Disclaimer: Still don't own Carmilla (the series), or any recognizable characters.
The sun was slowly beginning to peek over the horizon by the time Carmilla finally woke up.
Last night had been... She made a pleased sound, her body humming in contentment. Laura was draped across her, still asleep. The canopy of vines arching overhead let in just enough of the pre-dawn light to make out her peaceful features, and Carmilla felt her heart skip a beat. That was a sensation she hadn't felt in decades, but it probably shouldn't have been a surprise. The whole scene was, appropriately enough, like something out of a fairy tale. Yes, she'd planned the date with a Faerie princess in mind, but... Well, if she'd actually expected things to go as far as they had - she'd hoped, certainly, but hadn't dared for more than that - she might have taken some precautions. She'd strongly suspected that Laura had never been with anyone else before, intimately, yet hadn't thought about... Well, there had been some blood. Not a lot, but it had been blood, and she was a vampire. Laura had been too... distracted, really, to notice anything was amiss.
It had burned like jet fuel going down, and made her feel like she'd been guzzling Primasprit. Her body had begun tingling, her tongue briefly went numb, she became convinced the plants were talking to her, and she'd suddenly loved everything, and made sure to say so. Hopefully, between how out of it she'd been at the time and the fact that Carmilla had lapsed into German when speaking, Laura hadn't caught her proclamations of love. That would just make things awkward. Her own memories of it were a bit fuzzy, so she could only hope she hadn't embarrassed herself as much as she thought she had.
She was finally feeling more-or-less back to normal - there was still a lightness to her body that she wasn't accustomed to during the day, fantastic sex or not - and she made a mental note not to drink Laura's blood again, under any circumstances. It was far, far too potent... and she had the sudden, horrifying thought that her mother, so much older and more powerful, might not have the same difficulties. She had to get Laura to summon the Summer Queen soon, so that precautions could be taken against that sort of thing. Of anyone, Titania would surely know how to keep an ancient vampire from snacking on her little girl, wouldn't she? "It's always something, with you," she murmured into Laura's hair, lightly kissing her head.
Laura made an incomprehensible noise, snuggling up against her more tightly.
As much as Carmilla enjoyed that - her hormones were certainly standing at attention - the sky was actually turning pink at the horizon, now. They really did need to get up. (She might have liked sleeping past noon, but that was in her bed, not out on a roof.) "Hey." She shook Laura gently. "Come on, Cupcake. Wake up." It was kind of a novel experience, she mused, being the first one up, for a change.
Laura's reply was a mumble of what sounded like gibberish and quiet noises.
"Cupcake?" No answer. "Laura?" Still nothing. She gave Laura's behind a smack. "Wake up, princess!"
Laura jolted back into consciousness, pushing herself up and blurting out, "...save the goldfish!"
"I'll get right on that," Carmilla drawled, amused. "You awake, now?"
"...I think so." Not quite entirely awake, though, judging by her sleepy blinks as she looked around. It seemed to take a minute for her to realize that: A) she was naked, B) they were surrounded by plants that had no business being there, and C) Carmilla, equally naked, was underneath her. Her cheeks tinged a rosy pink - good Lord was it adorable - but she made no move to cover herself. "Good morning," she said instead, leaning down to give Carmilla a quick kiss.
Carmilla wasn't having that, though. It was nearly three minutes before she decided the kiss met her 'good morning' standards. "It is now."
"Uh..." Laura was almost impossibly cute when her brain was scrambled like that. When she shook it off, though, it also visibly sank in just what they'd done last night. Carmilla braced herself against any knee-jerk reactions - her unnatural nature might have clashed with Laura's very natural magic, and someone as tightly-wound as Laura could easily have second thoughts about sleeping with anyone - but all Laura did was grace her with a smile that put the growing dawn to shame. She could actually feel the warmth of it on her skin, and the unconditional acceptance it signified took her breath away. "What time is it, anyway?"
"Dawn." Beyond that, she had no idea. Given her usual approach to classes and the like, keeping track of the time was not something Carmilla typically concerned herself with.
Laura blinked. "We were up here all night?" She absently made a parting gesture with her hands, and the vines around them withdrew. That caught Carmilla's attention, all the more because Laura obviously didn't think anything of it, instead looking around for her clothes. "I guess I'd better check in with the Summers before they come looking for me, or something." She found her shirt... and frowned when she saw that it had been nearly torn in half.
Carmilla winced. "Sorry about that." She'd tried to be as gentle as possible, but vampiric superstrength and flimsy fabric often did not get along, especially when the vampire in question was... excited.
"I don't recall complaining at the time," Laura replied with a shrug. Actually, she'd been fairly well urging Carmilla to hurry up in helping her get her shirt off. She paused for a moment, frowning thoughtfully, then waved a hand... and was suddenly wearing a simple green sundress with a golden rose-print pattern. At Carmilla's raised eyebrows, she explained, "It seemed appropriate."
"Just surprised that you're so casual about that," she replied. "Last night, you were still freaked out about what you could do."
"Yeah, I probably will be later, too," Laura admitted. "Right now, though... Everything is awesome! Everything is cool when you're part of a team," she sang cheerfully, grinning.
Carmilla laughed. "You dork," she said playfully, unable to keep from smiling herself as she found her own (far more intact) clothing and began pulling it on.
"But I'm your dork," Laura shot back. "If you meant what you said last night, that is."
Carmilla froze. Uh-oh. "Uh, which part are you talking about?" she asked carefully.
"Oh, let's see... So much to choose from," Laura said breezily, which was not reassuring. "I'm apparently your sun, and moon, and stars..." Carmilla winced at how cheesy that sounded - it hadn't seemed so at the time, somehow - but Laura wasn't done. "You claimed to love me and every single thing about me, and wow did you go down a list. My hair, my eyes, my smile, my legs, my tight little-"
"Okay, okay! I get it."
"-behind," Laura finished, smirking. "But don't think the list was limited to physical parts of me, oh, no."
"I said that-"
"And then you veered into Shakespearean love sonnets."
Oh, she'd really hoped Laura wouldn't remember that. "Yes, well..."
"At which point you told me that my blood, and I quote, 'is like liquid meth'."
She winced. "I didn't mean to... There was..."
Laura held up a hand. "Carm," she said evenly. "It's okay. I kinda figured that's what happened. That's a one time thing, anyway, so don't worry about it. I was more worried that I'd poisoned you due to my blood being all wonky. But aside from acting like you were drunk, you seemed fine."
Carmilla shook her head. "I don't think I deserve you, Cupcake." She didn't get how the girl - well, young woman now - could be so understanding.
"I disagree."
They could probably debate that point for the rest of the day without making any headway. Time to change the subject, then. "I didn't know you spoke German," she remarked.
"I don't." Misinterpreting Carmilla's confused stare, she said, "I know, I know. College in Austria, you'd think I'd have tried to learn it, right? I mean, I know a few words, but that's it."
"Then... How do you know what I was saying, last night?"
Laura blinked. "You weren't speaking German."
What? "Yes, I was," she said slowly. "Believe me, I can tell the difference."
"Huh. Weird." Apparently, even that couldn't make a dent in her good mood. "Well, we don't have any classes today, so that means we can get back to trying to track down Betty and Elsie." The Zetas, not being complete idiots, had scheduled the luau for Friday night, so no one would have to worry about staying up too late or heading to class hungover the next morning. (Laura had made sure to tease Carmilla over the fact that she hadn't even known what day it was when she'd been telling her story - though, given how subdued Carmilla had been, she hadn't teased her too severely.) "Or maybe give Natalie and Sarah Jane a more thorough looking over. If Jenna can heal Danny's brain after I flash-fried it, she might be able to pick up something we've missed." She frowned lightly. "I should probably check and see how Danny's doing, too."
Carmilla swallowed any jealous-sounding remarks, knowing how guilty Laura felt about what had happened, no matter how many people told her that it wasn't her fault. "And assure the rest of the Ginger Squad that I didn't eat you," she remarked. Then she smirked and added, "Well, not like that, anyway..."
Laura giggled, blushing. "Stop that!"
"Not likely."
"You are just..." She shook her head, cheeks still rosy. She didn't seem to mind too much, though. She held out her arms, and some vines rose up to support her, helping her to her feet. She paused, considering her bare feet, then stepped into a pair of sandals that hadn't been there a second earlier before she set about collecting last night's clothing, intact or otherwise.
Carmilla momentarily paused in the middle of zipping up one of her boots, still surprised by Laura's sudden nonchalance regarding her magic. "Well," she drawled as she stood up, "if I'd known that was all it took to get you to be more comfortable with yourself, I would have tried to get you into bed sooner."
"You did try, actually," Laura pointed out dryly.
"Maybe you should have said yes, then," she shot back, smirking.
"I didn't say 'no', I said 'not yet'." Laura took a deep breath, regarding her steadily. There was a sudden insecurity lurking behind her eyes that was impossible to miss. "So... Are we...? I mean, does this mean that we're dating, now?"
Knowing how seriously Laura took such matters - not just the subject of dating, but people misleading or lying to her - for once, Carmilla didn't prevaricate in the slightest. "Yes," she said simply. "I mean, if you want-"
"I want," Laura interrupted.
Carmilla considered that. "Good." She stood up, watching the tension melt away from Laura's posture. "Are we just leaving the flower garden up here?"
"...maybe people will think it's something the Alchemy Club did?" The uncertainty on her face suggested Laura didn't even know how to get rid of it, which... made perfect sense, really. "There's no soil up here, so I have no idea what, if anything, they're rooted in."
"You got rid of that puppet show crap," Carmilla pointed out.
"Yeah... I really, really wanted that gone, though." She shrugged. "Does it matter if I just leave them here? They probably won't last too long."
"If Cassandra sees this, it may put you into the 'strong enough to be a threat' category," Carmilla warned.
"Or maybe she'd just see it as a simple parlor trick," Laura countered. "Either way... I'm not sure I could get rid of them without scorching the roof, so let's just go. They may die on their own once I'm gone, for all I know."
Feeling somewhat uneasy, but unable to think of a reason to push Laura into trying something she obviously wasn't comfortable with, Carmilla followed her back down the stairs and out of the building.
It wasn't until they were passing a wooden support beam on the front porch, and the flowers carved in relief onto it twitched and then burst into sudden blooms of living color, that she realized they might have an ongoing problem on their hands. "Uh, Laura...?"
"What?" Her gaze followed Carmilla's gesture toward the beam, and she froze. "...oh." She was still another few moments, then shook her head, turning around and resuming walking. "No. Good mood. Refuse to let this ruin my good mood."
"And, um, that?"
Laura paused and turned... then groaned aloud when she saw the flowers springing up on either side of the path she was walking along. Carmilla shook her head. Calla lilies, edelweiss, snowdrops, purple roses, fuschia... Anyone who knew anything about flowers and came across all these together would be confused, if not outright suspicious. "Just... ignore it..." Laura insisted, resuming the trek back toward their dorm, stubbornly refusing to look at any of the flowers that seemed to be stalking her. "It'll stop eventually." She paused, then muttered under her breath, "I hope."
If she'd at all doubted that Laura was still Laura, this would have settled that. "So," Carmilla began as she caught up to her. "Should I just direct Cassandra toward this, or are we going to continue to try and pass it off as the handiwork of the gardeners? Because I think they'll know they had nothing to do with it, and regular flowers are a bit too boring to be something the Alchemy Club cooked up."
Laura gave a humorless laugh. "Yeah, not like-" She broke off mid-word, freezing in place as she stared at the ground. "What the hell is that?"
Carmilla looked, but saw only the paved walkway. "What's what?"
"Down there, there's... Wait. They did say something about a huge interconnected fungus they were seeding throughout the campus..." Her head swung back and forth, as if tracing something. Not something visible, it seemed, given her eyes were shut.
"You can sense things like that, now?" Carmilla asked, eyebrow raised.
"I guess...? I mean, I never tried before, so... Wait. What's- Ow!" Her eyes flew open, and she began massaging her temple.
"What?" She really hated that something might have hurt Laura and there was nothing she could do about it, she found. Lovely.
"I don't know. It felt like I touched an electric fence, or something. Only with my brain."
Carmilla chewed that over. "If I'd kidnapped a bunch of girls," she began slowly, "and I didn't want the magic-using do-gooders on campus interfering, I'd hide them - and the sacrifice location - behind some kind of shield."
"Danny never said anything about something like this. I'm sure they would have looked for Elsie, and that would be a huge clue."
"You have a lot more juice than they do."
"I guess."
"So...?"
"It's... that way." She gestured toward most of the campus.
"That's helpful."
"Sorry."
"Well, given that you're evidently not supposed to have sensed anything..."
"I... suppose we could head that way and try again, but I feel like the more times I try that, the greater the chance someone like that Cassandra of yours will notice." And picking up on something the combined Summer Society couldn't would definitely mark her as a potential threat. "Maybe I could wait a while, then try it from the dorm?"
Carmilla shrugged. "Sounds like a plan to me. You might want to ask the Summers about any specific methods you might employ when you're checking up on Xena."
"Might as well. Though..."
"Though...?" Carmilla prompted.
"Well, if... that voice... is to be believed, then they can help get me started, but they can't teach me what I need to know. Whatever that is."
"What voice?"
"Oh... Right, you wouldn't know. Sorry." She quickly summarized what she'd heard when she'd touched the door in her mind, not noticing they'd come to a stop in the middle of the path as she did.
Carmilla let out a slow breath. As much as she appreciated a break from the usual routine when it came to the sacrifices, this was all just a bit beyond her. "Then I think you're going to have to make a call you haven't wanted to."
Laura looked like she wanted to argue - a lot - but deflated a moment later. "I know," she admitted quietly. "I'm just... not ready, yet."
"You'd better get ready, then," Carmilla warned. "If Maman figures out what you are first... Like I told you, she's very old, and very powerful, and obviously know how to perform rituals. I don't even want to think about what she could do with your blood."
Laura shot her a look somewhere between disbelieving and horrified. "Oh, good, because I obviously didn't have enough to worry about," she exclaimed, aghast.
"Unfortunately, things aren't going to wait until you think you're ready to deal with them." It was blunt, but sometimes that was what it took to get through to Laura. "You can handle it, though."
Laura smiled, but her heart wasn't in it. "Which part?"
"All of it. You won't be doing it alone. Though I can't deal with your mom for you, obviously."
"Right," Laura said faintly, then nodded and repeated herself more firmly, "Right. I just need to... girl the hell up."
That surprised a laugh out of Carmilla. "You are an adorable young woman."
"'Young woman the hell up' doesn't really flow, though."
She snorted. "Oh, I know. Still, after last night, I'd say you've certainly blossomed." So to speak, she thought, aware of the multitude of flowers surrounding them.
So was Laura, whose expression was shifting to one of alarm. "Oh, God, does that mean this isn't going to stop?" she demanded, gesturing at them vaguely.
"Guess that's another thing to add to the list of questions you'll have to ask the Queen."
"Joy."
They continued on in silence for a while, Laura back to resolutely trying to ignore the flowers, while Carmilla was externally as aloof as she ever was. Internally... She had no idea what to do. After being her mother's slightly rebellious puppet for so long - really, there were multiple reasons she was glad Laura's attempted puppet show hadn't gotten off the ground; she hadn't needed that (however unknowingly) rubbed in - actively defying her... Laura hadn't been wrong, she was scared. Add to that suddenly having a girlfriend that she was developing feelings for at an alarming rate, and struggling to help said girlfriend deal with her heritage, not to mention everything that was included in that... Well, it was little wonder she wasn't exactly operating at her best.
They'd almost reached the dorms when LaFontaine came out the front door, nearly colliding with Laura before they saw her and stopped. "There you are! Wait... Are you just getting in?" they asked incredulously.
"Um... maybe?" Laura shifted self-consciously, obviously aware of the image she must have been presenting: standing there in a dress that (as far as anyone else knew) clearly wasn't hers, the previous night's clothing and shoes clutched in her arms, a (sexily) disheveled Carmilla next to her.
That last seemed to be giving LaFontaine the most trouble. "Uh-huh..." they said slowly, obviously not sure what to make of Laura staying out all night with Carmilla, of all people.
Laura suddenly laughed. At Carmilla's curious glance, she explained, "Sorry, it just hit me how much stuff has been happening over the past couple days."
"That's putting it mildly."
"Yeah. Anyway, I can explain," she said to LaFontaine. "It's... a bit of a long story, though. Where were you going?"
"Gail something-or-other from the Summer Society wanted to talk. To you, I think, but you weren't answering your phone, so she asked me to help find you. Which was easier than I thought it would be."
Laura blinked. "Gail? She's-" She broke off, head tilting to the side, then abruptly whirled and threw one of her shoes at nothing... which it promptly bounced off of.
"Ow!" nothing objected. A moment later, the air a few feet away shimmered, and then Gail was standing there, rubbing the shoulder that Laura had hit. She didn't look terribly annoyed, though. "How did you know?" she asked curiously.
Carmilla didn't appreciate being spied on, but she had to admit, she was curious about that herself. From what little she knew about magic, veils like that were designed to even hide their magical signature, as they would have been fairly useless, otherwise, at least where other mages were concerned. "What the...?" LaFontaine began, reminding the others that this was not a private conversation.
"Magic's real," Laura told them simply, then turned to Gail and shrugged. "I just... did." To Carmilla, she said, "It's okay. She was just worried. She wasn't there long, or she wouldn't be so confused."
"I knew it!" LaFontaine burst out, eliciting a smile from Laura. Carmilla would admit, the bio-major's easy acceptance of the weird certainly made things simpler, sometimes.
"How did...? Oh..." Gail's eyes widened. "I mean, I knew Mel said, but..." Then, to Laura's horror, she dropped down to one knee with a respectful, "Your Highness."
"Uh, Laura...?"
"Long. Story," she bit out, then shoved her clothes and remaining shoe at Carmilla so she could tug Gail back to her feet. "Don't do that!"
"She hasn't accepted any titles, yet," Carmilla added, bending down to scoop up the discarded shoe because, really, why not?
"I see. As you wish, Y- Laura." She was still looking at Laura with a bit too much adoration for her comfort.
"How's Danny doing?" Laura asked, obviously desperate for a change of subject.
"What happened to Danny?" No one bothered answering them this time.
"She was still asleep, last I knew." That, at least, managed to put a more normal expression on her face. "Jenna says she'll be up and about in a day or two, though, definitely back to normal by mid-terms."
Laura exhaled heavily, relieved. "Thank goodness."
"Yeah. Now..." She waved a hand at Laura and Carmilla. "...what is this about?"
"...did no one watch my last video?!"
"Tragic backstory, ritual sacrifice, evil Dean, yeah, I saw. Nothing about getting busy with your undead roommate." LaFontaine didn't say anything, indicating they'd seen it, too.
"Like I said, the last couple days have been... busy." To LaFontaine, she said, "I'll tell you all about it once we get upstairs. I should probably make another video, anyway, test how the veil on them is working." She turned to Gail, adding, "Oh, and if we brought Natalie and Sarah Jane to see Jenna, do you think she could look them over thoroughly?"
Gail just stared at her for a long moment. "Oh, fuck, you don't know..."
Laura tensed, nervously grabbing Carmilla's hand. The others pretended not to notice. "What? What happened?"
"Natalie vanished at the party last night, and... Sarah Jane's dead."
"What?!"
"She fell from the third floor balcony. I wasn't there myself, but from what that Kirsch guy said, when they noticed Natalie was missing, everyone went to look for her, and he locked the door to make sure Sarah Jane stayed safe. No one knows exactly what happened. We found those stupid cards in both their dorms, though, so chances are someone made a grab for her... and missed."
"I took a bunch of samples of that sludge," LaFontaine added, trying to, if not reassure Laura, then at least distract her from her growing agitation. "We'll figure out what it is."
"And was the puppy alone when he told you this?" Carmilla asked smoothly.
"Well... Yeah, I guess," Gail replied, mildly confused. "Why?"
Laura, who had interacted with Kirsch more often than Gail had, knew where Carmilla was going. "Then where was Will?"
"Probably bringing Natalie to Mother so that she wouldn't be too upset that he'd screwed up and gotten a sacrifice killed."
Laura whirled, tugging her hand free in the process. "Wait, Will's...? We've got to warn Kirsch!"
"Oh, no, we don't."
Laura gaped. "But he's in danger! I mean, unless you're telling me he's like you..."
Carmilla scoffed at that idea. "Hardly. But we don't go around killing people for no reason, and the only way you could know about Will is me telling you. So, no, we will not be saying a word to Kirsch or any of his 'bros'. They'll be fine."
Laura clenched her tiny fists. "I get that, but... This... Arrgh!" She stomped a foot in sheer frustration... and the flowers nearby all burst into flame.
Ignoring both LaFontaine's startled exclamation and Laura's chagrined wince, Gail waved a hand, promptly snuffing out the fire. "I hate to say it, but... She's not wrong."
"I guess..." Laura was much more subdued following her outburst.
"Huh," Carmilla mused. "I know I once raised the possibility of you losing it and torching all my stuff, but I'll admit, I didn't consider it a serious risk." At Laura's hurt look, she added, "If you look closely, you'll see that you only toasted the flowers you made yourself - which does seem to have at least solved the problem of more showing up - while everything around where they were is fine." Watching as that sunk in, she gently said, "Even when you were that upset, you avoided hurting even the grass. You're not gonna lose it and barbecue any people."
Laura exhaled slowly. "I hope you're right." She shook her head. "Anyway, let's get back inside and get everyone up to speed."
"We'll be along in a minute," Gail told her, snagging Carmilla's collar to keep her from following. She didn't so much as twitch at the vampire's sudden glare.
Laura glanced from one to the other, then asked, "Don't hurt her, okay?"
"I won't," Gail and Carmilla chorused, then shot each other a Look. Laura snorted, then turned and followed LaFontaine inside, a small smile on her face.
Carmilla waited until she was out of sight, then smacked Gail's hand away. "Start talking, short stack."
Gail folded her arms. "No, you start talking. How exactly did we get from Laura worrying that you were a kidnapper set on making her your next victim to jumping in bed with you in the space of twenty-four hours?"
"My natural charm and killer good looks?"
"Oh, there'd better be more to it than that."
"You're not seriously threatening me, are you?"
"Well... While I'll admit, being able to attack you would be definite proof you weren't aligned with the Dean, anymore..." She paused just long enough to make Carmilla start considering which direction to dodge to, then continued, "...but no. You really don't get it, do you?"
She was starting to lose patience. "Get what?" she snapped.
"You slept with the princess."
"Oh, don't-"
"As in, Queen Titania's daughter," Gail pressed on. "The ruler of fully half of Faerie. As powerful as your average Outer God or Archangel. Can and will go from point A to point B no matter who or what is in the way. And if you're sleeping with her daughter, guess what? You now most likely have her undivided attention." She clapped Carmilla on the shoulder. "Good luck!" She strolled past the immobile vampire, quietly adding, "You're gonna need it."
It took Carmilla a minute or so to get her legs moving in order to follow her.
