The Last of Us: Hide and Seek

"Are we seriously doing this?" Joel muttered.

"Hey, not my fault you're a lost cause when it comes to poker." Ellie responded.

The two of them made their way out of the settlement and into the woods.

"Where are we going, anyway?"

"Hey, I won. We're doing this on my own terms."

Joel groaned and rolled his eyes.

"Hey it's either this, or you're singing for me."

Joel kept quiet.

Finally they arrived at their destination, at the edge of Jackson County, about twenty minutes away from Tommy's settlement. Ellie turned around to face him.

"What then?" Joel shrugged.

"Count to…fifty. Then come find me." Ellie responded with a smile. Joel sighed, but complied.

"Close your eyes, no peeking!" Ellie exclaimed.

Joel closed his eyes and began the count. "1, 2, 3, 4-"

"Slow it down there, buddy!" She yelled, already sounding like she was in the far distance.

Joel sighed again and continued. "5…6…7…8…"

~T~L~O~U~

"49…50." Joel finished and opened his eyes, his eyes taking a few seconds to readjust to the light.

He wondered how he got himself wrangled into this mess. He was normally good at poker, good enough to play in Vegas, but somehow Ellie always managed to pull off a hand that was just that much better than his. He wondered if she was a card shark back in Boston.

He almost considered abandoning the game and giving up. But then he got an idea.

"Alright girl, let's see how quiet you can stay…" Joel crouched down and focused his hearing. He couldn't sense anything nearby, so he kept moving.

He soon heard something like a branch breaking. It was far too big to be a squirrel and too small to be a bear.

He moved towards the sound and soon enough, he could sense a presence crouched behind a tree trunk. Instead of just popping up in front of her, he figured he should be a bit more…creative. Get a little payback while he was at it.

Joel silently rounded around the tree trunk and did his very best to stifle his laugher as he approached her. Taking advantage of the fact that Ellie was completely oblivious of his presence, Joel pounced.

"Gotcha!" Joel exclaimed, wrapping her arms around her and picking her up.

"Holy shit! Joel?!"

"One and only." Joel responded, gently putting her down on the ground.

"No fair! You definitely cheated!" Ellie whined.

"How in the world could I cheat at something simple as hide and seek?" Joel questioned.

"Oh give me a break! Everyone and their mother knows you have that enhanced hearing thing."

Joel chuckled. Tommy was already growing on this girl.

"Well, I got you. So, I believe it's your turn now?"

Ellie paled. "I never was too good at the "seeking" part of this game."

"There's not much to it."

"Yeah, easy for you to say. You found me in record time." Ellie muttered.

Joel's heart broke a fraction upon hearing the sadness in her voice.

"Alright tell you what. You count and I'll hide. Every once in a while I'll make a sound so you could practice with your hearing."

"You're making it easy for me." Ellie responded.

"True, but you can improve that hearing of yours. Soon enough, you'll be able to hear me from yards away."

Ellie nodded. It wouldn't hurt. "Okay."

"Close your eyes and count to fifty, yeah?"

"Sure." Ellie closed her eyes and began the count, resisting the urge to blush when she could barely hear Joel's footsteps retreating.

Once she got to fifty, she opened her eyes. "Okay, you know how to do this. Just lay low and focus your hearing. You've done this before. It's even saved your ass." Ellie pep talked. She breathed in and out, crouched down and began moving, focusing on the signs Joel would be giving her.

Joel meanwhile was hidden behind a large boulder by the river. Besides him were an arsenal of large rocks, breakable branches of various sizes, and oddly enough, empty bottles. He focused his hearing as well to keep track of where Ellie was. She was still crouched down where he left her. He could tell she was a bit unsure of where to start.

Joel was about to give her one.

He picked up the bottle, the item guaranteed to make the loudest noise. He peered from behind the boulder to find a good spot to throw it. A bottle landing on the grass may be next to mute, but a bottle landing on a fallen tree should do the trick. He aimed at the tree and threw it. The satisfying sound of a bottle breaking filled the air and he heard Ellie on the move.

As she got closer, he decided to go with a softer sound. This time he threw a rock against a nearby tree. She was a bit apprehensive, but she moved towards the sound.

She was in range. Joel reached over, picked up a branch and snapped in two. He wasn't expecting it to be so loud but the more for Ellie the better.

"Come on, baby girl. You've almost got me." Joel whispered. She was so close but there was a variety of directions she could go. She was stuck on where she should check.

Joel picked up a much smaller and thinner branch and snapped it, the noise next to silent.

"Where could you be…?" He heard Ellie mutter.

Joel fought hard to stay as still as possible. He wanted to help her, but she needed to this final part on her own.

After surveying her possible directions, Joel was delighted to know that she was moving towards him.

But then an abstract sound to the east captured her attention and she changed directions.

"No, no!" Joel whispered.

Before she wandered too far away, he picked up a brick, hoped for the best, and threw it in the water nearby. The brick made a loud splash that captured Ellie's attention.

Ellie moved back to the water bank and glanced over. She found Joel leaning smugly against the boulder. She stood up and made her way over to him.

"Found you!" Ellie exclaimed, lightly punching his shoulder.

"Almost lost me though." Joel responded. "Don't worry, we'll work on that."

The two of them continued for the rest of the day and Ellie's was quickly getting a lot better. At first, finding Joel usually took her about fifteen minutes but now she was finding him in just about over five, and that was after Joel would only give her about one or two hints. In the final round, Joel was going to challenge her by giving her distractions to throw her off, and change locations from time to time.

Joel hid behind a large pine tree and heard Ellie finish the count to fifty, purposely skipping over a couple of numbers, and heard her yell an enthusiastic, "Ready or not, here I come!"She immediately went on the hunt.

Just so he could be surprised, Joel decided to tone it down with his hearing.

Several moments later, he soon heard footsteps behind him and thought it was Ellie trying to get revenge for scaring him in the first round. He turned around and smiled, ready to congratulate her.

When he turned around, his smile immediately dropped.

It wasn't Ellie.

~T~L~O~U~

Ellie was on her own now. Nothing to rely on but herself. No hints, but there would definitely be sounds made to throw her off. She recalled Joel's lesson about ignoring noises that had nothing to do with her target, doing her best to filter out those sounds and only focus on Joel's movements. As she got closer she picked up on some very erratic movement. Coupled with grunting, it sounded like an immense struggle was going on.

Her mind immediately screamed Joel and she hightailed to the source of the noise. She found Joel in a losing struggle against a bandit, just mere seconds and inches away from plunging his shiv into Joel's neck.

"Joel!" She ran over and grabbed the bandit's head. She then plunged her switchblade into the bandit's neck and moved it to the side, pulling out as soon as the bandit fell limp on the ground.

It's a good thing she adopted the habit of keeping her switch blade on her at all times.

Joel seldom forgot just how brutal this fourteen year old before him could be.

"Thanks." Joel muttered, leaning down to catch his breath. When he looked up, he saw Ellie with a big smile on her face.

"What're you smiling about?" Joel asked.

"Found you." Ellie said, putting her switchblade away.

He laughed. "That you did." Joel said. "Nicely done, baby girl."

"I learned from the best." Ellie responded.

Joel reached over and affectionately patted her head. He looked up in the sky and realized they really did spend the whole day out here, the sun more than halfway down. "Come on, let's head on back."

Ellie agreed and the two of them walked back to the settlement in a comfortable silence.

"Hey Joel? I have a confession to make." Ellie spoke up.

"What's that?"

"I cheated at poker."

Joel and Ellie playing hide & seek? YES.

I'm just about done with spring break *tears* so I need to get these out of my system before it becomes a problem later on in the semester. BUT that obviously isn't going to happen because I know have about a thousand more of these swimming through my head XD

Thanks for reading and please review =)