A/N: Oh frick, how I ended up doing Fanfic with multiple chapters?!

Blame Jamppa, my dear friend who kept (and still keeps doing it, because I am still getting ideas for new chapters!) me inspired by doing amazing sketches and complete pictures of these fellows.

And then there is Johis. Damn. My best friend who accepted the challenge to translate my fic from Finnish to English. Again. It's super big deal because this project is –BIG- and it will take so many hours from her to translate this. She is so awesome, there are not even enough words to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So much.

Like it is not enough, she helped us to come up with the name of dog. Oh man. Wonderful person, I tell you.

(New chapters in every couple weeks or so, there are many chapters finished, yes, but not translated and I don't want to give too much stress to Johis, who voluntarily is doing this for us! Be patient, thank you)

The Last of Us © Naughty Dog

Macy © Jamzenn and Berneri

No Joel/Ellie-pairing! Only Father/daughter moments.

Rated M for language and some scenes.

Wanna know more? We have Tumblr-blog! It's name is "lifewithmacy" and you will find link from my profile too

There you can find lots of information of this project!

There will be also mention every time new chapter is out! So if you don't have FF-account but still want to know when new chapter is published (and see awesome fan arts), you can follow our blog! There is also separated ask/comment-section.

Thank you for reading and well.. Enjoy! (This is only artist note this long, I swear.)

BRIGHT EYES

• CHAPTER 1: DISCOVERY •

"No way, you can't be serious, people used to bring an entire tree in the house and did what… Decorated it?!"

Ellie laughed dubiously at Joel's explanations about the details of Christmas. The topic had been brought up as he had realized there were only a few days until Christmas Day. Tommy and Maria would no doubt try to arrange something special for the kids, but it would still be far from what Christmas used to be back in the day. And when Joel had mentioned it, Ellie had naturally wanted to know more.

"Yeah."

The man was nodding solemnly and directed his gray horse towards the next house. During the winter time travelling in the forest was more convenient on a horse. Not to mention the speed.

"Sounds really silly!"

The red haired girl commented and dismounted from the horse, jumping onto the thick snow.

"But it's true."

Joel chortled and gripped the shoulder strap of his trustworthy brown backpack. Besides a rifle and a 9mm pistol he was carrying a shorty, Ellie in turn had her pistol and her trusty switchblade and bow. A bunch of arrows could be seen peeking out of her smaller backpack.

Their business in the forest was not essentially about hunting this time, as a separate hunting group had already been sent out in the forest, but you could never know if you ended up running into something that you could shoot. There was never too much food. And Ellie was pretty damn good at shooting. Their main task at the moment, however, was going through the abandoned houses in the nearby village.

"Gavino, we'll be back in a bit. Stay here and wait for us, will you?"

Ellie pet her horse's muzzle affectionately and scratched him behind the ears. The stallion liked it, just like Maria had said the first time the couple had arrived in Jackson half a year ago and the girl had seen the horse on the courtyard. And later on stolen it… And now he was practically her horse.

"If I didn't know any better I'd think you'd named him like that."

Joel was standing behind Ellie, rolling his eyes and petted his own horse that he had just been mounted on a little while ago.

"What? I think it's an awesome name!"

The girl snorted and started strutting overdramatically towards the nearby house, assuming that was where Joel was headed too. The man followed close behind, seeing his breath form clouds in the air. The temperature was still tolerable, but the evening was slowly turning into night.

Going through the houses had already become an everyday routine for the pair. They would open the door, listen out for any infected and then split up to look for possible equipment they could utilize in Jackson or trade in for something. So far they had been surprisingly lucky with the loot scattered around in the previous houses, and Joel decided that this would be their final destination for today.

Ellie moved upstairs, whereas her companion remained downstairs ransacking the kitchen and the dining room. The man was smiling contentedly upon finding the booze stash of the former inhabitant. He grabbed three bottles of the alcohol, you could never have too much disinfectant.

Out of a sudden he heard loud rumbling upstairs that almost made him jump out of his skin and next he saw the girl run past him to the back door without a word.

"Ellie!"

His shout echoed on the walls of the house, then suddenly there was a runner half stumbling, half running downstairs. Ellie turned around, clearly frightened, to see how the runner lunged towards Joel - who was luckily prepared for it.

"Fuck!"

Joel snarled and shot exactly one bullet that caused the runner to fall on the wooden floor lifelessly. When he had turned into an infected he had been wearing jeans and a thick, black winter coat. His long, black hair was dirty and you could already see some tiny fungi sprouting between the strands. For a brief moment the man was just staring at the dead creature and took a few deep breaths before quickly striding over to where the girl was.

"Don't ever do that again. Do you hear me, never again!"

Joel grabbed the girl by the shoulders and shook her lightly.

"Don't sweat it, it was an accident!"

Ellie said in a belittling tone and swept Joel's hands off her shoulders. But then her gaze reached the man's eyes and she could actually see concern and hurting written on the otherwise so stern face of the man, and the girl felt a stab of conscience.

"Hey, don't look like that, ok? I'm sorry. Not going to do it again. Sorry."

The girl bit her lower lip and tried to use a puppy face that normally wouldn't work on Joel. Luckily this time it actually made the man smile and the tension between them was gone in a flash.

"Oh, why did you suddenly dart here like that? You clearly didn't know about the runner till it spurted downstairs towards me..."

Ellie froze for a second, until she suddenly remembered something, that the infected had distracted her from for a while.

"I saw something out of the window."

Ellie replied bemusedly and swiftly jumped out of the nearby broken window on the porch of the farmhouse. This time the girl stopped to wait for the older man, but at the same time the green eyes were glancing over the terrain, looking for something and focusing in the distance. At the same time Joel stepped closer trying to see what the girl saw.

"Look there, doesn't it look like a dog? I saw it out of the window upstairs."

The young girl stretched her arm, pointing at the edge of the forest near the lower part of the hill. The man narrowed his eyes, causing a few more wrinkles to appear on his already furrowed face, until he figured out what was being pointed at. There was a barbed wire running near the forest, and stuck on it what seemed to be an animal that appeared to be a dog, at least from afar.

"Hmm, you might be right. But I guess it's dead already, that barbed wire seems to be stuck around it pretty nasty."

Joel didn't want to give the girl too much hope. But the reply did not satisfy the redhead, Ellie just grunted discontentedly and grabbed Joel by the sleeve of his dark gray winter coat, trying to pull him down the slope. It was easier said than done, as the snow on the way was in some places almost up to her waist.

"Let's go have a look at least!"

Joel hesitated for a moment, the barbed wire was next to a dense forest that didn't look that inviting and they were already meant to be going back to Tommy… Not forgetting the thick snow that would reach up to even Joel's knees, let alone the smaller girl.. The girl whose dissatisfied stare was fixed to the dog, that was laying in a seemingly uncomfortable position, its backside partly covered in snow. And it looked so young too, almost like a puppy.

"Poor baby…"

Ellie's voice was quiet and compassionate.

Joel rubbed his neck.

"I don't know about this Ellie, we got-"

"Look!"

The animal lying next to the fence moved slightly and the movement was not missed by the keen-eyed girl. At that moment Joel knew there was no chance in changing Ellie's mind anymore. Accompanied by a deep sigh he set off to wade through the snow, with Ellie walking triumphantly on his heels, yet feeling a bit worried about the dog. She had seen the world enough to not be too gullible about the situation and knew there was a high chance that Joel would simply have to end the animal's suffering. But everything had a possible flipside.

Although the fence was just a stone's throw away, it took surprisingly long to get there due to the thick layer of snow, and the steep downhill wasn't helping. Joel sighed out of relief when he finally reached the more shallow snow. For Ellie this passage was a lot easier, all she had to do was walk behind the man in his footsteps in the path he had created. They both had their pants wet from the melting snow passing through and as a result the pair was shaking a bit from the cold.

But it was easier to walk now, and the destination was just about 30 feet away. The young dog, partly hanging on the wire, could be seen better by every step and its movement increased the closer the pair got to it. Joel started soothing the animal and spoke in a calm manner as he got closer.

"Shh… shh.. we won't hurt you. Good boy. It's okay."

Soon the duo got to the dog who had now started increasingly fidgeting and moving its thin body around. Joel grabbed the puppy by its neck and settled it with a firm grip. Now he could have a closer look at the injuries…

The barbed wire was tightly wrapped around the right front paw of the puppy, and all the wriggling had not made it any better. Many of the spikes had dug in deep in the leg. A few other parts of the dog's body were hurt, most likely as a result of getting scraped by the wire, causing its sides to be quite bloody and its neck had been stained by some blood too, now dried and clumpy. But the amount of blood didn't always reveal the true nature of the injuries, and Joel knew that well.

Ellie was crouched next to the dog, petting the soft, clean part of fur on its neck, flinching a bit when her hand touched the blood. The girl was waiting for his verdict on the condition of the dog now, and that was the only thing that mattered at the moment.

"We have to get his leg free, that's the most critical thing now."

The girl felt like screaming out of joy, as if it had been no good, Joel would have had no choice but to shoot the dog on the spot. She ended up settling for a smile though, because she didn't want to scare the dog any further, it already seemed to be in a bit of a panicky state due to not being able to move its limbs. Even though you could see the whites of its eyes, the dog was not showing any signs of aggression.

"I'm no vet but at least the other legs seem to work fine. The thing worryin' me the most are these deeps cuts on the front leg and how thin he is. Who knows how long he's been hangin' here. Must have tried to jump over the fence to get in that forest… his ear's torn too, there's the rest of it."

Joel pointed at the dried piece of skin hanging from the fence higher above, and Ellie grimaced compassionately. Joel shook the bag off his shoulders.

"Get me the broken piece of the pipe. And give me your switchblade."

The man instructed, and Ellie was quick to do as she was told.

Joel gratefully took the materials and got on with it. Ellie kept the dog still, and it wasn't trying to struggle anymore. As if it knew that help was finally here.

At first the fence didn't seem to give in, but after working patiently, one of the spikes on the puppy's leg finally came loose. Soon it was followed by another one, and another. At times the man encountered some difficult parts and was cursing quietly under his breath. It took an hour, but after a few small whines, squeals and a lot of hard work the dog was finally free. It was naturally limping the front leg a little, but even though Ellie finally let go of the dog it wasn't trying to run away. The puppy was just standing still and staring. It seemed to be exhausted as well.

"Good boy, well done."

The man pet the dog's head a few times.

"Joel…"

Ellie whispered in his ear quietly, giggling.

"It's a girl."

Joel stopped in his tracks and took a quick look under the dogs belly.

"Oh yea."

The girl couldn't hold her laughter back anymore looking at her companion's surprised face.

Joel tried to keep a poker face on, but ended up laughing at the whole situation too.

For a moment they were just laughing and giggling at the whole thing, until Joel had a look around.

And the moment was over.

"Goddamit, it's gettin' dark already! Tommy's gonna kill us. We're goin' now."

The man collected the stuff he had used, put everything in his backpack and picked it up. He gave the girl the switchblade, and like always she effortlessly closed it and put it in her left front pocket.

"What about the puppy?"

Ellie asked softly and pet the dogs back with small strokes. Her fur was so soft, but the girl could clearly feel the spine and ribs through it. Joel had found a small, fitting piece of bandage in his bag and had wrapped it around the front leg.

"Well, I didn't work all that time to get her free so I could just leave her there to die."

After saying this he picked the dog up lightly on his arms and started walking uphill, the same way they had come down earlier. The puppy remained calm.

They were both a bit out of breath by the time they reached the top of the hill, but quickly proceeded through the house to the front yard where the horses were still patiently waiting. Joel lifted the dog up on the saddle in front of Ellie.

"Gav's a lot steadier on his feet."

Joel answered to the girl's unspoken question before she even had the chance to ask. After this he mounted his own horse and they left the area with a quick gait.

Ellie had a lot going on in her mind and a childlike excitement took over her as she was correcting the position of the sleepy puppy on her lap.

A dog. We have a puppy!

Tommy had been waiting for them at the guard post with his rifle. His patrol shift had ended a good few hours ago but he had demanded to stay until Joel and Ellie were safely back. Maria had brought him some food and a bottle of water, of which he was grateful to his wife. And she understood that there was no point in trying to persuade him to come back. Tommy was smiling at the thought, when he suddenly heard a sound he had been looking forward to; the sound of the hooves of two horses on the forest path. Joel and Ellie appeared in his field of view, and the younger brother was more than relieved. They were safe. Tommy reported this to Maria on the radio and could hear a sigh of relief from her too.

"Oi! What the hell was holding up you two! We were getting sick with worry!"

The man shouted to them from the wall even though they were still quite far away and told a few of his men to open the large concrete gates. By this time the pair had dismounted and now walked inside the walls.

Joel had taken both their horses now and handed them over to the stable master, who had rapidly arrived to collect his horses. Ellie had the puppy on her arms, the experience and the stress from it had taken it's toll on the little dog.

Joel nodded his head towards Ellie and the dog.

"There's the reason why it took us so long, wasn't our intention to worry you guys. Ellie spotted this poor thing, she was stuck in a fence with barbed wire. I freed her and before I knew it it was dark."

The man placed his hand on his little brother's shoulder and pat him a few times apologetically.

Tommy didn't even ask why they ended up taking the dog with them. This was clearly one of those situations where Joel had had no reason to object to anything. If this made the girl happy, it was enough for him. Because Ellie was his whole world, and everyone in the town knew it.

Tommy was looking at the dog thoughtfully and suddenly seemed remember something.

"Wait a minute, where did you run into this puppy?"

He suddenly asked, and Joel summarized everything that had happened in the past hours, also mentioning the runner they had found in the house. For some reason the described what the infected had looked like, which made Tommy stop him abruptly.

"Dammit, it was Bob."

The little brother grunted, the name made both Joel and Ellie raise their eyebrows.

"Bob?" Joel asked, intrigued.

"The lone traveller who turned up in Jackson last week to trade some stuff. Boston had Bill, Bob was here. Well, it was only a matter of time, he had an unbelievably risky way of doing things. Shame though."

Tommy shrugged, although a bit dismally, and at that moment Joel finally remembered the man they were talking about but didn't remember the puppy.

"So this dog has a name?", Ellie asked the man's little brother with a quiet voice.

Tommy scratched his beard and lifted his gaze up in the sky, trying to remember.

"Yea, uhh… I think it was Cinderella, if I remember correctly."

"Are you serious..?"

Ellie let out a disgruntled snort and turned to Joel, looking at him with big eyes.

"So I can give the little one a lot nicer name, can't I?"

The girl asked, with high hopes.

"Who said we're gonna keep her?"

The man asked with a small grin on his face, to which Ellie replied by hugging the dog even tighter against her body, with a stern face. To her surprise there was no need for an argument though, as Joel just ruffled her red hair and kneeled down to kiss her lightly on her forehead.

"Merry Christmas, baby girl." And for a brief moment Joel was sure he could see the whole universe in the girl's eyes.

"But we'll come up with a name together. I don't want another Callus."

Ellie just replied with a big mischievous grin.

And damn, at that moment Ellie was the happiest girl in the world, walking through the town between Tommy and Joel, holding her very own dog in her arms.

Suddenly Christmas didn't seem so silly anymore.

Thank you for reading!

Tell me what do you think, do you want more?

Cheers! :)