Hey everyone! So, I've been getting a lot of positive feed back on this story and, so far, lots of people like it. So, I'll continue going at it!
So, here's chapter 2! Hope everyone likes it and let me know in the reviews what you liked about and what you'd like to see next!
P.S. I do not own Tomb Raider(2013) or the Uncharted Series. Those belong to the rightful owners
16. Lara was finally 16 years old. She couldn't believe it. She had been waiting for this day since she was a little girl. It was all she'd ever think about for the last ten and a half years.
Lara looked at herself in front of the mirror. Trying to see if she had at all changed in the last couple years. Did she look like a woman? The woman she had been waiting to become. She looked at her face and all she could see was her mother, with her father looking straight into her eyes.
Lara wanted to weep but she kept telling herself not to.
"Stop it, Lara," Lara said, talking to herself. "Don't act so childish! Be a woman"
To stop herself from crying, she quickly looked away from the mirror by burring her forehead into the wardrobe that sat below her mirror. Still giving her an opening to look down at her new shoes. A small smile cracked across her face as she looked down at them.
They were gold flats that sparkled when they hit the sun. Lara had been eyeing them for months as she would walk by the shop windows on her way to school. She wanted them, but they were a bit too pricey. If Lara wanted, she could have bought them in a heartbeat. Mom and Dad had left enough money for her that would last her a lifetime but Lara knew, deep in her heart, that she couldn't.
She needed to make a living of her own in order to truly understand the true meaning of earning it herself. She also knew it would be a great waste of her parent's hard work earnings if she bought something just for her pleasure. So, Lara told herself she would have to wait for shoes like that.
So, when her best friend, Sam, had came over, the other day, and made her open the box that was wrapped in white wrapping paper with a pink bow on top, she wasn't all too shocked to see that her friend had bought them for her. After all, she would be eyeing the shoes as she was walking with Sam.
Sam made her swear to wear them at least 24/7 with no excuses what so ever. Lara smiled at the memory of her friend lecturing her on her new shoes.
"Lara!" A familiar voice called for her that made her break out of thought.
"Yes!" She called back.
"Come down her for a minute! Someone I want to introduce you to! We're in the parlor" The voice called back.
Lara let out a sigh as she stood up straight and used her arms to give her a little push off the wardrobe. She then slowly made her way, with a sparkly gold flats still on her feet, out towards the door and down the hall.
The familiar voice came from the man that had taken the role as her guardian, after her parents disappearance. Conrad Roth, or Roth as Lara liked to call him. He had been like a father to her since that day.
He was the one that had woke her up in the middle of the night when her parents disappeared. The one that held her in his arms as she started weeping into his chest. The one that pulled the hair out of her face and whispered to her, "Everything will be alright, girl. I'm here"
Lara felt a fuzzy feeling inside of her as she thought of that night.
Roth had taken care of her since then. He did everything her father would've done for her if he were still here. Drove her to dances, help her with homework. Hell! He even made sure to meet all her potential boyfriends when they'd pick her up to go out. Of course, they'd never asked again. Lara would ask Roth what he did but, as usual, Roth just shrugged his shoulders and said, "I didn't do a thing, girly"
Though Lara loved Roth as her father figure, she still got frustrated with him. Though Roth tried teaching her the ways and skills the Croft family had learn since the dawn of time, he still taught her things that confused Lara a lot.
What Roth taught Lara was to survive, as he called it. Teaching her skills in combat and would take her on trekking trips where she'd learn things such as rock climbing, navigation and other skills that would help her survive in the wilderness. This frustrated Lara. While other girls her age were into actives such as ballet and football(soccer), she would be stuck, on a Saturday, in the middle of the hot summer day running up a hill or rock climbing in the wilderness.
"Just keep moving," she'd keep telling herself. "It'll all be over soon"
Lara knew that Roth was only doing this because he cared. He took this guardianship role pretty seriously. Though she thought the rock climbing trips to be pretty useless, Lara only learned one good thing from him. Trust her instincts...and Lara would remember that lesson for the rest of her life.
As Lara walked down the hallway, towards the parlor where Roth was, she soon came to a stop in front of the study. Her father's study. Lara froze and she stared into the study. The doors were left wide open. Roth normally went in there from time to time. Probably just to reminisce the old adventures he and her father had when he was younger. Lara's father was Roth best friend and she knew it killed Roth just even thinking of her father. She knew it wasn't healthy for Roth to go into the study hours on end but Lara didn't want to stop him. She knew it would just upset him more.
Though, it wasn't like Roth to leave the door open. Especially with all the valuable artifacts just sitting in there.
'Maybe the wind blew it open?' Lara asked herself. Shrugging it off, she leaned in towards the door and grabbed onto the knob, about to close the door but something stopped her.
Creak
She heard from inside. Lara's instincts immediately stopped her and pushed her to open the door...slowly.
Lara began to creep into the large study. Trying not to make a noise, she slowly started making her way into the study and down the corridor. She tried to stay on the emerald coloured carpet so her feet wouldn't make a large clicking sound as she walked towards the sounds.
She made her way towards the study with her arms up in fists, in case somebody did break into the study and was ready to put up a fight. As she walked in, she looked straight into the study.
Her father had one of the most magnificent studies Lara or anyone else had ever seen. A large, two story study that was covered in books from all around the word. Hundreds of years old. Along with artifacts her father had collected on his adventures. Including his huge around of traditional daggers from around the world as well and just across the room, right in front of the huge window, sat her father's huge desk.
Lara looked around to see if anything was out of place. She hadn't been in there in weeks but she could still name where every single thing was in the room. As she looked around, she caught her eye on the glass cabinet that sat along the wall beside her father's desk. Something was off.
Lara looked to see if the coast was clear and slowly made her way towards the cabinet. Once there, she looked into the cabinet. On each shelf sat all the traditional tribal masks her father had collected around the world. Mask from places and periods, like, Tanzania to Mayan. The one that really caught Lara's attention was the one mask her father had gotten from Indonesia. She had remembered the day he had brought it home.
It was a gift from one of his new friends he had made there.
This mask had frighten Lara as a child, even giving her nightmares from time to time. The piercing eyes and the huge fangs that popped out at the decorated black mask with the gold and blood red lines that had decorated the whole face even gave her the shivers just now.
The thing that picked Lara's curiosity now though was the mask was not sitting on its stand. It was sitting beside it with it facing the ceiling. She knew her father had always kept in on its stand and she knew Roth wouldn't dare touch it. Someone had been in here, she knew it.
Lara then proceeded in picking up the mask and placing it back onto its stand. Giving it one last look, she slowly closed the door and shut it but then another creak sound appeared...and this time, it was close. The perpetrator was behind her.
Preparing herself, she quickly turned around and smacked the thief in the face and watch them immediately grab onto their cheek.
"Ow!" they screamed. Lara glared at man she just hit, still ready for another fight. "Watch it, sweetheart, this face is delicate"
"Serves you right, you bastard!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, so loud almost all of England could hear her. She then proceeded in kicking the man in the stomach.
"Hey!" he screamed, again. "Stop it"
Lara then turned and grabbed onto her father's old hiking stick and started hitting the man with the stick as hard as he could, making him fall to the ground and curling up into fetal position.
She continued hitting the man harder and harder until somebody grabbed the stick and pulled it from her and screamed at her, "Lara, stop!"
Lara turned and looked at Roth who glared at her while holding the stick. Beside him was a man, around Roth's age (early 50s) with dark brown hair with streaks of grey in them and a mustache and somewhat built.
The man let out a chuckle as he leaned down towards the man on the ground and extended his hand towards him.
"Are you ok, Nate?" the man asked, while chewing on his cigar.
The man, known as Nate, looked at the man and grabbed onto his arm, pulling himself up. He let out a grunt as he started brushing himself off.
"No!" he said to the other man and then pointed at Lara. "She almost killed me"
The man let out, yet, another chuckle which made Roth smile a bit too.
"Well," she said, still glaring at Nate. "Maybe you shouldn't be snooping into places you shouldn't be!"
"Lara, Lara," Roth said as he stepped in between the two and tried to stop her. "Calm down. Ok?"
Lara looked up into her mentor's eyes. She could tell he trusted these two strangers and if Roth trusted them, then she should try to trust them too. So, she gave Roth a nod which allowed him to step back into his original spot.
He then turned to the two men.
"Lara," Roth started off. "This is Victor Sullivan. An old friend of mine and your father's"
Lara immediately felt guilty.
Victor Sullivan leaned in and extended his left hand towards Lara and pulled his cigar out of his mouth with his right hand.
"Nice to finally meet you, Lara," Victor said. "I've heard lots of great things about you"
Lara gave him a small smile as he grabbed his hand and started to, slowly, shake it.
"Nice to meet you too, ah, Victor"
"Please, call me Sully or, better yet, Uncle Sully. Your parents would've been ok with that. We were that close, dontcha know?" Nate just rolled his eyes as he had his arms crossed over his chest.
"You knew both my parents?" Lara asked in delight.
"Yes ma'am. Your parents met because of me"
"Really? How?"
Well, you see-"
"Sully," he was cut off by Nate. "We don't have all day. We still have to go get those archives from the museum"
Sully let out a sigh as he put his cigar back into his mouth and looked back at Lara.
"Maybe some other day?" Sully asked with a smile.
Lara smiled and nodded back.
"And," Roth then cut in. "This little bugger," Roth walked over and grabbed onto his shoulder. "Is Nathan Drake. Also known as Nate"
"Also," Nate cut in. "the guy you almost killed. Do you always great people like that?" he asked as he started rubbing his cheek.
"Only to people who break in...by the way, what were you doing in here?" She asked him as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Just browsing" he said as he shrugged his shoulders and dug his hands into his jean pockets.
"Really?" Lara raised her eye brows at him. He nodded as he looked at the floor. "It's funny. I could have sworn I saw that tribal mask," she said pointing back towards the glass cabinet behind her. "That mask was off its stand when I went to close the door. You know, its funny. That glass cabinet is always locked and closed"
Lara gave Drake her signature smirk along with her arms crossed over her chest. Nathan gave her a glare as he heard Roth grumble under his breath as he glared at him, along with Sully.
"Nate?" Sully was the first to speak. "Something you wanna tell us?" Sully said as he pulled the cigar in his mouth out.
Nathan broke out a smile as he turned to his mentor and raised his hands up in defense.
"Suullly! Come on, you know me. I'd never do something like that"
"Really?" Sully looked at him in disbelief. "This coming from the same person who snatched my wallet back in Columbia"
"Hey, we're friends now, right?" Nathan joked but Sully still wouldn't put up with it which made Nate sigh and turn back to the rest of the group.
"Look, I was just looking at it, ok. It...looked cool"
"Cool?" Lara asked as she glared at him. "What are you? Four?"
"Lara!" Roth cut in. "That's enough," he then looked between Sully, Nate and Lara. "Look, why don't we just get out of here and go grab a couple drinks in the foyer? Alright. Settle our differences and get along," he then turned and looked at Sully and Nathan. "Ok?"
Nathan was about to protest but Sully wrapped his arm firmly around his shoulder and squeezed tightly onto it, making him stop. "Sounds like a good plan" Sully said as he pulled his cigar out of his mouth and started blowing the fumes from his mouth.
Roth smiled at Sully and then turned to Lara. "Ok?" he asked.
Lara, still glaring at Nathan, rolled her eyes and looked at Roth and sighed. "Deal"
Roth than let out a laugh and started walking towards the door with Sully walking beside him.
"Still have those old cigars you bought back in Panama?" Sully asked as they were both walking towards the door. Roth let out a chuckle.
"Ah, thought you would never ask, Vic" He said as they walked around the corner.
Lara watched them walk out the door before she turned back to Nate and let out a sigh as she went to follow the two but what stopped when something grabbed her hand.
"Hey! Wait!" Nathan said. Lara stopped and slowly turned to him and glared at him. "Look, I just wanna say...sorry. I didn't mean to cause problems right away"
Lara gave him a quick glance and gave him a smirk. "It's going to take more than that to gain back my trust, pretty boy...but I'll accept your apology" she said as she slowly started walking out the door.
"Are we friends then?!" Nathan asked, she could hear a little bit of excitement in his voice, which made her laugh. She then turned around and started walking backwards towards the door.
"In your dreams," She said as she turned back around and started walking out the door. "And eyes up here!" she called back, sensing him looking at her butt. Sure enough, as she turned her head, she saw him snapped his neck up and looked back up at her face.
That was the only time they actually got along...
"Lara!"
Lara immediately jumped up from the bed and looked at the person who called for her.
Sam. Her best friend stood right in front of her with a coffee cup in her hand and a magazine in the other and shook her head. "It's 11 already, Lara" she said.
Lara let out a groan as she buried her face into her hands and started rubbing her eyes. She hadn't had a good night's sleep in days and it took her forever to actually lay down and get some good shut eye.
"Sorry. This...time zone change has really taken a toll on me" She said as she now looked at Sam and smiled, trying to show her nothing was wrong.
Sam smiled back and shook her head as she sat at the end of the bed, beside Lara, and placed her cup of coffee on the table at the end of the bed.
"I'll let it get away, this time, " Sam started saying. "But, if you are at all like this on our way to find the lost kingdom of Yamatai," Sam said in her 'dramatic' voice. "I might just have to throw you off the boat"
Lara started laughing. "Don't call the Endurance that around Roth. He likes it to be called, 'a world class ship'"
"Speaking of Roth," Sam started saying. "He said somebody else would be joining our little group"
Lara gave her a questionable look. "Why would he tell you that and not me?" She asked in concern.
"Um, maybe because my parents are funding the expedition?"
Lara gave her a smirk as she gave her a small punch in the shoulder. "Ha, ha. Ok, I get your point"
"I wonder who it is?" Sam asked.
"Well," Lara said as she stood up from the bed. "I just hope they know what they're doing" she said as she started walking out the bedroom door.
"Ok," Sam jumped up, quickly ran up and stood right in front of her. "Go have a shower," she grabbed onto Lara's shoulder and pointed her towards the bathroom. "Get dressed and then well hit the streets of Tokyo and do some shopping. I wanna have a little fun here before we dock out tomorrow"
Lara let out a laugh as she was being pushed towards the bathroom. "Alright, alright," she protested. "I'll go get ready" She grabbed a towel and started making her way towards the bathroom.
"Lara!" Sam called her which stopped Lara and made her turn around. "Be happy. You're finally getting the adventure you've been dreaming about"
Lara gave her a smile and nodded as she turned back around.
"And let the adventure begin" she whispered to herself.