stumblingaway
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Joel loosens his grip slightly when they reach Bill’s store, looking down at the kid. “I’m gonna let go. If you try runnin’ off again, you’ll get yourself into a world of trouble. Not that you already ain’t.”
“I’m shaking in my boots.” She tugs her arm away from him, glancing between both of the men in front of her.
She’s small. A preteen, maybe. Her brown hair is limp and ruffled, pulled back in a haphazard ponytail. She has a patched-up backpack slung over her shoulder. That’s probably a good place to start looking for stolen items, if need be.
“Little rat stole a screwdriver,” Bill says, his arms crossed to his chest.
“No, I didn’t!” The girl drops her backpack to the floor, her hands gripped tightly against the strap. “What the fuck would I want a screwdriver for?”
Joel is a security guard at a dying mall. Ellie is a feral kid who probably shoplifts. Things will never be the same again.
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Sweet Dreams by stumblingaway
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
16 Apr 2026
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“Woah.” Ellie’s face is inches away from her window when Tess looks back, her gaze fixed on the deer. “They’re so big.”
“There’s a whole lot of things bigger than them,” Tess snorts.
“The only animals I’ve seen are birds and dogs.”
Right.
Joel rolls down his window and she’s hit with a blast of cold air to the face. She’s thankful, actually, as the roar of the wind fills the car, drowning out any of the kid’s attempts at further conversations. He rolls it back up once the sun has started to set, the insects beginning their evening songs.
Tess, Joel, Ellie, and the rare occurrence of sleep. A Tess Lives story.
Written for Whumptober Day 18: Dystopia
Series
- Part 4 of Whumptober 2025
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“Joel, get Joel. Please.” Bile is rising in her throat. She swallows it back.
Ian makes a scoffing noise, taking a step closer. “Seriously, you’re fine. You just knocked it, that’s all. You go crying to your daddy every time you get a bruise?”
Ellie fucking doesn’t. Ian bruises her almost everyday, and she never cries.
Someone tries to make Ellie grow up too fast.
Ft. Worried Joel and a teddy bear named Fuckface
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“Do you want to put away Ellie’s things?" Tommy asks. "We can put them in the attic for now.”
“The hell would we do that for?” Joel lifts up his dead little girl’s shirt, rolls his eyes at the dirt stains that didn’t come out, and folds it neatly.
Tommy swallows. “Cause she died, Joel. And maybe it’s too hard right now to…” he cuts himself off. Joel isn’t listening anymore. He unfolds and refolds the same shirt, his eyes glassy. “Joel—”
“—You got the roster out for next month yet? Was hoping to get Ellie’s birthday week off, I’ve got plans.” He shakes his head. “16, jesus.”
Tommy drops it. Ellie keeps living.
Ellie is presumed dead. Joel doesn't react the way Tommy thought he would.
Written for Whumpter Day 16: Repressed Trauma
Series
- Part 3 of Whumptober 2025
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In Good Hands by stumblingaway
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
14 Oct 2025
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Tommy takes the bin from her when she’s done and cleans it out, placing it back down beside her. “Well, looks like it’s you and me for the rest of the day.”
Ellie curls in tighter on herself.
“Won’t be that bad, sugar, I promise.” His voice drops when he speaks again, lower but softer. It reminds her of Joel’s. “I can run across the street if there’s anything you want from your place?”
Hah. The one thing she wants from her place is two days away. She wipes sweat away from her face. “I’m okay. Really. You don’t need to—you won’t have to take me to the clinic.”
“We’ll see how it goes,” is all he says in response.
Ellie is sick while Joel is away.
Ft. Tommy showing his sick niece and infant son The Exorcist
(Written for Whumptober Day 14: Ignoring an Illness)
Series
- Part 2 of Whumptober 2025
Recent series
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Whumptober 2025 by stumblingaway
Fandom The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
16 Apr 2026
Summary
Prompts:
Found Family - October 3rd
Ignoring an Illness - October 14th
Repressed Trauma - October 16th
Dystopia - October 18th
- Words:
- 46,545
- Works:
- 4
- Bookmarks:
- 1
Recent bookmarks
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tell me it's inevitable that i end up with scars by Azazazalea
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
07 Sep 2026
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Ellie is settling down in Jackson and it's great at first, things are interesting, fun and new. But, soon come the days of routine and an astounding lack of life-threatening danger. She can't distract herself with the constant run to the next place and thrilling thing to do anymore, and so the years worth of grief and stress come surging back with vengeance. Things that have been rotting her from the inside out for a long time now.
She never gave herself time to process Riley, Sam, Henry, Tess, or her long gone family, whatever they were like.
She never tackled the nightmares of the hole, Pittsburgh, or David, and it all comes raining down on her at once, and there doesn't seem to be anything that she can do to fix it.
Born into violence and surrounded by it her entire life, in its absence, Ellie can only perpetuate it against herself.
Bookmarked by stumblingaway
07 Sep 2026
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After the events of 'Lone Wolf,' Joel's managed to get Ellie recovering and keep her safe in Jackson, where he's fighting for them to have a home and a life. However, as much as Ellie loves Joel, she feels responsible for the whole world because of her immunity - and thus, when the Fireflies come, she wants to go.
But Joel? Joel, who only just got his daughter - his still-injured twelve-year-old daughter - and the opportunity to keep her safe? No, of course he doesn't like that.
But he loves her, and when the time comes, he's willing to follow her to the ends of the earth.
Even if it means bad things are going to happen.
Series
- Part 2 of Lone Wolf
Bookmarked by stumblingaway
07 Jul 2026
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You've Got That Power Over Me by RBlythe08
Fandoms: The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live (TV), The Walking Dead (TV)
08 Jun 2026
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“Do you like it?” He asked.
“It’s not where I wanna be.” She answered easily, again surprising herself at how honest she was being with a total stranger. But he’d brought up a conversation she’d already been having with herself for the past few months, “Are you where you wanna be?”
“Yeah.” He smiled, “Yeah, I don’t think I’d want to be anywhere else right now.” It probably took too long for her to realize that he wasn’t talking about the building down the street anymore and she felt her cheeks warm.
“I thought you were late.”
___
(Or, since we know they fall in love in every universe over and over again, we'll expand on Rick's dreams.)
Bookmarked by stumblingaway
16 Jun 2026
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every bird, gone unheard by BarlowGirl
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
22 May 2026
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“She’s cold, Joel.” It’s the first thing Tess says about the kid that isn’t practical, isn’t about the job. It’s quiet, too quiet for the kid to hear since she’s wandered a bit away and found herself a spot to sit down, out of the rain still dripping from the roof. “She’s just a fucking little girl and she’s cold.”
He stops trying to argue they should keep moving.
Or: Joel doesn't like Ellie being cold.
Bookmarked by stumblingaway
25 Apr 2026
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the gold and the rust by BarlowGirl
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
27 Feb 2026
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And she’s always had her moments of quiet. After Sam and Henry especially, it took days for her to tell him a pun or ask him a question, days of only speaking when necessary. Hell, even when she’s her normal self, he can tell she’s tired because she goes quiet.
This is different. More. Terrifying. But he’s not surprised, exactly.
Or: Sometimes Ellie doesn't talk.
Bookmarked by stumblingaway
27 Feb 2026