#marchmadness2025

[hypnotisedfireflies]

There's No Road that will Lead Us Back

by @adhdprincess

Tess shot her a tired look. “He hunts alone. It’s not personal.” “It’s not just the hunting. It’s everything. You saw how he was at the rest stop.” Ellie made her voice deep, imitating Joel’s southern accent. “Put that back cause I said so—over a fucking necklace. Like, what’s next? He gets mad at my backpack?”

—————

Ellie, Joel, and Tess learn to live on the road together without wringing each other's necks in the process. Ellie is feral, Joel is savage, and Tess is trying to get everyone to Wyoming in one piece. Set during the 3-month timeskip before winter. There are wonderful character arcs and nice campfire scenes, but it gets dramatic as hell—buckle up.

[hypnotisedfireflies]

collaborators

by @becomethesun

Ellie slows down and looks back at Joel with chagrin, raising her eyebrows and pursing her lips, but she elbows Sam and gestures for him to wait for Joel and Henry to catch up. He’s reminded with a pang of another little girl on another hiking trip, a far less perilous trip than this on one of the trails outside of Austin, scampering up a boulder that screamed a broken collar bone or broken ankle to him, but she made it down unscathed, rolling her eyes at his worries. Like every memory of her, it’s tinged with the reminder of how, ultimately, all of the worrying he did wasn’t enough, still left her dead, blood staining her favorite t-shirt.

Ellie and Sam are waiting when they catch up, back to giggling over some inside joke. Joel shakes his head, shouldering his backpack and forging ahead.

—

Sam and Henry live. Adventures and found family bonding ensue on the journey from Kansas City to Jackson and beyond.

[hypnotisedfireflies]

his heart fits right in the palm of her hand

by @lauronk

“Dad?”

The scent of sick hits his nose before Joel even has a chance to open his eyes, and he has to bite back a soft groan. He cracks one eye, then the other - sure enough, Sarah’s standing before him, bonnet askew and dribbles of vomit down her chin and shirt. He’d bet every pitiful penny in his savings account that the rest of it is on her bed and the fuzzy rug that covers part of her floor.

“I threw up,” Sarah tells him unnecessarily when she sees he’s awake.

(joel caring for his sick girls)

[hypnotisedfireflies]

haunting me

by @sixhours

“Kid, you can’t–you’ll never make it alone.”

“I’m not alone. I have you.”

What if Joel was a ghost?

[hypnotisedfireflies]

Civil

by @stumbling-away

Joel wipes his mouth against his arm, taking a quick sip from the glass of water he’s been spending the past hour staring at. He clears his throat, then meets her eyes. “What did you just say?”

She rests her cheek against her hand, elbows still propped up on the table. “I asked if you wanted to get married at some point.”

Joel nearly chokes again. “I mean, I—Tess.”

“Take your time.”

Tess lives and makes it back to Jackson with Joel and Ellie. Something has to shift.

Ft. Joel being incredibly emotionally constipated and Tess being a good mom.

[hypnotisedfireflies]

I Wish You Were Here

by magnifiedmind

She covered for his deaf ear and helped him through the nightmares. And without her, everything came crashing down.

[hypnotisedfireflies]

Let the water hold me down

by @finnelfin

AKA, Boatfic

[hypnotisedfireflies]

no returns for broken or damaged items

by @renegadeknight

Life before Ellie was lost before she realized it was something she could lose.

It was fine though – it would be fine. In the meantime, Sarah adjusted. Ellie borrowed her new boygenius shirt last week and it came back with a big jelly stain on it. That was easy enough, no more letting Ellie borrow her clothes. Ellie also liked to dogear book pages and write in them – in pen. So Sarah adjusted and stopped lending Ellie her books. Ellie took too long in the bathroom, listened to her music too loud, and she was always running late, so Sarah adjusted and adjusted and adjusted.

It was a lot but it was good that Ellie was here now instead of stuck with another family that didn’t really care about her. It was a big adjustment but nothing Sarah couldn’t handle.

Until she found her guitar.

~

or Ellie’s been living with Sarah and Joel for a few months now and everyone is starting to feel the squish of their tiny apartment. after a not so minor implosion, Ellie decides to fix it herself