Short oneshot which takes place right after Uncharted 3, so SPOLIERS AHEAD! Anyway, it's fluff-filled so just keep that in the back of your mind. ;)
Oh and Immortal Remedy should be updated fairly soon for anyone who's reading that as well.
Please review!
.:Greatness:.
"We don't get to choose how we start in this life. Real 'greatness' is what you do with the hand you're dealt." ~ Victor Sullivan
The plane trip back from Yemen had passed mostly in silence. Elena had immediately curled against Nate and fallen fast asleep once they reached cruising altitude and hadn't stirred since. Nate thought it ironic that she was the first of them to fall asleep seeing as she had had it pretty easy this time around, having really only participated in a small leg of their most recent escapade around the world. Then again, Nate thought, he expected a majority of her time had been spent worrying over him and Sully. Nate knew from past experiences that worrying was exhausting and when you finally discover there's no need to worry anymore, all you want to do is sleep. He had learned this last time after Elena had been injured by that grenade. Once he was sure she was going to survive, he had simply crawled into bed next to her and fallen into a deep sleep.
Elena shifted slightly in her slumber and a shimmer of sunlight reflected off her wedding band. Nate averted his attention to it and frowned. He couldn't believe she had been wearing it all this time. In a way, knowing she had never taken it off hurt him even more than it would have if she had simply thrown it away. It meant she wasn't willing to forget him; she couldn't bring herself to erase him, despite how much she might have wanted to.
Nate looked over to his own ring. He really had thought he had lost it. It surprised him to no end when he saw Sully pull it out of his pocket. That crafty bastard had probably been holding onto it this entire time just waiting for the opportune moment to give it back to Nate. He couldn't remember what he had done with it after that night he now wished he could take back. He hadn't wanted Sully to bring Elena into all of this not because he was worried about her this time, but because he knew he would have to confront her for the first time since then. He would have to confront his mistake and have to confront himself.
He had immediately sensed the stiffness between them right when they landed and he saw her. Seeing her still wearing her ring had instilled a bit of hope in him, but he still feared he wouldn't be able to get back on track with her.
Hell, he would probably be right where he was when they arrived in Yemen if it hadn't been for Sully.
Nate looked back down to Elena as she shifted again and smiled. He would make up the past year to her. How, he wasn't sure yet, but he knew somehow he could rekindle the flame between them. The flame that had been present between them since they first met on that boat in Panama and had just needed poking and prodding to be brought to full light. Even though it had flickered and wavered many times since their meetings—especially after their separation—it had never gone out completely. It was reassuring to Nate to know that through all the hell their relationship had been through, the flame had never been extinguished. Time after time, they kept returning to each other.
If that wasn't commitment to a relationship, Nate didn't know what was.
"Hey, kid," Sully's voice came from the front of the plane. "You doing okay?"
"Fine," Nate replied automatically. "Just thinking."
"About what?"
Nate's smile turned into a somber one as he ran his fingers through Elena's hair.
"I can't believe you're still hunched over that desk examining that stupid ring!"
"Hey, it's not a stupid ring, okay? It means a hell of a lot to me."
"Yeah, I can tell. Apparently it means more than the one on your finger right there, too."
"God, enough with comparing yourself to my work! You two are completely different things!"
"Your work, Nate? It's more like an obsession. I should've known from the beginning that I wouldn't be able to compete with it."
"That's the thing, Elena, you don't need to be competing with it. There's no competition between the two of you; only the one you're creating in your head."
"Well, it sure seems like there is one. I'm sure you can't tell, because you're always so engrossed in your 'research', but there is a difference between the way you treat the two of us. The first, you treat your work more like your wife than you treat me!"
"Elena, that's not fair."
"The way you're treating me isn't fair, Nate."
"About what?" Sully repeating his question snapped Nate out of his daze.
"Nothing that matters now," he responded as he leaned down to kiss his wife.
His wife. Because that's what she was. Nate knew he had acted ridiculous the night he walked out, but now there was no silly ring for him to obsess over. It had sunk in the quick sands of the Rub 'al Khali along with the rest of his worries and crazy past. He needed to live for the present from here on out and stop allowing himself to dwell on his past.
"I promise, Elena," he leaned down to whisper to her, "I will become a better man for you. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life and a lot in our relationship as well, but I promise you I will make them right. Give me another chance to prove my worth and prove I can be the perfect man for you." He grabbed her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Give me another chance, please. I promise I won't fail again."
Nate started to lean back into his seat, preferably to settle into a nap, when he heard a quiet voice cut the silence.
"I know you can be that man, too, Nate," Elena whispered, shocking Nate—he had no idea she had woken up. "And you don't need me to give you another chance, because I know even if I didn't give you one, you'd still work to fix us. Your refusal to give up is one of the reasons I fell in love with you in the first place and the reason why I never stopped wearing my ring, because I knew you wouldn't give up; that you would come back. I still love you, Nate; I never stopped."
Nate grinned as he felt Elena squeeze his hand back and felt his heart swell at her words. As she turned her head to look up at him, Nate saw his future swimming in the depths of her blue irises, and he couldn't have been any more content with the future he saw.
"God, I love you, Elena," he just barely managed to get out before crushing his lips to hers.
And with that one kiss, the flame of their relationship reignited again and built itself back up to a healthy, strong flame. Although it may still flicker over the years, it would never die completely.
Because this was Nate and Elena; this was what real love looked like. This was their chance at greatness, this was the hand they were dealt, and this is what they had to work with to achieve the greatness they both knew they could reach. . .
Together.