avabava07
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17-year-old Ellie by avabava07
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
27 May 2025
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Summary
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” Joel said, rubbing the back of his neck. “My daughter wanted her hair braided this morning. Set us back some.”
The man’s expression shifted, just slightly, but Joel caught it. A flicker of something behind the eyes. Surprise? Hesitation? Then the stranger’s face settled into something neutral. Polite and controlled.
“Manny,” he said, extending a hand.
Joel reached out to shake it. “Joel. Good to meet you.”
TLDR: Five years later, Joel has to pay the price for defending Ellie.
(Could be read alone but would make more sense if you read the original story.)
Series
- Part 8 of Shoeless Child on a Swing
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12-year-old Ellie by avabava07
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
17 May 2025
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Summary
"It’s not my life I’m worried about,” the gun man snapped, his voice cracking under the pressure.
Joel stiffened. He recognized that tone: desperation. Then the man stopped. Joel saw his head tilt. The gunman was looking down.
The gunmans arm raised slowly, revolver in hand. Toward Ellie.
Joel didn’t think. Didn’t weigh the odds. He moved. Joel surged forward, every inch of him committed, and brought the bat down with both hands. It connected with the back of the man’s skull with a sickening crack: the kind of sound that sticks with you.
And that sound did stick with the blonde girl with a dutch braid, sitting curled up against the passenger door.
TLDR: Joel defends Ellie but at what cost?
(Could be read alone but would make more sense if you read the original story.)
Series
- Part 5 of Shoeless Child on a Swing
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11-year-old Ellie by avabava07
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
10 May 2025
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“I’m going to need a second form of ID,” she said, voice flat.
Joel froze. “Ma’am, I” he stammered, checking his wallet again, panic rising. “I don’t have—”
Maria put a hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear, “She doesn't think you're her father.”
Joel’s throat tightened. He looked back at the nurse. “She’s adopted,” he said quickly. “She don’t have my blood, but she’s mine. I raised her.”
The nurse’s expression didn’t change. Joel’s voice cracked. “Please. I know we don’t look alike, but I’m her dad. She’s hurt and she needs me. Please just tell me where she is.”
TLDR: Ellie gets into a car accident, Joel wants to be there for his daughter, but a nurse sees Ellie and Joel's differing complections and draws the wrong conclusions.
(Could be read alone but would make more sense if you read the original story.)
Series
- Part 4 of Shoeless Child on a Swing
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9-year-old Ellie by avabava07
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
20 Apr 2025
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Summary
She clung to him, her fists gripping his shirt like it was the only thing tethering her to the world. “You promise?” she whispered, her voice barely audible.
“I promise, baby girl,” Joel said firmly, his voice leaving no room for doubt. “You’re stuck with me, whether you like it or not.”
OR: Joel adopted Ellie after her mother couldn't take care of her anymore at 8-years-old. Now she's 9 and trying to find her own way in the Miller family.
(Could be read alone but would make more sense if you read the original story.)
Series
- Part 2 of Shoeless Child on a Swing
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16-year-old Ellie by avabava07
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
13 Mar 2025
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Summary
“Do I get to know their name?” Joel asked, keeping his voice casual.
Ellie’s eyes flickered up to his. “Her name’s Dina,” she said, her words tumbling out quickly. “She’s so smart. The only reason I have an A in chemistry is because of her. We’re gonna get coffee together and study.”
Joel just smiled. “She sounds like a mighty fine girl.”
A beat of quiet settled between them, and then he leaned over the console, wrapping her up in a firm, warm hug. Ellie melted into it immediately, pressing her face into his shoulder.
“You’re growin’ up beautifully, honey,” Joel murmured, pressing a quick kiss to the side of her head.
Ellie let out a groan of fake teenage exasperation, but Joel felt the way her nose burrowed a little deeper into his neck, the way her fingers curled into his sleeve like she didn’t actually want to pull away.
OR: Joel loves his lesbian daughter... but not everyone around them is as accepting as he is.
TW: Homophobia & Homophobic Langauage
(Could be read alone but would make more sense if you read the original story.)
Series
- Part 7 of Shoeless Child on a Swing
Recent series
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Shoeless Child on a Swing by avabava07
Fandom: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
27 May 2025
- Words:
- 172,853
- Works:
- 8
- Bookmarks:
- 62
Recent bookmarks
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angel from montgomery by monalisaaa
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
20 Sep 2025
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Summary
“Hey.”
The girl’s eyes snapped up, panicked. She spared a second to glance down at the man in front of her, her eyes racing up and then looked at Joel with the exact same type of terror, before emerging with something in her hands.
Joel watched, immediately suspecting a gun. “Whoa, now-”
The girl lifted her hands up, revealing an old knife. She smeared the tears on her cheeks away, trying to seem bigger than she was, but it didn’t work.
She was a terrified kid.
The urgency in Joel’s expression blinked. “Hey,” He repeated, his voice painted soft, though he didn’t let himself hear it. The girl just stared up at him with her knife, not realizing the tremble of her own grip or the violent shakes that tore through her entire, bare body. He just realized that now. Only her knees were covering her, along with the clearly torn pair of underclothes on her lower half. She cringed under his eyes. “It’s okay,” He tried. “I’m not gon’ hurt you.”
The girl didn’t even blink. She just stared up through her tears, terrified of him.
Fuck.
TLDR: Joel finds a traumatized Ellie on the side of the road. He's immediately soft. Meanwhile, she has to learn how to trust him.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 94,840
- Chapters:
- 14/14
- Comments:
- 172
- Kudos:
- 513
- Bookmarks:
- 127
- Hits:
- 17,213
Bookmarked by avabava07
15 Aug 2025
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another two years gone (spent forever letting go) by fabbee
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
26 Aug 2025
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Summary
Jackson Hole sat at the base of two mountain ranges, with long, winding rivers that ran around its perimeter. The rolling fields seemed to go on forever and ever, full of bright wildflowers and blooming butterweeds. It was breathtaking to stand on top of the hill and look down at their new home.
It was the kind of shit people would paint pictures of.
It sort of made her want to throw up.
“Whadda’ ya say, kiddo? Ready to go home?” Joel asked.
Home.
He made it sound so fucking simple.
“Yep.” She forced a smile onto her face that she hoped looked believable. “Let’s go, old man.”
OR: After Salt Lake City, Ellie and Joel return to Jackson and try to build a life. Sometimes it’s hard to let go of the past.
Series
- Part 2 of back to you verse
Bookmarked by avabava07
15 Aug 2025
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Summary
Ever since Sarah... well, ever since Sarah ten years ago, Joel's stayed as far away from kids as he can. Just the sight of one is practically enough to send him into a panic attack.
But then Tommy signs them up for a contracting job at a high school as a favor to an old army buddy.
And then there's a little girl in the front office, who somehow appears in the coffee shop Joel visits because the motel's coffee machine is shit.
Most damning is when Joel goes in to do some work at three in the morning and that same goddamn little girl is asleep in his construction zone and, when he wakes her up, says she's homeless.
Next thing he knows, she's asleep in his motel bed and he's filing foster parent paperwork.
What the fuck just happened?
(Foster parent AU! Featuring Joel Trying His Best And FailingTM, Ellie annoying local man and his friends & family into adopting her, and Tess/Joel as a lil treat for the masses.)
Bookmarked by avabava07
09 Aug 2025
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These Things Eat at Your Bones by MessyDepressy95
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
29 Jul 2025
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Summary
“Tommy.” It’s a stuttered plea slipping free from the confines of his shredded mouth, a beg that he ain’t ashamed of as he writhes in his brother's unrelenting grasp, the sores lining his cheeks and rubbing against his teeth alight with fire.
He’s asking to be let go, to be able to go to his child because she needs him.
Because he had promised that he wouldn’t let her do this alone.
The people in that room don’t count.
They don’t know that her favorite color is forest green even though she’s never been in the woods, that her shoulder aches if she falls asleep on her right side because her foster father fractured it when she was eight and it healed wrong.
They don’t know that it’s her greatest fear - what’s happening inside that sterile room with grey walls, white bedding and too little warmth.
To let her die alone would be his failure, his broken promise, and he’s watching it happen. Her heart no longer beating and her chest failing to rise.
*
Even when he’s fighting cancer, Joel can’t help but be dad as fuck, especially when Ellie’s fighting it right beside him.Bookmarked by avabava07
07 Jul 2025