EllieRiley

EllieRiley is the femslash ship between Ellie Williams and Riley Abel from the The Last of Us fandom.

Canon
Ellie and Riley met during Ellie's tenure in the quarantine zone. When they first met, Riley saved Ellie from the bullies that were beating her up as a newcomer. Riley stopped them by fighting them back. After this, the two of them developed a closer friendship. But their relationship went through a rough patch when confronted with Riley's desire of becoming a Firefly. She wanted to join the organization more than anything, while Ellie just wanted to escape the quarantine zone. This led to an argument between the two because Riley was sure that if they'd leave, they would surely die. However, after they parted ways while returning to school, Riley was ambushed by the Fireflies and taken with their leader who told her to join them. When Riley asks if Ellie can joined them two, she's forbidden to see Ellie ever again.

Despite this, Riley finds a way to sneak into Ellie's bedroom, after six weeks where they didn't even see each other, and surprises Ellie pretending to be an infected. Ellie almost stabs her, confusing her with an infected, but Riley just laughs when she sees Ellie realizing it's her. When she sees Ellie still keeps a picture of the two of them with her, Ellie tells her that she thought Riley was dead. So Riley lets her know she's a Firefly now and tells her she will explain everything to her, if she follows her outside. Ellie follows her reluctantly, as Riley guides her to an old, abandoned mall.

As the two of them explore around and have fun, there are some quiet moments between the two when they can be intimate and share their feelings. Ellie tells Riley that she's really glad she's not dead and that they're back together. Then, Riley apologizes for the words she said before leaving, during their argument, telling Ellie that she didn't mean any of it. This makes Ellie say "Riley, you're such a sap," making both of them laugh.

The next section of the mall they explore has a carrousel, which is something Riley wanted to show Ellie. As the two of them sit on the horses on the carrousel, they share another talk. Riley gifts her a pun book and Ellie tells her that she's now her favorite person again, as she used to be, as Riley replies "I know my girl." The two of them read some of the puns and laugh together and later go on to keep exploring the map.

They eventually find an old photobooth and get inside to take some pictures. When the screen makes them choose between "love", "friends" or "cool" as a theme for the pictures, Ellie chooses "love," which makes Riley ask Ellie if she's trying to woo her, which Ellis just replies with "in your dreams." Then, they took several pictures together, but they couldn't print them due to a failure of the machine. Frustrated, Riley pounded on the photo booth screen until the machine lost power.

They decide to continue exploring and end up coming across an arcade, where Riley discovers her favorite arcade game, "The Turning", was busted. Instead of moving on, Riley helps Ellie imagine how the game would be played, telling her to close her eyes. Ellie then lets herself be guided by Riley, who describes the setting in detail for her. After the "game" ends, Ellie tells Riley that they should maybe head back, since they can come back another day. Riley then tells her that the Fireflies asked her to leave to Boston to join them, so she'll be leaving tomorrow, despite her pleas to stay where they are. After Riley just reacts with an ok, Riley wonders if that's it. Ellie then tells her that her advice would be for Riley to go with them, and then snarkly says to just say goodbye. After this, Riley just walks away.

Ellie follows her and when she notices Riley is not answering her, she tells she can't be pissed off at her since she should be the one to be pissed off.

Riley then throws a bag with two waterguns at Ellie's feet, telling her she nearly got shot trying to get those since Ellie really wanted to have one. Understanding just how much of a sacrifice Riley did just to see Ellie, she grabs one of the waterguns and invites Riley to a playful duel with her. So they run around the mall trying to shoot water at each other.

After playing for a while, Ellie says she really has to leave, so Riley asks to walk her home. On their way, Ellie stops her for a minute to tell her she seriously meant she should go with the Fireflies, since this has been Riley's dream all along. However, when she says "who am I to stop you?" Riley replies "the one person that can." Ellie tells her that they'll be fine and assures her that they'll see each other again. So Riley asks her to pass her the Walkman, where Ellie still keeps the tape Riley gave her.

Riley puts the tape on, with music now blasting all across the mall, and invites Ellie to dance. As the two dance and have fun, Ellie stops dead in her tracks, staring at Riley. When Riley asks her what's wrong, Ellie pleas with her to not leave her. After this, a silence lingers between them, until Ellie breaks it by giving Riley a passionate kiss. When they let go, Ellie apologizes, which Riley asks "for what?" Now that both of them have shared their feelings, Ellie asks her what will they do moving forward, to which Riley replies "we'll figure it out." As they start talking, an infected catches them by surprise, and Riley is quick to shoot.

The two of them start running across the mall, desperately searching for a way out, as they simultanousley fight the several infected that were chasing them. Finally, they find some windows up above through which they can escape, but as Ellie climbs there, the scaffolding she was climbing on falls backs, making her fall to the ground, where an infected attacks her. RIley jumps to save her, but gets attacked too. Once the two of them manage to kill both infected, they notice they have been beaten, thus getting infected as well.

Ellie gets extremely anxious, breaking everything she sees out of frustration, until she defeatedly sits on the floor next to Riley. Crying, she asks her what are they going to do. To which Riley replies that they have two options: one is killing themselves, and the other is fighting.

Fanon
is one of the most popular ships in The Last of Us fandom. Since the couple is the only love story shown in the game where it comes from, the two of them have been shipped as soon as the game got released. It also got a wave of homophobic attacks from people that were extremely mad at the mere existence of the ship only because it was a gay couple. However, it quickly became a very beloved ship amongst lgbt+ fans. In fanart and fanfictions, fans of the ship explore alternate universes where Riley and Ellie get too live happily togheter, since Riley gets to survive.

Fandom
FAN FICTION