Yule was done and dusted in a matter of days, it was the first winter where Tom didn't feel completely resentful of the life he lived. The mornings of winter break were full of lie-ins and peace. Ailill was there every morning beside Tom and by his side every evening. But the morning after the meal the two shared with the rest of the school really stuck out. Ailill was giddy, that was not a word you used on Ailill Peverell.
Tom remembers waking that morning to Ailill holding him tight to his side, arms covering his torso and head tucked into Tom's neck breathing softly but awake. Tom sighed in content and burrowed his face into silky black locks that smelled of sweet lavender and pine. Recognising he's conscious Ailill ran his hands reverently up the boy's back taking delight in the way each finger made skin gave away to soft flesh. Before Tom's back would never have a softness that could be squished around, too much rigid bone not hidden behind fat.
A smile so sweet and genuine pulled at Ailill's lips hidden from anyone else's view but his own. Tom was the one thing in the dreadful thing they call living that Ailill adored, he was cruel, possessive, and astoundingly receptive to causing pain to others but he was beautiful. Oh, he was a sun in the making of a supernova, too bright to be left alone to his devices. His impact affected the galaxy around him in ways no one could understand but learned to love and adore for the rest of their lives. He spun stories of the future to be, covered in ambition and assurance you would be a fool to think they could not come true. Ailill was that fool, he would sit and watch the sun burn the world enjoying the heat it brought along with the screams. He could smile at the way Tom would dance across the corpses he'd slain, laugh at the delight the others would show but only for him. It would be only for him Ailill would do these things for.
"Let's do anything you wanna do today," Ailill whispered breath warm against the fluttering of Tom's pulse point. So vulnerable and uncaring.
"Hmm," the sleep rumble came. "Why the sudden-" A yawn broke the sentence. "-sudden generosity?"
Amused, Ailill gave a sharp bite against the throat he was so close to drawing a hiss from its owner. "Cheeky, make a decision. I either A: accompany you today in whatever nefarious things you want to do or B:I keep you hostage right here for the day unable to even get up to use the bathroom without my limp body attached to you."
"Why the sudden bout of clinginess? Not that I'm complaining."
"Maybe I just missed you."
"Doubtful. I chose C."
Ailill tailed his nose up Tom's neck until his head was tilted back and they were both nose to nose. Their eyes were steady and confident in the contact they shared, casual intimacy was always something they passed between each other seamlessly. Never afraid the other wouldn't reciprocate it.
"Just what is C?"
"C is where just us for the whole day it's us. Everything is us. Me and you. You and I. together as one for one day and forevermore. I don't care if we meet others today but all your thoughts must be of me and how you and I are joined in other ways far stronger than words."
Ailill propped himself up on his elbow so he may look down at Tom's face, the one puffy from sleep but soft in its desires. Icy blue eyes were half-lidded and beautiful in their projected reverence of the one before him. Tom raised his hand to move a lock of hair from dangling in front of the cherubic face, he should have tucked it behind jewellery covered ears but instead, he held it between his fingers loving the feel and how the curl seemed to wrap around his hand.
"C is what happens every day, doll."
"Not nearly enough for me, my treasure."
Ailill collapsed back onto the bed, dragging Tom until he was hefted onto his laying figure.
"I'm not a doll for you to lug around."
"Of course you are, you are my beautiful doll. So transfixing in the way you present yourself but sinister when left alone with another."
"Do you not worry for your safety then?" Tom sneered playfully. "For are we not alone right now."
"Ahh but I am just as sinister, a treasure one should never touch for I burn all those in contact."
Tom looked serious as he spoke in a low voice, "then let me burn for all I'm worth if even just to touch you one more."
Ailill flipped him onto his back before swiftly standing and making his way to the bathroom to draw a bath. "You are ten years too early to say such words."
"Then stick around for ten more years so I may say them again to you," Tom yelled back a smile in his voice.
Winter break was done with throngs of people coming back both grouchy and content. The Slytherin first-years who had gone home were all but vibrating with excitement in seeing the last two of their group who they hadn't seen in weeks. The minute Alphard saw the two he pounced at Tom who swiftly moved out of the way leading Ailill to be the receptor of the hug. He of course took it in stride, he took the boy under the thighs to support him while the Black boy nuzzled his friend.
"Hello to you too, Alphard."
"Oh, my lovely darling Ailill! How my bleeding heart has longed for your cold embrace like the arms of a fallen love longs for the release of death's hold."
"Feeling poetic are you Black," Tom says dryly before bodily removing the boy from his Ailill. "Have a bit of dignity."
"My dignity is all intact when faced with a beauty like Peverell, one can never make a fool of themselves when declaring their love for him." Alphard sniffed full of joking pride as he dropped from his suspended hug.
"Fair, but that is a right reserved for many and few in between," Malfoy said, breezing by the two to swoop his arms around Ailill's waist much to his surprise. "Like me."
"What is this? Hug Ailill day?" Tom grumbled.
"Well, we would hug you if only we didn't suspect we'd be split from head to toe afterward." Lestrange smiled with sass. "Peverell is reserved to this behaviour, therefore we may hug him without fear of repercussions."
"From him, that is, repercussions from you on the other hand are a different story." Avery pipped in. "and shove over Malfoy you're hogging Ailill let some of us hug him, yeah?"
Malfoy, who was hugging Ailill with his head shoved in the victim's shoulder, only scoffed as a response.
The two others who hadn't had a chance to hug Ailill yet both looked at each other and nodded before going up to the pair. Avery grabbed Abraxas around the middle and pried him from Ailill figure who then was replaced with Lestrange. Ailill who was the main factor of all this did nothing but sigh suffering. If it kept them happy he'd allow brief physical contact.
Lestrange's hug was tight as if the other boy thought any less of a squeeze would mean the disappearance of Ailill. He didn't get to linger for long before Avery was hip-checking Rastus was out of the way and slotting his way in. Avery's hug was low on the hips and gentle. Easy with grace and respectable in his motives.
Tom was fed up with sharing his Ailill's attention; he moved around the back and knocked the hands of the Avery heir away, replacing them with his own. He hooked his chin over Ailill's shoulder, scowling at all the others.
"Ahh, there's the face we've so loved and missed." Alphard jested in good nature.
"I will skin you."
"Isn't he just adorable?" Ailill asked with a grin.
"A delight indeed," Malfoy said dryly. "C'mon now, let's head to unpack."
The boys nodded in agreement and started to head off up to the dorm rooms, they had much to take out and put away along with so much to tell each other. An air surrounded the 6 whole and completed again. It was like a missing link in the chain was finally connected, ready to separate them from the rest of the world, from those who are undeserving and inadequate to be near them.
Was Ailill second-guessing his birthday present for Tom? Absolutely not. Did it still make him anxious that Tom may think it's inaccurate? One hundred percent.
It was the 31st of December, Tom's birthday. He was now twelve years old. Tom did not tell the others of the date his birth fell on. He did not want to for reasons unknown to Ailill however he respected his companion's wishes and did not make his well wishes public and instead waited for nightfall to arrive where in the privacy and silence of the dorm did the two pull the curtains close and sit up together in the dark.
Tom was curious about what he would be getting for his birthday, Ailill always got the most thoughtful of gifts even if some couldn't be the most expensive. He sat with rigid anticipation waiting for the revelation of what he would be graced with this year.
Ailill grinned at the jittery nature Tom always sprouted when he was to be given a gift. It was so child-like Ailill could help but find such fondness in it.
The box tom was given was slim and brown, simplistic and boring in all its worth. Tom didn't waste any time in opening the box to see a bound leather book, it was a dark blue much like the colour of Ailill's magic. It had an engraving embellished in gold calligraphy 'T.M Riddle'.
"I know you've changed your name to Marvolo now and that you'd probably prefer to always be known by it, but I came to grow up and know you as Tom Riddle. A sticky child with a high-rise attitude. You've never left me alone, a trait I've grown to accept and be reluctantly endeared by. I adore you Tom Riddle more than I think I will ever love someone else. This book, this little notebook is my way to eternalise our very memories. Should you write of a memory in this book entwined with your magic, this book will record it and keep it forever to be replayed for your eyes." Ailill watched the blank reaction of Tom Riddle. "I know it's not much but…i want something for you that is truly forever. Something solid and something never to be forgotten."
Tom looked at the book dedicated to him, proof that Ailill wishes to record their time, to be seen forevermore. It was beautiful and deep the thought put into a gift that would forever be unassuming and plain. But it was beautiful.
"Just when I think that the gift you give me every year could never be topped, you always manage to surprise me." Tom looked Ailill straight in his face and bloomed with enamouration. He brought his hand up to Ailill's face and cradled with all the gentleness he could manage in his cold, cruel body. "However nothing will top the gift that was welcoming me into the world the same time as you, of letting me be by your side and loving you. I know I am unnatural by all standards-"
"Doll, don't say that-"
"It's true! I am unnatural, I do not feel like others do. Emotions do not come as easily, I am…different. But with you? Life is easy, emotions both wanted and unwanted are simple to feel and experience. You are my heart Ailill. I was born without a heart for it arrived in the world before my body did. It resides in you, Ailill Peverell. Please never give it back."
"If I have your heart, then where is mine?"
Tom took Ailill's hand and drew it to be placed over his own chest where a heart is supposed to lie. "I am greedy and my soul devoured it. It resided inside me only I could never hold it in my hands because it's the only thing keeping me sane. It's the only thing that tethers me to this body in order to make sure I never release the chaos of my soul. I've taken it Ailill Peverell, will you ask me to give it back?"
Ailill slowly laid on his back to stare at the ceiling trying to make sense of what he just heard.
"If it makes you happy, you can keep my heart. I've never had much use for it anyway."