Heart Of Stone Chapter one: Meeting
~Summary: When you met Joel for the first time you didn’t ever think it would become the journey it has. He’s changed you and you have changed him. Was it for the better? Maybe. Was he hinging something from you? Possible. But through all of this you know that you were meant to know him.
~Pairing: Joel Miller x f!Reader
~Words: 1.1k
~Warnings: I can’t think of any...
~Summary: When you met Joel for the first time you didn’t ever think it would become the journey it has. He’s changed you and you have changed him. Was it for the better? Maybe. Was he hinging something from you? Possible. But through all of this you know that you were meant to know him.
~A/N: I don’t know how updated this series will be or how long it will be but, I’m already working on the second chapter!
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The Boston QZ was the kind of place that made almost anyone feel the human misery of a run down squalor in the post outbreak world. It was a place to sleep, shower, and maybe have a bite or two. Those necessities were about it. I hadn’t been here for long, maybe 2 months. I already met a few decent people, but no one to stick close to or trust. Being here was something that wasn’t ever going to be a permanent situation. I just needed a bed to sleep on and enough food to feel like me again before moving onto the next. The showers were probably the most amazing part of the QZ. With showers being far and few between on the outside, one could muster up a real nasty body oder.
Residing in the QZ meant beginning each day “contributing to society”, or what was left of it. I began to get into a routine, which I had yet to determine if it was good or bad. Each day started with a quick stop at the food pantry to get a slice of bread and maybe a small bowl of cardboard flavored oats, then the rest of the day was used to burn the dead and infected or clean up the new streets that they were expanding into the QZ. Cleaning the streets is where I met Tess.
On my first day getting the assignment, Tess showed me what to do. Scrape up any of the ridiculously overgrown weeds, pick up weapons or broken glass, and grab any infected that were killed by a FEDRA officer to put into the back of truck. Me and Tess always made small talk, which kind of only consisted of her asking me random questions and talking about her “guy” This “guy” sounded dreadful to me honestly. Brooding and unemotional was all I heard from the way she described him.
“You should come meet him in person.” She offered.
“I wish I could, tonight I am gonna get settled in the apartment they gave me. But maybe some other time.” I replied lying though my teeth. With that Tess stopped talking about him and began asking more about me again. Where are you from? How were you able to survive on your own? Were you born after the outbreak? I tried to keep my answers short, at the time I wasn’t looking to make any friends.
“I was born a few years before the out break in Texas. But of course, once the outbreak began my family didn’t stay there long.”
“Well, if you had a family where are they?” Tess questioned. I wished she didn’t push that much. “Sorry, I know I’m asking you a lot of personal stuff right now. Just trying to make some conversation with the new girl.” I sighed quietly with a slight relief. Hopefully quite enough that she did notice.
“Yeah, I just don’t talk about it a lot. I’d rather keep it that way.” I told her. Much didn’t happen the rest of that first shift.
Over the past two months here, me and Tess became what one could call friends. Maybe more acquaintances. However, we had each others back which was something I admired about her. I still hadn’t met the guy she talked about, which I found quite weird. One would think that by now I could’ve at least put a face to the name. Joel. Joel sounded like it had a lot more charisma to it than what I would’ve thought for someone who sounded so gloomy.
“Alright everybody, We’re done for the day.” A man said through the FEDRA speaker from the other end of the street. The group began to gather their tools together and make way to the ration station that was set up by the end of the street. Tess had her stuff together and went ahead of me. I struggled to grab my gloves and face mask that fell on the ground. I eventually got myself together enough to try and catch up to make my way to the ration station as well. I began to look down to make sure I did in fact grab everything when I ran into a chest. Everything, once again fell to the ground in a loud thud.
“ugh” the man groaned.
“I should’ve been paying attention, sorry about that” I said to him not looking up. Instead, I look down at our feet and see all of my things spread out on the ground. I bend down to start picking things up. The man just stayed quiet and began to help pick up my things. I went to look for my mask when I saw his hand holding it in front of my eyes. That is when look up and met his eyes.
They’re brown.
His eyes were the first thing I noticed. Something in his eyes seemed so familiar.
“Thank you” I told him as I grabbed the handkerchief mask from his hand.
“No problem, Ma’am” he said with a slight southern accent. He began to turn away. I could stop myself from asking…
“Do I know you from somewhere?” I blurted to his back. He turn around to face me. “Sorry, I just… I don’t know there just something familiar about you.”
“I don’t believe we’ve met” he stated.
“Oh okay, yeah.” I replied flustered and confused. Closing my eyes to shield myself from any possible embarrassment.
“But” I heard him say with a soft tone, “I was thinking the same about you.” I knew it…
The man looked at me like he knew he had to of seen me before. His face didn’t reveal much. He stared at me longer than i was expecting. His eyes seemed to move around my head studying my features. He face gave away the idea that maybe he wasn’t going to be forgetting me again.
“Hey! You two finally meet.” Tess said from behind the man. “Joel this is (y/n), (y/n) this is Joel”
“Oh so this is (y/n)” Joel flatly says to Tess. The tone he just gave was very different from the one that had come out of his mouth less than a minute ago.
“Oh and you must be Joel the broody guy that Tess has told me about” I stated back to Joel.
“They’re about to close up, You better go get your rations” Tess says to me.
“You told her that I’m broody?” Joel question Tess.
“I mean I didn’t say that in so many words, but maybe it came off that way” Tess tell him, “plus, be nice. I think she could be good for helping us on runs.” Tess smacks his chest as they watched me grab my rations.
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