borderline - the last of us.

04. fieldtrip.

'DO YOU MIND EXPLAINING, IN SIMPLE TERMS, WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?' Ralph hissed, slamming the apartment door shut behind him and glaring a hole into Joel's eyesockets. The man across from him opened his mouth to speak, but Ralph held up a finger and Joel just shut up in an instant. He took a moment to be shocked, not even Tess could shut him up that easy, before quickly tuning in to what he was being scolded about. 'Because I'm pretty sure that a random teenage girl that I have never seen before just tried to slice my face in half for no apparent reason?'

Ralph didn't look angry. Even though he had a lot of reasons to be, especially right now, he didn't look it. Joel didn't think he had ever seen an ill expression cross Ralph's face. He was always smiley and happy and laughing when he wasn't anxious and quiet and timid. It varied between the two, but it never crossed the border to sad or angry or disgusted. Even now, after he almost got his eyeball poked out, he's not particularly angry. He's not happy, but he's not angry.

'Listen, Ralph, it's... It's a long story, okay?' Joel tilted his head down a little bit, holding a hand up to... He didn't know why he did that. Maybe to try and come across as more... Defensive? Why would he need to defend himself against a fifty-year-old man who was probably a foot shorter than him and was scared of spiders?

'I've got all day, Joel. In fact, why don't you come over for a cup of tea later? Looks like you already made yourself at home.' Ralph pointed towards the door of his apartment, just in case Joel had no idea what he was talking about, just in case Joel had forgotten about what he had seen earlier.

It went silent.

'It's for a job.' Joel said finally, gruffly, like Ralph had really pried this info out of him. '...The girl. We need to get her... Someplace, I dunno. Marlene asked us. There's a Firefly base somewhere out in the countryside, and she wants us to get the girl there. In return, we get enough gear and food to last us a lifetime.'

'You're what?' It sounded more like a statement than a question.

'Okay, I know this sounds bad—'

'It is bad, Joel. Is bad!' Ralph whisper-shouted at him, somehow still not angry. He turned around, facing completely away from him, before spinning around like he hadn't wanted to turn away in the first place. 'You're smuggling kids now?'

'We didn't really have a choice, man.' Joel huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and sighing through his nose as Ralph went on his own separate, anxious little rant. Joel had seen a couple of these during his times with Ralph, even though they spent very limited time together. He began to pace back and forth and mess with his hair, staring at his feet and talking crazy. 'Hey, stop freaking out. You don't even have anything to do with this, alright? You can just skip, hop and jump back into your little apartment, take your girl with you, mind your own, and then this'll all blow over.'

The door to the left of them was tossed wide open, the doorknob echoed when it thumped against the drywall. There stood Ellie and Lou, who had very clearly been listening to the whole entire conversation.

Ellie seemed well under control of her breathing by now, but there was a red mark forming on the front of her throat where Ralph's fist had made contact. Another sharp stab of guilt ran through him, making him feel a little bit lightheaded.

Lou was looking at them both like they had just murdered her entire family. Dramatically, she stepped towards Ellie and wrapped her arms around the brunette's neck. Ellie seemed pretty surprised by this, but quickly reciprocated by hugging her back. 'I'm not letting you take Ellie.'

'You're not a part of this.' Joel said sternly, looking between the two girls. Joe had never been too fond of kids, apart from the kid that was once his own, but even he couldn't deny that these two girls, although an unlikely duo, had proved to get along very well within the past hour.