Tess and Ellie bond over hair and stories about Boston.
Sometimes at night, he finds her braiding Ellie's hair.
It's not a skill he thinks for her to have; it's so unlike-Tess and yet so much like Tess for her to know something like that - that even a woman as defiantly simple as Tess would know how to do something as intricate as a French braid, or a fishtail braid.
They're all the same to him; it's just hair in a braid.
It's partially one of the reasons why Sarah always had short hair. She looked good with it, of course, but Joel could never admit to himself that he didn't know diddly squat about tying hair other than a really messy ponytail.
It saved them all the grief of going through mornings before school.
Tess though, seems to be a natural with braiding hair. She has Ellie sitting by her legs on the floor of the girl's bedroom, and she by the edge of the bed; Bear sitting by watching curiously. In the dim light of the moon through the windows he can see Tess's mouth moving; the low thrum of her voice overlaying the same low voice that Ellie responds with. He can't make out just what they're saying, and so he stands just out of sight in the doorway, and watches her braid the girl's hair.
Eventually their words clear.
"...then what happened?" Ellie asks.
Tess hums; slips the comb through the girl's thick red hair again and segments the hair in her hand. Ellie's fussing about with her hunting knife, flicking it here and there and poking at her fingertips. "Well, after basically hulking out on Sean and the boys, he asked if he could walk me home."
Joel feels his throat clot and his cheeks burns. Nooooo -.
"He wanted to walk you home?" Ellie wrinkles her nose, trying to tilt her head up at Tess; failing when the woman nudges her head back forward. "That's so -."
"Joel? Tell me about it." He can hear the amusement in her words, see the smirk on her mouth as she continues braiding Ellie's hair, moving halfway down now. She sighs quietly, if a little wistfully, and he peeks in again to watch the way she almost lovingly finishes off the braiding. "So he walked me back to my place; it was a shithole, but hey - gotta take what you get. Anyway we talked a little, and once the soldiers got done with their patrol, we said goodbye and...went our separate ways."
"Not for long though," Ellie adds knowingly, and he sees Tess' mouth curve in the moonlight. She's done braiding Ellie's hair, but neither make a move away from each other - they sit, and they revel in each other.
Tess is starting to run her fingers along Ellie's scalp - her habit. "Guess he couldn't really stay away after that. Few days later I get word from my guys that someone's been askin' about me - says he's a Hunter they know." She pauses with her fingers hovering when Ellie gasps quietly, and tilts her head down at the girl when Ellie peers up at her.
"He was a Hunter?" Tess smiles sadly down at her, and lets her fingers roam again. Ellie keeps her eyes on the woman intently for a moment, hoping for an answer; maybe foolishly seeking some sort of denial, and Joel can feel his chest clench at the memory.
"Not many of us had a choice," Tess sighs eventually. "Things were...bad when the infection just hit. People couldn't get their shit together; acted like it was the end of civilization with the way they killed and stole and rampaged. I figured the smuggling business and Joel...figured out how to keep him and Tommy alive."
She lets out another breath, a huff more like, and slips her hands onto Ellie's shoulders instead, squeezing gently. "Alright, enough talk - bedtime." She shoos Bear away, hauling a groaning Ellie to her feet and plucking the hunting knife out of her hands.
"Aw Tess," the girl whines. "You didn't even finish your story yet!" She clambers into bed beside Bear, shoving the dog aside when he rolls into her covers, and lets Tess straighten it over her before settling down at her side. Ellie stares up at her face pleadingly, even as Tess shakes her head indulgently. "You gotta finish the story at least!"
With a long, dramatic sigh, Tess narrows her eyes at the girl for a moment; smirking when Ellie matches her gaze with a stubborn glare of her own. "Alright," she concedes finally, and Ellie grins as she hunkers down into her covers eagerly. Blowing out a breath again, Tess thinks. "So turns out that Joel's been hunting me down," Tess grins when Ellie rolls her eyes at the pun. "And he finds me right where we met the first time - making a new deal. The deal was supposed to be good for it, but I guess the dealers back then were a lot more...seedier than the ones in Boston."
Ellie's eyes go wide. "Did they hurt you?"
Tess almost scoffs. "They wouldn't have had the chance even if they wanted to, because the moment Joel sees 'em there with me - he comes out of the shadows like some sort of...vengeful ghost." Tess shakes her head at the memory; has it really been so many years? It comes to her like a clear picture from yesterday, the way he had introduced himself; walked her home, stood at her doorstep like an awkward first date.
"He didn't even have to do anything, and they were trembling where they stood." Ellie nods sagely; Joel has that effect on a lot of people. "And I guess it seemed...fitting to partner up with him. It seemed -." Tess squints into the dark, trying to find the right word for it.
"It was fate."
They both jump at the new voice; Tess swears under her breath at the familiar shadow in the doorway - the same hulking shoulders and low rumble that used to terrify her on purpose in their apartment in Boston. "Goddamn it, Joel," she breathes, glaring at the man reproachfully when Joel makes his way into the room. "You need to wear a goddamn bell around your neck, you stupid cow."
He chuckles, settling down beside the woman even as she elbows him in the ribs. "S'not my fault you're gettin' soft on me," he tells her, grinning when Ellie smirks at him. "Y'been tellin' stories about us, huh?"
"Just one," Ellie supplies, eyeing Tess disappointedly. "She won't tell me about anything else yet. She says it's not 'appropriate' for me to know." She makes the air quotes to the woman's scowl, and the man's amusement.
"She's right," Joel says, nodding sagely, and Ellie clicks her tongue at him at the betrayal while Tess smirks knowingly at him. He wraps an arm around her waist, slips in close enough to her to press a kiss to the base of her neck before regarding Ellie calmly.
"Wanna hear about the time Tess got stuck in a tree 'cause of a spider?"
"YEAH!"
Tess groans, slumping forward as she feels him grin into her skin. "I'm gonna get you back for this," she growls at him, eyes narrowed with a purpose. "You forget the time you almost lost your damn foot stepping on that nailbomb."
"And whose fault was that, sweetheart? I sure as hell wasn't the one who put it there."
She elbows him hard. "Aw, shut up, old man. It's way past her bedtime anyway." Tess feels her mouth twitch at the crestfallen look on Ellie's face, patting the girl's leg gently as she stands, taking Joel with her. "Stories for another time," she promises the girl, and steps back to watch Joel lean down for a goodnight kiss on Ellie's forehead.
"G'night, baby girl," she hears him murmur, and watches as Ellie hugs him briefly. She offers Ellie a smile, soft as it is, and reaches for the lights. "Goodnight, kid. Sleep tight."
She's just at the doorway when she hears Ellie's whisper to Joel. "It's 'cause of that nailbomb that you limp, isn't it?"
Joel chuckles quietly in the dark, and she knows he's patting Ellie on the head. "Actually, I got hit with a brick."
"...a brick?"
It's Joel's turn to whisper. "Guess who was holdin' it."