A/N: Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas… Here's an update for you.
Revised 01/10/05
Kurtis lay on his bed, startled into amusement by the exchange he had just overheard. He had felt absurdly threatened by Bryce's presence to begin with – Lara's easy manner around the Brit could not have been any more of an opposite of her reaction to him today. But now he was beginning to like the guy, despite not even exchanging a word with him as yet.
All was quiet next door, apart from the splash of water and click of keys across a keyboard. Whether stunned into contemplation or just pissed off, Lara did not initiate conversation with her friend, and Bryce was probably too intimidated to strike up a new topic for the moment.
After minutes of infuriating peace, Lara spoke again. "There. I have to give this ten minutes and then wash it out." Kurtis heard movement, and then a noise that could only be Lara throwing herself onto her bed. "Bryce?"
A grunt, some clicks, and then a resounding "oh, shit!" in a broad Cockney inflection – followed by, "Oh, wait, no… it's okay. What?"
"Where did that little gem of advice come from earlier?" Dry cynicism coated her voice, but Kurtis wasn't fooled. Chalk one up for 'stunned into contemplation'.
"I know you… you haven't been this googoo-eyed since Terry Sheridan."
A twinge of burning jealousy worked its way into Kurtis' chest, easing a little when Lara replied wearily, "Can we not mention him again? Ever?"
"You're the boss." A pause, and then, "But, come on… you've at least kissed him, yes?"
"None of your business." Kurtis grinned, imagining the wide-eyed innocence on Lara's face.
"I'll take that as a yes, then… Any good?"
"Subjectively, yes."
"You know, you can speak in sentences of many, many more words than that. What about objectively?" Bryce pressed, sounding exasperated.
"Objectively, it's been five, six years since I was involved with anyone. So maybe my memory isn't that good any more." Kurtis raised an eyebrow. I'll stick with answer A for now.
"You have an elephant's memory. There's my answer." Another pause. "Six years… why the heck aren't you fucking his brains out?"
"Nice terminology. And the answer is because I'm busy saving the world again."
Bryce snorted. "Go wash that out of your hair and think of a better excuse. I'm going downstairs for another box."
Lara chuckled. "Okay. I don't have an excuse that'll satisfy your oh-so-logical brain. I'll see you in a few." The door clicked, and footsteps receded down the hall as the water began to run once more.
Lost in thought, Kurtis retreated into himself. It wasn't until the door between their rooms clicked open, and Lara entered, that he was brought back to the present. "Phase one complete," she told him amusedly, shaking tendrils of ebony hair around her face and shoulders.
The effect was dramatic and stunning, and Kurtis raised himself up onto his elbows for a better look despite himself. Before he could speak, Lara beat him to it. "I'll be going shopping for phase two in the morning. Are you in? Because if so, I need your measurements."
It was just too good an opportunity to pass up. "Whereas if I asked you yours, you'd kill me," he replied, not expecting much in the way of retaliation.
"Thirty-four D, twenty-four, thirty-five," she replied, leaning against the wall and raising an eyebrow in response to his similar expression. "Are you coming to get Rahil with me, or not?"
"You seriously think I'm going to let you claim all the glory for this one?" he replied, storing the newfound information away to analyse later. "I'm in, as long as I can fight in whatever I'm wearing." He gave her his measurements, which she scribbled down with a barely-concealed smile.
"Come and keep me company?" she asked, pocketing her paper and pen. "Bryce is barely speaking. It's gotten to that stage where the outside world doesn't exist, unless you're speaking in computer-geek."
"Bryce, it's three a.m. You can take a break from this, get some sleep, as long as you're in by dusk tomorrow – I mean, today." Lara suppressed a yawn. Illogically, her day of inactivity had served to make her more exhausted, not less, and she longed for a respite from the click of keys and muffled curses.
"I'll lose track. I need to do it all now. Just three more hours, Lah?" Bryce pleaded.
"Don't call me that." Lara sighed. "Okay, okay. Carry on."
"Take my bed," Kurtis offered from his perch on the windowsill. "You look like you're about to drop."
"You don't look so great yourself," Lara replied, fatigue rousing her irritation again. She caught it, and shook her head in surrender. "Thanks. I appreciate it." Pulling the door loosely to behind her, she curled up on one side of Kurtis' bed, burying her face in the pillow and inhaling his muted, masculine scent. As bad as a bloody teenager, she rebuked herself, smiling slightly, before slumber overtook her.
When she woke, what seemed like seconds later, she froze in surprise at the sensations of a hand resting lightly on her stomach and warm breath against the back of her neck. Oh, I'll kill him, she thought automatically, ignoring the fact that she was slowly relaxing back against Kurtis' body and letting her eyes drift closed. She allowed herself long moments to luxuriate in his sleeping arms before extracting herself with care. Kurtis stirred, but did not wake, and Lara gazed at him for a long, indecisive moment before leaving the scene that confused her so, moving back into her own room and grinning suddenly. Bryce lay spread-eagled on top of her bed, fully clothed and snoring. A glance at the computers he had been manipulating for the last few hours confirmed that he was inside the system – and undetected. "Nice job, Bryce," Lara murmured, reaching for her traditional disguise and heading to the shower.
By the time she emerged again, her friend was back at work, and forced to double-take when he saw Lara's outfit. "Bloody hell! Change of religion?" he asked.
"If it helps me get to the Gothic clothing and back in one piece, why not?" she replied, tucking her braid inside her head covering. "See you in a few."
"Nice night, was it?" Bryce asked mischievously, inclining his head toward Kurtis' suite.
"If it was, I wasn't awake for it," Lara shot back, and pulled the door closed behind her. There were some things too fresh in her mind and too confounding to discuss.
"How'd you get caught up in the wonderful world of Lara Croft, anyway?" Kurtis asked Bryce, who was staring up at the ceiling, as bored as he was.
Bryce grinned. "Now, that's a story."
"Is that the Pentagon you're hacking into?" The hushed, incredulous female voice made Bryce jump guiltily, and he shut down his 96 complete browser with a pang of loss.
"No. No hacking. I'm researching a course project," he answered nervously, knowing how transparent he sounded.
Rule Number One: never try and hack into a system from your home computer. If you're detected, the police will be round faster than you can say, "oh, bugger!" That was why Bryce was sitting in the computer library of Oxford University for his latest project.
He looked over at the woman next to him – and, oh, yes, she was definitely a woman. Her chocolate eyes gleamed with curiosity and intelligence, and he had a bad feeling that he wasn't going to be able to throw her off track too easily. Worth a try, though.
"What're you doing, anyway?" He took a look at her monitor. It was filled with an article on Von Croy Industries, the huge company based in the US but run by German brothers, Werner and Viktor. Bryce had a huge amount of respect for their reputed security.
"The point is, what are you doing hacking the Pentagon?" The woman refused to be deflected. "Are you a terrorist?"
That was funny. Bryce envisioned himself using his knowledge of dangerous information to blackmail the government and snorted with laughter. "God, no!" he replied, grinning. "Personal challenge." It was the truth – but would she believe him, or report him?
The striking woman seemed to size him up, eyes narrowing. Finally, she said, "How much would you charge to hack into VCI's security, and guide me through?"
The question caught him completely by surprise. "Are you a terrorist?" he asked.
"No. Werner von Croy has something of mine, and I want it back. I can pay you three thousand upfront, and another two when I get out unscathed. Do we have a deal?"
Bryce's mouth dropped open. "Five grand…!" he whispered, shellshocked. Suddenly afraid this woman would take her money elsewhere, he nodded vigorously. "Deal!"
Smiling slightly, she shut down her computer and stood up. "What's your name?" she asked, scribbling down contact details on a piece of paper.
"Bryce. Bryce Johnson." He took the hand she offered him, and she shook it firmly.
"I'm Lara Croft. Nice to meet you." Leaving the paper by his elbow, she strode out of the library.
"And that's how it started," Bryce finished. "I helped her through that one, and we stayed in touch." He looked over at Kurtis with a grin. "And no, she's never been remotely interested in me, so you can rest easy, mate."
Before he could reply, the door opened, and a distinctly different Lara walked in, slinging down shopping bags and kicking off boots. "Had to play musical costumes again," she explained, gesturing to the sixties hippy-garb she now wore, complete with a psychedelic scarf tied around her hair. "Luckily for me, someone wasn't watching their washing line."
"Let's see, then," Bryce encouraged. "I could use a laugh."
With a mock-scowl, Lara upended a bag onto the bed and began to pick through it. Black lipstick, nail polish and eye makeup were passed over with a grin. "I promise I won't attack you with this," she told Kurtis with a sidelong glance. Continuing to rummage, she found what she was looking for and tossed it all into his lap. "This, though, you will need."
Black leather pants. A black mesh top. Bet she had a real laugh choosing these, Kurtis thought resentfully. He bit his tongue to contain the opinion he longed to express, but one look at her oh-so-carefully blank face, and the amusement unsuccessfully masked in her eyes, broke his resolve. "One day, I'm going to pay you back for this."
Lara turned away, presumably to hide her mirth from him. Bryce grinned. "Trust me, if she had a mind to she could have done ten times worse. She had me wearing hotpants one time."
"You should see what I'm going to be wearing," Lara put in, gathering her composure and picking up a third bag. Kurtis' attempt to snatch it failed as she yanked it out of reach. "Wait and see." She turned to Bryce. "Do we have an entrance route yet?"
"Bad news. There are dogs round the back, reinforced steel doors, and guards. Ain't no way you can get in that way." He referred back to a screen print he had taken and leaned forward. "There's only one other option, but it's risky, and you're going to have to get to it yourself."
"Go on." All business, Lara looked over his shoulder at the diagram in his hands. Kurtis joined her.
"If you could get to the second floor of the club, backstage, and find this window… there's a communications cable that should take your weight connecting the two buildings. The window in the Saint Massima building has no extra security, probably because it's thirty feet up and there's no way of even looking up at it from the ground without getting your ankles chewed off."
"Right." Lara nodded slowly. "I still want to take tonight as recon, just to see if there's any loopholes the system doesn't mention. But I think that'll do nicely."
Hmmm… now, I wonder whether Lara and Kurtis' mysterious helper will make another appearance soon…?