borderline - the last of us.

24. amkae.

JOEL HAD BEEN SITTING THERE FOR A GOOD FORTY-FIVE MINUTES, staring at the sun and the snow and the grass and the trees, petting the horses, tying his laces. He hadn't slept that much last night, or the night before for that matter. But, they were nearing their destination.

They were only six or seven miles from Colorado. They'd wipe that out in at least an hour on horseback, which would leave Ralph with enough time to decide what he was going to do with the knowledge that Joel knew everything and that he wasn't going to be so kind to him anymore.

Despite his promise to Tommy, Joel wasn't sure if he could be unkind to Ralph, not after everything the four of them had been through. Besides, Ellie and Lou would have their fair share of questions about the sudden coldness between the duo. He could try to be mean, but there were no promises.

He had chosen the early morning to interrogate Ralph because he knew that there was no chance Lou and Ellie would be awake at such an hour, even if the two of them began to escalate their argument. Also because he was already up anyways, and the anticipation was killing him. He just wanted to get it over and done with.

It took a while, but Ralph began to stir as he slept, sighing tiredly as the sun rose higher and higher, blinding him more and more every second. Joel shifted to block the rays, protecting his grumpy yet peaceful face, and it was the sudden change that woke Ralph up.

He smiled when he saw Joel, reaching up and scrubbing his hands over his eyes, and then pushed himself to sit upright on tired arms. He stayed like that for a minute, stretching his legs out as he yawned, and then brought his knees to his chest with another tired grin. 'Hey.'

'Hi.' Joel replied gruffly. He wasn't doing a very good job at this, right off the bat. Ralph puckered his lips, gesturing to Joel's position and the fact that he looked like he had been sitting there, crossed-legged and watching Ralph sleep, for quite a while.

'You good?' He asked dumbly, as if this was a daily occurrence. He made himself sound dumb, clueless even, but Joel could tell that he knew what was happening- He was just stalling.

Joel nodded. Silently, awkwardly. Ralph nodded with him and turned around to retrieve his pistol, then looked at Joel the second that he realized it was missing. He saw the familiar dark grey handle poking out of the pocket on Joel's right, something that he hadn't noticed beforehand, and shifted forward to retrieve it.

Joel placed his hand on it loosely, a silent threat, to which Ralph hesitated and eventually sat back, his knees still tugged up to his chest. When Ralph sat, Joel dropped it as if he had never wanted to grab it in the first place and placed his hand over the top of his legs again.

'Do you want the chance to tell me? Or do you want me to come right out and say it?' He offered, crossing his arms over his chest because he didn't know what to do with them. He was normally pretty good at intimidating people, just not Ralph for some reason.

Speaking of Ralph, he was totally not buying it. He still looked like he had been caught red-handed because he had, but he didn't seem to care all that much. He gave Joel a blunt shrug of the shoulders, not giving into his scare tactics, and Joel sighed.

'Why wouldn't you tell me that you're with the Fireflies?' He said finally, staring at him with a scrunched-up face.

"Cause it's not any of your business, is it?' Ralph replied quickly, tilting his head to one side and pointing at his gun. 'Can I have that?'

'What did you do? For them?' Joel shifted the right side of his jacket over his hip, further away from Ralph. He interlocked his fingers. 'And your answer better the same as Tommy's.'