A/N: This is my first ever attempt at writing TLOU fanfiction. I will preface this chapter by saying that yes, this is a romance story, based around Ellie. This is not "Ellie X Joel". This is an "Ellie X OC" story. And while I'm sure this will be but one of perhaps hundreds of similar fics about the same basic premise, I hope that this story will stand out to you as one that doesn't draw on the cliche attributes and plots that seem forced and repetitive. I look forward to writing this story and any feedback is greatly appreciated.

This story begins right after the "One Night Live" performance as cannon to the original story line of The Last Of Us. If you haven't looked that up, please do before reading this. Also, this story will have several musical numbers accompanying certain parts throughout, and I will incorporate when & where they will be.

Thank you and please enjoy!

SUMMER

Chapter 1

Ellie sighed.

The guitar string hummed beneath her touch as she plucked the note, letting the sound resonate through the air. Her eyes traced the paint lines on the wall as it faded into silence, opening the door to her mind to thoughts. Her gaze wandered down the wall to the hardwood floor, trailing the lines between the wooden planks.

She found herself staring down at those same six, metal cords she had just learned to make music with moments ago, already growing bored with it. As much as she wanted to learn to play, she wanted even more to have Joel spend time with her. Or at least someone to be around. After all, she and Joel had only been living in Jackson a few weeks and settling into a new town where nobody knows your name or even who you are can leave anybody feeling lonely.

Especially at nighttime.

The unrelenting silence had her feeling more apathetic with each second. Eventually, she picked the guitar up by its neck and set it against the windowsill behind her, twisting a bit against the back of her wooden desk chair. Then turning back to her desk, she looked at her notebook, scribbled with doodles and words it had collected from her pencil throughout the weeks she had had it. Her desk lamp dimly lit the pages enough for her to see it against the cool glow from her window, signaling the come of a rapidly approaching summer night. Then reaching for a pencil, she continued her doodling where she had left off before Joel had interrupted her.

Just as she remembered that godawful joke he told her earlier, her lips cracked a smile.

"Pssh. Eating clocks…" she muttered to no one in particular, trying to suppress a light chuckle. As she did so, her thoughts turned to him.

This man, who was at one point just no more than a stranger to her, was now living with her, as some sort of father-like guardian. He had fought – just like her – to get where he is now. He promised to take care of her, and through just the course of one year, he had done that and then some. And now, here they were: starting new lives in this small town, aiming for that ever-moving target of a 'normal life.'

But what exactly is a normal life? Ellie wondered. Having no real point of reference, she only knew about the pre-apocalyptic world through books, relics, or one of Joel's countless stories. But even those couldn't give her enough of a vision of what being normal meant. Then again, maybe she wasn't so normal. In spite of everything, she was still the only one immune to the fungus that had wiped out most of humanity.

Her pencil stopped. That thought held her captive, immobilizing her with a strike of guilt. She momentarily closed her eyes, grappling with that thought that she was still the only one who could have stopped all of this. Her immunity was the key to fixing everything. It was what she and Joel had been fighting for all this time.

And it was all for nothing.

Ellie grunted under her breath, clenching her pencil in a fist. A fit of anger built inside her quickly, arising from that guilt in her stomach. It quickly led to her shoving the tip of her pencil into her notebook, just before she opened her eyes to see the lead tip break as it touched the paper, rendering the tool now useless.

"Oh fuck me," she whined, flipping the now broken pencil out of her hand. She sighed, deflated. Then looking out her window again, she could see that night was almost upon her. The slate clouds marbled the amethyst sky as the dim glow of the sun beyond the horizon gradually faded, just barely starting to show the faint dots of a few stars in the twilight.

Ellie sat there, taking in that moment, appreciating the beauty of it. She reached up to put her elbow on her desk, resting her jaw in her palm. Her eyes wandered down the tree lines, down to the houses and buildings that made up their makeshift town. It almost brought a smile to her face, before that was cancelled by a rather relentless yawn.

"Ugh, fuck it," she remarked getting up from her chair. Switching off her desk lamp, Ellie made her way to her dresser. Pulling out a drawer, she grabbed a pair of gym shorts and a tank top as her choice of bedtime wear. After changing, she made her way to her bed.

It was an old mattress – the kind of mattress one would expect to find after twenty years of dirt, decay, and overuse. A hole in the side showed off its age by the coil of a spring poking through, which would occasionally catch a belt loop or the hem of a shirt walking by. But Ellie didn't mind. It was better than sleeping on the floor, anyway.

Slipping into under the covers, her head fell into the firmness of the pillow beneath, leaving her to lie there on her back, staring up at the emptiness of the ceiling. The plain, grayish-white walls only served as a playground for her mind to wander, which she knew could be just as dangerous as any infected creature she had encountered in her lifetime. She knew it was dangerous because her thoughts could cripple her. And for some reason, they always seemed worse at night.

Letting out a heavy breath, Ellie turned over onto her side, bringing her arm up to slide it under the pillow beneath her head. Her eyes scanned the top of her night table, only finding her alarm clock and a Firefly pendant.

Riley's Firefly pendant.

Ellie's heart sank. She half-winced as her hand instinctively reached out for it, scooping it up in her fingers and bringing it close. Holding it in front of her, she read the numbers on it over and over, letting them burn a fierce memory into her mind that she could never forget. Her fingertips traced the edge of the coin, as if trying to feel the story behind every scratch or dent to be found. As she continued, Ellie felt a pressure grow in her chest and her breaths become irregular. And with the telltale sensation of a single tear sliding its way out of the corner of her eye, she found herself on the verge of crying. Trying her best to hold back, she quickly realized it was unstoppable, and eventually gave in.

She choked back a sob before bringing the pendant to her chest, clenching it in a white-knuckled fist. Her eyes squeezed shut, forcing dual streams of salty tears to drip down her cheeks as a few more sobs escaped her throat.

"I'm so sorry!" she sobbed, crying out to Riley in vain. She opened her eyes just long enough to look down at her hand that clutched Riley's pendant. Her vision was blurred with the wetness of her tears, distorting the image in her mind and forcing her to clamp her eyes shut again.

"I'm sorry…" She whimpered again, opening her palm and bringing her hand to her chest again. She wrapped her other arm around it, pressing the pendant against her chest as hard as he could, as if trying to force it literally into her own heart. But this only served to create a sudden ache in her sternum, making Ellie squeak in pain and release her grip.

Holding the pendant to her chest still, she sucked back a few sniffles to stop her cries, knowing that whatever she was doing wasn't going to change anything or bring Riley back. Bringing the back of her wrist to her eyes, she wiped the corners of her eyes as best she could.

Eventually, her sniffles subsided and she buried her face into her pillow, still holding the pendant in a now loose fist. Nuzzling her face into the damp fabric, Ellie felt her puffy eyes and sinuses steadily return to normal, letting her finally reach that level of comfort needed to sleep.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled under her breath. Her other hand snaked up to the first one, wrapping its fingers around the others' fist to hold the pendant tighter in its grasp. And with that, Ellie finally let herself drift off into sleep, knowing that the dawn couldn't come soon enough.