Vampirical -- Lauren Jauregui x Reader

Tense

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked Lauren when I saw her sitting in her usual spot in the mornings. She wore a hoodie, ripped jeans, and a denim jacket, and looked extremely tense. I was pretty sure she wasn't even breathing, which wasn't great considering anyone could see that. I was one of the very few humans that knew about the girls and the werewolves, the others were kept in the dark as they'd tried to keep me because it's far safer that way. I was pretty against it at first but now it made sense to me. That's partly why I moved to stand behind her and massaged her shoulders a bit, like how someone would do to a boxer before a fight.

"Nothing." She sighs after a while, rolling her neck around. I could hear each of her bones clicking as she did that, and it brought up a question.

"How many times have you had your neck broken?" I asked quietly, genuinely curious, as I moved to sit opposite her at the table.

She let out a small chuckle before rolling her eyes, "Too many times to remember."

"I hope it's not wrong to ask but, you said there's someone wanting to kill you 'again' last night so... how else have you been 'killed'?" I inquired in a hushed tone. Whenever we were talking at the house or between classes or whenever we only really spoke about recent events or what she was like when she was fully alive. The other girls didn't seem to mind telling stories of their 'lives' as vampires, but Lauren seemed so secretive about it.

Like, I know that Ally was literally worshipped by a small village for a while. They'd give her offerings of animal blood and the children would stay with her during the days when their parents were busy, and she'd teach them history and arts and crafts, before they all died and she had to move on.

Normani, who was the richest of the three, decided to experience one of the greatest inventions of the humans at the time: an unsinkable boat. Yeah, she drowned on the Titanic, but obviously didn't actually die then. She loved to correct all the little details of the movie now.

Dinah was a pretty famous actress and singer until cameras were invented, and then she 'mysteriously disappeared'. She then joined a circus as The Fortune Teller who would sit outside of the main tent and tell the futures of her customers. That was her gift. Unfortunately, the customers weren't always happy with their 'boring' predictions so she eventually stopped bringing in any money and was fired.

Lauren, I knew nada about.

"Let's see..." She hummed, tapping her fingers against the wood of the table as she thought, "I was drowned for being a witch once." She chuckled, "Because I got into an argument with Steve, my neighbour, for stealing my hunt. He was a butcher and a man, he thought he had the right to take what was mine because I was a single woman. Ha! I proved him wrong."

"... wasn't you drowned though? How did you prove him wrong?"

"I went back after I woke up and took all of the meat from his butcher shop. He was convinced it was me, tried to tell the others, but they all said he was crazy seeing as I was 'dead'. Um... what else? Oh! I was hanged for... what was it? Oh, they thought I was a prostitute because my dresses were torn and flashed a little ankle here and there, and that town's police chief had something against me." She laughed again, softly, and her eyes were distant with memory.

"I was stoned for competing and beating a Gladiator in a fight. I was shot by a man for sleeping with his wife. Fun times. Poor Daisy."

I couldn't help but splutter at that confession and she shot me a wink before continuing.

"I had holy water thrown on me by a priest once which, granted it didn't kill me, still burned like hell. Well, not literally hell; burned like heaven, I guess."

"That doesn't sound like a particularly pleasant life," I muttered and she looked back at me with refocused eyes.

"It's not. I've 'died' more times than any of the other girls, than any other vampire I've ever met." She confessed and I just took a deep breath, not sure of what to say, "But, if I hadn't died that many times then I wouldn't have had to move on that many times. I wouldn't have seen the places and things that I've seen and, maybe, I would've had to wait a whole lot longer before I met you."

I blushed furiously but still didn't know what to say because my stupid brain had decided to give up and walk out, or maybe it just melted because of her words and the way her eyes were scanning mine.

"If they kill me again, Y/n... let's hope they don't make it a public ordeal because I don't want to move on again. Not yet." She said with all seriousness evident in her face and tone.

Then those dazzling emeralds flicked over my shoulder and she tensed up again, her expression turning as cold as her skin in an instant.

"You should go to class." She instructed me and I looked over my shoulder to see a pair of people with stark white hair staring at us from across the hall, both leaning against the wall and wearing matching smirks.

"Werewolves?" I hissed quietly, and she just nodded quickly before pushing my shoulder slightly.

"Go, I'll be fine." She insisted but I shook my head and grabbed her hand on the table.

"Lauren, no-"

"They won't do anything here. Not with all of these people around." She tried to convince me, but I only grasped her hand tighter.

"Are you sure?" I questioned but when I glanced over my shoulder again, I saw that they were gone.

Out of instinct, without really thinking about it, I sighed in relief and reached up to plant a quick kiss on her cheek.

"I'll see you soon, Laur." I grinned before heading to class, not noticing her slack jaw or wide eyes until I'd turned the corner, and then my cheeks heated tremendously. I'd just kissed her. Sure, it'd been on the cheek and sure, there was that time when she'd kissed up my arm and on my neck but still, I'd just kissed her. Shoot.