a/n . And again I haven't really written in a while. This time it's for 'Oni wo Aisuru Hito', or 'The Person who Loved an Oni'
It's even shorter than People Are Dying, so I apologize ahead of time - this is only ~600 words
original at sm7549474
They were happy for about ten months.
It started in the warmth of spring and progressively got worse.
The perfect idol of her summer whispered things in her ear, horrible things about the man she'd fallen in love with: He's an oni, girl; you know that. And people blame everything on the oni. Do you want to be blamed too?
The idol would always point to him, accusingly. He lies to you about little things. You can't trust him. And even though she loved the idol too, her mind ignored the words. Her cold heart, however, began to silently harden against the oni.
"Do you like the rain?"
"Yes. Stormy days are nice."
They both knew he hated the rain. But he smiled about it anyway.
So did she, because he was there for her always, even through the things he despised. That meant something.
Months later in the cool of winter, her soul was asked a question, soft and sinister and laced with cold that crept into her bones and heart: You humans, are you born with the sin of superiority bred into you?
It wasn't something she could answer, for several reasons – not the least of which was sitting in front of her, asking what was wrong, she looked like she'd seen a ghost of some sort. With a laugh he asked if his mask had startled her again, and with a false smile she admitted yes, that was it.
She withdrew over the next few months as she considered the words, and the question; it was a slow pulling away rather than violent jerking apart. But it was enough that he noticed, and guessed that she no longer wished to be seen with him – or so she assumed. She never did find out what he thought.
He was simply gone one morning – things messily taken from where they'd been twelve hours previous, and a single long red coat slumped on the floor in the closet where he'd forgotten it in his rush to leave the town where he believed he was no longer wanted.
The young woman who loved an oni curled around his jacket, the last thing that remained of him after she'd unintentionally driven him away, and sobbed into it as his warmth drained out of it and out of her life.
It wasn't over.
As if life would ever deign to be that simple.
In the spring, on what would have been their first anniversary, she was called out to see friends. They wanted to make sure she was alright, but they were all so busy; however, their paths crossed through the center of town – could she possibly make it?
She did. Foolishly she wore his coat.
Sneers followed her through the town, quiet talk about that whore who was with the oni, the one who left a month ago – I thought maybe she'd gotten sense and sent him off but there's his jacket around her shoulders, so obviously she misses him. The bitch should just go die; she's a shame to humans.
She was walking fast by the time she got to the square, head upright, body tense.
A million fingers pointed at her as she arrived. Accusing.
You're no better than the oni.
The idol of her summer stood at the front of the crowd, smirking, and pointing like the rest.
"I told you."