Special thanks to my friends at Croft Manor for their creative input and another thanks to Max (Reasons Lost) for beta-reading this for me.
All feedback appreciated!
The day Lara had been anticipating since winter had finally come: move in day, the beginning of the rest of her life as an independent adult. She absentmindedly rubbed the jade magatama hanging around her neck and reflected on the fact that, for the first time in her life, she'd truly be on her own. There would be no more meals prepared for her by hands other than her own. She would be in charge of her own cleaning, mail, groceries… She would no longer be tied to the manor and the comfortable, albeit dreadfully dull, high-born lifestyle of her family. It was a liberating realization.
"I remember when you found that on one of your father's digs," Roth remarked from the driver's seat while she continued rubbing at the pendant, "you ran up and showed it to me dressed in your penguin pajamas." Lara laughed, and she could hear Roth's laughter mixing with her own.
"I was five years old, it was my first find!" she said. Within a few moments, their laughs died down and Roth continued.
"It feels like that was just yesterday...now look at you, ready to start college," he smirked, watching the road and seemingly losing himself in his own nostalgia before snapping back to reality, "your parents would have been so proud of you…" Lara pursed her lips and looked out her window while Roth merged onto Euston Road.
"Would they have been, though?" She murmured. For years, she was expected to attend Oxford-her father's and mother's alma mater. Then, she crushed those expectations by instead applying to University College London and refusing to accept her college trust fund. She couldn't remember a time when Winston had been as disappointed.
"Your mother and father wanted you to receive a top notch education and set aside this money for that exact purpose! This is what Lord and Lady Croft had wanted for you!"
Oxford was what her parents had wanted for their only child, and she had gone against their wishes. No matter how many times she tried to reassure herself, she couldn't help but feel a sense of guilt over her decision. She was a Croft; there were expectations associated with the name that she had to meet, and she'd failed to do just that.
"Of course they would have," Roth responded, derailing her train of thought. "You're taking your own path, earning your own way, and being true to yourself. That's something they both would have respected." Lara didn't have a response, and she need not have one as Roth turned left onto Tavistock Square, came to a stop in front of Connaught Hall, and put the car in park. "Well, here we are: the place where your path begins. I guess we should get you moved in then, eh?" he clapped her on the shoulder and exited the vehicle to start unloading the scant few items she'd packed. On top of opting to forgo the use of her personal trust fund, she had also decided she was only going to pack the bare essentials and buy the rest of anything she'd need once she found a job in the city. If she was going to earn her way, she was adamant that she was truly going to do so, which meant no cars from the manor, no electronics besides her phone, no formalwear or high-end garments, and no anything of the like. She was starting almost completely from scratch, which Roth had expressed his utmost approval for, stating she'd be more grounded.
She unbuckled her seatbelt and let herself out of the car, walking around back to help Roth unload-not that there was much left to do. With how light she'd packed, they need not even make a second trip out to the car. Pulling her suitcase handle up, she led the way into the building and made a beeline for the desk, where a crowd of other students were checking in. When the crowd had thinned out, she wriggled her way through the remaining bodies and approached the next available staff member.
"Hello, Lara Croft…?" She winced internally when some of the staff behind the desk gave her the all too familiar quizzical frown at the mention of her name before returning to their work. By that point, she felt she should have been used to all the sly looks from people too polite to openly stare, or the shameless gawking, but dealing with the scrutiny never seemed to get easier. Sometimes, if she was lucky, nobody would know who she was and she could go about her business in peace. But such occasions were far and few between, especially when she was still in such close proximity to Surrey.
"Croft, eh?" The woman in front of her asked as she thumbed through the book in front of her, "Okay, you're in room two hundred and four. Sign here please, and I'll give you your key." She pointed at a dotted line to indicate where Lara was supposed to sign, and went through a filing cabinet behind her while Lara hastily scribbled her signature. "Alright, let us know if anything is damaged or out of place," she said, handing Lara her key.
"Thank you," Lara replied, making for the elevator with Roth and hitting the button for the second floor once inside. The doors to the elevator slid shut, only to reopen with a ding! a few moments later on Lara's floor. A sign on the wall directly in front of them indicated room two hundred and four was to the right, and her and Roth followed the arrows, easily finding a door with a brass '204' on it in due time. She pulled her newly acquired key out of her pocket and let herself and Roth in.
"No roommate yet," Roth remarked, and Lara noted the entire room was bare and empty. She put the handle on her suitcase down and set it on top of a bed in order to claim that side of the room as her own. Roth, meanwhile, set her other bags on top of the desk at the foot of the bed. "Well, do you want my help unpacking now or…?" Lara shook her head.
"I can take care of it later after I pick up my books," she said, taking a seat on the edge of her mattress.
"Speaking of which, do you have enough money for those?" Roth frowned concernedly.
"Yeah, I managed to save up enough to last while I look for a local job." Not that she had an easy time doing so. When she had attended boarding school, she was prohibited from leaving the premises for longer than an hour. What work she was able to find after she decided she'd earn her own way usually consisted of washing cars or helping to sort mail-a small amount of work for a small amount of pay. Saving money became significantly easier once summer came around and she was free to work several part-time jobs.
"Alright, but if you find yourself struggling too much financially I want you to call me." Lara's only response was a noncommittal shrug while Roth checked his watch, "I have another hour or two before I've got to meet up with Reyes and the rest of the crew. Is there anything else you need? You haven't eaten yet today, have you?"
"Winston tried to get me to but I just wasn't hungry this morning," Lara admitted. She'd been too anxious to get out of the manor to worry about anything else, and when she stopped to think, she found she was rather peckish. Roth leaned back against her desk and pensively stroked his beard.
"Alright, I think I know a place nearby where we can get something." He pushed himself off the desk and made for the door while Lara trailed close behind, and once she had locked the room up behind them, they went outside together. Lara made for the car before Roth stopped her, "We're not driving there, it's only a few blocks over and I need to stretch my legs out anyways." She nodded to indicate she heard him, and they walked together in silence, examining their surroundings and taking in the scenery. "It seems to be a fairly nice area, you have a few parks around here," Roth observed.
"It's all near the archaeology department too," Lara said, pointing out a building to their left.
"So that's what you're officially studying?" Roth asked.
"I thought you knew that already?" Lara looked at him and tilted her head to the side.
"I had my hunches, but I didn't want to ask about it and make you feel like that was what you had to study...especially since I know Winston gave you a bit of a hard time over your trust fund and everything else." Lara scrunched her face.
"If I didn't let Winston pressure me into any of that, what makes you think that I would've felt pressured into studying one thing or another? I'm not a child anymore."
"You're right, and I shouldn't treat you like one," he responded, unfazed by her sharp tone and indignant demeanor. Lara sighed and watched a double decker bus drive by.
"Don't get me wrong, I know everybody means well-really, I do…" She began, "it just got old feeling as though everybody was making my decisions for me. It just would've been more of the same had I gone to Oxford or Cambridge…"
"Which is why I'm glad you started thinking for yourself. No matter how many times I might compare you to Dick or Amelia, just know that you're not either one of them. You're you, and I think spending time away from the manor will help give you the space you need to figure out what that means."
"Mmm…" Lara hummed in response as they walked into a retro sandwich shop. They placed their orders at the counter before finding a place to sit by a window, where Lara contented herself with watching people and cars alike drift by.
"So, have you given any thought to what you're going to do besides go to class and work?" Roth asked from across the table, recapturing Lara's attention.
"I've been considering trying out for the gymnastics team," she answered after giving Roth's question some thought.
"What, no boxing?" Roth's tone was joking, but Lara raised a brow at him all the same.
"Boxing?" She asked in confusion. Roth appeared to be a bit confused himself.
"I never told you?"
"Told me...what?" Lara's befuddlement was steadily mounting with every word spoken.
"Well," Roth began, visibly struggling to fight back laughter, "back in the day your mother was a boxer of some renown. I think she started some time after she graduated from Cambridge." Lara brows knitted together.
"Bullshit," she blurted out, and Roth chuckled.
"It's true! If there was somebody who didn't mind getting her hands dirty, it was Amelia. She did a few public fights in a women's boxing circle in Scotland-had a pretty solid record, too. This was all before she met your father, of course." Both of Lara's eyebrows were halfway up her forehead.
"Wait, you're actually bloody serious?"
"Absolutely," Roth said earnestly, "that's how she met Grim, too, come to think of it. She was in some bar in Glasgow after a match, and Grim got on her bad side. So Amelia, being the fighter she was, went right up to Grim and…" he tapped his fist on his cheek, "socked him right across the face. They became close drinking buddies after that…" he shook his head, "I'll never understand the Scottish."
"So, why did she stop?" Lara asked as somebody set their food down in front of them, "You always told me stories about the expeditions you went on with her and dad, never anything about this. So she must have stopped a long time ago." Roth took a bite out of his sandwich before answering.
"She stopped after getting a pretty nasty concussion to avoid any long-term complications. She really valued her wits, which is something else you two have in common besides your looks." Lara chewed on her sandwich thoughtfully.
"And how did her and dad meet?"
"Well since she'd officially retired from boxing, she did what anyone else would have done and went to Oxford to get a PhD," Roth said casually, "she met your father in the library there."
"I can't help but feel there's more to it than just 'and they lived happily ever after'..." Lara remarked dryly, taking a sip of her water.
"Damn right there is. There was no way the great Amelia DeMornay would take just any man. She ended up agreeing to a date in the end, though."
"Probably took a while for that to happen," Lara observed.
"About three months, in fact. Richard was a persistent fellow." Lara smiled softly at the image that came to mind of her father chasing her mother.
"I know what you said about being my own person, but it sounds like my mother was quite the character. If there's one person I want to be like someday, it'd have to be her."
"Your mother was a good person," Roth agreed, "both your parents were. They also cared about you more than anything else; the happiest I ever saw the two of them was the day you were born." Lara stared down at her half eaten sandwich.
"What were your parents like, Roth?" The question appeared to catch him off guard, and he took a moment or two to respond.
"Dad was a drunk. Didn't get to know him until I was twelve and he cleaned himself up. Before that, it was just my mum that raised me. They were both good people, just had to overcome a lot of hardship was all." He observed Lara curiously for a few moments, "Why the sudden curiosity?"
"Just curious is all…" Lara murmured while Roth considered her thoughtfully.
"My father might not have been present, but he did care about me just like yours cared about you...even if he wasn't the best at showing it."
"That's an understatement." Lara scowled, "You know the one thing I remember about dad clear as day? I remember that he was always busy with his work." Roth sighed.
"Things were...complicated for him towards the end. Someday, I think you might understand." The rest of their meal was finished in silence, and after paying they walked back to Connaught Hall, coming to a stop in front of the lobby doors. Lara turned to Roth to exchange a final farewell, but the latter beat her to it. "Alright, this is it. Study hard, I'll try to visit when my schedule allows it," Lara nodded, and they embraced, "make me proud, girl. I'll see you soon," he patted her on the back, breaking the embrace. He turned on the spot and walked across the street to his car, and Lara slowly raised her arm to wave and gave him a halfhearted smile. As he opened his door to get into his car, he saw her, grinned, and gave one final wave in return before getting in, pulling out, and driving down the street. Lara watched him go all the while until his car finally disappeared from view around the corner, and she was completely alone.