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'Cause Stitches Don't Work On a Cut This Deep by cardigains
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
14 May 2025
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“Nothing’s different,” Ellie tries to talk Joel off the ledge the best way she knows how. “Except that fucking…thing. It was different. It was smart. And I just thought…What if, ya know?”
Joel’s right in front of her. He sinks to his knees, which is honestly for the best before he passes out and knocks his head against the hardwood floors. “What are you asking me here, kiddo?”
The nickname tugs at years old memories, tussles with months old anger. Settles in her hours old desire to be held by him again. The desire she’s brushing off and shoving down. Even if she is going to die, it doesn’t mean Joel gets to be off the hook. All it means is that he’d ruined everything all so she could die in the name of fucking nothing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming instead.
Ellie squares her shoulders as she tilts up her chin. She holds him hostage with her gaze and implores him with the earnesty of her expression. “I need you to wait with me to see if I turn. And if I do,” she pauses, swallows, wishes she could look anywhere besides right into his eyes, “I need you to put a bullet in my head.”
Bookmarked by rhellireda
14 May 2025
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“It’s not for you.”
That shuts off her stream of words at once. He resists the urge to blink back at her in surprise. He hadn’t known he was going to say that until he said it. Seeing the way her shoulders have lost some of their tension, though, he knows at once that it was the right call. It galls him a bit, what he’s about to say, twenty years of survival making him reticent to admit any weakness.
But fourteen years before that has him speaking anyway.
Ellie won’t admit her weaknesses. That’s fine. She’s clearly been knocked over hard by that fucking place. He can take the fall for this one, if that’s what it takes to get her somewhere safe, a place where he can tend her properly, can tuck her away in a soft bed in a safe town, can get some meat back on her bones.
Can–please God–get some life back in her eyes.
(after silver lake, joel and ellie return to jackson to recover)
Bookmarked by rhellireda
07 May 2025
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lay bare the bones of the earth by marchflower for emooni
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
26 Jul 2024
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Joel sighs, runs his hand wearily over his face. “Baby,” he says, and despite herself, Ellie feels her shoulders relax at the nickname. “This - it’s a threat against all of us. It’s not something we can let lie.”
“I’m not telling you to just let it lie,” Ellie retorts. “Just- why does it have to be you?”
Joel looks away, shifts on his feet. “Ellie,” he says, and the timbre of his voice rakes a claw down her spine. “You know why.”
She does, and that’s the thing- she’s not sure she’s worth it, this kind of love that goes blind with rage in the face of threats, the kind of love that drives people out of their homes and into the night and away from their families. The kind of love that demands sacrifice. It sits uneasily beneath her skin, like an electric current.
*
Jackson is threatened - and Ellie steps up.
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Somewhere along the way, his girl’s gotten to believing that she’s a superhero. He doesn’t disagree, not necessarily, but he still sees the parts of her that are less man of steel and more little girl that grew up lonely and leans in to praise like a plant growing towards the sun. He sees it. Tommy and Maria see it. And evidently, Marshall fucking Green saw it.
Or, everyone has blind spots. Someone tries to exploit one of Ellie’s and its handled accordingly.
Bookmarked by rhellireda
06 May 2025
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allegory of the cave by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
04 May 2023
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So busy badly sneaking bites of cheesy potato off of Joel’s plate (after he’d already offered them up wholesale, not understanding that theft makes them tastier), she largely tunes out what Tommy and two of the other lead patrollers are discussing. Training patrols don’t start until 16, and no amount of whining, threats, or attempts at sneaking into groups has borne fruit to change that, so it’s not like it’s immediately relevant to her since she already knows all of Joel’s routes before he goes on them.
And then one of the women says “Silver Lake” and it’s like all of the air has been sucked out of the room.
(joel and ellie are settling into jackson well) (and then some survivors from silver lake ask to join the town)
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lessons in wayfinding by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
29 May 2023
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It’s after Joel swears (lies) that he told the truth that it dawns on her. He’s so fucking cagey about what they said about her immunity. He hasn’t told her any details about it at all. Not the slightest thing.
He knows how much she’s wondered about her immunity, about why she is the way she is.
If he knew the answer, he would give it to her. She knows that. There’s no way he would be that cruel to her, no way he just wouldn’t tell her, wouldn’t give her an answer even if it wouldn’t help anyone else. It would help her, to know the why of how she’s different from everyone else. And if there’s one thing she can trust Joel to do, it’s help her.
If Joel won’t tell her anything about her immunity, there’s only one reason she can come up with as to why.
She’s not immune after all.
(after the hospital, ellie comes to the only logical conclusion she can draw) (and then she decides she has to do something about it)
Bookmarked by rhellireda
03 May 2025
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no substitutions by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
01 Aug 2023
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He finds Ellie right at the gate, back pressed to it and gun held out.
The sight of her makes him falter for just a moment. There’s no other word for her but wrecked. She’s far too thin, her cheekbones and the single collarbone he can see from where her shirt has slipped a bit under the strap of her backpack sharp, and there are dark circles under her eyes. She’s wearing a flannel that has to be Joel’s, though it’s rolled up to her elbows. On one forearm is a thick wad of dirty-looking bandaging.
On both arms are dark, splotchy bruises.
“-down. We’re not trying to hurt you,” George says. He’s a grandfatherly man, kind, even-tempered. He’s gotten tapped in to solve disputes and settle conflict more than once.
He is also, at a glance, winding Ellie up like a spring.
(on the way back from salt lake, joel and ellie get separated) (ellie makes it to jackson alone before joel, and tommy has a rough start with uncle round 2: electric boogaloo)
Bookmarked by rhellireda
03 May 2025
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If there was one thing Ellie didn’t expect to be good at in Jackson, it was gardening.
Hunting, sure, she’s done that, and she’s got Joel and Tommy to give her tips. Farming, maybe. But straight up regular gardening? Never would have crossed her mind.
(the ellie-enjoys-gardening fic that took over my life and got out of control and has more feelings than gardening)
Bookmarked by rhellireda
01 May 2025
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resonance by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
21 Apr 2023
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When Joel calls his name and comes jogging towards him in Jackson, pulling him into a hug as fierce, as joyful as the ones he got when he was back on leave during his army days, he thinks, Is that all it took? I just needed to leave him alone to let him heal? I could’ve just fucking ditched him and then gone back? It’s a painful thought, that his own attempt at support just hindered Joel’s healing, but it’s a giddy one, too, the idea of his brother back with him.
Then he sees Joel catch a kid who almost falls off of her horse when she dismounts, the motion as easy and thoughtless as if he were-
Oh, he thinks, when he sees the way the girl looks at Joel, all sass and no regard, clearly not afraid of him in the slightest, the way she uses his personal space as her own without a second thought. Oh, you paternal fucker.
(tommy loses the person his brother was on the night of the outbreak) (it takes 20 years and a mouthy little punk to get him back) (ft. miller brother feels, ellie being feral, ellie thinking she and tommy are mortal enemies, and star wars)
Bookmarked by rhellireda
30 Apr 2025
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won't be perfect (but we'll be fine) by motionsickness
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
30 Apr 2025
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She lets him rock her half to sleep until the violins wane from inside, and when they stop, she can’t help the disappointed sag in her shoulders. So Joel holds her tighter and prolongs this little dance for another quiet moment, guided only by the crunch of the stones under them, and Ellie suddenly doesn’t want it to end and she doesn’t even know why. It just feels like a memory she’ll miss. Like she’s watching it happen.
A lot of things with Joel since their truce have felt that way.
(jackson has a father-daughter dance. ellie has an existential crisis.)
Bookmarked by rhellireda
29 Apr 2025
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memories made in the coldest winter by lkay09 for marchflower, renegade_knight
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV)
15 Apr 2025
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“Ellie?”
She exhales inside her little pod, toes curling inside their woolen socks. Maybe if he thinks she’s still asleep –
A heavy hand lands on her knee, shaking gently. “Ellie, time to get up.”
Ellie groans, still not emerging. “Don’t wanna. ‘S too cold.”
A rough chuckle, the hand patting a little. “You’ll be warmer downstairs, I got the woodstove goin’. C’mon, darlin’, up and at ‘em.”
“No.”
(ellie's first winter back in jackson, and joel's lie is already exposed)
Bookmarked by rhellireda
28 Apr 2025
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williams, actually by constance2425
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
03 Feb 2024
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“Joel Miller?”
When Joel turns in the direction of the voice, he sees Abby, the young woman they’d saved earlier.
Only there’s something about the look on her face that leaves him on edge—almost like there’s something bothering her, something she’s not saying—that has him rethinking his next words in the space of a second.
He doesn’t hesitate when he responds, lying through his teeth.
“Williams, actually.”
*
(With some quick thinking and a simple lie, Joel unknowingly saves his own life.)
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“What is it?”
Maria hesitates, eyes raking over the brace on his leg. The pause lasts an eternity, Joel’s patience stretching thin till it nearly snaps, and then she opens her mouth and utters Joel’s worst nightmare in the shape of three words.
“Ellie is missing.”
(whumptober - race against the clock + bad things happen bingo - missing & presumed dead)
Series
- Part 5 of bad things happen bingo
- Part 1 of whumptober 2024
Bookmarked by rhellireda
27 Apr 2025
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“Please,” and if it were any other time he would hate the desperation that has leaked into his voice, “you don’t understand.” That’s my kid, he doesn’t add, the thought scraping him raw, unwilling to give voice to something that personal to fucking Marlene. He’d been fighting it since Kansas City, allowed thoughts of her as his kid in after Silver Lake, but then outside the hospital…
I’m supposed to protect her, and I’ve already failed her too many times. You can’t take her from me.
Please don’t take her from me.
“I do,” Marlene says softly, sounding pained. “Her mother was my best friend. I was there when she was born, Joel. I held her as a baby, watched her sneak out and get into trouble as she grew up. But I have a job to do.” There’s a moment of silence, tense hesitation, and Joel feels his chest crack in two before she even draws breath to continue. “And you’re too late - she’s already gone.”
(or, the fireflies decide not to jump straight to brain surgery, but they don't exactly want joel hanging around while they do their little experiments) (marlene is a goddamn liar)
Bookmarked by rhellireda
26 Apr 2025
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Post 2x02
Joel blacks out in the lodge and wakes up standing on the staircase of his old house in Texas. He and Ellie get the chance to say what they need to say.
Bookmarked by rhellireda
25 Apr 2025
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babyverse by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandom: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
22 Apr 2025
- Words:
- 256,261
- Works:
- 27
- Bookmarks:
- 455
Bookmarked by rhellireda
24 Apr 2025
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in loco parentis by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
04 Apr 2023
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“What’s going on?” Ellie demands, spitting like an angry cat, safe from her place behind Joel.
If she didn’t think she was probably about a minute away from getting her head bashed in if she doesn’t peace-make, she might find it cute. As it is, it’s sort of just fucking up her plan for how this would go.
“The scouts didn’t know it was Joel,” she says to her before she looks to him. Ellie’s her priority here, but Joel still looks capable of taking out any other threat he perceives, and she’d rather not be involved in a fight for her life. “You’re free to leave,” she tells him, and she doesn’t miss how Ellie holds on slightly tighter.
Or how Joel reaches back, just briefly, squeezing her arm in return.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he says, voice hard. “Not without her.”
“You did your job,” she says, a little confused. “We have vehicles here. Take your pick, we’ll give you whatever supplies you want.”
“I’m not leaving her,” he says. “You’re getting both or neither.”
Behind him, Ellie nods once, decisively.
She resists the urge to rub at her temples in response to the headache she can already feel forming.
(ellie and joel from marlene's pov)
Bookmarked by rhellireda
24 Apr 2025
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shifting paradigms by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
11 Apr 2023
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She has mixed emotions when word makes its way to them that Joel Miller has returned to Jackson.
Tommy perks up at once, so clearly happy about it that she smiles completely reflexively just to see it. It’s a different side to him, him with Joel, a man who still worships his older brother to some degree.
No matter how little his older brother might deserve it.
To his credit, Tommy doesn’t ditch her, even if walking beside him feels like leash training a new puppy, the way he pulls forward and then catches himself, returning to her side. This late in her pregnancy, she’s almost at the waddling stage, and there’s only so fast she can get.
As they walk, she prepares herself for a silent stand-off with Joel. They’ll need to get some things straight if he is indeed here to stay the way she knows Tommy hopes he is.
(how joel and maria reach an understanding ft. devoted dad!joel)
Bookmarked by rhellireda
22 Apr 2025
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She thinks it’s a joke at first when she finds out that Joel’s a patroller, too. She’s a veteran, so it was a simple thing for her to be assigned to the work as well, but the idea of gentle, loving Joel with a gun in hand, fighting and killing, is almost laughably absurd.
She doesn’t know how anyone could look at the man who spends hours on the porch with his daughter patiently teaching her guitar and think “yes, he’s good in a fight.” She doesn’t know how anyone could look at the man who regularly scoops up his fussy nephew and soothes him with an experienced parent’s deftness and think “yes, he’ll absolutely kill without hesitation.” She doesn’t know how anyone could look at the man who lets his teenager manhandle him to steal his food right off his plate because it makes her laugh and think “yes, he’s ruthless enough to take out a threat.”
She doesn’t know how anyone could look at Joel Miller and think he’d be a good patroller, and day by day, she worries about it more and more.
(a newcomer to jackson meets joel and thinks he's FAR too soft to be a patroller) (ft. outside pov of joel being a somft girldad) (and somft, period)
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Bookmarked by rhellireda
22 Apr 2025
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skin deep by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
25 Feb 2023
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His first warning that something is very wrong is how quiet the house is.
“I’m home,” he calls, sitting down on their entryway bench with a groan and working his boots off. “Ellie?” He calls when he doesn’t get a response. Her boots are haphazardly discarded by the door as usual, so he knows she’s home, but she only rarely doesn’t come barreling down the stairs the moment the door opens, making his heart skip a beat each time with fear that she’s about to take a header in her excitement.
Even after the call, however, no Ellie appears.
(a fic covering Ellie giving herself a chemical burn to cover her bitemark)
(Joel would like if his kid would run plans past him for once)
Bookmarked by rhellireda
22 Apr 2025