It was an unseasonably warm October night on campus as the tall redhead determinedly strode across an empty courtyard. No night classes nearby, she guessed - the half slivered moon gave a weak sheen of milky light as dead leaves skittered over the rough ground. Her faux fur boots crunched over twigs and brittle yellow and red shards of leaf, kicking them aside. She should definitely not have worn that damned scarf, she thought to herself, no matter how much she liked the purple and silver tones or the way she could wrap it nearly all the way about her long torso. Too fucking hot for it no matter how fashionable she might be. A brief echo gave her pause: was that a footstep behind her...? She turned around, eyes glinting in the dim moonlight - but of course no one was there. And why would there be? She shouldn't let the paranoia of her friends get to her. Jumping at shadows, the lot of them - but then she could forgive Laura most anything. It alarmed her a bit how quickly she'd 'fallen' for the girl. Play it cool, Lawrence, she told herself. You've got a few weeks before timing becomes an issue, just have to ask her out before then and let her know in advance you'll be 'out of town' for a couple days near mid-month.

Again, she heard the noises behind her. Definitely light footfalls accompanied by the crunching of leaves. Don't turn around, she thought, it's your imagination. She walked a little faster, heading for the mostly-darkened student center before her: the two central atrium windows black and looming over her like the sunken eyes of a corpse. What the fuck was she thinking that for, she chided herself. She was not usually prone to such bouts of morbidity. The noises behind her grew louder, and she dug into her pocket for the small can of pepper spray lurking behind her billfold. Move fast, she told herself, and take the would-be rapist or perv by surprise. She turned about suddenly and faced her pursuer, snarl on her lips: she was face-to-face with a startled, slight Asian girl with unwieldy glasses who promptly dropped her overpriced coffee on the hard stones of the courtyard. The young woman cursed Danny soundly and glared at her, ignoring the redhead's weak apologies. Just damn great, she thought to herself as the lass stormed off, staring daggers back at her. Her friends would have laughed their asses off if they just saw that. She jammed her hands in jeans pockets and turned to walk on and get inside before she did something else embarrassing, and so nearly walked straight into the pale woman who stood there watching her with dark eyes and a smirk on her lips.

"Out for a stroll in the moonlight, Danny? Don't you know that might not be...safe?"

Carmilla's deep eyes gleamed with amusement, the moon reflected in them distantly. Danny groaned inwardly. Just what she needed: Laura's snarky roommate seeing her make an ass of herself. The conspiracy theories her friend (well, more than friend, she hoped) kept floating about were totally ridiculous no matter how much LaFontaine backed her up, but she couldn't deny Carmilla sort of lived up to the 'hype' of being mysterious and sulky even if the thought of her being some kind of undead fiend was ludicrous.

"Oh come on, Carmilla. Drop the B-movie menacing bullshit. I'm sure Laura and the others clucking like hens can be annoying, but you don't need to encourage them. You're nice enough I am sure, just let them see that and don't sulk around so much like you're auditioning for Lesbian Vampire Hunters or some nonsense."

At those words, the dark-haired girl grinned wider and stepped closer to the taller woman standing over her. Danny regarded her calmly, but her heart beat a bit faster all the same - for all her snark and surly demeanor, there was something captivating and compelling about Carmilla. She shook strands of hair from her face and chuckled darkly, then gave the redhead's stomach a gentle poke, smiling up at her, standing nearly close enough to embrace her.

"You know, I like you, red, even if your choice in friends can be rather annoying. We should hang out sometime. I bet you get real interesting when you let your hair down, let yourself go wild, right? Later in the month maybe. I'll take you out one night and we can see what happens. Your little Laura is scared of me I think - but you're not. We can grab a bite to eat, raise some hell. Be a good time."

With that, Carmilla smirked and punched Danny in the shoulder lightly before starting to move off towards a nearby fountain and benches Perry claimed she liked to sit at for hours on certain nights. She wiggled her fingers at the red-haired lass and her usual smirk returned to her darkened lips as she departed, calling back to her:

"Think it over, Danny - you and me, might be some fun. I could use a girl around here more friendly to me, one who can understand where I'm coming from. Seems to me you need someone too, one who really gets you. Hold your leash, maybe, when the time comes, if you get too out of control. See you around, gingersnap."

The redhead knew she was flushed, her face must be bright red. Shame and anger at the woman's tone mingled inside her with stirrings of actual desire for the retreating woman. She tried not to stare at how the leather pants she wore outlined her rump, showing it off. How...why...? There was no way Carmilla could know about that. No one knew. But those pointed comments...was that woman actually what the others claimed...? Could she tell? Or was she just flirting with her to mess with her head, hinting at bondage or some crap? Danny bit her lower lip, freckles standing out slightly on her soft cheeks due to the redness there. Her condition was something she could never talk about and she always took the utmost care in concealing it, making sure she was safe when the time came. If Carmilla really was a vampire...

No, she scolded herself firmly. Stop that shit right now, Danny. You've never even met another like you. They must exist - she had not believed at first as a child when her mother told her of the condition, but it had hit her like a ton of bricks about age fourteen, and was undeniably real. But people like her must be insanely rare, and folk tales and faerie stories and horror movies got most of it wrong. But she was what she was...what if Carmilla was another species, more like her than a human...? And what if she really did know what Danny was, what happened to her? Had the girl actually been flirting with her, or just cruelly teasing her, as was her usual way...? The redhead took a deep breath and looked up at the moon, wispy clouds passing over it. Did she dare try and find out more, give in to Carmilla's teasing hints...?

She shook her head firmly to chase away those thoughts. What she was going to do right now was get her butt inside the student union, grab the flyers she was after, then go to her dorm room and crash and she could see Laura tomorrow and everything would seem normal again. At least, that was what she thought then...

The S.U. was deserted at that hour apart from a couple hipsters collapsed on a ratty couch, talking animatedly about something doubtlessly achingly hip and cliched. Danny located the stack of fliers for an upcoming social event that needed removing and scooped them up, located the nearest recycling bin and dumped them inside, then was on her way back to the dorm wing she occupied.

Up the creaking stairs she went as the front door slammed behind her in the night wind, making her jump briefly - she always avoided the rickety elevator on principal. No death trap that smelled like aged coffee grinds and Windex for her, thanks. Her room was fifth along on the left of the third floor corridor, and she was fumbling in her pocket for the keyring when she noticed the door stood slightly ajar. She paused, frowning. It was pitch black inside, but the door indeed was open just a bit, enough for a small cat to wend its' way inside maybe, but not much else. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she swallowed nervously. She tried to fight back the sudden panic and stop herself remembering all the absurd 'vampire' theories her friends had been banding about the past few weeks. She may not be normal herself, even, supernatural if you insisted on the word, but the idea of a no-shit nosferatu college student lurking around was just too much to be credible. Or at least, she tried to tell herself that. As she moved forward as if in a dream, slightly lightheaded, she heard a familiar creak inside the room - her bed shifting under someone's weight. There was someone inside her room. Waiting for her in the dark. What if it was Carmilla, her face blank and pale, spattered with blood, fangs poking over her full lower lip...? Worse still, what if it was Betty's corpse, Laura's lost roommate, lurking under the bed to grab her ankle and drag her under...?

Determined, Danny stepped forward and pushed open her door, keys held in hand pointing outwards between her fingers. A dark shape on her bed leaned forward and she caught her breath, steeling herself. She was ready to scream and attack when the sudden yellow beam of a flashlight illuminated the last face she was expecting.

"Surprise!", blurted out Laura, then she seemed to blush in the dim light coming from the hallway behind her stunned friend.

Danny froze in surprise, mouth hanging open. The girl was seated on her bed, legs folded under her, brown hair tucked behind her ears - and she was clad only in a pair of loose black shorts and a dark bra. What was going on here...? She moved towards the bed as if in a dream and absently thrust the door shut behind her and locked it as she went, staring down at the adorable young woman who was waiting for her (Laura now fidgeting softly, biting her lower lip). The redhead felt as if her legs gave out under her, and she was half-sprawled on the smaller girl then. Before she knew what was happening, she was on top of Laura and kissing her hard, tasting her lips. The young woman seemed surprised by this contact for a few seconds, but then she was kissing Danny back and her thin arms wrapped themselves around the taller girl's waist to squeeze her close. All the thoughts and fears evaporated from Danny's mind as Laura began to touch her and nibble at her, pressing her down on the bed and straddling her, determinedly pinning down her wrists. The moon sank into the sky outside and the two girls barely noticed when the flashlight hit the floor with a hard smack, the light going out and leaving them in the darkness.