Authors note; I'm having some troubles with my Clexa fiction at the moment. I don't feel like it's going anywhere and I can't come up with anything good to write, so I'm going to take a pause from that for a while. Instead I will focus on this little Hollstein AU I came up with at 4 a.m. when I was laying sleepless in my bed.
Instead of making this one like my Clexa story, where each chapter pics up where the other one ended, each chapter in this story will contain one individual moment from Carmilla and Laura's life at different points in their life. Mainly it'll be about their life together, but sometimes when they are not, so I'll be jumping both backwards and forwards in time. (Everything is from Carmilla's POV, exceptions can be made. For example if there's a chapter where we'll be looking on Laura's backstory.)
All this starting with The Café Accident, which is the chapter you're about to read after this note. This is where they meet for the first time and it'll be followed by the next planned chapter called The Day After Date, when they have their first "date". These two followed by other chapters with other happenings in their lives. I hope you'll enjoy it!
English is not my native language; please keep this in mind while reading, because grammar errors and/or spelling mistakes are likely to occur. Thank you!
The Café Accident
There were very few things Carmilla Karntein loved, but to sit in a small café after work, sipping on her newly brewed coffee and getting lost in a good book were definitely one of them. Books were of course the second thing, because what are there not to love about books?
Those two things pretty much summed up her whole list though, not that she was keeping one, but yes, there were very few things Carmilla truly loved.
On that particular day, when Carmilla arrived at her regular café to order her regular coffee, sit on her regular spot in the furthest back corner by the window and read her book like she had done every day for the last two years, things hadn't really gone the way they usually do.
When she had walked through the glass door, hearing that familiar ding from the little bell hanging in front of it, she had immediately noticed that her usual spot by the window had been taken by a couple holding hands over the round table.
For the love of everything, not today!
Calm down, it's not the end of the world Carmilla.
For a brief second she thought about leaving and returning later, but it looked like the couple had just sat down by the table and had no intention of leaving soon. She had already arrived at the café later than she usually does and she really didn't feel like skipping her visit to the café after the shit day she had had at work.
You're just going to have to get another seat, c'mon.
She sighed and walked up to the line to order her coffee. It was bound to happen someday, right? Her luck of getting to sit in that corner every day for two years was bound to run out sooner or later, she knew that. Later was what she had hoped for though.
"Hello, Carmilla. The usual I suppose?" The blonde café worker, named Elsie had greeted her, together with that smile that always seemed to be present on the girl's lips. Carmilla nodded slightly and answered with a short yes, not feeling like small talk that particular day.
Finding a new place to sit had been harder that it seemed. For some reason the café was more crowded that usual, but she managed to catch a table almost right in the middle of the café. It made her feel a bit uneasy, but it had been the best at the moment.
It's only for today; she had tried to convince herself while sitting down.
Carmilla had placed her black, leather bag besides her chair, but when not being used to people actually being able to walk not only besides her on both sides, but also behind her, she had placed her bag before sitting down. Her carelessness had resulted in that when she dragged her chair towards the table, the bag ended up half standing beside her chair, half sticking out behind it, making it a death trap for anyone who didn't carefully watched where they were going.
Almost an hour later, the coffee was long gone and Carmilla had been feeling rather comfy, despite the circumstances of not getting to sit by the window back in the corner.
She had been completely lost inside her book and mind, when she suddenly was slung out to reality by a loud noise behind her. It had sound like a shriek, followed by a loud thud and a "Fuck!".
Carmilla quickly turned around, still holding her book in reading position in front of her face. When she had lowered it, she saw a young woman sitting on the floor behind her. Her dark blonde hair had been hanging down over her face as she rubbed her knees which had probably taken the hit from her fall.
The young woman had tripped over the death trap of a bag besides Carmilla's chair, fallen and spilled most of her coffee on herself, but also some on Carmilla's back. She could feel the heat spread on the center of her back.
Carmilla had been in shock for a couple of seconds and all she managed to do was to stare at the blonde, but when she realized what had happened, she shot up to a standing position from her chair.
"I-I'm so incredibly sorry, a-are you okay?" Carmilla stammered in shame as she went up besides the unknown woman. Carmilla had stretched out a hand and offered the woman help to get up from the floor, which she immediately took and was quickly up on her feet.
The woman removed her thick hair from her face and let out a little sigh, but she didn't look mad. She didn't look mad at all, she actually smiled towards Carmilla.
Carmilla did have a habit of looking a bit too long, almost staring sometimes, when she looked at people and how could she even try to not stare at the woman in front of her?
She was absolutely stunning! Even with coffee dripping from her shirt and her hair in a little mess.
Hazel eyes met Carmilla's dark brown ones and they stood like that, just looking at each other for what seemed like forever to Carmilla. Though, it had probably just been half a second.
"I'm fine, just very clumsy, that's all." The woman finally said and looked down at her shirt. "My shirt on the other hand, is not so fine." She chuckled and when she did, Carmilla had sworn that in front of her stood a sunray in human form.
The woman seemed to be completely untouched by the fact that she had just tripped, fallen on her face and spilled coffee not only all over herself, but also a stranger. She had just smiled at Carmilla. The most genuine and bright little smile she had ever seen.
"Oh shit, your shirt… God, I'm so sorry!" Carmilla panicked when she actually realized the woman's shirt was soaked in coffee.
"I live just around the corner, you could borrow my shower if you'd like, and some clothes of course. That's the least I could do for causing this. I mean, if you want to of course, you don't have to, because I'm a stranger and all but…" Interacting with people had definitely never been Carmilla's strong side, but the blonde's smile had only grown bigger and she held up her hand to interrupt the very nervous and ashamed brown haired woman.
"That's very nice of you, I'd like that." She said and picked up her jacket from the floor, ready to go. Carmilla had been a bit shocked at first. Did she really just agree that fast to go home with a stranger? But then she softened a bit and tried to put on a smile herself, though it had probably looked very stiff and more like a straight line on her face.
Carmilla wished she could be tidier as they entered her not very clean or tidy apartment.
An apologize was about to slip out of her, but the blonde woman had commented on how nice her apartment was before it go out.
She must've lied to be nice.
Though the woman didn't look like she was lying at all, she looked as genuine as when they were in the café.
How is she even real?
Carmilla had caught herself thinking, before she mentally slapped herself. You can't be having a crush on someone you met just twenty minutes ago, get yourself together Karnstein.
"Ehm, the bathroom is over here." Carmilla gestured with her hand to a door at the end of the hallway before walking up to it. She opened the white door and quickly grabbed a towel from a cabinet directly the left.
"I'll grab you some clothes." She smiled to the woman before leaving, a bit less stiff this time.
When Carmilla had been about to walk back to bathroom from her bedroom, she could hear running water. The woman had started her shower without waiting for Carmilla to return with clothes.
She is really full of surprises.
But very cute surprises though!
Carmilla placed the clothes on the bed.
While the woman, Carmilla really needed to ask her for her name, was in the shower, Carmilla changed into a clean, dark grey T-shirt with a very faded yellow and white print.
For the woman from the café, she hadn't been able to know what to bring, because she didn't know the woman well enough. Instead for one, she had grabbed a bunch of different kinds of clothing so the woman could decide herself what would be the best replacement to her blue button up herself.
Carmilla had been able to make some coffee before the woman came out from the shower, to make up for that the woman never got the chance to drink hers at the café before becoming a victim of Carmilla's bag.
She had just placed the two, dark blue mugs on the table by the sofa when the blonde exited the bathroom, having nothing but the black towel to cover up her body.
Carmilla's jaw dropped for a second and she had been thankful for that she had time to put down the mugs, because otherwise she would've definitely had dropped them too.
The woman smiled at her. "It was very nice of you to let me borrow your shower. Oh, and you made coffee! You didn't have to go through all that trouble just for me; it was an accident after all. But thank you, how very sweet of you." She said and smiled that stupid, genuine, sunshine smile that made Carmilla feel like a crushing high school girl.
"Oh no, don't mentioned it. It's the least I can do." Carmilla protested. "And you're pretty sweet yourself, you know, and pretty too." Carmilla winked at her.
What was that? The woman had been slightly blushing after Carmilla had given her the compliment.
She had seemed to be so confident during all this time, despite everything that happened and despite the fact that she was standing in a stranger's house with nothing but a towel around her body. Carmilla had found it really adorable that the woman had a moment of being a bit shy and blushing.
"There are clothes on my bed, chose whatever suits you." Carmilla said and this time she smiled in a much more relaxed way. She had managed to make the confident blonde shy and blush, which helped her gain some confidence.
"My name is Carmilla, by the way." She added before the woman had completely left the living room. The woman turned her head. "I'm Laura." She smiled, slight red color still spreading across her cheeks, and then she closed the door to the bed room behind her.
Laura.
What the hell are you doing Carmilla?
It's such a pretty name.
When the woman, or Laura, had changed into some clean clothes, she joined Carmilla on the black leather sofa.
Carmilla handed her a mug of coffee and then took a sip of hers.
"Maybe not fancy like café coffee, but I hope it'll make up for it anyways." Carmilla smirked and Laura blushed once again.
Carmilla was discovering a completely different side of this woman than what she had seen at the café. A shy and absolutely adorable side, which had flamed a huge feeling of that she wanted to get to know Laura better.
You need to get to know her.
"It's more than perfect." Laura said with a smile and took a second sip.
They sat like that, just sipping on their coffee in silence for a while, taking in everything that had happened during the day.
Weirdly enough, there had been nothing awkward about their silence, but after a while Carmilla couldn't hold in the feeling of that she needed to get to know Laura better. She had started to become incredibly curious about this tiny, blonde woman.
Okay, she wasn't that tiny, but she was at least half a head shorter than Carmilla.
Go on; tell her to talk about herself.
"So, tell me about yourself Laura." Carmilla said and smiled a bit towards her, hoping she hadn't sounded like a complete creep when saying that.
Laura glanced up at her while taking a big sip of her coffee. "Sure!" She said and settled her mug on the table, then folded her hands over her knee and looked back towards Carmilla.
Never in her entire life had Carmilla met someone who could talk as much as Laura had, and in that speed.
Not that Carmilla had socialized with many people in her life outside her family, but really, this girl never stopped and Carmilla had found it hard to not get tangled up in everything she said a lot of times.
But she listened, carefully and with an interested glimpse in her eyes.
During Laura's speedy ranting, Carmilla learned that Laura had studied journalism in collage, but had worked at a lot of different places which hadn't included journalism after she graduated, before actually becoming a columnist for a small, local newspaper, where she currently worked. She had been a real nerd at collage, studying her ass off, which she had told with an adorable laughter and a slight blush.
Now, she lived on the south part of town, but wasn't originally from here. She had moved here, mainly because of the opportunity to get a job at the newspaper. That was three years ago. She was an only child with an overprotecting father and a dead mother. She had been quick to mention it happened a long time ago and that time had healed her, so that Carmilla wouldn't become worried.
But Carmilla felt empathy towards the blonde anyways. A feeling she seldom felt.
She usually didn't care much about for other people or their stories, but she had been so interested in hearing about Laura's life. It was like reading the first pages of a book, getting the feeling of that it's going to be an amazing read.
Carmilla raised her dark eyebrows when Laura had told her she was a regular at the same café as Carmilla. She had never noticed her before, which she damned herself for. But then again, she was usually in her own world and rarely cared about her surroundings.
"I've seen you a lot of times, though I'm not surprised you haven't seen me. You always have your nose buried in a book." Laura giggled and finished her coffee.
It had been Carmilla's turn to blush. Blush, what! Carmilla never blushed, what was happening to her?
Carmilla chuckled. "Yeah, I like to read. It's probably the only thing I really like in this messed up world. Books, I mean."
And Laura.
What, no, stop it! You've known the girl for like two hours.
But she is nice isn't she? And pretty?
Pretty? That's an understatement, she's freaking gorgeous.
And super adorable?
Hell yeah! Wait… No, stop it!
"Earth to Carmilla, hello?" Laura had waved her had in front of Carmilla, who had been staring into what seemed like nothingness for a couple of seconds.
"What? Oh, sorry, I kinda zoned out for a second." Carmilla apologized. "What were you saying?"
"I noticed that, cute." Laura smiled before continuing. "I said that I'm really thankful for everything. The shower, clothes and coffee, it was all very thoughtful of you. Sadly I have to go now though, I've promised a friend to babysit her kid. I had fun, it was really nice."
Carmilla felt her stomach drop a bit; she didn't want Laura to leave.
You like her.
"I had a really good time too. I'm glad we stumbled upon each other, or more accurate, you stumbled upon my bag." Laura had laughed loudly at her attempt to a pun.
Well, at least she finds me funny, Carmilla thought poudly.
"How about I get your number, so I can return this shirt sometime? And then we could also maybe grab a coffee together at the café, without any tripping and spilling it all over the place this time." Laura said with a bright smile and a small chuckle.
"I think I'd like that very much." Carmilla had said with unfamiliar warmth in her voice, which had caught her a bit by surprise. She tried to regain some control over herself with a deep, but discreet breath and handed her phone to Laura so she could add her number to her contact list.
After Laura had added her number, they both walked out into the hallway and when Laura had put her jacket on she turned towards Carmilla, her back facing the door.
"I'll text you." She said with a shy smile. Carmilla nodded.
"Goodbye, Carmilla." Laura said as she opened the door and started to step backwards out of the apartment.
Carmilla said goodbye back, but it had almost come out more as a whisper, because she was too focused on taking in her last look of Laura before she would close the door and disappear.
Not that she would disappear forever, but Carmilla had a huge feeling she would actually miss her until they would see each other again.
The door closed.
Carmilla stood and stared at the door for a couple of minutes, taking some deep breaths before heading back to the sofa.
When she sat down, she had seen the screen lit up on her phone.
"I'm convinced we both can't wait longer than tomorrow, so what about tomorrow at 5 at the café? / Laura."
Carmilla smiled towards the screen.
"You're right. Five sounds good, see you there!" She sent the message, but didn't expect to get an answer so fast.
"I know, I'm always right ;) It's a date, see you!" Carmilla took a deep breath to calm her nerves.
It's a date.
You do like her.
Yes, I guess I do.