A/N: This is a bit of a smaller one, and it was requested by Janeth16, who wanted to see Draco going wedding ring shopping before their non-wedding wedding in Little By Little :) I have a few more requests to go - people want to see more of Evie as she grows up and forges her own path, more of Narcissa and Marilyn interacting without Draco present (and I have an idea for that already in store, which includes Lucius too) and Narcissa's reaction to finding out about Marilyn's first pregnancy. I'm always open to requests, though! Feel free to let me know on here, or on tumblr my tumblr, esta-elavaris.
Wedding ring shopping was not something Draco ever expected to do. His lot didn't buy wedding rings - or jewellery in general, really. Not often. They were heirlooms. Every piece came from the Malfoy vaults, paired with some sort of outlandish or salacious story designed to be shared the moment anybody complimented the piece. Yes, he always thought perhaps he'd add to the Malfoy family's jewellery collection every now and then when he married, but he'd always more or less assumed he'd just buy the most expensive thing and move on. The point still stood, though. He'd never expected to buy a wedding ring, especially not a wedding ring for a somewhat fake wedding, and definitely not a wedding ring for a woman like Marilyn.
Like did have a way of keeping him on his toes. What surprised him most of all was that he didn't dislike that fact. Not insofar as it involved his girlfriend, at least. So what sort of ring did one buy for a woman who lived her life to flummox him? Not a diamond. He knew that before he'd even given the matter half a thought - back when the marriage license had been burning a hole in his pocket and he was waiting for the right time to present it to Marilyn, aware that it would bring on at least half an hour of "are you mad?" and "did you smack your head off the floor when you rolled out of bed this morning?".
Sometimes he still wasn't completely certain that he hadn't. But he didn't regret it.
London was his first port of call, but he abandoned it fairly quickly. It was all boring diamonds, aimed at the businessmen and women who flocked there - and anyway, he wasn't exactly limited to the United Kingdom for his search, and maybe it would be better to go further afield. He didn't want something she'd seen before. Not that there was much danger in that - were he shopping for tutus or satin slippers, he'd be in trouble, but Marilyn wasn't much the sort to pore over all of the latest designs in wedding bands.
Paris came next, and that was better with lots of art deco pieces that caught his eye, but still none of them were quite what he was looking for. When he found it, he'd know. He knew he'd know.
There was more to it than finding the right thing, too, for he wasn't unaware that it might not be the only ring he ever presented to her. Whatever one he found now would very likely have to be outdone at a later date, when - if - he proposed genuinely. This one had to be not only befitting Marilyn, but befitting a Malfoy, and it had to be good enough to pry a reaction out of her (because that was partially why he was doing this, too, damn her), but he also had to hope that anything that may follow wouldn't pale in comparison. A tall order indeed.
Draco wouldn't allow it to trouble him, though. And he wasn't even sure Marilyn knew of his task - she certainly hadn't mentioned anything to do with a ring, nor even hinted at the matter coyly. A far cry from Pansy Parkinson, who had once pointedly proclaimed that her response to a proposal would depend entirely upon the ring it came with. As if he didn't already know that two more dissimilar women had never before existed in this world.
When he finally had the idea of going to Venice, he was annoyed that he'd never thought of it before. It was where they'd gone on their first proper date, after all (for he refused to consider their trips to the pub or the cinema as such) and so surely that would earn him some sort of good fortune. Merlin, he was starting to sound like Trelawney - or even Marilyn herself, with those cards of hers. But he had a good gut feeling about it, and so he followed the thought and went there one day while Marilyn was busy with those friends of hers.
The shop was tucked away in a side-street, but he already found it promising for while it had the well-kept appearance of a place that could boast of some considerable quality, it wasn't gaudy. When he stepped inside, the woman behind the counter forgave the shaky quality of his Italian the moment he caught her eyes drifting towards his expensive suit before she broke into a wide grin.
"Rings?" He questioned.
"Ah," she nodded with a smile, eyes drifting towards the silver ring on his right hand as she turned towards rings clearly meant for men.
"No, no," he stopped her "Erm, anello di…fidanzamento?"
The woman's eyes lit up, and then he quickly added "Niente diamanti."
To her credit, she seemed entirely unfazed by that demand - although she did finally take pity on him, asking in thickly accented English "Your partner?"
Draco slid his phone from his pocket, and after a moment of frowning at the screen managed to navigate to the part that stored portraits - photographs. There were only three - one being a blurry shot of the ground, another being one of himself which Marilyn herself had taken as he regarded the camera with a look of exasperation. The third was the only one he had much of an attachment to. Marilyn, once again taken by Marilyn, lounging back against her pillows and directing a grin at the camera that was so bright it was almost manic. Doing her best, she'd claimed, to teach Draco how to smile properly for these photos.
To this day, he refused to ever say cheese. The fact that it annoyed her was just an added bonus, just as her insistence that he try it irked him - so their love language of mutual vexation remained safe and strong.
Turning the screen towards the woman, she peered at it for a moment and then smiled, nodding before turning her attention to the displays behind her. Draco thought (and feared) that he was in for some sort of long and awkward deliberation, but apparently she knew what she wanted the moment she saw it, unlocking the case and pulling out an entire tray of rings. Turning back to him once again, she placed them on the counter between them. Peering down at the selection, he made a face. They were pretty - they were certainly on-track for what he wanted, but they weren't spectacular.
Seeing his face, she smiled and held up a finger, gesturing for him to wait a moment. Then, after fiddling with the case for a moment, she flipped a switch and lights that lined the display case lit up the lights from below, revealing that they weren't mere dark stones of blue, green, or purple, but iridescent stones that gleamed in some combination of those colours depending on the individual stone.
One caught his eye above the rest, set in white gold in the shape of a teardrop, flanked by two small diamonds. Lifting it up, he peered at it as the colours shifted from blue to green depending on how he tilted the ring.
"That one appears purple in direct sunlight," she explained.
"Three for the price of one," he murmured.
The woman laughed in a way that suggested his joke was far funnier than it had actually been.
"That one can be paired with this, too - which can be added as an anniversary present, yes?"
Sliding out a drawer from beneath her side of the display case, she fiddled for a few moments before taking out another, smaller ring - a thin understated band that pointed upwards in the middle like a tiny tiara, following the pointed shape of the stone that the larger ring in his hand contained. Dotted along the middle of the band were a series of tiny emeralds, matching the exact shade of green the ring gleamed when the light hit it just so. Slytherin green.
Draco huffed a laugh. He had to hand it to the woman, she knew her customers eerily well.
"I'll take them both."
A/N: I apologise for the probably atrocious Italian in this chapter lolol. Draco never gave Marilyn the additional ring in the set in the main story, but it always existed in my mind — it'll pop up when its time comes, that's all I know.