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Learn You Slowly by Shh_be_quiet
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
09 May 2026
Tags
Summary
Ellie doesn't entirely understand why the things that happened to her were wrong — she just knows she was hungry and scared and that the dark in that particular closet had a specific texture she's been trying to forget.
The Millers are different. She can see that. She's just not sure yet if different means safe, or if safe means permanent, or if permanent is something that actually exists for someone like her.
Joel builds things with his hands and shows love the same way — through presence, through action, through sliding Sally across the floor without being asked. Tess knows what it is to be a case number in a system that doesn't see you, because she was one once. Sarah is fourteen and has made a highlighted document and has decided, quietly and completely, that this is her sister.
Ellie is six years old. She is trying very hard not to need them.
She is not succeeding.