Chapter Title: caught in the falling
Pairing: Lara Croft/Sofia
Chapter Summary: Lara Croft is a feral thing, neither tamed nor quite wild.
Written for the Fan_flashworks prompt hunt and originally intended to have something to do with deer. Because seriously. The early game deer. I'm not really all that into hunting in general, but when I do it I don't want the poor thing to take twenty arrows and a pickaxe before it goes down. There is a concept called minimization of suffering that I like to stick to.
There is something feral about Lara Croft as she stalks her way through Sofia's people's valley. As if she were a prized horse left free to roam until even the sight of a human sends her skittering away at top speed, all memory of human aid and companionship vanished. Oh, she is personable enough, once she is brought in among them under Jacob's aegis, and though she wears furs and repairs her bow with the ease of long practice, it is obvious that she was not born to it.
And she trusts as easily as a flight-shy deer already mid-leap. To be sure, she allies with them against Trinity happily enough, but she still sleeps, and fights, alone. It's an attribute that draws Sofia's thought and attention in a way it should not. Not with the valley to prepare and invaders to repel.
But it is hard to dismiss, when Lara is constantly crossing valley below her post, busy hands and bow in constant motion. Hides, meat, fur, rushes, wood - she finds them all, moving like an ant single-handedly pushing back a flood.
After, Sofia decides, fingers running a mindless check over the fletching of another completed arrow. After this is done, she will track Lara to where she makes camp and see about tempting her to rest with care and gentle touch. Has held herself apart for too long. Will not let it continue. Humans need touch to be healthy. But that is for the future. The enemy is in the present, and that is where Sofia will meet and stop them.