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Carmilla had no idea how she got dragged into this. Actually that wasn’t entirely true, it was entirely thanks to the manipulative little ray of sunshine in front of her. Still, she’s a three hundred some year old vampire with inhuman strength and razor sharp teeth, she should be stronger than some puppy eyes from a cute girl. But evidently that wasn’t the case. If it were she wouldn’t be pouting in their desk chair while Laura tried to do her makeup.
When her girlfriend found out Carmilla had never been to a pride parade in all her centuries of ‘life’ she insisted not only that they attend, but that they go all out. Laura had spent the last two weeks watching rainbow make-up tutorials and searching her closet for the gayest outfits she could find. So now here she was trying to draw the lesbian flag on Carmilla’s cheeks and begging her to wear a shirt she’d bought that says ‘too gay to function’.
“Come on Carm, it would be hilarious.”
“I’m already letting you draw rainbows on my face, this is as much as you’re gonna get,” Carmilla knew she was gonna give in eventually, but she still had some pride left so she wasn’t gonna make it easy for Laura.
“Please,” Laura batted her eyes and all too innocently put her hand on Carmilla’s knee. She knew exactly what she was doing. She insisted she needed to be that close to Carmilla’s face so she could see what she was going with the eyeshadow, even though they both knew that wasn’t the real reason. Laura herself was already decked out in knee-high rainbow socks, a lesbian flag bandana in her hair, and Carmilla’s flannel tied around her waist. Not to mention the same pride themed make-up she was currently putting on her girlfriend.
“Careful, Cupcake, you almost poked my eye out.”
Laura giggled and apologized, but before she could continue the door to their dorm room flew open.
“Sup, Frosh, are you almost ready?”
Carmilla groaned at their friends discourtesy, causing Laura to start laughing. In the doorway stood Lafontaine holding way more handmade signs than they would actually need, Perry looking like a worried mother about to take her four children to disney world, and Danny leaned casually against the wall behind them wearing her own pride makeup and a tie dye shirt in the colors of the bi flag.
“Yeah, just let me finish up with Miss Grumpy-Vampire over here and we’ll be all set.”
“You didn’t tell me the ginger giant was coming.”
“Oh play nice, the more the merrier right?”
Carmilla groaned again.
“We’ll meet you out front guys, don’t take too long,” Laf said, trying to maneuver the door closed with their hands full.
By the time they left their dorm Carmilla was wearing the shirt Laura got her under a leather jacket and looked slightly less irritated than before. Next to her Laura was bouncing around with a huge smile on her face and her arm wrapped around Carmilla’s elbow. Kirsh seemed to have joined them outside, and he had a sheet of paper taped to his chest with ‘ally’ written in large letters. He tried. Danny seemed to be in the middle of a long winded rant to him about the history of pride while he stared into space.
Laf waved the two of them over with more excitement than Carmilla remembered ever seeing from them. They had at least five rainbow flags sticking out of their backpack and Perry’s number was written on their forehead in case they got lost. Perry herself was fretting over one thing or another, but even she seemed to have gotten into the spirit, sporting a colorful sweater and with her hair up in a rainbow hair tie.
Carmilla was actually kind of excited, not that she would ever admit it. They hadn’t even gotten there and everyone was smiling and laughing and Laura looked so happy.
“Alright lovebirds, let’s get going,” Laf said, herding them in the direction of the train station.
-
They got a few odd looks on the train before reaching their destination. All around them were people in their own overly colorful outfits with friends and significant others laughing and wandering around. Laf was now frantically waving their signs around and hollering with the rest of the crowd while Perry tried to make sure they didn’t hit anyone. Carmilla had her hands in her pockets and shoulder hunched slightly.
“You okay?” Laura threaded their fingers together and squeezed Carmilla’s hand with a reassuring smile.
“I’m fine, I swear.” It wasn’t technically a lie. Carmilla was having a pretty good time, but with heightened senses paired with the abundance of color and energy and noise around them, she was a little overwhelmed.
Laura wasn’t buying it. “Are you nervous?”
“I’m a vampire, I don’t get nervous.”
“Right, sorry I forgot you’re too cranky to be frightened by anything,” Laura laughed and pulled her closer, “just stick close to me softy, you’ll be fine.”
“Hey, I’m the one that does the nicknames, not you.”
“True, but you’re too whipped not to go along with anything she says,” Danny cut in from behind them.
Carmilla growled and bared her fangs at her, but otherwise didn’t respond. Danny looked like she was going to say something more, but Kirsh bounced up and started talking to her about the pretty colors and asking what each flag was for. Danny reluctantly dropped it and turned to speak to him. If she didn’t know how oblivious the boy could be Carmilla would have thought he did it on purpose to prevent conflict with herself and the ginger giant. But it was Kirsh so probably not.
When Carmilla looked away from them Laura was still looking at her. She didn’t seem concerned like earlier so Carmilla let a cocky grin pull at her lips.
“See something you like?”
Laura shoved at her shoulder and laughed. She’d gotten better at dealing with Carmilla’s blatant flirting once they’d started dating, but still blushed a little at the comment.
“Just admiring my work, I think this is the first time I’ve seen with anything colorful,” she was smiling so fondly that it took conscious effort for Carmilla not to kiss her right there.
“And it’ll be the last time,” Carmilla pecked her on the lips to show that she was kidding —she never did have much self control when it came to Laura. She leaned back slightly to see Laura had that dopey grin of hers and Carmilla couldn’t have stopped her own smile if she tried. She was about to go in for another kiss when she heard Laf cough loudly beside them.
“Sorry to interrupt the moment or whatever, but we’re taking pictures.”
Carmilla groaned for probably the thousandth time that day when she saw the excitement in Laura’s eyes at the suggestion. Their hands were still intertwined so Laura dragged her along toward their little gaggle of gays (and Kirsh) with minimal complaints from Carmilla. They squished together awkwardly to get a few blurry selfies before a nice drag queen offered to help. Carmilla was sure the photos they got weren’t much better since they kept knocking into one another and Kirsh was making stupid faces the whole time, but Laura was laughing as thanked the person as she got their phones back.
“Hey Laura, can you get one of just me and Per? I can get a few of you and Carmilla after,” Laf asked when they came back.
Laura let go of Carmilla’s hand to do just that. Carmilla hadn’t realized their fingers were still intertwined until they weren’t anymore. Her hand was sweaty and almost cramping, but the sudden cold of the breeze on it was not appreciated. She tried not to pout, but when she saw Laura’s smirk upon turning around she knew she failed.
“Alright Carm, our turn,” Laura bounced back over to her and threw her arm around Carmilla’s shoulder. It was an awkward angle due to the slight height difference so Carmilla leaned into Laura’s side. Laura was already smiling in Laf’s direction, completely unaware that Carmilla was still watching her. It wasn’t until she heard the shutter of the camera going off that she turned as well. Laura insisted on silly faces and cheesy poses while Carmilla stood her ground and refused to do anything more than smirk slightly or bare her fangs. She did her best not to react to her girlfriend’s antics until she felt Laura’s lips on her cheek. She stood, shellshocked, for a minute before Lafontaine started walking towards them.
“Okay that should be good,” Laf said, handing Laura back her phone.
Laura immediately started sorting through the photos with Carmilla leaned casually against a wall beside her.
-
They spent another few hours singing along to songs and wandering around before Carmilla noticed the thinning crowds.
“Well, this has been fun but we should probably start heading back soon.”
Laura pouted immediately. She seemed about to argue when Danny came up behind them. “Fang-face is actually right, we don’t wanna miss the last bus back to campus.”
Danny and Kirsh seemed to have gone to buy a few things while they were distracted, and Kirsh was now excitedly handing out pins to everyone. Perry was now herding everyone to where they were meant to go. She looked relieved that this was over, but smiled genuinely when she saw how happy Laf seemed to be.
Soon enough they were on the bus back to Silas and Laura was curled into Carmilla’s side. Carmilla was watching buildings go by through the window while Laura looked through the photos from the day again. It was all silent and peaceful until Laura made a noise beside her.
“What?”
“You’re just so cute,” Laura said, turning the phone towards her. On the screen was one of the first ones Laf had taken of just the two of them, in it Laura was beaming impossibly wide and Carmilla was watching her with a small smile.
“I think you’re mistaken cupcake, you’re the cute one in that photo,” Carmilla replied smoothly.
Laura nudged her and tilted her head onto Carm’s shoulder. Carmilla kissed the top of her head in response and slouched more into Laura’s side. Laura set the photo as her lockscreen and started giggling at one of the group photos that had gone awry.
Carmilla leaned her head to the side so it was resting on Laura’s and took in the moment of silence happily. Well sort of silence. Their friends were making a racket behind them, but that much was to be expected.
“Okay you have to admit this one is adorable,” Laura said suddenly, breaking Carmilla out of her reverie. This picture was the one where Laura had kissed Carmilla on the cheek. Carmilla had the most pathetic wide eyed, lovestruck look on her face and Laura was still smiling even while kissing her. She had her arms completely wrapped around Carmilla’s shoulders; a fact that Carmilla hadn’t even realized in the moment as she was having a minor gay panic. “You really are too gay to function.”
Carmilla actually snarled as Laura doubled over laughing. It took a good minute or two for her to calm down, all the while Carmilla had her arms crossed and a flimsy frown on her face.
“I think I smudged your makeup though.”
Laura was smirking as she lifted a hand to Carmilla’s cheek to try and fix it.
“You’re killing me Hollis.”