After reading all that deep, angsty stuff everybody keeps posting (which I love, by the way), I thought the fandom needed something for when the feels got too much.
"Give me a copper penny and hear a golden tale.." You hear her read from a chair opposite your desk. You look up from your work disorientated from the sudden interruption; recognising the words but not remembering the source. The wheels in your mind start turning as you match up books with their first sentences, the academic in you thrilled at the new challenge, but you forget the task at hand when you catch sight of her smile - it's cheeky, and curiosity has replaced exhaustion on her features and you almost tremble with relief.
"You know, Croft, this would be way more interesting if you'd bothered to translate more than the first line." She says still not looking up from the book. "First line's pretty decent."
It's your turn to smile, you know which book it is - a compilation of Pliny's letters - one of the duller remains of ancient Rome if you're being honest with yourself.
You set your fathers heavy fountain pen down and watch her turn a page. This is bliss, you think to yourself - watching Sam's eyes trying to absorb the foreign letters, while the fire cackles and the radio softly plays music. You have seen this scene before.
"Marito! Uh! I know what that means! That's husband, right?" She looks up at you expectantly and you nod in confirmation, chuckling as you feel the muscles on you neck, always locked in contraction ready for action, relax - first your left trapezius softens, then your infraspinatus which is quickly followed by your splenius cervici. You almost roll your eyes at yourself, trust you to remember all the useless information you used to memorise in Maths lessons just to make the hours go by faster, but then, you suppose, it wasn't that long ago. Sam still looks the same as she did when you first met her, lost at midnight running away from some hideous date when she had told him she was just going to the bathroom.
"Crap! Crap! Crap! Stupid old town!" She muttered as she ran up and down Trinity street.
"Excuse me, you seem lost." You had said, your English manners taking over at the sight of a damsel in distress.
"Yes, thank you, sweetie!" She greeted you with familiarity even though you'd never met before. This took you by surprise, but despite this you smiled as she leaned on you to catch her breath. She was warm against your thin shirt and she prattled on between large breaths, moving her hands animatedly as she explained her situation. "You see I was on this date. And ugh! What. A. Jackass. And now -" Deep gulp of air. "Now I can't find my college!" She looked around the dark street double checking she hadn't lost the entrance. "I swear it was down this street."
You couldn't help but smile again, her lively energy drawing you into her. "Don't worry, what college do you go to?"
"Pembroke. Yeah... Pembroke." She said scrunching her nose in slight confusion. "Do you know it?"
"Yep, it just so happens I do. It's on the same street as mine, and said street is down over there." You say pointing past King's College.
"Silly, Sam." She muttered.
"I was just walking down there myself..."
"Yeah. Sure. Sorry. Thanks. You must think I'm clueless." She said as she finally looked up at you, and rewarded you with brilliant smile. "I'm Sam, by the way."
"Lara."
"Lara." She calls out to you, your name rolling off her tongue.
"Yes, Sam?"
"Thought I'd lost you there for a moment."
"Not at all, love." You say smiling, using the pet name that you had once only used ironically and now you legitimately can't stop using; then you take a small gulp of air and stand up.
It's soon going to be a month since Yamatai, but your healing body is still on recovery mode. Your wounds seem to be putting up one last fight before their eventual surrender, and as your ribs send shooting aches across your torso and all the deep cuts that decorate body send waves of fire burning deep into your skin you can't help but admire the fight they're putting up; and that's without even considering your drained muscles that feel like they're on strike until further notice.
"You okay there, sweetie?" Sam asks, the concern evident in the timbre of her voice.
"Yeah, I guess I'm still tired." You say with a half smile and walk over to her. "What where you asking me about, sorry?" You ask trying to change the topic from your battered body that had been the centre of attention for far too long.
"That painting, over there. I'd never seen it before."
You cock your head to the side as you look at the large print of a mural you had bought when you were seven in Pompeii. It has been decorating the wall of your study for so many years it has long since merged with the wall itself and you hadn't really looked at it for years. But as you look at it, you scrunch your face up and decide to tell Winston to take it down tomorrow morning.
"It's the Sacrifice of Iphigenia." You sound surprised even to yourself. "From a mural painting in Pompeii. Iphigenia appeals for mercy as she is carried to the altar. To the right is the priest, sword in hand, and to the left Agamemnon stands grieving beside a statue of Artemis. In the sky is the goddess, armed with a bow and a deer, which sometimes substitutes Iphigenia in other versions of the story." You recite out loud.
Both of you stand staring at the print out, mouths slightly agape. After a few minutes, Sam is the first to break the silence, "And the supernatural wins that round." You crack a small smile and she lets out a small giggle.
"Tha-that is not normal." You splutter out and the irony of having had that painting hanging on your study's wall your entire life catches up with you and soon the two of you are bent over laughing.
God, it feels good as the tears roll down your face. You haven't laughed like this since you got back and, boy, have you needed it! You cherish the burning on your sides because for once it's a welcome type of pain and you wouldn't want anything more out of life if the only type of pain you felt again was from laughing like you are now with Sam.
Both of you are crying, splutters of laughter still spilling from your guts as you hold each other tightly, and you realize over and over again that you are still alive. You hold her as tightly as you can, smelling as if for the first time her wondrous perfume and feeling for the first her beating heart pounding next to yours. It's now that you understand you will forget a bit of Yamatai everyday for the rest of your life. It will never be gone, but it will fade.
"Never let me go." You whisper.
"Never." She whispers back.
Hope y'all enjoyed that ;)
(Shout out to ingelheim who has really helped poke my brains mythology wise).