(21)
"You what?"
"I think it's important to focus on the bigger picture here," Laura says, holding up her hands to steady Danny, who kind of looks like she wants to punch her in the face. "She could have easily drained me dry and broken free, but she didn't. She stopped, which means we can trust her, which is why I let her go on a quick undead grocery run."
Danny buries her face in her hands and takes a deep breath. "It wasn't another seduction-eyes thing, was it? Because if she's forcing you to do stuff like this, I swear I'll—"
"Get yourself another black eye?"
"I told you, it's fine." She shrugs. "A few bruises are worth it, if it means you're safe."
Laura shakes her head. "But I don't want you putting yourself in harm's way for—"
"You want to talk about putting ourselves in harm's way?" Danny interrupts, and this might be the most upset Laura's ever seen her. "You let her bite you! You let her drink your freaking blood. I'm not even entirely convinced she isn't trying to turn you into… into one of her."
Laura covers Danny's hand with her own. "I'm okay, I promise. I would tell you if it were otherwise."
She sighs. "Alright, will you at least let me look at the bite marks? I want to make sure nothing's infected or oozing creepy ha-ha-you're-a-vampire-now pus."
Laura rolls her eyes but still moves her hair out of the way and rotates in her chair a little so Danny can lean in and examine her neck, and when she flinches at the first touch of fingertips Danny's eyebrows pull together in concern. "Are you okay? Did I hurt you?"
Laura shakes her head again. "No! You're fine. It was just—you're fine."
"It was just what?" Danny asks quietly, ghosting the pad of her thumb along the pair of puncture marks.
"Nothing. How does it look?"
"Like a vampire bit you," she grumbles, and now her thumb is joined by the rest of her fingers, until she's not so much tracing the bite as she is just kind of holding Laura in place. "Did it hurt?"
Laura shrugs. "It, uh..." Her voice cracks and she clears her throat. "It's not the worst thing I've ever felt," she says carefully, trying her best to look Danny in the eye.
"Would you do it again if she asked you to?"
"Why are you so—wait, is this a jealousy thing?"
Danny balks. "What? No, of course not. Why would I be—? No, that's... no."
Laura crosses her arms. "Danny Lawrence, you are a terrible liar."
"And you, Laura Hollis, are an incredibly stupid... brave," she adds reluctantly, "idiot."
Now Laura arches her eyebrow playfully. "You're an English TA and that's the best you could come up with?"
"Shut up," is Danny's brilliant reply, and she still hasn't taken her hand back. "Just... hey," she says, shifting her palm so she's cupping Laura's cheek, and tilts her head until Laura's looking her in the eye. "Promise me you won't do anything too dangerous. I know how important this Nancy Drew stuff is to you, but it's gonna take years off my life if you keep risking your physical wellbeing, slash life, to solve the mystery."
Laura swallows. "Years, huh?"
"Just be careful, okay?" They might be a little closer to each other than they were a second ago. "I'd be devastated if..." She nibbles her bottom lip rather than finishing the sentence.
"Yeah?" Laura asks quietly.
Danny nods. "Yeah."
Laura catches herself looking at Danny's mouth and forces her eyes back up, but then Danny's eyes are on her mouth, so maybe it doesn't really matter.
"Devastated, huh?" she repeats and wets her lips.
"Shut up," Danny repeats, then leans in and kisses her firmly, but pulls away after a short moment. "I'm sorry, that was—" she starts, letting her hand drop from Laura's cheek, only to have Laura scoop it back up and return it to its previous position.
The next kiss happens an instant later and involves open mouths and a hand buried in Laura's hair, then Danny taking Laura by the hips and pulling her into her lap and both of them nearly falling over in the process; Danny reaches out and braces them against the edge of Laura's bed, and once they've rebalanced, Laura's fingers find the buttons of Danny's flannel shirt and make quick work of the first few as their lips meet again and again.
She pauses midway down, glances over her shoulder at the camera, and hits the "end recording" button.