Uncharted Imagines/Shorts'

26 (Rafe Adler) Business: Part Two

Continuing from part one, the waters are being tested- can they work together?

It's a quiet and slightly uncomfortable atmosphere as we settle into our seats on the plane, the leather seat groans underneath me. I take a quick look around at the cabin and attempt to calculate the cost in my head.

"Impressive, huh?" his voice makes me jump, it was perfect and silent for a moment. Rafe is staring straight at me from across the isle, as usual he has that half smile on his face and my hand twitches as I think about slapping it off of his face. I don't mind him when he's not acting like the rich brat he is, throwing money around like it's nothing and showing off his expensive purchases expecting people to be impressed.

"Hmm, that's a word for it..." I breathe looking around again "this is a big plane, wonder if you're compensating for something." he scoffs at my comment the second it leaves my lips, the hint of an amused smile on his face as he shakes his head. I turn away from him smiling myself, it's been like this in the past few weeks- me making a sarcastic comment and him not blowing up over it as he's done previously.

In five weeks this will be our seventh flight. I wouldn't say I have enjoyed this but it's not been as horrible as expected, after a few drinks he tends to talk a lot and that means I learn more.

"Where are we headed this time?" I ask changing the topic and turning my large leather chair in his direction, he sighs "I'm taking you to Panama. I need to find someone there, it's going to be a quick stop." he explains.

"Ah, the duo will become a trio?" I ask making him smile again. "Samuel Drake, he'll have the information we need and then we're headed for Scotland."

I blink at him "Scotland, England?" I clarify.

Rafe fills me in on the reason we're headed to Scotland, he's already gone over the beloved pirate Henry Avery briefly- luckily for him I spent years studying History. It's not my mind he's seemingly 'hired' me for, his intentions are not clear at the moment but I'm keeping an eye out for them in case he cracks. I'd like to think a third person working on this with us could take a bit of attention away from me, there's no way in hell I'm going to do this forever. I'll help him where I can and then go back to my old life, like nothing happened.

"Ezra, tell me about him," he asks out of the blue after shoving a glass of whiskey into my hands, he returns to his seat as I choke on my words. I haven't even thought about him since he tried to kill me, then I killed him- hearing his name takes me back to that cave, my head a blur, blood smearing the concrete around me and the betrayal I felt when he tried to murder me. Rafe has that look on his face where he knows he's got he off guard, the shock on my face is obvious and I don't attempt to hide it, it's too late. I take a deep breath and look down to the drink in my hand, swishing the liquor around the ice.

I finally mutter a short response "I don't know if there's anything to tell, he wasn't who I thought he was." my voice is rough, my tone giving away the fact I don't want to talk about this. I mentally slap myself for not sounding like I don't care.

"Alright, tell me about him based on who you thought he was" his response is a lot quicker than mine.

"He was my best friend, we found each other on the streets as teenagers. I looked up to him, we looked after each other- he was protective and thoughtful, wanted to make sure I was okay first and when he said he'd come back...he always did."

My eyes flicker to him from the floor once I finish speaking, it's nothing interesting what I blurted out but all of that was the first thing to come to mind. Rafe has a habit of staring at people while he thinks, usually not breaking eye contact until he's spoken- it could be a dominance thing, or he actually cares. I feel like he'd become angry if I looked away and then he does something I haven't seen yet, he frowns.