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Friday I'm in Love by vintagettee
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
07 Oct 2025
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Despite trying to avoid it at all costs, you return to Austin after your engagement fails and move back in with your dad while you figure out your next steps.
You reconnect with your dad’s best friend, Joel, and his daughter that you used to babysit when you were in your senior year of high school, Sarah.
Both of them slowly help you find a renewed sense of purpose and help you answer the question of whether you’ll let the ghosts of your past haunt you forever.
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A Reason to Survive by Ginjaninja1213
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
06 Oct 2025
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*Disclaimer: I do not own The Last of Us or the characters. Most conversations in the story are made up for original characters and are not associated with Naughty Dog, who are the original creators of The Last of Us.
When Joel and Ellie arrive in Jackson after returning from Salt Lake City, they have hopes of finding some sort of normalcy and routine. Joel isn't expecting to meet you, a doctor in Jackson who has a strange background. He remembers you from the Boston QZ, but you don't seem to remember him. You have a way of drawing people in unintentionally, and Joel is no different. Though you try to keep your distance initially, you feel a kind of comfort from Joel that you haven't found through anyone else.
When your plans to run away don't work out, and the more you learn about Joel and Ellie, you're reaching a point of no return where you feel that no matter how much you deny it to yourself, there is something darker going on. Joel can't hide the truth from you forever, and how will you react when you find out the truth?
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You arrive at the Boston QZ after running from a smuggling group you’d gotten caught up in. Desperate to get back on the job, you start work at a bar- here you hear whispers of Joel Miller, Boston’s top smuggler and most feared man.
People turn away when they see him, some even run—but you can't seem to stay away.
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"Your dad would have a goddamn heart attack if he saw you wearing that." Joel mutters, his eyes moving over my legs before returning to the road.
My belly heats from the alcohol or more likely- Joel's words. But with what I say next, I'm going to attribute it to the alcohol.
"My dad or you?" I ask quietly, expecting him to say nothing.
The leather steering wheel squeaks under his tight grip, jaw clenching before he speaks. "At this point, darlin', it might be both." -
Baneful Distractions by littledarlin
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
03 Oct 2025
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"You know, I don’t usually let girls your age…distract me."
"Yeah, I’m sure you’re a real standup guy," you quip back, and Joel chuckles.
"Wouldn’t go that far."Pleasure is rare in the Boston QZ, and you'll take it in any form it offers itself to you.
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something about you, baby by willxow
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
26 Sep 2025
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─ ·✶·
September 26th was always reserved for Joel Miller in your calendar. Hell, in Jackson’s calendar as well.
Everybody knew it was his big day, even if he didn’t like spending it with strangers, still stung by the past. Spending it with family, though?
That was something entirely different.With the day coming up soon, your plan to outdo yourself from the year before almost crumbles. You have no idea what to give him, aside from a small little gift he probably doesn’t need anyway—but you’re a thoughtful girlfriend and you cannot leave him without, at least, a little treat. He’s not a hard man to please, although he still doesn’t know how to accept gifts, not after years of trauma.
You decide to surprise him and show him how much he really means to you.In the end, things go sideways in a way you two will never forget.
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joel gets another chance at being a dad.
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Shadow of Death by suupermoonn
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
21 Sep 2025
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For the last six years, you’ve lived in relative comfort as a citizen of Jackson, Wyoming. You should feel lucky to be part of a strong, thriving community and dwell safely behind sturdy walls. But you don’t. Not when you didn’t deserve it.
The real story behind your sister’s passing is a truth you can’t bear anyone to know. You try to smother the guilt, try to keep your days full with work at the stables and other tasks of mundane nature, but the ghost of her continues to hang over you after all this time. Things threaten to boil over when your best friend Tommy asks an important favor of you involving his surly older brother – one you’d really rather not agree to, but find yourself signing up for without much of a choice.
Putting up with him is no walk in the park at first. But, much to your surprise, the shadow of death clings to Joel Miller too, and so maybe it was only inevitable that a connection was to be made between a pair of tortured souls with dirty little secrets.
“Everything you love is very likely to be lost, but in the end, love will return in a different way.” - Franz Kafka
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while joel's part of the jackson community, he's finding it hard to settle in. and when his nightmares begin to keep him up at night, he begins to frequent the tipsy bison. he tells himself it's to help take the edge off, to help him sleep, but instead, he finds comfort in you. because even in this fucked up world, you feel like home.
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i could be the way forward by willxow
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
16 Sep 2025
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graduating uni was more of a challenge than trying to pass each class for the entire four years you spent in colorado.
journalism turned out not to be the best pick for a young girl like you, miles away from home, with no penny to your name.which, well, forced you to drive back all the way to the austin suburbs, back where you set your first steps in this world.
coming back to austin meant one thing - your father breathing down your spine like a mother hen. it also meant coming back to your childhood bedroom, this time with a paper that cost you thousands of dollars, only for it to not even guarantee you a job.
planning to do your master's degree next, you desperately needed to save some money during this summer.so, how could you not agree to work at your dad's old buddy's ranch?
after all, joel miller wasn't a stranger to you.
and neither was his younger brother. -
Bright Stars, Long Shadows by maroguecherie
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
16 Sep 2025
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After years of travelling on foot from Coast to Coast, you stumble into Jackson, Wyoming. Surprisingly, a community with strong walls and one that offers safety. Haunted by loss and fiercely independent, you intend to keep your head down and leave before anyone can get too close.
But Jackson has a way of holding on to people. You find friendship, a place to belong, and you grudgingly keep crossing paths with Joel: the guarded man who met you under fire and still hasn’t figured you out.
Uneasy Connections Form - built on reluctant trust, shared survival, and moments that feel like desperate peace. Yet, danger is never far and old wounds with long shadows still linger, even under the brightest stars.
The Last of Us: Canon Universe, Post-Outbreak, Post Jackson
Takes Place between TLOU Part I + TLOU Part II: Mostly Inspired by the Game, with slight Elements from the Show
Joel x Reader with Eventual Sex/Smut/Romance
Multiple POVs
Multiple Chapters
Author Will Add More Tags As This Progresses. . . -
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After your father’s unexpected death, he leaves behind a legacy you never asked for: Frontier Basin Oil & Gas—and all the enemies that come with it. Chief among them is Joel Miller, the weathered, calculating head of Miller Dominion, a Texas oil empire built on grit, silence, and the kind of power that doesn’t need announcing.
Once your father’s protégé, Joel hasn’t forgiven a betrayal that cut too deep—and he sure as hell doesn’t trust the daughter now sitting in the seat Dean left behind.
Thrown into a world of backroom deals, rusted rigs, and old money politics, you’re forced to go head-to-head with a man who makes it clear you don’t belong on his turf. But the line between rivalry and something else has always been thinner than it should be—and neither of you are doing a very good job staying on the right side of it.
The tension is constant. The stakes, personal. And under the weight of grief, legacy, and bad history, something combustible begins to take shape.
Oil runs thick in the soil out here. So does resentment. And desire has a way of surfacing when the pressure’s high enough.
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i remember his hands by Anonymous
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
08 Sep 2025
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You were supposed to win. This was meant to be your comeback, and instead, you’re alone in your hotel room, reckoning with your failure.
Or, you’re a tennis champion and Joel’s your coach.
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beneath the surface by ficsbyava
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
08 Sep 2025
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you two fight constantly. over nothing, over everything. but when it all finally falls apart, joel takes you to his old farm. it's the first time things feel calm since the chaos that started with the loss of your mom and your dad's bitterness. somewhere in all that quiet, the way he looks at you starts to change.
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dreams we left behind by sallywallysuer
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
01 Sep 2025
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“You think you know me? Think you know what I lost? I’m a far cry from the man you once knew, sweetheart.”
He steps back, and points his finger at you before spitting, “So don’t stand there and preach to me about dreams. Dreams are what get people killed. You wanna hold onto yours—fine. But don’t you dare use mine to make a point.”
You let out a laugh, bitter through your tears. “You know what, Joel? You can keep your curse. You can keep hiding behind it, tearing into anyone who tries to give a damn about you. I hope it keeps you warm at night.”
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Cowboy - Joel Miller by 0nlyAngelx
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
18 Aug 2025
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An older cowboy meets a ray of sunshine that melts his stone cold heart.
Cowboy!Joel Miller - AU
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Your Sweet Divine by littledarlin
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
27 Jul 2025
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"I’ll talk you through it," he decides after a beat, "but you’re movin’ on your own, princess. ’S still a workout."
Your eyes are wide, but you don’t argue.
"Start movin’ your hips, sweetheart, gotta get you wet. Any athlete knows to warm up first."***
The only cardio you enjoy is sex with Joel, and even if it's not quite what the doctor ordered, he'll oblige to keep his little girl healthy.
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You didn’t plan to come home for college break, especially not to a town that never let you forget who you were. But after the start of your father's reelection campaign, you had your part to play.
As the mayor’s daughter, your life became all appearances: polite smiles, clean records, and silence. However, after three years of freedom, you became reckless, eager for trouble and fun, and Joel Miller, the town's most loved man of the law, seemed to have it all.
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Repeat Offender by NyssaStarling
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
25 Jul 2025
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You're breaking rules in the Jackson Community like a brat. What's Joel gonna do with you? Oh good golly gosh probably SPANK YOU I guess. Since that's what always happens in my shameless self-inserts...and my dreams.
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you've always had more money than you knew what to do with. what happens if that all threatens to go away when you don't sacrifice what you really want out of life for your fathers wishes? and what happens if his oldest friend just happens to be the solution?