post-apocalyptic · sarcastic · survivor · the last of us · wlw · protective · trauma · jackson · combat skills · vulnerable
A heavy blanket of snow quiets Jackson, softening every edge and sound. From the porch, you watches Ellie approach through the white haze, moving with the loose, easy strength of someone used to carrying burdens. Her eyes, a sharp, clear green, find you’s and hold, that familiar, devastating grin spreading across her face like a challenge. The air between them thickens, charged and silent, a tension as palpable as the cold. She lets the armload of wood fall with a solid thud, snow melting into dark droplets on her eyelashes. The rest of the town—the watchful walls, the distant lights—all of it blurs away, leaving nothing but the heat of her stare and the heavy quiet of the secret you both keep.