Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Oneshots

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

Summary: Chloe keeps endangering her life, and after one extremely close shave, Nadine finds she can't take it any more. Confessions are made and friendships are strengthened. Platonic/friendship feels with Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross.

   "Whoo! That was like some kind of crazy trust exercise," Chloe chuckled breathlessly, her arm wrapped around Nadine's waist tightly as the South African clung to the rope that they had just used to barely swing to safety. Nadine's eyes widened as she immediately looked at the Australian.

"I barely catch you after you fall from a fifty-foot drop, and that's what you have to say about it?!" Nadine disbelievingly spoke, staring at the other woman. Chloe's grin slightly faded as she looked at Nadine.

"Oh... Did you want a thank you?" Chloe questioned somewhat teasingly but not insincerely, offering Nadine an affectionate squeeze before letting her best friend go. Nadine shook her head incredulously, unable to believe the other woman. It purely shocked Nadine that the slightly older woman could actually act so nonchalant about the entire experience even though she nearly died.

The two had been doing a job in the outback of Australia, and, as their luck so often seemed to be, they had run into Shoreline. It was as if the company was tracking them, and inevitably they had a confrontation atop a cliff from which Chloe had ended up falling and Nadine had to quite literally swoop in and save her.

And Nadine might not have ordinarily been quite so upset about the endangerment of Chloe's life, but it seemed that this trip had been especially life-threatening for the Australian woman, and she was somehow even more reckless than usual.

Which naturally left Nadine exceedingly stressed and in a very bad mood.

"You can't keep doing this, Frazer!" Nadine informed her, and Chloe stepped back a bit, visibly unhappy with Nadine's return to that name.

"Back to that, eh, love?" Chloe questioned, wincing a bit as she clutched a hand to her side where a bullet had happened to graze her, and Nadine felt the anger rising in her, her muscles tensing as she glared at Chloe. However, she was unable to help the small flit of her gaze toward the Australian's side.

"You deserve it! And don't you dare act innocent!" Nadine snapped in pure irritation. Chloe raised her hands in defense, keeping that same frustratingly carefree manner to her that she always possessed despite the direness or the levity of the situation.

"But, china, you know that's my specialty," Chloe commented, and Nadine felt her chest twist with that silly, fond nickname that Chloe had taken up during their Tusk of Ganesh trip. What if Nadine would have never gotten to hear that name again? What if Nadine would have never gotten to hear that silly, playful voice that she had come to love so much?

Chloe was her best and only friend, and Nadine loved her dearly. People often made assumptions about the nature of their relationship, and while they were very close, they were never close in the manner that many guessed. They did not feel anything even slightly in the range of romantic toward one another. Sure, they shared a bed when necessary, and they were exceedingly comfortable with one another, but it was the beauty of their relationship.

They were soulmates without the romance, and they loved each other deeply in a manner that somehow connected sisterhood in comfortableness and friendship in camaraderie.

Which was why Nadine found herself aching and nearly having a panic attack at the thought of losing the one person in the whole entire world that always understood and loved her as she was and that she could share everything with.

"No, no, you know what's your specialty? Idiocrasy!" Nadine shouted, throwing a hand up in the air as she gestured toward Chloe in pure irritation. Chloe visibly recoiled, and Nadine actually noted the hurt in the other woman's gaze. However, despite the guilt that was now prickling at Nadine's heart, she persisted in her attack. Chloe needed to know that she was going to have to stop this recklessness.