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Lots Of Fandoms

@macrilez

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She/Her
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Anonymous asked:

that last fic was so so cute - how ahout 29 and 30 where tommy and ellie are ganging up on joel just to be annoying ?

tysm for this prompt anon!! they are sooooo found family man..

WAKE UP CALL

. . .

fandom: the last of us

summary: Movie night doesn’t go as planned when Joel falls asleep halfway through. When Tommy lets a secret slip, Ellie makes sure he’s in for a rude awakening. 

word count: 1.5k

Warnings: strong language, tickling

 . . .

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Anonymous asked:

that last fic was so so cute - how ahout 29 and 30 where tommy and ellie are ganging up on joel just to be annoying ?

tysm for this prompt anon!! they are sooooo found family man..

WAKE UP CALL

. . .

fandom: the last of us

summary: Movie night doesn’t go as planned when Joel falls asleep halfway through. When Tommy lets a secret slip, Ellie makes sure he’s in for a rude awakening. 

word count: 1.5k

Warnings: strong language, tickling

 . . .

Eddie, walking into the kitchen: Morning, mi amor.
Buck: Hello, Eds.
Eddie: I gotta say, after last night, I'm a little weak in the knees.
16 year-old Chris: *walks out from behind the refrigerator door and slams it shut*
Eddie:
Buck:
Chris: Here's an idea, you walk into a room… take a quick scan.
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Anonymous asked:

Hiii tlou anon here! Those hcs of yours were so damn good, and I was wondering if you write one shots, and if so I would absolutely love to see something like one of Joel and Ellie’s first ever official tickle fights that start out with like Ellie telling Joel some stupid pun and when he doesn’t laugh she just squeezes his side to make him bark out a laugh only for him to retaliate, I would love to see your take on something like that! - Tlou anon

okay okay okay sorry this took a bit but i actually did write a fic for this! here you go tlou anon! i hope you enjoy <3

. . .

BAD COMEDIAN

fandom: the last of us (specifically hbo show for this fic, not the game)

summary: Ellie’s determined to get Joel to laugh at her jokes. Turns out she doesn’t need them at all.

word count: 1377

warnings: strong language, tickling (obvi)

(this is all platonic. do not tag as ship.)

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Anonymous asked:

Could you write a fic on how Joel found out that Ellie is ticklish herself? Like at this point she’s been constantly teasing him for his own sensitivity but this one time he decides to fight back and retaliate only to be pleasantly surprised that she’s just as ticklish as he is? And of course he feels the need to exploit the fact given that she’s exploited his sensitivity for weeks now?

stop this is so them... they'd be so silly like this... regardless, here is the fic anon! thank you for the request! hopefully i did it justice!

500 QUESTIONS TO BREAK THE ICE

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fandom: the last of us (hbo show)

summary: Ellie's been annoying Joel all week since she found a questionnaire with some interesting questions. When he finally gets sick of it, he discovers that they're not so different after all.

word count: 1585

warnings: strong language, tickling

. . .

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Anonymous asked:

I am emotionally devastated after the past few episodes of the last of us but reading your fics has really helped with that! Could I request a fic with some cheer up tickling between Joel and Ellie? Like Ellie has a nightmare and Joel comforts her and when Ellie tried to insist that she’s fine and Joel is like, “well I’m not leaving you until I see you smile, that way I know you’re okay” and because Ellie is stubborn she goes out of her way to not smile which leads to Joel tickling her to get her to smile? I love your fics!

oh my GOD this took me forever to post but here you are anon! your fic as promised! so sorry for the wait, dude!

HERE IN MY ARMS

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fandom: the last of us (hbo)

summary: ellie has a bad nightmare after her encounter with david. joel doesn’t want to go back to bed until he’s sure she’s alright.

word count: 1.5k

warnings: strong language, nightmare mention, hurt/comfort, tickling (very brief tbh)

A/N: this fic is set after episode 8 and before episode 9 for reference! title is from depeche mode's song, enjoy the silence. (i also kept the tickling brief in this one because i'm not very big on the cheer up tickles trope but i still loved this idea either way!)

. . .

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Anonymous asked:

coukd u maybe try 10 and 36 for the prompt thing where maybe joel and ellie are just cuddling on the sofa and he's scratching her back or running his fingers through her hair and keeps straying too close to her sides/neck etc?

anon this prompt is so fucking cute tysm... i love them

LATE SHIFT

. . .

fandom: the last of us

summary: joel comes in late from patrol and finds ellie not yet in bed. sleeping on the couch isn't so bad sometimes. (lee!ellie, ler!joel, kinda just really short fluff).

word count: 827

warnings: tickling . . .

by flannelfeelings

It all seems so easy for him.

Why is he so comfortable being away from her? Is he finally starting to wise up to what everyone else did- Ellie isn’t good enough? Is he starting to realize this kid is just a burden, a pest, a troublemaker who isn’t worth all the strife she brings?

Is he regretting bringing her here with him?

(Ellie worries about being apart from Joel in Jackson- so the logical solution is to sneak out and eavesdrop on Tommy and him at the tavern)

Words: 7021, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

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Anonymous asked:

the prompt with the guitar soemone sent in was adorable - i have another? maybe joel and ellie are playing boggle and ellie is winning by far and bragging and then eventually joel sees the word 'tickle' and ellie gets all nervous and he tickles her as revenge for winning ?

ANON THIS PROMPT IS EVERYTHING TO ME. i had sm fun with it and as always i get very carried away, pretty sure this is my longest fic yet lol

ALSO i literally had to look up the rules of Boggle bc I had never played so if you haven’t either I would maybe watch like a minute tutorial vid on yt just so you get the premise.

here is the one i watched!

that’s it enjoy🫶🫶🫶

tw: very mild underage drinking, swearing, lots of sarcasm and fluff

AGAIN I only write Ellie and Joel as a father-daughter relationship, no one be weird or ill punch u

Feelin’ like a Winner Yet?

“Tommy what the hell you have to stay for one more game!”

“Kid, I gotta get goin’ ”

Ehem Stick in the mud ehm-ehem”

Joel held his fist up to his face and gruffled out a not so subtle cough as he shot his brother side eyes followed by a smug look on his face.

Tommy playfully shoved Joel in his shoulder as he stood up.

“You sir, are the real fuckin’ stick in the mud, and you,-” He raised his eyebrows and pointed at Ellie who was sat criss-cross applesauce across the table from the brothers.

“-you just wanna beat my ass again”

Thursday nights were the best in the Miller house. Often the only night both Tommy and Joel weren’t patrolling and no movie night until tomorrow for Ellie and her friends she’d made in Jackson, so the trio often gathered in the cozy downstairs living room of Joel’s house. The fireplace tucked away in the corner provided warmth throughout the floorboards where we would find the three sat upon surrounding a small coffee table. It also provided the homily cedar smell that lingered throughout the house that Ellie was always quiet fond of, it reminded her of nights camping in the woods with a certain someone. But tonight their was no camping for Ellie, only war against the two brothers in a Miller family classic-Boggle. Ever since Joel picked it up in Salt Lake City on their trek across the US, It had been a game he routinely pulled out whenever Ellie needed reassurance that she was better than Joel at something. Not to mention it it most often ended in laughter filled fights over all the words Joel cheated with. With no surprise, Ellie had dominated 6 out of the last 7 rounds they played tonight by a landslide, only to tie with Tommy in the first, mentioning that she was “just warming up”. But now, her only somewhat worthy competitor was walking out the front door, and she was doing everything in her power to keep from the rest of Boggle night being a snooze fest.

“If you stay i’d let you win!” Ellie pleaded sarcastically.

“Well im stayin’ why don’t you let me win”

“Shut upppp” The whine in her voice was evident as ever as she shot a look to Joel that meant exactly what she had said.

Tommy barked out an entertained scoff at the duo bickering as he slipped on his jacket that was hung on the coat rack by the door.

“Maria needs help with the baby El, you know how much I would love to stay and watch you kick that old man’s ass—again” He threw up apologetic arms.

“If you stay around much longer your ass might get more than just a kickin Tom”

“Anndddd that’s my cue, good luck kid, adios big brother” And with that, Tommy slipped out the front door into the freezing cold of night and headed off towards his and Maria’s house.

Joel leaded his back against the couch he was sat on the floor in front of. He picked up his beer bottle from the table and stared down into it as he swished the remaining liquid around the bottom of the bottle.

“Anddd then there were two” He took a pull from the bottle as he kept his eyes focused on Ellie across the table, who happened to be watching him emphatically.

She drew her eyes to her fingers which were tracing the grain of the dark wooden floorboards, eventually trailing her gaze to the half finished case tucked away on the side of the couch.

“So can I-”

“No” Joel’s stare hardened, this wasn’t the first time she’d asked and it sure wouldn’t be the last.

“One sip?” Ellie threw up her eyebrows as a cheeky little grin crept up on her. She had this man in her back pocket.

He mulled it over in his head for a few seconds while staring up at the ceiling. It always felt like their was no winning with her, in Boggle or argument.

“—Fine

Ellie sniffed as tried to stifle her growing grin as she caught the bottle as it slid across towards her. What did I say, in her back pocket.

She took a pull of her own with Joel’s judgey stare searing into her but she didn’t care and made it last until she couldn’t fill her mouth any longer. She swallowed hard and grimaced but with the bottle still in hand shot eyes over at Joel, a classic myestvious grin appearing on her face.

Elliee-Ellie no!”

Joel leaned across the table to snatch it from her hands but it was too late, she had leaned away in time to tip the bottle back and finish off the last of it, taking breaks with each gulp to manage the taste of the foul liquid. Cheeky bastard.

Joel just slumped his elbows onto the the table in defeat.

“What the hell am I gonna do with you”

“Hey, just think, you’ll have a better chance of beating me now-hic

Her last word got caught in a hiccup from the chug as she slid the empty bottle back to him which he caught and placed with the others.

“Shall we?” Ellie made a grand gesture at the game sprawled on the coffee table.

Joel sighed and rubbed his temples.

“How many more?”

“10 rounds like always,, 3 more if your too old to do the math”

Ellie shook the board as she spoke while Joel rolled his eyes and very lazily grabbed the notebook and ripped two pieces of paper out for them.

“Annnnnnddddddd…..” Ellie held her hand over the cover in anticipation.

“Go!”

She removed it swiftly as Joel flipped the timer and the pair began studying the board.

Ellie pick up her pen immediately and began scribbling down words, Joel taking a few more seconds before following her. He always pretended to look over at Ellie’s words so she quickly put up a hand barrier to block his view.

“Asshat” Joel mumbled, directing his focus back to his own list.

“Says you”

The bickering was non-stop throughout the round until about the last 30 seconds, where both sides became frantic in the search for their final words to connect.

“Times up!” Ellie blurted out as she dropped her pen and began swatting at Joel to stop writing.

Joel swatted back as he finished writing a few last letters. Jesus he needed to practice at this game.

“Welllll how’d ya doooo?” She sat with her list held in her hands.

Ellie was smug as ever this round, with no Tommy there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that she didn’t win, so she obviously needed to rub it in Joel’s face as much as possible.

“Don’t patronize me girl” His southern drawl was ever present.

“Fine, I’ll go first then”

She began listing off her words, stopping to cross one off whenever Joel blurted out a mumbled “mine”, to which they would both scribble out the word with their pens. Ellie was quiet surprised with the first 5 out of 8 words they matched on.

“Since when’d you get so smartttt?” Ellie shot him a smiley smug look.

“Don’t push it” Joel paid her no attention and kept his eyes on his list.

But, as Ellie went further down her list, the call outs from Joel became far more seldom, leading her to finish with a whopping 63 points. It was lower than her previous rounds, but her brain function seemed to be slowing down with the night growing later and the alcohol settling into her system.

Ellie twiddled the pen in her hands.

“Soooo you don’t even need to read yours I definitely won right? We can save you the embarrassment.” Ellie reached across the table and went to grab his list when Joel snatched off the surface.

“Uhhh no, not how it works, I could still kick your ass with my crazy good words.” Joel held the list up to the light and put on an imaginary pair of glasses as he squinted up and down at his list.

“Yeahhhhh these look like winners to me alright, buckle up for failure kid”

When in the right mood, Joel loved playing Ellie’s silly antics with her, especially with his brother now gone home he could bring out some of that vulnerability that Ellie always dug out of him one way or another.

“Alright alright start readin’ ya cheater” Ellie crossed her arms she was already for the slew of imaginary words that were headed her way.

To her surprise, Joel started mumbling out more words than he had said all night during this game. After the fourth consecutive actual word, Ellie scurried to her feet and sat over on her knees next to Joel peering over his shoulder as he read to make sure we wasn’t making shit up on the spot.

“Pool”

“Pools”

“Dool”

Ellie flicked him in the back of the head.

“Fix it”

Joel shot her eyes and leaned over to grab the pen from the table.

“can’t even get away with one goddamn word” Joel sarcastically mumbled under his breath as he scribbled out the word.

He went further down his list until he reached the end when he paused and looked back at Ellie once again.

“ I mighta beat ur ass huh?” A menacing grin appeared on Joel’s face as he shook the shoulder she was leaned up on.

“Just count the goddamn points” Ellie was getting a bit frustrated, Joel hadn’t even come close all night, but now he comes outta left field with all of these words? She stared at Joel as he counted up his score, watching to make sure he didn’t try to pull a fast one on her.

Ellie could feel the tension in Joel’s body as she leaned up against him. If the Millers were anything, they were competitive as hell.

All at once, Ellie felt the tension drop in his body as his shoulders slumped forward whilst writing in his final score.

“Awh shit”

Joel threw his pen across the room as he leaned back onto the couch hard. He had a gruff look on his face and turned his head away from Ellie, who had leaned forward to see that his final score had come 2 points shy of hers.

A grin so big she had to bite her bottom lip to keep if from growing couldn’t help but plaster across Ellie’s face as she stared down at the paper.

“Well well well Old man Miller. You talk a lottttt of shit for someone who just lost to a fourteen year old-again.”

Ellie was pulling herself to her feet as she bragged down to Joel who was trying very hard to ignore her, dawning only an angered deadpan stare at the Boggle board in front of him as she spoke.

“I declare, that on this divine night we dub me, thy champion of the Boggle!” Ellie put one foot up on the couch as she shook both her fists wildly in the air. The voice she had taken up reassembled that of a 17 century herald announcing the arrive of a king.

“Now, I see it only fit that thy loser must announce my trrrrriumphant title, as he was indeed, the smartest of asses and therefore-”

“shHHITT”

Joel exclaimed and threw his hands in the air before violently smacking his head with his palm and resting his fingers on his temples.

“What the fuck was that for?…motherfuckin sore loser” Ellie a bit irritated that her celebration was interrupted so quickly, she took her foot off the couch and slowly sat back down, puzzled as to what set Joel off so quickly.

Joel took his head out of his hands and shot her a look of irritated regret. He looked back at the board before pointing down at it.

“ I coulda’ fuckin’ spelt tickle

Ellie looked over at the board as Joel spoke but when he finished his sentence she didn’t think she could move her body a single inch. She froze and involventarily gulped with her wide eyes glued to the outline of the word Joel had just uttered on Boggle board. She knew if she sat there much longer staring Joel would think something’s off, but there was not a single coherent thought floating in her head at that moment. Somehow with a simple word she had been shut down within seconds. So, she finally mustered up the courage to sit back, where she immediately looked down at the floor and began twiddling her fingers.

“Ahh..yep”

Jesus Ellie really? That’s it? Yep?

Ellie shook her head at her own ridiculously suspicious answer, luckily for her, Joel was in a whole other world, eyes still fixated on the board. He scoffed, absolutely infuriated that he hadn’t seen such an obvious word sooner. He sat back up and started tracing over more new words on the board with his right index.

“Shittt and tickles..and tickled..and-”

“Ok y-yeah we got it”

Everytime he said it Ellie could feel her entire body involuntary cringe. You could hear the shakiness in her voice underneath the irritated tone while she picked at the dirt aggressively from underneath her fingernails, never daring to look up at Joel, who’s attention and glare she could now feel on her due to the interruption.

Joel knew Ellie at this point, maybe sometimes more than she knew herself, and if there was one fact about her that he knew to be true, it’s that she was never shy. especially not with him.

“What’s with you? Seems like you were all hunky dory unti-” Joel cut himself off and stuck his tongue in the bottom of right cheek as his thoughts interrupted him. After a few seconds, his confused expression softened and developed hints at a devious smirk.

Oh

He pursed his lips and looked down at the floor as well, almost embarrassed at the knowledge he just acquired. buttttt unfortunately for Ellie, not embarrassed enough.

shit

Ellie stopped and looked up at him when silence filled the air, eyebrows furrowed but she didn’t dare say anything, she just waited. just waited and prepared to run.

Joel sat staring at the floor for a few more seconds when he finally broke the silence.

“Ya know kid,, you have done quite the job wininn’ tonight.”

His gruff nature made it seem like everything he said was truth, but Ellie could hear his familiar sarcasm laced within his words. Her eyes seared into him, meanwhile Joel was simply tracing the designs in the side of the couch.

This was all just a joke to him.

“I feel like I owe you some sort of compensation…whatayouthink?”

Joel finally looked up with the most shit eating grin you could imagine whilst Ellie’s cheeks began filling up with color out of embarrassment.

She was taking no chances. She scurried to her feet and bolted across the room looking for an escape down one of the hallways so that she could climb out a window run to Tommy’s and then-

Shlump

Without even making it halfway across the room, Ellie sealed her own fate. She slipped on the shag rug that sat by the fireplace and had now made friends with the floor.

Unfortunately someone not so friendly was headed her way.

Ellie attempted to return to her escape plan but Joel had jumped up and stomped his way over to her, he now looked down at the girl with one of her ankles in his grasp.

“Graceful”

Joel smirked as he mocked her while she flipped herself over to be facing upwards.

“Shut up”

“You aren’t quite in the position to be making demands El’. In fact you’ve been talkin’ a bittt to much for my likin’. Especially when you got a big secret like that.”

Ellie braced herself for what was coming although she couldn’t help but show her nerves as she twitched aggressively against Joel’s grasp.

“Don’t be an asshole please” nervousness once again settled in her usually snarky demeanor.

“Ehh no promises kid”

With that, Joel dropped her ankle to the floor and dove in with both hands, latching them around her torso. He began digging into the soft spots of her sides with his thumbs while his fingers danced on the backside and let’s just say Ellies composure didn’t last long.

“okokOkHOHOEHEheaoKk JOEHEHEEL” bubbly giggles erupted in the teen causing her to sway side to side across the warm floorboards. The electric ticklish shocks being sent through her body dumbfounded her, causing her to twitch and jerk consistently. She pushed down at Joel’s big calloused hands that was bunching up her t-shirt at the seams but there was no use, the lack of strength from being rendered into a pile a of giggles mixed with Joel’s determination for the task and strength was an impossible combo to beat. She threw her head from side to side as if she was trying to forget about Joel’s rhythmic squeezes that had made their way up to her ribs, but this too had no promising results other than putting a bigger smile onto Joel’s face. He briefly paused his torture but didn’t let up his grasp.

“Feelin’ like a winner yet?”

“Johoheoelllll weHE-we can TAahlk abohout tHiISI-AHAHHAH”

Unbeknownst to Ellie, Joel has pulled her t-shirt up so that it lay on her ribs so that he could bear down and give her the most brutal raspberry’s one had ever seen.

While Joel will admit he is quite shit when it comes to Boggle, this was one game he knew very well. Sarah was always the ornery type with her father, so while Joel hadn’t always been an expert at physical connection, he had plenty of practice at this game, enough to be able to drive Ellie insane.

Anything that Ellie had been holding back up until this point was out the window as Joel’s prickly scruff combined with the eruption of the raspberry on her stomach drove her to madness. Loud laughter and giggles poured out of her as her thrashing became more violent. Joel then pulled her shirt back down and grabbed her flailing arms and held them pinned to the floor at her side.

“JOHAOAHEL AM I FUFHUCKING TEHEEN” Ellie yelled, embarrassed by her flushed red face and post-attack giggles still flowing out of her as she looked up at Joel in anger.

“Nohot cool” She continued to squirm but there was no use, she was still completely stuck.

“N-Noho, what’s not cool is you thinkin’ your all that an a bag of chips for winnin’ ” Joel looked down at her trying to cover up his amusement with her struggles.

“Ever heard of uhhh bragging rights? ohhhh waittttttt you’ve never fucking won so I guess not ” A slightly angered but smug look dawned on her as she sarcastically sassed Joel directly to his face.

Another thing about Ellie that Joel knew was she never knew when to stop pushing, and right now was the not the time or place for her to flaunt her cockiness.

“Huh, so you just wanna get tickled is that it?”

Joel’s nonchalant tone and distracted gaze was met with tension in Ellie’s body at his utterance of that word. She reallly needed to learn to quit whilst she’s ahead.

“You see, cause I think yo-”

Joel’s far gaze was met with something, interesting. To his surprise, laying a few feet to the left of him and Ellie was the black pen he had launched earlier in frustration at his loss. Ellie turned to see the pen as well, but couldn’t quite put the pieces together. Meanwhile Joel’s gears were turning and already ready to put a final revenge attack in motion.

“Welllll since you seem to be so obsessed with titles tonight”

“Joel wha—AC HEY!”

Joel swiftly dropped the grasp on her arms, reached over to grab the pen whilst swinging an arm around to entrap her ankles in his grasp. Like I said, he’s had some practice at this.

“Let’s give you an official one hm?”

Joel removed one of her tattered socks and uncapped the pen with his teeth.

Ellie up until this point had genuinely been confused, but now panic was beginning to set in as she felt the harsh tip of the pen meet the top of the sole of her foot.

“noOH I dOHnT NEHeD it JOEL”

She tried to sit up and push him away whilst squirming her foot, but during her retaliation, Joel saw the resistance and scribbled harshly on the middle of her sole to combat her.

Ellie screamed in response falling back onto the floor and burying her face into her hands at the devilish sensation etched upon her foot. Joel seised the scribble fairly quickly seeing her response and looked back at her.

“Now hold still or this will take longer”

Ellie paused and went to lean back up, but knowing Joel and his word, she leaned back down and braced herself for the sensation.

To her surprise, the process wasn’t quite as torturous as she had expected. While a trail of giggles and “nohoho’s” did seem to escape her when Joel insisted the letters need to be colored in, plus a few complaints from Joel when Ellie couldn’t sit still for the letter positioned in the center of her sole, other than that it was a few minutes of smiley recovery and pure artistry for the pair.

Joel finally threw the pen to the ground and released her ankles from his grasp.

“Now we can show Tommy who won”

Ellie sat up and grabbed her foot to turn it around and look at Joel’s hard work.

“You motherfucker”

Ellie scoffed as she shoved Joel in the shoulder at the results on her sole.

W

I

N

N

E

R

joel miller

the bend of her heel read the old man’s name in the tiniest, scragglyist font imaginable.

“Surprise”

Joel threw up his hands in amusement while Ellie was now doing her best to rub off the very permanent reminder of tonight’s events.

Ellie sighed.

“He’s never gonna believe you beat me at Boggle”

“Who said anything about Boggle?”

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Heyy! So I read your tlou tickle fics and I can't express enough how I love how you've written them 🤧. Anyways so I saw you're open for requests so here's mine. Can you write where Joel and Tommy get some brotherly love? Like how they were just messing each other around and Tommy asks Joel if he was ticklish. Then the rest is up to you. Thanks!

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hellooo first off love the pfp lmao second of all thank you so much for the request! i've been sitting on this idea for a bit so thank you so much!!!

HOME AGAIN

. . .

fandom: the last of us (hbo or game works, i wrote this with both in mind)

summary: A few months after Joel and Ellie return to Jackson from Salt Lake City, Tommy invites them over for a signature Miller game night. However, when he has to find a way to get Joel to lose a game of Jenga, all hell breaks loose.

word count: 2.5k

warnings: strong language, tickling, one super intense family game night

A/N: this is primarily tommy and joel bonding but ellie is featured for emotional support and because she loves to annoy the shit out of the poor poor miller boys

. . .

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hi zero! ur writing style is insanely good i’ve been so obsessed with ur fics, i have a tlou prompt that I can’t wrap my head around but maybe you can do something with it ? something with Ellie or Joel having to get up underneath a car or something of those sorts and getting stuck, only for the other to find out they are ticklish and use the situation to their advantage? Do whatever you want with it! :)

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dude it has been exactly a month since you sent this i am so sorry. finals week goes crazy, absolutely nuts actually. i was swamped. but here is the fic! hopefully i did this prompt justice, it's very cute!!

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

. . .

fandom: the last of us

summary: Ellie goes through every kid's rite of passage— helping her dad fix a car. Unfortunately, when Joel gets caught underneath it, Ellie has an interesting time trying to pull him out. (ler!ellie, lee!joel)

word count: 1.6k

warnings: strong language, tickling

. . .

by benchseat

When she starts kicking and muttering, Joel sighs. Looks up at the stars, and back down at Ellie. Then he slowly reaches out. She immediately latches onto his hand again, pulling it close to her chest and sighing. He feels his chest warm up a tiny bit, watching her calm down. She looks so young, and he wishes for a second that she always got to be this peaceful. That he could always keep her this safe.

He’s gonna get her killed. . . . Aka ellie and Joel’s relationship shown through sleep (and sometimes, the lack of it)

Words: 4854, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

So the “Joel braiding Ellie’s hair” thing has me in an actual chokehold. And yeah. The result is this:

Joel was reading when Ellie came into the living room. He’d been there for the last couple hours, feet propped up on the coffee table as he passed the time. It was one of those slower days in Jackson. One where the windows were cracked, and the spring air was enough to keep the house cool.

Usually on days like this, Ellie would go to the stables, spend a few hours riding Shimmer, before coming home and curling up next to Joel, begging him to read her the new space book she’d found.

Joel please, please, please

After to much begging and not enough arguing, Joel would finally give in.

Alright alright, shut your trap and give it to me

This was routine, familiar, that’s why today was so odd to him.

Ellie hadn’t left the house, didn’t even leave her room. She’d been quiet, secluded, and she hadn’t even said hello, making him figure it must have been a bad night. The dad part of him begged him to run upstairs and scoop her up, a weak attempt at taking away all of her pain. But the Joel part of him knew better, and so he waited. Rereading the same five sentences over and over again as he tried and failed to focus.

Finally one page turn later, he just decided to put the book aside altogether, sighing as the small thud echoed in his ear. He didn’t like days like this. Days where Ellie wasn’t, Ellie.

“Joel.” He turned his head at the sound of his name.

Ellie was standing in the doorway, every part of her blocked out by the semi-darkness the house was in. He smiled at her dark figure, waiting patiently for her to come out.

“Yes baby.” He spoke gently, reaching out his hand so she would walk forward. When she got closer he noticed those deer-in-a-headlight eyes and the small build-up of tears that was beginning to show itself on her cheeks. A further indication that Ellie, wasn’t Ellie,

“What do you need honey?” He asked as she sat down, hand so small and fragile in his. She just shrugged her shoulders, keeping her eyes glued to the thumb that was grazing her knuckles.

“Well.” He said, trying to think of absolutely anything that could calm her racing mind. “How about, how bout I braid your hair?” His heart thumped in his chest as her head shot up. “Huh.”

He’d been embarrassed to admit it, but he’d gone to Maria for help. It’d been so long since he’d had a daughter, that some of his dad mojo got lost amongst the chaos.

Maria i-do you happen to know um, how to-how to braid hair?

He’d been so so nervous to ask, thinking she’d sit there and laugh in his face. But instead she just smiled.

Of course, I can teach you if you want

I’d like that

And so the last couple weeks, every day after patrol (because after an incident with Ellie Joel just didn’t work night patrols anymore.) he’d go over to Maria’s, and she’d show him how to do different braids. It was something he really wasn’t sure he’d ever get the excuse to use on her, until today came along.

“Ellie.” She was long gone for a minute, mind some where else, it made her jerk when he touched her face to pull her back to him. “Do you want me to?”

“I don’t um” He watched her hold back a sob and so he took it upon himself to make the decision for her.

“C’mere baby.” He pulled her hand to make her stand and guided him in front of her, letting her sit down on his legs. He adjusted himself so he was sitting up more, his feet falling off the coffee table as Ellie lightly tapped her heels against him.

“I’m gonna take your hair down.” He pulled out her hair tie, placing it on his wrist as he brushed his fingers through her hair. He was oh so gentle, making sure not to pull to hard. Ellie typically was very sensitive on days like these, and the smallest wrong move could make her crawl all the way back to square one. He despised square one.

His plan was just to do a simple braid, nothing that caused a bunch of moving around or head turning. She didn’t need that, she just needed him.

Her hands fell down to his jeans as he picked up his three strands, lightly combing through them as he folded each piece over. “You wanna talk about it?”

“No.” She whispered, inhaling a shaky breath.

He smiled gently, letting his thumb rest at the base of her neck for a moment. “Okay then baby girl, we wont talk about it.”

He tied off her braid when he was as finished, patting her shoulders to indicate he was done. Almost immediately she fell back against him, letting her neck settle into the crook of his. “You’re warm.” She whispered, closing her eyes.

He chuckled. He knows he warm, she says that a lot when she’s tired. She also refuses a blanket when she’s laying on him, but that’s a story for another time.

“Thanks kiddo.” She responded with a nuzzle to his neck, her nose rubbing against his scruff. He came to the conclusion that she definitely had a bad night, one that involved nothing but nightmares and staring at the ceiling. He estimated about five minutes and she’d be snoring, and he also guessed he was going to be here for a long while. Cause there was no way in hell he was ever going to move.

“Want me to read kiddo?”

“No.” She said again, grabbing his wrists to wrap them around her body. “Just want you.”

He squeezed her closer, lightly kissing the back of her head. “Well you got me baby girl.” He said, placing another kiss to her temple. “And I’m not going nowhere.”

I'm gonna talk about something cute because it gives me an excuse to rewatch stuff.

I think the like Doylist explanation for this is partly that TV shots just generally are closer to show the actors' faces + Bella and Pedro just being close as people, but if you're looking just at text of the show, it's really funny and cute to me how at some point Ellie basically decides that Joel's personal space is also her personal space.

"I just saw you beat a man to death and like twenty minutes ago we were acting like we hated each other but like I'm going to walk six inches away from you so I can annoy you easier."

More under the cut for long