Just started playing Tomb Raider 1 recently and it’s… slow, lol. The jump is my only real gripe, but the game is pretty cool.

agusc92:

The Three Letters (Chapter 4)

Chapter 4: Between Light and Water

Weeeee!!! Sorry for the long wait.
Long story short, I’m writing 6 fics, and not in my native language. And I work, and sleep (sometimes). And I do fanart, or I try to… Did I mention I’m renovating a house too? Yeah…
But here we are! I haven’t abandoned this (It will take a while but I’ll finish it, that much I can promise <3)
(Please forgive my grammar if there’s anything wrong, I’m mega tired but I want to post this before I go to bed)

Summary: Lara and Jacob walk through the valley and try their best to avoid getting distracted.

Words: 1615
Rating: Teens and Up

All Chapters -> [link]
Read in AO3 -> [link]

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The sun glows at its brightest in the middle of the sky, coating all the valley in a yellowish tint. 

As they walk towards the hunting zones, Lara can feel its warmth crashing against her skin, and she starts to remember how surprised she was when she first discovered this phenomenon a few years ago.

“I still find hard to believe that we’re in the middle of Syberia…” She tells Jacob as she removes her coat.

“What’s truly unbelievable is that you’ve managed to keep that after all the things you’ve been through.” Jacob replies, pointing at the piece of clothing that is now hanging on her arm.

Lara’s cheeks start to blush, and she stutters a couple of times before she’s able to say something back.

“Well… Emmm…” Lara takes a deep breath as she lowers her head to look directly at the jacket. “It’s a good coat…”

“I’m aware.” Jacob smiles, enjoying the unusual view of Lara blushing right in front of his eyes. 

“And… I mean… You gave it to me.” She clears her throat before continuing. “Of course I’ve kept it.”

Jacob laughs a little but doesn’t add anything else, allowing Lara to calm down as they walk together to the furthest part of the valley.

“So… What do you prefer? Collecting what’s in the traps or arranging the new ones?”

“I don’t care… Collect?”

“Perfect, look for this symbol.” Jacob points to the cross carved on the tree next to them. “We use that…”

“To mark the placement. I know.” She dedicates him a big smile. “It’s not my first time, remember?”

Jacob feels lost for a second, enchanted by the way she glows under the sunlight, needing to shake his head a couple of times in order to recover his line of thought.

“How could I forget…” He takes a step forward, placing his hand on her covered arm, resting on top of the jacket that he gave her so long ago. “The memory of you running up and down through this valley has been haunting me for years…”

Lara’s eyes travel along his face as he says this, trying to decipher his expression with accuracy, but what she finds in his features is a mixture of yearning and sorrow that she doesn’t know quite well how to interpret.

“I…” He strengthens the grip on her arm, taking a second to breathe before finishing his sentence. “I’m still not sure if you’re real or not… I’m…” He smiles for a moment, searching her eyes with his own. “I’m…”

“Afraid to wake up?”

The worries accumulated of Jacob’s expression quickly disappear after hearing her remark, giving rise to a gentle smile free of any kind of sadness.

“Am I that transparent?”

“No… Not really.” Lara smiles, getting even closer to him. “I’m just talking from experience.”

In no time, she moves her free hand on top of his and stands on her tiptoes, needing the extra height in order to kiss him, which she does before he’s able to reply to her comment.

After the initial shock, Jacob leans into it, placing her left hand on her back to bring her closer and, once there’s no room left between them, he moves his arm even further along her body so he can wrap it around her waist.

The kiss breaks only after a few seconds, but for some strange reason he feels out of breath once it ends, like the ghost feeling of her mouth on top of his is way too powerful for his body to handle.

“Afraid that was a dream too?”

Lara giggles as she says that, making him smile even more while he lets his head fall a little to rest on top of hers, closing his eyes in the process.

“No…” He replies, taking a step back before looking for her eyes. “There’s no mind powerful enough to be able to imagine something so remarkably perfect.”

She smiles back at him, way too happy and lost in the moment to remember what they were supposed to be doing, but how could she.

The tone of his voice, how he smiles, and the way that the sun casts its light onto his dark brown hair, hold so much power against her feelings that right now we would even have problems remembering her own name if she was asked to do so.

Jacob uses his free hand to comb behind her ear some of the rogue hairs that have escaped her ponytail, losing himself a little in her eyes for a moment before he is able to remember where they are and why.

“You should leave this here.” He tells her eventually, taking the jacket and folding it with care before doing the same with the one he’s wearing, leaving both of them next to a tree. “We should… Go back to work.”

“Yeah.” She agrees instantly, even though she needs a few more time before understanding what he was talking about. “Sure, back to work.”

“Meet me here when you’re done?”

“Of course.”

 ˜

When Lara makes it back to the meeting point Jacob is already there, waiting for her and, where before there were only two coats, now there’s a couple of extended blankets and, right next to them, a dismantled trap and  a couple of baskets full with fruits and meat.

“So… This is where the prey of the southwest corner ended up?” She asks, already knowing the answer, as she sits down.

“Yeah, sorry… I needed the time to prepare this.” Jacob sits by her side. “How long did you look for it before giving up?”

“Let’s just say that you are lucky that I am as hungry as I am.”

Both of them laugh at the same time and, after arranging everything, they begin to eat.

“How’s everything around here? Things are back to normal?” Lara asks as they begin to eat.

Jacob takes a few seconds before answering, looking away as he replies.

“Great… Or so I’m told.”

“You’re told?”

“Yes. Sofia has been taking care of more things for the last few years, which is only natural… She’s always wanted to take care of things for as long as I remember. She worries a lot about everyone here.” Lara stares at him, knowing there’s something else in the whole story he’s hesitating to speak about. “And I’m afraid that… Well, my worries… Have been placed somewhere else for a long time.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“You already did.” He takes her hand to plant a soft kiss on her knuckles, taking a moment there before speaking again. “You came back.”

“In more ways that you can even imagine.”

Her last comment, initially said a joke she didn’t even give a second thought before saying it, quickly strikes against her own feelings, making her remember the time when she had, against all odds,  to return from a place that no one thought was possible to come back.

“This is when I pretend there wasn’t a double meaning there that you’re not ready yet to talk about?”

“Am I that transparent?”

They both smile for a second, staring at each other, before something in the distance catches Jacob’s attention. 

“Look.” He says pointing at the river. “Oh, you won’t see it from there.”

Before Lara is able to comprehend what’s happening, he grabs her by the arm, making her sit in front of him, so that she can watch from his perspective. 

“There.” He leans forward a little, resting most of his weight on her back and his chin on her shoulder. “Can you see it?”

A shiver recovers Lara’s body after he says that, almost whispering next to her ear, making her lose focus of what’s happening and giving her goosebumps.

Lara closes her eyes for a few seconds, taking in the sensation of having him so close to her.

“Lara?”

The mere voicing of her name brings her back to reality and makes her open her eyes and, after adapting to the sudden exposure to the light, she finally sets them on the river that flows peacefully in the distance. 

“Ah, yeah, sorry.”  She apologizes as she tries to find what she’s supposed to be looking at. “What am I su… Wow.”

She cuts herself when she sees it.

A small section where the river narrows, and that flows with more strength than the other’s to crash against the rocks, creating a cycle of water splashing and spraying everywhere that eventually returns to the stream, where the sun hits it with its rays to reflect a vibrant and shimmering rainbow.

“There’s a few zones where that tends to happen… My favorite one is by the waterfall.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I think it may be my favorite place in the entire world.”

Lara smiles, remembering him a few years ago staring at them by himself in the middle of the night.

“That’s a strong statement… Although it must be true. After All, you had nothing but time to think about it.”

Jacob laughs against her neck, which allows her to feel the reverb of his voice traveling through her skin, sending a subtle shiver through all her body.

“Do you have one?” He whispers by her ear before leaning back to rest his weight on his hands. “A secret sanctuary your mind tends to imagine whenever you are alone or feeling lost?”

She turns her head a little to look at him before replying.

“Yes… I believe I do.” She answers him before rearranging her posture, letting all her body rest on his chest as her sight focuses again on the water. “One day I’ll tell you where it is.”

———————-

Last chapter I wrote (different fic, one of my shenko ones) was more angstier than usual, which isn’t my style, and I think this is the way my head had of compensating for it lol With tons of Jalara fluff XDDD
Hope you liked it!! See you on the next one.

Yesterday I read a lovely comment in AO3 about my jalara fic that almost made me cry T-T So… I’m sorry for all the shenkos here but the next will be for my Tomb Raider fanfic :D

I got so happy and inspired after reading the comment that I wrote the chapter in less than an hour. So… If i’m alive when I get home: I’ll re-read it, correct the grammar, and post it!!!

Weeeeeee!!!!!

You can check here the rest of the fic here if you want to -> The Three Letters