Title inspired by the song Ain't No Mountain High Enough. Inspired by this prompt: Person A knowing that Person B is terrified of heights. One day, Person B manages to severely upset Person A, prompting Person A to leave and hide in a high structure just to stay away from Person B. For charlieismyotherhalf on tumblr who wanted the angsty Lawstein fic. Check out her stuff!
Also this turned out slightly different than I had originally intended, and longer. Oh well. Enjoy the fic!
Cheers!
"Laura! She is in a tree! How am I supposed to talk to her?"
"Well, she thinks that you don't want her in this relationship, that you don't love her anymore. So you have to talk to her."
"Laura!" But the tiny human had turned around, walking down the trail leading out of the forest, heading for her dorm. Carmilla sighed, she couldn't believe that her girlfriend had just left her in this predicament. The vampire squinted against the harsh sunlight filtering down through the dense foliage. High up in the tree, the tree that the Summer Society referred to as the World Tree, Carmilla could see a brilliant dash of red nestled securely in the branches. Of course Danny Lawrence would pick the largest tree in the entire forest, which just happened to be her favourite tree.
Carmilla had been to several Summer Society parties at the tree before, there would be colourful streamers and fairy lights everywhere, a campfire with s'mores and hotdogs, an excessive amount of drinks in red plastic cups and half of Summer Society up in the branches. Danny would always be the first to scramble up the tree with such grace that made the vampire herself envious. Laura would try to join her, only managing to get half as high up as Danny did. Carmilla would be watching them at the bottom, biting her lip worriedly as she watched her girlfriends scale to heights far out of her reach. She never climbed the tree, something about heights just didn't bode well with her. This fact was made very clear to her girlfriends. She didn't mind rooftops and towers, as long as her gaze was focused on the skies above her, not how far the ground was below her.
Inevitably, one of the partygoers would fall out the tree.
Laura did once, Carmilla was right there to catch her of course- which earned a more than brief kiss for her efforts. Danny never did, swinging from branch to branch effortlessly. But now there were no drunk Zetas trying to hit on her, no blaring music and most of all, no excuses.
It was her fault.
She was bad at the whole emotions and feelings thing, she knew that. It was easier with some people, like Laura. People who were so open and easy to read were simply easier for Carmilla to connect with. It was just something she was used to. All the girls that she had preyed on for her mother were like that, innocent, naive, Laura. She was used to things like the extra touch on the arm, the flirty compliment here or there. The way she interacted with Laura just felt natural to her. Laura was always so eager to initiate things anyways, kisses, hugs, physical contact, all those little things.
Danny on the other hand, Carmilla found herself completely at loss. Danny was nothing like what Carmilla was used to: experienced, fierce, protective. Sometimes Carmilla saw so much of herself in the tall ginger that it scared her. So Carmilla had taken a more cautious approach with Danny, she couldn't help it. It was not that long ago that they couldn't even stand each other. She had taken things slow and easy. Casual conversations, smiles, you know, the basic things. She didn't want to scare Danny away.
That approach backfired on her. Horribly backfired.
It had been late in the afternoon, Laura had returned from her classes, beating Danny back to their shared dorm room. Which resulted in them cuddling on their makeshift double bed while they waited for Danny. For someone with superior senses, Carmilla really should've seen this coming. One moment, she was smiling at Danny with an arm curled around Laura as they flicked through Netflix, the next moment, Danny was screaming at her.
"Am I that revolting to you?" her voice was quiet, dangerously calm. Carmilla should've known better.
"What?"
"Are you doing this relationship for Laura's sake, Carmilla?" Volume was rising, and so was the pitch.
"Danny, what's going on?" Laura had gotten up from the bed, leaving Carmilla's side to stand in between her two girlfriend's.
"Don't play dumb with me, Karnstein." Danny ignored Laura completely, staring over the brunette's head with a sad fury in her eyes. "I've seen the way you look at Laura, the way you treat her, all the hugging and the kissing and the cuddling. You barely even look at me. You always sit on the chair when we're alone in the room together, never together on the bed." Her voice wavered, breaking, but she powered through.
"Danny-"
The redhead held up a hand, cutting off all arguments, "I get it. You wanted Laura to be happy so you agreed to do this relationship so that she wouldn't have to choose. But did you ever think that this relationship also meant that you were dating me too?! Maybe I love you too!" Danny's eyes widened, realizing what she had said, realizing that those were actual tears running down her face. Without another word, she fled the room, leaving a stunned Laura and Carmilla in her wake.
Which brought Carmilla to this cursed tree. Danny knew full well how much Carmilla hated heights and hated this tree, especially this tree, with all of its flimsy boughs and easy-to-snap branches. She took a deep breath, Laura was right. This whole misunderstanding was her fault. She should've taken the leap, gone with her gut and been open with Danny. She should've talked to the ginger giant about everything before making such rash decisions. Of course her good intentions would've come off as just her being cold. Sure, Danny was a lot like her, but at the same time, Danny was hot headed, rash and eager to please. Carmilla should've known. She's seen the way that Danny's face lights up when Laura kisses her, or the expression on her face when Laura leaps on to her back for a piggy back.
Some girlfriend Carmilla was.
Maybe she could talk to Danny from the ground, talk Danny into coming down. "Danny. I know you're up there," she called out hesitantly. There was no reply. "Danny Lawrence. Danny." Carmilla huffed, frustrated. "You're going to have to come down here at some point. And I am going to sit here and wait for you so we can talk like mature adults!" Grumbling, Carmilla sat down on a tree root, legs crossed. Minutes passed, Carmilla checked her fingernails, drummed her fingers on the bark, still nothing.
"Danny!" she tried again, the red blob in tree remained unmoving. Sometimes, the whole stubborn thing was cute, other times-like now, it was annoying. She'd have to go up in the tree.
The vampire stared at the tree. It was just a tree. She could do this. A fifty foot tall tree. "Don't say I've never done anything for you," Carmilla growled.
Unhappily, Carmilla began climbing the tree, she was going to regret this. The first few feet weren't that bad, the branches near the bottom were thick and sturdy. It was like climbing very uneven stairs, and despite the sinking feeling in her gut, she kept climbing. The branches began thinning out as Carmilla got up higher and higher. She clung to the tree desperately as another branch cracked underneath her foot. Her knuckles were white with the force that she hung onto the bark. She could feel the splinters digging into her hands from all the branches that she had crushed from the how hard she had been holding on to them.
"Go away Carmilla." Danny was branches away, her back still turned stubbornly.
Carmilla set her jaw and clambered forwards, ignoring the branches in favour for scrambling up the larger boughs, hanging onto the rough barks and knobs for dear life.
"I said go away!" Danny yelled, still refusing to even look at the struggling vampire. "I don't wanna see you!"
"I would if I could, Red," Carmilla replied through gritted teeth. The branch she had crawled onto creaked ominously, maybe she shouldn't have done this. "Red. Red. Red. Danny. Danny. Look at me. Look at me!"
Danny shifted in her seat to face the vampire, who had wrapped herself around the limb and looked like she was about to throw up. That was quite a sight to take in, and Danny had to stifle a giggle. The usually composed vampire looked completely out of her element, a panicked expression on her face as her entire form trembled. Still, Danny was very much hurt and furious and she stared at Carmilla with steely eyes.
"Danny. I'm so, so sorry," Carmilla could feel herself slipping of the branch and she dug in her nails a little harder. "I never meant to hurt you. Please understand. I've lived a very, very long time but never in my three centuries have I experienced anything like this." More silence, but Danny hadn't looked away so Carmilla took that a sign to continue. "After I lost Ell, I didn't think that I could ever love again. But I met Laura, and then you and I just don't know what to do." Her legs were sliding off the branch, pulled unrelentingly by gravity. She really should've crossed her legs around the stupid tree.
Vampiric strength wasn't much help when your entire body shaking, overcome with fear. Had she mentioned she hated heights? But she had come this far. Legs dangling limply, she pressed on, arms straining. "Laura was easy to talk to, she was so cheery and open and I was already used to flirting with her. It just came so naturally. You, you scared me." Carmilla stared at the whorls in the bark, unable to bring herself to meet Danny's intense gaze. "You were so much like me. I always felt like you could see through my facades. And I know that we didn't see eye to eye when we first met. I was afraid I'd scare you off."
She took a deep breath. The sight of the ground, so far below her was her head spin. "I'm sorry that I came off as cold but I thought that you didn't want me. So I never pushed, I'd take it slow. We kind of jumped into this relationship, and I didn't know how you'd feel about having to deal with me all the time. I thought I'd back off and give you space, work our way through it. I figured that having you around, even just as a friend, was better than not at all."
Whatever Carmilla was going to say next was cut off as the branch underneath her finally gave, snapping with a resounding crack. "Danny!" she cried out, hands reaching out frantically. Danny's eyes widened as she all but lunged for the smaller girl's hand, nearly diving off the branch herself. Larger, calloused hands enclosed firmly around pale ones and Danny, thankfully, pulled the vampire up onto her branch. Now they were face to face.
"Hey."
At that, Carmilla remembered that Danny was still heartbroken and tried to give her space. Unfortunately, her sudden backwards movement resulted in her losing her balance. She nearly fell off the tree again if Danny had not grabbed her hands in time and hauled her back. They were closer than before now, noses nearly touching. Carmilla could feel Danny's breath ghosting over her cheekbones, never had she been more grateful that she couldn't blush. Danny could feel Carmilla trembling, her eyes turned skywards in an attempt to calm herself. With a huff, Danny gave in. She could no more resist Carmilla than she could resist Laura.
Gently, she tugged Carmilla closer, so that the vampire was practically on her lap, facing her. "You are a stupid vampire." Danny took a deep breath and pressed her forehead to Carmilla's. "I'm sorry I blew up at you like that. I should've sat you down and we should've talked this out like mature adults," the ginger trailed a hand down Carmilla's shoulder blade, rubbing soothingly. The vampire was still trembling like a leaf in the wind, about to fall. "It's just that, all my life, I've never been wanted. I got left on the doorstep of a fire station as a baby, parents didn't want me. Then I bounced from foster family to foster family, never stayed more than a few months. I had no friends at school. I was just always alone."
Danny's voice wavered and Carmilla brought her hands up to cup the ginger's face. Tenderly, she wiped away the falling tears with her thumbs. "Oh Danny, I'm sorry. I never knew. I should've known. I will always want you. I will always need you. You can scream at me, be angry at me, it doesn't matter. But please don't ever doubt how much I love you. You'll never be alone again. Never."
Her only reply was more tears and the dark haired girl wrapped the other girl up in a hug. "Silas was the first place I felt like I belonged in a long time. The Summer Society became my home but I felt like I finally had a family with you and Laura. It hit too close to home when I thought you didn't want me," Danny's voice came out muffled. Nobody wanted the oversized, awkward girl with two left feet and clumsy hands. There had to be a reason she went through foster families so quickly. By the time Danny turned twelve, she stopped bothering to unpack her suitcase and making friends. There was no point. She remembered when she called Mrs. Sheridan 'mom'. The word felt foreign in her she reached high school, she made it a point to win every medal she could. She was getting out of the system and she was going to do it on her own.
Her gangly limbs become an advantage, her height an asset. Suddenly Danny had something. Medals, heavy pieces of metal that validated her existence. But the weights around her neck got her what she wanted, a full ride scholarship to a university; her ticket out.
"Oh, Danny," Carmilla murmured. "I'm sorry that I ever made you feel that way." They really should've had a lengthy discussion about all of this before getting into the relationship. They sat there for a moment, enjoying their closeness and relishing in the comfort of the other person's presence. Danny looked up at Carmilla but Carmilla had closed her eyes to avoid looking down. The vampire tightened her grip on the human. Right, they were in a tree, a good thirty or forty feet up in the air. "We should get you down, you shouldn't have come up here."
"I wasn't always scared of heights." Carmilla whispered, the words just slipped out of her mouth. She was desperate for a distraction, anything. Danny's shoulders tensed beneath Carmilla's hands.
"Carm..." Danny breathed, "you don't have to tell me anything."
"No, I'm done with keeping secrets. Look where that got us," Carmilla took a deep breath, what a better time to tell this story than when she was stuck up in a tree? "I was still human then. How this life all began. I was having some fun in the West Tower of the castle but one of the young lords came by and chased her away. I didn't like him, too pretentious, too proud, so I rebuffed his advances. We fought, he tried to force himself onto me. I wasn't as strong or as skilled then and I was pushed out of a window." A sharp intake of breath, Danny didn't expect that one. "Landed on the rocks at the bottom of the tower, impaled by one actually." Carmilla ran a hand subconsciously over her left side, a jagged line ran through her, connected by an invisible lance of stone.
Danny had seen the faint white lines on the pale girl's back when she changed. Yes, she had been curious as to what it was- vampires healed fast, what would leave a scar that a vampire couldn't heal? A small part of her knew that the scar marked the moment when Carmilla became Carmilla, but a much larger part wanted to deny it. A much larger part wanted to believe that the transformation had been smooth, painless, not the violent struggle that she knew was true.
Instead, the ginger tangled one hand in the vampire's dark locks, the other on the small of her back, making sure that Carmilla knew that she was here, making sure that Carmilla could feel her presence, that she was here, not back in the tower. "I can't believe that you got up here. I'm sorry I made you come up here."
Carmilla shook her head, "Don't be. I needed to do this." She stared the ginger dead in the eye, "There is no tree tall enough to make me ever stop wanting you or loving you. You got that?"
Danny blushed under Carmilla's intense stare. "Yes."
"Good," and Carmilla was kissing her with the force of a thousand suns. Danny had to brace herself against the trunk or both of them would fall. It felt like someone was pouring just liquid warmth down her throat. This low burning feeling spread through her body like every cell was coming alive. When Danny kissed Laura, it was gentle and sweet as if she had just taken a shot of pure sunshine and sugar. Laura was the sunshine beaming gently down on your face on a beautiful spring morning. Carmilla was the other side of the sun, intense and fierce.
They broke apart, breathing heavily. Carmilla stared at the other girl, why hadn't she done this earlier.
"So how exactly do you plan on getting down?"
Twenty minutes, a fair amount of cursing, and three bruises later.
"You can open your eyes, Carm." Carmilla lifted her face from where she been hiding it in Danny's shirt and peeked timidly over the ginger's shoulder. They were on the ground again. Danny had basically swung the vampire onto her back- her ribs were sore from how tightly Carmilla's legs wrapped around her midsection. Then Danny climbed the tree with the Carmilla 'backpack', which was a lot harder than it seemed. The vampire let out a sigh of relief as she felt Danny crouch and slid off her back.
"Sweet sweet earth. I'm never going up in a tree again." She threw herself into the grass and rolled flat onto her back.
"Hey! What happened to ain't no tree high enough?" Danny grumbled, looking down at her girlfriend who beamed back at her.
"Shut up, Red," Carmilla teased and allowed Danny to help her up. "Cupcake's going to be worried, we should get back."
"Actually, I think not," Carmilla followed Danny's smiling gaze to a figure curled up next to the roots of the tree. Laura had fallen asleep waiting for her two girlfriends to sort things out. Carmilla chuckled and followed her girlfriend to their tiny girlfriend. They looked at each other and then down at the tiny human.
"Rock, paper, scissors?"
Carmilla smiled and just scooped up their girlfriend.