borderline - the last of us.

35. piñata.

RALPH DIDN'T GET TO BE ALONE OFTEN, so, sue him for appreciating the silence.

It began when Ellie had announced she was out of water, and Ralph offered to go find a river or working water or someplace to refill it, and then Lou promptly downed the rest of her water bottle in time for a refill, and Joel admitted that his was empty too, so he ended up waddling through a nearby alley towards the sound of running water.

It was there he found a stream, not that big, but enough to fill three water bottles. Of course, he wasn't just going to let them chug dirty river water, so he set up a neat little campfire and began to prepare the water for boiling, feeling super survivalist about himself.

He wasn't alone for very long, and that was a given with the unlikely group he was in. One was always clinging to him. More often than not, it was Joel, and that was the same case for right now.

He didn't break the silence as he sat next to Ralph, watching the water run ahead of them and joining his hands over his knees.

Abruptly, Ralph veered towards him and stared at his wrist, at his shattered watch, and frowned when the hands weren't moving. In an estimate, he swapped one bottle for the other and let it simmer over the flames next.

'So... Watcha doing?' Joel finally cracked the question.

'Appreciating Daejayeon.' Ralph held his hands out miraculously and laughed at Joel's stoic, confused expression. 'Mother nature, dummy. Let it cool.'

He planted Joel's water bottle in front of him as Joel presented a different flask from his pocket, the shiny grey one from the River of Death. Ralph laughed at the sight of it, and Joel smiled.

'I annoyed a refill out of Tommy.' He said proudly, unscrewing the cap and granting Ralph the honor of the first sip. He accepted it gratefully.

'You know.' Ralph began, running his tongue along his teeth and then sucking them for a second. 'I think this has been my favorite day in a while.'

It didn't take Einstein to figure out why. '...Cause you saw that fucking giraffe?'

'Cause I saw that fucking giraffe!' He nodded eagerly, Joel cracking a smile as he did so.

'What was your other favorite day, then? Before today?' Joel questioned, raising his eyebrows. He had an answer, but he wasn't sure if Ralph did based on the expression on his face. Hastily, he was proved wrong.

'Jackson.' He seemed confident in his answer. Although that was Joel's answer as well, and it boosted his ego to know that their kiss made it in the books as one of his favorite things, he didn't expect that.

'Really?' He questioned. 'I thought with Tommy being up your ass the whole time, you'd have hated it.'

Ralph laughed, taking the drink from him and swapping one bottle for the other with the other hand. 'I mean, he was just looking out for you. It was super annoying, but, he was.'

'I don't need my pissy little brother to look out for me.' Joel grumbled, still a great deal irritated about the chaos that had unfolded during their arrival, the shit that had frankly driven him to want out so soon. That made him think about things, about their futures in Jackson, but Ralph had beat him to it.

'I, uh, I like your idea. About going back to Jackson with... All of us.' He scratched his nose awkwardly, turning to look at Joel. '...But, I mean, I kind of thought that you said-'

'I didn't mean that.' Joel shook his head quickly, not even needing him to finish his sentence to know that he was talking about the empty threat from way back when. Relief crossed him in an instant. 'I didn't mean anything that I said. I was angry, but not at you. I think I was just angry because... I hadn't seen Tommy in ten-or-something years, and he was trying to tell me that the one person who understands me was some kind of criminal or something.'