this has been on my ao3 for a while but i don't have any carmilla fics on here so i figured why not upload it
Laura Hollis was incredibly excited; she was on her way to a sci-fi convention in Toronto, and she'd been waiting for it for months. Her and her friends LaFontaine, Perry and Danny had bought their tickets for the convention what seemed like ages ago, and they were just waiting on the platform for their train into Toronto.
The only downside to this was that Laura and her friends were sat at the train station dressed as different fictional characters and they were attracting a lot of strange looks.
Basically, they looked like the weirdest group of people to ever walk the Earth.
Laura was dressed as Hermione Granger – her favourite Harry Potter character, ever since she'd first read the books. She'd had a few people shouting things like "Where's Harry?" and "Do you have to take the train because you forgot your broomstick?" She mostly just ignored the comments and fiddled with the buttons on the robes she'd made.
Laura wished she'd brought a coat – although it was sunny, it was freezing. She stuck her hands in the pockets of her robes and shivered, looking over to her friends. "How long do you think the train will be?"
"I'm sure it'll be here soon." Perry assured. Perry was like the 'mom' of their little group – she always remained impartial during arguments and tried her best to keep everything as normal as possible.
Laura's eyes widened as she saw a group of the 'cool kids' from her school heading towards the train station. She'd always been teased mercilessly by them ever since she tried asking Betty out – which, in hindsight probably wasn't the best idea, as Laura wasn't what one would call 'cool' – and tripped over.
Laura was relieved when their train arrived and hurriedly climbed on before she was seen – that is until she realised that there would be more people to gawk at them on board.
They shuffled down the cramped coach, managing to locate four seats together, and quickly sat down. Laura's friends had resumed chatting about what they were going to do that day, but Laura didn't join in. She peered out of the window and watched as the train pulled away from the station and gradually picked up speed, her hometown becoming a blur.
She went to turn back to her friends, but out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something.
Diagonal from where Perry was sitting, was the most impossibly gorgeous girl Laura had ever seen. She was glad the girl's dark eyes were focused on her book – otherwise, she would've looked up to see a Hermione Granger lookalike drooling over her.
LaFontaine noticed that Laura was staring. "You should go talk to her."
Laura quickly shook her head. The girl was incredibly attractive – her midnight black hair flowed down the girl's back in a sea of soft waves, and her dark eyeliner was faultless. She was wearing leather freaking pants and a dark grey shirt, and in short, looked amazing. And goddamn, that jawline. Laura, on the other hand, was dressed in Gryffindor robes and her hair – usually straight – was in wiry, unbrushed curls. She couldn't talk to the other girl. "No way. I look ridiculous."
Perry shot Laura an encouraging smile. "Laura, sweetie, you look fine. Go and talk to her."
Laura's gaze shot to Danny, who was staring at the window. "I can't."
"If you don't, you'll regret it." LaFontaine said, "Remember that girl on the bus the other week?"
Laura cringed at the memory, shooting one last look over to the attractive girl who was oblivious to their conversation. "Fine. I'll give it a shot, but if she laughs in my face, I'm blaming you."
LaFontaine smirked. "Good luck."
Laura shakily stood up and headed towards the girl, almost staggering over due to the train shaking, before sitting down opposite the dark haired girl. She saw two chocolate brown eyes flick up to her for a second, before looking back down to the book in the girl's hands. Laura read the title – 1984 by George Orwell.
"Um…hi." Laura murmured. "I'm Laura."
The girl didn't look up. She showed no sign of acknowledgement towards Laura, but answered. "Carmilla."
Laura smiled brightly – this was probably as far as she'd ever gotten when flirting with girls on public transport. She frowned soon after; she had no idea what to do next. "Uh…I – um – how are you today, Carmilla?"
Carmilla finally looked up from her book. Even though her expression remained stoic, Laura could've sworn that she saw a hint of amusement in Carmilla's dark eyes. "Are you doing a survey for train passengers or are you trying to flirt with me?"
Laura flushed bright red. "I – I'll just go."
She went to get up and head back to her friends, but froze when Carmilla spoke. "I never said I wanted you to leave, cutie."
Laura slowly sat back down, aware that her embarrassment was obvious and that her friends were staring at her. "I'm really sorry. I don't know how to…"
Laura trailed off, and Carmilla finished her sentence for her. "Flirt? Yeah, I can tell."
"Maybe you could help me out?" Laura shot Carmilla an awkward smile. "You know… like, start a conversation or something?"
"Sure, cupcake." Carmilla sent a smile Laura's way, a real smile, "I guess you could tell me why you're dressed like this is the Hogwarts Express."
"Oh!" Laura blushed slightly, looking down at her attire as if she hadn't realised she was wearing it. "I'm going to a convention."
"The one in Toronto?"
"Yeah." Laura confirmed. "I've been looking forward to it for months."
Carmilla nodded in response and looked back down at her book. "My brother is going to that. He's going as Captain America."
"Maybe I'll see him around." Laura said.
"Yeah," Carmilla replied, flipping a page in her book, "Maybe."
Laura felt rather awkward, and stood up to leave. "Okay, well – nice talking to you!"
She tried to make her escape over to her friends, when she tripped on her robes and ended up on the floor of the train, with virtually everyone in the same carriage as them staring down at her and trying to hold in their laughter. She swore she could hear LaFontaine and Danny snickering.
"Cupcake, are you okay?" Carmilla glanced down at her, her amusement clear, before dog-earing a page in her book and reaching down to help Laura up.
Laura's face was bright red in embarrassment. "Yeah. I'm just going to head over to my friends. It's our stop soon."
Carmilla nodded, "Sure. Later, cutie."
Laura hastily ran over to her friends and sat down, aware that all of them except Perry had been laughing at her excruciating awkwardness.
Laura shot LaFontaine her best glare. "I can't believe you made me do that."
They just shrugged. "If it's any consolation you were actually doing pretty well with her until you fell."
Laura spent the rest of the train ride blushing scarlet and sneaking glances at Carmilla until it was time for her to get off. She could've sworn Carmilla shot her a little smirk as she left the train.
Laura shivered – her robes did little to protect her from the Toronto cold – and shoved her hands in her pockets, frowning when her hand came in contact with something which felt like paper.
Laura pulled the paper out and opened it up, smiling wider than she had all of the train ride when she read it.
Maybe next time you'll use a hover charm to stop yourself from falling for me. Call me, cutie.
Laura smiled wider each time she read the message through, saving Carmilla's number into her phone.
She was definitely calling her.