I Can't Lose You | Walking Dead Fan-Fiction [Violet x Clementine]

Chapter 3: You're Easy to Talk to

Her smile faded though as she looked to the floor. "That was a long time ago." She starts, a bad memory clearly replacing the happy ones. "After they- . . . Afterwards Brody and Tenn took down all the paintings. That was the end of it. I shouldn't have even brought it up. It's not a good memory." She says crossing her arms again, her gaze locked to the floor. I noticed she did that a lot, avoiding eye contact when she's upset I mean. "Guess I just lost my train of thought." Violet whispered softly. I really didn't mind her spacing out and talking about her past. I could tell from Violet's gaze that she was hurting, she may not want me to know but I could see it in her eyes how much she missed them. I could see how she missed things. "Well, they sound like they were great friends." I say walking towards her hoping to once again bring back the small glimpse of happiness she had felt in that moment. "Yeah, Sophie was a good friend. And Minnie . . ." Her voice trails off again as she leans her head against the bunk bed ladder. "Uh.. we were close.. Me and her." She says with a hint of sadness and pain in her voice. I didn't want to assume anything but I could tell cared a lot about this Minerva girl. They probably were a thing before Minerva passed away, which would explain why Violet was so upset talking about her. It gave me an uneasy feeling, but I assumed it was just because I felt bad for her. I mean I've come across a lot of people who have gone through a lot of loss that I felt empathy for. We've all lost people we care about in this disaster of a world we live in now.

"Clem? Can I go draw with Tenn for just a little while longer?" AJ asks which breaks the awkward silence. I was hesitant to let him go without me there to watch him, but maybe some time with someone his own age would be good for him. Plus it felt like Violet would feel more comfortable talking with AJ out of the room. "Sure goofball, but not for too long okay?" I say giving him a wink. "Okay. I'll take his sister's stuff to him." AJ says with a bright smile as he closes the box and runs out to meet up with Tenn. I turn my attention back to Violet, who was now sitting on the bed looking down at her hands. "So what exactly happened to them? Sophie and Minerva." I was hesitant to ask this. I hoped that maybe talking about it would make her feel better. Just to say it out loud and get it out of her mind. Loss was a heavy burden to carry alone, but maybe I could help her carry it. Violet doesn't look up at me as she answers. I don't take it personally since I know eye contact isn't really her thing. "They went scavenging with Brody and Marlon past the safe zone. Didn't make it back. It happens." She says quietly, leaning against the ladder as she sits with her legs over the edge of the bed. "Honestly I just miss having someone around to talk to. There's just so many dudes. This place can get a little too bro-town for my liking sometimes." She says, chuckling slightly to hide the emotion in her voice but I could see right through it. I don't know what gave it away for me. I could just see it.

"And I'm not exactly like, a people person. Ya know? I know I sometimes have a habit- . . . have a habit of being a little bit too harsh." She stuttered and tripped over her words a bit as she admitted to her sort of hostile attitude. I can't but smile at that since I could tell this was her way of trying to apologize for the way she acted when we first met. "You come off alright, I thought you were pretty cool." She looks up at me with a slight look of shock for a moment before looking away towards the window. "Oh uh, thanks I guess. You were pretty cool too . . . out there against those walkers I mean." She says, finally looking in my direction. Her green eyes shining even brighter in the moonlight, only making the hints of blue in them show more. Honestly, they were beautiful.

Violet's POV
I felt like I was going to fucking die. I should've guessed that Marlon would set them up in this room. I've never talked this much before I just wanted to force myself to shut up. I could hear the voice of doubt in the back of my head telling me to stop talking before I dug my grave too deep. I wanted to talk to Clem but this just feels- I don't know. It's giving me butterflies and making me feel sick. Especially when Clem keeps staring at me with those bright amber eyes. My mind was telling me this was a bad idea but Clem just seemed so easy to talk to. I just really needed to unload all of this and Clem made it so easy to do that. She didn't judge me or force me to look up or talk about anything. She was patient and respectful, and I didn't get that a lot here. "Sorry about Louis by the way. He can be a real idiot." I try to change the subject, crossing my arms and looking back up at the girl. Her smile fades as her gaze falls to the ground, I felt even dumber bringing it up again. "It's alright. I'm the one that pushed him to ask the question after he warned me not to. I guess it just doesn't bring up good memories." Clem says softly as she seemed to think back to moments in her own past. "Do, you wanna talk about it?" I ask hesitantly knowing she most likely doesn't. I wanted to offer anyway though. If Clementine could let me talk about my past, I wanted to be there to let her talk about hers. She stays silent for a moment longer, crossing her arms and looking over at her hat. "I mean you don't need to if you don't want to. I understand if-"

Clem cuts me off once I started rambling again. She shook her head and finally spoke up. "No, it's okay." She says softly before looking down at the ground again. "I was eight when it happened. My group was in Savannah, looking for a boat. I knew it was the last place my parents were before it happened. I wanted so badly to go look for them, even though Lee kept trying to talk me out of it. I made some mistakes.. I let a man trick me and I let him take me away." I sat silently, listening carefully to Clem's story as I watched her gaze move from every little thing in the room except for me. "Lee had gotten bit trying to save me and get me back. While we were escaping, I found my parents as walkers in the street. Lee and I managed to get away, but Lee was very sick." She finally looks up, her gaze locked onto my own. "I didn't want him to turn, and he told me we both know there's only one way to make that happen. He told me to shoot him, to save him from being one of them . . . and I did." She looks away again, her gaze going back to that hat. I could see tears begin to fall and it felt like I'd just been punched in the chest. Without even thinking about it I get up and walk over to her. I sat down on the bed next to her, gently rubbing her back in a pointless attempt to comfort her.

I was caught a bit by surprise as Clem leaned to rest her head on my shoulder. She kept just staring at that hat as I rubbed her back. "You seem to really like that thing." I decided to speak up about it since I was honestly very curious about it. The 'D' on the front of it was falling off slightly, and it was covered in dirt and had a few holes in it. It didn't look like it was in good condition, yet Clementine didn't throw it out. "Yeah, my dad gave it to me before all this happened." She says smiling softly as she wipes away some of her tears. It seemed as though her dad was a good memory for her. At least she had a good family and a good life before all of this. "Thanks for this Violet, I didn't realize how much I actually needed to vent that out of my system." She says as she finally closed her eyes. She moved closer to me and moved her arms around my torso. It felt like my stomach was doing somersaults. I knew what she meant but the way she said it brought back an old familiar feeling in my stomach. A feeling that I hadn't felt since Minnie was around. "No problem Clem, honestly I think it helped me too. I needed to talk about the twins and how the world used to be." I look down at the girl still leaning on me and hugging me tight. She slowly sits up and lets me go, the cold air immediately filling her place. I missed the warmth and the touch once it was lost. Her bright amber eyes met my own as she turns to look at me. It felt like the world around us had begun to slowly fade out as I stared into her beautiful eyes. "Hey Clem! I'm an artist now!" AJ's voice interrupted the moment as he walked in holding up the drawing he had been working on. Once the door swung open Clem and I quickly separated, scooting away from each other on the bed. Clem stays silent for a moment as she looks at me, before turning towards AJ and getting up. She was able to put on a smile and switch how she was feeling so quickly. It made me wonder how much she forced herself to stay strong for him all these years. How long had the two of them been alone together like this? AJ sets the picture down on the desk for Clem to look at. "Not bad kiddo." She says with a smile as she looks at the drawing. I slowly get up and walk over to them, looking down at AJ's drawing.

It was a picture of him and Clem. Underneath the sketch he had wrote 'Me protecting Clem' on the paper. But he spelled 'protecting' incorrectly. Clem looks over at me with that damn smile of hers again. The way she looked at me left a burning feeling on my face and ears. I look away from her to try and make the feeling go away. "I should get back. You're pretty cool AJ" I said as I gave the kid a small pat on the head before walking towards the door. I look over my shoulder slightly, trying not to meet Clementine's gaze and failing. I stayed silent for a moment. I wanted to say something . . . anything about what just happened. But I couldn't seem to form the words. "See ya." I say quietly and walk out. "Yeah.. see ya." Clementine says as I shut the door. I lean against it for a moment and facepalm, I feel like such an idiot.