Chapter Text
Nerdy Ginger (7:27 pm): Hey, what are you doing tonight?
Carmilla (7:29 pm): You know I never have plans
Nerdy Ginger (7:30 pm): Well, Perr and I, along with another friend that we’d like you to meet, will be at The Lustig at 9:30ish.
Carmilla (7:48 pm): I’ll think about it.
Sometimes she still asks herself why she let the ginger twins convince her of hanging out with them ever since the last time they developed their “brilliant” scheme of hooking her up with Danny. She was another red head, but after a couple of dates Carmilla ditched the ginger themed nicknames and started calling her Xena-- living proof that giants still roamed the earth. That turned out to not be as brilliant of a plan as they thought it would be. They were always trying to play matchmakers with Carmilla since they knew she hadn’t been in a relationship after what happened with Elle. Which may or may not have been their fault for introducing her to Carmilla. Maybe third time’s the charm, she thought, fully aware that that was almost impossible.
Even though the weather was already getting chilly, she slipped into her black leather pants and a see through black shirt. If she was going get set up with someone, she might as well look good doing it. Hell, she might even get a couple of drinks out of it. She liked her jet black hair, curled in relaxed and messy locks that always looked like she had spent hours working on them. Truthfully, it had been days since she had last combed it. She applied her signature eyeliner and looked at herself in the mirror, nonchalantly shrugging her shoulders and grabbed a light jacket before shutting the door behind her.
She walked four blocks from her apartment until she arrived at a narrow place situated between two colossal brick buildings. In front stood a heavy wooden door that’s faded teal in color with a small barred peep hole window. Unlike other places, this one had a single, nearly invisible wooden framed window to the left that had refused to open for years. Between the window and the entrance door, the wall had a small, chipped and faint painted sign that reads: The LUSTIG, est. 1968. The sign was living proof that this place has definitely seen better days. Business steadily went on but passersby never seemed to pay too much attention and walked on without giving the bar a second glance during the day. There were several occasions in which it would get crowded, but not to the point of looking like a human infestation unlike other bars that Carmilla knew. On the inside, the walls had the exposed brick facade from the original building, the bar placed in an L shape at the corner with several tall tables lining the opposite side of the room. Carmilla was greeted by the bartender of the evening, Kirsch, who might be one of the tallest people that Carmilla had ever met. Scratch that, Xena takes the cake. But he was equally as tall and quickly flashed her a smile. If Carmilla ever compared him with anything, which she usually did, she would say that he’s the one clueless puppy that never stops wagging his tail. He might not be good at a lot of things (dropping lime wedges into the sink and straws on the floor) but he certainly knew how to mix an old fashioned.
“Hey Carmsexy.” He had a wide smile painted on his face as he handed a customer their order without taking his eyes off of her, almost knocking over another person’s beer without noticing.
“Don’t you ever get tired of smiling?”
“Nah! Winter is coming, bro. That’s something to smile about. And you know how much I love making your drink since you seem to be the only hottie that ever orders it.” He reached for a glass, grabbed an orange and began cutting into it, “Your friends went straight to the patio. Are they trying to hook you up with someone again?” He took some sugar and kept mixing her beverage while still smiling obnoxiously at her.
Carmilla rolled her eyes, annoyed that even the puppy dog was aware of how painstakingly single she was. Was it that obvious?
“Any slower and I’d have already been married, have a child, and have that child make these drinks--”
“One old fashioned.”
He handed Carmilla her drink and pretended not to hear her. “Hey, have you ever seen Mad Men? You would be like Don Drapper but in a lady’s body. Like a lady Drapper.”
Before Kirsch could say anything else, she started walking to the patio door, taking a small sip from her drink, realizing that once again the giant got it perfectly. Kirsch knew her well enough to keep her tab open without asking. As she entered a narrow open hall with Chinese lanterns candidly illuminating the corridor above her, Carmilla always looked up to see a sculpture of a pair of female legs wearing red stilettos. They seemed to have been captured as the feet were swinging in the air at the edge of a fake window between the second and third floor of the building to their right. She kept walking, meeting an abstract elephant sculpture and empty picture frames decorating the left wall. There was no doubt that this place has a… quaint and unsettling vibe which adds to the allure of it. She erased the grin that formed in her lips and composed herself to her usual uninterested glance as she kept walking down the hall. A single large tree was at the center of the patio with white Christmas lights entwined between the branches. Metal circular tables with umbrellas in them were spread out along the semi-small space with several sculptures lining the edges. She eventually noticed the ginger twins standing next to one of the sculptures, causing a small (very small) commotion. Identifying Perry first, followed by LaFontaine who was facing in her direction, and then a shorter, unknown person with long, caramel hair giving her back to Carmilla. No drinks in any of their hands, Carmilla raised and eyebrow and took a loud sip.
“They added a new sculpture since the last time we came, Perry, how can you not remem— Hey! Did you just get here?”
“Been here a while,” she answered with a monotonous tone. “Tell me, did the garden gnomes started another uprising in your apartment building and you had to evacuate or what?”
“Well, we wanted to go out since it’s sort of nice out tonight. A bit chilly actually, but nice! And we wanted to have a good time. With you,” Perry responded and shifted her eyes between Carmilla and the unknown girl. “And we wanted you to meet Laura. Laura, this is Carmilla, Carmilla, this is Laura.”
The tiny girl turned to face her with a bright smile already painted on her face and immediately grabbed Carmilla’s hand and kissed her cheek. Carmilla tensed up by the sudden display of affection from the girl she met two seconds ago. But maybe that was the way this tiny girl greeted everyone? Carmilla immediately noticed how cute she was with her eyes like a baby deer’s that still hadn’t been jaded by the cruelty of the world. Wait. She immediately pushed that thought away because it seemed too… sappy? Probably something the Bobbsey Twins would be thinking about each other. Probably something they’ve already thought about with each other. Gross.
Lafontaine and Perry resumed their argument about the new sculpture and Carmilla turned to face Laura. She noted once again that she had no drink in her hand cause they were stuffed in her pockets.
“Not drinking tonight, cupcake?” Carmilla asked.
“Umm... No,” she answered sheepishly, pulling a strand of loose hair under her ear. If she wasn’t mistaken, Carmilla could’ve sworn she saw a tinge of blush flash across her cheeks. “I already spent all my money on a project I have been working on lately and I don’t get paid till next week. But thanks for the offer anyway.”
“Who said I was offering?” Carmilla raised an eyebrow teasingly.
The girl shifted her weight and quickly looked down to hide her cheeks from the constant blushing. When Carmilla figured she’d suffered enough, she tapped her arm with her elbow. “It was a joke, sweetheart. Don’t beat yourself up over it. And besides,” she sipped from her drink, feeling how the bitter taste of alcohol dissipated as it went down her throat and spread through her body, making her feel more relaxed, “it would be a shame if I’m the only one drinking from the four of us. Come, let’s get you something. The dimwit duo can grab their own drinks if they ever stop vomiting love through their eyes.”
“Are you sure? I mean I just met you. I don’t want you to think like I’m taking advantage of you being all courteous to me even though you offered, but not really. But you did eventually, which is really sweet! And you know, making me feel less awkward than I already am because I am NOT good at meeting new people.” She finally paused for a second. “Am I— I’m talking too much, aren’t I?”
“It’s not against the law to babble, cutie. Come on. Today’s your lucky day and I happen to have more than $3 in my bank account, so I’m sure you’ve already thought of something you’d like.”
Laura accepted her offer anyways, letting her lead as they headed towards the bar. They landed next to one of the speakers and Laura tried to talk to Carmilla, her voice muted almost instantly by the background music. At this point, it might as well be foreground music by how loud the music is cranked up since Carmilla first arrived. To bridge the sound gap, Laura leaned forward and spoke next to her ear, lightly brushing their cheeks together. They distance between them both was so small, Carmilla was able to notice small details she otherwise would have missed like the light freckles in Laura’s cheeks. This girl was… for a lack of better word, cute. Incredibly cute. The gingers managed to do a good job this time around.
Catching herself, Carmilla asked Laura what she wanted to drink, but the smaller girl answered that a light beer would suffice despite Carmilla’s encouragement to get something stronger (far stronger) for her. She knew that light beers were the cheapest drinks available, but assented to avoid making her feel pressured. She flagged down Kirsch by casually lifting her hand and he immediately took their orders despite the protests from the other people already waiting at the bar before the two of them. No different than earlier, he effortlessly began to slice the orange, repeating the same process he did of combining the different liquors in a glass with that puppy smile on his face. He shifted his eyes between Carmilla to Laura and back again with a tug of a smirk on his lips. Carmilla was giving him a death stare, whereas Kirsch continued with a playful glance, knowing how easily he could annoy the dark haired girl. Laura, on the other hand, was unaware of the exchange of glances happening between them by being completely engrossed in the way Kirsch was working with the liquor bottles.
“And one beer for the little hottie,” he kept smiling, perfectly aware of Laura’s distracted eyes as he handed her her beer, throwing the metallic cap to the trashcan and missing it by a couple inches.
As they started heading out towards the patio, Laura placed her hand on the crook of Carmilla’s arm and stopped her.
“Hey, umm... do you mind if we stay here a little longer? I mean if you want to, of course.”
“Sure thing, cupcake.”
They were fortunate to find an empty table with a single bar stool in the already crowded place. The air felt warmer due to the lights and the amount of people gathered, not to mention the level of alcohol already flowing through Carmilla’s system. Laura was about to give the only stool to Carmilla, but the dark haired girl asked her to hold her drink and went to the table next to them.
“Hey, is anybody using this chair?” asking the girls with a sarcastically sweet tone in her voice.
“Well, our friend told us she will be any minute, so—”
“—Whatever.” She grabbed the stool with both hands and swung it next to Laura without saying another word.
She started sipping in her drink, ignoring the girls who were literally behind her loudly complaining about how rude she was. Laura regarded her with a disapproving look in her eyes but said nothing.
“What? Their friend probably already ditched them with a numbskull she found on the street. It would be a shame if it goes to waste.”
Laura rolled her eyes but couldn’t wipe the hint of a smirk she had developing at the curl of her lip and sipped from her beer bottle.
They started talking (or rather screaming) about general things like their classes, what they wanted to do after graduation-- the usual things people talk about when they meet someone new. Laura drank and seemed to be at ease talking to Carmilla, which was an unusual sentiment since the latter had a bad habit of driving people away with her personality. Laura would be the one to talk the most out of both of them, but she noticed that her new friend-- Friend? Was she and Laura friends yet? Whatever Laura was, she didn’t mind that she took up most of their conversation.
Whenever the tiny human was talking, Carmilla began to notice how her eyes would light up when she got passionate about a subject and her hand gestures would become more animated and erratic. Her facial expressions would change, sometimes in such a comical way that the dark haired girl had to hide her grin by sipping from her drink. But what captivated her the most was Laura’s smile. She had the smile that reflected the mindset that if someone tried their very best, stayed pure of heart, and really believe it, they would make a difference. Something that Carmilla had lost many years ago.
After a few more moments and stories, they decided to head back to the patio to check on Perry and Lafontaine since it became almost impossible to be able to hear themselves screaming in each other’s ears. Not that Carmilla could complain, she enjoyed having the shorter girl almost brush her lips to her ear, causing the hairs in her arms bristle underneath her jacket. They got another round of drinks, courtesy of Carmilla, and started to walk towards the door. As they were on their way out, Carmilla bent down slightly and leaned close to Laura’s face, telling her to look up. So she did and the tiny human let out a laugh when she noticed the pair of legs coming out from the window. They walked and brushed their arms together, but Laura didn’t seem to notice and kept walking until they found the ginger twins seated at one of the tables, being the married couple they were and looking at each other. Carmilla rolled her eyes because, of course they would be disgustingly engrossed in each other.
“Get a room.” She turned to Laura but still spoke loud enough that the other two could hear. “And they say they wanted to get together and have a good time.”
They broke their gaze and came down from Cheesy Wonderland just in time to meet both Laura’s and Carmilla’s gaze.
“We were wondering where you two went for so long.” Perry said.
“Oh yeah, you were so concerned about our well-being that you decided instead to stay here and talk to each other telepathically. Makes sense, Red.”
“Is Carmilla just like we described her or what?” Lafontaine asked, not listening to the other girl’s snarky comment.
“I’m right here,” Carmilla protested and gave a short wave towards Lafontaine.
“She’s definitely--” She bought some time by taking a couple gulps from her beer. “She’s exactly like you told me she’d be, even with the snarky commentary and the constant eye rolling,” Laura began to giggle because, as if on cue, Carmilla rolled her eyes in annoyance. She nudged Carmilla with her hip and gave her a smile, hoping she’d smile back. Negative. But Carmilla was having fun meeting this new person and it seemed like she was having fun too. Maybe? Or maybe that’s the alcohol slowly starting to make itself known.