Chapter Text
A cool breeze whips her jacket around her body and Laura pulls the material closer to ward of the chill. She has been standing on the side of the street for 10 minutes, hovering awkwardly between the footpath and the driveway that leads to the front door. She bites her lips nervously, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet.
"Alright, you can do this," she whispers to herself. "It'll be fine. You love your body, you’re proud of your body... and you need the money. It'll be fun."
She takes a deep calming breath and finally takes that first step down the driveway. The house looks deserted, the windows are all blacked out by curtains and the yard is unkempt. She walks slowly, eyes scanning her surroundings as she pulls out her phone. She scrolls through her recent text messages, checking for the fifteenth time this morning that she has the correct address.
She does.
Laura's hand hovers nervously in front of the door, not quite ready to announce her arrival. She shakes her head trying to clear the voice in her head telling her to just leave, but she really needs the money. She knocks against the door three times before taking a step back, nervously clasping her hands behind her back. Laura hears footsteps approaching the door followed by the tell-tale clicking of the door being unlocked, another deep breath.
Laura's not sure what she was expecting, not really, but the girl that appears through the door certainly is nowhere near anything she could have expected. The girl leans casually against the door frame, eyes giving Laura a thorough once over. She doesn't have that air of an art student surrounding her like Laura would imagine; if anything Laura would have guessed the girl a musician of some kind. Clad in black ripped jeans and an old band tee, her black nail polish chipped, the girl would fit perfectly in a rock band.
At last her eyes reach Laura’s and a smirk pulls at her lips, a hand reaching up to brush her long dark hair out her eyes. Butterflies erupt in Laura's stomach under the girl's gaze and she tries to refrain from nervously fidgeting.
"Laf's friend, right?" The girl asks, pushing off from the door and extending a hand towards Laura.
"Yeah, it’s Laura." Laura takes her hand, surprised at the firmness of her grip. "Carmilla?"
"That'd be me, cupcake."
Carmilla nods her head back inside the house before turning on her heel and moving in. Laura pauses, unsure if that was an initiation to follow or not. The open door seems invitation enough. She steps quickly inside, rushing to follow Carmilla's retreating form.
It's much warmer inside and for that Laura is especially thankful, her nerves calming just the slightest at not having to deal with the consequences of a cold room for this. She follows quietly behind Carmilla, eyes scanning the rooms that pass her down the hallway, and find nothing of interest. White walls, clean lines, and almost no personal effects in sight; It feels almost like an abandoned home.
The hallway opens up to a large living room with an adjoining kitchen and at last some personality comes to life in the house. The kitchen is a mess of used and washed dishes, a half eaten plate of toast resting by a still steaming mug of coffee. A table pushed against the far is piled high with cameras and equipment and the wall above is covered in photographs.
Carmilla steps towards the kitchen but Laura can't help herself, the draw of the wall ahead of her is too much, and she finds herself suddenly before it. The subjects of the photos range from landscapes to portraits, and some that Laura simply cannot tell exactly what they are. A mix of colour and black and white photos, with no discernible pattern to their arrangement.
There is so much to look at, so much to take in, Laura's eyes flit from photograph to photograph. The only thing she knows for sure is that they are beautiful. The only thing she hopes for is that Carmilla can translate what she's agreed to do into something beautiful.
There’s a cough from behind her and Laura wheels around towards the noise, Carmilla watching her from the kitchen two mugs gripped in her hands.
"Tea?"
"Ah, yes please." Laura answers making her way to the kitchen, her cheeks warming as if caught doing something she shouldn’t have. "Are they all yours?"
Carmilla looks up from the counter; the kettle balances precariously above one mug, and scans the wall as if needing to confirm the contents. Another small smirk pulls at her lips and Laura fells that heat in her cheeks intensify.
"Sure are," Carmilla presses a mug into Laura's hand. "Just a few of the ones I really liked."
Carmilla steps around the counter and moves towards the equipment laden table, Laura following her movements with her eyes not daring to move any closer yet. Carmilla picks up a few items and seems to ponder over them before putting them down once more as silence fills the room. Her nerves creeping back up Laura sips at her tea.
"Have you done this kind of thing before?" Carmilla asks, still focused on the items on the desk.
"Uh... no, I haven’t... Laf just mentioned that you needed someone and it would be paid and I kinda need the money. So, here I am." Laura brings the mug up again to stop herself from speaking further only to find she has already drained its contents.
Finally finding the equipment she wants Carmilla turns around, camera in hand. "Well, in that case we'll take it nice a slow today cutie. Nothing too extreme."
Carmilla pauses, taking Laura in once more, her eyes dragging up Laura's body slowly. She steps closer to Laura, eyebrows knitting together.
"Did you not bring anything with you?" She asks
"I uh... no. I didnt know I had to." Laura squeaks out embarrassed.
"Definitely your first time." Carmilla mutters mostly to herself as she steps passed Laura down the hallway and disappears through the first door.
Unsure of whether to follow Laura bounces slightly in the stop; body leaned towards the hallway ready to move at the slightest becoming. Carmilla returns, a light grey shirt clutched in her hand.
"Here, put this on I don't think you're quiet ready to go completely nude."
Laura takes the shirt, her cheeks flaming, and ducks down the hallway and through the door Carmilla had.
The room is bare, much like the rest of the house. A large bed fills most of the space with the blankets fallen mostly on the floor to cover the clothes thrown haphazardly around. This must be Carmilla's room. Laura pulls the shirt up, fingering the soft material slightly. It's a plain grey muscle tee, the arms cut extraordinarily low.
Laura checks the door is still firmly shut before slipping out of her shirt and pants and pulling the muscle tee over her head. The butterflies in her stomach rage as she stands there in nothing but her underwear and the tee, her hands shaking at her sides.
"You can do this Laura." Her words a quiet, whispered quickly to herself. "You can do this; it's just one cute girl, just one camera. You can do this."
Another deep breath before squaring her shoulders, Laura exits the room and heads back to Carmilla. Carmilla, who doesn’t notice her return. Carmilla who is busily setting up her equipment, deep in concentration. Her jaw set and eyebrows knitted together. A black sheet now hangs from the ceiling against one of the bare walls in the room and another on the floor before it while Carmilla stands in the middle fiddling with her camera on a tripod.
She clicks the shutter button and a series of flashes go off simultaneously around the room, Laura jumping slightly at their brightness. Still Carmilla doesn’t notice her as she stands awkwardly just inside the room, ringing her hands in the material of the shirt. Laura knows how red her cheeks will be, she can feel how hot they are. Her heart races, beating loudly in her own ears.
Carmilla looks up from her camera, eyeing the rigging around her equipment and finally notices Laura standing shyly in the corner. That almost signature smirk appearing once more and Laura shuffles slowly forward.
"Just breathe," Carmilla says as Laura moves onto the black sheet on the floor, "if it'll make you feel any more comfortable I can go sans clothes too."
Chuckling quietly to herself as the redness of Laura's cheeks now reaches the tips of her ears, Carmilla steps more firmly behind her camera.
"I'm going to talk you through it ok," Carmilla begins, her finger coming to rest against the shutter button. "So, I'm just going to take a quick few shots to check the lighting against you."
Carmilla pauses, eyes on Laura who nods.
"And if you feel uncomfortable at all just let me know and we can stop at any time."
Laura nods again.
A quick succession of flashes and Laura feels almost blinded by their light. When her vision clears Laura watches the frown pulling at Carmilla's lips deepen as she leans close to the camera to check the images she just captured.
"Definitely too much brightness." Carmilla says stepping out and moving to the lighting situated around the room, Laura watching her every move.
Back once more behind the camera Carmilla takes another quick few photos and Laura finds herself not blinded by the lights and the frown no longer pulls at Carmilla's lips.
"That’s better." Carmilla says, glancing up at Laura. "Now the lighting is good we can try a few different angles. So just do a slow circle, moving another quarter turn after every flash. You don’t need to do anything just yet - I just want to check the lighting some more."
Laura nods, following Carmilla's directions. With every flash she turns slowly in a full circle to come around once more to face Carmilla. Her nerves settle further with every step and word from Carmilla.
"Come have a look?" Carmilla asks once Laura has completed her circle.
Laura slides in next to Carmilla and watches herself turn on the small screen and surprisingly she likes the photos she sees. They are simple, so incredibly simple, but somehow Carmilla has fixed the lighting in a way to make her glow in the screen. She looks almost surreal. Carmilla points out aspects of each photo as they make their way through, the lighting in one, the shadow her arm casts in another, the way her hair falls down her back in another. Little things that Laura would not have noticed without Carmilla's direction.
"These look great even though I'm literally just standing there." Laura says, leaning back from the camera.
"The camera loves you." That smirk coming out once more.
Laura ducks her head, trying in vain to hide the blush she can feel creeping up her cheeks, and heads back to her position in front of the camera.
"Do you... should I take this off now?" Laura asks, pinching the hem of the shirt between her fingers.
Carmilla's head falls slightly to the left, considering Laura, her fingers drumming quietly on the camera.
"No, we can keep that on for today I think." Carmilla replies and notices Laura's shoulders relax at her words. "But if I do recall correctly, Lafontaine may have mentioned you do yoga, so we can try some more dynamic poses if you're up for it?"
"Yeah, I do... do you have any poses in mind or just let me do my own thing?" Laura asks; focusing her gaze on the space around her, not wanting to knock into or fall on anything.
"Just do what you normally do and I’ll work around you, pretend I’m not here.” Carmilla says, her attention once more one the camera in her hands.
Laura stretches slowly, pulling her arms above her head and breathing deeply. She moves fluidly between poses, the shutter sound quickly falling away to nothing, Carmilla moving around the room easily ignored as her mind clears. Her world narrows to the steady rhythm of her heart and the pull of muscles.
Laura sits huddled in on herself on the bus home trying to keep warm, staring blankly through the window. The world outside not catching her attention; staring through her own reflection and seeing nothing Laura's phone vibrates in her pocket and she can’t quite hide from the fluttering she feels in her chest at the thought that it might be Carmilla.
It's not. Laf's name popping up in her notifications.
Hey - how'd the shoot with Carmilla go?
Sighing Laura exits out of the message and opens up a new one, intent on talking to Carmilla. She scrolls through her contact list. And then scrolls through again. Nothing.
Pressing her forehead against the cool glass Laura internally berates herself, how could she have forgotten to ask Carmilla for her number.
A week; an entire week and Carmilla hasn’t tried to contact her again, Laura’s panicking. What if she had done something wrong during the photo shoot, what if the photos were horrible, what if Carmilla didn’t think she was good enough. Try as she might, Laura couldn’t concentrate on anything else. The paper she was supposed to be writing for her journalism class sits unchanged in a word document on her laptop and the hot chocolate beside it has long since gone cold.
“Seriously L, you need to stop thinking about it or you’ll never finish that paper.”
Laura jumps in her seat, forgetting that she wasn’t alone, the sounds of the busy café invading her mind once more. She sighs, pulling her computer on her lap.
“I know; I just don’t understand it Laf. How can she not have tried to contact me yet, she basically saw me naked!”
“Don’t take it personally, Frosh. She didn’t even turn up to classes this week so she’s ignoring everyone, not just you.” Lafontaine says, nudging Laura’s knee with her own. “But Perry did say that Carmilla asked for your number during their last class together, I’m sure she’ll message when she’s ready.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Laura sighs; picking her mug up and swirling the cold contents around before standing. “I’m going to get another drink, want anything?”
Lafontaine shakes their head, returning to their own study.
Laura joins the line at the counter, twirling her phone in her hands absently, mind wondering once again to thoughts of Carmilla, of the photo shoot.
Carmilla had seemed happy at the end of their session, her voice had been filled with excitement has she had showed Laura a few of the photos. Closing her eyes Laura recalls the warmth of her hand on her back as she leaned in to point out certain details, can almost feel that warmth again.
Her phones vibrates in her handing, pulling her from her reverie, an unknown number flashing across the screen.
Up for another photo shoot? – C