The Tomb Raider (lara) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-02-10 02:54:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, bo dennis, lara croft |
She’s a good teacher, isn’t she?
Who: Larabo
What: Helping out some girlscouts
When: Recent
Where: A wilderness area of some sort
Status: complete
Rating: PG for cuteness
Now, Bo had never been part of the Girls Scouts, or Girl Guides as they were called in Canada. Her mother had asked her, repeatedly, when she was little if she wanted to join them, but that was never something she was interested in. While she liked the cookies, she had little interest in earning badges. She preferred just doing things around the farm and so forth. And yet when Lara got roped into doing something with a Girl Scout troop, Bo found herself also roped into it.
However, Bo was more or less there in the role of having another adult around to help corral the girls if needed. Outdoors stuff was Lara’s strength, so she let her take the lead on the matter.
Girl Scouts were not something that Lara had had exposure to until she moved to the US. It would have been right up her alley and maybe have gotten her involved in a more outdoorsey life sooner in this life. So she appreciated their existence and it hadn’t actually taken too much convincing to get her to help out with a troop.
And today, she was showing them everything from building a campfire to rock climbing safety.
She was crouched in a circle with the troop. “Now, one should always carry flint with them, but in the event you don’t have one, you can still get a spark via other means. Some just take more effort than others.”
Lara was a good teacher, and she had plenty of patience to go along with it. Bo could vouch for both from personal experience. Lara had taught her a lot about outdoors activities including camping, climbing, building fires and so forth. But what she hadn’t quite known was just how good she was with children. Lara had quite the captive audience gathered around her.
Bo was sitting a little out of the way, but kept an eye out for anyone that might lose interest or something.
“What else can you use?” One girl asked Lara, clearly curious.
Lara grinned at the girl. “You know how in movies they spin a stick between their hands and then blow on the kindling? That actually works reliably, but is kind of a bollocks hard way to do it. Striking two stones together is less effort, but also more random success.”
She rubbed her chin. “I’ve also used a battery to start a fire once or twice. I’ll show you that trick since in an emergency situation you might have access to a battery.”
Lara Croft; contributing to arson.
She straightened. “Now, do you want to practice making fires, or try to climb those rocks?”
Bo almost wanted to point out that Lara probably shouldn’t swear in front of the children, but then she realized none of them probably understood what bollocks meant. So she let it slide. Though she had to arch an eyebrow at the mention of using a battery to start a fire. She knew Lara just liked people being aware of their options, but still. Hopefully these girls didn’t immediately go home and attempt to use a battery to start a fire that could potentially get out of control rather quickly.
At the question, some of the girls loudly proclaimed they wanted to make fires, and the others wanted to climb rocks. Bo eyed her wife, wondering how she’d decide matters there.
It would be fine, Lara reasoned. She’d done worse in her youth after all. There were multiple mansion climbing incidents after all.
Lara looked thoughtful. “Bo love, if you’d keep an eye on our little arsonists, I’ll take a couple of the girls up that cliff.”
Little did she know that would end up literal.
“I’ll make sure no one starts a fire that Smokey the Bear has to come lecture them about later,” Bo quipped. She stood up to move over to the firepit they had so she could better help with the wannabe arsonists. And she’d keep an eye on her wife as well just in case she needed help or the girls that wanted to climb got too rowdy while waiting.
First, Lara showed the two girls who’d come with her how to check climbing gear to make sure it was safe. The climb was about 15 feet -- nothing to Lara but a mountain to some of the girls -- but it still needed proper safety precautions.
Then she put helmets on their head and showed them how to check each other. Lara never once talked down to the girls, but she did make sure her language was easy to follow.
It was pretty obvious the oldest girl who was just observing her troop’s guest was developing a massive crush.
Bo watched Lara talk to the girls about safety while climbing. It served to melt her heart, which honestly wasn’t hard to do, but Lara always a way of making it melt unlike anyone or anything else could. Lara really was good with children. Not for the first time she found herself thinking Lara would be a really good mother. Bo wasn’t exactly certain about herself in that department, but she knew what she didn’t want to be like as a mother. That was a start, wasn’t it?
She shook her head a little, not wanting to get lost in that train of thought that she knew wouldn’t really go anywhere given she knew Lara’s issues on the matter. That was when she noticed the oldest girl had that look about her. Bo just had to smile a bit and went over to her.
“She’s a good teacher, isn’t she?” She asked.
The girl smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, she’s really nice to listen to. I mean she’s really good with the girls!”
Yeah, that’s great. She found the fires being made suddenly very interesting.
Meanwhile, Lara helped one of the girls start to climb, but a few feet up the girls froze. After a few minutes of trying to coax her through it, Lara started to free climb, and coaxed the girl onto her back.
Bo gave the girl a knowing smile. “She really is, though I’m not entirely certain she gives herself enough credit for that.” She watched the fires being made, ensuring that no one was endangering themselves. After a minute, she looked back over at Lara, seeing how she was trying to coax the girl through it, she just watched. And then when Lara started to free climb, she swallowed so as not to start drooling over Lara’s muscles, but those thoughts immediately went out of her head as she watched the girl climb onto Lara’s back. Okay, that was adorable.
And it reminded her of a video of a father using a climbing wall in a gym with his son sitting on his shoulders. Some thoughts and images danced through her head, and she wondered if maybe they should have an actual discussion about a topic they really hadn’t touched much on. She got a look on her face that was probably a little similar to the one the girl with an obvious crush had just had.
With the girl firmly latched onto Lara, she started to climb the rest of the way, barely feeling the added weight. Again, easy for her, but for the girl it was probably like climbing everest. She remembered what it was like to be that young, and that excited about new things. It made her a little nostalgic.
Watching Lara climb with the girl on her back was extremely adorable. Bo could definitely picture Lara doing that with their child, and it warmed her soul to think of it. Could it possibly become a reality in the future? She didn’t know, it would probably depend on if Lara would be open to the idea of having a child. Which Bo very much doubted she would be. But only time would tell.
Bo then remembered she was supposed to keep an eye on the fires, and she quickly turned her attention back to that. She saw a girl attempting to start a fire with the spinning a stick between her hands, except she had her hands too far down the stick.
“Oh careful, that’s not a good place to hold that stick. Try putting your hands up here,” she gently corrected, showing the girl where to better hold the stick between her hands without risk of hurting herself. Bo had certainly learned from Lara during the time they’d been together.
On the cliff, Lara reached the top and waited for the girl to climb up her body and onto the top, before she swung herself over with well practiced ease. She ruffled the girl’s hair and put her arm around her before spotting Bo and waving.
LIttle Miss Crush looked like she was going to swoon.
After ensuring the girl got the stick right, she looked back up at her wife to see her make it to the top. She smiled and waved back at her. Bo glanced at Little Miss Crush and stifled the urge to chuckle. She wasn’t laughing at the girl for having a crush, she was laughing at just how easy it was to have a crush on Lara. And Lara most likely didn’t even realize that.
Grabbing a water bottle, she handed it to the girl with a crush. “Here, I think you may need this,” she said gently and knowingly. How many times had Bo needed to fan herself when it came to Lara? Far more than she could ever count.
“I uh.. thanks.” The girl took the water gratefully and promptly looked around for something else to.. well.. look at.
Lara started to climb down, the girl clinging to her neck again, hard enough to choke her. But she tightened her neck muscles and got them down safely. Then she shooed the girl along so she could help the other girl. This one, at least, didn’t need to be rescued.
“You’re welcome. So what’s your favorite thing about being a Girl Scout?” Bo was curious, and maybe getting the girl to talk might take her mind off of that crush, at least temporarily. She also just wanted to know since she’d never been one. So it was interesting, at any rate.
“Girls? I mean…” She ran a hand through her hair, “This stuff. Being outside, being a part of nature and being a part of something with other people. It’s a good way to… get away from home.”
Having escourted two girls up and down a cliff, Lara walked slowly back towards then, her hands on their heads.
Well that last statement tugged at Bo’s heartstrings rather solidly. “I understand. I wasn’t happy at home either because I couldn’t be myself. At least not without consequences.” Bo took a slow breath. “But this is definitely a good way to spend your time. Kind of wish I’d done this when I was young, but I had other interests.”
Bo was probably a heartbeat away from adopting the girl. Or at the very least directing her to Logan’s ranch, which she might actually like as well.
“I know the feeling,” she breathed, seeming to be somewhere or somewhen else. She then shook herself out of it. “I’m Martina.”
Lara raised her eyebrows at Bo as she arrived, nudging her two girls towards the arson team.
“It’s nice to meet you, Martina.” Bo didn’t have experience with being abused or neglected, but she did inherently understand the need to not be at home with her parents. She looked up at Lara, giving her a little smile before she looked back at Martina. “Do you need somewhere safe to go?”
And there was Bo’s bleeding heart rearing its head. Which, well, was a common sight for Lara by this point. Bo was the bleeding heart hero type, and she was suddenly feeling like playing the hero for Martina. Or at least giving her somewhere safe to go if she didn’t want to be at home.
Martina blinked her eyes, looking unsure. “Really?”
“Really,” Lara said, picking up on Bo’s bleeding heart without needing to be filled in. She slipped her arm around Bo’s waist.
“Yes, really. I don’t like seeing people suffering. And I lived on the streets once, I wouldn’t recommend it.” Bo knew full well if they didn’t intervene, Martina would either have something horrible happen to her at home, or she’d run away and live on the streets. She didn’t want either scenario to happen. She leaned into Lara when she felt her arm around her.
“You are welcome with us if you want. As long as you don’t mind a dog or cats, of course.” Bo said with a warm smile.
“The cats and dog are very friendly,” Lara assured her. “And we’ve got plenty of room.”
Martina looked between them, then nodded. “I’ll think about it.” She glanced back at the other girls, then ran towards them before one of them accidentally lit up the picnic table.
Bo nodded, watching Martina run to stop a fire from happening. That...had not been what she expected to happen when they’d first arrived there, but Bo hoped that Martina would take them up on the offer. She slid an arm around Lara’s waist and glanced at her.
“Guess my bleeding heart was obvious?” It was more a statement than a question since Bo knew how she got in these situations. She was just extremely glad that Lara wasn’t the type to use that trait to manipulate her or use her. Bo had had more than enough of that in the dreams.
“It’s always been obvious,” Lara said, leaning in and kissing behind Bo’s ear. “Half tempted to kidnap little Dani there, myself.”
She grinned at her half-joke, and nuzzled Bo’s hair. “You care so much.”
She shivered a little at the kiss behind her ear. “I asked Martina what her favorite thing about being a Girl Scout was, and one of her answers was to get away from home. I couldn’t just let that go without offering something.” Perhaps Bo also took it a little personally given her history with her adoptive parents.
“You are good with them, you know,” Bo stated.
“I see.” Lara watched Martina with the other girls, before turning her attention back to Bo. “I’m reminded of some of my more recent dreams… But you’re not half bad yourself.”
The dreams she hadn’t been willing to speak of much, just yet.
Bo just knew that she wanted Martina to at least know she could turn to someone if she needed it. Looking back, Bo would’ve done a lot better had there been someone around that actually listened to her and helped her not hate herself or use religion to try and ‘fix’ her when there was nothing wrong with her.
She looked back at Lara, noting the comment about her dreams. Bo hadn’t asked about them because she knew Lara needed time to process them for herself. And she was confident her wife would actually talk about them when she was ready to.
“Thanks. I guess caring about others goes a long way in that.” She hadn’t thought she’d make a good mother, but empathy and caring about others went a long way in helping one be a good parent, didn’t it?
Lara’s eyebrows rose into her hairline again. “Biological clock suddenly ticking?”
She couldn’t say why she’d said that out loud, or what had clued her in. She quickly added. “I’m teasing.”
Bo shrugged. “Maybe? I don’t know.” Except she did kind of know, but she knew Lara’s feelings on the matter so she didn’t want to pressure her into anything. Suddenly, Bo kind of wished Lauren was around just so could ask about Fae biology. Specifically on how long she could even have children for. And she suddenly wondered if there was a Fae version of menopause.
Suddenly Bo had questions that no one in this world could answer. Because of course when she actually got curious about her nature, she had no means of getting answers.
Lara reached out, taking Bo’s hand and stroking her knuckles with two fingers. She could feel her own nerves rising, a twisting in her stomach as she realized this was not a conversation they’d ever really had. “That’s not a no.”
Nor was it one Lara had ever thought to have, but that was… selfish.
Now Bo started to feel anxious, and she took a slow breath to try and push that aside. “I suppose it’s not. But this isn’t the place to have that conversation.” Which it really wasn’t, but she was also giving Lara an out on the subject that she hadn’t exactly meant to bring up right then and there.
Of course, adoption was always an option, but Bo well knew that would mean it would just be one more person that she’d love that she’d have to watch grow old and die while she continued to live, and she didn’t think she could take that. Sometimes, she absolutely hated being Fae and knowing she’d outlive a good portion of everyone in Orange County. Which currently also included her wife.
Guiding Bo into the trees a ways, far enough to be out of earshot but still see the girls, Lara squeezed her hand again. “Something tells me if we try to take a rain cheque we’ll pretend this never happened.”
Bo looked at Lara, trying to figure out how to exactly say what was on her mind without feeling like she was forcing something on Lara. She took a breath and licked her lips. “I guess it’s something that’s crossed my mind before, but I never gave it any serious thought. But the other day I was on the computer and came across a video of a father and son. The son was probably like three or four, somewhere in there, and he was sitting on his dad’s shoulders while his dad was wall climbing, and the kid was moving the pegs for him to climb up. I just couldn’t help but think that might be something you’d do with a child. And then seeing you climb with the girl on your back just kind of, I don’t know, confirmed how adorable that image was? But also seeing you interact with the girls proved that even more. If that even makes sense.”
Throat bobbing, Lara couldn’t quite disguise the roller coast of emotions that crossed her face. Her fingers tightened around Bo’s hand. “Being…. good with children doesn’t mean I’d make a good mother.”
Her eyes darted to the girl scouts. “I’ve thought about it, sometimes. But I keep coming back to the orphan thing.”
Lara took a breath, closing her eyes. “But I also know I can’t just… be alone my whole life. Marrying you is testament to that. Dreams have rammed that home.”
“I know. Believe me, I know.” Bo felt the same way about herself that being good with children didn’t mean she’d make a good mother. She squeezed Lara’s hand, emotions swirling within her but she was trying to keep them under control. Which was something considering Bo never could keep her emotions under control.
“You aren’t alone anymore, and neither am I.” For now, she mentally added. She glanced at the girls before looking back at Lara. “I also know that if I had a choice in the matter, I wouldn’t want to be a succubus, I’d rather just be a normal human being, and I don’t want a child to hate me because I made them a succubus or an incubus. But then that’s also probably me projecting since I had the succubus thing thrusted upon me. The child would grow up knowing what it was.” And yet Bo wasn’t even certain that would make it any better. It was one of the reasons she’d been content to not have this conversation because why bring something up when she was relatively certain Lara didn’t want kids in the first place, and Bo had a good biological reason to not have kids?
“It’s your nature to not be human. It’s neither good, nor bad, Bo. It just is. My nature is to do incredibly dangerous things,but I’ve learned to temper that, just as you’ve learned to temper that self-doubt part of you.” Lara smiled ruefully. “Mostly.”
Her eyes shimmered. “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to find a way to be with you the rest of your life. I just don’t want you to be alone. Hell, it’s almost selfish of me to keep you in my life.”
“I’d probably feel differently if I was any other kind of Fae, or if I’d grown up being told what to expect.” In all honesty, Bo would probably enjoy being Fae more if she was a shifter like Dyson, or something other than a succubus.
Bo pressed her lips together, feeling tears well up in her eyes. She really tried not to think about the eventuality of having to watch Lara die if she didn’t find a way to become immortal. “It’s not selfish. I love you and I don’t want to be anywhere else or be with anyone else.” She lifted her free hand and pressed it against Lara’s cheek. “I don’t want you to be alone either.”
“I won’t be,” Lara promised. Her eyes crinkled as she smiled at Bo. “I’m not alone now, and I won’t be at the end. I know it. Somehow, I know it.”
Bo would be at her side when she died. Lara wasn’t a precog, but she knew this fact as well as she knew her own hand. She kissed each of Bo’s fingers. “Lets… put aside all that. Fae and not Fae, mortality or immortality. Do you want a child? Assuming all else equal?”
When it came down to it, Bo didn’t know if she’d die alone, assuming she outlived Lara. Though she didn’t really expect anyone else to be around long enough to find out. But she didn’t want to think about that, she didn’t want to think about immortality and how to fill the time she had. She wanted to focus on the present and what she had now, and that was Lara.
As Lara smiled, she couldn’t help but love that smile, the way it made her eyes crinkle. She liked seeing that smile, and wanted to make Lara smile as much as she possibly could. At the question, she did pause a moment to consider a definite response to that. “I do. Do you?” Because that’s what this hinged on. If Lara didn’t want a child, Bo would drop the subject altogether. It was either going to be both of them wanted a child or there would be no child. She wasn’t going to force it onto Lara if she didn’t want it.
“The idea terrifies me,” Lara said, opting for honesty. “But it’s not a bad thought. Not entirely. I suppose every potential parent has to worry about what happens if they die. A car wreck can end a life as surely as a trap in a tomb.”
And that was really the only concern Lara had on it. This fear that she’d hurt her child by leaving them alone as had happened to her.
“It terrifies me, too. Anything can happen at any point, but that’s what life is. I could get hit by a bus and not have time to revive myself before I cease to function.” It was a little snide shot at Lauren who had gotten hit by a car and probably would’ve died had she not experimented on herself and made herself a pseudo-fae.
“Though I also have to say that on a selfish note, I’d like to keep a piece of you around if something were to happen to you. You know, something a little more healthy than clinging to some object of yours.” Not that Bo wouldn’t cling to any of Lara’s possessions anyways because she certainly would.
“Would it really be a piece of me?” Lara asked. She tucked hair behind Bo’d ear, trailing her fingers along her cheek and then her jaw, until they rested underneath her chin. “Or just a piece of whatever...donor… we find.”
It wasn’t like Lara had the required reproductive organs. Though she supposed she could… carry...
“Regardless of the donor, you would still raise, it would be our child. Family is more than just blood.” Which was something both of them well knew. “Biological or not, I would still consider any child we raise to be part of you.”
Lara slid her hand to the back of Bo’s neck, stroking the soft hair there and considering her words. Her eyes drifted to Martina, also considering. She’d help pay for the girl to be emancipated if necessary. But that was another subject for another time.
She did wish there was some way to share her DNA, but Bo was right; that didn’t really matter. “Okay.”
She shivered at the touch to the back of her neck. Bo also wished that there could be a way for the child to be biologically related to them both, but neither of them had the necessary parts for that. She slid her arms around Lara’s back and held her close. “Okay…?” Bo didn’t know if that was an okay for having a child, an okay for discussing it further, or what. So clarification was needed.
Maybe there was. It had slipped Lara’s mind, and she was still nervous bringing it up. “Do you remember when I...uhm.”
She waved her hand. “Had a twig and berries?”
Bo had a slightly blank look on her face for a few moments as she tried to translate what Lara was referring to. But after taking into account how Lara had phrased it and seemed nervous, it hit her. “You mean when you could shapeshift?”
“Yes.” Lara’s face was bright red, the concept hugely embarrassing for her. But not that she’d brought it up, she was going to have to say it. “I might have… saved some.. “
Alright, that was certainly surprising, and Bo blinked. “You did?” She wasn’t sure if she should be surprised by that or not. After all, she hadn’t been that certain Lara had even been into the idea of saving some at the time on the off-chance they decided to have a child some day.
“I did.” Lara turned away from Bo, clasping her hands behind her back and finding the Girl Scout fires being fascinating. “They’re doing an excellent job with the fires, don’t you think? What if we became troop leaders?”
Bo moved to stand beside Lara, watching the girls before she looked over at her wife. “Well, they certainly love you, so I don’t see why we couldn’t?” She gave Lara a smile and nudged her shoulder with her own.
“That, at least, is something we can do right now,” Lara decided. Worry about frozen swimmers later, children even later than that. Right now, they did have charges in their care. “Lets see if we can maybe find out more about Martina, yes?”
“Yes, it is,” Bo agreed with a nod. She glanced at Lara, then looked at Martina before she leaned closer to Lara. “I know one other thing about her. She has a definite crush on you.” There may have been a little smirk on her face upon saying that. And she wondered how Lara would take that.
Lara just rolled her eyes. “Very funny.” Even after all these years, she couldn’t understand that sort of thing. Who would be interested in her? Bo regularly blew her mind in being interested in her.
“Lara, I may joke about a lot of things, but an underage girl having a crush on you is not one of them.” Bo pointed out. “You didn’t see the way she looked at you while you were showing those girls how to climb. It got worse when you started climbing without gear.” If Bo didn’t know any better, she could’ve sworn that Martina was her daughter. Clearly she liked muscles just like Bo. And she liked strong and active women, also like Bo.
“Well that’s something that needs to be shut down. Or redirected towards someone closer to her own age.” Lara was only twenty--shit. She narrowed her eyes, frowning. “Shit, when did I get older than twenty one?”
Let alone fifteen.
“I think it can be easily redirected.” Bo didn’t think that Martina would necessarily act on said crush. And maybe this was where Bo could use her aura-reading ability to redirect the crush elsewhere. Though at the comment about Lara’s age, she had to chuckle a bit. “Life sneaks up on you sometimes. But really, age is just a number.”
Mostly Bo was trying to shift Lara’s focus away from her birthday, which she knew she hated, and back onto more pleasant topics.
Sure, age was just a number, but some day Lara would be too old to do what she wanted to do and she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to die in her sleep. But she kept that thought to herself, and kissed Bo’s knuckles. “Lets go inspect the girls, shall we?”
It honestly wouldn’t surprise Bo if Lara didn’t want to die in her sleep. She wasn’t that kind of person. And when it came down to it, that’s not really how Bo wanted to die either, if she could die from old age. She’d much rather die fighting if she had to choose. “Best not to leave them to their own devices for too long,” Bo said, leaning in and pressing a kiss to Lara’s cheek.