Chapter Text
The first thing that Laura Hollis notices as she slowly returns to consciousness is that she is cold. The undergrad frowns; this isn’t right.
Last night Laura had fallen asleep sandwiched between her girlfriends:
Danny the living furnace (the redhead had explained the phenomena once, something about werewolves metabolisms running on overdrive to support the shifting or something, but Laura couldn’t remember because Danny was doing that thing with her nose where it crinkled when she got excited about a topic of conversation).
And, Carmilla, who despite being a vampire devoid of the ability to make her own heat, was almost human temperature when she was well fed (which she was, thank you very much).
It’s Saturday morning, and none of them have anything to do until well after noon, when they should at least rise to eat something. Laura should be snuggled between her two favorite girls, downright toasty.
Rubbing blurrily at her face, Laura sits up slowly, startling when she kicks a lump situated at the foot of the bed. The lump whines, and her eyes snap open.
At the end of the bed, looking at her with soulful blue eyes, is an enormous brick red wolf cub (it’s the size of a border collie, but the giant paws and floppy ears give it away as a pup). It’s coloring, that rich red with strawberry highlights, tickles the back of Laura’s mind; it is so familiar. Sort of like a lighter, brighter version of Danny’s fur when she transfo….
“Oh… Oh no. Nope,” Laura whispers, mind fritzing out momentarily.
Danny is an adult. Danny’s wolf, when she shifts, is an adult. Huge. The size of a grizzly bear. This is a puppy, despite its size, and has no business here, in her bed. She doesn’t even let Danny into the room when she changes, because her hair gets absolutely everywhere, and Laura hates doing laundry and vacuuming as much as any other college student. (To be fair, Danny also doesn’t transform unless she is out in the woods beyond the campus, because she is always so scared she may accidentally cause a panic.)
There is no way that this – truthfully precious – juvenile wolf is her girlfriend. Absolutely not.
Except, those eyes are unmistakable, and also, what in the name of Underworld would a wolf be doing in her locked dorm room otherwise?
“Danny?” Laura asks.
The pup barks happily and bounces up, clumsily making its – oh dear god, her – way up the bed. Her tail wags enthusiastically as she flops forward into Laura’s chest and licks her face, knocking the wind out of the girl (she is adorable and clearly a baby, but really, so frickin’ huge and gangly) and dislodging something from her lap.
Laura gently pushes the wolf cub onto the bed next to her, staring, mouth agape.
A pitiful mewling catches the undergrad’s attention.
The smallest kitten Laura has ever seen in person claws its way back up her body to sit on her chest.
“Car… Carmilla?” Laura squeaks, caught between dying of complete horror and of absolute cuteness overload.
No. Absolutely not.
The black kitten (who has rounded ears like a panther, but is barely the size of a mass media paperback) flicks her tail and licks her paw, as if she is trying to appear unaffected by her fall.
Slowly, so as not to dislodge the kitten, or excite the puppy, Laura reaches for her phone and texts the only person she can possibly trust with this…
////
LaFontaine regards the (possibly, definitely) former Carmilla and Danny with a raised eyebrow.
“Baby Wolf-Dan is humongous,” they note offhandedly.
She really, really is. But considering how tall adult human Danny is, and how enormous adult wolf Danny is, they should not be surprised.
Puppy-Danny barks and snorts, rolling around once before standing again and preening.
Carmilla-Kitten mews disdainfully from her position on Laura’s yellow pillow; if cats could roll their eyes, Laura is sure Camilla would do so.
LaF squats down and reaches out a tentative hand towards the large wolf cub, allowing the creature that was probably (almost certainly at this point) formerly their classmate to sniff their hand. (Definitely) Danny doesn’t even hesitate, just licks at their fingers and yips once, clearly pleased, before heading butting the Bio major in the chest playfully.
LaF lands on their butt, giggling as the wolf pup licks their face and chews gently on their chin. Danny wags her tail at top speed, thumping it against the bed.
“Danny!” Laura chides, but LaF waves her off. Their smile is so big it practically splits their face.
“Puppy-Danny is way friendlier than adult person-Danny,” the scientist giggles, scratching the enthusiastic puppy behind the ears.
Perry hides a smile as she watches the not-so-tiny werewolf playfully maul her partner’s sweater.
Carmilla-Kitten decides she has had just about enough of being ignored and hops off the bed, wandering over to LaF and Danny. Danny turns and barks, ecstatic that the kitten wants to play, lowering her nose so she can better see her co-girlfriend.
Carmilla hisses and swipes at the puppy’s nose. Danny yelps and backs away into LaF, who loops am arm around the whimpering baby werewolf.
“Carmilla!” Laura scolds, picking the kitten up and wagging a finger at her. The itty bitty panther mews with disinterest and pushes Laura’s finger away from her face with a paw, jumping down and rubbing herself against the journalism major’s legs.
“It’s okay Little-Big Dan,” LaF assures, rubbing the puppy’s muzzle.
Bending down, Laura scoops the kitten up again, cradling her to her chest. Carmilla purrs loudly, reaching out a paw and laying it against the girl’s shoulder.
Danny moves away from LaFontaine, approaching Laura with her tail between her legs and baleful blue eyes. She rests her head on the girl’s thigh, looking up at her with an expectant expression. Laura reaches down to pet her head, but Carmilla begins to squirm, and she has to use both hands to keep from dropping the little black fuzz ball.
Danny whines sadly; Carmilla purrs louder, clearly pleased with herself.
“Looks like you’ve got your hands full, frosh,” LaF says, grinning. “Awful cute problem to have.”
Laura nods, juggling Carmilla, trying to reassure Danny. “As adorable as this is, we need to figure out what happened so we can change them back. Danny has a major exam on Monday, and Carmilla… well, she has a paper due, but I don’t think she really cares.”
“That’s why they need to be changed back?” LaFontaine asks, raising an eyebrow. “Schoolwork?”
“Honestly, since I know we’ll find a way to fix this – we always do, right? – I'm just kinda happy to not have to hear their bickering. It’s getting out of control. I came home the other night and it was practically the Battle of Isengard in here!”
“I thought things were getting better?” Perry asks, edging into the room and closing the door, now that she has decided being a part of these shenanigans is unavoidable and potentially adorable.
Laura sighs, nodding a bit sadly. “They really were. The last few weeks have been… great, actually. No fighting, both of them going out of their way to be downright nice to each other. Carmilla even let Danny borrow her copy of Alice In Wonderland for her Children’s Lit presentation – original first printing! But, I dunno, something happened last weekend and… it’s been bad. Worse than before, really…”
Laura hasn’t said any of this out loud, to anyone, not even her girlfriends, and it feels oddly liberating. Also depressing, but it does feel good to get it off her chest.
Carmilla decides this is the perfect time to fling her upper body down and swipe at Danny’s nose again. Laura sighs, giving up and just clutching the kitten to her. Danny whines pitifully, mouthing the girl’s belt loop.
“Oh, for goodness sake!” Perry huffs, striding over with authority and gently scruffing the misbehaving Carmilla. The kitten yowls, indignant.
“Hush! That’s enough of that, missy!” Perry scolds, cradling the kitten in the crook of her arm and rubbing her chin. Carmilla the kitten purrs despite herself, eyes half closing.
Danny the overgrown puppy rears back, putting her paws on Laura’s waist and nuzzling her stomach. Laura smiles down at her, gently stroking her fur. Too. Frickin’. Cute.
“Best thing to do is talk it out with them. When they are more bipedal, probably,” LaF suggests, shrugging. “Let me go get my kit so I can take some samples, see if I can figure out what caused the change.”
Both creatures perk up at the word ‘samples.’
“Sure, that would be awesome,” Laura agrees, rubbing the space between Danny’s eyes and grining in delight when the werewolf’s eyes cross as she tries to follow Laura’s fingers.
“Right, back in a jiff,” the scientist says.
The second the door is open, the girls-cum-animals are out of the room like a shot.
////
It takes the three humans over an hour to get them back in the dorm.
Danny looks at them with large, betrayed eyes that break their hearts. Laura and Perry can’t watch, turning away as LaF mouths ‘I’m so sorry buddy,’ as they draw blood and clip hair and nails. The wolf pup whimpers but doesn’t struggle.
It takes both Laura and Perry to hold Carmilla down to get the clippings, which is ridiculous because the kitten couldn’t weigh more than 2 lbs soaking wet. The little black ball of hate screeches and yowls and tries to claw the girls apart.
After four failed attempts at getting blood, Danny trots over and gently scruffs the kitten in her mouth – immobilizing her – so that LaF can get it over with. Carmilla moans pitifully.
After, the little feline retreats under her bed, hissing and shaking. Danny tries to follow, so big she can only get her front half under. Carmilla growls out her teeny, tiny warning.
“Danny, maybe you should leave her alone…” Laura says, still not quite sure if her mini wolf-ified girlfriend understands her.
The brick red pup pulls back and stares at the girl for a second, before snorting at her and going back to what she was doing.
Danny drags the kitten out ever-so-gently and hops onto the bed, depositing the complaining fuzz ball between her own large paws and licking the top of her head until she stops trying to escape. The wolf pup yawns and lets out a soft ‘woof’ and lays her head down next to Carmilla, who after a moment reluctantly curls up next to it.
Laura uses Carmilla’s phone to snap a few pictures, biting her lip to keep from squealing…
“So, we’ll uh, just leave you to it…” Perry trails off, not at all immune to the cuteness.
“We’ll be back later, hopefully with some answers.” LaFontaine assures, tugging their girlfriend out of the door and closing it behind them.
Laura, now alone with her (girlfriends? furry charges? adorable new pets?) two favorite girls, turns around. She is at a complete loss as to what to do.
“Right. Okay… Now what?” Neither Danny nor Carmilla respond, just look up at her expectantly. “Crap…”
Laura’s tummy rumbles, reminding her that she – and the two fluffy creatures that go bump in the night – have yet to eat.
“I should probably feed us, huh?”
Danny’s tail gets to wagging, excited, and Carmilla meows in agreement then chomps down on the werewolf’s paw. Danny yelps and bolts off the bed, barreling to the opposite side of the room with her tail between her legs, leaving a self-satisfied Carmilla licking her paw and cleaning her ears.
Oh boy. It is going to be a loooong few days...