Ellie x male reader

𝓔𝓷𝓭 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓛𝓲𝓷𝓮

My dad and I stayed together with Maria and Ellie as Joel and Tommy went to check something out. I was starving too much to even interject into the situation. "So, dad, how did you find this place?" I asked as we came up to a cafeteria looking area. "Well, after the infected attacked I ran but still called out to them to make sure they followed me instead of you and you're mother." 

We grabbed some food and sat at a table. "I ended up coming across Tommy and he helped me out of the mess that I created." I nodded and stuffed a spoon full of food in my mouth. "What happened to your mother?" He asked quietly. "It happened when I was 10 or something. We decided to stop for the night at this house, we checked if it was clear and gathered in the main bedroom upstairs. We fell asleep and then they just came."

"They burst into the house and made their way upstairs... Mom rushed me out the window and I jumped, I ran to the river and stayed there for a bit... By the time the sun came up, I made the decision to go back to the house. I searched but she wasn't there. I just found her necklace."

Dad let out a sigh and rubbed his face. "Hey," Ellie's voice rang out. "She protected you, that's what matters... She made a hard decision as a mother." I gave her a small smile. "Ellie's right, you guys shouldn't be sad about her death, celebrate it, she wouldn't want you two to be sad." Maria bugged her way into the conversation then I felt a hand on my head. I looked to dad and he had a sad smile on his face. "The ladies are right, now eat." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey, what's that?" Ellie asked as we heard sirens blaring. "Someone's attacking us." Maria and dad said at the same time. "There's a room we can get to, not far from here." Dad said as he pulled out a gun and checked it as the rest of us pulled out our guns. "(Y/n), Ellie, stay close." Maria ordered. "Hate to break it to you, ma'am, but we know how to handle ourselves." I said smugly and loaded a few more bullets into my pistol. 

"Alright, don't get killed." She said as we made our way to the room she was talking about. "Wouldn't be the first time he's close to death." Ellie said making me chuckle. "Wouldn't be the fifth time either." With this everyone gave me a weird look. I shot a guy who was behind us and turned back to the others. "We can talk about it later."

~~~~~~~~

 "They're all dead! Tommy?" Maria called out. I looked over at Ellie. "You alright?" She nodded. "Yeah. You?" I gave a small nod. We walked out of the room to meet Joel and Tommy, Ellie immediately running over to Joel. 

"Joel. Oh man... They were coming in from every direction. Then Maria was like, "We gotta run!" And so we doe over these tables and this huge guy blasts in with a shotgun. And then-" Joel finally got her to calm down a bit. "Hey, hey, are you hurt?" 

"No, (Y/n) made sure of that." She pushed out making me chuckle a bit. 

~~~~~~~

"Absolutely not. You tell him to go find somebody else." Maria said as Joel and I listened to their conversation by a truck as Ellie came walking up. "Hey - what's that all about?" She asked but only received a shake of the head from Joel. "Does that have anything to do with me?"

"We'll talk about this later." Joel said barely over a whisper. "Did he tell you where the lab is?" She asked but Joel only said what he said before. Ellie scoffed and walked away. "Hey-" I tried calling out but she only continued to walk away. I sighed in defeat and sat back down. 

"Here we go." Joel mumbled as he stood up, Maria walking over. "You. If anything. Anything at all happens to him.  It's on you." She said pointing a finger at him and walking away. "She's thankful you know." 

"Yeah, I know." 

"I'll take that girl of yours to the fireflies. You don't have to worry about it." 

My eyebrows furrowed. "Hold up, you're not going?" I asked standing up. "It's best this way." I scoffed. "So, you made this decision on your own?" "(Y/n), we can't keep going on like this." I looked him dead in the eye as I stayed silent for a bit. "You're scared, aren't you?" This made his brows furrow. "You think that something bad is going to happen, just like your daughter."

"Hey! This has nothing to do with her!" He yelled. "Really?! Then why won't you finish the job?!" He didn't say anything else after that. "I get that you're scared, scared that it'll happen again, but sometimes... you need to man up and face your God damn fears."

"I need to talk to Ellie." Joel said as he started walking away. I sighed and crossed my arms while shaking my head. "Joel!" Tommy called out making Joel turn back around. "What-what is it?" 

"That girl of yours, she took one of our horses and rode off." My eyes widened. "Damn it, which way?" I followed the two as we made our way to the entrance. 

"I just saw her riding on outta here." A guy said as he walked with two horses. "Go back inside. Help the others clean the place up." Tommy said as another person came up with another horse. I was about to hop onto the horse when my dad walked up to me. "(Y/n)? Where are you going?"

"Dad, Ellie took off." I said as I got my foot secured. "So, you're just going to leave?" I sighed and hopped up onto the horse. "Dad, I can't just let her go alone." I was about to whip the rains but looked back at my dad. "She means too much to just let her leave." After saying that I sped of to catch up to Joel and Tommy. "I'll make it back some day!"

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I followed the tracks and came upon a ranch house with three horses waiting outside. I rode up and jumped off my horse and made my way inside. I found Tommy in the living room and he motioned upstairs to let me know where the two were. I slowly made my way upstairs and heard their voices from one of the rooms. 

"I'm sorry about your daughter, Joel but I have lost people too."

"You have no idea what loss is."

"Everyone I have cared for has either died or left me. Everyone - fucking except for you."

I made my way up to the door but kept my distance as I listened to their conversation. 

"So don't tell me that I would be safer with someone else - because the truth is I would just be more scared."

"You're right... You're not my daughter, and I sure as hell ain't your dad. And we are going our separate ways."

Just as Joel finished that sentence Tommy flew passed me and into the room, dragging me with him. "Get it together. We're not alone." Joel walked over to the window. "I got two walking in." I walked over to Ellie. "You good?" I asked earning a nod. "Yeah, I'm fine."  Despite what she said anyone can tell she wasn't fine. I placed my hand on her head and gave her a small smile as she looked up at me. 

I'm sorry for not updating for so long but I promise to try my hardest to update more. I've been busy trying to be an adult, key word trying, and I appreciate all the waiting you guys had to do. Thanks for reading by the way. 2k reads, woah.