borderline - the last of us.

33. going grey.

'ELLIE.' Ralph looked over when Joel called out the girl's name, poking his head out the door of the RV he and Lou were inspecting to see if something had gone wrong. It hadn't, everything was fine, except for the fact that Ellie seemed to be deaf and wasn't giving Joel any piece of mind at all.

'Ellie?' Joel repeated, shuffling up to her as she sat in the back of a light blue pickup, staring off into space with her feet dangling off the edge and resting just above the ground. Awkwardly, Joel looked over his shoulder to Ralph for some form of help, not appreciating the cold shoulder whether it was purposeful or not.

'Ellie!' Ralph exclaimed, smacking a clenched fist against the side of the vehicle to create more noise. Her head snapped around to face him, frightened by the echo of metal thumping, and looked at Joel as he approached her.

'Did ya hear me?' He asked with a can in his hand and worry on his face.

'No.' She said meekly, scratching her jaw. 'What?'

'Well, I found this in there!' Joel said excitedly, pointing to the car that he had retrieved his treasure from. He looked at the label and held it up so she could see it. 'Beefaroni, Chef Boyardee.'

'Oh, cool.' Ellie smiled softly, though she didn't seem very interested. Joel began to walk towards her, shifting a box in his hand, and that was when Ralph turned around and craned his neck to look for Lou, wherever she might've been.

'Hey, we should probably, uh, get going.' He said, standing in the middle of the hallway as his daughter poked around in the unplugged fridge, plugging her nose with her fingers at the smell of outdated food. She nodded because her and Ellie were alike in their sudden quietness, and closed the fridge door.

She hopped off the ledge in front of the door and fell into step with Ellie, talking to her quietly as Ralph closed the door behind himself, as if anyone would be around to appreciate his manners, and began to walk next to Joel.

'You ever play Boggle?' Was the question he was greeted with.

'Did I ever what?' He repeated in confusion at that totally made-up word.

He held the board game out towards him and Ralph accepted it curiously, furrowing his eyebrows at it. It didn't take long for him to hand it back, having barely read the thing, which led Joel to question him about it.

'Did you even read it?' He swung his bag off of his shoulder, asking him to hold his rifle as he stashed the box and the can into his backpack.

'Uh, I can't read much English.' He admitted rather shyly, staring at the floor and crossing his arms over his head. Joel gave him a look, and he didn't mean to look half as disbelieving as he actually was. 'Only thing I know how to write is my signature, to sign papers and stuff. And I can read maps, but maps are almost always the same.'

'How do you, like, live?' Joel questioned, unintentionally blunt about it as he took his gun back and continued to walk.

'Lou translates most of the shit for me.' He made a vague gesture towards his daughter, she offered him a small, quick smile in response. 'Other times, I just guess.'

'But, you speak it.' Ellie pointed out the obvious. 'You speak it really good.'

'Thanks.' He nodded. 'Took me years to master that craft. Korean to English is not an easy bridge to cross.'

'So, if you can't read English, I'm guessing you can't read music either?' Joel's question was very random. He shrugged when they stared at him. 'I dunno, there was a guitar in the RV, in case you played. It was all smashed up, but got me thinking that maybe I should find one. I haven't played in forever. In fact, I was thinking maybe I could teach one of you two.'