Author's Note: Not Beta'd, sorry if there are any mistakes.

They kiss. Like, all the time.

.

It's almost always soft and gentle.

Laura literally cannot stop herself from rambling, because she knows that if she does stop she willjump Carmilla, which may not be the best way to go at it considering the girl got trapped under the earth again.

Carmilla's giving her that look, like she's going to either eat her or kiss her (but mostly kiss her) and Laura screams internally at herself to stop acting like an idiot and make a move, goddamn it. She fricking died for you.

But Carmilla's hands are in her hair and Carmilla's lips are on her own and holy shit. She thinks of all the times she got mad when someone in a movie got interrupted with a kiss mid-speech, because that is so rude, but now she'd laugh

if only her mouth didn't have better things to do.

It's one kiss, which turns into another and another, each just as lovely and tender and so, so, full of forevers. Laura would keep going, but the camera is on, and some things are better kept between four real walls, not three and a virtual one.

She cracks a joke; Carmilla snorts, but her eyes scream love. She pats herself on the back for still remembering the alphabet.

Carmilla's a really, really good kisser.

Laura rushes to the camera after a moment, snatching it away from the computer and turning it off. Well, trying to turn it off – her hands are trembling,hard, and her patience is not exactly stellar right at this moment.

Carmilla sneaks up behind her, flushes their bodies together. Her hands reach out and cover Laura's, stills them. Then, she finds the shutting off button, clicks it.

Slowly; calmly.

She takes the camera from Laura's hands and leaves it on the table, before settling her hands on Laura's waist. Carmilla spins her, so they're face to face.

A small kiss lands at the corner of Laura's mouth, another one follows directly on her lips. They taste like take it easy and it's okay and we've got all the time in the world.

Laura nods, takes Carmilla's hand and squeezes it. They move to Laura's bed and lie down on their sides, close enough that they're breathing the same air.

They spend the rest of the day redefining soft and safe and I love you.

.

Sometimes, it's rough and broken.

They have nightmares.

It becomes sort of a tradition, whoever pulls themselves out of their nightly terror first would kiss the other one.

Laura's the first one to do it. It's their first night back together, and after a full day of lying in each other's arms, the night follows the same way.

It means that Laura gets to feel Carmilla's tremors right away, gets to kiss her awake before breaths hitch in her throat or tears pool in her eyes. She kisses her with all she has.

Carmilla's disoriented at first; a second ago she was reaching out trying to catch Laura before she fell into the mouth of hell, now she's holding the love of her life tightly in her arms and kisses are whispered inside her mouth.

Carmilla may not be crying but Laura's tears break her; tear her apart more than Maman ever could. She kisses back just as hard, pulls Laura closer, closer,

as close as it would go and it's still not close enough.

This time, their hearts do not feel cute, or tender, or wonderful.

At 3 a.m. it's I almost lost you and you were dead and laura, laura, laura my love, you have me, that settle over them, wrap around them and push their souls out of their chests and meld them into one.

It is rough, it is broken.

Love seeps through the pieces and fixes them whole.

.

They're always on her forehead.

They're outside, the first snowflakes of the year catching in their eyelashes. They've been walking around campus, Laura tucked into Carmilla's side. They stopped in front of the cathedral, they've been listening to the way it screams destruction and sacrifice and death.

Laura squeezes Carmilla's hand tighter in her own. "Carm?"

"Hmm?"

"Don't ever leave me like that again."

Carmilla smiles ruefully. She pulls Laura closer to her and envelops her into a bear hug. "Couldn't if I tried, cupcake," she whispers in Laura's ear.

Then Carmilla kisses her, steals the feeling of a fragile heart and apprehensive hopes. Their foreheads rest together when their lips pull apart.

"I am so in love with you, Laura Hollis."

"I love you, so much,"

Carmilla shifts her head and presses her lips against Laura's forehead.

Maybe they don't need a forever. Maybe all they need is a beginning.

.

Sometimes, they're on her cheek, as well.

The whole gang is in Laura's room, except this time, it's for a game of Monopoly, not for saving the world.

Laura has been arguing with Lafontaine for a whole ten minutes now, and No, I'm pretty sure you owe me like 10 thousand bucks, Laf,and You can't bullshit me, Hollis, I took AP Math in high school, are thrown between them with light speed.

Carmilla doesn't really join in; she prefers to just act like a huge pillow for Laura to lean back against. She keeps rolling her eyes and huffing whenever someone asks her to take their side, saying instead in her most bored tone she "does not waste her energy on trivial, meaningless pursuits in life".

When the game almost ends however, Laura gets totally smashed by Perry. She gasps in indignation and turns her head to look at Carmilla, who's been playing with her hair.

"Oh my God! Oh my God, Carm, did you see that?! That was like, so unfair!"

If Carmilla didn't know her better she'd actually believe she was on the verge of crying. Since that's not the matter, she simply chooses to smile and lean forward, before kissing Laura on the cheek.

"It's okay, sweetheart. You'll win the next round, I'm sure."

Carmilla pulls then Laura closer to her, holds her a little tighter. Then they go back to playing.

And Laura does win the next round.

What the others miss though, is the way Carmilla whispers in her ear what moves Laura should make.

…well…among other things…

.

Sometimes (more often than Laura would like to admit) Carmilla uses kissing as a way to get out of helping with the chores.

Carmilla's been lying in bed for almost 4 hours now, her face hidden behind her favorite astronomy book. Laura's been cleaning up around the room, and she tried to take her time, really, she did, but for the past half hour she's simply been waiting for Carmilla to move, or speak, or do anything, really, so she could ask her to move to the other bed. The bed sheets reallyneeded to be changed.

At the end of her patience, Laura huffs and moves to her bed where her girlfriend is currently sprawled out. She drags Carmilla by her shirt, tries to get her attention.

All she gets is a grunt.

"Oh, come on, Carm, help me a little out here," Laura huffs, before pulling at her shirt again.

When she realizes napping time's over, Carmilla closes her book and throws it on the other bed, effectively rumpling it.

"Hey, I just made that!"

Carmilla looks at her, doesn't say anything. Laura's about to open her mouth again when Carmilla suddenly reaches out with light speed and catches Laura by the waist, pulls her down on the bed and into her lap.

Laura squeaks, before falling into Carmilla's kiss. It's long, and drawn-out, and she can feel every part of her body aching for more contact.

"Stop," she says, punctuating every word with a small kiss, "trying to distract me."

"Me?" asks Carmilla innocently, "I wouldn't dream of it."

Laura can't decide if it's the smirk that gives her away or the way her hands sneak up underneath her shirt, trying to tickle her sides.

Using her unhuman super strength Carmilla pins Laura down to the bed, buries her nose in Laura's neck as she tickles her stomach.

Laura is not entirely defenseless though – Krav Maga classes help no matter what vampire she has to deal with. So before long their positions get reversed, now with Laura on top of Carmilla, tickling her mercilessly.

Carmilla squirms so much Laura becomes afraid they'll eventually fall to the floor. That does not happen, however.

Because suddenly Laura's fingers are tangled in smooth, black fur, and her eyes are gazing into big green ones.

"No," Laura says, as realization to what's about to happen dawns on her, "oh no, don't you dare!"

It's too late. Cat Carmilla has already lifted her head, and her tongue makes contact with Laura's face before the other girl manages to pull away.

"Eww, God, Carm, that's super gross!" Laura says between laughs.

She stops shying away after the first licks; the damage is already done.

When every single space of Laura's face has been attended to, Cat Carmilla lets out a satisfied sound before turning back into her human form.

Laura shakes her head, obviously oh so in love with her. "You're so weird sometimes."

Carmilla shrugs, "There are worse things to be." She smiles, remembering a similar conversation they've had at the beginnings of their not-friendship.

Laura gets up from the bed. "I'm gonna go take a shower."

"Okay." Carmilla's about to reach out for another book, when Laura raises an eyebrow.

"Aren't you coming?"

Carmilla turns to look at her for a second, before jumping out of bed and running into the bathroom in -0.5 seconds.

Laura laughs, before following after her.

So that's what it takes to get her out of bed, Laura thinks, as she locks the bathroom door behind them.

.

Their kisses always make Laura forget how to breathe, but especially when they're down –

Laura suddenly turns her head to look at the figure of her sleeping girlfriend's face. She'd fallen asleep with her head on Laura's chest, with Laura's t-shirt bunched up in her hand, lying across her stomach.

It's rare, this display of vulnerability. They always sleep as close together as possible, but it's usually Carmilla who holds Laura, not the other way around.

Laura's been stroking Carmilla's hair with one hand, tracing her knuckles from the hand on her stomach with the other. She really doesn't want to disturb Carmilla's sleep, to end this moment where she gets to be the one protecting for once.

So she really needs to change her train of thought.

But yeah, man, those kisses…they're something else. They hold a real special place in Laura's heart.

.

They kiss a lot. Sweet kisses when they're alone, chaste kisses when they go to Carmilla's favorite café, shoulder kisses when Laura wakes up in the middle of the night and hugs Carmilla from behind when she's been looking at the stars, forehead kisses when they're afraid, hand kisses when Carmilla feels especially chivalrous.

Neck kisses, stomach kisses.

Playful, passionate, promising.

And Laura simply can't pick a favorite.

When she told Carmilla this, the other girl grinned.

"Well then, I suppose we'll just have to keep going until you're able to pick a favorite, won't we?"

Laura nodded eagerly, her lips already back on Carmilla's.

She may not be big on the whole researching thing after their last adventure with the Hungry Light, but this is definitely a subject she'd love to further delve into.