❖
Glenn had once told Elle during the Governor's rain of terror that things had to get worse before they could get better.
That was bullshit.
Beth dying should have been enough to classify as the worse of that statement. It should have been more than enough. But now she was standing at the grave of yet another person she loved. It was more than worse. It was utterly heartbreaking. She wasn't sure there was coming back from losing two people that quickly.
Beth and Tyreese. The purist of them all. The two who protected Judith and did no wrong. The ones who least deserved death, especially in the way it went down.
Elle had always wanted to leave Georgia. But if being in Georgia meant they could go back to how life was before the Prison fell, she would stay there for the rest of their lives. Now Virginia was where they were calling home for the time being, and it did not seem promising.
"E."
The sound of Carl's voice made Elle's head snap in his direction. They'd only spoken once since Elle was reunited with the group. It was when he first saw her. He'd gone on a five minute apology spree before he realized what the look on her face meant.
And then she held him while he cried.
But since that moment there had been no words. Elle hadn't been talking much to anyone. Neither had Daryl nor Maggie for that matter. And now Sasha was joining them.
"Yeah?" she finally responded, her voice horse.
"There's a store nearby I was going to check out while we rest," he told her. "Wanna come with?"
She nodded, "Just give me one second."
There was an important stop she had to make before the store, and that was the spot right next to a little boy who felt out of place.
"Hey, buddy," she said in a quiet voice, squatting down next to him. "I'm sorry I haven't checked up on you lately. How are you doing?"
"I'm really sad about Beth," Tommy admitted.
Elle didn't say anything at first, just pulling him into her side for a tight hug.
"Me too," she mumbled after a beat. "Me too."
"But Glenn is really nice," he said when they pulled apart. "I like talking to him."
"He's the best," Elle agreed, still not entirely present. It was like she was a character in the video game and while she could control her actions, she wasn't really there. "I'm gonna go scavenge a store nearby real quick with Carl. You good staying here?"
He nodded in confirmation and Elle wordlessly left his side and approached Carl's. When she passed him in silence he didn't say anything, just walked alongside her to their destination.
Now there was a lot more going on between the two then what met the eye. They looked like a pair of friends comforting each other, and they were, but that wasn't all. Neither had forgotten their last conversation before their separation.
"Stuff that boyfriends and girlfriends do," he corrected himself. "I love you Elle, how could I not? I thought I made it pretty obvious when I kissed you in the woods."
"No," Elle jabbed her finger towards him, still standing a fair distance apart. "You don't get to be all gushy and proclaim how much you love me. This isn't a fucking two-thousands chick flick."
Carl thew his hands up in the air as he gasped in disbelief and yelled toward her, "I don't even know what that means!"
"It means that... it means that you are a piece of shit who let me feel like an idiot... like an idiot for however fucking long it's been... and I... it's not... it's not fair..."
But there wasn't much to discuss when the fact that they had no food or water took president over their possible relationship. And the unresolved trauma was starting to add up a bit.
Or at least Elle thought that Carl thought it would be inappropriately timed if he brought it up. Elle though, she didn't care. She excelled at saying things at inappropriate times. But she was done trying. If Carl wanted to, he would.
"It's a bad time to ask you to be my girlfriend, right?"
Oh. He just said that.
Oh.
So maybe she hadn't given him enough credit.
"Have you met me?" she said, pausing her steps to look back at him. She mustered up all the strength she could and offered him a bright smile. "I don't understand the concept of bad timing."
"So that means it isn't a bad time?"
"Ask me and find out."
Carl was slightly taken aback by her shift in demeanor. But if anyone else saw they wouldn't have been shocked, they would've been surprised it didn't happen sooner. Any time the two love struck teenagers were near each other, they lit up. It was only a matter of time before Carl reignited Elle's spark, even if it was only temporary for now.
"I never watched any of those two-thousands chick flicks you were talking about so I don't know exactly how this works," Carl said, struggling at hiding his grin.
Elle crossed her arms across her chest, narrowing her eyes at him in a teasing manner.
"Oh you've got jokes now? I thought that was my thing."
"Don't expect any more," he warned her. "It took me the entire time you were at the hospital to come up with that one."
Elle dropped her hands to her side and her smile turned to a look of awe. Had he really been thinking about it for that long?
"What?" Carl asked in response to the look on her face.
"I just," Elle started, not being able to find her words. "I don't know, there's like, I want, y'know, just, you planned that joke?"
"Anything to make you smile," he told her.
And he meant it. Carl Grimes would do anything to see a smile on Elle Coleman's face.
Then he added on, "You are aware that I've been madly in love with you since we met, right? Because you look confused and that's making me confused."
Confused wasn't an efficient enough word to describe the emotional rollercoaster that Elle was currently riding. She was trying to balance and process everything that was affecting her. The sorrow and pain from watching Beth die paired with losing Tyreese and Bob, the constant worry about Tommy, she hadn't had a conversation with Maggie or Daryl since the events at the hospital, and she had a voice nagging in the back of her head wondering where she stood with Carl.
And all those worries seemed nonexistent after Carl's most recent comment. She thought she'd fallen first. She thought she'd been the idiot who made a move on her best friend that had no interest in a relationship.
Just to find out he'd been waiting for her all along.
"You're lying," she said, believing his statement was made out of pity. "You're lying."
Carl frowned, thinking her response would have been on the other end of the spectrum than what it was. Elle the Optimist, it fit perfectly. Now she stood in front of him, doubting his unfathomable love for her. He couldn't believe her.
"You're joking, right?" he almost scoffed at her. "I acted-"
"Like a complete asshole when we met!"
"Because I was a little kid who didn't know what to do when he saw a pretty girl his age!"
There was a pause.
Then, in a small voice, Elle asked, "You think I'm pretty?"
"I think you're beautiful," Carl replied without missing a beat. "Elle, what don't you get? Okay, red's not my favorite color because it's the opposite of green, red's my favorite color because it reminds me of you. It reminds me of your hair, your personality, your passion, your love. You're my favorite everything. So get that in your head and don't doubt how long I've been in love with you, because it's been my entire life. Before I even knew you it was you. So will you please be my girlfriend, Elle? Please?"
"Carl," Elle said in an even voice.
"Yeah?" Carl said in a desperate one.
"Is that a walkman?"
Elle wasn't just going to forget how long it took Carl to make a move. She had no obligation to give him an answer to his question any time soon.
Carl on the other hand, hadn't even realized it had taken him long at all. In his mind he had loved her all that time, so it counted, even if he struggled at showing it.
But that didn't matter to Elle who ignored his stunned silence and strutted right past him to the front of the store where she reached what she had correctly assumed was a walkman, it even had a cassette inside, ready to play .
"Do you think it works?"
He didn't respond.
"I bet it works," Elle answered herself.
And as always, she was correct. She had stuck one of the earbuds connected to it in her ear and handed the other to Carl. Still in his state of shock, he placed it in his ear, moving closer to Elle and the walkman in her hand so that the wire wouldn't snap.
After toying with it for a minute, it finally started to play sound, catching the both of them off guard. The last time either of them had heard the familiar and elating sound of music had been shortly before the start of the apocalypse. Music had once been Elle's escape from the world, now it was the thing that was grounding her, and forcing her to remember that the Earth they were on was still the same Earth it had been before.
Once Elle gave the song a moment to process, she started smiling so big that you would have thought she had just won the lottery.
When she held her hand out to Carl for him to take he didn't waste a second to wrap his hands around hers, but he had not expected the end result of that action to be them dancing to the slow tempo of the song playing in their ears.
"I hope you don't mind, I hope you don't mind, that I put down in the words," Elle sang along with the man while turning herself in Carl's arms. "How wonderful life is, while you're in the world."
Carl was unsure whether his staring was because he was amused by her antics or because of how stunning she looked when she was happy. Or both. With Elle it was probably both.
"You know this song?" Carl questioned even though the answer was obvious by her obnoxious singing. "It sounds like it's from 1980, we weren't even alive."
Elle rolled her eyes at him but didn't stop dancing as she told him in a matter of fact tone, "It was released in 1970 dumbass, besides, everyone knows the best music is from the 70s, 80s, and 90s."
This time Carl was the one to roll his eyes. She was always so full of herself, thinking she was right in every situation. But that was one of the things he loved the most about her. She was the most head strong, confident, opinionated person he'd ever met. And when the inevitable breaking point came and tore away all of her remarkable attributes, Carl was the only one who could bring her back.
Example A, after she was kidnapped by the Governor for the first time.
Example B, after Patrick's death and the sickness that plagued the prison.
Example C, after the destruction of the prison and Hershel's death.
Example D, after the claimers.
Example E, now.
She was smiling. She was talking. That was more than could be said about her the last few days, weeks, months? He wasn't sure, but today exceeded all other days since they had been on the road, and that was enough. Although her saying yes to his question would've been a great form of extra credit.
"I can't believe you don't know this song," Elle shook her head at Carl, morphing their dancing style into a small sway. "It's Elton John! Please tell me you know Elton John."
In an attempt to hold onto his dignity, Carl scoffed, "Is Elton even a real name?"
The look Elle gave Carl mirrored one of someone who had a french fry stolen from their plate. She rolled her eyes at him to complete the look, it seemed to be their love language at this point.
"I can't believe I'm dating someone who doesn't know Elton John. I mean, Your Song is iconic enough as it is. Then there's-"
"We're dating?"
And that comment was followed by a look Elle constantly gave Carl. Every time he was given said look he tended to go over any possible slightly idiotic things he may have said or done, and he usually found the answer to why he was receiving the look.
"Yes, Carl. We are dating," Elle told him over the song that had now restarted itself. "Did you think I was going to say no?"
Yes he did. He thought she hated him after everything he'd done to her. He'd told her some awful things, he'd let her get kidnapped, he'd unintentionally made her think he was leading her on even though he wasn't aware of that one nor was it true.
"So you're my girlfriend?" he made sure to clarify while also redirecting the conversation.
The funny thing was, Elle had never smiled so much at such a stupid question. Especially one from Carl, ones that were unsurprisingly common. She couldn't not smile though, because it felt as if everything that had happened to her, all the trauma she had endured, had led to this moment, the happiest moment she had experienced in what felt like and may have been forever.
She didn't respond to his question, she just grabbed the collar of his shirt with her hand not holding the walkman and brought his lips to hers.
And just for a moment, everything was right in the world. The dangerous world that surrounded them disappeared, leaving only them and the soft music playing in their ears.
Their lips pulled apart, although it was clear neither wanted to. In exchange, their foreheads pressed together as they soaked in the moment, both of their hats having been discarded when they were dancing.
It was the same feeling as when you put the last puzzle piece in its place; accomplishment, fulfillment, relief. Elle Coleman and Carl Grimes finally getting together was not the final piece of their puzzle, yet they still felt the similar rush of emotions as if it were.
"I love you," Carl whispered as if it was a sweet nothing. Like it barely had relevance because it was so obvious and common.
"Damn right you do," Elle smirked, causing yet again another eye roll. But, if living in this moment forever meant an infinite number of eye rolls, they'd both take it.
Their dancing started again, if you could even call it that. They were pressed tight against each other and stepped in place to the beat of the music, it wouldn't even qualify as a sway.
"Hey, dumbass," Elle mumbled barely over the music. "I love you too."
"I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss.
Well a few of the verses, well they've got me quite cross.
But the sun's been quite kind while I wrote this song.
It's for people like you that keep it turned on.
So excuse me forgetting, but these things I do.
You see I've forgotten, if they're green or they're blue.
Anyway, the thing is, what I really mean.
Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen."
❖
AUTHOR'S NOTE: so. here it is. quite possibly the happiest chapter there has been and ever will be of diamonds. my comfort couple that struggle with communication and codependency but i love nonetheless. please tell me what you think cause i'm actually so bad at writing fluff and i much prefer angst (but this book already has enough of that) thank you my dear readers <3