Archive of Our Own

Croft Manor, Surrey, England

"Where are those books?", Lara mumbles to herself, while she looks over some boxes that are still on the library's floor. "I thought they were here".

She stops in front of a pile of boxes and starts searching the first one. When she doesn't find what she is searching for, she closes it again and puts it away over another one.

She is opening one of the last boxes in that pile when she stops suddenly. The books she is searching for aren't inside, but instead, she has found an old box full of memories, since it's full of things she left in here after her father's death.

It makes her freeze because she didn't expect to find them here since she is in the library, but then she remembers that she spent so much time here when she was a child that maybe that's why her things are here.

A lot of drawings are in there, a few notebooks and books and a book that she suspects is a photo album and an old Polaroid that has seen greater days. She takes the drawings first and smiles nostalgically; remembering the good old days. She then leaves them out of the box and takes the notebooks and books she found there. Is part of her little adventures from when she was younger, so she leaves than with the drawings once she ends.

She then takes the album and discovers that indeed, is full of Polaroid photos. Is full of memories and she remembers most of them while she passes the pages, but then, she encounters a paper that only has a black dot. She looks at it confused until she looks at the photos on that page.

Most are random that she probably took because of boredom, but some catch her attention because she, somehow, remembers taking them. One is of a window full of raindrops that are dated on the day she buried her father, the other is of an old painting over the fireplace in the hallway that she has always find interesting, the third one is of Roth posing with an old friend of his and her father that she learned to love as an uncle and then the other one is of her, with a boy, she found annoying in that time.

She smiles, especially at the last two photos, and then, when she looks at the empty paper with just a dot, she remembers.

It was a sad rainy day, that expressed her mood perfectly but also remind her of so many movies where it always rained at funerals. Because indeed, she has buried her father and she feels like the rain and the grey sky outside.

The service was very private and short since Ana coordinate it and she thought that maybe Lara was too affected to face everything. Lara hated (still does) when people threats her like a too emotional little girl, but on that occasion, she didn't care. The only thing in her mind while the box with her dead father was being covered with dirt was that she was officially totally alone in the world. Well, not at all per se, since she still had Ana, Winston (more Winston than Ana) Roth, and Sully, but the two adults that gave her life and were supposed to see her grow and be with her until she was big enough to take care of herself, were now dead, six feet under the ground (more or less).

She was officially alone and that, somehow, substituted the pain, the shock, the trauma, the everything she was supposed to be feeling in that moment after being the one to find her father's corpse, to see death so close at her age.

After the ceremony, some people that came said goodbye, and Roth and Sully with that awful "colleague" of his, went with them to the manor. Once there, the adults with that boy that was a few years older than her sat in the main hall close to the fireplace to talk about whatever they talked about that time, and while they did that, she asked Winston if she could go. Winston approved when Ana nodded, and Lara was fast to get out of the place.

In a few instants, she was in the library, looking at how the rain hit the window. She took a photo of it, for some reason, with her Polaroid and then sat down in a ball to observe it. More than sad and grey like the weather, she was feeling angry. Her parents, who promised to be there for her forever, were now dead and she was alone in this cruel world. Ana didn't say it, but Lara knew that she and the other adults were thinking of her like a defenseless puppy and that made her angrier since she learned by herself, to be wild and independent, to be strong, but they will never see that.

Soon, that anger, transformed into tears, and in a couple of seconds, she was trying without success to suppress her tears and the sadness she was starting to feel all over her. Soon, she was a little crying ball in front of the window; was the personification of the weather outside.

That was until she heard someone knocking on the library door, and before she could tell them to leave her alone, or to dry her tears before they could see them, the door opened and revealed the person she least wanted to see.

"Hey, princess, the old butler wanted-", he stops his annoying comment with his annoying voice when his annoying blue eyes land on her and how desperately she is trying to dry her tears. "Oh", he simply says, stopping midway entering.

Even if his eyes weren't mocking her nor they were pitying her, she felt embarrassed and terrible about him being the one to discover her in the first place.

"Fuck off, false descendant of Francis Drake", she exclaims, full of anger, walking in his direction. He blinks, confused, but before he can repeat to her again that, Francis Drake didn't have children with his wife in England like he has done a thousand times before, she was in front of him with the force of a hurricane. "Get the bloody hell out!"

She starts pushing him, but she isn't very successful since he is taller, bigger, and older than her. She is still quite strong for her age and size, but she doesn't do much with anger clouding her head.

"Okay, okay. Take it easy, princess".

"Don't you fucking call me princess, you pig", and her British accent was thicker than ever in that sentence, but it didn't stop him from resisting her pushing.

"Alright, I will not call you princess, but listen to me. I have a message from the butler", at the mention of Winston, Lara stopped trying to kick him out (quite literally) from the library and look at him with a skeptical look.

She didn't trust this boy. Not because he was a total stranger Sully just brought with him from the nothing, but because he was an annoying piece of shit that thought he knew more than her about history and geography. Like, please, she was the daughter of one of the most prestigious archeologists in the country, of course, she devoured history books. Well, that was before the scandals, the newspapers, and all that; that was before he killed himself after promising her that he will not be like her mother and leave her alone.

A promise he broke, but who is her to judge adults? Just a little traumatized girl, according to Ana.

But back to the topic, this boy, somehow, still denied, with his stupid annoying American accent, to say where the hell he got to know so much about history and geography and how he won every stupid game they did to prove who was better in the topics. She believed that he was cheating, even if she couldn't prove it. It was a sour taste in her mouth when in her school she was always the best in History class.

So, yes, Lara hated this boy because he was superior to her in the thing she loved the most, but also because he treated her like she was a little girl like everyone else treated the oh-so-sad-and-traumatized-little-daughter of Richard Croft. She hated that; she hates it today.

"His name is Winston", she corrects him, and he almost rolls his eyes, but he doesn't because she just stopped hitting and pushing and kicking him.

"Okay. Winston gave me this, so I could give it to you", he puts in front of her a white folded paper, but when she tries to take it from him (more like snap it out of his hand) he lifts it over his head, where she can't take it.

"What are you doing?", she asks, clearly annoyed again.

The boy, this time, ignores her and, while she is trying to get the paper by her poor methods, he resists her again until the library door is closed, and he is standing in the middle of it.

Tired of his stupid games, Lara kicks him in the shin, he bends enough because of the pain and she takes the paper in a second.

"Hey! That's not fair!", she simply gets her tongue out in a mocking way and then walks far from him while she opens the paper.

She stops suddenly when she finds Winston's handwriting like expected.

"Dear Miss Croft:

I know you will feel anger and sadness in this very moment and that you would also like to hit Mr. Drake for interrupting you in probably a very annoying way, but please, be rational and read this before kicking him in the shin".

"Certainly, is too late for that".

"The recent events have affected you in one way or another. I'm old but not blind (yet) so I certainly know that you have been trying to be indifferent about your father's death and that, is clearly, not working. For that very reason, I have come with a plan with the help of Mr. Roth and Mr. Sullivan. Mr. Drake, unfortunately, doesn't know of this, but is a substantial part of it".

Lara frowned.

"The plan is pretty simple. You are a famous archeologist looking for a relic, but for it, you must first find the way to clear out the map, since it has been written with invisible ink. To find the UV light that will allow you to see the map, you must solve a few riddles that will lead you to the master key, since the study is locked by miss Ana's orders and I'm in no place to disobey her. Once you find the UV light and see the map, you will be available to find the location of your relic. But, even if you are a famous explorer and a very capable archeologist, you will not be available to do this journey alone. This is where Mr. Drake enters the picture. I know that you don't like him since he is always winning you in apparently everything, but please, I still believe (just as Mr. Roth and Mr. Sullivan) that you two can be friends in the long term. So, please, can you be civil for a few hours until you find the relic? It will be impossible to do it without him.

Hope you have fun and feel better after this.

Sincerely yours,

W. Smith".

She blinked. Then, she unfolded the second paper and found it blank with a single dot. She was distracted enough time that the boy who was in pain, could recuperate and walk closer until he could see the paper over her shoulder.

"Oh well, it appeared that the old butler has a sense of humor after all", he chuckles at the end, like is funny and for a second or two he waited for Lara to aggressively say something back, but she stayed in silence and still as a statue. That worried him. "Hey, princess, are you still there?"

"Next time you call me princess, I'm kicking you in the balls", she responds, not looking at him and he wanted to chuckle, but since that kick in the shin hurtled, he didn't want to experience one of her kicks in his friend.

He decided to not say anything, and Lara returned to her paper.

"What is it anyway?", he asks curiously, and if looks could kill Nathan, he would have been dead at that moment. He smiled anyway, and after a few seconds of Lara looking at him, she appeared to give up on something.

"It's a letter from Winston. Roth, Sully, and he have done something for us. Some kind of game".

"A game?"

"Yes. One of the silly games I used to play with my-", she suddenly stops and he knows why. "Anyway, we are famous explorers and have to find this “relic” marked with the dot. He wants us to do it together".

"Me? Help you? Look, I only told him that I will come to give it to you because Sully made me, if it was for me, I wouldn't even be here in the first place, breathing the same air that you", she rolls her eyes.

"Well, Winston, Roth, and Sully think differently. I, of course, disagree that they think you could help me with this, but since you're leaving tomorrow, they think that we can separate being friends instead of enemies like we have been behaving these past few days".

Nathan looks at her with crossed arms over his chest. He doesn't agree with the old men, he doesn't like that Sully is involved neither, and he doesn't like this girl in front of him because she has a wild bad attitude, but he, somehow, can't stop himself from thinking that he understands her.

He knows what being an orphan is, what being alone is, what being angry at the people who are supposed to protect you abandon you without a concrete reason after promising you that they will not. He just had to look at her glassy eyes when he entered to know. He was alone in this world too, since his mother curiously suicided as her father did, and his father abandoned him like garbage in the garbage can, and then his brother was always coming and going, without a concrete plan.

He found himself in old shit and big dreams, he found himself in Sully since he treated him like someone and not like a lost child (he sometimes treated him like a child and doubted him, but he was way better than his father and those nuns in the orphanage), he found himself in this girl in front of him that was far more mature and stronger than a girl of her age.

And even if he was too young to know those feelings, too young to find himself in someone, he did and he will never forgive himself if he simply ignored the fact that, this girl in front of him, was a lost child like him, someone silently suffering like him, someone like him: a lonely child that this cruel world forced to grow up too fast.

When he was in her position, he pleaded the sky to have someone to help him, and that someone never really came as he wanted, and sure as hell he is not the best person for it, but he does know what being lonely, angry, and lost means. And he can't let her be alone, not when he is now sure that she is like him.

He sighs, trying to look at any other thing that is not her. After a few seconds, he looks back at her and she is already waiting for him.

"I just want you to know that I don't like this shit, but I will do it since Sully is into this too like the old bastard he is", Lara nods, folds the papers, and puts them inside the pocket of her stupid black dress.

"Magnificent", she says sarcastically.

"So, what an empty paper with a single dot told you?", he asks after a few uncomfortable seconds of silence.

"The dot in the paper shows the location of the "relic" but the paper is in blank because it has been written with a special ink that only is visible with a UV light", she answers and Nathan's eyes light up. He has always liked this stuff. "It's silly, but this was one of the things I did with my father when he was alive", Lara is the one now to look away. "We did "expeditions" when he had time and Winston helped him "organize" them. Winston, Roth, and Sully think that doing one on such a difficult day will help me a little. And they choose you as my "expedition partner" because they think we can be friends".

"The dot marks the spot of a "relic"?"

"Yes".

"Count me in, prin-", he stops himself before he can say the word. It suits her, that's why he calls her that, but he prefers to keep his friend intact. "I mean that I always liked these games. My brother and I played something similar too".

At the mention of a brother, Lara looks at him curiously.

"You have a brother?"

"Older one. He is currently busy", and Nathan tries not to show it, but he fails. He tries to show that he is indifferent to his brother's abandonment, but he knows that she has noticed. "Anyway, where this UV light is?

"My father use it sometimes at work", she starts explaining, recovering some light in her eyes that he liked somehow. "He kept it in his study at the East Wing, but the study has been closed since- ", she suddenly stops, and he knows why.

"How we get there?"

"They blocked the path between here and there", she looks up, at the second floor, and points to a barricaded door. Nathan must turn around to see it. "I think Ana doesn't want me to get my nose on things that aren't "good" for me".

"You sound like you don't like this Ana", he says and Lara sighs.

"She is not bad…", and that's all she says before Nathan understands that he should change the topic.

"So, the only way is to get the key to the door. Where is it?"

"The real one, I don't know. I guess that Ana took it somewhere, there is a master key, which is the one that Winston wants us to find".

"So where is that key?"

"We need to solve a few riddles to find it. Which I don't know where they are".

"I guess that's the fun in all this".

Nathan, without waiting for her, turns in the direction of the door and starts walking to it, followed shortly by Lara herself.

Once outside, the manor is calm and mostly silent. The only sounds are the rain outside and the tic-to of the clock. Nathan was about to talk when suddenly he saw Lara froze beside him. Before he could ask her, she was moving to a fireplace that was in the hallway, close to a statue of Sir Lancelot.

She stopped in front of the fireplace and looked up at the painting in the wall above. Nathan stopped beside her confused since the painting was practically normal to him. And ugly.

"That wasn't there", she says, pointing to the paint. Nathan looked at it, still not understanding. "You're more blind than I thought", she says, and she tries, without success to get the thing she was referring to, but she was too short to get it.

Nathan moved and then saw it. It was a paper behind the paint.

"I'll get it. I'm taller", she gave him space to take it and once it was in her reach, she took it from his hand.

"You have found the first riddle. Solve this to find the next one", she read out loud. Nathan was looking over her shoulder. "Mountain without rocks, that touches the sky without arms. Maker of memories, a witness of little adventures".

When Lara finished, Nathan looked at her confused. He had never listened to a riddle like that, but Lara had something in mind.

"Can I see it?", mindlessly, Lara passed the paper to him and while he read it inside his head, she started to mumble while she moved around almost in circles. "Do you have an idea of what it could mean?"

Lara didn't answer, was too busy mumbling to herself. Until suddenly, she turned and told him to read the thing again. Nathan did.

"The problem is that there is nothing similar to a mountain here", she says.

"What if it means that it's a high place?"

"There aren't high places inside the manor. At least not ones that can be like a mountain".

They fall in silence once more, both thinking until Nathan suddenly says.

"What if it is outside?", Lara looks at him confused. "What if the riddle refers to something outside and not inside the manor?"

"It's raining".

"Yeah, are you afraid your expensive shoes will get full of mud?", he is mocking her, and she rolls her eyes since her shoes aren't even that expensive, they are just high all-black Converse (since she denied herself to put fancy shoes like Ana originally wanted).

"I'm not afraid of getting dirty", she says, without a proud voice. He smirked, knowing too well that she meant what she said.

A few minutes later, Nathan and Lara were stepping outside after snicking in the domestic service room to grab a pair of raincoats the gardeners used when there was bad weather and they had to go outside. They were big for them, but they covered the most important parts. Well, except for the shoes, which were getting mud while they walked. Nathan looked unbothered by it, and Lara wasn't surprised since he had been using the same shoes all this time (some old and probably broken black and white Converse) and, in her opinion, they couldn't get any uglier or dirtier than they already were.

They walked all around the manor’s green spaces. Nathan was following her since she knew the place better, but nothing was mountain-like enough for Lara. Until she stopped suddenly, and Nathan almost ran her over. He was about to ask her rudely why she suddenly stopped when she started speaking.

"I'm such an idiot. The answer has been here in front of my nose all this time and I couldn't see it", she says, and Nathan doesn't understand anything.

"What do you mean?", and she points ahead of them. A few feet from them there was a huge playground that reminds him of a mountain. "This is the mountain without rocks that touches the sky without arms?"

"Yes. When my parents were too busy for me, I used to play here. It was too tall for me back then and I called it a mountain".

"This is where you had your expeditions?"

"I was a famous explorer in my head while I played there", Nathan looks at her, but she is still looking at the playground. Why she speaks like that was a long time ago? He doesn't know, but he does know that this girl in front of him had to grow up too fast to speak like that. "We should search for the next riddle", and without further wait, Lara ran to the playground and Nathan followed.

At simple view, the place was all wet because of the rain and there wasn't anything out of the normal for him, until Lara noticed something in a ladder.

She takes it and reads out loud.

"Congratulations to you both on finding this, however, this is not the riddle you're searching for. To find the next riddle, you must pass the playground. Remember that you’ll need teamwork to find the relic".

Nathan and Lara looked at the wet playground.

"The old men are seriously going to make us play in the rain like we are kids?"

"Since you behave like a child most of the time, this shouldn't be strange to you", Lara says, and Nathan looks offended.

"Excuse me?", he wanted to say more, but Lara was ignoring him since she decided to start climbing the leader. "Hey! Are you nuts?! You're in a dress!"

"Try to stop me, Drake!", she yells at him and Nathan can only sigh.

He follows her and she crosses the playground easier than breathing. Nathan almost fell a couple of times and Lara didn't hold her laugher. After crossing so many claustrophobic places, slides and monkey swings, and other places that he will rather not remember, they arrived at the end of the playground. Once their feet are in the mud again, Nathan, almost without breath because he jumped some obstacles, waits for Lara to tell him what's next.

"So, what now?", he asks when she doesn't say anything, he looks at her.

"I think the second riddle is up there", she answers and when he looks, she is pointing to something hanging from one of the nearest trees. It was too tall for them to get it, so he supposed that this was why teamwork was necessary.

"I can climb the tree", and she looks at him with an "I don't think so" look.

"You barely can breathe".

"What you suggest then, your highness?", his tone is sarcastic and tired, but she ignores him almost completely.

"If you give me a lift, I can take it", he looks at her like she is crazy.

"You want me to support you while you get it?"

"Yeah. That will be teamwork".

And she looks so sure that it will work that he doesn't have another option

A few minutes later, Lara's feet are on Nathan's shoulders, while he holds her ankles like his life depends on it. She is trying to reach the paper, but at the start, it doesn't work. Nathan is trying not to worry, but after a few tries and a few little shakes from both, he is about to tell her to get off so they can look for another option.

But before he can do that, she stumbles and in the blink of an eye they are in the ground, with mud everywhere. The only thing Nathan could do now was mumble crap every second while he tried to stand.

"Marvelous", Lara says sarcastically, and he feels dirty now. Nathan wants to yell at her but when he turns to do so, he finds that she has a plastic bag with the paper inside. "I got it", she says, with an actual smile on her face that can only make him smile back.

"At least this was all worth it", Nathan gets up and Lara does on her own. She starts getting the paper out while Nathan tries to clean himself. It doesn't work.

"It's a sentence this time", she says, and then she starts reading out loud. "Go to the place where the sea isn't salty".

Lara blinks a few times.

"Sea that isn't salty?"

"The only place in the manor with water is the pool", she responds.

"Wait, there is a pool here?!"

"Yes, but is locked since my father's passing", Nathan let go an exhausted sound.

"Jesus Crist, is there something unlocked in this manor?"

"The kitchen, my room, and the library", she answered, unbothered and Nathan froze. She reminded him now of Rapunzel locked in a tower. But he suspects that is all work of Ana in an attempt to "protect" her from trauma. Or at least, that’s what he understood from her conversation with Roth and Sully the other day.

"We should go to the pool and see what is there for us", Lara says, putting the paper, just like the others, in the pocket of her black dress.

"Hold up, I want to bath first. I have mud everywhere and I can't exist like this".

"Looks like the one afraid of mud was someone else", she mocks him, but he doesn't say anything back. Lara agrees since she is also dirty, so they go back to the manor, leave the raincoats in the washing machine one of the domestic ladies left on, and went upstairs to their respective rooms.

Half an hour later, they reunite in the library again. They have a clean pair of clothes; they don't stink of mud and rain anymore and they are ready to continue. When Nathan arrives, he does with his hands full of food.

"Did you assault the kitchen?"

"Winston was on his way here when I was coming. Told me that we should have a snack before continuing our "expedition". Who am I to deny myself to free food?", Lara chuckles a little while he puts the things on the library's desk. They sit down and eat the sandwiches and the bags of chips and then drink their juices. Once finished, they threw the garbage away and started their way to the pool.

Nathan was excited about it and Lara was not understanding why. Even if she told him it was locked, Nathan insisted that they should see for themselves if it was. For some reason, the door wasn't locked when they tried to open it.

"The old men are just as rule-breakers as you", Nathan says, and Lara silently agrees. "Wow, for some reason this is a cool pool".

"Is not a marvelous thing. Is just like any other pool".

"Maybe for you, but for most people, this is a big ass pool".

Is true that the place is big and that is not outside so it can be used when is raining (like now) but Lara still didn't get what was so excitedly good about it.

"So, do you notice something out of place?"

Lara looks around and for a few moments, everything seems right, except for three fish statues at the other side of the pool that looked kind of out of place.

"That".

Nathan looks at said place and starts rounding the pool to get to it. Once they are there, they have three statues of ugly fishes before them.

"I just see ugly fishes".

"I would have said the same, but truth is that they have been moved. This one used to be here and the middle one used to be there", she explains, pointing at them and their places. "They moved them like if they were part of a-"

"Puzzle", Nathan ends.

"Yes".

"We should try and move them, then".

Lara and Nathan try, without success, to move one of the statutes. After a few times and changing statues, they decided that something was off.

"Maybe they aren't meant to be moved", Nathan suggests.

"No, I think they are. I'm sure we have to put them in their right place".

Lara then inspects the statute on a closer look until she notices that something is missing.

"Look here", she says, and Nathan gets closer to her. "This wasn't empty the last time. If I'm not mistaken a little blue stone was here, just as there was a yellow and a red one in the other two statues".

"Maybe finding them will let us move the statues to their correct place".

"Exactly".

"They should be around".

Lara and Nathan then decided to split out and search for the stones around the pool. It proves to be right, because twenty minutes after they started, Lara found the blue stone between the clean towels in the changing rooms and a few minutes after that, Nathan found the red one under a beach chair close to the edge of the pool. But the challenge proved to be finding the yellow one. They have been almost an hour and a half searching for it when they gave up and sat in a pair of beach chairs.

"I'm positive we have searched every corner of this place", Lara says, frustration clear in her tone. Nathan stays silent for a moment until he smirks.

"Well, not every place", Lara looks at him confused, but then, he points to the pool and she understands.

A yellow light is coming from under the water, and it looks like it isn't at the button, and she gets a little closer to the edge to confirm it. Without losing time, Nathan gets on his knees on the edge and gets his arm underwater to get it.

After a few minutes he gets the stone out, Lara takes it, runs to the statues, and puts the stone. They, very dramatically, click. They move the statues together and once they are in their right place; they see as a wall in a corner of the pool opens.

"Well, that's creepy", Nathan says following Lara.

The place is not a secret passage, is more like a secret room to put things. But at that moment, is where they find the third riddle.

"Ha", she says, showing the paper to him with a wide smile. He smiles too and offers her a high five she corresponds to before they unfold the paper. "This will lead you to your key", and following those words, they found a lot of letters that didn't make sense.

"I think we have to guess the words and that will give us the location of the key", Nathan suggests, and Lara agrees.

They decide to go back to the library, but they find Sully and Roth halfway in the hall.

"So, how is the "expedition" going?", Sully asks, with a cigarette in his mouth.

Roth had one too, even if Ana and Winston, both hated them doing it in closed spaces. Nathan was so used to it that he was indifferent, but Lara didn't like the smoke, so that's why she made a face at them.

"We are currently going to the library to use our brains to solve this last riddle", Nathan responds.

"Oh, I made that one. Good luck with it", Roth says, winking at them and smiling.

"You two are going to die of cancer one day and I will tell you, "Told you so", Lara says crossing her arms over her chest. Both adults laugh.

"And we will tell you that we should have listened to you", Lara rolls her eyes, and, to the surprise of Nathan and the other two, she took the boy's wrist when passing next to him to drag him upstairs to the library again.

Nathan let her do it, mostly because he was too surprised to stop her.

Once in the library, they sat at the main desk and they started to work to solve the riddle. Unfortunately, Roth knew what he was doing, since two hours passed, and they still weren't close to understanding the whole thing.

That was until Winston called them to dinner and they went down to eat without too much enthusiasm. But that changed when they returned and found that the paper had words now and not lonely letters.

"What the hell?", Nathan says when he sees the paper and Lara almost stumbles with him when she runs to see what got him so surprised.

"Someone had mercy on us".

"Probably the old butler".

"It's not fun with help".

"I think we needed it. We were terrible stuck", Nathan says and starts working again with that pen and notebook Lara and he was using to write possible answers.

"We now have three words, and we also have the number of letters we need to complete. This is progress".

"We only have friendship, finest, and love", Lara observes right beside Nathan. "Which doesn't tell anything if there are like hundred blanks between".

Nathan knows that she is getting frustrated, and he doesn't like to see her like that, not now that he knows that she is like him.

"Oh, wait", Lara suddenly says and then, points to a word in the page Nathan is writing on. When he looks, he finds the name Jane in a corner.

"Jane?"

"Yes. But I don't understand what it means, like, it's not-", suddenly Lara stops and freezes. Nathan looks at her and almost touches her shoulder when he swears she isn't breathing. "Jane Austen is my favorite author".

"She is a British author, right? Romance shit", Nathan asks and, if Lara's glare could kill, he will be dead by now.

"Don't insult something that you haven't even read", she says, and then she turns around, walks to one of the shelves, looks for a book, and returns with a very wide one that she barely can carry.

"What's that?"

"A book full of quotes. I think that these words will lead us to a Jane Austen’s quote", Nathan then nods. The girl is barely a teen, but she already reads Jane Austen. Certainly not like any other girl Nathan has met before.

After a couple of minutes and a hundred quotes later, they find one that said: "Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love". It was the only one from Jane Austen and the topic that entirely fit, but it left them confused.

"How is this quote going to help us find the master key?", Nathan asks, being the most confused about them. Lara didn't answer, however, she just sat down in a chair and stared blankly for what felt like forever. Nathan sat in silence, cursing the old men. This game wasn't fun anymore, it was confusing as fuck.

Ten minutes after Lara started staring into space, she suddenly stands, scaring the shit out of Nathan who was falling asleep close to her.

"I understand now", she said, sounding old and not like herself. That scared Nathan.

"What do you understand now?", but then, she rolls her eyes, and he is relieved, because Lara will do that, especially with him.

"The quote. I know now where the key is", Nathan was on his feet in a second.

"First let me explain because I want you to understand".

Nathan didn't show how frustrating that was, instead, he made a hand gesture for her to start, and he took his seat again. Lara started walking side to side while she explained.

"I started reading Jane Austen after a teacher of mine in school recommended her. She said that it was kind of advanced to me, but that I certainly will like it. I did and now she is one, if not, my favorite author. Roth has seen me reading her and that's why he chose a Jane Austen quote. But he also had a message with it".

"Besides where the master key is?", Lara rolls her eyes again.

"Yes, besides that", she stopped in front of Nathan, but she didn't look at him in the eye. "Roth has always been with me. He was a friend of my father before I was born and he, with Sully, are the only ones who stayed at his side until now. Roth saw me grew up, he sometimes was more like a father to me than my own father", she was embarrassed to admit that, it was pretty clear in her tone, but Nathan didn't blame her. He saw Sully as a father figure too. "He knows a lot about me, and he knows that I have been repressing my feelings about my father's death just as Winston noticed", she made a pause and, while she started to fidget with her hands, Nathan observed her the whole time. "I believe that Roth chose this quote because is about friends helping someone get out of a disappointing love. I think that he sees through me and my feelings and somehow knows that I feel angry and disappointed at my father for abandoning me".

She stops fidgeting with her fingers and then looks at Nathan with big, strong, brown eyes, and for a few seconds, Nathan is almost breathless. But he recuperates quickly.

"He believes that my disappointing love is my father and friendship is you. But making this connection, also makes me think that the key may be where he is, but since his grave is not here, in the manor’s grounds, I think that is in the old family mausoleum", Lara ends and Nathan nods.

"Okay", is all he says while he stands. "Hope is not raining".

They both turn to the window and, to their relief, is not.

They snick out of the manor again, and this time, they are using flashlights to light up the path because the sun is already down and is dark enough to not see with their human eyes. Once they get to the mausoleum, they find it open and the air inside is cold and creepy.

"Can I make a joke about dead people?", Nathan asks, entering after Lara.

"There are no dead people here, dummy", she responds, using the flashlight to light up the path to the newest gravestone at the end of the hallway.

"Well, I see a lot of gravestones here", he says, looking around. There were gravestones with names and dates since before the Nineteen Century.

"My family buries their members in the cemetery we were this morning. These are just gravestones to remember past family members", she explains, stopping before a gravestone that said: "Lord Richard Croft". Beside his was her mothers, whose body was not found yet. "For example, this is my mother's, Lady Amelia. She died in an accident and, according to Roth, her body was never found. Her gravestone is just a commemorative one; proof that she was part of the family".

"Wow. So, you're the last member".

"Yes", she answers, inspecting the floor. "The name dies with me since the world is sexist", Nathan simply smiled and helped her search for something that looked like could have the key inside. After two minutes, they found a little box at the end of the hallway, that once opened, revealed the master key.

Nathan and Lara high-fived again, and they smiled widely at each other before returning to the manor.

They entered the study silently after opening with the key. Lara searched for the UV light while Nathan made sure that Ana wasn't nearby. Once Lara had the UV light, they closed up, left the key over the fireplace in the library's hallway, and then entered said library to see what the map revealed.

Both were excited to see what the "relic" was. Lara opened the map and put it over the desk, once it was there, Nathan hold the paper while Lara illuminated it with UV light. Their eyes glowed.

The black dot marked a spot in the house that, was confusing at first for Lara. Nathan noticed.

"What is it?"

"The dot is over my room", she answers.

"It marks your room?"

"Yes. Is weird. I… thought it was going to mark another place".

"Well, we need to see what is in your room that can be considered a relic".

Lara puts the UV light inside a drawer on the library desk and Nathan folds the paper to put it in his back pocket. He follows Lara, who is almost running, to her room. When they arrived, it was dark, until she lights it up with a switch. To Nathan's surprise, it was a simple and nerdy room with nothing out of place, but, for Lara, there was something out of place.

On her desk close to the window, was a box and a note over it. Slowly, almost like she was afraid to see what it read inside, Lara took it, but before she could unfold it, she offered it to Nathan.

"You want me to read it? What if is too embarrassing for your majesty?", he has a smirk on his face, but Lara is not affected by it, she simply offers it to him again.

Nathan takes it, unfolds it, and starts reading, surprised when it's not only addressed to Lara, but to him too.

"Dears Ms. Croft and Mr. Drake:

Congratulations on being civil with each other this afternoon. The "relic" you have been looking for all afternoon is inside the box beside this note", Nathan stops at that and looks at Lara, who has read his mind, since she is already on her way to open the box.

Neither Lara nor Nathan was sure of what exactly they were waiting to see as the "relic", but it wasn't their favorites sweets. Nathan remembers never saying his in the manor, but he guesses that Sully told the old butler, and that Winston already knew Lara's. They were perfectly placed inside the box and, by their smell, they have been made not long ago.

"Keep reading", Lara says, without touching the food.

"Don't be disappointed that you did all this just for just your favorite sweets since you two should be proud because of one thing: you have found a new friend on each other", as in cue again, Nathan's blue eyes and Lara's brown ones, cross each other at the same time. But just as fast as it started, they divert their eyes again. "For instance, Mr. Drake doesn't have friends of his age, but he has now Ms. Croft. Lara can be a wildfire sometimes but as she has shown you today, she can also be civil, clever, and strong. And you also have a friend in Mr. Drake now, Ms. Croft. Even if Nathan appears to be annoying or arrogant when he talks about history, he can also be a great compliment to you thanks to his great observing, quick thinking, and patience. If you stop to think about your "expedition" today, you will find that you are far better putting up something together than smashing each other down to pieces. If you look at each other on a deeper level too, you will find that you're more alike than you think. Mostly because you are the same: children of misfortune that have bloomed in adversity" Well that's poetic".

"Don't laugh", Lara orders, but Nathan chuckles before returning to the note.

"Support each other, since like the old Austen said: "Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love".

Sincerely yours,

Winston, Roth, and Sully.

PD: Please eat in the kitchen since Winston doesn't want to have ants in the room. Thanks".

There is silence once the reading ends. Neither of them moves a muscle.

They simply stay there, looking at nothing.

Until Lara turns around, Nathan looks at her and finds that she stretched her hand, like she wants to shake his.

"Let's start again, shall we?", she asks, with a little smile on her face. Nathan looks at her and then at her hand, to look at her again. He then smirks and without further wait, he shakes her hand with his.

"Nathan Drake".

"Lara Croft".

"Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Croft".

"Pleasure is all mine, Mr. Drake".

"Oh, you can call me Nate, is easier".

"Alright. Just don't call me princess".

"Alright your majesty", when Lara glares at him, he laughs.

But then, when Lara takes the box and runs out of the room yelling that she will eat his sweets, he forgets about the note and goes behind her yelling that she will not.

Lara doesn't remember what happened with those sweets. If they eat them, made a mess, or made Ana very upset because of the running around.

She just knows that she did a friend that day. One that, even with time and space between, has always been there just like her to him.

She closes the photo album, puts everything in the box, and is about to close it to search in another place when footsteps are heard entering the library.

"Hey, princess, I found the books you were searching for", she turns around in his direction immediately.

"Where did you find them? I thought they will be here".

"Winston found them around and took them to the kitchen. Said that he was going to bring them here later, but I found them first", while he talks, he steps closer and when he finishes, he is right in front of her smiling.

"Thanks, now I can keep up the order", she takes them from his hands and turns around to the shelves she was organizing. She has a list laying on the desk with almost every book that was in the library before the manor was a catastrophe and she is trying to put them all together again. Or as close to it as it can be since some books disappeared.

While Lara is putting the books in their place, Nathan recognized the photo album inside the box she was looking inside a few moments ago. Curiosity took the best of him and in a second, he was getting his nose on it and smiling at Little Lara's drawings.

When he opens the album and finds the photos she saw earlier, he chuckles. That catches Lara's attention.

"What are you doing?"

"You remember this?", he shows her the photo where they are posing together. "We took this one after eating sweets all night. It was also the day we stopped hating each other", Lara chuckles.

"More like the day, we stopped hating each other so much".

"You must admit it progressed".

"Yeah, and also how Ana hated us even more", Nathan chuckles, even if Ana was still kind of fresh on Lara's mind.

Nathan closes the album and then, puts his hands in his pockets, while Lara moves to see the list of books on the desk.

"Hey, princess, how about taking a break? Winston sent me to tell you lunch is ready anyway", Lara nods.

"Sounds good".

"He made our favorite sweets, so I guess I'll eat them all when I get there first!", he yells when he suddenly starts running out of the library.

"Oh, I don't think you will, Drake!", she responds, before she goes after him.

Nathan has always been friendship, that friendship that has cure every pang of disappointed love in Lara's life. Just as she has been his. And if they are honest with each other, neither will be where they are, if it wasn't for that day, for that "expedition" or  the friendship that binds them.