Chapter Text
“Mother, please, can we not do this, we have company” Carmilla said with a twinge of annoyance as she took a stab at the peas rolling around on her plate.
Carmilla hated peas. She didn’t like having to chase down her food with a fork. It was like they were deliberately trying to escape their long awaited doom of becoming green mush mixed with hydrochloric acid.
She felt Laura’s hand give her thigh a reassuring squeeze.
Carmilla was in her mid-twenties, and yet her mother always had a way to make her feel like a child.
“Oh Carmilla, Laura and David are hardly strangers, they’re practically family!”
That was true, but it didn’t make this conversation any less awkward for Carmilla.
It was Thanksgiving weekend, and the father daughter duo was over at the Karnstein mansion for the big dinner.
“Dear, you’ve got to stop your nonsense with jumping from one girl to the next every other week. It’s hard enough as it is with you being….” Lilita paused, refusing to say the next word.
Carmilla knew it was hard for her mother to say it, which was the exact reason why Carmilla prodded her mother to go on. She liked making her mother feel uncomfortable.
“Being what, Mother?” Carmilla asked as she feigned innocence.
“Oh you know.”
Carmilla smirked. “I don’t, but why don’t you enlighten us all?”
Her mother sighed before speaking.
“….gay.” Lilita winced at the sound of the word coming out from her own mouth.
If it was possible, Carmilla would’ve given herself a pat on the back for a job well done at making her mother squirm.
“You’ve got a reputation to withhold and it’s about time you put a halt to your hormonal rampages and settle down,” Lilita continued.
Carmilla scoffed. She could hear her mother go on about how she has responsibilities as the daughter of a corporate queen. It was the same spiel as always and Carmilla suddenly found the mound of peas on her plate far more entertaining.
“And that’s why I’m in the midst of arranging a marriage for you with someone suitable. I’ve narrowed it down to the daughter of one of our business alliances, and I’ve prepared a rather cozy apartment for the two of you to move in together after you get a chance to meet her. I’m sure you’re ever so grateful that I’m not making you marry a man.”
That got Carmilla’s attention.
“What did you just say?” asked Carmilla as she looked up from her plate.
“God Carmilla, were you not listening to a word I was saying? I said I’ve found a potential candidate as your future spouse. She seems like a wonderful girl, and –“
“No” Carmilla said, quietly, but firmly.
“You haven’t even met her yet! At least give her a chance, you get together with tons of girls, this should be –“
“I said no, Mother.”
“Dave, back me up here,” said Lilita as she shot a glance towards Laura’s father sitting adjacent to her.
Before Laura’s father could get a word in, Carmilla spoke up again.
“Mother, stop it. There’s nothing that you can say or do to make me agree to this.”
Carmilla knew that wasn’t true. Her mother was the master of manipulation. If she wanted something done, she’d make it happen one way or another.
“Why are you being so stubborn? It’s just one meeting for crying out loud and it’s for your own good!” Lilita hissed. Hissed. Not yelled, because women of status never raised their voices unless it was necessary, as her mother would say.
“Because!”
“Because what?” Lilita immediately replied.
Carmilla wish she had thought this through, but her mouth was working ten times faster than her brain was as she blurted, “Because I’m seeing someone!”
Her mother was more amused than shocked, with her left eyebrow raised.
“Oh? Who’s this special lady? Another one of those ‘coffee buddies’? And you think you can get out of this marriage arrangement because you’re seeing someone that you’ll fling aside in a week? The whole point of this is so that you’ll settle down, Carmilla. ”
Carmilla blanked. She wasn’t seeing anyone seriously. She wasn’t even seeing any of her coffee buddies.
She could feel Laura threading her fingers through her own and turned to give Laura a puzzled look.
“She’s seeing me,” Laura announced definitively as she brought their intertwined hands above the table.
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If anything, Carmilla was just as shocked as Laura’s father. He was practically choking on the tiny, but deadly peas. Her mother on the other hand, was skeptical.
Typical businesswoman.
Laura’s father finally spoke up, with a certain glow in his face. In times like these, the resemblance between the father and daughter was uncanny.
“Is this true, you two?” he asked, eyes full of anticipation and excitement.
Carmilla felt like she was having an out of the body experience, and by the time she pulled herself together, Laura had already taken the initiative to answer.
The second Laura confirmed their relationship, her dad jumped up from his seat and leaned over the table to give Laura and Carmilla a warm embrace. Carmilla was still in a state of confusion and she returned the hug.
In the periphery of Carmilla’s vision, she could see a smile plastered onto her mother’s face, but her piercing gaze told a different story. She knew her mother wasn’t about to fall for the act, not without somehow confirming it in her own way. She could read her mother’s face like a book by now, and she knew her mother was up to something. She just didn’t know what.
“Well about time! I was about to lose hope over here watching you guys!” said Laura’s father with a sigh of relief.
His tone changed within the next second as he turned to look at Carmilla, with the sternest face he could pull off while trying to contain his excitement.
“Now Carmilla, even though I’ve always thought of you as family, it doesn’t mean I won’t go hard on you if you ever hurt Laura.”
“Dad,” Laura whined. If there was one thing Carmilla’s mother and Laura’s father had in common, it was that they both had a knack for making their twenty-something year olds feel like children.
“I wouldn’t dare, sir,” Carmilla replied with sincerity.
“Well, well , well,” said Carmilla’s mother, as she put down her cutlery to dab her mouth with a napkin.
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised, but congratulations to the both of you. Luckily for you, although I have put out the news of your engagement Carmilla, I’ll be willing to make a few phone calls to change the name of your fiancée –“
Her mother smirked; her eyes were glinting with mischief.
“And as I’ve mentioned earlier, you’ll be moving in together at the new apartment. I mean, I don’t see a reason why an engaged couple wouldn’t be living together anyways.”
Carmilla knew her mother was challenging her; to see how much Carmilla could take before the little show would crumble. Unfortunately, it was working because Laura was the last person she’d wish to put through this shenanigan, and as Carmilla opened her mouth to speak, Laura interrupted.
“That’s no problem, ma’am,” answered Laura, with the same glint of mischief as Lilita had a moment ago.
If there was one thing that Carmilla admired about Laura, it was that she never backed down from a challenge, even from the likes of Carmilla’s mother. Carmilla’s almost positive that if anyone were to put her mother in her place, it would be Laura. And it has happened a handful of times before, and if Carmilla didn’t know any better, she’d say that that’s what her mother liked about Laura too.
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“You’re welcome!” Laura said as she jumped onto Carmilla’s bed.
Carmilla’s response to that was pacing back and forth in her room, with her forehead all scrunched up.
They retreated back to Carmilla’s bedroom after dinner. Carmilla would’ve never pegged herself to be someone who lived at home at the age of twenty-six, but since her mother was rarely ever home, it didn’t really make much of a difference whether she moved out or not.
“Laura, you know my mother is as sharp as a needle, she’s going to see through us within a day,” Carmilla said as she looked up at the girl who’s clearly nowhere in the same state of mind as Carmilla as she bounced up and down on the bed.
“Then we’ll just have to be extra believable!” exclaimed Laura as she continued to test out the springs of Carmilla’s bed.
“And how do you intend on eventually getting out of this mess? It’s not like we can pretend forever,” questioned Carmilla, trying the best she could to get Laura to come to her senses that are presently nonexistent.
“We’ll figure something out. In the meantime, just be grateful that I’ve finally gotten your mother off your back for awhile,” Laura calmly stated, like this wasn’t about to be a life-changing event, or a fake one, at least.
“Laura, you don’t understand. This is going to impede on your personal life, and you know there are paps who will lurk around, given my mother’s status, right? Knowing my mother, she tipped off the media about the engagement so that they can essentially be her eyes and ears on us. And it’s not like we can just coop up at home –“
“Oh my God it’s going to be so fun! Like we’re undercover or like something whenever we go out!” Laura said ecstatically, as she took a seat at the end of the bed. She could see that Carmilla was still on the fence about it all, so she decided to provide some relief to the worrywart.
“Carmilla, I really don’t mind. And psh what love life, you know I’m practically married to my thesis paper. Plus come on, it’ll be kind of fun! We get to be roomies!”
Carmilla finally stopped pacing across the floor and looked at Laura with a sigh of defeat.
Defeat as in, Carmilla knew this was a battle well lost, because once Laura had her mind made up, nothing could deter her.
And also defeat as in, Carmilla should’ve known better than to give in to Laura, seeing as she’s spent a good number of years distancing herself from the girl due to her big fat crush on Laura back when they were in university together. Going through with this plan would take her ten steps back.
Was Carmilla insecure around girls?
Never. She was an impervious force of confidence.
Unless the girl was Laura.
Carmilla found ways to cope with her unrequited love by going out with girl after girl, but ironically she found herself in this whole engagement fiasco due to her extravagant love life.
If Carmilla felt like she didn’t deserve Laura back then, then she certainly didn’t deserve Laura now, not after building a reputation of being somewhat of the lady killer of the town.
“Laura, I don’t want you to get hurt.” That was Carmilla’s last effort to stop this impending doom of a plan.
“Oh Carm, lighten up! I’ll be fine, I promise! Now let’s get you packing!” said Laura as she stood up from the bed and made her way to the dresser, pulling the unwilling Carmilla along with her as Carmilla rolled her eyes.
“You do realize this means we have to be practically glued at the hip for at least a couple months right? You think you can handle all this sass?” Carmilla joked as she watched Laura fling her duffel bag onto her bed.
“Oh please, I’ve handled you for the past fifteen or so years. The real question here is if you can handle my hotness,” Laura said with a sneer before turning towards Carmilla and striking her best model pose.
Carmilla tried hard to suppress her laughter but failed as she giggled at the silly pose. Laura always had a way to turn her frown upside down.
She watched as Laura began shoving some of Carmilla’s clothes and necessities into the duffel bag while chattering about a movie that she wanted to watch.
Carmilla smiled.
She could tell Laura was beyond excited; Laura had always enunciated her words clearly, but even more so when she was high on adrenaline, and the way her hands were sporadically waving through the air as she talked was a dead giveaway. If there were a class called “Laura 101”, Carmilla would ace it. Heck, Carmilla could be the professor.
Carmilla would be lying if she said she wasn’t a tad bit nervous about being roommates with Laura. Sure, they’ve been friends since forever and have had sleepovers as kids, but they’ve done a lot of growing up since then, and to be frank, they’ve been seeing each other less and less as adult life started to kick in.
Deep down, Carmilla was scared. Scared that by the end of this all, she would destroy the only relationship that mattered to her the most.
“Laura?” Carmilla called out gently.
Laura stopped what she was doing and turned to face Carmilla.
“Yeah?”
“Promise me, the second you feel uncomfortable about doing this, that you’ll tell me and we’ll put a stop to it all.”
“And by promise, I mean pinky promise, because God knows how official you like your promises to be,” Carmilla added as she rolled her eyes and held out her pinky.
Laura gently slapped Carmilla’s shoulder for making fun of her and shot her a glare before nodding and giving Carmilla a reassuring smile as she curled her pinky around Carmilla’s.
“I do solemnly swear that I, Laura Hollis, promise thee, Carmilla Karnstein, on the condition that we seal this deal with a thumb kiss,” Laura announced with a stern, steady voice as she pressed the pads of their thumbs together for a brief moment before breaking down into a fit of laughter.