AN: I absolutely LOVED how Carmilla ended. It leaves it open for another season, we got one of the couples together, and it was pretty much a very good ending. However, Laura's line about LaF dating JP? No. Just no. So, I fixed it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Carmilla. Kotex does.
Lola Perry, Dorm Leader to floor three, was a very clean person.
When things were "normal"-when vampires weren't trying to kill her best friend and giant lights weren't threatening her charges-she was neat. Clothes folded, books organized on the shelves, and whatever new experiment LaFontaine had set up in her room properly contained to the sterilized table she had set up in the corner for them. A small mess was permissible; dishes from breakfast could wait until lunch, maybe dinner if she was particularly busy.
Things were neat and clean, making her life easier for later. For when Danny and Kirsch stumbled in bruised from a sparring match needing ice, for when Laura needed an intervention so she would eat something other than sugar, and for when Carmilla inevitably needed stain remover to clean up the blood spots from her knocked over glasses. A clean life was an easy life, and one Perry was more than happy to have.
When thing were…strange, a kind word for Silas U., she wanted things spotless. The floors vacuumed and wetted with a mop (when a certain giant black cat wasn't there to hiss at her if the water got too close to its fur), windows wiped free of all specks and streaks, and every surface scrubbed until it sparkled with bleach and the school provided lemon cleanser. She would then continue on, moving from her room to her friends; unclogging Carmilla's hair from the shower drain in 307, helping Lafontaine to clean the pipettes in the science lab, and even once organizing the Summer Society's weapon collection.
It was calming. It was relaxing. When LaFontaine wasn't there to help redirect her energy towards something else, it was all she had.
Since LaFontaine had started spending all of their time in the library with JP, the entire woman's dorm, Summer Society and Zeta Frat houses, along with three-fourths of the rest of campus, had turned immaculate from her touch.
It was Laura, sweet, oblivious Laura, who had first pointed out that LaFontaine's behavior pointed towards more then a singular curiosity for the strange things that were going on at their school. Laura who had pointed out how LaFontaine was spending all of their time on their computer, JP plugged in so the two of them could interact at any moment's notice. How, whenever someone got too close to the USB JP was housed on, LaF would quickly direct them away, their tone almost defensive and their actions almost aggressive as they redirected them to something else.
It was Laura-the same girl who had spent an entire semester unaware that her vampiric roommate was absolutely in love with her-who had first referred to JP as LaFontaine's boyfriend, which was what had set this whole thing off to begin with.
Perry wanted LaFontaine to be happy. She wanted nothing more than for her best friend to be the happiest they ever could be, with someone who would be supportive and wonderful and always put a smile on their face.
But Perry had wanted that person to be her, and the fact that someone else had stepped into the position first, while she was whittling away her time being petty and stupid…it hurt.
And every day that she wandered into LaFontaine's room, only to find it an empty mess-the only room she hadn't cleaned yet-it only hurt that much more.
So, when, out of the blue, LaFontaine asked her to join them for dinner, Perry had accepted without a moment's hesitance, just desperate for whatever time her best friend would give her away from their computer and JP.
She was a little less enthusiastic when LaFontaine asked her to wear a blindfold, and even more so when Carmilla arrived at eight to give her a piggyback ride to wherever LaFontaine had set things up in one of the abandoned classrooms. But she had gone along with their plan, put it on, and allowed the vampire to pick her up so she could see her friend.
LaFontaine was the same exact person she had followed into a vampire cabal's sacrificial pit; how could she refuse to follow them now?
But she didn't have to be happy about it all, and wasn't until Carmilla slid her into LaFontaine's waiting arms and took off, leaving them alone.
"What do you think?" The words were accompanied by a gentle tug to remove the blindfold, and Perry was left trying to grasp at words as the scene was revealed before her.
It was a mess.
Cookies, mini-cakes, and brownies were mixed together with baked fish, spinach, and various fruits, the overflowing dishes placed in no specific order, instead crammed onto the too-small table that was only stable from the two textbooks that had been wedged under the legs. Flowers-again, with no order to them; daffodils mixed with roses and forget-me-nots and half a dozen other species combined into haphazard decorations- surrounded the blanket LaFontaine had laid out on the floor, held in place by what looked like blue-tack and string.
To put the icing on the cake, as Perry stood there and stared at the chaos her friend had brought her to, LaFontaine walked over to the table, pulled a boom box out from somewhere under the food and turned it on, revealing the latest rap song to come out in the past year.
"Wha-"
"Do you like it," LaFontaine asked, cutting in as they bounced around the area. "There's the fish that you said you liked once, and I know you always say we need to eat more greens so there's spinach, and fruit's always good so there's that. I wasn't sure what dessert you liked more, so I just made all of them and the flowers-"
"LaFontaine, sweetie," Perry finally said, reaching out to grab LaF hand as they bounced by, pulling them to a stop. "Sweetie," she repeated, "what is this?"
"It's…" Here words seemed to fail LaF as they finally looked at Perry, taking in the confused, almost concerned glance as she took in everything before her. "You…you don't like it, do you, Per?"
"I do, I do," Perry quickly corrected, almost desperate to remove the pained expression that had appeared on LaFontaine's face, "I'm just confused what this is for, sweetie. Did I forget something important? An anniversary, or a birthday, maybe?"
"No," LaFontaine said slowly, taking a few deep, steadying breathes. "I just wanted everything to be perfect…for when I did this."
"Did wh-"
Once again LaFontaine cut Perry off mid-word, this time with a kiss that sent her mind reeling to a halt, unable to think of a single thing to say or do except to realize that LaFontaine was kissing her and she should be doing something, should be kissing them back or pulling away or doing something other than just standing there.
"Okay," Perry said as LaFontaine finally pulled away, both of their faces brilliant red. "Okay," Perry said again, her eyes wide as she took a single step back, trying to refind her footing, "that just happened." Taking a breath to force her pounding heart to calm and to tell the little voice in the back of her head to stop rejoicing, Perry watched as the grin on LaFontaine's face turned uncertain, as if this was nowhere near the reaction they were expecting.
Perhaps it wasn't, but this wasn't what she had been expecting either when LaFontaine had asked her to join them.
"You okay, Per," LaFontaine finally asked, worry and a hint of disappointment clear within their voice as they tried to snap her out of it, to bring her back to the present. "Perry? Lola?"
"Aren't you dating JP?"
She hadn't meant to ask the question; it was none of her business, and she had trusted LaFontaine to bring up the subject when they felt ready. But darn it, that kiss changed everything, and she needed to know.
"What? How the hell did you get that idea, Per?" As shocked as they seemed, it almost looked like LaFontaine was about ready to laugh, their face twisting into amused confusion as they spoke. "He's an incorporeal entity downloaded onto a USB drive; explain to me how I'm dating that?"
"It was something Laura said," Perry sputtered out in defense, her face flushing as LaFontaine, unable to hold back any longer, began to chuckle. "She mentioned how much time the two of you were spending in the library together, and that you might have started dating, and let's be honest, LaFontaine, that wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen here. And I was expecting that you would bring it up when you were ready and…" Perry trailed off into silence as LaFontaine continued to laugh, growing louder and louder with every word she said, holding onto their sides as if that would help keep them from falling apart. "It's not nice to laugh at people, LaF," Perry huffed, turning to leave.
She didn't need to be laughed at by her best friend/crush for thinking they might be dating someone else.
"Perry, wait," LaF panted, reaching forward to grab her hand before she could move too far away, interlacing their fingers before she could protest. "First, you should never take relationship news from Laura." They smiled as Perry let them lead her back to the decorated section of the room, turning down the rap so it was faint background noise for their conversation. "She's smart, but she couldn't tell when Carmilla, seduction queen of the school, was flirting with her. How would she know whether or not I was dating someone?"
"Which I'm not," LaFontaine continued, silencing Parry before she could speak. "JP and I are just friends, Per. Just friends." Their thumb began to move in little circles across the back of Perry's hand, calming motions that, despite her continued confusion, Perry still felt relaxed by.
"Then why were you spending so much time in the library alone for? And why, every time someone tried to look at your computer, did you refuse to let them see it?"
"Because of this, you dork," LaFontaine replied, smiling, waving their hand to show the dinner they had prepared. "JP's been helping me find recipes and instructions on how to cook this stuff, and we spent weeks trying to figure out what flowers to use as decoration. We never could make a decision, so we…got them all."
LaF's small, embarrassed laugh and shrug made Parry want to kiss them all over again, this time with maximum interaction and minimum confusion, but she held back-if just to be polite and let them finish answering.
"As for my computer, well, we were kind of, maybe, sort of hacking your online music accounts so we could figure out what songs you liked. I didn't want JP to be interrupted, or for you to find out. Sorry, Per." Their admittance was bashful as they smiled up at her, a silent request for forgiveness-and perhaps a hint of hope for more-clear upon their face as they waited for her to respond.
"So you absolutely aren't dating JP, or anyone else?" She had heard what LaFontaine had said, had understood every single word, but she needed to be sure.
"No one, Per. But I would like to be dating you."
Her respond was to pull them back into the kiss they had started, finally as a more than willing participant now that she understood.
Understood that LaFontaine was hers, she was theirs, and from now on, she really needed to start taking things Laura said with a bag of salt.