The Last Of Us: A Forsaken Son

Impulsiveness

"The more you flinch, the harder it is to get it out"

"Sorry"

Joel stared attentively at his palm. Slowly, he stuck the needle next to where the thin splinter penetrated Caleb's skin.

Two of Joel's top buttons were undue, and left a diminutive part of his chest exposed. Thin strands of hair showing a bit as well.

Caleb could feel a bit of it as his fingertips accidentally nudged it a few times.

On top of that, this was the first time Caleb could witness Joel's face up close. He could see the gray strands within his hair more clearly now. There was also the bags under his eyes that made him look intimidating. Especially with those dark eyes — to the point you'd think they lacked any specific color.

Then the sharpness consumed his attention and he reminded himself not to tense at the feeling. He kept himself still as best he could.

"Got it"

Joel raised his forefinger and thumb that looked like nothing was inbetween them. Like he was just pressing his fingertips together. But the outside daylight made it conspicuous to see the thin piece of wood.

"Are there anymore?" He dropped the splinter and it fell onto the hardwood floor.

Looking down at his palms, he pressed them together and felt no twinges or any sort of sharp pain.

"I think I'm okay now"

"Okay. Go down stairs to Ellie, I'm gonna do some searching up here"

As soon as he approached the doorframe he turned back to look at Joel.

"Joel?"

Joel was crouched in front of a safe.

"What?"

Though the verbiage was kind of curt, his tone didn't have any sort of connotation behind it. Just a simple 'what?'.

"I... lost my gun"

"Okay, we'll just, see if we can find another one" he kept his monotone.

"Okay.."

The dart landed straight into the green circuit surrounding the red dot in the center.

"Almost!" Sam said

Subsequently, another dart landed directly on the red dot.

"Got it!" Ellie exclaimed

Chuckling to the board, Sam collected the scattered darts to throw them all over again.

"Hey, Caleb. Why didn't Joel come down yet?"

At the other end of the dusty sofa Henry sat with his arm resting on the armrest.

"He said he was gonna check around upstairs"

"Oh, okay" he slouched a bit in his spot. He brought his resting arm to his face to massage the bridge of his nose.

"Do you know people from there?"

     His eyes slowly opened to look over at Caleb.

"Who?"

"The firefli-"

     Ellie called to him, a dart in her hand leaning towards him.

"Wanna try?"

     He really wanted to finish talking with Henry about the fireflies. But, he couldn't refuse.