17177/Come and Knock on my Door

Come and Knock on my Door
Date of Scene:	13 February 2024
Location:	Greenwich Lofts
Synopsis:	Lara and Alex have a chat outside their respective apartments.
Cast of Characters:	Alexander Aaron, Lara Croft

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Alexander Aaron has posed:
    This last week and some has seen more action on the third floor of the Greenwich Loft apartments. Usually it's a fairly sedate area, little foot traffic, no solicitors since the security is so decent. But the last few days had seen an increase in activity. Usually when someone moves into the building there's some hub bub over the weekend, a truck pulled up on the sidewalk, and a bunch of movers going in and out. But not this last week.
    At all hours of the day and night there had been people coming and going. Sometimes they'd be carrying large boxes, other times they'd be taking some away. If one didn't know the particular apartment where all the activity was set they might imagine that something shady was going on.
    Heck they still might think that.
    For it was Alexander Aaron of the New Hampshire Aarons who had been a long time denizen of the building. Ever since college a handful of years ago and now... returning to the place it had all started. He also had a bevy of various people, mostly SHIELD related helping him move some of his gear, which might be why those two Asian women and that _huge_ gruff looking guy were helping him move.
    But tonight as he stood at hi mailbox pulling out pieces of mail it was just him, coming home while still wearing his SHIELD tac team jacket, though beneath it he was wearing his civvies.

Lara Croft has posed:
Alexander wasn't the only one scarce around here lately. Lara had been a fairly scarce sight in the building for some time too. After he retrieves his mail, and is headed back toward his place, he'd likely notice something sitting by the door to Lara's apartment, a box. The box is loaded up with red, white, and blue paraphernalia... and the door to her apartment is slightly ajar. There comes movement from within too, and suddenly the woman herself is backing up out of the loft flat, and in to the hallway, another box held in her hands. She's dressed in a blue sweater, and a pair of dark denim jeans, her hair tied back, and a pair of light blue sneakers on her feet. The box she's carrying is equally filled with a bunch of different America themed items, all of which she is in the process of lowering down to place it up against the wall beside the other box load.

Inside her loft apartment, the face of a German Shephard dog can be seen poking out between the door and its frame, while Lara pulls her phone from her back pocket to rapidly tap a finger to the screen, her back toward where Alex would be arriving.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    She hears the voice first, herald of the youth that had the apartment next to hers, that troublesome neighbor who even ended up hassling her at her work as well. Though it might take a single second to catch it and recognize it when he calls out, "Hey, keep it down for once, Croft."
    Those words float across the distance, but she can likely hear the warm lilt of them. No malice, just a hint of amusement and then there he is a little further down the hall but close enough for sight to be gained of him through that open door.
    The young man's standing there and despite the Winter chill in the air he's got a loose pair of sweats on and that jacket zipped up, his backpack over one shoulder. He takes a moment then to peer at the box, its contents, then the woman herself as he glances into the apartment through the door.
    An eyebrow quirks and before he can stop himself he displays his powers of perception and deduction when he then adds another word to the mix. "Dawg."

Lara Croft has posed:
Max, the German Shepherd, sees Alex first and is quick to bark a single time, before his training kicks in and he shuts up again. This does draw Lara to look over toward the young man, her phone being lowered down to her side, and a smile striking across her visage, one that looks to betray her state of being a bit morose in the moment. "Alexander." She says, hitting all the syllables of his name in that proper British style of dancing through words like a elegant dance at a fancy gala.

"I thought you'd moved out entirely?" She asks, while Max lets out a series of whines, clearly wanting out of the apartment, but being kept in by the chain that Lara lazily set in a way that would keep the door from opening up entirely.

"How are you? I'd heard some women had taken your flat?" She asks, clearly misinformed!

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "Sorta," He answers, though he has that distracted look that guys get when they see a dog that calls out to them and the instinct is to go and greet... and possibly run around like a crazy person. But then the two of them likely quell that instinct and he returns to consider her with a hint of civilization. "I... was taken with the idea of living something akin to the high life when Elizabeth thought to get an apartment in the Financial district. It was... different." Considering the penthouse she had was quite wild compared to his 'normal' life..
    "Did you ever meet Elizabeth?" He asks but not before he pushes on, "Well in any case, she headed back across the pond so I figured..."
    He lets those words trail off as she likely can fill in the blanks as he gestures with a hand toward the door of his apartment. There's a hint of a furrow touching his brow as he catches up fully with her words as his lips moved silently as he said to himself, 'two women?'
    But then his lips part as he realizes, "Oh that was Agent Johnson and Agent Chang, they were helping me move. Well, and my father."
    He lifts his chin, "How have things been around here?"

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara was quick to glance toward the doorway to Alex's apartment before she looked back to him. "Oh, it was Daisy?" She asks, knowing her quite a bit better than Monica. "I'd just been told two attractive women had moved in, by..." She motions toward the other doorway in the hallway that leads to an apartment occupied by a family with a teenage boy who sometimes walks Lara's dog when she's indisposed. "I'm glad you're still here though. It's good to know your neighbors afterall." She says with a faint smile momentarily gracing her visage. She glances down at her phone again, before stuffing it in to her back pocket once more. At his question, her eyes glance down at the boxes, then back up at him. She smiles lightly again.

"The usual... which is to say, my tugging at strings, hoping to unravel mysteries, while in the end, I just pull the sweater apart, along with everything around it." She dryly jests at her own expense. "Perhaps some day I'll learn to leave well enough alone..." She tells him, as she folds her arms across her stomach, rumpling the fabric of her own sweater.

"I hadn't met Elizabeth, no. She was from Europe?" She asks, now leaning over against her doorframe, causing Max to have to whine and try to look around her legs to see the new guy outside. Stupid Human, blocking dog sight!

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    As she mentioned Daisy he gave a nod and smiled, "Yeah. Good, I'm..." He turns to look at his own door and his gaze distances a touch, thoughts drifting. He turns back to her and says, "Glad to be back, it's weird I used to be just so so about this place but now it's..." He fails to find the right word to describe it. Just sort of letting his thoughts drift.
    But then she speaks to the various strings she is tugging on and the sweaters she's destroyed. He smiles a little, a breath exhaling slightly that might be a laugh if he gave it a little more energy. He nods as if commimserating a bit with that sentimemnmt, then she asks of Elizabeth and his eyebrows rise. "She is actually... well she was part of your circle of things. The Braddocks of London? But well, we're no longer seeing each other." He says politely with a small shrug. "Though it was an amicable thing."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara simply leans against her door as her dog looks out from her left hip, then over by her right, his shadow visible behind her as he tries to work the door open a little more again, until finally he bursts his head between Lara's hip and the doorframe, causing her to adjust her lean position to accomodate the animal. With a sigh down toward him, she leans back against the door itself, since its chained closed behind her. Her eyebrows raise up.

"You were dating Countess Elizabeth Braddock?" She asks, also glancing now toward his apartment doorway before shooting her eyes back to him. "Small world..." She says, a light laugh emitting from her lips.

"I'm sorry it didn't pan out, seems to be the way of things around here..." She states the last part with a grimmer tone before she draws in a little breath.

"Well, if you need any more help with moving stuff around, I'm happy to offer it. My friend Jonah is stopping by in the morning to pick this stuff up to give away at his restaurant." She notes of the boxes beside her, tapping one with the tip of her sky blue tennis shoe.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "Yeah, it's..." Alexander looks at her, then his eyes shift slightly to the side, drifting past as if looking over her shoulder. But then her pup whines and that summons a smile back to the young Olympian's face. He gives a nod, "It's crazy the circles we travel in and the overlap sometimes." His own words are a touch wispy then he looks back at her, those pale hazel eyes refocusing to meet her gaze.
    He picks up that subtle vibe of her mood, and that slight hint of anxiety that roils between them, what little of the emotional spectrum he can pick up on due to his nature. He tilts his head to the side slightly and says, "That... looks like a box of unhappy." Though he doesn't unpack those words nor the box.
    He lifts his chin a little, "Things alright or you dealing with similar... negativity?" He chooses that last word to represent a possible many things.

Lara Croft has posed:
With the dog unable to fully get outside to greet the newcomer, he drops his wet nose down to the box, and begins sniffing around at the contents within it. Lara just smirks to Alex, before she nods her head and spares another look down at her faithful guard. She lets out a light sigh then, before returning her eyes up to Alex's.

"I ... pushed too far." She tells him, trying to form the words without fully building the bridge. "I had a good bit of support, but my endeavors in uncovering the mysteries of my late father, left the situation I was in too real, too far gone. It's... hard to explain, but I did a lot of dumb things recently, Alex. I put a lot of people's lives at risk, and... likely caused a lot more to outright lose their life entirely. I didn't mean for it to happen, but I delved in to a place that was beyond me, and it snapped back... in a rather hard way." She eludes, without any real specifics since the specifics are likely so wild she is unsure of how to even phrase them.

She summons up a smile for him though. "Trying to move on, accidents happen, I guess... Nothing lasts forever, and everyone goes away eventually."

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "That sounds... severe." He says, his mood throttled down a bit more to match hers. He smiles faintly toward the snuffling dog, then looks upon the box before his gaze drifts back pu to her. "I know that... feeling. Though..." He looks to the side, one eye scrunching up a little as he looks at his door, as if he expects someone to walk through it any moment. He looks back to her, "It's something like impermanence. I suppose. Or the feeling that you are mired in one particular part of... reality. Everything else is anchored elsewhere."
    He lets his head tilt to the other side for a moment. "Or mebbe that's just me." He lets his lips curl up slightly.
    Then he nods, "I'd say we could go grab a beer and grouse about things, but you have a very demanding pup." He gives a nod to the snuffler.

Lara Croft has posed:
Max was sniffing around at the items in the box, whining softly at them, with one paw coming out far enough to knock down a plush doll with a blue costume on, and a star on the chest. The dog proceeds to bite down on its leg and drag it back toward the crack in the door before Lara notices.

Lara, meanwhile, is smiling toward Alexander, nodding her head lightly. "I'd delve in to the details of it all, but I wouldn't want to bore you." She says in a calm voice back toward him, before a smile once more touches her expression. "A beer would be nice, but maybe a raincheck until the weekend?" She asks him then. "Have you ever gone to Jonah's Place? The restaurant that he and I opened for him to flourish as a world class Chef. We should go there soon, they make good stuff that you'd enjoy. Big steaks, and other such meaty stuff." She tells him in a moment of playfulness that he might remember being her style when she was in a good mood.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "I have not." He says with something sounding like a sombre tone, as if passing judgment on Jonah's place simply by the fact that he had never been there. "But sure we can go there and then kvetch about various and sundry." Though he does lean back slightly, that hint of body language showing that he's aware of that social cue that he shouldn't take up so much of her time.
    But when she shifted to that playful lilt in her voice he smiles a bit, "Well, I do like meaty stuff, that is true." He twists those words slightly, giving her a side-eyed half-smile.
    "I should be around, though I've been on third shift lately so my sleep is all messed up." Not that he technically _needs_ to sleep, but he enjoys it. "We'll go this weekend though. I'm free Friday and Saturday." Then his eyes lift and he asks, "Do they allow dawgs at Jonah's?" Which is a rarity in New York, to be fair.

Lara Croft has posed:
Max had vanished back inside the loft apartment with that star spangled plushie, while Lara simply leand on the doorway. She did reach over to place her hand on it, up near the chain, as she nodded lightly to what Alex was saying. "There was another attack at the Triskelion. Some armed men came in to one of the secure storage facilities, and... there was an attempt to assassinate Frank Castle when we were preparing a transport convoy for him. Needless to say, everything at the site is hectic as ever." She tells him with a slight smirk. "If I'd known there'd be so many guns involved in my place of work, i would have asked for more money upon joining." She softly quips before glancing down at the crack i nthe door when he asks of the dog.

"Max is Jonah's fault, so yes, he'll let him in if we eat in the office." She replies, her eyes going back to his again. "But yes, I look forward to it, and if you want any of this..." She motions to the two boxes, "You're welcome to root through it and take what you like." She states as she raises the chain up to open her doorway up entirely. "I think I'm going to grab a shower and pass out though. I'm glad you're back. Makes the place feel a little more safe." She tells him, showing him a warm smile as she steps just inside her doorway.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    Alexander listens and nods, he had heard about the attack and received the documents for the brief, but his Tactical Response Team hadn't been drawn into it, though the Frank Castle collar was a thing that definitely made the rounds of the rumor mill. He watched and his eyes followed as she gestured at the pup, then at the box.
    "Max." He says, repeating the name and likely commiting it to memory. Then he looks up and gives her a small sympathetic smile as she starts to head into her apartment. "That's a nice thing for you to say, thanks." When she says that he makes the place feel a little bit safer.
    "I'll be around." He gives a nod as he starts to back up and make that departure. Then he remembemrs, "Oh and Agent Chang is often in and out. She's been working on some stuff for her drone. But..." His brow furrows, "Not sure if she is actually crashing here or not. Hard to tell with her. But still, what I mean is. Even safer." He nods and turns, digging into his pocket for his keys.
    "See you this weekend, Lara." He waves over his shoulder.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara turns back toward the inside of her place, regarding him with a sidelong look. "Got it. See you soon, Alexander." She tells him with a little wave following her words. Her opposite hand moves to close her door, before she spots something inside her apartment as the door nearly shuts entirely.

The sound of her moving quietly can be heard, as she pulls the door open a second later, her arm coming out to toss the plushie doll in to the box where it had been pilfered from.

As the door to her loft closes shut now, there comes the sound of a whining pup, and a 'You have plenty of toys.' from his British Human. The door clicks shut and locked behind them.