@sixthxchairman asked: ❛ i’m gonna make sure this place is secure. ❜ ► from this meme.

Joel doesn’t ask about what jolted Daigo up, even if it’d been responsible for waking him up, too. Instead, the unimpressed look on his face is only because, “Alone? On, what, two hours of sleep?”

Daigo is good, but he’s not some superman.

Joel knows what their rotations are. He may not have been awake at the time Daigo returned from his shift (he’s always assigned the daytime patrols, the ones where you’re more likely to find a tourist to kill and steal from), but he knows damn well the man came back with the rest of his unit only a handful of hours before. Their group’s small-- twenty in total, cut up into units of five with rotating shifts to patrol the new building they’ve holed up in and the surrounding areas-- and while Joel isn’t by any means the leader, it’s small enough he knows what everyone’s schedule is.

And he knows Daigo shouldn’t be awake.

“You’re not that fucking good. What’ll you do if you get swarmed, huh?”

That said, he reaches for his gun. It doesn’t take much effort. The weight slides into his holster with ease, and Joel’s up from his modest bedding of cardboard boxes with barely a sound. Tommy, where he’s sleeping close by, doesn’t seem to notice anything (but Joel’s protective enough that he can be as heavy a sleeper as he wants).

“I’m coming with you.”