Chapter Text
The live band that her dad invited started to play. They’re currently playing “Love Me Till The Sun Shines” by The Kinks, one of her dad’s favorites.
…
"Take my money, I don't mind
You can be such a helpless kind[?]
You just have to love me till the sun shines"
…
How fitting…
And like some kind of a psychic timing, Laura receives a text message from Carmilla.
Grumpy Cat: Hey kisses, any plans on coming down here? I’m really enjoying the company of this Kirsch dude.
She’s calling me ‘kisses’. Why is she calling me kisses? Is it kisses the Hershey’s one or is it… oh gosh. She can’t stop blushing.
Yummy Cupcake: It’s only been 30 minutes, grumpy cat. And sure, I’ll save you, my lady. ;)
Grumpy Cat: Oh how chivalrous, my cupcake in shining armor. Now make haste and slay this troll.
Laura swallows the sudden lump in her throat. The thought of Carmilla saying “My Cupcake” is giving her fluttery butterflies inside her stomach. She licks her lips as if recalling the kiss they shared a while ago.
Did that really happen? Did we really kiss? No, it’s more than that. Did we really make out? In this bed, right here. She looks back at the bed, the sheet is a little messed up. Okay. Wow.
She is still processing the kiss and the thing that her friend was supposed to say before they had to go do some damage control. There’s something that she’s missing from all of this, she can feel it. Laura looks at her phone and thinks about calling LaFontaine.
“They’re probably very busy right now. If not putting the fire out and fixing the damages, they could be overloaded with being sat down by Perry and receiving a long talk about safety and experiments at home,” she gets out of bed and checks herself in the mirror. She’s got a light bruise on her neck that’s visible if someone would really focus on looking there. Her lips curve into a pleased smile. Yep. It did actually happen. After debating between covering it up with concealer or just leaving it as is, she decides to just let it be.
When she arrives at the garden she quickly finds Carmilla sharing a table with her aunt and a guy who is to her guess would be Kirsch based on Carmilla’s bored expression. Carmilla turns her head towards her direction so she discretely waves at the woman as she walks closer to the table. Upon arriving there, her aunt introduces Kirsch and she responds with a casual smile and a handshake.
“Hey, little hottie, what happened to your neck?” Kirsch asks in a very oblivious tone. And without delay, her eyes meet Carmilla’s. Like the little devil that the woman is, Carmilla smirks right after teasing her with a discrete lip lick and bite. But before she could respond to the question, her father approaches them and drapes his arm around Laura’s shoulder.
“Here’s my favorite daughter!” He says proudly and happily.
“Dad, I’m your only daughter!” Laura responds with a playful elbow. “Happy Birthday to my favorite dad in the whole world! No. Whole Universe!” That is soon followed with a strong and heartfelt hug to her dad.
“Thank you for coming, honey,” her dad leans to kiss the top of her head, “you specially made this birthday a ‘happy’ one.”
“Dad the older you get the more sappy you become,” she teases her dad, feeling glad that she sees her dad smile and really happy in this special day. Her father responds with a fake-hurt look and proceeds to laugh at his daughter’s comment.
The people in the garden are now gathering to the center when the band started playing the intro of the song "Kiss From A Rose" by Seal
And before Kirsch could even attempt to ask her for this dance, Carmilla is quick to come up beside her glaring at the guy and putting up an index finger while shaking it along with a sharp ‘tsk tsk tsk’ by the woman.
“There used to be a graying tower alone on the sea.
You became the light on the dark side of me.
Love remained a drug that's the high and not the pill.”
“May I steal your daughter for a few minutes, Joe?” Carmilla asks her dad politely, looking back at the dance floor and back to her dad, with a knowing smile her dad responds with a nod. The woman turns to her and then extends a hand, “May I have this dance, Laura?”
Did she just say my name for the first time? She can't help but to smile silly.
Before accepting Carmilla's hand, she turns around facing her dad and plants a soft kiss on his cheek. And soon after that, Laura rests her hand over Carmilla’s. The older woman guides them to the middle of the dance floor which is essentially the center of the garden.
“But did you know,
That when it snows,”
Carmilla’s hands rest at the side of her waist after guiding her hands to rest on the woman’s shoulders. She moves her hands closer to the woman’s neck while Carmilla pulls her closer causing their bodies to press intimately together.
“My eyes become large and
The light that you shine can be seen.
Baby,
I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the gray.”
They both stay silent and enjoying the intimacy from this slow dance. Her eyes never leaving Carmilla’s and bathing under the woman’s gentle gaze.
“Ooh, The more I get of you,
The stranger it feels, yeah.
And now that your rose is in bloom.
A light hits the gloom on the gray.
There is so much a man can tell you,
So much he can say.”
Carmilla is smiling at her. Not the smirk that the woman usually shows. It’s a gentle and honest smile that reaches up to Carmilla’s eyes. That provokes a warm feeling in Laura’s chest. Just as though, the irate feelings she harbored since the day she met the woman starts to dissolve. Those feelings are now being replaced with adoration.
“You remain,
My power, my pleasure, my pain, baby
To me, you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny.
Won't you tell me is that healthy, baby?
But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and the light that you shine can be seen.”
Laura closes her eyes and slowly inches her forehead to rest against Carmilla’s. The taller woman responds with the same motion. When their foreheads touch, Carmilla closes her eyes too. They don’t notice that the crowd around them have been enchanted at the couple dancing intimately like they’re the only ones in the garden, in their own tiny bubble.
“..Now that your rose is in bloom,
A light hits the gloom on the gray.”
Laura hears a building up of slow clapping from the guests. Carmilla pulls away first to look around before she does the same. She can see her dad smiling happily and maybe teary-eyed, she’s not sure about that last bit. A blush runs up from her neck to her face, she’s turning flustered now after realizing that almost everyone has been watching them dance.
“Hey cupcake, want to get out of here?” She hears Carmilla whisper to her ear and she could only nod in response, still feeling a little embarrassed at their current predicament.
"Carmilla, what are you thinking?" She asks the woman whose been looking up the sky for a while now.
”It’s comforting, to think how small we are in comparison; all the lives we’ve lived… People we’ve been… Nothing to that light.”
Laura scoots over and sits beside Carmilla. They end up sitting under a tree on top of a small hill behind her dad’s house.
“Tell me more about the stars?” she asks Carmilla which makes the woman smile at her.
There’s a short pause before Carmilla continues, “See that group with 7 stars that form a distinctive hourglass-shaped asterism, or pattern, in the night sky? That’s Orion…”
The raven-haired woman continues to talk about all the other stars and constellations, but Laura’s attention slowly drifts to the details of Carmilla’s face. How those eyes twinkle while talking passionately about the thousand lights in the sky. How the woman’s jawline moves and forms into perfect structures. How those enticing lips draws her closer and closer, wanting to feel those against hers, once again.
“Cupcake, are you still here?” The woman asks with a hint of playfulness, probably sensing her lack of attention about the topic.
“No. I’m in the stars,” she responds in a low voice, almost a whisper, “… so beautiful, I could just look at them all night,” without breaking her stare on Carmilla.
“The stars have been around for a while, looking at you from a distance,” Carmilla’s expression changes from playful to soft and vulnerable, “I think they’re happy up there, you finally noticed.”
Laura notices Carmilla’s riddled words, “Carm… what’s going on?” She reaches for the woman’s hand and rests hers over.
Carmilla looks away, facing the night sky again, “Would you hate me if I say I don’t really have a ‘pretend girlfriend’ business?” The woman pauses for a few seconds and Laura stays silent, slowly processing the new information. Carmilla then faces her directly, looking down at their connected hands then back to her, “LaF knew about my crush and interest on this quirky little nerd that I always see in the library since a month ago who would always secretly eat chocolate chip cookies when she thought that there wasn’t anyone looking. She would dart killing glares at the Zetas when they start to get too loud in there. One time, this tiny nerd shut down my brother and his 'bro' minions, it was amusing to watch.”
Once she hears the words, ‘library’, ‘eating chocolate chip cookies’, 'zetas', her head tilts, feeling the familiarity of the scene Carmilla just described. She gasps and her free hand instantly covers her mouth.
That sounds just like me when I was cramming for my lit exam. Or when I had to write the proposal for my paper. Or when LaF and I were giving each other draft reviews. She was there? Wait, is it me?
“Yes, she was none other than you, cupcake,” Carmilla bites her lips nervously, “and LaF had this idea on how I could help you with your ‘blind date problems’, so I volunteered.”
Laura can’t believe what she’s hearing right now, “So when you were flirting with me, it wasn’t… it wasn’t just acting?” Now it’s her turn to bite her lips, “You were really…?” She points her fingers towards Carmilla and then to her back and forth.
“Yeah. And this is kind of embarrassing, cupcake,” the woman looks down, slightly avoiding her eyes.
“I’m happy,” Carmilla’s head shoots up right away as she says that, “because I thought this was all business for you,” the woman tucks her hair behind her ear, “and then something changed, then I was scared because I knew this will end tomorrow. I don’t want this - what we have, to end tomorrow or ever…”
“I think I’d like that very much, Laura.” Carmilla leans for a kiss and she meets the woman’s lips with eagerness and anticipation. She hears herself whimper softly the moment Carmilla’s lips touch hers. Ever since the kiss they shared in their room, she had been wanting to kiss the woman again. There’s so much need in this kiss. The way Carmilla caress her back while pulling her close tells her that the woman wants more, more of her, just as much as she wants Carmilla, all to herself. The heat in her body spikes up as soon as she feels Carmilla biting on her lower lip. It tipped the burning passion that she has been trying to suppress.
And in a swift motion, she switches their position. She pushes herself against Carmilla, bringing herself on top of the surprised woman. Their bodies are now pressing together. All of sudden she’s hating the existence of clothes. Looking intently at the gorgeous woman under her, she slips a hand under Carmilla’s shirt, earning her a soft gasp from raven-haired beauty. Her other hand entwines with Carmilla’s over their heads, the grass rustling as their hand touches the ground, while she ravishes on the woman’s jawline and neck with kisses — just like how they were earlier in their room, except that it’s the opposite. Feeling pleased with the thought of the role reversal and the darker shade of Carmilla’s eyes she just saw earlier, she traces her fingers up and down the woman’s warm skin. Carmilla's skin feels like she's burning in her every touch, and she wants to burn with this woman together. That seems to heighten Carmilla’s senses because the woman moans from her touch.
“You feel so good, Carm…” she mumbles between the kisses and light bites that she's giving on Carmilla's soft and warm skin, “really good.”
Carmilla’s free hand reaches over her hands under the woman’s shirt, guiding her hand up towards Carmilla's chest, and when her hand is close to where Carmilla wanted it to be, the woman pulls a hand away to slide under her shirt from behind. While Carmilla’s hands start caressing her back up and down, she gets her hand busy by lightly groping the woman’s breast through her bra. Her thumb caressing a nipple that’s getting harder against the silky fabric.
“Laura…” feeling the woman's chest rise up she hears Carmilla calls out her name between soft moans and that urges her even more. Carmilla's thigh raises up while the woman was calling out her name, she could feel the woman's thighs pressing against the area between her legs.
"Fuck," she couldn't hold off the need to curse, "Carm..." her hips instinctively grinds against Carmilla's thigh.
They totally forgot that they’re on top of a hill making out and getting too frisky in the open, until…
“LAAAUUURAA? CAAARMILLAAA? WHERE ARE YOU?” A loud and worried papa Hollis is walking up the hill. Both their eyes shot open, freezing for a moment before they both start giggling and laughing. Laura bites her lip one more time before kissing Carmilla lightly.
“What do you think of putting our room in good use tonight?” The hint of playfulness in her voice is too obvious for Carmilla not to notice.
“I like this part of you, cupcake,” the woman snickers, hand still leaving feather-like touches on her skin, causing her core to throb even more.
“Oh you have no idea,” she whispers on Carmilla’s ear seductively right before lightly nibbling the woman’s ear, drawing a needy whimper from the woman underneath her.
She hears her girlfriend purr and lets out a whiny growl, “You’re killing me, Hollis.”
Yep. Gal Pals.