A/N: It's been a while since I've updated this collection, but I'm back with a pairing I've never written before. Hope it's not awful :')

Written for: [QLFC season 5 round 2 - Beater 1] Setting: Little Hangleton / Song: All She Knows by The Chainsmokers / Image: a series of polaroid photographs, one showing a forest.

Story is 1813 words. Thank you Sarah for beta'ing!

All She Knows

Cecilia/Tom Riddle Sr

xxx

'Two hearts still beating on with different rhythms,

Maybe we should let this go

We're falling apart, still we hold together

'Cause this is all we know'

xxx

Click! Click! Click!

"Cecilia, darling?" Tom called from atop his horse. He was watching his girlfriend take picture after picture of a bird on her instant camera. "I think you've taken enough photos, don't you?" He chuckled, but there was a note of impatience in his voice.

Click! "Sorry Tom, but-" Click! "I need this for my collection of Yorkshire's birds." Click! "I haven't got a Blackcap yet!" Click!

"Collection of Yorkshire's birds?" Tom repeated, arching a brow. "Forgive me, but I doubt you'll find many different species in Little Hangleton."

"Well, I have to start somewhere," Cecilia said cheerily, shaking out her pictures. "Besides, I'll be sure to see other varieties when I start travelling. My photography business will be my ticket to finally get out of this place." She shuddered, glancing sideways at the shack located at the edge of the forest, her eyes focusing on the dead snake that was nailed to the door.

Tom gazed at her, appalled. "Business? Oh, Cecilia, not this again!"

Her face fell. "Why not? Times have changed, Tom. Women can have careers now! Ever since we got the right to vote-"

Cecilia's voice was rising, and she'd begun to gesture wildly, causing her to almost drop her photographs. Knowing how strong-willed she could be, Tom knew it could be some time before she paused to let him speak.

"'Celia!" he shouted, at a loss of how else to get her attention. "You need to understand that it won't be easy for you to pursue this. Photography is more like a hobby than a career, plus, being a woman, you have to consider the likelihood of getting taken seriously on the off chance that you do succeed." He paused after seeing the hurt flash in Cecilia's brown eyes, and jumped off the horse, holding its reins in one hand and touching her cheek with the other. "I'm sorry, darling, but I'm just looking out for you," he said gently. "I love you."

Cecilia leaned into his touch. "I love you too, but I still want to try." She looked up at him with determined eyes.

"Cecilia!" Tom exclaimed in exasperation, his hand dropping back to his side. "What would you even do? How would you support yourself financially? Where would you live? What would be your means of transpo-"

"I don't know, Tom!" Cecilia cried, stamping her foot and raking a hand through her dark blonde hair. She conceded that he had a point; Little Hangleton was the only place she knew, but looking out for her or not, the way he always had to shoot her dreams down hurt. "Until I figure that out, could you at least try to be supportive?"

She needn't have asked that; the answer was written in his eyes. He shook his head and sighed. "I just don't know why you'd want a career at all and be like one of those working-class clowns. With the fortune my parents have we could happily live the rest of our lives without ever having to work. Don't you understand that I only want what's best for you?"

You want what's best for me, or for you?

Cecilia's gaze hardened. She wanted to tell Tom that she wished more for her life than to end up as a housewife, but he was pinning her with an equally stern look that told her there was no way she was winning this argument. She'd been with him long enough to know that if she wanted this conversation put to rest, her only option was to agree with him, whether she believed her words or not.

"I understand, Tom," she said quietly. "This is just some childish dream I had." Her heart clenched as she spoke, and she looked down at her pictures sadly. "Photography will still be a hobby for me, though."

Tom seemed satisfied enough with this response, and helped her back onto the horse without another word on the matter. As they began riding again, his mood improved considerably, and he was soon chatting away to Cecilia as if nothing had happened; he even offered to take her to lunch at her favourite café, but this did little to raise her spirits.

She loved Tom very much, but even those deranged people who lived in that shack would be able to see that they were growing apart. She'd realised several weeks ago that they wanted different things out of life, but she'd been naive to think he might one day warm to the idea of her having a career. It was now painfully obvious that neither of them were going to ever change their minds on the matter.

Their arguments were becoming more frequent, which made Cecilia feel like they were unravelling, falling apart at the seams. She had considered many times that perhaps she ought to let him go, but that thought made her feel sick.

She and Tom had been friends ever since they were children. Well, he was her only friend as it so happened. Her parents wouldn't let her associate with anyone who didn't come from money, and it turned out that Tom was the only child in the village of whom they approved. Over the years it had become clear to Cecilia that her parents had done this for their own gain rather than hers, and that pretty much ensured that her fragile relationship with them was now almost broken beyond repair, leaving her with nobody but Tom. His friendship was the only one she knew, as was his love. Could she really risk throwing that all away just because she was clinging on to her photography dream? It was hard to know.

"Hey 'Celia, this will cheer you up." Tom's voice pulled her from her thoughts just as they were passing the little shack. "The word around the village is that the two crazy imbeciles who live there have been taken away."

Cecilia was beyond thrilled to learn this, but it was a struggle for her to sound it due to the two conflicting voices in her head. "That's brilliant, dear," she said, hoping her joy didn't sound too forced. "But what about the girl?"

"No idea," Tom replied as they continued to ride along. "Hopefully she'll follow suit soon."

"Well, good riddance to them," she said flatly, a lump rising in her throat.

She was so caught up in her inner conflict surrounding her future with Tom that she didn't notice the girl staring at them through the bushes.

Tom seemed to become more and more withdrawn from Cecilia as the days went on; he had been standoffish ever since their latest argument. He didn't seem to care about anything she had to say these days, and that made her head go wild with panic. She felt utterly sick at the thought that perhaps he didn't love her anymore, which gave her a taste of the pain she was bound to feel if she lost him altogether.

If at all possible, this made her feel more conflicted than ever before.

"Any news on the shack girl?" she asked him over lunch one day in an attempt to force conversation. "Is she gone yet?"

Tom, who had been absently staring out of the window at said shack, immediately snapped to attention. Was it her imagination or did he seem… angry?

"I hope you're not talking about Merope," he snapped.

Cecilia was taken aback. "Who?"

"Merope," Tom repeated. "The 'shack girl' as you rather rudely just called her."

Cecilia gaped, speaking before she could catch herself. "What do you care what her name is all of a sudden?" Her dependence on Tom had always prevented her from speaking to him like that, but this time, she couldn't help it. He just wasn't acting like himself at all, and that was saying something given his recent behaviour.

"What do I care about the girl I love?!" Tom exclaimed incredulously.

Cecilia almost choked on her food as her worst nightmare began to unfold. "You what?"

"I'm in love with her!" Tom yelled.

She visibly flinched at his words, feeling as though she'd just repeatedly been punched in the gut. "Tom… you can't mean that." Tears were beginning to well up in her eyes. "She's just some common tramp!" This couldn't be happening. This had to be some sick joke.

"I do mean it! And how dare you speak of Merope like that," said Tom. There was no cheeky twinkle in his eyes; he was deadly serious.

"Oh my God," Cecilia put her hand over her mouth, trying to hold back sobs. "How…? When did this happen?"

"July 16th," Tom replied at once.

That was the day after she took her photographs of the Blackcap in the forest. Maybe this is my fault. I pushed him right into her arms, Cecilia thought, unable to hold back her tears any longer. At this moment, she felt like she'd give up anything, even her ambitions of becoming a photographer, if it meant she was not having this conversation right now.

"What about me?" she asked in a small voice. "I love you."

"I loved you once," Tom said without a trace of sympathy, "but Merope and I are meant to be together. We plan to elope soon."

A goofy smile spread across his face, making Cecilia feel even more sick. Tom had never shown any kind of desire to ever leave Little Hangleton in all the time she'd known him; was it possible that Merope was just as mentally disturbed as the rest of her family, and had brainwashed him somehow?

"What has she done to you?"

"She opened my eyes, Cecilia. I did not know true love before I met her."

"I can't lose you, Tom," she croaked. "You're all I know in this world."

"And Merope is all I know," he said simply. His words and sheer lack of emotion drove a dagger through Cecilia's heart.

She rose from her chair, unable to listen to this for any longer. "So this is how it ends?"

"I can't be with you anymore," Tom said, displaying the same nonchalance. "I love Merope."

Cecilia shook her head slowly. "After all we've been through, Tom Riddle…"

Her voice died, and she walked away.

Cecilia sat on her bed in the dark, the scattered photographs in front of her illuminated only by the dim light of a lamp. They all depicted sights of Little Hangleton: birds, the forest, her favourite café, Tom's horse, and… Tom himself. She crumpled up those particular pictures in her fist, feeling fresh tears roll down her cheeks. It seemed that her conflict surrounding Tom and her career had been decided for her.

It was probably for the best: she would have had to sacrifice one thing for the other in the end, and cracks had started to show in their relationship long before that Merope girl came along. That being said, it ended far worse than she'd ever anticipated, and she had not only lost her lover, but her only friend.

She looked down at her beloved camera, realising she did know more in this world than just Tom, after all.

"Looks like it's just you and me," she whispered, running her fingers over it. "Nobody can stop us, now."

A/N: As always, I hope you enjoyed this and I'd love to hear your thoughts :)