Marmite and Fluff
By diav
Genre: Friendship
Rating: G
Characters: Lara Croft, Samantha Nishimura
Story Type: one-shot
Summary: Roomies make sandwiches for each other.
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from the Tomb Raider.
"Here you go, roomie."
Lara accepted the plate and murmured her thanks. She wasn't sure what this was - it looked like a sandwich that was stuffed with fluff.
"Um, Samantha-"
"Puh-lease, Lara, just call me 'Sam,'" replied her roommate.
"Sam... While I am grateful you made me breakfast, I'm not sure what this is..."
"No way! You've never had a Nutella and marshmallow sandwich?"
"I've had fluff with peanut butter but it didn't suit my fancy." She poked at the 'sandwich' and wondered whether this was what all Americans ate for breakfast.
"It's better than peanut butter and fluff! Have you at least had Nutella?"
She shook her head. Her roommate was now staring at her as if she had three heads.
"Oh my God. You've never had Nutella." For added emphasis, Sam added, "Ever?"
"No... To be quite frank, Sam, I prefer Marmite sandwiches."
"Mar... mite?"
She nodded. "It's a savoury spread." She quickly went into her room and pulled out the small jar of Marmite from her desk and walked back into the living room. "Here, it's this." Lara handed it to her roommate.
"Yeast extract?" The younger woman turned it over to examine the list of ingredients. "Onions? This sounds kind of gross."
"It's not, it's rather quite tasty. Maybe you should try it."
"Oh, so it'd be like a roomie sandwich swap. All right." Sam pulled out another butter knife and stopped. "Maybe you should make it the way you like it since I already made you your Nutella fluff sandwich."
"All right." Lara got off the bar stool and proceeded to make Sam a Marmite sandwich. When she was done, she cut up the sandwich in fours and offered her roommate a piece.
"Thanks... Well, here goes." Sam took a bite, chewed and made a face. "This is rank."
"Rank..?"
"Um, that was slang for rancid..." Sam made a face and reached for her mug. "It's so salty..."
"It's a savoury spread," replied Lara as she picked up the Nutella monstrosity before her. "I take it that this is sweet?"
Sam swallowed a mouthful of coffee and nodded. "Hopefully not too sweet," she chuckled.
Lara took a bite and was surprised by how well the marshmallow and Nutella went together. It wasn't overly sweet but sweet enough to make her reach for her mug of tea. "Is this what everyone eats for breakfast in America?" She remembered Sam mentioned that she lived all over the world, the United States being one of those places.
Her roommate simply laughed. "No, no, they don't. Maybe just me..." Sam picked up the other half of the Nutella fluff sandwich. "People eat cereal and eggs and ham and toast and stuff in America... And I'm pretty sure I had rice when I was in Japan as a kid." She took a bite of her sandwich, and much to Lara's surprise, kept talking, "Oh! And that time I stayed in Portugal to visit my mom's family, we had fresh fruit and parties..." She audibly swallowed before realising she'd talked with her mouth full. "Ah, sorry. You must think I'm a slob."
"No, no, it's no problem." Lara looked uncomfortable as a thought came across her mind. "I should apologise, I had thought you were American."
Sam shrugged. "My family moves a around lot because of my dad's job, so I've been everywhere... But I did live in the States for a while, so I can see how you must've thought that." She took a sip from her mug. "How about you?"
"I've lived in England my whole life but I was lucky enough to also travel a bit when my parents were around."
Were? The usage of past tense struck Sam as something odd, but they'd only started getting along. Maybe it'd be something she'd ask about later. "Cool. Well, I guess we're going to be roommates for the next little while, so here's to having a good term." Sam raised her mug as Lara did the same.
Author's Note: Remember my post about Marmite...? (bit. ly / 1bljzrb) This came out of a conversation with Sammy (ipodger) a while back about Marmite...