Walking Dead Game Collection

"The Card"

Title: The Card
Characters: Clementine, Bonnie, Luke, Mike, Jane, Kenny
Summary: Clementine decides to make Luke a birthday card for his special day.
Author's Note: I'm sqUEAling. Also, this takes place during episode (I think 4 maybe 5) where instead of Luke mentioning that it's his birthday, this happens!
Requested By: Anonymous
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Today was the day where everything was going to come together.
A gentle rap at the tin door snapped Clementine from her mental prep session. She had a tendency to do that a lot recently; to get herself into the metaphorical "zone" for the day. It gave her that little push to get stuff done, something a lot of the adults did frequently. Considering that Clementine wanted to work towards being more responsible and independent she decided that she needed to start doing it to.
"Yeah?" She asked, adjusting her pig tails and sliding her hat over her puff-ball that she called hair. Normally the movement was powerful and strong, the "resting of the hat" being the most impactful ritual to start a day of work. Today, due to that simple knock, her morning pump-up was killed.
"Sorry, Clem." A gentle western voice commented, sliding through the doorway and softly pushing it shut behind them. Only one person in their group was ever that gentle.
"It's okay, Bonnie. What's up?" The golden gaze of the raven-haired girl shifted from the tiny mirror she had set up at the other end of her small room to the red-hair before her placing a sweet smile on her face.
"Well, uh, you know what it is today, right?" She asked, nervously rubbing her crimson ponytail. She did that whenever she was worried. Or stressed. Or thinking. Or distracting herself. Today it seemed as if it was all of these actions in one.
"Of course, how could I forget? You remind me everyday."
The small laugh from the child relaxed the adults nerves, allowing her fingers to detach from her locks. "Right, right. I do do that."
Clementine smirked, dismissing the fact that she had failed to realize her childlike wordplay. "So what's the plan?" Clem asked, finally managing to force words out of her lips that weren't pointing out the repetition.
"Well, Jane has agreed that she's going to whip some food up for him that she can salvage - despite Kenny's protests." She sighed and shook her head. Even though it was his birthday Kenny still found ways to want to make the male miserable. They could only pray that one day their feud would be resolved. "Mike is going to wrap gifts and I, and now you, are party planners."
Clementine's eyes widened, leaning forwards in disbelief. "What?" She paused. "How can we throw a party?"
"Well it won't be a crazy one. But the best one we can throw given our very low budget."
"What budget?"
Bonnie rolled her eyes as she heard the remark from the child. "Ha. Ha. Very funny." Her hands slid their way onto her hips, pushing her sides into a slanted, more comfortable pose. "The point is we need this to be perfect. O-Or at least as perfect as we can make it in our odd circumstances."
It was almost guaranteed that a birthday party during the apocalypse probably wasn't the dream bash that Luke had wished for. But given his friends, given his only companions and teammates, they needed to at least try to give him a memorable one. In this world you never know when one day will be your last and living through a birthday was rare in a world this distraught and aching.
"So then what still needs to be done?"
"Well we have a lot of the decorations that we could make and/or rummage out of storage."
Clementine blinked in confusion.
"We cut up some colourful bed sheets we found in the back and filled some plastic bags with sprinkles. It'll look pretty."
Clementine giggled and hugged her arms.
"All we need is to put them up and arrange the gifts. Really just put them all in the same place." Bonnie glanced up towards the ceiling, making checking motions with her fingers as she went through her mental checklist. "I can go and get started on the decorations if you wouldn't mind hanging back and helping out with his presents?"
Clementine faltered for a moment despite normally being quick to offer to help. What kind of presents could they possibly have gotten him? What could they find or even put together that he would enjoy? How did they do this? "Yeah okay, I can do presents." She finally managed to push from her throat. A small part of the child was terrified that Luke was going to get a disastrous birthday, one that none of them enjoyed and that was an embarrassment to not only to those whom planned it, but also to Luke himself for needing to suffer through.
As Bonnie dismissed herself from the room the golden-eyed beauty glanced around her room, studying all the little aspects of it that made it her own. Her little desk, the single bedside table, and her tiny mattress that she slept on every night. Scanning the room once or twice the youth's gaze couldn't help but continue to drift back to her desk like a magnet calling out to it's partner. Something there was waving to her, begging her to come closer and see.
And so, she obeyed.
She drew closer to her small desk, scanning the surface quickly before tugging open the single drawer off to its side. Immediately she made contact with the magnet.
Her art supplies.
Of course, she could make him something. Maybe that's even what the others had decided to do. Would what she would be able to make to even compare to theirs? Who knew. But at the moment the raven-haired child didn't really seem to care. She was giving this her all, and that's all that mattered to her.
Finally, after spending a large quantity of her gift-sorting time on her own little present, she decided to break off and finally do the task she was assigned.
There weren't a lot of gifts and the ones that were there were placed into half-broken or soggy cardboard boxes that Kenny had probably found when rummaging around through the back room. You know, the one with the damaged tin ceiling. The box lids were held shut each with a tiny piece of scotch tape, just enough to keep it sealed until Luke was done opening them. The "streamers" as Bonnie had called them hung loosely from the ceiling and the bags filled with sprinkles remained as centre pieces at their eating area.
Clementine wasn't going to lie, it was a depressing scene. It was a desperate attempt to make a dull time seem colourful. As much as everyone had appreciated Bonnie's effort, it was still a sad sight to see how far their lives has rolled down hill from a year ago where there could actually have been a party.
"Clementine! Wonderful, the gift table looks wonderful."
After a brief moment of hesitation the child forced a small towards the head-of-command. Even though she did nothing. She assumed that Kenny had done the job. The red-head nodded, studying the room and giving it a quick once-over before patting Clem on the back and ushering her forwards. "Okay, now we just need to wait for the man of the hour!"
Before being scuttled away, Clementine was able to slide her little paper contraption onto the gift table, a special surprise for the male to open when he walked in from gathering fire wood.
Surprised he was. And somewhat confused.
As he had entered back to their small, tin hut, he froze, dropping the fire wood against the ground and glancing around him in curiosity. "W-What?" His eyes finally landed on the small collection of boxes off in the corner, causing his eyes to widen. He huffed in shock. "W-Wow..." He sighed. "I can't believe you guys remembered."
"How could we forget?" Mike asked, nudging Bonnie with his elbow from behind her back.
Bonnie rolled her eyes and brushed him away. "We don't have a lot to do so I guess we should start with presents before we eat anything."
Luke sauntered over to the depressing collection of boxes, but instead lifted a small scrap of paper from in between two.
Bonnie paused. "What's that?" She glanced around. "Was there an extra gift?" Mike placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her. She was so intent on having the perfect day she was stressing out ridiculously.
The paper folded open easily in his fingers, the tips running over the words that had been written onto his page.
Dear Luke, I know you think we probably forgot your birthday, but we didn't. I want to tell you that I'm really glad to have you with me. I like being around you and spending time with you. You mean the world to me. I want you to have nothing more than a perfect birthday. And we'll do anything to make it happen. Thank you. I love you. Clementine.
The sweet message was fully finished with a little leaf stencil that she had showed the group one day when they had gotten settled.
Luke smiled, glancing down at Clementine and wrapped the grinning child up in his arms. "Thanks kiddo." He whispered to her.
Clementine giggled softly, her arms snaking their way around his back and hugging him kindly in silence. Enjoying the warmth radiating off of his body in the cold weather.
"Well, what does it say?" Jane asked, crossing her arms and glancing behind them at the fire. If this went on for too long his birthday meal wouldn't be warm enough to eat. Cold squirrel wouldn't be delicious.
Luke pulled away, making eye contact with the little girl as he hugged the note to his chest. "It's just for us to know."
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Original Link: http://thatglitterygeek.tumblr.com/post/121106482292/walking-dead-game-fanfiction-the-card