desiderium | t. riddle

xix. lust, not love

Both of them stopped in their tracks. Riddle's eyes widened as he looked right through her Disillusioned face and his lips parted in a little surprise and... a little bit something else. But before she could decipher that something, the Slytherin had gotten over his wonder and cast the revealing spell while he was still held in her vice-like grip. Another wave of shock went through him at the unveiling of the almost nonexistent distance between their faces and Eva grinned, unaffected, at him. Feeling particularly delighted at her newfound ability to touch him with ease, she even gave him a quick wink before letting go and pulling away.

She raised an eyebrow at him as he simply continued to stare, ordinarily strong coffee eyes unfocused. Serpens snapped her fingers in front of his eyes and brought him out of his disconcerted state.

"Your turn," he turned to the side as if he felt uncomfortable looking straight at her, his voice hard. The last glimpse of him she caught before he disappeared under a magical disguise of his own conjuring was his tensing jaw, his moods ever the wound up coil.

"I hardly think it'll last long enough for it to be considered a turn, Riddle," she smiled good-naturedly as she said this in no particular direction.

"We'll see about that, Serpens," A voice came from behind her, warm breath tickling the sparse hairs on the back of her neck. She sent a Revealing spell over her shoulder in a waterfall rush straight at the voice, but it was blocked with a whispered Protego, and she saw her spell deflect to crash into another magically concealed student in the periphery of her vision.

She felt uncharacteristically gentle fingers on her neck brushing aside the baby hairs falling between her braids and began to get slightly dizzy. Before he could touch her anymore and render her intoxicated in the feeling of his skin on hers, she reminded herself of what she had realized only moments before and reached a hand over her shoulder and wrapped her fingers around his wrist. Her senses came back to the ground and she was able to properly savor the feeling of Tom's touch and mobility under her control.

She opened her mouth to say something, but the tall boy behind her beat her to it, "Just taking a look at your little drawing, no need to be so jumpy."

Eva's breath stalled in her throat. She hadn't even thought to check whether her wing ink would still be there. She hadn't expected it to remain after her wings had been brutally sliced from her spine. Her grip on his wrist slackened momentarily.

She inwardly shook herself out of her own thoughts. "It's called a tattoo, Riddle."

Eva didn't need to grow eyes in the back of her head to know his lip was curling. His fingers moved from between her braids to travel down both. Myrtle had done them that morning, scandalized by Eva's admission that her hair had never been in French or Dutch braids. Her thoughts drifted again, this time to think about how happy Myrtle had seemed sitting there, combing and twisting locks of her hair.

Before she knew what was happening, her hair had fallen free and Tom's hands, still Disillusioned, were combing through it. Serpens' teeth gritted. "As much as I love making small talk with you as you fuck with my hair, I'd love it if we could get back to the lesson."

She flicked a second Revealing spell over her shoulder almost lazily. This time, it hit its mark. Riddle's fingers hastily withdrew from her hair and he walked back around with a cold look marring his sharp features. Eva raised an eyebrow. "You look better with your hair down."

The Ravenclaw made a valiant effort to ignore the thrilled tingles the dull compliment sent bubbling up her spine as she bit back, "Well, I hardly style myself to provide you with eye candy, do I?" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Myrtle wearing a slightly forlorn expression, deep blue eyes trained on the strawberry-blonde locks that had unraveled from the braids she had twisted into them only an hour before.