You will be able to tell by the end of this fic that it tapers off to half-assed by the end of the secon last chapter.
It's another day or so before they get to Wyoming; Tess is asleep in the passenger's seat when the town comes into view. She's curled up against the window, even breaths fogging the glass as she twitches and kicks in her sleep. Restless nights are a given in their lives - Joel remembers waking to bruises some mornings when Tess shares his bed. Usually it's on particularly cold or lonely nights that he finds her beside him, naked skin pressed against each other and warmth radiating underneath the thin and scratchy covers.
Ellie's leaning over the driver's seat as he pulls the car into the driveway of their makeshift home, whispering to avoid waking the woman. "Is she having a nightmare?" she asks worriedly; frowning at the way Tess squirms and whimpers every once and awhile. She's seen Joel go through nightmares - she's had her own fair share of them too, but something about the way Tess dreams makes her feel…sad.
"She'll be alright," Joel says, and it's enough of a dismissal for Ellie to busy herself with getting her things together and getting out of the car. Gently, he reaches for Tess' shoulder, grasping the bony joint in his hand firmly enough to shake her slightly. "Tess. Tess, come on, sweetheart, you gotta get up now."
She fights waking, as she is sometimes wont to do. When he's not yelling at her to get the fuck up or when there's no sound of gunshots going off, Tess appreciates her right to sleep in, and Joel has seen her temper tantrums when he wakes her unnecessarily. He fights a smile despite himself when she grumbles at him in her sleep, and shakes her firmer.
"Come on, sleepyhead, s'time to rise and shine," he cajoles her lowly, and he can't help himself to tuck the fallen strands of dark hair behind her ear.
Eventually she gives in, glaring at him as soon as her eyes are open and clear, and Joel simply chuckles at her. "We're here," he says, and watches as she stifles a yawn and stretches. Mostly he's watching the swell of her breasts as she stretches her arms over her head and arches her back to realign her spine from a shitty sleep, but she's too tired to slap him upside the head when he gives her a playful leer.
"S'about time," she mumbles, scowling as she massages away the crick in her neck. The bite mark on her shoulder tingles numbly, but Tess doesn't go anywhere near it. Out of sight, out of mind, and if it wants attention, it can go fuck itself.
Ellie's tapping excitedly at her window, waving and grinning at her through the window, and Tess groans as she stumbles out of the car. "Are you always this happy in the morning, kid? Because that's going to be an issue between the two of us -."
She's grabbed by the hand before she can finish the thought, and Tess finds herself being dragged around the car up to the front yard of a small and modest house. "It's not much, but it sure as hell beats Boston," Ellie's saying to her, grinning sheepishly then as the woman continues to gape at the sight of an undamaged house with what seems to be running electricity, if the porch light is anything to judge by.
"Ellie." Joel appears beside them; a backpack in both hands and one on his shoulder. "Go on and get the door open." The girl doesn't need to be told twice, and he's left with Tess on the front yard. He meets Tess' stunned gaze with a warm one of his own, and a shy smile around his mouth. "Welcome home, Tess."
"H-home?" This must be a dream.
Joel tilts his head thoughtfully. "Well, y'know what they say - home is where the heart is an' all that." He shifts the bags in his grip, smirking slightly. "I'd offer to carry ya over the threshold or somethin', but I'm a little preoccupied."
It's enough to get her out of her stupor, and Tess glares at him through the pink in her cheeks at the thought before she's being tackled to the ground by something huge and furry.
"Ellie, I thought I told you to put him out back!"
The dog's name is Bear.
Tommy had given him to Ellie as a birthday present, much to Joel's dismay, but he couldn't deprive the girl of the huge dog even though Bear's chewed through one of his only pairs of shoes. They don't know what breed he is really, but by Joel's best guess he's something along the lines of a shepherd dog and a big bully breed.
Bully doesn't even begin to define the dog though; Tess has never seen a dog so affectionate and silly. He doesn't leave her side until Joel hauls him away by the collar, all but throwing the dog into the backyard as Tess laughs at him. "Ellie!" Joel calls, wrestling Bear as the dog weaves between his legs to get back to Tess, tail a blur. "Damn it, Bear, get on outside! Get! Go on now!"
"Aw Joel, he just wants to play." Ellie appears from down the hall, looping her hand into the dog's collar and rubbing his fur affectionately as Bear licks at her fingers. She grins at Tess, puffing out her chest proudly as the woman eyes her in amusement. "I trained him all by myself! He even knows how to belly crawl!"
"Alright, enough already," Joel cuts in, nudging the girl away with the dog. "It's late - get to bed, the both of ya. Go on!" He jabs Ellie in the side, and the girl squeaks as she moves away, returning only to press a sweet kiss to Joel's grizzled cheek before waving a goodnight to Tess as she goes.
"Come on, boy! Let's go upstairs!" She taps her thigh and goes jogging up the stairs, all to Bear's eager barks and thundering steps behind her.
Tess chuckles as she watches them go, folding her arms as Joel shakes his head indulgently at the girl and wipes at his cheek in mock-disgust. "Didn't take you for a dog kinda guy," she remarks, trailing after the man as he too makes his way up the stairs. "Then again; never saw you as a cat guy either."
Joel grunts a scoff, peering at her over his shoulder when he hears her giggling under her breath - most likely at some image she's conjured with him surrounded by twenty cats. His mouth twitches as he reaches the landing of the second floor. "When's the last time you had a bubble bath?"
She can't remember the last time her skin's touched hot water. The memories probably span down to her childhood; hot bubble baths drawn by her mother on cold winter nights or hot showers after hours of rolling down snowy hills with her father. She remembers wrinkly fingers and toes and shark fin hair, easier times, happier times.
Before everything went to hell.
The humid steam caresses her face almost as soon as she steps into the bathroom; nearly too warm to be comfortable and too thick to breathe right, but Tess finds herself startlingly calm in the old bathroom. Joel's kneeling by the side of the tub with one hand under the running water, hissing once or twice as his other hand busies with the metal knobs. It's suddenly all foreign to her - something as simple and normal as a bath makes her wary.
But there's no reason for her fears at the moment.
Not with Joel around.
"There we go," the man announces, straightening to his feet with a little more effort than he'd like. Turning to Tess with a triumphant huff, he gestures grandly to the tub filled with steaming water. "Care for a dip?"
Tess feels her mouth pulling in a corner, unable to resist smiling at the beaming way Joel's standing there; like he's just revealed the best thing since automatic rifles. As much as she'd like to tease Joel about his overly male need to 'provide for his women', the temptation of the warm water is too much to resist. She strips where she stands, unashamed and unfazed at the way Joel's eyes rake over her pale body like she's the first naked woman he's seen since they were last together.
(She probably is, come to think about it.)
Self-consciously she cups her scar in her hand, turning quickly to avoid giving Joel time to really get a good look at it. Nervously her eyes meet his, and when she licks the corner of her lip anxiously, the man just gives her an understanding nod.
She exhales. Okay. Okay, we can do this. This is Joel; just good ol' Joel.
Steeling over, Tess glances at him coyly. "You plan on joinin' me, Tex, or are you going to stand there slobberin' over me like Bear?" she drawls, smirking as she sinks one foot into the water first, followed swiftly by her other foot when she decides that the water's just right. She sighs heavily when she sinks into the water, moaning in the back of her throat when she's hunkered down and shoulder deep in the water. Bending her knees, Tess lets herself sink deeper into the steaming water, opening her eyes languidly to find Joel still standing beside the tub, staring wordlessly.
She smirks again, lifting one long pale leg out of the water, cocking a brow suggestively when Joel visibly chokes at the way the water runs off her calf. "Did you need an engraved invitation?"
Joel blinks, shaking his head slightly. "Huh?" He doesn't remember Tess having such long legs. Then again; shitty lighting once gave her a mustache. He couldn't get it back up that night from laughing so hard.
Tess wasn't happy about it, but he paid his dues.
Multiple times over.
"Joel!" The sharp utterance of his name bounces off the acoustic walls of the bathroom, and Joel jolts out of his reverie, mumbling an apology while peeling away his shirt obediently. Tess watches both amused and intrigued as he struggles out of his jeans, leering at him appreciatively when he straightens - naked as the day he was born, with maybe a touch more hair.
"There we go," she purrs, and leans forward readily when he steps into the tub. She scoots forward as he sinks down, and the water overflows a little with the added body mass. She reaches down to lets the water run till it's just right again, all the while to Joel's sneaky fingers tracing circles along the skin of her back. She shudders as the wet trails cool on her skin, leaning back into Joel's broad chest when his muscular arms come banding around her middle and pulling her to him.
She feels the rumble in his chest before she hears it, and Tess can't help but laugh at the way he cups the water in his hands, pouring the water over her skin, trickling it over her shoulders and neck; over her breasts. She wriggles between his legs, grinning evilly when she feel something twitch against her back, flashing Joel a toothy grin that's more a feral marking of her territory than a smile.
"Seems like you missed me, huh Texas?" she teases him, squirming when the arm banded around her stomach squeezes in tighter, and his fingers graze her side in a warning. "Hey watch those fingers if you don't wanna lose 'em."
"I don't think you're in any position to threaten me, sweetheart," Joel drawls smugly, skimming the tips of his fingers along the underside of her breast, smirking when he hears the hitch in her breath. He leans into her ear, chuckling huskily as Tess shivers at the warmth of his breath against her skin. "Seems like you missed me too, don't you, Tess." His voice dips low into a whisper; his free hand is now sliding along the skin of her thigh, fingers stroking and massaging beneath the water, hitting the sensitive nerve along her inner thigh that has her jolting breathlessly.
She smothers a moan, wriggling away from his wandering hand long enough to glare at the man. "You're playing dirty, you dirty old man."
Joel chuckles, grabbing a bar of soap from the little dip in the wall, lathering the white bar in his hands before nudging Tess forward to get at her shoulders and back. "You're one to talk, you dirty minx," he ripostes, dipping his thumbs into a particularly stiff knot in her shoulders that has Tess hissing. "And I ain't old."
"Keep tellin' yourself that," she murmurs, but it's half hearted as she arches into his strong grip, flexing her hands over his thighs as he digs in harder. "Mmmm, a girl could get used to this," she hums, stroking her hand idly along his thigh, feeling the rough scrape of his hair and the dip of old scars.
Something twitches again, and there's a growl from behind her.
When he's done counting to ten, Joel gives her shoulders a warning squeeze. "I just cleaned you up; you're gonna get dirty again if you keep playin' with fire like that."
She glances over her shoulder at him, fluttering her eyelashes innocently. "You'd help me clean up though, won't you Tex? After all, it's gonna be your mess."
Joel lets out a long, pained groan, but it's not like he's putting up a fight when Tess is suddenly facing him and straddling his legs between hers. "Just - try not to scream the house down, will ya? Ellie's down the hall."
Bow chicka.