Cake. Chocolate cake. She could practically smell it, taste it. Laura Hollis was renowned for having a sweet tooth, so having vivid dreams about chocolate cake wasn't unusual. Her stomach rumbled and she stirred from her slumber. Chocolate cake was all she could think about when she rolled over softly. Cracking open an eye slowly she expected to see her girlfriend but was surprised to see her side of the bed empty. Sure she was a vampire and would normally be out in the night doing heaven knows what, but ever since they returned from 'running away', she tended to stay with Laura in bed most nights. And if she was honest she loved it. There was nothing better than curling up next to her girlfriend and feeling her strong arms around her. She felt safe. Rubbing her eyes she sat up slightly, the chocolate cake still clear in her mind.
"Carm?" She called softly, thinking that she might be in the bathroom.
A loud crash and a muffled cry echoed from down the hall. Laura jolted upright in bed, all kinds of bad thoughts rushed through her head. And the fact that Carmilla wasn't by her side scared her a lot more than she'd like to admit. She and leaned over to turn the bedside lamp on. The low light filled the room with shadows big and small and confirmed that her girlfriend was no where in sight. The clock on the bedside table read 2:02am, if she wasn't presently caught up in what was happening she would have groaned. She was definitely more of a morning person than Carmilla but even she had her limits.
Laura stayed silent listening for more sounds, trying to determine if there were potential intruders. Burglars? No, who would want to steal the Deans old stuff. Had Mattie come back? She shivered at the very possible thought. She threw her covers back and got up. It was the beginning of spring and the nights were still quite cold. Sleeping in her tank top and underwear probably didn't help she thought as she shivered again, this time due to the temperature. She made her way to the door of their bedroom and poked her head out into the hallway trying to listen. Her face scrunched up in confusion, was that crying? Cautiously she walked down the hallway, the carpet hiding the sounds of her footsteps and stopped at the top of the stairs. The soft sobs were clearer now and it sounded like they were coming from the kitchen. She slowly walked down the stairs her hand trailing down the banister and when she reached the bottom step she recognised who the sobs were coming from. She made her way to the kitchen and stopped in the doorway.
"Carm?" She whispered into the dark of the kitchen before turning the light switch on. She gasped.
What caught her eyes first and made her panic was the alarming amount of something red all over the kitchen floor. Her eyes searched the room till they meet her girlfriends who was sat on the ground in the corner her knees pulled to her chest and her eyes wide and still filled with tears. Never has she seen her look so vulnerable, and it broke her heart.
"Carm?" She questioned again slowly moving closer, making sure not to step in whatever was on the floor.
Carmilla opened her mouth slightly to reply but all that came out was a small whimper, before she clamped her mouth shut. Laura frowned, closing the distance between them in no time and dropped to her knees beside her. She wrapped her arms around her as fresh tears began to fall. In that moment she forgot that the body trembling in her arms belonged to her girlfriend, a centuries old vampire. A vampire that had been through hell and back, and was now sitting on the kitchen floor, at 2am, practically bawling. It was a while before she quietened down, and all Laura could hear was the occasional sniff. She moved her hand to cup Carmilla's cheek softly and wipe away the few stray tears that were left. Carmilla put her legs down from her chest and crossed them. She moved her arms around Laura and carefully pulled her onto her lap. Laura moved slowly and Carmilla nuzzled her head into the crook of Laura's neck.
"What happened?" Laura whispered softly, running her fingers through her loose dark curls. Carmilla sighed, her breath was warm against Laura's neck.
"I just wanted some jam..." She barely whispered, holding Laura closer.
"Oh Carm." Laura rubbed a hand up and down her back. She looked out at the floor covered in the sticky substance that was jam. She should have realised it wasn't blood when she first turned the light on, but when you have a vampire girlfriend logical thoughts concerning red substances were sometimes skipped.
"I was standing on my tip toes, reaching up to get it from the top shelf." Carmilla sniffed. "I just had it in my hand and I dropped it. I dropped it Laura." Her voice wavered as she moved back to look up at her. "I'm a vampire, I shouldn't drop anything."
"Hey, hey. It's okay, accidents happen." Laura tried to comfort her and kissed her forehead. Carmilla took a shaky breath and snuggled back closer into Laura's neck. They stayed silent holding each other on the kitchen floor. Laura never thought she'd see this side of her girlfriend, let alone on a cold morning, on the kitchen floor, over something as simple and replaceable as a jar of jam.
"We should clean it up before Perry comes downstairs and sees it." Carmilla mumbled with a small smile. Laura laughed quietly and nodded her head. Knowing Perry the sound of the jar breaking would've woken her up. In all honesty, now that she thought about it Laura was surprised she got there first. She got up off her lap and held her hand out and helped Carmilla up. She took a few steps back as Carmilla rose from the floor.
"Careful there will be bits of-"
"Ouch!" Laura gasped looking down at her foot.
"-Glass. On the floor." Carmilla finished with a small sigh looking at Laura.
Laura offered her a sheepish grin as she held her foot off the ground. Carmilla smiled shaking her head and moved forward putting her hands on Laura's waist. She carefully lifted her up so she sat on the counter. With out thinking Laura wrapped her legs around Carmilla and pulled her closer.
"Hey. I need to get the glass out of your foot." She laughed lightly putting a hand on Laura's thigh and kissing her cheek. Laura smiled and kissed her nose before loosening her grip. Carmilla moved to look for a first aid type kit being careful of the other bits of glass the was on the floor. She found the kit and made her way back to Laura.
"Can you scoot back?" She asked, so she could look at her foot better. Laura nodded and did as she was instructed. Gently she held her foot, and thanks to her better eye sight was able to find the bit of glass easily.
"I'm going to take the bit of glass out now." She looked up to Laura's eyes.
"Okay." Laura whispered. She took the glass out and Laura sucked in a breath through her teeth.
"Sorry." Carmilla said softly, as she put some antiseptic cream and a plaster over the cut. Once she was done Laura scooted forwards and threw her arms around Carmilla's neck.
"Thank you."
"It's okay." Carmilla told her wrapping her arms around her. "You stay here and I'll clean up." She told her. Laura was about to object when Carmilla kissed her cheek and took a step back.
Laura sighed and watched as Carmilla went around and got the pieces of glass off the ground. It took her a bit longer but she managed to wipe all the jam off the floor. When it was clean Laura hopped down from the bench and Carmilla walked over to her. Laura smiled and hugged her, holding her close. With Carmilla's arms around her she buried her face in the crook of her neck.
"I'm sorry I woke you up." Carmilla whispered running her hand down Laura's back.
"It's alright. I was kind of already awake."
"At this hour?" She looked down at her.
"I had a dream that woke me up."
"What was it about?"
"Chocolate cake." She bit her lip with a grin.
"A dream about cake woke you up?" Carmilla chuckled.
Laura nodded moving back to look up at her. "Chocolate cake." She corrected. "I woke up craving it, I'm pretty sure my stomach rumbled. Then I noticed you weren't there and then I heard the jar smash and came downstairs." She finished quietly.
Carmilla took her hands gently in her own. "Well we're are both up now." She smiled softly. "Want to make some chocolate cake?"
"Really?" Laura squeezed her hands lightly.
"Yes really." She grinned. "I'm sure we'll be able to find a recipe somewhere."
Laura smiled and pulled her closer. "You're the best." She mumbled into her shoulder. Carmilla kissed the side of her head, wrapping her arms around Laura's waist.
~
"What are the other ingredients?" Carmilla's voice was muffled slightly as she leaned into the cupboard looking around.
"Well we have the 3 eggs, 175g of butter and 225g of sugar." Laura explained putting her hands over the ingredients they had. "We need Coca, flour and baking powder." She said reading the recipe before walking over to Carmilla.
"Here's the rest of the dry ingredients." Carmilla turned nearly running into Laura, with the coca, flour and baking powder in her arms. "Hey." She chuckled and stepped to the side of her to put the ingredients on the counter. Laura followed closely behind and wrapped her arms around Carmilla's waist from behind, hugging her tightly. "We're never going to get this cake done if you keep wanting to have cuddle breaks cupcake."
"But I like cuddle breaks." She mumbled with a small smile, before Carmilla turned around in her arms and pulled her closer.
Carmilla leaned back slightly and kissed her nose. "Come on we have a cake to bake." Laura grinned and nodded her head.
Laura sat on the bench with a bowl in her arms creaming the butter and sugar together. Carmilla was rustling around in one of the cupboards trying to find a tin that they could bake the cake in. A tin fell out as she back up a bit and crashed to the ground making a rather loud noise. She timidly turned to Laura who had a slightly worried look.
"We don't want to wake anyone up." Laura whispered. Carmilla laughed lightly and picking up the tin kept looking till she found the right one.
Laura hopped down from the bench as Carmilla came over with a round tin. "What's next?" She asked and Laura looked over at the cook book.
"We need to add the eggs one by one and beat well." Laura replied reading the recipe. "I'll do the egg if you keep stirring?" She asked moving the spoon from the bowl towards her.
"Yep! Just, careful." Carmilla moved Laura's wrist so the spoon was over the bowl and didn't drip. "Don't want to make a mess now do we." She commented smirking slightly. Laura stuck out her tongue and handed over the spoon to reach for the eggs. Laura got the eggs and cracked them in the bowl, one by one. Carmilla smiled looking at the concentration on Laura's face as she cracked the eggs, she even laughed slightly as Laura stuck out her tongue out a little.
After that Laura reached for the cocoa and after measuring it added it to the mix as Carmilla kept stirring. "Just the flour and baking powder left." She smiled up at Carmilla and pressed a kiss to her cheek. Carmilla nodded grinning softly at the kiss. Laura had just taken the measuring cup out of the bag of flour when the unthinkable happened. She sneezed. White flour went everywhere on the counter, including all over Carmilla's shirt and arm.
"Cupcake." Carmilla sighed looking down at herself. Her once black singlet now covered in white splodges.
"Carm, I'm so so-" Laura's apology was cut short as Carmilla had reached over and tipped the rest of the flour on Laura.
"Carm!" Laura squealed. "Oh it's on." She smirked as Carmilla put down the spoon to back up a little raising her hands slightly. Laura reached for a handful of flour and threw it over at Carmilla. It went through her hair, and Laura could've sworn she heard a small growl as her girlfriend smiled wickedly.
Carmilla lunged forward to take the bag of flour. She grabbed a handful and flung it right at Laura's face. She erupted in laughter looking at Laura as she tried to wipe the flour off her face. It wasn't long till Laura joined in her loud laughter. As flour continued to fly around the kitchen, the concern of waking anyone up had long left their minds.
10 minutes later another one of Laura's squeals echoed through the kitchen as she slipped in some flour and landed on her butt on the now flour covered floor. Both her and Carmilla's laughter followed as she tried to help her up but ended up slipping over as well. The two sat on the kitchen floor laughing, a complete white mess. Laura couldn't help the thought that this was entirely opposite to where they had been sitting on the floor an hour ago.
Perry stood at the doorway, gaping at the mess in front of her. "What have you two done? Look at this mess!" She squeaked once she found her voice, raising her hands to gesture at the state of the kitchen.
Laura and Carmilla turned around at the noise, both of them staying silent, trying not to smile. It was Laura who broke first. Standing up and brushing herself off slightly she laughed looking between Carmilla and Perry. "You should've seen it before." She looked back at Carmilla. Carmilla looked down with a small pout, she knew Laura was talking about the jam incident. Perry's voice lifted her gaze.
"I expect this place clean before you two go back to bed." Laura nodded her head, whilst Carmilla resisted the urge to reply 'yes mum'.
Laura helped Carmilla clean up this time, wiping up the flour from the counter and floor, the kitchen was clean in no time. They put the mixture they had made in the fridge, Laura was determined to try and bake a chocolate cake with Carmilla that didn't end in a flour war. "This is totally all your fault Carmilla." Laura looked over at her as she washed out a cloth at the sink.
Carmilla just scoffed walking up behind her. "If I remember correctly Laura, you were the one who spilt the flour on me first." She murmured, slipping her hands around Laura's waist.
"You didn't have to retaliate." Laura smiled slightly at the feeling of Carmilla's arms around her waist. She finished washing out the cloth and put it to the side.
"Of course I did." Carmilla hummed, resting her chin on the shorter girls shoulder. Laura rolled her eyes as she turned around in Carmilla's arm.
"Of course you did." Laura repeated with a crooked smile looking up at her girlfriend.