Title: Creature Comforts

Summary: Even centuries old vampires need their creature comforts; for Carmilla, the comfort of home is a stolen yellow pillow.

A/N: Set after episode 23. Camilla/Laura, with hints of Laura/Danny.

"Move!" Carmilla growled at the two unlucky freshmen who had wandered in to her path. What the human girls were doing up so early in the first place was as much a mystery as what they were doing lingering around outside Carmilla's room. She shoved one of them aside as she threw open the door to her shared dorm-room. It was almost dawn, with the sun just starting to crawl its way over the horizon, and the vampire was in dire need of her bed. She didn't bother to switch on the light as she closed the door behind her, casting the room back in to total darkness. Carmilla didn't need any lights to guide her path, she could see perfectly well in the dark; she was comfortable in it's embrace.

Her human room mate remained fast asleep while Carmilla padded soundlessly over to the fridge. She took out her 'soy milk' and drank it straight from the carton. The cold, day old blood was hardly appetizing, but it would see her through the day. Feeding had been easier since Laura had discovered her predilection for human blood. Carmilla no longer needed to worry about hiding her true nature from the other girl; her only concern was in trying not to bite her again. She'd been forced to feed from her room mate only days earlier, to regain her strength before going after Will. They were still waiting for the fallout from the dean finding out that Carmilla was working against her again, but at least by biting the other girl Carmilla had made her off limits to any other vampires that might be roaming the halls of Silas. Not that Laura saw it that way of course. She'd gotten all pissy with her about it.

Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, Carmilla placed the milk carton back in the fridge. She glanced at the sleeping form of her room mate, pausing by her bed to watch the gentle rise and fall of her chest. Laura had kicked the covers away at some point during the night, and she was lying on her back, her hair splayed out across her precious yellow pillow. Carmilla eyed the pillow enviously, coveting it for herself. Laura's alarm would go off at any minute, and once she had dressed and gone off to class, Carmilla would be free to steal the pillow back. They had a sort of unofficial time-share when it came to Laura's pillow. Though the human girl griped about it, it wasn't like she was using it during the day time anyway.

"Morning, Sunshine." Carmilla greeted her room mate as she finally stirred, just a few seconds before her alarm started shrieking. The other girl grunted something indecipherable back as she shut off her alarm with a smack of her hand; Laura Hollis wasn't much of a morning person. She stamped around the room with a face like thunder whilst she was getting ready. She took her clothes in to the bathroom with her, ready to put straight on once she got out of the shower. Where Camilla was happy to parade around their shared room half-dressed, Laura was a lot more conservative. She emerged from the bathroom fully dressed and towelling her hair dry. She was wearing a button down shirt, with a collar high enough to hide the bite mark on the side of her neck. So far, she'd been able to hide it from Danny and the others, but she wasn't taking any chances.

Laura paused in front of her laptop, using it's camera as a mirror as she applied a liberal amount of concealer over the bite. Camilla watched from her bed, amused by the frown that appeared on the tiny human's face while her fingers ran over the bite marks; the marks Carmilla had left on her creamy white flesh. The vampire felt a familiar stirring in the pit of her stomach, a mixture of overwhelming hunger and desire. She closed her eyes over, trying to ignore the steady thump, thump, thump of the other girl's heart. Thinking she was already asleep for the day, Laura didn't bother to say goodbye as she left. Carmilla waited a beat, before climbing back out of bed to snatch the favoured pillow from Laura's bed. The human's scent was all over it. Carmilla took a deep, heady, breath as she lay back down, curled up with the stolen cushion.

The sun had climbed steadily in to the sky, draining the vampire of all her energy. It took less than a minute for her eyes to close over, and the day to take her. Carmilla was at her weakest during the day, when the sun made it impossible for her to venture outside. She could fight the exhaustion that the daylight brought on, but trying to remain awake would expend more energy than she cared to waste. She had spent the last few days sleeping right from dawn until dusk, so as not to wake up feeling too hungry. She was old enough to control her compulsion for human blood, but getting a taste of Laura's had left her craving the sweet nectar that ran through her room mate's veins. The human girl still held a grudge from the first time Carmilla had fed from her, so she was pretty sure she wouldn't be happy with the vampire going back for seconds.

Though her body was still, Carmilla's mind was still racing while she slept. Memories of her mother and her long, arduous past, became tangled with thoughts of Laura; and of Elle. It had been years since Carmilla had allowed herself to think of her long gone lover. She had lured dozens upon dozens of girls to their deaths at the hands of her mother over the centuries, but none of them had ever lingered in her heart the way Elle had. The daughter of a General in the Austrian service, Elle had been a striking, yet demure, girl; who had been far too trusting of the distraught young woman whose carriage had overturned right outside her home. Elle and her father had taken pity on Carmilla and invited her in to their home while she recovered from the accident. The superficial cuts and bruises had quickly healed, but Carmilla had stayed on in their household for quite some time. Reluctant to hand the general's daughter over to the creature that Carmilla she called a mother. That had been the first time that the younger vampire had ever dared to betray her maker, who she owed her very life to, but Elle's innocent and beauty had captured her heart. The girl had been so loyal and trusting, willing to see the good in even the blackest of souls.

Laura was a lot like that too. She had known her old room mate, Bettsy, for only a few short weeks, yet she had committed herself to finding out the truth about her disappearance, no matter the personal cost to herself. The Hollis girl was loyal to a fault. Hell, even after finding out her new room mate was a vampire, she had still tried to protect Carmilla. Had still trusted her to do the right thing, and stay and protect her from Will and the dean. Where others, like Danny, only looked at her and saw a monster, Laura looked deeper than that. She saw the person Carmilla had once been. The one she could be again... if only she could shake herself free from the grip of her mother's evil.

Thoughts of the dean, and even of Elle, began to fade as Carmilla's mind settled on her human room mate. She thought of the soft, pale skin of Laura's neck, and of the way the tiny girl had gasped as Carmilla's fangs had sunk right in to her neck. The exchange had been over in seconds, just long enough for the vampire to draw enough blood to give her the strength to face her younger sibling; but it had been long enough for Carmilla to feel the way Laura's body had eagerly responded to her touch.

The day passed in a haze of racy dreams, all of which involved Laura. Carmilla was enjoying a particularly titillating daydream, in which she was treating her room mate to the same rope play she'd inflicted on her, when reality came crashing back. Her eyes snapped open as she felt her head drop. The human who had occupied so much of her brain lately was standing over her, wearing a scowl and clutching her pillow against her chest. "How many times do I have to tell ysou to quit taking this?" She demanded in a shrill voice that had Carmilla wincing as she sat up on her bed. Her mind was still foggy with the last tendrils of sleep.

Only moments ago she'd had Laura pinned beneath her, writhing in ecstasy as she moaned the vampire's name over and over; the girl standing before her looked in dire need of a similar kind of release. Dark circles framed Laura's tired eyes. Between fearing for her life and studying for a make up test in her English Lit class, she had barely slept in days. The lines on her brow had seemed to become permanently engraved there, especially when she was looking in Carmilla's direction.

"It's not like you were using it, Cupcake." The vampire masquerading as a teenager shrugged at Laura, wearing that obnoxiously smug smirk of hers. The older girl's constant air of superiority was starting to grate on Laura's last nerve.
"Well you're not wearing your leather pants, but you don't see me putting them on, do you?" The human snapped back, refusing to roll over so easily. She wasn't all that bothered by her room mate stealing her pillow; her anger was more a manifestation of everything that had happened over the last couple of months at Silas. Laura was physically and mentally exhausted, and so close to breaking that Carmilla almost found herself quietly relenting with her teasing; almost.

"Feel free to jump in to my pants any time, Cutie." She leered at the other girl. Her dark, piercing eyes lingered, until Laura finally gave in and looked away with a blush. The rush of blood to the human's cheeks had Carmilla standing up and making her way over to the fridge. She finished off what was left of the blood in her milk carton, and washed it down with a beer.

Laura was standing on her side of the room, busying herself with a bit of light tidying. Which in itself wasn't unusual for her, but the tiny girl's body was practically humming with a nervous kind of energy; Carmilla's curiosity was instantly piqued. "What's up, Buttercup? No snappy comeback? No lecture on morality?"
"I don't have time to play your little games." Laura answered without looking up from the pile of clothes she was busy stuffing in to laundry basket - all of which belonged to Carmilla, of course. "Danny's coming over to help me study for my make up test, and this place is a mess."
"Danny..." Carmilla bristled as she said the Amazonian-like girl's name. There had hardly been any love lost between them even before she had discovered Carmilla was a blood-sucking fiend. Her intentions toward Laura were obvious, as was the tiny girl's blatant interest in her back. Carmilla could think of a thousand ways she would rather spend her night than stay in watching the two humans fumble awkwardly over their repressed sexual desires.

"I guess I'll leave you two kids to it." She tried not to appear like she was sulking as she pulled on her leather jacket, flicking her long dark curls out from under the collar as Laura finally looked her way. "You know how it is. Places to see, people to do." She tossed a wink at her long suffering room mate. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do, Cupcake."
"Wow, that narrows it down." Laura snorted in response.

Carmilla was already out of the door, vanishing in a haze of black smoke. She didn't feel like partying, not when her mood was so black. She didn't trust herself around her helpless human coeds while she was feeling so low. In the past, she would have cheered herself up with a couple of the walking Happy Meals that littered the college campus; but she didn't feel like feeding either. Besides, she had been trying her best not to overdo it with feeding on her fellow students. And not just because she wanted to keep a low profile with the dean, the last thing Carmilla wanted was for Laura to get pissed with her for snacking on someone she knew. She was trying her best to be better. It was the simple minded, foolish kind of thinking that her tiny human room mate inspired in her; that she could actually change.

Carmilla stole away to the observatory tower on top of the library, knowing it would be deserted. Even the keenest astronomers amongst the students of Silas university knew better than to risk going in to the building that housed the library after nightfall. She sat with her legs dangling over the ledge of the observation deck, steadily making her way through the pack of smokes she had in her jacket pocket. The stars were hidden from her by the thick storm clouds hanging overhead, denying her the simple pleasure of gazing upon entities even older than herself. A light rain started some time during the night, but neither the precipitation, nor the cold wind from the south bothered the ancient vampire. She was lost in her own thoughts, wondering how she could have let herself fall so hard for the human girl she shared a room with.

Laura had to be high up on the dean's list of potential victims, that much was obvious from Carmilla being housed with her. She had no idea what her mother did with the girls that she delivered to her, but she knew that she would do anything to make sure Laura avoided finding out. The other girl had quickly grown on her, and Carmilla had known from almost the start that she needed to make sure Laura outright hated her. She couldn't risk gaining her room mate's favour, for fear of the dean snatching her away; just like she'd done with Elle. Carmilla had learned long ago that it was better to never have the thing you desired the most, than to get it and have it taken away from you.

Letting out a lungful of smoke, she watched it dissipate in to the early morning air. She'd spent the whole night perched in the tower, hoping to avoid her room mate all together. It would be easier to resist the siren call of Laura's blood, not to mention those sad puppy-dog eyes of hers, if she just flat out kept her distance from the other girl. The sun was already up by the time Carmilla made it back to her dorm. Perry greeted her with an enthusiastic wave and an over eager smile as she passed her open door. The vampire was too tired to even scowl at the perky floor don. She gave her and LaFontaine a blank stare, before carrying on to her own room. Carmilla was suffering for not feeding properly the night before. Her limbs felt heavy and sluggish, like they were filled with lead, and every step she took felt like a personal battle.

"You're still here..." Carmilla sighed, too exhausted to hide her disappointment at finding her room mate still sitting on her bed. Laura instantly jumped to her feet, getting on the defensive.
"Where have you been? It's been light for like an hour already! I tried calling you, and the phone just kept ringing and ringing-"
"Chillax, Mom." She rolled her eyes at the panicky human. "I'm a big girl. I can look after myself."

"I can see that." Laura growled out, her fists clenched at her sides. "Sorry for caring that you might have been attacked and killed, or that you'd melted in the sun! Next time I won't bother!" She huffed at the older girl as she went to barge past her, out the door. Carmilla caught hold of her wrist, her own expression softening.
"Just wait...I don't melt in the sun." Her words of reassurance were taken the wrong way, as Laura thought she was mocking her. The human girl more wrenched her arm free from Carmilla's light grip and glared at her before storming out to go to class. "...thanks for worrying." Tears pricked at the corner of the vampire's eyes. Sheer exhaustion and hunger had left her more emotional than usual. She dropped down on to Laura's bed, burying her face in the other girl's pillow and taking comfort in her scent. She would lie there a minute, until she could be bothered to climb in to her own bed. Just one more minute, that's what she told herself.