red light blues | haikyū! captains

lovers' promise

"So, what do you wish to know?"

Oikawa took the liberty to sit on the floor, not even minding the muck that further stained his hakama. He peered at you curiously with hazel eyes that glinted in the scarce lighting, and you noticed that he was unexpectedly poised. There was no tension in his posture, so unlike yourself, whose nerves were all over the place.

Being in front of him like this, separated by wooden grills that spoke volume of his current status as a suspect, reminded you of the gravity of this little escapade of yours. You shouldn't be here. Kuroo specifically told you to avoid seeking this place out because this man could very well be the one who orchestrated your almost-assassination that night. He'd only been doing his job as your guard, yet you willingly walked yourself back into the hands of the potential mastermind, himself—practically rendering all the Shinsengumi's efforts for you useless.

But this oh-so foolish conscience of yours insisted that maybe...maybe he wasn't behind all of it.

"Are you..." You gulped. "Are you a prince?"

He braced his palm on the ground, leaning his weight against it before cocking an eyebrow at you. "So the news is out, huh?"

"I don't think so... Lord Kuroo may have just let it slip once," you explained, fidgeting with the sleeves of your kimono. "I remember one of the samurai in Karasuno calling you a warlord, and I just wished to clarify this."

"Warlord, hmm. That's what I told Ukai, didn't I?" He spoke almost silently, as if having a private discussion with himself until he affixed those brown eyes back on your uneasy form. "I may have told your boss a white lie or two. Who knows what scandal will erupt in the castle once word goes around that the emperor's son was hanging around Yoshiwara?"

Others would have been offended by his coarse wording, but you'd grown so accustomed to nobles looking down on your lifestyle that you didn't find it in you to resent him for it. Providing pleasure was Yoshiwara's main selling point, and thinking that you could scrape anything beyond that strict barter was foolishness that even you didn't want to dip your toes in. Whores who yearned for more than what was meant for them would only wind up dead in a dark alley with no one to mourn them—not even those noblemen who'd promised to give them the world. You'd seen this happen enough times to know where your boundaries lied. To just keep your head down. To never defy the pillars of Yoshiwara's success—its uncompromising laws.

Your job is to just nod and smile.

But...if courtesans were still being killed despite their strict obedience, if those robbed of their freedom continued to be sapped dry because of it—as the Sun, could you really afford to feign ignorance?

When you met Oikawa's gaze once more, your pulse evened out.

"Were you the one who murdered all those women?"

Your voice was small, quiet; like you couldn't quite decide on the right words to say. It made you feel a little silly, the moment the question left your lips. Why would you ask something that Oikawa could easily deny? You didn't know, yet you were willing to hear him out anyway.

The prince breathed languidly through his nose, mouth pressed into a fine line. "Taiyou-sama, do I have to fall to my knees to convince you that I'm not capable of doing such a dishonorable thing?"

"That doesn't answer my question," you parried.

He sighed, raking slender fingers through his mussed hair. "If I said no, would you believe me?"

"Do I have a reason not to?"

A pause. "You're ridiculously trusting, do you know that?"

"So I've been told."