Work Text:
Joel had spent the last few years at the complex watching Ellie fall in love.
He knew from the moment Ellie came face to face with Dina that it was inevitable.
They had been at the the complex for two days, still getting used to the place, when Dina literally ran into Ellie.
“Why can’t I go on supply runs with you?”
“Because, Ellie, you’re good but you’re a trouble magnet.”
“Hey, I never got into any trouble until you started-“ Ellie cut off when thirteen year old Dina had barrelled into her, obviously in a hurry, her hair pulled up and messy, and her face red and sweaty. Fourteen year old Ellie just stared, her lips parted, god only know what was going through her head then.
“I’m sorry, I-“ the girl started to apologise, but when she registered who they were she smiled, her front teeth still a little too big for her small body. “Hey, you’re the new guys.”
Joel glanced at Ellie, to see her just staring all wide-eyes at the girl, so he decided to speak up.
“We are, yeah,” Joel held his hand out. “I’m Joel, s’Ellie.”
“Dina,” the girl smiled, shaking Joel’s hand, then Ellie’s, her hand lingering a little longer in Ellie’s. “I will see you around, pa wanted me home ten minutes ago.”
The girl rushed past them, leaving Joel grinning, side-eyeing Ellie. “Smooth,”
“Fuck off,”
Dina, it turns out, was dating Jesse, or had been? All Joel knows is that he walked in on a breakup, then saw them kissing by the gate.
Joel felt like he had to tell Ellie, who tried her best not to look disappointedly the news but Joel knew her better than that.
Ellie and Dina did become friends, though, close friends, and it was hard to watch, sometimes. How Ellie mooned over Dina and, at first, it was one sided, but Ellie, unbeknownst to her, seemed to have an natural charm with women because after about a week Dina was looking at her with soft eyes and a dreamy smile.
It was frustrating to watch but he didn’t intervene, he know what Ellie had been through with Riley, that wasn’t easy to get over, he would know, so he could understand why Ellie hadn’t made a move.
Well, that and Dina had a boyfriend.
Joel returned home from a patrol one night, about six months into their stay in Jackson to see the girls on the sofa, Ellie on her back with one leg up on the sofa and the other hanging off, Dina positioned in between her legs, her head on Ellie’s stomach as Ellie read Robin Hood out loud for the both of them.
Joel backed away and headed out for a little while longer, having a few beers with Tommy before heading home again.
Both girl were in the same position but were sleep this time, the book teetering in Ellie’s fingers over the back of the sofa.
Joel slowly took the book from her and set it on the table before going and getting a blanket to cover the girls.
It was almost ten months in that Joel and Dina found out Ellie was afraid of water.
She didn’t used to be, Joel knew that first hand, they had traveled together for a year, they had dealt with water before, and Ellie barely flinched.
They were walking across an old jet walk when the board under Ellie’s feet snapped and she went in, completely submerged.
Dina took a step back, unsure whether to laugh or not, but Joel knew better, he was reaching in and grabbing Ellie by the shirt within seconds.
Ellie scampered away on her butt when she was out, shaking her head and breathing heavily.
That was the first panic attack Joel had see from Ellie, he tried to calm her but Ellie just shook her head, bringing her knees up to her chest, and Joel was hyper aware that there could be walkers anywhere.
“Ellie, stop this!” Joel raised his voice, instantly regretting it when Ellie shrunk a little more into herself.
Dina shoved him aside with a ‘move, old man’ and got down on her knees beside Ellie.
“I need you to listen to my voice, El.” She whispered in a soft voice, tracing her fingers up and down Ellie’s arm. “It’s Dina and Joel, the board went out from under you but you’re safe, Freckles. We aren’t going any further down this jet, we’ll head home, get some food. How does that sound?”
Ellie nodded, her breathing still laboured but less so.
“Great, but first I need to you breath with me, you’re far too loud, you’ll attract every clicker and runner within five miles of us.” Dina joked. “Okay, with me, El.”
Dina demonstrated how to breath, in for five out for seven, and Ellie followed, until her breathing was better.
Dina smiled so softly at Ellie, her fingertips ghosting her cheek, that Joel felt like he should avert his ever.
“Atta girl.” Dina said quietly.
Joel walked ahead of the girls on the way back, but was close enough to hear them speak.
“So, water is your Kryptonite, huh?”
“My what?”
“Your- you haven’t read the superman Comics?” Dina asked and Ellie must have shook her head because Dina huffed. “You will when we get back. It’s basically you’re greatest weakness. I did think you had one, was thinking for a bit that you weren’t human.”
“Oh, yeah. Water,”
“Why?” Joel braced himself for Ellie to clam up, she was only ever really open with him.
But that never happened. Not with Dina.
“It wasn’t always, I couldn’t swim but I wasn’t afraid.” Ellie explained. “Then I almost drowned, a few times, actually.”
Ellie didn’t know what happened after that, how she almost died drowned, then almost died at the hands of the fireflies.
“Jeez, that’s rough.”
“What’s yours?” Ellie asked. “Your kryptomite.”
“Kryptonite,” Dina corrected. “And fire.”
Ellie didn’t ask why, Joel knew she wanted to but there was something in the way she said it that told them it was too raw to talk about.
On the year anniversary of them being there Dina came waltzing into the house like she lived there, greeting Joel with her usual playful ‘hey, old man,’ before rushing upstairs in search of Ellie.
Joel didn’t bother telling her that Ellie was still in bed, and she slept with only boxers on.
They both appeared, looking a little bashful, avoiding each other’s eyes.
“Pancakes for breakfast?”
Nether girl looked up from their plates through breakfast, and Joel almost wanted to laugh at the awkward teen energy around him
—
It wasn’t until late July, two years since they get there, that Joel was starting to realised that Ellie wasn’t a kid anymore.
She had got taller over the last few months, almost rivalling himself, and where other girls were tall and gangly, Ellie had broader shoulders, and she trained hard making her a lot more muscular than the other girls, but she ignored the boys jabs on how she wasn’t ‘feminine’.
Joel heard a boy, Jake, comment on it, and while Ellie ignored him Joel wanted to step in, but Dina got in first, the fifteen year old throwing her hand against his chest, causing him to stumble slightly.
“You’re just mad that she could kick you ass, Jake.”
“Suck a dick, Dina.”
Ellie didn’t ignore that, winding back to punch him but before she could Joel grabbed her wrist.
“Nope,” he began dragging her away.
“You’re lucky your old man is here, dyke.”
Joel stopped dead, Ellie hitting into his back and looking up at him unsurely.
“Joel?” She questioned.
Joel didn’t reply, he just let go of her hand, a minute smirk on his lips. “Go knock that word right outta his head, Kiddo.”
Ellie smiled and Joel walked away, waiting at the kitchen table with an ice pack.
Before he could see to her Dina had sat Ellie down and kneeled in between her legs, surveying the damage to her lip and cheek.
“How’s the other kid lookin’?” He asked, setting the first aid kit and ice pack beside Dina.
“I’d say he wouldn’t be using such a dirty slur again,” Dina looked almost proud, popping open the med kit.
“You got this, kid?” Joel asked Dina.
“Nothing’s broken,”
Joel nodded. “I’ll be talkin’ to the boys parents.”
Joel went to leave, but the parents in him made him linger in the hallway, just able to see the girls through the crack in the door.
“I dropped my guard,” Ellie grumbled.
“Please, he got lucky.” Dina scoffed, tearing open the wipe. “You know there’s nothing wrong with it, right?”
“Of course there is,” Ellie huffed, and Joel’s stomach churned, did she really think it wasn’t okay that she was gay? “Next time it could be a Hunter I let hit me.”
Joel wanted to slap the girl upside the head.
“Not the guard dropping, dumbass.” Dina laughed, dabbing the wounds on Ellie’s face and hands before grabbing a bandage. “The liking girls thing.”
Ellie seemed to freeze up.
Dina tentatively took Ellie’s hand into her own and began wrapping it. “If you did that would be something you could tell me, El.”
“I- I don’t-“ Ellie trailed off, making both Dina and Joel frown.
“Does anyone know?”
Ellie shook her head, and it was technically true, she hadn’t told Joel out right but when she spoke of Riley he could see that look in her eyes, the same look she has when speaking of Dina.
“People love you, Ellie. Tommy, Marie, Jesse, the kids, your old man.” Dina rhymes of, taping the wrapped bandage down, looking at Ellie through her eyelashes. “Me. That shit doesn’t change that.”
Ellie didn’t say anything, and Dina finished patching her up.
“Here’s the thing, Freckles,” Dina started as she got Ellie water from the fridge. “The world is fucked, no laws, zombies, humans are attacking each other. Everything fucking sucks, but who you love, that ain’t an issue. You read books from old times, times before all of this bullshit, now we’re too busy trying to survive to get at someone for something so stupid.”
“Yeah,” Ellie murmured. “I suppose.”
It was then that Joel realised, watching Ellie watch Dina, that she was growing up, and with growing up came different challenges, mostly around puberty, and Joel knew it was something he had to talk to her about, even if he didn’t want to.
The whole puberty talk went about as well as Joel expected, Joel stumbled through it, Ellie scrunched her face up in disgust and sat there with her arms crossed, and they both left embarrassed.
It was an hour after the talk the Ellie came marching back in. “I’m gay,”
Joel wanted to laugh but he stopped himself, his eyes remaining on the veg he was cutting. “Okay. You wantin’ broccoli with your stew?”
“Okay?” Ellie frowned. “Just okay?”
“Hate to break it to you, kiddo, but I’ve known for a while now.” Joel glanced over his shoulder, a little smile on his lips as he held up broccoli. “Well?”
Ellie scrunched her face in disgust. “Fuck no,”
“Fine, you’re missing out.” Joel turned back to the food, and a few seconds later Ellie wrapped herself around him from the back, her ear against his spine.
“Thank you,”
“Nothin’ to thank me for, babygirl.” Joel assured. “Now, go get that trouble maker you call a best friend and tell her stew will be ready soon, if she wants some.”
—
Joel finally breached the topic with Dina a few days before Ellie’s seventeenth birthday.
Dina and Jesse had started dating. Again. And Joel was mad because it had seemed like Dina was finally going to ask Ellie out.
“Listen, kid,” Dina glanced up from her food she was eating while she waiting for Ellie to get dressed. “I need to talk to you.”
“Okay?”
“Ellie has told you right? About her preference.”
“Yeah, a while ago, why?” Dina frowned.
“Thing is- well- you two-“
“Oh, god, old man, this ain’t the shovel talk, is it? ‘Cause Ellie ain’t interested.”
“No, it’s not- wait, what?”
“She isn’t interested,” Dina repeated. “I’ve tried, Joel, everything short of kissing her, she’s not made a move of her own yet, so I guess she’s not interested.”
“Dina, you’ve had an on again off again boyfriend since she knew you, what can you expected?” Joel said. “She had this whole thing with who she is, you know that. She has an issue with comin’ across like a predator, she ain’t makin’ no move on you, kid.”
“Wait,” Dina blinked a few times. “You think she likes me?”
“She was devastated when you got back with Jesse,” Joel reasoned. “She deserves better than this, Dina. Than some girl hangin’ all over her then goin’ back to her boyfriend.”
“That’s not fair, Ellie means the world to me.” Dina shot back, glaring over at Joel. “But she wasn’t showing any signs that she was interested, Joel. What was I supposed to do? I was scared, too, that I’d lose her as my friend, I couldn’t deal with that.”
“So fix it,” Joel said. “Because she will start to pull away.”
Dina never did get the chance to fix it before she was taken by some group of religious nuts and Ellie went out on a one man mission to find her.
Joel found her, in a house littered with bodies, singing.
“You really gonna go through with this, kiddo?”
“I’m gonna find and kill every last one of them,” she said, looking up at him with heard eyes. “I will get her back, Joel.”
“Okay,” Joel nodded, shouldering his riffle. “Let’s go get this pain in the ass, then.
They found her, eventually, after around three weeks.
She was so much smaller when they found her, looking at them with frightened eyes until she realised who it was and let out a little sob of relief.
Joel had never, and never has since, seen Ellie be as gentle as she was with Dina that day.
“Dina,” She whispered, kneeling by the girl and softly touching her face, making Dina jump. “Goofy, it’s me.”
Joel smiled at the childhood nickname, her remembered the first time Ellie called Dina it, when they were fourteen, and Dina called Ellie freckles and Ellie claimed she had to have a nickname, too.
(“It’s only fair,” Ellie had said, eyeing Dina. “I think goofy will do.”
Dina, having been born in the outer zone, had no real idea who goofy was, but Joel did, so he laughed softly, making Dina look between them. “What does that mean?”
“It fits you well,” Ellie assured.
Dina found Ellie a few days later, striding up to her and shoving at her shoulders.
“What the hell?” Ellie laughed, because there was a playfulness in Dina’s eyes telling them she wasn’t actually mad.
“I do not look like goofy!”
Ellie laughed a proper belly laugh, her head thrown back, completely missing the look of absolutely awe in Dina’s eyes at the sight).
Dina collapse against Ellie, and Ellie held her so softly, like she was afraid she was going to break.
“You came for me,” Dina sobbed against her chest.
“Always,” Ellie whispered, her eyes closed and her hand gently caressing the back of Dina’s head. There was so much love between those girls in that moment that Joel felt like his chest might burst. “I would never leave you behind.”
Ellie gently lifted Dina bridal style after a little while, whispering calming words to her as they trekked home, taking turns to carry the weak girl.
Tommy was waiting for them when they returned, all guns blazing until he saw Dina limp in Ellie’s arms.
Ellie took her to the med bay, then her mother and father showed up, and Jesse (which seemed to bring Ellie back to reality), and Ellie decided to go treat her physical wounds (and lick her metaphorical ones) at home.
It was four days before Dina woke up, and Marie came to find Ellie to tell her Dina was asking for her.
Joel accompanied her but waited outside the room.
Dina lit up at the sight of her best friend. “Ellie, hey.”
“How are you holding up?” She questioned as she sat on the chair beside her bed.
Dina stared at Ellie for a little bit, taking in all the fresh cuts and fading bruises. “You came for me.”
“You doubted I would?” Ellie asked.
“I didn’t think they’d let you,”
“They didn’t,” Ellie shrugged.
“Why? Did you come after me? You broke the rules, you risked your life, and for what?”
“For you,” it seemed like such a simple answer but there was so much weight behind it. For love, is what she really meant.
“I’m worth that to you?”
“More,” Ellie answered with such ease.
There was so much going on in Dina’s eyes in the moment, so much running through her head.
“They got you on those strong ass painkillers?” Ellie asked with a little laugh and after a few second Dina laughed softly too.
“Yeah, they’re wearing off now, though.” Dina explained, touching the cut on Ellie’s neck. “There were hundreds of them, they all gathered in the square the first night I arrived.”
“Yeah,”
“How did you survive that?”
“I had something to fight for,” Ellie shrugged. “I killed them all, Dina.”
“Good,” Dina said, groaning as she fixed herself. “You can’t have that bred of crazy bleeding out.”
Ellie stared at Dina, so many questions running through her head, but the main one was the one she didn’t want the answer to.
Dina seemed to understand, though. “Yeah,” she admitted quietly and Joel felt anger flair in his chest. He figured it had gone that far, but that didn’t prepare him for the rush of pure protectiveness that rushed through him. “Only twice.”
Ellie’s jaw worked as she stared at Dina’s hands folded on her stomach, Joel knew what was happening, Ellie wanted to kill, again, but she didn’t have anyone to go after, so she didn’t know what to do with herself.
“Don’t,” Dina whispered. “Please, don’t. I can’t have you pulling away, too.”
Ellie blinking a few times in an attempt to calm herself down, offering Dina a small, forced smile. “As if you could get rid of me that easily.”
It was a poor attempt at a joke, they all knew it, but Dina laughed, more out of relief than anything else.
Then she was crying, and Ellie froze for a second, before climbing into the bed beside Dina and let her just cry against her chest.
Dina found solitude in their house, it was calm where everything else was hectic, it was normal where everyone else was pussyfooting around her.
It became a common occurrence for Joel to come home to Dina on their sofa, drowning in Ellie’s too big sweaters.
Most nights he would make himself busy but tonight he sat down along side her, a beer for himself and that nettle tea stuff Ellie told him she liked.
Dina wrapped her hands around the mug with a ‘thanks, old man’ but Joel could see in her eyes that it meant a lot to her.
They sat in silence for a bit, not awkward, they were past that, and both too laid back for that to happen.
“Ellie ever tell you about our time out there?” Joel questioned.
“Some of it,” Dina answered, tucking her legs under herself and blowing at her mug.
“She tell you about the time she saved my life?”
That made Dina frown curiously.
“Course she didn’t,” Joel rolled his eyes fondly. “We were ambushed, I fell on rebar, through and through,” Joel pointing to the point the rebar penetrated. “She fought through countless men, while holding me up, then helped me onto a horse and made a makeshift sledge when I couldn’t stay on any longer. She nursed me back to health, and one day she went out to get food, ended up in a whole mess of shit with cannibals.”
“They tried to eat her?”
“Nah,” Joel laughed. “Ellie is too valuable, they saw that, they tried to recruit her, Ellie broke the guys finger when he tried to come onto her. She fought her way through a whole compound of men in the blistering cold, I finally found her laying into the leaders face with a machete.” Joel shook his head as he recalled the memory. “There was somethin’ pure primitive in her that night, something in her eyes as she was attacking him, I saw that again, when I found her while she was out looking for you.”
Dina didn’t seem to know what to say to that, so she didn’t say anything at all.
“You earn her trust, her love, then that’s it, you know? She would go to the ends of the earth, push herself beyond anything she is capable of just to protect you.” Joel took a swig of his drink. “There is only four people that I know of that have earned that; me, her mother figure back at the military camp, Riley, and you.”
Dina was staring thoughtfully down at her tea when Joel looked at her, he decided to say what he was building too.
“Ellie ain’t goin’ nowhere if you tell her what happened, kiddo. This is a for keeps thing to her, nothin’ ain’t changing that.”
“I want to,” Dina admitted, in a quiet, broken voice. “I just can’t make myself say it.”
Joel nodded, clasping a comforting hand on Dina’s shoulder. “That’s fine, kid, there ain’t no rush, just don’t be keeping it all in because you think no one cares, you think people will leave. We ain’t going nowhere.”
Dina’s throat wobbled, and for a second Joel seriously thought she was going to cry, which he wasn’t very good at dealing with, but she steeled herself and nodded.
“Thank you, old man.”
“Sure thing, kiddo.”
“You mind if I crash here tonight?” She asked. “Ma and pa are insufferable right now, I know she’s out late tonight but-“
“Sure,” Joel cut off the inevitable rambling. “You know where she keeps her cloths, knock yourself out.”
Joel was still awake when Ellie came home half way through the night.
“Dina’s upstairs,” he said.
“Oh,” Ellie looked confused, and tired.
“She’s really hurting, El.” Joel commented, letting his head lull to the side to look at her. “Be patient with her, she’s got a lot to work through.”
“I know,”Ellie said, heading for the stairs.
“Hey,” Joel called after her, making her stop in the doorway and turn back to her. “It ain’t gonna be easy when she comes out with all this, Ellie, you need to brace yourself for a kind of fight you’ve never come across before.”
“I’m ready,” Ellie answered confidently. “Anything for her.”
Joel nodded once. “I’m proud of you, babygirl.”
That seemed to throw Ellie, but Joel didn’t wait for her to respond, just turned back and settling down on the sofa.
Dina, it turns out, heard them taking, and came out with everything two nights later.
Joel hadn’t been there for the conversation, he figured that was probably on purpose, but he had walked in on the aftermath.
Dina was on Ellie’s lap, asleep and looking like a shell of the girl he knew before all of this. Ellie had her arms wrapped protectively; her eyes haunted by something Joel knew was too much for two seventeen year old kids to shoulder.
Ellie looked up at him and swallowed, shaking her head slowly.
Joel understood, that was her way of telling him that even she wasn’t ready for that.
Joel made camp at the kitchen table, and Ellie joined him half an hour later, sitting and putting her head in her hands.
“I couldn’t have prepared for that, Joel.” She whispered. “I wish I had taken my time killing every last on of them, I wish had had tortured them, I wish-“
“Ain’t no point in living on wishes, Ellie.” Joel cut her off. “You’ve got a girl in there that needs you, you can’t live on wishes.”
“She’s so strong, I don’t know how she survived all that time.” Ellie ran her hands down her face.
“Maybe she had something to fight for,” Joel shrugged. “Like you did.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Ellie hummed, “Can you make that stir fry she likes?”
“Sure thing, when?”
“Now, I’ll let her sleep for a little longer then wake her up.” Ellie said. “How do I pull her through this?”
“You don’t, she has to do it herself.” Joel stood. “But you have to be there through it all.”
“I will,” Ellie sighed. “I just wanted to make it all better.”
“That’s how it feels bein’ in love, kiddo.”
Ellie tired to argue, tell Joel she wasn’t in love, but she knew she wasn’t fooling anyone so just gave up trying.
Dina got progressively better after talking to Ellie, like sharing the load was giving her enough space in her head to work through everything.
And Ellie, true to her word, was there for all of it, which caused some problems with Jesse.
Joel had heard Jesse complain a few days before the dance that he was her boyfriend, not Ellie, and that she should be confiding in him.
Joel felt the urge to throw Jesse out of the mess hall then, but Dina simply rolled her eyes. “Maybe Ellie should be,”
Jesse bristled. “What?”
“Maybe I should date Ellie,” Dina shrugged.
“I mean, you can’t,” Jesse frowned. “Your with me.”
“Was,” Dina corrected. “Was with you. I think I’m done with all of this, Jesse. I can’t do it anymore.”
Dina left then, leaving a confused and angry Jesse.
Joel followed him out when Jesse left, waiting until he was sure he was headed for his place before grabbing him and throwing him against the wall.
“You’ll wanna watch yourself here, boy.” Joel growled. “This ain’t nothin’ to do with Ellie, this is Dina’s choice, respect it and stay outta it, clear?”
Jesse nodded slowly, and Joel let him go. “She ain’t been your for a while, you know that.l”
Jesse hung his head, nodding slowly. “I want to fight for her.”
“Ain’t no use in fighting this one,” Joel patted his shoulder. “Plenty’a girls here.”
Ellie went to the dance a few nights later, because of course she did, Dina had asked, and Joel decided to tag along.
He watch from the bar as Dina danced around with people -adults, teenagers, kids- she put on that signature ‘Dina’ bravado and put on a show for everyone who watched her with pity in their eyes. Joel could help but feel proud of her. Then he watched as Ellie and Jesse exchanged a few words before Dina dragged Ellie away.
Joel watched as Dina wrapped Ellie’s arms around her waist and wrapped her own around Ellie’s neck.
He knew then what was happening, as Dina playfully wiped her sweaty face against Ellie’s, then moved herself closer, her face cheek against Ellie’s.
Ellie looked out of her depth, her eyes flitting around the room, prompting Joel to do the same, he noticed then why Ellie was looking like that.
People were staring, mostly men, some too old to be looking at Dina or Ellie like that.
Ellie whispered something to Dina, prompting Dina to whisper something back before pulling away, staring at Ellie with soft eyes, then she spoke again, tucking Ellie’s hair behind her ears.
Then they were kissing, which made Joel’s eyes widen slightly, and jump down to his drink.
Joel glanced over to where Jesse was, but he was gone, before looking back at Ellie and Dina just as they broke apart.
Dina spoke again, playing with the hairs on the back of Ellie’s neck, and Ellie smiled a smile so brilliant that Joel couldn’t help but smile.
They went back to dancing, Ellie holding Dina close, and Joel caught Ellie’s eye, giving her a playful thumbs up.
Ellie rolled her eyes and flipped him off, but that brilliant smile never left her lips.