Dark Paradise - Joel Miller x OC

March, 1rst

Warning: use of an awful word (that I didn't even know before the game, wish it stayed like this). Angst, I guess?

Photo by Ashim D'Silva

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Looking at herself in the mirror, she slides her hands over the sides of the skirt. She is so happy to find back this dress that she loves so much. Joel leans on the door, looking at her.

"Aren't you a little overdressed? It's just the winter dance. Beer, country music... Nothing fancy.

-I told you, I'm gonna wear this dress for all events until I die. It's way too beautiful to be worn only on costume parties.

-You're going to freeze.

-I'll wear my coat. And it always get hot with everyone dancing.

-And the shoes?

-What about them?

-You remember the layers of snow outside?

-You'll be there to give me your arm. And then see how cute they are. I never get to wear them.

-You gonna suffer.

-You must suffer to be pretty."

She looks him up and down. Clearly, he doesn't share her opinion. He put on an everyday outfit. Luckily he's a manic, she tells herself, otherwise he probably would have kept the outfit he'd been wearing all day. But that doesn't really bother her. She loves his classic style. A pair of jeans, a blue shirt that he covers with the jacket she loves to see him wearing. She's the one who gave it to him, after finding it by chance, hidden under a pile of clothes at the trading shop. She walks over and adjusts his collar, a tender and almost routine gesture. He watches her do it, asking her softly.

"Will you dance with me even if I don't have a nice suit?

-Hmmm. Maybe... But only because you're cute."

He rolls his eyes. He's long past the age of being called cute. He sits on the bed to watch her finish getting ready. She didn't put on curlers like she did in the fall, nor any makeup. She doesn't need it to stand out, he tells himself. She ties her hair up into a tight ponytail. She's on duty tonight, she doesn't want to receive complaints because hair has got stuck in the glasses.

After a final check in the mirror, she comes to him, announcing that she is ready. He smiles and stands up. Approaching her, he gently grasps the locket that she hung around her. It's the one he brought back from his scavenging trip, while they were still separated. She couldn't get a photo of them small enough to put on it. So she asked Cat to draw a date on a piece of paper. The day they met in the forest. The day her destiny changed. She loved the young artist's work so much that she decided to have it tattooed on the inside of her left wrist. Just above the usual location of her watch. Like talismans protecting her.

They come out the back of the house, going through the greenhouses being the shortest route to church. They're barely on the porch when she stops. He looks at her, a smirk on his lips.

"Still sure you ain't gonna freeze?"

She bites the inside of her cheek, her pride screaming at her to ignore him. But a gust of wind silences this side of her immediately.

"Maybe I should go get a sweater after all.

-I'm going, it would take you ten years with these heels.

-The black in the living room will do. Joel, wait."

He stops, his hand on the doorknob, looking questioning.