Halloween Party [Spookstober]
Day 11 of 13 Days of Spookstober: Carmilla.
A Vampire, a Werewolf, a Mad Scientist, a Ghost and a Girl throw a party on Halloween Night in a Haunted Castle. It sounds like the start of a bad joke, but for Carmilla and Laura it's their yearly tradition with their friends.
“Do we have enough kale for the Kale-Apple-Banana smoothies that Perry drinks?” Laura goes down her list slowly, with a trained eye, crossing each item off with the most meticulous of pencil strokes.
Carmilla wants to tell her that they have enough kale to eat nothing but the leafy green for the next month and a half... However, Laura is in the zone, the do-something zone and Carmilla knows better than to tease her when she’s planning.
She’ll save all kale-related taunting for when Laura has put the pen down, and is no longer fretting all of the details of their little Halloween bash.
Laura gets nervous around planning, her head swarms with what ifs and what to dos that she can’t focus on anything for very long. So she makes the lists, she makes them elaborate and detail-oriented, leaving nothing unwritten. This way, she won’t forget anything or worry about the last minute details.
Carmilla is the exact opposite.
She doesn’t get phased in the same way that Laura does. If there’s a problem, if there’s anything at all that goes wrong, it can be fixed. And if it can’t be fixed?
Well it could always be worse.
Still, Carm would never want to make Laura feel bad about her need for things to be perfect, if it makes Laura happy, Carmilla has no problem with it.
So she stays quiet, and she nods her head yes, listening as Laura goes through every thing on her list. She smiles, watches her girlfriend with amusement, and tries her hardest not to mention that it didn’t matter if they had enough Kale anyways, because Perry is the only one who drinks those smoothies... and as a ghost? She can’t drink them anyways.
Still she is quiet, and supportive, and respectful, and some would even say helpful... if only just slightly.
The party, like always, is a hit... Between Danny and Kirsch, there’s enough rivalry to fuel enough hijinks to last a week worth of laughs, much less an evening.
Perry, as usual, brings enough food to combat just how much Laura has already put out, and the two spend the first hour talking recipes and baking and what dish to try first and what pairs with what.
Mel has brought weapons, just this time it’s nothing terribly dangerous, only darts... something which is a lot of fun for a few rounds until Carmilla discovers how funny it is to ping the darts off of the back of Kirsch’s head, turning to LaFontaine and pretending to laugh at something they’ve said whenever Kirsch turns around to figure out what keeps hitting him.
LaFontaine, after thorough warning from Perry, has managed not to blow anything up in Laura and Carmilla’s little apartment, the first year they’ve accomplished not doing that since the two lovebirds first moved in... four years ago.
The first year was a microwave. The second, a television... and the third? Kirsch’s phone... while he was using it to order a pizza because “Kale is totally gross, man.” That one may have been intentional.
They manage to play an insane game of Cards Against Humanity, though it takes forever after the ‘sweet and innocent’ Perry keeps taking round after round and they start having to pick their jaws up off the floor after hearing some of the really raunchy things that leave her mouth.
They have a costume contest; Carmilla and Laura winning it for their well-crafted Gomez and Morticia Addams looks... though Danny has to remind them every few minutes that they aren’t the real Gomez and Morticia, and she didn’t come over only to watch them make out every three minutes.
(Danny came as a cute Cookie Monster but quickly became Oscar the Grouch after seeing that.)
They eat food, like a ridiculously large amount of food. It’s Perry’s Spinach Dip, and Laura’s Chocolate Chip Ghost Cookies, and a lot of assorted candy plus more... They eat until they all pass out on the couch, curled up so tightly that you can’t quite be sure where one friend starts and the other ends.
And then they watch a movie, usually something with a serial killer, or a zombie (they decided no vampires, werewolves or ghosts are allowed to be portrayed poorly during the party), until they fall asleep.
Carmilla is the last one awake, moving only enough to flick the television screen off, and glance around at her friends - no, her family around her.
LaFontaine and Perry are curled up on the loveseat, Perry resting between Laf’s legs, her head on their thigh and arms wrapped tightly around their hips.
Mel is on the floor with Kirsch, for all the fighting they do (it’s almost as bad as Danny and Kirsch), they always end up sprawled together, his legs crushing hers and her hand smacked across his face in a way that’ll be painful for both in the morning.
Danny is face down on the couch, the line of the couches seam already engraving itself into her face, her one hand reaches across to Kirsch almost lovingly, the brother she never had.
Carmilla is underneath Laura, the tiny blonde curled up in her lap as they spoon in their favourite chair, Carm’s face is tight against Laura’s neck, cheek pressed into her girlfriend’s shoulder as she holds her.
This, Carmilla thinks, is what it truly means to be alive... and she is so grateful that she got that chance.
Even if they all have to go their separate ways again the next day, even if life catches up to them hard and they get too busy to see each other until Christmas, this is still what it means to be alive.
Even more, it’s what it means to be loved.
Carmilla would give every bit of her immortality to continue to feel this for the rest of her human life.