Don't Forget To Remember Me

Don't You Look Like A Creampuff

Carmilla woke up and walked out into the living room to find Laura watching some teen drama on the television and munching on cookies.  She had been staring so intently at the screen she almost jumped when Carmilla muttered her greetings.

“Good job dropping cookie crumbs everywhere, spaz.”

Laura laughed.

Carmilla finished her cup of blood before settling down on a couch adjacent to Laura’s.  “Why are you here?  Isn’t it Wednesday?  Don’t you have class?”  She quirked an eyebrow.  “Unless you’re skipping class?”

Laura rolled her eyes.  “Pfft, and I’m the oblivious one.”  She changed the channel to a news channel, where a very bundled-up field reporter was currently trying to trek over a deep snow bank.  “It snowed last night.  Danny texted me to say that a bunch of pixies or something teleported all the shovels and snow blowers to an alternate dimension, so the campus wasn’t cleared by the time classes started.”

“Oh.”

Laura watched the news report for a couple more minutes before speaking.

“Do you wanna go out for a walk?  They shoveled around the apartment building.”

Carmilla raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t look at me like that!  I’m just saying, you’ve been cooped up, and I know you like being outside.”

“Fine.”

Carmilla went to the bedroom to throw on a pea coat and boots, and returned to the living room.  Laura went in after, and came out in a puffy parka, galoshes, a scarf, a beanie, and mittens.

“Wow, creampuff, don’t you look like… a creampuff.”

Laura grinned over her scarf.  “Let’s go!”

“And where my marshmallow goes, I shall follow,” Carmilla teased.

They made it to the park in silence, Carmilla not realizing that Laura was slowly dropping behind her.

Suddenly, she felt something hard and cold hit the back of her head.  “What the frilly hell…?”  She turned around to see Laura beaming at her.

“It’s always the little ones,” Carmilla retorted.

Laura picked up more snow off the ground and lobbed it at Carmilla’s chest.

Carmilla huffed.  “Now you’re gonna get it!” she yelled, quickly returning fire.

Laura squeaked as one snowball hit her in the shoulder while she was running away.

They continued at this for several minutes, with Carmilla hitting more than she was missing, and Laura missing more than she was hitting.  Carmilla found herself laughing and smiling, and scooping up more snow, taking aim, throwing, and––

“Ow!”  Laura held up her hands in surrender.  “Jeez, Carm, there was ice in that one!”

Carmilla ran to the small girl and, sure enough, there was a small cut on her face.

“Sorry, cupcake,” Carmilla said gently, looking down at the ground.

Laura giggled.  “Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater,” she teased.  Carmilla gave a half-smile but her eyes remained trained to the ground.  “Hey. Carm?”  Carmilla’s eyes slowly met Laura’s.  “It’s fine, okay?”  She gave the vampire a quick peck on the cheek and then, realizing what she had done, pulled away to assess the reaction.

Carmilla visibly relaxed and her smile grew.  “Okay.”  She dusted the snow off Laura and herself.  “But I think I’ve had enough of being outdoors for now.”

The two girls returned to their apartment as it began raining heavily outside.

Right before she went to sleep, Laura checked her phone.  “I got a text from Danny.  Classes are canceled tomorrow because the campus is super icy now.”

“Okay.”

“Goodnight, Carm.”

“Goodnight, buttercup.”