Work Text:
Laura could barely keep her eyes open. It had been almost twenty-four hours since she last gotten any sleep at all. All she wanted was to go back to where she now called home and fall face-first onto her bed. The closer she got to her door, the heavier her eyelids felt. Pushing open said door, she flung her shoes off and to the side. Laura could only take a few more steps before something found its way under her foot and tripped her.
A scream tore from her throat as she fell and flailed her arms, hoping to catch on to something solid. Finding nothing, Laura crashed to the floor. She looked down at the object that had tripped her up, a pair of black leather pants. Glaring at the offending clothing, she clenched her fists. A shout, this time of anger not fear, nearly echoed around the room, “Carmilla Karnstein!”
“It’s been a while since I heard my full name from you, Cupcake.”
Laura directed her eyes behind her by tilting her head backwards. Upside down, from Laura’s perspective at least, Carmilla was standing with a glass filled with her favorite thick, red liquid, wearing nothing but an oversized Silas University sweatshirt and boxers. Laura’s mouth went dry momentarily before she remembered her anger. “You have to stop leaving your clothes all over the house. I mean, the least you could do is pick it up off the floor.”
“It’s not really a house, Cutie.”
Laura pointed and waved her finger at the vampire, “Apartment, fine. But don’t you try to avoid this. We’ve been having this conversation since you moved in at Silas.”
“Fine. I’ll try to at least discard my clothing on the couch from now on.”
Carmilla had stepped forward and now stood overtop of Laura, extending a hand in the girl’s direction. Laura grabbed the offered hand and let herself be pulled up. Once both girls were standing, Carmilla relocated her hand to Laura’s lower back. Laura put a hand on the arm reaching around her side and the other on Carmilla’s hip. “You know, normal people put their clothes in a hamper or something.”
Carmilla smiled and leaned down to Laura, placing a kiss on her cheek. “Welcome home, Laura.”
Laura’s face lit up pink and she chuckled, “Thank you, Carm.”
The pair separated and Carmilla took a big gulp from her glass as Laura yawned. The smaller girl bent down and picked up the pants that had caused her fall earlier. She looked at them, thinking, and then threw them on the couch. As far as she was concerned, the only thing that mattered was the bed that was calling her name.
“Long day?”
Laura just nodded in response and kept walking towards the bedroom. She stepped through the door and pulled off her shirt, throwing on a tank top. Her pants soon followed, and as she bent down to get them off the floor she heard a whistle behind her. Spinning around as fast as she could, Laura saw Carmilla sitting on the bed. “Jesus, Carm. I didn’t even hear you come in.”
Carmilla put on a fake pout, “Aw, you weren’t just putting on a show for me?”
Laura threw her discarded pants at Carmilla and barked out a laugh, somehow managing to get them to land on her head. Carmilla removed the clothing from her head with a huff to find that pajama pants now covered her view. Laura fell onto the bed next to Carmilla. The vampire rolled her eyes, “Wouldn’t it be nicer to sleep under the covers?”
A grunt was the only reply. Carmilla stood up with a small smirk and wrapped an arm around Laura’s legs and the other under her shoulders. Laura groaned as she was lifted from the mattress. Carmilla held Laura up and used her foot to move the blankets on the bed down. She placed the tiny girl back into the bed, with her head on top of that old yellow pillow, and pulled the blankets up to her shoulders. The vampire heard a quiet thank you as she walked away.
When Laura rejoined the world, there was almost no light seeping through the curtains in her room. Checking her phone, she saw it was half-past ten, almost five hours since she had returned home. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she stretched her neck and yawned. She paused for a moment when she heard a noise. Getting out of bed, she wandered into the main room of the apartment. There was nothing there, so she moved to the kitchen area; which is where she found Carmilla.
Her dark hair was up in a bun on top of her head, and she had Laura’s earphones in, connected to Laura’s iPod in her pocket. Normally sullen, the girl was currently shaking her hips and singing along with whatever was playing with a smile. Laura leaned against the wall and watched her girlfriend. Carmilla was waiting on something in the oven and had something else in her hand. As Laura took a closer look, her jaw actually dropped a little.
Carmilla was cleaning the countertops. Not only that, she was doing it willingly and with a smile on her face. The sleeves of her gray sweatshirt were rolled up past her elbows and there was a rag in her hand. There was a white powder covering her hands and in the loose locks of hair hanging down. Laura almost laughed because the view in front of her had to be a joke or prank of some kind. She brought her phone up and snapped a couple pictures, making sure to send one where Carmilla was actually using the rag and smiling simultaneously to LaFontaine with only question marks as the caption.
While typing out that message, Laura heard a very undignified squeak come from the kitchen. Looking up from her phone, Laura saw Carmilla standing frozen in the middle of the room. “Having fun, Carm?”
Carmilla bent down to pick up the rag she had dropped in surprise, hiding her face. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Just a minute or so.” Laura couldn’t help but smile at the vampire’s obvious discomfort.
She pushed off the wall and nearly skipped over to her girlfriend, who had gone back to slowly wiping down the counter. Laura stood behind her and wrapped her arms around Carmilla’s waist. She set her chin on the taller girl’s shoulder. “So, were you having fun while I was asleep?”
Carmilla scoffed as she continued to clean. Laura hugged her a little bit tighter and smiled. The rag was momentarily put down as Carmilla grabbed Laura’s hands and pulled them away from her, turning herself around so they were face to face. Their hands separated as Carmilla leaned in to kiss Laura. Lips met and Laura’s hands bunched up Carmilla’s sweatshirt, but felt no hands on her in return. Carmilla broke the kiss only a second later with a sly grin. Laura was about to ask what that was for when Carmilla’s hands returned from behind Carmilla’s back. Both of the vampire’s hands were absolutely covered in flour.
“No, no, no. Carmilla. You just put so much work into cleaning in here.”
The smile never faltered on Carmilla’s face as she slowly stepped forward while Laura backed away. Within the next few seconds Laura had leaped away, with Carmilla on her heels and they were racing around the kitchen table. Carmilla eventually caught Laura and smeared the flour over her face and hair. Laura gasped, but quickly stomped over to the container filled with the fine powder and filled her hands. It became an all-out war at that point, flour being flung across the table and travelling through the air along with the girls’ laughter and curses. They quickly ran out of flour. In that short time, however, both girls had been covered in a fine layer of white. They fell to the floor next to each other, unable to keep from giggling. “So Karnstein, do you admit defeat?”
“Defeat? Hollis, you’re just lucky we ran out.”
“What were you making with that anyway?”
“Shit!” Carmilla jumped up from her spot and rushed to the oven, “My cupcakes!”
Laura stood up and faked a pout; she had learned from the best, “I thought I was your cupcake.”
“No! I mean, yes, you are. But I was making cupcakes.”
“You were baking?”
“Yes!” Carmilla was removing a cupcake tray from the open oven with a sigh, “Just in time. They didn’t burn.”
Laura smiled at her, “The only reason you ever come in the kitchen is to get blood from the fridge or steal food I made and take it back to the living room.”
“Or the bedroom. Though you yell at me a lot less for that.”
“That was one time! Plus, it was strawberries and whipped cream and chocolate sauce; how was I supposed to complain?” Carmilla looked as if she was about to reply when Laura cut her off, “Anyway, that is not the point. Why were you baking?”
Carmilla seemed to shrink as she leaned against the counter with her arms wrapped around her stomach. “I saw how tired you were,” Carmilla cleared her throat, “and I know I can be a bit of a pain, so I texted Perry to get her to tell me how to make some. I just thought maybe I could get them done and you could see them in the morning.”
Laura smiled at her, “That’s so sweet Carm. Come here.”
Laura pulled the girl into a hug. She stood up on her toes and kissed Carmilla’s cheek, only to back away while spitting out flour. Continuing to cough and wipe the powder from her lips, Laura spoke, “As sweet as you are, I now need a shower.”
“Now don’t you put the blame all on me. You fired back. I’m covered in the stuff too.”
“You started it, so I get the shower first.”
“’You started it’ is your defense? You are a child.”
“You’re dating me, so what does that make you?” Laura sing-songed as she walked towards the bathroom.
Carmilla could only grumble as she washed off the rag she had started with in the sink and used it to clean as much of the flour off herself as she could. Laura chuckled to herself as she turned her head away from her angry girlfriend. She took just enough time in the shower to get all the flour out of her hair, and then rushed to make it back to the kitchen. By the time she threw on an old tee shirt and shorts and made it back out, Carmilla had the dozen cupcakes set on the table.
The vampire’s tongue was poking out from between her lips as she carefully pushed frosting out of the decorating bag onto the last cupcake. Her eyes were scrunched up in concentration as she focused on placing the icing exactly where she wanted it. When she deemed the topping to be satisfactory, Carmilla straightened up and put the cupcake with the other eleven on a plate. A proud smile was on her face as she viewed the fruits of her labor. “Looks good. Right, Cutie?”
Laura smiled and walked over to join Carmilla by the table. “They look amazing, Carmilla. I’m sure they taste just as good.” She reached to pick one of the cupcakes up, only to get her hand smacked away. “Ow! What was that for?”
Carmilla placed a cover over the cupcakes, “You can have one in the morning.”
“Please, Carmy? Just one?”
Laura had put on her best puppy dog face and was staring directly into Carmilla’s eyes. For her part, Carmilla rolled her eyes, “No. There’s a reason I made you take the cookies out of the bedroom. That much sugar before you go to bed gives you nightmares, not to mention the stomach ache I have to hear you whining about in the morning.”
“That was one time!”
“Answer’s still no, Cutie. You’ve been working too hard, you need to go to bed.”
Carmilla leaned down and kissed Laura, putting a hand on her neck for support. Laura immediately pulled away. “What is that?”
Laura’s hand moved to where Carmilla’s was moments before. When she removed it, there was a dark brown substance on her finger. “Sorry, sweetie. Must have had some frosting on my fingers.
Laura was eying the frosting and tried to get a taste. Carmilla grabbed her hand first, however, and wrapped her lips around the girl’s finger to clean it off. Laura gasped and Carmilla released the finger. “No sweets this late.”
To quell any temptation Laura might have for the frosting still left on her skin, Carmilla attached her lips to Laura’s neck where the sweet mixture had landed from Carmilla’s hand. Tongue met skin and Laura groaned. Through sighs and moans, Laura managed to speak, “Alright, no sweets. But I did take a pretty long nap, so I don’t think I need to go right to sleep.”
Carmilla’s response was to hum against Laura’s neck and lift her girlfriend’s legs off the floor. Laura closed her eyes and let Carmilla carry her towards their bedroom, sugary concoctions the last thing on her mind.