It was a cold day in Styria. Frost was beginning to cling to the grass outside of the dorms, and branches were beginning to wilt, heavy with the final leaves that were refusing to fall.
Laura was on her way back from her English Lit. Class, taking her steps slowly to breathe in the crisp cool air that was deliciously frigid.
It was going to be Christmas in a couple days, classes were being put on hold until the holiday was over so that students could go home to their families, but this year was different than the last.
Normally Laura would have dinner with her father, maybe if her aunt wasn't doing anything she would tag along, but it had become too hard for her to even come by the house without thinking of her sister. Laura's mother had died when she was merely eight years old. She could remember it as if it had happened only the day before. She had been taken out of school early that day so she could go to the hospital and say her goodbyes.
Her mother had caught an overnight virus while in the hospital herself. She would spend nights there with cancer patients, talk to them in hushed voices during the early hours of the morning when they couldn't sleep. And because of her kindness, she had died.
She couldn't think of that now though. Laura had to keep it together long enough for her to make it to her dorm without any complications of someone stopping her and asking if she was okay. Not that there were many people still left on campus. She knew that Perry and LaFontaine both went home the previous day, and Laura hadn't seen nor heard from Carmilla since that morning. She couldn't imagine the vampire celebrating the holiday. Maybe Laura wouldn't be so lonely after all.
She knew that Carmilla wasn't the most social person, especially if she didn't get an insult in here and there, but Laura couldn't help but feel a pull towards her anyways. She really was the worst crush ever.
Laura entered the dorm, attempting to be quiet, but their squeaky door wasn't having it.
Carmilla rolled over in her bed, grumbling as she covered her face with Laura's yellow pillow, a fight that she had given up a long time ago. It comforted her if anything, to know that a centuries old vampire liked sleeping with something that smelled like her. Laura didn't think she would even argue if one night Carmilla gave up the charade and wound up in her bed.
Laura dropped her bag down onto said bed, quickly shedding her skinny jeans and button down and trading them in for a pair of baggy sweats and a hoodie.
"Not going home to Daddy?" Carmilla asked into the pillow.
Laura shook her head even though the girl couldn't see her, because that's all that she was, a girl. An eternal eighteen year old that saw society rise and fall again and again over the same things and couldn't do anything about it without having to skip town and change her name every decade or so.
Laura knew that if Carmilla asked her to run away with her, she wouldn't hesitate to drop everything and follow her.
"Not this year."
"And why's that?"
Laura sighed, sitting down on her bed as she stared across the room at her roommate's back. "My dad decided to take an extra shift at work so he wouldn't have to sit at a table only set for two."
Carmilla stayed silent, not knowing exactly what to say.
"But it's okay, because you're here, right?" Laura wanted to smack herself at the ease she said something so desperately with.
Carmilla rolled over to face her, lips tugged tightly into a small smile, "Yeah, I suppose we both have the lack of a family right now."
Laura nodded, deciding to take a nap herself. This whole conversation had become taxing.
Carmilla watched as Laura tucked herself into bed, thinking of what she could do to solve the problem that was her unhappiness. "Don't get any ideas though, Cutie. I'm not much of a festive lunatic like your generation."
Laura smiled to herself, "I wouldn't expect something like that from a vampire."
"Yeah, a vampire that bites." Carmilla threatened, although she hadn't expected the thought to backfire.
The shorter girl lay in her bed on her side of the room, biting her lip. Was it such a bad thing that she kind of wished that the vampire kept some of her promises?
XXX
Laura woke early the next morning to a shuffling in the room. Carmilla usually was either just getting in or was still out during this time, so Laura wasn't too sure if the sound was in fact coming from her.
She leaned half off of her bed, reaching for the baseball bat she kept beneath it.
Someone was trying to open the door.
Laura quickly scrambled to her feet, shivering as she felt the cold linoleum touch her bare feet. Moving closer to the door, she grabbed a hold of the doorknob, bat in hand ready to swing at the intruder.
Swinging the door open at the same time she moved her arm to use the bat, an outstretched hand caught the blunt weapon mid-swing. "Watch yourself Cutie, the threat still stands." Carmilla said.
Laura stared wide-eyed at what had just happened. "I'm so sorry." she hurriedly said.
The vampire held up a hand, letting go of her grip on the bat and pointed to her feet where a bunch of grocery bags sat.
"What's all of this?" Laura asked as she moved out of the way so that Carmilla could come in.
"It would be great if you could help. I had to carry them all the way here."
"Oh! Right." Laura said, jumping into action as she quickly grabbed a couple of the bags and carried them over the threshold of the door.
"Careful Cutie, don't give yourself an aneurism I haven't been a doctor since 1970."
Laura set down the bags, turning back around to face the vampire. "You were a doctor?"
Carmilla shrugged, "I took a break from philosophy for a few years. Gets tiring when you have to learn the same stuff over and over again."
Laura nodded, that made sense. In fact it made a lot of sense. Why hadn't she thought that there was more to Carmilla than her dusty and snooty taste in books?
"Don't tell me you want me to play operation?" The older girl asked, her voice dripping of sex as it usually seemed to when they were alone.
A shiver ran up the shorter girl's spine as she quickly retrieved her tardis mug to make herself some hot chocolate. She thought Carmilla didn't see her bite her lip.
Carmilla smirked as she took her time un-bagging everything that she had bought. Maybe another time, she thought. After all they haven't even kissed one another yet.
XXX
Laura was seated on her bed, laptop propped up in front of her as she finished up yet another episode of Lost Girl. She wasn't exactly sure why she was binge watching it, after all the whole succubus thing was making her think of Carmilla. The storyline itself wasn't the worst one ever written, and at least there wasn't any queerbaiting. Plus, who doesn't love a hot doctor/succubus combo?
The door to the room opened, Laura not bothering to turn around. Not many people were still on campus. LaFontaine had gone home with Perry, considering they hadn't spoken to their own parents in years. Danny had gone home as well to her family in the states, and Kirsch went with a couple of other Zetas to visit South America claiming they were tired of the cold.
Carmilla took notice to Laura curled up under a pile of blankets on her bed, leaving the vampire to try and hide the bags in her hands before the shorter girl turned around. She had bought a couple of things to go along with the commercialized holiday cheer that Laura was used to, along with her present.
"How's Dr. Lauren Lewis? Is this a new kink you're developing, Cupcake?" Carmilla asked as she stuffed the bags beneath her bed.
Laura's faced flushed red as she burrowed deeper into her nest of blankets. "Shut up, Bo is just about to tell Hale that he should suck it up and be with Kenzi."
Carmilla smirked to herself, taking notice to the change in subject. She slipped off her boots and padded over to the human girl's bed, climbing beneath the blankets with her to watch the show.
Laura stiffened, "What are you doing?"
Carmilla shrugged, settling into the wall of pillows Laura had made to lean up against. "I have everything I need tonight, blood in the fridge, and no one to prowl upon due to the empty campus. Plus, I suppose the succubus is kind of hot."
Laura smiled, covering it with the sleeve of her sweatshirt, turning back to the show on her laptop.
XXX
"Rise and shine, Cutie." Carmilla whispered into the girl's ear as she gently set down the tardis mug full of piping hot cocoa on the shelf above her bed.
Laura nearly jumped out of her skin, flying back into the wall, her heart beating against her ribcage. "What?" she exhaled hastily, her eyes flicking back and forth between Carmilla who was wearing a devilish smirk and the mug that was still emanating steam on her shelf.
"What's wrong Cupcake, cat got your tongue?" Carmilla asked mirth in her eyes that Laura couldn't help but be transfixed by.
Laura looked at Carmilla a little more skeptically. The normally grouchy vampire wasn't wearing her usual all black attire. Instead she was wearing a bright red Christmas sweater that said 'Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal', along with a pair of what Laura knew were her skinny jeans, and her usual boots on her feet. "What are you wearing?" Laura asked. This all had to be a sick joke, something she could only dream up because there was no way in hell or Hogwarts that Carmilla would willingly be cheerful and in the holiday spirit for any reason.
"What, I can't dress up for the occasion?"
"And what occasion would that be?"
"We're gonna go get a Christmas tree." Carmilla said nonchalantly.
Laura's eyes nearly bugged out of her head as she quickly rose up onto her knees. "Really?"
She looked like an overjoyed child. Carmilla couldn't help but find her adorable. The slightly taller girl nodded her head, bending down and reaching into the bag that she had placed by her feet. "Here." She pushed her hair back out of her face as she handed over a bright green sweater that matched her own.
Laura's jaw dropped. Carmilla was just full of surprises this week.
Carmilla watched her stare at the sweater for a minute before saying, "Well come on buttercup, don't want to miss out on all of the good trees now do we?"
XXX
Laura stopped wondering what Carmilla was up to right around the same time she presented her with a box of chocolate covered candy canes to go with her cocoa. Instead she was more worried about her wellbeing. "You feeling alright?" Laura asked her as they climbed into what Carmilla said was a borrowed car.
"Yeah, I feel fine. Why?" Carmilla asked.
"No reason." Laura wasn't going to push the subject. She kinda liked this side of the vampire.
Laura quickly turned the radio station to one that played non-stop Christmas music but froze when she looked over at Carmilla to see if it was okay. She didn't want to accidentally put her back into her usual grumpy and broody mood.
Carmilla gritted her teeth at first towards the high pitched shrill of the Chipmunks singing. She fought the urge to switch the station to a much more suitable one that fit her aesthetic. If it made Laura happy to screech along with the auto-tuned voices of fake characterized rodents, then she would just have to suck it up, even if she had her own firsthand experience of how much of a little bastard chipmunks were.
Laura kept looking over at Carmilla as she sang along to every song, not missing a beat in the tempo or lyrics.
"Cupcake, relax. I'm not going to combust from too much holiday cheer."
Could've fooled her, Laura thought. She could recall a moment the previous week where the centuries old vampire wouldn't stop complaining about the lack of identity that December 25th had anymore, and that everything was too commercialized and fake. Laura hated to admit it but she was kind of missing the broody and useless Carmilla.
XXX
"How about this one?" Laura asked as she stood next to an evergreen that was almost double her height.
Carmilla pursed her lips as she thought for a moment. Was it the perfect tree? She wanted Laura to have the best of the best and she wasn't going to stop until she found the best tree she could find. "Let's keep looking, there might be fuller ones in the back." she said, stuffing her hands into her coat pockets as she waited for Laura to follow her.
They walked a little bit farther, puffs of smoke leaving their lips as they took in deep breaths of the cold air. Carmilla could see Laura shivering in her periphery so she stopped walking, and slipped off her coat, holding it out for the shorter girl to slip her arms into.
Laura raised a brow, concerned. "But aren't you going to be cold?"
Carmilla shrugged, "Vampires don't really feel the cold like humans do."
"Are you sure?"
Carmilla nodded, shaking her coat gently for emphasis.
Laura timidly stuck her arms into the leather jacket as Carmilla made quick use of her gloved fingers to zip it up; encasing the girl in what little warmth Carmilla's body gave off. "Thank you."
Carmilla nodded before continuing to head down the dirt walkway they were on. She didn't really fully understand why she was being so nice, but then she would remember Laura's face when she asked her if she would be there so she wouldn't be alone. She hadn't necessarily said it like that, but in fewer words Laura had basically asked her to stay so she wouldn't have to spend the holiday by herself. It was bad enough that she wasn't going home, but even worse that her father was avoiding the holiday altogether. Carmilla wanted to make up for Laura's lack of a family by making it the best Christmas away from home possible, and maybe just maybe they would grow closer in the process. Also all of this niceness was making her forever grateful that all of the members of the dimwit squad were gone, it would be bad enough if her tiny roommate never let her forget this.
Carmilla snapped out of her resolve when she felt a tug on her wrist. She looked up from where her eyes were fixed on the frozen ground beneath her feet. Raising a brow in question, Carmilla followed Laura's pointing finger to a tree that stood right in front of them. "This is the one! It's perfect." Laura said giddily.
The corner of the vampire's lips quirked up into a smile briefly before she hid it with the sleeve of her sweater. Her arm was still being held by Laura. "Kind of need both my arms to knock this down, Cutie."
Laura let go of her as if she had been on fire. "Sorry." she squeaked.
Carmilla sighed lightly at the missing contact before moving closer to the tree. It was as perfect as a tree could be, she guessed. Plus Laura was looking at it as if it was her newborn baby. The vampire looked around to see if there were any bystanders before lifting her boot, ready to kick the stump. It would break away from the root within a few hits, and then Carmilla would pull it the rest of the way.
"Why don't we just ask someone to cut it?" Laura asked before Carmilla could kick out with her foot.
She froze, turning back to the girl who burrowed even further into the collar of her jacket. "At least give me the pleasure of this, Cupcake. Let me keep some of my pride."
Laura rolled her eyes before nodding. Not like it was that terrible for her to see Carmilla show off a bit, which she totally was doing right?
Carmilla eventually hefted the tree over her shoulder, which Laura then had to remind her that this wasn't Silas, and that any type of supernatural happenings wouldn't be overlooked. Carmilla grumbled, forgetting completely in the whirl of the moment that what she was doing was beginning to cause some wandering looks. "Fine." she huffed, letting the tree fall back down onto it's stump.
"I'll help." Laura said, reaching out to take a hold of the tree.
Carmilla wanted to say no, to sulk even just the smallest bit, but knew that anyone looking at her would see an eighteen year old girl, and normal eighteen year olds girls couldn't carry a tree back to their car all by themselves. So she sucked it up and mumbled, "We'll get hot chocolate after this." Laura's little dance of glee pulled Carmilla right back out of her grumpiness.
XXX
"Give me a hand would you?"
"Can't you see I'm doing something, Cupcake?" Carmilla bit out as she tried untangling a string of lights that she had found in a box in the botany club's greenhouse. Something about the gnomes not appreciating the festive lighting that interrupted their nightly prowling being the reason they were never put up.
"What are you a cat?" Laura asked when she noticed that Carmilla was no longer just trying to untangle the lights, but was now wrapped somehow head to toe in them. The dark and brooding vampire nearly tripped and fell when she moved a little too fast and had to catch her footing all while Laura tried not to laugh.
"You have no idea, shortcake." Carmilla nearly growled as she fought the urge to chew her way out of the wires (although the instinct was a little tough to fight).
Laura ignored her as she burst out laughing when the slightly taller girl tried untangling her arms. "How did you even manage to do that anyhow?" she asked, a bit curious. Were the lights alive?
Carmilla huffed as she tried once more to at least give herself a little wiggle room. "I think the alchemy club made these, they keep wrapping tighter when I try to pull them off."
Laura moved closer, "The point was probably so that the tough winds wouldn't knock them off of where they were hung." Styria did after all have at least a monthly freak wind storm that could always be accompanied with the merpeople bitching about water currents in the university's swimming pool, not to mention the werewolves would howl endlessly until it was over (they didn't like any kind of loud storms).
Carmilla was losing her patience, and she was five seconds away from gnawing her way out of the binding Technicolor lights that she had originally hated anyways. She looked up at Laura who was standing timidly near the vampire's bed, where Carmilla had sat down so as not to risk falling over again. "Could you maybe help me untangle them? It's probably like those stupid Chinese finger traps, takes an idiot to get stuck, but two to get unstuck." Like most things, she added in her head.
Laura nodded quickly, as if the spaz switch was flipped on. "Of course!"
Carmilla rolled her eyes before remembering that she was supposed to be nice. She was supposed to be making this fun and memorable for the tiny human, and she had been, up and till she was caught in a vice grip by the rogue lights.
Laura slowly touched the light strands, trying not so successfully to touch her roommate as she tried to get the lights to give even just the slightest bit so the vampire could go back to pretending that she needed to breathe. "So uh, this ever happen to you before?" Laura asked, trying to take her mind off of the fact that this was the closest she had been to Carmilla since they had waltzed.
"What, forgotten already all the time we spent together while I was tied to a chair?"
"You could've gotten out, you said so yourself!"
"Yes, but did you ever think that I didn't want to?"
Laura's face reddened as she pulled on the lights, receiving a sharp shock. "Ouch!"
Carmilla chuckled, "I think we both have to pull at the same time for this to work."
"Right, Chinese finger traps." Laura said more to herself than to Carmilla.
Carmilla tentatively touched the girl's hands, overlapping them with her own. She could feel her slow pumping heart pick up its pace, something it hadn't done in nearly a century. She cursed internally at herself for acting like such a school girl.
Laura on the other hand gasped at the contact. Carmilla's touch being a little more lukewarm, a little cooler to the touch than humans, but not enough to throw any suspecting persons off.
Carmilla could hear Laura's heart beat pick up considerably following the gasp. She smirked, raising a brow, "Come here often?" she figured she might as well have some fun while she was uncomfortably tied up.
Laura snapped out of her daze, the fire clearly resurfacing in her eyes. Ignoring Carmilla's snide comment she said, "You're not cold."
Carmilla shook her head, "How many times do I have to tell you, Cupcake? I'm not Edward Cullen, or any other of those petty characters from that dreadful movie."
"But you're not as warm as me." Laura continued.
Carmilla looked up at her roommate through her bangs. She bit her lip, she had never been so painstakingly honest with anyone in her life. She didn't even hesitate from speaking, "I haven't eaten since yesterday."
"So what, that makes your body temperature drop?"
"Pretty much, vampires' body heat up to that of a normal standard human temperature in two ways. One of them being that say if I had just eaten, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between you and I just by touch."
"And the other?" Laura asked, finding herself holding her breath.
Carmilla smirked, that much like the Cheshire cat. "We also heat up when turned on."
Laura's eyes widened as her throat thickened. Struggling to swallow she said, "Oh."
"So are you going to help me get out of this, or are we just going to keep me tied up? Can't say I really minded the first time, just as long as I get to eat this time." Carmilla said, a hungry glint in her eye when she mentioned eating.
Laura's hands trembled slightly at the innuendo, hoping upon hope that the vampire didn't notice, even though the likelihood of that happening were slim to none. She cleared her throat as she was suddenly even more aware of how Carmilla's hands felt on hers. What should have felt rough and cracked from centuries of life were soft and young, exactly as the day she had died.
"On three." Carmilla instructed. Was that a tremor in her voice?
Laura nodded, not trusting herself to speak coherently at the moment.
Carmilla held her hands a little tighter. First times the charm, right?
One.
Two.
Three.
They pulled at the same time, the lights giving way beneath their tight grip. The strands loosened as Carmilla made quick work of removing the entirety of decoration from her body.
Laura moved back over to the tree, nervously tucking a stray hair behind her ear. "I guess we'll just have to wait till tomorrow to get lights at the store."
"Nonsense, we can use these. Just don't piss it off before we get it on the tree." Carmilla said, standing up at the same time she gingerly picked up the lights.
Laura froze at the vampire's sudden closeness again. It was amazing how one minute they were bickering and the next Laura could feel her heart in her throat and her lungs by her hips. She watched as Carmilla quickly wrapped the lights around the tree before taking a step back to examine her work.
Laura looked away from her roommate long enough to make the sludge sloshing around in her head mold back into a brain. "Do you want to do the garland and I can do ornaments, or vice-versa?" Carmilla's voice broke through Laura's thoughts.
The shorter girl turned, "Yeah, that's fine." She couldn't stop looking at Carmilla as she worked, and the vampire seemed not to notice which was a first. She had her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth as she mapped out how to hang the ornaments, her brows bunched together. Laura still couldn't get over the matching sweaters, or the fact that the girl standing in front of her, struggling on her tip toes to reach a part of the tree, was actually the broody and moody 334 year old vampire she had previously loathed.
Laura's eyes fixed onto the patch of skin that had become noticeable with Carmilla's movements, leaving the small of her back visible.
"Enjoying the view, Cupcake?" Carmilla asked as she felt eyes on her.
Laura gulped, quickly diverting her eyes to the corner of the room.
Carmilla laughed. She loved making the girl squirm, especially when she herself was in a similar state of bliss. She needed to keep her cool, not get all lovey dovey on top of the niceness she was already handing out. "You know, I wouldn't mind if you watched me."
Laura scoffed, "Says the vampire who does nothing but stare."
Carmilla smirked, "Suit yourself, Sugarplum. Pine away."
Laura shook her head, face surely as red as a cherry. She turned, picking up the yellow pillow off of Carmilla's bed and pegged her with it.
"Rough, I like it."
Laura huffed in frustration before leaving the dorm room altogether.
XXX
"You were gone awhile." Carmilla said on her roommate's return.
Laura shut the door, raising a brow. "You're wearing my scarf."
Carmilla shrugged, "And you're wearing my jacket, Cutie."
Laura looked down at herself, realizing that she was in fact still wearing the leather jacket.
"Anyways, I'm only wearing your scarf because we're going out." Carmilla said, raking her fingers through her dark tresses.
"We are?" Laura asked, her eyes taking in the girl's appearance. Carmilla was still wearing her sweater and jeans, but she was now wearing a wine colored toque that matched Laura's scarf that she had around her neck.
"Mhm." Carmilla confirmed with a hum. She walked past a bewildered Laura to get to their little counter, pouring cocoa into a thermos.
"You made cocoa?" Laura was getting whiplash from this girl.
Carmilla nodded, as if it was one of the stupidest questions she had ever been asked, which was very doubtful considering how many generations she had been through. She leaned down beneath the counter for something, standing back up to reveal a whiskey bottle half full as she unscrewed the cap and began pouring it into the thermos.
"What are you doing?"
"Are we playing 20 questions now, Cupcake? What does it look like I'm doing? I'm spiking our well-deserved, or at least my well-deserved chocolate beverage. Hot chocolate doesn't keep you warm, but this sure will." That and Carmilla also wanted to see Laura even just the slightest bit tipsy.
Laura rolled her eyes, "And where are we going that we will need to stay warm?"
"Caroling." Carmilla said simply, recapping the alcohol bottle and re-stashing it beneath the counter.
"You caroling?" To say Laura had been shocked before was an understatement.
"Believe it or not I can actually carry a tune unlike those summer mongrels who sound more like they're yelping than singing."
Laura ignored the obvious play on words. "You can sing?"
Carmilla sighed, "Is there an echo in the room?"
The shorter of the two crossed her arms over her chest. "Why are you being so weird?"
"Weird?"
"Yeah, last week you couldn't stop complaining about how everyone that went to see Santa at the mall clearly had lost a brain cell or four, and now you're wearing a Christmas sweater and you helped decorate the tree." Laura said as she stated the obvious.
Carmilla leaned back against the counter, nails digging into her denim clad thighs. "I just wanted you to feel at ease."
"At ease?"
Carmilla avoided eye contact as she stared down at her boots, glaring at the funky old carpet that someone had enchanted long ago to vacuum itself. "Yeah, you weren't going home to see your dad, and I just thought since everyone else is gone the least I could do after putting you through everything with my mother, I could give you a Christmas second best to what one would be like if you were home."
Laura's heart would have melted if it could, and she was pretty sure it was possible, but she didn't want to find out either with these new palpitations beating through her chest.
"Well if you're going to say something, say it now before I stake myself out of embarrassment." Carmilla huffed as she shifted from one foot to the other awkwardly, something Laura had never seen her be. Sure Carmilla can range from all sorts of things, from sexy and dark to intelligent and nerdy in a blink, but never awkward. No, that usually was reserved for her.
"Thank you." Laura said. She wanted to hug her, upon many other things, but she held back. She didn't want Carmilla to feel like she had to do more than she already had.
"You're thanking me?" Carmilla looked up through her bangs, genuinely confused.
Laura nodded as if it was obvious. Of course she was going to thank the girl who made her forget all about her father's ignorance. "Yes."
There was an awkward gap of silence before Carmilla finally nodded, picking up the thermos and heading towards the door, grabbing a hold of Laura's hand in the process.
XXX
"You're so pretty, like so so pretty."
"Yes Cupcake, you've said that a few times now." Carmilla said as she practically dragged Laura back to the dorms.
They stopped caroling right around the same time Laura started slurring the words to Jingle Bells (which is pretty hard to do considering how annoyingly catchy it is) and started hitting on her, not that Carmilla didn't enjoy the girl's lack of a filter, but she knew that she needed to get Laura in bed before she said something she would regret or tripping and hurting herself.
When they reached the dorm, Carmilla helped Laura stumble to her bed.
"Thanks, Carm. You're the best." Laura mumbled as she rolled over to face the wall.
Carmilla stared down at her roommate, the one that had somehow stolen her heart right from out of its cage behind her ribs. She pulled the comforter over Laura, smoothing her hair down with a hand, and then flopping down onto her own bed. She was nowhere near drunk enough for this.
XXX
Laura didn't wake up at her normal time; instead she slept like the dead.
Carmilla wasn't worried, not even in the slightest, and she may or may not be taking this allotted time to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Laura had mentioned it a couple of times while LaF was around, and although it was nowhere near accurate to what real vampires were like, she still found the witty jokes and backhanded compliments that were handed out left and right between the characters Willow and Xander humorous to say the least.
She heard a grumble and a rustle of the sheets from the opposite side of the room. Looking up from the laptop she had stolen from her roommate, Carmilla surveyed the area around said roommate.
Laura was face down in her pillow, blankets kicked down by her ankles. Her hair resembled that much of a bird's nest, and her limbs were in such odd angles Carmilla was genuinely curious about the girl's flexibility (for all appropriate reasons obviously).
"Carm." Laura groaned, rolling over onto her side.
Carmilla set down Laura's headphones that she had also 'borrowed' and looked over at her. "How's that hangover feeling?"
"Not good. Need Water." Laura mumbled, throwing an arm over her face to cover her eyes from the sunlight coming in through the dorm room window.
Carmilla shut the laptop and stood up from her bed, walking back to the mini fridge to pull out a water bottle for a very needy Laura.
"Here." she handed the still horizontal girl the bottle before sitting on the foot of her bed.
Laura sat up, rubbing her sleep crusted eyes before running a hand through her hair to try and flatten it even if just by a little bit. "I must look great right now." she said as more of an afterthought.
"Like a million bucks." Carmilla mused.
Laura smiled lightly as she slowly stood to her feet, "I'm going to go scrape the scum off of myself. You can tell me what we are going to do when I return."
"Alright, Batman." Carmilla said as she stood back up and moved over to her own bed where she had stashed some of the movies she had borrowed from Perry the previous week. It was now Christmas Eve, and her plan was to stay inside, drink hot chocolate, and watch cheesy hallmark movies that the current holiday had thrown up on.
She heard the shower shut off, Laura humming along to a song that was most likely still stuck in her head from the previous night. It made Carmilla smile, to think that after everything the girl had been through, on top of the fact that she was away from home on her favorite holiday, and yet she still had that signature pep in her step and a goofy grin to hide her troubles behind.
To anyone else, Laura was just a naive provincial girl, what Carmilla had thought her to be, but after much more speculation Carmilla came to the assumption that Laura was a fighter. The tiny human had been through a hell of a lot more than most people her age.
Carmilla couldn't deny her feelings much longer without going insane. She thought she knew what love felt like, but this time it was different. Instead of butterflies she had elephants stampeding through her stomach, and she may have had a twinge in her groin every now and again, but it was always accompanied with her heart swelling up so large, she was worried her ribs would crack.
"Hey."
Carmilla jumped at the sound of Laura's voice.
Laura was towel drying her hair, a brow raised in question to the vampire's edginess.
"Hi." Carmilla muttered as she turned away from her roommate and back down at the pile of DVDs that sat in front of her.
"So what are we doing today?" Laura asked, deciding to ignore the previous moment, at least for the time being.
Carmilla brushed her hair out of her face, looking over her shoulder at Laura who had dropped the towel and was now sitting in the desk chair, swiveling slightly from left to right. "I thought we could just stay in today and watch films."
Laura's face lit up at that. "Christmas movies?" she asked hopefully.
Carmilla smiled, actually smiled at the girl's antics. "Yes."
Laura practically jumped with joy. "We can drink cocoa, and we can order Chinese takeout! My dad never let me eat it because he said that the oil they cooked everything in wasn't sanitary, but I don't care and I can't wait to have some!"
Carmilla tried not to laugh, she really did, but at Laura's little story she snorted!
"Did you just snort?" Laura asked, grinning.
Carmilla quickly covered her nose and mouth, muffling "No!" from behind her hand.
"You so did! You, Carmilla Karnstein, creature of the night, vampire who lures in girls by the dozen with her seduction eyes, just snorted!"
If Carmilla could blush, there was no doubt that her face would resemble a tomato at that moment. "Shut up."
Laura laughed whole heartedly, making Carmilla's faint pulse race. As cliche as it sounded, Laura's laugh was Carmilla's favorite sound (right behind her moan if she knew what it sounded like). She never wanted to stop making her laugh. She never wanted to stop hearing her laugh.
Carmilla was in deep. She could practically hear LaFontaine now, 'Hey, crushes on Lit nerds'. She cringed at the thought.
Laura's laughing soon died down as she looked over at her roommate expectantly. "So what movie are we going to watch first?"
XXX
Laura slept soundly against Carmilla's chest after eating two boxes of chicken fried rice and an egg roll and Carmilla had her respective cup of O-neg.
It started off with Carmilla sitting awkwardly at the foot of Laura's bed as they watched Christmas Vacation on the laptop.
"I just don't see why he couldn't just cut down a smaller tree." Carmilla harped.
"He had too much pride, Carm. You of all people should understand that." Laura said, not bothering to take her eyes off of the screen.
"Excuse me?"
"Don't even give me that look." Laura said, turning to see that the vampire was giving off her usual glare.
"What, not better than the seduction eyes then?"
Laura's face reddened considerably. "Shut up."
Soon after they had eaten and watched Home Alone one and two, Laura started to yawn. Carmilla had offered to turn the movie off, but Laura convinced her to put on Elf anyways.
Right around the time Will Ferrell peeps on Zooey Deschanel in the shower, Laura was out like a light, snoring lightly as her hand framed her face on Carmilla's chest. After each movie when Carmilla would get up to switch out the DVDs, she would always sit back down a little bit closer to Laura than she had previously, but it was totally unintentional...right?
Soon enough they had been cuddling, and Carmilla couldn't help but fall even harder for the girl that was currently in her arms. She fought the urge to sleep even as the pull of drowsiness flirted with her. She made a move to stand, but it was instantly abolished by her tiny roommate's arms wrapping themselves tightly around the older girl's waist, holding her in place.
"Thank you, Carm." Laura said, her voice steeped with sleep.
"For what?" Carmilla found herself whispering back.
"For everything." Laura said before drifting off again.
Carmilla smiled to herself as she looked over at the alarm clock on Laura's shelf. 12:01am. She looked back down at her tiny human then (it wasn't completely creepy that she had called her that numerous times in her head was it?). "Merry Christmas, Laura." She whispered once more before pressing a kiss to the top of her hair, snuggling further into her embrace and falling asleep with the yellow pillow beneath her head.
XXX
Laura woke the next morning slowly, her eyes opening one at a time. It was early, the morning light just peeking through the slit in the curtains.
She felt a body beneath her, confusing her for a moment before looking down and remembering the previous night. It had been perfect. Carmilla, although never ceased to be her abrasive self, still managed to bring a smile to Laura's face.
She could feel the slow and steady rise and fall of the vampire's chest as she slept, making Laura want to go back to sleep. This need was quickly subdued though when she realized what day it was. It was Christmas!
She quickly climbed out of the bed, padding over to the armoire and digging through a bag she had stuffed behind a pair of old long johns that her father had sent in the mail a couple weeks back. She smiled nervously when she found what she was looking for, slowly walking back towards the bed and climbing onto it.
Carmilla woke with a weight pressing into her hips. "What the- Laura? What are you doing?"
Laura was perched in the girl's lap, mistletoe hanging from two fingers over their heads. "You just called me Laura."
"No I didn't."
"Yes you did!"
"I don't know what you're talking about, I'm tired."
Laura ignored her lowering her hand into her lap and fiddling with the leaves of the mistletoe. "Merry Christmas, Carm."
Carmilla chuckled then, coming to a realization. "Did I ever tell you I'm actually Jewish?"
Laura raised a brow before awkwardly laughing, followed by Carmilla laughing even harder, which ended with them both laughing hysterically until they were struggling to breathe.
"You really do like me." Laura commented after she had regained her composure.
"Shut up." Carmilla said, rolling her eyes before looking back at the mistletoe that was still clutched in the girl's hand. "So are you going to kiss me now or am I going to have to do all the work here?"
Carmilla had never heard a heart skip a beat before that wasn't involved in someone's life being drained from them. She didn't know what to think of it.
Laura leaned down at the same time Carmilla raised up on her elbows, their lips touching chastely at first before softly deepening.
Laura tasted of sleep and rice, and Carmilla tasted like copper. It wasn't the best kiss by a long shot, but it was certainly something.
When they broke apart, Carmilla pressed her forehead to Laura's, closing her eyes. "Merry Christmas, Laura."