Private Log, Lara and Kitty [completed]

[st_ormchaser]

However awful other parts of the hotel were, decor-wise, Lara had to admit that her room at least was beautiful. Natural-looking rock with lights embedded both functionally and decoratively, a king-sized bed, a truly astonishing waterfall shower. And actual towels.

Even with just the hot shower (including a lot of scrubbing and very thorough hair-wash), Lara felt more real - sort of - than she had since before the shipwreck.

Mindful of the fact that Kitty would probably be waiting with clothes and aid kit, Lara wrapped herself in a towel and didn't put the grimy, mostly-leather wrappings back on her arrow-sliced arm or burned hand. The worst wound, in her side, had never really had much wrapping in the first place, and would be awkward to attend until she was at least partly clothed, so she just checked to make sure it wasn't bleeding again. Once all that was done, she stepped out into the main area of her room.

With a little help from Sam Winchester, Kitty had found the first aid and sewing kits in the hotel gift shop. After he'd left her to her own devices, she'd ghosted through the walls of a few staff-only areas and found additional supplies, including gauze and tape. They probably had more in the stables, actually, but Kitty didn't want to be gone that long.

Clothes had been both easier and harder. The boutique had stuff that would fit Lara, but most of it didn't look very comfortable. She'd grabbed one of the really nice robes, a pair of slippers, and an extra long t-shirt for her to sleep in, another shirt and sweatshirt and yoga pants for tomorrow, and on second thought grabbed one of the hippie type sundresses in case her wounds were where the waist would be.

When she got back to Lara's room, she knocked and waited.The last thing Lara needed was to come out of the shower and find Kitty standing there. Scaring people who'd just survived an ordeal was always a bad idea.

The knock on the door was startling, but since Lara knew to expect Kitty back it wasn’t more than that. She still moved her weapons close enough to the door to be within reach at need, but when she actually answered the door she was unarmed. “Should have given you the key, sorry.”

"I wouldn't have taken it," Kitty replied easily and waited for Lara to step back before she came through the door. "I appreciate the trust, but I get needing to feel secure after what you've been through." Which was why Kitty only looked around enough to notice where the weapons were and find somewhere to set down the stuff she'd brought with her. It was Lara's space, and even if she had nothing in it, Kitty knew better than to be too interested.

“This is a decent room for security.” Only one door and heavy rock all around otherwise. Lara managed a smile, genuine but odd-feeling, then took the robe and long shirt and retreated to the bathroom just long enough to switch them out for the towel-wrap. Once she was dressed-ish, she returned to the main room and sat crossed-legged on the bed. After a bare second, she gestured to invite Kitty to sit there as well. It was a king-sized bed, and they’d probably need to be on the same level for bandaging and such.

Lara didn't seem jumpy, which said a lot about her, but Kitty still made a point of moving deliberately enough that she never had to guess where Kitty would be next. She took off her shoes first, gathered the medical supplies next, and then joined Lara on the bed after.

For a few moments, she just sat there remembering hundreds of nights on one friend's bed or another at the school. It seemed like a lifetime ago, sometimes, and she already missed Shan and Shola. "This is probably a stupid decision," Kitty half-mumbled and then met Lara's gaze. "But you're trusting me, and... well, I want you to know the truth about me. So, here goes--" Kitty took a deep breath then admitted, "I'm a mutant."

Lara blinked and tilted her head curiously. "Meaning... what, exactly?" There were a lot of mutations in human, or indeed any, genetics, but Lara hadn't read any more biology at uni than she'd had to. It wasn't her passion.

Well, that was encouraging. At least she didn't make the sign of the cross or anything. "Meaning..." Not the science, Kitty. She wants to know the implications. "Meaning I have some superhuman abilities."

"All right." Before Yamatai, Lara would probably have decided that Kitty was insane, or playing some bizarre game. Now... it seemed very nearly normal. Lara's old world had contained the soul of an ancient Japanese queen having temper tantrums in the form of homicidal storms, had contained that queen's original guard-army still upright and defending her. The idea that someone could have 'superhuman' abilities was therefore very believable.

And while Lara's paranoia jumped to wondering if Kitty could be responsible for everyone being brought to the inn and trapped there, her instincts said no. Kitty was someone who'd take the time to care for a stranger, albeit one with whom she had certain things in common; that was not the kind of person who put people in even a very large cage. "Such as?"

"It'll be easier to show you." She let out a short breath of relief, but it didn't dispel all the tension. Acceptance in theory wasn't the same as acceptance in fact. "Don't freak out, okay? I swear I won't hurt you."

Kitty didn't give herself a chance to think about it. She just became insubstantial and slipped through the bed and the floor, took a breath in a crawl space, and slipped back out to the hall (invisibly), and walked back in through the door.

Lara actually held her breath when Kitty disappeared into the floor, realized she was being a twit and started to breathe, then clapped when Kitty reentered through the door without opening it first. "That's amazing! You have no idea how much I wish I could have done that when I was hanging upside down from a ceiling. Any of the times that happened." Because it had, she realized, happened kind of a lot. "Does it hurt?"

Kitty almost laughed (or maybe almost cried. It could be hard to tell sometimes). "Only if I'm traveling through something for longer than I can hold my breath." Just for fun (what a concept!), she walked forward a few steps, each higher off the ground and then across the room at the height of the bed before setting herself down next to it again. "It's sometimes a little uncomfortable for other people... because, yeah, I can phase you, too."

Lara immediately held out a hand. "Show me?"

Another time, Kitty might've gotten miffy about not being a party trick. Not this time. She immediately took Lara's hand and gave it a squeeze. "It's going to feel a little weird, maybe a little like falling. But as long as you're with me, you're fine." She waited until Lara inhaled and then phased, dropping them through the bed into the space between the floors and then stopped there, to give Lara a chance to breathe.

Lara couldn’t help a gasp as they started to sink through the bed and into the floor, so the chance to breathe there was welcome, and her eyes were a little wide. Not exactly frightened, although she could see how other people, unwarned or less trusting, might be frightened or even terrified. And if she could breathe, she could speak. “And you can do this anytime you want? I am definitely jealous.”

Kitty raised them back up to the bed and made them both substantial again before she answered. "It comes with a pretty big downside in my world. People trying to lock you up, or experiment on you, or kill you," came Kitty's quietly bitter response. "There's also the part where I got stuck like that once and started losing cohesion." She glanced back up at Lara and offered an appreciative smile anyhow. "Still, it's really cool that you're not afraid of me. Thanks."
“You’re welcome.” Lara smiled a little crookedly at… yes, her new friend. She hadn’t missed the broad strokes of how exactly they’d come to have the similarities they obviously did, but it seemed worse overall for Kitty. On some level, Lara had walked right into everything that had happened to her, but genetics had shoved Kitty into it. That the other woman could trust anyone at all was impressive, and Lara Croft was already determined to be worth the risk. “I don’t think I have a lot of fear left, but even if I did you still wouldn’t be that scary to me.”

"Just wait until you see me go toe to toe with a killer robot," Kitty shot back, but she was grinning and reaching for the medical supplies. "Time to quit stalling. I promise it won't hurt that much." Teasing felt good. It felt like home, and being somewhere safe--or as close to safe as Kitty knew how to believe in.