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He slowly opens the door. When he pops his head behind it, he finds them sleeping.
It has been silent for a while so he wanted to check on them.
He steps further, slowly, and closes the door behind him. He stops a few steps away from the bed and a smile appears on his face.
Cassie is sleeping, more like, drooling with her blond curls all over the pillow with Lara beside her, a book on her chest.
He stares for a few moments with a smile wider by the minute. This has become a familiar view since Cassie and he came to “visit”.
They always fall asleep together after Lara reads Cassie something from one of the many books in the library.
His green eyes change to look at Lara for a moment. He can’t see what she read Cassie tonight but he recognizes how different she looks when she sleeps.
Is like the survivor doesn’t exist and all that reminds is Lara, just Lara. Just the kind-hearted, bright-smiling, curious, and fearless Lara that won’t stop at anything, the Lara that will never quit.
He sighs, nostalgically, before touching her in the arm. She wakes up with a jolt but she relaxes when she finds him there.
“You scared me”, she accused in her posh sleepy British accent.
“Pardon me my lady”, he answers, with the usual snark that characterizes him.
She rolls her eyes before softly hitting him with the book. He tries to complain, but she is quick to shush him as soon as she remembers that Cassie is sleeping next to her.
She stands up and puts the book on the nightstand. He eyes it for a moment, realizing is a book of Greek mythology.
When he looks back at her, she is tucking Cassie. He turns the lamp off after kissing his daughter goodnight and then she pushes him outside.
She closes the door softly while he smirks mischievously.
“You fell asleep again”.
“Yes, I know, stop reminding me”.
“I’m not mocking you, Lara”, he assures then, even if he looks like he is mocking her. “Are you having nightmares again?”
“No”, she answers, pushing her messy brown curls back. “I’m just reading a lot lately”.
“Oh, a new adventure on the horizon? Care to tell me details?”, he smiles and she looks at him unamused for a moment, before sighing and messaging her shoulder.
“Not going to make that mistake again, Drake”, he rolls his eyes.
“I can’t believe you haven’t gotten over that time in Thailand”.
“Is not that I haven’t gotten over it, is that you are a bloody thief”, she points at him with her finger with a smirk on the corner of her lips.
“You are not that different, oh, my princess”.
At that, she stops, all amusement replaced by a blush. That makes him stop too and admire it for a second. He hadn’t seen her blush in a while, it reminded him of those times they traveled to Nepal for some hiking and she always ended up with red cheeks and a cold nose.
Before he can comment on her blush, she turns around and starts walking in the hall.
“Fancy a cup of tea before bed?”
He rolls his eyes but doesn’t waste time following her.
“You Brits and tea”.
“You Americans and your constant criticism of everything except yourselves”.
He gasps offended.
“Take that back”.
“No, it’s true”, she answers, rushing to the stairs with inhuman speed. He follows loyally.
She smiles and before she can get too ahead of him on the stairs, he tries to grab her by the arm, but of course, she is faster. She ends up running and he ends up following and they race like they were children again after dinner had been announced.
They push and hit each other during the race which only ends when they arrive at the kitchen at the same time. She accuses him of being a loser but he reminds her that it was a tie. She calls him a loser anyway and he decides to ignore her because, somehow, he feels short of breath.
“Go and take a seat, old man”, she says, and he walks to the table after flipping her the middle finger.
He sits down with a smile on his lips, however, after making such an obscene gesture, she laughed and that will always be music to his stupid little ears.
While she makes tea in a super old kettle that probably is Winston’s age, they bicker about the race, until he stands up to help her serve the tea, even if she tries to sabotage his helping. He wins this time, by slightly pushing her away with his hips. Once the tea is served in their favorite mugs, he takes them to the little dining table he had been in earlier.
They sit down in front of each other and for a while they stay in silence.
Lara sips her tea, and Nathan leaves it to cool a little. The silence that settles is neither awkward nor uncomfortable. Is simple silence between two souls that know each other too well.
It's full of nostalgia and warmth for some reason.
“Do you remember when we did this for the first time?”, she asks, with a little smile and the hope that he remembers.
It was a long time ago.
When they were kids when her father was still alive, Roth was still around all the time and Sully was still part of their little merry band of idiots.
Now the only one alive was Sully and it was by a threat.
Nathan looks at her with the same nostalgic smile.
“Of course, I do. It was a peace offering”.
She chuckles.
“I wouldn’t call it that”.
“What will you call it then?”
“My father and Sully’s way of trying to make us get along”.
“Same crap in my opinion”, he says, and right after, she kicks him under the table for cursing.
He hums in complaint but doesn’t do anything else.
“Why did we didn’t got along?”
Lara doesn’t answer fast. She puts the mug on the table in front of her again and avoids his eyes before answering.
“I don’t even remember”, is all she says before she leaves the mug on the table, stands up, and walks to the fridge.
The quiet is suddenly very heavy and it passes from nostalgic to awkward pretty fast. Probably because he knows that she lied.
He watches her while she serves some pieces of lemon cake on two plates. After putting it away in the fridge, she looks for some spoons and then puts one in front of him and the other one in front of her.
Nathan finally tastes the tea. It tastes as always and is funny for him because she always makes tea and it always tastes the same. He always like how constant she is in certain things, how the little things, the real things that made her who she is, are still the same, didn’t matter if time separated them, she would always be the same Lara.
He adored that of her.
“I think I know why”, he suddenly says, after putting the mug down.
Lara eyes him.
“Pray to tell”.
He looks at her in the eyes.
“You were in love with me”.
There is a second of silence before she snorts and breaks into a not-so-lady-like laugh.
“Laugh all you want, I know that’s the truth”.
“Bloody hell, you Americans always think you are right, aren’t you?”
“That’s rich coming from you, who starts fights with anyone just to prove she is right”.
“99% of the time I am, indeed, correct”.
“Pretentious”, he whispers at the edge of his mug before he takes another sip.
“Like you aren’t the same”.
He rolls his eyes and for a moment it appears the conversation is over, but after taking a bite of the cake, Lara is assaulted with another accusation.
“No shame in admitting I’m right on this one, though. I have always been a good-looking lad”.
She rolls her eyes.
“I was not in love with you. You were the last person I would have felt in love with back then”.
“Why?”, he asks, faking offense.
“I couldn’t stand you, remember? All we did was bicker and fight and pock each other and you liked to pull my piggy tails just for fun”.
“Well, yes hate was mutual, but it was because you were Sully’s favorite”.
“I am his goddaughter”.
“And I’m his adopted son”.
“He never adopted you legally”.
“But he did emotionally”.
“Point is?”
“He gave you all the attention. I had to get payback”.
“He got to see me once a year. He saw your face every day, besides, Sam didn’t complain”.
“He was under your spell too”.
“What?”, Lara asks, genuinely confused.
He looks at her like is obvious.
“C’mon Lara, is well known that Sam liked you a lot. Only thing stopping him from trying something with you was your age and Sully’s rage. I think he still does want you romantically”.
Lara blinked at him several times.
“He is like an older brother to me”.
“I know, but some men don’t get hints”, he shrugs dramatically before taking a piece of the lemon cake.
When her face doesn’t change he stops to look at her.
“You never actually suspected that he liked you romantically? I have always thought it was pretty obvious”.
“I didn’t know”.
“I always thought you had a crush on him”.
At that, she rolls her eyes and hits him in the arm.
“Auch! You know you hit hard, don’t do that!”
“Stop saying nonsense. Sam is like a brother to me”.
“It was a joke. You Brits can’t take jokes?”
She rolls her eyes again and decides to ignore him and return to her lemon cake and tea.
He does the same after smirking, and for the next few moments neither talks. They drink tea and eat until they are full and their plates and mugs are empty.
Lara stands up to take them to the sink but Nathan offers himself and he ends up doing it. He always washes them because he doesn’t want to face an angry Winston in the morning.
When he finishes, he turns and sees her pensive still sitting at the table.
“You know I was joking right? You don’t have to take it to heart”.
“I know you are a professional clown, Drake”.
“Auch, that hurts, princess”.
“Don’t call me that, you know I hate it”, she says with narrowed eyes that make him smirk.
“Okay, princess”.
She rolls her eyes before sighing and looking away from him. She turns serious again and he thinks of touching her in the arm but he doesn’t move.
“I always thought I was alone and now I realize that there have always been people around me that liked me and wanted to take care of me. I was just too angry and full of myself to see it”.
There is a moment of silence, where she gulps and doesn’t make eye contact with him.
“Don’t worry about it, Lara. The past is in the past. You have us now”.
“I was an idiot before, I’m sorry”.
He approaches then and when he is close enough he puts a hand on her head and pats her softly.
“Just be sure not to be an idiot in the present, yes? Although, if I’m honest, Cassie will like you anyway. You are her hero”.
Lara chuckles shaking her head in a no.
“I’m no hero”.
“She disagrees and nothing you say will change her mind”, he smiles and after a moment, he takes a seat at the table again. “She reminds me a lot of you”.
“She does? How?”
“She is tenacious like you, too curious for her good, and also has a problem with staying still in one place. She has a lot of her mom too, but every time I see her with a book in her hand or I hear her talking nonstop about Greek mythology or a distant Chinese dynasty all I see is the Little Croft I met a long time ago”.
“Well, she needed to get something from her godmother, didn’t she?”
They chuckle.
“Yes, I guess so”.
And Nathan observes Lara for a few seconds. The present Lara, the Lara that he wished had been more open to him in the past, the Lara that when he is high on serotonin he wishes was the person that he made Cassie with.
He didn’t regret loving Elena but sometimes…his mind wandered to that dark corner of what ifs.
What if Lara hadn’t pushed him away?
What if Lara hadn’t put a wall between them?
What if he had fought harder for her?
What if Lara was there when he searched for El Dorado, the Shambala Stone, and the Atlantis of the Sands, in his search for Avery’s treasure?
What if he had been there for her during Yamatai and afterwards?
What if he had married her instead?
What if Cassie was half her and half him?
What if he had been honest with her from the beginning?
What if he had told her when they were teens that he was in love with her?
What if he had told her that he had always been in love with her and that he never got to see her like a little sister or a little cousin?
What if he had been braver and hadn’t been corrupted by the jealousy of Sam’s attempts to make them a thing?
What if he had just succumbed to temptation?
What if he had been there for her?
What if he had just told her that he never wanted to be just her friend, colleague, enemy, friend-enemy?
It was too late now.
What was done was done.
The past was in the past.
There was nothing else but the present and in the present he has her and in the future, he will make sure he has her too.
Even if is just like the godmother of his daughter, his closest friend, and the love of his life that could never be.
“Hey, it is a bad time to ask you about what you wanted to show me in the afternoon before Cassie interrupted for her storytelling time?”
Her eyes change, they change to the ones she had when she is alive and ready for whatever is to come.
“Just some nautical maps I found around. I thought you’d like them. I think they are from the XVI century”.
He grins, like the cat that got the mouse.
“Oh, princess, you know the way to my heart”.
She rolls her eyes with a smirk in the corner of her lips.
“You are a fool, I didn’t have to try too hard”.
She stands up and walks out of the kitchen.
“Yeah, but I’m your fool!”, he says, before standing up to follow her like the love-sick puppy he is, will always be, for her.