Agreement - Lara (POV), Min (est L/S, M/B) - SFW


By Asynca, in 47 minutes.

Set after The Dreaming, FULL of spoilers.


It took me several seconds to realise the sound I was half-hearing was my phone vibrating itself off my bedside table. I woke up enough to roll over and catch it before it walked itself off and smashed all over our brand new floorboards. It was already my fifth iPhone inside twelve months; Apple didn't need any more of my money.

I had assumed the racket was a series of emails, probably from Australia and probably about the business, but when I lay back and held the phone in front of my face it continued to vibrate in my hand. My eyes weren't clear yet so I just decided to take a gamble and answer it. "Hello?" God, my voice. I sounded half-dead.

"Hi." In that single word, I recognised a pronounced Australian twang. Min. "You busy?"

"Not unless you count sleeping," I whispered.

"I do, but since you're not sleeping now, I guess you're free," I could hear the smirk in her voice. "Is Sam there with you?" I looked over at her in her nest of blankets and pillows. She was snoring. Before I could answer, Min said, "Wait, I can hear her, never mind. I need to talk to you."

It was God knows what time in the morning, but that phrase still got the adrenaline pumping so much I could have taken down an army. "Okay, give me a second," I said, and slipped out of bed. The floorboards were freezing and it was too dark for me to find when I'd put my slippers, even with the phone. I just took Sam's fluffy dressing gown from a pile of clothes on the floor and padded down the stairs into the living room.

Downstairs was much warmer, even though the embers in the fireplace were nearly dead. I went and sat on our immortal beanbag as close to the hearth as I could without burning my feet on the hot slate. "Okay," I said, not actually sure I was ready to hear whatever she had to say. "What's wrong?"

There was a moment of silence. "Well, I got the contract. Yesterday, actually."

"Oh?" I wasn't sure what that meant. I hoped there weren't some terms in it that were inadvertently insulting. I just had no idea what concept artists normally got paid or what to set the retainer at; Sam had done all of that research for me. "Is there a problem with it? Because I'm happy to change it, you know. I'm the one who wrote it. Just let me know what doesn't work and I'll get Sam's lawyer to make the amendments and send you a new one."

She made a noise. "That's not it," she said, and then sighed. "Lara…"

My heart was pounding.

"I lay awake in bed last night stressing," she said eventually. "I can't sleep until I ask you something."

Then ask it before the suspense kills me, I thought, staring down at the fluffy dressing gown over my knees. "Oh?"

"Yeah…" she said, and then spent a few moments thinking about how she was going to say whatever she was going to say while I worried about what it was going to be. "Lara, are you creating a whole fucking video game franchise just to give me work because of what happened to me?"

I exhaled with relief. Thank God that's all it was. Still, I had to be a bit careful how I answered that. "Well," I said, "Sam and I were actually talking about what a great idea it is to turn it all into a video game. We lost a lot of footage after I—" shot her, I thought, but didn't say it, "after we were all kidnapped."

I could hear her release a breath she'd been holding, too. She laughed once. "I was going to tell you that I didn't want you to, if that's why," she said. "But I'm so glad I don't have to say that, because it's shit trying to find work as an artist."

I thought back to all those amazing pictures covering her wall. "But you're so good!"

She chuckled. "Oh, really…?" There was something about the way she said that.

I rolled my eyes, and I think it was audible in my voice. "Don't you start."

"Don't worry, I never start anything I can't finish," she said at the very bottom of her voice. I loved the way it sounded and because of that I was very glad when she went back to her normal tone. "Can you hear that? That's the sound of my pen signing this beautiful contract you sent me."

Hang on. "Wait, you were thinking of not signing it?"

She paused, and so did the pen and the paper-flicking I could hear in the background. "Lara, you know how I feel about charity."

I made an oh-shape with my mouth. "Oh, no, no," I said, realising what she meant. "Actually I wanted to help you guys way before what happened with Natla," I said, and then bit my lip while I thought about how to explain it without going too much into everything at five in the morning. "I lost a lot of friends last year," I told her. "I miss them. I can't believe I'm saying this because I'm a complete hermit, but I also really miss having people around. It was just really nice to meet you and Bree. You're both great. If I have all this money from Natla, why wouldn't I want to do something productive with it, something that is for all of us?"

She thought about that before she eventually spoke. "Okay," she said simply. "By the way, Bree almost needed to be tranquilised for her own safety when she found out you're using her as a character."

I laughed at that. I could imagine. "So everything's okay with the contract?"

She made an affirmative noise. "Which is good, because I need some sleep. It's an oven in this fucking country right now."

"Okay, well, I'm going to not to freeze to death in this country and go back to bed," I said, and then had a thought. "Min, if I'd told you that I actually was doing it all for you, would you still have signed it?"

There was a long, agonising pause. "Yes," she said. "I'm working with you."

My breath caught in my throat, and to my horror I felt butterflies in my stomach. I closed my eyes and scrunched up my face. We are not doing this, I thought. No. She's too great a friend for us to wreck everything by doing this when we know it can't ever go anywhere. "I'm going back to bed," was all I said.

"Okay. Sleep well," she said neutrally, and then hung up. Was it too quickly? Or was it a normal hang up?

I stared at the landing screen of my phone for a few seconds until it locked and went dark. Standing, I took a deep breath and exhaled at length. It some ridiculous hour of the morning and I didn't really want to dwell on the conversation I'd had right now. Because on top of everything, it was cold, and the thought of Sam keeping the bed warm for me was actually really appealing. I tip-toed back upstairs and crawled under the covers with her.

"Hey," she mumbled and then pulled my arm around her stomach, gasping when my hand touched her skin. "You're cold!"

"Not anymore." I smiled into her neck and went back to sleep.