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“Come ooon!”
“Cupcake, once again, no.”
Laura sighed desperately, collapsing on the couch next to a quite relaxed Carmilla who’d been doing a good job of acting apathetic towards her pleading.
“But it will be sooo much fun!”
“Doubt that.”
“Come on, everybody likes snow and-“
“Not me,” Carmilla cut her off, mindlessly picking at her nails to avoid her girlfriend’s look at any cost because she knew she’d soften as soon as she looked into those eyes. It’s not that she was being rude, but obviously just had no intention of getting snowballs thrown at her face that afternoon.
“But Caaarm,” not like Laura would ever give up anyway, “I’ve already told you, Perry and LaF are going to meet us at the park and they’re, like, super excited about it and expecting us and Danny will be there too, she decided to invite Kirsch as well for some reason, not that I mind his company but I never though they were-“
“Don’t hurt yourself, cupcake. Breathe,” Carmilla uttered, still focused on her hands resting in her lap.
“Sorry,” Laura decided to take a deep breath, repositioning herself on the couch in attempt to face Carmilla, “If you want, we can just like, build snowmen and stuff? No fights. Pinky swear?” She looked at her expectantly.
Carmilla finally turned her head to look at her, putting on her legendary smirk. “Snowmen, huh? As appealing as that sounds, my answer is still the same, creampuff.”
With that she stood up from the couch, gravitating towards the kitchen.
After she had been left on the couch alone, Laura grabbed the first pillow next to her and pressed her face into it to muffle her groan.
“Also,” just as Carmilla spoke up from the kitchen again, Laura lowered the pillow next to her in order to listen, “I really don’t get why you’re still trying,” she looked over her shoulder at Laura once before turning back towards the sink, reaching for a glass, “There is nothing you can do to get me to play out in the snow like a child.”
Laura opened her mouth to reply, but decided to use the situation as an opportunity to skip silently in her socks over to the kitchen, unnoticed. She snuck up behind Carmilla who’d just finished filling her glass with water, and without a warning slid her arms around her waist, moving her lips closer to her ear. “Really?” she whispered directly in her ear, “There is… nothing…” she pulled her in a little closer against herself,”… I can do?”
Carmilla forced herself to stay calm at the feeling of being pulled in, but she wasn’t able to control the small sharp breath she took in after feeling Laura’s warm breath so close to her ear and just prayed to god there was a chance her girlfriend didn’t hear it.
“Well…” after putting the glass away, she turned around with a smirk while wrapping her own arms around a now proudly smiling Laura and beginning to pull her in, “When you put it that way…”
There were mere inches of distance left between their lips when a loud knock coming from the door caused them both to freeze in place.
Carmilla groaned loudly in despair, letting her forehead drop on Laura’s shoulder as her arms came down, defeated. Being herself, Laura giggled and briefly pecked her cheek before storming off to the front door, leaving a pouty Carmilla standing alone in the kitchen.
“That better be the god himself,” she mumbled as she returned to her still full glass of water.
-
Laura was returning to the living room just as Carmilla sat back down on the couch.
“Who was it?”
“Just LaF and Perry, asking if we were ready. I told them we’d catch up.”
“Well, have fun doing that,” Carmilla reached for the TV remote, turning it on before eyeing the screen.
Laura decided the method she’d been using so far to talk her into going with her wasn’t effective. She walked up and crouched down in front of her, placing her hands on Carmilla’s knees. “You’re not gonna let me go out there by myself, are you?”
“I think you’re perfectly capable of overcoming the evils of crystalline water by yourself,” the dark haired girl said with a smirk, still staring at the TV to avoid Laura’s gaze.
Deciding to give up, Laura stood up with a groan and started walking away from the couch. She suddenly stopped after hearing a voice behind her speak up: “Fine. I’ll go.” She turned around to see Carmilla on her feet, making her way towards her nonchalantly. Laura everything but squeaked from happiness and joy, throwing herself into Carmilla’s arms excitedly. After a good 5 seconds of squeezing her girlfriend to death, Laura pulled back just to be able to look at her. “Come on, let’s bundle up!” With that she let go of her and practically ran into the bedroom.
Carmilla stood in place with her eyes following Laura, and lingering on the door for a good amount of time even after she’d disappeared through them. She looked down to her feet and cracked a genuine smile, shaking her head slightly before walking off after Laura.
---
It had been snowing for nearly a week, but midterms prevented everybody from enjoying themselves properly. No wonder Laura jumped right to it the first day of winter holidays. She wasn’t the only one, everyone she’d invited was eager to finally have some fun and happily agreed to meet that day at the park.
Except that she literally had to drag Carmilla, who would occasionally stop and refuse to continue walking. Luckily, she gave in easily to Laura’s hand pulling her own every time.
It was a pretty chilly day, but dressing up warmly made it quite comfortable to be outside. If Carmilla hadn’t been trying to keep her dignity, she’d have admitted already how much she actually enjoyed the walk.
It took them about ten minutes before they saw familiar faces waving at them and motioning for them to come over. It wasn’t until they got close that everyone dropped their jaw when they saw Carmilla.
She, however, made sure to glare at every single one of them until they finally looked away.
“You do realize I can see you all staring, right?”
“Sorry angry hottie,” when Kirsch spoke up, Carmilla’s glare only focused on him and he literally swallowed in fear, starting to trip over his words “I just meant to say, uh, I didn’t, we-“
“What Kirsch is trying to say here is, we didn’t expect you to come but now that you’re here, we are pleasantly surprised and happy to see you, sweetie,” Perry cut him off, seeing his struggle, earning a thankful look from the big puppy. Laura gave him an apologetic smile.
Carmilla nodded blankly at Perry and the redhead knew it was her way of saying ‘thank you’. Not that Carmilla would ever admit it, but they were friends.
“Hey Hollis,” Danny walked up to them only now with a wide smile which faded when she noticed a certain dark haired girl she wasn’t particularly too fond of.
“Hiii Danny,” Laura responded, failing very much at not sounding awkward, or making an uncomfortable face. Carmilla, on the other hand, seemed quite amused by the situation.
No one seemed to notice LaFontaine had snuck away from them until quite a big snowball landed directly at Laura. Then another at Perry. Once everybody looked into the direction where they’d been coming from, they spotted LaF, grinning wide and just looking at them from the distance. “What?! I didn’t come here to chat with ya’ll. Hit back!”
So they did. And boy, was it hectic. There were actual kids in the park who seemed to be entertained at the snowball fight going on among the ‘adults’. It lasted for a while until everyone’s gloves were soaked and their hands freezing.
“Well, I think this settles the fi-“ Laura was cut off by a snowball hitting her precisely in the face. Opening her eyes, she was met with a view of a too-familiar smirk a little further away from her. She closed them again and took off her gloves, folding them away and removing the snow from her face as quick as possible. Normally she’d find this funny, but it had gotten really, really cold, and no one appreciates snow finding its way under their shirt.
Not more than a few seconds later she felt warm hands on each side of her face and thumbs gently brushing her cold pink cheeks. She opened her eyes only to see Carmilla’s not more than a few inches away from her own, and a worried look on her face.
“Laura, are you okay?” Carmilla’s gaze stayed on her the entire time with a genuinely concerned expression. She did hit her pretty good. “Because it seriously wasn’t my intention to-“ She didn’t manage to finish before she felt lips against her own in a sudden but lingering kiss, as well as gentle arms around her. It wasn’t until Laura broke it and pulled back just enough to look at her that she sighed in relief.
“I’m fine,” she said just loud enough for Carmilla to hear her, with a half smile on her face. Laura really didn’t know why she kissed her in that moment, but there was something about Carmilla calling her by her actual name, which she didn’t do often. It was these moments that reminded her of how lucky she was. So she pulled her arms back and took Carmilla’s hands off her face and into her own. The worried girl now smiled at Laura, probably genuinely for the first time that day.
They were pretty content with just staring into each other’s eyes, hand in hand, until several exaggerated clearings of throats reminded them they weren’t alone.
They looked over to the group and everyone was smiling or winking at them except for Perry who seemed to be scolding everyone for doing it. And Danny, who was making throwing up motions, naturally.
The pair sighed in sync and separated reluctantly, moving closer to the group.
“So me and Perry were thinking, hot chocolate at ours?” LaFontaine suggested, searching everyone’s face for answers and receiving nods.
“We figured we could all use it after this,” Perry smiled at everyone warmly, the way only she can.
“Oh, uhm, you guys go ahead actually. I could really use a warm shower,” Laura sent an apologetic smile to everyone. Couple of goodbyes and bear hugs later, everybody was on their way.
---
The walk home was mostly spent in a comfortable silence between the two. Enjoying each other’s presence, stealing glances and smiles seemed to be more than enough.
After closing the door behind them and getting rid of the extra and unnecessary layers of clothes, Laura all but ran to the radiator in the living room and put her palms over it in attempt to warm up.
As soon as Carmilla got in as well, she hurriedly ran over to grab Laura’s hands and pull her away.
“Whoa there, cupcake, looking to get chilblains?” She kept her hands in her own.
“I’m sorry, what?” Laura uttered, confused.
“You know when your fingers itch and hurt and become swollen after you warm them up too suddenly when they’re nearly frozen? That.”
“So that’s why…” Laura stared off to the distance deep in thought.
“Yup,” Carmilla said with a smile. The girl in front of her was exceptionally adorable when thinking hard, “Which is why you warm up bit by bit.”
Laura fixed her attention back to Carmilla once again, “Like…?”
“Well,” Carmilla let go of one of her hands and led her to the couch, “First, you get under a blanket.” After Laura sat down, she pulled a blanket over her and tucked her in, earning an amused look from Laura but deciding to ignore it.
“Then, you drink something warm. Normally I’d say tea but since you’re basically made of sugar, it’ll be hot chocolate.” With that she took of into the kitchen, leaving a slightly flustered Laura on the couch who decided to turn on the TV.
No longer than a few minutes passed, and Carmilla was back with a cup in her hand. She sat near Laura and handed her the cup, making herself more comfortable next to her. “Thanks,” Laura said silently before stealing a sip of the drink and leaning forward to place it on the table. “So what then?”
“Hmm?” Carmilla just barely made out the words, busy staring at the screen.
“What’s the next step of this, ‘How to get warm: step by step by Carmilla Karnstein’? You weren’t done,” Laura teased.
“Ooh, right,” Carmilla said with a smirk while repositioning herself more comfortably, “This is the last part, and the best part too.”
“Which is?” Laura looked at her expectantly.
“Well…” Carmilla lifted the blanket and moved up close to Laura, “You get to cuddle with me.” She smiled proudly but warmly.
Laura returned the smile, amazed at how the girl still managed to leave her a flustered mess- it’s not like they’d gone official the day before, it had been a good while now. She wrapped her arms around Carmilla and snuggled up into her side, leaning her head on her shoulder. Carmilla moved her own arms around Laura, happily pulling her in.
They stayed like that for a while, not even paying too much attention to whatever sappy Christmas movie was on.
“I’ll admit, this method is working,” Laura stated, receiving a kiss to the top of her head in response from Carmilla. “But I’m still taking that shower.”
She freed herself carefully and stood up, beginning to walk towards the bathroom door.
“You know, I’m cold too.” Carmilla said suggestively with eyes on Laura who stopped in place and looked over her shoulder.
“Catch me then.” The shorter girl giggled and proceeded into the bathroom, starting to close the door behind her.
Carmilla stood up from the couch and ran after Laura faster than she’d ever run in her life, nearly tripping several times over nothing. Yeah, she caught her.