how it feels to be alive {tom riddle}

fifty-five: nail polish

She sat the brush back into the bottle for a moment to take a drag from the cigarette, returning it to her lips once she'd exhaled and moving onto the next nail.

"I'm sure there's a spell for that." Tom commented, looking confusedly at her.

"Surely you've learnt by now I would prefer to do it like this." Lucia chuckled, careful not to let the cigarette fall from her lips.

Tom smirked and shook his head, continuing to watch her as she focused.

Lucia flicked the brush over her last nail, returning it to the bottle and shaking her hands in attempt to dry them before her second coat. From finally looking up, she met Tom's gaze again, "Want some?" She asked, gesturing to the bottle sat in front of her.

"Do I strike you as the nail polish type, Lucia?" Tom raised his eyebrows.

"It's your choice, but nail polish on guys is hot." Lucia shrugged, continuing to shake her hands and bringing her leg back down so she was straddling the stone again.

"Fine, but only since it's the holidays." Tom surprisingly agreed, pushing himself off the wall to come and sit in front of her. He sat opposite also straddling the stone, their knees almost touching.

Lucia brought one leg bent up in front of her, then reached out for his hand and placed it over her knee. She then shook the nail polish again and unscrewed the brush. Tom flinched slightly at the feeling of the cold brush over his nail at first, but soon relaxed as Lucia continued.

When her cigarette burnt to the filter, she took a second to put it out beside her before returning her concentration to Tom's hand on her leg.

Once she had finished with his first hand, Lucia picked it up and placed it over the thigh that hung over the edge. "Keep it there so you don't smudge it." She advised him as she brought his other hand to her knee and began again.

Tom watched her as she drew her lip between her teeth in concentration, painting the polish onto his fingernails, the black corrupting his pale skin.

Lucia could feel the warmth of Tom's palm melting into her leg from the hand she'd already painted, and she relished in the feeling due to the cold wind that seemed to go straight through her. It was only when he began to move the hand on her thigh up, rubbing in a back-and-forth motion with his thumb and squeezing lightly, that she looked up at him.

But Tom wasn't looking her her, instead his gaze fixed on his own hand over the sheer black fabric of her stockings. Because her skirt had ridden up dangerously high from her sitting position, Tom's hand could reach quite far up her leg without having to risk smudging the fresh polish with her skirt.

Lucia swallowed hard and continued painting the hand on her knee, trying to ignore the incessant pressure of Tom's hand creeping higher and higher up her thigh.

"If you get nail polish on my skirt I'm going to be so pissed." Lucia warned playfully as Tom's finger grazed under the hem of her skirt.

Tom chuckled dryly, keeping his gaze fixed on the hem of her skirt as red lace appeared beneath the fabric of her stockings. He tensed his jaw at the sight, then rolled his tongue along the side of his cheek.

"I'm concentrating." Lucia fired back to him, giving the wrist on her knee a gentle tap to get his attention back. Tom chuckled and brought his hand slightly back down just to rub her thigh teasingly.

She finally finished the last nail of the hand, leaning back and returning to her position of straddling the stone parapet to admire her handiwork. Tom's hands were forced to sit on both her thighs as they dried and Lucia inspected her artistry.

"Do you like them?" She asked him hopefully, seemingly happy with her own effort.

"If you like them, I'll tolerate them." He gave a small smile at her excited expression.

"Good, because not going to lie, they're definitely a turn on for me." Lucia explained, leaning back and hooking her legs over each of Tom's thighs so she could be in a more relaxed position, his hands still resting on them as the black liquid dried.

"This is very teasing of you right now, considering you're lying there with your legs open around me with red panties on display, when I can't do anything because of fucking wet nail polish." Tom looked down at her as her eyes flickered closed.

"I know, that's the point." She smirked, incredibly satisfied with herself.

"Lucia, you will be the complete and utter end of me." Tom groaned, his gaze resting on her chest as she arched her back into the air to stretch, her large jacket falling to her sides and revealing the small tank top she had under it. She wasn't wearing a bra, and the cold had made her nipples visible on the surface of the thin fabric. Lucia let out a light laugh in response to his comment.

"At least you didn't paint my tongue." Tom spoke deviously as held his hands either side of him out of the way and dove forward to connect his lips to her chest.

Lucia couldn't help the laughter as Tom pressed his body into her and kissed the exposed skin, his arms out either side of him to protect his nails. In fear they would roll off the edge, Lucia wrapped the leg closest to the drop off around him and planted the other firmly on the floor of the Astronomy Tower.

"Can't even last ten minutes without touching me, huh?" Lucia teased as Tom's mouth detached from her neck and came up to nip at her jaw.

"We all have our own addictions, you of all people should know how hard it is to resist it when it's right in front of you." Tom teased, his voice low against her skin as he began sucking at the delicate skin just under her jawbone.

Lucia went to reply offendedly, but the words got caught in her throat as Tom rolled his hips against her. "Okay, that's enough." She mustered her self control with a chuckle. This caused Tom to withdraw from her with one last searing kiss on her neck.

"You're right, anyone could see." Tom overemphasised his words, "What if someone walked past?"

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Lucia furrowed her eyebrows as Tom smirked at her.

"Did you really think I didn't know Tobias was there that night?" Tom quirked an eyebrow.

Lucia's eyes went wide, "Why didn't you say something?"

"I think the little show you gave him seemed to put him in his place." Tom shrugged, "Besides, I wasn't going to stop you going to your knees with your mouth open for me."

Lucia put her face in her hands in embarrassment.

"Don't worry, I've made sure he won't be snitching. But that memory will serve as a nice reminder to him of what he can't have." Tom's eyes had that devious look in them, the one when things had gone his way.

"If you get caught threatening him Tom..."

"Trust me when I say you don't have to worry about it anymore. Let's go to dinner, yeah?" Tom gave a seemingly innocent smile.

Lucia shook her head with humour, "I don't think I even want to know what you did."

author's note

guyssss we're almost at 70k reads wtfffff

for those following my knee journey, I can walk again now without crutches which is literally the best. I took it for granted so much.

sorry it was a couple of days between updates, I never want to put out something I hate so it took me a bit longer to get a decent chapter together.

thanks for all the love in the interim <3