Chapter Text
Carmilla awoke to the smiling face of her roommate. There were worse things to wake up to, that much was certain, and Carmilla could easily imagine other circumstances in which she would have greatly enjoyed this occurrence. But right now, with Laura sitting on the edge of her bed, hands in her lap, staring, it was mostly just creepy. The vampire blinked through a combination of surprise and an overabundance of sunlight, and, sleep still nestled in her bones, sat up in bed, grunting.
“Good, you’re awake,” Laura said, far too chipper for this time of day, still sitting in her own bed, and staring straight at Carmilla.
“What the hell is going on, Creampuff?” the vampire asked with a voice hoarse from sleep.
“Oh, nothing,” Laura said, “I’m just taking you away for the weekend.”
“What?” Carmilla replied, sure that she must have misheard somehow. She looked up at Laura now to find her roommate’s smile growing impossibly bigger.
“We’re going away. You and me. For the weekend,” Laura reiterated. “Kirsch lent me his car after I promised to help him study for his lit midterm, and I’ve already packed both our things – well, mostly my things, because let’s be honest here, you’re practically living in my clothes anyway – so we can leave as soon as you’re ready.”
Carmilla groaned. “What time is it even?”
“16:43,” Laura replied. “It’s about a two-hour drive, so we shouldn’t dawdle too long.”
“Dawdle?” Carmilla frowned, “What?” She ran a hand through her messy hair, “Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on at some point?”
“No,” Laura replied simply. “Maybe. When we get there.” Her smile had turned devious now, and Carmilla didn’t like it one bit. She narrowed her eyes at her roommate, willing her to explain herself. Unfortunately, being a vampire had many advantages and useful tricks, but mind control was not one of them, and during their months together, Laura had grown utterly unimpressed by Carmilla’s glaring.
“Ugh, fine,” the vampire growled, “Just let me wake up first.”
They left about 15 minutes later, after Laura had ensured Carmilla that everything she could think to bring had already been packed. She handed the vampire the heaviest of the two bags that contained the last of their stuff, and they set off towards Kirsch’s car. Carmilla was forbidden from loading the bags into the trunk, and instead was instructed to sit down in the passenger’s seat.
“This is stupid,” she muttered under her breath, though she couldn’t really even convince herself of that. This was Laura, and while Laura sometimes devised ill-conceived and even dangerous plans, she meant well, and whatever surprise she had in store for her, Carmilla suspected that she at least wouldn’t loathe it. At any rate, she’d made it out of a blood coffin in one piece, so how bad could this really be?
Before they even left the parking lot, Laura put a cd into the car’s music player. She was reaching up her hand to turn on the ignition when something caught her eye. “You’re not wearing your seatbelt,” she stated. Carmilla shrugged. “Already dead, Cutie. There’s not much a car accident could do to me.”
“Put it on anyway,” Laura instructed, and she stared at the vampire until she rolled her eyes in an exaggerated manner, mumbled “fine”, and did as she was told. Laura started the car.
The CD soon turned out to be a perfect mix between Laura’s favorites and her own, and Carmilla had to contain her smile, determined not to show yet that she was cautiously optimistic about this little surprise trip.
It wasn’t long before they left behind their urban surroundings as Laura drove them deeper and deeper into the countryside, forests flashing by in a haze as Carmilla listened to Laura talk over the music about anything and everything, but never about her plans for this weekend, or where they were headed. Carmilla knew better than to waste energy asking.
They had been on the road for about an hour and a half when Carmilla spotted Laura glancing at the car clock.
“Open the glove compartment,” she instructed, and Carmilla complied. The first item she saw was a long piece of black cloth that had been hastily thrown in there.
“Put it on,” Laura told her, and Carmilla’s mouth dropped a little.
“It’s a blindfold,” Laura clarified, although Carmilla had gathered this much. “Put it on,” the blonde re-iterated.
“Seriously, Cupcake?” she asked, carefully picking up the soft black cloth with two fingers as if it were contagious.
“Yes. Go on,” Laura urged. Carmilla just sat staring at the blindfold in her hand, running the soft, silky fabric through her fingers.
“I will turn this car around, young lady!” Laura said, trying to sound at least a little stern, but barely able to contain her grin.
“Urgh, fine,” Carmilla grumbled. She brought the blindfold up to her eyes and fastened it behind her head.
“Satisfied?” she asked when she was done, a sneer on her face that showed that she herself was, in fact, not satisfied with this development.
“Yes. Very,” Laura replied, blissfully ignorant of Carmilla’s expression.
It was a very strange sensation, not being able to see anything at all, and Carmilla thought that she didn’t like it very much. No, she was fairly certain that she didn’t. But Laura kept talking to her, maybe even more so than before, and that helped.
“Ah, there we are,” Laura said after a while, and Carmilla felt the car turn to the right, onto a road that was most definitely not paved. She was relieved when they slowed down, and, especially when, after making a U turn, Laura parked the car and turned off the engine. Then she turned in the leather seat, ostensibly towards Carmilla.
“All right,” she began, “I need you to stay in the car a bit longer while I unload some stuff and prepare some things.
“Really?” Carmilla asked, “Stuff and things? You’re still keeping me in the dark here? Literally?” she added, pointing to the blindfold.
“You can take the blindfold off –” Laura began, and she quickly reached out a hand to stop the vampire, whose arm had lifted toward her head immediately, “if you promise to just read or listen to some music while I’m gone, and you do not get out of the car to see what I’m doing.
“Sure, I promise.”
“And not yet,” Laura added sternly, “Wait for me to tell you.” With that, Carmilla heard her open the driver’s side door and get out of the car. A few seconds later, there was the unmistakable sound of the trunk being opened, and something heavy being dragged out of the car. Then Laura was by the passenger’s side, and Carmilla heard a sort of tap before Laura told her through the closed window that she could look now.
Carmilla eagerly took off the blindfold, adjusting quickly to the darkness around her. She looked towards Laura, who smiled at her before walking off to the back of the car. The vampire noticed that she’d been clever enough to fold the side mirrors in. The rearview mirror didn’t offer much help anyway, what with all the things that were packed nearly up to the ceiling of the car. Carmilla glanced towards the empty seat that Laura had been occupying. In it, she saw a book, specifically the one that she’d been reading before falling asleep this morning. She’d hate to admit it, but she was a little impressed.
She decided to play along a little while longer, picked up the book and found the page that she was on. However, Laura hadn’t said anything about listening in, and she focused her hearing on what was going on outside the car. She could tell that Laura was struggling with something. There was the sound of some kind of cloth or canvas fluttering in the wind and the sound of objects – Carmilla guessed plastic – hitting each other repeatedly. Laura, for her part, could be heard spewing a lot of overly censored curse words. Carmilla snickered, her book already forgotten.
The sounds changed after a little while. Laura stopped cursing like a soccer mom and Carmilla did her best to decipher what the motorized sound she could now hear from Laura’s direction could be. It was silent for a few minutes before she heard Laura trudge back to the car, and she pretended to be immerged in her book when the blonde appeared at her window and opened the door for her.
“Put the blindfold back on,” Laura commanded.
“Really, Cupcake? Can’t I just close my eyes, or something?” Carmilla questioned, trying to sound annoyed.
Laura considered this for a moment.
“Fine.”
Laura offered her a hand to get out of the car, which Carmilla took. She closed her eyes, expecting to be guided to whatever surprise Laura had prepared for her, but instead, Laura’s hand left her own and she felt the girl move to stand behind her.
“Really?!” she asked in disbelief as Laura covered Carmilla’s eyes with her hands, but the blonde insisted, claiming that it was in order to discourage her from peeking, or using ‘some weird vampirey power’. Whatever. If it made Laura happy.
They stopped a bit awkwardly after about two dozen paces, Carmilla all too aware of Laura’s body pressed into her back. The other girl removed her hands and was clearly awaiting some sort of response, but Carmilla kept her eyes shut, determined to be a little shit for just a tiny bit longer.
“What’s wrong?” Laura asked, moving to stand beside Carmilla.
“Well, I just wasn’t sure if the coast was clear and all.”
“Oh, just shut up and look, will you, you grumpy vampire?” Laura said, elbowing Carmilla lightly in the side. She had half a mind to pretend to be hurt, but figured even adorable little pains-in-the-neck deserved a break sometimes. So she opened her eyes and, despite the nearly complete darkness of their surroundings, could see clearly that they were by a lake, pale moonlight flickering off its unmoving surface. To their left, and Carmilla wanted to hit herself for not having figured it out sooner by the sounds she’d overheard from the car, there was a tent.
“Happy birthday,” Laura said, though her uncertainty made it sound almost like a question.
“How did you know?” Carmilla asked in a whisper, and she cursed herself for the way her voice sounded almost vulnerable.
“I’ve done my research,” Laura replied, clearly proud of herself now.
“Research?” Carmilla echoed, her voice full of disbelief. Where had Laura even found this information? To her knowledge, none of the social media profiles that the blonde had almost (and in certain cases actually) begged her to create revealed the exact date of her birthday, and she found it hard to believe that there were any records of her in the history books. The only thing even remotely interesting about her time as a human had been the moment of her death, and she’d done a pretty good job of staying under the radar after she had been turned and taken under her mother’s wing.
“Okay, so I may have googled you. And then when that didn’t actually work, I may have gone to the library with LaF.” Ah. That explained the bruises and burn marks from a while back that Laura had refused to explain.
“So imagine my surprise when I found this book that said you were born just three weeks after I decided to look you up,” Laura said. Then her smile fell and she turned serious.
“I figured you might not have celebrated your birthday in a while, what with your asshole mother making you abduct virgin girls and everything, so, you know, I thought I’d do something for you. I mean, I know it’s not much or anything, but it was the best I could think of on such short notice. I figured because you like looking at the stars so… much…”
Laura’s voice died down when she realized that she was rambling, and she wasn’t entirely sure Carmilla was even paying attention to a word she was saying. The vampire made no attempt to speak, afraid that the earlier vulnerability would still be in her voice if she tried.
“So… The book, it was right, right?” Laura ended up asking, breaking their silence. “Today is actually your birthday?”
“Yeah,” Carmilla said, and that all-too fragile voice was indeed still there.
“Thank you,” she turned to Laura for the first time since she’d exited the car. She didn’t know if the other girl could even see anything, with just the moonlight to illuminate her surroundings, but Carmilla saw her as clear as day. “This is… lovely.”
Her confidence clearly returned, Laura took Carmilla’s hand again and turned on the flashlight that she’d produced from her coat pocket. Carmilla was led to the tent, in front of which she now saw that a picnic blanket had been laid out, as well as some extra blankets to curl up in. The coldest months of the year had passed, but spring hadn’t fully kicked in yet either, so the extra warmth was much appreciated.
Laura gestured for Carmilla to sit down, and the vampire complied gladly. Laura, however, stayed on her feet. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to get something to eat now,” she said, almost guiltily, and she waited for Carmilla to nod to head back to the car.
“Oh, and I brought you something to drink too, if you feel like it,” Laura shouted, trying to wrench a mini cooler out from under a pile of bags and boxes that would lead any sane person to believe that they were going away for two months instead of a weekend, or perhaps preparing for any variety of apocalypses. Having heard all about Laura’s father, Carmilla reasoned that the latter could actually be relatively close to the truth.
“I’m all right for now,” she shouted back at the tiny human, whom she could hear mutter to herself, “Oh, thank God.”
She returned a few minutes later with a plastic container and a fork in one hand, and an electric lantern in the other.
Setting the lantern down at the edge of the picnic blanket, Laura opened the container and ate her pasta salad, which appeared to just consist of pasta and cheese, under the watchful eye of Carmilla.
“Okay, please say something instead of just staring at me,” Laura told her eventually, in between bites.
“You know I don’t do talking on command, Cupcake,” the vampire said matter-of-factly.
“Then look somewhere else,” Laura told her, “Or better yet, eat this.” She grabbed something from her coat pocket and handed it to Carmilla. It was a brownie in plastic wrap.
“Perry,” Laura said simply.
“I’ll be sure to thank her when we get back,” Carmilla mused, as she unwrapped the chocolate treat.
“No you won’t,” Laura grinned.
Carmilla pretended to ponder upon this.
“No I won’t,” she admitted. “But I’ll think it, and that’s what matters.” Laura merely snorted at this, and ate the last of her pasta.
“So, what we do now is kind of up to you,” she said, once she, too, had finished one of the brownies. “I figured you’d probably want to just lie her and look at the stars for a bit, since that’s why I brought you here and all, but I’ve also got some games that we can play. Or we can just go to sleep, of course, but you’re probably not very tired yet.”
“Are you?” Carmilla asked, and Laura shook her head.
Carmilla smiled. “Stars would be nice.”