Walking Dead Game Collection

"A Replacement"

Title: A Replacement
Characters: Clementine, Javier, Gabe
Summary: After Mari dies, Javi becomes overprotective of Clem, and Clementine gets slightly annoyed with how he's trying to play her dad.
Author's Note: I love Javi and Clem as a duo SO. DAMN. MUCH.
Requested By: Anonymous
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Without a sound, Javier threw himself in front of Richmond's front gates.

Clementine, her walk skidding to a halt at the male having thrown himself in her path, raised an eyebrow. "Uhm? Javi?"

"You can't." The words had hardly left her lips before the male began protesting. He shook his head, starting forward and forcing the teen back. "No, you're staying."

Clementine scoffed while stopping her retreat, allowing the male to bump into her. His stubbornness was uncanny, it seemed. "You don't get to tell me what I do and don't get to do."

"It's not safe out there and you know that."

"Javi," Clem scoffed, holding out both of her hands, baffled at the male's refusal to let her leave. "I'm going to get firewood. I'll be back in half an hour tops."

Javi shook his head, his stance on the ground firm. He closed his eyes, shaking his head forcefully. "You're not going alone. Nope. I'm coming with you." When the male's eyes opened the teen was no longer in front of him. Turning, the male watched as she made her way out of the gates, the metal squealing as she slipped through.

Glancing up, spotting him as she was in the midst of her escape, she smiled. "I'll be back soon!" With that, the doors latched shut and Javi's shoulders fell. Maybe he needed to come up with a new strategy.

"Javi?" Hearing a voice, the male turned to see Gabe, arms crossed, waiting to capture his attention. The teen had his eyebrows raised, drinking in the sight of his uncle throwing a fit. "Are you feeling okay?"

Javi's shoulders sagged seeing the way his nephew's eyes laid on him — with pity and worry opposed to the admiration he adored. "I'm doing fine, Gabe."

"You don't look like it."

Javier sighed — hoping to make his frustration evident — as he turned back to face the gates Clementine had just exited from. "I'm just worried about her, that's all."

Gabe said nothing, only merely raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"She takes too many risks," Javier continued, running a hand through his shabby, unwashed hair. Upon removing it, his fingers squirmed in the grasp of their siblings, trying to rid themselves of the gross feeling. "She's only gonna get herself hurt."

"Javi, Clem's one of the strongest people I know." Gabe commented, arms falling to his sides as he wandered forward, hoping to be closer to his uncle. "She's just getting firewood. It's not that big of a deal."

Javi's eyebrow twitched, and the sight caused Gabe's pushing to pause. A look of concern washed over him as he studied his uncle, now covered in an aura of mourning, sorrow, and misunderstanding.

"Yeah," Javi finally spoke, his face neutral and blank. "You're right." Without another word, the male turned and started in the opposite direction of Richmond's front gates, hoping to find a safe hiding place to gather his thoughts where his loved ones wouldn't see him.

A handful of hours passed and, while resting in the Garcia's small Richmond lot — an assigned, tiny townhouse — Javi could hear his roommates pile in. Kate passed with hardly a word, dismissing herself to the upper floor to go to bed. Meanwhile, Gabe threw himself onto one of the beds on the main floor, watching as Clementine did the same to the one opposing him.