Unsurprisingly, it was snowing again for Tom's birthday, something that only added to the gloomy atmosphere within the grey building of Wool's Orphanage.

The fact that it was Tom's birthday was generally ignored in favour of the excitement over a new year and the other children all hoped to be adopted with the new year. It was unlikely though since most people preferred going to one of the more richer orphanages to find a child to adopt. It was rare that they even got a visitor.

There was once exception though. Harry was looking ridiculously excited from the moment Tom had woken up, as if he expected some kind of reaction from him. Tom wasn't sure what to expect from Harry, having never seen him this excited before.

A small brown package was quickly thrust into his hands before Harry scurried to the other side of the room, still nearly vibrating in his excitement. Harry was short, which only made him look like a little excitable toy person.

Tom smiled at the idea, knowing Harry would not like the sound of it. Harry made an impatient sound and Tom held his hands up in surrender before carefully ripping off the brown material. He was being more careful than he really needed to, especially since it was only cheap wrapping paper that covered the true gift but Tom didn't really care. This was his first gift and he wanted to treasure every single part of it, even the scruffy cover.

A single book lay within the folds of the brown cover. It wasn't new, but it still looked like it cost far more than Tom knew Harry's monthly allowance was. The book was had some pages that looked like water had been dropped on it at some point, but all the pages were blank and waiting for his own writings and musings to fill them. Turning the book over he noticed the engraving of his name onto the leather, marking it as his.

It was the first thing that he owned for himself, and no one could take that away from him now that his name was on it. Tom was overwhelmed. It must have taken Harry several months so be able to save enough money to buy him something like this, and several trips to the shop to find something that would be useful to Tom but not extravagantly expensive as to attract the attention of the other children at the orphanage. There were, after all, many thieves within the orphanage who would probably take the book if they saw it just to spite Harry and Tom.

Tom looked at Harry, wanting to say something but there was nothing he could say that would describe the emotion exactly. Tom didn't want to even try starting because he knew he would only mess it up. He had never been good at expressing his emotions, and Harry knew that.

Harry was smiling at him like he already knew everything Tom was trying to say. That was one of the things he really liked about Harry: Harry understood. There was no need to fill the silence with inane babble over subjects neither person really cared about. The silence between them never grew awkward or heavy like it seemed to happen with nearly everyone else.

Tom shook his head slightly, but smiled back. That was just fine for both of them, because they weren't like everyone else.

AN: Written for OTP Boot Camp Challenge #27 Overwhelmed

Ten Times Ten Challenge – Institution #7: Wool's Orphanage