Disclaimer: i don't own em, though sure i wish i did.
He was using him. Using a child's loneliness and sorrow for his own good. It didn't matter how many times he told himself that it was all for the boy, because he needed a father figure, because that was a lie. But sometimes he found himself half believing his lies, imagining that it was love he saw, not gratitude, in the boy's eyes.
There were no mirrors in his house anymore, only tiny shards of glass embedded deep in the carpet and a multitude of cuts on his knuckles to remind him of what he'd done. He couldn't even stand the sight of himself anymore. It sickened him to see the desperation in his own eyes.
He also knew that the boy was using him and his blind love too, because he was missing his father too much to bear. It was strange how both knew what the other was doing but never said a word about it. They just accepted it because it was the closest they could get to what they wanted, what they needed.
Maybe that made it alright, alright to bed a 16 year old boy and then to hold him close afterwards when he cried for "father". Alright to wake up early just to gaze at that unrivalled perfection sleeping peacefully next to him and to trace the tear tracks staining the pale cheeks, wishing them away. Alright to reassure the boy that things were going to get better when he knew they were only going to get worse. But maybe it was alright because Draco needed Severus, and because Severus needed Draco.