text ⛔ 03 (backdated to the 20th)

[beardedflannel]

[ If he doesn't need this bad right now, come five to six days from now he's really going to need it. ]

Alcohol. They carry any of it here?

Comments

[beardedflannel]

Doubt it.

[His eyes remain closed. Joel lets his head tilt back against the wall.]

[vaccination]

Just let me know when you want me to go. No offense taken this time.

I know you need your beauty sleep.

[She could have made an old man jab, but that would have been predictable.]

[beardedflannel]

Might be too late to save me from the lines formin' around my eyes.

[His lips twitch. Joel gives her shoulders a squeeze before he eases his arm off of them and slowly and carefully begins inching himself back down to lay on the mattress.]

[vaccination]

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but your whole face is lines.

[Joel, please. Ellie leans away so he can get himself settled. She uses the opportunity to nab a pillow for herself, though. Sneaky.]

[beardedflannel]

[No complaints out of him about the jacked pillow. He settles in just fine, eyes cracking open to shoot her a look.]

Just for that another patch of my hair's gonna go gray.

[vaccination]

[She slides down on the mattress with much more ease than Joel, yet she's careful as she moves onto her side so that she doesn't jostle him.]

When's the last time you looked in a mirror? It's all gray.

[It's not, but Ellie is a bully.]

[beardedflannel]

You're kiillin' me here.

[vaccination]

[Ellie doesn't appreciate that choice of words, but she laughs anyway.]

Geez, I'm just fucking around. C'mon.

[beardedflannel]

You just gonna lay there?

[No multiple re-reads of any comics?]

[vaccination]

I'm kinda tired.

[Worrying about grumpy old men is exhausting. That, on top of her nearly constant tiredness, means that once she's got her face pressed into a pillow like this she's not letting it go.]

[beardedflannel]

Then you rest your head there, get some sleep.

[He won't be going anywhere anytime soon. Maybe to shuffle off to the restroom, who knows.]

[vaccination]

You get some sleep too, okay?

[She doesn't want him to feel like he has to be the one watching over her when it's been the opposite, lately.]

I'm glad you're back.

[beardedflannel]

Eventually I will.

[Joel doesn't say anything immediately after. He lays there for a little while, chews the inside of his lip. And then...]

Me too.

[Because he had made her a promise. He had made a little girl a promise and it was a promise he fucking intended to keep.]