waking up the devil | oikawa tooru

i. exitus acta probat.

YOU MET OIKAWA TOORU in a little church orphanage just outside of Eden—Eden being the Holy City, hidden from the rest of the world by the decree of God. You knew of the world outside, of course, being a human girl no older than twelve; but being a ward of the church as young as you were, you remembered very little of the mortal world.

Oikawa Tooru offered to change that.

He had been your age, or close to it. It might have been an illusion at the time, but he had been perhaps the most gorgeous boy you had ever seen in your life. The adorable faces of your fellow orphans, Hinata and Kageyama, were nothing compared to the deceptive beauty he had been graced with.

If you had to put a finger on it, you would have almost labeled him as devilish.

It had been a spring day, before the caretakers of the orphanage called for dinner. You were playing with Hinata, Kageyama unwilling to step foot in your vicinity over his "crush" on you. It hadn't mattered to you at the time, but if you had paid even a fraction more attention to it things might have turned out differently.

Hinata might not have left you on the swings.

He might not have left you to Oikawa's promises.

He might not have abandoned you to become the future obsession of a devil.

"Why are you all alone out here?" His voice was soft and inquisitive when he approached you seemingly out of nowhere. Dressed in a fine wool sweater and sweatpants, he was a sore thumb in the rundown playground of the orphanage. Glasses, sleek and modern, were perched on the bridge of his nose, the frames as black as the onyx stone hanging around his neck. "It isn't any fun when you're by yourself."

You paused in your idle swinging. Digging your feet into the dirt, you ignored the brown skids on your shoes in favor of regarding the boy in front of you.

At this point in time, no one had warned you about devils and what forms they might take. Nor did they warn you any time after that, but looking back on it you should have suspected something was off with him.

He emanated an aura of 'other'. Nothing explicitly human, but owning the form of one and using it as a shield to hide his intentions. If you had been a tad more perceptive, you may have noticed the smoke curling from his nostrils with every breath he took.

"No," you answered, instead, unfazed. You knotted your fingers in the chain links of the swing and kicked your feet out to dig your heels into the grass. "Not really. Who are you? I've never seen you before. You aren't from the orphanage."

"Perceptive." His laugh was breathy and forced. "No, I'm from... somewhere else."

"You didn't tell me your name."

"You didn't give me yours." His smile was sharp. "It's only polite."

You narrowed your eyes. "I'm [Name] [Surname]."

"And I'm Oikawa Tooru." He didn't offer his hand like Hinata and Kageyama had when they had first met you. Instead, he paced the line in the dirt where the boys would play volleyball, walking it heel to toe. "So, [Name], where are you from?"

"Here." You answered simply. "The orphanage."

"That's not what I meant. I thought you were smarter than that." Oikawa paused in his pacing to regard you with brown eyes, narrowed in interest. "No, I mean where were you from before the orphanage? You had to have come from somewhere."

"Oh. No, I don't know." You shrugged loosely. It was almost time for dinner and your stomach rumbled unpleasantly. "The caretakers never said. I don't remember much either. Why?"