An Attempt to Tip the Scales

Amanna and Ellie had known each other since they were fourteen years old. Before the Fireflies, and possibility of a cure. Amanna was there for all of it; the untimely jokes, the the arguments, reprimand from Tommy and Joel. As well as the sleeping in shitty abandoned buildings, and of course the rise and fall of the Fireflies, and the beginning WLF.

But somehow, eventually, she made it out.
And somehow, eventually, she found Jackson.

Tommy and Maria took Amanna in, Maria especially. And then there was Ellie again. She had Joel now. She had a home, a relationship, or at least the closest thing anyone could get to it.
Meanwhile Amanna was still learning how to even exist around others.

The patrols through the outskirts of Jackson while Ellie talked more than she probably meant to, lead Amanna to seeing something more in Ellie. And Ellie saw her too, but neither of them ever spoke about it directly.

Then for the first time in her life, she let herself believe maybe things could stay that way, and got too comfortable.

Then Joel died-- and within that week, one morning, Ellie was just up and gone.

Even now three years later, it hurts less assuming she was dead.