Author's Notes: Hey everyone! Been on another decent hiatus here recently, but I'm back to post this small thing my friend Art and I collaborated on last year. There's a couple of these I've posted over on Archive of Our Own, but hadn't gotten around to posting here.

Spoiler Warning: This one-shot takes place during the same timeline as my other story, Something to Fight For, and references events that happen in it, though they are fairly minor. This one-shot is also considered NON-CANON to Something to Fight For, since it was created outside of the main storyline and would not happen this way in the main story.

Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy!

It had been one weird fucking night. Ellie didn't know any other way to describe it. She still didn't know whose idea it was to play spin the bottle in the first place, but it certainly left the atmosphere of Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth feeling awkward beyond measure.

She'd gotten lucky, just narrowly missing having to kiss Louis, or Marlon . Granted, at least those wouldn't have been nearly as awkward as the ones she'd ended up with. Violet was… okay, but the fact Minnie was there had made that entire situation awkward. Seemed that fate had a way of trying to balance it out, though, and by the time they'd stopped, she'd kissed Minnie and Sophie too. But, of course, that wasn't the part that stuck with Ellie.

That part was reserved for the two kisses she shared with Clementine.

For ages, she thought that she'd buried those thoughts, the ones seeing Clementine as something more than just her best friend. More than just someone she'd survived with for around three years. Having that bottle land on her felt more like a punch to the gut, an invisible hand digging into her brain and pulling out those repressed feelings as if they were pieces of chewing gum on the bottom of a shoe.

Of course, her torment wouldn't go unnoticed. The others, particularly Minnie, had teased them about the whole ordeal. Ellie just tried to ignore it, to play it off like it didn't bother her, or that she'd enjoyed kissing her friend more than she probably should have. As she'd decided long ago, it was better this way. Better left an unspoken thing between them, to preserve their friendship for as long as she could.

She couldn't lose her, too.

After the game was called, Ellie found the easiest excuse to get herself out of there. Clementine had decided to wander off, and Ellie told the others that she wanted to go out for a walk. She desperately needed to clear her head. Yet, by the time she'd made it to the gates, she found Clementine nearby, climbing up the ladder onto the lookout perch. Ellie clutched the metal frame of the gate, cursing underneath her breath as her gaze floated upwards.

She didn't know why she decided to climb up there with her, but that hardly stopped her from doing so. She reached the top, finding her friend leaning against the railing surrounding the tower, back towards her. Letting out a silent breath, Ellie followed suit, leaning next to the girl. For a moment, she didn't know what to say, a dozen things running through her mind at the speed of light.

She settled on something eventually, a simple question that she intended as a joke. Given the situation, anything else would've only made things even more awkward.

"So…" she started, shifting in her spot, laying her head in the palm of her right hand as it rested against the railing. Her eyes were facing Clem, and she put on a playful smirk. "Sophie or me? Which one's better?"

There was a brief silence as the question hung in the air, and for a moment, it seemed that Clementine didn't want to make eye contact with her. She fidgeted, starting with an unsure "well, I mean… shit ." She shifted in her spot, shrugging her shoulders as she finally turned towards Ellie, if only barely. "For a girl, Sophie was… uh… I don't know." Her lips twisted into a look of tentativeness, as if she was unsure of the words she was saying. "Good?" She continued. "Every kind of kiss is good, right? Hers was really good. Or, well… regular good. It was regular good."

There was another brief silence, Ellie's smirk falling slightly as she realized Clementine was being genuine here. That her joke had been taken seriously. She gulped, waiting to see what her friend was going to say. Her arms were suddenly feeling heavy, a sense of nervousness almost too much to control starting to overwhelm her. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to hear what was coming next, but it was too late to back out of it now.

"But yours, it was…" Clementine trailed off, looking away. "It just felt more… uh… good…er."

Okay, she definitely hadn't been expecting that . She tried to gulp again, and this time the saliva caught in her throat. She tried to clear it as casually as possible, smiling slightly, anything to keep the girl from reading her thoughts from the look on her face.

"Hm…" Ellie's breath quickened, and her heart was working overtime. Perhaps it was just how… cheesy it sounded, the way Clementine described their kiss, but her next words tumbled out of her mouth before she could take them back, a hint of warmness in her tone. "Funny. I was thinking the same about yours."

"Yeah? That's…" Clementine's face became unreadable, something that almost never happened anymore. Regret filled the pit of Ellie's stomach like a rock, especially as the girl finished her statement. "…cool."

Oof.

The awkward tension returned in an instant, only accentuated by the silence filling the air. Behind them, the others were still laughing as they gathered around a small fire in the middle of the courtyard, gratefully oblivious to the absolute blunder this conversation was turning out to be.

Well… maybe she needed to fix that.

"So, uh… I'm going out for a walk," Ellie stated, raising her voice from the hushed conversation they had previously been having. She pushed away from the railing, beginning to turn around to climb down the ladder. She stopped halfway there, looking over her shoulder, back towards her friend. "…You wanna come with?"

Clementine's eyebrows raised slightly, a look of concern etching across her face. "Are you sure? I thought you were tired…"

Ellie shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing's better than a little walk before bed. Y'know."

She seemed to consider that for a moment, looking between the outside world, Ellie, and the campfire in the distance. Finally, she nodded her head, taking in a deep breath. "Yeah, okay. Short walk."

Ellie smiled. "To the river and back?"

"To the river and back."

"Sounds like a plan."

Ellie was the first to climb down the ladder, holding the gate open for Clementine to slip through before letting the massive thing close with a metallic clang. The moon illuminated the trail leading away from Ericson just enough for them to see where they're going. They walked side by side, Clementine's gaze focused on the trees surrounding them while Ellie's instinctively had fallen on the girl beside her. It was hard to ignore her, especially when she seemed to glow in the moonlight.

She wanted to slap herself for thinking that.

"So, uh…" She cleared her throat, tapping her fingers against her right pocket as they walked. Clementine turned back towards her, waiting for her to continue. "This place is… nice, right? Not like Jackson, but… y'know. It's better than being out there." She indicated the distant trees, speaking as if they were beyond the edge of their little community. Behind them lied whatever was left of civilization, and the wilderness stretched into infinity ahead. A wilderness they'd grown far too used to in the past three years.

Clementine smiled, looking between Ellie and the shrinking gate of Ericson behind them. "Yeah. It is." When she looked back at Ellie, the older girl returned her gaze, smiling back. "Company ain't bad either."

She could see where she was going with that. To be fair, Ellie had been thinking the same thing. Being on their own for so long… it'd left a toll on both of them. Being around people their age for a change, though, that really helped. "Yeah… some of them are dicks, but… they're not so bad."

"I was…" Clementine trailed off, suddenly breaking eye contact with her. "Talking about you, actually…"

"Oh…" That same sickening feeling of her heart beating faster than it should returned in an instant, and the two were left in silence as those words began to sink into the air. In a way, she was flattered that Clementine thought that way. When they first met, it definitely wasn't like that. So much had changed since then, she almost couldn't imagine a time when Clementine wasn't there. "Well," she cleared her throat again, putting on an uneasy smile. "I'm always here if you need company. Couldn't get rid of me on that roof, can't get rid of me now."

"I know," Clementine breathed, her expression a mixture of relief and guilt. Probably one of the strangest combinations Ellie had ever seen. "I tried." Yeah… you did. Can't really blame you, though.

Ellie decided to just move on from that one. Their past was filled with similar moments, times where their friendship had been brought to the brink. Sometimes, she found it a miracle that they were still friends, after everything, but also equally relieved.

"Well, for the record," Ellie added, nervously looking towards her friend with a small smile. "You're not so bad yourself."

She received a smile in return, a quiet "thanks" reaching her ears.

Elle turned away from her, looking forward. She hoped that the girl couldn't see the look on her face, that dumb fucking smile she got when she got a little too flirtatious with her. "No problem, Baseball Cap."

They continued in silence, though this one felt much more content. Crickets chirped in the distance, a white noise that was calming to the ears, and soothed at her frayed nerves. Maybe this walk will do them some good, after all.

Then she felt something against her shoulder, nearly sending her jumping out of her skin. Her eyes trailed towards her right, where Clementine's purple and white baseball cap met her eyes, the younger girl's head lying against Ellie's shoulder. She gulped, the faint thumpthump of her heartbeats getting faster and faster in her ears. She let out a chuckle, trying to play it off as best as she could, and failing miserably at it.

"Getting tired already?"

"Exhausted," Clementine replied, sounding thousands of times more tired than Ellie could've imagined.

"Ditto," had been the only thing her brain could come up with, the rest of it being far too preoccupied with trying to figure out what the fuck to do. This wasn't… exactly a situation she was comfortable with. The last time Clem had laid her head on her shoulder was… God , years ago. Back at that ranger station in Colorado. It had felt different then. She wasn't really sure why.

In the absence of logic, she ended up wrapping an arm around Clementine, trying to ensure that the girl wouldn't, like… fall over from exhaustion, or something. The girl's arm suddenly jerked, but almost instantly relaxed. Ellie could swear that she could see a smile on the girl's face in the darkness.

"So, uh…" Ellie started, mentally cursing herself. This wasn't that fucking hard. She was just her friend. They've gone out on walks before. Why was she making this so fucking hard on herself? "What's the plan for tomorrow?" She ended up asking, looking towards Clementine's hat out of the corner of her eye. "I hear that some of the kids are going fishing…"

The girl simply shrugged, keeping her head hung low as she laid it against Ellie's shoulder. "What do you want to do?"

"I don't know yet," Ellie replied honestly. "As long as you're there, too…" She choked on her words, her mind practically screaming at her. What the hell are you saying?! "It's, uhmm… still too awkward to be around the others alone." She bit her lip, regretting her choice of words. She regretted a lot about this conversation, actually.

"I like being alone with you," Clementine responded, causing Ellie's throat to tense up and nearly choke her. "That's something."

"Well, we've been on our own for a while, haven't we?" Ellie could feel her hands getting sweaty, a sense of nervousness almost too much to bear washing over her. "We've gotten… used to it."

"No, it's not about… getting used to it , c'mon." Clementine responded disapprovingly, glancing up at her. "I like it. I like being around you ."

Ellie met her gaze with a small smile, trying her damnedest not to look like an idiot while doing so. "I like being around you, too," she replied honestly, breaking eye contact to peer ahead. "You made getting to the Fireflies less… lonely. You and Lee, and Joel."

"I bet…" Clementine trailed off, and Ellie almost lost herself in the silence that followed. This whole thing was sending her to the brink of sanity, that tiny voice she ignored time and again forcing itself to the forefront of her mind, deafening her. Clementine continued to speak in a quiet voice, and Ellie silenced the voice inside her head to listen to what she said. "You're right, though. Feels a lot less lonely."

That was something that she could never repay the girl for. For being there for her, through thick and thin. How many times had Ellie nearly lost her way, and Clementine had been there to pull her back from the edge? Too goddamn many times. She cleared her throat, sighing. "And I don't think I would've done well after… what happened in Jackson, if you weren't there with me."

That was met with a quiet "I'd be a goner without you, Elle," which nearly caused her to have a heart attack.

"Oh, come on," Ellie replied through a smile, giving the girl a playful nudge with the arm she had wrapped around her. "You're like… the toughest person I know. Tougher than Joel."

She could almost imagine the girl rolling her eyes at that. "Yeah, right…"

"We've made it this far, right? That's all you ."

The cogs were turning inside the baseball-capped girl's mind, and a small grin stretched across her face. "Alright. I guess I'm pretty cool."

Ellie couldn't resist saying "fuck yeah, you are."

" You're even cooler, Ellie ," came the response, and Ellie let out a soft snort, rolling her eyes.

"'Cause I can do this?" She asked, pulling out her switchblade from her pocket and trying to spin it in her hand, almost dropping it in the process.

A giggle met her efforts, though, which more than made up for it. "You're the fucking coolest," Clementine said warmly, rubbing her nose against Ellie's shoulder.

Her ability to speak coherently ceased after that. " W – Well, when you put it like that… " She instinctively tightened her grip on Clementine, making sure that whatever Clem was trying to do wasn't her, like… losing her balance. They were both getting tired, but Ellie was more than willing to pick up the slack to make sure they got to the river.

"This is cool, too," Clementine's voice was excruciatingly warm, a sweetness that sent a fuzzy feeling down her spine. "You've got a strong grip and all."

Then that feeling intensified, verging on embarrassment. "Oh, sorry…" she tumbled over the words, loosening her grip on the girl as she turned her head towards her. "I'm just- You want me to let go?"

The girl met her gaze, a few seconds of agonizing silence filling the air. At last, her question was met with a small " no ."

Ellie's grip only tightened in response, an "okay" escaping her lips.

This was… God , it was best feeling in the world, having Clementine so close to her, practically being led around by Ellie as the sound of rushing water slowly began to fade into the ambiance surrounding them. Ellie cleared her throat, finding herself struggling to get the words out as the faint silhouette of the bridge came into view ahead.

"So, uh… y'know…"

"Uh huh?"

Shit shit shit shit. "We don't have to go back, like… right away," Ellie stated nervously, her voice cracking in a way that made her cringe. "If you wanna hang out for a bit…"

Clementine nodded to that, causing Ellie to let out the breath that she'd been holding. "I don't wanna go," Clementine admitted softly. "Your arm's plenty comfy."

Fuck fuck fuck. "Heh, well…" She chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck with her free hand. "I am a human pillow." What the fuck am I saying…?

That elicited a snort from the girl. "You're a tired pillow. Saying weird shit 'cause it's past our bedtime."

"Well, I'm not asleep yet, so I'm just a regular pillow for now," Ellie smirked, letting the joke hang in the air as they stepped onto the bridge. For a moment, she contemplated stopping there, to just sit on the edge for a bit. She gave Clementine a side look, smiling. "Think you can manage to sit, Baseball Cap?"

"Please. I'm pooped."

She let go of the girl, sitting on the edge of the bridge. Clementine followed suit, and Ellie ran her shoe through the calm water beneath them. Everything about this was… relaxing, to say the least. The sound of water, the crickets, her friend being there… she could probably fall asleep right there if she wanted to. But she didn't.

"Wish they had places like this back in Boston…" She started, sighing. Just thinking about those days brought back uncomfortable memories, of days spent in orphanages wishing that she was out here. "All I had was just… walls… everywhere. No freedom. No life outside of whatever bullshit FEDRA told you to do. I remember wanting something like this. Could barely imagine it, but… well… here we are, aren't we?"

"It's no Dad's farm, but…" Clementine shrugged, smiling. "It's pretty awesome. No one's gonna tell you what to do. Whatever you wanna do, it's right here. Anything. Can't find that anywhere else."

There were a dozen things Ellie wanted to do, and most of them involved Clementine. Her response was breathless, instantaneous. "That's… a lot of freedom."

"What'cha want to do?" Clementine asked, and Ellie could feel her gaze on her as she shrugged.

"I don't know… this is pretty nice," she replied honestly, looking towards the girl with a faint smile as she indicated their surroundings with a wave of her hand. "It's a start, anyway…"

Clementine laughed, rolling her eyes. "I mean it. Off the top of your head." Ellie struggled to think, tapping her fingers on her jeans as she tried to come up with something. She could see Clementine's grin out of the corner of her eye as the girl continued. "Gonna count to ten and you better say something."

Before Ellie could even open her mouth to retort, Clementine had already begun counting down, causing the older girl to roll her eyes. "No pressure, right?"

"Nope."

She got down to three by the time Ellie had settled on something, cutting off her countdown. "I wanna go somewhere nice with you. Like that trip to Norway we talked about." It'd been… fuck , ages since they had that conversation. Dating back to that day they spent in suburban Pittsburgh alone, trying to find Joel and Lee again after they got separated. It had been something Ellie suggested, when Clementine asked her where she'd go if she could go anywhere . She'd still choose Norway, and it wasn't just because the conversation that sparked the original idea was a fond memory for her.

Clementine chuckled, her smile growing. "Now that's a plan. We'll get a mean trailer, find some gas, and hit the road."

Ellie couldn't help but return the chuckle, shaking her head in disbelief. "The great apocalypse road trip." It was… something that she wanted . Though wanting something and getting it were two totally different things. She couldn't remember the last time she'd gotten something she wanted .

Clementine's eyes fell to the rushing water beneath them, that damned smile of hers being more than contagious. She looked towards her suddenly, nodding her head. "That's a good answer."

"What about you?" It seemed only fair to throw the question back. They had a tendency to do that, when these kinds of conversations came up. Both the good and the bad. She still cringed a little remembering the question game and asking Clem if she'd ever had a crush on someone. Of course, the baseball-capped girl got her back. Guess she'll be finding out if there'll be a repeat of that soon.

Clementine averted her gaze, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't know. It's pretty sappy…"

"Oh, now I have to hear this," Ellie teased, shifting her body slightly to turn to face her.

The girl hesitated, meeting Ellie's gaze after she'd given whatever answer she had in mind some thought. That smile remained though, almost enough to put Ellie at ease. "I wanna do… everything. Everything in the world. So long as it's with you."

This was starting to feel like a trend. Clementine would say something almost… well, she'd already used the word sappy, but there was something more to it than that. Something that wrenched at her heart and left her feeling breathless. It took a second to catch it, and she let out an awkward chuckle, a shit-eating grin plastered across her face.

"Same, Clem. Can't imagine being anywhere without you."

That was met with a small smile, though it quickly dropped as the girl suddenly looked away, downriver. Ellie's eyes trailed towards her, watching as her hair gently waved in the night breeze. Clementine didn't make any indication of turning back, almost rigid in the way that she was staring into the distance. She could feel her heart thumping in her chest, only getting louder with each second of silence.

It wasn't long before it became too much to bear, and she interrupted it by clearing her throat. "So, uh… what's first on the list of everything?"

It was so cheesy. Beyond cheesy, it was as if someone had melted a whole bag of cheese and covered them both in it. She wanted to cringe, take a step back and come at this at a different angle, one that wouldn't put her in the crosshairs if this turned out bad for her. Instead, her words were met with silence, and Ellie began to look away.

Until she felt Clem's hand touch her own, almost imperceptibly so, but it was enough to send her mind reeling, nearly tearing her hand away in embarrassment, but the thought of doing anything that'd break the moment kept her frozen still.

Clementine was the first to speak, looking at her out of the corner of her eye. "That… cool?"

Come on, this isn't that hard… Jesus, she's just your best friend. However, it was hard to deny how much her heart was fucking pounding in her chest, like an irregular drumbeat. There was no rhythm to it, just chaotic noise with no indication of doing anything else any time soon.

"…Yeah, that's…" She struggled to breathe, to think, to talk. To act like a human being. She let herself smile, taking in a deep breath as soon as she was able. "That's cool."

Her dumb smile was rewarded with one from Clementine, so at least they both looked dumb together. "Cool…" Clementine breathed, her voice sounding more shaken than Ellie could've ever imagined from her. This was the same badass that told a couple cannibals that she'd kill them if they fucked with them, so seeing her like… this , it was… she didn't really know how to describe it. She liked it, though. She definitely liked it.

Her mind drifted towards other things she might liked right about now, most of which would be pushing beyond a boundary in which there'd be no return. And for one moment, she found herself thinking 'fuck it' . When was there ever a time that she didn't follow her gut?

So, she took the risk, reaching out to place her hand on top of Clem's, in between them in the small space that separated the two girls. It was like being shot by lightning, a sense of electricity that made her want to pull away, but she resisted. They've crossed the boundary, now… now she just had to see if her gut was right.

The world had seemed to fade away around them, nothing but a background noise drowned out by a symphony that wasn't actually there. Clementine's face had become unreadable again, and Ellie almost pulled away. Almost.

Instead, her gut told her to take it a step farther. To let this moment happen and see where it took them. She wriggled her fingers underneath Clem's hand, taking the girl's hand in her own. Her hand was warm, soft, shaky even, but to Ellie, none of that mattered. They've held hands before, but never in a way that felt so… close. Her throat felt as if it was closing up, constricting her esophagus until she couldn't breath anymore. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, but she found herself willing to go through it if it meant letting this moment last forever.

But eventually, even the silence grew too heavy to withstand, and Ellie cleared her throat again, alleviating at least one of many things plaguing her. "Y'know, for the first thing… this isn't-" She gulped. "-so bad."

"Y – Yeah." Clementine's voice cracked, sending a chill down Ellie's spine.

Her gaze fell to their hands, resisting the urge to let her fingers wiggle in between Clem's. There were a number of things she wanted to do or say but was too scared to actually say them. That had been the story of her life, right? Always back down, always put aside her feelings because the shit situations they'd gone through forced her to keep focused. What about now, though? When the moment was quiet, and the only thing that threatened them was a serious lack of sleep. How could she deny her feelings any longer when they've been at the forefront of her mind for what felt like ages?

She couldn't. Not anymore.

She took in a deep breath through her nose, closing her eyes long enough to regain some composure. She'd need it for what she wanted to say.

"…What's next?"

Clem turned towards her, her eyebrows raising in a look of surprise. "Next…?"

"There's a lot of everything to do," Ellie replied through an awkward smile, resisting the urge to squeeze the girl's hand for reassurance. "Just gotta take it one at a time, right…?"

"Yeah… yeah, you're – you're right, just…" Clementine looked away. Ellie couldn't, unable to take her eyes off of her, in case this moment would cease the instant she did. However, that worry was alleviated when the younger girl squeezed Ellie's hand tighter, looking back towards her with a warmness capable of melting steel. Ellie smiled reassuringly despite how fucking frazzled this whole thing was making her, trying her best to maintain whatever composure she had left.

Then the gap between them closed, and for a moment, she found herself unsure if she'd closed it, or Clementine. Her lips pressed against Ellie's, the feeling washing over her like a tidal wave, nearly sending her reeling backwards. Clementine didn't pull away though, and Ellie returned the kiss as her heart swelled in her chest, closing her eyes in the process.

Then the moment was over, Clementine pulling away quickly, and Ellie was left with the sensation of wanting more. Craving it. Like years of desire being released all at the same time; a dam being broken, never to be put back together. Her breath hitched, and her voice was barely audible as she let out a quiet "fuck…"

The girl's demeanor had changed completely, that nervousness that plagued Ellie being written across Clem's face as she fidgeted in her spot. "Was that… good…?" She asked suddenly, quietly, and frustratingly smitten.

All Ellie could do was gulp, using whatever courage she had left to exhale a satisfied "perfect."

Her response was met by a nervous laugh from Clementine. "Wow…"

This wasn't something she'd ever seen coming. She had to accept that they weren't going to be together long ago, and she thought that she could accept it. Now, though… it was obvious that she never had, always holding out hope that this would happen someday… for once in her life, hope didn't disappoint her. Her hands shook from the adrenaline as a thousand things zipped through her mind, a thousand things she wanted to say or do. She settled on one, laying her head against Clem's shoulder, just like the other girl had done on their way here. Things always seemed to go in cycles.

"I'm…" Clementine started, choking on whatever she found herself wanting to say. "I'm… I feel really happy r - right now…"

Ellie smiled, looking up at her from the corner of her eye. "I'm glad," she whispered, rubbing the side of her face against the girl's shoulder until she found a comfortable spot. "Me too."

"The next thing—I mean, I think the next thing on the list is…" Clem continued, shaking nervously. "Do you… fuck …" Ellie's heart twisted again as she strained her ears to hear the words Clementine then mumbled. "… be my girlfriend…?"

Though the question had popped into her head before Clem had managed to mumble it out, Ellie still found herself surprised that it came from the baseball-capped girl and not herself. She gulped, lifting her head from Clem's shoulder. Her voice was a whisper, almost on par with Clem's question. "Yes. Absolutely."

The nervous laugh that emanated out of Clementine was almost too pure for this world, too happy to exist when everything around them was shit, and Ellie loved every single second of it. " Wow ," Clementine breathed, smiling like the adorable idiot she was. "This is cool."

Ellie silenced her by pressing her lips against hers even harder than before, what surprise that Clementine had felt in the moment disappearing just as quickly as she kissed her back. If the world had faded before, it was gone now. Without pulling away, Ellie wrapped her arms around Clementine, scooting her closer until the space disappeared between them. The girl responded to it by hugging her tightly, only forcing Ellie to return it in equal measure, never wanting to let go.

Eventually, the two break apart, and Ellie took in a deep, shaky breath. She pressed her nose against Clem's, opening her eyes to meet Clementine's as the other girl struggled to breathe. "You're… you kiss… good."

Ellie couldn't help but chuckle at that, eliciting a soft hmm in response. "It's official," she teased, not wanting to pull away, but eventually doing so. "You're the best out of everyone in that stupid game…"

The goofy grin returned to Clementine's face, and Ellie couldn't help but look just as stupid. Stupid came naturally to her, anyway. There was a reason it had been Clementine's nickname of choice for so long. Clementine pulled away then, lying her back against the wooden bridge beneath them, and Ellie followed suit. The two soaked in the stars above them, and suddenly something popped into Ellie's brain.

"…You remember that question I asked you? Back at that school in Colorado?"

It happened so fucking long ago, it was almost a distant memory at this point. Still, it stuck with her after all these years, filed away in a part of her mind for instant retrieval.

Clem seemed to struggle with it, though, her eyebrows raising and falling in quick succession. Eventually, she glanced towards Ellie, chewing on her lip. "Remind me… again?"

"'Have you ever liked someone, but didn't say anything about it, 'cause you think it'd be better that way?'"

"Oh," the girl breathed, the invisible cogs inside her head spinning as the realization finally dawned on her. The realization that Ellie had decided not to tell her about this. " Oh ."

Ellie just gulped. "It… wasn't better that way."

Clementine nodded slowly. "This way's plenty better…"

"Exactly…" Ellie reached out for Clementine's hand again, this time letting her fingers intertwine with her girlfriend's.

God , she wasn't going to get used to saying that, not anytime soon. It was a word that she never had gotten a chance to use, not with Riley, not with Clementine… until now. In a way, she had a feeling that Riley would be proud of her right now. She was finally moving on… finally letting herself feel something for someone else. After all the unspeakable shit they've been through to get here, they could finally be… happy . She wasn't about to let that feeling go.

She let her head tilt to the side, noticing that Clementine had dozed off. Ellie squeezed her hand, receiving an instinctual squeeze back from the girl. It was more than enough to set her heart alight.

She was more than happy to watch over her, to let her have that moment to rest before they headed back. She was in no hurry to get back, and she wouldn't let anything hurt Clementine. Ever.

They'd have to go through her first.