Look for the Light (Joel Miller fanfic)

Welcome to Jackson

                                                                                     Joel's POV

The night went by in the blink of an eye as the darkness quickly turned to sunlight and the sun crept its way into the sky. Aly was passed out in your lap, her dark hair sprawled out across your jeans. She was sleeping peacefully, her breathing slow and calm.

You had stayed up the entire night thinking about everything that had taken place. The fireflies, Marlene, Ellie, the fight with Aly, and Sarah. It all had completely drained you, sending you into a dark mindset. Seeing Ellie brought back so many painful memories of Sarah. She was nothing like Sarah, but yet she reminded you so much of your baby girl.

Sarah...You missed her so goddamn much. You'd give anything to go back to that day before she was shot, would do anything to fix that. Stop it from happening in the first place, but you couldn't. That's not how life worked. Now all you were stuck with was grief and memories of the past.

Now you had to deal with Ellie. Cargo. She was nothing but cargo, an unassigned item to smuggle away from the fireflies. You didn't want to do this, but now you felt obligated to. You didn't want to let Aly down, not again. You could see she liked the kid and wanted to help her. She was a better person than you were. You probably would've just left her behind. To die.

The minutes passed slowly as you watched the sun make its way high in the sky, daylight covering the land now. You felt Aly shift slightly against you, and then her eyes were open as she sat up slowly next to you.

"Good morning," she yawned sleepily.

"Mornin'," you drawled back. "You sleep alright?"

"I slept much easier with you by my side. Thank you for letting me use your sleeping bag. It was warm and it smells just like you," she said in a quiet, luring tone.

"Is that so?" you asked with a raised eyebrow, a smirk forming on the side of your mouth.

"Mhm," she answered as she leaned over and planted a quick kiss on your cheek. It was warm, affectionate. Something you still couldn't quite get used to.

"Well, feel free to use it anytime you want," you said as you turned your body to face her. Those striking blue eyes gazed back at you, taking your breath away. You pushed back a flyaway strand of brunette hair behind her ear as you leaned in closer.

"Only if you join me..." she said as she batted her long eyelashes at you, a flirtatious smile hanging on her lips.

You smiled and shook your head at her, leaning in closer. "Such a needy girl." Then your lips were on hers as your hand entangled her dark waves. She pulled at your plaid shirt as she brought you closer, her hand trailing against the back of your neck, right at the curling edges of your hair. You could smell her hair, lilac, as it blew in the wind. It just made you want her more...

"Can you two get a room?" Ellie yelled in disgust.

You and Aly both jumped back in surprise, breaking apart the kiss. You gave Ellie a snarl as you looked up at her, not happy she interrupted. "I didn't know you were awake," you huffed as you got up off the ground.

"I just woke up and that's the first thing I saw. Are you two like married or something?" she asked curiously.

"No," you growled in annoyance.

"But you're boyfriend and girlfriend?" she asked as she looked between the two of you.

"Uhhhh." The question caught you off guard. You hadn't really talked about it. You had claimed her as yours, so you guessed that was the same thing? You didn't know, you didn't date. You didn't do any of this stuff. It was all uncharted territory.