Sam Drake was not exactly the type of person to give up. However, he wasn't exactly the type of person who would stay and bare with their problems. So sometimes he ran. He ran from the orphanage. He ran from the cops. He had run from his entire life up until this point. So what was the big deal?

It was almost as if there was only one thing that drew Sam back to the shitty apartment, shitty life: his brother. Had it not been for Nathan, Sam Drake would have probably gotten himself killed; most likely in some sort of botched robbery or avoidable motorcycle accident. But Nate was always what had kept Sam going; what had stopped the eldest Drake from going even further down the wrong path. And it was the second that Sam had gotten home and realized Nathan wasn't there that he understood: he had gone too far.

He had truly fucked up this time, and for the first time in his life, Sam didn't know what to do about Nathan. With their father leaving, he had known what to do. With the death of that old lady, he had known what to do. Hell, even with the death of their mother, he knew what to do. But now, Sam was just sitting at their scrappy, little dinner table with a lit cigarette and a bottle of beer staring at his hands.

Sam sat there for a good twenty minutes, taking an occasional drag from his cigarette or sip from his beer, engulfed in thought. Thinking about what he had said. Thinking about the look on Nathan's face. Thinking about the fact that he didn't even know where his brother was. It wasn't until he felt something wet on his hands that Sam realized he was crying.

He snuffed out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table and wiped the back of his hand over his eyes to clear them. At this moment, Sam felt so strange. He was very familiar with fucking things up and straight up running away from his problems, but for some reason crying about it was foreign to him. Now that he thought about it, Sam probably hadn't cried since the day he was kicked out of the orphanage. He was only seventeen, but the nuns just "couldn't handle him anymore". Regardless, here he was, fat tears rolling down his cheeks, hitched breath, sobbing like a baby.

In fact, the elder Drake was so out of it he didn't even hear keys jiggling from outside the apartment or his younger brother stepping inside.

"Sam?" a timid voice pulled Sam out of his thoughts. Sam's head snapped up to where his little brother was standing in the doorway to the apartment. He shot up from his place at the table rushing to Nate in the doorway, crushing him in a hug.

Nate nearly stumbled back in shock, but then wrapped his hands around his older brother's shaking frame. This was very strange, very foreign to him; he was often the one being comforted, the one who had let down his walls. After a few more moments like this, Sam eventually made an effort to compose himself and let go of his brother, mumbling apologies.

"Sam…"

"No," Sam cut his brother off before he could even protest his apology. He saw Nate visibly flinch at his hard tone. "I mean it this time." he softened his voice, not trying to start more shit. Nate opened his mouth to speak again but was cut off by his older brother for the second time.

"I know I haven't been the best brother or guardian or whatever the hell I'm supposed to be. I'm not even sure what I'm doing. But what I do know is that I'm doing my best for you." The elder Drake's voice broke a little with his last words, he chose to ignore this. "I know it's not always great, but-" Sam cut himself off when he saw his brother shaking his head, staring past his shoulder, avoiding eye contact. He felt as if his heart was going to break as he saw tears well up in Nate's eyes. Wonderful. Another dumbass misstep. He sighed heavily and turned his back to Nathan, making his way to the couch and slumping down on the sofa almost immediately. Nate stood in the doorway staring at him awkwardly, thinking, weighing over his options. Should he tell Sam off? Should he just let it go? He truly had no idea what to say; this, however, did not keep him from joining his brother on the couch. He was still angry, sure, but this needed to end one way or another.

The few minutes in which Nate was making up his mind felt like hours to the both of them. Neither of them had a single clue as to what the other would say, and that was the scariest thing about this entire debacle. Sam had always feared that Nathan would begin to think of him how the nuns at the orphanage had: rude, dangerous, useless. Nathan on the other hand, always feared that Sam would get sick of him, would just abandon him like practically everyone else in his life had. Their fears were incredibly irrational; no matter how mad they could get at each other, neither of them would ever leave. But that didn't stop the two from constant worry.

"I get it, you know." Nathan finally broke the silence, pausing briefly to steady his voice, which was still quite shaky from crying. "I know you're trying your best. I know you do this all for me." Nate was now looking up at his brother. When Sam finally caught a look at Nate's expression, his heart broke all over again. His face was also red and blotchy from crying and he was shaking kind of badly, but the worst part of his appearance was how tired and desperate the look in his eye was. Sam felt that awful pain wash over him once again.

He opened his mouth to say something, anything that could make Nate understand why he did the things he did, but nothing came out. He was truly at a loss for words. Thankfully, Nate knew what he wanted to say.

"I know you didn't mean to sound rude. And I know you definitely didn't intend to just flat out leave me. But, fuck, you can't keep doing this to me." Nate's voice started to rise in volume again. But this time, it wasn't angry; it was desperate. All Sam wanted to do was just hug Nathan, hold him and never let go. So he did.

Sam's iron grip was quite surprising to Nathan, even though Sam had already done nearly the same thing at the door. But this time, Nate didn't feel so drawn to let go. He even relaxed a little as Sam started to rub circles on his back. Whether that was to comfort him or Sam, he didn't know, but it was calming. Sam continued to whisper his apologies, Nate just sighing in return. After a few minutes, Nate gently pushed away from his brother, Sam allowing him some space but still lingering a bit close.

"Listen, Nathan, I know I've apologized about a million times today but I-"

"I forgive you." Nate interrupted his brother in a soft voice. Sam looked shocked at this. He opened his mouth to speak again but closed it when Nathan put up a hand to silence him and began speaking again. "I love you and I forgive you, but please, never do that again; don't leave me."

Sam looked down at his brother, his eyes showing only a fondness towards his brother, and sighed.

"Nathan, I could never leave you." His voice was gentle but firm. Nathan just nodded in return.

The subject was quickly dropped, the two brothers sitting in silence once again for a short while before going back to being as normal as they could muster considering the emotional mess they had gone through that day. Neither of them talked much the rest of that evening, but deep down, they both knew it would be something resembling okay.