*A thank you to sydni for betaing this for me*

Tom leaned against the wall of a random building, and stared at the area opposite to him. At the moment, the area around the entrance to the back alleys was empty, but he knew in less than an hour, that would soon change as the sun was beginning to rapidly set. Glancing around him, he couldn't believe that so much has changed since the time that Harry had picked him up from that orphanage. Tom had to remind himself that it had been almost 200 years since then. He still found it hard to believe that he had been approached by someone from the future. At first, he hadn't believed the man, Harry, but until he had shown Tom about magic, Tom recognized it immediately as the things that he was able to do.

When Tom also discovered that Harry could travel through time, he took his chance and convinced him to take him. After hesitating, Harry agreed. To be honest, Tom still didn't know the exact the reason why Harry had approached him in the first place. A small part of him believed this was destiny (He was special after all. He was far more superior than the others.), but the more rational part of his mind suspected that it was something more. Tom shook his head, feeling a slight headache beginning to form. Either way, it didn't matter, since right now, Harry wasn't here, which meant that he was stuck here until Harry returned from whatever business he had elsewhere.

By now, the sun had almost set. Tom continued to keep a lookout around the whole area, and only when he started hearing sounds of people moving around, Tom stepped away from the wall, and headed towards the alleyway. As more and more people appeared out of the shadows, Tom got even more curious. Among these people, there had to be at least one person that still acted like the humans that he was familiar with; the ones that were selfish, greedy, jealous, and sadistic. He was basically looking for anyone that didn't act polite, cheerful, or the other fake positive emotions that almost made him puke. He needed to see that the darker side still existed; that there were still people like him around.

As much as Harry tried to change him (even though Harry was being subtle about it, Tom still noticed), Tom still longed for the dark. He even began to practice the Dark Arts in secret. A few times, he thought Harry knew what he was doing, but when nothing was said, Tom had been relieved to know that his secret was still safe.

Tom ignored the stares from the few people that actually looked at him. They weren't doing anything worth noticing. Tom went deeper and deeper into the labyrinth. In some places, the number of people was large, and in other places, there were only a handful. Occasionally, Tom paused to take in his surrounding, and listen in on the people. Each time though, he heard nothing worth his time. Gritting his teeth, he moved on.

While in another deserted part of the alleys, Tom paused and glanced down one of the empty alleyways. Not hearing anything else, Tom made to move, but the unmistakable sound of a blade on metal rang through. Almost at once, Tom changed directions and headed down that alleyway. Hearing more sounds, Tom briefly hesitated, before continuing on at a slower, quieter pace.

At the corner, Tom peeked around it, and froze. In front of his eyes, he watched as the dark haired person gripped a blade, and slowly dismembered an arm from the body in front of him. Blinking slowly, Tom ducked away, and flattened himself against the wall. Well, he found what he was looking for. There were still people as psychotic as him around. (Though there was much to be said about the person's… method of choice.)

Not really interested in being found, Tom slowly turned around, and made to leave the alley. Halfway through, he heard the sound of gravel. Tom turned, and staring right at him was the dark haired man from earlier. After a few minutes of silence, Tom decided that the man wasn't going to do anything. Smirking slightly, Tom made a show of turning his back towards him, and walked away. The man still made no move to do anything.

••••••

Over the next few days, Tom was much happier, or rather his version of being happy. He comforted himself with knowing that the darker, grittier side of humans still existed, so this time, as he walked through the city, he was able to interact with the people that he came in contact with without feeling nauseous at their behavior. After all, who knows what kind of dark side each person was hiding.

It was a couple of days after his encounter when Tom realized that he was being followed. Initially disregarding it, he went about his day like normal; he visited some sites, constantly checked his phone to see if there were any messages from Harry, and mainly stayed under the radar by not unnecessarily bringing attention to himself. Despite all that, in the corner of his eye, he continued to see a shadow lurk behind him, but as soon as he turned, it disappeared again. Having enough, Tom decided to confront the person.

Spotting a nearby building that he knew was regularly vacant from his frequent wanderings, Tom headed straight for there. Once inside and a good distance away from the door, Tom turned around, and waited to see if the person would follow him in. Hearing the door begin to open, Tom straightened up, and placed his right hand into his pocket, gripping his wand.

If Tom had to describe what kind of person he thought was trailing him, he would've never gotten it right. He would have never expected that the person trailing him would stand out so much. The albino man took a few more steps towards him before stopping. Dressed very casually with a hand in his pocket, the man looked unconcerned about the whole situation. Tom's eyes narrowed at the hand that was in the man's pocket. There was most likely a weapon of some sorts in there.

"Are you the one that Touma was talking about?" Tom stared at him blankly. Who was he─ Oh, was he referring to the man from that day?

"Possibly, why do you ask?" The person raised an eyebrow, and looked him over. Tom unconsciously straightened up, and looked at the man square in the eye. The man's lips curled up slightly.

"He said that someone had walked in on him, but that they weren't particularly bothered by what they witnessed," the man said easily.

"As long as I'm not directly affected by it, especially in a negative way, why should I care what other people do? Besides," Tom added, "as grotesque as it was, he looked like he was enjoying it, so why bother doing anything." Tom threw that last part out there to see how he would react. The man laughed.

"You seem interesting enough. It's very rare to meet someone who thinks like that, especially one so young." Tom's eye twitched. He really hated being 14. "Do you know what your crime coefficient happens to be?" Tom shrugged. All he knew was that there seems to be nothing wrong with him according to the scanners (Ha.), and Harry might as well not be there at all, but he wasn't going to say any of that to the man.

Tom stiffened when the man took a few more steps towards him. He blinked when the man held out his left hand.

"Makishima Shogo," he said. Tom stared at the hand for a moment before reaching out with his own left hand and shook it quickly.

"Riddle Tom."

"If you're interested, I occasionally fund various projects that people have─"

"You mean like that guy?" Tom interrupted. Makishima bowed his head in acknowledgement. "You have the money and resources to do that kind of stuff?"

"Yes." Tom stared at him for a moment, before he sighed quietly.

"Not interested," he said shortly. Makishima looked taken back for a moment, before smiling again.

"Very well, you're young now," Tom's eyes narrowed, "but maybe in the future, you'll be interested again. Feel free to contact me again when that happens." Tom raised an eyebrow at his word choice. Makishima turned around, and began to walk away. Tom's wand hand twitched a little when he noticed that Makishima took his right hand out of his pocket. That meant that he didn't deem him a threat anymore.

"How would I even contact you anyway?" Tom asked, humoring him. Makishima paused mid-step.

"Do something noticeable," Makishima said over his shoulder with a smirk. Tom snorted softly. He thought that he himself was very arrogant, but this guy could give him a run for his money.

"Why are you even doing this? Don't you have better things to do with your time?" Makishima turned around fully, and Tom was pleased to note that his smile looked a little forced. Good, his cheerful personality was beginning to annoy him.

"I just want to see the splendor of a human's soul." Tom blinked. Did he hear that right?

"That's it?" Makishima stopped smiling.

"It's something that greatly interests me─"

"You have all that money and resources─ all that power, and you decide to just 'see the splendor of a human's soul'?" Tom got ticked off when Makishima looked amused again.

"If you were in my position, what would you do?" he asked instead.

"How about maybe use that power to get even more. I'm sure if you tried enough, you could even take over this pathetic city, and from the background, control and manipulate it," Tom said, unconsciously clenching his hands into fists. This person had all this power, and he was basically throwing it all away for something so stupid. Makishima tossed his head back and laughed. Tom glared at him, and waited for him to stop.

"Why would I do something like that when it's a lot more fun playing directly in the game than being in the background?"

"So you prefer being some chess piece that's controlled and moved all over the board?"

"I'd rather be the chess piece that challenges the other chess pieces and even the opposing chess master, if there is one," Makishima explained. "But it looks like you prefer being one of the chess masters himself," Makishima added.

"Naturally," Tom said. If it weren't for Harry's constant watch, whether it be in person or his tracking spells, Tom would have already done some planning about gaining more power. As it is, he was practicing the Dark Arts, but he felt that that wasn't enough.

"Why don't you stay here for a bit and I'll show you how much fun it is to be in the game," Makishima said, his eyes glinting.

"You'll show me?"

"Certainly," Makishima answered. "There's a certain thrill that you cannot get from merely being in the background. Being chased, doing the chasing, the hunt itself, and more importantly, the satisfaction of getting what you desire," Makishima explained, the almost childlike look in his eyes were a sharp contrast to the intensity in his voice. Tom considered his offer for a moment. On one hand, he was curious to know what this guy could do, but on the other hand, his arrogance, obvious with his body language and facial expressions, were starting to become very irksome.

"Fine then," Tom said, giving in, "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and see what you do. But," he added, "I sincerely doubt that you can change my mind." Makishima chuckled.

"If you say so, kid," Tom's annoyance flared up again, and his wand arm stiffened as he watched Makishima leave. Maybe he really should hex him a little. A good minute after Makishima left the building, Tom turned around and blasted the nearest item into pieces. The next time Harry contacted him, Tom was going to get him to make an Aging Potion. He was sick of being called a kid. In this time, he was almost 200 years old for Merlin's sake! Still grumbling to himself, Tom destroyed another item near him. Damn arrogant kids these days…

(This may or may not be continued...)

I needed a situation for them to meet, so I created one ^_^ (Even though I wanted to originally write it from Makishima's POV, it ended up not happening... Maybe next time...)

Please let me know how I did with this... OuO