Archive of Our Own

“They what??” She finally managed after a good few seconds, “But- it's not like- you didn't-” she took a moment to breathe through her flabbergasted state

“They thought,” she began slowly, “you,” pointing towards him, “caused their ‘misfortune’ with your visions-?”

Bruno nodded, fingers naturally finding the edges of his ruana to fidget with the frayed threads, “Yeah- yes,” wondering why it was seemingly such a hard concept for her to grasp, maybe because it was something he was so accustomed to.

“Pretty much, every time,” he chuckled before awkwardly clearing his throat, dark green eyes darting away before looking back at her.

There were no words for how she felt learning this- oh wait, yes there were. Many words. Like-

“What the fuck?” Unceremoniously leaving her lips as Bruno's eyes flew wide open. Cio would’ve flushed from the curse leaving her mouth, if she wasn't so preoccupied being absolutely floored by this information. “But that’s not it at all! It’s their future, you were just letting them know what you saw.”

“Yeah, but-” Bruno tried to pipe up but stopped when the shorter woman motioned him to.

“It's not like you wanted bad things to happen to the townspeople, right?”

“No!” Bruno’s voice came out louder than he’d meant, causing him to shrink. He quickly adjusted his volume. “No, of course not!”

Cio nodded, having already known the answer. The man before her was nothing less than an absolute sweetheart. She just wanted him to confirm it out loud. “Well, then,” she started, matter-of-factly, “That’s on them for how they reacted, they shot the messenger when all you were doing was leaving a message.”

Bruno stared at his silver-haired companion, he’d already partly known that- he did know that, no matter how buried it had gotten from the constant emotional beat-down he’d received. Getting negative reaction after negative reaction when all he was doing was letting the people know what was in store. So they might prepare or maybe try to change it themselves.

Like that ever happened, not before his niece had.

But there was something so- so-... cathartic about another person agreeing with how he felt inside and saying it out loud. It actually made him start to relax further. He was already more relaxed around Cio than others outside his family, but he was more so after she defended him from the townsfolk’s actions-

“Did they ever apologize?”

Well, until he wasn’t.

“W-What?” he stuttered out.

“Apologize? Y’know after the miracle was fixed and you came back ‘n all that?”

“W-well, I mean- They helped to rebuild the casita-” he got out, shrugging and rubbing his neck.

“But they never apologized for how they treated you in the past? When you weren’t at fault, at all?” her brows raised, a fire starting to build in her chest.

“It’s not that big of a deal- really. It’s in the past.” Bruno chuckled, but it was noticeably weak and unconvincing to her.

And Cio was standing up.

“Wait, where are you going-?”

“To get apologies out of some people,” was said so simply that- Sweating, he was starting to sweat.

As she turned to walk away Bruno was quick to grab her hand to stop her, “You really don’t have to do that, I’m-”

“Fine?” Cio finished his words as she turned back around.

Her much smaller, paler hand shifted in his grasp to gently hold his, “If they don’t know how much all those years of harsh words and treatment hurt you, there’s potential for it to happen again in the future,” a small sigh leaving her lips along with a bit of the fire in her, other hand lifting to pat the back of his softly,

“And I for one,” her gaze softened some as she looked down into his widening eyes, “don’t want that to happen to this incredibly sweet, kind man before me,” another pat to his hand as her lips lifted into a little smile, "Who, in my humble opinion, just deserves a darn break."

Bruno, in his quickness to stop her, had been readying a string of sorrys for grabbing her suddenly but now, he was frozen in place. A heat rose to his cheeks. Between her soft touch and sweet- ha- words about him, he was stuck.

His reaction did have her lips pulling into a wider smile and she would have liked nothing more than to stay and potentially tease him a bit, but she was on a mission she would not be swayed from. She wasn’t entirely sure where to begin with grabbing apologies, but Delores most likely had heard who the worst offenders in town had been, so she would start there.

Cio gently freed her hand from his grasp, “You have a nice time there being frozen-” she tapped under his chin with her knuckle, “Close your mouth, you’ll catch flies-” she grinned, “While I go track down some people.”

And then she was on her merry way, leaving Bruno like that, wide-eyed and processing.

It wasn’t until Cio had completely left that he broke from his stunned daze, and only by the sound of one of his rats coming up and squeaking right in his ear. Bruno yelped in surprise, jumping as his nerves stood on end before realizing it was just one of his little friends.

A deep breath before he tugged the hood of his ruana up and over his face, a huge decompressing sigh leaving him as he flopped onto his back on the couch. Bruno’s turn for bafflement came, this woman was willing to go to such lengths just to help him not get hurt again. And she thought so highly of him when he still didn't think he was deserving of such praise.

His cheeks burned underneath his hood, heart racing as his hand came up to touch where she had tapped his chin, other touching the back of his hand where she had patted him. Another sigh left him as he looked down at his rat that had crawled it's way up onto his chest,

“Oh, María,” he addressed the rat, eyes looking back up towards the direction Cio had left, “What am I gonna do?”

—-----------—

Much to Bruno’s surprise, later that day and the next when he’d finally stepped out of the casita, did in fact, receive several apologies from the townsfolk.

And they’d all felt pretty genuine.

He got through each with an awkward chuckle or dismissive wave of his hand.

But it actually felt good, really good that they might feel bad for how they had treated him in the past.

Although, getting them to apologize, out loud, was a feat in itself.

What did she say to them?

—-----------—