A Breath of Fresh Air - e.w.

31

Lia woke up early for her morning shift in the medical cabin. Usually, she was good with them, but this morning was difficult with her lack of sleep from the night prior.

Her eyes turned to Ellie, who was still sleeping before her morning patrol, and she smiled slightly before getting up and quickly getting changed. Lia kept a few clothes here at Ellie's, but she frowned when the shirts were clearly dirty, "Ellie definitely did not do laundry," Lia muttered to herself. Lia looked over at what was definitely one of the only clean shirts in this room and shrugged before grabbing it, "she won't mind."

Lia packed her bag and left quietly to avoid waking up Ellie. She frowned at the dark outdoors and made her way over to Joel's for coffee. She saw that his lights were on from Ellie's window, so she assumed that he would have some coffee waiting for her.

"Thank god," Lia muttered when she saw her cup of coffee waiting on Joel's table, "you not having any?"

"No," Joel chuckled, watching the girl start to chug the hot coffee, "Tommy and I got called out early. Lot of infected spotted in the area - got to get them under control quickly."

"Shit," Lia mumbled, "Well, be careful. Both of you."

"Always am," Joel nodded, "You stay and finish that. How about we have some coffee later?"

"Sure," Lia smiled gently at the man.

He nodded, getting ready to leave, but paused. Lia furrowed her eyebrows as she watched him clear his throat, "You and Ellie should come over to dinner properly - if Ellie would be up for that."

"You can always ask... or I can," Lia said slowly. Joel cleared his throat again, nodding slightly. His eyes paused on Lia's shirt, recognizing it as Ellie's before he smiled ever so slightly.

"I'll ask... I-you two are good together."

Lia's eyes widened slightly at the off handed comment. She didn't even have a chance to reply before he walked out to meet Tommy. Lia looked over and saw Joel's mug sitting on the countertop. She quickly cleaned both of the mugs, leaving them on the countertop to dry before she ran out of Joel's place and towards the medical cabin.

"Sorry, I'm late!" Lia said to Kate who chuckled at the girl.

"It's alright, we're caught up on everything anyways. Mind just doing a quick inventory check? Maria was gonna send a group out for a supply run later."

"Sure," Lia nodded, sending the woman a smile before going to the back.

Jackson was a very stocked town. They had supplies, traders and rarely ever had to worry about feeding the whole town. It was a strange utopia in the middle of disaster.

"Hey, Kate. Lia here?" Ellie's voice carried through the cabin. Lia stopped what she was doing, smiling to herself before poking her head out of the supply cabinet.

"Ellie, hey," Lia smiled at her girlfriend and head over to her, "what's up?"

"Hey," Ellie smiled down at Lia, raising an eyebrow at her girlfriend, "is that my shirt?"

"Yeah, mine were dirty."

"That was like the only clean shirt!"

Lia moved towards her girlfriend, leaning down to her neck and sniffing slightly, "You smell fine," Lia shrugged before her hands gently grabbed the bottom of Ellie's shirt and pulled her in softly, "besides, you look nice. I like this shirt on you."

"You can borrow it. You clearly look better in my clothes," Ellie chuckled as she cleared her throat and stopped looking Lia up and down, "Maria and Jesse were wondering if you could head out for a patrol? We're short staffed today."