borderline - the last of us.

14. the right people.

'DAD!' Ralph was woken up by the quiet sound of Lou whisper-screaming at him from across the room, and he rolled over on his side to ignore her. Being the genius that he was, Ralph had completely forgotten that he had been shot on that side, and promptly began to start groaning and reaching for his side.

And there was also a gun pointing right at his face.

What a wonderful start to his morning.

The boy behind the gun was tiny. He was a kid, a pretty young kid. Ralph couldn't see much in the darkness, but he was able to define the barrel of the pistol that was pointed straight at him and the glistening of another one from the other side of the room.

'Eyes on me!' The man on the far side of the room demanded, holding a gun to Lou and Ellie. The girls had their hands up in the air in surrender and kept their mouths shut, but it was obvious that they were praying for Ralph to do something about this. The man noticed Ralph's discomfort and let his act slip for a moment. 'What's the matter with you, are you hurt?'

'If you touch them, I'll kill you.' Ralph said, his right hand moving to clutch his side, feeling a fresh wave of blood seep through the bandage, and his left still holding Joel's. The man next to him was still snoring, and Ralph didn't intend to do anything about it.

They stared at each other. The man tightened his grip around the gun, but wasn't going to do anything, Ralph could tell. It was to bluff. He'd seen it plenty of times before. Tighten your grip, say something super emotional or badass, and then put the gun down. That was how it worked in all the movies, and that was how it was going to work right now.

'Hey, relax.' The stranger said finally, lowering his gun slightly and looking at the kid at the foot of Ralph and Joel's mattress to do the same. 'We don't wanna hurt you. We wanna help you... Can you wake him up?'

Ralph thumped Joel on the side once or twice, and he rubbed his eyes for a moment before he realized what was going on and immediately began to freak out. He shoved himself up onto his elbows in a heartbeat and looked around the room with wide and confused eyes, clearly out of the loop.

'They said they don't wanna hurt us.' Ralph added grumpily, still cradling his side. Joel looked back at him and frowned when he noticed that Ralph's pain was back again, but didn't make any sudden movement to try and mend the hurting.

'Alright, uh... I don't know what the next step is with something like this, but if I lower my gun, we didn't hurt you, so you don't hurt us, right?' The stranger said, looking at Ralph and Joel as he spoke, assuming that these girls were no real threat. And they weren't, not at the moment, because they were scared shitless and just wanted Joel and Ralph to be there.

'Right.' Joel repeated with a very clear hatred in his voice.

'...That's a weird fuckin' tone, man!' He said frantically, raising his weapon again.

'No, no, no! That's just the way he sounds, he has an asshole voice!' Ellie insisted, hands still raised high by her shoulders.

'You tell him, dad.' Lou nodded at him, an anxious expression plastered all across her face, making Ralph feel sick. 'Tell him.'

'...Alright.' He said finally, looking away from Lou to face the random guy that had almost killed them all. 'We won't hurt you, dude. But, if you're gonna preach peace and everything, you should really consider putting that fucking gun away.'

'Yeah. Yeah, fair point.' He nodded, lowering it and reaching for the pocket the had drawn it from in the first place. He turned to the younger boy and began to make motions with his hands- Sign language. Ralph knew a few pieces, but not in American, so he couldn't make sense of any of it. The little boy began to put his gun away too, and even though Ralph was still shocked that he had it in the first place, he turned to face the man when he spoke again. 'But, if any of you try anything...!'