Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Oneshots

My Shoulders are Small (But You Can Cry on Them, Too)

For both her own sake and Nadine's.

"You keep doing these things, Frazer, and honestly I can't take it!" Nadine yelled, her voice ringing through the wilderness around them, and Chloe's gray-blue eyes were trained upon her own in one of the woman's very rare moments of silence.

"And for what?! The next paycheck?! Some adrenaline rush?! Some mental problem?!" Nadine demanded, furrowing her brow as she stared at Chloe for a long moment, staying silent as she breathed hard with her frustration. Chloe opened her mouth, starting to say something in reply, but Nadine continued in her rant.

"You're going to die one of these days, and I'm not going to be able to do anything about it! No one will be able to!" Nadine raged, feeling the tears creeping upon her as she tried valiantly to fight them off.

"Nadine, what's brought this on?"

"What's brought this on?! Incredible... You are absolutely incredible, Chloe Frazer!" Nadine yelled, doing everything she could to keep her voice from cracking but failing in this effort mid-sentence.

"You keep trying to kill yourself! Every turn we take, every dangerous situation we get into, instead of doing the logical thing, you go and act like some raving lunatic and nose-dive into the most life-endangering part of the whole scenario!!!" Nadine roared, and Chloe just watched Nadine silently. Nadine shook her head in pure aggravation, finally feeling it all overcome her as she shouted the final thing that she had to say about it all.

"Do you have any idea what you mean to me?! I can't lose you, too!" Nadine yelled, knowing that the tears had now shown themselves. She ashamedly and angrily looked down at the ground nearby them, her pride keeping her from meeting Chloe's eyes. She knew what she'd find in them. Likely some sort of pity or disbelief or guilt.

She could see Chloe approaching in her peripheral vision. However, she stubbornly refused to look at the Australian. Chloe stopped just in front of her and she reached out her hand, touching Nadine's arm gently.

"Nadine, look at me," Chloe quietly told her. Somehow, something in the other woman's voice got Nadine's attention and made her look at Chloe before she exactly knew what happened, her tears hot in her eyes and her head dipped as she tried to control herself.

To her complete surprise, all that was in Chloe's gaze was understanding. Sure, there was some guilt there and some surprise even, but there was predominantly understanding.

Chloe hesitantly reached out, placing her free hand on Nadine's other arm and Nadine just watched her, trying to figure out what she was doing. Chloe huffed a bit, shaking her head as she let her chin fall to her chest. She then looked back up at Nadine with a smile mixed with humor and sadness.

"You do realize I'm trying to get the guts up to hug you, but I don't know if we're there yet, right?" Chloe questioned. The pure sincerity in Chloe's voice stabbed Nadine's heart like a knife, and she felt her bottom lip quivering a bit with the touching nature of the statement and the attempted gesture itself. Nadine wasted no time in grabbing Chloe almost aggressively, hugging her tightly. Chloe wasted no time in wrapping her arms around the former mercenary as Nadine finally let herself break down.

"Sh, sh, sh, sh, Nadine, it's okay," Chloe quietly told her, that low, rumbling voice coming out in comforting tones, and Nadine shook her head in some expression of childish petulance.

"It is not okay," Nadine sobbed, baring her teeth at the sound and tightening her grip on Chloe.

"You're shaking. Calm down," Chloe reassured, patting Nadine's back and hugging her firmly but gently. Nadine noticed that she was indeed shaking, but despite her best efforts, she could not bring it to a halt. Instead, she just squeezed Chloe harder against her, needing some sort of anchorage in the midst of this topsy-turvy emotional rollercoaster.