"I love you too." is what Tom should've said. It's what he was supposed to reply with- it was what he wanted to repeat over and over again.
So why did he have his wand, stuck, through Harry's body?
It didn't make sense.
'Ah-' he coughs blood up. He doesn't even scream. It felt as though everything was silent but the wrenching of flesh, the squelching of blood and muscle. It was a warm liquid, Harry's blood. It seeped into his robes like watercolor on a wet canvas.
He didn't scream.
'I s'ppose..' the corpse on his wand mutters, it sighs. It's a feeble breath out, a hoarse whisper. And it rattles Tom to the bone. 'Maybe I should've seen this coming.' the body says weakly.
Silently, he can hear his mind screaming, roaring. It screams the word "no" over and over again, like blaring sirens that flash as red as the blood pooling onto the floor.
'Honestly Tom.. did you really have to..' his voice does a strange thing that Tom can only identify as a laugh. 'kill me like this? God, this hurts.'
He stays silent, body rigid. It felt as though everything had gone out the window, his thoughts were gone except the ringing in his ears. He didn't know when that had begun.
'R.. really? Not even an Avada Kedav-' he goes into a coughing fit, doubling over and the wand goes further through- 'Shit.' he curses loudly. 'God, it really, really fucking hurts.' he whispers, his voice cracking along with Tom's very soul.
It's then that he can feel droplets of water fall onto his shoulder. It was different form the oozy, warm blood that his arm was covered in.
It was then that he realized Harry was crying.
Like something had snapped in him, he could feel his face wrenching up in a foreign way against his will, his nose and eyes were stinging.
'Oh, fuck.' he says quietly.
'Right.' Harry replies, and Tom feels as though his voice is growing weaker and weaker.
He didn't mean to. He never meant for this to happen.
'I-I..' Tom utters, it felt as though all the strength had left his body. 'I'm gonna remove it.' he states, feeling delirious. His mind was spinning.
He waits for Harry's shaky, ragged breaths to calm down. When it does, he decides that the most painless way was to be quick about it.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he wretches it out of Harry's body.
Immediately, he heard the pitter-patter of blood splatting across the floor. Tom wasn't a stranger to gore, but he found himself terrified of what may lay before him.
'G- God!' Harry cries out, his loudness coming back full force at the terrible pain, Tom opens his arms for Harry to fall into them, he can feel the blood travelling to his shirt. As gently as he could, he set Harry down on the ground.
His body was trembling.
'It fucking hurts, Tom.' he hiccups and sniffs and cries and Tom can feel himself splinter. 'Just kill me already- fucking do it I can't- I can't do this-'
'I..' he trails off, his breaths were coming up short as his blood-stained wand pointed at the limp body before him. There was so much blood. Harry's blood.
'I can't.' he finally chokes out, 'I can't do it.' he says. And there's a sort of horrible, fascinating realization that awakens in him. He couldn't do it.
'And you can drive a fucking wand through my body?' Harry argues, his eyes squeeze shut, the tears falling down, down, down. Tom feels the same.
'We- we can fix it up. We can stitch it up and we can-'
'Oh- grow up!' Harry snaps, the fury rising in his voice. It was always a beautiful thing, his anger. 'Do you really think- everything will go back to normal after this?' he breathes in and out, but it's clearly not working because he still sounds out of breath, no matter what he does. 'No.. No. I won't ever fucking talk to you again. I'm leaving, and I won't ever come back to you.'
'Yes, you will.' he protests, but even to him it sounds weak.
Harry lets out a bitter laugh, 'I won't, Riddle.' Tom almost flinches, 'Does that make you sad? Does it make you angry that I'm never going back to you again?'
There's a bigger feeling gnawing in his stomach. It hurt worse than sadness and anger. No, it was something desperate and crumbling. It was something so, so much worse than Tom ever imagined.
'Or maybe I'll find someone else. I'll go to someone better suited for me y'know?' he mocks, 'How does that make you feel, Riddle? That I can so easily replace you with someone, and be happy with that?'
The feeling was growing bigger, practically tearing and consuming his very flesh. Like a mini blackhole had formed in his intestine. No, he screamed internally, you won't. You won't you won't you won't-
'I will.' he says quietly, 'I.. I will.'
Tom can't stop the drops of water forming in his eyes. He can't stop the way gravity pulls them down his cheeks and onto the floor. He can't even stop the way Harry's eyes seemed to droop shut.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
His body was going numb. Everything was so much colder. The blood wasn't warm anymore. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't do anything-
'Stay alive.' he finally whispers.
The longer the silence seemed to stretch, the more Tom can feel himself unravel.
'Harry.'
'Harry!'
His knees give in. He lands next to Harry's body with a thump. His shaking hands grab the limp body to tug it closer.
A hand caresses the pale, cold cheek. He thumbs away the excess tears and sees new ones dropping onto the cheek. He realizes they were from his own, and not Harry's.
Not Harry's.
Not Harry's.
(Tom feels empty.
He feels compacted and hollow at the same time.
He fumbles for his wand and with a few shaky breaths, mutter two words.
And the world caves in.)