Chapter Text
Carmilla disappeared as soon as they got home and reappeared at dinner time as promised. They ate and Laura did not ask any questions about what Carmilla had planned for after dinner, but followed her obediently to the gym down the road and then into one of the rooms used for fitness classes.
“So?” Laura asked, once Carmilla had shut the door, she looked round the room, but apart from her laptop and some chairs at the side of the room she couldn’t see anything that suggested a surprise.
“The waltz is the oldest of the ballroom dances,” Carmilla said, stepping towards Laura and holding out her hand. Laura took it and they stepped into hold, but closer this time as they had the privacy. Carmilla stepped backwards and they did a few waltz steps. “I learned several dances before my first ball, only the waltz is still danced now, but what we learned today is actually the slow waltz,” Carmilla said, lifting her arm to turn Laura under it, who did turn, but looked intently at Carmilla as soon as she could.
“There’s more than one waltz and we learned the wrong waltz?”
Carmilla, smiled, “I know the slow waltz, but the waltz I learned back then is more commonly called the Viennese waltz now.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Well, the Viennese waltz is faster and there are a lot more turns, but that’s the surprise, I thought we could learn a Viennese waltz tonight. I can teach you.”
“That sounds fun,” Laura said with a smile.
“Do you want to lead, or follow?” Carmilla asked.
“You know how to do both?” Laura asked, Carmilla nodded. “You know what you’re doing, want to lead?”
“If you’re sure, come on then,” Carmilla said, stepping into the middle of the room so they had space. “I worked out a short sequence earlier,” she said.
Laura went and stood next to Carmilla, looking intently at her feet. “Just copy me,” Carmilla said. Laura nodded and did, mirroring Carmilla’s footsteps as she stepped back and to the side. “Copy the toe and heel steps as well,” Carmilla said, “Like this, so stay on your toes here and put your heels down here, heel down first here, but toe down first here.”
“Wait, so like this,” Laura said, copying.
Carmilla nodded, “Now I’ll go slow, just keep following.” She continued the steps and Laura followed her like a shadow, they paused when she went wrong and reset back to the beginning frequently, but Laura listened intently to Carmilla’s instructions and corrected her steps and was beginning to feel like this wasn’t that hard after all when Carmilla said.
“Right, now we need to go faster,” and took off at what seemed like a rate of knots to Laura, who tried to follow and stopped.
“Maybe not that fast,” she said, laughing, but annoyed at herself.
Carmilla came back, and held out her hand, “Okay, too fast, we’ll go again.”
“How fast do I need to be able to do it?”
“Pretty fast. There’s no rush.”
“No, I want to be able to get this.”
“You will, we’ll just keep doing it until you get it.”
So they did it again, not as fast as Carmilla had just done it, but faster than before and they did it again and again and Laura realised after a few repetitions that Carmilla was steadily increasing the speed each time and sometimes Laura stumbled and forgot what she was doing and sometimes Carmilla corrected her, but it felt fun and it got quicker and quicker until they were both out of breath and Carmilla called a break.
Laura put her hands on her hips and got her breath back as Carmilla went and fiddled with the laptop to send music played through the speakers around the room that usually played something with a good rhythm for whatever fitness class was running in here, not the olde time waltz music that Carmilla had found.
Carmilla walked over to Laura now the music was playing and held her hand out. Laura took it and Carmilla pulled her gently into ballroom hold, her hand on Laura’s back and their bodies tight together.
“Relax and keep your body with mine, don’t think about your feet too much and don’t worry about what I am doing,” Carmilla said.
Laura nodded and took a deep breath, “The music sounds fast.”
“You got it,” Carmilla reassured her.
Laura nodded again, Carmilla counted them in and stepped forward as Laura stepped back and it wasn’t perfect, but it was exhilarating and they span round the room and Laura didn't have time to care about direction or placing her feet, she could just let them move as she had practiced and just follow Carmilla’s movements and the guidance from her hips and the hand on Laura’s back and they span and span and they floated and whipped round, completely in sync, repeating the sequence Carmilla had taught her to take them round and round the room.
Then Laura’s brain thought about her feet for a second and she stumbled. Carmilla caught her.
“Easy there,” Carmilla said, steadying Laura back onto her feet.
Laura clung onto Carmilla’s upper arms and looked at her, “That was fun,” she gasped. Carmilla looked down at her and reached to smooth several wayward strands of hair off Laura’s face. Laura could feel how hard Carmilla was breathing and how close they were pressed and she leaned forwards to kiss Carmilla, sliding her hands from Carmilla’s upper arms to round her back to pull her in closer and tighter. Carmilla’s pulled her closer as well, her hand tangling in her hair and the other going round Laura’s waist.
Laura pulled back from the kiss. “I can see why that was like sex in sixteen ninety eight,” she said.
“Yeah?” Carmilla said, moving the hand from Laura’s hair to stroke her finger tips along Laura’s jaw.
“Yeah,” Laura agreed, “that was, wow, I could barely hear the music, but it was through everything and it was just movement and so right and I just needed to let go into you and trust you.”
Carmilla tilted Laura’s head back into the kiss with her fingers and then trailed her fingers down Laura’s neck and to her shoulder. Laura’s fingers teased at the edge of Carmilla’s shirt, sliding her fingertips under the edge of the fabric to press against Carmilla’s bare skin. The kiss got more passionate and Laura slid her hand right up under Carmilla’s shirt and round onto her stomach as Carmilla pulled Laura tight into her with a hand on her rear and ran her other hand from Laura’s shoulder down, over her breast and round her ribs.
“Woah,” Laura said, pulling back, “What do you say we….relocate?”
“Don’t want another go at the dancing,” Carmilla teased.
“Another night,” Laura said, “I feel like mastering the Viennese waltz is enough for one evening”
"Cupcake, I have bad news."
"What?"
"That was a very slow Viennese waltz."