The Tomb Raider (lara) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-08-21 16:48:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, bo dennis, lara croft |
Who: Lara and Bo
What: Lara finally shows Bo Croft Manor
Where: london
When: July
Status: Complete
Rating: PG
The concert had been quite fun, even if it left Lara frazzled after awhile. A pair of noise canceling headphones had helped her enjoy it without triggering any episodes, but she’d been very glad to get back to the hotel that night.
But now that it was morning, and they were driving out to the Manor, she found herself incredibly nervous, even if she knew she shouldn’t be.
Lara wasn’t entirely sure Bo understood the sheer size of the property, the mansion, or the money that was behind it.
And they’d been driving through land she owned for the past several miles.
Knowing how Lara was around large crowds of people and loud noise, Bo was perfectly fine not being on the floor or close to the stage. Hell, it was the Spice Girls, she didn’t care if she was in the last row in the furthest reaches of the nosebleed sections so long as she was there. She’d been ready to give Lara a dose of the emotional manipulation power to keep her calm if she’d needed it, but that was definitely only as a last resort or if Lara had asked her to. Beyond that, Bo had just enjoyed the show.
Despite having known that Victoria Beckham wasn’t going to be there, she was still a little sad at not having seen all five members together on stage. But she couldn’t complain because it was still a good concert. And she, of course, belted out every song so that morning she’d woken up with a hoarse voice. She’d actually opted for having tea instead of coffee for breakfast because of it. As such, she wasn’t talking much, trying to give her voice recovery time.
Bo was wearing one of the two t-shirts she’d gotten at the concert, specifically the Space Girls one. She’d also gotten the Girl Power shirt, but she was saving that to wear another time.
Now, she had no idea what to really expect upon getting to the manor. Bo knew the place was huge, but she couldn’t quite grasp the scale of it. Video games and movies tended to be shit at showing the real scale of places since the viewer wasn’t actually there.
“I hate to be cliché, but are we there yet?” She asked, the hoarseness still present in her voice, but it was getting better. She was both apprehensive and excited to see the manor. Apprehensive because she didn’t know if she’d actually ‘fit’ the place or not.
Lara had a few shirts of her own, to go along with her Metallica shirt and a few others from her days before large concerts became rare events.
She glanced at Bo, giving her a cheeky smile. “We’ve been there for the past few kilometers. All of this is the Croft family Estate. We should be coming up on the manor pretty soon.”
As if on cue, they rounded a corner and the mansion loomed into view over the hedges. There was a large fountain out front. It was three stories and looked fancier than Downton Abby.
“Wait, seriously?” Bo asked as she looked around a little closer. Damn, this was a huge plot of land. She was willing to bet it was larger in acreage than most farms she’d grown up around. When the mansion itself came into view, Bo kind of stared at it.
“Damn, the Crawleys have nothing on this place.” Why yes, that was a Downton Abbey reference. Bo hadn’t actually watched that show, but she’d absorbed a lot of pop-culture references about it and saw enough clips to know the main family that the show centered on.
“They really don’t,” Lara agreed, in a rare display of pride over her fortune. She was less fond of Downton Abby then she was of Croft Manor.
Lara pulled into a garage around the west side of the mansion and got out of the car. “I phoned Winston before we left the hotel, so the manor should be aired out a bit and a room prepared for us.”
Last she knew, most of the furniture was sheated, but when when Winston let them in she could see he’d done a good job of making the manor alive again. He gave them a fond smile. “Next time give me more warning, Miss.”
“I shudder to think what you could accomplish with even more of a warning, Winston.”
Bo glanced at Lara, finding that display of pride rather intriguing. Lara typically didn’t show such pride when it came to her wealth. It was one of the reasons Bo loved her, she didn’t rub her money in people’s faces. That was something Bo couldn’t stand about some rich people. Luckily, Lara was very down-to-earth about it.
Getting out of the car, she followed Lara, glancing around the place. Seeing it in person was definitely breath-taking. And the movies and video games definitely didn’t do it justice. But it was also a little intimidating, like she was walking on hallowed ground or something. Or into an old mansion that served as museum instead of it being a home. She was somewhat overcome with the feeling of not touching anything for fear of breaking some centuries-old priceless antique.
When Winston greeted them, Bo smiled, but remained silent, letting them have their moment. Plus she wasn’t even sure how she was supposed to greet him.
Lara held her hand out to Bo. “Let me give you the tour, love.”
Which would include a number of artifacts, which she helpfully pointed out as they walked through the mansion.
Then she took a detour through the gardens near the center of the house.
Taking Lara’s hand, she walked along with her, taking in the artifacts that Lara pointed out. She thought the mansion was beautiful, though it seemed to have an air about it. Bo simply assumed it was due to the long family history the place had. Old places tended to harbor the most atmosphere, so-to-speak.
“So how often did you run through these gardens as a kid and pretend it was something like the minotaur’s labyrinth?” Bo quipped with a smile. Because she felt Lara had done something similar to that quite often.
Lara grinned to herself, squeezing Bo’s hand and reminiscing about the very thing that Bo had guessed at. “More times than I can count. And more than a few times I climbed the manor from the outside in my explorations of ancient ruins. Drove my parents up the wall.”
At least before they’d disappeared, at any rate.
“What do you think so far, love?”
Bo chuckled. “You are kind of a monkey when it comes to climbing,” she quipped, looking at Lara with a bemused glint in her eye. “Though you clearly got an early start on those upper body muscles of yours.” She glanced back up at the mansion, just imagining Lara climbing along it. Of course, it didn’t require much imagination, that last Tomb Raider game that had come out had a sequence wherein a young Lara had been climbing the outside of the mansion.
Bo had to wonder if Lara had any close calls of drain pipes breaking off and nearly sending her falling to the ground below or not. But she didn’t exactly want to know the answer to that. The game had given her enough heart attacks on that matter, after all.
“I don’t think I have the words to accurately describe it. It’s beautiful and clearly rich with history from around the world.”
“I’ve been thinking about returning some pieces to their origin countries,” Lara murmured, staring at a particular piece from Taiwan. “Many of these items are family heirlooms, but they’re stolen family heirlooms, from other families, in other parts of the world.”
It was something that had been bothering her for some time now and she was now finally voicing her thoughts.
Her dreams spent in South America had only dug those thoughts in deeper. She turned to look at Bo. “Am I a terrible person, Bo?”
Bo glanced at Lara, listening to her. It wasn’t something she’d anticipated hearing, but she wasn’t going to question it. Especially when Lara followed it up with a question like that. She looked Lara in the eye.
“No, of course you’re not a terrible person, Lara.” Bo reached up and pressed a hand to her wife’s cheek. “The simple fact that you’re thinking about returning some of these pieces to their place of origin means you’re a good person. Instead of keeping them here for your own personal reasons, you’re putting them back where they belong. To keep them out of their respective places of origin would leave a hole in that place’s history. It would be like restoring history.”
Of course, there was another side to it that Bo could see. “I know these pieces have been in your family, and it might feel like you’re betraying them by returning them to their place of origin, but I think they would all understand. Isn’t the point of archaeology to discover lost and forgotten history and fill in the gaps of the historical record? Yes, these are good pieces to study, but they also belong where they came from.”
While there were some artifacts Lara could never return (too dangerous if someone raided them after her, mostly.), there were a number that didn’t belong to her or her family. And those she would return.
She still felt terrible about it, and about the roles her family had played in centuries past to rob the world if their treasures. “You’re right. It’s just not easy to look at your family tree and see the crimes they committed out of a sense of superiority.”
“I understand, but you are willing to make them right. And that is what matters the most. Continuing to keep them would only further enable those crimes. You will make it right by returning those artifacts to their rightful owners.” Of course, Bo may not understand from personal experience there, but she was still a white woman. She’d experienced privilege in her life, though she’d never believed herself to be superior to anyone.
Lara nodded, feeling the tightness in her chest loosen a bit. There was that selfish part of her, that loved history and to hold onto it; but others deserved that same chance, especially when it was their history and not her own.
Would that she could raid the British Museum and return all it’s treasures where they belonged.
“Thank you.” She kissed Bo’s cheek. “Oh! I need to show you the library and my father’s workshop!”
The grabbed Bo’s hand and tugged.
“You’re welcome,” Bo responded with a smile. She knew it undoubtedly wasn’t an easy decision for Lara to make, but that’s how it typically was. Doing the right thing was rarely easy, after all. It was possibly made even harder when one had grown up around the artifacts. In a way, they were part of Lara’s childhood, part of her family. But they didn’t belong to her in the way they belonged to the people and places that they had been taken from.
When Lara grabbed her hand and tugged, Bo followed along. “Judging by your excitement, the library must be huge.” She was picturing a library similar to the one in the animated Beauty and the Beast.
Now that the decision had been made, Lara felt better, and as soon as she made the decision she knew she’d follow through on it without question.
Her eyes glinted as she looked back at Bo. “Oh, it’s the biggest you’ll ever see.”
It was almost like she was making an innuendo. And maybe she was.
Noting the glint in Lara’s eyes, Bo raised an eyebrow. “Is that so? Well, you are raising my expectations here. I hope that you can deliver,” she quipped in response to the innuendo. Not that Bo actually expected sex to happen here, but she’d most certainly encourage her wife’s use of innuendo. It was hot, and Bo liked to see that she was rubbing off on her.
Literally.
The library door closed behind them, Lara giving Bo a look like maybe her wife was right on the money. But maybe not right away, and certainly not on that comfortable reading couch, not at all.
Stepping into the library, Bo glanced around, taking in the sight for some moments before she looked back at Lara, noting the look on her face. “Well, you delivered on your word, unless that wasn’t what you had in mind,” Bo quipped with an undertone of seduction. She stepped closer to Lara, expecting the innuendo to be made into reality sooner rather than later. And if not on that comfortable reading couch, what about a table? Or desk? Or against a bookcase?
Really, Bo wasn’t picky. She just enjoyed having her wife close to her.