Work Text:
„How many languages do you speak?”
The question came from the nowhere, breaking the peaceful silence between them, making him looking at her figure sitting behind the huge desk over bunch of papers filled with her handwriting. Brown eyes reflected the orange light of the fire, what was throwing long shadows on the hard wooden floor. The huge room was mostly dark – she used a desk lamp as light source and Jacob wasn’t bothered by reading next to the fire – his only light was the fire for years and years after all. Old habits die hard.
Even if you were facing with the modern world.
“Well, I was born in the Byzantine Empire and as you know Latin and Greek were spoken in the 10th century of Byzantium. I can speak both. Then I spent some time in Syria as well, so learned some Arabic, then learned Russian and maybe I can still manage to recognize some Mongolian words. And English of course.”
She didn’t say a thing to that, acknowledged his answer silently, only rewarded him with her smile, but Jacob was fine with that: he loved her smiles. She rarely smiled in Siberia, but things were different now, at her home.
Lara was a real mystery sometimes; Jacob knew they rarely had the time to properly get to know each other, things were a bit difficult back then – they were running on short time and having mindful conversations while trained soldiers try to kill you can be a challenge. Not like they didn’t talk whenever they had spare 5 minutes, but he tried to ensure his people’s safety and she was on the hunt most of the time. Now, when they have all the time of the world.
Both of them were rough at the edges back then, driven by their instincts and emotions mostly. She was fearless and fierce and he was fascinated by that; her power, her strength always amazed him and it still does. But now was so different.
Now, Jacob had a chance to slowly, truly know her, appreciating every moment, didn’t matter how small it was.
Things like realizing she loved tea more than coffee – and always brought a cup of the hot flavoured liquid with herself when she sat down to that huge desk in her father’s office. How her first cup of tea was always black tea and she poured some milk into it – which truly horrified Jacob when he first saw that. For later of the day she switched to the fruitier mixtures. And never-ever put any sweetener into the cup, only some of the dry leaves of her various and rather big tea collection and hot water.
Or how bad she was at singing. Sometimes he could hear her, mostly when she thought he was out of the hearing range, leaving the radio on or put some of her favourite songs on and God above it was truly terrible, the ‘dogs will join in any moment now’ terrible, but honestly, he still loved to hear it and never mentioned it to Lara. She would stop doing it immediately.
She loved to leave small notes around the house. Whenever she was out to buy some food or just a simple activity like biking, a small piece of paper was always waiting for him and letting him know where she was and when she will get back. Shopping lists, sticking on the door of the fridge, important dates and meetings or simple ideas which hit her randomly, connected to her ongoing research or even future researches. Her handwriting was precise and neat, mirroring her strong personality – the occasionally used smiling faces (mostly in the notes, being written to him) was just a pinch of hint of her more tender side, something only few persons were allowed to see.
And that bicycle. Jacob never had the chance to learn how to use that thing and Lara was obsessed with it – she really took a good care of it and used it whenever she needed to clear her head out and be alone for an hour or so. And she already asked him if he wanted to learn cycling or not. He couldn’t say no to it, although he wasn’t so sure about his immediate success of it.
When they first met Lara was driven, strong and almost hard on the surface. The woman he started to know more and more was more… human. There was always something new to learn about her, a small piece he never saw before. With every exchanged stories, every passed day she showed more of herself and it felt like taking a slow but steady journey, slowly realizing Lara was much more complex. She was intelligent, yes, and Jacob already knew that, saw her in the worst situations and she always cut herself out of it, fight her way out if it was needed, knew what she was capable of. But didn’t know what she loved to do in her free time. He didn’t know the tea-addict and bookworm British woman before, who was more than happy with a fantasy book, full of magic and dragons and how lost she could be in that world with a blanket and a tea – of course. How much patient she had to explain the modern things to him and teach him about the modern world even if she didn’t really consider it as teaching. Things like the internet or video games were totally new to him – or even modern politics and how the voting system worked. A simple toaster was a totally new piece of information. He lived a simpler life and she accepted that, making sure to find his place in this new world. Long walks around the neighbourhood, hand in hand like any other normal human beings who loved each other and long conversations late into the night, seeing her laugh and also making her laugh, all these small, normal, peaceful things meant the world to him.
After a moment of thinking Jacob decided to break the silence once again.
“How many languages do you speak?” asked teasingly, not letting her diving into her business too deeply.
Her stiff ‘I am concentrating on my work’ figure relaxed a bit as she took a break from her papers, leaned back against the office chair, gently rocking a bit, while she was thinking on her answer.
“Not as much as you.” started, pondered a bit then smiled at him “I learned some languages at the university like Ancient Greek and Latin, but I need some polishing before I could use them. Or I just learn a new one, depends where I am heading to.” she shrugged.
The ever practical. Need a new language for a new myth and country? Oh right, why not learning it like over two weeks before the trip. Why this didn’t surprise him – at all?
A wide smile slowly appeared on his lips and the way he looked at her, adding that strange glint in his eyes quickly made Lara realize what he was thinking about.
“Most definitely no.”
Mentioning her studies in ancient languages was definitely a mistake, Lara knew it as soon as she made her answer and she wasn’t willing to embarrass herself using it to everyday communication with someone who kind of mastered both of the mentioned languages.
Although she was pretty sure someone in her family would love the opportunity and the challenge of it. But she wasn’t him.
Ah, the disappointment. “You are so-so cruel Lady Croft.”
Lara rolled her eyes at that. “I deeply regret the moment when I told you about that.” This earned another teasing smile being sent toward her.
A huge manor with huge gates with a huge Croft crest - well that being literally everywhere – caused some questions of course and she didn’t see any reason why not to tell him about her noble heritage and of course he had to use that information giving her lady-created nicknames and using them whenever he wanted to poke her a bit.
She hated it. Except she didn’t, not really and usually his trick worked on her and he knew that.
The silence was back between them as Jacob turned back to his book after giving her a last smile and Lara let her mind wander as she watched his relaxed form, reading peacefully – and well aware of her, staring, but chose not to mention it. Sometimes she wondered about their life together and how well and rather quickly Jacob was able to adapt to this new situation. He had some experiences with it after all, living an unimaginable long life and being constantly on the move; for first seeking after the perfect place to settle, then trying to find his place among his people. He needed to adapt and he was good at it. But things were also different now; this was his last big group of lessons to learn, this was the final century he will live in. And honestly Jacob seemed to be happier in his mortal skin now. She could read him better now than before, the way he talked about his past, his voice, how he sometimes struggled with the memories hinted how much he suffered over the years because of his immortality. It was really a burden for him and he never looked happier than to have a full life which will certainly end sometime.
And not only his life changed: before Jacob Lara most definitely would be already out on her next adventure, risking her life and facing inhuman creatures, killing people constantly.
With Jacob she just wanted to enjoy her life to the fullest. The adventures still had a place in this new image, but they weren’t as important as before. She rather concentrated to renovate the house and make a home of it for themselves than ever before. Jacob enjoyed doing some stuff on his own, ever since he always solved things with his own hands - and doing it together really felt like she finally found her place in the world, creating a home for themselves, something great and beautiful. They were a pretty good team, let it be about building a new roof or kill creatures of the wild.
But something still bothered her: sooner or later Lara will return to the myth, she already made some minor preparations, she already had an eye for the next adventure. But didn’t know what to do with Jacob. He definitely will want to accompany her and Lara had no objection against it, but still… she didn’t want to lose him. It was dangerous enough and she was always afraid of losing Jonah and tried to make him as safe as she could, that’s why she dealt with her business mostly on her own. Went in the tombs alone, faced with the darkness alone. But Lara had no idea how their dynamic will work on the field. Maybe Jacob will want to follow her – he was capable to handle himself in a fight but Lara didn’t want to put his life at risk. Before he was immortal. Now he was just a normal human being – no second chance, no +1 life ticket. If he dies now he will remain dead.
She didn’t bring it up yet, but she needs to do it and probably soon.
But not today. Reached out for her pen, she put down minutes before, Lara tried to push the dark clouds away from her mind – it can wait, she didn’t need to stress about it just now. It was time to enjoy being around the living ones and rest and just finally enjoy her life altogether; let the bad thing fade away a bit, wounds healing and starting something new.