Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Honestly, it speaks to the size of their room more than anything else for how long it took them to notice.

Laura was halfway down the hall when the weird feeling in the pit of her stomach had grown to be concerning, but she ignored it. Class was obviously more important, she could tough it out.

By the time she got to the end of the hall she had her head in her hands and was moaning in pain.

“I guess everyone was right about my glucose diet. Looks like today is another twelve hour research day.” She staggered back into her room and instantly felt...fine?

A groan from Carmilla alerted Laura to her roommates’ consciousness, but a second glance revealed she had a light sheen of sweat, her bangs sticking to her forehead.

“Uh, not to be nosy,” Laura started, and glared when Carmilla rudely snorted, “but did you just feel like you had four months worth of period cramps coming down on you like a ton of bricks, and then all the sudden stop?”

“Yes,” Carmilla said, and frowned. “Which means something probably caused this, and I get to smash in some skulls.” She looked delighted at the thought.

“Okay, rundown of the past 24 hours. I went to class, had lunch in the caf, got that free cocoa, came back, showered and then cleaned–”

“Wait, back up.”

“Cleaning? It’s what humans do so they can make their very tiny dorm rooms actually habitable?”

“No, not that, the hot chocolate. Who was giving it out?” Carmilla rummaged through her things.

“I don’t know, there was just a sign that said free samples on the table so I took one because, hello, free sugar? It was actually pretty good. Though I don’t know where–”

Carmilla fished out the empty cup from under her bed.

“Wow, thanks Carm. At this point it isn’t even–”

“There’s something on here.”

Laura squinted. Sure enough, there was a symbol of a wide eye in an open palm sharpied onto the cup.

“The Alchemy Club.”

“Looks like it’s time to pay those Wöllner wannabes a visit.”

“Stop whatever it is that you're doing, creeps!” Laura stomped into the Alchemy Club headquarters with righteous fury, an amused Carmilla following her from a safe distance.

“Do you want a clone like that last girl?” Westley, the Alchemy Club president who bore an uncanny resemblance to a weasel, asked exasperatedly.

“What? No, we don't!” The last part was directed toward Carmilla, because it looked like she was seriously considering it. “Explain this!” Laura shoved the cup triumphantly into their slimy, hooded faces.

“We have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“As much as I would usually enjoy this sort of thing, the past hour has been particularly unpleasant, so if you idiots did something to me you better explain exactly what it is or I will rip out your intestines and use them as a harpsichord.”

“Wow Carm, that was...graphic. Super graphic.”

“It’s a love potion!” One of the cowering members cried out.

“It’s so like you to cave, Dennis,” Westley hissed.

“Oh, shut up, I don’t want to be eaten!” Dennis said. “We wanted to make sure we had dates to that Zeta party coming up so we tested it on you. Or at least, it should be a love potion. The book wasn’t super clear. Whatever it is, it didn't work because two people were supposed to drink from the same cup. Which nobody did, except you two, quite evidently. Do you feel madly, passionately in love?”

Laura and Carmilla looked at each other.

“Nope, I’m just feeling a little peckish,” Carmilla said, extending her fangs.

“What she means is, give us the antidote now, and I won’t let my very angry vampire roommate use you as blood bags," Laura said, blocking Carmilla like a waist high fence.

“We don’t have a cure, we’re alchemists! We don't untransform things!” Dennis said, wringing his hands in exasperation.

Carmilla bared her fangs. "Well, I suggest you get working on one. Now!" She snarled. The Alchemy Club ran away shrieking, dropping a book in their haste.

“So, they’re not going to be able to make an antidote,” Laura said.

“Clearly.” Carmilla picked up the book and flipped through it.

“But there might be someone else who could help us.”

“Well, a cure might take some time,” LaFontaine said as a chemical exploded behind them, “but I do have a theory for a more, natural remedy.”

“We'll take anything,” Laura said.

 LaFontaine glanced down at their notes. “So this potion was–”

“A horrific invasion of consent–”

“–not even concocted properly because those lackwits don't know their wolfsbane from their hemlock?”

“A love potion, more or less. Or a lust potion. So for it to wear off, maybe you two need to, uh, get off.” They made accompanying hand motions that really made the whole thing worse.

“Oh. Oh. Oh.” Laura's face went on a journey that settled on disgusted shock.

Carmilla shrugged. “Well, if the mad scientist insists–”

“Nope no. That is a last resort. LaF, keep researching. C'mon, we still need to figure out how to defeat your mother.”

“Joy,” Carmilla deadpanned.

Laura stared at her blinking cursor.

She had created a video update warning the campus about the tainted cocoa, did some research, and answered a couple of tumblr anons.

She had even attempted to look up proximity curses. There was an unsurprising sea of information about love potions, quite enough about being magically stuck together, but nothing that mentioned being forced to be in the same proximity. Even the Silas catalog, which had a version of Hamlet where Ophelia became a vengeful nymph and drowned everyone, came up with nothing.

So she lowered her standards and clicked the first link she found.

It was a fic.

A very long fic.

A very long fic with a rather high rating.

“Spike/Tara? And I thought that Snape/Ron fic was bad,” Carmilla said, looking up from her book.

“I was just doing some research!” Laura jumped, quickly tabbing over to a more official looking site.

Carmilla chuckled at that and got up.

“No, really, this could be important, let me see–” Carmilla said, leaning over Laura to mouse back to the offending page because she was the worst person Laura had ever met in the history of ever.

Only, when Laura's hand had grabbed Carmilla's to wrestle her off the computer, she felt a rush of clarity, like diving into a crisp pool on a hot summer day.

They froze.

Laura gingerly lifted her hand off, and felt the loss of contact like a dull ache. She put it back over Carmilla's, and the clear feeling returned.

“Wow, they really messed this potion up.”

“That's, that's not normal?” Laura's pulse was racing, which was a little ridiculous. Get it together, Hollis.

“No,” Carmilla said, taking her hand away from Laura’s and inspecting it. “I've seen love potions in action before, and usually the second you make eye contact you start ripping off clothes. At the very least when there's physical contact. It takes some effort to screw up a potion this bad.”

“What if it's a friendship potion? Maybe we just need to hug for a little bit and then we can get back to our busy saving the university lives.”

“Really, Kit Kat, a cuddle potion?” Carmilla smirked. “If you wanted to get into my bed so bad, you could've just asked.”

“Ugh!” Laura threw up her hands. “If you want to be stuck like this forever, fine. I am going to go shower.”

“Maybe it's a showering potion,” Carmilla called out as Laura trudged off to the bathroom. “Water could be the only way to break it! I really should come join you–”

She slammed the door, but it wasn't loud enough to shut out Carmilla's laughter.

A sudden dagger of pain ripped Laura away from one of her now all too frequent nightmares. She sat up, gulping in lungfuls of air and clutching her stomach.

The darkness shimmered until there was an outline of a figure, and the pain receded. Laura pushed her hair back. “So, I guess it’s not a 24 hour thing.”

“Those imbeciles. The distance has gotten even smaller.” Carmilla said, moving in the shadows.

“Just perfect.”

“We can worry about it in the morning.”

Laura nodded, settling back into bed.

“I didn’t see her tonight.” Laura said, the hour too late for her to feel foolish about it, but she was already back asleep before Carmilla could reply.

Laura stood in front of the door. “We are going to class.”

“Hilarious, cupcake. Now, move out of the way, I have places to be.”

“Places that would be totally cool with a nosy human tagging along?”

Carmilla considered her for a moment, then sighed and flopped back down on her bed. “Fine. Another day in 307 it is.”

“No, I have classes to attend. Some of us actually wanted to go to this school," Laura said.

“Which somehow doesn’t even make the top five list of your terrible decisions this year.”

"I only have one lecture today, and I'll skip section." The very awkward thought of watching Danny and Carmilla verbally brawl for the entire section made this an easy offer. "The rest of the day we can go wherever you want."

"Wherever?" Carmilla teased. "So you're okay with going to hang out in the big bad monster lounge."

"Yup," Laura said, figuring Carmilla was just messing with her. Right?

"Cupcake, there is nothing that you can say that will convince me to go outside."

“What a beautiful day!” Laura exclaimed as they stood outside, the foggy and miserable Austrian weather not able to put a damper on her getting her way.

“Cutie, you seemed to have misplaced something,” Carmilla said.

Laura looked down. She was wearing her backpack, the flannel shirt Carmilla usually stole, jeans, and sneakers. Everything seemed to be right. None of her clothes were inside out, which had happened once, though thankfully that was before Carmilla.

“An appendage.” Carmilla lifted up their joint hands to Laura’s eye level.

Laura let go, and as soon as she did she began to feel a little dizzy. Over the past day Laura had learned how to distinguish between Carmilla’s disgust for the world and her disgust of the curse, and it was obvious to her Carmilla was having a similar reaction to the loss of contact. Laura quickly rejoined their hands.

“Ugh. I am going to have crows gouge out-”

“Aww, someone’s grumpy. C’mon, my journalism class starts soon, and if you want to protect your rep we’re going to need one of those choice seats in the back.”

Carmilla seemed to perk up at the mention of journalism, and if she interlaced her fingers with Laura’s then, well, she wasn’t exactly going to complain.

Having Journalism and Lit discussion usually makes Thursday Laura's favorite day. Today is not a normal Thursday.

“Hollis, Karnstein,” Professor Cochrane nodded as they walked in the empty classroom. She looked vaguely similar to Margaret Atwood, if Margaret Atwood had secretly lived forever.

“Karn–you know–Professor Cochrane, do you watch my videos?”

“Of course. It is part of your final project, after all. You also seem to be the only one who knows what's going on around here. Keep up the good work.”

Laura didn't float to her seat but, well, it was pretty close to it.

“Objective reporting,” Professor Cochrane read off her chalkboard, because she claimed that her projector had a vengeful sprite nesting in it. With what Laura had seen so far of Silas, she was willing to buy it. “An important part of reporting is presenting the objective truth by keeping your personal biases out of the facts you are reporting.”

Carmilla rudely snorted, and Laura hurriedly elbowed her.

Laura wasn’t fast enough, and Professor Cochrane turned her gaze towards them. “You disagree, Karnstein?”

“Of course I do. How can a truth be objective?” and that's what Laura gets for bringing a philosophy major to a journalism class. Carmilla picked her nails, bored. “We all construct our truths based on our own reality. How do you know I see blue the same way you do? We bring our own experiences into everything we encounter. Which leads to biases in reporting and misjudgement, sometimes of people.” Carmilla did not meet Laura’s eye.

“A solid point, Karnstein,” Professor Cochrane acknowledged. “And we’ll talk about biased reporting later in the semester. But for now, let’s assume we both see the same blue, and let’s examine the article I asked you all to read in preparation for this class.”

Profesor Cochrane continued her lecture, but for once Laura had trouble paying attention.

Did Carm really feel that way? That she had misjudged Laura? Because Laura had, maybe, definitely, but it was pulling teeth to get any info about Carmilla’s mother, let alone talking about feelings, and how could she be sure Carmilla was talking about her and not about misjudging how tightly LaF could tie a piece of rope to subdue her?

Having a vampire roommate was complicated.

Even with a vampiric bodyguard practically handcuffed to her, the Library was a trip Laura, Carmilla, and LaFontaine decided to never speak of after Laura’s video update.

“Thanks for coming with us to the library," Laura said, immediately speaking of it.

“I kind of have to, remember?” Carmilla said without bite as she examined the Sumerian tome they nearly died acquiring, tucking her hair back as it fell in front of her face.

In the Library, Carmilla had backed her into a stack of books to avoid a toga-clad poltergeist chucking Faulkner at anyone that got within their radius, bracketing Laura with her body for protection, their breath intermingling. The clarity from the curse helped dull Laura’s terror, and before she could talk herself out of it, Laura grabbed Carmilla’s hand and made a break for it, checking to make sure LaFontaine was right behind them. Carmilla helped make her feel okay, feel brave.

“You didn’t have to help us, but you did. And if you want to seem cool and aloof even with this,” Laura gestured to their current circumstances, “you might want to stop saving my life.”

“But then who would buy the cupcakes?” Carmilla said, lifting an eyebrow.

Laura didn't giggle at that, but it was a near thing.

“Elena is doing her best!” Laura protested three hours later, typing furiously away on her computer as she played Netflix on a minimized screen. It was weird to have her bulky laptop off her desk and even weirder to be on Carmilla’s bed, but their current circumstances dictated close proximity. She leaned back against Carmilla.

“I wouldn't be able to stand her after one night of fun, let alone the agonizing eternity these lack-wits have been forced to endure her," Carmilla said, flipping a page in her book. For an undead creature of the night, her back was surprisingly warm and comfortable, though part of that might’ve been the curse.

“Her whole family died! She's just trying to get by."

“Maybe she should try acquiring a personality," her vampire pillow snarked back. "Morose waif is not an alluring target. Bonnie is clearly hotter and more interesting."

“Well, I can’t argue on that one–”

Their door swung open.

“I am going to get a deadbolt–” Carmilla started to threaten.

Perry descended upon their room like a hurricane.

It took a couple of minutes (and Laura’s bed being entirely remade) to get out of Perry that LaF was missing.

“So, we're stuck together, and the only person that has a chance of curing us has been captured by your evil mother?” Laura recapped as they watched Perry collapse onto Laura’s bed, crying.

“Yup,” Carmilla said.

“Well, they'll bring LaF back, right? Natalie and SJ came back. Maybe it'll only be a couple of days?”

“Betty's still missing. And if you haven't noticed, the distance allowed has gotten a lot smaller.” Carmilla had turned around when Hurricane Perry had first hit their room, and she scooted away from Laura to prove her point. They both grimaced until Carmilla scooted back, their legs touching. “We're running out of time here, Cupcake.”

Laura groaned. “Either dealing with the curse or dealing with the missing girls would be bad enough, but having to deal with both? I mean, I can’t believe the Alchemy Club members were so concerned about the midterm bash they made this potion in the first place.”

“Idiots.” Carmilla rolled her eyes.

“I’m kind of jealous of them, though. Sure, the potion’s a horrific violation of bodily autonomy and is just plain pathetic, but it must be nice to only have to worry about whether the person you like will dance with you, instead of,” Laura gestured towards the ancient Sumerian tome. “Though I'm sure you’ve been to a zillion of dances.”

“Yeah, mostly as bait in a supernatural con game.”

“So, you can’t remember what kids did for kicks back in 1698?” Laura teased, grinning.

“Ah, it wasn’t much different,” Carmilla shook her head. “We drank a lot and danced like fools. Waltzing was fun. It had a frisson of scandal back then.”

Laura laughed. “How is waltzing scandalous?”

Carmilla offered her hand. “Well…”

Laura stood up and accepted her hand, selfishly enjoying the extra clarity that came with their palms meeting.

“Partners were face-to-face.” Carmilla pulled Laura in, closer than they had ever been even with the curse. “Chest to chest. All of that, um … whirling.” Carmilla took her through a couple of steps, and then spun her around. Laura laughed, giddy.

Carmilla let go of her hand, and it wasn’t the curse that made Laura disappointed in the loss of contact. “In 1698, it may as well have been–”

“Let’s have sex.”

Chapter Text

They stood in stunned silence for a second.

“I mean, uh! I think LaF was right, because when we were dancing I felt like, way better, so that has to be a sign right? Maybe it’s like Buffy, but instead of you turning into a demon you get to go back to being your vampire self, with a healthy personal space bubble. So we’ve just got to get it out of the way so we can find Betty and the other missing girls and LaF and defeat your mother, which will be a lot easier to do once we’re not stuck together,” Laura finally finished, because Carmilla seemed more than happy to let her keep going.

“So you want to have sex right now?”

“Yup!” And if Laura’s voice was a little higher pitched than usual, then, well, that tended to happen when she was talking about something she’s passionate about, and Laura was definitely passionate about saving her friends.

“And give Suzy Homemaker over there a free show?” Carmilla raised an eyebrow.

Laura looked behind her and saw that Perry was indeed still in the room, passed out on her bed. “Uh, no! Poor Perry. Tomorrow. We can do it tomorrow night.”

“Okay, tomorrow,” A small, rare smile had spread on Carmilla’s face, and Laura didn’t know whether or not it was at her expense.

“Great!” Laura stepped towards her escape route, only to remember it was occupied by her frazzled floor don.

“Why don’t you just take mine? I’ll curl up on the floor.”

“No! I couldn’t make you–”

“Vampiric constitution trumps lower back pain. Besides, we need to stay close anyways.”

“Thanks,” Laura said to Carmilla’s retreating form.

When the bathroom door closed, it wasn’t just the discomfort from the curse that caused Laura to groan into her yellow pillow. “Worst crush ever.”

When she woke the next morning, Laura felt the familiar clarity of the curse, but pinpricks in her arm. She opened one eye to see she had dangled her arm off to the side during the night, and was now holding hands with Carmilla.

She looked straight ahead and saw a figure sitting at the edge of her bed. She jumped, letting go of Carmilla's hand.

“Good morning,” Perry said.

Laura glanced at the clock above her desk. “It's six am.”

“Well, LaFontaine is still missing. Carmilla,” She nudged the vampire in question to rouse her. “You need to figure this out. Tonight.”

Carmilla made a theatrical show of waking, though she had to have been lightly dozing at best. “I am a centuries old vampire that could kill you where you stand, not a DJ that takes requests.”

“My best friend is missing because of you,” Perry snapped. “Fix it!”

Laura finally got out of bed and stood in between the two women. “We’ll spend all day researching a way to save LaF,” Laura promised, mostly to save Perry from being Carmilla’s juice box.

Perry stared Laura down. Satisfied with what she saw in Laura’s eyes, she nodded, and took her cleaning tornado to the common room.

Carmilla rubbed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. “And now for our daring daylight escape?”

“And now for hitting the book. Even if we do break the curse, we need to get LaFontaine back.” Laura said, unburying the ancient Sumerian book from the floor.

Carmilla groaned and flopped back down.

Laura’s read a lot of fics, she knew it’d be dubiously consensual, but isn’t this what college is all about? Learning to navigate morally gray areas and having ill-advised sexual encounters?

As the day trudged on, Laura now understood why ill-advised sexual encounters are a bit more, in the moment. There was a buzzing between them the entire day, like a mosquito just out of sight.

After a day of intense research, night had fallen, and Laura's mind was too full to look at one more page or website.

Laura closed her laptop and eyed Carmilla for a good minute before she finally spoke. “So, we’re doing this.”

“We’re out a Frakenginger and more importantly out of options. Besides, aren’t you some post-third wave sex-positive feminist?’ Carmilla said, turning the page on her Kafka. “It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

“Right, totally,” Laura forced herself to nod. “Just sex.”

“What are you doing?” Carmilla asked thirty minutes later, arms crossed and eyebrow raised.

Laura froze from where she hovered over the headboard, and turned around to look up at her like a deer in the headlights. The vaguely seventies inspired sensual girl power pop music wafted up from the speakers, destroying any chance of plausible deniability.

“Are you seriously trying to put on mood music, cutie? You’re too much.”

“No, I'm not!” Laura said, because she had the self preservation instincts of a toddler who had just learned to crawl.

Down down down, the speakers sang as they threw her off the proverbial cliff to the not so proverbial predator.

“Okay maybe it is, but at least I’m trying here!” Laura crossed her arms. “What are you doing to contribute, centuries old ravisher of virtue?”

Carmilla’s grinned rivaled the Cheshire Cat, but she said nothing. Instead, she sauntered over to Laura and grabbed her waist. It had taken Laura a while to decide on what she was wearing (even with Carmilla snarking right behind her the entire time), having ransacked her entire dresser before settling on one of her few v-necks, jeans, and the least embarrassing underwear she owned. Carmilla, for her part, had not changed out of the long-sleeve and jeans she had put on this morning. She, as usual, looked centuries out of Laura’s league. It was one of the many infuriating things about her.

Carmilla maneuvered them towards Laura’s bed and pushed her down. She hovered above Laura until she was almost blanketing her, and slowly lowered herself down, eyes burning into Laura’s. Whatever breath Laura was holding was gone when their lips met, and it wasn't just the feeling of instantaneous relief that made her thread her fingers through Carmilla's hair.

She barely felt Carmilla's arm brushing past her head, only registering when Camilla pulled out of the kiss. Laura whined, chasing her lips, and Carmilla chuckled, drowning out the silence of the room.

Wait a minute. Laura opened her eyes and broke away from Carmilla to look behind her, and sure enough the speakers were suspiciously muted.

“Carm!” What started as a rightfully indignant protest turned into a strangled squeak as Laura discovered that her roommate had taken advantage of her distraction by discarding her shirt. Carmilla lips brushed past Laura’s and landed below them, kissing her jaw.

Hands left a trail of goosebumps in their wake as they slowly climbed up Laura’s stomach, pushing up the soft cotton of her shirt.

“How about we make a combined playlist next time?” Laura managed to get out.

“Next time?” Carmilla murmured. Laura gasped as Carmilla’s hands pushed the shirt up her chest, ghosting past her breasts, and lifted her arms involuntarily to help get the inconvenient article of clothing off. “My my, how presumptuous.”

Laura's hands hovered over Carmilla, not exactly where she was allowed to touch. Those M-rated hypothermia fics always made it seem so natural and frantic, yet here she was, wishing they'd had a conversation about boundaries when they both had 70% more clothes on.

“I'm not a museum, cupcake. You're allowed to touch,” Carmilla said, one hand lightly skimming Laura’s back, the other unhooking Laura's bra.

“Yeah, sorry, this is just, uh, different.”

Carmilla stilled, and she removed her hands from Laura's body like she'd been burned. “Do you not want to do this?”

“No, I do!”

Carmilla pulled her in for another kiss, slow and languid. “Then relax. This isn't an assignment, just do what comes naturally.”

“Naturally. Right.” Trust Laura Hollis to overthink sex.

Carmilla chuckled, a dry chuckle that was barely audible, and mostly just felt like a puff of air as it ghosted over Laura’s neck as she finally removed Laura’s bra.

Laura rocked her hips and Carmilla buried her head onto Laura’s shoulder to muffle her intake of breath.

“Ha, you are enjoying this! I can make a playlist with some Joan Jett and, ooh, Leonard Cohen!”

“Stop talking. Now.” Carmilla raked her nails lightly against Laura's back, the pain and the relief from the contact intertwining to form a heady mixture. She pulled back to survey Laura’s body, and Laura flushed, her skin prickling with goosebumps under Carmilla’s gaze.

She kissed her way down Laura’s chest, conspicuously avoiding her neck and the still-healing bite marks. Carmilla twisted and pinched Laura’s breasts, then used her tongue as a salve. It was all so much and not enough. “Carm,” Laura breathed.

“Yes cutie?” Carmilla grinned as she worked the button on Laura’s pants.

Laura unclasped Carmilla’s bra and took it off. She swirled her tongue around her newly revealed nipple just to wipe the smirk off her face.

She paused, as something felt off.

Carmilla, her hands tangled in Laura’s hair, made a noise of protest, and pulled her head down.

Laura complied, sucking as she realized what felt off was Carmilla’s lack of heartbeat. She had never been truly close enough to notice it before. There’s a lot she didn’t know about Carmilla, she realized, but she wanted to.

Carmilla pulled her back up for a searing kiss, and it’s stupid because Laura knew that she was only doing this out of necessity, that this wasn’t a big deal for her. Carmilla’s had a cavalcade of coeds the second she walked into 307, but Laura couldn’t help but want to be special, to get the girl and save the day.

Then Carmilla played with the flimsy fabric of Laura’s underwear, and all notions of fairy tales flew out the window, as Carmilla was here, right now, and Laura felt like she was back in that flaming vortex in the library, but this time the danger of being burned couldn’t compare to the pleasurable warmth.

Laura’s hand moved down to Carmilla’s thighs, but Carmilla intercepted her, moving Laura’s hand to Carmilla’s breast, her other hand working Laura’s underwear down. It must've been Carmilla’s form of chivalry, and Laura laughed.

Carmilla paused, looking at her with an unreadable expression on her face. Her hand drifted up and tucked back a stray piece of Laura’s hair. They locked eyes for enough time to make Laura's heart beat wildly out of her chest, then Carmilla lowered herself down.

And Laura fell apart.

She came to what felt like a lifetime later, breathing heavily, heart wild, Carmilla stroking her hair. “Did–did it work?”

“I don't know.” Carmilla was lying on top of Laura, but they made no move to separate.

“Maybe I should, just in case.”

Carmilla nodded, looking almost shy.

Laura’s always been prepared.

She's not a preparer, per se, but when your father sends you day of the week bear spray you learn to have a vague outline of a plan before rushing into things.

But this felt like she was back in the Library, but with no backup and no way to phone a friend.

Laura started off safe, maneuvering herself on top of Carmilla and leaning in and kissing her deeply until she felt brave enough to let her hands wander to Carmilla’s breasts.

Maybe thirteen-year-old boys were onto something, Laura thought to herself deliriously as she explored. Boobs were great. Carmilla’s deserved to be in a museum somewhere. They probably were.

“Harder. Pinch my nipples,” Carmilla demanded, guiding her hands. Laura compiled, and was rewarded by a hitch in Carmilla’s breath, which was going to haunt her dreams, maybe for the rest of her life.

When she felt Carmilla’s breasts had received a proper amount of attention, Laura took off Carmilla’s unfairly hot black underwear and stroked her thighs, rubbing closer and closer until Carmilla, frustrated, groaned “are you going to fuck me or not?”

“I’ll get right on it!” Laura yelped. Carmilla laughed, which deepened Laura’s blush.

Carmilla kissed Laura’s forehead. “Relax, cupcake. You’re doing great. I like big circles and fast strokes.”

“Big circles, got it,” Laura nodded, as she reminded herself that Carmilla was just expressing what she liked and that she wasn’t the worst person she had ever had sex with. She pressed a kiss to Carmilla’s shoulder and followed her directions as best as she could, stroking and kissing and sucking until she felt Carmilla get closer and closer.

“Laura,” Carmilla murmured into her neck, “Laura, Laura, Laura.” Then she felt Carmilla crumble. Laura helped her ride the wave out until Carmilla collapsed.

“That was okay?” Laura asked as she nestled into Carmilla, any thoughts of looking cool long gone.

Carmilla nodded as she worked on regaining the ability to speak. “It was very okay, cupcake.” She began to stroke Laura’s hair. “We should check to see if the curse is gone.”

“Right,” Laura said, her eyelids fluttering shut. “Just gotta rest my eyes for a moment…” She barely made it through the sentence before falling asleep on Carmilla’s chest. Carmilla wrapped her arms around Laura, and they didn’t move for the rest of the night.

When LaF finally returned, they found Laura and Carmilla sitting on Laura’s bed, watching a truly awful teen show while Perry stress cleaned their bathroom.

“Elena’s dead? There might be some hope for this show after all,” Carmilla snarked as she flipped the page on Kafka. Laura rolled her eyes, but smiled.

“Just because you’re–LaF!” Laura exclaimed, rushing up to hug her friend.

“LaFontaine!” Perry was not far behind her, practically shoving Laura out of the way. “You’re back! You’re alright.”

“Yeah, I just got back from my homunculid anatomy course,” LaFontaine said, patting Perry before gently disentangling them. “What’s the big deal? It can’t be that long if Laura’s still binging The Vampire Diaries.”

Laura and Carmilla exchanged glances. “LaF, you’ve been missing for days,” Laura said gently.

“Wow, we probably are screwed,” LaFontaine said three minutes later, after depressing explanations (LaFontaine was definitely kidnapped and their brain was turning to party animal mush) and information (they had mere days to take down a centuries old evil cabal) were exchanged. “Welp. Anyone have any food?”

“My brownies!” Perry jumped. “Goodness, they’re probably burning!” She dashed out to the common room kitchen.

“It’s good to have you back, at least,” Laura said as she settled back down onto the bed.

“Oh, right,” LaFontaine said, snapping their fingers. “I should probably work on that cure before those wormy dudes take over my brain.”

“We took care of it,” Carmilla said, absentmindedly playing with Laura's hair.

“Laura is literally sitting in your la–oh, oh. I was right! Nice work, frosh." They tried to highfive Laura, and then settled for Carmilla.

And though the curse never returned, Laura and Carmilla found that they disliked being too far away from each other, regardless.