Different Fields
Title: Different Fields
Pairing: Joel Miller x reader (third person reader, female, no y/n)
Word Count: 5400
Rating: R to be safe
Warnings: Joel Miller does not get happy endings. He gets close. But no happy endings. Language. Really poor knowledge of baking.
A/N: This is a "soft" as we get for Joel-- this is written before the show so it may later not be show compliant. This is intended as an AFTER "Last of Us" BEFORE "Last of Us 2" (and during Last of Us 2) piece set in the Jackson Community.
Joel Miller/TLOU Masterlist -- Author Masterlist -- Taglist -- TIP Jar
Different Fields
____________________________________________________________
She hadn’t expected the knock on her door.
When she opened it and saw a stranger she was a little apprehensive but he held up his hands, “Howdy...Joel. Miller. I’m...new around here.”
She looked behind him and recognized the animal she saw, “Tommy know you got Petunia?”
“Petunia?” He chuckled, “I’ve been calling her Asshole.”
That made her smile, “Yeah she never seemed like a Petunia to me.”
Her face was friendly, open, curious, “But you aren’t a ...cattle rustler or what not?”
“No, I’m his brother.”
“Oh in that case…” She wiped flour off of her hands, "Help you with anything?"
He held up a bag, "Tommy sent this."
Her face lit up and she nodded, "You mind bringing it in? I'd like to wash my hands before I touch it. Don't stand on ceremony these floors are used to mud."
Even so he stomped his boots clean, mindful not to lift the line of duct-tape holding the one together, and came in with his head a little bowed, eyes darting around keenly.
“He said you were a farmer….”
There were a lot things around. Racks with herbs hanging off of them, jars and jars of preserves, scraps of paper with scribbled and crossed out recipes and lists and instructions.
A tomato plant.
Actually a little clutch of them.
It wasn’t the season for tomatoes, he was impressed they were out much less that there were little golf-ball sized tomatoes on them.
“Impressed?” She sounded smug, like she knew it was a sight to behold, “Some might say that’s impressive.”
“I’d ask if you bought ‘em from the store to pass off as yours but…” He shrugged, “Seems that’s not it. What’s your secret?”
"I talk to them. You can too if you have a mind. My tomatoes get big as softballs when there's a juicy confession-- the pack of drama queens." She eyed the package from Tommy and reviewed it, nodding, and then wrapped a tupperware dish in a towel and handed it over, “Give this to Glorious Leader with my regards...uh, what’s your name again?”
“Joel.”
She smiled widely, “Welcome to the end-times. You ever scout any sorta seed or something you bring it here. Have a nice day.”
____________________________________________________________
“If you shoot please aim for the head, I’d rather go quick.”
She lowered the gun, “You might start with a howdy Joel-- I have to keep a sharp eye around here.”
She referenced the farmland, “Not the right sort of fences.”
Joel nodded, “I noticed that. We had a raid attempt on the Western storage shed, Tommy told me to check in with you on account of the...what’d he call it...stubborn ass out there without a fence.”
“I have a fence.” She kicked at one of her posts, “Just...ineffective against certain kinds.”
Joel sighed and patted the horse, “I gotta do a check just to be sure...you wanna come or you going to shoot me?”
“Shooting you might help my potatoes, don’t tempt me.”
She didn't come.
And when he circled back around she had a little wrapped up pouch for him. When he unfurled the kitchen towel he saw a sandwich.
"Peanut butter and jelly?"
She pointed a sharp finger at him, "I don't know if you noticed but Kroger's didn't make it here so that's all homemade."
He bit down into it and his face changed over.
He moaned which made her smile, "I'll take that as a compliment. Now don't mind me, eat your lunch."
She had potato chips and a beer there too and walked off to tend to her plants. He waltzed over, "Beer yours too?"
"Believe it or not the process was already here. People immediately established fermentation for it and began refining the method. I've been experimenting with flavor. Would you say that said Guinness?"
Joel shrugged, "Don't know I remember what Guinness tastes like...but it reminds me of beer."
"I suppose I'll have to start there." She smirked, "Thanks for the check in."
He nodded at her, "Thanks for lunch….next time I'll take a black coffee."
She laughed, "You and me both, chief….you and me both."
___________________________________________________________________________
Joel opened the door for her, and Ellie noticed but, for now, held back the tease.
Town meetings could be stiff affairs and despite Tommy being in the spotlight Joel hung towards the back wall, arms over his chest. He never quit looking ready to run.
But he'd held the door for the woman and despite taking her seat among some of the younger members of town Ellie's eyes cheated over to Joel.
Still grumpy in the back of the room.
But someone was next to him.
She elbowed one of her new friends and asked only to receive a "That's the farm lady. We don't see much of her. She keeps out there pretty much by herself."
Ellie wouldn’t have known Joel’s type from a hole in the ground.
“You guys have a farm?”
“We asked for a Walmart but…”
Ellie slapped someone’s arm.
“Why isn’t it closer?”
“Said she needed the space or something. I dunno. Makes stuff, if you ever want a recipe you can ask and she will try it. Might not work and might cost ya something, but she will try it.”
Ellie watched as the woman leaned close to Joel, gently shoulder-checking him, and he fought off a smirk and then he tried to pretend he was fine in the back of the room.
The perspective from up top was a little different.
She’d come in because she’d been pretty much told she couldn’t keep blowing these things off. She was planning on just sticking right close to the door but apparently she and Joel Miller shared a complete lack of interest in these meetings and he had already claimed her spot.
Something he didn’t even notice because he was focused.
He kept looking at a group of teenagers.
She sighed and looked at the ceiling for a second.
One comes in that checks my boxes, you gotta make him a creep?
“Trying to rob a cradle?” He seemed to shake out of something, then fixed her a glance, “One of them’s my...I dunno….responsibility?”
He didn’t like that word.
“Pain in the ass?” she offered.
He pursed his lips and nodded, “Sounds right.”
She walked away then.
She knew when not to overwater something. She wandered down the wall, hugging it, avoiding the central semi-circle of chairs.
“Who are you hiding from?” Maria nudged her.
“Everyone. I hate people.”
“Why’d you come?”
“Tommy suggested it.” She rolled her eyes, “In a way that implied I was going a little feral.”
Maria laughed, crossed her arms over her chest and her eyes darted from you to Joel, “See you met my in-law.”
She didn’t turn around, didn’t need to be so obvious.
“Yeah what’s...his thing?”
Maria sighed, “Came in here looking all doom and gloom-- had that girl--”
She jutted her chin towards a skinny brunette in a red hoodie.
“Looks...average.”
“Yeah well...you didn’t hear this from me but that kid was special, wanted by the Fireflies. Joel moved mountains to get her to them. Nearly fucking died. Then...just...came back.”
The farmer stared, “People don’t do that.”
“He did.” Maria chewed her cheek, “Said that it was essentially a big let down.”
“You sound like you don’t believe him.”
Maria tilted her head this way and that, “I believe he thought Ellie was safer here. And if that’s why he did whatever he did I...I guess that’s not a bad thing. Hard to say what price people pay here or...how long it takes them to learn a lesson.”
“What are you on about Socrates?”
Maria snorted, “I dunno, Tommy got quiet. He told me once, a long time ago, his niece died on Outbreak Day and...he doesn’t have another brother.”
That chilled the other woman.
She didn’t like to think about Outbreak Day, who did?
Maria chuckled.
“I’m sorry, is that a funny story?” She chided.
“No, it’s just….it was his birthday. And he looks about the right brand for the world ending on his birthday.”
The farmer didn't agree but it made her watch him differently.
She understood the hovering.
The discomfort.
As the meeting ended she crept back up near him, “You need to rotate ‘em.”
“Hm?”
She smiled, nodded at Ellie, “The fields. You can’t plant the same crops in the same field year after year, it kills the soil. Makes it so nothing grows. You gotta plant ‘em in a different field. One field over. Two fields down. Something. You don’t get exactly the same crop-- not possible, you never will. But you can get close.”
Joel snorted, “That right?”
“Yup.”
He looked down at his shoes and then up at her, “Good to know.”
She nodded at him and made to leave.
"You walk?"
She stopped to turn and look at him.
"I did."
He considered something and let his arms drop heavily to his sides, "Alright, let me grab Bahama--"
"Who?"
He rolled his eyes, "I was trying to offer you a ride...take it or leave it."
_________________________________________________________
She couldn’t tell you why she knew that knock was Joel Miller but she knew before she opened the door that Joel Miller was behind it.
The knock was...firm, like the hand behind it was strong, but timid as if it had forgotten what knocking was and wasn’t quite sure of procedure anymore.
“I have a … small problem.”
“That right?” She opened the door, “Well come in and let’s see if I can’t help you out.”
He shook his head and walked in, awkwardly tucking his hands into his pockets, “Folks really are...friendly around here.”
“Better than the bitey folks.”
“That’s true.”
He tapped the duct taped toe of a boot against her door jam, thoughtfully, like he was bracing for impact.
“I uh...the kid. I got. She…” He exhaled, “Apparently had a birthday. I didn’t know. Have to wait til next year for a good present. Seems a bit too little and too late but I heard tale you might be open to a trade for something resembling a cake.”
She smiled indulgently, "Well come on in."
Joel followed her through the house and looked around.
It was a cozy rat’s nest of a kitchen. The farmhouse wasn’t big and there were jars and bottles with labels everywhere.
She gave a slightly embarrassed laugh, “Sorry-- don’t mind the laboratory.”
“What’s it all for?”
She held up one jar, “Well this is yeast. So you came for cake and this is part of what’ll make it. Well I suppose technically a bread? I’ve managed something that I think tastes like cake. Can’t right remember all the specifics of cake anymore.”
She was pulling things out of her cupboards and studying them, looking, weighing and then nodded, “Yeah looks like I can try for one...I don’t make promises. I wasn’t a cook before, and I don’t exactly have recipes.”
"Better than most of us I reckon."
"I guess...I just wish I paid attention more when...Well...you remember before.” She said with a gentle chuckle, “Had no idea I’d need to know any of this.”
He nodded, waited, asked, “What’d you do?”
“I was twenty. Or...I was turning twenty one. I was planning my whole party.” She smiled to think of it, and then shook her head, “I have not...man have I not thought about that in a while…”
Her face glowed, gleamed a little as she went back to a place before she knew how to load a gun or what blood smelled like.
“There was this place a couple towns over? Called Arcade Fire like the band, do you remember bands? There was a band. Anyway this place it looked like an arcade--”
“Creative.”
“I mean it was hokey but it was for young stupid people buying pretty looking drinks. They had these…” She held her hands out to indicate size, shape, and then moved them around in frustration, “Ah, what’s the...you know. This. Kinda… like a...pot? No. Like a vase? ...BOWL! FISHBOWL! They had these big fishbowls they’d bring you out with giant curly straws and these neon drinks inside all named after video games. Like you could do the Donkey Kong or the Yoshi or the Tetris. Tetris was fruity.”
“Sounds like a hangover.”
"Probably." She agreed and her enthusiasm waned a little, "I never made it."
They got quiet as she got mixing. Mumbling about the honey supply dwindling ("Hope you aren't allergic to bees, Miller, I'm fixing to make you bring me a new beehive to double my honey output") and hmmming at the flour as she poured, gently folded, poured a little more, stirred again.
"You almost look like you know what you're doing." Joel teased as she seemed to wrap up.
“I mean...I don’t know how it works. I sort of stumbled on it. Trial and error.” She shrugged.
“Better than most of us know how.”
“That’s true. I mean...now it’s gotta rise.”
“How long’ll that be?”
“Least tomorrow.”
He nodded, “So I’ll come back?”
“Yeah if it looks ready I’ll toss it in the oven. See if I can rustle up some candles.”
He tried to smile but his face wiped it off before it could really take, “Sounds fine...I’ll come back.”
He felt like he was...missing something. Leaving something out. Repeating himself because he was out of conversation to make.
He left feeling like he'd missed a step, missed out on something. Done something wrong.
Took him half the night to think about what.
______________________
She opened the door for him before he knocked, her smile light and airy, "Houston, we have cake."
"Houston? You cheatin' on me?" He winked as he walked in.
"Ha ha." She gently slapped his arm, "This one smells nice. I guarantee nothing but I am feeling pretty good about it."
It did, in fact, resemble a loaf cake.
"What'll I owe you?"
"Don't know." She shrugged, "When I think of something I'll let you know."
Joel's brow furrowed at her.
He didn't like that answer.
But she waved him off.
"Oh hush. It's fine. I'll come up with something. Something hard. Maybe even dangerous."
He snorted.
She wrapped the cake in a dishtowel and then put it in an ancient Tupperware.
He had it in his bag which he slowly slung over his shoulder.
“Thank you.”
“For the danger?”
He barked a half a laugh.
The laughs had started coming back. With Ellie and her stupid jokes.
But other things still felt like phantom limbs.
He took one step back but he didn’t turn away.
He was feeling...sluggish.
She reached up and put a hand on his flannel then gently brushed a little dirt off of it. Then just...left her hand there. Let it sit on him. Let the warmth seep in. Was it for her or for him? She couldn’t quite tell. Didn’t know. It didn’t matter. He said nothing just put his hand over hers.
There was a twitch to her eyebrow-- Do you…?
A slight uptick in his mouth--- Do you?
Her fingers curled around the fabric of the flannel and pulled him closer, slowly, giving him the option to back out or shake his head but he didn’t.
He had fucked on the road but he wasn’t one for getting cozy. The two had seemed ideologically divorced-- he just needed to keep enough of his stupid out of his body to not die, he wasn’t out there to speed-date. Tess was…
Well hell she was.
He respected the shit out of her. He’d have strangled her in a normal setting.
If any of this might ever be construed as normal.
Tess had sharpened him like a blade, he needed it. He needed to be honed, reminded of what the cost was, how to be. What to do. What needed doing.
Last time someone had grabbed at his shirt he had batted their hands off because he only had the one shirt and wasn’t looking to rip it.
He didn't know if he remembered how to do this and he seemed to recall that the last time he had that he had messed it all up rather well.
He was so damn close.
He could practically taste it…
So he cleared his throat and pulled back.
“Thank you.”
______________________________________________
He wasn’t a tail between his legs type.
When someone had to go check on her a few days later because winds had knocked down a shit ton of branches he packed up the towel and the tupperware and he volunteered to go.
And found her trying to lift a massive sonofabitch fallen tree all by herself.
“Good way to break your damn neck.” He grumbled as he hopped off the horse and jogged over to help support her.
“Nice of you to drop in.” She gritted her teeth and together they were able to get it up and push it to the side.
“Shit, fuck and son of a bitch.” She spat.
He could seen the broken up wood structure.
“What was that?”
“A new chicken coop. Left it out here to dry. Painted it. Red. Supposed to keep away the foxes.”
“Is it?”
“I don’t fucking know, Tommy says a lot of stupid stuff.” She kicked a scrap of wood that wouldn’t hold in chickens now, “Fucking spent a lot of time on that.”
Joel nodded to himself, “Would this square us for the cake?”
“Whaddaya mean?”
“If I fix it?”
She nodded, “Yeah…yeah that’ll do it.”
She helped him collect the pieces, bring what was salvageable back to her barn, her shit array of tools, and Joel spread everything out.
“What do you need?”
He looked around, “Drink’d be nice.”
“Bottled mineral water or will the Perrier suffice?” She rolled her eyes and disappeared into the house.
After a minute there was a call out, “Did you eat?”
“Breakfast.”
She scoffed, “It’s the after-fucking-noon Miller.”
He didn’t respond.
He liked having the wood in front of him.
He was planning.
Measuring.
It felt…
A ghost of him had done this once, had done this every day.
“You look like you know what you’re doing.”
He snorted, “Should hope so.”
A plate slid by his elbow. He reached for the food without pausing in his planning.
It wasn’t until he bit into it that he moaned.
“Is this a BLT?”
She smiled widely, “You can say it’s delicious.”
He ate half of it in three bites and then stoicly sucked on the tip of his thumb, “Could use some mayo.”
She slapped his shoulder, “Careful. I was tempted to take you seriously.”
He smirked, “No coffee?”
“Don’t remind me.”
She just watched him for a bit until she whispered, “You really were a carpenter.”
“Tommy telling stories?”
“No.” She shook her head with a staid expression and then grinned, “Maria was.”
“Well that’s a hoot, I don’t talk to her much.”
“She likes you fine.”
“I didn’t ask.”
She couldn’t tell if she had trespassed on something.
The truth was Joel had felt…exposed here. Tommy had had a whole life here without him. And Tommy had done fine. Well and truly fine.
He had often wondered if he hadn’t…
Spoiled it.
Even just a little.
Tommy didn’t say that.
But…
A man’s fears simply were.
"Maria said you had a girl."
Joel refocused, gave a nod.
"She didn't mention a wife."
He sighed, "No she wouldn't…"
Joel ran his hand over his watch and then his beard and she cleared her throat, "Forget I mentioned i-"
"It's...fine. Just...even before all this I...I didn't talk about her much."
She gave a sympathetic nod, "It's fine, I didn't mean to pry."
Joel snorted, "Yes you did."
A guilty look.
"Alright. I did." She held up a finger and wagged it at him, "But I don't want to offend. So. If you can split that difference."
Joel looked at a dirty spot on the floor. It seemed like a shape. Rabbit? Maybe… Raccoon? No. Something.
He exhaled long and slow, "She and I hooked up at a high school party. Got knocked up. Tried to make it work. Weren't good to one another...I cheated. She divorced me. We had a hell of a mud sling and then she just...decided she was going to California. Going to be an actress."
He shook his head, "Didn't fight me on Sarah. Wanted to say all this shit but didn't want her daughter around...for the best. She overdosed. Something laced with something. Told Sarah it was a car accident...never did tell her the truth."
She crossed her arms over her chest, realized she had probably pushed him…sufficiently far.
“I’ll…let you get to it.”
As she turned to go she said, “I’ll be in the fields. Don’t just…skulk off. Say good-bye.”
He nodded, “I will.”
__________________________________________________________
He watched her for a while.
She didn’t need anyone out here but she wasn’t fool enough to say no to help when it came around.
Joel respected work ethic.
He respected self-sufficiency.
And he knew an invitation to sit at the table when he heard it.
He knew it was genuine– she didn’t have time to waste, she didn’t feel obliged to make something seem like what it wasn’t.
But maybe she wasn’t sure how to do it all either.
“You have most of a chicken coop. Losing the light. Finish it tomorrow.”
She looked up, and smiled widely, “So sluggish? Am I supposed to be impressed?”
It was a gentle tease.
Sweet.
She dusted off her hands and walked over to him, “Figure this is your way of saying good-bye?”
“Do people do it different around here?”
“Sometimes even with the words good and bye.”
He smirked, “Fancy that. Must be fine mannered people.”
She cocked her head to look at him, really look at him.
He let her.
“What…aren’t you?” She was teasing again.
He couldn’t help it–she had a stray hair stuck to her forehead with dirt and he reached out to brush it off and then he just…
Pulled back so slow.
His hand felt disobedient.
It was about to just shoot into his pocket when she reached up with her own and pressed it to her cheek.
He let her.
Fuck.
"I don't remember how to do this."
She made a playfully shocked face and wiggled her eyebrows, "This?"
He rolled his eyes and brought his other hand up to cup her face, "This."
She nodded and sobered a little, pulling him closer, "Me neither….wanna help me puzzle it out?"
"Yes ma'am."
Her fingers laced through the longer pieces of hair starting to curl at the base of his neck and he felt himself lean forward.
At least in the morning he got a good start on the coop with the light.
_________________
Still catching his breath Joel laid back on the pillows and for the first time in longer than he cared to think about his back didn't itch like it was about to be stabbed. He slept poorly often, mumbling or flailing.
She hadn’t complained about it, he figured he either didn’t do it here or she was too asleep to notice.
She had a pretty soft bed.
Softer than his.
I’d lodge a complaint to Tommy….
But he didn’t know if he was ready to let anyone else in just yet.
Right now, with just her in his hands, he felt like he could hold onto all the loose edges. More people? More frays. More…
More.
Just too much.
It was enough that he didn’t just bend her over a fence and fuck her with his jeans half on. It was enough that he got to laugh as someone tripped over their own underwear. Then she shimmied in the frayed and old bra and joked it was the sexy one, brought out for just such an occasion.
He didn’t have to explain his scars.
He didn’t have to ask about bruises.
In fact he didn’t have to talk, which helped.
Tess had always done the talking and this one didn’t seem interested in that.
She just checked– this? That?
Oh yeah?
Oh yeah.
He was shocked he lasted.
Well. He thought he did. He didn’t exactly have the stopwatch out.
He just felt his way through.
And she had opened up the covers without a word and he collapsed into them because yes m’am he was tired now. Good tired.
He wasn’t looking to overcomplicate it.
Just…
Seedlings.
Seedlings making a poor gardener proud because at least it wasn’t hard empty dirt there after all.
____________________
Her door was open in the back and it made her cock her shotgun.
"Hello?"
But as she turned she caught Joel Miller mid-pace and when he saw her she knew something was bothering him. He looked tense as a beaten dog, half cowering, not a posture she ever saw from him before.
She safetied the gun and said, "Joel?"
He crossed the room and kissed her so he didn't have to say anything.
She caught the morse code in his mouth.
Something was wrong but….
He wasn’t in a talking about it place.
So she tried to see how well his hands could talk.
And he tried.
He was rougher than usual.
Grabby.
Like he was looking for something for…
Penance.
She thought she heard him say…
Sorry.
No?
Did he?
Couldn’t have.
He wasn’t the apology type.
He was forward with her and she submitted, he obviously needed to get this off his chest.
But even panting on the couch and half-dressed he hadn’t managed to say anything.
She traced an empty pattern on his shoulder.
"What's the name of the prickle bush you're in?"
He exhaled, "I…I lied to Ellie. She found out and… she's mighty pissed."
She sighed, “That’ll do it….can you apologize?”
“I did the right thing, I don’t…I’m not…”
He growled a little and stood up quick to straighten his pants and his shirt.
She changed the subject, “Didn’t peg you for a liar.”
“Well. Shows how much you know.”
Ouch.
But.
A cornered animal will bite even if its not so mean most of the time.
She gentled her tone, “Oh I dunno…I would guess you had a reason you thought was pretty good.”
He didn’t respond.
"You ever lied to me?"
"Not so long as you don't make me say things I shouldn't say to you."
She snorted….that sounded like him indeed.
“Alright tell me something true then.”
“I just...Can I stay here? I just…” He was distraught even if he was trying to hide it. “I…I need somewhere to just…think. Be. And…not be.”
Regular Shakespeare that Miller man was.
She leaned up and kissed him, softly, made him slow his pace.
“Course you can.”
He leaned right back into her.
Thank you.
He didn’t say it.
Not exactly.
_________________
Joel ran into Ellie-- it was inevitable.
Ellie was good at making it something that didn’t happen often.
It stung.
It stabbed.
And he…
He wanted to tell her things.
Not your fucking kid, let it go.
But it wasn’t so simple.
Hey…what’s a ghost’s favorite fruit? Boo-berries.
Dumb.
He knew that it was dumb.
But he hadn’t told anyone about his … whatever. Was. The thing.
Ellie would’ve had some obnoxious way to describe it.
And he wanted to just…
Tell her.
But…
She had a way of turning her shoulder so sharp it cut.
A stubborn farmer watched as Joel’s face shrunk in on itself a little and she nudged him back to the present.
“Give me a hand, old man?”
“Who you calling old?”
Though Ellie didn’t admit it, not to anyone, she watched out of the corner of her eye as Joel held the door for that woman.
Again.
He’d done it before.
And if he thinks I don’t fucking notice…
Whatever.
The liar.
Hope he…
No you don’t.
She was so mad, it flared whenever she thought of him, but she didn’t know the answer to the question of whether or not she hated Joel Miller.
And she didn’t plan on forcing herself to answer it until he seemed sufficiently fucking beaten.
_________________
It was a calm morning.
Really open skies.
Which was nice because it had been a rough storm last night.
“I gotta go.”
She had a whisper of a smile on her face as she pulled on her button-up, “Then shoo.”
But he didn’t mind being there.
Instead he fingered absently on the unbuttoned lapel of her shirt, “You got things to do?”
“Thought I’d try farming.”
A gentle laugh.
“You tried planting coffee yet?”
“Believe it or not Wyoming isn’t the right climate.”
“That don’t sound right. Maybe try again.”
He was so close to her.
So close.
“I gotta go.” He said quietly. Patrol didn’t wait. Problems didn’t wait.
“So, scoot.”
He snorted and leaned down, kissing her softly. Just the once. He nodded to himself like the test he’d run passed muster and said once more, “I gotta go.”
She nodded and he pulled back, ambling through the door.
Lord but I do not mind the sigh of that man walking away.
____________________
She was mending fences.
It was one of those thankless regular jobs on a farm.
She was mending fenceposts and thinking about Joel Miller’s hands and mouth and the fact that the storm was so loud last night it drowned out all their extra noise.
They were normally pretty quiet but things had been getting louder.
If she wasn’t careful she might even be in danger of admitting to someone that she was keeping a grumpy cowboy in her bed.
Oh he’s alright. The beard itches, but not in a bad way.
She smirked.
She didn’t think Tommy suspected. Maria might, she had a way.
But Tommy was a bit oblivious and she would relish the little shock, the tease, some sort of ribbing to Joel she’d have to rub in later.
Then again the only real agenda later was a bath. She was muddy as hell. The rain hadn’t been a joke. It was slippery. She’d gone down twice already.
Maybe if she played her cards right Joel would take the bath with her.
She could offer to make him feel real dirty getting clean.
The thought made her grin ear to ear.
He would tease her back but he would pull her towards him anyway.
She fit nicely on his lap, a comforting weight, not a girl unsure of what to do or how to do it, she was able to just find herself with him and he like that, liked to know it wasn’t solely on his shoulders– though he didn’t mind helping. It was part of the charm. Both were at ease enough with one another letting the other take the lead sometimes.
It felt easy.
Easy like something she tried to remember…
Some kinda song, the easy kind they’d play on the radio that got stuck in your head and you never knew who sang them or what they were even about.
And as she was humming and reaching for her pliers and contemplating just how she’d set the scene (fll the tub first? Yeah. Had to. Needed a second with the hot water heater acting up and –)
Well.
Thinking about Joel like that was mighty distracting.
____________________
Dina came in with a basket of vegetables.
“How’s your day?” Ellie asked, casually, never expecting a hard answer these days.
Most days were quiet enough.
“Trouble over at the farm. I might have to go help out a bit.”
Ellie looked up, “Hm?”
“Yeah...she was fixing one of the fences after the rain, looks like she just...slipped. Went down the hill, cracked her neck.” Dina shook her head, “It’s a funny thing, isn’t it? We get so used to bracing for a biter we forget about how slippery the mud can be.”
Ellie froze a little and remembered the look on Joel’s face when he held the door open for a woman with a broken neck and she shook her head, “Yeah...funny.”
_________________________________________________________
A/N: I am sorry but canonically he ends poorly. Maybe I will change my tune and write Tommy and Maria fluff. Or different sorts of Joel fluff. Or tons of Bill lecturing Joel stuff.
Again this was written prior to the show dropping so it may not be show compliant (I mean I pretty much guarantee it won’t be show compliant)
Not Beta Read
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