Regulus Black knelt before him, his head bowed in deference, but Tom could sense that Black streak of defiance—of independent thought—slithering deep beneath the surface. A wave of nostalgia whispered over his barely-there heart, but Tom brushed it away absently. This Black's hair was somewhat thicker, his nose was a bit too angular, and his eyes… well, his eyes were the main issue. For the boy looked all too much like his father, all too much like another boy. But his eyes were bluer, not that flinty steel that once smouldered with lust and with lo —
Tom beat back the thoughts once more, but with no more success. As Regulus rose, his pureblood upbringing evidenced in his perfect posture and his arrogant stance, Tom sank into memory too strong for him to resist.
xXx
A spell shot past Tom, colliding with the wall of the ruin and sending dust and shards of rock flying. He instantly cleared the air with his wand, shielding his back against the rubble, then fired a flaming snake into Orion's face.
"You'll have to do better than that, mate!" Orion shouted, turning the snake to a blazing rose, which fell to smoulder at his feet.
"Becoming a romantic?" Tom sneered, dodging a curse just in time. "I'll have to send you off to the Gryffindors."
He received merely a snort in response. And then Orion was gone. Tom froze. For a moment he felt a trickle of the fear that all prey must feel at having been penned in by a predator. He held his breath, trying to sense Orion's location. His heart sped up in excitement. A new game. His eyes scanned the darkness between the trees, adrenaline flooding his veins.
"Come and find me," a bodiless voice whispered in his ear. "If you can." Tom shivered. He could taste the taunting dominance in Orion's demand, and he longed to take it from him.
"Homenum Revelio!" Tom instantly slunk toward the marker that flickered and winked out not far off in the distance. As he got closer, he could smell Orion's unique mingling of vanilla and darkness and another shiver trembled down his spine. He knew Orion could hear his footsteps on the forest floor, creeping closer and closer, wondered whether the same excitement shuddered through him.
Just then, Orion, clearly beginning to feel the turning of the tables, swept out from behind a tree. A light flush kissed his aristocratic features. The image was delicious—irresistible. Tom pinned him to the tree behind which he'd been hiding, their breath mingling between them as he stared intensely into the deep grey eyes before him, searching.
"Ah," he breathed, watching them darken before him. A heartbeat's pause, and then Tom crushed his lips to Orion's. They were always struggling for dominance—socially, academically, athletically—and so, of course, their first of kisses was no different, each trying to gain control, to surpass the other, to elicit the best sounds. It tasted of velvet and tempered steel, felt like chocolate and red wine. And in that moment of beginnings, their worlds, not just their bodies, collided together irrevocably.
xXx
Tom came back to the scene before him, a sneer on his lips. To be taken captive by such remembrances… Clearly he was still much too weak. He silently cursed the last vestiges of his heart and his soul, and then he placed his wand to the arm of his past lover's son, revelling in the tortured pain that he so carefully inflicted.