tw; minor suicide mentioned | minor angst | fluff | big brother! luke and clem dynamics
THIS has been sitting in my drafts for a while and i finally finished it omg. another little what-if involving my two favourite beans from twd s2 hehe :3 enjoy!!
I want any one of the S2 characters to help Clementine wash her baseball cap; it's supposed to be a surprise because laundry isn't something that's done every day since clothes have to be lugged back and forth from the river back to the house, and since it's a surprise, they do it early morning so Clementine doesn't realise they've taken her hat. So they do, sneaking it away while she's asleep by the fire in the living room.
It's a raggedy thing after all, and rinsing it in water won't do much - it's better than nothing right?
What they don't expect is her to get really mad, demanding to know why they didn't ask her first if she wanted her hat to be washed and how they just took it without permission like that. She's so angry she's holding back tears and everyone's like what the fuck???? Because this is clearly very out of character for her and they've never seen her this angry, not even when they locked her up in the shed. She snatches the hat and storms out of the house, sitting outside on the porch even though a storm looks like it's going to roll in soon.
Because she's so angry, Luke decides that he's gonna ask why, and to apologise, of course. He sits next to her on the porch and talks. He apologises and she accepts it, admitting that she was a little out of line and even if she had the right to be upset, she shouldn't have lashed out at them. But then he asks the dreaded question.
"Were you actually mad that we washed the hat, or was it somethin' else?"
Clementine pauses. There's a small squint to her eyes, like she's focusing on the words in her mind to spew out through her mouth. Then she answers, and Luke can tell it takes a lot out of her to talk about it.
"It's my friend's. It was my friend's. And it's the only thing left I have of him. I guess I got mad 'cause you guys took it and just– I dunno. It feels like I lost a part of him when it was washed. It's stupid, I know. But the hat is the only thing I have left of him, and– and I just miss him, you know?"
Luke obviously tells her, no it's not stupid, and he gets it. He still has his mother's little ring in his backpack and it's the one he slipped off of her finger when he found her dead at home, the bullet still warm in her head and blood still pooling around her head and the gun still clutched in her head. She's not stupid for wanting to preserve the memory of her friend and it's their fault for not asking in the first place.
Clem just sits there listening to him talk and holding the hat in her hands, her thumb rubbing gentle circles into the worn-out fabric and looking out into the dark skies as thunder rolls in. Luke goes quiet after telling Clem about his mother, and they just sit there in comradely silence in a way Clem hasn't been able to for a while. Not since Omid and Christa.
"Thanks," she says when the rain finally starts falling. They watch as Alvin bustles out of the front door carrying empty buckets to take advantage of the rain, storing water so they don't have to travel out to the river as often. "For talking to me. It's been a while since I've had an actual conversation with someone that didn't involve death threats or.. well, death threats. Feels like that's most of what tends to crop up when I talk to people."
Luke laughs, because the concept of an eleven-year-old having to deliver and receive death threats is an absurd notion, but unfortunately is the new reality they have to face. When lightning and thunder start, he nudges her and stands.
"Let's go in and get warm next to the fire. Looks like this storm ain't going nowhere for a while." His smile is warm and only grows in size when Clem smiles back and takes his offered hand. She uses it to pull herself up and the both of them walk back into the house.
Clementine puts the hat back onto her head, and she'll never admit it to anyone else, but she does like it when the smell it emanates comes back a little cleaner.
