Two Peas in a Pod. • A TWDG fanfic.

Pictures on The Wall.

It had been about a week since Lee and Christa joined their group, some still reluctant, their minds changing after seeing the two pull their weight and more. "So- Not to be, like rude or anything, but how come you're alive?" Louis had asked one night, ever since he lost his cards, he'd have to resort to just normal questions out of nowhere. Lee nodded, scratching his neck before answering. "Well, to be honest it's hard to remember.." He shrugged. "Clementine, d'you remember Molly?" He asked, Clementine nodding along.

"Well, turns out cutting the bite off did work, I was just losing a lot of blood." He continued, "Molly found me and fixed me up, owe her my life" He finished with a spoonful of the stew. Silence lay thick in the air, no one wanting to move on in fear of being insensitive. "What happened to Molly?" Clementine asked first, remembering how nice she was to her. "I was with her for a while, but one day she just… disappeared" A frown appeared on Clementine's face. "That's when Lee found me" Christa spoke, swinging her legs over the seat.

"Still running from those damn raiders." Christa rolled her eyes thinking about it. "We came to look for you but you were completely gone" She explained, taking the empty bowls. 

That night had been one of the best since the end of the world began. Clementine knew that not everyone trusted Christa and Lee, it had taken even Ruby a day to fully trust them. Other than AJ (Who took Clementine's word for everything) everyone had to be convinced somehow. 

Violet was still on edge, even a week later. "I'm sorry Clem, I just can't trust them.." She sighed, darting her eyes away from her friends, "The last adults you knew that we met got Mitch, Minnie and Tenn killed.." She sighed holding her head in one hand, the other wrapped around her torso. The deaths of the three were still a fresh wound, thinking about it made her eye sting like crazy. Clementine patted the spot on the bed next to her. "Vi, sit down." She said softly, tilting her head. 

"I'm sorry about Lily, really-" Clementine started, Violet quickly cutting her off. "It's not your fault.. it's this dumb apocolypse.." Violet sighed, holding herself, trembling slightly. Clementine wasn't the best at comforting people her age, AJ she could handle, but Violet was different. That's where she'd ask Louis for help but he was currently helping AJ and Christa down at the river. 

She hesitated before placing a firm hand in the area between Violet's shoulder blades. Her trembling stopped, the two of them sat in silence. Violet wouldn't admit it but Clementine just being there was comfort enough. "Me and Lee are going to go and try to catch rabbits tomorrow, why don't you come?" Clementine asked, breaking the silence after a while. Violet looked panic, glancing back at the crutches then to Clementine again. "Are you sure that's a good idea??" Clementine smiled in reply. "Willy said that he and Aasim are basically done with the new leg, and I won't be doing all that much!" Clementine explained, Violet's expression only easing up a bit. 

"As my mom always liked to say, stop tensing your eyebrows, you'll get wrinkles" Louis chuckled as he knocked on the open door. "Sorry if I'm intruding, AJ left me to go show Lee the piano, lil' man shut me out" He feigned heartache, clutching his chest with a fake sigh. He dragged the chair by the desk AJ drew at closer to the two, flipping his coat behind him dramatically before sitting down. "What's this I hear about tomorrow?" He asked, cocking his head as he spoke. 

"Louis, convince Clem she isn’t well enough to go out yet!" Violet groaned, folding her arms, quickly standing up to start pacing again. "I want to be able to get outside of the gates, Violet" Clem replied, furrowing her brows. "I get that but what if something goes wrong with the leg?" Louis watched as Violet came up with question after question, Clementine firing back with some sort of retort to it. "I get where you're coming from, but I just wanna feel useful again!" Clementine struggled a laugh, trying to keep the mood light. "You are useful Clementine, but if you hurt yourself…" 

"There won't be any way to know if the leg doesn't work unless we test it!" Louis chimed in "The last few safety sweeps we've done of the forest have turned up with barely any walkers - plus Clem will have me, Lee, AJ and you!" He nodded, with a large grin. "Oh I can't ask you to come Louis, you did the campervan trip the other day-" Clementine worried. "That was a week ago, Clem.. maybe it is a good idea for you to get out of the house" Louis chuckled, grabbing her hand, swinging it back and forth loosely. "Plus, you didn't ask me, I volunteered!" He finished with a clap of his hands "Right so that settles it, now c'mon -
I was able to make some new playing cards!" He stood up, pulling out a janky set of homemade cards from his pocket, shaking them in front of the two. 

Violet smiled, rolling her (one) eye "Why wanna get beat again at black jack?" She scoffed catching up to him. "Ahh, if only you could.." He laughed, draping an arm over her shoulders, (to which she quickly shrugged off.) "You coming, Clem?" they asked in almost unison. "Yeah, I'll be there in a minute!" She smiled, as they left the room. It quickly faded as she looked at her crutches, her eyebrows tenting. She could feel a ing headache coming on. She was quickly losing track of time; sure it was annoying to keep track of the hours in the apocalypse but with Aasim's journaling days weren't too harsh. 

Her head dropped into her hands, 'the other day' turning into 'a week ago' scared her. Being confined to the spaces of the school halls without being able to do made Clementine feel as if she were slowly being trapped within a box, and the walls were closing in on her faster and faster. She used the metal frame of the bed to stand up slowly letting go, balancing on her leg. It shook under her weight. Clementine shuddered as she tried her best to stand on her leg, letting out a cry as it buckled under the pressure, her knee slamming into the wood. She winced in pain as the bone throbbed into her skin, her leg contorted under her body, one move away from snapping. 

She slowly pulled her leg out, the wave of relief rushing over her as she dropped her head back onto the bed. "Whatcha' doin there sweetpea?" Clementine's head snapped towards the door, Lee standing in the frame. "Oh! Um…" Clementine laughed as she realised how pathetic she looked. "I like to try and stand without the crutches, but it never works.." She tried to explain, pulling herself up with the bed frame. Lee slowly entered the room, his eyes scanning the walls, the areas where pictures hung the walls cleaner than the rest of the dirtied walls. 

"This place has a similar structure to the university I used to work at.." He commented pointing towards the support structure running up the walls and roof. Clementine smiled, grabbing her crutches to stand. "Maybe we could clear out a classroom, and you could teach me like you said you would in Crawford?" She suggested, turning to look up at him. "That's only if you want a history lesson." Lee joked, the gravely texture to his voice was comforting to Clementine. "You're friends are waiting for you, by the way" Lee motioned towards the door. "It's a nice group of kids here, I can tell they care about you a lot" He commented, Clementine just let him talk. "And AJ, too - you're raising him well"

Clementine smiled looking at the pictures AJ had drawn. "I did learn from the best," Lee chuckled. "I did a lot of things wrong, Clem." Clementine shook her head, "You taught me to survive, I think that's good enough" Everything Clementine knew was because of Lee, if he hadn't found her in that treehouse she'd have been dead within a matter of weeks. She owes him her life and more. "You were a good kid, made it easy… when did you get this?" He asked, picking up the faded and torn picture of him from his family's drugstore. "I took it when you weren't looking, back in Macon…" Clementine replied, she thought he looked nice in the picture, and it helped Clementine remember what Lee looked like when she couldn't.

"Clem? Clementine! What's takin' ya' so long!" Ruby called out from the tables outside. "We're waitin' for ya' !" Clementine smiled. "Come play! Louis always makes the games somewhat fun, especially if Ruby is playing tonight!" Clementine bounced like an eager kid, she'd been able to relax with Lee around again. "Maybe one round, I am getting old y'know."