As You Wish (Uncharted 4, Rafe)

[ICan'tThinkOfAnything]

(Alternatively titled "I haven't finished my other story and this one contains, like, no original content/dialogue, and the title REALLY sucks, but fuck it whatever". Sick, sneezy Rafe, and lowkey caring Nadine. Is it bad that I ship them? Just a bit? Like, a skinny love, slow burn relationship. Love-hate, almost. They aren't explicitly shipped in this, but if you tilt your head and squint, you might see it. Perhaps I'll write shippy things in the future. But for now, enjoy.)

---

"And what about the southern perimeter?"

"Not yet. It'll take a day to move the crane over there."

The door to the cathedral room opened, and a particularly pale Rafe entered. "Nadine." His voice was nothing short of curt and congested when he entered. Nadine noted that the fever he denied he had must have risen; his cheeks were flushed and stood out in stark contrast to the rest of his pale skin.

She acknowledged Rafe with a nod before addressing her mercenary again. "Make it happen. In the meantime, see what you can dig up. Rafe, any luck with those manuscripts?"

"Can we have a moment?" It was clear from his voice that Rafe was not asking, but commanding. The mercenary nodded respectfully to Nadine before leaving the two.

"Did you hear? They found a whole annexed area under the cathedral." She informed him, fingers tracing the area in question on the map that was spread flat on the table in front of her. 

"I did. H-hh'TCH! Ugh...have you seen it?"

"No, why?"

"Because there wasn't much left after they'd finished "finding" it." Despite the liquid sniffle that punctuated the sentence, it was clear from Rafe's voice that he wasn't pleased with the recent actions of Nadine's mercenaries. 

"My men have been a bit liberal with the dynamite-" Nadine confessed.

"They're like a hundred well-armed bulls in a china shop." Rafe rested his hands on the table and leaned forwards. The dim lighting accentuated the shadows on his face, which seemed to have grown more gaunt with illness.

The past two days had seen Rafe coughing and sniffling his way through Scotland, yet he had made it clear, using no words at all, that they were not stopping. Nadine had only dared once suggest they stop working early one night and rest; she'd been met with aggressive refusal and ended up exploring two hours later than they usually would. 

"But they've made more progress in two days than we've made in months," Nadine insisted. Rafe shook his head and swiped his wrist under his nose. 

"Progress? I can't analyze rubble." Up close, Nadine could see how red-rimmed Rafe's eyes were. She absentmindedly wondered when he'd last gotten a full night's rest.

"Okay." Nadine sighed with a smile and slid off the table. "Okay." 

"Thank you." 

There was a pause before Rafe spoke again. "I'll let them know to give you a heads up before they do anything drastic."

"Or you can tell them to sit tight until I analyze the few clues that haven't been blown up."

"No, we can't sit around waiting any longer."

"All due respect- hh'tNGXTch!" Rafe broke off in the middle of his sentence to turn away from Nadine, stifling a violent sneeze into his gloved hand. After hearing him sneezing for two days straight, Nadine had noticed that his stifles seemed louder than his regular sneezes. For an action meant to quiet a sneeze, or force it down, it seemed terribly counterproductive in Rafe's case. 

He turned back to her, sniffling and rubbing his nose briefly. When he spoke, his words were nearly unintelligible due to how congested he was. "I thigk I have a bit bore experience with this sort of thing thad you do."

"Can't understand a word you're saying."

Rafe sniffed thickly, irritably, and tried again. The congestion had cleared only slightly, but at least Nadine could understand him. "We cad't just go around blowing everything up! We need to look at what's in front of us and use it to move forward."

Nadine placed a hand on her hip, a look of irritation and impatience crossing her face. "We tried things your way."

"h'iii'TCHhh!" He sneezed harshly again into his hand, sniffling before giving Nadine a watery glare. "Bullshit. You've been wanting to level this place ever since we got here."

"No! I wanted to steal that cross long before it ever even made it in that auction. The same auction where I couldn't have my men around in case any surprises happened."

"Thehh- hh- the auction was the c-cleanest way to get the cross-"

"But instead of going with my gut, I listened to-

"H-he'ETSCHu!"

-to you. And now we have competition."

"Well, I didn't think he'd show up!" Rafe snapped before doubling over coughing. He spent half a minute hacking into the ditch of his elbow before straightening up as if nothing had happened.

 Nadine paused, taking in his appearance once more. She was so used to seeing him calm and controlled, even in the height of his anger, that seeing him disheveled, runny-nosed and red eyed, always caught her off guard for a moment. Her voice dropped in volume as she spoke her next words. "Or maybe you wanted to draw him out."

"Why- why the hell would I do that?"

"Because you think you need him." Nadine could see immediately that her words had hit their mark. For a moment, she almost felt sorry for Rafe. Tracking a hidden treasure during rainy season in Scotland, fighting off one hell of a cold- no. She refused to feel sympathy for him. "And maybe you do. But point is, I'm done trying to do things the clean way. If the treasure is here, we'll find it. And if not...maybe it's time to move on."

He said nothing, expression caught between stoic and some ugly cross of hurt, angry, and upset. The silence was broken only by him sniffling and wiping his nose on his wrist once more.

"Hey..." She walked over to him, her hand gently cupping his burning face. "It's not personal."

"Of course." 

She sighed softly, walking towards the door. Just before she left, Nadine glanced over her shoulder. "Rafe...please, try to get some rest."

Rafe coughed harshly into his clenched first but didn't answer.

"I'll let you know if anything turns up."

 

[Watercolor Daydreams]

Pfffttt, original content and dialogue or not, this was fantastic! And yeah, I totally ship Nadine and Rafe too. 

[mariaib]

Yes yes yes! This is perfect!i don't really ship it,but still its so good!

[SweaterWeather]

Hhhhh wow, sneezy/sick/still all business Rafe is slowly becoming my favorite. And to have it played out in this scene?!?! Of COURSE he would get sick in Scotland, and then have Nadine there with an internal struggle like 'Do I care - No, I don't - But he is really sick - He should rest - WHY AM I THINKING ABOUT THIS' ugh. And cupping his burning cheek-- I DIDN'T THINK I SLIGHTLY MIGHT SHIP THIS AS MUCH AS I DO although I am a ship whore, we won't get into that though heh. I love this to bits. You've done it again m'dear~

[Maja]

Oh I love LOVE THIS! Thanks you're so good at at writing fan fictions 

[Red Ring of Death]

-follows person-

-doesn't tell me when they upload stuff and I don't check because I'm some special kind of idiot-

*I* personally kind of love that it's dialogue from in game but it's not like... I've done anything like that so I'm not biased-- ANYWAY. This was great! Stubborn Rafe is my favourite Rafe and I like the subtle hints in the descriptionsssss~

[ICan'tThinkOfAnything]

Alright, hopping back in to address a few things!

First of all, thank you guys all so much for the positive responses on this fic! I'll admit, I haven't yet started working on the next chapter for Sharing- but I will soon. In the meantime, I've been debating whether or not I want to add on to this little drabble. I'll most likely leave it here, since I like it as a oneshot- which brings me to my next topic. I've been thinking of starting a UC4 specific drabble thread that's mostly request based. If others are willing, it could be a collaborative drabble thread, but I'm not sure how well that would go over given that the UC4 fandom on here is only so big. Thoughts, opinions....requests, perhaps?

[Watercolor Daydreams]

YES!!!! That would be amazing!!! And the fanbase may grow with time and fics (the game only came out about a month ago).  

Edited June 8, 2016 by Watercolor Daydreams