"Fairytales are supposed to have happy endings!" Perry cried in despair. "They aren't supposed to end with more chaos!"
"Says who?" Lafontaine asked. The pair had just gotten through comparing Silas to something out of a fairytale (what with the magic and myths). The only difference between Silas and a fairytale, however, was exactly what Perry had said: one ended in happiness and the other in chaos.
"People who write fairytales!" Perry responded, still distressed from seeing Silas fall all around her. Lafontaine watched Perry continue to suffer this meltdown for a little while longer, then they allowed their pity to take control and they reached out.
"Ok, Perr, that's enough for now," they said gently, touching Perry's arm and leading her to the nearby couch. "You've been ranting on about fairytales for the past hour and although I can't disagree with some of the points you've made, I think you need to calm down."
"Calm down? Calm down?! CALM DOWN!?" Perry shrieked and Lafontaine inwardly chastised themself for saying anything. "In case you haven't realized, the Voice of Silas students are all dead, I've been attacked in my sleep twice, and we've got a vampire/anti-vampire war going on right outside our door with the campus currently fractured into three parts with each of them out for blood. Our blood! How can you expect me to be calm?!" then Perry was off ranting again and Lafontaine could only rub their temples.
But at last, Perry did finally calm down.
"Sorry I lost my temper," she muttered embarrassedly.
"It's ok," Lafontaine responded, rubbing their aching head. "You're just stressed out about all of it. But I am too."
"Well, you certainly don't show it," Perry pouted enviously.
"Nonsense, I just show it in a different way," Lafontaine argued. "I don't start ranting, I just kind of hole up," they paused. "Though it's hard to tell since we've been kind of holed up for this whole semester," they amended.
"Really," Perry snorted darkly.
"But don't fret, Perr. We'll sort all of this out. We always do," Lafontaine murmured, pulling Perry in closer. Perry sighed, feeling some of the tension leave her the moment Lafontaine pulled her in. Lafontaine always did this to her. Nobody else could calm Perry quite like they could.
"I know," she whispered. "I know we will. I'm just tired of being so scared and stressed all the time. I mean, they said that Silas would be like a school of fairytales come to life, but I can't think of any fairytales this insane!" she added.
"I understand," Lafontaine said. Perry had a point. This year had been unnaturally stressful, even for Silas. Like Perry had said, although Silas was a school of myth and mystery, this was a level of myth and mystery unlike anything Silas had seen before. Then Lafontaine thought of something.
"Maybe you're right," they began. "Maybe these fairytales have gotten a little crazy. "But what if we wrote our own stories?"
"What are you saying?" Perry asked nervously, sensing that Lafontaine was getting an idea.
"I mean, what if we ditch these stupid fairytales for something else?" Lafontaine pressed. "Something more Silas?"
"Like what?" Perry was still confused.
"Like, we wrote our own stories together to help us cope with all of this!" Lafontaine cried. "We can call them 'Laferry Tales'."
"Laferry Tales?" Perry gave the first laugh she'd had in a long time simply because of how silly the idea was. "Please tell me you only came up with this idea to make the punny name!"
"I'm serious!" Lafontaine argued. "We'll write our own stories and call them Laferry Tales and maybe they'll help make sense of what's going on."
"Well, I guess we've got nothing else to lose," Perry agreed finally. Then from that day on, Lafontaine and Perry rewrote old stories and created new ones that fit their current lives better and although Silas was still a hot mess, some of these new "Laferry Tales" helped them cope and gave them hope that things would be ok in the end. The stories documented their adventures, both of past and present and then they even dared to write a few about their futures. More often than not, the Laferry Tales about the future ended in romance while the ones of the present were full of action, adventure, heroism and victory. It reflected what they wanted more than anything right at the time.
A year later, when Silas had returned to normal, (or whatever Silas considered normal) Perry turned to Lafontaine.
"Isn't it weird to think that just a year ago, we were on the run from an evil goddess bent on ending the world?" she asked.
"Yup," Lafontaine said. "I keep expecting Laura to burst in at any moment with some new mystery for us."
"Yeah," Perry gave a weak laugh before falling silent. "I almost miss it…"
"What?!" Lafontaine sat up in their bed, laughing. "My Lola Perry misses the weird?! Are you feeling ok?"
"Laf!" Perry pleaded. "I'm serious! Last year might've been a living nightmare, but I liked all the times we were together!"
Lafontaine's laughter died at once as they realized that Perry was referring to their time spent together when they were stuck in the dean's apartment and then later when Lafontaine came in to save Perry from the dean. It was true that none of the Dimwit Squad had spent that much time together since those events. Once life returned to normal, they all just kind of disbanded with reunions growing less frequent.
"Oh, come on Perr, you don't think that just because I haven't had to save you from anything that I'm getting tired of you?" Lafontaine asked. When Perry gave no reply, they knew they were correct. "Oh Perry! Don't be silly! Of course I love you! I always love you! It doesn't matter if you're being weird or normal or some mix of the two! Even if I don't have anything to be saving you from, I still adore you!"
"I don't know, Laf. I guess it just feels weird not to be in the middle of some weird fairytale. Normal feels weird," Perry sighed. "And if you say our fairytale is over, then why haven't we had our happy ending yet? I feel like something is still missing…"
"Well perhaps this isn't a fairytale," Lafontaine responded. "Perhaps this is the kind of story that keeps going on so that it gives us a chance to keep telling our stories instead of just ending it and then putting it away in some old closet to collect dust. Perhaps this isn't one of those conventional fairytales that ends with one saving the other. Perhaps this is a story that is meant to go on, that is meant to last. Perhaps this is a Laferry Tale."
Lafontaine paused and allowed a slow smile to spread over their face. That smile was mirrored by Perry.
"You're right," she said. "Of course out story isn't over! This is a Laferry Tale after all!" she slapped her forehead in understanding. "Those won't die. That's why I don't feel right! Because I keep thinking the story is over when it's not! It's just waiting for a next chapter!"
"Now you're getting it!" Lafontaine encouraged. "Now let's say you and me cook up some of our own trouble if you really want that new chapter?" they asked with a wicked grin and Perry only gave an exasperated sigh as her best friend and lover jumped up from their bed and raced down the hall to where their Tiny Gay and Useless Lesbian Vampire roommates resided.
Perry watched Lafontaine go before getting up to follow them out. One thing was for sure, Perry loved Lafontaine dearly and she wanted their love story to go on and on and the only way for that to occur was to ditch traditional fairytales and turn to something a little bit better. It was time to turn to the Laferry Tales. The stories of love and weirdness and undying devotion that only two crazy people in a crazy world could tell. It was in that moment that Perry decided one thing. Fairytales were for kids. But Laferry Tales were totally up her alley and, best of all, they didn't require a happy ending because they didn't require an ending at all. They could go on forever and the next chapter was finally underway!
AN: This is lampshaded by Perry, but yes, I did only write this Laferry story to make the pun about Laferry Tales. In my mind, Laferry tales are just an anthology of short stories by our two heroes about their lives, both pre and during the events of the Carmilla series. Also, I know Perry technically graduated that year, but I wrote that she came back just because she technically missed half of her year due to the dean. That's why she's still at Silas a year after the Carmilla series ended.