Chapter Text
After a particularly difficult night of crime fighting Laura’s favorite thing to do was take a nice hot bath. It calmed both her aching muscles, and her mind. Today she was recovering from the bruised she got yesterday as well as the continuing suffering caused by being in love with your ever elusive roommate.
From the minute the met Laura knew Carmilla was going to be a difficult roommate. She took the chance because the apartment was in such a good location and the room was so much nicer than the other ones she looked at. Plus Carmilla may be a bit of a troublemaker, but she was respectful and generally a good roommate. So what if she occasionally snuck off in the middle of the night, or left a half-drank protein shake on the counter. It wasn’t like Laura didn’t disappear sometimes herself. Crime doesn’t wait for you to finish breakfast, as she had once said to a trusted friend.
When she got back tonight Carmilla wasn’t home. If she was she would have noticed all the bruises and cuts on her shoulders. Laura always changed back into her normal clothes before returning home, but it wasn’t always enough. Carm had already caught her trying to sneak in a dozen times, and you can only blame it on krav maga classes every so often.
Sometimes she wondered if Carmilla really believed her. She certainly didn't believe every lie she was told. But what other explanation could there be? No one wants to believe their roommate is out there fighting crime every night, or even, fighting heros.
Once Laura had settled into the tub she heard the door slam shut. Carmilla. She must have known that Laura was already home, or she would never make such an entrance. Laura decided it was best to stay put. If Carmilla was in a bad mood the last thing she wanted was for Laura to come looking to comfort her, though she had to admit she wanted to.
She hadn’t always been in love with Carmilla, and if she were to be honest she never planned to be. Laura was perfectly content with her life now, and knew that when she was ready she could find a girlfriend. Falling for Carmilla came out of nowhere. She has started to be really nice. And not to everyone, just to her. She bought her groceries, the kind she knew Laura liked. She even would make her dinner sometimes. And she would go out of her way to invite her to movies or events she knew they would both enjoy. Laura started to feel special to Carmilla and she knew that she often would go out to meet women but it always felt different when it was her.
Of course she didn’t think that Carmilla felt the same way. She simply thought it was because Laura was her roommate, or because she thought she was lonely. Laura had always been sheltered as a child and though she was a great student and very likable she had never made many friends. Maybe Carmilla felt bad for her.
Whatever her reasoning was, Laura fell in love with all of it.
Once she had decided that Carmilla must have gone into her room to decompress she settled back down into the tub, dreaming of finally defeating her nemesis. She had put up a good fight tonight, but Laura knew that she would win eventually. Good always wins.
But then she heard a crash from the living room and she knew something was up with Carmilla. She quickly sat up and wrapped a towel around her midsection. She knew if she went out there she would drip soapy water everywhere, but she couldn’t relax if she wasn’t sure that Carmilla was okay.
She opened the door slowly, just in case it was an intruder. This way she still had the element of surprise. She was small and innocent looking but she could pack a mean punch and they would never see it coming.
It wasn’t an intruder though, it was Carmilla. And she was bleeding.
“Carm!” Laura exclaimed. It wasn’t like Carmilla never came home like this, after all she had a tendency to get into fights, or as she told Laura, go to kickboxing classes. This was different though. She was beaten and bruised, and bleeding all over the rug. “Carm what happened? Are you okay?”
“Just peachy, cutie.” She said, trying her best to stand up, but only falling more. She had on a black coat that covered most of her body. Laura wondered how bad it was underneath. “I just had… a bit of a tough night.”
“Did you get into a fight at the bar again? You know they’re gonna kick you out one of these nights.” Laura said. SHe was concerned about how much blood she was losing, but she seemed very adamant that Laura not touch her. Especially not her coat.
“You don’t look much better creampuff. Those are definitely new bruises on your legs. And besides you only takes bubble baths when you feel like shit.”
Laura suddenly remembered that she was only wearing a towel. If Carmilla weren’t lying on the floor bleeding everywhere she would have felt more self conscious.
“Well come on, you’re bleeding all over the place at least let me help you get cleaned up.” Laura said.
“Are you willing to donate your towel?” Carmilla asked with a sly smile on her face.
“Are you willing to promise not to look?” Laura asked. Only Carmilla could flirt this much as she’s lying beaten on the floor. “You can just give me your coat instead. You’ll need to take it of-”
“No.” Carmilla was acting very strange. She was never one to refuse to take off her clothing, especially when she knew it would make Laura flustered.
“Carmilla i can’t help you if i can’t see how bad it is.”
“I can’t take off the jacket.”
“I’m really worried about how much blood you’re losing. Is it getting to your head? You have to take it off Carmilla. Don’t make me wrestle it off of you. It’ll only hurt more.”
Carmilla groaned. She wasn’t sure if it was in pain or in annoyance. Then, a moment later she said “Okay fine. You can take it off but Laura, you have to promise me it won’t change anything. Okay? Promise me.”
“Carm- Okay, fine, I promise. I just want to help you.” Laura had no idea what could possibly be under the coat but she knew there was nothing that could change her opinion on Carmilla. A very annoying side effect of being in love with someone.
Except that apparently there was something that could change her opinion. As she helped Carmilla pull the sleeves off her black and blue arms she started to see what Carmilla was so adamant about protecting. It was a uniform. And not just any uniform. It was her nemesis’s uniform.