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Cards on the table, we're both showing hearts, risking it all though it's hard...
--
Perhaps it was a testament to just how blind to Carmilla's nature Laura was that she hadn't figured on the losing battle of challenging someone who could teleport to a footrace. She realized this when she hit the solarium and found Carmilla lazily draped across the white couch. Apparently she had the audacity to rub it in with a pit stop to the cellar because two flutes hung lazily between her fingers and a bottle, sweating in the freedom from its fridge, sat on the coffee table next to her.
"Good of you to join me cupcake," she said through curved lips.
"I literally ran up here," Laura said incredulously through deep huffs.
"No one told you to."
Laura rolled her eyes and then took a running jump onto the couch, carefully to aim her knees on either side of Carmilla's hips because causing her internal bleeding was for sure a mood breaker. Carmilla laughed as the pile of Laura landed square on her and Laura nuzzled her giggles quickly into the crook of Carmilla's neck.
Carmilla shifted to save the champaign flutes, precariously dangling close to their death as she regained control and pushed Laura back enough to sit up and reach for the bottle. With a strong flick of her thumb, the cork gave way with a violent pop and they both jumped (Laura shoved down the thought that Carmilla jumped for a far different reason). Froth broke free in a waterfall and hit the hardwood in splatters.
"Hope the visiting professors don't mind their floor getting ruined," Laura said, watching the wine calm.
"I think in a few minutes they should be far more worried about this couch," Carmilla said. She punctuated it with a drag of her lips up the side of the bottle, collecting residual foam and not once taking her eyes off Laura.
Laura fought back by chasing the champaign off her lips with her own, hazarding a suck on Carmilla's bottom lip for emphasis. They broke apart with a small pop and a pink tongue darted out from Carmilla's lips and quickly retreated.
10 points to Hollis.
Carmilla masterfully filled the flutes with bubbling gold and offered one to Laura, setting aside the source for now back on the table.
"And what are we toasting Countess Karnstein?" Laura asked, putting out a pinky for emphasis.
"The stars, I suppose," Carmilla said, looking up and Laura followed her gaze, remembering why they were here. Laura snorted but pursed her lip in caricature and tapped the rim of her glass to Carmilla's.
"To the stars, then."
They took a sip with eyes locked, and lowered the glasses in unison. Okay, holy crap that was really good champaign. Not that Laura was learned in those things but damn did she want to down the whole glass. But that was probably super unsexy. Especially if it came out her nose (it only happened once).
"Did you know," Carmilla said, taking another, longer sip and setting the glass down to settle back down into the couch. "That Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, is only actually 6 stars. And multiple cultures tell a story of 7 stars and 1 falling down. It's odd."
Laura looked up through the glass ceiling into the canopy of black, searching the pinpricks of light for the cluster of stars Carmilla was referencing. They kept the solarium almost completely lightless but pollution from the campus below and the glare on the windows kept her from truly taking in the sight.
"Is this the cliché part where I try to convince you that the missing star is you?" Laura asked, taking another sip of wine and setting it down to join Carmilla's on the floor, laying down against her.
"Science says now we're made of stars, every particle in the body was born inside of one, or many," Carmilla said, running her fingers through Laura's hair.
"Maybe you and I were made in the same one," Laura whispered into Carmilla's chest and the hand on her hair stilled.
Laura lifted her head and met not a deer in headlights or an overwhelmed puppy. She saw an 18 year old girl, wide eyed, pale in place of blushing, and swallowing a racing heart that might have been there. Laura smiled and gently leaned forward, pressing their lips together softly, and chastely, exchanging shades of champaign in the light mesh of their lips.
It went on like that for a few seconds before Laura grew bold enough to push her tongue forward on a pass and Carmilla, anticipating, opened welcomingly and Laura, as always, was shocked to find just how soft Carmilla's mouth was as she explored. Beneath the champaign there hid an underlying tint of metal that meant it was truly Carmilla she was kissing.
Carmilla's hands pressed gently at her hips until she slid back, giving her room to sit up, all the while keeping their lips connected. Laura's breath was getting sharper and shorter through her nostrils and occasionally leaking out her mouth in hefty gasps when they had a second apart. Carmilla was not unsympathetic to her need to breath, but only gave her a few seconds at a time before she pressed back in. Eventually, she settled for a trail of kisses down her jaw line, a bite at the skin there, and more until she lightly, but poignantly, worshipped her pulse point.
They'd made out before, in their tent the first night on the run, in the diner after the others fell asleep, in the hay loft where things had gotten very close to an R rating. But now they were alone, the door was locked, no Christmas witch was going to burst in, no housemates, no kobold determined to marry her. And no god was going to drag Carmilla away from her.
It was them and the stars, who, hopefully, averted their steadfast watch of Carmilla for just one night.
Carmilla's hands lightly grazed across the fabric of the dress, settling on the buckle of the belt and lightly pulling before removing her hands and waiting. Laura answered with a fierce kiss, forcing Carmilla's lips back up to her own. The hint was received as Carmilla pulled the loose belt through the loops around the dress until it was a separate piece and then on the floor.
It was Laura's turn to make a play at Carmilla's neck and she felt a throaty chuckle under her lips which she quickly silenced with a purposeful bite and Carmilla's stiffened and nearly jerked up. Well, the role reversal seemed to definitely be a turn on. She'd have to catalog these things for future use (because they would be doing this again, and again, and again).
Carmilla's eyes were dangerous and she swore they shifted a shade, but her hands were gentle as they lightly caressed up to the zipper at the base of her neck and tugged. Cool air hit Laura's back but Carmilla's hands were gone, dropped back down to her hips and kissing her again, the back of the dress open like a question.
And after a minute of kissing, Laura realized Carmilla intended to go no further herself, her hands keeping far away from the exposed skin of her back. And Laura wondered if it might have something to do with the fact that she was suddenly shaking with adrenaline while her heart raced to keep up. Carmilla slowed their kisses until she backed off entirely, and just watched Laura from where she sat.
Her hands gently danced across Laura's arms and Laura tried to match her would-be breathing to the rhythm as she forced her nerves down.
"Sorry," she whispered, looking down. "I'm kind of killing the mood, huh?"
"Nothing to be sorry for, love," Carmilla said.
Carmilla still danced soothing patterns across her arm, refusing to push above the elbow. She slid one of Laura's hands in her own and gently squeezed.
"The whole, 'professional despoiler of virtue' thing is ringing in my head," Laura admitted through a nervous laugh.
"All those girls aren't here right now," Carmilla said. "It's only you and me."
Laura nodded and sighed. How did she not sound childish saying she was afraid of disappointing Carmilla? Sure it didn't take a genius to know how to operate all the anatomy and Laura was also a girl and knew what worked and what didn't, but never had she done that with another person before. Not that she thought her relationship with Carmilla hinged on her abilities in the bedroom, nor was that a static level of skill…she really should stop thinking now.
So she leaned forward and kissed Carmilla because she knew Carmilla would not do it herself. Hands went up to cup her at the sides of the face and gently scratch at her hairline, pushing in a little farther to rub her scalp and she felt herself calm down.
"We can go to bed if you want," Carmilla whispered.
They had done what they said they were going to. Stars had been gazed at, champaign had been consumed, make out session had commenced. All the things that were meant to happen that night she kidnapped her now rectified.
Except that Laura wanted this really bad.
"I want you," Laura whispered against the shell of Carmilla's ear, not brave enough to bite it.
"Are you sure?" Carmilla asked.
Laura snorted and pulled back to raise an eyebrow to her.
"I mean are you sure right now," Carmilla said, rolling her eyes.
Laura didn't trust herself to answer with words, she wouldn't be able to find the ones to convince Carmilla. So instead she kept her eyes focused on her, blending their shades of brown in the intensifying air between them as she reached around behind her and pulled at the open edges of the dress until the skin on her shoulders, chest, and stomach rose up in goosebumps and the blood beneath began to heat.
Her heart was positively thundering.
She let the fabric settle at her waist, because, like, baby steps, let's not get carried away. But it was already enough to replace the jitters with anticipation. She was still little better than one giant exposed nerve and it was terrifying but Carmilla had a way of making scary things exhilarating and all Laura could think of was seeing what those leather pants molded themselves to so perfectly.
While Carmilla was distracted by the new purchase of skin, Laura got her fingers under her black shirt and pulled up. It came off like smoke and a black lacy bra greeted her (because of course it did).
And so it went, between kisses, and sucks, and tickles, piece by piece they matched each other for nakedness until there was nothing left to mirror and Laura shamelessly raked her eyes across a suddenly shy vampire who returned the favor with even more intensity.
This was the one and only time Laura allowed herself to objectively say Carmilla was ridiculously gorgeous without a social justice voice ringing in her ear.
"Hope we don't put on a show for those protesters," Laura said, eyeing the walls of windows in the dark.
"Only show is for you babe," Carmilla whispered into her neck.
At Laura's breathless nod of approval, Carmilla moved first. And she did not stop moving the rest of the time. There was an infinite gap between two stars when Laura forgot which bead of sweat was hers and which was Carmilla's, which one of them owned that moan, who blinked the glitter of starlight into whose eyes.
----
After the first time Carmilla was insistent on making sure Laura was okay, which was a huge bummer because Laura was, herself, insistent on repeating the process immediately. But they laid on the couch, stuck to each other in sticky sweat, sipping more champaign and trading kisses between laughs and little tidbits Carmilla had to give about whatever star or constellation was overhead at that particular moment.
"Polaris," Carmilla whispered into Laura's ear. "Queen of the stars."
Laura hummed against her neck.
"Not the brightest," she continued. "But the most important."
Laura turned to look up through the roof. She spotted a particularly bright point of light above them almost directly. She felt a muscle in her neck pull uncomfortably and she lifted a hand to press against it. Carmilla's hand came to cover her own and take over as she let her head lull down bonelessly.
"Okay, maybe we can cross off couches as comfortable places to…uh," Laura smirked and Carmilla kissed her forehead.
"There is that extremely heavenly bed one floor down that has that as an intended use," Carmilla mused.
"We're not racing."
They collected their clothes, throwing on shirts and underwear just in case LaFontaine and Perry were still up with the club soda (because that is not the type of team building bonding that anyone needed).
The clothes came off again quickly as they fell into bed and the heat started up all over again. The fun this time was in trying to keep quiet because Laura was loud in life and this, apparently, was no exception. Laura tried to get payback by seeing how difficult she could make it for Carmilla to keep quiet, apparently that was a losing battle too because beyond heavy sighs and whispers of moans she remained stoic. Though the muscles of her face told Laura just how much she was feeling.
"Can I ask you something," Laura asked, curled in Carmilla's side on top of the ruffled comforter.
"Hmm?"
"How long has it been since someone…since you let someone…" Laura bunched her face and gestured to Carmilla. "Reciprocate."
"Ahh," Carmilla said, sitting up.
Laura had a working theory that for all Carmilla's defiling, she probably rarely allowed herself to be touched and kissed and held. On the one hand it made Laura feel better, knocking down the green eyes of jealousy, but it was also, well, sad. She hurt for Carmilla and how she had been forced into sex by her mother, it was part of her job and Laura feared she'd detached so much from it that even Laura couldn't help her find an emotional catharsis in it.
But purpose it was who you were with that mattered, not that act itself.
"A while," Carmilla said quietly, lacing her fingers with Laura's. "And now you're the only one."
"Damn right."
After that they actually did put on clothes and shuffled downstairs in late night hunger (because you know, exercise). Carmilla worked on heating up cocoa for Laura who snacked on a box of cookies and stirred up Carmilla's travel cup of blood. They played jazz music from Carmilla's iPod, low, on the docking station on the counter and she caught Carmilla humming along, occasionally.
It was so domestic she was afraid it wasn't real because people like them weren't meant to have this. An ageless vampire and a teenage human in the middle of a supernatural cold war, making snacks in the middle of the night, trying to keep their giggles down. Laura wanted it forever. But she knew the world wouldn't let that happen. Tomorrow something would come knocking on the door to ruin everything, or try to.
So she slid behind Carmilla, head on her shoulder and arms around her waist, clasping over her stomach. The moment might end, but the feeling would last forever. They fell asleep talking on the chaise lounge, hours before sunrise. Wrapped around each other, sharing Laura's heartbeat.