Laura sits on her bed, her head tilted back slightly towards Carmilla, who is currently behind her playing with her hair. Laura lets herself relax and enjoy the sensation as she watches Danny move around the room, checking drawers and closets for anything she might have missed.
It's the last night before winter break, and therefore the last night Laura will be able to spend with her girlfriends for almost two weeks. Although she is excited to see her father again after so long apart, she knows she will miss the two girls terribly. Both of them are staying on campus – Danny because she has to help host the Summer Society's Winter Solstice party, and Carmilla because she doesn't really have anywhere else to go.
Laura leans back against Carmilla, taking the girl's hands and wrapping them around her stomach. She keeps hold of one and begins playing with the fingers.
"Did we get everything?" she asked Danny.
"Yep, that's it," Danny replies. She steps over the suitcase lying open on the floor and flops onto the bed, crossing her long legs in front of her. "But look what I found." She holds up a loop of leather cord strung with a few beads, a feather, and a dried bat wing. By this point, the wing is looking particularly desiccated.
Laura takes the charm delicately in her hands and scoots around to lean against the wall between the two girls. Carmilla's face softens, and a small smile appears on her lips.
"You kept it?" she asks quietly.
"Yeah." Laura smiles back at her, her cheeks a little pink. "It – it means a lot to me."
"I don't mean to be rude, but it still gives me the heebie-jeebies," interjects Danny. When Carmilla's face darkens, she hastens to add, "No, babe, don't get me wrong. It just doesn't seem like the greatest thing to give to a girl when you're trying to woo her."
Carmilla just continues to scowl. "Well, I wouldn't call you an expert in wooing either, dandelion."
Laura makes a tiny noise in the vicinity of amusement.
"Wait, you agree with her?" Danny asks, sounding hurt.
"No!" Laura exclaims. "Well, I mean…"
"What?"
"It's just… Remember the gift you gave me last Valentine's Day?"
"What, you didn't like it?" The kicked-puppy look on Danny's face is almost too much for Laura.
"No, no, of course I did!" she hastens to reassure her. "It's just, a long bow taller than I am that I can hardly even draw isn't particularly… romantic."
Carmilla snickers. "You should have just gotten chocolate. Chocolate always works."
"Really?" demands Danny. "You're how many hundred years old and your best lady-killer advice is chocolate? Not even everyone likes it, you know."
"Is that so? Name one person you know that doesn't like chocolate."
"Girls." Almost nose-to-nose now, the two jump apart at the sound of Laura's most commanding voice. They both have the good grace to look sheepish.
Carmilla promptly leans forward again and pecks Danny on the lips.
"Good," Laura says happily, if a bit smugly. "I didn't even have to tell you to kiss and make up this time."
Danny chuckles under her breath. "You're so whipped," she tells Carmilla.
Laura glances at her warningly. "Danny…"
Danny immediately gives Laura a quick kiss. "Sorry, hun."
"Besides," says Laura, "I'd say we're all pretty whipped. For each other. I mean, we all whip each other… No, that sounds wrong…"
Carmilla cuts her off with a kiss of her own.
"What was that for?" Laura asks. Not that she's actually complaining.
Carmilla gives her a lopsided grin. "You're so adorable when you ramble."
"Mm, I'll second that," Danny agrees.
Laura can feel the flush as it spreads over her cheeks. She jumps up and crosses to the suitcase, pulling out a scarf and carefully folding it around the charm. "There," she says, tucking it into the front pocket and determinedly not looking at either of her girlfriends until her blush dies down. "Now it'll be nice and safe."
"Speaking of safe…" she continues. It hits her again that this will be the first extended period of time the three of them have been apart since this crazy relationship started. "Promise me you'll take care of yourselves over break? I don't want to get back and learn that you burned down half of campus in some harebrained scheme to get rid of an infestation of salamanders or whatever."
Carmilla lets out a snort. "'Harebrained scheme'? Isn't that more your area of expertise, schatzi?"
"Hey!" Laura crosses her arms over her chest and glowers. "I resent that statement."
"She's not wrong," Danny says, leaning back on her elbows. "I'm still not over you going into the library at night that one time."
"Yeah, but everything turned out okay! And we got some good information for our investigation."
"Right. And then you used that information to turn yourself into bait for a bloodthirsty, murderous vampire?" Carmilla added.
"Which you didn't turn out to be!"
"Yes, but you thought I was at the time."
Laura humphs and drops down cross-legged onto the suitcase. "I hate it when you guys gang up on me. Using your logic and reasoning…"
Danny laughs and bounces to her feet. "Come here, shorty," she says fondly, stooping and grabbing Laura under her arms to hoist her up. She swings the smaller girl around and deposits her onto the bed, tumbling her into Carmilla's lap before hopping back up beside her.
Laura devolves into a giggling heap, and Carmilla has on the goofy smile she only wears in the presence of her partners. She runs her fingers through Laura's dark blonde hair and reaches out for Danny's hand, entwining their fingers affectionately.
Laura rolls over and buries her head in Carmilla's stomach, breathing in the girl's scent, before flopping back onto her back with an idea.
"Hey, Carmilla, why don't you keep reading to us?" she suggests. "You left off right in the middle of The Stranger and I'm dying to find out what happens next."
Carmilla raises an eyebrow. "Of course you are. The last time I tried reading to you, you fell asleep."
"Well, okay, maybe the book isn't terribly exciting," Laura admits, reaching over her head to grab Carmilla's free hand. "I just really like listening to you read. You have a beautiful voice."
"She's right you know," Danny agrees, looking eager. "You could make a calculus textbook sound sexy."
Carmilla tries to scowl, but can't keep back a tiny smirk. "All right, you dorks," she surrenders. She gently pushes Laura back into a sitting position and disentangles her hands, crossing to the bookshelf. "Since you apparently don't care about the story, how about I read you something in French?"
"Oo, the language of love. Good choice," Danny gently teases.
Carmilla grabs a book and comes back the bed, giving Danny a light push in retaliation.
"It's just some Victor Hugo," she mutters, a tiny pink flush on her cheeks as she settles in between the two other girls. Laura immediately puts her head back in Carmilla's lap, and Danny draws the brunette in to lean on her chest.
"Comfy?" Danny asks. Her girlfriends hum in contentment. She starts to rhythmically run her fingers through Carmilla's hair, lightly scratching at her scalp, while the girl thumbs through her book to find the right page.
As Carmilla begins to read, Laura closes her eyes, simply letting herself soak it all in.
Although she's excited to return home and see her dad over the winter break, she admits to herself that right now, there's nowhere she'd rather be than in both her girlfriends' embrace. She hooks a finger through one on Carmilla's belt loops and wraps her free hand around Danny's ankle, then settles down to listen as Carmilla's voice fills the room with warmth and love.
"L'amour seul reste. O noble femme
Si tu veux dans ce vil séjour,
Garder ta foi, garder ton âme,
Garder ton Dieu, garde l'amour…"
A/N: The quote is from Victor Hugo's poem "Aimons toujours ! Aimons encore !..."