Thanks a lot to TeenyTinyIrishPerson for beta reading!

Thinking about that night still gave me the creeps. It's unbelievable how some assholes can screw you over in the blink of an eye. The first week afterwards had been the worst. I hadn't dared to be outside after dark and always took the busiest streets. Going to the police to complain had helped a bit, but we both didn't really expect anything to come out of it, so it could only do so much to ease our minds.

Lara had tried to look strong. I think she'd done it for me because it must have been obvious that I hadn't been okay. But I'd been able to see that she'd been different, too. She'd been so worried, but I had to admit that it was really cute how much she cared about me. Things slowly normalized then and we picked up our daily routines again; Lara being her usual workaholic self, and me finding new ways to spend my free time when Lara was busy.

Therefore, meet Sarah, a college friend. She was one of those people who, if there was something interesting to tell, would share it with half the college. Not the kind of person you'd want to tell your secrets. But she was tons of fun to hang out with and a decent binge-drinker. Lara had met her a few times when I dragged her to some parties.

Anyway, Sarah had told me very animatedly about this drawing class she was taking and tried to convince me to give it a try, but drawing and painting and the like had never been my strong point so I didn't really see the point. But then she'd argued that some anatomy study might actually help me with my filming, might give me ideas how to capture people better.

Okay, why not? I hadn't anything to do that evening anyway and Lara was working her new side job again. While she'd soon taken on shifts at the Nine Bells again after our run-in with those dickheads, she took a week off from whatever other job she had. And the strange thing was that I hadn't even had to force her to treat her bruises.

Anyway. I picked Sarah up from college and drove her to her drawing class. It took place in some oldish brick building in East End. We entered a room on the second floor. A series of easels and wooden chairs with seat cushions were set up so that you had large windows and the afternoon sun in your back. Most of the chairs were already occupied with eager students. Sarah introduced me to the teacher, said that I wanted to give the course a try and they set up an extra easel for me. Of course I didn't have any equipment, so Sarah—who was seated next to me—lent some of hers. I nicely set up the canvas in front of me and scrutinized the pencil, trying to figure out which end you point at the paper, when the nude model—who was still wearing a robe—was led into the room.

I was wondering how awkward it is to stare for one and a half hour at some nude dude, when—

No way!

I couldn't believe my eyes. It was Lara? I squinted at her. It was Lara! I—I mean, why... Wow, no wonder she'd been so secretive. She must have been really desperate for the money to buy those expensive books she wanted. And... What were the chances? That I, of all people, would end up here when she...

I was still trying to process everything, when she was led to some cushion-covered pedestal a few meters in front of us, turned her back to the course participants and took off the robe, now wearing nothing but one of her plain panties. So now I was trying to process that I was staring at Lara's butt and bare back.

There had been awkward moments—awkward for her, not me—at home where I'd run into her room or the bathroom in the "wrong" moment. But you don't really sit down to stare in those situations. So this was... new. And, oh god, she looked great.

Please, don't turn around, I thought. I really could only handle so much right then.

Lara was clearly hesitating in front of that pedestal; I could only imagine how incredibly awkward she must have felt that moment. She was always pretty shy when it came to stuff like that. I actually felt sorry for her. But only until she climbed onto her designated place and got down into some half-lying pose, facing us.

I got a good view for several seconds before ducking behind my easel. Staring at the white paper in front of me, I concentrated on the memory of what I'd just seen, while the teacher started talking about some anatomy stuff and gave instructions for today's class. The words entered one of my ears, rushed past Lara's naked breasts that were now etched into my mind, and flew right out the other.

The floor creaked as the teacher walked around the room. Hoping that Lara was concentrating on that in an attempt to avoid the stares of the people in front of her, I dared another look.

Ever since I started having a massive crush on Lara, I wanted to hit that. I'd always found her very attractive, right from the moment where I'd asked her to go dance with me—best decision ever—but I'd never thought much about it. She was my BFF, and that was that. But yeah, you can't deny she's hot—without even trying, and she also has this amazing cuteness bonus—and there were just so many little and big things about her that now drove me crazy—in a good way—and eventually sent me to my bunk. Yes, I admit, I'd thought about her in some intimate moments, imagined her body, what it looks like, feels like, remembering what she smells like—and cursing myself for doing so afterwards. At least I could properly answer one of those things now.

She was lying on her side, her head propped up on one arm, her cheeks flushed, her anxious eyes restlessly following the instructor. The tousled hair, without a scrunchy to hold it back, freely fell over her shoulders. Her... beautiful, perfectly shaped breasts lay on top of each other, moving hypnotically with the deep breaths she was taking. She was so nervous that her entire body must have been tense, because you could actually see a bit of abs, thanks to the angle of the afternoon sun and Lara's gymnastic classes—not to mention her strenuous trips with Roth. Her other hand lay on her hips, her thumb nervously scratching at the fabric of her panties. Her muscular legs were bent a bit. Her toes moved around, curled up, relaxed and moved again.

I was having such a massive Lady Boner.

My eyes darted back to her chest. It was captivating. I felt the strong need to walk over and take her breasts into my hands. Couldn't she just, like, stop breathing? So that I could take my eyes away?

"Anything wrong?" the teacher's voice suddenly came up behind me. I dropped my pencil. Ducking behind my canvas, I took deep breaths to calm down from the heart attack I just had. "Why don't you start?"

Nervously fidgeting around on the chair, I coughed and tried to make my voice deeper so that Lara wouldn't recognize me. "I... I'm still figuring out how to... breast the initial problems and... uh... tackle the task at hand." Sarah gave me a really quizzical look.

"Don't be shy. Why don't you start out with the line of action and take it from there? Maybe your friend can give you some further pointers."

"Yes, action. Good idea. I'll do that," I muttered.

"You dropped your pencil." And with that the instructor strolled away to talk to another student. With one swift ninja movement, I picked up the pencil avoiding being seen by Lara.

"Are you okay?" Sarah asked with her brows in the hairline.

"Yeah, I just—need a moment, yes." I leant back into my chair and exhaled at length.

"Okay," she said and went back to sketching. I eyed her a bit jealously. How the hell was I supposed to draw anything coherent when Lara was lying naked five meters in front of me? My leg started bopping up and down and my hands clawed into the chair while I tried to figure out what to do.

My eyes scanned along the canvases when I suddenly noticed one of the other students giving me this really odd look, kind of judgemental. Probably thought I had no idea about drawing and had just come here to stare at the nude model. Just seeing this look, I wanted to jump up and shout: "It's not that! The problem is that it's my Lara! Can't you see?" And now Sarah was looking at me curiously again as well. Didn't they have Lara's perfect body to stare at? Fine! I straightened myself, took the pencil and put it on the paper. Okay. So far so good. What now?

I slowly peeked around the edge of the canvas—and quickly retreated. This was a bad idea. As much as I wanted to appreciate Lara's body some more, obviously, she didn't want me to know that she was doing this—understandably from her point of view. And just imagine for one second how awkward things would get between us if Lara found out that I was here... staring at her. No thanks, I really couldn't need that.

Sarah poked me in the shoulder and made some hand movement to go on, nodding animatedly. My hand slowly moved to the right, the pencil scratched along the paper making a vaguely horizontal line. Apparently pleased that I'd managed to make a start, Sarah returned to her own sketch. I checked my phone. Oh, god. Only 15 minutes passed. Maybe I should just tell her that I wasn't feeling well and get away ASAP. But I still needed to drive her home. Geez.

The instructor came walking back into my direction and looked at me. I took a quick glance at Lara and started drawing some odd, round shapes on the line that may or may not have been recognizable as head and torso. Could have also been a diagram of a broken pair of glasses. I had no clue what I was doing, but apparently it was enough to avert attention from me. At least that of the teacher. Sarah was now curious about my progress again. I sighed and risked another look...

And met Lara's eyes. Which promptly widened in horror. I disappeared behind my paper again and slumped down in the chair. Well, shit. Stupid. I'd been so stupid. Why hadn't I snuck away? I felt the strong need to stab the pencil through the paper.

Well, everything was too late now anyway, so I popped up from behind my canvas again and waved at Lara with an awkward smirk. Her already flushed face had visibly reddened meanwhile. She mouthed a "Why?" and then quickly pointed with the hand on her hip first at me and then on the ground. I nodded in Sarah's direction. Lara looked at her for a moment and then recognition dawned on her. She looked mortified. Her eyes rolled upwards and she formed a pistol with the hand on her temple before putting it over her eyes and shaking her head. Someone cleared their throat and Lara got back into pose. Her eyes wandered back to me and worry was written all over her face. I shrugged at her, making a sympathetic face.

"Hey," Sarah said suddenly. Her eyes darted curiously back and forth between Lara and me. "Are you communicating with her?"

I jerked my head back. "What? Who? Me? No."

She squinted at me and then at Lara. "She does look familiar. Hm... Do I know her?"

"Who? Her? Why? No. I don't know. I don't know her. Never seen before. I'd remember a body like that." My hand shot up to my mouth. Sarah raised her eyebrows at me before turning back to Lara, whose face was in complete shock.

"Come to think of it, she does kind of look like... What was her name? Laura?"

"Lara?" I laughed nervously. "No way. We share a flat, remember? I'd know if she was nude modelling. Besides, she doesn't have such long hair. And frankly, you know how posh and prudish she is, right? She'd never do anything like this."

Sarah looked at me, obviously considering my words. She scratched her neck, scrutinized Lara one more time and then nodded. "Yeah, no way. You're right." She went back to sketching and I let out a long sigh of relief sinking so deep into my chair that I almost slid down to the ground.

After I managed to collect myself, I peeked around my easel again. Lara had a sad expression and nodded towards Sarah. Not knowing what or how to tell her, I just raised my shoulders.

Since the situation was past saving, I thought I might as well try sketching now, if I could take my eyes off Lara. I repositioned myself so that I could see her without having to awkwardly look around the paper all the time. But it turned out that looking at her naked body was even weirder now that she knew that I was looking. When I tried to get a glimpse, our eyes met again and we both looked away embarrassed.

In an attempt to ease the tension and lift Lara's mood a bit, I folded a corner of the paper around and wrote "You're gorgeous" on it. I hesitated a moment. Was that too much? Oh well. I straightened the paper and pointed with a finger at my writing. After Lara had read it, her eyebrows still stayed knitted together in the middle of her forehead, but the corners of her lips curled up a bit. I couldn't stop my hand; it added on the paper "your boobs too." Lara read, glanced at her chest and then closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. When she opened her eyes again, I'd written, "So, wanna hook up?" I batted my eyelashes. She rolled her eyes. After they finished their round, she playfully shook her head a bit and stuck her tongue out for a fracture of a second. I knew we were joking, but it actually stung. I mouthed a "Why?" and she just shrugged smiling.

I was so going to regret that later, but I had to retaliate, right? I wrote, "I need a souvenir then." I fished my cell phone out of my pocket and slowly held it up next to my easel, the lens pointing at Lara. Her eyes widened and she put an arm in front of her chest.

"Lara?" the instructor said, drawing her attention. Lara opened her mouth and glanced back at me, but I'd already put the cell away and held the pencil up at the paper. She closed her mouth again and pressed her lips in a thin line. "Could you please..." The instructor made a movement with one arm and Lara reluctantly put her hand back on her hip. She looked back at me and I had my cell phone out again. She glared, her head shook in tiny but really fast movements—almost vibrating. When my other hand started circling around in front of the phone, her fingers clawed into her skin.

"No! Stop!" she mouthed at me.

"Make me!" I mouthed back with a grin.

She twitched for a moment as if she was actually going to get up and tackle me down, but then her eyes scanned through the room along the easels and she stopped herself, looking back at me with a scowl. And with an excessive, theatrical movement my finger landed on the screen. Lara clenched her fists and if looks could kill, I'd have died a thousand deaths right there. One of the students cleared their throat, drawing Lara's attention. She tried to relax again—obviously unsuccessful. She glowered in my direction and quickly flipped me off.

I must have clearly been suicidal, because I fiddled around with my phone and held its screen up at her in response—which was set to my Facebook. I wiggled my eyebrows. Now she looked like she might die. Her eyes closed and her pose kind of collapsed, her cheeks were on the brink of combustion. She made a grievous face as if her life had just ended. Wow. Okay. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. She didn't actually take that serious, did she?

I wanted to communicate to her that I was just joking, but her eyes stayed fixed on the ground in front of her for the rest of the class, her face was kind of pale. I felt really sorry, but couldn't really tell her. When I realized that she refused to look at me again, I wanted to pass the time by trying to sketch, but it was impossible to concentrate. So I poked some holes into the paper with the pencil instead.

When the time was up, Lara took the robe the teacher was handing her and disappeared through a door. I put my canvas away and gave Sarah her stuff back. When we stepped out of the front door, I stopped her.

"Hey, uh, can you wait a moment? I wanna go back and ask a few questions."

"Yeah, sure," she said and took her cell phone out.

I went back into the class room, but no one was there, so I slowly tiptoed into the room Lara had disappeared into and looked around. She was sitting on a bench, hunched and staring at the floor, elbows on knees, hands threaded together behind her neck. She was in her underwear. I sighed. I really didn't want to handle Lara in underwear right now.

I carefully knocked on the door frame anyway. "So, will you model for me at home now?" I tried to quip.

Lara raised her head with a scowl. Her eyes were slightly red. Uh oh. Wrong approach. "Having fun with your snapshots?" she spat at me.

Woah. I groaned audibly and handed her my mobile phone. She was confused for a moment, then snatched it out of my hand and started tapping away at it. When she realized that there was nothing to find in the gallery or my Facebook, she handed it back and said meekly, "Sam—"

"Eh, it's okay," I interrupted her and shrugged.

She stepped up to me and her arms flew around me. "I'm sorry," she said into the crook of my neck. Well, wow. Those one and a half hours had clearly taken their toll on her. I wondered what horrors she'd been picturing while brooding.

"I'd never..." I said petting her head, trying to calm her down. My other hand slid up and down her bare back. My eyes closed and I couldn't help it; I immediately thought about Lara's naked body and I silently cursed myself for it.

"I know," she said pulling me out of it. She was leaning back a bit and looked into my eyes. The look she was giving me... it was captivating. She was showing so much emotion. My hand reached up and brushed her cheek. I...

"Miss Croft? Oh, hey!" A voice shot through the room startling both of us. Way to ruin the moment. We stared at the instructor who was pointing at me, looking concerned at Lara. "Do you need help? Is this okay with you?"

"What? I'm not—" I wanted to protest.

"Her? Yeah, we know each other," Lara interrupted me.

"Oh, okay. Well, I'm sorry. I'd love to give you two some alone time, but I have to leave and need to lock the rooms."

Lara hesitated for a few seconds, obviously struggling for a reply. In the end, she just gave a nod, her cheeks visibly flushed. "We'll be out in a minute." The instructor left and Lara glanced at me chuckling.

She wanted to turn to get her stuff but I stopped her holding her at arm's length. "You know, you seriously couldn't have looked more uncomfortable during that class. Please, just let me buy you those books!"

She looked downwards, conflicted. "Okay. Thank you," she said eventually, smiling at me.

"Good girl." I patted her cheek. "Hey, I'd love to wait for you but I actually managed to make Sarah believe that you weren't the nude model. So it'd be kinda strange if you suddenly showed up."

Lara looked at me, her expression full of relief; then it shifted and was kind of unreadable. Suddenly, she leant forward and pecked my cheek before turning around and going back to the bench where her clothes and rucksack lay.

"Okay, see you later," I murmured and floated out the door.