Chapter 4: You're In Lo-o-ve

Laura grunted under the weight of her large duffel bag, the strain proving to be too much on her delicate shoulders.

"Jesus, you would think seven years of karate lessons would give a girl at least a little upper body strength," she muttered bitterly, and Laf laughed.

"I don't think any amount of karate would help," Laf remarked. "Just look at that thing!" they exclaimed, pointing a gnawed-down fingernail at the bag. "What do you even keep in that? You could fit a human in there!"

Gritting her teeth, Laura shook her head as she attempted to haul the bag up the first stair. "Just clothes. Lots of clothes."

Laf grabbed for the handle of the bag. "Here, we can take some of the clothes out and I'll carry them for you," they said with a smile. "Maybe I'll wear some of them."

"No!" Laura insisted sharply, and Laf retreated, their easy grin turning into a tiny 'o' of shock. Immediately, Laura's cheeks flushed bright red with regret. "I mean, it's fine. I can definitely, totally handle this-"

With a scream, Laura tripped on the stairs and dropped her duffel, prompting a shrill noise from within the contents of the bag.

"Whoa, what was that noise?" Ignoring Laura, who was trying to get her flip-flop back on her foot while protesting loudly, Laf unzipped the bag.

Inside, there was nothing but a giant black cat, innocently licking its paw. "A cat?" Laf inquired. "I didn't know you had a cat, Laura. You didn't mention it at all during the interview." Laf reached for the cat, but it darted away, its penetrating emerald eyes staring accusingly at Laura.

Flip flop in hand, Laura racked her brain for a feasible excuse. "I- I- I just adopted it over the weekend. I work- I mean I volunteer at the local animal shelter, and this cat had just been brought in. I couldn't resist her. I was planning to give her to my dad after today, but I- I wanted to say goodbye?"

Laura's story would've sounded sketchy to the most gullible person in the world, but it had brought Laf to starry eyes and tears.

"YOU CAN KEEP HER HERE!" Laf nearly screamed, gathering the cat into their arms with joy. "I mean, I don't know what Perry'll say, but she seems like a cat person, doesn't she? I can't separate true soulmates. What's her name?"

Shit. Laura didn't know how to answer that. She obviously couldn't say the cat's name was Carmilla. Only a crazy person would name their cat a name as strange and absurd as that. "It's… it's Car...amel. Caramel! That's her name. Caramel." With what she hoped was an assured, confident grin, Laura dared to meet Laf's eyes.

Laf frowned. "Why would you name her that? This cat is black." Laura opened her mouth to answer, but Laf waved her away. "Whatever. Everybody has their reasons, am I right? Let's just finish setting up your room.

x+x+x

Laura pulled out of her new parking space, Caramel the 'cat' sitting shotgun. It had taken all three roommates to arrange Laura's stuff in her room, and she (and Caramel) hadn't been alone all day.

When Laura steered the car into the street, she heard a relieved sigh next to her, and looked over to see Carmilla, back in human form.

"Finally," Carmilla griped. "I didn't think they would ever leave us alone."

Eyes on the road, Laura struggled to drive in a straight line as she let loose at the black-haired beauty. "What the fuck was that? You can just fucking shapeshift into a fucking cat? Who the fuck are you? What the fuck are you?"

Instead of being struck with fear, as Laura had intended, Carmilla just let out a laugh, and didn't stop laughing for a long time. "No need to swear, creampuff," she managed to get out between giggles, "it's not that big a deal. I can't explain it. Everyone in my family does it."

Normally, Laura was the world's most inquisitive person. She had questions, oh boy did she have questions. But something told her she wouldn't be able to understand if she tried.

"Whatever," she sighed. "Just stay in your cat form or whatever you want to call it while I'm babysitting. I actually like this job. Being a nanny is something I can handle, and it's way better than being some clerk or something at Target."

"Don't insult Target!" Carmilla said, her face twisted into mock-disgust. Almost too quickly, her features morphed back into her signature boredom. "Anyways, I need a nap. Perry wouldn't let me sleep on the couch. Floors are so uncomfortable. I'll just sleep on this dumb family's sofa."

Laura didn't bother responding as she brought the car to a halt and brought up the windows. "Change fast. I have tinted windows, so they won't see you."

Groaning, Carmilla stretched out her arms. Before Laura could blink, Carmilla was back to her cat self, and she jumped into Laura's arms.

"Oh, no," Laura said with distaste. "I am not a cat person. You will walk up to the front door with me."

Carmilla stared up at Laura, annoyance in her eyes, and let out a pitiful mew.

"Get out of my car." Laura told her, and opened the door.

The two walked up to the house, but before Laura knocked, the door was flung wide open. "Laura! It is so good to see you!" A blonde, overly perky woman exclaimed, throwing her arms around Laura. In a much quieter tone, she whispered, "thank God you're here. It is absolute chaos every time the weeknights roll around. I'm so glad you're my nanny for the rest of the summer."

Laura smiled. "Mrs. K, it's only been two days since I last saw you. And I love the arrangement. Working at night is just my style."

Mrs. K rolled her eyes. "I have to work slightly later than normal tonight. I'll be home around two thirty am, instead of two. Please remember to give Anna her vitamin, you're the only one that can get her to take it." She planted a kiss on Laura's cheek and near sprinted out the door, and waved as she drove away.

"Well that was easy," Laura remarked quietly to Carmilla. "She didn't even notice you." Carmilla meowed in response, and dug her head against Laura's shins.

"Okay, I only have about an hour or two of actual work, just stay out of my way, or I will give you to the shelter, okay?" She warned the cat, and walked into the kitchen.

"LAURA!" A small blonde girl came running into the room, throwing herself into her babysitter's arms. "YOU'RE BACK! I haven't seen you since Friday!" She informed Laura.

Hugging the little girl, Laura replied, "I don't work on the weekends, Anna, you know that. Now what do you want to do?"

For the next hour and a half, Carmilla watched through half-open eyes as Laura ran throughout the house, doing everything from mopping the floors to parading down the hallway with a purple boa around her neck in a 'fashion show.'

Finally, 8:30 arrived, and Laura managed to get the hyper kid into bed after three bedtime stories. However, it wasn't until 10 pm that Carmilla finally got to shift back into her normal self, because Anna kept coming out of her room for bathroom visits, water, and random hugs.

When Laura shut the bedroom door for the last time, and threw a thumbs up at Carmilla, the cat changed back into her human body, with Laura looking away.

"That grosses me out, you know," she informed Carmilla, "it's disgusting."

"You're disgusting!" Carmilla insisted, swatting Laura's leg. "It's a natural process, Laura. It's like puberty. My body's changing." She wiggled her eyebrows, and Laura shrieked.

Falling onto the other side of the sofa, Laura glanced out the window, then back at Carmilla. "It's been a crazy day, you know. I'm even starting to like you a little bit! I must be so tired I'm hallucinating."

Carmilla smiled coyly, and threw her legs across Laura's lap. "Or maybe you're just realizing I have a stellar personality," she joked, sticking her tongue out, but Laura didn't notice.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Carmilla demanded.

"Doing what?"

"Looking out the window. It's like you're expecting someone."

As if on cue, a quiet knock came from the front door, and Laura jumped to her feet. "Go, Carm! Change!" Carmilla harrumphed as Laura hurried to undo the locks on the door, and finally managed to open it.

"Hey, how are you?" The redhead in front of Laura murmured, and she tried not to swoon.

"I'm doing great! Anna's gotten up a few times, so we might have to spring for a quiet movie tonight, one she won't hear from her bedroom."

The redhead grinned, visibly excited. "I could finally show you Twilight! There's a few fight scenes, but it's overall pretty quiet. I normally don't like romances, but this one got to me. It's ridiculous."

Laura blushed. "Oh, you wanna- wanna watch a romance… with me?" Before Laura could embarrass herself further, Carmilla jumped into Laura's arms, emitting a loud purr.

"Mrs. K bought a cat? That's insane!" The redhead reached out to pet Carmilla, but the cat hissed, exposing her fangs.

Squeezing Carmilla's paw as threateningly as she could, Laura said, "No, actually, she's mine. This is Caramel.

"Caramel, meet Danny."

Hey all! Long time no see!

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I was really debating about whether or not to give Carmilla powers, but I just went with the flow of what I was writing. And I got to introduce Danny, which I was really excited for. Keep an eye out for some girl vs girl jealousy ;)

As always, leave a review if you have any comments or criticism, and favorite/follow if you liked it!

I have some questions for you guys: Did I go in the right place with naming Carmilla Caramel? What do you think of Anna? Are you a cat or dog person?

Peace out girl scouts, until next time!

xx,

Nicki