from inside your house, you watch with heaviness as ellie stops, looks at joel, and walks straight back to the garage.

the snow blanketing the ground crunches underneath her boots, and you have to pull a coat back around your shoulders to face the bitterness of outside.

“you should come inside, joel.” you say from the door, feeling awful for the two of them.

you've been living with joel for the last three years, of the five years he and ellie have now been in jackson. and you're friends with ellie, too, doing patrol with her from time to time. so it's never been more difficult to watch the two of them than now.

the coldness. them being closed off to one another, despite your attempts to bring them back together. and you've tried, you really have. joel admires your attempt to be the glue, but he also knows ellie as the most stubborn nineteen year old he's ever met.

“i'm fine out here.” he says, voice gruff and tight. his southern drawl is slightly deeper with emotion that he tries so hard to hold back.

“it's too cold, joel. you'll catch somethin'.” you urge him, stepping over and putting your hand on his shoulder.

“i just don't get it. i tried to be helpful.” he huffs, hand reaching up to encase yours. “seth... lord, i could've done a lot worse. he had no right to speak to them like that.”

“m'not saying he did.” you say, squeezing his hand. “he was completely in the wrong. but ellie feels like-”

“you don't know what ellie feels.” joel says, standing up now, dropping your hand.

his voice is slightly sharper, colder. remisicent of ellie's at the cookout.

he's usually calmer than this. he's happier now, in jackson, with his nephew and brother and ellie nearby. with you. and he's going to therapy, even if that itself is slightly rocky.

all in all, he's usually a lot less cruel than this.

“i've known her for longer. you don't even know why we're not talkin'. so don't go makin' assumptions, okay? you don't know how she feels.” he says, giving you a look, before walking back inside the house.