( gif by ; -tzarrion )

━ CHAPTER FOURTEEN ...

' kin , part. 3 '

Early that next morning, the sun was just rising over the tall mountains as the birds chirp outside of everyone's windows.

In the sisters room, the two were wide awake and dressed ready for their departure. (Y/N) looked completely drained, as her tried gaze rested on her hand in Ellie's, who refused to let her older sister cry again over a man.

Footsteps approaching the door as Ellie looking up a little bit, while (Y/N) didn't move a muscle, already knowing it wasn't Joel. The person knocks on the door, and Ellie calls out for them to come on.

Tommy's figure appears from behind the door, as he opened it and sighs sadly spotting (Y/N)'s state. He guess their little talk didn't go so well.

Ellie gently tugs on (Y/N)'s hand, gaining her attention as she finally spotted Tommy in the room. The older girl got up slowly with her sister following, both grabbing their backpacks full of supplies, and went to walk past Tommy towards outside of the house.

Tommy follows them outside of the house, and closed the front door shut behind him, as he comes up to the waiting girls, "Stables."

He leads them towards that said desiation, everyone quiet as the farm animals chatter in the background as they walk into the stables, and all the way to where the horses were kept.

(Y/N) sniffles quietly from the cold air, and felt her heart clench when they came face to face with Joel, who was getting two horses ready, also dressed in warm clothes and up.

Ellie glares a little at the male, still disliking him for making her older sister upset, and bitterly asked, "You came here to say goodbye or something?"

"No." Joel's raspy voice answered, continuing on fastening the saddles on the horses back, "I came here to steal two of these horses and go."

Tommy raised a brow at his brother, confused, "I woulda gave you them."

Joel turns to the male, "I know. Anyway...that was 30 minutes ago, and I guess.." His eyes finally landed on (Y/N), who refused to look up, and it made his heart ache with guiltless, "you deserve a choice."

(Y/N) moves her gaze up hearing his voice so close, and spots him directly in front of her, staring down at her with a different emotion she couldn't quite place.

"I still think you'd be better off with Tommy-" He didn't even get to finish his sentence, as her lips lifted up a little bit and shoved a bag in his chest, "Let's go."

"Okay." Joel mutters to himself, holding the bag close as the sisters go to move towards the horses, and he turns back to Tommy.

Once all their bags and supplies were placed on the two horses, Joel opened the bans door and lead the horses outside, with the other three following.

Ellie was already on one of the horses, as she pushed (Y/N) to get on the horse with Joel, knowing they needed to fix their relationship back, even if she still hated his guts for making her sister cry.

(Y/N) goes to hop onto the horse she would be on, as Joel's hands lingered on her waist, making sure she got on alright and she grabbed the reins, looking at him with a small smile.

"General direction?" Joel asked Tommy when he had let go of the girl, and turned back around to his brother.

"Head southeast till you hit I-25." Tommy tells him the directions, nodding in the way he meant, "It's right off the interstate. Shouldn't be hard to miss."

Joel breathes deeply before exhaling, and went to hug his younger brother, who returned the tight hug, patting his back as they had to say goodbye again.

"There's a place for you here..." Tommy starts off as they broke the hug, and glances at the comfortable sisters on the horses, "All of you."

"Countin' on it." Joel remarked with head nod, before motioning to the sniper on his brothers shoulder, "Can I borrow that?"

"Yeah." Tommy removed the sniper from his shoulder, and smiled a little bit amused hearing Joel mumbling about how  Maira took his, "I already said yes, Joel." He hands him the sniper, and Joel grabs it, slinging it over his shoulder now.

Tommy does one last look over on his brother, nodding his head solemeny, "Adios, big brother."

Joel's lips turn up a little, giving him one last look also as he knew they wouldn't be seeing each other for a little while.

...

The front gate to the town opens up, as someone from inside had happened it up, and Joel was now on the horse (Y/N) was on, as Ellie was on her own beside him, while Tommy walked beside them to the gate.

"Close it up." Tommy orders once the trio had walked through the gate, watching them leave until the gate was fully closed.

...

Somewhere along the path in an open field that had a lot of dead grass, and some snow piles with a long piece of wood, a gunshot was heard and fired.

The gunshots continued to go on, just now seeing a makeshift target centered in the middle. Currently, the sisters were learning how to shot, as (Y/N) had th sniper first, with Joel next to her and teaching.

"Wide right. You're flinchin'." Joel somewhat teases as he turns his head, and looks down at (Y/N), barely any space between their bodies.

"The target's too small." She grumbles with a huff, glaring annoyed at the object a bit in front of them.

"I made it bigger than I should've." Joel told her honestly, as he touches her hands on the sniper, which made them move closer together, "Eject the cartridge."

She goes that with in a quick motion, seeing the bullet full out of the gun, before she glances up at him through her eyelashes, "And I am not flinching."

Joel hummed with a small smirk, nose brushing against her cheek which made her inhale sharply, trying to ignore her butterflies, as he speaks lowly, "Pass it over."

She rolled her eyes embarrassed, handing him the sniper as they switch positions, and she stood up beside Ellie who had binoculars, and looked through them at the target.

"A deep breath in, slow breath out." Joel grunts as he fixes the sniper in his hands, and leant it against the wood, "Squeeze the trigger like you love it. Gentle..steady.. nice and slow."

(Y/N) somewhat flushes at his choice of words, and the way his deep voice was saying it as she side eyes him, while Ellie cackled amused, "You gonna shoot this thing or get it pregnant?"

Joel gives her a incredulously look, and then goes back to looking through the sniper's spyglass while the (H/C) haired complained, "I don't think it's gonna work. It doesn't aim right, well, at least for me." She grumbled the last words.

Joel shot off a bullet when she finished talking, and saw how he had hit the target straight into the middle.

(Y/N)'s mouth opened in shock, completely flabbergasted but at the same time found that very attractive of him, as Ellie curses Joel out with a disbelief expression.

Joel simply shrugs his shoulders, hands up a little bit as he found their reactions amusing, more especially the older girl ones.

...

"So the way they run stuff in Jackson, was that how things used to be?" Ellie asked Joel as they were back on the two horses, continuing on their long journey.

"No. The country was too big for that." Joel answered her, as their horses now walked side by side, "Back then, there were basically two main ways of lookin' at things. Some people wanted to own everything and some people didn't want anyone to own anything at all."

(Y/N) humms in acknowlegemt at his words, as she glances away from Ellie on the horse beside them, and goes to question Joel, "Which one were you?"

"Neither. I just did my job." Joel told her, keeping one gloved hand on the horses reins, while the other, subconsciously rested on (Y/N)'s knee, as she was that close to him on the horse.

"Which was....building?" She continued to ask curiously, hoping to get more out of now as she noticed how different he started to act around her.

"That's right. Houses, stores, that kinda thing. We were called 'contractors'." Joel explains to her, as she smiled a bit at his honest answer, while Ellie stifles a snicker.

"'The Contractor'." She mimicked a deep voice as she teased Joel, grinning a bit when (Y/N) released a little laugh, "That's pretty cool."

"Yeah. We were cool." Joel agrees with the younger girl for once, "Everybody loved contractors."

"I beat they did, especially if you were one." (Y/N) quietly comments with a relaxed sigh, as she goes to rest her cheek against his back, and tightens her loosely wrapped arms around his waist, drowning in his warmth.

She thought he didn't hear her, but he surely did. And hearing it made a massive smile appear across his face, while pride swelled deeply in his heart.

...

After many days and nights of stopping to get rest, eat, and talk, the trio were now getting closer to where the location was.

"Okay, so if you mess up your fourth down, then you give the ball to the other team?" Ellie was talking quietly with Joel, as her older sister was still asleep on the horse, and knew she needed this extra rest.

(Y/N) was currently dead asleep against Joel's chest, her back leaning on it, as her face was tucked into the side of his neck, and body in between his legs. He had his arms wrapped around her waist, while they kept her close and the reins in his hands also.

"Right. It's called a 'turnover'." Joel clarified the girls statement just as quiet, as he turns his head a little bit and saw the peaceful expression on (Y/N)'s face, easily becoming one of his favourites very fast.

"Turnover." Ellie repeated what he said brightly, and noticed how Joel was acting with her older sister, making a grin spread across her lips, "But if you make it to 10 yards, then you're back to first down?"

"Yep." Joel agreed as he places his chin on top of (Y/N)'s head, shushing softly her when she made a noise in her sleep, and held her closer. He knew he wasn't brave enough yet to show her affection with her eyes open, so he choose to demonstrate it now, not knowing Ellie would tell her sister everything either way.

"So, basically just moving in one direction." Ellie sums up shortly, humming to herself once more spotting the tiny affection he was showing (Y/N) in her sleep.

"Basically... but violent." Joel told the younger girl, as he tilts his head to stare at her on the horse beside his.

"Oh, well. There's that." Ellie murmurs to herself, directing her horse to follow behind Joel's as they come up to a direction sign.

"Well, how 'bout that? Made it in five days." Joel comments a bit proud as the trio, minus sleeping (Y/N) noticed the sign pointing left to where they needed to go.

"Easy days. I don't know what Tommy was so afraid of." Ellie says with a small scoff, and puffs out her cheeks a bit.

Joel glances around at the environment, before landing on the sleeping (Y/N) in his arms, "Still time to find out."

"'Still time to find out.'" Ellie mimics Joel's deep voice, and accent, knowing damn well her older sister would laugh at this if she were awake, and Joel gives her a incredulously stare, making Ellie whisper in a creepy voice, "The Contractorrrr."

...

A little while after walking on the pathway to their destination on the horses, (Y/N) was back awake and sat behind Joel again, hands on his hips as the trio get closer to the entrance of the university.

"Home of the Big Horns. What does that mean?" Ellie questioned curiously as she read what the sign said engraved on the wall, as they walk into the entrance.

"Team mascot. It's a kind of sheep." Joel replied to her question as they stopped to look at it for a few seconds.

"Oh, see? One step closer to your dream." (Y/N) teases the male with a gleaming grin, not even knowing how he treated her before as she does this. But, she then noticed how adaboned the place looked, "Don't see any Fireflies, though."

"They're probably in the middle. Safer." Joel told her, as he now had the sniper out and nods his head forward, "This way."

...

"So these places..." Ellie starts off her talking as they travel through the streets of the university, "people would live here and, like, what? Got to classes and stuff? Even though they were adults."

"Yup, but sort of adults." Joel corrected the interested girl, "I think it was just as much about partying and findin' themselves as anythin' else. Figuring out what they wanted to do with their lives."

"What they wanted to do with their lives." Ellie chuckled as she repeated his words, while sharing an amused look with (Y/N).

"So I've been thinkin'.." Joel starts off nervously, as he gets a hum for the girl behind him, and a noise of agreement from Ellie, "I don't want a sheep ranch, actually. I mean, if the deal is I can do anything?"

(Y/N) nods with placing her chin on Joel's shoulder, and grins with her teeth, "That's the deal, cowboy."

Joel bits back a smirk at the nickname, and looks ahead with a ponder, "Well...when I was a kid, I wanted to be a singer."

Both sisters had different reactions to the this, as Ellie laughed a bit entertained, while (Y/N)'s eyes went wide with surprise, mouth doing the same.

Joel looks a bit offended at Ellie's laughing, as he couldn't tell what (Y/N)'s reaction was which made him a bit insusure, but didn't show it yet, "Why is that funny?" He goes to question incredulously at Ellie.

"Well, you gotta sing for me later." (Y/N) teases the male in front of her, patting the hand on the reins as she tilts her head with a reminding grin, "I'm gonna save the world, so that's the least you can do for me."

Joel smiles a tad at her reminder, knowing all too well what they were here for, and looks over his shoulder into her eyes, "Fair enough."

They continued to walk on the horses a bit more, as monkeys chattering in front of them were heard, and Ellie goes to exclaim, "Are those monkeys?"

"Must be from the old labs." Joel tells her as they all spot some of them on the grounds, playing around freely.

Ellie laughs excitedly, as the monkeys start to run away from where they were, "Look at them go."

"First time seein' a monkey?" Joel questioned the two sisters, and they repeated it back to him in a confirming tone.

Joel now looks a head of him, and spots the signs indicating where to go throughout the university, and noticed the Fireflies tag. They start to come up to a slow stop, all of them feeling tensed as they saw no guards stationed around.

Once the horses stopped, (Y/N) hopped down off hers and Joel's first, as she helped Ellie down from hers also. Joel followed after them, and tied the ropes around the horses saddles to the tree.

(Y/N) got her bow out, making sure it was loaded, while the other two grabbed their guns and went to follow Joel inside of the building.

The front door opens up, and it closed behind them as the trio all walk in quietly, looking around at the adbonded place, which had papers, wheelchairs, and a lot more things scattered all over the ground.

"There were definitely doctors here." (Y/N) comments with big eyes, as she noticed supplies that looked like medical ones.

Joel comes over to her, standing beside her and opens the cream coloured folder, before pulling out a yellow piece of paper, "This is a packing list. Somethin' you make before moving."

"They just left?" (Y/N) whispered in a disbelief, before the sound of mental clunking up stairs as the trio spinning around and facing the noise.

"Maybe not all of them." She murmurs to Joel, as she shares a look with him, and grabs Ellie's gloved hand before following Joel upstairs.

...

They made it upstairs onto the floor where the noise was coming from, and they all had their weapons out in case, while Joel lead thm and the clanging got louder.

The trio carefully walked down the hallway, before stopping at the door where the noise was heard, and Joel turns back to (Y/N), giving her a hand motion to hold.

Joel aims his gun up at the door, scrunching his face up as he quietly tried to twist the handle, and creaks the door open, to be met with monkeys screeching and running out of the room.

(Y/N) sighs a bit disappointed at this, really hoping there would be someone here to help with creating an vaccine, but came across a dead trail once more.

"Well...at least it ain't clickers." Joel tries to lighten the mood up, spotting the girls deflated in emotion as the two stroll into the room.

"Yeah, no Fireflies either." Ellie grumbles on behalf of her sister, looking around at the messy room as she pulls (Y/N) along, "Maybe in all that research, they turned into fuckin' monkeys."

Joel glanced around the room a little bit, before noticing the board with a map on it, and many pins placed on it, and the siblings make their way over as well.

"That's where they went?" (Y/N) points to a place on the map with the end of her bow, as all the placed objects lead to there.

"All the pins lead there." Joel agrees as he looked at it also, "Maybe gettin' ahead of the weather...better facilities? I don't know."

However, before the trio could discuss the matter any further, the sound of voices outside caught their attention.

They all share a confused look, as Joel went to peek out of the broken window, and spotted four men downstairs walking around, which weren't people they knew, "Out the back."

He urges the sisters to go, and they did quickly, while Joel runs in front and they trail behind after him. Once they made it to the back, Joel opens the door their quietly, and the trio all ducked down behind the sandbags, making sure it was clear before they run to the horses.

Joel motions for them to follow as he goes, and they stay low as they do so, making their way quickly towards the horses.

Joel grabs the horses reins in his hands, as he passed them to the sisters, who whispered soft words to the horses, while Joel went to place the sniper away.

Though, (Y/N)'s eyes went wide spotting something behind him, and shouted in warning, "Joel!"

Someone had run up behind him, and went to hit him over the head with his weapon, but Joel dodged easily and tackles him with a yell. The two wrestle each other, before Joel headbutts the guy, and grabs him in a head lock, as the raider choks for air.

(Y/N) kept her bow aimed at the raider, knowing not to shoot unless Joel needed help, as she kept Ellie and the horses behind her.

The raider continued choking, and grunting, until Joel had ended up snapping his neck, hearing it crack as Joel throws the body aside. He once again protected the sisters.

Joel breathes heavily as he turns around to them, checking if they weren't hurt, but (Y/N)'s frozen gaze was stuck on something lower to his face, which made him look down and finally stopped the raiders
weapon wedge deep into his stomach.

He places a hand the wound, as (Y/N) went to protest seeing what he was doing, but Joel didn't hear her and pulled the thing out with a painful grunt.

(Y/N) was going to go up to him, as he pants badly from the new wound, though she spots more raiders coming, and was quick into action, "Joel! Get on the horse! Now!"

Ellie was already on her horse, as she and her sister kept the one Joel was going onto steady, and he climbs up with a loud groan, with (Y/N) hoping on behind him just as the raiders got closer to them.

"Go!" (Y/N) shouts panicked, wrapping an arm around one of his, as the two horse neigh and start to speed off. Ellie fires bullets at the raiders in warning, making them yell and duck away from the shots.

...

"They're not following us. I think we're safe." (Y/N) breathes out as they had gotten away, and were now walking along train tracks in the snow.

"Joel?" She goes to call his name, not hearing him answering her as she shares a worried look with Ellie. She goes to grip his arm, as his body was leaning into hers, but suddenly he started to slip off the horse, with his eyes closed, "Joel?! No, no, no!"

Joel fell off the horse, and landed onto the snow covered ground with a thud, completely knocked out. (Y/N) didn't think twice, as she stumbles off the horse, and runs over to where Joel was.

"Joel?" She called his name wobbly, pressing her hands against his chest seeing how pale, and weak he looked. She curses under her breath, grabbing his bloody hands and placed the against his rapidly bleeding wound, "Joel, open your eyes."

A small scared whimper passes her lips, as she carefully places a hand behind his head, and gently pulls his body into her arms, his side touching her stomach, "Joel, you gotta get up, please."

Tears start to fall down her cheeks, as she glances back at Ellie, who had tears of her own. (Y/N) places a hand on his cheek, rubbing her now bloody thumb over the cold skin. She kept her other hand pressed against Joel's on his wound, hoping to keep pressure on it.

"We... I can't do this without you," Her voice cracks horribly, as a few tears drop onto his cheeks from hers, and she moves her face closer to his, "please, Joel."

( gif by ;
sporadicstarsx )

AUTHORS NOTE;; ☹️☹️☹️ i love joel sm sobbing. i warm you now, y'all are gonna eat the heart throbbing fluff scenes i have coming up omg