SOMEWHERE IN THE WOODS, ten miles west of Boston, Ellie was sitting under a tree with her knees bunched up to her chest, Joel's jacket draped over her legs. The man himself was kneeling across from her, searching through his backpack after tossing her a bag of berries to eat.

Her, Lou, and Ralph had been berry-picking the previous night to try and lighten the mood and also fill up their stomachs a little, but it didn't help all that much. Just Ralph telling them what was and wasn't edible, and then putting them into their pockets with frowns on their faces.

Halfway through chomping down on a gooseberry, as Ralph had called it, Ellie got fed up with the silent treatment she was getting and began to speak to Joel. 'Look, I've been thinking about-'

'I don't want your sorries.' He swung his backpack over his shoulder.

'I wasn't gonna say I'm sorry. I was gonna say that I've been thinking about what happened.' She barked back at him, now the only person in the group who was able to speak back to him so freely without the fear of her head being torn off. 'Nobody made you or Tess take me. Nobody made you make Ralph and Lou come with us. Nobody made you go along with this plan. You needed a truck battery or whatever and you made a choice. So don't think you can blame any of us for something that isn't our fault. Especially not Ralph. Not after he saved our asses with those frickin' monsters.'

He watched her for a moment, processing everything he had been told, and then gave one brisk, subtle nod of the head. With that, Ellie was satisfied and began to climb to her feet as he retrieved his gun.

She handed his jacket back. 'How much longer?'

'Five-hour hike.' He said, looking around. 'Do you know which way those two went?'

'Up, I think.' She pointed to the dirt slope that led upwards, the one that stretched off from the main trail. Around fifteen minutes ago, Lou had announced that she needed to piss, and Ralph decided to go with her in case someone, or something, got her. And also so she didn't end up pissing on poison ivy.

'Really? I thought they went right.' Joel mumbled to himself, looking in the direction he had mistaken them for going in. Then, he gave a dismissive shrug of his shoulders. 'We'll find them on the way.'

'You sure?' Ellie looked at him.

'I'm sure.'

...

EVEN A BROKEN CLOCK WAS RIGHT TWICE A DAY, and Joel was right to be confident that they'd find the Zhenyas because they did. Apparently, Lou had snatched up Joel's map and read the trail he had marked out and she wanted to get a head start on them. She never really had to piss in the first place. Traitor.

They had been walking for what felt like years now, and they were on an open, dirt road when Ellie popped into the gap between Ralph and Joel and began to question the veteran.

'You've gone this way a lot? No infected?' She waddled next to him, grinning up at his mean-looking face.

'Not often, no.' Joel replied dryly, still thinking about the fact that this fourteen-year-old had scolded the shit out of him earlier.

'What are you looking out for?' Ellie continued as Lou slipped next to Ralph and began walking alongside him. He reached down and ruffled her hair while she laughed and swatted him away.

'Uh... People.' Joel noticed it, watching the father and daughter with a strange look on his face. One of remembrance. Like it made him remember something or someone.

'...Are Barry and Fredrick nice?' Lou leaned forward to ask Joel.

'Bill and Frank. And, yeah, Frank is.' The four of them fell into silence, continuing their journey until Ellie furrowed her eyebrows and snatched Ralph's arm. Wearing a t-shirt next to the girl who tried to stab him maybe wasn't the best idea, because he was fully expecting her to dig that blade into his arm and leave him bleeding. Surprisingly, she didn't.

Also surprisingly, 'You have a tattoo!'

'Ow, Ellie- Don't pull.' He staggered a little bit when she pulled on his arm and tried to get a better view of it. On the outside of his bicep was the letter 'R' in swirly lettering and black ink.

'Who's R?' Ellie asked, finally letting him go.

Lou began. 'R is for-'

'-Ralph.' Ralph interrupted, wiggling Lou a little. 'Just Ralph.'

'Like, in case you forget your name or something?' She asked, squinting up at him. He nodded and she shook her head shortly after it. 'That's boring.'

'Yeah, well, old people like me and Joel gotta be prepared for stuff.' He side-eyed the man next to him with a glint in his eyes, and Joel looked back at him with a scary amount of seriosity. Ralph looked back down at her. 'Maybe I'll get you one when you're older.'

'You're not old.' Joel countered, shaking his head firmly. 'What are you, like, thirty? I'm fifty-somethin', man, you don't know what you're talking about.'

'Makes two of us.' Ralph scoffed, looking around for a moment. 'I hit the big five-oh last year, actually. Lou threw me a rager. Tess was there but you didn't come.'

'Oh, that day in February? Yeah, uh, I was... I was, um, busy. With, an, uh-'

'Don't bother lying, you assbag.' He laughed, and Joel thought it was a rather wonderful sound. 'It's cool that you hate me. Well, I mean, it's not cool, I just... I'm at peace with it now.'

Joel looked at Ralph for a moment, let his eyes scan his face to make sure he wasn't fighting back a mean glare or an eye-roll and pursed his lips when he realized that Ralph really was cool with it. The already sad feeling in his gut began to worsen because Ralph really did think that Joel hated him.

Joel did. He kind of did. A little bit. Only a smidge... Maybe not as much as he thought he did... Okay, maybe not at all.

It was kind of hard to hate the guy that was keeping you alive. The guy who had killed two monsters for you and your group, the guy who was able to tell edible foods from poisonous ones, the guy who was never angry and always kind, even if he carried a gun on him at all times, and certainly knew how to use it.

'Are you okay, man?' Ralph asked quietly, looking back at Joel. During his internal rerun of yesterday's happenings, how helpful Ralph had been, he had completely forgotten to stop staring at the man he was walking next to.

'Uh- Ahem, uh, yeah. Yeah, sorry.' He said hurriedly, clearing his throat and looking at his feet, and starting to walk a little bit faster to avoid the reaction it might get from the others, especially from Ellie (and/or Lou). And, sure enough, they did react, even though it was behind Joel's back.

Grinning, Ellie pinched the tips of her fingers together and began to press them against each other, mimicking two people kissing rather terribly. Lou stared at her blankly, shaking her head slowly.

'That's my dad, dude.' She reminded.

'Oh, right. Sorry.' Ellie dropped her hands awkwardly.

...

CUMBERLAND FARMS.

'Haha, Cumberland.' Lou repeated to herself, pointing at the mossy, gross-looking sign as they approached the run-down building. As they approached the door and nobody bared any reaction, she looked back at Ellie. 'Get it? Cumberla-'

'Get inside, Lou.' Ralph patted her on the shoulder, interrupting her magnificent comedic talent. She groaned dramatically and shuffled through the door while Joel held it open for them.

'No waaaay!' Ellie gasped excitedly, waddling up to an old arcade machine and smacking her hands onto the control panel. The logo of Mortal Kombat Two hung far over her head, and Ralph could read it pretty clearly if he squinted. 'I had a friend who knew everything about this game. There's this one character named Mileena who takes off her mask and she has monster teeth and then she swallows you whole and barfs out your boneeesss!'

'Cute.' Ralph raised his eyebrows, shuffling back a little as Joel began to trash the place in search of his stash. 'Hey, you, like... Remember where you put your stuff, right?'

'Yeah, 'course I do. I'm just zeroing in on it. It's been a couple of years.' He said, a little too protectively.

'Alright. Just checking.' Ralph raised his hands in surrender.

'Okay, you two have fun.' Lou patted her dad on the shoulder as she walked past him. 'We're gonna go... Take a look around, see if there's anything worthy of stealing.'

'Trust me, it's all been picked over already.' Joel called out as the sound of their footsteps got further and further away.

'Maybe, maybe not.' Lou hummed optimistically, entering a side room and fading into the darkness.

'Is there anything bad in here?' Ellie asked, even though she was a little bit late to it.

'Just you and Lou.' Joel replied.

'Hah. Getting funnier.'

...

ELLIE'S FOOT COLLIDED WITH A MULTITUDE OF THINGS. A box, the junk inside of it and underneath it, a rope, a pile of dust, and a bunch of other trash that was laying on the ground.

'Eugh, there's nothing good in here!' She nagged, drawing her foot back and swinging it forward once more to land another blow on the scraps in the room. She hit another box, having a clear pattern with her targets, and then threw her head back in faked agony.

'Yeah, 'cause you're kicking it all over the place.' Lou huffed, smacking her on the ankle as she brought her leg back to the ground. Ellie rolled her eyes and stepped forward to find more things to kick, but froze when the ground beneath her felt suddenly hollow. Ellie stepped back, and the ground felt solid underneath her again. Then forward, then back, then forward, then back. 'Are you playing hopscotch?'

Ellie kneeled down and pulled her face close to the ground, narrowing her eyes and dropping her jaw. She reached for the floor, shimmied her fingertips into some invisible gaps, and then flung the ground upwards. Lou looked at her.

'Secret door!' Ellie sang excitedly, grinning like a madman as she ducked down and peeked her head through the hole. She flicked her head back up and reached for her pocket, whipping her flashlight out and shifting back on her feet. 'You coming?'

'The fuck I am.' She retaliated.

'Okay, fine, then.' Ellie swung her legs in front of her and dangled them into the hole. 'Guess I'll just have to get murdered by myself with nobody to save me!'

Ellie dropped into the trapdoor halfway through her sentence, which made Lou roll her eyes a little bit. Until she called out after her, and Ellie didn't reply. She leaned forward over the gap and didn't see her friend beneath the entrance. It was kind of dumb, but she instantly began to panic.

And, of course, the only way Ellie could be stopped was if she got what she wanted, so Lou followed after her.

...

'OW...' Joel shifted a little bit, began to pull back. Ralph caught him by the wrist and tugged him forward again, massaging some kind of ointment or oil into his cut-up knuckles. 'Do you really need to do all that? I mean, can't you just... Use that tape shit that you used on Tess?'

'I thought I was meant to be the wuss.' Ralph mused with a smile, shuffling through the medkit that Joel had dug up. He found his stuff, finally, and Ralph was completely right to suspect that he forgot where he put it. 'And, no, I can't, 'cause KT tape would cut off your circulation. Best I can do is... Eventually, find something cold and give you a bandage for your troubles.'

'You're good at this stuff.' Joel stated randomly as Ralph gathered up a bunch of stray bandage rolls and began to read the labels on them.

'Better at naming birds. But, thanks.' He ripped open the packaging and reached for Joel's hand again, bringing it closer to him and causing Joel to lean over the counter a little bit. He began to unroll the bandage, and wrapped it around Joel's knuckles once, then twice. 'That feel alright?'

'Yeah, that's good.' Ralph kept going, and he was on his fourth lap of wrapping up Joel's hand when he was asked a question. 'So, what made you come to America?'

'College, like I said.' Ralph said softly, focused on the task at hand. Joel watched him with furrowed eyebrows, not believing a word of it. Ralph didn't even seem to care about the look he was getting as he dug around for something to secure his work.

'You said that there were issues. What kind of issues?' Joel was never a particularly nosey person, but he was when it came to Ralph. There was so much about this guy that he didn't know, and he wanted to figure it all out, all at once. He didn't want Ralph to keep any secrets from him, which didn't make sense, because Joel didn't want Ralph to know anything about him.

'...My dad is an ass. Simple as.' He sighed when he didn't find the thing he was looking for, but Joel was too invested in the conversation to care anymore. He had never been fussed about bandages and pampering in the first place, even if it ended up that he enjoyed being able to sit and talk to someone. Being able to sit and talk to Ralph. '...I kind of owe it to him, though.'

'Owe what to him?'

'Like, everything.' He snorted. 'I hate everything about him. And I'm right for it, he's an awful guy. But, if he hadn't been such a dickhead, I wouldn't have been able to shoot those freaks back at the museum and save our lives. Wouldn't be able to fix your hand, either.'

Joel nodded his head a little and tilted his head when Ralph pulled out the KT tape that he said he wouldn't use, and bit a short portion of it off.

'Dad was a vet.' He continued, and Joel looked back up at him. 'And so was his dad. And so was his dad, and so was his dad. In South Korea, there's a rule that every man has to enlist by the time they're twenty-eight or thirty. Dad, and grandad, and great-grandad, and whole generations of Zhenya's made the most of it and made their lives out of the army. They were, like, lieutenants and sergeants and all the big ranks. It was a family tradition.'

'So, your dad taught you all the army shit?' Joel predicted, watching as Ralph smoothed down the bright blue tape where he needed the bandage to be held together, solving his issue with ease.

'Precisely.' Ralph nodded. He didn't get to work packing up straight away. He was still tilted forward against the counter, close to Joel, leaning on his crossed arms. He didn't seem very sad about remembering it. He seemed almost proud. Proud that he had gotten away. Joel couldn't help but be swayed by the prideful gleam in his eyes.

'I didn't want that for myself, that wasn't who I was... I wanted to be a zoologist. Not a vet, because then I'd have to see all the sad and injured animals. I wanted to see every animal there was, even the freaky little spiders- From a distance, of course. And then, everything... You know how everything went.'

'A zoologist.' Joel repeated with a comfortable expression on his face. He nodded. 'That'd be nice. What's your favorite animal, then?'

'I like Sun Bears.' He smiled. He seemed happy to be asked such a question. 'They're a rare species in Asia. They've got these big, oval faces... And they look totally fuckin' dumb, dude.'

He burst out into laughter like he had just heard the funniest joke ever, except he hadn't and was just laughing at some poor bear species that was probably already having a hard enough time.

Ralph leaned forward on his elbows, covering his eyes as he giggled. Joel could still see the wrinkles by his eyes despite his hand being in the way. This was the fourth or fifth time he'd seen Ralph smile. This was the only time it affected Joel too. He let out a brief, quiet chuckle that he didn't even know he was holding back, and Ralph dropped his hand to look at him in shock.

'You can laugh?' Ralph... Well, laughed at him. His jaw was dropped in shock, but he still couldn't fight the smile that those stupid little bears had planted on his face.

'Shut up.' Joel rolled his eyes and leaned back, suddenly dead serious and ruining the moment.

'Not in a bad way! I just didn't think you were programmed to do that, Mister Terminator!'

'-Ellie? Lou?' He called out, completely detaching himself from the conversation now that he was the subject of the laughter. He walked to the far end of the store, looking at the door the girls had disappeared into. From the back of the room, he could still hear Ralph snickering to himself as he put all of his medical supplies back into the box he had taken them from.

The door opened again, and Joel reached for the pistol in his holster, but it was just the girls.

Ellie held a box of tampons up like they were her pride and joy.

'Picked over, my ass.'

...

NOTES!

RALPH BACKSTORY EVERYBODY TAKE COVERRRR!!! AHHH!!!

zoologist ralph is my fave thing ever and sunbears are so cute like if ralph was an animal he would be a sunbear i fuckin love sunbears

apocalypse dads content makes me CRY i actually love them so much they are my favorite ever to ever exist evevreveevrvevrveev

school starts back tomorrow so idk if i will update, but i'm off on tuesday so i'll def update then!!

THANK U SO MUCH FOR 5K READS AHHHHH
you guys RULEEEEEEE

okay toodles!! <3