Adult Content Warning
This work could have adult content. If you continue, you have agreed that you are willing to see such content.
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icarus, spread your wings by marchflower for lkay09
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
06 Jul 2026
Tags
Summary
“This,” he interrupts firmly, “is what I want to do.”
His hand settles over hers, tugs it free from his shirt. He threads his fingers through hers, fixing their palms flush against each other. All the rough parts of him scrape all the wounded parts of her, and it rubs her raw, but she finds that that flaying - the slow and painful shedding of her shell- feels more like a rebirth than a burial. He doesn’t expect her to be anyone other than who she is, flaws and all. He doesn’t need to be anyone other than who he is. She’s seen him in some of his worst moments and in most of his best, and she’s found herself in both sides of him. Two and half years since he kicked her knife away from her in that leaking hallway in the Boston QZ and she’s harder pressed than ever to find the murky line where he ends and she begins. She stopped looking for it a long time ago.
“Okay,” she whispers. She rests her head against his shoulder, turns her face sideways into the collar of his shirt. He hums, low and throaty, and rubs his free hand up and down her arm.
*
Seven times that Ellie held Joel's hand, and one time she let go.