Consequences [The Last of Us Part 2 x Male Reader]

Chapter 19: My Fight

Y/N wobbled slightly before he got his footing. Joel took his arm and wrapped it around his shoulders, supporting the man and not letting him fall. "You're goddamn stupid, kid," Joel scolded as the two began to walk from the beach. "You're welcome," Y/N said with a forced smile, but his body ached all around. "Y/N, Joel!" Ellie now called as she saw the two come stumbling around the docks. "We gotta get him out of here," Joel ordered, and Ellie got a good look at Y/N's state. He seemed downright exhausted now, and Alice even barked at him. Y/N was fading in and out of consciousness now, hearing Joel and Ellie discuss something. The noise was all muffled to him, he just wanted to close his eyes... he had to close his eyes.

Chapter 19

Someone lightly smacked his face, Y/N's consciousness returned to him in a flood. He gasped deeply as he opened his eyes, taking in as much air as he could. The light blinded him for a moment, reflecting off the white that was all around him. Y/N raised a hand over his eyes to cover it while it adjusted. "Y/N, you have to get up..." someone called, but he could barely hear them through the disorientation. Then his eyes started to come into focus, and his senses came back to him. Blonde hair fell on his face for a moment, and the face of someone finally registered.

"Hey kid, welcome back to the real world," she spoke. The tone of her voice was so clear, yet it held deeper than most, full of experience from her life. Her blonde hair was touching his head from how close she was. "You hit your head pretty hard, how many fingers am I holding up?" She asked, holding up three fingers. It took him a moment, but Y/N could see it. "Three," he answered, and the woman nodded. "What happened, Jen?" A much, much younger Y/N asked now.

Jen reached forward and grabbed Y/N's arm, helping him up to his feet. "You got knocked out by that bloater," Jen answered, stepping to the side. Y/N got a clear view of the bloater that lay dead in the snow. "Oh, I'm sorry," Y/N said quietly, he was sure he had made it much harder for Jen. "I would hit you, but you just hurt yourself, so just stop apologizing kid. Not everything has to be your fault, you ain't superhuman."

Y/N just nodded in response. Jen sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "That being said, we'll call this hunting trip short, let's head back to the camp," Jen called, waving Y/N on as she trudged through the snow. "I can still-!" Y/N tried to protest, but Jen just held a hand up at him. "No whining, Y/N. We're going back and that's final," she ordered, taking on a much more steely tone to shut down any arguments that might have come from Y/N. He trudged through the snow after her, his feet dragging and making a path. He felt so useless when a bloater attacked he just slept through it.

Walking ahead of him, Jen could practically sense the moping coming from the young boy behind her. The camp wasn't very far, maybe a mile away from where they were hunting. She looked down at the bracelet on her wrist, rubbing it gently as she thought. Finally, she turned her head. "Tell you what kid, I'll let you clean The Star Breaker with me," she said, pointing a thumb at the rifle on her back. Y/N's eyes lit up with joy. The Star Breaker was the name he had come with for Jen's augmented hunting rifle. Y/N called it that because he believed it could shoot a star, and Jen just went along with it.

Seeing him cheer up, Jen smiled lightly and looked back to her front as they walked. Together the two walked through the snowy forests of Maine, a state once held pride in the country. Now, there was very little around. Nothing but abandoned towns, infected, and resources that were quickly fading. And in this world, there was a child, a child who was already too accustomed to this world.

Soon their camp would come into sight, signified by the barbed wire that protected them from wandering infected at night. Getting close to it, Jen reached out with a gloved hand. Very carefully, she would move some of the fences over so the two could pass. When they were in the camp, she reconnected the fence and took a step back. Y/N was already walking to the main portion of the camp. Two tents surrounded a scaffolding, under that rested a fire and two logs to sit on. Y/N went over to the fire, grabbing flint from the edge of the campfire. Using a dulled-down knife, he struck the two together until the sparks cultivated a fire.