The Last Of Us Part II x OC! Male reader

I Wish Things Were Different

ELLIE's POV, 2 years earlier

Tommy and I were going to the ski lifts to meet up with Joel, but I wasn't paying attention to what Tommy was saying, my mind was, elsewhere.

"Hey." Tommy touched my shoulder.
"Oh shit, sorry."
"You okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine."
"Alright."
Tommy look in his scope on his rifle.
"They're some infected on that hill, see em?" He handed me his rifle and I looked through.
"Oh shit, yeah."
"Shoot em."
"They're too far I don't think I could-"
"Just breathe, aim up to counter the bullet drop."
"Okay." I took a deep breath in and shot, killing an infected.
"Nice shot!"
"I could get used to this."

Tommy took me to three spots, each with infected further and further away. It took a while but I finally managed to shoot them all.

"Here's your gun back." I handed Tommy the rifle.
"Didya like it?"
"Yeah, it was just what I needed."

We kept walking down to the ski lifts, seeing Joel's horse and my horse. Shimmer.

As we walked into the ski lodge, we saw Joel sitting there, playing the guitar he gave me.

"That was y'all shooting out there right?"
"Yeah, Ellie got to try out my scope."
"How was it?" Joel looked at me.
"It was good."

We sat there in awkward silence as Joel walked up to the table I sat at, with the guitar.

"I see you haven't gone around to changing the strings."
"I didn't know I was supposed to." I looked at Tommy a few times trying to break my eye contact with Joel.
"Well, yeah- we'll get you some new ones."
There was another awkward pause, as Tommy grabbed the guitar and held it like he was about to play.
"There's a guitar store further down the hill. It's long overdue for a sweep anyway."
"Whaddya say kiddo?" Joel looked at
me but I didn't respond.
Tommy started playing the guitar but it sounded off.
"And thats our cue." Joel laughed as he walked to the entrance.
Tommy chuckled and I walked up to him.
"You sure you don't want to come?" I didn't want to be alone with Joel.
"Go on now, he's waiting."
I walked around, stalling, trying to find something to stop me from going but I couldn't.
I walked outside and got on the horse and we started going down the hill.
"So you know those comic books you're into?" Joel started a conversation.
"Savage starlight?"
"Yeah. I found one of em, and started to read, and wooowee, they are quite the read."
"Oh yeah? What part did you read?"
"Well what Dr. Daniela Starr did in that death match? Wow."
I chuckled.
"Yeah, she's a badass."
There was a pause.
"Sooo... Jesse told me you're gonna start doing paired patrols?"
"Yeah, I'm a better shot then all of them and-"
"I don't know if you should do that Ellie."
"Why not?"
"Just- it's better if you do groups, it's safer."
I didn't like how he always got worried about me on patrols, and how he bothered Jesse about them, but the conversation was cut short due to us reaching the store.

"We're here." Joel said as we walked towards this turned over small white crate, taller than me but still small.
"Okay." I started to get on.
"Need a boost?"
"No, Joel."
"Alright."
As we got onto it we saw this big ditch.
"I swear last time there was a lake here you could swim across."
I got off.
"Well that beats that route, what about cutting through here?" I pointed to the motel building right next to us.
"Ahh, I don't know, I've never been in there."
"Tommy said we have to do a sweep so."
"Alright."
Joel tried to open the door but it was stuck.
I saw a small crawl space under a bunch of rubble that led into the building.
"Lift this up, I bet I can get through."
Joel did as I asked and lifted up some rubble, letting me crawl through.
"Be careful."
I made it inside and opened the door for Joel.
"Ta-da! You proud?" I wanted Joel's approval.
"No, it means you're too skinny and you need to eat more."
"Ugh."

We kept walking through the motel, going through all the doors.

"Spores, masks on." Joel said even though I don't need a mask.
"Do I have to? It's just us,"
"What if we run into someone?"
"Ugh, fine." I put on my mask reluctantly.

We kept walking through and saw a small crawl space between walls, but I pulled on a pipe, alerting a bloater to where we were.

"SHIT!!" It grabbed me through the wall but Joel shot at it, getting it's attention.

After running around a little we were finally able to kill it, Joel chopping it into pieces with his machete.

"I did not miss these things." I was trying to catch my breath as we walked into the next room that was filled with infected.
"Oh you've gotta be kidding." I said getting behind a table.
"I take left, you take right." Joel said as he started killing them. I followed and snuck around killing the infected on the right.

After taking them all out we walked into a room that was blocked by a refrigerator, but we pushed it off.

We saw one skeleton and a clicker.
Joel shot the clicker.

"Hey look at their bags." I grabbed a bag and saw it was from Jackson.
"Oh no. These are the kids that ran away last year." Joel said with his hand on his face.
I picked up a note and read it.

' We are sorry. We just heard about the story of a boy making his way here, and wanted to be hero's and help him. Not even after fifteen minutes were we jumped by infected. We both got bit, so we made the choice that we are going to take our lives together. Tell our parents that we are sorry.
-Amy'
I turned it around.
'I shot her, but i couldn't shoot myself. I'm a coward.
-Adam'

"Jesus christ. If only there were immune right."
"What?" Joel got a little defensive.
"Nothing."
"If you've got something to say Ellie, just say it."
"I just- I had so many questions for them. Why did you pull me out of there while I was still unconscious?"
"Because I let them run their tests-"
"And this boy! It's the second time I heard about the boy. What if it's him? I mean who knows maybe he did make it-"
"Ellie-"
"And I've never seen another immune person before. You said there was a bunch. Have you seen any?"
"Ellie, stop. I know you wish things were different, I wish things were different. But they ain't. Let's get these kids back to their parents."

I wanted to believe that it was Logan that they talked about.
I really did.