hello🪼how are you? I'm here to say i've been reading your old stuff with jesse from tlou and i absolutely love the hcs with jesse and an autistic gf as an autistic girlie myself☝️and i really wanted to ask, can i request a oneshot about it? something set before those hcs, more like when they meet for the first time?
i was having an idea where jesse and maybe ellie are patrolling and and something dangerous or bad might happen, and they find reader right after: vunerable, scared and with an injured ankle, and barely giving them any long information (because i personally get more non-verbal when I'm stressing or cyring), and I really think it would be wholesome for them to quite notice something unsusual with reader in the meanwhile even though they can't quite name yet (aka the autism), and jesse just step up almost as instinct, yk? Approach/deal with her better, and be sweet enough he's the one she trusts enough to let them take her to jackson. I think it would be so cute since jesse is canonically so leader-ish and protective; him getting reader to jackson and being sweet to reader because the feeling it's just coming so naturally for him.
Instinct | Jesse x autistic!reader
Pairing: Jesse & Female Reader (Platonic), Ellie & Female Reader (Platonic)
Type of fic: Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, Wholesome, Angst with Comfort
Warnings: Injury, fear, emotional distress, mentions of danger, survival themes
PS: Okay hey I tried to somehow make it work so I hope it’s not that bad as personally I never had a similar moments so I can’t fully be sure if what I’m writing is how it happens
The first thing Jesse noticed was the silence.
Not the normal kind. Not the quiet that settled over the forest after a snowfall or during a calm patrol.
This was the wrong kind. The kind that followed something bad.
Ellie noticed it too. She raised her rifle slightly as Shimmer slowed beneath her.
No birds, no distant infected, nothing.
Just wind moving through pine trees.
The patrol route ahead curved around a rocky outcrop before descending into a narrow valley. Something was off.
Ellie followed beside him.
The signs appeared quickly. Broken branches, fresh footprints, scuff marks, a struggle and then blood.
Both of them immediately dismounted. Jesse crouched near the disturbed snow.
Jesse shook his head. “No” he pointed.
The tracks weren’t chaotic enough. No drag marks, no signs of a struggle between two and more bodies.
Instead it looked like someone had been running. Fast. Desperately. Then stumbled, then kept going.
Ellie followed the trail with her eyes. “One person?”
The footprints led toward a small cluster of trees. Then Jesse heard it.
The sound came again from behind a fallen log. Slowly, carefully, Jesse approached. “Hey.”
Nothing. Another shaky breath.
Then he rounded the log and found you.
For a second he thought you couldn’t have been much older than them. Maybe nineteen. Maybe twenty. You were sitting in the snow with your back pressed against a tree trunk. One ankle looked badly swollen.
Your hands were wrapped around yourself so tightly your knuckles were white and your eyes-
The fear in them hit him like a punch. The second you saw him, your entire body tensed like a trapped animal ready to bolt despite clearly being unable to.
“Hey.” Jesse immediately lowered his hands. ”It’s okay.”
Ellie appeared beside him.
Your reaction was immediate as you flinched away from them hard.
Not because it was Ellie specifically, just because it was another person. Another unknown, another thing happening. And whatever had happened before they’d found you, it had clearly been too much.
Jesse noticed the way your breathing sped up slightly, the way your eyes kept watching them, the way your fingers dug into your sleeves.
He also noticed something else. You weren’t answering, not really. Most people in Jackson’s area would have immediately started explaining who they were, what happened, why they needed help.
You just stared like words had suddenly become impossible. “It’s alright,” Jesse repeated quietly. “We’re not gonna hurt you.”
Your lower lip trembled slightly from earlier crying and then finally:
Ellie exchanged a glance with him. “You hurt?” she asked.
As if even answering that felt difficult.
Jesse looked down, the ankle was definitely injured. Bad enough that walking wasn’t happening.
You opened your mouth, closed it and seeing that he immediately changed approach.
“Okay.” His voice stayed calm “no worries.”
Ellie looked at him and then at you and eventually seemed to realize the same or at least similar thing.
You looked overwhelmed already.
Jesse tried again “are you alone?”
Simple questions, simple answers. Your shoulders loosened ever so slightly.
A few minutes later Jesse was kneeling beside you examining the ankle. You winced immediately.
He pulled his hand back “sorry.” Your ankle obviously wasn’t okay, but the injury was far from life threatening. Probably a bad sprain or maybe worse.
“We need to get you to Jackson.”
Your eyes immediately widened. Panic starting again.
Jesse recognized it instantly, it wasn’t exactly a fear of Jackson. Mostly like a fear of having to do something new when you were already overwhelmed.
“It’s alright.” His voice softened further. “You don’t gotta decide anything right this second.”
You stared at him trying to figure him out, trying to decide whether he was safe.
Jesse didn’t push, didn’t move closer, didn’t rush you. He simply waited.
Eventually you whispered:
Your eyes stayed on him “…you come too?”
The realization hit both Jesse and Ellie immediately, you weren’t asking about Jackson, you weren’t asking about safety. You were asking if Jesse would be there. Because somehow, in the last ten minutes, he’d become the thing your brain had categorized as safest.
Ellie looked amused. Jesse looked surprised. Then his expression softened. “Yeah.” He answered immediately “I’ll be there.”
Your shoulders dropped just a little, but enough. Enough that Jesse knew the answer.
Getting you onto the horse was another challenge. You hated being touched or maybe hated surprises or maybe simply hated everything right now. Jesse wasn’t sure. Only that every sudden movement made you tense, every unexpected touch made your shoulders jump.
So he warned you before everything “Okay.” His hand hovered near your arm “I’m gonna help you stand.” Every time the same thing.
He told you what is gonna happen beforehand and you gave permission and somehow it worked.
By the time he finally got you settled behind him on the horse, you were exhausted emotionally, physically, everything. The moment the horse jerked before starting to move, your hands immediately grabbed the front of Jesse’s jacket like a lifeline. Jesse pretended not to notice as he just adjusted one arm around your side to make sure you couldn’t fall.
The ride back took nearly two hours.
You barely spoke and honestly Jesse didn’t seem bothered by it.
Most people would have been, most people filled silence, asked questions, demanded information.
You found yourself listening to the sound of his horse’s heavy breathing, the rhythm of the ride, the occasional conversation between him and Ellie, nothing demanding your attention, othing requiring immediate responses.
At some point your head started drooping and you caught yourself. Then did it again. Then again. Until finally-
Your forehead bumped lightly into Jesse’s shoulder and you immediately jerked upright muttering “sorry.” The word came out fast.
Jesse blinked and then laughed softly “you can sleep if you’re tired.”
You shook your head immediately “no.”
Two minutes later your eyes were closing again.
Ellie smirked from her horse “she’s gonna fall asleep standing at this point.”
Jesse snorted “pretty much.”
You tried to glare and as expected it didn’t work because you were too tired.
By the time Jackson’s walls appeared, the sky had begun turning orange. You stared, you hadn’t seen anything like it in years. Actual walls, people, smoke from chimneys, safety.
The sight should’ve felt comforting, but instead it felt overwhelming.
Jesse noticed. Of course he did.
“You don’t gotta talk to everybody.”
He shrugged “Maria’ll probably ask some questions eventually.”
Your face immediately tightened.
“So” he smiled slightly “we’ll do one thing at a time.”
One thing at a time. For some reason that helped.
Later that night, after you’d finally been given food, medical attention, and a place to sleep, Jesse found himself sitting outside talking to Ellie.
“She’s gonna follow you around” Ellie said it matter-of-factly.
“No, seriously” Ellie nudged him. “You realize you’re her favorite person now?”
Ellie rolled her eyes “you know what I mean.”
He did. The truth was, he’d noticed it too. The way your eyes automatically looked for him when entering a room. The way you relaxed when he spoke The way you seemed less overwhelmed when he was nearby. And somehow none of it felt strange. It felt natural. Like helping you had been the most obvious thing in the world. Like protecting you had become instinct almost immediately.
Jesse looked toward the building where you’d been given a room. A stranger that morning, someone he’d never met.
Yet somehow the thought of you being scared and alone again made his chest ache.
“Yeah,” he admitted quietly.
Jesse shook his head.But he couldn’t stop smiling. Because for all the things the world had taken from people, sometimes it still gave something back and when he’d found a frightened girl hiding behind a fallen log that morning, he’d expected another survivor. Instead, somehow, he’d found someone he already wanted to look after and if the relieved look on your face every time you saw him was anything to go by-
