Warnings: Cussing, Angst, Toxic Relationship. Please Let Me Know If I Missed Anything.

{ Acquaintances to Enemies (to Lovers?) E.W. } COMPLETED

Summary: You find Ellie in Santa Barbara and she invites you on her journey back home and trust is tested between the women.

Warnings: Cussing, angst, toxic relationship. Please let me know if I missed anything.

Author's Note: Does my writing style suck? Let me know how to improve (plz and thank u) .

Parts: 1 , ❎ , 3 , 4

The noon sun laid high in the sky. Walking behind Ellie you took the opportunity to look at her bandaged hand. You barely had any sleep the night before. You were in a separate room downstairs, but you can hear Ellie’s muffled screams as she cauterized her fingers. Once the worst of it was over, she cried for a long time. As much as she tried to stay quiet, you were able to hear it. You had sensitive hearing, and it usually came in handy, except for last night. However, you did catch a name that she cried out: Joel.

You two walked down a street when Ellie took her map out. You could hear Ellie clear her throat before speaking, “Juno, you know these parts? I’m trying to avoid going through an area with a shit load of infected.” You looked around and saw familiar landmarks.

“There’s a mini mansion a couple miles ahead. Stayed there 6 months ago, it’s secure.”

“Okay,” she folds up the map, “I’m following you then.” 

You led the way through broken streets when suddenly stopped with Ellie nearly colliding with you. She was quiet for a few seconds but heard nothing, “What?”

You held your hand up so you could listen more to make sure what you heard was right. “Get down,” you said calmly and you both hid in the tall grass nearby. You took out your bow and arrow. Ellie confused squinted through the grass to see if she could see anything. Then, coming from the tall grass field across the road, a bobcat swaggers out. Ellie’s eyes widened as there was no way she could have picked up on that. You hold your position until the bobcat is out of sight. “We’re almost to the mansion,” you put your arrow back in your backpack. Ellie looks over and nods. 

“How did you know?” she asks from behind you.

“I heard it.”

“You heard it? What, you have, like, bionic hearing or something?” 

You chuckled, “Yea something like that.”

Ellie raised her eyebrows and scanned down your back until she was looking at the ground, “Huh.. so.. how long have you been alone?” 

“Two years, you?”

Ellie was quiet for a while before answering sternly, “A year.”

“Here it is,” you two approached a large house with a wall surrounding it and a barricaded entry.

“Let’s stay here tonight,” she approaches the wall and leans her back against it with her knees bent, “Ready?”

You nod and climb on her. She pushes you up, giving you the momentum to get on top of the wall. You reach down and pull her up.

The place was clear. The sun was setting and you two set up in the living room. Ellie sat stretching her legs out on the couch and writing in a journal. You laid comfortably on the other couch. You planned to sleep after Ellie and kept your knife close where she couldn’t see. 

“You can sleep. I’ll keep first watch if you’re paranoid,” she looks up from her journal, “I can feel you staring.” 

You feel a rush of anger and embarrassment for being caught and you try to recover, “I was wondering.. where your home was.” Ellie closes her journal and puts it back in her backpack before leaning back on the couch and lifting her arm up, putting a hand behind her head. Your eyes wonder, in the dimly lit space, over her figure. She licked her lips before speaking. Her tattooed arm laid over her stomach and rose as she spoke. Every so often she would turn her head to you and her hair would cascade to one side as she looked over at you. Your breathing deepened. 

“...it’s a real town with decent enough people, not like these fucked up places. You wouldn’t be alone anymore.” It sounded too good to be true. 

“Why did you leave it then?” The question just escaped out of your mouth without you thinking about it. You gripped your knife knowing you just pissed her off. 

Ellie stares up at the high ceiling. “These people.. outsiders killed someone close to me. So some of us tracked them to Seattle, then to Santa Barbara.” She takes her hand from behind her head and rests it over her eyes. You sensed her sadness.

You watched for a while until you saw her chest rise and fall with sleep before getting off the couch.   

Ellie woke up about an hour later. She shuffled on the couch and looked over to see you weren’t there. She rubbed her eyes with concern and sat up. She noticed her backpack was open. “What the-” She quickly rummaged through to see if anything was missing. The only missing content- her journal.

Shortly after Ellie fell asleep, you took out her journal and made your way to an upstairs office where you lit a candle. Ellie made Jackson sound nice, but you needed to be sure of her, 100% sure this wasn’t some nice act just to use you or abandon you to some slavers. So you sat there, going through each page. Ellie wrote about that name you heard, Joel. You understood why she left home and saw how she tracked down the WLF and Abby. She drew a lot. She also drew Dina. You were shocked, she had left her family to finish her quest for revenge. You could only assume with the last picture of Joel that she either killed Abby, or made peace in her efforts trying.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Ellie snatched the book, nearly ripping a page. “What, you fucking get off from invading people’s privacy?” She stares at you wide eyed. You were stunned because you didn’t hear her coming. “I-I had to make sure-”

“Make sure that I wasn’t going to fucking kill you? Trust me if I wanted to you’d be fucking dead by now,” she was angry but she meant every word and you knew she could dispose of you whenever she deemed fit.

“That’s exactly why I had to check! That you weren’t going to take me to some new slave colonie or worse! You have no idea the fucked up things I had to go through to keep my freedom, to keep myself alive!” Your eyes pleaded against hers.

“And what? You read my deepest thoughts and now you trust me?”

“Yes.”

“That makes one of us.”

Your chest rises and falls as you feel your eyes water. You don’t know why you’re upset, you did what you had to do to know you were safe, or so you thought. Ellie was different from others you’ve encountered and she never gave you any reason to not trust her. Deep down, you knew you fucked up and you weren’t sure what would happen next.

Ellie saw the shine rimming your eyes. “Tomorrow, I’m leaving this place early. You can come if you want. I still don’t think you should be out here alone- but keep your fucking hands to yourself,” she looks down at the journal in her hand with an uneven page sticking out and she she shakes her head before looking at you one more time and leaving the room. With Ellie gone, you let the tears overflow and run down your face. You thought you did the right thing, but it left you feeling disgusted with yourself. You sat on the floor feeling small. ‘Why do I have to be so fucking stupid?’