This was co-written with my friend XFangHeartX. Thanks so much!

I've always loved Tomb Raider, especially the new Survivor Timeline. It's a fresh new perspective on the character. She seemed to actually have feelings instead of just being an emotional hardass.

One thing a lot of people and me were disappointed about was that Lara didn't have a love interest. In the original Tomb Raider games, what ever love interests there were; she either rejected them, didn't accept her feelings (If she had any), or the love interest died.

What surprises me; for the reboot, writers usually pair Lara with Sam. I haven't read any of them, but one author says a lot of them are good. I'm fine if someone wants to write them, but I just don't see it.

So, Fang and I came up with a male original character that's Lara's main love interest, Owen Taylor. And he's with her on Yamatai so she doesn't have to endure it alone. :)

I don't own anything from Tomb Raider.

Owen and any more OCs belong to me and XFangHeartX

Owen Taylor scanned through the bookshelf till he found what he was looking for. A book on tigers. In his arms were other books about animals, dinosaurs and archeology.

Archeology had always been a passion of his, next to animals.

After a year at UCL, he was learning everything he needed. But even learning extra can help, which was why he was currently at the library.

As he walked out of the aisle of books, he nearly dropped his things when he spotted someone.

It was a girl, around his age. She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever laid his eyes on.

"Whoa...!" he whispered in awe.

She had elegant facial features, light peach skin complexion and deep brown eyes. She had thick, dark brown hair tied up in a ponytail, though she kept the front in a layered and choppy style. She had a slender and toned physique.

She was wearing a green tank top that showed a bit of her decent sized cleavage, and dark blue jeans. She had a jade pendant tied to a braided leather lanyard in a double-loop style around her neck, and two small, silver hoop earrings in her right ear. She also had a digital watch on her right wrist.

She currently had an open book on her right as she typed something in her laptop.

"I see you're checking out the new girl."

Owen looked up to see his best friend, Tommy Louis. A young African American man of average height with black hair and hazel eyes, as well as a blue shirt with the college logo embroidered in it, and a pair of khakis.

"Who is she, anyway?" asked Owen.

"Her name's Lara Croft," said Tommy. "They say her dad's some big-time archaeologist."

"You mean Richard Croft?" Owen asked. "Every professional archeologist thinks his theories were crap."

"Why don't you go and talk to her?" asked Tommy.

"Dude, look at her," Owen said. "She's totally out of my league."

"You don't know that for sure," said Tommy. "Go on! Say something! Break the ice!"

Owen gulped and walked over to her table.

"Uh...hi..."

Lara glanced at him for a second before she went back to reading.

"Hello," she said.

'She's British?' Owen thought. 'Wow...'

"Mind if I sit here?" he asked.

"Go ahead," Lara answered without even looking at him.

Owen soon sat down across from her.

"You're...really into that, huh?" he asked.

"Yes," Lara answered quickly, then typed something on her laptop.

'Now what?' thought Owen.

Being quick, he checked the front cover of the open book then set it back down.
"You know, it's said that if you wanna be a good archeologist; you gotta get out of the library."

Lara paused in her typing, looked Owen square in the eye, with her eyebrow raised,
"Who says?"

"Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," Owen answered.

Lara remained stone-faced for a bit, before she grinned and tried to hold back her laughter.

"You...you really thought that was funny?" asked Owen.

"Sorry," Lara giggled a bit. "Indiana Jones is one of my favorites."

"Mine too," Owen said. "Next to Jurassic Park, despite the people in those movies being complete dumbasses."

Lara noticed his stack of books, "Your book selection definitely supports that."

Owen pulled out a pendant from inside his shirt. It was a brown tooth tied to a braided leather lanyard,
"This here; a genuine T-Rex tooth."

Lara gasped and leaned across the table to get a closer look,
"Incredible...! The clear signs of cracks and chips from millions of years of fossilization!"

"Like it?" Owen asked. "It was a birthday gift. Had it since I was 10."

He tried to keep his eyes from staring at her cleavage, which was showing more since she was leaning over.

She didn't notice, thankfully, "It is impressive." She twirled the jade trinket on her neck. "This was my very first ancient finding. I found it in my yard when I was five."

"Well, look at you, Little Miss Archaeologist," Owen smiled.

"When did you decide to take up archaeology?" asked Lara.

"Well, my Mom was a paleontologist," said Owen. "She inspired me...always told me to never give up finding what I'm looking for." He then frowned. "...I...I actually haven't spoken to her in a while."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I would give almost anything to see my mother again," Lara looked down, but then tried to lighten the mood. "Sorry, I forget myself sometimes." She held out her hand. "Lara Croft."

Owen shook her hand, "Owen Taylor."

"So Owen, how long have you been here?" Lara asked.

"Well, I sat here about a minute ago, but I came into the library twenty minutes ago," Owen joked.

Lara laughed, "Smartass! I meant, how long have you been here in London?"

"Oh, about a year," Owen answered. "I'm originally from San Francisco, born and raised."

"Oh, how interesting," said Lara. "And what inspired you to be an archeologist?"

"Just...don't laugh," Owen asked. "...Indiana Jones was my inspiration."

Of course, Lara couldn't hold back her laughter.

Owen couldn't help laughing, too.
"Yeah, I'll admit; I'm a bit of a nerd!"

"It's fine," Lara laughed. "It's actually cute!"

"Y...you think so?" Owen asked in surprise.

"Absolutely," Lara said.

"Well, I prefer 'good looking'," Owen responded. "Still, it's nice to receive praise from such a beautiful girl."

"Oh, you're sweet," Lara said. "I'm sure you say that to lots of girls, though."

"No...just you," Owen grinned, which caused Lara to smile back at him.

"...You know, I was just about to get lunch," said Lara. "Would you like to join me?"

Owen raised his eyebrow, "Is that an invitation to a date, Miss Lara Croft?"

"Maybe," Lara smiled as she put a bookmark in her book.

She also saved her work on her laptop before she closed it.

"Alright, I just need to check these out, first," Owen said, patting his stack of books.

"We can go after that, then," said Lara.

She gathered her things and he did the same.

At the same time, he glanced in Tommy's direction, who was grinning like a fool and giving him thumbs up!

He then mouthed, "She is fine!"

"I know!" Owen mouthed back.

And thus, Owen and Lara began to hang out, almost every day. Things seemed casual at first. It seemed like they had a friendly relationship...but as the days turned to weeks and the weeks turned to months, things got a little more than friendly between them.

Many months later...in fact, it was a few weeks before graduation, Tommy went out to go look for Owen. It was about 30 minutes before the next lecture and Owen wasn't usually late.

He practically looked all over campus when someone told him they saw Owen up on the roof with Lara.

And they were kissing!

Lara's friend, Sam Nishimura, had also been looking around for them. After hearing Lara talk about Owen almost all the time, Sam practically demanded to meet him. And they hit off.

Seeing the event she knew would happen, she took several pictures of it!

"This is awesome...!" she whispered.

After graduation, Owen made a brief visit back to San Francisco to introduce Lara to his parents.

Needless to say, they loved her instantly.

Owen had also met Lara's guardian, Conrad Roth, who took a while to warm up to him. But after getting to know each other, and insistence from Lara; Roth accepted him. Course, he still gave him the threat a father would give to the guy who dated his daughter.

This is just a prologue to show how Lara and Owen meet and become a couple.

They obviously have a lot in common. ;)

Next chapter is the start of the 2013 game.