Author's Note: Chapter three of who knows how many? :) Depends on you guys. Thanks for being so positive – now read on for your reward!

Revised 15/06/08 for grammatical stuff. Content could do with a huge rework, but it's not gonna happen!

Organising her desk took about three seconds – she'd known where everything was anyway. Bored, she decided she'd better change out of her workout gear before the food arrived. Not that it had anything to do with the fact that Kurtis would be arriving with it. Far from it.

By the time Kurtis walked through the door, she was showered and dressed in an outfit she'd last worn in 1999 for her trip to Nevada. She'd informed Winston of their… guest, and he'd retired to his room for the night. A nice man, Winston, but not the most social of beings. Still, since Lara spent most of her time alone, and he'd known her since she was a small girl, their arrangement had worked out fine.

They ate in the lounge, food on their laps, for the specific reason that Lara wanted to dispel any lingering notions he had that she was a typical aristocrat. For the first five minutes they ate in comfortable silence, but then Kurtis looked up at her. "Truth or dare?"

Lara frowned. "Aren't you a trifle old to be playing schoolyard games?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Indulge me."

Lara thought about it. In these circumstances, the option of truth would be more challenging. What the hell. "Truth."

Kurtis took the time to devour three prawn crackers as he considered. "You seem to have at least ten different personalities. Which is the real Lara?"

Of all the questions she'd been expecting, that hadn't been one of them. "I'm sorry? What personalities?"

"Every time I think I have you figured out, you prove me wrong, is all. One minute you're a total bitch, the next you're putting your life on the line for me." He stopped, watched her surprised discomfort at the description, amusement laced with a challenge in his eyes. "Wish you'd chosen a dare now?"

"I don't know the answer," Lara admitted. "Maybe I'm a mixture. Or maybe you don't get to see the real me until I decide you can." She punctuated the last point with a semi-flirtatious look through her lashes, made bold by his obvious attempt to get to know her better. Before he could translate the strange look in his eyes into words, she shook her head, assuming an innocent, wide-eyed expression as she asked, "My turn. Truth or dare?"

He seemed intrigued by her, under that cocky exterior. "Truth."

Hmmm… No harm in checking. "Bound by the sacred laws of Truth or Dare," she said dryly, "are you Karel?"

He appeared to be biting back laughter. "Thought you'd ask a harder one than that." He sobered a little, and held up a hand. "Scout's Honour. I'm not Karel, or any other Nephilim." He paused. "What you have to ask yourself now is, did Karel play Truth or Dare as a kid?"

Lara studied him, from the half-amused, all-ironic twist of his mouth to the almost-serious tint in his eyes. "I believe you," she told him. It was as much as she was going to let herself show real emotions towards him, today, anyway.

Kurtis leaned forward, chin resting in his hand, elbow on his knee. He seemed to realise the remark meant more than it appeared on the surface. "Thanks," he said quietly, fixing her with a look that contained more gravity than she had seen so far from him today. He appeared to be reluctant to end the moment of almost-understanding that passed between them, but after a few seconds seemed resigned to it. "Truth or dare?"

To say 'dare' now would be to end the game, Lara intuitively knew. For some strange reason, she was unwilling to stop it for the moment. "Truth."

For the first time since the game had begun, his eyes left her face. Obviously, whatever he had planned to ask, he was hesitant about. Lara steeled herself.

"You got any frightening interests I should know about?" That wasn't what he'd been originally about to ask, and Kurtis knew she knew it. Interesting.

Lara smiled. "Occasionally, I go to the opera." Kurtis winced, and her smile widened. "My favourite colour is pink, and I'm scared of rats, spiders and snakes," she continued, deciding to lighten the mood a little. "I've been divorced four times and have my eye on the seventy year old butler."

Kurtis threw a cracker at her, returning her grin. "That's practically necrophilia."

Mentally giving him a brownie point for his good humour, Lara shrugged. "The opera one's true. I collect knives and guns, and I like to break the speed limit. That's just me." She paused. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

Lara sighed inwardly. She'd been about to ask him what he'd considered asking her before changing his mind, and he'd anticipated it. Now she had to think of a dare. "Give me your notebook."

He waved it in the air, rakish grin in place. "Nice try. But no."

Lara glared in mock seriousness. "Do you forfeit the dare?" she intoned.

"That I do," he drawled. Curiosity stirred once more, Lara wondered what he'd written in it that was so precious to him.

"Then accept a variation of the dare."

"I can burn my notebook…"

Lara rolled her eyes, stood up, and began to gather up the remainder of the food and debris to take through to the kitchen. "One day, Mr. Trent, I will get my hands on it."

It was three in the morning. Lara got out of bed and crept down the hall in her purple silk dressing gown to the room Kurtis was staying in. With eighty-three rooms in the manor, there was more than enough room for the lady of the house, her trusty butler and her fascinatingly handsome associate.

Kurtis lay on his front, spread-eagled over the entire width of the queen-size bed, seeming more peaceful in sleep than he had ever appeared awake. His usual expression, managing to combine over-confidence with a guarded element, had been shed with his waking mind. Lara halted by his bedside, resisting the urge to stroke a tendril of hair away from his face. Stop it, Croft. The fact that he seemed to be naked under that thin sheet wasn't helping, either. Do what you came here to do, and then go. With that mental slap, she cast her eyes around for his elusive notebook, feeling a twinge of surprise when she saw it neatly placed on the bedside cabinet.

Where's the catch? Years of global exploration had attuned her to the presence of hidden traps, but there was nothing visible here. The only way she'd find out was if she tried to take it. Ready to leap back or run at any second, Lara reached out and lifted it off the dresser. Nothing happened; nor did Kurtis wake. That was easy. Maybe he does think I wouldn't take it. Shrugging, she allowed herself one last lingering look at Kurtis before retreating to her quarters.

The first few pages seemed pretty standard; the same nature of information she'd collected on him. Date of birth, what she'd managed to achieve over the past ten years, a brief description, what had leaked out through the press on both her previous exploits and her 'wanted' status as the Monstrum… When she turned the page, however, she found a series of short entries she could only describe as vaguely diary-like.

The first was dated the day she'd recovered the painting from Brother Obscura's tomb under the Louvre. The day Kurtis had stolen it. 'Managed to get the painting, but those Cabal bastards knocked me out and took it. I blame the Croft woman for distracting me. She's a real piece of work. Gotta give her credit for getting as far as she did. When I first saw her at the Metro I thought I was on my own – she looked way too beautiful to be useful. Turns out I was wrong. Still, I managed to take the painting from her without too much trouble. We'll see. If I'm right, she'll stop at nothing to get it back, or at least get the fifth. Looking forward to crossing paths with her again. Think she's as fascinated by me as I am by her."

Lara wasn't sure whether to smile or frown. As a compromise, she did neither, but reached for a pen. Under the entry, she wrote her own. "Today I was disarmed by a gorgeous bastard who took my painting. I'm going to kill him for underestimating me, but I did quite enjoy the frisking, and I admire his quick wits."

She moved on to the next entry, dated the next day at 10am. "Croft has shut off the power, releasing hybrids and failed experiments everywhere. Looks like I'll have to step in. Women. Maybe I'd be better off attracted to men. At least they have common sense."

Lara sucked in her breath as she contemplated her reply to that one. "Trent is an egotist who looks down on anyone not possessing super-powers; therefore, everyone. Suggestions as to how I could have disabled the security systems I had no clearance for without shutting off the power, and with absolutely no knowledge of hybrids at the time, would be very welcome. As to available men, he need only ask and I can point him in the direction of several who have attempted to win me and failed. Perhaps they would enjoy some male company, also." Despite the slurs on her common sense, Lara was beginning to enjoy this. She read on.

The next entry was dated the same, but timed at two-thirty. "Have managed to contain Croft so she can't screw up for a while. Don't think I controlled my temper very well, but she's a big girl. She can handle it. Have a strange urge to go back and watch her pace. She might have made mistakes, but she's only human. But this is bad. Can't let feelings get in the way of finding Eckhardt."

Lara tapped her pen thoughtfully on the page. This was a side of Kurtis she hadn't seen so explicitly. The last sentence could have come straight from her own pen. Frowning at her inability to articulate half of the things she wanted to say, she slowly wrote, "Managed to get locked into a tiny room due to lack of power. Trent was harsh, and I'd like to break his arm, but I appreciate a good work ethic. Wish I knew more about him."

Timed at four in the afternoon: "Croft and I seem pretty alike. She outsmarted and disarmed me this time. Has a sense of humour – got her own back for what I did at the Louvre. Told me 'this is business', but sounded about as sure as I am on that. Officially 'working together' – me after the last shard, her after the fifth painting. She gets herself killed, I'll raise her from the dead so I can kill her myself."

Lara barely needed to think back to her release from that room near the Aquatic Research Facility. Her pen flew over the page. "Trent's still alive, which frankly surprises me. Still, am starting to get fond of him, like a new puppy or something. Would be a shame if he died. It appears he can take being outwitted with good grace: an admirable trait. Not sure I'm not making a mistake trusting him, but don't appear to have a choice. Ah, well. At least he's easy on the eyes."

This entry was dated five days later, after their Strahov adventure had concluded. "Just discharged from hospital after Boaz gutted me. Where to start? Lara could have left me but didn't. Owe her my life, but yelled at her for being honest and drove her out. Guess there'll have to be an apology when I find her again. Knows I suspect she has feelings for me – possibly a little egotistical there. Hope she does, though. Would hate to have to convince her."

Lara chewed her lower lip, noting his switch from her surname to forename, contemplating. Finally, she wrote, "That utter bastard Kurtis accused me of fabricating stories to keep in contact with him. Am beginning to regret helping him out of the Strahov, but would have driven myself crazy for the rest of my life wondering if he'd have felt the same, otherwise. Maybe we're too alike to get on. We'll see."

Almost two weeks until the next entry. "Can't stop thinking about Lara. Wish I'd never heard of her. Romance is not what I need if I'm going to track down Karel. But I need to see her again, if only to apologise and just see her face one last time. England it is, then."

Smiling faintly, Lara shook her head. They really were alike. "Wish I had a picture of Kurtis to stick onto my punching bag. Have my priorities, though – highest of which is information on Karel and the Nephilim. If Kurtis showed up, could I trust him, knowing Karel could impersonate him again, and convince me? This could get complicated. Welcome to my life. But even though I'd like to torture him to death, I'd love to see him, too. Why is nothing ever simple?"

This one was dated the day before, when she'd first seen his precious notebook. "Am sat in Lara's study. Just told me Karel turned into me. No wonder she doesn't trust me. But she still feels something, even through that. Can't imagine how it would feel to be in that position. On a completely superficial note, she looks stunning even in workout clothes. Wonder how it would feel to kiss her. Wonder how she'd react. Wishful thinking. She's not going to touch me now."

Lara curled up further against her pillows and closed her eyes. She shouldn't be happy that Kurtis wanted to kiss her, but her entire being betrayed her. Gathering herself under control, she clicked the pen a few times before beginning her reply. "Kurtis is here. Feel… confused. Would love to see where this could go, but Karel saw he was my weak spot. Don't know what to do. Wish it could all be decided for me."

Heaving a sigh, she began to read the entry timed at one a.m. – just two hours before she'd picked it up. "Lara would kill to get her hands on this. Maybe I should let her. Sick of playing this game. Nearly asked her if I'd have a chance earlier, but chickened out. I get this feeling that if I let it go far enough, I could love this woman, and that's seriously scaring me. But I still want it. Screw it. If she tries to come and find this while I'm asleep, she's welcome to it. See what she can make of it. If not… the game goes on."

That was the last entry. Lara sat and stared into space. Of all the things she'd expected to find in that book, the word 'love' was not even close. What both frightened and thrilled her was that she could relate. "Sneaked into Kurtis' room to find his notebook tonight. He looked very, very attractive even asleep. Wish I could curl up with him, but am scared of what that could mean. Lots of what he wrote in the notebook, I could relate to very strongly. Not sure how this will play out, but anything has to be better than creeping around each other like this." Lara paused, pen hovering over the page. After a short internal debate, she closed the notebook and put down the pen. Now, if she could just get up the nerve to put it back on his nightstand, she'd be mission accomplished.