maybe there's hope left | AHS Chronicles

Groceries

Originally posted on Ao3 - this is a fanfiction for a server called "AHS Chronicles". This one shot plays pre-canon.

Vio already had an incredible bad day.

Ange just had to drag him to grocery shopping, hadn't she?

"Don't cry, I would've taken another person, but you have to go out once in a while too," was her only response to Vio's complaint, rolling her eyes and packing her bags. She shuffled them under her arm, grabbing Vio's hand and dragging him out of the house.

Vio knew it was useless. Once the Cannibal Co-Leader got something in her head, she wouldn't let go of it. She was sadly damn stubborn.

He pulled his arm out of Ange's fixed grip, stumbling a few steps backwards. Ange was just looking at him, shrugging and walking further. Vio tried to follow her, but needed to run in order to keep track of her.

Ange just raised an eyebrow when Vio finally reached her. "I told you to take more endurance lessons."

Vio just groaned. "Wait - wasn't the shop there? Why are we walking to the border?"

She simply walked further. "The shop sadly doesn't provide the materials I need. We need to go to the Impartial Nation."

"I thought you just wanted to go grocery shopping - wait, wait, what? Why?" cried Vio.

Ange sighed. "You want to go to the Rebel's local grocery shop?"

"I - no, but -,"

"You want to go to the Convict's local shop?"

"Definitely not, wait, they have an own sh-,"

"See? We hadn't exactly done crimes to the Impartial's, so we won't have any trouble there," exclaimed Ange, making no eye contact with Vio and walking to the border which separated the Cannibal's region and the Impartial's nation.

Vio followed her quickly, shacking his head in mind. He didn't know why exactly Ange wanted to go to the Impartial's nation. She hated everyone who wasn't in the Cannibals. And now, she wanted to buy groceries from the Impartial's? Even some idiot must know that something was wrong.

Because Vio was Vio, he decided not to ask what was wrong.

"Hmm... do you see the tomatoes anywhere?"

Vio looked around. He didn't spot tomatoes in the shop, but rather two people, who Vio guessed to be Rebels. He scrunched his nose in disgust, trying not to be seen and to get out of the corridor.

"I'm sure Via wouldn't like that... didn't Clxbes said that she hates tomatoes?" said the man, scrunching his face.

Vio immediately stopped in his tracks.

"Yes, Via doesn't like tomatoes, but why the hell would you gift her tomatoes, Xio?" asked the brown haired person, who Vio recognised to be Puffy Sagegust, the leader of the Rebels. Now, Vio noticed the Rebel uniform on both people too.

But who was Via? Surely... it isn't her, isn't it?

The man, Xio, rolled his eyes and placed the tomatoes back in their box. "Via said she didn't want a specific gift, so why not?"

Puffy groaned, and placed their head in their hands. "But it's for her birthday!"

Via...

"Okay, alright, alright!"

"I want to play the piano! Do you want to hear it?"

"R. C. mentioned something about leaves..."

Fire everywhere. Screaming. Hand leaving another.

"We need to go!" screamed Vio. The sound of fire cackled through the air, and Via was crying.

" But I can't-,"

Another explosion filled their ears. Vio winced, trying to cover their ears, leaving Via's hand in the process. More screaming filled the air, and people are running in all directions.

"Via, we need to-," exclaimed he, but stopped in the sentence. Via wasn't here anymore.

"Vio, Vio - damn it, say something!"

Vio opened his tear filled eyes, and wished he hadn't had a panic attack right now, in front of one of the Cannibal Leaders-

"Vio - it's okay, stay with me -,"

He sucked in fresh air. His eyes focused on Ange, who kneeled on the side of him. Ange was whispering reassuring words to him, and he was glad that the air didn't taste like smoke anymore.

"Fuck - I'm so, so sorry, I didn't want to -,"

"Don't worry - it's understandable."

"Ugh, fine, we are buying her some gloves - hey, what happened here?" Before Vio could process what was happening, he already saw the familiar face of Puffy. Xio didn't stand far away from them, clutching a pair of white gloves. "Are you okay?"

Ange narrowed her eyes to Puffy, and Puffy eyed her back. Both of them didn't speak a word, and icy silence hung in the air.

Puffy was the first to speak up. "Hello, Ms. Angst - it's nice to see you outside the borders."

Ange tried to smile, which looked horribly forced. "Good afternoon, Ms. Sagegust. Would you be likely to leave us be?"

Puffy didn't hesitate. "It seems like one of your members has a panic attack-,"

"Exactly. One of my members. I ask again: Could you please leave us be?" asked Ange politely.

(Vio vaguely recalled that Ange wasn't so nicely to strangers.)

Puffy seemed like they debated about it, but eventually they gave up. "Come on, Xio - let's pay and go out."

Xio seemed to protest too - but one look at Ange and her knife changed his attitude. "Alright." He hurried past Vio and even after they paid, he still seemed to throw looks at them both.

Vio's eyes were red, and the cashier looked like they wanted to ask if he was okay when Ange and Vio finally wanted to pay. (If he wasn't so horribly scared of Ange, then he would.)

And when Vio finally sat on his bed, he shook his head to himself. It didn't even make sense; there were a thousand other Via's out there, and his Via was long dead. She surely couldn't survive that convict attack back then, and when Vio saw her house, it was burned into ruins.

But maybe there's hope left-

No, there wasn't.

Vio cried himself to sleep that night.