( gif by ; -tzarrion )

━ CHAPTER NINE ...

' please hold on to my hand , part. 2 '

Joel thought he knew where he was going, but apparently not as the trio were driving around the back streets, completely lost to where the highway was.

"Where the fuck is the highway?" Joel groaned annoyed with his eyes constantly looking around.

"I can't tell from this. I'm all turned around." Ellie answered the driving male with a huff, trying to show the map to (Y/N) also, who bite her lip with frustration.

"Don't look at the state map. Look at the intest." Joel told them, voice getting a bit louder irritation.

(Y/N) threw her hands up a little bit, giving Joel a small scowling expression, "Well, we don't know where we're in that either. This is our second day in a fucking car, please."

Ellie sighs with a head shake, glancing back down at the map as she reads the compass, "I mean, I think we're heading north?"

Joel continued driving down the streets, turning and looking around with a baffled face as the highway he thought was here, was not.

(Y/N)'s gaze drifts past Joel's head, eyes going wide spotting the massive open gates and what appeared to be a safe zone, "Stop!"

Joel hearing her loud exclaim presses on the brake, making the tires screech, and turns to her expectingly, but saw her looking past him still.

"Is that the QZ?" She questions out loud, "Where the hell is FEDRA?"

He follows her direction of eye sight, spotting what she saw and furrowed his eyebrows seeing it.

However, a sudden male's voice yelling caught their attention back to the front, "Hey!"

The trio all see a so called injured male holding onto his side, as he limps his way toward them and pleads, "Please help!"

Joe, who's survival instincts kicked in at this, went to reach for his seatbelt, and told the sisters to place theirs on also.

(Y/N) made sure Ellie's seatbelt was on properly, before doing her own and held one of her sisters hands, as she turns to Joel in question, "Aren't we gonna help him?"

"No. He ain't even hurt." He gruffly told her straight faced, pressing his foot on the acceleration which caused the sisters to grip each other, and he almost runs over the male wanting so called help.

"Joel!" (Y/N) yells in warning, as she spots a guy up on the building with a gun ready to shoot at them. But instead, a heavy brick was thrown on their windscreen, creating a big crack and it made the truck go off balance.

The trio all thought they were somewhat safe, until something sharp lined up on the road ended up busting the vehicles tires, as they drove over it, and it caused Joel to curse as he tried to control the car.

More people appeared in front of them, starting to fire their guns at them as (Y/N) gasped, and used her body to shield Ellie when Joel drove the car straight into a shop, breaking the shops windows as they did so.

The car came to a harsh stop when it ran into the cupboards inside the shop, as the three people inside had their heads ducked because of it.

"Are you two okay?" Joel was automatically frantically asking the sisters questions once the car was stuck, eyes searching them for harm, "You're not hurt? Nothin'?"

(Y/N) groans a little bit, as she lifts her head up and nods her head shakily with a cough as she sees Ellie giving a thumbs up, "Yeah, we're okay."

More gunfire was shot at the, causing the glass to shatter and their heads to duck quickly down.

"Belts off. Fast!" Joel shouted to them through the gunfire, as they fumble to undone the belts and quickly hop out of the car with their bags on their backs.

(Y/N) pulled Ellie behind her as the gunshots kept coming, and squatted beside Joel, who carefully opened the back door of the truck, reaching for his gun as the people attacking them were yelling threats.

"Hey, you see that hole?" Joel speaks up to the oldest, spotting the place where the girls could sneak into and hide from the attackers, "Can you squeeze through?"

More gunfire was shoot at the, which made (Y/N) flinch and grip Ellie's arms tighter as she nods her head at Joel unsurely, "I think so."

"When I say go, you two crawl to the wall, and you squeeze through, and you don't come out until I say, okay?" Joel was hastily telling her an order, as he tips his head to look down at the anxious (Y/N), who stared up at him with big eyes.

Another round of gunshot was made, as it was just above their heads and it made the three duck their heads once more, as Ellie was looking at her sister with a nervous face seeing her frantically glancing around.

(Y/N) wasn't sure she'd be able to fit in the hole. She wanted to make sure Ellie was safe first, and at the same time was worried for Joel's safety. She knew he would stay out here and kill them, but she wanted to help him also, but understood he definitely wouldn't allow that.

Warm, but calloused fingers suddenly grip her chin tightly, and brought her attention back down to earth as she makes eye contact with Joel's dark ones, the one who was holding her chin.

"Look at me, they're not gonna hit you." Joel promises her firmly, voice strong over the noise and he lets go of her chin noticing her attention now on him, "They're not gonna hit you both."

A shot was fired closer to them this time, as it had hit something right in front of them and it caused (Y/N) to inhale sharply, sliding her hand into Ellie's who gripped just as hard back.

The two adults eyes didn't leave each others as that happened, and Joel continued to reassure her with his confident look, "You two stay down, stay low, and stay quiet."

(Y/N) nodded rapidly with a her lips in a straight line, clearing anxious about this entire situation, as she's never had to deal with something like this before, "Mm-hmm."

Once Joel was satisfied with her answer, he gave her one last comforting look knowing she was freaking out, and grabbed his gun as he shouts to them, "Go!"

(Y/N) and Ellie both hold each others hand, as they get down low and pull each other towards the hole in the wall, all while Joel starts to fire at the people, and protects them from the gunshots.

"Quick! Quick!" The (H/C) haired girl urges her younger sister up first, as they both chuck their bags, and the oldests weapons inside the hole, before Ellie gets inside of it safely.

(Y/N) takes a deep breath, turning her head over her shoulder and gave one last look at Joel, who nodded at her, and the girl grunted as she heaved herself inside of the tight hole.

She landed onto the otherside with a groan, as she fell onto her butt, and Ellie scrambles to pull (Y/N) up away from the gunshots, leading her away to press their backs up against the wall.

The oldest Williams breathes heavily as she holds Ellie into her arms, keeping her furthest away from the gunshots as they both hear Joel take out one of the attackers, causing the few left to shout curses at him.

(Y/N) peeks her head around the corner, gulping harshly as she hears footsteps approaching where Joel was, which set her stomach twisting with a bad feeling.

Ellie pulls her sisters body back, just as one of the attackers appeared outside of their hiding place, and had his gun up raised, with glass crunching heard.

(Y/N)'s heart drops to her ass when a loud gunshot is heard, and pushes Ellie's head into her side to shield her from the noise. A loud thud is followed behind, which set the (H/C) haired girl to think the worst.

She goes to peek outside the opening again, wanting to reassure herself of her anxiety for Joel's safety, but Ellie just grips her waist tighter, and shakes her head in fear.

(Y/N)'s face softens seeing her younger sister like this, remembering that she was still here, and goes to whisper something, but the sound of grunting and people fighting was heard from the other room.

The sound of struggling is heard now, and a body hitting something hard, as both sisters slowly and carefully try to take a look at what was happening.

"Now you're gonna fuckin' pay!" A guy was on top of Joel, strangling him with his own gun as Joel tries to fight back, but wasn't able to do anything, as the attacker continues to yell at him.

"Oh, no, no, no." (Y/N) mutters to herself repeatedly seeing this, eyes going wide with fear, but quickly reaches for the gun she had inside her bag, knowing that this would be easier for damage short range.

She turns back to Ellie, going to tell her to wait here where it was safe, but the younger girl automatically protested with a whisper yell, "No, I'm going with you!"

(Y/N) sighs agitated at her sisters stubbornness, knowing Ellie just didn't want to leave her side, but the older one didn't want her seeing this. However, she reluctantly agreed, "Alright, but stay behind me."

Ellie nods her head silently, watching her older sister sneak through the gap between the walls with the gun, and she quickly hopped through next, gripping onto (Y/N)'s shirt behind her back.

"Hey, asshole!"

The male who was trying to kill Joel, span his head around at the sudden exclaim, and saw the two girls standing behind him, but before he could do anything, a bullet was shot into his leg.

He fell off Joel with a painful yelp, as Joel rolls over onto his side, coughing, gasping and wheezing for air. He looks up from the ground, and spots (Y/N) holding the gun, the one who shot the male to save him.

Ellie gripped her sisters shirt tigher, hiding behind her more as they move a little bit towards the wounded attacker. (Y/N) still aimed the gun at him, a waning expression plastered on her face.

The male, who was heaving air from the shot to his leg, turning his head up and holds a hand in protest to the woman, "No, no, no! It's okay. It's okay. It's over. We're not fighting anymore." His eyes start to fill with tears, as his became desperate to survive, "I'm gonna go home. I'll tell everyone you're good." A cry leaves his lips, "I don't know what to do. My legs don't work."

(Y/N) doesn't takes the gun aimed at him down, however her hand does start to tremble with guilt seeing how helpless he looked. Though, she reminds herself that this guy was going to kill Joel if she didn't shoot.

"My mom isn't far, if you could get me to her." The injured male proposed, looks over to Joel as he sees him getting up, and groans, "We could trade with you guys. We could be friends. I didn't know." He points to himself, and introduces, "I'm Bryan. What's your names?"

The sisters didn't answer the sniffling Bryan, as Joel finally stood up from the floor, catching his breath and looks at the gun in (Y/N)'s hands.

He outstretched his hand towards hers, a silent gesture to pass over the gun. She gulps seeing the neutral expression on his face, and places the gun in his hand as he quickly snatches it from her.

Joel puts the gun behind his jacket in his belt, as he takes out his bigger gun and turns around to Bryan, who was exclaiming his protests again, "Wait, wait."

He was now crying with tears freeing from his eyes, as he places his knife on the ground beside him, "You can have it...It's a good knife."

Joel bends down a little bit, picking up the knife in his hand as he looks at the quiet siblings, "Get back behind the wall." He orders lowly, chest rising at a unsteady pace.

At these words, Bryan knew what was going to happen to him and cries his protests once more for mercy, "No, no, no, no! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! We can just talk!"

(Y/N)'s eyes closed momentarily at his cries, a heavy weight on her chest realising as soon as they go, this male would die to the hands of Joel. Her eyes fly open, them locking with Joel's dark, feral ones and she knew she had to get Ellie out of here right now.

The girl wraps both arms around her sisters quivering body, and turns them both around to walk back to the wall, ignoring the pleads coming from Bryan as he begged for forgiveness.

(Y/N) helps Ellie through the hole quickly, as she slides in next with a grunt and Ellie straight away latched onto her sisters body, hiding her face into her sister side.

The sound of Bryan's loud cries were heard, ringing around their ears till everything went silent when a dull thump was heard, and a gasp followed soon after.

(Y/N) understood what that sound meant, understood that Joe just killed someone in order for their safety. She exhales heavily, pressing her nose into Ellie's hair and comforts her shaking younger sister.

Footsteps approached where they were against the wall, and Joel's deep voice sounded, "Girls, I gotta get in there. I can't fit through."

(Y/N) looks around the room at all the objects in the room, spotting how the door was blocked also as she lets go of her sister now, "There's some stuff against the door."

"Well, can you move it?" Joel prompts from the other side of the wall.

Now the siblings went grab the table blocking the door, pulling it one way with their strength, while Joel pushed against the door at the same time.

Once Joel was through the door, they stopped pushing and pulling, as Joel quickly shuts the door and goes to help push the table back, "Let's go. Fast."

The trio shoved the door back against the door, so no one could get into where they were and Joel turned to look at the sisters panting, landing on (Y/N) last.

His eyes go wide a little bit, spotting a scratch on her forehead that had dry blood, and went to reach his hand out, but she stepped back a little with a wobbly smile.

"I'm okay, we're good." She assured swiftly, feeling a bit bad seeing his stunned look when she dodged, as he slowly pulled his hand down. She grabbed her bag, along with Ellie's, and showed it to him, "I, uh, we got some food in here still, and I got your light still." She hands him his torch, as he grabs it and watches her closely.

Ellie exhales loudly, and places her bag over her shoulders as she looks between the adult, "What now?"

"We go up." Joel answers her shortly, turning around to walk out of the room as the siblings were quick to follow behind.

"To get a better look?" Ellie questioned him as she holds (Y/N)'s foldable bow with her arrows, and hands it to her once she had her bag on.

"Hopefully, we spot a clear route out." Joel opens the opposite door in the room, turning his flashlight on and shined it into the darkness, before gazing at the girls, "Stay close."

(Y/N) nods her head firmly, placing her bow around her shoulders as she pushes Ellie in front of her, "Got it."

Joel goes into the wayout first, with the two behind trailing after until they made it outside of the building, and to the side of it. They all appear from around the corne, as Joel has his gun out just as a car passes by them, most likely to check the mess they left of dead bodies.

Once the coast was clear for them to move, Joel was the first to creep close to the wall with the sisters right behind them, and they all squatted down behind a broken car, just seeing more vehicles drive by with voices yelling out.

Joel motions towards the door across from them, as the two beside him nod their heads in understanding, and Joel gets up to quickly move towards the door, opening it up and checked inside for danger.

When he knew it was clear, he turns back to the other two, and nods his approval. (Y/N) takes Ellie's hand in her own, as they get up and move low towards where Joel was and run inside the new building, closing the door behind them.

..

Many enemy vehicles passed by the building the trio were currently hiding in. Joel was peeking through the newspaper on the windows, as he watches all this happen outside where the enemy was getting closer.

"They're not FEDRA, and they're not Fireflies, so who are they?" Ellie's voice questioned quietly from behind him.

"People." Joel responded to her, continuing on his observing from the little peephole.

"Are we okay in here?" (Y/N) now asked the older male, as she tried to look through the gaps in the newspaper beside Ellie.

Joel was unsure about that, but wanted to reassure the girls, so he nodded his head a little, "For a little bit, maybe. Looks like they're checkin' out apartment buildings first." He purses his lips, clenching his jaw tightly, "But they'll be comin' through these places soon enough."

He stands up from his bent position, placing the newspaper back in its original place and turns away from the windows to walk towards the seats inside the hidden room.

(Y/N) hums to herself in thought, as she squints her eyes a little bit staring out through the window, and spots something that might help them, "There's a really tall building, like, four blocks away."

"Yeah. Saw it." Joel informs her quickly, and she spins around to face him at the answer, "As soon as we don't hear a truck, we move. Fast as we can." He goes to take a seat on the chair at the table opposite to the sisters, who end up leaning their backs against the wall and sat on the floor.

More trucks pass by them as their heads turn to the noise, listening closely as the vehicles drive by them.

(Y/N) pulls her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them as she feel Ellie's head on her shoulder, and turns her gaze to Joel, finally asking something she's wanted to since the last situation, "Are you okay?"

Joel's head snapped up at her soft voice, eyes scanning over her figure as they landed on the scratch on her forehead, before glancing at the floor, "I'm all right." He pauses for a few seconds, then questioned lowly, "Are you all right?"

She nods her head at his words, giving him a small smile for extra assurance, "Yeah, m'okay." She looks down at the quiet Ellie, seeing her peacefully playing with the bow, and adds, "We both are."

He doesn't say anything after this, swallowing hard as he remembered what she did to save him, and sighs heavily with his shoulders slumped, "Thing is, is I didn't hear that guy comin' and..." He moved his gaze back on her, "you shouldn't have had to... you know?"

(Y/N) shrugs her shoulders lightly, fiddling with her bracelets as she didn't meet his dark eyes, "Well, you're glad I did, right?"

"Still, you shouldn't know what it means to-" He trails off with disagreement, voice rough and shakes his head adamantly, "It's not like you killed him. But... shootin' or-" He pauses once again, and releases a exasperated breath, while looking at (Y/N)'s calm face, "I know what it's like...first time that you, uh, hurt someone like that." He struggles to find the right words, "If you, uh.. w- uh-" He scrunches his knuckles tight with an annoyed sighed at himself, "I'm not good at this."

She cracks an amused grin at him, grateful he was at least trying to help her, as she looks at him with warm eyes, "Yeah, you're really not. But uh, thanks anyway."

"I mean, it was my fault." Joel interrupts her loudly, not letting her for one second think it was hers for shooting that man, "You shouldn't have had to." His gaze somewhat softens on her form spotting the tremble with her chin, "And I'm sorry."

(Y/N) bit down on her wobbling bottom lip, blinking back tears as she exhales shakily, and takes in his attempt at comforting her.

Ellie sees her older sister upset, making her frown sadly and wrap her arms around her middle back, squeezing tightly. The older Williams smiles gently at her sister, pressing a thankful kiss on top of her head, as Joel watches the interaction.

The (H/C) haired girl looks back at Joel, who was already watching her with his dark eyes and she turns her attention to her boots, speaking hoarsely, "It wasn't my first time, actually."

He looks a bit surprised at this, but hides his reaction well with a neutral expression. At the same time, he expected that to be true, as she did have a bow with arrows and Ellie to protect.

Joel reaches into his behind his back, pulling out the gun he took off her and unclicked the used bullet as it came popping out. He gets off from the chair, kneeling down on one knee to the sisters, as he holds the gun out to (Y/N) first, "Show me your grip."

She takes the unloaded gun from his hands, placing her fingers were she was taught to, which was on the handle of it, and grazing the trigger.

Joel didn't like the way she did that, and went to correct her verbally, "Finger off the trigger." He watched how she did that, and went to raise an eyebrow at her, "Now, who taught you that?"

"FEDRA school." (Y/N) told him with a sour face, while Ellie snickered to herself at her sister's reaction, and watches how to use the gun closely, knowing her sister would teach her later.

"Figures." He mumbled knowingly, and reaches out to place his big hand over hers on the gun, catching her by surprise, "Your thumb-" He gently pinches her thumb holding the gun, while grabbing her other hand to place her thumb over the other one, "over your thumb." He squeezes her hands together on the gun handle, "Left hand squeezes down on the right. You got it?"

(Y/N) gulps nervously at his touch, as butterflies started to form in her stomach while she nods her head at him, avoiding his dark eyes on her.

Joel observes her hold on the gun, thumb brushing over her knuckles in approval without him realising it, "There ya go." He removes his hands over hers, as he went to grab the gun, and tugged hard, but it wouldn't break free, showing her that the gun couldn't be pulled from the grip.

She laughs a little to herself, hiding the massive smirk threatening to appear on her lips as she holds the gun in between her hands.

"Okay?" Joel speaks up again, dipping his head to meet her (E/C) eyes with a strict gaze, and she nods with a lopsided smile.

Once he knew she understood, he motioned for the gun back and she passed it to him. He took it, picking up the rest of the bullets and loaded the gun back up. He holds out the now loaded gun, and she takes it with a strong grip, going to place it into her belt.

However, Joel's hand caught her upper arm and stopped her with a tsk noise, "Uh-uh. You put it in your pack, you already have your bow." He tells her sternly, gesturing to her bag on her shoulders, as he goes to stand back up, and casually says, "You'll shoot your damn ass off."

(Y/N)'s face flushes in embarrassment at his words, as he goes to walk to the barricaded door, and Ellie cackles at her sisters reaction. The (H/C) haired girl sends Ellie a narrowed eyed look, and places the gun in her jackets pocket, feeling like it would come in handy soon, even though she ignored Joel's instructions.

Ellie stands up with a huff, spinning around to pull up her older sister also as they watched Joel break off the wood nailed onto the door.

When there was one more plank of wood on the door, Joel leaned his hand on it as he turns his head to the waiting sisters, lingering on (Y/N), "We'll get through this."

Ellie nods her head gently at him, reaching out to grab (Y/N)'s hand, who smiled knowingly at Joel and whispers softly, "We know, I know."

Joel felt his heart flutter a little bit at her tone, but pushed the feeling away quickly and went to open the now free door, and they all moved out.

...

Nighttime had approached the city the trio were in, as they had eventually made it to the tal building they wanted to get into. Currently, they were at the back of it as Joel had his hands placed on (Y/N)'s waist, trying to push her up into the opening where the room was inside.

"I've got you, ready? One, two-" Joel lifts the girl up by the waist, as she fights back her butterflies and grips onto the opening with her fingers, pushing the things out of the way as it clank's onto the other side.

She heaves herself up as Joel helps her the best he can, kicking her boots into the wall and she slides into the opening, jumping into the room with her flashlight lighting her way, "Okay, I'm in."

On the other side, Ellie was next to Joel as they both hear the woman talk to them, "Take a look around first." Joel prompts (Y/N), but he could hear she didn't listen to his words, making him curse for her safety, "Goddamnit."

A few seconds later, the door was swung open with (Y/N)'s head popping out with a proud grin, hair a bit messy and all over the place.

"Where would you be without my sister, huh?" Ellie teases the older male, as she walks through the door to (Y/N).

Joel gives Ellie a incredulously, bored look as he walks into the building, "By now, Wyoming."

"Oh, yeah." Ellie mutters to herself, laughing a little at her silliness, "Walked into that one."

The trio all start to walk through the buildings ground floor, Joel first as the girls stick close and shine their flashlights everywhere to see.

"All right, We'll make our way up, and come morning," Joel now speaks up, as they had gotten closer to the entrance leading to the stairs, "I'll take a look at the city, and find our way out."

Once they got to the door, he opened it up and had his gun in hand as he checked for any danger, while the siblings followed in after him and spotted the many, many stairs that had to climb.

"We're goin' up 42 flights?" (Y/N) stressed with a grimacing face, knowing damn well she wasn't built for this time of climbing.

"Forty-five." Joel corrected the girl as they continued to walk more inside, and he lifted his head up, directing his flashlight to shine on the stairs, "But no...not all the way."

"How far?" She questioned curiously, following his flashlight to look around the creepy long stairwell.

"As far as I can make it." He replied straight faced, and blunty which caused the sisters to break into small laughter and follow after him as he went to walk up the stairs.

As they were walking up the many steps of stairs, the only sound heard was their heavy breathing, but Ellie goes to break the silence with a question, "Hey, you know that guy who said he was hurt? How did you know it was an ambush?"

The group came to a stop as Joel stopped walking, leaning on the railing and he turned back around to the siblings, swallowing before answering honestly, "I've been on both sides. It was a long time ago. We did what we needed to survive."

"You and Tess?" Ellie asked him.

"And the people we were with." Joel confirms her statement, and then adds, "My brother, too."

(Y/N) stares at the panting male, chewing on her bottom lip nervously as she goes to question unsurely in a small voice, "Did you kill innocent people?"

He fully turns at her sudden question, not saying anything nor reponsding as he just looks into her eyes, just being able to see the flicker of anxiousness on her face. He frowned a little spotting it, chest feeling heavy as he looks down and mutters, "C'mon."

She releases a breath through her nose, gripping Ellie's hand and follows after the quiet male up the stairs.

...

Sometime later in the night, the group had made it to the floor they could as Joel was getting tired to go on anymore. He opens the door to the floor they stopped on, all three of them panting as they walked inside.

"Holy shit." Ellie breathes out as she walks up a bit into the hallway, looking back at her sister who was catching her breath with her hands on her knees, "Thirty-three floors. That's good."

Joel slid down beside (Y/N) and landed onto the ground, with his back against the wall and caught his breath also, "It's gonna have to be."

(Y/N) leans up from her slouched position, brushing back her sweaty hair and tucked her braids behind her ears. She walks over to Joel and squats in front of him with a teasing grin, and places a hand on his knee, "You alright there, Miller?"

Joel grunts at her words, rolling his eyes at her teasing and grumbled back as he pats her hand on his knee, "Give me a minute."

Ellie, who was smirking knowling at the interaction marched over towards them and held out a hand for Joel to take, "Get up, you lazy ass."

His dark eyes moved from (Y/N)'s face, to Ellie as he gives her an incredulously, unbelieving look and grabs the hand outstretched, while the older Williams helps him up also.

"Lazy ass," Joel grunts once more as he leads the way down the hallway, and directs his next comment at Ellie, "Forty-eight years old, you little shit."

The sisters released a small laugh at his words, as (Y/N) bumps her sister shoulder with hers, and share a smile with each other. Though, as the oldest looks ahead of her, her smiles fades realising something about her and Joel's age.

...

Joel used a fire extinguisher to break the glass window to the room they were going to sleep in. He made sure it was all broken, and clear before he reached for the door handle, and opened the door.

The sisters followed in after him, as Joel was collecting the glass shards and the two of them found pillows to lay on the floor for sleeping.

Joel was now spreading the glass shards on the floor, making clinking noises as he did so. (Y/N) and Ellie both sat down on their makeshift beds, as the oldest was in between them and Ellie furthest from the door.

(Y/N) watches the older male with interest, as she takes off her jacket for a blanket and leaves her flannel on, "Joel?" She tries to call, but received no answer as he just continued what he was doing, "Joel?" She calls louder this time, finally gaining his attention.

He spins around to her, freezing mid act as he held the garbage can of glass, "What?"

She raised an eyebrow at him, "Whatcha doing?"

"I don't want someone sneakin' up on us while we're sleepin'." He motions to the glass he spread all over the carpet.

(Y/N) hums loudly with acknowledgement, licking her lower lip with a head nod, "Ah, yes I get it." She gazes at him a little bit concerned, "Are you sure you're gonna hear it?"

Joel gives her a disbelieving look, as he walks over to his makeshift bed, "Of course, I'll hear it. That's the damn point."

She throws her hands up a little at his offended tone, trying to show she meant to harm and layed down on her bed, "Sorry, sorry, goodnight then."

He gets down on one knee, as he removed his jacket and placed it as a pillow for his head, mumbling back lowly, "Yeah, goodnight."

She saw him face the other way from her, as she glances at Ellie and saw her awake with a mischievous smirk, causing (Y/N) to chuckle quietly knowing Ellie was up to something.

But what surprised the oldest was that Joel was the first to actually talk this time, "Hey."

"Yeah..?" (Y/N) answers back hesitantly as she stares at his back.

"When we were talkin' about hurtin' people..." He trails off in thought, not even sure if he should be asking this or not, "what did you mean it wasn't your first time?"

She tenses up at this, with her lips forming into a straight line and moves to laying on her back as she looks at the ceiling, "I don't wanna talk about it."

Ellie reaches out to squeeze her sisters hand, feeling her heart hurt for her older sister as she was the main reason why (Y/N) had hurt people before.

Joel turns his head a little bit to look at her, but doesn't push her to say anything more and sighs softly, "All right." After a couple of seconds, he moves onto his other side and faces the siblings, "You don't have to. I'm just sayin'... it isn't fair havin' to deal with all of this-"

Ellie perks her head up at this, taking over the conversation for her quiet sibling, "So it gets easier when you get older?"

He shakes his head at her, "No, not really. But still." He glances at (Y/N), seeing her making no move to talk so he went to roll the other way, but stopped hearing her voice again.

"The reason I asked whether you'd hear the glass or not is 'cause I've noticed you don't hear too well from your right side." She told him truthfully, now rolling onto her side to face him, "Is it 'cause you were shot there?"

"Probably more from shootin'." He answered her shortly, before rolling back onto his other side to face away from her, "So if you two wanna keep your hearin', you stick with the bow and that knife." He goes to close his eyes, ready to drift off to sleep but Ellie's joke question knocks him wide awake.

"Did you know diarrhea is hereditary?"

"What?"

"Yeah. It runs in your jeans."

Joel turns his head to look at her astounded, giving her a look as (Y/N) cracks a small snicker at his look and Ellie's lame joke.

He shakes his head at them, turning back around but a genuine smile was plastered over his lips, "Jesus." He mutters softly, before a little laugh escaped him which set off the sisters giggles.

"That is so goddamn stupid." Joel comments with his eyes closed, but still had a smile on his face.

"You laughed, motherfuck." Ellie states the truth through her laugher, sharing a low high five with her snickering sister.

"I didn't laugh." He denies her statement, trying not to let another noise escape his mouth, "Jesus, I'm losin' it."

"You're losin' it big time." The siblings both agreed in sync, giggles leaving their throats with matching grins.

And at that, a just audible happy laugh escapes Joel which makes (Y/N) and Ellie join him in it, all three of them having a quiet laughing fit over the lame joke.

The (H/C) haired girl was not afraid to admit to herself, that Joel's giggles and laugher made her heart flutter happily.

She definitely wanted to hear it more.

...

Later into the night, Joel was still sleeping soundlessly as he ended up facing his front back to where (Y/N) was sleeping.

"Joel?"

"Joel!"

His eyes fly open at (Y/N)'s loud exclaim of his name, and he was met with her having a gun pointed at her head by a male similar to her age, and her body protecting Ellie's away from it.

His became automatically alarmed and raged at this, and he went to grab his gun but was met with the same fate as the girls.

A little boy with orange face paint had a gun pointed at him, and he places a single finger up to his mouth.

( gif by ;
sporadicstarsx )

AUTHORS NOTE;; so not ready to write the next episode :(((