the aftermath - twdg clouis fanfic

6.past

"When the walkers came, I was only 8. My parents went on vacation and left me with a babysitter. She died, like everyone else.
"That was when Lee found me. He showed me how to survive. I was with him for almost a year. On our last day together, we had to get through a herd of walkers in Savannah. I saw my parents then. As walkers." She paused, reliving the memories.
"Oh, god...then what?" Louis asked quietly.
Clem sighed and shook her head. "Lee got bit saving me. He asked me to kill him before he turned. I did." She remembered pulling the trigger, hearing it leave the gun, strike Lee in the brain. Seeing him slump to the ground, dead.
"I was with my friends Christa and Omid for a while. I think two years. Omid died, and Christa lost her baby. We got separated after that. And again, I was with a new group.
"Carlos, Sarah, Nick, Luke. Rebecca and Alvin, AJ's parents. It was weird being with that group. I had to be the adult most of the time, even though I was only 11. But I think it was a good thing. I needed to learn to survive on my own at some point, right?
"I found my friend Kenny again. He was different from last time I had seen him, more broken. He really lost it at one point...that was when he killed Jane.
"But I don't regret staying with Kenny. If it wasn't for him, AJ wouldn't have survived.
A few years later, I lost him in a car crash. It was my fault." Clementine shuddered.
Louis was beginning to feel guilty for asking. "You know what...you don't have t-"
She ignored him and continued. It was her story and she needed to finish it.
"I had a new group later, called the New Frontier. They took AJ away from me. I spent a year searching for him. When I got to him...he was at this ranch. In a locker."
"Jesus..." Louis whispered.
"That's where his 'trauma' comes from."
A long silence followed.
"We were on the road for two years after that. And then I crashed our car. And...here we are."
"Yeah. Here we are." Louis stared down the steps and then back at Clem. She wasn't looking at anything in particular; her eyes seemed to be off in another world. Her expression was slightly pained.
"I'm so sorry for bringing it up, Clem, I didn't know how much you had been through," Louis said softly.
Clementine gave him a small smile. "Don't be sorry. I haven't talked about this to anyone, ever. I don't want to just forget my old life, you know?" A few tears escaped her eyes. Louis reached over and gently brushed them away.
The next thing he knew, her lips were on his. When Clem pulled away, they heard a small giggle.
"AJ, I swear to god, mind your own business," Clem groaned.
She looked up and saw that it wasn't AJ spying on them, but Willy. She felt slightly uneasy as his wide eyes stared right into her soul.
"Oh...um, I think I'm going to go inside..." she said slowly. Willy didn't once break eye contact with her as she climbed up and into her crutches.
"Yeah, uh, I'll join you!" Louis said.