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Stranger Things

Steve Harrington:

Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy [♡🧃]

Whisking Fears [♡🍊]

Robin Buckley:

Soft [☆🍊]

Star Wars

Kylo Ren/Ben Solo:

Follow Trough [♠︎❁]

Obi-Wan Kenobi:

Ascending Star [♡❁]

The Mandalorian

Din Djarin:

Protector [♡♠︎🧃]

HBO's The Last Of Us

Joel Miller:

Like Lilies [♡❁]

I'm Right Here (with Platonic!Ellie Williams) [♡♠︎♧❁]

Soft Spot [♡❁]

You have been travelling with Mando and the Kid for some weeks now, everytime you got close enough to Nevarro, one bounty hunter would appear to take either or all three of you so you always had to make a turn to get them lost.

It should've be quickly but since you were on the targets, it made a lot more difficult to do that. You felt a little guilty cause you knew you endangering the Kid and you sure as hell didn't want another innocent to die on your costs, you cogitated to just tell them to kick out on the next planet but you knew you were more safe with them than alone, you had a chance.

"Mando you gotta stop taking bounties under your wing, this is not sitting well for you" one of the bounties said trough the comlink, making you frown at it and look at Kid that was beside you, playing with a ball you were sure you heard Mando tell him no to get.

"I take risks sometimes" Mando answered softly, exploding the other ship and going into hyperspace.

You sighed, glad that it was over. You undid your belt, knowing that everything was alright now, you got over to the Kid, undowing his as well as he extended his arms for you to get him.

You smiled as you put him on your lap, hearing him cooing as he played with the tiny ball on his hands like nothing else mattered in the galaxy. You reclined back, your head hitting the cussion of the seat as you lookd up at the stars passing by a flash before your eyes.

"Ok, what is it?" Mando asked, putting the Crest on auto-pilot, his chair turning around to look at you.

You frowned at him, looking onto the T line of his visor "What do you mean?"

"You're too quiet, by now you would've been talking to the Kid or saying something about the hunters" he shrugged softly.

It's not like you were the bestest of friends right now but when Din noticed that there was no trick from your part and that you really just wanted to get to Nevarro, he relaxed a bit around you. He wasn't much a talker and you barely knew what he was thinking or feeling, even if you could use use the Force for that, you had utter respect for his Creed and for him so you wouldn't trspass a limit that was out of question, you had morals and none of them would be broken so you could figure out the man in front of you.

Din growed used to your presence, it wasn't that he liked to have you around but deeply, he was a little relieved that another being that could talk was around him other than the kid, not that he could talk but Din was absolutly the worst in understanding his babbling sometimes. And just like with the kid, he came to get used to hear you speaking about whatever it came to your mind, he suspected that you talked more so that there won't be an eternal silence loop in your whole travel with him and he was a bit reliefed for that, but it weirded him out that you weren't speaking absolutly nothing now.

"It's just..." you stopped, frowning down at the kid on your lap that looked confused up to you now "I feel that me being here puts him onto risk. I know that things are alright between you and the Guild now and that you had to be running around with him cause he was being tracked, i just don't want to feel like a burden and a bag of problems for the both of you."

Mando kept silent. Most of times he had no idea of what or how to say it so he usually stays quiet but he knew that this was bothering you "Listen..." he paused, choosing his words well "I knew that this could happen, i accepted it cause i was thinking about him" he pointed to the kid, still invested on the little ball on his hands "Cause i'm responsible for him now, at least for a while, so i want to make sure that he's safe and that he's always well provided. I told you that i would take you to Nevarro and i intend to fullfill it and you're not a burden, you help a lot, with the ship, with the kid and with the bounties when they cross our way, so don't worry about it, me and the kid doesn't think that way. Right kid?"

The kid only looked up puzzled at him, making a small sound that sounded a lot like a puzzled one before he got his attention back on the ball on his hand and Mando turned around on his chair again, facing the stars above.

You let out a soft sigh, getting yourself comfortable on the chair and hugging the kid more closer to you.

"Thank you, Mando. For doing this." you said at least, before your eyelids git heavy and you fell into a slumber that you didn't knew you were in need until the bounties were gone.

You didn't saw it, but Mando turned his chair around to look at you, seeing thart you were out in less than seconds, it would be a secret that he would keep on his heart.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀.: 🌛 🌟 🌜꒱੭

You don't know how long you've been out since you fell asleep, you just woke up with the Crest shaking a little.

"What happened?" you groggly asked Mando, trying to rub the sleep off your eyes. A few buttons inside the cockpit of the Crest bipping and a few red lights on.

"We are out of fuel, need to land cause we don't have enough to keep going for now" Mando answered softly.

You didn't exactly know where you where, you haven't been on this planet before but you could see, at least from up now, that it was surrounded with a deep blue sea as Mando started to low the ship down so it could land on the hangar he was authorized to.

When the ship landed safely, Mando stormed out and down off the cockpit to talk to whoever was responsible for the hangar you landed at. You picked up the kid, holding him and went to look from the window, seeing that Mando was discussing something with a bearded man that pointed to some spot on the front of the Crest.

He didn't took long to come back, noticing that you were by the window and looking on the surroundings outside the ship.

"We gonna have to stay for a while. They said they gonna fill the fuel and make a repair in a damaged part that i didn't took notice off" you turned around, only nodding at him "You okay with that?"

"Sure, no problem, i'm not in a hurry." you smiled softly at him "Did they say how long they would take?"

"One hour, at least " he paused, making you nod at the information "You...want to have a walk around? Eat something?" he asked, a little bit unsure, his gloved hands flexing by his side.

"Why not? I'm not that hungry but i know that this little gremlin right here is" you said, bouncing the kid on your arms, that only cooed up at you.

Mando only nodded, taking lead and leaping down the cockpit again, you followed right behind him.

As you got down, you grabbed the kids satchel, pulling it one of your shoulder and carefuly pitting him inside it. Mando was waiting for you as you grabbed your blaster and holsted it around your hip and when you were ready, you walked out by the ramp, that Mando closed after pressing a few buttons when you got outside.

You saw him walking towards the man that would take care of the Crest while you were gone, handing him a package with money as he walked up front of you, you following close behind him and smiling a little at the man as you passed him and the three of you went straight to the market that was a few steps ahead.

As you walked around the market, with vendors selling foods, goods, jewerly, items of value, any type of speceries and some clothing, you heard soft cooing by your hip and looked down, smiling a little at the kid taking up all his surroundings that would catch his attention.

People were walking here and there, some were running, others didn't need to take a hurry, you just kept an eye on the Mandalorian back in front of you so you and the Kid wouldn't be lost from him, which wasn't so hard to do cause you could see his beskar shinning from afar.

It was comic seeing people open their way to Mando for him to pass, you knew that it was a rare to see a Mandalorian walking around, him and his Creed sometimes were only known as a legend so to see a real living one was a surprise anywhere he went. You knew that feeling well.

The first time you ever saw Mando when you found out that he was after you, your eyes almost doubled in size for seeing him in his Beskar clad armor from head to toe, you knew that the bare sight of him alone was capable to make any citizen tremble on their knees and feel afraid, this guys weren't reconigzed for nothing.

He didn't mind snowy icey planets, his beskar made sure to keep the cold out, he only thought about how this kinda of place seemed to be the prefered ones for the bounties he went after to. The thing is: this bounty in specifically never stopped on a place for more than a week, he got lucky if sometimes they decided to stay for two weeks, but it never lasted.

He has been after you for quite some months now, Din thought that maybe that was the longer he took to find a bounty. It was hard to keep tracks on you, he got near close to capture you once on Coruscant but you got him lost on the multitude on people on there, he only got closer enough to see you flying off on a ship, attentively looking back at him. So now, with you close to reach and him lucky enough to find out about where you were hiding before you took off by the end of the week was everything he asked for.

You knew he was after you, which bounty hunter wasn't? But the fact is: he in specifically was the one that could actually keep his track on you. You made all the others get lost, being tricked whenever they got too close so you could use the force to persuade them to believe that you weren't the person they were looking for.

But this one, this Mandalorian guy, really made up for the legends he had on his shoulders. At first, you were deeply afraid of him, he for himself looked butch enough and with the beskar clad armor he wore, he looked even more intimidating. If he ever so captured you, you were done for.

You don't know how long you were in the run now, you just knew that it had been so long that you blocked your siblings from the force connection you had so just you wouldn't endangering them on this too. You knew Luke and Leia could take care of themselves, they had much more force training than you, but they had their own lifes and you didn't want them in trouble cause of your problems.

It was easy to persuade the others bounty hunters, even if they were in that line of work, not all of them were good on their stealthy, you lost count how many times you got them lost cause they made fools of themselves but with the Mandalorian? You only got lucky the first and only time you were able to drible him and run away before he captured you. Right now, you wouldn't have time to hide or run cause you didn't thought yet about the next planet you would go to because the Mandalorian found you first, so you had two options and neither of them were good enough to do before he shot you with a blaster and it's bye-bye you.

You took a deep breath, you were patiently waiting for him to get to the room you were staying at and you weren't less surprised when you heard the door open and close, the sound of heavy boots making themselves known as he got inside "Don't move" he commanded, his voice a little raspy from the modulator from his helmet.

"So...you finally found me" you commented, voice low.

"Yeah, you were kinda hard to keep track on but not enough" he said "Stand up"

You took a deep breath, it was now or never "Okay, listen, i have a proposal for you" you said as you stood up, hands above your head "I'm pretty sure you don't know who is after me."

"No clue, my job it's just to catch you and bring you" he said, taking slow steps towards you as he stood tall before you, blaster directly aimed to your stomach "and i can bring you in warm or i can bring in cold, you decide it. I'm going to get my payment either way."

"Please, just listen to me" you begged, looking up at him. Your orbs found the T line on his helmet, that was a little tilted down at you since you were a little smaller than him and you almost felt like crying if that would made him listen to you, you didn't care if you were going to be shot, you have to at least try "The man that is looking for me, he's an former Empire Lord. Even if the Empire it's over, there's plenty of man like the one's after me around the galaxy."

"So what?" he said in return.

"So what is that he's after me cause i was part of the Rebellion, got sent on a mission where my purpose was to find and take down the ship he was and the crew members with him by the end of the war. He still was alive after i took everything down and that set a rage on him and he's been looking for me ever since." you let out a deep breath "I never did anything moraly wrong that could cause my name to be around a bounty hunter track orb or to have a farrik Mandalorian after me. He's just after me cause he wants revenge and the Republic doesn't know how to find him cause he is always hidden the dark where their eyes are unable to see and if i wasn't being honest about it i wouldn't come up with such history, it has too much backstory for it to be a teltalle so i can ditch you, so i am asking you to please believe my word."

For a moment, you thought that he wasn't conviced and that he would end up shooting you without needing to think twice He was silent for a few good moments, just shallow breaths being heard from his modulator.

"I don't trust you" he said finally "You could very well just made that up so you could try, so i need something to know that what you are saying it's true."

You almost sighed with relief at it and nodded "Downstairs, the lady on the reception, she was an former Rebellion ally, we fought together many times, she can confirm you my story. I'll be right here when you get back, you have my word."

You heard a deep sigh coming from him "Okay" he said, holsting his blaster back on his hip "If you story is a blanty lie and i discover that that woman downstairs has nothing to do with what you saying, you can expect that when i come back, you are done for."

You nodded your head, feeling your thighs tremble a little "Okay."

"Stay right here, if you move" he held up his tracker "I'll know"

And he went out the door.

You let out a deep breath, your hands were sweating and trembling as you took a seat on the bed beneath you. To say you were scared of him was mere fact, that guy was even broader up close than what you've seen last time from afar. He stood tall before you all the time while having a calm demeanor with a blaster pointed at you ready to shoot if you ever tried anything.

But you wouldn't, cause you actually needed him. Not that you weren't capable of taking care of yourself, cause in reality you could take anyone down in a matter of seconds if you needed, but you needed a safe scape out and you assumed he had a ship and you needed to get to Nevarro without other bounty hunter stumbling into you.

It seemed like hours, it looked like it has been an eternity before the Mandalorian apeared on the door of your room again, closing it after he got inside.

"So?" you asked

"She confirmed your version, but why an Empire scum is after you? Really, i mean" he asked you, putting some weight on his left leg and one of his hands on his hip

"I killed his son" you stated "I didn't knew he was on board of the ship" It got silent suddenly.

It looked like the weight made your shoulders sunk.

It was the first time you ever revealed that, it was an acident, the kid wasn't supposed to be on board when you bombarded the Imperial ship, that kind of information wasn't given cause no one knew he was on board when you and your team were supposed to explode it.

"We didn't know, that kind of info never came to us and when it came...well, it was already done and his father has been after me ever since" you sighed

Mando didn't said anything for a while, only sighed and looked at the satchel at his hip where the Kid was still sleeping peacefully "So, what was your proposal?"

"Take me to Nevarro, i can pay you in double the reward for me and i am guessing you have a ship" you stated to him, squaring your shoulders "I need someone as you to take me there cause i'm always on a track. I just need to get to Nevarro to pay the reward that it's on my head, i guess that that may erase me from the Guild's records"

Din thought for a while. Even on his line of work, it wasn't acceptable to kill kids and he thought that you were paying for something that wasn't your fault and you clearly just wanted a stop to the constant feeling of running away. That didn't mean he trusted you tho.

Plus, he needed the money, he had an extra mouth now so he needed to buy food since the green child under his care never stopped eating amd he wanted him to at least live well under his care.

"I'll take you there, one of the head leaders of the Guild is a friend of mine, i guess he can do that for you if i ask him, it's a more than fair trade i guess" he shrugged, putting his blaster back on the holter "But i don't trust you."

"You don't have to" you looked him at his helmet, where you guessed his eyes would be "Just take me to Nevarro, i'll pay you and we both go on our separate ways"

"Deal" he tilted his head towards the door signaling for you guys to head out the door.

You grabbed the backpack you always carried with you that had just the few belongings and headed out the room, the lights went off and the door closed behind you and your new companions for a while.

For your lucky, you always remembered to pay your stady on the places you would be in the moment you arrived at them, so you didn't had problems when leaving the in you where. When you put feet outside of it, the cold air hitted you with force and you squeezed the scarf closer to your neck and nose and followed the Mandalorian that was a few steps ahead of you.

When you took steps enough to at least walk by his side in silence, you noticed a pair of green ears peaking out of the satchel he had around his hip, you frowned when it turned it's head and stared at you with it's big orbs. You let out a little smile make itself on your lips when you noticed that it was a baby, he cooed to you and you waved a little before looking front of you to make sure you wouldn't step on some ice that would make you slide face down on the ground. You haven't noticed the baby till now.

You knew that Mandalorians had a costume to take orphans in their care till they delivered them to their family's or they stayed with them of they couldn't find, you were surprised to know that this Mandalorian beside you had that kind of mission on him. It didn't take long to get to the hangar where the Mandalorian had put his ship into.

You let out a quiet whistle at seeing his ship "Wow, Razor Crest. It's been a while since i saw one"

"Ever piloted one?" he asked, this seemed to peak his interest

"No, we had one at the Rebel base, it was only used once" you whispered

"C'mon" he clicked a few buttons on the pad of his arm, making the ramp of the Crest to get down.

A little atonished by it, he took a look around the room, noticing that he wasn't on his trashy apartment on the Boston QZ with it's crampling walls and barely there furniture, instead, he was back on his old room on his old house in Texas and if he was founding it strange before, he was plenty sure that he had gone nuts now. Everything was the same with the only difference is that his clothes weren't around the room in a mess pile and on the other side of where he was lying, was an empty space that was neatly untouched. He got up and dressed some of his clothes that were gathered around the floor and got out of the room.

He heard some laugh coming from downstairs and he distinguished three different voices, the frown still deep on his forehead as he slowly got downstairs and stopped dead on his track at the scene he found when he looked to the kitchen.

You were making coffe for the both you on his coffee machine, the smell of it almost all around the house. Ellie was on the table, reading one of her comic books while probably waiting breakfeast be ready. And when he looked to the stove, Sarah was there, making her infamous scranble eggs.

Joel felt like crying, his eyes started to burn with unshed tears as he looked to Sarah's back, how her hair would move back and forth while mixing the eggs and ge even rubbed his eyes to make sure he was seeing right, that this wasn't just a trick his mind was putting on him.

"You could help your sister to make breakfeast you know?" you mumbled as pouring the coffe on two mugs.

"Why? i would probably burn whatever i try to touch, at least Sarah can make scranble eggs" Ellie shrug it off and you just shook your head at her.

"I think it's better like that, Ell's the worst at the kitchen and probably would put the house on fire trying to fry bacon" Sarah chuckled and Ellie sent her an mouthed "fuck off" that only made Sarah laugh louder and get back to the eggs.

"I saw that" you mumbled at her and a smirk was present on her face.

Joel quickly cleaned his face for any remanents of tears that could have fallen down without him noticing and got inside the kitchen, making the three of you turn towards him, soft smiles on the faces of three persons he loved most in the world. All together.

"Look who woke up!" you smiled at him.

"I was thinking that you had died in your sleep from heart attack or some other disease old people have" Ellie smirked up at him.

"Ellie!" you hissed at her "Jesus..."

"Morning dad!" Sarah beamed happily, turning the stove off and running to her father's arm, delivering a quick peck on his cheek.

"Good morning ladies, you slept well?" he let out after Sarah got back to the eggs

"We did, honey. Breakfeast ready so have a sit" you beamed at him.

"Mornin' grumpy" Ellie said to him as she got up, giving him a hug as she passed trough him to go to the kitchen.

"Mornin' kid" he hugged her back and walked to where you where at.

"Here" You said, handing him his mug of coffee while he got closer to the balcon on the kitchen.

"Thank you, darlin'" he said, giving a little kiss in your cheek.

"Erm...no pancakes?" Ellie asked as she looked on the cabinet that the pancake mix usually was.

"Ask your dad, he was supposed to buy it" you answered her, taking a sip of your coffee.

"Really dad?" Sarah frowned.

"I'm sorry, i promise i will buy a cake" he smiled at three of you.

It was in that moment that Joel noticed that this day was familiar to him, because that day happened before. That day was the day everything happened, the beggining of the pandemic, the day he had lost Sarah. He ate breakfeast with a frown on his face.

That day started similar to the one he's having now, but at the same time it was different. You and Ellie where on scene now, you reprimanding her and Sarah and Ellie laughing together at some pun she delivered were new things. Even Tommy was there, with the old man jokes. Everything was the same at the same time it wasn't.

The same dialogues where being told and heard with the additions of your and Ellie's comments, the table at the dinning room was full and there was laugh, bickering and...and looked out of picture even though this was right, Joel felt a happy buzz forming on the pity of his stomach.

"Honey?" he heard you mumble "Honey?"

"What?" he got out of his daze, he looked the hand that was on his now with a golden ring above one that had tiny diamonds in it, you got engaged and had an engagement ring? When he had given to you?

"You okay hon'? You seem out today, did you really slept well?" you asked concerned.

"I...i'm okay darling, just zoned out a bit. Nothing to worry for" he smiled at you.

"You sure?" you asked again, just to make sure.

"I am" he grabbed your hand and brought to his lips, delivering a kiss on your knuckles "Have i ever lied to you?"

"You did yes" you let out a chuckle, joking about it "But if you saying so"

"I am" he kissed your knuckles again "I know that lying to my wife means instant death"

"Okay, gross!" Ellie said outloud, she had a funny expression looking at you both.

"Yeah, we just want to have breakfeast without you two smooching each others faces" Sarah laughed, throwing a piece of her egg at you both.

"Hey, don't throw eggs at us cause you guys can't have smoochies" you said, mimicking kisses at both girls and you all laughed about it.

Joel didn't know what was happening but he wouldn't trade it for nothing. He got to see Sarah again, smiling, laughing, well. He got to see you and Ellie making her laugh, telling jokes and be silly. He got to see Ellie being comfortable at the table, like she was belonged to the picture, like she was always meant to be laughing and joking with Sarah.

He took a look around the house and got to see pictures of your wedding with him. How happy the both of you looked on them, how amazing and beautiful you looked on them, just like he imagined that it was going to be.

He decided to not go work, he would stay home with you, while waiting the girls to get back for school while he asked Tommy to say that he fell ill to cover him up. He got out to buy the cake he promised Sarah that day after he left her and Ellie at the school.

He got his new-old pulse clock that was now fixed when Sarah and Ellie got back from school, them saying that they had the money from him but still doing it for him, for his birthday.

When night came, the four of you (plus uncle Tommy of course) got to sing him Happy Birthday with ridiculous party hats on your heads and big smiles on your faces while he blow the candles.

"You wished something dad?" Sarah asked.

"If i tell, it won't come true" he frowned at her.

"C'mon dude, don't be a dick!" Ellie huffed and you all laughed.

"For all the days to be just like this one, with my family, the people i love most in the world" he smiled at all of you.

The night came and with it, Joel's worry. Worry that everything was gonna happen all over again and that he would fail Sarah again, that he would fail Ellie and that he would fail you.

But none of it happened, there wasn't anything going on the whole day, there wasn't police cars or helicopters going back and forward, Tommy wasn't arrested and Joel got to spend the whole night with his family with the four of you all together, just like he wanted, just like he always dreamed. Just like that day was supposed to go as: with his girls slept on his arms, your head resting on one of his thighs as his favorite movie was passing by on tv.

While Joel was dreaming, in and out of counciousness, you and Ellie were worried about him. He had a fever some hours ago and now he had a bit of sweat on his face as he mumbled on his sleep, he was smiling slightly.

Ellie managed to stitch his wound with thread and a needle she found while you runned around to find him medicine and things that could help to not infectionate his wound, it stopped bleeding when Ellie stitched up but maybe there could be an infection and Joel has lost too many blood, his skin has lost it's color and you were worried, the little bit of relief you could have was knowing that whatever he was dreaming about, was good cause Joel never smiled when he went to sleep and usually he had nightmares about the day Sarah died.

You closed your eyes, a small sigh leaving your lips. You had been in Jackson for a while now, some few hours maybe, the sun light still up while it was starting to get dark with the last hours of day, Maria (Tommy's wife) had lent you, Joel and Ellie a house and you had just taken a shower with hot water and decided to read a book while Joel was somewhere with Tommy and Ellie had went to Maria's to get a new coat.

"How do you know about her?" you asked, a frown present on your forehead

"Just answer the question!"

"I did" you nodded towards her after a while

"Why you never told me?" Ellie asked, a little bit angry now

"Because that is something that it's not my right to tell, Ellie." you answered her sharply

"But you his wife, right? You guys share things, why isn't your right to tell?" she asked again, a little bit on the edge

"Yeah, but there's things that only belong to Joel. I never met Sarah, we got together years after she...she died, the only thing i know about her is her death cause Joel refuses to talk about her. So don't you go and throw a tatrum about this like you have all the right to, young lady." you reprimended her, not yelling, you never yelled at Ellie, you sighed "Look-"

A knock was heard on your front door and the person outside was Maria, asking if she could come in, which you only responded with a soft "yes" and she got inside.

It was like she could feel the tension in the air between you both, she decided that it was better not to intervene in something she hasn't had the right to "You ready?" she asked Ellie.

"Yes" Ellie said, nodding

"You wanna come along?" Maria asked you

"Where you guys heading to?" you smiled at her

"To watch a movie" Maria answered you

"Sure, let me just grab my coat"

Hours after, you were on the improvised theater of Jackson, they put on a movie you didn't reconize but thought that maybe your parents would if they were alive, you thought about how they would love Jackson and would love to have a stabilished live in here with a little bit of normalcy that you surrounded you in that small city that Maria and Tommy built together and hoped, at least hoped, that if things with Ellie got right and she has done what it is that she has to do, you could live with her and Joel here, in that small house that you could call yours.

"You okay?" Maria asked beside you

"Yeah" you said, smiling up to her and cleaning a few tears that you didn't know that had fallen "Sorry"

"Nothing to apologise here, care to share? I'm a good listener" she smiled at you, a hand on your shoulder

"It's just..." you sighed "I was thinking that my parents would love this, the theater, the houses, Jackson in a whole. My dad always said that he would try to find an empty house far from the cities, so that we could live on it without the fear of the infecteds or the people" you sighed "They would love here and..." you did a little pause, suddenly thinking that your little daydream was stupid "...i don't know, i was thinking that we could live here, the three of us. Give Ellie a normal life that she deserves, cause she deserves to grown up as a kid and do things people her age do and the life i never had when i was on her age."

"You grown up during everything?" Maria asked

"Yes. My parents they...they died when i was fifteen, protecting me and my brother then after, i lose my brother too, he got infected and i...i had to shoot him" you sighed, it was the first time anyone besides Ellie and Joel heard about your family.

"How old was he?" Maria asked, concern all over her face

"Six. My parents died protecting us from an attack and told me to look after him, but he got bitten during it, i lost my whole family in a spare of twelve hours." you chuckled dryly, not am ounce of humour on it "Sorry Maria, i shouldn't trouble you with my past." you shook your head.

"Bullshit, we family now. I'm deeply sorry for what happened to you and your family and, if you guys want to, you can stay here on Jackson, i know that Tommy would accept it right away and i would too. You could have a tiddy bit of normalcy here, Jackson has a place for everyone and we would love to have the three of you around." she smiled to you

"Thank you" you said softly, a small smile prrsent on your lips.

As your small talk with Maria came to an end, you decided to have a look around to make sure Ellie was okay but a small panic settled on the pit of your stomach as you didn't see her and the spot she was seated was empty and you sighed as you passed your eyes trough the place and on the people but couldn't find her anywhere "Shit" you mumble

"What is it?" Maria asked, trying to look for whatever you were searching

"Ellie" you looked around again "She's gone" you sigh again "I sware that that girl sometimes get on my nerves. Excuse me Maria, i'll go out and try to find her, with lucky, she's at home already, see you tomorrow."

You just heard her mumble a soft "okay" and headed out, putting your coat on. You stumbled on Tommy on your way out asking him if he saw Ellie on his way over but only received a no so you decided to go and look on the house you were staying before saying goodnight for him.

As you neared the house and you felt your lungs fail you a little for the little run you did, you let out a relieved sigh as seeing that the light from Ellie's room was lit so you decided to get inside. As you cleaned your boots outside the door and got inside after getting rid of said boots and your coat, you heard yelling upstairs before you could call out for Ellie and a loud sigh got out of your mouth as you started to climb the stairs as you heard Ellie's and Joel's voices going back and forward on her room.

Deciding to not interrupt whatever tatrum they were having and knowing damn well that Ellie brought up the Sarah topic, you almost wanted to punch Joel on the face when you heard him saying that she was better off with Tommy than him and finished with "You right. You're not my daughter and i ain't as hell your father".

You sighed deeply again, you were sighing too much since you arrived and as you got rid of your socks, crossed your arms as you heard Ellie's door slamming and the door to your and Joel's one opened, you heard Joel stop on his track as your eyes met him and he could see the deep frown on your face and the harsh look you gave him.

"How long you here?" he asked softly

"A while now." you asnwered him

"How much you heard?"

"I heard enough Joel" you answered with a low voice and you could almost hear him hiss on his breath, you never called him by his name, never, he knew that he fucked big when you called him by his name "I heard from 'You better without me' to 'You're not my daughter and i ain't your father'" you looked sharply at him "The hell is all of this about Joel Miller? Hm? What? You think that it's okay to get rid of a fourteen year old girl that has been travelling with us for months like she is damn nothing?"

"No, it's not about that" he trailed softly, still stopped in front of you, hands being cleaned on the jeans he wear

"So enlighten me" you kept pushing "What on earth you think you doing to say those things to her?"

"You wouldn't understand" he tried again and you just let out a scoff

"That's how it is things with you, right? It's always that" you got up

"The hell's that supposed to mean?" he frowned deeply

"You always push people out Joel, you go and always try to keep them out because you think that that's whats better for them even if they said that that's not it" you let out on one breath "I wouldn't understand, i know, i have never had a daughter and lost her, i know that"

"Darlin'..."

"Don't you darlin' me, Joel. I know that i'm being harsh here but...you never talk about her, the only thing i know about her it's about the way..." you started, but suddenly the words got stuck on your throath and your eyes started to burn with tears "...about the way she died."

It was like the entire world has stopped, Joel knew you were right, he never talked about Sarah, he never let her name be mentioned by anyone, not even him, it was like the mere thought, the mere mention of her name was a taboo on people's tongue or thoughts. He never mentioned anything about her and you never pushed, because you knew it was a topic that hurt because he never healed from her loss, it was like the mere mention of her brought back memories he was so trying to not remember.

"I could never understand the way you feel cause i was never a parent, but i know the loss, i know the pain and i know that it fucking hurts to try remember those that are not with us anymore...and Ellie does too, Joel. You said that she doesn't understand because...what? she's fourteen? she's too young?" you paused, looking deeply in his eyes "She has gone trough a lot too Joel, she has lost people that were dear to her, she said that she was left behind for those she thought she could trust and now you go and are trying to the same they did with the futile point that 'that's whats better'? It's better for who? For her...or for you?" you paused again, still looking deeply in his eyes that you could see now that were full with unshed tears.

That was rare, Joel always tried to be someone stoic, out of emotions and with a fake facade that he wasn't someone he cared when in reality, he tried so deeply to not care cause that was easier

"I'm sorry Honey, i'm sorry. But there's things you need to hear because, that girl..." you pointed towards your door, where Ellie's was just across the corridor "That girl right there, she's of no faught of the things that the world made her to be. She's just a kid, a kid that has grown up in this kind of world where the only thing she knows is what to do to keep on surviving and alive, where the only people she has to look up is the both of us. You right, she's not your daughter, she's not Sarah and she'll never be" you stopped a while to make sure that he was letting everything you were saying to him would sunk "...but you can't go over and tell her that she's off better without you, that you ain't her father when the reality is that you a paternal figure to her for months now and you and i know that. So yeah, you can go and try to get rid of her because that would mean that you can stop being afraid to loose her like you losed Sarah."

You were crying now, because you knew that that was what all of this was about, even if you were having a monologue with him where you would just speak and he would listen, you and him both knew that you were saying the truth and that he had nothing to say because he knew that you were right and there was nothing he could say to try and change your mind because you knew him very well, you knew him for years now, he plenty sure that if he so sort of breathed strange, you would know something's up.

The truth is you never thought about kids, it wasn't a thing you wanted cause in a world like this, to bring and raise a kid was setencing them to probably death or corrupting them with what was the world right now, you never wanted that kind of responsability but when you met Ellie, it was a matter of time till you started to care for her in every way you could.

You let her sleep with you if she was sacred with something, she would hold tight on you if there was trouble and she was out of bullets cause she felt safe with you, she let you brush her hair if Joel wasn't around because she liked the feeling of someone brushing her hair cause she felt cared for and she would never admit any of it, cause Ellie wasn't the type to let ger feelings out like this, that's why her and Joel had that sort of agreement and care. So yeah, they weren't father and daughter but they acted like they were, he would hold her hand if there was any kind of trouble, he thought her how to shoot with different kinds of guns so she would know what to do if you or him weren't there, he would look over her when night came to make sure she was safe and he would joke around with her.

"She's not your daughter." he said after a while "She's not ours for us to care that much about her"

"I know that Joel, she's not your daughter just like she ain't mine but if i could change that, if it was given me the chance to be her mother i would, because we have been travelling for months with her and you know what she always did since she saw she could trust me? She came to sleep on my arms cause she always knew that she would be safe and i would take care of her, she's not my daughter but i damn well wish i could be, cause that girl need stability and someone that can take care of her cause even she won't admit, she's scared because that what's this world do. She's a fourteen year old girl that it's scared and i would give my life if that meant that that she would feel and keep safe." you sighed deeply "I wish that you could talk to me about Sarah, you know? I know that it hurts to even think about her but not talking and not mentioning her won't make the pain go away, i learned that in the worst way, she deserves to be remembered Joel, cause i know you were a good father for her and i know damn well that if she could say something to you is that she doesn't blame you for what happened, cause her death wasn't your fault" Joel started crying at this point, letting his unshed tears to finally fall as you neared him and gripped his arms, your own tears falling "It wasn't your fault Honey. You didn't killed her, that soldier did. You haven't failed her, that world did. You shouldn't carry the blame and weight of failure in your shoulders cause it wasn't you fault, you're not responsible for her death and i know that if she could, she would say that to you."

Joel let himself sink into your arms, holding you tightly to him as he body shook with the tears that streamed down in his face. He carried the feeling of failure and that he was the cause that Sarah was dead all of those years and those same feelings resembled again when he met Ellie cause he was afraid that he would fail her too and that that would cause her death and he thought that the best way he could keep her alive was to let her go.

There was a lotta things Joel Miller was: he was insane, a houndog, a fucker, a wall of muscles, the grumpy folk, Tess bodyguard and whatever he has ever heard people say about him.

But there was one thing that Joel Miller wasn't and that was being soft. He could beat up a thousand people, kill them with cold blood and don't be sorry about any of it. He was surviving, after all. Joel Miller was rashed uppon the edges, the loss of his daughter in the beggining of the pandemic made him a stoic case that wanted to keep out any sort of affection out of his life.

He had plenty moments, plenty opportunities where he thought that maybe wasn't a bad idea to let Tess in, but he didn't want it, he didn't want her to be another person that would get on his life one moment and then the other would be out. But then he met you and next he met Ellie. And suddenly was like things clicked in time.

You had met him trough Tess, she took you under her wing once and never let you go again. When you first met Joel, it wasn't hard to notice that not only he was a man of few words but he also was a man that didn't let any strange get anywhere closer to him. He was a pure asshole when you first met, said that someone like you couldn't even know how to handle a gun properly to shoot before getting killed by infecteds. And man, didn't he eated up his words that day. You not only could take care of yourself, you also helped him to get his back safe so he wouldn't be dead.

You never took to heart the harsh things Joel told you when you first met, no, and the thing is because you knew, from the very first moment you met him, that he was a broken man. You had no idea of what he had gone trough pre-outbreak, but whatever it was that happened, you knew that it was the reason for him to be like that. But you were patient, you lived a few years alone before getting to the Boston QZ, you have had too many time to work on your patience. So you had the patience to wait for the day that Joel would make a open for you to get close to his heart.

That day happened one year after you met him, it took long but he finally was able to let show, at least a little, of what he really is: a protector. Someone that will make sure that those around him are safe and sound and that only started because he got concerned for your well being when you got back to his apartment with a bruise on your ribs and a bloody mouth because a job went wrong.

He was pissed that the job you went to do was taking longer than what you have said, he was ready to get a hand on his gun and jolt out the door to search for you when you suddenly stumble in his apartment, holding the side where your ribs hurted like hell (maybe you had one or two broken), split lip and tired stance. He never runned faster to you before that moment, he took you to his couch and tended to your wounds, hands on your face to lift it up so you wouldn't fall asleep, fearing that maybe if you had a concussion, it was better to keep you awake.

It was the first time Joel Miller showed concern for you and took care of you, since that day, there wasn't a day where you would be exhausted or beated up that he wouldn't take care of you. He wasn't soft, no, Joel Miller was a lot of things, but never soft. At least that was what he tried to convince himself everyday before you entered his life and tried to keep you anywhere closer than you already got. And he was making you sure that you stayed safe while trying to keep you away, not that he suceeded on the task.

It didn't took long for him to start with lingering touches: a finger lifting up your chin, a hand on your shoulder, a hand carefully on your cheek, a soft ghost of the point of his fingers when you slept with your head on his shoulder once, a tender embrace at night where he would hold you against his chest if you were having nightmares. Truth was that Joel Miller was a little bit touch starved, he wouldn't tell you outloud how he felt.

But Frank noticed. Frank was a sweetheart, he was happy when he met Tess and Joel and that joy doubled when you visited them for the first time.

You clicked right away with him, you would talk about a lot of things that made and didn't make sense and Frank was many things, but one thing he was, was that Frank was an observer, he knew how to look on things around him and pay attention to what surrounded him. And he noticed Joel care for you, just like the same care Bill took of him, Frank knew that Joel always took care of Tess but with you, with you was a whole different thing.

Even if the woman had quite the romantic feelings for the cranked man and they had quite the partnership, his care towards you was a tender one, not one that made you feel like a kid but a more of the kind that you would feel special in every tender care he had with you, very opposite of the care he had with Tess. It was on every little thing he would do for you: brush a single stray of hair out of your face, tender to the little cut you made to yourself with the knife while helping Frank in the kitchen, pay attention to what you were saying about a few plants from a book you burrowed from Bill's collection, when he held your hand to help you up the comfortable couch that they had on their living room.

Maybe Frank was wrong and Joel was just doing this because even if Joel cared, it didn't mean that it was in a romantic way as he was thinking but he knew he was right when he swore that he saw a hint of a smile on Joel's face once when he catched you and him savouring the wonderful strawberries he and Bill had on their backyard seeing you almost shed tears of pure joy for tasting the fruit for the first time, but he knew that the care that that man had for you was love when he cradled your face on his hands and slowly brought your lips together, a soft blush on your cheeks before he went away to let the both of you to have your moment, a few little giggles behind him as he left.

He wasn't surprised when Joel got into the kitchen and delivered a soft kiss on your forehead before sitting down by your side and chugging on his breakfeast the next morning, and he wasn't less surprised to see him holding your hand as the three of you said your goodbyes to both him and Bill when it was time for you to go.

So yes, Joel Miller wasn't soft, a lot of things he was but soft wasn't one of them, but he was soft for you, you were his soft spot. That said spot was the same he foughted it so long to try and keep you away in hopes that you will forget about him and leave him be before he would let you get free pass and he would end up losing you too. But he got to a point where he couldn't ignore the way he felt towards you, not after all the times you cradled his face on your hands and kissed his forehead or in the time that he woke up from a nightmare with Sarah and told everything about her and you just cradled him in your arms while let him cry his loss.

You were the little part of him that still believed that there could still be chance to the world, where he would let loose and dream of a possibility of normalcy, where he would let himself dream of a scenery where you would have a house for yourselfs, where he would give you a good morning kiss and went to wake up Ellie so the three of you could have breakfeast together.

She couldn't breath. Ellie felt like her lungs were full of something that felt like it made hard for her to breath or concentrate. Water, maybe. Water, yes. Water was the best way she could describe it right now of how she felt like her lungs were. Like they were full of water and it was infecting the rest of her body, making her head go dizzy.

She didn't knew exactly what to do, it felt like the world had stopped the moment your hand shoved her hard on the ground, away from you before that infected got near to her and you ended up stumbling and falling, the infected above you while it gorgled and screamed and she could see the little mushrooms out of their mouth, ready to infect you while you tried your best to get a hold on the gun that had slided away from your hand when you fell.

She had to do something, she had, she had, she had, she had! But it was like her whole body was glued to the ground, like the grass beneath her hands and knees had embraced her and didn't want to let go. She thought about searching with her hand for the knife she always carried with her, but she couldn't move, her whole body shivred and trembled and when she managed to lift her right hand, she could see how she was shaking.

While you were on the ground, you could see that Ellie was like a statue, her hands shaking and eyes welling with unshed tears. She was having an panick attack. You did as best as you could, Joel was too far to hear you shout to him. You put too much pressure on the arm that was holding far the infected away from you and managed to slide your legs on it's abdomen, kicking it away enough for you.

You slided close to your gun and when the infected was close enough to get a bite out of you, you shoot it. Blood gurgled out of it and sprayed it all over face and chest, making it clear that it was so close that it could've bite you and infected you, but you were able to be faster than it.

You shoved the dead corpse off of you and on the ground, taking a deep breath as you unloaded your gun, praying that no other infected or human heard it. But Joel did, a little bit far from where you were with Ellie but he went running to where you were.

As you took another deep breath and got up to go to Ellie, you felt a pang of pain on your ankle, maybe you had twisted it when you went down on the floor, but you gave zero shit to that as you stumbled up to a very clear panicked Ellie in front of you. When you kneeled in front of her, you could hear her uneven breath and the tears that were slowly running down her cheeks.

"Ellie, baby" you whispered "Ellie" you said softly

She focused slowly on you, taking her eyes off the dead infected and focusing on you instead "You...it..."

"I need you to stay with me, darling" you said again "Need you to focus on me"

"You...it attacked...you" she cried slowly

"I know darling i know, but i'm alright, see." you smiled softly at her "I'm here baby, i'm right here"

Ellie couldn't do much if not crying. It was like all of the invisible water on her lungs were suddenly drained out. You were alive. You weren't infected. You weren't bitten.

"...Blood, there's blood..." she said again, her lip trembling

"I know baby i know, but it's not mine. It's not mine" you grabbed both of her cheeks, her tears wetting your hands immediatly "It's not mine, i wasn't bitten. I'm okay baby, i'm okay" you felt your own tears welling up on your eyes. "Think you can breath with me?" you asked her, she only nodded "Okay darling okay, take a deep breath, with me ok? In..." you took a deep breath, counting at least three seconds, Ellie following you "...Out" you exhale.

You and Ellie did it at least three or four times of breathing exercise, calming both of you down. As the rush of the adrenaline runned out of your body, you came more to your senses. In moments like those ones, your body always went on survival mode, it was like it worked on automatic, you had to make sure to come out alive on those situations but at that time, even with the infected above you and ready to take a piece, you could only focus on Ellie. She has become your priority, the daughter you never had and you made sure that she would be alive.

It broke your heart to see her in the state she was now. Usually she was full of sass and sarcastic comments but it was in moments like these, were danger took it's claws out on unexpected times, that you remembered that she was only a child. A girl that grew up on this world conditions were the only thing she knew that what mattered was to be alive.

After you spent weeks and months travelling with someone, you're faded to get attached. And Ellie got quickly attached to you, you were the first one to embrace her when you, Joel and Tess got responsible for taking her to the Fireflies. She didn't remember much of her biological mom, actually she didn't remember nothing of her, but looking up at you, you were what she always wanted to have as a mom.

She cried harder now, thinking that she almost losted you. Her breath was back to normal again but she rushed to hug you, arms holding you tight on your neck while she cried and searched comfort on you like she did other few times. Ellie wasn't good with emotions, she didn't knew how exactly demonstrate them if it wasn't with sass, sarcastic comments or terrible puns, so she hugging you and crying surprised you.

"I thought...thought that i had lost you" she sobbed now.

You took a while, but hugged her back, one of your hands massaging her scalp while the other rubbed her back in movements of up and down "You didn't baby, you didn't. I'm right here, i'm right here" You could feel the blood on your face drying up at the same time that you could feel your own tears rushing down your cheeks and wetting them with a mix of tear, dry blood and dirt from the ground "I'm right here".

As you were comforting Ellie, you heard some steps ahead of you. Out of instict, you holsted your gun up and pointed to a out of breath Joel in front of you, his flash and gun pointed to you both. He could see the hand that was holding your gun trembling, so he took a look out on the scene in front of him and let out a relieved sigh to see that you had took down an infected.

"What happened?" he asked soflty, taking shorts strides towards to you

You exhale deeply, happy to see that it was your husband "We got surprised, he got out of nowhere"

Joel kneeled down next to the both of you, seeing as Ellie was gripping on you for her dear life, like you were about to disappear any moment "You guys got hurt?"

"I think i sprained my ankle when it tackled me to the ground, but other than that, we are safe" you told him softly, putting your gun down.

"Think you can walk?" he asked you, voice laced with worry as his eyes went from you to Ellie.

"I think i can, it's not hurting that much" you sighed, turning your attention back to Ellie "Ellie, i need to get up" she didn't flinch

"Ellie..." Joel started but you shook your head to let him know you could handle it, he nodded.

"C'mon baby, we have to go back to camp" you tried again, but she didn't budge "Ellie, darling, i'm not gonna disappear if you let me go, i'll be right here like always. I won't vanish from thin air, okay?" she took a while, but nodded "I'll get up, so Joel can help me to get back up and walk me back, he won't let anything happen to me. You know that, right?" she nodded again, her grip on your neck relaxed, giving you enough space to move "That's my girl."

As she took a space between you both and got up to make space to Joel help you up, you noticed her red cheeks and puffy eyes. Joel's heart squeezed at the scene, he didn't like to see any of you upset, so as he grabed your backpack, pulled it over his shoulders and lift you on his arms, he could see Ellie's attentive gaze on you, making sure you were beeing taking care of.

After you got back and Joel tended to your ankle and helped you to clean off the dried blood and making sure you really weren't bitten or scratched anywhere, you were getting ready to sleep, Joel's sleeping bag right beside yours.

She followed you both back to the camp in silence.

Ellie was a bit far, looking over to you and debating with herself if she should ask you what she wanted or let it slide for now. While you layed your head on your backpack as a makeshift pillow, you could see her struggle.

"What is it?" you asked softly at her

"I...hum" she took a deep breath, it was hard to voice out her thoughts "I was thinking if i...if i could sleep with you"

That got not only you by surprise as it did Joel's, that really was uncateristically Ellie. Thinking that you took too much time thinking about it, Ellie was ready to just lay down and forget that she even thought about voicing it to you "Of course you can darling. Come here"

She let out a deep breath of relief after hearing it and seeing your arm extended to her. She grabbed her sleeping bag and crawled over to where you and Joel were at, she put it right beside you and got inside, getting comfortable.

You smiled to her, hugging her close to you. She took a while, but made sure to return the hug, her arm around your waist while she nestled her head on your neck, feeling as comfortable as she could.

As you massaged her scalp with your free hand and hummed you both to sleep, Joel couldn't help but let out a soft smile grace his lips at the scene. He and Ellie were very much look alike, they weren't both good with emotions, being emotionally constipated but when given the chance to be under your comfort, they felt like they were in the happiest and safest place in Earth, even if they lived in a world like that.

He would keep watch, just to make sure that nothing else would stumble out of nowhere to make harm to, the now, both of his most special people in this world. Looking over at you both, he only thought of how much Sarah and you would've got along, of how much she and Ellie would take part on sass and annoy him anytime they could. He knew Sarah would've loved the both of you.

So with a soft smile, thinking about Sarah, his wife and now the girl that grew up so much on his heart to considare her as his own, he kept watch, to make sure that nothing would disturbe you on your sleep.

Bill's & Frankie's house had a bit of dust everywhere, you let out a little sneeze here and there because of it.

You still were a little shaken up after Ellie finished reading the letter that Bill left to Joel. It's not like they were friends, they had mutual respect to one another but for Bill to consider anyone friend, that never happened in the years you had met him and Frankie.

Frankie was more outgoing, always loved to make friends and get to know people, he was someone that was easy to talk to, that's why you, him and Tess got so along.

You had lose three friends in a row already, first Tess, now Bill and Frank. That was the shit of living in that kinda of world, you had a little bit of what life used to be and it's sudenly took from you, attachaments weren't good but you were always the kind of person to believe in the remanescent of good in people, only those you really trusted of course which didn't had much of those around anymore.

There was a slight breeze coming from the open door at your right as you grazed your fingers trough Bill's mother old piano, you always thought that it was a beautiful instrument and sometimes when you came to visit them with Tess and Joel, you wished you knew how to play.

Joel observed you as you sat by the piano, fingers on top of the tiles, good as new. He knew how much you always wanted to play piano but never mustered enough courage to ask Bill at least the basics, so he only admired you admiring it from afar. As he got closer to you, he could see you fastly cleaning your face, probably cleaning some remanants of tears that you refused to shed to either him or Ellie. He cleared his troath behind you as he got closer enough to you.

"You alright?" he asked, a little creasing between his brows showing his worries

"Gonna be" you whispered back as you look up and outside the window "You scared me, didn't heard you coming"

"That's not good, you always keep an watchful eye on your surroundings" he said lowly, trying to make a joke, but you only shrugged

"I don't have a reason to worry in here" was what you said to him

Joel was having an intern struggle. Bill said in the letter with all lines "That's how people like us are, use everything on you to protect (Y/N/N)" .

He never expected to Bill to caught what always been there between you both, not like you had anything, not like that, he never voiced the feelings he had for you and you neither. But there was something in there, he couldn't keep on pretending, there was a big amount of times that he had cuddled up to you uncounciously to pretend that it was nothing.

And Joel was worried with you, you both had lost your friends, maybe the only ones you've ever made, and all in a roll. He was a though guy, already crumpled from too much PTSD, nightmares and losing his daughter on the early days of the pandemic, but you? You still had a little hope in line, even after losing all your family, you still had a little bit of hope.

"I actually wished that i could have had the guts to actually ask Bill to teach me the basics of piano" you started softly "but i always thought that he was uncomfortable whenever we came around, so i never wanted to disturb him more than he already was" you paused a little and let out a chuckle "plus the fact that i was terrified by him sometimes" Joel sat down by your side, his back to the piano and his attention full on you "Stupid right? I can kill infecteds and take down mugglers, but Bill? I was afraid to say something wrong, and even with that, he was a good guy."

"No" Joel said "No, i don't think it's stupid, i think that, in fact, it's more harder to deal with people than with infecteds, it has always been like that" he nodded slowly

"I never thought it was hard to deal with you, you know?" you turned to him, eyes locking on his "It was easy to trust you, more after we got closer. Sure, there's things about you that i don't know about but i...i always felt safe around you" you smiled at him.

Sometimes when Joel thought that it was better for the both of you that he kept a safe distance, he always remembered of why he liked and cherished you so much.

You would always double over to get to him anything that he liked on your runs outside the walls of QZ, he remembers the time you found him a good brand of coffee and he almost cried at the spot when you showed him, he only said once that the thing he missed from the normal days was a good and fresh coffee. You always brought something to euther him or Tess that made you remember of them, he had a plenty of little gifts in his crumbled apartment, he liked to look at them, it made him remind of you.

He often related you to Lilies, he read once that they meant romantism, purity, inocence and pure love. Not that he cared too much about plants and flowers and what was their meaning, but he found a book with all of those kind of stuff one day and took it as gift for you and as he was looking trough the pages, he read about the lilies. So your face kinda of just clicked on his mind as he read it.

In his eyes, you had so much in common with the description the books gave the flower, you weren't naive, far from that, you knew how to handle things well and how to take care of yourself while living in this world, but you a had a sheer inocence and purity towards the human kind that sometimes it shocked him. He remembered how happy you were when he gave you the book, he thought that if he could have a last fond memorie before he died someday, he was gonna think back about that moment, the brilliant smile on your face was what hr wanted to think about.

"You can always count on me, sweet girl, i'll be there for you" he answered after a long while, a ghost of a smile on his lips. He got closer to you, no space between your bodies as one of his hands went at the back of your head, one of yours on his waist "For whatever time you want me to be" he said as he closed his eyes and his lips touched softly your forehead.

You sighed happily, there wasn't a place safer than within the arms that were holding you right now, you wish you could live in that moment forever but you heard someone clear their troath and as you separated from him, you saw Ellie a few feet far from you both, a hint of a teasing smile on her face "The bathroom's clear, so if either of you wanna go..." she trailed off

"I'll go" Joel said, standing up, taking a last look at you and heading to the bathroom

"You better use the soap well Miller, you're stinking!" you shouted before he closed the door behind him as you and Ellie chuckled together.

"So..." Ellie started again "What was that?"

"What was what?" you played

"C'mon, you know what!"

"I really don't know what you talking about" you smirked at her

"Oh fuck off" she said walking out to drop the towel somewhere and get some clothes

Honestly it shouldn't scary you so much but it did anyway, it wasn't even that big of a spider but it's long legs would never fail to make your knees tremble a little at seeing it.

Some spiders were totally harmness and you knew it, but let's be real: no one really knows how to identify those who were harm or the ones that weren't. You tried everything to get it out of your room but you only managed to put a cup above the long leg creature before crawling back on your bed, fingers anxiously tapping your legs as you reached for the phone.

You fastly dialed your boyfriend's house number and bited the cuticules of your fingers as your eyes kept trained on the spider you caught just to make sure that it won't scape. You don't know what time was it and you didn't want to see your clock too afraid that it was late already. It seemed like it was ages that the phone rang and you almost hung up if you haven't heard a low and husky "Hello?" on the other side.

"Steve?" you asked lowly

"Sweetheart? What happened? Are you okay? Did something happened?" he asked in sequence, sleep long forgotten as he heard your low voice on the other side

"Everything's alright...i...i mean, kinda?" you answered, eyes still trained on the spider

"What is it?" you heard some shuffle on the other side and were sure that he was up on his feet

"It's...it's silly, sorry for calling you" you started saying, thinking that you woke him up for him to get rid of the spider

"No, no sweetheart, come on, you can tell me. What is it?" he waited a while for you to answer and it was like a light bulb was lightened on his head "It's a insect?"

You sighed lowly, cheeks hot of silly embarrassement "It's a spider, actually..." you said lowly

"I'm on my way" he answered and hung up

You sighed, Steve never took long to get to your house so when you last expected it, you saw his car in front of your house and he got out of it, hair tousled and yawn leaving his mouth as he made way for the window on your bedroom that you opened for him to get inside and he climbed on it "Hi, Love"

"Hey, i'm sorry for calling you for this, really" you felt ashamed

"Hey, don't be sorry alright? I would stop everything that i was doing just to come to your rescue, okay?" he winked at you and you smiled "So, where is it?"

"Over there" you pointed to the spot on the ground that held the spider "Just don't kill it, put it out"

"As you wish ma'am" he said and proceed to walk to where the spider was, he grabed a piece of paper and slide it under the cup that the spider was and lifted it up, walking out of your room to probably throw it out on the kitchen window.

When he got back, he had no cup, no paper and no spider and you sighed gladly that it was away and you could try and have some sleep "Thank you, baby" you said softly as you hugged his waist, ear right where his heart was beating and he chuckled

"Of course, love. There wouldn't be a thing that i wouldn't do for you" he kissed your forehead and let a yawn scape his mouth "So, i'll be going now, i put it out and locked the window so there wouldn't be any risk of it getting inside again"

"Wait!" you grabbed his hand before he left by the window, puzzled look on his face as he searched yours and waited "Can you stay? I'm a little shaken still and i don't think i'll be able to sleep just yet, plus, it's late for you to head home now"

He smiled at you and nodded, he let go of your hand just to close the window and locked it and did the same by going to your bedroom door.

You steped out of your night slippers and hop on the bed, turning off the lamo on your bedside table, making yourself comfortable against your pillow as you layed down and watched as he step out of his shoes and layed by your side , pushing you towards him by your waist as his free hand went up to your hair, massaging your scalp softly and rubbing circles at your back with the one that was there.

He kissed the top of your head softly and you sghed while closing your eyes and cuddling more into his chest, catching the scent of his perfume by your nose that was buried there and held his sweater in fists on his back, he laughed at that and let you get the comfortable you wanted to be against him. It didn't took much of you to fall asleep even if you said that you wouldn't be able to do so soon, but Steve knew you.

He knew you like the back of his hand and into every frown on your face, he knew that when you were afraid that the only thing that would calm you enough to sleep fastly was just hold you on the same position you were now, he knew that you were afraid of anything that could fly to or walk in you and that he would shoo them all away for you to say to him that you were his hero, he knew that even if you didn't like them you wouldn't want them to be killed and he knew that, as he felt you breath even, he loved you with every fiber on him, he would take out all the bugs of the planet if he could have you like this always.

He knew that after events like this one, you always needed cuddles and having to be taking care of, cause he loves you and loves to see your smile anytime he would do every little thing to make you happy, even if it meant to just take out a few bugs and spiders.

It was a hot day in Tatooine, the planet was always hot due to it's twin sun's but that day especifically seemed to be hotter, you felt it even with a slight breeze going around, shuffling your clothes and hair around.

The tavern you worked on had less movement than the last few days, some clients that are old on the house are present here and there but you really hadn't to worry or work that much since there wasn't much you could do, you let a sigh noticing that it was almost time for you to go home and you wanted nothing more than at least have a bath to soothe the heating wave and be with your lovely husband that by now must be home.

You have been on Tatooine for...what now? 5 years? You were sure it were 5 years now, you've lost track after a time, be absorbed on your job helped a lot to not let your mind wander back to what happened on Coruscanti. But sometimes it wasn't that easy, no, sometimes you would let your mind drift back to the hurtful memories that you lived that day, where you lost most of your friends and colleagues. Jedi weren't supposed to have attachements but it was almost impossible to not have them in the line of work you used to have.

Back then you always thought that some council rules were a little bit too much, some Padawans that were your age agreed with you that attachements that helped you to strenght you on the light side had no issues, Anakin and you used to have a lot of conversations about that, before...you shook your head from side to side, vanishing the thoughts, you wouldn't think about him, no, you refused, you've been dealing well by doing it. You already had too many nightmares without putting him into scene, you didn't need them to worse by remembering him, of what he became, when you thought about your old friend, you prefered to remember of who he was before he got tricked by Palpatine.

You sighed again and slumped your shoulders, deciding to keep your mind busy by cleaning some dishes and give attention to your clients, otherwise you would hear nonstop from your boss and you prefered to think about now than to live in the past, what is done it's done, nothing could change that.

"Y/N, can you get me one more of these?" one of the clients asked you, holding out an empty bottle of the drink he asked earlier

"Of course, it's on hands" you smiled back at him and he nodded

You finished cleaning some cups and dried your hands on some piece of clothing that you carry around to dry them and picked up the bottle of the drink your client asked and brought to him.

"How's your day today Y/N?" he asked, already filling his cup with the drink you brought

"It's slow today, but it's almost the end of my shift, so maybe you're my last client for the day today Kyl. How's your wife? She got any better?" you asked him, making small talk

"You know the ma'am, she's strong as a rock, nothing can beat that woman up, she's better, thanks to your advice"

"Don't thank me, it was only something i had in hands"

"Nonsense, you helped all of us around town, i don't know what you used to work with before coming to this planet, but you got the hands by helping everyone" he laughed and took a sip of the contents on his cup "How's your husband?"

"He's fine, tired, but fine, i think he's already home by now"

"Tell Ben that i said hi"

"I'll let him know, good to see you Kyl"

Kyl was one of the regular clients of the house, a middle aged man, lived with his wife, he was easy to talk to, being the kind man he is. He's the first friend you made when you arrived in Tattooine, he and his wife helped you and Ben to adapt a lot.

As you returned to the balcony, ready to pick up your things and finish for today as you saw your co-worker arriving, a little boy came in running, his breath uneven, cheeks a little bit red and blonde hair messy, he took a deep breath and looked up at you.

You smiled down at him as he tried to get his breathing even again, he didn't look like he was more than 5 years, his clothes looked a little baggy on him and you waited as he lift up his hand.

"You okay boy?" you asked, voice full of playfuness

"Yes, i..." he huffed and looked up at you "I'm fine"

"You sure?"

"Yes, can i have a cup of water please?" he asked

"Of course!" you filled a cup full of water and slided to him on the balcony, you were pretty sure that he was on his tiptoes to be able to reach the cup and you let out a giggle as you saw that he still couldn't reach, so you put the strap of your bag over your shoulder and made a turn to get out from behind the balcony "There you go" you said handing him the cup

"Thank you!" he smiled up and took a big glup from the water you gave him.

As he was quietly drinking his water, eyes wondering around the place, you took a moment to have a better look at him and you almost gasped by noticing why he looked so familiar. You almost let out a gasp as you looked at the boy, you and Obi-Wan have been watching over him for the last 5 years, you almost didn't believe that this was Luke, the last time you saw him in person was when you delivered him on his uncle arms as a baby.

Owen never let either you or Obi-Wan have an interaction with Luke, too afraid that maybe if he let, he would turn as he father did, you never thought that not even him thought like that but maybe that was his way of dealing with things, so maybe even if this was the only time you ever be able to talk to Luke, you would keep it in your heart.

"I'll have to pay for the water? Cause i don't have any credits with me" he asked as he finished drinking, handing you the cup as you chuckled at him

"No, it's just water, don't worry about it, it's on the house" you put the cup on the balcony behind you

"Really? I can tell to my uncle to come pay for it" he said, hands grasping the end of his clothes on fists

"No, it's alright, i'm heading home so that one's on me" you smiled at him and got down on his eye level, hands holding his "It's okay, really"

"Luke?!" You heard Owen's voice calling for him, he turned by hearing his name and you sighed

"You're a wonderful boy, Luke. Not many people are worried in paying water sometimes" you smiled and he giggled "Now, off you go, your uncle will be worried"

"What's your name?" he asked, big eyes traced on you

"Y/N/N" you said your nickname softly

"Luke?" Looking up, you saw Owen, hands on his hips and harsh expression on his face as he saw you talking with Luke "Where you've been?"

"I got thirsty and came to ask for water! Y/N/N gave me some and said that i didn't have to pay for it!" he said in one breath and you giggled as you standed up

"So...how do we say, Luke?" Owen sighed

"Thank you, Y/N/N!" the boy told you

"You're welcome"

"Bye Y/N/N" he said walking to his uncle, waving his little hand at you as you waved back

"Bye Luke"

He holded his uncle hand and them both walked out of the tavern, you smiled softly and tightened your grip on the strap of your bag and made your way to your Eopie to go back home.

The ride home was long, but you got there as the twin sun's were setting, when you got close enough you could see that Obi-Wan's Eopie was there already, a clear signal that he was home. You got down from your Eopie and gave it a piece of the meat you carried, as it eated, you tapped it's head softly and headed inside after the droid of recognition bipped by taking it was you.

You took off your cloak and hung it by the door as you got inside, taking off your boots and headed more inside and called for your husband "Ben?" Nothing, you frowned, you had a little suspicion of where he was but wanted to make sure and called louder for him "Ben?!"

"In here, darling!" you heard him shout back and headed to where his voice called. He was on his usual spot: having a watch over Luke. You smlied and kissed his cheek before sitting beside him, he smiled at this "I saw you coming. How was your day today my dear?"

"Pretty slow, but something great happened" you smiled

"Oh, what was it?" he lowered his device and looked over at you, pushing you to his side by your waist, planting a soft kiss on your lips "What was so wonderful on your slow day that made you smile like that?"

"I got to talk with Luke today" you said softly, your hand carressing softly his cheek, playing with his overgrown beard, you looked up at him and laughed at the surprise look on his face.

"How? Did Owen allowed or...?" he started and you planted a kiss on the tip of his nose

"No, no, nothing like that. He just came to ask for a cup of water, it was a small interaction, it could've been insignificant for any other but it meant so much, he was more interested on his water though" you chuckled softly and Obi-Wan was paying close attention to what you were saying, soft smile on his lips "I wish you could've seen how he came: his cheeks were so flushed and hair a mess, i think he was running around. He got worried in having to pay for the water, water Ben" you sighed "It was short, but...it made my whole day"

You looked up at Obi-Wan and let out a chuckle by the way he was looking at you, soft look present on his eyes and soft smile playing on his lips, he loved to see you happy and he would always make everything on him to being able to keep seeing this smile on your face, he thought that he could never get tired of seeing your smiling face. It has been 5 years that he was married to you, more than almost 10 years that you have been together and he still felt like floating in the clouds when near you "That's great, love. I can see how much that little interaction made you happy. I wish that Owen would let us have contact with the boy, so i could see that beautiful smile more often than i already do"

"Ben i think aging is making you sappy" you said playfull and he roled his eyes as he let out a laugh, kissing your cheek softly

"It's been 5 years that we are officialy married..." he trailed off to you, hands cradling your face and you arched your brow

"Yes, what about it?" your hands have gone to his shoulder

"I was thinking if..." he sighed and you waited for him to continue, hands softly pressuring on his shoulders "...If you would want to build a family with me?"

"Where that came from?" you giggled

"It's just that...we've been together for so long, love. I just thought that maybe now would be a good time to bring this up and seeing you so radiant talking about Luke just got me wondering" he felt his cheeks got hot, it was incredible of how much you still were capable to make him feel like that even after years of being together

"I want it...as long you want to, Obi-Wan Kenobi" you brushed your nose with his, eyes closed and soft smile on your lips "There's not even much that i could deny you, being freely with you like this it's everything already but start our little family can just complete everything"

It was foreign to hear his name again, it looked like ages since the last time you called him by his real name, the people in town knew him as Ben Kenobi and they only knew you by your nickname followed by your surname, but hear you calling him Obi-Wan kept him grounded and he smiled softly, kissing the palm of your hand that was against his face.

"Leia, let me help you" you offered to Leia, holding out your hand to help her walk on the Millenium Falcon

"My Darling, we both know that i'm not the one who needs help" she laughed, eyes scanning over your growing belly "But i appreciate it either way"

You smiled at her, her right hand tapped your left cheek softly and up she went to the ship. You stayed behind with Rey to make sure that all of the survivors of the Resistance got inside safetly, hand carressing your belly.

You were at least 5 months long or so, you were pretty sure that you were almost 6, you lost count when all the attacks ordered by The First Order surrounded you. You sighed remembering that that meant that it was really that long since...you last saw your husband, your last encounter with Kylo Ren, it was really that long ago, even if you and him had a connection bridge trough the force way before you started to admit to have feelings for him back on the Jedi training time with Luke Skywalker, you refused to let the connection happen for the sake of your unborn baby.

You had no idea of what Kylo Ren would be able to do of he discovered that you were pregnant with his child, you always got worriedly sick thinking of it, so you did the best you could to hide the pregnancy from him, using the Force to make a fog up on the tracks of your baby, you still remember the last time you had one of your encounters, way before Rey appeared, way before things with The First Order angainst the Resistance got thicker in tension because of the back of the Jedi.

"Y/N/N? Hey, keep your mind back here" you looked up blinking rapidly, Ben's broad form in front of you, you squinted your eyes looking up at him and shielding your eyes from the burning sun light with your hands "Here you are darling everything's ok? You dissociated a moment back there"

He told you worriedly, face full of concern looking down at you, hand carressing yours softly. You were in a planet that The First Order couldn't reach you and Be- Kylo Ren on your monthly encounters, you were actually pretty tired of only being able to see him one time a month and even if you always were happy to see your husband, it wasn't the same since he turned to the dark side few years ago, you took well the first times, overjoyed to be with him for two or three days before you would part ways yet again, it was hard, hard loving him the way things how they were now, but you could handle it, right? You always thought that you could, but for two months now, you started to fear your encounters.

Kylo always tried to get you to join him on the dark side, so far deep on his fed hatred by Snoke even if you could see a little disturbence on him and the last bit of light while you always tried to bring him back home, for the sake of Leia and Han, and for the sake of the unborn baby you discovered to be carrying some weeks ago. The unborn little one would need their father present, but you couldn't let it happen while he was on the dark side, that would be the last time you would see him, it broke your heart, but you knew it was for the best.

"Yes, i'm sorry honey, i'm just tired, need some rest that's all" you smiled at him while seating down, pushing him lightly to be with you "Come lay with me"

Without a single resistance, he got rid of his gloves, shoes and cape and layed down on the little made up bed you had separated for your monthly encounters. He pushed you by the waist, your arms circling his neck, head on his chest and his cheek on the top of your head, hands softly carressing your hair.

It still pained you to remember the day you left without saying goodbye to him, you had be gone way before he woke up, ending your connection with him trough the force and hiding your baby whenever he would try to connect with you again, it was hard the first months but you soon got too busy helping Leia, the Resistance and focusing on your growing baby that everything with Kylo turned tolerable, not easy cause you could never get rid of how much you missed him.

"Y/N/N, everyone's already inside the ship, we should go" Rey's voice brought you back to the present, a soft smile on her lips as she extended her hand for you to hold "Let me help you"

"You such a sweet Rey, thank you, let's get out of this ice cube" you smiled at her and took her hand, her free hand going to your back as she helped you up and inside, worried gaze traveling from your face to your growing belly

"You have already thought of a name?" she asked, mentioned to your belly "Any ideas?"

"I have a few, but there's one that it would suit her well" you smiled as you looked at her, already inside the ship, hands carressing it softly

"Her? You think it's a girl?"

"Something just tell that it's a girl, can you feel it?"

You asked her excitedly, she closed her eyes and took a short while till her lips started to form a big smile, hands instantly on your stomach "I can feel her"

"Her?" You heard a well known voice and before you could have a reaction, you and Rey felt a pull made by the force, your hands turned sweaty as you and Rey turned to look outside of the ship, there stood, even if it was only a projection, Kylo Ren. You knew that he and Rey had some sort of connection by the force just like you and him but you had blocked him months back and as you were watching him and Rey go back and forth about how he had murdered Han, his own father, you felt a kick against your belly, a hand fastly over it and all the power you were using to hide your baby presence from him vanished from the surprise kick.

Kylo Ren never turned so fastly in his entire life, even during his little rage bickering back and forth with the Rey girl, his eyes never leaved your frame and when he felt a fourth presence, he frowned and then his eyes doubled in size by seeing your hand carressing your growing belly. It was then that everything downed on him: you were pregnant and he knew that he didn't need to search further to know that you were carrying his child, all this months of you blocking him whenever he tried the connection and you always not having that much time to be with him, you were hiding his child from him.

Kylo Ren always felt a disturbence on the force whenever you and him would connect and he never knew the cause, now he knew it pretty well and something inside of him just shaked by knowing you were expactating his child. You on the other hand were sweating, your hands trembling a little as the wind whispered your clothes and hair around you, you had to end the connection now.

Sensing you uneasyness, Rey quickly sprung to action, made a snark comment directed to him and pressed the button that would close the door.

"Y/N..." Kylo whispered, voice heavy and you could take a fast glance at him to see his eyes to get glossy and then the door closed, the connection ended and you sighed heavily, holding onto Rey that fastly got by your side seeing you getting pale and the Millennium Falcon took off.

When he couldn't no long reach either Rey or you, Kylo was looking back at a wall, he felt frustration tears leave his eyes and rage overtook him as he destroyed the room he was inside. He knew he gave up on a lot of things, did a lot of things for the sake of the dark side, but there was only much he could take, he already was separated from his lovely wife and now he just discovered that you were carrying his child, his unborn baby girl and as he destroyed more things, he thought if he could ever be able to have you in his arms again and if he would ever be able to carry his daughter on his arms.

"I mean, i know that it's too soon and you just got out of a relationship, a long term one, i don't want you to feel pressured or something like that when you obviously still healing, i don't wanna push you" You said, looking up at Steve, playing with your fingers that weren't covered by the baby blue sweater you were wearing. It was middle November, the air got even more chilly because of the arrival of the winter, it was due to start to snow in a few weeks and you were talking to Steve about everything you guys felt during those first days on November, about not only the sudden connection but the sudden atraction too.

You not gonna lie, since that last day after everything got solved and your little group saved the country ass again, you and Steve were a little bit of the hook: flirting anywhere without shame, whispered words on your ears, almost kisses during movie nights with Dustin on your living room, subtle touches whenever you could (hand holding, hugs that lasted more than it should, hand on your knees, the tip of your fingers massaging his scalp).

Neither Dustin or the party couldn't take anymore the obvious tension (both romantically and sexual) that was between you guys and you keep pretending that there was nothing more than it should, a blantaly lie of course cause either of you couldn't help to stare at each other more than just five seconds. And you started to feel guilty, that maybe you were forcing him into something, that maybe you were making him uncomfortable by showing too much that it left no space for him to say to you to fuck off.

"And i don't know...don't want you to think that i'm being annoying or forcing you to move on already and i just wanna make things clear because i don't wanna feel like a replacement at all too...do you think...do you think that i'm being too selfish?" you asked unsure to him, eyes anywhere but him

"What? Sweetheart, no! No way! Look at me" he holded your chin between his fingers, making you look up at him "Sweetheart, you not forcing me into anything, i don't feel like that at all, i never once thought that you were forcing me into it, okay? Yeah, i'm still healling, picking up the shattered pieces and gluing together and i'm not gonna lie, it still hurts like hell but at the same time it's weird cause, whenever i look at you i feel so light. You are not a replacement Y/N Henderson, and i'm sorry if i let you think that you were, cause you're not. I'm not doing anything that i wouldn't like to do, okay?" He said softly and you nodded at that, the nickname he uses with you still had to make you used to it, to be adresses so gently and caring by it coming from his lips, it always made your stomach do turns.

"How about that: we take it slowly, get to know each other more, like truly know each other more without the monsters part" you giggled at that and he smiled at you, he loved your laugh "We can go to dates, learn more about each other, let things go slowly, calmly and see where this heads us"

"Let us know if it's serious or not?"

"Yes, we can take from that: go to dates, have some riding around the city together, watch those sappy movies you oh so love, get to be tigether like this, just the two of us, if that makes you more comfortable that is"

You really didn't need to think the much about it since you already made up your mind. Taking it slowly would absolutely be wonderful, you and him didn't want to rush things and both wanted to see where it would lead you guys, so you just nodded, soft smile on your lips while he carressed your cheek with his thumb "Okay, yeah, i like the idea"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah"

It looked like years ago as you remember it now, but it has been only a couple of weeks as you thought back at it now, looking up at your ceiling as you were lay down on your bed. It was december now, snow have started to fall at least one hour ago as you were helping Dustin to get ready for the Winter Ball.

Steve would be there any moment now, since he was his ride and the mere thought of seeing Steve made your stomach do turns as you holded a cushion strongly against your chest as you smiled like a fool at the mere thought of the boy.

Since the conversation you guys had that day, everything felt a little more light, you had gone to dozens of dates already, talked about nothing and everything, learned that he's a goofy and fully received that, received him as he is. You noticed that he had an strange habit to brush his hair with his fingers when he was flustered and that his eyes were actually a soft light brown, the softest brown eyes you have ever seen actually.

You were brought back to earth as Dustin suddenly opened the door of your bedroom and looked desperatly at you "What's wrong?"

"Where did you put it? The brown bag you bought for me? I can't find it anywhere"

"Oh! It's on the kitchen counter, next to the door"

"Ok, thank you"

And he stormed out of your room and you laughed at his nervousiness, Dustin been waiting for this for a month now and had asked you to buy him a Farrah Fawcet's hairspray for the ball. You laughed remembering of how nervous he looked at asking you that cause the moment he did it, you were watching a movie with Steve on the living room, you don't think you ever saw Dustin that nervous before.

You heard the doorbell ring and Dustin let out a groan at the sound and you laughed at his reaction and got up from your bed and out of your room "I'll open it!"

You exclaimed as you runned past your mom on the living room that already was up and walking towards the door with the little kitten that she gained on her arms and she laughed at your obvious earginess, just to be sure of who it was, you looked out the window just to see the well known red BMW outside and you tried your best to look apresentable.

You let out an excited sigh as you passed your hands trough your hair to get it on it's right place before you opened the door "Hey pretty boy" you smiled up at Steve

"Hey sweetheart" he kissed your cheek and you got flustered "God you're so cute when you do that"

You got out of the way to let him in just so he wouldn't feel cold out there and looked puzzled at him "Do what?"

"This thing you do with your foot back and forth when you either got flustred or nervous"

You giggled at it cause you haven't even noticed that you were doing it.

"Oh, i didn't notice i was doing" you laughed

"Don't worry, i think it's adorable" he winked "Goodnight Mrs.Henderson!"

"Goodnight Steve sweetie, how you've been?"

"Quite fine, thanks for asking" he told to your mom and turned to you "So, i was thinking..."

"Yeah? That doesn't sound so good" you joked and he laughed

"Do you wanna take a ride with me? We can eat something and blast Queen on my car" he leaned in, arm above your head where you were against the door "After we drop Dustin off on the ball and we do our usual thing?"

"Yes, i would love to Steve"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah"

"Is it okay Mrs.Henderson? For me to take Y/N/N on a date? I promise you that i'll drop her off by ten" He asked your mom that was sitting on the living room smiling at the both of you cause even if he was asking her to go out on a date with you, he couldn't stop looking at you.

"Of course, darling. I know she will be in good hands with you"

"Awesome! So...?" he asked you

"Give me ten minutes" you told him

"Ten minutes Henderson"

As he nodded, you get out of his obvious hold and went rushing to your room, when you looked at the mirror that you had, you hissed at your state: you were using a ridiculous pajama short bottom with duck patterns, a huge sweater that belonged to your father and socks on your feet. You couldn't believe that you went to open the door for Steve dressed like this.

You quickly got rid of your pajamas and put cute and warm clothes and were finishing to apply lipgloss on your lips when you heard Steve shout at you and imediatly turned off the lights and went back to him.

"And exactly ten min-Wow!" he said when he looked at you

"What?"

"It's just that...you're so gorgeous oh my god"

"Steve...it's just jeans and a sweater"

"Still...and would you look at that: it's the baby blue sweater i gave you" he said as he got closer and twirled you around

"It is? I haven't noticed when i picked up" You smiled at each other as your arms got around his neck and you felt your breath got stuck on your troath as he leaned in but before even your noses could touch, you heard someone clear their troath behind you and when you turned around, Dustin was there looking annoyed at the both of you and you let out a giggle.

Even if Dustin played matchmaker on the first weeks that you and Steve were going out, he would always find annoying of how slow you guys were taking everything, once he said "I just don't get why the hell you guys won't kiss! If you kissed i'm pretty sure that you would be together right now!" and you just answered that it was better like this.

"So...how do i look?"

You turned in Steve's hold, his arm over your shoulders as your brows went up at seeing as he turned around, he clearly took Steve's hair advice.

"Wow Dusty, you look amazing! I can see you took Steve's advice"

"Of course, he's gonna kill all the ladies tonight"

"Photo time!" your mom interjected and you pushed Dustin by his shoulder for him to stay still

You really didn't know how many photos your mom took of Dustin, all that you knew is that he complained a lot as she did so. When she thought that she had enough photos (you and Steve being dragged too), she let you guys go off, you decided to seat on the backseat of Steve's car as Dustin seated on the passenger's seat, you could swap when you arrived at gymnasyum of his school.

The ride didn't take that long and in a few minutes you where there, you saw Dustin slump his shoulder's, you could see that he was nervous and so did Steve, the both of you exchanging looks as you motioned to him so say something.

"All right buddy, here we are. So remember: once you get in there"

"Pretend like i don't care" you let out a low giggle at that

"You don't care"

"I don't care"

Steve noticed how much Dustin still doubted himself, his eyes shifted from you for some seconds and you smiled at him, before que kept talking to Dustin.

"Hey"

"What?"

"Come on, you look great okay? You look...you look great!" he reassured him "Now you're gonna go in there"

"Yeah"

"Look like a million bucks"

"Yeah!"

"And you're gonna slay them dead"

"Like a lion" Dustin made his purr and you fully laughed at that, such a dork

"Just don't do that"

"Okay"

As he said that, you and him got out of the car, him for to get inside the gymnasium and you for take the passenger's seat, but before he could take a step, he turned to you, a lost look on his eyes and you smiled at him, getting on his eye level "Hey, you gonna do great, yeah? I'm gonna say something to you: most girls are superficial at that age. If they won't dance with you, don't get sad, you look amazing and i can assure you that in a few years they gonna regret it, but for now, you should have fun with the party. Okay?"

"Okay" he smiled at you

"Now go over there and as Steve said: slay'em dead" He nodded and started to walk away as you smiled at his back and opened the door to the passenger's seat and before you could get back inside, your eyes fell on Nancy that was inside and gave you a smile and waved at you, you smiled at her and waved back, finally getting inside the car and buckling your seatbelt.

"Ready to go?"

"Yeah, let's go"

You smiled at him as he holded your hand and off you went.

You guys chose that your date today would be in the top of a hill, had picked food (pizza this time) and you could see all of the town from where you where at, you guys were seated at the top of Steve's car hood, the pizza long forgotten, his arm around your shoulder and your head on his, his thumbs making patterns on the hand he was holding.

"Hey, i've been meaning to ask something" he said and you hummed, he took this a signal to keep talking "Dustin said to me last week that you used to have a crush on me...is it true?"

"Oh..." you said, lifting your head from his shoulder to look at him "Yes, i did, ninth grade. It was a silly little crush, you haven't done much and i fell head over heels for you"

"Really? What i did?"

"I don't know if you remember but...one day i was alone at the art club, finishing a project and then your bursted right trough the door and when you saw me you said..."

""Hey can i be here for some minutes? I'm trying to get rid of Tommy H." " he laughed and you nodded "I remember that day, Tommy H. was being...i don't remeber now, i think he was making fun of someone and i think it was the first time that i ever felt tired of walking with him and Carol"

"Yeah, i remember it and hmm...i let you stay there as i finished it and then you got behind me watching as i was painting and said something like "Wow this is so cool, do you think i could be able to do that if you teached me?" " you laughed remember it "and i said something like "yeah, if you stay quiet and let me finish it, i may teach you" and we started to talk about a lot of things, i got to know you, before i thought you were a douch and i changed my mind of thinking that you were at least torable" he laughed, hand on your waist pulling you closer as he saw you were trembling because of the cold "We talked few days more and it was easy to talk to you when you weren't around Tommy H. and Carol tied to your hip, i developed a crush on you, yes, but..."

"But?"

"One day people started calling you "King Steve" cause you and some girl i won't remember now, made out in front of the whole school" you laughed bitterly

"Oh"

"Yeah, oh...i-i think that it was the first time i ever experencied heart break, it was a uni-lateral crush, i knew it already but it didn't make it hurt less. Then after that, we never talked to each other again."

"Why you didn't said something? Back there?"

"Because you seemed so immersed on your popular life, why would you lose your time speaking with Y/N Henderson of all people? It was short days but i was happy that someone besides Jonathan talked to me"

"I'm so sorry, Y/N/N. God i was such a douche"

"You were indeed"

"Unfortunatetly i have no excuses, i guess i would stuck with everyone that would gather me popularity and it was futile of me. But you know what?"

"What?"

He turned to you, smiling and holding your face in his hands.

"I always remember those days and when i think back to it, if i haven't be such an asshole, i would've get to know you much better in times than right now, i lost the chance to do that back in the ninth grade and the start of HighSchool but i want to stay with you, wanna be able to everyday be with you and.." he inched his face closer to yours "...and i wanna be able to call you my girlfriend, if you let me"

You looked surprise at him, your eyes connecting with his and full doubts surrounding your head, to wanting to know if he really mean it, that he wouldn't feel regret and want to end things in less than one month "Steve...are you sure? It's not that i don't want it it's just...i'm afraid that in less one month you'll regret it and i don't wanna a heartbroken over you yet again" you confessed softly

"I'm sure, i want this, i want you, i wanna have this with you. I have no idea of how you were capable to have a hold on my heart so fastly and even had all the patience with everything with me, if there's something that i'm afraid in all of this, it's not being able to be enough for you, because i want you so so so bad sweetheart " His confession stole a breath out of you, you never thought that you would hear this coming out of his mouth, not towards you that is. Steve Harrington got other chance at having a grip on your heart in such a small amount of time yet again but this time...this time, you knew he wouldn't turn his back at you.

So as your noses touched each other and your hands went around his neck while his breath fanned over your cheek, you nodded at him "Yes"

"Thank God"

"Yes?"

"Yes...i wanna be your girlfriend, i wanna be with you too" he chuckled

And finally, after days, after weeks, you finally had your first kiss with Steve Harrington since all the tensions you felt towards going after Demodogs from the Upside Down, fighting inter-dimensional monsters and flirting in the middle of it all.

His kiss was slow but it was full of meaning and want, since the day at the couch on the Byers's house, he thought back of what it would be like to kiss you and it was better than he imagined it, the remainents of you the strawberry lipgloss you were using tasted so good against his tongue as he passed it on your bottom lip. It was better than what he imagined it, to kiss you, he felt as of he was on the clouds and he smiled thinking of it.

And as you were kissing, too busy in each others hold, it started to snow on Hawkins and here, kissing Steve, you thought that it was the perfect first kiss that could easily be in a sappy romantic movies that you loved.