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[dog_eat_dog]

canon, AU, cross-canon, assumed CR, etc etc etc, all welcome




victoryfanfare 

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inspired by that first amazing episode, hope you don't mind a random starter ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[shittybirthday]

Joel's boots thud on the sagging, creaky stairs winding up to his and Tess' apartment, a heavy sigh flattening out of him. Muffled sounds of people shuttered away in their apartments drift down the musty hallway while Joel rolls his tight, aching neck, rounding the stairwell landing to take the final flight up. The stench of burning flesh stains the inside of his throat and nose like a numb sickness. Lingers on his clothes, too, grim and pungent. Another shit, backbreaking day of hauling dead bodies out of trucks and dumping them in burning piles for yet another a pithy payment of ration cards.

He half hopes Tess isn't home yet so he can be left alone to unwind and drink off the day on his own. He half hopes she is home. Hopes like hell if she is home, that she has some news on that damn shipment of pills they've been waiting on for a few weeks now. Scraping together ration cards to stay afloat these past few weeks has been grinding down on his last nerve, especially with how on edge the whole QZ has been escalating into lately. Joel feels like a loaded gun, ready to fire cold, point-blank rage into anyone who so much as looks at him the wrong way.

He wipes a grimy hand across his sweaty forehead as he finally reaches the door to his and Tess' place. He hears movement inside, sounds like dishes being moved about and a cupboard clattering shut. Opening the door, Joel trudges in with a wordless, weary greeting glance at her, and shuts the door behind him. Digs a hand into his jacket pocket, fishes out a small bundle of crumpled ration cards as he crosses to the table.

"Eleven goddamn ration cards," he announces, flat and shitty, as he throws the ration cards down. They land with a scattering slap across the tabletop. Joel snatches the back of the chair to yank it out, legs dragging churlishly across the floor, and he drops down heavily onto the seat.