AN: I know you were probably expecting something supernatural, but mini-troll, here comes the opposite! I know that usage of NASA in a fic probably requires all sorts of disclaimers that I don't know of, so I'll just say that OBVIOUSLY I don't own or know even the slightest thing about NASA. I might as well have used DYAD but I wanted it to be the biggest it could be.

I don't own Carmilla either. If I did I'd know what was up with Perry and I wouldn't be crying about it.
Some misgendering might occur during childhood.

PS: If you want me to do one of these but with something supernatural, hit me up. I'll do it.

Prompt: LaFerry + 12 + Perry telling LaF she isn't human

12: "I think we need to talk."

It had taken so long that it was strangely ridiculous and almost funny by now, except no it definitely wasn't because Lola Perry, Official Floor Don, Superhuman, Experiment 41709 and cleaner extraordinaire, was terrified of this.

Nevermind that LaFontaine loved abnormal things. They'd probably be excited.

But she was glad she'd kept it from them for this long. The secrecy had given them a childhood, a somewhat normal life together. LaF had never gotten to know what Perry really was.

She'd been created in a lab. It was a sad story, but she didn't pity herself. She'd been created in a lab and borne in a mechanic replica of a womb that was supposed to be able to handle the upgraded version of the human body that she was supposed to be inside.

NASA had tried for a long time to from an embryo state infuse certain changes in the DNA to create new, upgraded humans. They said it was to create better chances at survival, coming out healthy from sickness or just living longer. But even the subjects knew that it wasn't about that. They were supposed to be killing machines.

But she was lucky. #41709. She never showed any sign of reacting to the DNA changes, she just acted like a normal baby. All human, all normal. The tests showed that the genetic codes were in her, but they were inactive. So at the age of five, they decided to discharge Subject 41709 and put her in the real world. She'd keep meeting with a specialist once a month, but it probably wouldn't be needed. Just a technicality of surveillance of past subjects.

They gave her a name, an identity. It felt like the most precious thing she'd ever had, and it was. She had grown up with lab coats and needles instead of parents and bedtime stories. Now she was getting adopted by normal people, and she had no clue how that was going to work out. She didn't know how normal people lived.

The first couple of days there were tense. Her social worker told them that she wasn't used to social interaction, but she should learn quickly.

But it was hard. She struggled with knowing what was appropriate to say and what was not. She'd never been introduced to the concept of lying. In the lab there was only fact, and that was all she knew. There was no point in not telling facts, because facts were useful. Where she came from, facts were everything.

Most of this hardship became a lot easier the day she spotted a child with red hair and a white lab coat out on the street, chasing after a scrawny cat. After introducing themselves, Susan started asking questions. She answered like she'd been told to. (She'd come from an orphanage in a different town.) And for the first time, nobody frowned at her answers or chastised her for not saying the exactly right things.

She learnt, though. Susan wasn't very good at saying the right things either, but Lola took great pride in managing to have a successful conversation. And even if the body-DNA hadn't worked, she was a quick learner who quickly mastered the skill. Lola Perry was a tiny adult, people would say, because she already spoke and acted like one. She'd adapted to this new world, and she'd learnt that adult and responsible behaviour would be rewarded.

When she felt the sudden surges of energy shoot through her, she figured the best and most adult and most normal way to use it would be to clean. So she cleaned, she cleaned a lot. It became a part of her. Perry, the responsible girl who always cleaned and cooked and baked. But she couldn't have become that person without Susan LaFontaine by her side. The shorter ginger was, to start with, a comfort. Someone who acted like the scientists she'd grew up with and even wore a white lab coat was someone she wanted around.

But Susan was also funny and smart and nice and always supported whatever Perry did. And she loved them for it. She didn't know what the feeling was, the warm chest and fond eyes she got when she looked at them, so obviously, she asked.

Susan laughed a little before seeing Lola's very serious eyes and quickly stated, "it's love. You love me, because you're my best friend." At six, that fact was very simple and true, and to this day, Lola Perry was still certain that Susan LaFontaine was the first person she ever loved. And nobody had come even close since.

"LaFontaine?"

"Mm?"

"I… I think we need to talk."

They closed their book and looked up at her. "'Bout what?"

She sat on the bed next to them. So much had happened since they were kids. Sus – LaFontaine didn't wear their lab coat just for fun anymore. They wore it for actual, very dangerous scientific experiments.

Maybe they would understand.

"I've been lying to you."

"What?" They frowned, and moved so they were facing her. Deep breaths, Lola. Just getting it out is what matters now.

"I've always been lying to you. In a way. See, I was never really from an orphanage like I said."

"What, you knew your parents or something? Why wouldn't you tell me that?"

"No, I… I don't have parents. I was created. In a lab."

LaFontaine's disbelieving eyes told her to continue and try to convince them that this was the truth. "It was a lab of NASA's, actually. It's all incredibly important and classified, but they were trying to make superhumans, well, supersoldiers. Infusing DNA and epigenetics in embryos to try to give them inhuman abilities. That's where I came from." She reached under the bed to pull out a file. "It didn't work on me. I never showed any reaction to any of these things, no strength or high intelligence or speed. I was entirely normal, so they sent me out to get adopted. I've been seeing a NASA worker every month for all of my life, until we ran away from Silas with Laura and Carmilla. The only way I've been showing any sign of superhuman abilities is my occasional hyperactivity. I've been using it to clean, mostly."

LaFontaine went from shell-shocked to curious to intrigued, and she knew that they believed her. They knew Perry would never lie about something like this, something this big of a scientific discovery.

She handed the file to them. "If you don't believe me, all the information they've ever given me is in here."

LaFontaine stared at it for a second before taking it and putting it behind them on the bed, and reaching forward to hug her tightly. She gasped in surprise and emotion as they murmured against her shoulder, "no wonder you're such a control freak."

She couldn't bring herself to say it, then. So the following days were filled with questions from LaFontaine. Not unexpectedly so.

"So, you always knew you weren't completely human?"

"Some of these DNA-types can cause all types of animalistic stuff, it's a wonder you have emotions at all!"

"Is the hyperactive cleaning a result of this and is that why you called OCD when you went to see someone every month?"

"That one time on the playground…"

She'd never get tired of it, because now LaFontaine truly knew all of her.

Well, almost.

"So they assigned you the identity Lola Perry just by random?"

"Yes. Before that I was just a number."

"Four-one-seven-zero-nine?"

"Yes. That's the one."

"I'm so happy you became Lola Perry."

"I was never truly Lola Perry until I met you, you know. You were a very important in me trying to learn how to communicate. Human contact and everything."

"Well, you've totally exceeded the teacher by now." They smiled brightly at her.

She tried not to get so emotional, but then again, part of why they'd known that the DNA's hadn't worked on her was because she had a ton of human emotions, still.

"Hey, Perr, don't get upset. You're my favourite non-human."

That made her raise her eyebrows. "What about JP?" She refused to call him Jeep. Ridiculous.

They nodded slightly. "Well, he's awesome, but we're Perry and LaFontaine. You were important to me growing up, too, you know. I don't want to think of how I would've ended up if it wasn't for you."

Perry smiled at them. "What do you think would have happened?"

"Oh, I'd still be called Susan because I'd be too scared to tell anyone how I really identified. I'd be a total loner, still into science, but crazily so, like, living in the lab."

"You do live in the lab when I don't drag you out of there."

"Exactly. You are the only one who gets to drag me out of the lab, Lola Perry."

That. That made her finally break. Waterfalls flooded from Lola Perry's eyes, like they had been waiting to flood since that eventful evening under the Lustig building, when – God, when she'd killed someone!

"Perr! Perr, hey, calm down." They gathered her up in their arms, and for a second, she almost calmed down. She almost believed that it would be okay, if she just believed their soothing voice in her ear. But no, this was too much. She couldn't keep this from them, not any more.

"Perry, what's wrong?"

"What's –" she sniffled and sobbed her way through the sentence. "What's wrong is that it started working."

"What started working?" A beat of silence. "The experiment? When? What happened?"

"Will", she sobbed. "Will, he made a stupid remark about – about you, and I, I killed him. I put a stake through his chest. I couldn't control myself, I was just so angry, so angry that he took you and… and it was terrifying to realise that – I mean, the Summer Society took down one of the Dean's minions all together at a time, just like the Zetas, but I took down Will on my own, and I was so scared that my NASA worker was going to find out, and that's why I agreed to flee the campus with you."

Again, LaF sat stunned. They'd never doubted Perry's strength, and after they woke up, they'd all but torn some of the vampires to shreds because they'd put her in danger. But they couldn't have killed one. They'd thought that Perry had gotten a good chance, taken him by surprise.

"But you can control it, right? I mean, I haven't noticed anything."

"It comes out sometimes, and no, I can't control it. I-"

God, they really couldn't handle it when this girl cried. "Perry, I don't blame you for this, you know that, right?"

That only made her sob harder. "Perr, please..."

They could feel a quickly growing pool of tears on their shoulder. "It happened again. With… with the newspaper-staff. I killed them."