Walking Dead Game Collection

"Meaning Of Love"

Title: Meaning Of Love
Characters: Ericson Kids
Summary: AJ sees that Clem is being flirted with by Louis and Violet, and that they make her happy instead of allowing her to worry all the time. While AJ has trouble understanding why, he talks to different people around Ericson who each give him a different definition of love.
Author's Note: I hope this one is wholesome enough lol
Requested By: DanniBoi12 on Wattpad
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AJ scrunched his nose. "What does that mean?"

Tenn smirked, tearing his gaze from the notebook he'd been absentmindedly sketching in. "You've never heard of them before?"

AJ shook his head, his stare trained elsewhere; on the focus of their conversation. Tenn's gaze followed suit.

Where Louis had just been standing, jostling Clementine's shoulder and watching her laugh, now stood Violet. From across the yard, AJ and Tenn watched as she crossed her arms, saying something and nudging her head in Louis' direction — the boy who had since left to tend to his watch-tower shift. Clem smirked, then laughed before the two of them walked away together.

"What are cooties?"

"Germs." Tenn said. "But you only get them through crushes."

AJ scrunched his nose even harder. "Gross."

Tenn shrugged, turning his attention back to his sketch. "Depends on how you look at it."

AJ turned to him, his stare dead-pan. "What do you mean?"

Tenn made no physical reaction; only continued his sketching. "Love doesn't need to be gross. It depends on what it is for you; what it does for you."

AJ stare returned to Clem and Violet as they walked side by side, wandering around the perimeter, smiling blissfully at one another. They were far enough away that he couldn't see if her cheeks were rosy anymore. "What is it supposed to do?"

"It's different for everyone, I guess." Tenn said. AJ could hear Tenn close his book. "Love is supposed to change you."

"And that's good?" AJ turned back again.

"Sometimes." Tenn said, shrugging. He stared off at Clem and Violet as they rounded a corner of the building. "It's supposed to make you happier. More confident too, I think."

"Confident?"

"Happy with who you are." He elaborated. "You're so happy that someone you admire loves you back for exactly who you are, and it can change the way you view yourself."

"And that's love?"

"To me."

AJ considered it, turning to face the front gates, staring off into nothing. How was it possible that one word had different definitions depending on who you were talking to? Maybe Tenn was confused. Maybe love only had one meaning and Tenn only thought it meant more than that.

Without saying anything more, AJ stood. He removed himself from Ericson's front steps and made his way inside. Maybe someone else could answer his questions; someone who could give him clarity about what love was supposed to mean. As he stood to leave, Tenn stared after him with no reaction. He would return to sketching once he'd closed the doors behind him, after all.

The second he closed the front door, AJ heard faint speaking. Bubbling from the music room, AJ heard chatter and laughter as he drew closer toward it. Creaking the door open, the stares of Aasim, Ruby, and Omar turned toward him. Ruby was in mid-laugh, Aasim was smiling with blissful cheeks and Omar, in mid-sentence, cut himself off when he spotted AJ in the doorway.