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“Maybe you weren’t ready to go to the big city and live out on your own. There’s no shame if you need to come back home to live with your old man.”
Your father’s words echo around in your head as you trudge your way to the nearest bar with the intent on drowning out your failures with the strongest alcohol you can get your tiny little hands on. Papa Hollis has always had your best interest at heart, but the whole reason you moved out to the city was to prove your independence and finally be treated like the adult that you are. From everything that he has gone through you can understand why he is the way he is, but he needs to realize that you can handle yourself. He’s still sending you weekly bear spray with coupons to some local self defense classes and you're twenty-five for God’s sake!
“Maybe you weren’t ready…”
You’re brutally pulled from your thoughts as the frigid Toronto air rips its way past you, effectively tangling your hair into one indistinguishable knot. You would normally care more about your appearance, but honestly the less people who recognize you right now, the better. In your anger induced haste you had grabbed the nearest parka hanging by the door of your new cozy one-bedroom apartment and braved the cold in search for some sort of release. You have yet to zip up your jacket so you fumble to close it with half frozen hands that clearly have no intention of being of any use. A particularly strong gust hits you as your jacket decides to have a dual function as a parachute. Your ass hits the cold cement before your brain even realizes what happened. “Fucking brilliant,” you huff out as you hoist your sorry ass up by awkwardly rolling over and inch worming your way back into a standing position. You hear a few chuckles from pedestrians passing by and you have to quell the urge to throttle them on the spot because you’re 90% sure that getting arrested won’t prove your independence to your father. You send what you hope is a threatening glare at the people passing by in an effort to regain what’s left of your dignity, and for extra measure you casually flip them off while proceeding down the street.
“There’s no shame…”
You can practically picture the look of pity etched across your father’s face as he said these words through the phone, with the intention of convincing you to leave everything you've worked for your entire life behind. And for what, a minor mistake that could have happened to anyone? At this point in your journey your vision starts to blur as your pent up anger slowly bubbles to the surface. Red blurs your vision as you quicken your pace and shove past a few business men in fancy suits standing in front of Vordenberg Industries. You would feel bad for your lack of manners if it weren’t for the fact that you KNOW everyone working there is corrupt, even though you don’t have proof yet. You finally see the lit up green and black sign hanging over the brick pub called The Black Cat as you round the corner. Lafontaine, your fellow neighbor who lives across the hall in your apartment building, mentioned the small pub a block away in passing, and what better time to try it out then now? Your about to cross the street as the last bit of the conversation filters through your mind before you had abruptly hung up.
“…need to come back home…”
You refocus on your surroundings as you hear a blaring horn in your right ear, and you turn your head in time to see two bright lights quickly approaching your now paralyzed body. Before your brain has any time to react you feel a solid mass crash into you from the front and two strong arms wrap around your torso in an effort to get a firm hold of you. You have minimal time to brace yourself as the two of you come toppling down towards the cement that you barely escaped just 1 minute ago. You expect a hard landing, but are surprised when you feel something soft under your body. It isn’t until you hear a groan that you realize that your knight in shining armor (or shining leather?) somehow managed to spin your body so you landed on top. You make a move to get up, but soon realize that all your limbs are tangled with the body under yours and you can’t put any pressure on your left foot without a blinding pain shooting up your leg. You huff in frustration as you brace your hands on the ground on either side of your savior’s head in an attempt to get some distance between you two. It isn’t until you lift yourself up that you finally get to examine the beautiful specimen beneath you. The woman under you has her eyes closed and her jaw is clenched so tight that it almost looks painful. Puffs of hot air drift from her lips into your face, but you can’t seem to care when she’s in such close proximity. She looks to be about your age, but you’ve never seen anything quite like her. Her features are sharp yet delicate, and you have to resist the urge to run your fingers along the edge of her jaw to see if it was sharp enough to cut your hand. Her dark raven locks are spread across the pavement in a mess of curls, and you can’t help but brush a few stray pieces out of her face. This seems to finally bring the girl beneath you back to reality because she sucks in a deep breath and her eyes finally flutter open. Your breath catches as you stare into the endless dark pools of brown that are the stranger’s eyes. You can’t tell how long you’ve been staring, but by the smirk creeping onto the girl's face, you can tell it’s been too long to be considered appropriate.
“Can I help you with something cutie or do you just want to stare a little longer?” the girl croaks out as she squirms a little under you.
You start to sputter out unintelligible noises, but give up as you attempt for a second time to get up off of her. You almost manage to prop yourself up when you put a little too much weight on your left ankle and let out a yelp of pain.
“Careful there, cupcake. Here let me help you.” The woman gets up with a few grunts and places both hands on your hips as she helps steady you in a standing position. “Can you stand?”
You nod a little as a blush starts to creep up your neck and spread across your face while she watches you intently. As soon as she lets go you move a little, only to lose your balance and come crashing back into the girl’s waiting arms. You move your face out of the crook of her neck to look back at her with wide eyes.
“I’m so sorry! I’m usually not this oblivious or clumsy. This morning has just been so terrible and now my dad thinks I’m an incompetent human being that's incapable of living on my own! I just wanted to go and drink this awful day away, but I seem to have lost track of my surroundings. I know that I made a mistake, but he just being so overprotective, which really shouldn't be a shock to me. Ugh now I'm oversharing to a beautiful stranger and you totally don’t care about that! Oh my god and you just saved me and I haven’t even thanked you yet! And…” you sputter out, but quickly shut your mouth when you realize that the girl still has her hands on your hips and a smirk now graces the sharp features of her face.
“Beautiful stranger, huh? I like the sound of that. You’re quite the rambler aren’t you, cutie?”, the girl in leather pants says as she looks at you with an amused expression. “Here I’ll tell you what, I’ll help you over to the pub across the street, and you can tell me about your day. What do you say?”
She looks down at you through long lashes, and a shy smile has now replaced the smirk that you thought was permanent. You give her one of your bright smiles as you accept her offer by wrapping your arm tightly around her shoulders and start hobbling over to the pub.
“Laura”, you blurt out as you near the pub’s entrance.
“What?”, she looks over at you with a slightly confused look on her face.
“My name is Laura. May I know the name of my valiant hero?” It’s your turn to smirk as she shyly hides her face from you by “checking for traffic” as you two make your way across the street.
“Carmilla”, she replies as she looks back at you with a warmth in her eyes that keeps you entranced. And that’s the last thing you hear as you both make your way into the buzzing city pub still wrapped up in each other’s arms as if it was the most normal thing in the world.