Bothersome arrival, a desperate chap || The Last Of Us 2

Bothersome arrival, a desperate chap

Those three looked like normal survivors to Ellie the moment she laid her eyes on them. Two men, one woman, hungry and cold in the middle of winter, where the snow had covered from the peaks of the mountains to every nook and cranny of the settlement. Crunchy under her boots as she was called, alarmed and confused, only to see those three. They seeked a home, begged to prove they were good. Tommy and Maria, seeing as the people did not have many objections, took them in and investigated them for the first two days, confined in a specific building with supervision.

They asked them questions about their backgrounds, their family, their previous groups, had there been any. Then, the crucial inquiry of killing and contribution. Maria was always a rough woman with the newbies, cold and distant so there would not be any misunderstandings of her authority. In the end, they were invited to live there, to enter the small society they had built.

To say the truth, only one man appeared to have a strange aura around him, a predatory one. He had a broad chest and buff arms, obviously prepared for anything. He was handsome, a nice head of hair for his light colored eyes to stand out. Other women in the area murmured among themselves, somewhat smitten. The men approached him and picked up conversation. The other two were blending in impeccably. So, when Dina pulled Ellie by the arm, fresh out of a breakup with Jesse once again, she hesitated. Not only for that bad gut feeling she got, but she worried Dina would somehow get involved with him. She kept to herself, swallowed the frown that was about to implant on her lips for the sake of her crush on her best friend.

It was mid-day, the sky showed signs of a new layer of snow, so the people carried around woods for their furnaces and fireplaces as they went closer to the man. When close enough, he regarded them with a smile, inducing goosebumps on her arms and secretly blaming the temperature as she tugged the jacket over her hoodie close.

"Hey, we thought we'd come and introduce ourselves, since you're new to the place. I'm Dina." She said, eyes creasing as she grinned and making Ellies' stomach explode in butterflies. The man extended his arm for a hand shake, which she took.

"It's great to meet you, I'm Luke." He turned to Ellie, eyes piercing her own.

"Ellie." She muttered quickly and pretended to cover up her indifference by holding her hands over her mouth to blow on them for warmth.

"Pretty names you both have." He winked, Dina laughed and she stood awkwardly.

"So, uh, Tommy is trying to find us a home to stay at comfortably, I'm gonna check in with him. See you later?" He said as he started to back away, with an affirmative answer from Dina, he threw another look at Ellie and left them.

Dina sighed through her nose, a sign she was tired for the day and wishing for a relaxing passing of time. Therefore, she took her home, where Joel had just come back from a patrol to watch a movie together. Shoes and jackets disregarded, the girls cuddled on the couch and it wasn't until the third movie that Dina fell asleep on her shoulder, gusts of wind whistling in the dark outside.

"Kiddo..." Joel whispered, mindful of the slumbering. "Did somethin' happen? You're actin' weird."

"Nope, just a bit occupied with the new people." She would usually say when something was bothering her, but she kind of felt foolish when everybody else was so welcoming.

"Oh..." He paused, troubled, eyebrows furrowed. "Listen Ellie, I don't want to alarm you or anythin', but that big guy, Luke or whatever his name is... He doesn't quite fill my eye."