A/N: Thank you for your lovely words, guys. :) I hope you'll like this one as much – something tells me you'll yell "out of character!" for this, but I think even Lara has the right to be emotionally drained sometimes, right?

Revised 01/10/05

"What now?" A good three miles from their escape route, Lara finally called a halt. The fact that it was outside a shop that clearly sold guns and other weapons was just an added bonus.

"For the next twelve hours, we lie low, in the place they'd least expect. If they get this box tonight, that's it. We're done."

"Whereas if we stick it out till dawn, we have a whole month to locate Rahil…" Lara nodded. "Good plan." They headed into the weapon store, and busied themselves with the task of becoming armed once more. Fifteen minutes later, carrying her usual twin pistols as well as a Desert Eagle, Lara emerged into the darkness outside and glanced across at Kurtis. She had managed to convince him of the relative merits of a Vector-R35, and he also carried a Scorpion X, but was clearly mourning the loss of his Boran X, a pistol of his own design.

"So, where will they least expect? Hotels are out. They'll search them all."

Kurtis shot her a grin. "The temple where they need to perform the ritual. The Nephilia Veritas."

Lara sucked in a breath. "That's risky, Kurtis. Very risky."

"I know. But isn't it genius?" Without waiting for her answer, he turned and walked back the way they had come. Shaking her head, Lara followed.

"If the world goes to hell, the human population can blame your ego…"

It was a tricky journey, and they dodged away from even harmless-looking old women, fearing Karel's shape-shifting abilities. Eventually, Lara tired of the game of chicken and scaled a drainpipe, sauntering through rooftop gardens with little fear of being spotted. Kurtis followed suit, careful to avoid being seen on his way up. Eventually, they dropped soundlessly in front of the temple and made their way inside.

Throwing down her backpack against a column out of sight of the entrance, Lara sat on the bag and leaned back against the support, eyes closed, arms wrapped around herself. Now that she could stop, let the adrenaline rush fade, the recollection of Karel's 'party trick' was catching up with her fast. She heard Kurtis settle himself nearby, and turned her face in the opposite direction, unable to keep a neutral face and unwilling to let him see her pain.

Minutes passed in silence as she waded through the memory once again, safe in the knowledge that no one could see her distress. Out of nowhere, she felt the light brush of fingertips against her cheek, and gasped, eyes flying open, muscles tensed to attack. Kurtis withdrew his fingers, but did not get up from the floor in front of her. How he had gotten there without alerting her to his presence she had no idea – she must have been deeper inside her thoughts than she'd realised. She turned away again, but his hand was back, this time under her chin, forcing her to look at him. "You okay?"

Lara shrugged, not trusting herself to speak. "Talk to me," he requested. She shook her head, and he drew back, dropping his gaze from hers. The mental walls she had worked so hard to construct suddenly grew and thickened, and it was if there were miles between them. Using all of her will, she overcame the barrier and caught his hand as he stood, pulling him back to the floor.

"I can't talk about it now. Give me a while." Her voice was quiet but did not crack. Kurtis nodded, concern clear in his face, and sat beside her, pulling her so that she leaned back not against the pillar, but against his chest. With a shaky sigh, Lara relaxed against him, head on his shoulder, and closed her eyes. The thoughts that had so disturbed her seemed farther away, and when his hand began to track slowly up and down her bare arm, she enjoyed the sensation, although she was too exhausted to respond to him. "Thank you," she whispered, grateful for more than just his acceptance of her silence.

"For what?" His voice held a far-away quality, and she imagined his eyes gazing into the distance, at everything and nothing. His body was warm through his shirt, perfect for chasing the slight chill of the night away.

She shrugged. "You figure it out." They sat in companionable silence, dozing and waking, rarely speaking, until the shadows were chased away with the first rays of daylight. Even then, Lara could not muster the energy to move. They waited until the first tourists entered the place with cameras at the ready, and then threaded their way through the temple district in search of accommodation.

By the time they had picked up replacement clothing for the outfits that were still, presumably, in Anatolia, Lara seemed to have recovered some of her usual poise. She even smiled a little as she stuck her head around the door that connected their rooms. "If any shape-shifting fiends show up, I'll be in the shower." They were checked into rooms at the nearest hotel, still playing to the theory that the closer they were to the danger zone, the less likely they were to be detected.

Kurtis looked up from cleaning cult-blood from the blades of his Chirugai, damp, just washed hair falling into his eyes as usual, and nodded. "You okay?"

She shrugged. "I will be… after I get out of these." She gestured to her clothing, streaked with blood and grime. "Keep an eye on Binky, will you?" She tossed the Box of Rosha to land on the bed beside him, before disappearing back through to her room, the door between them still standing open.

Kurtis shook his head as he regarded the artefact. Binky He did see her point. They protected this box as if it were a pet… or a child. God forbid we start acting like a married couple over this thing…

Some time passed before he saw Lara moving around in her suite, but she did not come through to sit with him. Whether she was keeping her distance as a result of that argument, or just still feeling fragile, Kurtis wasn't sure, but he had a feeling bridges needed to be built either way. "Need a bedtime story?" he asked as she settled herself, a knife and whetstone in either hand, in the middle of her bed.

She looked up, smiled. "Does it start with, 'once there was a little boy named Kurtis'?" she asked, gesturing for him to take a seat.

"It can." He sat beside her, and she laid the knife down, forgotten, as her eyes fixed onto his face. Kurtis stared out across the room, preparing to let her know his secrets in return for those that had been unceremoniously exhibited for him. "The Lux Veritatis initiation trials are given at age sixteen, but I'd been working towards them since I was three. My father trained me for all those years, but I still wasn't prepared. There were wagers on whether I'd make it through alive. You could say I wasn't happy with the concept of destiny, so I resisted it all I could.

"There were three trials. Physical, mental and emotional, though I didn't realise that at the time. My mental was first. Probably the easiest. Lots of use of the Chirugai and the Farsee ability. Basically, it was a maze, and if I didn't take the right route, there was no chance I'd survive the traps. But I got through it okay. It was just concentration.

"Physical… was very tough." He gestured to the faint scar that streaked down his cheekbone. "I nearly didn't make it – if I'd passed out a few seconds earlier it would have got me."

"It?" Lara watched him intently, detecting a faint tinge of horror in his eyes. She shook her head. "You don't need to tell me this."

"But I might as well." Lara felt a surge of gratitude at his compassion. Somehow he knew how exposed she felt, and was attempting to heal the wound a little by taking on some of the pain himself. Instinctively, she reached out and took his hand. He didn't look at her, but his fingers laced through hers and squeezed.

He continued, "The first part of the test was a gauntlet of traps. Spikes, axes, fire, acid… you name it, it was there." He gestured vaguely. "Scars all over from that. I was cut up pretty badly by the time I got to the other side. All I could think was, 'thank god that's over'." His mouth curved in a bitter smile. "Turns out it wasn't. Think something three times as strong and three times as ugly as Boaz, with skewers all over it. I managed to turn one of the firetraps against it eventually, but it bit a good chunk out of my leg and got an artery before I figured it out. When I passed out, it was on fire, but still live and kicking."

Lara shuddered. "Doesn't sound like something to give you sweet dreams."

"Let's not go into the nightmares."

"And the emotional?" Lara asked. She sensed that this was by far the worst part of Kurtis' experience.

He sighed, ran a hand through his dark locks. "Visions of all my family, all my brethren in the order, dead and rotting." Lara winced in sympathy. Although he put it simply, his tone bore a hint of hopelessness as he continued, "What I didn't realise at the time was, they were premonitions. Now I think, was there something I could have done to stop it? I got the warning years in advance."

"You, age sixteen, versus the entire Cabal? Think about this logically." Lara's words were dismissive, but her voice was gentle.

Kurtis turned his eyes to her for the first time since he'd begun. "I know. But don't tell me you don't blame yourself for…" He trailed off to soften the accusation. Lara nodded, tightening her grip on his hand again.

"When I was nineteen, and they started getting picked off… I flipped. Left them all and joined the Foreign Legion. But they started sending monsters after me. The Cabal, I mean. These monsters would hit surrounding towns, and I knew they were after me, so it was my responsibility to do damage control. The people who saw it called me 'Demon Hunter'."

Lara smiled. "I can imagine. They called me 'El Hawa'. Desert Wind."

"Pretty name. Those camels go ninety miles an hour, then?" Lara just grinned, and he carried on, "I never went back home, never saw my father again. We'd write, occasionally. That was how I knew who was dead and who was next. When I left the Legion in ninety-six, the Cabal demons followed me, but I did less to stop them. I fell in with a bunch of bastards and killed people for money." He appeared calm, but Lara saw the shame in his eyes.

"From what I read, those people weren't exactly saints," she volunteered, attempting to soothe him a little.

"Most of them weren't." He paused. "Maybe I should make excuses for myself. Tell you I was seriously fucked up by this stage."

"I'd believe it."

"I won't bother. Whatever state of mind I was in, I was responsible for my own actions." Lara's respect for him upped a couple of notches at his words. He had the opportunity to try to convince her he had not knowingly committed acts that would be considered heinous, and he had rejected it in favour of honesty.

"Then what? How did you manage to slip through the Cabal's net?" She leaned forward, genuinely caught up in his tale.

"This was about a year and a half ago. I wasn't too far from the headquarters, on a hit I'd taken, but I wasn't planning on going home. Whatever happened, happened, and my brother saw it. God knows how he managed to escape that day, but he had heard rumours I was around and tracked me down. I wasn't too happy to see him, needless to say." He shifted a little, as though steeling himself for what he was about to say. "He told me the order had been reduced to six, not including me and him, and that everyone was hiding out together, trying to work out what to do. And… one of the demons came crashing in, started tearing everyone to shreds, and a man jumped off its back and went after my father and brother, who were running for their lives…"

"Karel?" Lara interjected softly.

"Or Eckhardt. It could have been either of them, but he was in Eckhardt's form if it was Karel. They got to my father's study, where he kept the Periapt Shards… my brother took two, my father the other. He wasn't very well trained, more into the research than the fighting, but Lyle – my brother – could just about use my Chirugai. My father kept it in his study, to remind him of me, I guess." He took a breath, forced himself on: "By the time Lyle had found the Chirugai, my father was dead. Lyle sent the Chirugai in once and cut him, and then tore off down the corridor. I guess he was just lucky that Eckhardt ran into his demon, and they got so confused about which way they were going that he managed to get out of there. He found me, gave me the two shards and my Chirugai… and then it came through the window, right behind him. Wasn't as lucky that time, and I was stood… right… there."

Bitterly, he slammed his fist into the mattress before finding his composure once again. Lara remained silent, not wanting to intrude on his memories or trigger an outburst of rage directed at the nearest target – her.

"Long story cut short, I killed it with one of the Shards. Started finding out everything I could about Eckhardt and the Cabal… went to Paris… ran into you." He glanced up. "There you have it – my life story."

So… how's my interpretation of Kurtis' past:) More to the point… when was the last time Lara and Kurtis had any smoochies? I think we're overdue for some… :grin: