Take On Me - TLOU2 "F"

[Dgrayman]

I guess with fanfare for The Last of Us being up, now is as good a time as ever to share this fic I wrote years ago and did nothing with. 

It imagines a scenario based on a journal entry early in the second game.

 

Take On Me:

 

Ellie knew that Dina was catching a cold.

She'd watched her lover sniffle and rub her nose all day as they rode Shimmer along 82 - through the auburn and jade remains of Yakima County.

She didn't have to be a FEDRA doctor to know that Dina's fit of "HEPchoo.... HEPchoo... *sniffle sniffle... he... he... HEPCHiewww" was more than the "just allergies" the raven-haired girl claimed they were.

When they stopped for that night, Ellie scribbled in her journal as she watched Dina sleep, stuffily yet peacefully.

"I'm struggling to sleep. Keep seeing him in my head... Dina seems to be sick. Think she caught a cold. I feel calmer with her lying next to me. I want to do something nice for her."

Ellie took out the map and looked at where they were. It was just outside of Yakima. She knew there would be somewhere where she could get Dina some cold medicine and a treat.

Ellie wasn't going to leave Dina alone overnight, so she might as well get some sleep. But as soon as the older girl was up, she would make her way into town. In the meantime, she figured she would sterilize some of their fabric so that Dina would have a hankie.

Ellie soaked the cloth in alcohol and put it next to the fire to dry. When it was just damp, she cut it into two smaller squares. "I'll probably
need one of these before too long." Ellie thought to herself. She didn't mind catching a cold in a world with a literal zombie virus. But she hated the thought of Dina having to take care of her when she came down with a cold.

HEPchew.... HE...HEPcheew...HIPCHIEWWIEE.

It turns out that the best post-apocalyptic alarm clock is a girlfriend with a cold. Ellie awoke to find Dina with her head buried in her sleeve. Her long black hair was pushing up over her head and arm.

"Bless you," said Ellie as she stretched out of her sleeping bag. "Here, I made you a hankie," Ellie held out the square of fabric for Dina.

The girl sniffled, removed her arm, and held the blue material to her nose. ",

"Okay, I am off to get you some meds for that cold. Just relax today. But keep a lookout, please." Ellie exclaimed, picking up her backpack and rifle.

She was preparing for a retort from Dina as she watched the girl open her mouth... And then her nose twitched, and her eyes closed... "HYYPCHeeew!!" she sneezed. Dina had sneezed.

Ellie waited until the girl had regained her composure and then kissed her on the lips.

"Don't! You're going to catch this!!" Dina chided.

Ellie laughed, "Oh, it's a this, is it? I told you that you were catching a cold!" retorted Ellie.

"Yed, Yed, you were right," Dina blew her nose again as Ellie headed out.

Half an hour later, Ellie came across a market. It looked like someone had camped out there recently as she noticed the generator was full, and there were a few other signs of life. After tugging at the generator, she found a suitable entrance. It was through a back truck port. Turning on the power had turned the bay's coolers back on, and Ellie shivered, pulling her light jacket closer to her hoodie. Suddenly, she heard the piercing cries of Clickers. She ducked into a corner as they entered the room. Her nose was dripping from the cold, and she needed to stifle the noise of her sniffles, so she was glad to have the other half of the hankie.

Ellie strained to listen closer, waiting for the pair to move on.

They were just about past her hiding spot when the brunette's runny nose turned itchy. Ellie fought with the appendage, but just then, her eyes and mouth decided to outnumber her.

Ah... Ah... Eyes were closed, lips parting. Ah... Ellie's hands, armed with blue fabric, came back up to help. Ah..tish..umphh...*sniffle sniffle tish..umph, the release came, but there was a third one. There was only ever a third one when she had a cold. Ah...ah... TISH..SHieew!!!" it had caught her off guard. Ellie had caught Dina's cold at the worst possible time.

The Clickers roared in response. "*Sniff. You could have just said bless you," spat Ellie, the hankie still hanging over her nose.

Ellie whipped into action, drawing her riffle and putting a couple of bullets in each Clicker.

Her nose twitched as the gun came to a rest. Her features twisted again. Ah... TISH...SHieew... TISH...IIIeew... HUH... HUH... HUT...CHHEEEIWWW. The last one hurt a little.
Ellie had tried to do something nice for Dina. Instead, it looked like she'd be practicing self-care as well.

She was going to need it, too. Because she'd started to feel pretty sick, luckily, she was relieved when she entered the market's office. Signs that someone had been here recently. And someone had used several of the survival measures Tommy had taught her. He'd no doubt been through here not so long ago.

Ellie found the pharmacy and picked up some cold caplets. They were long expired, but who had time to worry about that these days?

Ellie got more fabric and alcohol, some canned soups, vitamins, and a book of jokes for Dina. If they were going to be sneezing all day, they were at least doing so with laughs in between.

Speaking of sneezing, Ellie felt her nose itch. When she opened her eyes, something immediately caught her attention: a bag of coffee.

If Joel were here right now, this would be the best day ever. Ellie couldn't help but smile, even as her hand trembled while reaching for the bag.

Just then, the far-off cry of more infected hit. "Ah...TIsh...SHieew... Ah TIsh...EEEwww... ITCH...SHEEE. It was time to go.

AH...TISH...SHEEEW!! It was an enormous sneeze, but Ellie was thankful that it was only one so she could focus on getting away with her collection of sickday goodies.

Ellie didn't even need to look up to know that she'd arrived back at camp when she heard a wet triple of sneezes.

HEPCHeeeww... HEPCHEEEEEW... HUP...CHEE..IIIeww.

Feeling a twinge of sympathy in her own nose, Ellie rubbed at it with her hand. No good. Ellie quickly used thar hand to stifle her oncoming sneeze... Tish...umph.

Ellie was hoping that Dina hadn't heard her sneeze. But hoping that a person who was on guard and living in a pandemic where noise could spell your end was futile.

"Ellie, you caudht by code!" Dina sniffled.

"I did not! It was a single sneeze!" she protested.

Dina had blown her nose and could speak clearly again, "Sure it is. Which is why your spectacular face isn't about to launch into a spectacular sneezing fit."

Dina wasn't wrong. Ellies face was scrunchedd up into a ridiculously sneezy expression. That single stiffle had done nothing for her nose. Dina got up, held her hankie to the brunette's button nose and waited.

AH...AH... AH...Tch...SHeeeww. AH...TISH...SHEEEEWWW... HIT...SHEEWWW. The normally stoic and tough tomboy was now reduced to a fit of feminine squeeks.

"I guess bless you." Dina offered.

Ellie regained her composure and handed over the pack full of sickday items. Dina pulled it all out and looked over the bag of coffee.
"Wasn't Joel all about coffee?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

"You kidding me? He'd trade half his stuff for a bag of beans." Ellie offered.

"I never got it." Dina said.

"Thank you. Acquired taste my ass. But we are going to be sick for a few days at least. And probably sleep-deprived.

"I'll start the water," Dina smiled.

[MIN]

Oh this is so sweet! I adore Ellie and Dina, love the writing and I know I'd love to see more of these two! 

[Dgrayman]

On 2/19/2023 at 5:47 PM, MIN said:

Oh this is so sweet! I adore Ellie and Dina, love the writing and I know I'd love to see more of these two! 

Thanks so much for the kind words! I honestly wrote this so long ago as a one-off and never shared because I was nervous of sharing on here. I suppose I could try to write a part two if I could get back into the universe. 

[MIN]

1 hour ago, Dgrayman said:

Thanks so much for the kind words! I honestly wrote this so long ago as a one-off and never shared because I was nervous of sharing on here. I suppose I could try to write a part two if I could get back into the universe. 

Well there's no pressure but if you do you know there's  one person here that'll be more than happy to read!! 🙂

Edited February 22, 2023 by MIN

[NickG1998]

I would definitely read more of this if you decide to write more of this wonderful story 

[Dgrayman]

So, I wrote this a while ago as requested and then never posted. So here it is, part 2.

"Take On Me Part 2"

Ellie's journal entry:

I'm still struggling to sleep. Keep seeing him with his head... And sneezing my head off. Dina and I are sick. Think we caught a cold moving through the Washington snow and rain. I still feel calmer with her lying next to me... Even if she snezes us both awake. I know I did something nice for her, but we are both suffering. Maybe I can find a guitar in Seattle. A song should help.

"Are we dere yed... Hu... Hu... Hup...CHEWW?!" Dina asked. Well, she sneezed more than she asked. Asked and sneezed. Ellie thought to herself about what her currently very sick, very annoying girlfriend had just done.

"*sniff... *sniff... Do, but we're clodds," Ellie responded. The congestion she was experiencing slurred her pronunciation of close.

"*sniff *sniff So, how lost are we?" Dina joked.

"Uhhh, we're not," Ellie plainly stated.

"Uh-huh. Well, I coulb go for finbing a pharmacy do ged dome mebs." Dina smiled that bright, cheerful smile at the thought of some cold relief.

"And a clothing dore woulb be ah... AH... AH...tiSH...EEEEW *sniff *sniff *sniff amaz... Are you kidding me!!"

Ellie's reddened nose was twitching. Her eyes, trained to look for the undead, were lidded.

"Boes somebody have to sneeze again?" Dina spat her tongue out at the currently spaced-out brunette.

"how about I Deeze on you? Ah... Oh, I can feel it coming! Ah...AH... I'm going to deeze!" Ellie leaned her face in close to Dina. "AHH...CHish...IIIewww!

"Gross! Ellie!!! dhat was righd in my face!"

"You're already dick, you goober." Ellie laughed for the first time since they left Yakima.

The two young women came to a stop at a FEDERA checkpoint along the now overgrown highway.

"Day with Dimmer," Ellie choked. She looked back at Dina and recognized the telltale sign of a sneeze or three forming.

"Deah, *sniff I'm going do sddeze anyway. So I'll just day... HUP...CHEW... HUP...SHEEEWW... HECK...CHEEW...IEEE! *sniff *sniff Dee."

Ellie chuckled to herself as she ran into the checkpoint building. Tacked to the corkboard was a trading card. Ellie excitedly pocketed it as she noticed something important-looking folded on the counter.

*sniff *sniff Ellie longed for a nee hankie. So much so she had already decided that, essential or not, the folded paper was about to become a hankie.

*blows nose. "Ah, that's so much bett... bett... et... ET... ETch...EEEW... ETch...chumpf!! Ellie muffled the second sneeze into the paper. When her eyes opened, she realized it was a tourist's city map. 

"Anydhing good in dere?" Dina asked

"Found an old tourist map"

"Which you doddaly jusd deezed indo, righd?"
"No."

"Um-hmm. Why are you nod sduffed up ady more dhen?

"No comment..."

The pair had come to an impending QZ gate that was tightly shut. Ellie saw a wreckage network leading to a hole in the top right corner. She was optimistic she could reach it, but it wouldn't be easy, especially with a particularly sneezy cold.

Jumping several gatehouses and across a couple of very thin overhead signage frames, Ellie's nose began to itch. It was a terrible time as she was crossing the gap to the final frame, from which she would be able to cross the gate.

Suddenly, it creaked and shifted, causing Ellie to grip for her life.

"Ellie?!" Dina yelled with shock from below.

"I'm good... AH...TIsh...Ieew... AHtsh...EEEWIEEE." sneezed Ellie. "Just almost died... And sneezed myself to death," Ellie whispered to herself. She didn't like what she saw. Several more gates and gatehouses, and none of the people she was looking for.

As she made work of powering up these gates, Ellie found a scrap piece of paper with their codes on it.

"Score! Another hankie." Almost as soon as she picked it up, Ellie launched three sneezes into it and blew her nose a couple of times. Looking down at what remained, she noticed that a few codes had been damaged.

"*sniff *sniff Those are probably not useful anyways," she muttered.

LATER, AFTER GETTING THE GATE OPEN

Shortly after riding downtown, Ellie and Dina found the remains of a music shop.

Ellie figured it would finally be a great place to find a guitar to play Dina a song with. She was not expecting also to find loads of band tees that she could turn into hankies. But there they were, along with a guitar.

Ellie picked it up and strummed, as Dina curled up at her feet.

And then, Ellie began to sing... And sneeze. But, you know, mostly sing.

We're talking away
I don't know what I'm to say
I'll say it anyway
Today is another day to find you... ah..cishtt. Ellie held her nose as she turned to keep the sneeze small.

Shyin' away
Oh, I'll be comin' for your love, okay

Take on me
(Take on me)
Take me on
(Take on me)
I'll be gone
In a day or... AH...TIsh....EEeww. That one snuck up on her.

So needless to say
I'm odds and ends
But I'll be stumblin' away
Slowly learnin' that life is okay
Say after me
It's no better to be safe than sorry

Take on me
(Take on me)
Take me on
(Take on me)
I'll be gone
In a day or ah-choo. Ellie faked that one for comic effect.

"You should have kissed me then." Dina cooed.

"So... I should have not sneezed then?" Ellie rased her eyebrow.

"That was fake and you know it!"
 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Dgrayman