Fanfiction: And All These Empty Streets (Life Is Strange 2/The Last of Us)
I wish I had some fanfiction ideas, I thought four hours ago, and suddenly an entire fic happened.
Geographically, it probably makes no sense that the Diaz brothers would meet Joel and Ellie in their travels, but, in my defence, I really wanted them to. This is just a one-shot for now, to get the idea out of my head, but there might be space for more stories in this universe if I'm inspired.
This is an AU and contains no spoilers for the second episode of Life Is Strange 2, but it does have some spoilers for episode one.
Title: And All These Empty Streets
Fandom: Life Is Strange 2/The Last of Us
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 2,100
Summary: After the apocalypse, Sean and Daniel have a run-in with Joel and Ellie.
Making contact with strangers is always fun; you never know if they’re going to try to kill you for supplies on sight. Sean’s learned that from experience. But they’re low on food, way too low, and this guy...
Well, he’s a walking weaponry store, but he’s also got a teenager with him. A girl, younger than Sean, older than Daniel. Maybe someone who’s got a kid will be less inclined to murder a couple of other kids. Or maybe he won’t want to do it in front of her, at least.
Maybe he’ll be determined to get supplies for her at any cost.
But they have to take the risk.
Sean’s told Daniel to stay out of sight behind a car, keep himself safe. Use his power if he has to. If he has to. It’s saved their asses a lot, but they try not to use it around people who don’t have mushrooms growing out of their heads; this is not a world that likes unexplained things, particularly as the last big unexplained event was ‘everyone turning into fucking zombies’.
“Hey,” Sean calls, stepping into the abandoned road. Hands up and open.
They turn around sharply, the guy putting his hand on the weapon in his holster. Not reassuring, but it’s pretty much what Sean expected.
“I’m safe,” Sean says, keeping his hands raised. “I just want to trade.”
The girl glances at the guy, but he’s still watching Sean with laser focus. They’re both silent. Not unsettling at all.
“We’ve got bullets,” Sean says. “Maybe you could use them?”
It’s an easy trade to offer. Sean can’t shoot straight to save his life, literally, and if they run into trouble... well, they’ve got Daniel. But they still pick up bullets when they can find them; it’s always good to have something to bargain with.
Sean remembers, he vividly remembers the first time he searched a dead body for supplies. He kind of wishes he still felt horror that strong every time. Somewhere along the line it’s just become part of the routine, and that doesn’t seem great.
“We’ve got bullets, you’re saying,” the guy says. “Who’s we?”
Oh, shit. “Uh-”
“Any friends you got hiding, you call them out,” the guy says. “No deals unless everything’s out in the open.”
Can he just pretend it was a slip of the tongue? He can’t put Daniel in danger, he can’t-
“It’s just me,” Daniel says, standing up from behind the car.
Goddammit, Daniel.
Sean laughs, a little desperately. “Yeah, sorry, I just - he’s my brother, he’s just a kid, look at him, he doesn’t need to get involved in this-”
“Fuck,” the girl says softly, taking a step back.
Is Daniel using his powers? Shit.
But Sean whips around to check on him and - it’s fine, he’s not doing anything.
Well. ‘Fine’. The guy drew his pistol at the sudden movement, so now there are guns involved. Awesome.
“Sorry,” Sean says. “We didn’t mean to freak you out. Either of you.” He’s still not sure what got the girl so on edge.
“Not your fault,” the guy says, with a glance at her. “Just, the last set of brothers we met... it didn’t go so good.”
“They tried to kill you?” Sean hazards. It’s generally a safe bet.
Guy shakes his head. “Worse.”
“Joel,” the girl says, “he’s like eight-”
“Nine,” Daniel says, deeply offended.
“I’m not gonna shoot the kid,” the guy says. Joel, apparently. “Not so long as these guys don’t make a move against us.”
Always reassuring when people add caveats to ‘not gonna shoot the nine-year-old’.
“Definitely no moves,” Sean says. “We’ll be good, I promise.”
“You’d better hope so,” the guy says. “So what’s that you were saying about a trade?”
“Bullets for food,” Sean says. “We’ve got bullets. You’ve got food, maybe?”
“No one’s got food,” Joel says.
Please take the trade, Sean is thinking. He doesn’t want to have to ask Daniel to kill animals with his power. He’s been trying so hard not to ask for that.
Maybe it’s stupid, trying to preserve some shred of Daniel’s innocence when he’s already killed things that used to be people. But Sean’s still so aware of every time Daniel has to cross a new line. It feels so much worse than crossing them himself.
He hasn’t asked Daniel to kill animals. He hasn’t asked Daniel to search corpses. He hasn’t asked Daniel to kill real, breathing, thinking human beings, although it’s come close a couple of times. He really hopes today isn’t the day they break that barrier.
He wishes Joel would put away that gun.
“We could help them,” the girl says. She is immediately Sean’s favourite person.
Well. Apart from Lyla.
(He can’t let himself think about Lyla. They were separated - shit, months back, it’s been months. Back when that creepy guy abducted Daniel, knocked Sean out (fucking useless), and it’s hard to piece together, but he’s pretty sure Lyla took off after them like the goddamn superhero she is. Sean spent two days just freaking out and crying, on his own, scared to leave the camp in case they tried to come back there, scared not to leave in case they were getting fucking murdered.
Daniel broke out with his powers, came back upset but unscathed. Never any sign of Lyla.
Sean tries to leave messages wherever he goes, make sure there are people or notes to point her in the right direction. And they were heading roughly south all along, chasing the rumours that people are heading by sea to New Zealand, which has apparently managed to clear out the infected and start rebuilding. Sounds like bullshit, but they have to go after any hope they can get. So she’ll know they’re going that way, right?
They’re never going to fucking see each other again.)
“We ain’t running a charity, Ellie,” Joel says. “We help ourselves. We take the deal if it’s good for us. If it ain’t, nothing changes hands.”
There’s a pause, Joel and Ellie looking at each other, which Sean definitely prefers to Joel looking at him or Daniel with a gun in his hand.
Joel sighs and turns back to Sean. “So what’s the ammo you got?”
Sean pulls a small handful of assorted bullets out of his pocket. “You’ve got, like, a billion guns; you’ve gotta be able to use a couple of these, right?”
Joel holds out the hand not holding his gun. “Let me take a look.”
“I mean, they’re bullets. They’re good to have even if you can’t shoot them. You can always trade.”
“You’re telling me to trade food to get bullets to trade for food?”
Sean’s reluctant to hand them over, but, if this guy’s planning to rob them, being tricked into just handing him the bullets is at least preferable to being shot for them. “Okay, you can look.”
He edges closer, hands at his sides, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. Reaches out. Drops the bullets into Joel’s palm.
Joel looks at them closely, rolls them this way and that with his thumb. Sean takes the opportunity to look over at Daniel. Kid is doing an impressive job of not shitting himself. Maybe he heard I’m not gonna shoot the kid and stopped paying attention.
Sean tries to give him a reassuring smile. From the feel of his face, it has probably made the situation less reassuring.
“Is this guy your dad?” Daniel asks Ellie. There’s a kind of wistful envy to it.
Oh, great. Daniel is getting involved in negotiations. Joel kind of half-glances up at the sound of his voice, then focuses on the bullets again.
Ellie shakes her head. “He’s... I don’t know. We’re just travelling together, I guess.”
That could mean any number of things, at varying levels of fucked-upness. Sean takes half a step closer to Daniel. There’s no way they’re going through another David incident.
“So what happened with the other brothers you met?” Daniel asks.
Sean looks sharply at him. “Jesus, Daniel-”
“What? They never said.”
“You don’t - you don’t ask questions like that, everyone’s been through fucked-up shit, you don’t ask strangers to talk about it-”
“It’s fine,” Ellie says. She doesn’t sound fine. “One of them got bit. Other one shot him. Then himself.” She shrugs. “The end.”
“Ellie,” Joel says, “you don’t gotta talk about this.”
“He asked,” Ellie says, voice flat.
It kind of tears Sean up to hear it. It’s stupid, awful stuff happens all the time, but somehow it’s more real hearing about it happening to another pair of brothers. It’s playing out in his head now, seeing Daniel get bitten, having to make that decision. Would he be able to keep living after that?
He wishes Daniel hadn’t fucking asked.
“Wow,” Daniel says, quietly. “I’m really sorry.”
“Hey,” Ellie says, with a barely-there smile, “just don’t let it happen to you and I guess I’ll forgive you.”
Joel glances over at her at that, Sean notices. If he’s taking notice of I don’t want to see another pair of brothers die traumatic deaths, Sean guesses that’s good news for them.
It’s not like Joel’s been that hostile. Just wary. But Sean still can’t stop looking at the gun. It wasn’t an infected that killed their dad.
“Bullets are no good,” Joel says at last. “Maybe one we can use. More likely none.”
Fuck.
“Does that mean we don’t get food?” Daniel asks. “Oh, man, that sucks.”
Joel looks at him for a moment. Looks at Ellie.
Sighs, and slings off his backpack, and pulls out a couple cans. “Like you said. Could always trade them.”
“Seriously?” Sean asks. “Oh, man, thank you, you don’t know how much we-”
He almost feels it before he hears it, like a sixth sense, or maybe he sees Joel and Ellie tense up, or maybe-
Infected. The knowledge passes through his body like a ripple. Infected. Here.
“Daniel,” he says sharply, turning around.
“Shit,” Daniel says. Sean gave up even trying to keep him from swearing a while back, not long after their dad...
Focus.
They come out of an alley between two houses, Runners, three of them. Two shots ring out almost at the same time, and for a weird moment Sean thinks it’s Joel and Daniel, Daniel’s never even touched a gun, and then he realises Ellie’s got a gun of her own.
One of the Runners goes down. The other two?
They go up.
“What the hell?” Joel demands.
Sean looks away; he hates seeing it when Daniel breaks their necks. But he still hears the sound.
“Holy fuck,” Ellie whispers.
Sean grabs Daniel’s arm - they need to get out of here, forget the food, forget the bullets, forget-
“Did you do that?” Ellie demands. “Holy fuck, that’s so cool!”
“You really think so?” Daniel asks, pulling out of Sean’s grip. Goddammit, Daniel.
“They dead?” Joel asks, gripping his gun. Staring at the infected corpses, at least, and not at Daniel. For now.
“What was that?” Ellie asks.
“Look, watch this,” Daniel says, telekinetically starting to lift the cans of food, because this is definitely the time for that. Sean just gives up and lets him do it; there’s no stopping Daniel when he gets like this. Ellie’s already helped their cause with Joel once; maybe she’ll stop him if he tries to shoot Daniel for his crazy telekinetic powers? Maybe? Please?
“Shit,” Joel says. “Don’t suppose you got any of that to trade, do you?”
Okay. Maybe they’ll get out of this alive.
“Sorry,” Daniel says. “I don’t really know where it came from.”
“Must be useful as hell,” Joel says. “Two infected in one go?”
“Oh, I can do more than that,” Daniel says, proudly.
“Huh,” Joel says. “You boys got somewhere to be?”
South. New Zealand, maybe. Lyla, maybe, if there’s any chance she’s still alive.
“Why are you asking?” Sean asks.
“Just thinking,” Joel says. “Got an important delivery to make. And it sounds like you’ve got more to offer than a bunch of bullets.”
Sean steps closer to Daniel. He doesn’t have powers himself, but he will fight tooth and nail. “You can’t have him.”
“Ain’t trying to take him away,” Joel says. “Just saying, if you want to come with us a way, we’ll keep you fed. If we can, at least.”
Fuck. It sounds good. Not having to be the one watching out for Daniel all the time. He’s barely slept in months, no Lyla to take shifts on guard duty.
“Sean?” Daniel asks.
“What do you think, enano?” Sean asks.
“I don’t know,” Daniel says. “I think Ellie’s cool.”
Ellie laughs. “Thanks.”
They’ve barely met her. Daniel’s always been so quick to decide whether he likes people. It’s going to get them killed.
“Well,” Sean says, looking at Joel, “I guess... maybe for a little way.”
He’ll still need to stay awake, at least for the first couple of nights. Make sure Joel doesn’t try anything weird.
But maybe this could be good.
Geographically, it probably makes no sense that the Diaz brothers would meet Joel and Ellie in their travels, but, in my defence, I really wanted them to. This is just a one-shot for now, to get the idea out of my head, but there might be space for more stories in this universe if I'm inspired.
This is an AU and contains no spoilers for the second episode of Life Is Strange 2, but it does have some spoilers for episode one.
Title: And All These Empty Streets
Fandom: Life Is Strange 2/The Last of Us
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 2,100
Summary: After the apocalypse, Sean and Daniel have a run-in with Joel and Ellie.
Making contact with strangers is always fun; you never know if they’re going to try to kill you for supplies on sight. Sean’s learned that from experience. But they’re low on food, way too low, and this guy...
Well, he’s a walking weaponry store, but he’s also got a teenager with him. A girl, younger than Sean, older than Daniel. Maybe someone who’s got a kid will be less inclined to murder a couple of other kids. Or maybe he won’t want to do it in front of her, at least.
Maybe he’ll be determined to get supplies for her at any cost.
But they have to take the risk.
Sean’s told Daniel to stay out of sight behind a car, keep himself safe. Use his power if he has to. If he has to. It’s saved their asses a lot, but they try not to use it around people who don’t have mushrooms growing out of their heads; this is not a world that likes unexplained things, particularly as the last big unexplained event was ‘everyone turning into fucking zombies’.
“Hey,” Sean calls, stepping into the abandoned road. Hands up and open.
They turn around sharply, the guy putting his hand on the weapon in his holster. Not reassuring, but it’s pretty much what Sean expected.
“I’m safe,” Sean says, keeping his hands raised. “I just want to trade.”
The girl glances at the guy, but he’s still watching Sean with laser focus. They’re both silent. Not unsettling at all.
“We’ve got bullets,” Sean says. “Maybe you could use them?”
It’s an easy trade to offer. Sean can’t shoot straight to save his life, literally, and if they run into trouble... well, they’ve got Daniel. But they still pick up bullets when they can find them; it’s always good to have something to bargain with.
Sean remembers, he vividly remembers the first time he searched a dead body for supplies. He kind of wishes he still felt horror that strong every time. Somewhere along the line it’s just become part of the routine, and that doesn’t seem great.
“We’ve got bullets, you’re saying,” the guy says. “Who’s we?”
Oh, shit. “Uh-”
“Any friends you got hiding, you call them out,” the guy says. “No deals unless everything’s out in the open.”
Can he just pretend it was a slip of the tongue? He can’t put Daniel in danger, he can’t-
“It’s just me,” Daniel says, standing up from behind the car.
Goddammit, Daniel.
Sean laughs, a little desperately. “Yeah, sorry, I just - he’s my brother, he’s just a kid, look at him, he doesn’t need to get involved in this-”
“Fuck,” the girl says softly, taking a step back.
Is Daniel using his powers? Shit.
But Sean whips around to check on him and - it’s fine, he’s not doing anything.
Well. ‘Fine’. The guy drew his pistol at the sudden movement, so now there are guns involved. Awesome.
“Sorry,” Sean says. “We didn’t mean to freak you out. Either of you.” He’s still not sure what got the girl so on edge.
“Not your fault,” the guy says, with a glance at her. “Just, the last set of brothers we met... it didn’t go so good.”
“They tried to kill you?” Sean hazards. It’s generally a safe bet.
Guy shakes his head. “Worse.”
“Joel,” the girl says, “he’s like eight-”
“Nine,” Daniel says, deeply offended.
“I’m not gonna shoot the kid,” the guy says. Joel, apparently. “Not so long as these guys don’t make a move against us.”
Always reassuring when people add caveats to ‘not gonna shoot the nine-year-old’.
“Definitely no moves,” Sean says. “We’ll be good, I promise.”
“You’d better hope so,” the guy says. “So what’s that you were saying about a trade?”
“Bullets for food,” Sean says. “We’ve got bullets. You’ve got food, maybe?”
“No one’s got food,” Joel says.
Please take the trade, Sean is thinking. He doesn’t want to have to ask Daniel to kill animals with his power. He’s been trying so hard not to ask for that.
Maybe it’s stupid, trying to preserve some shred of Daniel’s innocence when he’s already killed things that used to be people. But Sean’s still so aware of every time Daniel has to cross a new line. It feels so much worse than crossing them himself.
He hasn’t asked Daniel to kill animals. He hasn’t asked Daniel to search corpses. He hasn’t asked Daniel to kill real, breathing, thinking human beings, although it’s come close a couple of times. He really hopes today isn’t the day they break that barrier.
He wishes Joel would put away that gun.
“We could help them,” the girl says. She is immediately Sean’s favourite person.
Well. Apart from Lyla.
(He can’t let himself think about Lyla. They were separated - shit, months back, it’s been months. Back when that creepy guy abducted Daniel, knocked Sean out (fucking useless), and it’s hard to piece together, but he’s pretty sure Lyla took off after them like the goddamn superhero she is. Sean spent two days just freaking out and crying, on his own, scared to leave the camp in case they tried to come back there, scared not to leave in case they were getting fucking murdered.
Daniel broke out with his powers, came back upset but unscathed. Never any sign of Lyla.
Sean tries to leave messages wherever he goes, make sure there are people or notes to point her in the right direction. And they were heading roughly south all along, chasing the rumours that people are heading by sea to New Zealand, which has apparently managed to clear out the infected and start rebuilding. Sounds like bullshit, but they have to go after any hope they can get. So she’ll know they’re going that way, right?
They’re never going to fucking see each other again.)
“We ain’t running a charity, Ellie,” Joel says. “We help ourselves. We take the deal if it’s good for us. If it ain’t, nothing changes hands.”
There’s a pause, Joel and Ellie looking at each other, which Sean definitely prefers to Joel looking at him or Daniel with a gun in his hand.
Joel sighs and turns back to Sean. “So what’s the ammo you got?”
Sean pulls a small handful of assorted bullets out of his pocket. “You’ve got, like, a billion guns; you’ve gotta be able to use a couple of these, right?”
Joel holds out the hand not holding his gun. “Let me take a look.”
“I mean, they’re bullets. They’re good to have even if you can’t shoot them. You can always trade.”
“You’re telling me to trade food to get bullets to trade for food?”
Sean’s reluctant to hand them over, but, if this guy’s planning to rob them, being tricked into just handing him the bullets is at least preferable to being shot for them. “Okay, you can look.”
He edges closer, hands at his sides, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. Reaches out. Drops the bullets into Joel’s palm.
Joel looks at them closely, rolls them this way and that with his thumb. Sean takes the opportunity to look over at Daniel. Kid is doing an impressive job of not shitting himself. Maybe he heard I’m not gonna shoot the kid and stopped paying attention.
Sean tries to give him a reassuring smile. From the feel of his face, it has probably made the situation less reassuring.
“Is this guy your dad?” Daniel asks Ellie. There’s a kind of wistful envy to it.
Oh, great. Daniel is getting involved in negotiations. Joel kind of half-glances up at the sound of his voice, then focuses on the bullets again.
Ellie shakes her head. “He’s... I don’t know. We’re just travelling together, I guess.”
That could mean any number of things, at varying levels of fucked-upness. Sean takes half a step closer to Daniel. There’s no way they’re going through another David incident.
“So what happened with the other brothers you met?” Daniel asks.
Sean looks sharply at him. “Jesus, Daniel-”
“What? They never said.”
“You don’t - you don’t ask questions like that, everyone’s been through fucked-up shit, you don’t ask strangers to talk about it-”
“It’s fine,” Ellie says. She doesn’t sound fine. “One of them got bit. Other one shot him. Then himself.” She shrugs. “The end.”
“Ellie,” Joel says, “you don’t gotta talk about this.”
“He asked,” Ellie says, voice flat.
It kind of tears Sean up to hear it. It’s stupid, awful stuff happens all the time, but somehow it’s more real hearing about it happening to another pair of brothers. It’s playing out in his head now, seeing Daniel get bitten, having to make that decision. Would he be able to keep living after that?
He wishes Daniel hadn’t fucking asked.
“Wow,” Daniel says, quietly. “I’m really sorry.”
“Hey,” Ellie says, with a barely-there smile, “just don’t let it happen to you and I guess I’ll forgive you.”
Joel glances over at her at that, Sean notices. If he’s taking notice of I don’t want to see another pair of brothers die traumatic deaths, Sean guesses that’s good news for them.
It’s not like Joel’s been that hostile. Just wary. But Sean still can’t stop looking at the gun. It wasn’t an infected that killed their dad.
“Bullets are no good,” Joel says at last. “Maybe one we can use. More likely none.”
Fuck.
“Does that mean we don’t get food?” Daniel asks. “Oh, man, that sucks.”
Joel looks at him for a moment. Looks at Ellie.
Sighs, and slings off his backpack, and pulls out a couple cans. “Like you said. Could always trade them.”
“Seriously?” Sean asks. “Oh, man, thank you, you don’t know how much we-”
He almost feels it before he hears it, like a sixth sense, or maybe he sees Joel and Ellie tense up, or maybe-
Infected. The knowledge passes through his body like a ripple. Infected. Here.
“Daniel,” he says sharply, turning around.
“Shit,” Daniel says. Sean gave up even trying to keep him from swearing a while back, not long after their dad...
Focus.
They come out of an alley between two houses, Runners, three of them. Two shots ring out almost at the same time, and for a weird moment Sean thinks it’s Joel and Daniel, Daniel’s never even touched a gun, and then he realises Ellie’s got a gun of her own.
One of the Runners goes down. The other two?
They go up.
“What the hell?” Joel demands.
Sean looks away; he hates seeing it when Daniel breaks their necks. But he still hears the sound.
“Holy fuck,” Ellie whispers.
Sean grabs Daniel’s arm - they need to get out of here, forget the food, forget the bullets, forget-
“Did you do that?” Ellie demands. “Holy fuck, that’s so cool!”
“You really think so?” Daniel asks, pulling out of Sean’s grip. Goddammit, Daniel.
“They dead?” Joel asks, gripping his gun. Staring at the infected corpses, at least, and not at Daniel. For now.
“What was that?” Ellie asks.
“Look, watch this,” Daniel says, telekinetically starting to lift the cans of food, because this is definitely the time for that. Sean just gives up and lets him do it; there’s no stopping Daniel when he gets like this. Ellie’s already helped their cause with Joel once; maybe she’ll stop him if he tries to shoot Daniel for his crazy telekinetic powers? Maybe? Please?
“Shit,” Joel says. “Don’t suppose you got any of that to trade, do you?”
Okay. Maybe they’ll get out of this alive.
“Sorry,” Daniel says. “I don’t really know where it came from.”
“Must be useful as hell,” Joel says. “Two infected in one go?”
“Oh, I can do more than that,” Daniel says, proudly.
“Huh,” Joel says. “You boys got somewhere to be?”
South. New Zealand, maybe. Lyla, maybe, if there’s any chance she’s still alive.
“Why are you asking?” Sean asks.
“Just thinking,” Joel says. “Got an important delivery to make. And it sounds like you’ve got more to offer than a bunch of bullets.”
Sean steps closer to Daniel. He doesn’t have powers himself, but he will fight tooth and nail. “You can’t have him.”
“Ain’t trying to take him away,” Joel says. “Just saying, if you want to come with us a way, we’ll keep you fed. If we can, at least.”
Fuck. It sounds good. Not having to be the one watching out for Daniel all the time. He’s barely slept in months, no Lyla to take shifts on guard duty.
“Sean?” Daniel asks.
“What do you think, enano?” Sean asks.
“I don’t know,” Daniel says. “I think Ellie’s cool.”
Ellie laughs. “Thanks.”
They’ve barely met her. Daniel’s always been so quick to decide whether he likes people. It’s going to get them killed.
“Well,” Sean says, looking at Joel, “I guess... maybe for a little way.”
He’ll still need to stay awake, at least for the first couple of nights. Make sure Joel doesn’t try anything weird.
But maybe this could be good.