𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐎𝐫 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 | 𝐉𝐨𝐞𝐥 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 - 𝐓𝐋𝐎𝐔

𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬.

An hour after Joel and Ciri made peace with each other, they swapped seats so Ciri drove the truck for some time to allow Joel to get some sleep.

Eventually they had to stop for gas in some small town in the middle of nowhere. Ciri managed to pull up and siphon some fuel out of another car without even waking up Joel or Ellie who remained in the vehicle.

She drove for a further three hours through the night, occasionally watching Joel as he mumbled in his sleep. Even with her sensitive hearing she couldn't make out much of what he was saying but the words she'd managed to make out were the names 'Tommy' and 'Sarah'.

She knew it would be basic decency to not ask about it when he would wake up. She also reckoned she wouldn't get much, if any, of an answer if he was anything like her.

As the night creeped into the early hours of the morning, Joel woke with a sharp intake of breath and his eyes snapped open. Another nightmare. He sighed deeply and sat up straight, rubbing his eyes before glancing over at Ciri.

She was leaning against her hand with her elbow on the door and her right hand was holding the bottom of the steering wheel, keeping it steady as they continued travelling on the highway. She kept her eyes on the road, not acknowledging that Joel was now awake. He could tell she was lost deep in thought.

He peeked over his seat to see Ellie laid across the back, still sleeping soundly and he finds himself watching her for a moment. He tears his gaze away when he realises what he's doing and looks back to Ciri, who is still sat with a lost expression.

"Everythin' alright? Ciri?" He catches her attention, keeping his voice low.

She blinked a couple times before turning her head to him and nodding, "Yeah, I'm fine."

She lifts her elbow off of the door, placing her left hand loosely on the steering wheel and half of her face contorts slightly as she rolls her shoulder.

"How's that shoulder of yours?" Joel catches her expression.

"Sore but... it's on the mend." She mumbles.

There's a short pause before Joel asks out of curiosity: "How'd you dislocate it before?"

"Ahh just something dumb." She lightly waves her hand.

He raises a brow, now a lot more intrigued. "Care to elaborate?"

She sighs with a slightly sheepish smile. "Well the first time was about... 6 years ago? I was in Tennessee and I was coming from a survivor's camp, where they'd let me take one of their horses. I was riding through a field and... the horse got spooked by a snake and threw me."

Ciri resisted looking over at Joel, knowing there would be some sort of amused look on his face.

"And..." she says slowly. "Like an idiot I put my arm out to stop myself as I fell and it just popped right out."

She finally glances over at him and like she predicted, he stared back at her with raised brows and the faintest of smiles on his lips.

"Told you it was dumb." She bobs her head to the side.

"What about the second time?"

After puffing her cheeks, she followed on. "Maybe about, a year or so after that, I honestly don't remember where I was... just in some dead-end town in the middle of nowhere, but long-story-short, some group of dickheads attacked me and I fell out of a two-story window while wrestling one of them."

She slowly blinks with a shake of head as she recalls the incident.

"And in case you were wondering - yes, it most definitely hurt more than the first time."