Springs_a_changing_me
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For you, I would paint the sky blue by Springs_a_changing_me
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
25 Aug 2025
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Joel’s meandered over behind the counter, looking underneath the warping cabinetry and opening anything that isn’t locked. He sighs when he sees the industrial sized coffee machine, rusted metal glinting in the light streaming from the tattered ceiling tiles.
She squints to see the lettering on one of the remaining menus, tilting her head and rolling up on the balls of her feet to get a better view. “What’s a…fra…puk…seeno?”
“Frappuccino.” He corrects her without a second thought, sighing through his nose when another cupboard reveals nothing but a rotted mouse in the back corner. He shuts it closed and keeps moving.
“Frappuccino.” She tests the word on her tongue, quiet and uncertain. Each syllable rolls around uncomfortably between her teeth. “What is it? Coffee?”
He shrugs. “Technically. But I wouldn’t call it that. It’s real sweet.”
“Ah. Not real coffee.”
“Not real coffee.”
TLDR:
Ellie’s new life in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, told through the art supplies she’s gathered and been gifted over the years (Featuring the many wonders of Barnes & Noble).
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Please let me hold you (even just one last time) by Springs_a_changing_me
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
14 Aug 2025
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Joel POV of the most important part of their last conversation. He loved her so much. And that was it.
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Honey, you’re familiar (like my mirror years ago) by Springs_a_changing_me
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV)
25 Jul 2025
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A pitiful whimpering pierces through the thin walls and his heart like an electrical current.
His instincts kick into high gear, something animalistic from the early days of Sarah’s life forcing him up. Where is that coming from? He sneaks down the hallway, passing by Ellie’s room along the way. The door’s open just a bit, light streaming in through the crack.
He peers in, expecting to see all five feet of his kid splayed across the bed, brown wavy hair poking up from under the covers.
He searches the room for Ellie, stepping in without hesitation and blinking hard, making sure he didn’t miss anything.
“Ellie?”
Another little coo comes from her bed, a mixture of babbling and a frustrated cry. He stops dead in his tracks and turns around.
A baby is sitting in Ellie’s bed.
A baby. In Ellie’s bed.
“The fuck?”
Or: Joel has Feelings™. Particularly about not having gotten to see Ellie grow up. Ellie magically turns into a baby. Don’t ask how. Nobody knows and I especially don’t. Angst with hella feels and Joel and Ellie being The Father Daughter Duo Ever.
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“Do you want to put away Ellie’s things?" Tommy asks. "We can put them in the attic for now.”
“The hell would we do that for?” Joel lifts up his dead little girl’s shirt, rolls his eyes at the dirt stains that didn’t come out, and folds it neatly.
Tommy swallows. “Cause she died, Joel. And maybe it’s too hard right now to…” he cuts himself off. Joel isn’t listening anymore. He unfolds and refolds the same shirt, his eyes glassy. “Joel—”
“—You got the roster out for next month yet? Was hoping to get Ellie’s birthday week off, I’ve got plans.” He shakes his head. “16, jesus.”
Tommy drops it. Ellie keeps living.
Ellie is presumed dead. Joel doesn't react the way Tommy thought he would.
Written for Whumpter Day 16: Repressed Trauma
Series
- Part 3 of Whumptober 2025
Bookmarked by Springs_a_changing_me
17 Oct 2025
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All Over Again by Nandorluna for cardigains
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us
13 Oct 2025
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Joel catches the front tire with his hands, sets it spinning with enough force to create a soft whirring sound that echoes in the garage's shadows.
“See how the tread’s still in a straight line?” His finger traces the air in demonstration, his other hand automatically shooting out to grab Tommy's shoulder when the boy leans in too close to the spinning wheel – he’s got enough scrapes on his face already, his chin still red and glistening. “Means you didn’t bend the rim.”
“Cool.” Tommy grins up at him. “Next time, I’m gonna use a ramp.”
“You don’t have a ramp,” Joel points out with the roll of his eyes.
The tire's spin gradually loses its momentum, then staggers to a stop. Joel rights the bicycle easily, toe nudging the kickstand into position when Tommy informs him: “No, but I could, if you help me build one.”
Joel snorts. “Now, why am I gonna tell you no?”
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Joel, through the years; his family, and how he takes care of them - and how they care for him in return.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 43,644
- Chapters:
- 5/6
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 99
- Kudos:
- 121
- Bookmarks:
- 39
- Hits:
- 2,903
Bookmarked by Springs_a_changing_me
03 Oct 2025
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Ellie stared up at Joel after he opened the door. “Ellie,” He realized, reclaiming his annoyed face. “Can I help you with somethin’?”
Ellie shoved out a large sigh, her lunch tray still clutched between her hands. “Can I eat lunch in here?” She finally pushed aside her dignity and managed to grit the question out.
Joel brushed his thumb over the wood of the doorframe. “Don’t you got any friends to eat with?” He replied, immediately guilty when Ellie glared up at him as an answer. “Alright,” He sighed then, and made space in the doorframe for her to slip inside.
Ellie picked the desk closest to Joel’s, despite the completely empty classroom. He wished that it annoyed him, but it didn't. She could never know that, though, so he put a pout on his face, and grumbled at every pun that filled the next hour.
TLDR// Teacher AU!!!
Bookmarked by Springs_a_changing_me
25 Sep 2025
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it's a long way back (but a short road home) by cardigains
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
18 Aug 2025
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“It’s okay. I know a guy.” Ellie likes talking about Joel like he’s her mob lackey or something. Makes everything feel a little less looming and leering and lethal. She called Joel "a guy" when it came to getting an extra slice of pie or getting outside of Jackson's walls when she needed a day off of school, when she couldn’t fucking stomach it anymore. He told her to cut it out whenever she called him that. It was a bit. She liked all of their bits these days. “He’ll get you out too.”
“I’m Ellie," she volunteers though she doesn't want to. This woman isn’t an enemy. She’s as caged in as Ellie, worn down to the point that she barely had her wits left about her. There was a look in people’s eyes when they got that way, when they’d started giving up hope. Ellie would fucking know.
The woman shakes something loose from her bones, digs her teeth against her lip before she answers, “I’m Sarah.”
Ellie snorts. “Yeah,” she says with only the edges of humor clinging on. “He’ll definitely fucking save you.”
or: On Outbreak Night Joel and Tommy are separated from Sarah. They spend the next twenty-one years assuming each other is dead. Until Ellie and Sarah find each other in the same awful circumstances.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 152,584
- Chapters:
- 17/20
- Comments:
- 832
- Kudos:
- 1,192
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- 268
- Hits:
- 29,028
Bookmarked by Springs_a_changing_me
22 Aug 2025
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Ellie’s not sleeping much.
Granted, they’ve only been in Jackson three weeks, hardly time to shake the habits of the road like sleeping in shifts for a couple hours at a time. But this is different, Joel can tell. She’s restless, deep shadows under her eyes, and when he wakes in the middle of the night he can usually hear her moving about the house somewhere.
But the house is quiet one night when he pokes his head into her room and finds her bed empty, and his heart damn near screeches to a stop in his chest. It’s almost three in the morning, so why in the hell isn’t she in her bed?
(4 times ellie can't sleep, and 1 time joel can't either)
Bookmarked by Springs_a_changing_me
27 Jul 2025