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1. Blooming In Decay by MessyDepressy95

   Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)  

   • Explicit
   • Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
   • F/M
   • Work in Progress

   15 Mar 2026

   Tags

   • Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
   • Joel/Tess (The Last of Us)
   • Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us)
   • Ellie & Tess (The Last of Us)
   • Eventually because baby is in utero for now
   • Joel (The Last of Us)
   • Tess (The Last of Us)
   • Ellie (The Last of Us)
   • Tommy (The Last of Us)
   • Maria (The Last of Us)
   • Hurt/Comfort
   • but it comes at a price
   • Angst
   • Romance
   • but they're a little stunted
   • Explicit Sexual Content
   • Canon-Typical Violence
   • Blood and Gore
   • Unplanned Pregnancy
   • Vomiting
   • Baby Ellie - Freeform
   • But after she's done cooking
   • Childbirth
   • Child Loss
   • Mama Tess
   • Because we love her around these parts
   • Tess Lives (The Last of Us)
   • Pregnancy complications
   • Joel Miller has a big dick agenda but I swear it’s not a main character
   • Miscarriage
   • Stillbirth
   • Kinda background but they still apply
   • Birth Trauma
   • But double it and give it to Tommy
   • No beta we die like - eh you'll see
   • HEAVY emphasis on the angst
   • Mention of Post-Partum Depression
   • but Tess does not have PPD currently
   • She's just a new mom in an apocalypse

   Summary

   For reasons she can't begin to understand or find the will to want to, the only thing that can manage to quell the nausea making her gut clench uncomfortably is if she plunges her left hand into the cold trickle of the rocky stream she's supposed to be getting water from.

   Not her right, her left, and only her left.

   She hiccups and burps, moaning low as she curls over her thighs with her head nearly touching her knees, the roll of her stomach dizzying.

   The early morning chill of dawn is making it worse, her muscles coiling tight in a shiver that makes her mouth water dangerously, and she swears on everything that she is, the scent of dewy pine needles catching in the breeze is not fucking helping either.
   -
   Weeks into a cross-country journey to meet up with Tommy post fireflies, Joel and Tess are forced to grapple with what it means to smuggle an unborn child from Boston to Wyoming. (Mama Tess and baby Ellie, with a heavy dosing of Joel/Tess figuring their shit out).

   Language:

   English

   Words:

   64,953

   Chapters:

   5/?

   Comments:

   88

   Kudos:

   148

   Bookmarks:

   30

   Hits:

   2,639