Chapter I : My Butler is also My Best Friend
"Rise and shine, Oscar!"
The sunlight pierced through what little darkness that remained from sleep as Andre opened the curtains. The girl in question begrudgingly opened her eyes to see Andre at the left side of her bed, smiling.
Oscar flopped back on the bed and burrowed deeper into the sheets, cuddling her stuffed, worn out teddy bear in the process.
"Five more minutes~." Was her drowsy response to the young demon servant. (They were the only ones in the Jarjayes mansion, after all.)
Of course, this did not please Andre at all. He huffed a bit in frustration.
"Oscar!"
". . ."
"Oscar!"
Silence.
Then, without a single word, Andre swiftly tugged the sheets to drag Oscar from the bed to the floor.
Hard.
Thud!
"Alright! I'm up! Dammit!" Oscar quickly rose from the floor, checking to see if there were any bruises on her body. (Thankfully, there wasn't any.)
"Morning, Briar Rose!" Oscar turned to Andre's direction to see him beaming that she finally awoke from the coziness of her bed.
"Morning." Oscar grumbled. After a moment's pause she chuckled.
"So!" She began, giving her limbs a good, long stretch. "This is how you're going to wake your charge up? By using brute force?"
"Unless you enjoy getting thrown to the floor as part of the morning routine, then no." As he said this, Andre couldn't help but give Oscar a cocky grin.
If one were to reduce an entire staff to just one servant, a family to just one child, a pantry full of foodstuffs to practically nothing, then it would perfectly describe the current scenario.
The Jarjayes mansion was empty, save for the two persons who were occupying it. And both were quite famished. Very much so.
Unfortunately, the closest market wouldn't be open until 10 AM, and, by the looks of it, it was still 8:15 AM.
"Well then," Andre said, breaking the silence with a snap of closing his pocket watch.
"I think I know a way to get food on the table." He smiled as he said this, whipping his head to meet Oscar's gaze, his green eyes twinkling with excitement. Oscar was confused and dumbfounded at his statement.
How would he, a demon, get food? Will he just hunt some game and cook it? Such were Oscar's thoughts as she tried to piece together his process to claim food.
"Just take a seat and close your eyes." Those were Andre's instructions, and Oscar followed them with slight hesitance.
Making sure that Oscar kept her eyes closed, Andre took a white, pristine table cloth in his hands.
Gently, Andre set down the cloth.
"Okay! Open your eyes."
Oscar couldn't fathom how he managed to produce such delicacies in such short time.
The table contained various soups, meats, sweets, and other meals that would be more appropriate for a king than a slip of a girl. Oscar was practically drooling.
Without a second thought, Oscar tasted the meal that was closest to her, a vegetable soup.
The taste, to put it lightly, was horrendous.
"Andre." She murmured, politely wiping her mouth with a napkin.
"Yes, Oscar?"
She turned to meet his gaze, proud and excitement dancing in eyes.
"Sorry to say this, but. . .the food tastes awful." She turned away from his direction, not having the heart to see his face broken from what he thought was a job well done.
Surprisingly, Andre took the critique well.
"Oh! Really? Well, next time I'll cook something up instead, okay?"
Oscar whipped her head again to speak.
"You're not upset by this?'
Andre shrugged nonchalantly.
"It's my first time doing something like this, so I didn't expect this to work positively. Besides, my previous occupations never involved me being a cook."
After doing some shopping at a local market, the two friends head back to the mansion to relax. It was summertime, so that meant warm weather and longer, lazy days.
Sitting under the shade of a large tree, Oscar and Andre conversed, sparred, and laughed. Anyone seeing them together would've thought that they've been together since childhood.
It was also a rarity to see Oscar look normal. Smiling and laughing, like she never experienced the suffering and bleeding torture from a cult that eradicated her entire family.
However, Andre was smarter than that. He quickly picked up that Oscar's actions were all a ruse so as to not worry him.
After bathing, (which was still a difficult task due to her still healing wounds), and despite her protests, Andre assisted Oscar with her nightgown.
"There we go. Better now?" Andre asked, playfully messing with her short, blond waves.
"Please don't do that." Oscar replied, childishly puffing up her cheeks as though she were a chipmunk stuffing its face with food for hibernation. Andre couldn't help but notice how endearing it was.
Despite her decision to act more like an adult now that her family was no longer, Oscar still took upon childish mannerisms every now and then.
The demon servant playfully slapped on the shoulder, smiling all the while. "Just go to bed."
With the grace of a rag doll and dying fish combined, Oscar flopped on her cozy retreat, curling up her legs and snuggling under the covers with her bear. She snuffed out her bedside candle. The gray smoke swirled and faded out like an opium filled dream.
"Bonsoir, Andre." Was the young girl's farewell, despite knowing full well that demons didn't need to sleep.
Lingering by the door, Andre replied the same.
It wasn't long into the night when Andre's worries came true. He heard her blood curdling screams.
Immediately, Andre paused his task in his own quarters and rushed towards Oscar's room, two doors down on the left. He didn't dare himself to think what could've caused his dear friend's cries of terror.
"Oscar!"
He slammed the bedroom door open and the scene that he saw greatly distressed him.
Around the room, trinkets and two looking glasses were shattered, a curtain was torn and ragged, and a window towards the center of the room was opened wide, letting Artemis to draw her gentle silver arrows to shine upon a quivering figure on the mattress, bedsheets huddled around her like a cocoon. Her bear, the only object from her past that (thankfully) wasn't burned away to ashes, was abandoned on the marble floor.
Oscar's face was barely visible, but Andre's acute vision let him see that her eyes were dilated and with tears.
A nightmare.
His tortured, strong, and beautiful friend had a nightmare.
"Wh-who's there?. . ." She weakly and fearfully asked. She tightened her grip on the blankets like a lifeline.
Gently, Andre walked towards her, letting his visage be awash with the calming moonlight.
"It's me, Andre Grandier. Your servant. . ."
He lay out a hand to reach her.
"Your friend."
That was a mistake.
Quickly, Oscar swatted his hand away, her fingers drawing a few droplets of blood from his hand when she retracted.
"Don't touch me! Don't ever touch me! Just go away! Go away! Go away!" She cried out and shook her head multiple times.
Andre numbly acknowledged the pain, but he was more focused on returning Oscar from her fear induced stupor.
Despite her pleas, Andre finally came in contact and gently embraced her trembling figure, slowly rubbing her back and drying her tears to calm her nerves.
"It was just a nightmare, Oscar. No one is going to hurt you. I promised to protect you, didn't I?" He whispered these words over and over in Oscar's ear, until she was finally calm enough to speak again.
"Now," He started, taking her cold, small ivory hands into his to warm them. "What was the nightmare about? You don't have to answer if you don't want to, you know."
"Mhm. Well, I couldn't remember exactly, but. . .I saw my family, just staring at me, like they were blaming their deaths on me. Then. . ." Her throat tightened the more she tried to recall the pieces and actions that made her scream and sob.
Andre gently squeezed her hands, a sign to go on.
"Then, I saw myself at that same terrible place where the children were sacrificed. But. . .you didn't appear. No matter how many times I called out to you, you didn't appear. I was forcefully placed on the altar, and . .I-"
Tears were spilling down her cheeks. She couldn't go on, because the more she recalled the more she remembered the excruciating pain of being stabbed multiple times, blood splattering everywhere, and copper bubbling in her mouth as she cried out for the savior that never came.
Andre didn't need to ask to know what happened next. He embraced Oscar once again, this time she returned the gesture, letting her tears and howls of fresh pain seep into his clothing. Her sobs spoke volumes of her wanting her family again, and the endless apologizes to them, that she'll never enter the gates of Heaven because of her desperation. Underneath that adult shell was just a lonely girl who wanted everything to go back to the way it was.
After her pain subsided, Oscar lied down on the bed again, her hair mussed and her blue eyes rimmed in crimson splotches. It was Andre who spoke first, breaking the stretch of tension between them.
"Do you want something to drink before going back to bed?"
Silence.
"Hot chocolate would be nice."
Five minutes later, he returned, a cup of hot chocolate was prepared.
"Here, this will calm your nerves."
Oscar took it from his hands, her right gripping the handle while the left gripped the other side. She slowly took a sips from the rim of the cup, before returning it to face level.
"It's perfect. Reminds me of how my nanny made it." She murmured.
Satisfied with her response, Andre prepared to head out.
"Well then, goodnight Os-"
"Wait." Despite the quiet tone in her voice, something in it made Andre stop in his tracks.
"Are you. . ." She bit her lip, trying to find the right words to convey her nighttime request without making it sound inappropriate.
"Will you sleep beside me, Andre? Just for tonight?"
After a few minutes of arguments that stemmed from Andre's shock of doing something that bordered on the indecent, he caved in.
Dressed in a plain night shirt and his ponytail undone, the demon servant tucked himself next to Oscar on the large bed. He turned towards his left to see Oscar, nervously staring straight at him due to the awkward situation that the two companions were in. However, all of the tension eased somewhat when Andre repeated his words that he'll never hurt her, unless she ordered him to. (Which was highly unlikely in any situation.)
Extending an arm out towards Oscar, Andre tenderly pulled back some flyaway strands that covered her face. Such care was placed into this action it slowly turned into a caress, his hand trailing from her head down to her cheek. Andre then rubbed her back in circles to lull her to sleep. This soothed Oscar, whose sapphire eyes were already closed by her midnight lashes. Andre smiled.
Instinctively, Oscar buried her head into Andre's chest for warmth due to the fresh breeze that entered from the window. The close contact caused Andre to wrap an arm around her and made him noticed how small and fragile she looked. (Of course, he didn't dare to tell her this, knowing full well that it would incite her wrath.)
With the moonlight shining on them, Andre noticed how lovely Oscar looked. Her short blond hair splayed across the pillow, her fine, dark lashes cradling those dark blue orbs. Her nose, straight and narrow, sloping down as a small curve, and her lips, small and pink like a half-blown rosebud glistening in morning dew.
Beside him was an angel waiting to be taken up to Heaven, while he was a demon, a lowly, disgusting creature who laughs at the suffering of humans and tricks them into making deals, only to have their souls painfully ripped out of them to be eaten. The irony of it all was too much, and he dreads that final day when the contract comes full circle. Andre sighed.
Rubbing her back when he noticed that Oscar was turning in her sleep, he allowed himself the luxury of angling his lips to her forehead for a chaste kiss, letting the kiss linger for a few moments more.
He whispered in her ear as she slept. He whispered to his best friend of promises: promises to never leave her, to comfort her, to protect her from any threat that dares to harm her. He whispered to her of these words over and over, all through the night, until Andre let his eyes close and his body melt into the abyss of sleep and dreams.
Author's note : First chapter/ Second? Is finally complete! I had so much trouble with writing the second half, and I'm still trying to map out when exactly Andre, in this AU, would fall in love with Oscar. Anyways, I'm just glad that this is complete. For this fic, I'm not really sure if there should be a linear plot, or just make it into vignettes with OA subtext. Oh well!
Ciao bambinos~!