Day four of the Nate and Sully friendship

Sully jumped out of his sleep, opening his eyes wide, his heart racing erratically. He wiped his eyes, both attempting – and failing – to clear them. Suddenly, he heard what had pulled him out of sleep. Nate. Something's wrong with Nate. Sully put down the beer bottle he had been holding whilst sleeping, with an absent mind, and raced into Nate's room. Nate was tossing and turning, while randomly shouting out inaudible words. Sully ran over to his bed, and shook Nate's shoulders. "Nate? Nate, goddamn it, wake up! Nate!" Sully exasperatedly tried to wake Nate up, getting worried that something was seriously wrong with him. Nate suddenly gasped; sitting up so fast that Sully had to blink a couple of times to make sure he was actually up.

"S-Sully?" Nate was gasping repeatedly, putting a hand over his heart. He groaned, "Ugh, crap. I did it again." He moved to lean against bed frame, clearing his throat. He wiped his eyes and pulled the bedcovers up to his chin. Nate refused to look at Sully, preferring instead to look at the off-white coloured wall. Sully just stared at him, flabbergasted. Nate peeked out of the corners of his eyes and sighed. He tensed his shoulders, relaxed and looked at Sully properly. "What's wrong?" He asked Sully politely, smiling at him. Sully just watched him, his mouth partially open, his heart still racing.

"What's wrong?" Sully questioned, dumbfounded. "Kid, what the hell just happened?" Sully's tone made Nate flinch and he met Sully's eyes, the look of defeat written across his face.

"I-I was just dreaming" Nate faltered. He tried to smile at Sully, but the smile never quite made it to his lips. Sully just looked at him. "I was just dreaming. It's not that weird. I was sleeping and everything." Nate was getting defensive because Sully still hadn't said anything. Nate started getting uncomfortable under Sully's stare and began fidgeting.

"Stop being such a smart ass. Kid, what in the hell were you dreaming about?" Sully asked him, curiosity shaping his words. Nate coiled in anger. He stood up abruptly, showing Sully that he had fallen asleep in one of Sully's shirts and jeans.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Kid, just wait a goddamn minute-"

"I said I don't want to talk about it!" Nate interrupted and opened his bedroom door, a gesture that clearly told Sully to get the hell out of there. Sully rose slowly, trying to work out how the conversation had progressed to this point. He shrugged and walked slowly to the door, giving him time to say what he wanted to say.

"Alright kid. When you want to talk about it, you'll know where I'll be. I'm not gonna push you. But remember, what we have here, this friendship we have going here, is built on trust and communication." Sully stopped in front of Nate, looking down at him. Sully finished softly, "So trust and communicate." Sully left the room, hearing the door shut behind him. He went back to lie on the couch. Sully pondered over what had just happened, whilst dozing in and out of sleep.

Later that night

Nate was sitting in his room, unable to sleep, listening to the sound of Sully's snores. Nate sighed, leaning against the wall that the bed was against. One thing Nate had learned about himself was that he hated sleeping. Sleeping meant less time to explore and more time dreaming. Nate didn't see the difference between nightmares and dreams. He dreamed about his dad deciding he couldn't beat anything into Nate, so he decided that the best thing to do was to dump him. So that's what he did. Drove Nate a few miles out of town, right up to the orphanage and dumped him on the door. He dreamed of his birthdays in the orphanage and how they were shit. He dreamed about how no one seemed to notice him, until he did something wrong. But he also dreamed about his friends in the orphanage. He dreamed about how he told them he was going to become a hero. He dreamed about the first time he read a Latin book and how everyone had stared at him, amazed. Dreaming was awful for Nate. Dreaming meant he actually had something worth dreaming about. Nate didn't like the fact that he had experiences in his life worth dreaming about. He liked to think he was a tough guy. Can you think of a tough guy that had actually had a good experience in their lives? Nate snorted. The people he used to read about, the people he looked up to, they were the people Nate wanted to dream about. Not himself. He always tried to wake himself up upon realising he was dreaming about himself. As if his subconscious was actually throwing Nate out of his dreams. Unfortunately for Sully, he happened to be there whilst Nate was dreaming. Nate shifted uncomfortably. He was thinking about everything Sully had done for him in the last couple of days. Found him, looked after him, gave up his bed for Nate in the motel for Gods sale. Nate got up, and before he could think himself out of it, went to go find Sully's sleeping form. "Sully?" Nate whispered to Sully, trying to wake him up easy. Sully murmured in his sleep, making Nate smile. He waited a few seconds to see if Sully was actually going to wake up and, when he didn't, tried again. "Sully? Sully! Wake up!" Nate said it sharply, getting impatient, the mission he was currently on seeming more and more like a failure. "Sully!" Nate punched Sully in the arm, making Sully's eyes pop open.

"What, what?! Jesus, kid, you're gonna give me a goddman heart attack. What's wrong?" Sully sat upright, making space for Nate on the couch. Nate sat down, teetering on the edge.

"I'm trying to", Nate made the quoting finger gestures, "trust and communicate." Nate dropped his hands and nodded to himself in affirmation, making sure he wanted to go through with it.

"Oh, kid, I wasn't trying to make you feel like you should do it now. I get that these things take time and-"

"Sully, I can't trust and communicate when you keep trying to talk me out of it." Nate interrupted, a cocky, sly smile painted across his lips.

"Right. Sorry." Sully quickly amended. "What do you want to tell me?" Nate turned to look at him fully, meeting Sully's eyes.

"I want to tell you about me. I might as well tell someone before I die." Nate started chuckling. "This is like one of those cheesy programmes." His tone turned mocking, but Sully could see his eyes never strayed from serious. "I'm Nathan Drake." Nate's tone went back to normal. "And this is my story."