It couldn't be morning already.
The chirping of birds above and around the cottage, the thin rays of sunshine invading the bedroom through the blinds of the closed window, lies, all lies. They had to be. Otherwise, she'd have to get up like she had told herself she would.
She'd been so confident in saying that last night when the morning had seemed so far away. Now, the prospect of leaving the soft warmth of the old oak bed she lay on, felt like it would take some kind of herculean effort.
A lot of things felt that way for her right now, her recent trip to Florence with Carmilla being the primary culprit. The trip had turned into quite the adventure, involving a life energy-sucking mask, gargoyles, undead skeletons, Corvae goons and a whole host of other things that Laura didn't really feel like thinking about at the present moment. During one of the more… chaotic situations Laura had needed to put on the aforementioned life energy sucking mask to save the day. Or more accurately Carmilla, which for Laura was pretty much the same thing.
As it turned out, putting on and using a life energy sucking mask left a person rather drained, lesson learned. Every day since then she could feel herself recovering, regaining strength. But it had proved to be a slow process and now, two months after coming back to their new home, a small cottage near Silas University in the Styrian countryside, sleeping in had become a habit.
A habit, that the woman lying next to her had been more than fine with accommodating. Carmilla's soft purrs were enough to let Laura know she still slumbered. The sound, mixing with the chirping birds, had become very familiar to her. A background noise her sub-conscious now associated with safety and comfort.
As she fought to find the energy to get moving, her confident words to Carmilla last night came to mind.
"Tomorrow, I'm getting back on track tomorrow, being low on literal life energy be damned. I'm going to get up, eat breakfast, do some yoga and then be out the door to go on a hike, all before lunchtime. It's time for Laura Hollis to get back into the swing of things. If I don't break out of this soon, I'll end up getting too used to lazing around and become some apathetic slacker."
"How horrific," Carmilla had responded, "truly a fate worse than death."
Laura remembered the way Carmilla languidly stretched out on their newly bought couch as she said it.
She probably should have gone to bed early, but Carmilla lying serenely, wearing nothing more than a black singlet and underwear, had proven too enticing to ignore. It was probably already into the early hours of the morning before they finally made it into bed.
So here she was, Laura Hollis, the woman who had contended with Ancient Gods, vampires, a hydra in a tunnel complex under Florence and who had even stopped a literal apocalypse, utterly unable to get out of her own bed.
She groaned a little as she pushed herself up, trying desperately to remember how chirpy she had felt about the prospect of doing yoga again and going outside the cottage to hike around the beautiful scenery of Styria. Instead, her fatigue felt like a weight on her back, pushing her gently back down into the soft pillows.
Then she realised that weight was actually a hand.
"No," Carmilla grunted simply. Her hand gentle, but insistent.
Laura chose not to fight it and she collapsed back down on the bed. She let out a few more groans and turned her head on the pillow towards Carmilla. Whose face remained buried in her own pillows, her black hair a tangled mess.
"But I said I would do things today."
"Later, do it all later. Go back to sleep."
"Then I'll just keep putting it off and it'll be night again by the time I get out of this bed."
"Yeah, that's the magical thing about the word later. Saying it means you can do things whenever you want."
As philosophical thoughts went, it wasn't Carmilla's best. Though, Laura had learnt over time that at the heart of many of even the most profound deep thoughts Carmilla gave voice to, could be boiled down to 'and that's why I don't have to get up and do anything right now.'
"Surely we can at least get breakfast. You know, feed ourselves? Or are we too lazy for even that now?" Laura asked, humour in her tone.
"Do we have to leave this bed to do it?"
"Well, yeah, but."
"Not happening."
"We could come back," Laura insisted, "we get up to make it and then come back. We can even bring the blanket with us."
Carmilla used a hand to brush away some of her hair and flicked open an eye, her attention gained.
"Just make breakfast and come back? No yoga or hiking through the hills?"
"Just breakfast."
"'Cause you do realise the moment you walk out that door, odds are that you'll be attacked by some kind of monster, or lured into an adventure that we'll have to go through. I can see it now. 'C'mon Carm we just have to help this random lady out, we have to help her fight this dragon, or vampire cult or ancient death God because it's the right thing to do.'"
Laura snorted. Though, she had to admit Carmilla mimicked her voice pretty well.
"Okay, the way I remember it, Florence was all your idea, you can't pin that on me. I said we could stay in the nice safe cottage where there weren't hydras and goons and undead skeletons."
She let out a little whine and poked Carmilla with a playful finger.
"C'mon it'll be fun, breakfast in bed," she put on the puppy dog eyes and a pout. Neither had failed her in persuading Carmilla yet.
Carmilla sighed.
"Fine, you know, I've truly never had breakfast in bed before."
"What?" Laura asked, nonplussed. Over three centuries and she'd never had breakfast in bed even once?
"Never? But you lived in a castle with servants and you never want to get up until it's almost dark again, how could you never have had breakfast in bed?"
"Well I tried to get the servants to do it once, but father forbade it. I think an uncle of his choked to death on a crust eating in bed, must have made an impression on him. After I became a vampire, well, the only person I was close to was Mattie and she wasn't really the type to do that sort of thing."
The eye Laura could see, glazed over slightly.
"Actually, now that I think about it there was this one time in England, I woke up next to this cute little servant girl of the Duke of Manchester, I was rather peckish and-" she stopped abruptly and cleared her throat.
"I mean no, no I haven't ever had breakfast in bed, no."
Laura had gotten very good at ignoring things like that. Instead, she pressed on.
"That is absolutely unacceptable, my dad and I used to give each other breakfast in bed all the time on the weekends. Scrambled eggs, golden toast, fried mushrooms and the bacon, oh god the bacon. I sometimes think that in another life I would be vegetarian, but then I remember how wonderful bacon is."
As she rattled off these delicious foods, she was glad that they now actually had all these things at the cottage. When they first found the cottage on a meandering hike, it had been abandoned for quite some time. Carmilla had needed to hunt down rabbits for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Rabbit stew, rabbit legs, rabbit this, and rabbit that. It was the only thing she'd disliked about staying here.
But at the end of their Florentine adventures Laura had come into quite a bit of money, unscrupulous a source it may have come from notwithstanding. They had put it to good use, stocking the cottage up with food and other necessities as well as taking the chance for a little renovation. Carmilla had turned out to be quite the decorator, something that Laura put down to her living in an opulent world of a Countess in her early life. In particular, she seemed very knowledgeable on beds, couches, chairs, anything you could lounge around on really. Their new couch was quite something indeed.
"Alright," Carmilla said, "you've convinced me. We'll get up and do this breakfast in bed thing. One condition, you have to get out of this bed first."
From Carmilla's tone, low and demure, Laura could sense a trap coming. Exactly what though, she didn't know.
"Sure no problem," she said, pushing herself up again, "I can do that no- oh."
She shivered slightly in pleasure as fingers snaked underneath her and between her thighs. She let out a gasp as those fingers starting rubbing gently. She looked to Carmilla and was treated to a coy smirk. After a few moments, she collapsed down for a second time with a moan. The fingers continued to do their wonderful work. Gentle yet very stimulating in their movements.
"Not fair," she panted out,"you could keep me here forever doing this."
"You're right, I'm just awful," Carmilla said in an amused drawl.
Without thinking Laura found herself turning to her side and pressing closer to Carmilla. The fingers started gently and slowly sliding in. She reacted to it with another gasping moan, which got abruptly smothered as Carmilla smoothly slid her body on top of hers and kissed her.
It was amazing how the intensity between them could ramp up so suddenly. From sleepy light banter to this in a matter of seconds. Laura kissed her back with passion, all her plans completely forgotten. It was too cold outside for a hike anyway, or was it too hot? It was probably one of those things, anyway.
If Carmilla hadn't been kissing her she was sure she'd be making a lot more noise. Instead, her approval came out in hums and low moans. How could she ever have thought of leaving this bed, when she could be doing this all day instead? It was like every movement of Carmilla's fingers was an argument for them both to stay in bed for as long as possible and a very persuasive argument at that. Carmilla didn't stop making it until she'd guided Laura into a kind of delightful delirium.
As Laura returned back to the world, Carmilla kissed her on the forehead, then the cheek, the other cheek, the neck. She clearly had no intention of leaving anyone out.
A wave of tiredness hit her, they were rarer now, but would still come every once and a while. She managed to caress Carmilla's face with a hand for a moment, before slumping back to sleep.
When she woke up, the thin rays of sunlight had put on some weight, brightening up the room. It was unmistakably the middle of the day.
"This is your fault, I'm blaming you," she said, words muffled by the pillow she spoke into.
"I can live with that," Carmilla said and Laura heard and felt her stretching lazily on her side of the bed.
"Deal still stands," she continued, "breakfast, including all those delicious things you described, if you can manage to get out of this bed."
Oh God, she's made a game of it.
To make things worse, Laura was legitimately hungry now.
"Aren't you hungry?" she asked desperately. She really doubted her own willpower to deny Carmilla when she was like this. If Carmilla continued touching her like she had earlier, there was no chance she'd get out of this bed anytime soon.
"Well… now that you've so nicely asked. You could say that, I suppose."
Hands gently rolled her onto to her back and once again Carmilla lay on top of her, mouth curved in a mischievous smile.
Glittering eyes found hers and remained locked onto them as Carmilla began kissing a slow trail down her body. Starting at her neck and paying particular attention to her stomach on the way down.
"Bacon," Laura said, in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to will herself out of the bed by reminding herself what the rewards would be. "Bacon and toast and scrambled eggs and did I mention bacon?"
Carmilla finally made it to between Laura's thighs and putting words together coherently became a great deal more difficult. Soon the only words coming out of her mouth was a chant of Carmilla's name.
Sometime later, she was having trouble keeping track of time, Laura opened her eyes to see Carmilla above. Looking down at her with that adoring expression she reserved only for her.
"You don't get to give me that look. You're being cruel," Laura said, grumpy.
Carmilla adopted a new expression of mock indignation.
"Am I now? I'm so sorry. Whatever could I do to make it up to you? Let me think."
Her eyes flicked from side to side, as if making a decision between something they were seeing.
"You could help me out of this bed before I inevitably fall back to sleep, so I can actually get something done today. Even if it is just break… mmm-"
Carmilla had thought of something else entirely. She pressed soft lips to Laura's left breast and started kissing, while gentle fingers teased and massaged the right. It felt so good, that it scattered her thoughts once more.
"I guess later does sound pretty good after all, now that I think about it," Laura said.
A sub vocal 'mmm hmm' from Carmilla was her only reply as she found her eyes closing again and her mind drifted off.
The sun rays had disappeared by the time she woke up for the third time that day. Night time and she still hadn't managed to get out of bed, perhaps not her finest hour.
A lamp on a bedside table to her right was turned on, its orange artificial light giving the bedroom a warm coloured feel. Her stomach growled and she rolled over to her side to blame Carmilla some more, only to find that she was alone in the bed.
The next thing she noticed was the wonderful smell of cooked food wafting in from outside the room.
She sat up in time to see Carmilla at the bedroom's entrance, a sturdy brown wooden doorway that remained open most of the time. In fact, most of the inner doors around the cottage were kept open, their penchant for moving around during their more intimate moments made it advantageous to do so. Just because you started something on the couch, didn't mean it had to end there. You could take it to the bed, or the table, or the bath, or that one time on their new expensive rug Carmilla had picked out. Closed doors could be quite annoying in those situations.
As she walked into the bedroom Carmilla held a tray with both hands. On it, a shining white round platter filled with everything Laura had described earlier and more. Golden toast, crispy bacon, fried mushrooms, scrambled eggs, pancakes covered in syrup. She'd made a veritable miniature feast.
The smell was sumptuous, the vision heavenly. It took her a moment to register it as reality. She'd woken up to the woman she loved looking beautiful in a black dressing gown, holding a feast of delicious food. A part of her was waiting for it to turn out to be some kind of hunger induced fever dream. Her mouth hung open slightly as she struggled to get words out.
"I, uh."
"I got the feeling you were a little annoyed at me so I thought about how I might apologise. You seemed pretty invested in this bed and breakfast idea. So I went ahead and did it while you were asleep. I know it's already the evening but I see no reason why we should be held captive to the tyranny of traditional social eating conventions."
"Yeah, wouldn't want that, with the tyranny and the eating… conventions, stuff, no," her watering mouth wasn't working very well.
Carmilla walked over to the bed and placed the tray on Laura's lap. Before picking up a fork and diving in, Laura shifted the large tray to the side a little, inviting Carmilla to join her. Carmilla took up the invitation and they started eating with aplomb.
It was delightful, almost professional. Despite knowing Carmilla for quite some time now, she never for one-second thought she'd have such skill at cooking. Yet more hidden depths, one of the many aspects to her that Laura loved immensely, there was always something new to learn about Carmilla, whether it be some vital part of her personality or just a little quirk. It would be a privilege to spend a lifetime with her learning it all.
"Hey!" Carmilla said with a pout when Laura voiced her surprise at how good the food was, "three hundred years old here, do you really think I chose to learn Ancient Sumerian before how to cook half decently?"
While Laura shovelled, Carmilla ate daintily. At first Laura thought it to be some of the old girl raised in royalty shining through, but then she realized it was more that she derived greater pleasure from seeing Laura enjoy the meal, than actually eating it herself.
"I'm sorry I didn't help you with the day you wanted. I know that you're frustrated with how long it's taking to get better from using that damned mask. I just don't want you to push yourself too hard, too soon," Carmilla said.
She smirked a little and cast her eyes downwards as if in embarrassment.
"Also, maybe I kind of like having you next to me when I wake up."
Laura stopped shovelling and swallowed hard, then wiped her mouth on a napkin so she could kiss Carmilla on the cheek.
"No, if anyone should be apologizing it's me. I've been a grumpy sack these last few days and in response you've treated me like a Queen today."
Carmilla waved the apology away.
"You're grumpy because for someone as full of life as you, being cooped up is a nightmare. I can take a little grumpiness. I'd never want that to change," she leaned her head on Laura's shoulder, tomorrow we'll go hiking if you want, I'll even do some yoga with you beforehand. I know how much you want me to try it out. There is this place not far from here. I remembered it a few days ago, a little lake I used to visit to get away from Mother for a while. I think you'll like it."
"I love you," Laura said. It came out of her abruptly, without conscious thought.
Carmilla chuckled lightly.
"Yeah, she says that now I brought her food."
That got Laura laughing as well. She starting shovelling again, savouring every flavour.
Some time past as they ate. Pausing every so often to exchange a joke or for Laura to complement Carmilla's cooking.
When the platter became more empty than full, Laura cocked her head towards Carmilla, a coquettish smile on her face.
"You know, I should really thank you for this. Perhaps a bit later, after eating all this, I'll have the energy to do that properly."