Chapter Text
No. This was not happening to her! Laura stood there, about to start undressing herself as she stared at the hairy monster in the bathtub. She had been going about her normal day, getting ready for bed. But when she reached over her tub to turn the water on, she saw it. There, in the corner of the tub, was a huge mother f-in spider staring right at her. She had jumped away from the bathtub, trying to collect herself before daring to glance over the edge once more. She groaned. She had been really looking forward to this bath and now there was a monster blocking her way!
It wasn’t like she was terrified of spiders, but this one was really big. And it was hairy… Ew, gross. She couldn’t deal with this right now. She ran to her kitchen and grabbed a pot, oven mitts and a spatula and returned to the bathroom where the spider was still minding its own business in the corner of her bathtub.
Her plan? Well… she didn’t really have a plan exactly. She was more or less just going to try and put the spider in the pot, and then throw the pot out along with the spider. As far away from her as she could. There was no way that she would be using that pot again. Or that spatula, if it ever touched that ugly animal.
She tried to convince herself it was now or never as she put on the oven mitts and grabbed her spatula in one hand, and the pot in the other. She stood there staring at it a second longer before she bent down and reached with her spatula to nudge it into the pot when the spider suddenly moved and crawled onto the spatula. Laura shrieked and dropped everything as she ran out of the bathroom, slamming the door shut and running out of her apartment. Now what was she going to do?
As she stood there in the hall, she noticed the punk rock music coming from the apartment on the other side of the hall. Then, she had an idea. She knew a dark haired young woman lived there who was obviously into punk rock music. She had heard the music blasting from the apartment more than once, but she didn’t complain because it wasn’t bad music… And well, she was kind of scared of her. They only had one interaction with each other, which had given Laura the impression that the dark haired woman wasn’t a people person at all. But right now she figured, if there is someone that can help her with this spider problem it ought to be her, right?
She walked up to the door on the other side of the hallway with the big letters 307 on it and knocked. She frowned when her knocks didn’t sound louder than a thump and looked at her hands. She was still wearing the mitts… She felt slightly embarrassed by this so she furiously took them off and knocked again. She was about to wonder if the woman had heard her when the door unlocked and it flung open. There was the woman, leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed as she gave Laura a once over.
“Yes?” the husky voice suited the black clothed young woman perfectly and made Laura shiver in the best way possible.
“Uh, hi. I’m Laura, your neighbor.” Laura hadn’t actually thought about what she would say to her once she came face to face with her. “And uh, I have a little problem. I hoped you could help me with it.”
One of the dark haired young woman’s eyebrows rose up in a perfect arch as she listened to Laura.
“And what exactly is this little problem of yours, creampuff?”
Laura bit her lip as she realized how ridiculous it might sound to the tough looking young woman.
“Uh, it’s- I… There’s a spider. A huge spider in my bathtub. And I –“ She was interrupted by a snicker from the yet nameless young woman standing in front of her.
“I’m sorry. A spider? That’s what you need my help with?” Laura saw that the young woman had to bite back a huge smile that was almost creeping up on her face.
“I know how it must sound, but it’s really big and hairy and it’s in my tub! Can you please please please help me?” Laura begged to her neighbor.
The punk rocker sighed and let her head hang for a second before looking at Laura. “Okay, sure. Why not?” Which resulted in a shriek from Laura who couldn’t stop saying ‘thank you’.
Laura led them into the apartment but when they were about to walk into the bathroom she stopped and gestured for her neighbor to enter first.
“Oh, you’re kidding me right? This must be one huge spider.” Laura could only nod wide eyed.
She followed the other woman inside and hid behind her. “Yeah, it’s under the pot. It crawled on my spatula and I dropped everything and ran out.”
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Carmilla’s POV
Shaking her head with a grin plastered on her face, the punk rocker lifted the pot and revealed the spider from the darkness. She laughed at how Laura didn’t dare look at it.
Laura had been right though. This spider was in fact bigger than most. But not nearly the biggest she’d ever seen. After all, she had owned a tarantula once…
She reached down to let the little guy crawl onto her hand. A shriek followed the action as Laura frantically asked her what the hell she was doing. The little guy fit into her palm, so he wasn’t that big.
“Oh come on, creampuff. Look how innocent it is. I’ll set it free outside, okay?” she said to the slightly shorter girl. Laura just looked at her like she was crazy and made sure to take a few steps back as she walked to the window to set the spider free.
“Are you sure you don’t want to keep it as a pet?” she grinned. Laura groaned in response.
“Please just get it out.” Laura’s voice seemed tired and she decided to just stop the teasing and release the spider outside. She put her hand against the wall and let the spider crawl out before closing the window and turning to her neighbor.
“Any other problems you’d like my help with?” she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and watched as Laura’s eyes widened and swallowed hard.
“No thanks.” Laura started and hesitantly went on, “I just realized I don’t even know your name.”
“Carmilla.” She simply stated as she watched the girl smile.
“Thank you for your help Carmilla.” Laura stuck her hand out to shake hers. She took it, though it felt awkward and unnatural.
“No problem, cutie.” She smirked.
“My name is Laura by the way.” Laura said which made Carmilla crackle up a bit.
“Yeah, I know.” She simply said which resulted in a puzzled look from Laura. “I saw you around campus.” She simply stated with a shrug.
“I’m sorry. I can’t remember seeing you there.” Laura felt slightly ashamed.
“Don’t worry about it.” Carmilla said to her and started to walk towards the front door.
“Hey, uh, can I call you if I ever need your help again?” Laura hesitantly asked.
“You don’t need a reason to call me, cupcake.” She gave Laura a wink and walked out the door. She allowed herself to smile when she was out of sight. Finally, Carmilla will get to know the girl she had been crushing on for an entire year.