Work Text:
A cat's gotta do what a cat's gotta do.
Tags: Pet Play, Kitten play, BDSM sub-culture, Carmilla is a human that likes to be a cat, Not smut, but not entirely fluff, Catmilla
When Carmilla regained her humanity, the only thing she and Laura could do was think about how they would spend the rest of their lives. They would live together, grow old together, and maybe even get married. What came later was the realization that there were things that Carmilla had gotten used to while she was a vampire. There were habits so firmly ingrained in her routine that being human again turned out to be a series of big adjustments -- the biggest of which turned out to be not being able to turn into a panther.
But if there's one thing Carmilla is lucky to have, it's a considerate girlfriend who wants more than anything for her to be happy with her new life. Their new life. So Laura spent a considerable amount of time online researching about therapeutic exercises for cats and different methods of communicating effectively. All of which mostly turned out to be useless until she stumbled upon a website all about pet play.
She closed the laptop abruptly at the first sight of an olive-skinned girl wearing puppy ears and a tail -- which she's pretty sure wasn't attached around her waist -- on her hands and knees with her face in a bowl of goldfish on the floor. She didn't even want to think about how the tail stayed attached.
After she reminded herself that she was doing this for Carmilla, she tentatively opened the laptop again and started to read through the information on the website.
"So... you want me to dress up like a cat?"
"Yes..."
"And act like a cat?"
Laura nods.
"Cupcake..." Carmilla sighs and her head tilts to the side while she hesitates.
"Carmilla," Laura says in the same exasperated tone. She fiddles with the bag in her hands nervously, wondering if this was a mistake to buy all of the pet gear without confronting her first. It was quite expensive, and she knew that gear wasn't necessary, but she didn't want to deny Carmilla anything that she might enjoy. Even if some of those things make her 50 shades of red in the face.
The dark haired girl sighs and shakes her head, taking the bag from Laura and pulling out a set of cat ears and two tails, all black. One attached to a pair of underwear, and another with a small bulbous plug on one end.
"Does this go-"
"Yes." Laura cuts her off, blushing furiously. Carmilla huffs out a laugh while she herself turns a shade redder. She then pulls what looks like a pile of leather straps out of the bag.
"Damn, Creampuff. You went all out," Carmilla breathes out.
"I know you might not like this, but I did a lot of research, and even though it's basically an extension of BDSM it can just be about relaxation, not that BDSM is required to be sexual. It's about giving up control or- or I don't know. But this doesn't have to be sexual. Not that I don't want to be- be that way with you while you're- It's not that I don't want to I just want you to be happy and if you want me to fuck you while you're meowing like a cat then I will!"
"Woah! Cupcake, take a breath!" Carmilla places her hands on Laura's shoulders and smiles wide and then says softly, "I am very happy, and you didn't have to do all this, but I'll try it."
She kisses Laura softly on the lips and smiles again. "Meow."
Laura laughs and kisses her back as best as she can with the smile spreading across her face. "Get ready."
Carmilla grabs the bag and walks into the bathroom, nervous despite their complete trust of each other.
When the bathroom door opens again, it takes Laura a moment to stop staring. The paleness of her skin is contrasted with the lace underwear with the black fluffy tail hanging off the back, and the leather straps of the bra harness which web across her torso and frame her breasts perfectly. To top it all off, on top of her head sits two black fluffy cat ears that look almost like an extension of her actual hair.
She would look adorable if she didn't look so sexy, but Laura wants to take this at her pace. She finds her voice after a minute.
"Wow, that looks great on you." Carmilla smirks. It's her version of a thank you, Laura's learned.
"So, cupcake. What do I do here? Get on all fours and crawl around?" She doesn't know if she's being sarcastic or not.
"That'd be a good start. Unless you don't want to... that is. We could just sit on the bed. I think you should be allowed to get on the furniture. You don't shed or anything... anymore." She's looking at the bed while she rambles on, and when she looks back at Carmilla, the girl is kneeling on the floor, sitting back on her ankles and looking up at Laura patiently. It's almost difficult to not see Carmilla as a cat right now.
The black padded sleeves covering her knees help protect her joints from the harshness of the hardwood floor as she starts to crawl toward Laura. The smaller girl walks backward until the back of her thighs hit the edge of the bed, and then she sits down. Carmilla looks nervous, but she keeps crawling until she's able to nudge her nose against Laura's right leg. She rubs her cheek against it, as if marking her scent, and the blonde is surprised how natural this looks for Carmilla. Maybe it's because she spent so much time around the panther.
"Good kitty," Laura says as she leans down to pet the top of Carmilla's head lightly. She feels her head lean into the contact and starts petting more firmly, moving from the top of her head to her neck. She stops for a moment and pats the the bed next to her, telling Carmilla to come up.
Somehow she manages to do it gracefully, even without her Vampire abilities.
Laura smiles and starts petting her again, this time scratching softly and moving her hair away from her neck to scratch behind her ear softly. Carmilla purrs, and her eyes widen.
"Did I just purr?!"
"I-Is that okay?" Laura asks, afraid to do anything wrong. Carmilla pauses, but then nods. The petting continues.
Twenty minutes later, Laura's leaning against the headboard and Carmilla's laying on her side with her head on Laura's lap and her face nuzzled into her stomach while the blonde pets her, tracing small circles around her shoulder blade and down her side, ghosting over the leather straps and then scratching lightly back up to thread her fingers through dark locks.
Carmilla's completely relaxed under Laura's hands, letting out a continuous stream of soft purrs and occasionally kneading against Laura's stomach, which makes her giggle because she's extremely ticklish there. But soon she feels her eyes drooping, and she closes them while she continues petting Carmilla lazily. She barely even realizes it when Carmilla crawls up to wrap herself around Laura like she used to when she was a panther.
She turns her head and plants a soft kiss on Carmilla's forehead, seeing her gaze intently at Laura with her eerily cat-like stare. She gives the blonde's cheek a small lick and nuzzled into the back of her neck. They fall asleep like that.
Laura thinks she's created a monster. A beautiful monster who likes to be a cat. Except she enjoys it too, and she really doesn't mind it when, on movie night, Carmilla crawls into the living room on her hands and knees in her pet gear and climbs onto the couch. The choker around her neck, which she got for her for valentines day to add to her ensemble, is like a collar with a heart shaped ring attached to the front. (She hasn't gotten a leash. She'll have to discuss that with Carmilla first.) She climbs up onto the couch and curls up with her face pressed into the side of Laura's thigh.
This doesn't happen all that much, but when Carmilla or Laura have had a hard or stressful day, they usually slip into role play. Sometimes unintentionally. Lately Carmilla's been under a lot of pressure at work, so almost every day this week she's donned her gear and curled up next the the blonde, no matter what she's doing. Laura's learned that Carmilla just likes to be near her, even if she doesn't touch her. Rarely does she ever demand it.
But this time she does. She nudges Laura's hand until it's resting on her head, and Laura complies because it's movie night and she loves her girlfriend to death and life and death again. she tangles her fingers in soft hair and scratches her scalp lightly as she watches the movie and simultaneously shoves and handful of popcorn into her mouth. A piece falls onto her lap next to Carmilla and the girl moves to grab it between her teeth and eat it and then goes back to her original position.
Maybe most people would see it as weird, but to them it's normal. Relaxing. They're reluctant to tell any of their friends, for good reasons. Laura doubts Perry would be entirely open minded to the idea of Carmilla crawling around on the dirty floor, and Lafontaine... she doesn't even know how they would react to something like this. They were accepting when they found out Carmilla was a vampire, but this is a whole new can of worms. It's not like they've done anything sexual. They've kept it almost strictly PG-13, excluding a few intense kisses which ultimately led to the end of the role play.
Laura gets jump scared, almost embarrassingly, by a murderous clown, and Carmilla is there, rubbing her cheek against Laura's and nudging her hands away from her face. She crawls into Laura's lap and sits sideways so that she can stretch her legs out more. Laura wraps her arms around Carmilla once she's calmed down and gently pets up and down the girl's stomach. She hand-feeds her another piece of popcorn, smiling at Carmilla's soft mew.
But suddenly Carmilla tenses and starts growling, because the door is open and Lafontaine is standing in the doorway staring at the scene in front of them. The movie is paused in record time.
"Uh, Laura- Carmilla, you know you're not a cat anymore, right?" They ask, sounding unsure.
Laura quickly covers Carmilla's mostly bare body with a blanket and then tightens her arms around the girl protectively as she shoots a look at Lafontaine.
"It's- we're bonding! It's none of your business! Lock the door on your way out!" she says defensively. Carmilla's glaring daggers at them. Lafontaine slowly backs out of the house, leaving Laura's jacket that they wanted to return on the back of the chair closest to the front door. The click of the lock is deafening. She breathes a sigh of relief and un-pauses the movie.
Just like that, they slip back into play. She scratches behind Carmilla's ear, smiling when the dark-haired girl nuzzles into her neck and purrs.
They'll have a lot of explaining to do in the morning.