Work Text:
Inspired by this picture from the comics:
“C’mon, Sam, we have to keep moving or else we won’t make before the sun sets!”
Sam trailed quickly behind her college friend, slightly annoyed her and Lara hadn’t started their hike earlier, as the pace the two moved at didn’t allow much time for sightseeing. The pair pushed on though, moving through the coarse, hard dirt and forested areas, intent on making it to the Belogradchik Rocks before sundown. As they hiked on at an inconveniently fast pace, Sam had a mischievous idea. She knew her bookish friend would certainly know a wealth of information about the location they were travelling to.
“So sweetie,” Sam said, pausing between breaths, “tell me about where we’re going, these, Bela-grad-tick rocks or whatever.”
“Belo-grad-chik,” Lara promptly corrected.
“They’re named after the nearby town, the word meaning literally ‘small white town’ or ‘city’, depending on who you ask,” Lara continued. As Lara spoke, her pace slowed slightly to allow her breath to speak, and Sam smirked to herself as her plan was, as she thought Hannibal from the ‘A-Team’ would say, ‘coming together’.
“Anyway,” Lara started again, “There are a lot of large named rock formations, which are all named after things in Bulgarian Legends.”
With that, Lara stopped and started back up her faster hiking pace from earlier. Sam frowned, she was sure her nerd of a best friend wouldn’t be able to resist telling her all about the place, but it seemed that Sam might need to do a bit of coaxing to get Lara to slow her pace again.
“Sweetie? You were saying?” Sam asked. Lara flinched, having been distracted by the desire to get to their destination, but like Sam had rightfully thought, Lara wanted to tell Sam about it.
“Right, sorry, where was I?”
“The rocks, they’re all named after things in legends, right? What are they called?” With that, Lara was quickly brought back to her line of thought from earlier and quickly started telling her eager friend the filmmaker the details once more.
“Well, let’s see, we’re going to a formation known as the Latin Gate, which is right next to Lipenik Cave, that I’d love to see tomorrow if you’re up for it,” Lara said, looking back to shoot Sam a grin. Sam couldn’t refuse Lara when she was excited like this, just like she knew Lara couldn’t refuse her when she’d make the pouty face Lara had a weakness for.
“Of course babe, but only if we actually have time to explore!”
“Okay, Sam, I’ll figure something out,” Lara replied.
“So what are the other rocks? I remember reading there were a whole bunch around this area,” Sam asked, bringing her friend back to the earlier topic.
“The group of rocks to the east of us are steep and harder to access and have some pretty difficult to pronounce Bulgarian names.”
Sam grinned, Lara had just given her the perfect opportunity to embarrass her, and by golly, she was going to take it.
“Sooo, what are they called?” Sam asked, suppressing a smirk.
“Uhmm, I’m probably going to butcher the pronunciation, but I’ll do my best. So there’s Boritch, heh, that one’s easy enough to pronounce. The other ones, however, there’s uh, Er-qup-pri-ya, I think,” Lara said, trying her best to take her time and get the pronunciation as down as she was able. She wasn’t sure if she was butchering it or not, and she correctly assumed Sam didn’t know either, but it didn’t stop her friend from thoroughly enjoying Lara’s attempts at Bulgarian pronunciation.
“Finally, there’s, what was it? Oh! Z-beg-ove-te!” Lara said proudly, annunciating the syllables as best she could.
“Do you know what the names mean?” Sam asked curiously.
“Actually, no. Sorry, Sam, I wasn’t able to find that out, hey, maybe we can ask someone when we get the chance!”
“And by that, you mean you’ll get me to do it, right?” Sam prodded.
“What? I mean, if you wanted to, but I’ll ask,” Lara responded, surprised at her friend’s question.
“You will, huh? Sweetie, we both know you’ll go to ask then things will get awkward and you’ll come running to me like you always do,” retorted Sam.
“Hey! I’ll do it! I’m not as awkward as you think I am! I just prefer the company of books to people, you know that Sam,” Lara replied, feeling the slightest bit insecure regarding the implications of her friend’s comments.
“And what about me, huh? How do you feel about my company?” Sam asked, and Lara immediately snapped out of her previous thoughts insecurity and slipped straight into a new set of them. Sam had a way with words, had a way of breaking down Lara’s carefully tended defenses like no one else had. Their relationship had been this way since she and Sam met. Sam was charming, friendly, and made Lara in particular feel at ease more than she was able to with anyone else. As Lara thought of this, she was met with a swirl of emotions. Sam was, truly, the only person she’d met who she felt comfortable with. Lara loved Roth and was grateful to have him in her life after her parents passed, but Lara and Sam met on their own accord, and it was the only relationship Lara had made this way that had lasted and been as strong as it was.
“Hey, Lara? Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Sam’s words broke Lara out of her trance of thoughts and back into the present.
“That’s just it, Sam. You’re the only company I prefer. You just made me think of that, and I-” Lara was stopped by Sam as she turned Lara toward her and brought her into a meaningful and tight hug.
“Aww, I prefer your company too, sweetie,” Sam said, playfully.
“Now C'mon, let’s go see those rocks!” Sam said as she broke the embrace, now being the one to drag Lara along.
As the pair crested the hill they’d been climbing, they were greeted with a beautiful sight. The setting sun was silhouetting the Belogradchik rocks in a spectacular fashion. Sam and Lara dropped their heavy hiking packs and leaned against one another with each other's arms resting on the other’s shoulder.
“How about we make camp, here, Sam?” Lara asked, and Sam nodded in agreement. As Lara prepared their tent, Sam took out her phone, and happily ran to show it’s screen to Lara after she saw the email she received.
“Look, Lara, he sent me the picture!” Sam exclaimed excitedly.
“And here I thought he got us in that shot accidentally,” responded Lara.
“You know I’ve always got a few tricks up my sleeve,” Sam replied with a grin. Lara smiled back, as much as she insisted on token resistance whenever Sam would try to photograph or film her, she loved it. She loved having mementos of all their memories, and Sam knew as well they’d both cherish whatever pictures they could get during their crazy trips.
As the two ate their dinner and later settled into their respective sleeping bags in their admittedly rather small shared tent, the young women knew they’d be with each other for the long haul. Until heaven falls.