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No Dawn, No Day by xiaq
Fandoms: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek
24 Jun 2025
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Summary
“I will not apologize for speaking the truth,” the child says. “However, I regret if that truth has offended you.”
“Jesus Christ, kid,” Jim mutters.
“I am not offended,” Spock responds, as blandly as he is able. “I was remiss in casting such hasty judgment upon your guardian.”
”Father,” she corrects.
”Your father,” he agrees.
*****
An academy AU + Tarsus aftermath fic in which James T. Kirk ends up accidentally parentally bonded to an orphaned Vulcan child. When the father/daughter duo enroll in Star Fleet, hijinks ensue (mostly at the expense of Spock’s previously immaculate but quickly deteriorating self-control).
Winner of the 2025 Philon Award for a novel-length fic (!!!)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 68,376
- Chapters:
- 33/33
- Comments:
- 4,667
- Kudos:
- 7,332
- Bookmarks:
- 2,592
- Hits:
- 149,239
Bookmarked by xQuerida
04 Jun 2026
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“You wanna tell me about this infected you and Dina decided to lie to the council about?” Joel asks as he carefully guides the needle through her skin. She winces but doesn’t flinch, breathing through the pinprick of the needle each time it pokes through. “They clocked that immediately, by the way.”
“Council sessions are confidential,” she says dryly. “Privacy privilege to ensure honesty.”
They both look to the other and exchange a mutual raised eyebrows look about how that tends to go in practice given how quickly gossip spreads in Jackson, and for a moment, a single wonderful, fiercely addictive moment, they're a unit again. She's fifteen, she can tell herself he's never lied about anything except her birthday treat to keep it a surprise, and the only tension between them is the words they haven't put to what he is to her.
But the moment pops like a soap bubble, and she's nineteen and angry again, and the contentment fizzles to nothing like a sparkler burning out, leaving her blinking at black spots in the absence of its light.
(2x01 except i make them talk to each other by employing mortal peril)
Bookmarked by xQuerida
22 Feb 2026
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Judy never meets Nick on that fateful day at Jumbeaux’s ice-cream parlor. In fact, she doesn’t meet him until much later. However, her life still ended up getting turned upside down. It seems Nick isn’t the only fox who managed to get into her heart.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 101,626
- Chapters:
- 24/24
- Comments:
- 1,129
- Kudos:
- 3,812
- Bookmarks:
- 868
- Hits:
- 90,465
Bookmarked by xQuerida
26 Dec 2025
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work study by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
11 Mar 2023
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In his many years of taking on jobs for too-little pay, there’s one assignment he’s never worked. The other workers call it the “preschool brigade,” the FEDRA-school kids sent out into the field for what they call “work experience” to get them used to the real world. Really, it’s a behavioral tool, he knows, an example of “better act right or you’ll end up like these poor fuckers when you’re grown.”
He's deliberately never worked on one, uninterested in being put in charge of a kid doing a dangerous job they shouldn’t be. The kids that get sent on the preschool brigade are the ones FEDRA doesn’t necessarily care about getting back, after all, and there are things even adults shouldn’t be doing, not as untrained as most of them are.
And then comes the day one of the FEDRA guards assigned to his work detail that leads over a sullen-looking girl, who kicks rocks the entire way.
(an AU in which ellie and joel first meet on job assignments)
Bookmarked by xQuerida
13 Nov 2025
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if you never bleed, you're never gonna grow by BarlowGirl
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
18 Jul 2025
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There’s more blood than she expects, when she’s bit.
Riley tears up one of her spare t-shirts so Ellie can wrap her arm up, but they have to change it twice before it stops soaking through. Weirdly, Riley’s hand doesn’t bleed as much. There’s a bit of blood, because, well, in teeth versus skin, teeth win, but she just dabs it away with a scrap of cloth and some water and it stops pretty quick.
Worried about making it bleed again, Ellie leaves the wrapping on hers for so long that neither of them notice that the whorls of infection on her arm don’t match the infection creeping up Riley’s arm.
Or: The one where Ellie bleeds a lot.
Bookmarked by xQuerida
14 Oct 2025
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Ellie knows before she’s even told that the woman is a former FEDRA officer. There’s a way she carries herself that raises Ellie’s hackles at once, makes her stand up straighter, makes her hyper-aware of the dirt on her shoes and the way her ponytail is slipping out, both infractions that would be punishable under FEDRA regulations.
In an instant, Ellie knows they’re destined to hate each other.
(a former fedra teacher arrives in jackson) (it goes badly)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 18,999
- Chapters:
- 2/2
- Comments:
- 113
- Kudos:
- 1,960
- Bookmarks:
- 406
- Hits:
- 18,717
Bookmarked by xQuerida
09 Oct 2025
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jail(baby)bird by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
01 Jun 2023
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“983,” the guard calls, clanging a baton on the bars of the cell. He doesn’t bother to look up, very busy tracing out the state of Texas in the lines on the wall. He’s found four of them so far. He’s trying for a fifth. “New buddy.”
He does exhale through his nose at that, slightly amused to find out what new victim they’re offering him this time. He doesn’t have a great reputation with his “buddies,” the fuckers attached by handcuff to their cellmates to make it harder to escape, a standard practice in FEDRA prison. He’s gone through four now, each and every one of them trying to pull a power play by picking a fight.
It hadn’t gone well for any one of them.
“Try not to kill this one too quickly,” the guard says, and there’s a certain amount of anticipatory glee in the man’s voice that sets off a quiet alarm in his head.
He lifts his head, needing to see what makes this new inmate so special.
And looks right at a kid who can’t be older than 14, absolutely swamped by a prison outfit meant for someone about three sizes larger.
A girl, in the middle of a men’s prison.
(an AU in which ellie and joel meet in a fedra prison)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 17,140
- Chapters:
- 2/2
- Comments:
- 128
- Kudos:
- 3,074
- Bookmarks:
- 601
- Hits:
- 24,609
Bookmarked by xQuerida
19 Sep 2025
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a half-step to the left by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
26 May 2023
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It’s not that Ellie means to stalk the couple she catches lurking in the shadows at 1 in the morning after sneaking out of her dorm because sitting in the room alone was making it hard to breathe, but fellow curfew-breakers can hardly expect privacy. All’s fair in love and rule-breaking or whatever their English teacher said in one of the rare classes when they were learning something not related to FEDRA policy.
And there’s something in the way the man holds his hand out to help pull the woman up over a crumbled brick wall that she just can’t look away from.
There’s a gentleness there despite his size and obvious strength that makes her breath catch for just a second. It’s too far for her to hear what they’re saying, but the woman says something with a little half-smile and presses her hand to the man’s shoulder, and the casual affection of the gesture fills her with a nameless want.
So, trailing them at a distance it is.
(AU in which Ellie follows Joel and Tess around and meets them with no Fireflies involved)
Series
- Part 1 of a half-step to the left
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 65,146
- Chapters:
- 8/8
- Comments:
- 478
- Kudos:
- 3,361
- Bookmarks:
- 919
- Hits:
- 65,317
Bookmarked by xQuerida
14 Sep 2025
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He doesn’t notice that one of her shoes is untied until a lace gets caught in a notch of a log as they pass, sending her down hard.
The momentum of her fall sends him thudding against a tree, and his eyes slam shut as he grits his teeth against the white hot pain that flares in his side.
When he opens his eyes, she’s facedown in the snow, still and silent, hands still at her sides making it clear that she didn’t even try to catch herself.
It speaks of so much trauma, so much unresponsiveness, that he feels tears sting his eyes at the sheer scale of what’s happened to her, of how small and useless he is to fix any of it, of how much he’s let her be hurt by his own failure to protect her.
But there’s no time for his own self-loathing.
She needs him, insufficient as he is.
(a fic covering joel taking care of ellie after episode 8)
Bookmarked by xQuerida
03 Sep 2025
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Summary
Ellie is on a mission:
Find out when Joel's birthday is.
Get him a gift.
Bake him a cake.
It really shouldn't be as hard as it turns out to be.
Bookmarked by xQuerida
30 Aug 2025
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Summary
Newly settled into Jackson City, you’re assigned to patrol duty with Joel Miller; a man of rough edges and a cold facade. What begins as forced proximity slowly shifts into something raw and all-consuming.
But as the past creeps forward through old wounds and the ever-present threat of the world outside Jackson's walls, your feelings for one another become both a sanctuary and a liability.
In a world already broken, where there is already so much to lose, can you let yourself love Joel Miller?
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 372,296
- Chapters:
- 53/53
- Comments:
- 1,828
- Kudos:
- 5,750
- Bookmarks:
- 1,662
- Hits:
- 331,721
Bookmarked by xQuerida
16 Jul 2025
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Let Me Be Your Shelter by MessyDepressy95
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
12 Dec 2024
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Summary
“You are not replaceable, I am not temporary.” He’s holding her face in his hands, wiping away the tears that try to fall from the corner of her eyes.
She’s had a shit childhood, one he wishes with every fiber of his being, he could replace for her.
He can do this, though. Be here for her now.
“Look at me kiddo, I know you are not Sarah, and I don’t need you to be. I need you to be Ellie; funny, brave, and so goddamn smart, Ellie.” His heart tugs painfully in his chest as her face screws up in an anguished expression.
“You are enough just as you are, and anybody who tells you different will find themselves laid out for spit’n that kind of bullshit at my kid.” He tucks her into his chest as the first broken sobs burst past her lips.
She might be eighteen, a legal adult, but she’s still just a kid looking for the comfort of a parent.
Something she’s never had before. He’ll be that for her, if she’ll let him.
From now until the earth claims him.
—
Another modern/western vibe. After Ellie ages out of foster care in Boston, she greyhounds it out to Wyoming to work at Miller Ranch, where Joel is waiting in that dad shape of his.Series
- Part 1 of Modern AU - Miller Ranch
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 115,995
- Chapters:
- 13/13
- Comments:
- 161
- Kudos:
- 499
- Bookmarks:
- 162
- Hits:
- 20,081
Bookmarked by xQuerida
18 Jun 2025
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Family By Another Name by MessyDepressy95
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
03 Nov 2024
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“You’ll kill me” it’s said with such conviction that his heart tugs painfully at the accusation. She’s four, what the hell could a four-year-old have done to be so sure that he’d kill her should she tell him?
“I ain’t gonna kill you, no one is going to kill you.” He keeps his voice firm and laces it with conviction just like hers.
He’s making her a promise, swearing an oath. Nobody’s laying a finger on her.
Not now, not ever.
He dares a motherfucker to try.
——
My take on how the cross-country journey would have gone had Ellie been in Joel’s life for years before they left the QZ. Or Joel is dad-shaped in every version of the time-line.Series
- Part 1 of La Familia
Bookmarked by xQuerida
13 Jun 2025
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Air in my lungs,’Til the road begins by MessyDepressy95
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
20 Oct 2024
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“She knows her uncle Tommy, you’re not a stranger to her.” he says, begging Tommy with his eyes.
His baby brother looks so different than he had six years ago. He’s grown the mustache out again.
It’s filled in better this time.
“What the fuck were you thinking Joel” Tommy's voice cracks. He looks at Joel like he’s been gutted.
“Living” the reply is hoarse, he knows he’s not answering the question he was asked. Their eyes connect again, he sees the understanding shining in his brother’s eyes.
“Living” Tommy echoes back.
——
The modern au in which Joel is a firefighter thrust back into fatherhood at 36 by our favorite little shit Ellie, that literally no one asked for.Bookmarked by xQuerida
13 Jun 2025
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butterfly kisses by captainredspade (CodenameArtemis)
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
20 May 2024
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Summary
Ellie runs away from Joel and their life in Jackson, believing herself to be cursed. Afraid she'll lose what matters most, she decides to just leave first to protect the family she doesn't think she deserves.
A brush with death out on the road and a familiar stranger help Ellie find her way home. Back to Joel.
(Or Ellie doesn't believe in spirits and guardian angels, but something saved her and she needs to know why.)
Bookmarked by xQuerida
11 Jun 2025
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all i needed was someone (when the whole wide world felt young) by cardigains for eedsknees
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
20 Dec 2023
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Summary
Much like the other day, Ellie ends up sitting on the porch steps. Joel’s back even quicker this time. Almost like he’d left his first aid supplies sitting out and ready to attend as needed.
More cleaning, this one hurts less. More gel liquid, this time rubbed in a bit better. And more bandaids, these ones something other than plain, boring beige. Not princesses either, usually the first thing adults reached for when they mixed the two factors of Little Girl and Injured together.
Nope. This guy has dinosaur bandaids.
“Dude, I fucking love dinos!”
Joel’s head swivels up, eyes going from her carefully patched up elbow to meet Ellie’s gaze. She wants to ask him how he knew. She wants to ask to see the rest of the designs in the box. She wants to tell him all of the other things she loves.
“S’pose I picked right then,” he says, almost like he’d been standing in the aisle, contemplating what exactly that might be.
“You did,” is how Ellie answers him, not bothering with a thank you.
//
or: Ellie is Joel's next door neighbor who's hellbent on learning to ride a bike to get where she needs to go. Little does she know that place is right across the street.
Series
- Part 1 of Next Door Neighbors
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 47,863
- Chapters:
- 4/4
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 305
- Kudos:
- 1,070
- Bookmarks:
- 332
- Hits:
- 19,139
Bookmarked by xQuerida
09 Jun 2025
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of wounded minds and wounded souls (we are coming home) by cardigains
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV)
11 Jun 2023
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“Are you in trouble? Back home?”
The ends of her sweatshirt are grasped in her fists, wrapped around her hands. He half expects her to pull the hood up, tie the strings over her face, and completely tuck herself away. It makes him think of the other night with that nasty motel bedspread pulled right up beneath her chin, asking about locks on the door. It makes him think of a scared kid.
“What difference does it make?” Ellie mumbles out while avoiding his gaze. “I’m out of there now.” She turns a steely gaze towards him. “And I’m not going back.”
“Wasn’t planning on makin’ ya,” Joel whispers in the late night air. The stars are coming out. If it’s a clear enough night, maybe he can point out Mars to her.
or:
Ellie's a foster kid who helps herself to the bed of Joel's truck to get where she needs to go. Joel is a sucker who just can't turn her away.
Series
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 93,379
- Chapters:
- 12/12
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 1,366
- Kudos:
- 2,363
- Bookmarks:
- 633
- Hits:
- 54,120
Bookmarked by xQuerida
09 Jun 2025
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Sheep Ranch on the Moon by TomeOfTheForgotten
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
22 Jun 2023
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Jackson’s resident sheep farmer is known across state lines as the most reclusive man in all of Wyoming. And Joel likes it that way.
That is until one summer, a Boston foster program busses out a batch of city kids to Jackson. Joel isn’t fond of the idea, but reasons that he could use the help. The coyotes have been picking off this year’s flock, and the barn needs to be patched up. For some free labor, he can handle one uptight city boy for the summer.
But they send him a girl instead.
-----
AU: Ellie’s summer foster program ships her to a ranch out in Jackson where a gruff sheep farmer is losing his flock to coyotes.
Series
- Part 2 of Alternate Universe Series
Bookmarked by xQuerida
07 Jun 2025
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Where Joel miscalculates the situation with David and the hunters, and Ellie pays the price. Ellie and Joel struggle to cope after Ellie is raped. Thrown into unfamiliar territory-- Will their bond grow stronger, or will the trauma tear them apart? Begins during the winter, and follows the pair into Jackson as Ellie grows up in the aftermath of the decisions that have been made for her.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 271,135
- Chapters:
- 86/?
- Collections:
- 2
- Comments:
- 2,079
- Kudos:
- 3,426
- Bookmarks:
- 591
- Hits:
- 192,847
Bookmarked by xQuerida
06 Jun 2025
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Would you rather live a life full of regret or remorse?
After the end of the War, Hogwarts established a new tradition: weekly vigils to foster unity and honor the fallen.
The student body... did not share the same reverence.
The teachers called them Remembrance Vigils.
The students called them Revels.Swathed in candlelight and surrounded by their drunken classmates, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy, both haunted by the war and struggling to find connection, find themselves isolated from everyone else... except each other.
-- NOW COMPLETE --
cover art: jaxxinabox
betas: LiloLilyAnn & ribbonofsunshine- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 228,253
- Chapters:
- 47/47
- Collections:
- 2
- Comments:
- 2,313
- Kudos:
- 2,950
- Bookmarks:
- 1,420
- Hits:
- 187,647
Bookmarked by xQuerida
29 Mar 2024