#dad!jm

. . . ۶ৎ dad!joel. dad!joel who teaches you how to ride a horse, chuckling when you struggle to get on at first. dad!joel who tucks you in at night when you’re fast asleep, tugging the blanket over you just a bit further. dad!joel who hates singing but hums a little as soon as you ask him to. dad!joel who teaches you guitar and gives a great big smile every damn time you strike a chord. dad!joel who doesn’t care who you love n just warns you not to get into trouble. dad!joel who’d come up with excuses like "you need to learn how to fish in an apocalypse" just to go out on trips with you. "da- I mean joel, how do you reel it in?" "baby, you haven't caught a bite." dad!joel who drinks out of the same mug and wears the same coat nearly every day of his life. dad!joel who’s always in charge of bringing something easy like pie to family reunions. dad!joel who ends up making you bake it after burning it for the umpteenth time. dad!joel who always manages to get you the perfect birthday present even when the winter's rough and the summer's searing. dad!joel who lost himself after sarah and found himself again in you.

. . . ۶ৎ jackson!dad!joel. jd!joel who you're paired up with on patrol when jesse's bedridden, maria insisting you'd be fine going out with him. jd!joel who you thought hated you. he barely looked at you and almost did nothing but grunt. jd!joel who you start getting paired up with more and more. jd!joel who finally starts talking, but only about small things like football. jd!joel who you start putting trust into, and who proves he deserves it. jd!joel who gets beat up real bad on a run, wounds all over him and a bullet wound in his stomach. "joel! oh my goodness, what happened? are you bit?" you ask in panic, frantically running your hands over him and lifting up his clothes to check for marks. he coughs, looking at you with a glint of something softer in his eye for just a second. "'m fine, kid. you don't gotta worry." jd!joel who you barely manage to haul onto your horse, riding him back to jackson as fast as you can. "you scared me," you said, looking off to the side and wrapping your arms around yourself. you were sat next to him as he laid in the hospital bed, shirtless and barely awake. "things like that just happen out there. you're fine." "don't go off on me like that. what if something awful'd happened to you? what would I have done then?" you trailed off, sniffling a bit. "like I said, you would've been fine." "what don't you get? you could've died," you said, voice trembling. "and over what? supplies? you think I'd have cared if we'd come back empty handed?" "it's none of your goddamn business what happens to me. we ain't family. why do you care so much, huh? what do you want from me?" "because da–joel, it felt like we were, but I guess I was wrong." he sighed. "I just... I ain't used to having someone to look after no more." jd!joel who, after he gets patched up, treats you to ice cream. he sits beside you on a bench, handing you a cup of your favorite flavor. "didn’t mean to scare ya," he muttered. "I ain't any good at whatever this is no more, but I figured ice cream might help." you took a spoonful. "it's okay. i know." "hey, i'm better with a pistol than you y'kn–" "don't. you almost gave me a heart attack last time!" you laughed. jd!joel who might've been thrown into the darkness since sarah, but found the light in you. you who weren't his daughter, and jd!joel who sure as hell wasn't your dad, but who the world'd managed to make a family out of.