UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS

CHAPTER 30

A/N: Man oh man this fic is done! I just want to say thanks for every single person who read it on A03 or and double thanks to anyone who took the time to comment along the way- you guys are my absolute heroes and I never would have made it here without you. Anyways here's the last chapter, hope it doesn't disappoint. Feel free to find me on twitter or Tumblr if you fancy chatting ( Heligena) I'm always up for making new friends. And new stories hopefully coming soon. Vive La Hollstein y'all! *drops the mic*

The last thing on Laura's mind as she crossed the threshold was a bent screw.

It jutted out from the door hinge in the corner and groaned unenthusiastically as her and Carmilla made their way inside, though, with everything that had happened lately, with the way they both felt right now, it could just as easily have been either of them that made that sound.

Carmilla's arm gripped Laura's waist as they moved inside, holding her weight up as she sagged against her and for her part Laura kept her roommate semi- steady with a pale hand that was wrapped around her wrist. The pulsating in the brunette's kidney caused her to grit her teeth for a moment as they made their way past the moaning doorjamb and in sympathy, without even looking at her Laura nudged her shoulder tiredly.

And just like that the two of them staggered in, refugees from a nightmarish few days that were finally over; a small instinctive back-kick from Carmilla closing the door behind them and shutting out the world.

They were safe.

Home.

Laura felt a bubble of relief build up underneath her ribs but unexpectedly it caught there when she peered around the shadowy recesses of their room.

Because everything looked the same as she remembered. It all looked the same; a typical college campus room.

Except that it wasn't.

The shadows- they were slanting too much.

And the windowsill. It seemed as if it were balanced higher up on the wall than it had been before.

Carmilla's thick duvet, the one that was still heaped up in a messy lump on the bed where they had left it called to Laura dead on her feet as she was, even without the brunette curled up inside. It looked warm. Comforting. But even that wasn't quite right. It was too big. Piled up too high. Too ridged and unkempt.

…Not that she even wanted to assume that's where she was going to sleep there….had no reason to think that she'd earned any kind of right to crawl in there whenever she wanted and … after everything….

Great.

Now she was rambling.

Awesome.

Laura stared down at the floor, at the threadbare carpet she'd been pottering across for months without even thinking about and carefully scraped it with the toe if her sneaker.

The noise it made sounded different too.

Too distorted, too muffled to be right.

It was only when she felt Carmilla move hesitantly away from her side that that feeling of displacement swelled up out of control, overpowering her but still she didn't say anything, didn't complain and instead chose to keep her thoughts to herself, peering around the room for signs that someone might have been in there, might have moved everything around just a centimetre, just a millimetre.

As ridiculous as the idea was.

It was unfortunate that her roommate, pragmatic as she always seemed, wasn't immune to the sensation either. With her senses on overload and the smell of ash and asbestos still assaulting Carmilla's nose, not to mention her mother's screams ringing in her ears, everything she looked at felt… off.

Off kilter. Off balance.

And the relief she'd hoped would come when they made it back just wasn't there.

Frowning, suddenly overcome with a strange sense of inhibition that any other day, any other week she would have lambasted herself for, Carmilla stopped moving, loath to disturb anything. Her head was woozy in the way she imagined Alice's must have been after landing at the bottom of the rabbit hole and drinking one of those small labelled vials. She felt as if her body was two sizes too big and couldn't understand why the familiarity of the room with its stained wood and mass produced angles wasn't providing any comfort.

Why instead it was more alarming than anything.

Jarring and unreal.

It's just adrenaline flushing through your system you idiot.

It wasn't an unconvincing argument. But when she glanced around at all the everyday things she found herself exposed to without even thinking about it- the desk with ginger crumbs scattered around Laura's laptop- Laura's yellow pillow lounging on Carmilla's bed, clashing wildly with her covers- her own pair of knee knee-high boots leaning up against the wardrobe too straight, too neat- it was all wrong. Too haphazard... Or too perfectly placed.

Something.

Something…wrong.

She couldn't let Laura see that though.

She'd been through enough, been through more than any college student should ever go through in their first year; hell, in any year.

She had to be strong.

Comforting.

She owed her that at least.

To cover up her rising discomfort Carmilla cleared her throat, a sour trick she remembered her mother teaching her in the receiving rooms of a local duke and turned around to find Laura staring at the room around them with wide eyes and a turbulent look on her face.

Because of course it wasn't just her feeling this.

It hadn't just been Carmilla feeling anything since she'd been dropped into this room, this place- a pawn in her mother's endless game. Since Laura Hollis had come rip-roaring into her life.

That was a comforting thought at least.

Complicated and dangerous. But comforting nonetheless.

So she took the initiative.

"Cupcake?" Carmilla said questioningly from a few feet away.

Laura didn't reply; simply scuffing her sneaker against the lino.

Deliberately ignoring the lack of response, not wanting to spook the other girl Carmilla kept her movements slow and telegraphed, crossing the carpet towards the human. Reaching her, she paused.

"What is it?"

Laura blinked distantly. "It's not the same …"

Carmilla was about to ask her what she meant when she spoke again.

"…The room."

Ah.

The vampire stepped in front of her, the movement not invasive, but resolute enough to draw Laura's charcoal pupils up to hers.

"Why isn't it the same?" said Laura quietly and Carmilla gave a half smile, a thousand glib answers sitting on her tongue that she refused to say.

"…Because we see things as we are not as they are, cutie."

At the burst of nervous frustration that bloomed in Laura's eyes, her hand lifted up into an act of submission.

"I know, I know you're done with platitudes but- I think-in this case it might actually be true. I don't think it's the room that's changed." She sucked in a breath. "It's us."

Laura processed that for a moment, turning her head this way and that as if she were trying to find evidence that Carmilla was wrong. Coming up blank, it seemed.

"But we've fought your mother before…we've faced Hell like this before and it didn't…."

The little finger on Carmilla's raised right hand smoothly reached out and rested against Laura's pale cheek. "You're resilient, Laura. Your body's just trying to keep up right now. You're tired and you're fighting off a bunch of stuff in your bloodstream."

"But you feel it too, right?"

Carmilla nodded tiredly. An admission perhaps, that they were more alike than she would ever have admitted out loud. An admission of something.

She lowered her voice. "I'm sure it'll wear off when we've had some sleep. Had a chance to regroup and recover."

"And she definitely won't come for us?"

Carmilla couldn't help herself, at the smaller girl's panicked expression her other hand moved to cup Laura's face.

"Not a chance. You saw all the SLTV trucks out there. Once she gets free, she's going to be tied up for weeks with this. You're home now…I promise no-one's going to find us here."

Laura tilted her face so that her right cheek leaned into Carmilla's hold and without thinking hmmmed lightly; a thousand splintered emotions rushing through her.

A large portion of the relief she had been hoping for a moment ago.

Appreciation for Carmilla's concerned gaze, for the tremor she was trying so hard to mask at the place where her wrists met their palms. Guilt- at the memory of hurt in Laf's eyes when they had told her at what had been going on and the reasons they hadn't wanted to bring her into things.

Pride.

Huh.

That one she didn't expect but it was there all the same- fledgling but still burning.

That she had gotten everyone out of the building before the fire took over.

That she hadn't let the haze in her mind take over completely.

The sensation of that same little finger skimming her cheek moved a little, drawing her out of her thoughts as it grazed her ear and moved cautiously down to her neck.

"Does it hurt?" said Carmilla.

A look of tired incredulity flitted across Laura's shadowy face as if to say 'which part' and in answer her counterpart's fingertips hesitated again but began to run across the small bump on the right side of Laura's neck where Laf's sterilised needle had taken vial after vial of blood from her.

"It's ok. I guess maybe I'm getting kind of used to feeling like a pincushion…" She bit her lip. "And if it helps those others…"

Carmilla nodded, unwilling to relinquish her delicate hold on Laura's chin.

Her skin might have been pallid but it had lost none of its warmth and she allowed it to infuse her fingertips even as the sticky coating on its surface tried to intervene.

"Hey, how do you feel about showering and changing into your pj's? she asked in a whisper.

The idea of standing under a fountain of hot water and letting it wash everything away was like a glorious dream to Laura but just as she went to answer in the affirmative her posture stiffened, taking Carmilla by surprise.

Fingers suddenly plucking at a loose thread on the thick shirt cuff hanging over her right wrist Laura sucked in a bashful breath and stared up at the shadowy wall to the right of Carmilla's face.

"Um a shower sounds great but…I…Is it ok…would it be all right if I kept your shirt to sleep in?"

Carmilla's chest puttered at the request, despite the fact that her face didn't betray the sensation. She stared at the smaller girl instead with questioning eyes and Laura, in typical Laura fashion seemed to take her lack of a response in a different way.

She took a step backwards.

"I know that's weird… It's weird and gross, right?" she stuttered. "To put it back on after getting all cleaned up. And I mean, you were just being all gallant and gentlewomanly giving it to me when everything was crazy back there and it probably reeks of ash and smoke and and I don't know, burning insulation or something…I mean there's probably stuff on it that I don't even know by now…but it…"

She quickly wrapped it around herself looking like little more than a small child.

"…it's kind of the only thing that makes me feel …safe?"

It was a question, not a statement.

"…The…the only thing?" Carmilla asked quietly then.

Laura lifted her chin with wide eyes when she realised the implications of her words.

"No no no Carm…that's not, I just didn't want to assume that you'd want to…I know what they say about assuming, it makes an ass of, well not you that would be rude after everything you've done for me but...anyway I figured it might help me sleep later if I was in my own bed… by myself, you know. Which is totally fine because it is my bed. And there's a lot to be said about not falling into co-dependence. And it would be healthy…I guess."

Carmilla's eyes softened at the rambling mess of an answer and she unconsciously stepped forward sliding her hands under the smaller girl's flailing elbows.

"Take a breath Laura." She smiled. "Weird and gross or not, I have no problem with that. You can sleep in my shirt anytime you want."

Laura's heart sang at the small grin on Carmilla's face. Right up until she realised that the vampire hadn't said anything about the sleeping arrangements she mentioned. And she knew she'd overstepped again.

Of course she had.

Cheeks burning, Laura pushed a matted strand of hair behind her ear, remembering the internal debate she'd had last time she'd snuck back into this room and just like then, somehow she managed to school her expression into something approaching detachment.

"Ok I'll…just…go grab that shower then. Thanks."

Grabbing the towel that was shoved underneath the satchel at the end of her bed Laura scuttled into the bathroom and shut the door before leaning back against it.

After an eternity, she somehow found the energy to drag her spine away from that solid piece of wood and tiptoed across the room to stare dolefully at herself in the bathroom mirror. To take in the whiteness of her skin, how luminescent it was in the electric lighting, to realise how ridiculous her hair looked sticking to the side of her head. To notice the beads of gel collecting at the corners of her eyes.

Laura grimaced.

God, she wished Carmilla hadn't seen her like this.

It was a stupid thought, she was aware of that. Carmilla had seen her at her worst after all. When she was yelling at her in the middle of the library and had walked out of there without giving her the chance to explain. When she was halfway to another planet on sedatives and wound up being carried out of the psych ward in a strong pair of arms…

When everything had gone dark and Laura's lungs had stretched and burned…

When they had almost …

The memory of clawing at those fingers pressed against her head forced a single raw sob to escape her mouth and she clamped it downunwillingly, unable to deal with what might follow. She stumbled away from that messed up image of herself, turning the shower on instead, turning the dial as hot as it would go and shucking her clothes off climbed in, letting the powerful blast of water hit her parting and trickle down onto her face. She let streams of it pour through her eyelashes and down the bridge of her nose, holding her breath as she did so.

Testing herself.

Forcing herself to do it just to prove that she could and still pull in a long breath a few seconds later.

That she wasn't still in that pool.

Still trapped under there and this was all another of her fever dreams.

Laura didn't know how long she stayed in there but the water was lukewarm at best when she gropingly turned the tap off and her eyelashes finally cleared.

Stepping down onto the damp mat, she pulled a hand through her hair and gripped the ends to clear the excess water before wrapped herself in a towel.

Then paused staring at the door.

She could just dry in here and slip Carmilla's shirt back on along with her dirty underwear.

The thought of that wasn't quite so appealing as it had been though.

Should she saunter out in just the towel?

But what message would that send? That today was just another day? Business as usual?

Or that she was expecting her roommate to see her, all pale and bruised skin and expect her to disregard everything they'd talked about and fall at her feet?

Neither option filled her with anything but mortification.

Smearing her hand along the misted-up mirror she stared into her own confused eyes.

God, she was too tired for this kind of debate.

For hiding in here

Because Carmilla was out there.

And so were their bedsheets and mattresses.

Along with the memories of everything that had happened over the last few days.

It was all there, ingrained in that room.

Waiting for her to face those demons.

Wrapping herself in a towel, Laura paused one more time and finally, as steadily as she could opened the door, billows of steam escaping around her as she did so. Then she padded into the bedroom and stopped almost immediately; the guttering candles placed all around the room and the low light blazing from them halting her in her tracks.

"Uh, am I interrupting something?"

Carmilla looked like the kid who got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Turning slowly from her place by the mirror where a collection of candles burned fitfully, she blushed a little.

"I… I thought maybe with all the stuff still circulating in your system you might want the lights down a bit and since my mother's too cheap to put dimmer switches in the dorms….I figured I'd go…. old school."

If that was an attempt to sound casual or suave it wasn't the most successful. The attempt, Carmilla's awkward efforts however more than made up for that and Laura giggled quietly; the worms inside her skull quieting for the first time in what felt like forever.

"You sure? I wouldn't want to get in the way if you've got a hot date planned that you haven't told me about." She asked with the hint of a smile.

Carmilla looked up cheerlessly. "You think I would do that?"

Laura felt her stomach clench and quickly shook her head.

"I think if you did, that might be the thing that actually killed me dead."

The room fell into silence for a moment and a hundred regrets swam through the blonde girl's brain at her thoughtless words but somehow her jaw remained still momentarily.

"Carm…"

Carmilla stared at her, waiting for the end of that sentence.

And Laura swallowed self-consciously.

"I didn't mean…that came out wrong. I'm sorry. I just...shouldn't be allowed to talk to people right now and I guess I'm more tired than I thought- I mean I must be for something like that to ..."

Her words faded away.

The brunette might as well have been a statue the way she kept staring at her.

Right up until something snapped in her and she was moving, crossing the room, striding across it towards Laura. Still wearing only her towel Laura took a frantic step backwards, one hand holding the fabric against her and she wasn't even a little prepared for the hands that landed on her hips holding her gently. Reassuringly.

Before she could ask any more questions, Laura found herself being pulled forwards, Carmilla's gleaming eyes asking her to trust her as she drew her onwards then softly swung her around to face the full length mirror she had been standing next to when Laura came in. Stepping behind her so that her dark hair hung next to Laura's neck in the reflection, Carmilla kept her hands resting on her roommate's hips and motioned to the image of the two of them.

"How could I want anyone other than you?" she said gently.

It was Laura that blushed this time. "Carm, I look like Hell."

Carmilla shook her head, fire in her eyes and the fingers on Laura's hipbones squeezed slightly.

"Cupcake, you look like someone who conquered Hell and made it home."

Carmilla didn't say anything else as her arms moved to criss-cross Laura's stomach, her warm body pushed up against the smaller girl's spine. Her chin almost resting on the uncovered crook of her left shoulder blade. The familiarity of the position sent a wave of something hot through Laura's abdomen but she kept peering at reflection of the two of them with curiosity.

"My face…" she began but Carmilla cut her off.

"…is the face of a fighter." There was a movement in her throat and then Laura felt the softest of kisses being placed underneath her ear. Her eyes fluttered shut.

"Is the face of a girl who took all the harsh words her mother threw at her and turned them into something that saved lives."

Another feather-light kiss touched her skin.

"Is the face of a warrior and a saint."

A soft sound escaped from Laura's throat as Carmilla pressed her lips further down her neck.

Her own lips quirked upwards. "You think you might be overstating things a little?"

"No."

The vehemence of that response caused Laura's pupils to flick to the reflection of those behind her.

"Hyperbole's not my thing, cutie," she said with a serious expression.

Laura returned that grave gaze with one of her own. "You realise all those things you just said apply to you as well, right?"

Carmilla shrugged but it was easy enough for Laura to see the way her whole body shook at her words and she smiled at the effect she had on the usually stoic vampire.

"You can deny it if you want, but it's true," she whispered leaning back a little. "You said it. We're quite the pair."

Carmilla caught her. Of course, she did and the pair of them stood there, in front of that shared mirror image in the glass; the dark blonde mesmerised by the intermittent breaths that tickled the back of her neck and her roommate squeezing her wrists against Laura's abdomen as she took each breath one at a time.

"Yeah, we are, Laura." She mumbled. "We really are."

They stayed that way for so long that Laura couldn't have put a time on it if she wanted to. They stayed that way for so long that her eyes began to flutter closed of their own accord, lost in Carmilla's strong embrace and the heat next to her vertebrae.

It was only when she felt the pressure at her back lift a little that she snapped fully awake to find Carmilla's image receding in the mirror. Not moving, not sure exactly what was happening Laura watched as Carmilla's reflection wandered away behind her, eventually obscured by her own image in the mirror.

"Uh, Carm what…"

"I thought of a compromise," said the voice from behind her.

Laura tried to see what she was up to in the glass but her eyes kept being drawn back to her own undernourished silhouette in the mirror; pale and out of place without Carmilla's presence to hold her up.

"A compromise for what?"

Carmilla stepped to her left for a moment and showed up in the mirror again. Her amused reflection pinned Laura with smouldering eyes and that alone was enough to send heat shooting once more through the smaller student's core.

"How about…" Carmilla deliberately stepped back again so that Laura's body hid her in the mirror.

"…instead of you putting my kind of gross shirt back on, undoing all that good work you did in the shower…"

Laura craned her neck around to try and see what was happening but Carmilla tutted at the movement and she reluctantly turned back to the mirror.

"…how about you wear this instead?"

Laura saw a disjointed likeness of Carmilla's arm jutting out from behind her, something dangling from her grip. Something dark grey, that looked oddly familiar- like she'd seen it before. Recently.

Like she'd seen it-uh….

On Carmilla. Like a second ago. Her vest top, the one she'd been wearing since giving up the shirt she'd worn over it.

"What do you think?"

Laura's jaw dropped and her body swung around of its own volition before she could stop herself, her hands clinging to the edges of her towel.

To find Carmilla standing ram rod straight, her arm still clutching the vest top, the rest of her tucked neatly inside a long black tee that fell down to her thighs.

"Uh…I…." Laura stammered as the mental image of a naked Carmilla still reverberated inside her brain.

"Having a little trouble with vocabulary there, Hollis?"

Carmilla, all black material and pale legs stalked towards her.

"I thought…"

Carmilla grinned in an almost predatory way although the gentleness of her movements took any threat out of the situation.

"You thought what?" She stepped into Laura's personal space with a lascivious grin. "I believe Mother might have some objections to students running their own private strip-shows from their dorm rooms."

She leaned down so that her lips hovered near Laura's right ear.

"Although that alone would be worth giving it a go," she whispered.

Pulling back, her hungry eyes grew tender as she held the tank top out to Laura.

"It's yours. If you want."

Grateful tears began to collect at the corners of Laura's brown eyes as she reached out and carefully took the piece of clothing from Carmilla, letting the fabric slide through her forefinger and thumb.

"Thank you," she managed to get out.

The brunette inclined her head in acknowledgement and just like before moved her hands onto Laura's hips; resting there briefly before pulling her slowly forwards at an angle, careful so as not to cause Laura to stumble, until they stood next to Laura's bed. Laura gulped as they came to a stop and glanced wistfully over at Carmilla's own bed a few metres away.

Oh.

Obviously. Laura had known really. That the shirt had been Carmilla's way of telling her that it was better for them to sleep alone tonight. That she had been trying to be kind.

Compassionate.

Rational.

That she was giving Laura a chance to heal and rest without any complications to keep her awake.

Of course, she was.

She watched with a sinking stomach as Carmilla padded away for a moment and opening their shared chest of drawers rifled through, pulling out a set of Laura's sleeping shorts and some new pink underwear. Bringing them back she pressed them into Laura's hand then with a bashful smile turned away, giving Laura some privacy to change. The sweetness of the action hit Laura in the stomach, it was thoughtful and considerate so somewhat mechanically, lost in her own melancholy thoughts she took one last glance at Carmilla's rigid spine then forced herself to drop her towel, pulling on the clothes quickly.

When she was done, she swallowed. "Uh, you can turn around now."

Carmilla did so and surveyed her modestly with shining eyes.

"Much better," she murmured and Laura shyly tucked a damp sheaf of hair behind her ear.

"So I guess we should both get some sleep huh…"

Turning back to her duvet, unwilling to let Carmilla see the deflated look on her face Laura's fingers skittered across the plane of material covering her mattress.

A few feet away she could hear Carmilla's boot scuffing against the carpet so it came as a complete shock when a second later, a hand touched her shoulder.

"Hey hey, you ok?"

Laura looked up to see a pair of concerned eyes looking back at her.

"Yeah. Yeah. I just…"

A line appeared between Carmilla's brows as she took in Laura's dejected posture and without warning, the brunette stepped backwards, one foot then another. When she reached her own bed, never taking her eyes from Laura's shivering form Carmilla bent down and flattened out her duvet, pulling the top edge of the covers back before straightening up again.

"Laura Hollis." She said with a soft glint in her eye. "I was wondering…" She hesitated. "…would you do me the honour of sleeping in my bed tonight? Maybe…maybe every night …if you wanted?"

Laura sucked in a breath but in the time it took to reach her lungs her roommate had moved forward again and taken her left hand in hers.

"Laura, the shirt wasn't a hint that I wanted…." She squeezed her fingers as Laura's eyes filled up again. To be honest I don't think I can sleep if you aren't next to me. Not after everything that's happened. How close I came to losing you."

She pulled their intertwined hands up to her chest, her curls draping over their paired knuckles.

"Is that ok?"

Totally overwhelmed, Laura laughed and coughed at the same time and she wasn't even embarrassed by the sound. She was just happy. Unbelievably unexpectedly elated.

"Don't we still need to talk though?" she said.

Carmilla's smile dimmed a little. "Yes we do." It soon grew again though as the pair of them moved in synch over to her side of the room; caught up in a kind of inadvertent dance.

"But we have plenty of time to figure out a cure. And you heard what Laf said- how they have contacts in the local authorities who could get it to the infected students without raising any alarms."

Laura blushed. "Is it terrible that I was actually kind of talking about us?"

Carmilla's smile turned into a full blown grin. "We have plenty of time to figure that out too, if you're willing."

The pair shared a look of something small, something optimistic and hopeful and when Carmilla motioned to the bed Laura squealed as she dove in between the covers, scooting back to allow room for the brunette to clamber in in a slightly more graceful motion.

They stretched out then, turning to face each other, hands at their sides, taking the time to watch the rise of fall of each other's chest. Feeling each other's breath ghost against their lips.

"I'm going to make your pillow all damp," said Laura in a hushed tone as the light from the candles flickered about the room.

"Well." Replied Carmilla. "Technically it's your pillow so I don't really have a right to be mad about that."

Snuggling a little closer, Laura let her toes gently touch Carmilla's.

"Laura?"

Laura looked up with wide eyes wondering if she had overstepped again.

Carmilla was staring at her with such reverence that it was hard not to look away but she did her best, waiting for what was coming next.

"Can I kiss you now?" Carmilla said with almost silent wonder.

Laura's heart almost convulsed in her chest and with a muffled nod she said, "Yes please."

She was expecting Carmilla to hesitate, to take her time but before the words had even left her mouth, Carmilla's soft lips landed on hers.

Pressing herself against the small student, Carmilla gently grabbed both sides of Laura's neck, her fingers unconsciously finding those unmarked spaces between her wounds and she kissed her. Softly. Humbly.

Passionately but still worshipping at the same time.

And while Laura may have initially been thrown it didn't take long for her instincts to kick in and for her to kiss her back, moulding her lips to Carmilla's as if they'd always known them. As if they had been waiting for them her entire lifetime.

Rolling onto her back, Laura felt the weight and comfort of Carmilla's body pressing down onto hers, her hair pooling against her chest and she responded hungrily, kissing her mouth with every inch of desire that blew through her like a tornado.

And oh God, it was the most amazing sensation. The other moments they'd shared had been incredible but this- this kiss that contained no hesitation, no buts, no caveats was as intense as anything Laura had ever felt.

And Carmilla's low moan at the back of her throat when Laura put a hand on her hip did things to her lower down that she could barely contain.

Carmilla's mouth smiled against hers, as if she knew exactly where Laura's thoughts had gone and the tiny human blushed in response. Breath on breath, the heat of their skin sliding up against each other, legs intertwined she got her own back however when Carmilla opened her mouth to say something and Laura took the opportunity to feed off her roommate's lack of inhibitions letting her tongue slip up against the brunette's. And the second groan that escaped from Carmilla, the gravelly tone of it vibrating up into her teeth sent a shiver right down Laura's spine.

Carmilla kissed her hot and ravenous, and Laura kissed her back with the same fervour, the pair of them so close that there wasn't a millimetre of space between them.

It was only when Laura needed some oxygen in her lungs that the two of them eventually parted, their foreheads still together, eyes closed. Breath stilted.

"…Wow."

"I second that," said Carmilla softly.

The reverent look on her face changed though when Laura smacked her shoulder.

"Hey! What was that for?"

Laura mock glared at her, breathing hard. "Why on earth haven't we done that sooner?"

Carmilla had the insight enough to look a little chagrined.

And feeling a little unkind, Laura reached over, pushing a dark curl out of the other girl's face.

"I didn't mean that. Besides that's on me too, right?"

She leant up on her elbow and kissed Carmilla again, tenderly, with apology full on the lips but with a heat underneath the surface. And Carmilla eagerly received the kiss, nipping at her a little when she took control.

Then Laura snuggled back down onto the pillow and shivered a little as she felt a thin arm slide over her hip, wrapping her up, keeping her safe as it pulled her into the groove of Carmilla's neck.

The familiar scent and warmth of the vampire's skin soon sent a wave of lethargy through her but fighting to keep her eyes open, Laura couldn't stop herself from asking the question that was still on her mind.

"Can you still smell it on me? The blood? That stuff?" she asked in a sleepy voice.

Carmilla licked her lips as she stared blearily up at the ceiling. "Nope. Just you."

Laura nodded against her throat. "Is…is that a good thing?"

"It's a beautiful thing, cutie."

She laughed drowsily. "You sure that's not the kidney failure talking?"

Carmilla grinned. "I'm sure. And I have medical training remember, so I would know."

Satisfied, the small human hmmed contentedly and as Laura burrowed her way into her roommate's clavicle and Carmilla's arm hold tightened in response, the pair of them let sleep come finally.

Wrapped up together, safe from the world as they lay there.

Sure that tomorrow would bring more trials. More fights.

But for tonight they had each other.

And that was more more more than enough.

FIN