Authors Note: This is my first time on I find there are very few Alex/ Lara fan fictions on the site, and fewer still which are finished, which is a shame because I really enjoyed such stories as 'The Beginning' and 'The Many Paroxysm's of Alex West'. Any reviews would be greatly appreciated, flames included, though I don't expect any. Chapters will be longer in future. Please be patient- the story will unfold slowly. Thank you.
Disclaimer: Tomb Raider and its characters are the property of Simon West, Paramount Pictures and Eidos Interactive. This story is strictly for my own personal pleasure. Any similarities between this story's plot and any others is purely coincidental. No plagiarism intended.
Warning! Rating may go up as my imagination wanders….
Chapter One: Cuts in question.
The bustling lobby of Boothby's Auction House hummed with the chatter of iridescent shapes, moving and shifting in a blur of indefinite images. Alexander West had eyes only for the beautiful sight ascending the stair case. Lara Croft, in her motor cycle leathers and helmet in hand, looked over the top of her sunglasses and groaned inwardly. Quickening her pace, she attempted to brush past the man whose very presence had the infuriating effect of turning her emotions into turmoil.
"Hey, Lara…", turning, Alex tried to get her attention, but she ignored him and hurried off to the next auction where a supposed necklace of one of king Henry VIII's wives was being sold to the highest bidder. Lara waved her left hand behind her as he began to follow, and he noticed the scars on the palm and fingers.
Alex's mind floated back to the day five months ago when Lara had emerged from The Tomb of Ten Thousand Shadows….
Alex heard Lara's laughter long before the sled came into view. Powell's soldiers had left, and Bryce and Pimms waited with varying degrees of impatience in the freezing cold climate of Novaya Zemlya for the tomb raider to appear. Alex had been pacing, waving his hands agitatedly in irate gestures- directed mostly at Powell but some to himself in his mind- and seemingly wordlessly spoke to himself. Snow cracked and flew in the impending sleds wake. Halting roughly, Lara looked over her shoulder at the tomb entrance as an immovable piece of rock fell from the ceiling. Without the key stone, the entire roof splintered and crumbled, caving in on itself. The sound of its collapse was muffled by the snow in an entirely unsatisfactory thump. Raising a delicate eyebrow, Lara smiled humourlessly at Alex. Just then, Alex noted the blood dripping from her left arm. It ran in tendrils around her forearm like an intricate red web, though he could see the wounds were actually in the soft flesh of her palm, and maybe her fingers.
"Christ Lara! What were you doing?" when no answer was forthcoming, he haphazardly began to throw miscellaneous items from his rucksack in search of the small tin he knew he would found there. Having located the elusive item, he hunched down in front of Lara where she sat perched on the edge of her sled. He held out his hand and she wordlessly gave him hers. Taking up a handful of snow, he proceeded to clean the wounds which were slowly coagulating. Lara looked at the tin Alex had now opened, which was about six inches square. It contained a variety of things a person could need in virtually any situation. Three small plastic boxes- green, red and blue- were labelled 'first-aid kit', 'burn kit' and 'bandages' respectively. Among other things inside the tin were water proof matches, some string, a beta light and a magnetic compass, and … a condom.
As Alex reached into the tin for the antiseptic spray, he noticed Lara's pointed gaze. "it can hold up to a litre of water", he mumbled shamefacedly as he began to gently bandage her hand. Of course she knew that, but she revelled in the fact that she could so easily make him nervous. Alex had carried that tin around with him everywhere for as long as she has known him. Even back in secondary school, where he had joined her from America. She suddenly remembered the geeky and uncertain boy she had befriended when she was sixteen and smiled genuinely at Alex.
Puzzled by her sudden warmth, Alex decided to take the opportunity to kiss her hand on the knuckles. She merely cocked an eyebrow at him. Then he covered the tin with its lid and re-wrapped the water proof tape around the edges. While this was going on, Bryce had been frantically tapping at his keyboard, hoping it would work despite the fact he knew they were in a dead zone. Seeing that Alex was helping Lara into the storage section of their sled (how the American had convinced her that he should steer he did not know), Bryce packed his now useless hunk of metal away and got on the sled he and Pimms were riding….
Lara had never told Alex how she got the cuts on her hand. He kept having dreams of Powell throwing a knife that pierced him in the chest, of falling into water and his body being crushed by the orrery's gears, and of Lara giving him the breath of life before finally kissing him good bye. Oh! How she would laugh if she found out about them! He would never hear the end of it, and yet… how did Lara get those cuts? How did Powell's knife end up embedded in its owner's shoulder? He was sure it had been intended for him. Maybe his subconscious had created the dreams to fill a gap?
Snapping out of his reverie, Alex quickly got over his musings as he noticed Lara coming back out of the auction room. How long had he been standing there, engrossed in his own thoughts? The middle aged woman at the reception desk had been eyeing him suspiciously, standing in the middle of the lobby, staring unfocused at the ground, metal briefcase in hand. Lara headed towards him….
Authors Note: For future reference, Alex has glasses but due to the physical nature of his work with Powell, he had to wear contacts. His glasses are an exact replica of those owned by Rivers Cuomo from Weezer (couldn't resist, I love his glasses). Thank you for reading.
Kai.