Those Beautiful Lies

Chapter I

-OIKAWA POV-
-
(Picture is of Oikawa)
-
-
-
There was a soft crunch of gravel under the boy's feet as he silently made his way through the closely compacted huts. The only other sound was the clinking of coins together in the pockets of his ragged and torn pants. His brown eyes scanned alertly for any sound of a guard. Eyes peered out from little tears in the hut's cloth of the walls, wondering what a boy his age could be doing outside late at night.

What indeed. The boy, Oikawa Tooru, had been scavenging for lost coins on the grounds of the dirty streets. This was the only time he could do it, at night when there was no one besides the guards around. He had hit the jackpot tonight and received seven TLUK coins; they were probably from a pack that a guard had dropped. TLUK coins were rare, he had only heard of the Flames acquiring them. But then again, Flames also got SP coins. Shadows only ever received an FLS coin, or nothing at all. One TLUK coin would be work 10 FLS coins, and one SP coin would be worth 50 FLS coins. It was complicated, but that's was what the money system had turned out to be.

Shadows had always been underprivileged. Three hours of work for Shadows was only one FLS coin, which wasn't enough for anyone to get by on. The Flames of course get immense amounts of money...no one in the Shadows never knows how much exactly.

Oikawa let his mind wander a little bit, but then he snapped himself out of it. He had to be careful to not daze off- a guard could be just around the corner. Peering around one of the huts, he spotted his destination just a little ways off. Taking a breath, he quietly crept towards one of the huts, not daring to pick up the pace. Any sound could be the death of him. 'Just a little further, Oikawa.' He told himself. Biting his lip, at the last yard, he burst into a jump and flung himself through the cloth doorway.

There, on the old and torn couch, his parents sat. His eight siblings were gathered on the dirt floor. All heads shot up to look at him, their eyes filled with hope. Oikawa broke into a grin. "I hit the money." He told them, and his family's faces grew into looks of shock and delight as he pulled the coins out of his pocket. "Seven TLUK coins? Where did you find them?" His mother fretted, standing up and walking over to him to enclose him in a big hug. "A guard must have dropped them, I found them a little ways off by the market." He told her, feeling his air get cut off at how hard she was squeezing him.

"Now now, let him go darling." A deep, rumbling voice said. Oikawa looked up as he was released, seeing his father standing behind his mother. A look of pride was upon his face. Oikawa's siblings were jumping up and down in excitement, the little ones too young to know what was going on. Oikawa's eight siblings all varied in age. Oikawa was the oldest at 19, then his sister at 17, the twin boys at 16, his brother at 14, his sister at 11, his other sister at 9, his other sister at 6, and his baby brother at 4. His parents were not old, for they had ended up having Oikawa when his mom was 17 and when his dad was 18.

Their family had it the worst back here. As fate had to have it, Oikawa belonged to a family that lived in the worst place of Shadow Village. It was more like an overpopulated city, since all of the Shadows were quarantined to one area, but it was called a Village because of how broken it was. Oikawa lived in the slums of Shadow Village. His family was probably the poorest of them all, but it made since because of having nine children.

There was never enough money for one person in the slums, but with nine people...Oikawa's family depended on his ability to be a pocket thief, and his 16 year old sister Lilly to sell the strawberries they had growing in the back of the hut. The floor was made of dirt, so they were very easy to grow. And of course, strawberries were a delicacy in the slums. Everyone tried to get their hands on them. If they didn't have that money, there would be no hope. Oikawa had been trying to teach the twin boys how to pickpocket, but they were much to loud and clumsy. Then the others would be too young to do anything. His mother's profession was sewing. She worked at a tailor shop down the road a little ways. His father was a fisherman, so he was rarely ever home. He needed to work very long shifts to be able to get money. It was always about money.

Money was the only thing they could ever think about. All they could afford was just enough food to make it through, there would be no money left for anything extra. Oikawa hoped and prayed that these TLUK coins would help their family for at least a couple weeks.

Oikawa went to go sit down on the floor away from everyone else. He looked down at his knees, biting his lip. Oikawa had injured himself just a year ago. Originally, when he was eighteen, he was an apprentice to a man who was teaching him pickpocketing. That's how he had learned the skill. But one day, he was maybe too loud or maybe he had accidentally touched the guard he was trying to pickpocket. The guard had caught him, and as punishment, he had used his baton to knock Oikawa's knees out from under him.

The guard had only managed to hit his right knee, but that knee had taken the full blow. On top of that, when he fell, he had landed on the concrete on that same knee. To this day, he had never been able to walk normally. The only thing that kept his leg from crumbling under him was old and fringed tape that he had to wrap around his right knee every day. With all of the pressure of being on his feet all day, his knee was just constantly getting worse. But what could he do about it? There were no doctors in the slums. They were livestock, and Oikawa knew that once his knee gave out for good, he would be in trouble.

The society always regards injuries or sickness inconvenient for the system of working that the Shadows have to do. If someone is sick or injured, that just causes a lack on the system. Unwanted space. Useless space. This is a problem for this 'perfect' system. As usual, all threats to the system must be eliminated. Therefore, once Oikawa's knee finally gives out...he is considered dead livestock that needs disposing of.

'I can't let that happen.' Oikawa thought to himself. 'I need to stay strong and push through it, for the sake of my family.' But of course, Oikawa didn't get his hopes up. These days, barely anything good happens when you are a Shadow. The chances of him making it through his twenties...there might as well be no chance at all.
-
-
-
That's the end of the first chapter guys! I know this one was not very eventful, but at least you guys got a look on Oikawa's life. I know the next chapter will have some interesting things happen, so stay tuned in for the second chapter! I will update it as soon as I possibly can.
Love you all -Avianna