shipperstbh

[shipperstbh]

Under Jackson Skies

Chapter 4- Carl and Dylan

You spent the whole night going over the moment you and Joel had. Something felt different with him.

You also kept thinking about him in that shirt, the way it clung to his body.

What the fuck has gotten into you?

By the time you check the clock, it's one hour until you have to be up.

Shit.

You quickly got into bed and fell asleep as quickly as you could.

You felt good the next day, despite being tired as shit.

Joel had said goodnight to you, basically forgiven you. You felt as if you were starting to make a connection, it would make this week easier.

You and Joel were on the earlier patrols today, once you woke up you quickly got ready.

You spent a little longer on your hair today, a little longer applying your perfume, and just a little longer staring at yourself in the mirror.

Did you want to admit it was for Joel? No of course not!

Was it though? Of course it was.

You left the house a few minutes before patrol began, not getting breakfast this morning due to the lack of time.

You walked over to the gates, surprised to only see one horse standing there, Joel's usual horse.

"Where's the other horse?" You ask the soldiers.

"You're on a smaller patrol today...another group are goin' out and checking a big area, it's a big group they needed 'em. Just one horse for you and that other new guy whenever he shows up." the soldier responds.

You sigh, Joel's not exactly going to see you now. You weren't even sure how you feel about Joel, you try not to forget the things he's done to you, but it's hard.

Joel shows up again at the last second, why does he always do that?

You lean on the horse as he walks over "Only one horse today, another patrol group has the others." You say, while trying to gage his reaction.

He doesn't even have a reaction. He grabs the rifle from the soldier and puts it on his back, then climbs onto the horse.

You grab the other rifle from the soldier and put it on your own back.

As you get ready to climb up, Joel reaches out his hand to help you climb. You hesitate but then grab his hand and he helps to pull you up onto the horse.

That's the first time you've touched Joel.

He then grabs his gloves from the pocket of his brown coat and puts them on, you do the same.

You don't even know where to put your hands, you wonder whether you can just place them on your lap and you'll be fine.

That's soon proved wrong.

The gates open and Joel taps both his legs against the sides of the horse and then the speed of the horse picks up.

As the speed continues to pick up, you slip back off the horse and nearly fall, you grab the back of Joel's coat to hold you up.

Without hesitation, he turns around and grabs your arm and pulls you back up the horse until there's little to no distance between the two of you.

He continues to stare at you and raises his eyebrow at you, he still holds your arm.

"Hol' on to me" he says, his voice stern.

He moves your arm that he's holding gently onto the back of his waist, he then lets it go.

You then move your other arm onto his waist, moving both of your arms a little further up.

Then he tuts to the horse, taps both of his legs against the horse's sides and it speeds up again.

As you hold on tight to him, you can't help but think about how strangely intimate that moment just felt.

Him guiding your arm to his own waist, you try to shake off these thoughts, he just didn't want you to fall of the horse.

However, he could've just said that. You can't help but think that the Joel Miller you met on the very first day may have just yelled at you for that.

So what the fuck was that?

You were probably supposed to be on the front of the horse, leading the way, but you take it Joel already knows the way from what he's been told.

And you're sure he'd rather lead the way for whatever reason.

As expected, he arrives at the checkpoint exactly where he's supposed to.

He waits for you to climb off first, then he does so too.

You arrive in the old bookstore, it's not an area that gets checked a lot since there's just not much out there.

As Joel grabs guns from the saddle, you walk over to the doors of the library and try to shake them open.

They're iced closed.

Joel walks over behind you as you tell him they're iced.

He tightens his arm and starts hitting the door, repeatedly.

After a few attempts you speak, "Yeah I don't think that's gonna-" your stopped by the door being shoved open.

He raises his eyebrows at you as he walks in. You roll your eyes at him and follow him in too, then closing the door behind you.

You walk over to the log book on the front desk of the library and write down yours and Joel's names. Also leaving a message saying how the door was iced.

Joel walks around the store, gun pointed upwards at all times.

Once he settles down, he lowers the gun just slightly. You walk over to him, about to tell him about how you've left a message on the log books.

Joel points the gun fully downwards once your in front of him, then moves it to his side it's nowhere near you.

You notice it, but don't say anything.

"I've left a note about the whole door thing." you say, he just nods in response.

"Did you want me to also leave a note saying how you slammed your whole body into the door?" you add, trying to make him laugh.

He just glares at you, but the corners of his mouth lift slightly before going back to normal.

He turns away, walking away from you, now you can't see if he was really smiling.

He looks around the bookstore, before coming across a book shelf and glancing at the books.

He brushes his finger against the spines of all the books, gently, and wipes the dust off his fingers.

You walk over behind him "You ever read any of these?" you ask.

His lips part slightly and he turns around to see you standing there, like he's surprised you've come so close.

He sighs and turns back to the books "Some." he bluntly responds.

This makes you smile, you didn't think he'd be the type to do something so domestic.

"Areeeee they good?" you ask again.

He looks back to you and sighs "Some." he responds, leaning in as he talks with more force in his voice, as if he's telling you to stop pushing it.

"Cool." you say, while nodding.

"Y'know," he breathes in "they should get some people to come out here one day 'n get some of the kids books outta here. Somethin' the kiddos might like." he looks thoughtful as he talks.

You smirk "Are you going soft?" you tease.

He turns around to you looking genuinely offended.

He then rolls his eyes and walks away, you laugh, "It's a good idea, it actually is. I'll speak to Jesse about it." he stops as you speak, then once you've finished he keeps walking.

"Let's check the outside, it's fine in here." You try to speak firm, trying to show you are the one who's in charge here. Or at least, your supposed to be.

You walk back outside of the bookstore, Joel does as you say for once and follows.

You check the right side of the outside of the building and Joel checks the left.

All seems fine, then you reach the back of the building and to your surprise there's a runner stuck under a large book shelf.

The runner grabs you by the ankle and you scream.

Joel runs from his side of the building, faster than you can even pull out your gun.

He shoots the runner in the head and the runner releases it's grip on your ankle.

You stare at the dead runner in shock, Joel grabs your shoulder and turns you to face him, "You okay?" he asks, with a concerned look on his face while also trying to catch his breath.

You look into his eyes and nod, also catching your breath.

You turn to look back at the runner, Joel keeps his eyes on you, and doesn't take his hand off of your shoulder.

Then you look up from the runner, looking into the distance and that's when you see a horde.

You squint your eyes and that's when you really see them, a huge, huge horde of runners and more coming towards you.

Joel still holds onto your shoulder, not even looking over there, just at you.

"Joel, look." you say, slight fear in your voice.

He finally stops looking at you.

He looks over in the distance, just to see what you're seeing too. He finally takes his hand off your shoulder as he starts to pull his rifle off his back.

You grab your shotgun. As they get closer, you both start shooting.

It becomes clear how large this horde is, and your only on your first checkpoint.

You both continue to shoot, it takes a lot of them down. Yet, more keep coming.

As they get closer, Joel grabs your arm and pulls you close to his face and shouts to you "Go and get the horse!"

You look at him with defiance in your eyes, you don't want to leave him fighting alone.

He looks at you with anger and grabs your collar of your jacket this time, then pulls you even closer to his face.

"You go." he says with force, then lets go of your collar, forcing you to move back.

You decide it's no use in arguing, you give him one last look before running back to the front of the outside of the building to get the horse.

You quickly untie the horse and climb up, you shout Joel but still hear him shoot.

You are about to guide the horse over to the back of the bookstore, that's when you hear the noise of more runners coming from your right side.

"Oh fuck!" you shout, before grabbing your pistol and shooting them, most of them perfect headshots, but more and more keep coming.

"JOEL!" you yell as more runners keep coming.

Joel runs out from the back of the store and yells at you to go, he keeps turning around and shooting.

You listen to him, you lift the reins of the horse and the horse is off, Joel runs quickly.

As he gets closer to the horse, you pull the reins back slightly to make the horse slow down just a bit, then he runs to the side of the horse and you reach out your hand.

He takes your hand and he pulls himself up, just using your hand for support.

He's now behind you on the horse, little to no space between you both once again.

He moves his hands to hold onto your waist, you breathe in slightly as he does so.

Then you remember the huge horde that's chasing you and you hit your legs against the sides of the horse to pick up the speed.

He grabs his revolver and wraps one of his whole arms around your waist, holding on tight.

He continues to turn around to shoot some of the horde, arm tightly wrapped around your waist still, making sure he won't fall.

You keep slapping the reins, speeding the horse up.

Everytime the horse jumps over something, you instinctively reach out to Joel and grip his arm tightly.

Which probably isn't necessary, but you still do.

Once the horde seems to have stopped following you both, Joel pushes himself back up the horse, reducing the space between your back and his stomach.

He moves his hand across your stomach, unwrapping his arm from around your waist.

This makes your breath hitch.

He then places both his hands on your waist, holding onto you.

You feel tiny against his large hands.

You try to focus on the track ahead.

You arrive at the next checkpoint, his grip on your waist finally releases and he climbs down.

You rub your forehead before climbing down too, as you hop down he's standing with his back towards you, hands in his hair.

He then turns around once he hears your boots hit the ground.

"That was too damn close," he sounds annoyed, "don't you guys patrol round there?" he asks, the same annoyance in his voice.

You shrug "We do, just not as thoroughly I guess, nothing usually happens on this route." Joel sighs as you talk and turns back around.

He starts to walk towards the building, just an old power station, not active anymore, not related to Jackson.

He walks a few feet ahead of you.

Why is he always ahead of you?

As you both search the building, the silence is broken by the sound of a thump upstairs.

You both lock eyes with eachother, he nods at you and you nod back, then you both head up the stairs.

Joel's in front of you once again, once he reaches the top of the stairs, he peers around the corner, moving his arm to block you coming any further.

You creep up the stairs further, until your on the same step as him, standing next to him.

You peer around the corner too, neck just hovering above his arm.

You feel his eyes on you, you slowly turn your head to look at him, his eyes looking at you with an annoyed look as if to ask 'What the fuck are you doing?'

You squint your eyes at him, annoyed. He rolls his eyes and pushes you back, gentler than you expect.

He looks back at you, then takes a step forward, you follow behind him, gun aimed.

That's when two men slowly walk out from behind a counter, hands up, slightly bent over.

They walk towards you both slowly, you shake your gun at them "Step back." you say.

They nod and both stand a little straighter, now keeping their distance.

You tell them to toss their weapons and they do so, Joel remains silent, still aiming his gun at them.

You slowly lower your gun once they're not as much of a threat anymore, Joel keeps his up.

"What're your names?" you ask them, Joel turns his head to you, looking angry, "Y/N" he mumbles.

You ignore him, looking back at the two men, waiting for their response.

The man, the younger looking man looking around in his 20's, speaks first. "I'm Carl. That's my brother...Dylan." he stutters slightly.

"Okay..." you start to talk, "what are you both doing out here?" you ask.

Once you finish your question, Carl begins to talk, that's when Dylan, the older looking one 30's maybe, charges towards you.

Joel moves in front of you and grabs the man by his collar, punching his face with the other hand.

Dylan uses his knee and forces it into Joel, forcing Joel to take a step back and let go, but then Joel takes out his gun and shoots Dylan in the head.

You back away, in shock, panting slightly, that's when you look at Carl, who has tears in his eyes.

"M-my brother..." he mumbles, as tears fall from his eyes.

You glance at Joel, who looks remorseless.

Carl looks at you, shaking his head, "I didn't know he was gonna do that...please." he speaks with fear in his voice.

Joel aims his gun at him, glancing down to his arm that has a strange oozing cut on it, "That a bite there, Carl?" Joel asks, saying his name with disgust.

Carl looks down and shakes his head, covering his arm, "It's a scratch, we were attacked by a horde, I swear just a scratch though."

You move closer to him, you hear Joel sigh as you do.

You slowly reach out and grab Carl's arm, glancing at the cut. You look at it and then turn to Joel, "It is just a scratch, it should be okay." you tell Joel.

You put your hand on the man's shoulder, trying to console him, his brother did just die after all.

"We'll bring you back to Jackson and get someone to take a look at it." you say, smiling at him.

Joel walks over to you and pulls your shoulder, forcing you to face him. He inhales before he speaks, "He ain' comin' back to Jackson."

You shake your head at him, "He's clean, he can come back-" Joel cuts you off, shaking his head.

"No. His brother tried to kill you, he's got a cut which could get him infected, and we got no idea who the fuck he is. He coulda been plannin' to come here."

A part of you knows Joel is right in some ways, but this man seems innocent enough, to leave him out here alone would be a death sentence.

You sigh and rub your forehead before speaking, "We can't just leave him, Tommy would want him to come back."

Joel raises his voice "Tommy don't know what he's talkin' bout if he'd want this."

You look at him with disgust and point at him "Tommy's a better man than you."

His eyes suddenly lose the anger, it seems to be replaced by guilt, disappointment maybe? Yet, he still doesn't change his mind.

You grab Carl's gun that was tossed on the floor and put it in his hands.

You put your hand on his shoulder, "You're gonna keep going forwards, after a few miles you'll find a huge mall...the code for the lock is 2431. There's supplies in there, maps, you'll find out where you want to go." you rub his shoulder as you speak.

You were telling him to go to a place from your past, a time where things were so bad that you kept those items there for safety, a time before Jackson.

You try not to think of those times, maybe one day you'll actually be able to revisit and recover from your past.

Today is not that day.

Carl looks terrified, but he walks down the stairs and leaves you and Joel.

You look through the upstairs window, the one with the broken glass.

That's when you see Carl moving forward, just like you said.

You back away from the window slowly, trying to distract your mind from what just happened by searching the drawer to your right.

That's when you hear screaming.

You run to the window, that's when you see Carl being attacked by two runners.

Joel runs to the window too and shoots the runners, missing a few shots but for the most part they're perfect headshots.

You run downstairs, out the building, running to the body.

The runners are dead, you crouch on the floor and shove the runners off of Carl's body.

Then you see Carl, bleeding out, half dead.

He reaches out to you, his bloody hand gripping your wrist, Joel stands behind you.

"E-end it...please." Carl mumbles.

You hold onto his wrist too, rubbing it and nodding, you hold back tears.

You know you can't do it yourself, you don't have it in you to kill someone who seemed to be a good person.

You let go of his wrist and stand up, you turn around to Joel, he nods, understanding what you're saying.

You walk away from Carl and Joel, the tears flood out.

Then you hear the gunshot.

Someone who could've lived is now dead.

You lean on the side of the building, you feel sick to your stomach.

Joel walks over to you, you don't face him, you can just hear him.

He sighs, "You 'kay?" he asks, voice soft.

You turn around to him in disgust "He could've lived, he could've come back with us." you say.

"Not everyone is a threat, Joel!" you shout.

He sighs, he looks upwards for a moment then back down at your eyes.

"Bringin' him back put everyone at risk. You think I wanted him to die?" he asks, rage in his voice.

You try to speak but he interrupts you, "You think takin' the risk is worth also riskin' people's lives in Jackson? Riskin' Tommy's life? Riskin' Ellie's life?"

He looks at you, his eyes soften. "Riskin' your life?" his voice is softer now, too.

You don't respond, just stare at his eyes.

You want to talk, but you don't.

He walks back into the building, you don't care what he's doing. You instead walk around the area, patrolling like your supposed to.

After a few minutes, you see Joel dragging both Carls' and Dylans' bodies away from the building.

You watch him place the bodies ontop of the snow, while he digs a rough hole in another part of the snow.

He then drops both the bodies in the hole and quickly covers it.

You watch him go inside the building again and write in the log book, then he comes out and climbs on the horse.

You sigh and walk over to the horse, he reaches out his hand without even looking at you.

You hesitate, you decide to just grab his arm instead to pull yourself up, just touching the sleeve of his coat.

You reluctantly grab onto his waist, you hold on as lightly as possible.

As the horse moves, you feel yourself getting more and more tired, getting one hour of sleep didn't help with this awful day.

Your eyes keep closing over, just stay awake till Jackson is what you kept telling yourself.

That didn't last long.

Your eyes eventually close and the exhaustion takes over your body, you fall asleep.

You wake up to the sound of the Jackson gates beginning to open.

You open your eyes and recognise the surroundings, your just a few feet away from Jackson.

That's when you realise the side of your face is squashed up against Joel's back.

You pray he hasn't noticed you've fallen asleep right against his back.

This is also when you realise you've got your arms completely wrapped around his waist, cuddling him.

You wanted the world to crumble up and swallow you whole.

You slowly lift your head up and unwrap your arms from around Joel's waist as you both enter through the gate.

Once the gates close, you quickly jump down off the horse, you can feel Joel's eyes on you.

You don't turn around though, you give in your guns to the soldiers and quickly pace away.

You reach home and get straight into bed. You lay staring at the ceiling.

What was that?

[shipperstbh]

Under Jackson Skies

CHAPTER 3- The Prick Who Says Goodnight

You slept for hours and woke up at some time in the early afternoon. You deserved the rest.

Today was the one day of the week you weren't on patrol, you were thankful for that.

That also meant Joel wouldn't be on patrol too, you just hoped you wouldn't see him.

After getting ready, you headed out of your house and walked through the snow, that's when you saw both Joel and Ellie.

They were only just heading out of their house too, perhaps they only just got up aswell?

You knew it was your job to check in on them over their first few weeks, but it was hard.

Joel is a grumpy, middle aged asshole and it's getting harder to see him every single day.

You try to slow down your walking and that's when Joel turns as he's walking to look at you.

He gives you a different look this time, like a sheepish sort of look?

Which seems impossible, it's Joel miller. How could he not be his miserable self?

You can't ignore them anymore. You quickly walk over to them, just hopimg to ignore Joel after the disrespect he showed you just a few hours ago, really.

You stop in front of them, hands in the pockets of your jacket and you swallow before talking.

"Hey..." you stop talking for a moment just as you make more eye contact with Joel.

His eyes aren't as sheepish anymore, just more relaxed. You have to stop this, you need to stop feeling so attracted to someone who basically hates you.

You look away again and look back at Ellie, trying to finish your sentence, "Hey Ellie, how are you um finding things?"

She smiles and nods, "It's good, really good." That soon turns sarcastic.

"Just wish I could do something else rather than y'know, shoving horse shit up." Joel tuts as she's talking.

"You really still doin' this?" he asks her, in disbelief.

She responds with anger, "I wouldn't still be doing this if you'd just let me go on patrol-"

"You ain't goin' on patrol, end of."

You watch their little fight happen, it shocks you that they're not even related in the slightest way.

This fight is like the most father and daughter thing you've ever seen.

Joel sighs and puts his hands on his hips and opens his mouth and goes to talk again, you stop him.

"You know Ellie, if you wanted to you could come hang out with me today. I'm not on patrol so you could take a day off too, could show you a bit more of what we do. It's not just shoving horse shit."

Ellie actually looks pleased "Yeah, yeah cool."

You nod and smile and that's when you look at Joel, who's glaring at you.

Ellie looks up at him and groans "Joel it'll be fine."

Joel looks down at her and then back at you, he looks worried. Does he not trust you?

Ellie throws her head back in frustration "Oh for fuck sake"

His eyes look really soft now, this looks like a different man.

It hurts you to talk to him after the disrespect he's shown you, but you know Ellie needs this, they both do.

"I'll look after her." you show certainty in your own eyes and stare into his eyes.

He nods and then looks down at the floor.

Ellie smirks and walks over behind you, "Let's go" you say, as the pair of you start to walk.

Joel stays stood there, hands still on his hips "Be safe, don't get yourself into any trouble." he shouts to Ellie.

"Me? Trouble?" she shouts back.

"Yes, you."

She laughs as she's now walking ahead of you and you turn around for a second and see Joel watching her and smiling.

You walk Ellie around Jackson, occasionally taking her into some of the buildings to meet some of the most loved people around here.

You think it'd be good for her if she knew more people than Joel, it'd be good if Joel could know more people too, but he'd just be a dick to them.

As you both walk through the snow, Jesse comes out of the door of one of the empty stables in Jackson.

He's drying his hands with a rag, "Hey you gonna come get beat the shit out of?" he smirks as he talks.

You roll your eyes.

"Oh you wish, no training today for me though, showing Ellie around."

Jesse nods "Ah, Joel's kid?" he asks.

It's silent for a second before Ellie speaks up, "I'm not his...I'm not his kid."

Jesse looks at you, confused, but you just shake your head at him, telling him not to push it.

Ellie looks into the stable, "What do you guys do in there?" she asks.

Jesse pushes open the door wider as he stands in the doorway, as an invitation for us to come inside.

You nod your head towards the door and signal Ellie to go inside.

She walks in and laughs at the sight of nothing but hay stacks. "Oh nice." She says, sarcastically.

You follow in behind her.

Jesse laughs and puts the cloth down on top of a stack of hay, "It's just for training. It's better to be empty." he says.

"Can I see?" she smirks while talking.

You look at Jesse, "You up for it?" you ask.

"You up for getting your ass beat?" he responds back.

That's enough to make you walk slowly back and put up your fists.

Jesse shuts the door and laughs and backs up and lifts his fists up too.

Ellie sits ontop of a stack of hay and smirks, waiting for us to fight.

He curls his fingers towards himself and gestures for you to come closer "c'mon"

That's enough for you, you charge towards him and he falls to the floor.

He throws you off of the top of him and quickly regains his balance and the pair of you fight for a few minutes.

You channel the anger you want to take out on Joel, then you use it to fight Jesse.

As you throw punches, it's as if your body is trying to pull you back. Then you realise, you don't really want to hurt Joel, at all.

You try to channel hate for Joel, but it doesn't exist. All your channeling is a want for him, and the anger comes from the fact you can't have him, the fact he's such an asshole that it's like he wants you to hate him. And the fact you think he hates you.

While your deep in your thoughts while weakly punching Jesse, you get a punch to the nose from him.

You back away and cover your nose. The blood drips onto your hand.

Jesse quickly grabs the rag from the stack of hay and hands you it and you wipe your bleeding nose.

Jesse's not clean too though, his face has been left with a huge bruise and his lips bleeding, if you would've carried on maybe he'd be the one with the bloody nose.

He catches his breath, "You good?" he asks, looking slightly concerned.

You finish wiping your nose and then drop the rag and stare at him. "I'm good you stupid asshole."

He puts out his hand to shake mine and I reach out mine too and laugh as I shake his hand.

Ellie laughs, "Woaaahhh, that was sick." She continues to laugh.

Before either of you can respond, she talks, "Can I try?"

"No." you quickly respond.

She's 14, just got here, and Joel's basically her dad. You don't need Joel to hate you even more.

Ellie rolls her eyes "Oh come on, man. Please."

Jesse steps forward to you, "I can if you want..."

"She's 14, no. Nobody's fighting." you quickly say, while glaring at Jesse.

Before any of you can say anything else, the door swings open.

As your eyes adjust, you see it's just a boy called Maddox. He's obsessed with trying to become like all the older guys, brutal and a patrol leader.

He's just an annoying kid though, he'll end up working the bar like Seth.

"Hey guys." Maddox says, with a smirk on his face.

"Anyone up for a fight? I've been practicing." he adds.

Ellie stands up and looks at you "Me, I will."

You shake your head, "Ellie, no, Joel won't like it." you say, your completely against it.

She pleads with you, a desperate look in her eyes.

"I'll be careful, I really want this and Joel won't find out. Just a little one, cmon. I need to learn this stuff." she begs.

You turn to Maddox, he's only a couple inches taller than her. "How old are you?" you ask him.

He inhales before talking, "Sixteen."

You sigh, Ellie wants this and she's right, she does need to learn this stuff, unfortunately.

"One small fight, that's it. And once me or Jesse say it's over, it's over. And don't tell Joel." there's panic in your voice as you talk, part of you knows you really shouldn't be letting this happen.

Ellie smirks and stands up, and then the fight begins. It's pretty equal at first, then Maddox takes the lead.

It was obvious it was going to happen, he's trained a lot longer.

You signal Jesse to end it and he does, but Maddox doesn't get off. He continues to climb ontop of her and punch her face.

You shout for it to stop, but he doesn't. He keeps hitting her, trying to choke her.

Jesse runs in to try and grab him but he doesn't budge, it's like he wants to literally kill her.

You run in aswell and grab him by his shirt and he starts to slowly come off from the force.

Suddenly, the door of the stable swings open. It's Joel.

He shoves you and Jesse out of the way and grabs Maddox by his shirt and yanks him off, sending him flying across the stable.

Maddox yells as he gets thrown. Joel quickly crouches down and pulls Ellie up and cups her bleeding face, "You okay?" he asks, voice shaking.

She nods and he pulls her up, wrapping his arm around her. Maddox yells at him as he lays on the floor, "It's just training, man!"

"Bullshit." Joel responds. "No, no, Joel it was just training. He just wouldn't stop." Ellie says.

Joel looks at you with nothing but rage in his eyes, "Trainin'?" he asks.

You step back slowly, "She really wanted to and-" he doesn't let you finish your sentence, he just opens the stable door again and starts to walk out.

He turns back to you before he leaves, with anger and disgust in his eyes, "What happen' to lookin' after her? Huh?" he says, leaning in, before then leaving and slamming the door.

Your body jolts back as he slams the door. You're filled with hatred, this time it's for yourself.

Jesse looks at you and sighs "I'll take care of this." he says, while walking over to Maddox and pulling him up by his shirt and dragging him out of the stable, probably taking him to his dad's house.

You stand there, shocked. You can't believe you did something like that. Were you wrong or were you right?

You didn't bother to think about it, you just felt nothing but guilt.

You sat in the stable for what was probably hours and once you got the courage to leave it was dinner time.

You slowly walked to the dining hall, you were gonna make it quick, grab dinner, sit down, eat. That's all.

Just as you stood in line to get your food, Ellie walks up to you, one cut on her face, but really she looks fine.

You wouldn't think you'd just allowed a fight to happen where she ended up being beaten so brutally.

Before you can apologize, she does. "Hey sorry about Joel, he just doesn't wanna see me hurt, but he knows it wasn't your fault at all." she says, she looks annoyed when she mentions Joel.

You shake your head, "No Ellie, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let that fight happen in the first place, nevermind let it go on that long."

She laughs "You kidding? It was awesome, I've not had many fights like that. I loved it, it felt good."

You feel a bit better, despite knowing it was wrong, at least she liked it enough.

You nod awkwardly, "Well, glad you got something out of it." you say.

She laughs while nodding. "You're only just eating? Where have you been?" she asks.

Hiding in the stables refusing to come out. Not wanting to face Joel Miller.

"Oh I was just...cleaning myself up and then I fell asleep." You lie.

She nods "Oh. Hey can we do this again next week? I know you won't let me do the training again but I could come around with you again?" she asks, looking slightly shy for once, yet still managing to hold that confident voice.

You don't know how she does it.

"I don't think Joel's gonna want that." you say, sighing.

She shakes her head, "Joel knows it wasn't to do with you, y'know? I've told him, he knows and he knows I wouldn't lie." she says.

You nod, secretly very, very thankful that she said that.

"Well if Joel's okay with it, then yeah sure." you smile at her.

She nods and smiles before leaving the dining hall.

You wonder if it's true, if Joel really knows it wasn't you who did that.

After you've eaten your dinner and shared conversation with Jesse and a few of your other friends, you call it a night.

The sky is black now. As you walk to your house, you look at Joel's, the lights are on.

You don't know if what your about to do is a mistake, you can guarantee it will be, but you still do.

You walk over to Joel's house and stand on the porch and hesitate, before then knocking on the door.

It takes a few moments, before he opens the door.

And there he is.

He's stood in a grey shirt, wood dust over his hands.

He sighs when he sees you, though, this time it doesn't seem like a sigh of annoyance. He lifts his arm up above the doorframe.

Your breath hitches before you talk, he looks so good.

"Joel, I'm really sorry. I know I shouldn't of let the fight happen. Kids need to fight and I just don't want her to end up needing to fight in the future and she doesn't know how. It was shitty of me and I'm a dick and it won't happen again, you know I just-"

He cuts you out of your ramble.

He leans his hand out and lowers it, signaling you to calm down.

He breathes in, "Easy. It's fine." that's all he says.

The way he says easy drives you crazy, honestly it's making you not easy.

You start to blush, ew.

"She needs trainin', yeah. Jus' not now, not yet." he says, his voice raspy.

You nod, you don't push for any more information on why that is.

You sigh with relief, yet making it out like it's just a sigh of tiredness.

Once you realize you've been standing there for a while, the confusion in his face makes sense.

You take the hint and start to back away, "Okay then, cool."

You try to be casual, but your just making yourself cringe.

Before you can embarass yourself anymore, you walk backwards down the stairs of his porch and start to walk home.

As you walk away, now turned around, you hear a faint "g'night." come from Joel's mouth.

You enthusiastically respond as you turn around, "Goodni-" the door gets slammed before you can finish your sentence.

Prick.

But now he's a prick who says goodnight?

[shipperstbh]

Under Jackson Skies

CHAPTER 2- The Night Patrol

You woke up the next day, with the worst nerves immediately.

It's fucking Joel, the thought of seeing him and patrolling with him later just makes you so nervous.

Especially after he heard what you said to Jesse. Though, he didn't seem bothered about that.

You got ready for the day and walked down to the dining hall, you get there early so there's not too many people, means you can sit alone and think for a while.

You got yourself a plate of bacon and scrambled eggs and sat down, you felt full of nerves to see Joel. It can't be that bad, right?

Suddenly, Tommy appears beside you, "Mind if I join ya?" He says, in his also thick Texas accent.

You smile and silently insist he takes a seat. You like Tommy. He looks out for you, he gave you a home.

He takes a sip of his milk, "How'd you find things with Joel and Ellie? The new people I mean." he says.

You look around this time before saying anything.

"Ellie's fun, she'll like it here, eager to go on patrol though." Tommy laughs as you talk.

You took a sip of your drink.

"Joel though, absolute dick. He's infuriating probably one of the biggest assholes I've ever met, and I've met some assholes." you laugh slightly as you talk.

Tommy smirks as you talk and runs a hand through his hair, "Yeah my brother can be quite a handful." You silently gasp, "Oh Tommy, I'm sorry I didn't know-"

Tommy cuts you off with his light laughter, "It's okay, really it's okay. I know what he's like, believe me I grew up with him. He's just, been through a lot, yknow?"

You nod and try to act understanding, but everyone's been through a lot. Not everyone acts like assholes though.

"Joel lost his daughter and-" you cut him off, "Wait what? Ellie's not his?" Tommy shakes his head.

"They met and... I think she saved his life as much as he saved hers."

He continues, "So I know my brother's a lot of work, but he has been through hell. He's a good guy, really, I mean that. So as hard as it is just try and not take everything he does and says so personally. It's just the way he is, he does care deep down."

You nod, this time you do understand it.

"He's good for patrols though, right?" He says, trying to make a good out of a bad situation.

You shrug, "I think he thinks I'm just a bit of a waste of space, I'm sure he's already told you that though. He's good...just makes me feel like I'm not."

Another member of Jackson calls Tommy over and Tommy slowly starts to stand up.

He rubs your shoulder, "Well you are good at patrols, we all know that. And from what Joel's told me, he knows that too." he smiles and walks away.

You sit there for a second, what? Joel thinks your good at patrols? The idea of that actually makes you feel good about yourself, but then you know how much of a nice guy Tommy is. He could be lying to make me feel better about yourself.

It'd be nice if it was true though.

Couple hours pass, you were feeding some of the horses and glance over to Joel, who's standing in the sheep pen. He's stood there watching them, it's cute, you admit it.

Until you remember what he's really like.

You're aware that you'll have to spend the next few days working on patrol with Joel, so if you just try and clear the air now it'll be for the better.

You take off your gloves and set them aside and start to walk over, all you can see is the back of his head and the nerves are getting even worse.

As you get closer, you feel more and more ill, more and more sick. You feel embarrased.

Doesn't help that he's goregous too, even though you hate to admit that.

You came up behind him, talking to him in his left ear. "Joel miller." you say.

He jumps forward and turns back and lets out a relieved sigh, you think you scared him.

You laugh and rest your arms against the fence, "Did I scare you?" "No." he bluntly responds.

"Okayyy."  You say, while climbing over the fence. He has his arms folded as he watches you climb over.

"So your Tommy's brother? I didn't expect that." He just stares at the sheep, letting out a blunt "Hm."

"So about last night..." before you can finish your sentence, he sighs and opens the fence gate and walks away.

What the actual fuck? Did he just like get bored and just decide to walk away?

This is the most unlikable man ever.

You admit you did a shitty thing, but that was only because he did lots of shitty things.

You were wondering how this man is even related to Tommy.

Later on, Jesse is laughing as you walk over to him. That means something bad is gonna happen. "Oh my god Jesse, what?" you say as you walk over.

He leans against a horse, trying to contain his laughter. "Okay okay" he begins. "Look I did everything I could to get you out of this but, yknow the night shift for patrols?"

Ah yes, the night shift. The night shift where you're forced to sit on a freezing cold mountain and sit there with a sniper with your patrol partner while you starve and freeze.

Jesse has to look down for a second while he laughs "They've put you and the new guy, Joel on it."

Oh my god.

You punch Jesse hard in the chest, oh my god no.

"Jesse! Oh my god are you kidding? Fuck you!" 

"I tried! I tried! I promise I tried. It's one night, maybe it's punishment for that asshole right?" he tries to brighten your mood, yet he still laughs.

"And now I have to spend more time with him while we are both exhausted and freezing, think about how he's gonna be acting then. It's more of a punishment for me."

Jesse rolls his eyes and grabs your shoulders, "One night Y/N, just one night! Then the rest of the week is just day patrols and then it's done. You can forget about him, okay?"

You roll your eyes and shove him off. "I hate you. You can tell him yourself, I'm not putting myself through that."

You look over to your side and Joel's glancing over, then he looks away.

Was he watching you? At least he'll know why your attacking Jesse once he finds out the news. You'd say he deserved that punch for not trying hard enough to get you out of that, maybe that'd be the one thing you and Joel could agree on.

You slept for a few hours and then woke back up at around 10pm, nightly patrols begin at 11pm and end at 6am. You're the unlucky bastard when you get selected to do this, luckily this is only your second time.

Hopefully, Joel will be having these patrols constantly, just alone or with some annoying bitch. And then he runs away and never comes back. Yeah, that's great.

You put on a pair of jeans, a sweater, a beanie and a jacket. Oh, and your boots. You don't have a thicker coat than just a puffer jacket so that's what will have to work.

You strut over to the gate, you suppose you just wanted them to think you were confident about doing this, which you were far from.

The horses were ready, the guards waited by the gate, "Where's the other guy?" they ask you. You shrug, do they expect you to come with him?

Yknow, they probably do since every other pair of patrol partners all walk to the gate together, not you and Joel though, as seperate as you both can.

Joel comes again at the last minute. You swear  he does this on purpose.

You quickly get on your horse and he climbs on his, you turn your head slightly to look at him and he's just slinging his shotgun over his back, not even looking anywhere near you.

As the gates open, you see Jesse coming out of one of the buildings, waving at you sarcastically. You wave back sarcastically and then give him the middle finger, you can't help but notice Joel watching the pair of you.

You stare Joel in the eyes for a moment and then look away. You both set off, going West this time. You take it he knows where to go, you figure you'd just annoy him if you were to talk at all.

You move for a while up the mountain, then finally speak up, "We stop here."

You hop off your horse and slowly start to set up the scope holder.

Joel pulls the scope off of your back himself, as if you are friends and he can just do things like that.

You're both kneeling down now, you dig the scope holder into the snow and Joel puts the gun in it, you are close now. As you slowly look up, you make eye contact.

Joel keeps his eyes on you as he slides the scope in. You can't help but blush. You swallow and break the eye contact and then stand up.

The good thing about this mountain is there's a small but good enough cave where patrol have to set up. This means you can both at least have some support and cover.

You pulled out the blankets from your horses saddle and place the larger one on the ground, then place one blanket on one side, your side, and throw another blanket on Joel's side.

You set the fire using a match, the logs are already there from the other past patrollers.

You place the blanket on your lap and then rest against the wall, often checking through the scope.

Joel eventually climbs into the small cave and stares at the fire. He has a big thick brown coat on, lucky.

Time passes and it's completely silent, only the sounds of you both checking the sniper and sometimes shooting, usually just a runner, sometimes a clicker.

It's so awkward, you're sitting directly opposite eachother but can't even look.

Well you can't.

Joel pulls out a can of ravioli. Shit, you forgot to bring your own food. He rips open the can effortlessly and pours it onto the pan he'd packed and holds it above the fire.

He looks at you, expecting you to pull out some of the food you had brought so it can cook at the same time, which would be easier.

You just give him an awkward look, his lips part slightly and he shakes his head and rolls his eyes and goes back to cooking his own meal.

Once he's finished, he pulls out two bowls from his bag and two forks.

He begins to put the ravioli in both of the bowls, then sticks a fork in each and shoves it over to you.

He actually shared it with you? Honestly, looks like he gave you a little more. You're hesitant to say anything, you fear you'd just annoy him.

You just wait till he looks up and you give him a smile and he just looks back down to his food and keeps eating.

You eat too, it's just silent, only sounds are you both eating and Joel keeps looking over down the mountain to see if anything's coming.

You can't hold it in any more, oh god.

You put your fork down, "Look Joel about last night-" he throws his head back and groans in annoyance.

"I'm really sorry though, I feel really bad and-" he cuts you off, "Do you really think I care about what you and your little boyfriend think about me?"

You let out a gasp with laughter. "Boyfriend? You think Jesse's my boyfriend?"

He glares at you and you bark a laugh. "Jesse is NOT my boyfriend, let me make that clear. He's on and off with this other girl anyway and he's like a brother to me."

He gives you a look as you're talking, for a second it looks like a glimpse of hope in his eyes, then it flashes back to his usual grumpy look.

You pick up your fork and take another bite, glancing at him waiting for him to make conversation. He looks up at you too, while he takes another bite and you both lock eyes.

Nothing is said though.

He now puts his bowl down.

He looks off to the distance and you clearly interrupt that "So why do you like sheep?" you ask, he turns to you,"What?"

You take another bite of the ravioli, "You were standing with sheep this morning, why? I didn't think you'd like animals."

"What's that supposed to mean?", he sounds offended. You shrug, he sighs and goes silent and looks off to the distance.

You don't expect him to say anything else so you look away and put your bowl down on the floor.

Then you hear him again.

His voice is soft this time, probably the only time he's ever spoke this soft, from what you've heard anyway.

"I like sheep because they're quiet, and do what they're told." he looks you in the eyes as he talks.

Why did that just make you blush? Was that flirting, or a dig at you? It was hot, that's all you can think of right now.

Knowing Joel it'll be a dig, of course it's not flirting, he's got no interest in you, maybe even hates you for some reason.

You try to stop blushing and just nod, "Cool. So you wanna live on a sheep ranch or somethin'?" you ask, just trying to hide the fact you're blushing as he looks at you.

His eyes light up the slightest bit, like something you've said has surprised him, like someone's finally understood him.

"Yeah I-... " he looks down "yeah, maybe" he's soon back to his normal grumpy demeanour.

This time, you don't feel the need to add on and talk more to him about that, you'll leave it at that.

A few hours pass, sun slowly begins to rise the slightest bit. This feels okay.

You begin to feel like maybe you've finally connected with Joel, like maybe you can both be partners, just for now.

Then you make the huge mistake of opening your mouth.

"Oh I just wanted to say" he looks up as you talk, "Tommy told me about your daughter and I-"

"No." he stops you before you can even finish your sentence.

"Don't even go there."

But you do. Why do you always do this?

"I just wanted to say I'm really sorry, I've lost people too and I-" before you can finish your sentence by telling him he can always talk to you, he stops you.

"You have no idea what loss is. You think you know what it's like? You don't know a damn thing about me."

Is he really saying you have no idea what death and loss is? Is that a joke?

"I wasn't trying to compare I was just trying to help...to connect." you say, trying to resolve it but there's annoyance in your voice that you can't make go away.

"You loss ain't nothin' to me. Now don't say another word."

You feel ill.

How did you think he was actually becoming okay? How did you feel guilty?

You try to help him, to show him he has someone to talk to if he needs it. And he pulls this shit? His losses are worse than everyone else's, than yours?

You're done.

You don't even bother to pull the watch out of your bag to check the time, the sun's rising, you can already guess it's around 5am.

You shove the blanket off of you and stand up, grabbing your bag.

"Your a real asshole." you say, as you walk past him.

He doesn't say anything, you can't even see his face and you don't look back.

You climb onto your horse and go as fast as you can, you shouldn't have done that, you know that.

You should never leave another partner on patrol alone. Are you as bad as him?

But you can't go back now, that'd just be even worse. You decide to just say that you got stung by plants that surround that area and Joel told you to come back and get it cleaned.

The soldiers see you and open the gate, you explain to them the whole lie you made up and said you'll clean it at home.

You know you shouldn't have left him, now he's all alone and that was stupid, it was selfish.

He did bad too though, he doesn't even take your losses into account, they're so bad that you can't even think about them or you'll throw up.

You're  not gonna let him die or get hurt over that though, if he dies then you're the asshole here and he doesn't get to make that of you. He's not worth it.

Once you'd put yout horse back into the stables, you quickly ran up to the soldiers and asked if one of them would go back out there with Joel for the last hour or however long it was.

They agreed and sent one soldier out, a real quiet one so that'll be good for Joel.

Shame they didn't send someone annoying as fuck.

You pace through the snow, you're not tired anymore, you're filled with anger.

You get to your house and slam the front door and pace up and down the house.

You fucking hate him, why is he like this?

You tried to be there for him, you did.

You begin to realise

You will never ever like Joel Miller.

[shipperstbh]

Under Jackson Skies

Your peace is broken in Jackson when Joel Miller shows up and you're forced to show him the ropes. Your feelings slowly start to develop for the man who seems unlovable

This story will be posted on AO3, Tumblr, and Wattpad all under the name of 'shipperstbh'.

Any comments/criticism/suggestions are all very much appreciated. Enjoy!

CHAPTER 1- Hate at first sight

You came to Jackson a year or so ago. You finally had a place to call home.

You had a hard time out there, but when you found Jackson, you had a second chance at life again.

People around here always view you as helpful and overall a good person, which is nice. You're not sure if you completely agree but it's nice.

However, you were also viewed as impulsive and having some sort of 'anger problems'. That one you agree more on.

Now whenever new people come to Jackson, Tommy assigned you to show them around, take them on their first job whether that's cooking or patrol or something else. And also to check up on them for their first couple weeks.

Tommy told you two new people are coming in, a man and a teenage girl, father and daughter, maybe?

You had the keys for their new home, Tommy was eager for you to set them up quickly.

You got into a pair of jeans, a shirt and a small jacket, and of course your boots. You walked over to Tommy, he whispered to you something about them having a hard time so to be extra easy on them.

Everyone's had a hard time out there, nothing new to you.

Tommy walks off, going to focus on Maria, she's pregnant after all. You walk over to the new man and the girl.

The man eagerly stands up, resting his hands on his hips and towering over you, "We ready?" he says, softly but firm. He has a thick Texas accent. It's nice.

He's so manly, there's something about him. Even the way he's standing, he's goregous honestly. You've always been reading books of 'love at first sight' did this actually just happen to you for once?

Then he cuts off your thoughts, "huh?" He says, sounding annoyed. You clear your throat.

"Hi, sorry" you reach out your hand, waiting for one of them to shake it, most preferably him. "I'm Y/N"

It's an awkward pause, the girl reaches out and shakes your hand and smirks. The man sighs, "Yeah can we just get this thing movin'".

Okay he's just a bit mysterious, that's fine, he's not rude. He's had it hard from what Tommy said. "Yeah, of course, follow me!" you say, eagerly, while also being completely flustered.

You all crunch through the snow, people passing and staring at them.

"So what are your names?" you ask. Silence. The girl then speaks up, "I'm Ellie" she then nudges the man. "Huh?" He says, you watch her nod her head towards you. She rolls her eyes. "I'm Joel." he eventually says.

"Nice to meet you both, I'll show you the house they've set up for you and then we can discuss jobs and things." You all eventually arrive at the house.

Ellie quickly hurries in and runs around, exploring the whole house. She runs upstairs.

You turn sideways and then he's standing there, Joel. He's so tall and so handsome. You're aware he's a complete stranger so you don't even know why you're thinking this.

You're blushing, you know you are. The longer you look at him, the worse it's getting. You go to say something but he just turns away and walks slowly around the house before you can.

"Let me know when your ready to discuss jobs and things and..." he turns around while you're talking and it makes you pause. Why is he having this affect on you?

Ellie runs down the stairs, "Jobs?" You don't even look at her, you can't stop looking in his eyes. You have to stop yourself, you sit down on one of the chairs in the living room and place your clipboard on the coffee table.

Ellie sits down, Joel stays standing, hands crossed against his chest. "So we have, cooking, greenhouses, cleaning out the horse stalls, patrol," Ellie cuts you off, "Patrol? Oh my god shit yes, patrol".

Joel shakes his head at her, "No, you ain't goin' on patrol." "What? Seriously, after fucking everything we've been through you won't let me patrol?" She stands up.

He shakes his head and gestures to you, "Put her down for cleaning." She closes her eyes for a few seconds in disbelief, "This is fucking... is this a joke oh my god Joel."

She walks up the stairs in anger, "This how you gon' act already?" He shakes his head, slightly smiling, just the smallest bit though.

You swallow awkwardly. "Okay I'll put her down for that, Tommy actually said you'll be going on patrol. Is that okay I can have it-" "Yes." He says, bluntly, before you can even finish your sentence.

You're almost caught off guard just by the look of him, "Okay that's um, great. So..."

You're cut off once again, you're staring to think nobody wants you to talk. "Look, thank you for all your help ma'am, we're just tired and have had a long couple months so if we could just rest that' be great."

Yikes. You're filled with embarrassment. 'I've overdone it once again', you thought. And probably made him uncomfortable because you're just staring at him like a lost dog.

"Yeah, no of course. I've left a sheet saying yours and hers work times. Patrol starts tonight for you, I'll come with just to show you the ropes"

"Thanks bu-" this time, you cut him off. "I'm sorry but it's mandatory, just for the first week so you can learn where and how we patrol, that's all."

He looks like he wants to argue, christ are you that insufferable? You're younger than him, yes. But does he still need you? Yes.

He nods. You're still staring into his eyes, what the fuck is wrong with you?

You awkwardly start walking out the house and stand at the doorstep, "Okay I'll see you-" door gets slammed. "tonight."

Well that was, rude. But it's fine, your bad for overdoing it. You'll show him you can be normal.

A couple hours pass, you had cooked yourself some dinner at your own house. You didn't wanna risk going to dinner at the dining hall incase he was there. Not that you are scared of him or anything, you'd just like to make a good second impression.

And you'd rather that impression be of you killing a clicker or something, rather than you literally inhaling some chef boyardee.

You get ready to patrol, you're waiting by the gates, early. Thinking maybe he'd be there and you can chat before you both leave. Nope.

He comes at the very last second, just before he'd be counted as late.

"Hi." you say, positively. He looks at you for a few seconds before responding, "Hey." he says, not so positively.

You show him which horse he's gonna be riding, he pets it for a second, before climbing on.

Unlike you, who's petting your horse thoroughly before climbing on. He gives you a look, a look as if to say 'Are you fucking serious?'. You take the hint and climb onto your horse.

The gates are opened and you both set off, "So we are gonna patrol mostly North, a little East. There's more runners out here than anything else."

As you look over at him, it almost seems like he's not even listening, he's just riding on, straight faced. You swallow, "Sometimes there's raiders though, so we just gotta watch out for that." you add.

"Huh" he responds, that's all. Then it's complete silence. You reach each checkpoint.

The only bit of talking there is is just you saying "We're here." This kind of sucks.

Maybe he's just shy? You try talking again, "So how has your first day been?" He doesn't even look at you, "Fine." he responds. You begin to feel as if he's pissed off with you or something.

"Did you do much-" he tells you to shush. The fuck? "Sorry I was just-" he gives you a glare and whispers, "Shut up, stop talking."

Now it's silence, again. That was rude, like really rude. He slowly climbs off his horse, grabbing his gun. He points out the tracks to you, silently, foot tracks.

You climb off, "Oh shit." you say, without even noticing that you're not supposed to talk. "From this point on we are silent." he says.

He slowly walks forward with his gun, you know he's supposed to be following you at this point.

You move forward in front of him, as you walk he grabs your jacket and pulls you back behind him. Would it kill him to just let you do your job?

As you both walk, you come across a building, windows shattered and it wasn't like that yesterday. Glass is ontop of the snow too, so it must be fresh.

He climbs through the broken window with ease, you're supposed to warn eachother about what you're both about to do.

You climb over after him, you shoot him a glare this time and he looks away, unbothered.

The building was an old store, shelves everywhere. Then you hear a crunch of snow from outside, then footsteps inside. Someone's coming in.

Joel moves to another shelf, crouching and grabs you by the collar of your jacket roughly and drags you over. You were already moving, that was unnecessary.

It takes you a second to gain your balance again, and that's gained by him dragging you by your collar once again, straightening you up.

You're fighting the urge to tell him to get the fuck off. He whispers to you, "I'm gonna go for them, you stay here." "What do I do?" you respond back, annoyed.

"Figure that out yourself." He says, before moving behind another shelf away from you.

You slightly peer up from behind the shelf your hiding behind, they're raiders. You can deal with this. You grab your shotgun and get ready to charge at them, you've dealt with these guys before, they're idiots.

Before you can, a runner jumps at you through the window behind you.

It's ontop of your back and now you hear gunshots in front of you, you guess Joel's putting up a good enough fight.

You shove the runner off of you and shoot it right in the head. Then more come, you grab your knife and tackle them head on. Once they're all gone, you run round the corner of the store to check on Joel.

He's killed the rest of them, now one is ontop of him, dragging a knife closer to his neck. You don't hesitate, you shoot them right in the head and Joel looks up at you. Then he shouts "Behind you!" Another runner.

It throws you onto the ground, you flip yourself round and punch it in the face repeatedly and then take a peice of glass that's on the floor and stab it in the neck.

You shove it off of yourself and stand up, Joel does the same with the raider that was ontop of him.

You sigh with relief, laughing a bit, "Holy shit, your welcome." you look at him and he's not even looking at you. Instead, he's pulling ammo out of the other men's pockets.

"I saved your ass, you could at least say thank you." you say it with a bit of humor, yet still meaning it.

He soon ends your belief that he's gonna say that.

"Thank you? For what? Nearly blowin' my head off and then damn nearly gettin' yourself killed? Told you to stay here."

Well he shut that down quick.

"I saved you, aren't you glad I didn't stay there?" Your blood boils.

He stands back up fully after crouching to pull things out of their pockets. You forget how tall he is, he hovers over you, he looks as mad as you feel.

"When I say stay there, you stay there. You nearly got yourself killed, if you want a thank you for that your kiddin' yourself." He walks away once he's finished talking.

What the actual fuck? Any other person you'd have been on patrol with would've said thank you. Been grateful you didn't just stand and watch.

He huffs as he gets onto his horse, you watch him through the broken window.

How did you actually like him? He's a fucking dick.

You don't even bother to rush out, you grab some stuff from the shelves and walk out via the front door and climb onto your horse.

Joel's only a few feet ahead, he could be going faster, a lot faster, maybe he knows if you die he's gonna get the blame.

Once you've climbed onto your horse, you put your gun into your horse's saddle and start to move forwards, on your way back to Jackson. He looks back at you, then once he sees you on your horse he nods and turns away and moves at a normal pace.

You don't even wanna be near him, one week of patrol with him will be hell. You ride on past him, going at a quick speed. You just want to get back.

He speeds up a little too, staying behind you though, at a far enough distance.

You both arrive back at Jackson, you couldn't be in a worse mood. You hop off your horse and give him a quick pet before leading him over to the stables.

You hear Joel hop off his too as you're walking away, part of you is hoping he'll come over and tell you that you did a good job or he's sorry or something.

But he doesn't.

Of course he doesn't.

Jesse walks over to you as you start to lead your horse into the stable, Jesse and you have always been close since you arrived at Jackson. He's a leader of the patrols and you felt like you could talk to him about most things.

"How'd it go with the new guy?" He asks, smirking. It's like he knew it'd be tough.

"It was fucking awful, that guys the biggest asshole I've ever met." and then Jesse looks up at something above you just as you've finished talking.

You turn around, and there he is, Joel. He's hovering above you, with that same stare as usual on his face. Angry but unbothered at the same time.

"Oh um" you go to talk, before he leads his horse into the stables right behind you and walks away without saying anything, or even waiting for you to come up with an excuse.

You watch him walk, Jesse laughs uncontrollably but you just feel kind of shitty.

He is an asshole, you weren't lying. You just needed to get it out but you do feel guilty.

Whatever, he was a dick to you.

You turn back around to Jesse, explaining what happened and you both talked over a couple drinks in the dining hall before both deciding to call it a night and he headed home.

You walk through the dark and crunch through the snow, heading to your home.

You look up to Joel's house and see him in his room, curtains open while he opens his window.

And great, he's seen you staring at him.

You try to play it cool and nod your head at him to greet him, but you're met with that same old stare and he quickly closes the curtains once he's opened the window.

That led you to the conclusion that

Joel is an asshole...