ray’s table later that afternoon.” David raised a single eyebrow and shimmied his shoulders. “You could get it.”

The laugh this elicited from Patrick was half-hearted at best. The smile didn’t reach his eyes. And David noticed. Because of course he did. How could he not? His hands stilled momentarily and then squeezed Patrick’s shoulders resolutely. “M’kay, I’m going to show you something that I hadn’t, um, actually, planned on letting you see. But you have to promise not to freak out or divorce me. Because I know it’s a lot, and maybe it’s obsessive and weird and another example of me taking things too far but–”

David’s hands were moving again. Except now they’d left Patrick’s shoulders and were flailing dramatically.

“Hey.” Patrick’s voice was an anchor. “I can confidently say, whatever it is, I probably won’t divorce you over it.” Patrick’s smile crinkled his eyes.

“Okay, just so you know, that’s not as reassuring as I was hoping for. But, well, here goes.”

Patrick watched David’s bare ass disappear into their walk-in closet, heard a few mumbled “fucks” at what sounded like David’s meticulously stacked storage boxes taking a tumble, before his husband returned to bed with what looked like a photo album. The album was covered in a black fabric with a cutout in the center of the front cover clearly designed for a photograph to be inserted. Inside the cutout were two paper origami hearts, one blue, one black.

David placed the album on Patrick’s lap, his hand resting on the cover, stopping Patrick from turning the page. 

“I know that sometimes I can be extra–”

“Sometimes?”

David ignored the sarcasm and continued, “–and I can get a little obsessive and over the top and be too much and–”

“David, you’re never too much.”

“You say that now–”

“I’ll say that always.”

“M’kay,” he paused. “You really weren’t ever meant to see this but…” David took a steady breath. “Origami isn’t actually a new skill for me. It became a kind of escape when I was in high school. I got into it. Like really into it. It was something I could lose myself in. And I’d oscillate between being so focused on the folds that everything except the origami faded away, or other times because my hands were busy, my mind was free to think. So I could process whatever was going on in my life. 

“Whenever I needed to work through something, I’d fold. I guess it was pretty important to me. Until one day I just…didn’t do it anymore. When I found less…um… productive ways to deal with those feelings.

“Then when you proposed, I just knew that I’d fold something for our paper anniversary.” David smiled his full open smile. 

God, Patrick loved this man. He placed one hand over David’s atop the album, squeezing it as he leaned in for another kiss. His other hand slid across David’s jawline, to the nape of his neck, digging his fingers into the hair there. Knowing that his proposal had sparked a desire in David to re-embrace his passion for origami filled Patrick with a warmth that, despite it becoming so familiar in the years since they met, he always relished.

“I’m really glad you found your way back to it,” Patrick said after their lips broke apart. 

“Me too. I had so much fun thinking of you and our wedding and remembering how perfect it was as I folded. But…um,” he paused, “this is the part that is kind of extra and obsessive because that’s not the only time I folded us.”

David lifted his hand and Patrick opened the album cover. There on the first page was a duplicate of their origami wedding suits he had just seen, sans the boutonnière and bouquet. The thickness of the flowers, Patrick realized, wouldn’t have sat flat enough to include in the book. He turned the page again and was met with another intricate origami creation. 

Their hiking clothes. 

Patrick let out a soft exhale as he noted the way David had wrinkled the paper to give his hoodie a soft lived-in look. He smiled at the tiny pieces of scrunched-up paper texturing David sweater and capturing the essence, if not the exact look, of the fuzzy stripes of that particular garment. He grinned at the little dropped-crotch of David’s little paper shorts. 

Patrick realized that David must have decided to immortalize their engagement outfits in that moment too, not just their wedding looks.

He turned the page again, taking in another paper version of their outfits on another significant day in their relationship.

“Wow. I guess you went back and folded some of our greatest hits, huh.” He beamed up at his husband. 

“Mmmhmm,” David nodded. “Something like that.” 

“I can’t believe you braided a tiny, brown, paper belt,” Patrick grinned at the detail, then up at his husband. 

“I can’t believe you choose to wear an actual braided brown, leather belt. So.” Patrick’s grin turned into a laugh. 

He turned another page. Then another, feeling almost overwhelmed. “These are amazing, David. I don’t get why you didn’t want me to see them?”

David shrugged, a weird expression on his face. “Oh well. It is a little excessive and over-the-top. And embarrassing. And–”

“Do not say that it’s too much ,” Patrick warns. “It’s not too much. You’re never too much.”

“Well anyway, I just wanted you to know that I do remember things, um… important things. About us. And that I will always be grateful that I met that snippy cricket fan at Ray’s that day.”

He learned forward, meeting Patrick’s lips halfway.

“And I’ll always be grateful I met that unicorn person with the really great business plan.” 

“Ew. We aren’t doing unicorn person.” 

“Noted.” Patrick stole another kiss before resuming his and David’s journey back through time by way of miniature paper clothing. 

He stopped when he got to their first date. His blue blazer and David’s lightning bolt sweater. 

“Our beginning.” Patrick turned to face David, his heart eyes on full display. 

“Not our beginning.” David reached across, turning to the next page of the album where a light blue button-up and a black and white zebra print sweater were displayed. 

“Our store, the soft launch… You’re right, that was our real beginning.” He looked up at David fondly. 

“Was it though?” 

David turned the page again. 

“Oh.” Patrick sucked in a breath. On the page in front of him was a tiny black sweater with nineteen white horizontal stripes and a not-quite-royal-blue paper business shirt rolled at the sleeves, paired with a tiny pair of paper jeans and a braided belt. 

“See, I told you I remembered our first meeting. I just didn’t remember the deli ticket part. It may not have been my gay awakening or anything of that magnitude, but it was still a big deal. 

“The day after we met I went to that stationery store in Elm Glen to stock up on office supplies. While I was there, I walked past a paper display and saw the perfect shade of blue. It reminded me of that snippy guy working at Ray’s and without thinking too hard about why, I bought it and a few other sheets of paper. That night I folded for the first time since high school.”

“Wait, what? You didn’t fold these after I proposed?”

David shook his head. 

“I started folding again after I met you. It turned out I had some things I needed to work through. You see, I was developing feelings for this guy I had just met. And the next thing I knew, we had gotten into business together. And...I didn't know what to do about it because I didn’t know if that guy had the same feelings, or what his preferences were. Or if I’d ever be able to muster up the courage to let him know how I felt. So.”

“Oh. Wow,” Patrick said softly, looking from his husband to the paper outfits in front of him–his mind casting back to when he was down on one knee on top of a mountain. He took hold of David’s hand, lacing their fingers together, meeting his eyes. “I’m glad we both mustered the courage.”  

“Me, too.” David brought their clasped hands to his lips, kissing Patrick’s knuckles before releasing his hand. 

Patrick ran his fingers lightly over the paper, feeling the raised white horizontal lines of David’s sweater trail under his fingertip. “You folded this then? You folded all these back then? At the time they happened?”

“I did,” David shrugged. “I don’t know if it was love at first sight for me, but it was definitely something at first sight. It was origami inspiring, whatever it was.” He tucked a small smile into the corner of his mouth before continuing, “Which is why I love the B13 ticket even if I don’t exactly remember it. It means something to you like the origami means something to me. And because it means something to you, it now means something to me. I do really, genuinely love it. My husband. I’m not just saying it and I’m sorry that my reaction wasn’t what you were expecting.” 

Patrick reached for the framed deli ticket and David swatted his hand away. “Patrick! I just said the ticket meant something to me and that I love it. Ipso facto, I don’t want you to get me something else.”

“Mm hm, I know. But I have an idea.” Patrick made grabby hands at David who, with a performative sigh, handed over the frame to his husband, who immediately turned it over and removed the back panel. 

“What are you doing?!” David shrieked. 

“This,” Patrick said as he removed the small mounted ticket from the frame then turned the origami album back to the first page where he took out the two origami hearts from the inside cover and replaced them with the B13 ticket. David hummed contentedly beside him, resting his head against Patrick’s shoulder as he closed the album and they both stared at the new front cover. 

“Do you like it?” Patrick asked.

“I do. It’s like it was always meant to go there. It’s the perfect fit.”

Patrick turned to place a soft kiss on David’s temple. “Just like us.” 

Notes:

Check out David's origami from chapter 2 onwards.

A massive thank you to my friend Pants for the beta... and for asking me, “But what if David was doing origami the whole time?” Fucking brilliant! (As always.) <3

Thanks also goes to my friends in Jake’s Woodshop who unwittingly became my origami betas after months of me spamming them with unsolicited pics of little origami outfits. Y’all were super supportive throughout the process and are the best cheerleaders imaginable. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Chapter 2: Wedding

Chapter Text

An origami version of David and Patrick’s wedding suits

Chapter 3: Proposal

Chapter Text

An origami version of David and Patrick’s hiking outfits from season 5, episode 13

Chapter 4: I Love You

Chapter Text

An origami version of David and Patrick’s outfits from Singles Week from season 4, episode 12

Chapter 5: Olive Branch

Chapter Text

An origami version of David and Patrick’s outfits from season 4, episode 9

Chapter 6: The Best

Chapter Text

An origami version of David and Patrick’s outfits from Open Mic - season 4, episode 6

Chapter 7: A Nice Person

Chapter Text

An origami version of David and Patrick’s outfits from Dead Guy In Room 4 - season 4, episode 1

Chapter 8: Not Nothing

Chapter Text

An origami version of David and Patrick’s outfits from Grad Night - season 3, episode 13

Chapter 9: Soft Launch

Chapter Text

An origami version of David and Patrick’s outfits from Friends and Family - season 3, episode 12

Chapter 10: Snippy Cricket Fan

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

An origami version of David and Patrick’s outfits from Motel Review - season 3, episode 08

Notes:

Like David, it turns out I find origami to be quite therapeutic. It's been a fun new hobby for me and a great distraction from #reallifedrama. There are a few other outfits I'd like to try and fold at some point. I'll update the chapters if and when that happens.

Thanks so much for reading! I’m five678patty on Tumblr . I’m not super active there but still… come say hi.

UPDATE: While it's not strictly part of this story, I did make some Christmas themed origami for Frozen Over 2022. If you’re interested you can find it here)