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“I c… I can’t keep going on like this, Joel,” Ellie sniffled from the hiding place she’d made in his shirt. She was so tired of the nightmares, and the panic attacks, and not being able to eat without being sick; she’d been waiting for all of it to lessen with time, but it hadn’t. In fact, it’d only gotten worse. “... I’m so tired.” Her words shriveled up, and were soon accompanied by the now familiar sound of her crying. It was softer, more tired sounding than he’d grown used to.
“I know, baby girl,” Joel uttered, letting his breath fall warmly against the top of Ellie’s head as he sighed. If he could take all of her pain away and put it on himself, he’d do it in an instant, but he couldn’t, and so he was left feeling nothing but helpless. “Listen to me, things will get easier-”
“... when, Joel?”
TLDR// post episode eight one shot, exploring ellie’s trauma and recovery after david
Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
18 Jun 2026
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When it’s done, she drops the knife because it’s covered in him and staggers outside, breath whistling around the puffs of frigid air and the swell she can feel where he kicked her ribs. Back home, she tells herself. She’ll just get home to Joel, and she can lay her head on his chest to check for a heartbeat and she can pretend it’s yesterday. If she can just get back to Joel, she’s sure everything else will sluice off her like dirt in a river. She’ll be fine.
Ellie and Joel deal with the aftermath of the pedo-cannibals from God.
Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
18 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 sofie_sticated
12 Jun 2026
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Ashes to Ashes by MessyDepressy95 for midnight_society
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
08 Jun 2026
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She's whiter than sin and beat to hell, blood crusted up under her nose and around her mouth when he gently lifts the poorly stitched together sack up and away from her face with hands that don't feel like his own.
All of maybe seven or eight, if he had to guess, kids somehow looking both younger and older than they're meant to these days.
She looks like a baby to him, her features all soft despite being so damn thin.
With an odd sense off detachment, he rolls up her sleeves and checks both arms before moving onto her legs in search of any sign that's she's been infected, but the tell-tale climb of Cordyceps is nowhere to be found, no bite mark to mock him. Not on her back that's a swirl of blackened bruising and bumpy spine or on the hollow of her stomach that's just as tender and hard to look at, the cut of her ribs striking.
There ain't a thing on her outside of a list of hurts that's a mile long and etched into her skin.
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Joel stumbles on Ellie at the bottom of a pile of dead bodies meant for the burn pits, one shallow breath and a steady heartbeat is all it takes to undo him.Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
13 Apr 2026
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a redwood among mere sprouts by two_birds_alone_together for ciaconnaa
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
27 Jun 2026
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“Kid, get the hell outta my tree.”
Stupid fucking neighbors. She’s never even seen the person who lives here before.
“It’s not your tree,” she calls back, infusing her tone with as much attitude as she can muster. “No one owns a tree.” Deep breaths, Ellie. Can’t give away how scared you are, especially not to a stranger. Especially especially not to a man.
“Tree’s on my property. I own the property, so I own the tree. Now scram.”
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ellie climbs a tree, and maybe finds a home in it
Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
14 Dec 2025
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bloodied hearts, burdened eyes by Scarlettprin
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
09 Feb 2023
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There’s a dripping sound. She doesn’t know where it’s coming from.
It’s blood, a voice in the back of her mind says. There’s so much blood.
It gathers on the floor. It carves lines in the grass, flowing on the ground until it pools under a corpse.
Death has always teased her. It has drawn her in, pulled her close, whispered so softly in her ear she could dismiss it as the whistle of wind.
or, Ellie had to take a life one too many times. Joel finds her in the aftermath.
Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
05 Dec 2025
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Tommy Miller loves being an uncle. He always has. When his brother Joel and his niece Sarah move from Austin to Jackson after a rough year, Tommy thinks things might finally start looking up for all of them. He’s got a steady job, a wife he adores, a kid he’s raising as his own, and another on the way. For once, life feels settled.
Then Sarah brings home a girl named Ellie Williams.
At first, she’s just a name, a face at the edge of family dinners and weekend visits. But as the months pass, Tommy starts to see things that don’t sit right: bruises that don’t have explanations, eyes too tired for a kid her age, the kind of silence that hides something ugly. And before he knows it, the protective instinct that’s always made him the “fun uncle” starts turning into something else entirely: fear.
Told month by month through Tommy’s eyes, this is a story about family, loyalty, and the quiet ways people save each other when no one else is watching.
Series
- Part 4 of We, the Millers
Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
25 Oct 2025
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smoke, ash, and strays by ketchupchipsaregross
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
23 Jun 2024
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Joel opened the door onto the street and let it swing shut behind him, annoyed when the kid managed to duck around it before it could slow her down.
“I’m not a toddler, dude, I can walk by myself,” The kid said.
“I got my orders,” He ignored the eye roll the kid threw at him, “And quit calling me dude.”
“Whatever you say,” She gave him a sly smile, “Bro.”
(or joel just wants to do his job and go home smelling like a campfire, it'd be great if the raccoon child from the alley would let him do that in peace)
Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
14 Sep 2025
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Savior Complex by Logan_Howlett2003
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
24 Jan 2026
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He felt his rib cage tighten around his lungs and suddenly his previous morality was choking him. She couldn't be his problem. He couldn't handle another responsibility, Sarah could never be anything other than his first priority.
"Dad... please,"
And yet... if anyone could ever convince him to do anything, it was going to be her. Her pleading brown eyes, brimming with tears at the idea of this girl being left out in the cold was ripping through him with a response he didn't want to give.
"For how long?"
~
Or... Sarah convincing Joel she needs a sibling.
Series
- Part 1 of Savior Complex
Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
17 Jul 2025
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Winning Isn't Everything by Marvelocity
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
09 Jul 2025
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She worked slowly, methodically. Something about brushing down the horses, checking hooves, refilling feed—it was one of the only things that made sense anymore. Simple. Predictable.
She was halfway through hauling a new bag of oats when she heard a voice behind her, friendly but unfamiliar.
“Hey there.”
Ellie jumped, dropping the bag. She found a man standing just inside the barn doors. Maybe in his early thirties. Taller than her, wearing a thick coat dusted with snow. His smile was a little too wide.
------
Ellie is attacked by a Jackson newcomer. She takes care of it with a little help from her family. ft. Feral Tommy and Feral JoelBookmarked by sofie_sticated
10 Jul 2025
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a simple favor by flannelfeelings
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
11 Jan 2024
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Really, it’s just a stupid favor.
Joel Miller, owner of Miller Contracting, has zero goddamn reason to be substitute teaching a woodshop class at the high school in downtown Austin. It’s the absolute last fuckin’ thing he wants to do with his time, actually. He ain’t a fan of kids, especially not at the snot-nosed age of fourteen. In fact, he’d never be here in this classroom, not in a million fuckin’ years.
Until Bill died.
(when his mentor and friend passes away, Joel takes on a job he really, really doesn't want to do. - aka the joel and ellie finding each other in every universe teacher joel edition)
Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
05 Jul 2025
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the consequence of living by two_birds_alone_together
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
11 Jul 2025
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Ellie takes a few hesitant steps toward the door before Joel notices it: blood, soaking down her side.
Fuck. Fuck.
He yanks her back, frantic as he pulls up the hem of her shirt. Dark red seeps through the fabric as he searches for the source. “Jesus,” he breathes, spotting the wound. “Okay, you’re okay. Keep goin’.”
She stares at him in confusion, still trying to catch her breath from the terror of being attacked. “What?”
“Just keep movin’.” With his hand on her back, Joel forces her forward until bodies no longer surround them. He needs space to work, needs to get her away from the carnage before shock sets in. With one movement, he sweeps the cans off the large crate, then focuses on Ellie. “Up,” he says, voice low as he boosts her to sit.
“What’s wrong?” she asks. He can hear the fear creeping into her tone.
“I think you were shot.”
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(wherein henry's bullet doesn't just kill sam)
Series
- Language:
- English
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- 13,900
- Chapters:
- 3/3
- Collections:
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Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
04 Jul 2025
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Keep the Blue Side Up by Mote_of_dust
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
03 May 2026
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Through a series of tragic events Ellie Williams ends up in the foster care system in the small town of Jackson, Wyoming.
More alone than ever, Ellie struggles with settling in.
That is, until she gets the opportunity to learn to fly. Literally.
Joel Miller is a man that's had his fair share of tragedy. Despite life's cruelties he's managed to carved out a life for himself in Jackson.
Determined not to complicate or jeopardize that he tends to keep everyone at arm's-length.
Little do either of them know the impact they are about to have on each other's lives.
or:
Modern AU. No Outbreak.
Ellie takes flight lessons; Joel is her instructor.
Unplanned bonding ensues (with a healthy side of angst).Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
12 Jun 2025
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These Things Eat at Your Bones by MessyDepressy95
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
29 Jul 2025
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“Tommy.” It’s a stuttered plea slipping free from the confines of his shredded mouth, a beg that he ain’t ashamed of as he writhes in his brother's unrelenting grasp, the sores lining his cheeks and rubbing against his teeth alight with fire.
He’s asking to be let go, to be able to go to his child because she needs him.
Because he had promised that he wouldn’t let her do this alone.
The people in that room don’t count.
They don’t know that her favorite color is forest green even though she’s never been in the woods, that her shoulder aches if she falls asleep on her right side because her foster father fractured it when she was eight and it healed wrong.
They don’t know that it’s her greatest fear - what’s happening inside that sterile room with grey walls, white bedding and too little warmth.
To let her die alone would be his failure, his broken promise, and he’s watching it happen. Her heart no longer beating and her chest failing to rise.
*
Even when he’s fighting cancer, Joel can’t help but be dad as fuck, especially when Ellie’s fighting it right beside him.Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
02 Jun 2025
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“Can you get me some weed?” She asks, and to his credit, Tommy just raises his eyebrows. “Or some vodka, I think, but weed, preferably.”
Tommy takes a deep breath, and afraid of a no, she speaks again.
“Not a lot!” She reassures him. “Just like-” She gestures with her hands to indicate the amount she saw someone else carrying to Gail’s house when she was spying to get some intel earlier. “Like that much.” She might need more later, but if the lady’s studied how to fix brains, surely she’ll be able to do it pretty quickly. Ellie might be fucked up more than other kids her age, but she can’t be the most fucked up person in Jackson. Just statistically, other people have had more time to get more fucked up. She’s probably barely even fucked up, comparatively. Freaked up, really, if anything.
That’s what she’s been desperately telling herself, at least.
(after accidentally hurting joel, ellie decides to get help to make sure she won't ever do it again) (now if only that help wasn't gail)
Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
16 May 2025
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angel from montgomery by monalisaaa
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
19 Sep 2025
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“Hey.”
The girl’s eyes snapped up, panicked. She spared a second to glance down at the man in front of her, her eyes racing up and then looked at Joel with the exact same type of terror, before emerging with something in her hands.
Joel watched, immediately suspecting a gun. “Whoa, now-”
The girl lifted her hands up, revealing an old knife. She smeared the tears on her cheeks away, trying to seem bigger than she was, but it didn’t work.
She was a terrified kid.
The urgency in Joel’s expression blinked. “Hey,” He repeated, his voice painted soft, though he didn’t let himself hear it. The girl just stared up at him with her knife, not realizing the tremble of her own grip or the violent shakes that tore through her entire, bare body. He just realized that now. Only her knees were covering her, along with the clearly torn pair of underclothes on her lower half. She cringed under his eyes. “It’s okay,” He tried. “I’m not gon’ hurt you.”
The girl didn’t even blink. She just stared up through her tears, terrified of him.
Fuck.
TLDR: Joel finds a traumatized Ellie on the side of the road. He's immediately soft. Meanwhile, she has to learn how to trust him.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 94,840
- Chapters:
- 14/14
- Comments:
- 179
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- 138
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Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
28 Apr 2025
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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.
Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
07 Apr 2025
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Blood.
It was fanning out under Ellie’s body, taking her and claiming her like cordyceps. After a few endless seconds, she moved in it, curled up, and then immediately whimpered as a result; the knife in her stomach had twisted.
The sound was what broke Joel out. “Ellie,” Her name fell out. Before he even knew what he was doing, he sprinted forward and then crashed right back down, scooping his arms underneath Ellie’s body. “Ellie. Oh, God.” When he moved her, the knife shifted, too, and she cried out; a sharp wince claimed his face, like a gunshot had gone off. Had it? His eyes lifted up, searching for a soldier’s flashlight.
Sarah?
No.
A different baby bleeding out on him, again his fault.
TLDR: Ellie gets hurt at the university instead of Joel. Going into winter with this change! Lots of angst and hurt/comfort <3
Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
30 Mar 2025
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Tommy sighs, scrubbing a hand over his pinched face. He has a pretty good idea about what happened there, and it’s twisting the knife in his heart a full three-sixty. Joel, in pain and delirious with it, stuck twenty years in the past and begging for his baby girl. Probably with a head injury to boot. “My brother has no living children, ma’am. He might be experiencing some confusion.”
“Your brother is unconscious, Mr. Miller. He isn’t experiencing anything at the moment. And I can assure you, the minor in our care is very much alive.”
or:
The story of Ellie and Joel, as told to Tommy, who would have liked to have known he had a niece before it became hugely, urgently relevant. (Modern AU)
Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
24 Feb 2025
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who you are is not where you've been by BarlowGirl
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
26 Jul 2024
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And he realizes… there are parts of her that are weird because, well, she’s Ellie. She likes space and puns and dinosaurs. She does goofy voices and curses too much and she asks so many questions. He’s pretty sure that if she’d grown up before the outbreak, she would have been screened for ADD or something. And some of her weirdness is being a kid growing up in the apocalypse, like not knowing what a seatbelt is.
But parts of her weirdness?FEDRA did that.
And he hates it.
Or: Thoughts on FEDRA schooling.
Bookmarked by sofie_sticated
10 Feb 2025