crossed paths | the last of us

𝓿𝓲𝓲𝓲 ; 𝓽𝓵𝓸𝓾, 𝓬𝓻𝓸𝓼𝓼𝓮𝓭 𝓹𝓪𝓽𝓱𝓼

- 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐬𝐭 -

"WHAT DID THE GRAPE SAY WHEN IT GOT CRUSHED?"

Ellie walked in front of Joel and Noor, her back faced to the path as she took careful steps backwards and looked at the two, waiting for a reaction. She watched them look at one another and then back at her.

"What?" Noor asked, an amused look on her face.

"Nothing," Ellie snorted before she even finished the pun, "It just let out a little wine."

Noor was a sucker for Ellie's pun book, so whenever the girl pulled it out of her bag, Noor almost beamed up but acted like she didn't care. She wanted to hold her belly and bend over to laugh at her jokes, yet she remained collected and only let out a chuckle or two. Ellie didn't take it to heart.

"Alright, that's enough for today," Ellie closed the book, stuffing it back in her bag and returning to Noor's side, keeping her between herself and Joel, "So, how did you survive out of a QZ?"

Noor almost widened her eyes at Ellie's sudden question. Though she had gotten used to her questions and outbursts in the last few months, sometimes Ellie picked the worst type of question to ask - one that made Noor build her walls back up, just when she tore them down to breathe.

"Uh..." she cleared her throat, "You know, just... Takes time, I guess? I managed, I'm not sure how, either." Joel kept watch at the two, his eyes dancing between Ellie and Noor, listening to their conversation, "Why'd you ask?"

"I dunno," she shrugged, kicking the snow with her feet, "Cause like, most people get killed by Raiders or whatever."

"Yeah, well, I got close to getting killed a lot so," she shrugged as well, "I wasn't always so lucky."

"You almost got killed?" Ellie asked, shocked and waiting for the story.

"It happened a few times, yeah. Nothing special," but Ellie didn't let it die and kept urging her to continue with just a look, "Uh, well... There was this one time. I was 19, I think? I ran out of food for a while and I guess I was going out of my mind so I decided to steal from this group of people. They had a bunch of guns, armed to the teeth but I went in with nothing but a little knife. I didn't have my bow or gun then, and even if I did, I had shit aim even when I threw a rock, so," Ellie smiled wide at the story, finding Noor's storytelling fascinating, "Anyway, I walked right in their little safe zone, or whatever you wanna call it. And I just, took a shit ton of food and ran. So, they chased after me and to this day I can't fathom why not one bullet hit me. But, I did get this from that day."

The two watched Noor halt to a stop and unzip her jacket. She pulled up her shirt to reveal a scar on her ribcage and Ellie's fingers grazed over it.

"That's fucking awesome! Joel, look at this," she dragged the man to look at the scar but he was far from amused and Noor saw it. She was just glad Ellie was oblivious to it.

"Yeah, pretty awesome," Noor pulled down her shirt, zipped up her jacket and continued walking.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Joel, Ellie and Noor were lost. There was no denying it. At first, Joel was confident he could find the cabin with the help of Noor - as much as she could help, at least, but when he came to the realization that they'd been looking for it for three months, he almost wanted to blame Noor and then himself.
Countless nights spent looking at the map under the moonlight and days spent walking kilometers, led to absolutely nothing. He began to grow frustrated, and the girl and woman began to notice. His demeanor changed, he seemed more tense and jumpy. He was walking on glass.