Nice To Meet You, Again?
Nate was sitting at the bar, drinking a beer. Drinking 'cause it was hot. Drinking 'cause he was thirsty. Drinking 'cause she left him. Drinking 'cause he knows she's just as independent as he is, whether he likes it or not. Drinking 'cause he knows he can't protect her if something bad happens to her. Nate needed a distraction, something to get her off his mind. God, he still couldn't believe the last words he'd said to her were-
"Buy me a drink, sailor?" A British accent interrupted Nate's sulking. He turned around to tell the sick bastard to screw off when he recognized the face behind the voice.
"Harry Flynn? Hey!" Nate hugged his old friend and wondered out loud "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I'm looking for you, mate!"
"Uh oh. Should I be flattered or worried?"
"Maybe a bit of both. C'mere." Flynn went on to tell him about a "certain object" that Flynn's employer would pay him big money to steal from a Museum in Istanbul. He's out of his mind if he thinks we can do this without getting killed.
"I can't do this without you Drake. You're the only one who's cracked it and you know better than anyone it's a two-person job." Flynn tried to change Nate's mind.
"No, no, no, three, actually."
"Right. And speak of the devil, here she comes now."
Nate saw the devil all right.
"Chloe Frazer," another familiar accent, too familiar. Australian. One he hadn't heard in a long time.
"-Wha?"
Nate turned around and the dark-skinned beauty shook his hand. What the hell? Something about Chloe's abrupt ignorance of the fact they already knew each other told Nate to go along with it.
"…Nate. Drake. Nathan Drake." Nate stuttered, still wondering what in the world she was doing here.
She sat down but not before saying hello to Flynn. Are they-? Shit. You left her, why are you getting jealous? Oh yeah, because she wouldn't be alive today without him, and neither would he, without her. Nate thought to himself.Flynn showed Nate the Mongolian lamp, and then the piece of parchment. This was exactly the kind of distraction Nate needed.
"Marco Polo hid something inside this lamp, something that pinpoints the site of the lost fleet!" Nate couldn't believe what he was saying. This could be the biggest historical discovery of the century.
"…So, we're dicking this guy over, right?"
Flynn and Nate agreed immediately.
"You in then?" Flynn stood up.
"What the hell? I mean, what could possibly go wrong?" It's better than feeling sorry for myself and getting drunk alone anyway.
The three booked a plane and landed in Istanbul the next day. Jetlagged, Nate was trying to fall asleep in his hotel room when he heard a knock at the door. He opened it and there she was.
"Hello." For a second Nate just stared at her. He had so many questions. It was a damn miracle the woman was alive to be standing here in front of him today. And what was she doing with Flynn? He snapped out of it, grabbed her and looked both ways before pulling her inside the room.
"Well, so much for foreplay," Chloe teased.
"You mind telling me what the hell is going on?" Nate wished he could control his jealousy. He couldn't help it though, even though he knew in this business nothing was permanent.
"You mean with Flynn?"
"Yeah. You might've warned me."
"And miss the look on your face?" Nate hated Chloe's games sometimes. God, she was the definition of a maneater. Why'd she have to eat him though? Wait, wait. That doesn't sound right.
"Anyway," Chloe continued. "You haven't exactly made yourself… easy to find," she said, flicking through Nate's journal nonchalantly.
"Talk about making yourself easy," Nate teased back, bitterly as he took his journal from her hands.
"Oh, you're not jealous. Let's not forget who walked out on whom after all," Chloe accused, pushing Nate down onto the bed. "You don't get to be jealous!"
Five years earlier
Nate walked into a dark lit room and looked around while his eyes adjusted to the dim light. He adjusted his tie and observed the room of similarly, formally dressed people talking in a small group around the buffet table. Nate hated stuff like this. He found dressing up unnecessary and uncomfortable; he'd rather be in a t-shirt and jeans. Nate glanced over at Sully, who was his 'date'. An old employer – Dex – had set up this dinner party, and he was particularly, well, rich. He always had interesting artifacts for Nate and Sully to check out. The fact that he had set up a fancy dinner party made Nate think Dex had found something big. He couldn't miss out on this.
Nate and Sully looked around the room. Fancy, dimly lit with expensive looking artifacts distributed around the room on shelves. There were only three other people there ; a tall man with long, dark brown, almost black hair, tied back tightly, a tan man with wavy blonde hair, and a raven-haired, olive-skinned woman. Nate and Sully approached the group of three.
"So, what do you guys think Dex has got up his sleeve this time?" asked Nate.
"Something big, I hope," replied the man with dark, curly hair.
"Dex always has something big," noted the woman.
The man with wavy, blonde hair snickered.
"What? You know that's not what I meant, Chase," the woman smirked. "You can be so immature sometimes."
Nate stifled a laugh and introduced himself. "I'm Nathan. Nathan Drake."
"I'm Davis. Chase Davis," the blonde imitated Nate's James Bond-y introduction.
"Ha. Funny. You can call me Nate. This is my mentor, Sully."
"I'm Zeke," the man with dark hair shook Nate and Sully's hands. "It's nice to meet you both."
"Chloe Frazer," introduced the woman with the Australian accent, shaking their hands as well. Chloe half-smiled at him and he couldn't help but notice how … nice that dressed looked on her.
"Nice to meet you," Nate said, smiling.