1 - 20 of 215 Bookmarked Items in Joel is Reader's Dad's Best Friend (The Last of Us)
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Returning home after your college graduation, you expect the same sleepy rhythm—quiet nights with your dad, maybe a summer job at his firm, and that ever-present question: what now? But the heat stretches long and slow, and you find yourself babysitting your neighbor’s daughter just to pass the time.
Joel Miller—your dad’s best friend, all calloused hands and quiet glances—is supposed to be off-limits. He’s older, steady, and familiar. But something between you has shifted. There’s tension, thick as the summer air, now impossible to ignore.
And as the days blur and the lines between you begin to fray, it becomes harder to remember where the rules used to be—or why they mattered.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 175,696
- Chapters:
- 23/23
- Comments:
- 236
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- 1,101
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Homecoming by floatyourboat1997
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
26 Feb 2025
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*TLOU AU - No Cordyceps Outbreak*
You’re not sure when it happened, exactly. The moment when you began to see Joel Miller as more than just your neighbor. More than just your dad’s friend. More than just the surly, sawdust-covered parental figure he’d always seemed to be.
You suppose you can’t actually pin it down to one specific moment. It was more of a...culmination of events.
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Until the Summer Fades by cheythighs
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
28 Jun 2025
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You have the entire summer off from work and decide to spend that time with your dad in Austin. You just didn't expect his neighbor and best friend Joel Miller to affect you so much. You just only hope he feels the same way about you as you spend more and more time together from Memorial Day to Labor Day. A lot can happen under the Texas summer moon.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 107,040
- Chapters:
- 28/28
- Comments:
- 297
- Kudos:
- 393
- Bookmarks:
- 124
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- 17,942
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Breaking the Rules by VioletBranwen
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
28 Jul 2023
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Joel Miller was your dad’s best friend, they’d become close after a shared love of classic cars, and you were always interested in the 1970 Boss in bright orange that he had. Your dad’s 67 Shelby was almost as cool, but the Boss was just mesmerising. Joel’s daughter Sarah was less interested in the cars, but always loved having you around as you hovered around Joel’s garage with your dad. It was so uncomplicated, until that one night in Austin.
Series
- Part 1 of DBF! Joel
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Bookmark Notes:
fuck me this one is amazing.
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Scenes from an Italian Restaurant by crimsonstargirl
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
21 Jul 2025
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Joel Miller is a lot of things: your dad’s best friend, your boss, your next-door neighbor. And, y'know, the guy you’ve been harboring a massive crush on since your freshman year of college.
You're pretty sure your feelings aren't reciprocated... until one night that changes everything.
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A self-indulgent dbf! Joel fic where you find out just how much your little crush on Joel Miller isn't one-sided.
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East Side Of Sorrow by Zialltops
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
27 Nov 2023
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It started at one of two points when you were sixteen, but for the life of you, you cant recall which came first. All you know, is a defining moment led you to the stark realization that you didn’t like the boys you sat beside in math class, weren’t interested in the seniors on the football field under Friday night lights—you didn’t want to dance with a boy at your high school prom, or have your first kiss under the bleachers.
You wanted a man.
Or, The Five Reasons why Joel Miller was inevitable.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 111,411
- Chapters:
- 23/23
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- 763
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- 963
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- 227
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There was something strange about seeing his things in this room. In your house. You’d grown up thinking of him as distant, orbiting your dad like a satellite. A voice on the phone. A pair of boots in the doorway on those rare visits. But now he was here. Really here. Like a person stepping down out of a memory and into something warmer.
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You’ve known Joel Miller for years. He’s practically part of the family - always by your dad’s side with that dark, brooding frown.
You’ve never really thought much of him. He’s just…Joel. Dad’s best friend, occasional ride home, somewhat-scowly dinner guest.
Until you come home one summer, after graduating college, and suddenly -
You can’t think about anything anything else.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 123,697
- Chapters:
- 14/?
- Comments:
- 469
- Kudos:
- 5,267
- Bookmarks:
- 1,558
- Hits:
- 311,095
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Bookmark Notes:
Hehe
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Our Little Secret by pearlessance
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
28 May 2023
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Joel Miller deals with disgusting intrusive thoughts about the girl next door who smells like vanilla and uses cherry chapstick.
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beneath the surface by ficsbyava
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
01 Aug 2025
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you’ve spent most of your life trying to outrun two things: your dad’s bitterness and the grief that’s haunted you since your mom died. you weren’t supposed to fall for anyone this summer- especially not joel, your dad’s oldest friend and apparently, your arch rival.
you fight constantly. over nothing, over everything. it’s sharp words, slammed doors, tense silences that last for days. but beneath all of it, something’s building. slow, hot, impossible to ignore. you call it hate. it’s not. someone has to snap eventually.
when everything falls apart, joel takes you to his old farm. it's the first time things feel calm since the chaos that started at the beginning of summer. somewhere in all that quiet, the way he looks at you starts to change.
it’s not easy. you fight, break, pull away- over and over. but through every storm, every secret, every reason not to, you still find your way back to each other. somehow, you always do.
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midlife crisis by encasedinobsidian
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
25 Jul 2025
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The first rule of fucking your dad’s best friend is you don't talk about fucking your dad’s best friend.
The second rule of fucking your dad’s best friend is you don't talk about fucking your dad’s best friend.
No condoms, no stupid questions.
The ordeal will go on as long as it has to.
You do not talk about fucking your dad’s best friend.
You do not talk about fucking your dad’s best friend. -
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Joel Miller has mastered the art of self-control in all areas except one: not fucking his friend’s daughter. A cross-country road trip home from college takes a hard turn when he’s forced to share a motel room with you.
Series
- Part 1 of Waiting Game
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I Remember Everything. by alaynestvne
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
28 Jul 2025
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Running from something you can’t name, you return home for the first time in years.
Everything is the same.
Everyone too.
Except you.That is until the familiar face of Joel Miller, your Dad’s best friend, comes back into your life.
You thought you’d left your foolish childhood crush on him in the past
Thought it long buried.
But your life has never been that easy.Coming home was supposed to help you figure things out.
Not make them more complicated. -
honeysuckle’s & huckleberry’s by Zialltops
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
15 Apr 2024
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After four years away at collage, you’re finally home with the tools and knowledge to save your family ranch. That is, if their ranch hand would stay out of your way.
Or: Ranch hand Joel doesn’t know how to handle the return of his bosses prodigy daughter, her snarky little attitude, or her sinfully tight jeans.
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A 4-day trip in good old Blue Ridge, Georgia.
Life has been fucking the shit out of you with no safeword, so it was nice to see your dad, and your childhood friends, and…Joel.
As you've gotten older and matured into a woman, your thoughts on Joel have changed as well...
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- Words:
- 116,190
- Works:
- 2
- Bookmarks:
- 7
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Bookmark Notes:
Waiting Game
GutsbyJoel/F!reader
Joel Miller has mastered the art of self-control in all areas except one: not fucking his friend’s daughter. A cross-country road trip home from college takes a hard turn when he’s forced to share a motel room with you.
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| Summer in Texas is long, muggy, and boringly predictable.
But when you come home from college, there is something - someone - who lights up your days in a way you don't want to ignore.
Joel Miller is your father's best friend, divorced, silent, with hands marred by wood and a look that never looks at you for too long.
You are young, stubborn and tired of being ignored.Maybe this is wrong. Maybe it's dangerous.
But you have never backed down from a challenge.And Joel Miller is the most forbidding you've ever wanted.
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*This is currently being edited! No drastic changes, but my brain just won't let it go. This message will be removed when the edit is completed, plus a date so you know if you've read the previous version or not. Thank you, and take time for your mental health.*
Someone out there had it out for Joel, they fucking must, because Rose slowly sank to her knees right in front of him to scratch Ellie’s ears. He clenched his fists, wondering if getting shot wasn’t enough for all his wrongdoings in life. He had gone to war, he had been basically ostracised by his family, and now was stuck with the prettiest girl he had ever seen at his feet.
The niece of his oldest friend, of his old commanding officer, who was at least ten years younger than him.
Off-limits. Untouchable. Forbidden.
(TV- The Last of Us)
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You're a good girl. A senator's daughter who is always there to show your support to your father. What he doesn't know is that his best friend, Joel Miller, is practically the only real reason you show up to events to support him. After one night of schmoozing, you and Joel end up in an elevator alone together. What ever could happen?
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You can never go home again by Lynettefeelsfine
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
22 Jul 2025
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You return to your childhood home in Texas after escaping an abusive relationship. You're exhausted, broken, and trying to rebuild, but you're a survivor, and Joel Miller is there to help you pick up the pieces in more ways than one.
You haven't been home in 8 years and you're not the teenager that Joel once knew. You try to keep everyone at arms length not revealing the real reason you're home but there's something about Joel, your dad's best friend. He sees something in you and he helps you to heal.
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Bookmark Notes:
10