Methods and devices for handling short Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) Transaction Layer Packets (TLPs) are described. A receiver can receive at least a portion of a first packet and can process the first packet to determine if the first packet is a short packet. The receiver can receive at least a portion of a second packet and if the first packet is a short packet, the receiver can transmit a negative acknowledgement (NAK) in response to the second packet and can receive a retransmission of the second packet.