Clementine & Louis One-shots

Always Means Always

Word Count: 2787

Summary: Clementine has always been there for AJ, always been there to save him. Now it's up to him to be there for her, as well as the school kids. But the one leg is a surprise.

A/N: So I have been wondering about this since the episode was released but luckily there was a reddit post that explained how AJ got back to the school, which was super helpful. So this is based on that. That episode was fucking wild.

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Clementine was never usually the type to be wrong, her decisions were clear and precise. Her thinking was logical and centred in truth. When she taped up the holes in his little shoes, that was to protect his feet. They still bled through his socks later that night, but she was always there to soothe him. With a strong hand, she wiped the blood away and used the last of their gauze to stop it. For the rest of the night, she held him close and told him stories, stories of all the good things she had seen a person do.

She would tell AJ about his father, how he gave her a juice box amidst a crisis despite knowing that others within the group wouldn't like it. Clementine would tell him about another boy, small and brave just like him. His name was Duck and he would tell Clementine stories all day. They were over the top and made no sense, but they got her smiling. In return, she put a bug on his pillow.

But everyone has a limit, and Clementine had reached hers. She wanted him to kill her, to plunge the axe right into her skull. Was this it? All of her fighting had come down to this? AJ didn't have a story of hope to tell her, no anecdote that would change her mind. It was time for AJ to become one of her stories. To be her hero.

As AJ held the axe high in the air, he pondered over everything Clementine had done for him; getting him back from the Ranch, despite all the blood. Finding food for him in unlikely and dangerous places, singing him to sleep on nights where the shadows loomed over them. She was always one step ahead, leading him to safety. Now it was his turn.

AJ slammed the axe down onto her leg instead, flinching at her scream. It made his nerves shake, yet he kept his head clear. Fear would just have to fuck off. He yanked it out of her skin and threw it back down, cutting deeper. Clementine fell back against the hay, passing out to his sickening delight. The blood was never-ending, it slithered out of her leg and along towards AJ, filling in the cracks within the earth.

"I hope you're not mad at me for this."

With four more bone-crunching chops, the leg was gone, the bite was no longer apart of her. Time was of the essence. AJ remembered one of the many, many lessons Clementine had bestowed upon him, about a cot-cau-seal...burning the wound. With the flint from the cave in his grasp, he collected a small pile of hay and set it ablaze as best he could. He ignored the wave of hands stretching out to him from the outside, they weren't a problem as of now. AJ looked back at Clem, her strength had gone dim.

The tip of his knife hovered over the brief flame before coming into immediate contact with her open wound, AJ repressed the urge to go vomit in the corner. "This is gross," His palm dragged along her skin, taking her temperature. Still warm, still alive. His eyes gave way to tears that didn't seem to stop. She looked so barren, nearly lost and gone forever. "Stop that, you're not done."

The rope laying nearby was a big ray of sunshine. He yanked it closer to him and wrapped it tightly around what remained of her leg, the only useful thing he learned from Abel. That and to be more careful around the traps.

AJ gripped the knife as he scanned the barn. Monsters still threatened to spill over. He pushed the wheelbarrow against the small doors, taunting the monsters over to him. "Dummy," One by one they fell victim to the blade. As Clementine had taught him, they're not smart.