I have a request for a joel miller x reader where she has a nightmare about how he dies and she makes him and tommy swear up and down that they will never tell anyone their real names upon meeting new ppl!
Joel Miller X Reader- Promise Me
Notes/Warnings: Mostly fluff, a little dramatic. For the sake of this fic, I'm assuming people in-universe know about Ellie's condition, and know Joel is transporting her. SPOILERS up to episode 5. Anon, I hope you enjoy this!
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You weren’t supposed to ask Joel to do anything for you.
Hell, you didn’t even want to try. You’d been instructed by Marlene the day you left Boston that you were, under no circumstances, to get in the way; Ellie was precious cargo, and you were just there to make sure she reached where she needed to. To make sure Joel and Tess didn’t quit on her halfway, and leave her stranded in the wilderness.
And you hadn’t trusted Joel either; not in the QZ, and certainly not when you’d been trying to leave it. He’d been brusque, rude. He’d barely even glanced at you— or Ellie— through most of the journey away, but when he’d lost Tess... you’d seen a side of him you were sure he’d rather have kept hidden. He’d kept watch all night, and when you woke up to swap shifts he’d shook his head no. He didn’t say much, but you saw his face, haggard and worn. Under his breath he’d been humming some old song, a song you couldn’t figure the words out to.
“Can't sleep?” Ellie asked suddenly, interrupting your chain of thought. She leaned down from the top bunk. You’d gone exploring and found beds— bunk beds—in Wyoming, the kind of bed you and your brother used to share before the world ended, and you knew you had to let her sleep in them before you had to leave yet again. “Wait, are we keeping watch here too? I thought Joel said we didn’t have to—“”
“No.” You tried to smile reassuringly. “No, we don’t have to stay up, or keep watch. Go back to sleep, Ellie.”
“Are you having a nightmare then?”
You sighed. You had been having a nightmare, a bad one. You never had them before; maybe as a kid, about monsters and ghosts and whatnot, but not since everything had changed. For years you’d dreamed about your parents, and your brother who'd left for a sleepover hours before it all started. But then you’d started work; Marlene had trained you as a medic, to sew up cuts and stave off infections, and a few weeks in, you’d realized you’d never had another nightmare again.
“Y/N?” Ellie asked, her voice worried. “Are you okay?”
You shook yourself out of the haze of thoughts.
“Yeah.” You stood up, and arched your back to stretch out. “I just need some water, okay? Go back to sleep.”
She shrugged and rolled back over, and you made your way down the stairs, rubbing your forehead. You hadn’t had nightmares for years… but you’d woken up that night drenched in a cold sweat. You’d dreamt of an attack— Joel and Tommy, traveling somewhere on horseback. An attack by a group of raiders. Joel, drenched in blood, lying on the ground, his eyes shut. Joel, not breathing.
Joel.
You'd woken up with a scream in your throat and you'd felt what you'd tried so hard so suppress all this time; Joel mattered to you. More than mattered. You were feeling something for him, things you’d sworn you would never feel again; slowly but surely, no matter how hard you tried otherwise.
"He doesn't care," you told yourself. "You're cargo. Just cargo. He will never care for you the way he cared for Tess."
You reached the bottom of the stairs and found the bottle of clean water Marlene had left you, taking a grateful gulp. Luxuries, these were luxuries.
"Can't sleep?" You turned to see Joel sitting on the floor, back leaned against the wall. His face was scrunched up in the same expression Ellie had had upstairs, and you were once again disconcerted by how much they'd began to resemble each other. Joel would say something, and Ellie would finish his sentence. Ellie would grumble to you in the exact tone Joel used on her. And Ellie- Ellie even made him smile, though he tried to hide it.
"I had a nightmare." You took a seat on the floor beside him, and let out a sigh. "You ever have those?"
He looked at you, raising his eyebrows.
"Like the Boogeyman? Monster under the bed stuff?" he shook his head, and you could've sworn you saw the ghost of a smile. "Yeah, all the time. Just had one now."
You narrowed your eyes at him. "You know what I mean."
He sighed, fingering the buttons of his jacket. In the dim light of the moon, his face was softer, less worn. You thought about how beautiful he was. Before, even in Boston, you would have gone for someone louder, brighter. Like Tommy, almost. But now, you couldn’t imagine yourself with anyone but Joel.
"Not anymore. I did, for years. After... after all of it." He looked at you. "It gets easier."
"It's not them." You took another gulp of water. "Not my family, I mean." You took a breath, and finally let it out. "I dreamt of you."
"Me?"
"You." You didn't care if made you sound stupid, or paranoid, or little-girlish, or whatever else. You had to tell him. You had to let him know. "I dreamt of you and Tommy on a ride. You got captured by a group of Raiders who knew your names. Knew what— who—you were trying to carry across the state. I dreamt they tried to take her, and I dreamt that you fought them. Then- then I dreamt you died."
He sighed.
"I know you're worried, Y/N, but this isn't our first time doing—”
You shook your head.
"No, Joel. This isn't some childish nightmare." You sat up straight, and looked him right in the eye. "I stopped dreaming of my family when I was sixteen. I was on field patching up a wound when I saw my older brother running at me full tilt trying to rip my throat out. He still had his eyes, but there was nothing behind them."
"Y/N," Joel breathed, his brown eyes soft. "I'm sorry."
You bit your lip, and paused for a moment to keep your voice steady. "I had to watch them put a bullet in him. In my ten year old brother in his Spiderman pyjamas." You took a breath. "So don't you tell me this is some stupid notion I've suddenly woken up with. Bad things happen here. They happen to me. And I won't have you be one of them."
“I won't be."
"You better not," you let out a sigh. You moved closer, against all the things your mind was telling you. He doesn't care. But you did. "You can't tell them who you are. You have to hide it, no matter what. You can't get caught, Joel. You just can't."
"Y/N," Joel looked you in the eye. He hesitated, and you could’ve sworn he looked at your lips, just for a moment. “I’ll take care of myself. And her.”
You nodded, taking a deep breath, and moved away. There were a million other things you wanted to talk about to him; how you felt, why he was the way he is. The things you didn’t even dare say aloud in your head; of a life, with him and Ellie, like Bill and Frank. Not a normal life, not by any means— but a life.
But he looked tired, so tired. And all of it could wait until he returned. When he returned, you would tell him. And he would listen.
“Y/N,” he said again, and this time he didn’t hesitate. “I promise.”
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Asks are open! Send me your requests, and I'll try my best to do justice to them. Even a part 2 of this, if you're interested?