disclaimer: i do not own any of these characters, none of those featured in tomb raider anyway, and really it sucks
oh and just bare with me, the best is still to come by the way i thank you alll for the reviews it really makes me happy :-)
She walked to her room with her eyes constantly on the ground. 'Great just what I need another immortal thing'. . . Lara was sitting on the bed, she had spent hours looking through her father's journals and looking at the picture, even though he hid it, he never hid it this well. Whatever was in the scrolls were definitely very important or very dangerous. The door opened exactly the same time Lara had lost her temper and thrown the book toward the deep blue eyes of the man that easily cached the book before it made contact with his face.
"So you're already searching for the scrolls?" kurtis said in a playfull manner.
"What, how'd you know?" Lara was truly astonished at what kurtis had just asked her.
'I read minds remember' he whispered in her mind, and then Lara remembered of the incident in the gym.
"So you're a gypsy?"
"It's called telepathy, a lux trick" kurtis corrected her.
"Well then I'd like it you'd stay out of my head" Lara added
"Not possible croft, it's the only place I can find the old Lara" Lara felt as if a dagger was being pressed through her skin and pierced through her heart.
"The old Lara?" she asked without turning to make eye contact but deep down she knew the answer.
"You weren't as serious and hard headed as you are now, you've isolated yourself too much" 'since when do you care' Lara thought to herself while still holding her pose. "I do care" he once again told her.
Lara was getting too close to him, she cared too much "do you blame me for changing, it's been seven years a lot has happened. My mother disappeared, my best friend tried to kill me, I saved the world from an Atlantean queen, a goddess or whatever you'd like to call her. A few months back I discovered she was alive, she took me to hellheim where I found my mother. . ." a few teardrops escaped and rolled over her cheek "she was a lifeless thrall. Then after seven years I get dreams, dreams about things and people id rather forget and then you turn up. . . I keep getting dragged into these things, whether it be willing or not" Lara gasped air from a breath she didn't even know she was holding.
Kurtis took walked around so that he was now facing Lara, he lifted her face and wiped the tears from her cheeks. He then cupped her face and looked deep in her eyes, "I'm sorry I left Lara" he whispered to her with empathy. They gazed deep in each other's eyes, kurtis and Lara got closer, close enough for her to smell his aftershave and the smell of smoke, even though she never liked smoke, it was somewhat attractive about kurtis. He could smell the scent of the shampoo she used. He took her by the waist and pulled her closer while her hands rested comfortably on his broad shoulders. Their lips met softly, a smile crept on both their faces while they just stood there absorbing the moment. Suddenly the door flew open and Winston came in, they had pulled apart the moment they heard the door's creaking sound. Winston eyed the pair suspiciously when kurtis started walking out the door without looking back, not even once. Lara wanted to hold on to that moment forever, she felt so safe and it felt amazing. But in some way she felt guilty, guilty for getting close to someone, especially since he's a man. Since the moment she met him, she felt attracted to him.
"I brought you some tea lady croft" the same old Winston, always fond of Lara even though she was, well. . . Lara.
"Thank you Winston it sounds lovely" he then walked out the door returning to his normal duties, and closed the door behind him. Lara took off the usual fingerless gloves and took a sip from the warm yet delicious tea. Lara didn't have anything else to do so she started to pick up the books thrown all around her bedroom yet she longed for kurtis to be with her again, to feel the warmth of his body but she immediately pushed the thoughts aside. When she reached out to take the book she had thrown to kurtis, she got sudden chills. The outside of the book was icy cold, 'note to self inspect journals without gloves'. She set the other books at her side on a heap and picked up the book at her feet. It wasn't just cold but heavy as well, not heavy for Lara but heavier than the other books. She took the book downstairs to the hall and set down on the side table, zip and Alistair walked closer to see what she was doing while kurtis leaned against the side of the fireplace and watched intently at Lara. Both Lara and kurtis was afraid to get near each other after the incident that took place in Lara's room. Lara pulled the switchblade from her boot and started cutting along the edge of the cover. Inside rested a metal box, a very thin and flat one. It had a button and Lara pressed it, a clicking sound came from the small box that now rested on Lara's lap. Inside was a paper with the sketch of a young girl and in the corner the sign of the lux veritatis, she looked almost familiar but Lara couldn't figure out where she had seen her before. Why did her family have so many secrets she asked herself?
"A sketch, your father left you a sketch . . . what're you suppose to do run around the world and look for her" kurtis was obviously pissed, probably because of what happened, the part where winston came through the door and accidentally interrupted them.
"Oh would you calm down, to my father everything was something" Lara defended her father
"What's that suppose to mean", Lara looked at kurtis where he now stood in front of the painting, the same as the previous. Her father had a copy made for each house in case something happened because according to him it was one of the happiest moments of his life and he never wanted to lose it. Lara noticed the small photo frame on the table of a young girl resembling the sketch in Lara's hand.
Winston soon joined them, "what is it lady croft?" he asked when he noticed that something caught her eye.
"Winston have you ever seen that photo frame behind father in the portrait?" everyone turned to look at what Lara was talking about
"Come to think about it my lady, no not since your father disappeared" Winston was clearly deep in thought
Lara had figured it out "father left searching for mother, mother was in hellheim, and he was keeping the gaunlet from Natla and she killed him for it . . . right before he left he took everything to the other study where Natla would never find it. He always was good at these things"
"Are you absolutely certain it's down there?" Alistair asked remembering the gruesome events leading to the bullet wound that almost ended his life.
Lara hesitated at first, but this was what she lived for, what she was taught since she could remember. She lived for the thrill of the game but usually her games end up a lot more serious than they look and sound like "it's the best I've got so far so yes Alistair I'm certain" Lara got up from her seat, nodding for Winston so that he'd get the key and open up.
Alistair stayed behind with Winston while Lara, kurtis, and zip went down the stairs into the crypt where the grave of her grandfather, Richard James croft laid. It was covered by dust, untouched for months. Everyone agreed that it be best to lock it and never go back. Lara crouched next to where the switch to opening the entrance was. The gravestone gave way to reveal the dark empty hall she used last time to enter her father's study.
"I know you do this all the time but damnit Lara you've got to admit this is creepy" Lara just ignored him while rolling her eyes,-men- Lara thought as she jumped into the hole.
"Get used to it dude, see ya on the other side" zip said while hitting the torch slightly for it to shed some light. Kurtis shook his head in disbelief and followed after Lara.
"Lara, mind going a tad bit slower I mean it's not as if were being chased or something" Lara wanted to reply but heard a sort of dragging sound from within the darkness.
"Shhhh did you hear that?" Lara whispered while taking a few steps back. Instead of answering kurtis nodded, then standing next to Lara with his gun held out in front of him, Lara also pulled out her 9 mm guns and held them in front of her. Once more the sound came, a lot closer this time. Suddenly the skeleton resembling that of a tiger jumped Lara, knocking her off her feet for a few moments. Kurtis then started shooting at the thralls back. A light blue liquid started to drip from where the bullets pierced the bones.
"Get down!" Lara yelled as she threw a sticky grenade on the thrall, kurtis ducked behind a pillar just in time when the grenade sent bones flying everywhere.
"What the hell was that?" kurtis asked as soon as he regained his posture.
"Just a few pets he brought back from an excavation" kurtis was used to these kind of things but he really didn't want to know where the horrible missformed 'pets' came from.
Kurtis and Lara stayed quiet while she retraced herself to where she came to the table; with the tape recorder still sitting in the same position it had last time. Lara had the urge to press the play button even if it meant just hearing her father's voice for a few minutes but decided that it be best if she didn't. She had to move on, that chapter of her life ended in when she had said her final goodbyes to her mother. Lara closed her eyes for a second, then moved on to one of the bookshelves. She remembered a picture frame from last time she came but she had no time to look at it properly. Unfortunately she couldnt remember where she saw it until she moved a pile of books from one side to the other. There it was, the photo. A thick, brown layer of dust prevented them to see the photo behind the thin glass. With her thumb Lara wiped it so that you could see almost clearly the identical twin picture of the sketch. She looked for any type of clue, but found nothing. . .she knew her and kurtis's flight was the next morning so she may as well look at it before then. They were about to leave when Lara triggered some sort of meganism by pulling the frame from the shelve putting the picture in her backpack. A small object fell from the roof onto the desk. Lara cautiously walked closer and inspected the black object closely. Another tape recorder lay next to the old one, Lara slowly pressed the play button.
"My dear Lara I miss you so much, when you get this you must already have found the gaunlet and I hope dearly that you found your mother, if not just remember we both loved you very much… I found scrolls relating to the lux veritatis and the Holy Grail but they were more dangerous in the wrong hands than you could possibly imagine. Do you remember the week we spend in Cambodia and the temple we found, remember. That was one of my favorite memories. . ." Lara turned and started to walk back to kurtis. The tape recorder didn't stop, her father just took a little break it seems. "I l-" his voice was cut off when Lara pulled a gun from its holster and fired it into the recorder.
She gave a smirk and continued on, "why'd you do that?" Kurtis asked!
"I got tired listening to it" Lara simply stated and gestured for him to follow. Lucky for them they didn't run into any thralls on their way back. They once again stood in the main hall with the others, everyone either stood or sat and just stared blankly at the picture that stood on the table.
"Anyone?" Lara asked, everyone shook their heads, all but zip, he just yawned and waved his hand at Lara.
Lara sighed then decided that this was enough for one day, "come on boys lets go to bed we have work tomorrow and staring at a picture won't help", zip didn't mind to even say goodnight just went straight to his bedroom.
"Night Lara, see tomorrow" Alistair said while waving his hand. Lara caught sight of kurtis, he was staring at her, she shook her head and proceeded to get up from the couch.
"croft!" kurtis said loudly and Lara turned to face him.
Lara looked at kurtis's deep blue eyes "sorry 'bout this afternoon" Lara felt guilty herself but didn't want to get attached to him, she's done that to everyone she cared about and everyone she cared about usually ended up in a morgue or missing.
"We were confused it was a mistake, no fuss, night" Lara once again turned to walk up the stairs but wanted to shoot herself in the foot for saying that. She never meant it, she did not mind what happened but she wasn't going to let anyone else know that. As kurtis disappeared from her sight Lara started to jog toward her room, she turned on the shower. After she had taken a quick shower she put on her silk summer pajamas and lay on top of the sheets. Lara tried to remember the week in Cambodia but could remember no such thing. It was extremely humid in her room, it was quite different from the typical weather in London. Kurtis and Lara were leaving for France tomorrow at seven, then they planned to book a hotel and search for the grail the following day. Lara had thought of searching for the grail before but she never had the time. Just when she thought she was going to get a bit of relaxation in the next job or death threat so to speak drags her into a thrilling adventure. She slept quite peaceful since kurtis was back, no nightmares of Karel. Lara was packed and ready to go the next morning. Her duffle bag and suitcase was already downstairs. She had checked her watch over a thousand times while Winston stood with her, Alistair getting all the books ready in case Lara needed assistance and zip was busy getting the technical things ready in case of emergency but he still enjoyed doing it though.
"Damnit what's taking so long" Lara said aloud, Winston just pulled up his shoulders. Lara was already impatient, not just because of him but because of her own stubbornness and stupidity. Lara checked her watch again and noticed that they had only twenty minutes left to get to the airport. "I've waited long enough" Lara said quite loud and started to jog up the stairs, she was wearing the same outfit she did when she was searching for Excalibur, the piece she searched for in England. Lara knocked on kurtis's door when he confirmed that she may come in.
"something wrong?" kurtis asked, he was wearing cargo pants, for the moment Lara was there he hadn't put his t-shit on yet. Lara was shocked at how well he recovered, he was well built and nothing of his injuries remained, not even a scar. "Lara" he said in an almost teasing way!
"No of course not it's just were going to have to chase through traffic and I have enough speed tickets already!" Lara shook her head in order to stop staring.
"oh would you lighten up croft, its not like I'm going to take another hour" he pulled he pulled his t-shirt over his head, it was a plain black shirt with a white long sleeved shirt underneath. He was wearing a pair of black cargo pants, it was neatly tucked into a pair of combat boots. "See done already" he walked past her brushing her shoulder as he did so. Lara followed him, mumbling something along the lines of 'men'.
When they reached downstairs Lara picked up her bags and stood still as kurtis walked out the front door. "Are you planning on walking all the way to the airport" kurtis turned to look at her, he leaned on the doorframe.
"What ain't I allowed to take my bike anymore?" he grinned playfully
"no it's going to get stolen and I'm not buying a new one, were taking my car and in case you were wondering the garage's this way" kurtis shrugged and followed after her.
When he walked down the stairs, he admired the amount of sport cars and motorcycles. He searched for Lara when she waved a hand to him from the window of a silver Porsche. He was finally inside with his bag, along with hers in the trunk. "Oh yeah I forgot they don't steal sport cars" his voice full of sarcasm.
"Not mine" Lara answered back as soon as the doors of the garage opened and she sped out.