Lilium || A The Last of Us story.

Night 3 of 5

"I still don't get why we had to A stop, and B sleep outside." Ellie huffs following Joel through the roughage of the woods.

They had driven for miles, losing precious time to the many many bathroom breaks that the girls needed to take, and god forbid they do it at the side of the road like Joel had, no no, they had to find cover.

"Because, we can't drive in the dark, it's too risky with the headlights on, and if we get ambushed think of how easy a target we would be, three of us in that car."

"Semantics." Ellie mumbled under her breath.

Joel arched his brow, "That's a mighty big word."

"I went to school you know." Ellie quipped.

Joel rolled his eye, "Clown school?"

Ellie skipped over to a rock, sat herself down and pulled out some dried jerky from her bag "Hilarious," she scoffed between chews, "you should eat real meat and drink wine more often. Look at how perky you are today."

Lily observed the adorable dynamic between them, not saying much. It was possible that she was still in shock after her lusty make out session with Joel this morning. And since they were never alone there hadn't been an opportunity to discuss it, and now it appeared they were pretending it didn't happen.

She threw her backpack on the ground at Joels feet, "I'm gonna go gather some firewood." She twitched a smile at Joel, and ruffled Ellies hair before disappearing into the woods.

Without tearing her gaze from her comic book, Ellie mumbles, "Your girlfriend's mad at you."

"She's not my—" Joel scratched the back of his head, making guilty coughing noises, "Girlfriend, she's...Pear...Lily isn't...we're...we just...I..."

Ellie raised her eyebrows as she glanced up from her comic, pursing her lips at Joel knowingly.

"Shut up. Punk." He hissed giving her sneaker a light kick as he disappeared into the woods after Lily.

Joel stumbled upon Lily crouched over a pile of wood she had dropped. He didn't want to startle her, so he cleared his throat to make his presence known. She spun around, revealing her giant, sad eyes.

"Hi," she said, feigning a smile.

Joel blurted out, "Ellie said you're mad at me," as he spun his rifle around his back.

Lily shook her head. "I'm not mad, Joel. I'm just confused. Everything is happening so fast, and it's all really complicated."

Joel stepped forward and took the bundle of sticks and logs from Lily's arms. "How can I make this right?" he asked, leading the way back to camp.

"One minute we're kissing, and the next, we're ignoring each other," Lily shrugged.

"We can't exactly be making out in front of Ellie, Lily," Joel said.

Lily chuckled. "No, I don't mean that. It's just been weird, and I don't know how to act. It's not your fault, but it's not mine either."

Joel took a deep breath and spoke in a hushed tone, "We need to talk, but not in front of little ears over there." He glanced at Ellie, who was sitting nearby.

Ellie stood up and joked, "If you two need some romantic time, I can go wait in the truck."

Joel and Lily exchanged nervous glances, their faces turning red as they stumbled over their words.

Ellie interrupted their awkwardness with a wry observation, "You know what's funny about the apocalypse? There's no background noise, so even quiet conversations can be overheard." A cheeky smirk dripped off her lips as she skipped towards the pickup truck.