Flufftober 2022 - Day 15 - "Accidents don't just happen accidentally."


When Draco got home that evening, it was with a smile on his face - and to silence. He knew better by now than to break it by calling out, but the smile remained on his face as he slipped off his coat and removed his shoes. When he was a teenager, he'd never put much thought into what this part of his life might be like in the future. Not beyond the fleeting thought that whichever woman was lucky enough to marry him would be worthy of the Malfoy name. By the time he reached his early twenties, most of that had faded away and he mostly just hoped he wouldn't be stuck with somebody who made him want to drive his skull into a brick wall every time she spoke.

Given the selection pool, even that seemed like a big ask at the time. Perhaps he'd just been weary after the war - too worn down to be foolish enough to hope that a happy ending might be anything close to likely, nor reasonable to hope for. So now, as he walked through his shiny new home in search of his wife and their almost as shiny new daughter, having missed them during his first full day back at work following Evelyn's birth, he couldn't help but marvel at how things had changed. It hadn't been quick, and it certainly hadn't been easy, but now that they were on the other side of it all, it felt like it had happened in the blink of an eye, leaving him dazed and in shock. But certainly not complaining.

No, on the days when he took a step back, blinked, and asked himself when exactly this became his life, it was never in a bad way. Mostly he wondered how it was that he'd gotten so lucky - that all had worked out in the end.

His decision to remain quiet proved a wise one when he slipped into the living room and found them both - Marilyn, sprawled atop their oversized sofa, her head lolling back and her eyes shut while Evie slept soundly, belly-down on her chest, tiny hands occasionally unconsciously grasping at her mother's skin. His wife wore more of his clothing than she did her own, too. Long lean legs stretched out from a pair of his boxers, and one of his old dress shirts was slung atop a tank top of her own, unbuttoned, the sleeves haphazardly rolled up to her elbows. Smirking, Draco slid his phone from his pocket and opened up the camera - a very Muggle habit that Marilyn would never let him live down if she witnessed it - and snapped a photo. But he'd forgotten to silence the blasted thing, and it clicked loudly as he did so.

"Take your pictures if you want, but I'm not doing autographs tonight," she murmured, voice raspy from sleep.

"Did I wake you?"

"Nah, I wasn't sleeping. Just thinking."

"That's no good in a trophy wife, I may have to return you."

She snorted a laugh "Hey, my career path is well known. Yours is kept under wraps - understandably. As far as the outside world's concerned, you're the trophy wife."

"And what a trophy I am."

Marilyn laughed again, and Evie threatened to fuss at her chest, displeased with the disruption.

"May I?" Draco nodded at the baby.

"Please do, I've had an itch in my leg for half an hour now, it's driving me mad."

Easing his hands beneath her, he picked up his daughter, kissed her on the brow and then gently laid her down into the bassinet at the end of the couch. They waited for a few moments, all but holding their breath to see if she would start to cry, but after a few moments of silence Draco exhaled softly and Marilyn finally sat up to scratch at her shin. He shrugged off his suit jacket and Marilyn budged along on the sofa, freeing up space for him to lounge beside her while she nestled between the cushions and his chest.

"How was work?" She asked, burrowing her head in the gap between his chin and his chest.

"Nothing burned down in my absence, so I haven't been delegating to complete morons."

"And how much of you is a little bit disappointed that you didn't get to give anybody a right telling off in the end?"

"The lack of any financial hit helps ease the sting," he deadpanned.

Breathing a laugh, Marilyn hummed contentedly.

"What were you thinking about?" He asked.

"Hm?"

"You said you were thinking."

"Oh, that. Partially how much I could absolutely murder a pizza right now."

He made a mental note to put another trip to Italy somewhere into one of their upcoming date nights. They were due a backlog of them, once they'd emerged from the newborn haze. A nanny would come about sooner or later, but for now Marilyn insisted that they do everything themselves (insofar as Evelyn herself was related, at least - she had no qualms about an occasional cleaner), and Draco found himself in agreement. Sooner or later hired help would become a necessary evil seeing that neither one of them wanted to give up their career just yet, and they'd need somebody trained to face any dangers their child-slash-any-future-children would face, so it seemed best to make the most of it until Marilyn's maternity leave ended and that time came.

"Deep, insightful thoughts, then."

"And then, once the hunger pangs and fear of malnourishment faded away, I started thinking about her. Our baby. How mad it is that she even exists."

"If you're doubting my virility, I'm going to have to take that personally."

"In general, you arse," she said "All of the things that had to happen just so for her to be born. I mean, they say the odds of each and every one of us being born - that specific sperm meeting that specific egg is, what? One in a gazillion? Basically impossible? But she beat the odds before she even beat the odds."

"It certainly was a tumultuous few years."

"Even before that, though, Draco," she shook her head "Think of it. If I never fucked my knee, we'd have never met. I'd have been off dancing in some show or another, I wouldn't have been there. If that lunatic hadn't chosen that particular night to start harassing me, we'd have never met. I'd have just walked right past you. If you hadn't chosen that particular street, in that particular city, at that particular time, on that particular night, we'd have never met. 'Particular' is starting to sound like a fake word to me now, by the way."

"I was of two minds about coming back again the next night," he said "Curiosity and gut feeling won out against better thinking."

"Better thinking is overrated," she teased.

"Turns out in this case, yes," he chuckled "If I didn't go back that night, I never would have done so at all. Yet another near-miss. Or is it near-hit?"

"Speaking of near misses - the Notts. If they'd been better at the whole torture thing, or if ol' Theodore had better aim…If my timing had been off by a split second while I danced…if you had frozen up rather than running out there and getting to me…poof."

"No," he said.

"I'm pretty sure it was the definition of a near-miss, Draco."

"No," he said again, more firmly this time "It was never going to happen. There is no alternate universe out there where it did happen. None. Ever."

He wouldn't entertain any thought of the alternative - not hypothetically, not at all, not ever.

"All right," she relented, pressing a kiss to his neck before she nuzzled her face into his collarbone "I'll take your word for it. My point still stands, though. A lot of things had to happen just as they did for us to end up here. Accidents don't just happen…accidentally."

"You're a true wordsmith, you know that?"

"I've mastered my body and my mind, what can I say? Don't you think it's fate, though?"

"Maybe, in a manner of speaking - but that all makes it sound much too accidental. Things had to happen exactly as they did, yes, but that was only half of it. At most. Maybe even just a quarter of it."

"You can't delegate even with credit, can you?"

"I mean it. Circumstance threw us together, but we decided to stay together. And I'd point out that circumstance was far more intent on tearing us apart and we defied it. I kept choosing you, and you kept…"

"Choosing you back?"

"I was going to say forgiving me and exercising Buddhist monk levels of patience, but your version is much more of a balm to my ego."

"Another choice I made - to prioritise your ego."

"If this is you prioritising it, I'd hate to see you do battle with it."

"Oh?"

"Mm. That was going to be my sole complaint - my piece of constructive criticism, while we're here. A touch more sycophancy, please."

As if it hadn't already been obvious that he was teasing, he entwined his fingers with hers and brought their hands to rest on his chest.

"Noted," she said drily "I'll begin each day with an oath to you, and a curtsy."

"I was hoping for a hymn."

"I can't sing for shit."

"I'd be willing to endure it. If I thought you were giving it your best effort."

"Kind of you."

"I know. I'm just good like that."

"I love you."

Draco blinked, having expected more teasing, and it took him a moment to switch gears before he smiled, pressing his nose into her hair.

"I love you, too."