Orange Is the New Black 1. Chapter 1

A/N: Well, it looks like I might be addicted to Fanfiction, because this is a new story that literally begged to be written. Basically, if you've read Persuasion, Piper will be like that in this one too, but Alex will be a little more outgoing, like her OITNB self. We'll see how it goes, no promises that it will be any better. Read and review if you want me to continue. :)

* * *

Piper Chapman belongs to that select sort of cult seen once in a blue moon. That handful of people, who spend the most painful, difficult years of their life in an institution, only to return years later intent on inflicting the same sort of pain on today's youth. Maybe it makes her a sadist, but mostly it's because it's a damn good school. Naturally, she'd not had to look far for a job after graduating from NYU with a Masters degree in Chemistry (but declining, for the moment anyway, to study a PHD). It quickly became apparent, however, that middle schools or even colleges were not Piper's game. For a start, she was quite frankly too impatient for a bunch of kids going through puberty, but found it rather difficult to keep her college classes under wraps, due to the fact she was only in her early twenties and more interested in going to college parties than teaching those who frequented them. And so the cynic borne deep within the blonde's soul had reared its ugly head and in a moment of slightly askew marksmanship, Piper had sent in her already glowing CV to none other than her old hunting ground; Litchfield Royal Academy, or simply _the Academy_ as it was known by its alumnus.

It would be unfair to say that Piper's application was only accepted because of the fact she'd been a student only a handful of years ago; her portfolio and record in previous jobs was almost unprecedented for a twenty six year old. Most of her students in college had gone on to become doctors, teachers, researchers or the like, and in her first high school teaching job more than half her AP Chemistry class had been accepted into Ivy League schools. Not to mention her literal track record, which included a team of runners that could've put a few Olympic relay teams to shame under her dutiful tuition. But, yes, the fact she'd graduated from the Academy as one of its finest students certainly helped her case. It was an odd sort of a high school; expensive tuition fees and in turn well paid teachers, but there was a delightful spectrum of pupils, ranging from your weed-carrying delinquents to your teenage white girls to your select group of individuals who you simply knew were destined for bigger and better things than a triple period of Chemistry on a dreary Monday morning. Piper had belonged to somewhere between the two final groups; somewhat of a party animal who had half the school's population in love with her free spirit within five minutes of starting a conversation, but with the kind of brain that belonged at the head of a research team in some far off corner of the world. But, alas, Piper's reluctance to ever settle on something concrete or realise that no, she _still_ couldn't handle that fifth shot of tequila, had brought her almost full circle. She was not at the head of a research team, but instead she was in front of her mirror, feeling rather similar to how she did about eleven years ago, an hour away from her first day at the Academy. This time, however, things were different.

Piper was fairly tall, certainly the tallest of her female friends, with the kind of figure models dreamed of; slim, without looking unhealthy, with defined calf muscles and strong thighs typical of a runner. Blonde hair fell in soft waves to below her collarbones, cascading invitingly over slender shoulders. Piper was beautiful, effortlessly so, with the sort of blue eyes that could ruin you and a blinding smile that could end wars. She was not the kind of girl who let her looks do the talking, however; there was a sense of authority in her gait and the way she carried herself, with a commanding glint in her eyes and a slightly condescending smirk often on her face. No, you didn't fuck with Piper Chapman, no matter how beautiful she may be, she's ruthless and pragmatic and if you pissed her off you would damn well know about it. She'd been through the interviews, the all too familiar tour around the school, but today was her first real day on the job. Her first day meeting her colleagues (save for the Dean whom she had the pleasure of meeting a few times prior) and her first classes on the other side of the desk. Nerves crept through the blonde's stomach unsettlingly as she pulled her blazer on and stepped outside into the relatively cool air of New York. By her own standards, Piper was dressed fairly conservatively. Black blazer, white form fitting blouse and a grey skirt (tight, but it was a little longer than mid thigh, which was saying something for Piper) with black patent heels, a silver watch on her left wrist and a couple of simple bracelets on the other. Professional, without being drab. The blonde glanced between her cars for a moment, before deciding if there was a ever a time to make a first impression, this was the day. She wasn't made of money, but she was more than well off, and it showed most prominently in her cars. _Thank God for WASPy grandparents and their wills, huh?_ Piper thought dryly as she took the keys to her R8 and climbed gracefully into the inviting interior of her favourite car. Litchfield was not a place for the poor or weak, and the matte black car certainly didn't give off any sort of impression close to that. No, Piper and her car were confident and demanded attention.

Though, the blonde could never really have prepared for the sort of attention she was to garner in the coming weeks, or even days.

* * *

"You ever gonna tell me how you afforded a car like this?" Nicky questioned the girl currently manoeuvring briskly out of the city centre towards their work.

"Nope. I like keeping you guessing." The driver laughed smugly, revving the engine of her Aston Martin angrily at the driver in front.

"Alright, James Bond." The smaller girl shrugged before continuing. "Nervous?"

"Not really." Alex mused, pushing her glasses up her nose a little as the road widened and the traffic began to clear.

"Think you'll get the job?"

"Which?"

"_The_ job." Nicky pressed. Alex splayed her palm upwards to indicate her clueless nature. "Head of Deparment, dumbass."

"Oh. _That." _Alex had forgotten about the fact her new school had yet to appoint a Head of Chemistry. "How should I know?"

"Well, what's the other girl like?" the Biology teacher enquired with a smirk.

"I dunno, Nicky, how would I? I've never met her."

"What'd the boss man say?"

"Name's Chapman. Former pupil, nice girl apparently." Alex affirmed, drumming her nails off the dashboard idly. Nicky had that annoyingly smug grin on her face that never failed to offset Alex. "What?"

"Sounds like you've got your work cut out for once."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Alex said incredulously.

"Well, it's not like you've exactly had much competition for all those other jobs, I mean you're not even thirty and you've been head of department in what... four schools?"

"Five." Alex corrected. Nicky wasn't wrong, but the fact remained that it was more Alex's ability rather than her colleagues inability that got her to where she is."What's your point, Nichols?"

"Well, former pupils can be tough to take down, you feel?"

"We'll see." Alex deadpanned, reluctant to talk about someone she didn't even know. It was unlikely that Alex would be pipped to the post, but Nicky did have a point. She didn't know much about any of her new colleagues, much less the other teacher in the Chemistry department. At her meeting with the headmaster, though, Healy had told Alex her rival was a bright girl with a Masters in the subject (like Alex) and a plethora of accolades behind her. Her first name escaped the brunette, but certainly the paring were around the same age with relatively similar CVs. The other girl may have the aid of being an alumna of the school, but Alex had taught in high schools her whole career and been Head of Department in every single one. It would be rather interesting to watch this one unfold.

How interesting it would eventually turn out to be, however, was quite extraordinary to say the least.

* * *

Piper pulled into the parking lot well ahead of schedule, however, it was unusually full of flashy cars already, and only a handful of spaces remained. Huffing slightly, the blonde tucked the Audi between a Range Rover and a Mercedes before gracefully slipping out, grabbing her Fossil satchel before closing the door, locking the car and striding purposefully to the grand old building. It was a fantastic sort of place, tall and imposing but with an inviting sort of charm with a wrought iron gate outside the vast gardens, enclosing the car park and wide cream gravel path to the main building. The architecture looked rather out of place for New York; it was a reddish-brown brick with windows dotted across the front, a low archway as the main entrance but various others obviously located around the campus. Other parts were more modern, of course, but Piper would recognise this place in even the darkest night. Gravel crunched underfoot as the blonde walked briskly over the deserted area towards the archway. It was about eight, the sky rather pale and uninspiring with a weak autumn sun doing little to perturb the chill still hanging loosely in the air which Piper was grateful to escape from upon heaving open the oak doors and stepping inside. The only light came filtering through from the three windows above the doorway, casting a sharp glow over the room. The girl at the desk looked up at her intruder, failing to recognise her. She'd only started last year, after all. Piper ignored her, already knowing where she was headed. There was a meeting with the Head of Science and two other newcomers to his department. The blonde quite frankly couldn't care less about the other two, but it was vital that she got herself off on a good foot with the Head. Piper had refrained from asking about neither the other woman in the Chemistry department nor the man in Biology, because absolutely nothing would come between Piper and that head of Chemistry job.

Well, apart from Alex Vause, maybe.

* * *

Alex picked absentmindedly at the Styrofoam cup between her hands as she waited for the meeting to begin in this very room in about ten minutes. It was an informal sort of a thing, so Alex didn't bother bringing anything to take notes or something ridiculous like that. She was early, for once; it was coming up to eight and the brunette hadn't bothered feeling nervous and instead felt rather frustrated that the damn coffee machine wouldn't turn on. The clicking of the pale plywood door disturbed her as in stepped a man who Alex could just tell was going to be unfathomably irrelevant to her.

"Oh, hello." He greeted nervously, extending his hand towards her. The brunette eyed it suspiciously before shaking it firmly with a terse 'Hey' of her own. The two individuals looked at each other blankly before the beep of the coffee machine thankfully interrupted them. Alex gratefully turned back to it, keying in a black coffee and asking the awkward man if he wanted anything.

"Oh, no thanks, I don't drink coffee. Bad for the heart." He explained, and Alex literally had to fight the urge to roll her eyes.

"Right." She replied tensely, instead occupying herself with the comforting smell of the drink filtering delightfully through the boardroom.

"You're uh, tall." He said after a moment. Alex took a long sip from her coffee, attempting to say something that wouldn't make her come off as the massive bitch she so desperately wanted to be right now.

"I've been told." The brunette informed him, hoisting herself up onto the desk rather than taking a chair like her counterpart. Finally, the man seemed to take the hint that Alex had no interest in talking to him for some unknown reason, so he contended himself with thumbing idly through a textbook while Alex sat on the table, legs crossed and typing on her phone. After a rather tense minute or two, the door swung open again.

And, my God, Alex had never been so glad to be sitting down in all her life.

In strode a tall, alluring blonde who Alex just fucking _knew_ was going to be her rival for the head of Chemistry job. She just had that kind of luck. The girl was fucking _gorgeous_; with the sort of thick hair you would never get tired of running your fingers through and long, tanned legs you would never get tired of having wrapped around your waist. Alex's mouth ran dry, which was a first time experience for her, as the blonde stopped in the doorway for a moment as if unsure what to do with herself.

Really, Piper was just unsure whether she trusted herself to step any closer to the girl currently staring back at her from the table. Who could blame her? Whoever the brunette was, Piper could practically see the sex appeal dripping from the girl directly in front of her. Her white shirt was unbuttoned far too much to even be remotely acceptable, exposing a pale chest and the slightest hint of cleavage. Obviously, Piper couldn't see most of the rest of her figure, but it was evident she was fairly tall. The worst part had to be the fucking way she was sitting, though; it positively killed Piper, it really did. The brunette's legs were crossed right over left, pale and exposed to Piper due to the nature of her black skirt. Red heels that surely couldn't be appropriate for the workplace adorned her feet and her raven hair fell in tousled tresses over her chest. The makings of a smirk played on her red lips and dark jade irises studied Piper intently from behind black-framed glasses. Piper attempted pathetically to clear the lump in her throat by clearing it once and opening her mouth to speak. Unfortunately, Alex did exactly the same thing at exactly the same time.

"Hi-"

"Hey-"

The two women stopped abruptly after talking over one another before breaking into a sublimely matching set of sly grins. Alex hopped off the table, smoothing down her shirt as Piper walked further into the room.

"Piper Chapman." The blonde introduced in a surprisingly clear voice. She put her hand out for Alex to shake, and the brunette rather unfortunately noticed how damn long her fingers were.

"Alex Vause." She shook Piper's hand rather more amicably than she had done with the man's, and tried to ignore the little jolt she got from Piper's warm skin between her own. The blonde was grateful for Alex's strong grip on her hand, because _fucking hell, _that irresistibly raspy voice and teasing smirk made Piper a little weak at the knees to say the least. "Chemistry, right?"

"Yep." Piper nodded, releasing her hand from Alex's after a handshake that was a hell of a lot longer than it needed to be.

"Same." Alex broke into a wide grin as realisation spread wonderfully across Piper's face. It began with surprise (a quick raise of her eyebrows) before manifesting into something between horror and fear. Alex continued to smirk as the blonde realised she was quite evidently not just going to waltz right back in here and go back to being everyone's favourite; something about Alex told Piper that the brunette was so much more than just a pretty face. Shockingly to Alex, however, Piper's range of emotions didn't stop there; her expression quickly changed into one that was almost smugger than Alex's, a crooked, dimpled grin and a flare of mischief in her sparkling cerulean irises.

"Fantastic." Piper drawled, her voice dripping with invitation. She'd always relished a challenge, after all, and that was simply what Alex was; a challenge.

Right?

* * *

It was a rather odd first day for Alex, strikingly different to those at her other schools. Her four classes (one in each year group, while Piper had the others) were generally amicable, with anyone interested in causing trouble quieted abruptly by Alex's low tone. Usually, she had a bit more trouble reigning in her pupils, but the inhabitants of her spacious classroom were surprisingly tame for their first day. Obviously, that wasn't what made it strikingly different. Obviously, what did make it strikingly different was the enigmatic blonde directly next door.

And by enigmatic, Alex means absolutely fucking drop dead gorgeous with a voice like velvet and a formidableness about her that somehow just made her impossibly more attractive.

Not once did Alex hear Piper's voice raised above a conversational tone to her students. There was a storage room between the classrooms, with a few laptops, a TV, a desk, chairs and shelves upon shelves of chemicals and apparatus lining the walls. As the clock struck eleven and the shrill ring of a bell excused her students to break, the brunette found herself in said store room, sitting on top of the mahogany desk and flicking through her lesson plans.

"Do you have an aversion to sitting in chairs, or...?" A smooth voice questioned from the door in front of her. Piper stood leaning casually against the door frame, with a biro in her hand and a perfectly sculpted eyebrow raised in inquiry. Alex regarded her for a long moment, drinking in her lithe form before replying.

"Yeah, it's pretty serious. Dangerous things, chairs." Alex answered cryptically with a quick eyebrow raise of her own. Piper smiled widely, dimples appearing on her cheeks as she walked further into the room.

"I'm sure." She mused, but sat down in one anyway just at the brunette's feet. "How you finding it?"

"Easy, to be honest. I thought these snobby little rich kids would be desperate to go wild out of the view of their WASPy parents, but that's clearly not the case." Alex teased the former pupil. Piper narrowed her eyes in mock annoyance, turning her chair towards the taller girl.

"Well, things have changed, Miss Vause." Piper informed the girl sitting above her.

"Oh, I bet they have, Miss Chapman." Alex countered lowly with a smirk. Piper's eyes widened momentarily at the suggestive tone of her counterpart.

"You'd be surprised." Piper flirted back lightly before changing her tone. "But, yeah, they don't seem like bad kids." The blonde picked at the wood of the table by Alex's thigh, averting her gaze from the brunette's for the moment.

"Always the quiet ones, though." Alex insinuated rather suggestively again, and Piper glanced back up towards the girl with a rather surprised expression. Not that Piper didn't enjoy it, she fucking loved it, but she was rather thrown by Alex's forwardness. The older girl seemed to notice, so she shifted her glasses nervously and the timber of her voice raised an octave or two (disappointingly, to Piper). "So, Healy mentioned something about you being a track coach or something?"

"Did you and he talk about anything other than me in your interview?" Piper asked sarcastically.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Alex fired back without missing a beat. It was so _effortless_ to tease and flirt and banter and whatever else with the blonde, a quality Alex found was a rarity these days. "Was little teenage Piper some sort of athletics star, then?"

"I wasn't a star, per se..." Piper trailed off, returning her gaze back to the table. "I was good, like, but I had to take it down a notch halfway through university."

"How come?" Alex found herself feeling oddly saddened by the girl's despondent tone.

"Tore ligaments in my knee, like _wrecked _them." Piper explained.

"How?" A delightful blush coloured Piper's face at the question, staining her cheeks a deep pink as Alex noticed, laughing gleefully. "Oh, no, you have to tell me now."

"Oh, _God._" Piper groaned in embarrassment, covering her face with her hands but laughing despite her discomfort. She eventually removed her hands from her face and leaned back in her chair, crossing her legs much like the brunette and taking a deep breath. Alex grinned in excited anticipation for the story.

"Alright, so it all started with a bottle of tequila and a pork chop..."

* * *

The bitter aroma of coffee bombarded Piper as she stepped into the staff room at the end of the day. Most of her colleagues had gone home after a rather uneventful first day, but Piper had a few things to collect from her pigeonhole before following suit. It had been a quiet, slow day, with little to keep her occupied during the regulation distribution of notes for the year and explanations to her classes of her high expectations. Piper didn't do bad grades; she didn't bother with students who didn't hand in their homework. If pupils were going to waste her time, Piper wouldn't even give them the satisfaction of having it in the first place. She thought about the Alex character next door more than she cared to admit, with her infectious laughter and superior grin that never seemed to fall from her face. She was mightily attractive, in a mysterious, sultry sort of way without even having to try that hard. Alex was smart, experienced, imposing to her students but her whole character was absolutely enthralling to Piper.

And that was a really big fucking problem, because she was Piper's one and only rival in the school, and it would just be a hell of a lot easier if the pair hated each other from the first second and never spoke again. It's a really big problem, then, that they'd both felt more than a little dismayed at having to stop their flowing conversation at break time and go back to their respective classes. Another really, really big problem was that the chemistry between the pair was gradually building, crackling loudly between them, filling the store room between their classrooms and the air in the room when they found themselves together. Even now, whilst Piper thumbed through her paperwork while Alex and Nicky stood by the coffee machine, the tension was already increasing at a frightening pace. Piper pretended to ignore it, and Alex pretended to ignore it, and Nicky was as damn clueless as ever. She continued to ramble on about a disruptive student in her AP Biology class, but she could have been talking in German for all Alex cared. Instead, she observed the inviting swell of Piper's ass in her tight skirt and the way she drew pages between her thumb and forefinger slowly before flicking nonchalantly to the next page. Piper stole a few sideways glances of her own, of course, enjoying far too much how Alex stared her up and down, absolutely ignorant to the fact that Piper could see her doing it clear as day.

"So, how's Sylvie?" Nicky questioned, changing the subject as she realised Alex had lost interest. But, of course, nothing could pique her interest but the ravishing blonde about two metres in front of her.

"Who?" Alex replied distractedly, not even looking at her best friend. Truthfully, she was much more interested in the way Piper's eyebrows furrowed adorably as she looked over the words on her page.

"Um...your _girlfriend?!" _Nicky cried incredulously, basically shouting across the small room. Piper's head raised in surprise from her page, as did the girl's across the room, but it was Alex who fared worst. She blushed, something she hadn't done for years, and turned angrily towards her friend.

"Would you keep it down, you fuckin' animal! She's just _fine._" She insisted desperately, looking Nicky hard in the eyes. The smaller girl laughed, and to the complete and utter embarrassment of Alex, a knowing chuckle came from behind her. The brunette groaned under her breath before leaning back against the counter, Piper to her left and Nicky to her right. The infuriating blonde continued to laugh smugly for a moment.

"Sounds like you two have some talking to do." Piper managed to surmise between her giggles. "See you tomorrow, Miss Vause." She nodded at the flummoxed brunette before waving to the other few teachers in the room and exiting briskly towards the car park, feeling rather pleased with herself. She'd only been looking through paperwork, after all, yet Alex had actually forgotten her own girlfriend's name. Yes, Piper was feeling quite pleased with herself indeed as she walked confidently up the steps to her car, still chuckling like a madwoman and jangling her keys delightedly. Far, far too pleased with herself, in fact, because her excitement was so great that she proceeded to swing open the door of her Audi far too enthusiastically and much too wide despite the presence of the Mercedes parked close beside her. So, Piper would technically place the blame on goddamn Alex Vause, but really it was her own ridiculous excitability that caused her to put a blatant door-shaped scrape right along the black shell of the obviously expensive AMG, a glaring, harrowing white line staring the blonde back horribly in the face. Her heart fell and a series of expletives streamed from her mouth as the horrified girl slammed her own car door shut and bent down to inspect the damage. She swore again as she realised this was not something she could drive away from and pretend didn't happen. Piper huffed and stood straight once more, stomping back towards the staff room with her trademark temper rising uncontrollably. _Fucking hell, you really couldn't write this shit._

* * *

"She's definitely, straight, Vause." Nicky insisted, tidying up her files into her bag slowly.

"So?" Alex replied, still feeling rather embarrassed by her slip. "I'm not interested in her, at all. Don't be ridiculous." She whispered, aware of the middle aged woman sitting on the sofa in the middle of the staff room.

"Did you forget to tell your face?" Nicky teased. "'Cause you were looking pretty interested, girl."

"I have Sylvie, remember?"

"Yeah, but last time I checked you're only with her cause you're too damn afraid she'll kill you in your sleep if you dump her." Alex opened her mouth to protest, even though Nicky spoke only the truth, but was interrupted by the crash of door against wall. The three women in the room turned in shock to their guest, who was none other than a very pissed off looking Piper Chapman.

"Which one of you drives the black Merc parked outside?!" She demanded angrily, blue eyes flaring with anger and moving between her three choices. Of course, it may not belong to any of them, but it was as good a place to start as any. A heavy silence greeted her, and she turned to exit with an exasperated curse before a raspy voice pulled her back.

"That would be me." Piper turned back to the owner of the voice that she would be able to pick out in even the most crowded of rooms. _Of fucking course. What a surprise. _She thought dryly before answering the tall brunette with the infuriating smirk on her stunning red lips.

"Can I have a word, please?" Piper seethed, attempting to conceal her frustration that it just _had_ to be Alex's car that she had damaged. Alex's smirk became somehow more sly as she nodded slowly and shrugged, nudging Nicky slightly before following Piper out of the room, not so subtly glancing at her ass again. Alone, apart from the woman whom Nicky didn't know, the bushy haired girl proceeded to burst into uncontrollable laughter, shaking her head in disbelief at no one in particular.

"What's so funny?" The woman piped up from across the room, annoyed at her quiet reading being disturbed. Nicky continued to chuckle for a moment more before raising her head and wiping at the tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She paused, absolutely astounded by her best friend's manner. Eventually, she answered the woman with another shake of the head.

"Vause drives an Aston, not a fuckin' Mercedes!"


	2. Chapter 2

A'/N: Unreal reaction to the first chapter, did not expect that! Thank you all so much! I'm pretty excited about this story, and although I'm still ironing out the details I kind of have an idea of what's going to happen. Another A/N at the bottom. :)

* * *

Alex Vause didn't often regret following a pretty girl to her car, but as the pairing walked briskly out into the crisp New York air, the brunette felt an unusual feeling of anxiety work its way through her bones. For a start, how was she going to explain the fact that she didn't even drive a Mercedes?! If Piper's squared-shoulder power walk and scowling expression was anything to go by, the blonde was already royally pissed off at something, and the fact Alex wasn't even the person she was looking for would probably not go down well. Why, then, did Alex bother coming out here? To fuck with Piper, would probably be her first answer.

Only, this was a first time experience for the brunette; usually when it came to women the whole 'with' thing didn't happen. She usually only wanted to fuck them, literally, not to tease or flirt or get under their skin. Why, then, was Piper so different?

The question tormented her for a few tense, silent minutes before she was forced to come to an answer, facing a rather expensive looking Audi and a striking black Mercedes with Piper fidgeting awkwardly beside her. Alex whistled low through her teeth for a moment before speaking.

"Damn, girl...this is your car?" Alex raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the slightly smaller blonde. She looked up at her in amazement, wondering why Alex wasn't going batshit over the scrape, but entertained the older girl anyway.

"Yeah, it's mine." She patted the matte hood affectionately before drawing in a shaky breath. "Look, Alex...I'm really sorry about your car. It was a complete accident and I'll pay whatever you need to get it fixed up." Alarmingly to Piper, Alex was laughing fairly hard at this point. "What?" The tall brunette shook her head, unable to speak through her laughter, raven locks catching delightfully in the breeze.

"I'm sorry, but this whole situation just screams really trashy porno." Alex gasped for breath, laughter racking her body as Piper stood blushing profusely, blue eyes widening like a deer caught in headlights.

"_What?!" _She half squealed, arms outstretched in a position of complete and utter confusion. The infuriating brunette continued to chuckle impossibly harder at the poor girl's embarrassment. Alex had a damn good point, however; two women walk into a boardroom in skirts and heels, undressing each other with their eyes and flirting all day long, before the dumb blonde ruins a car and has to '_repay'_ the other girl. Rather disappointingly however, the ice princess in front of Alex seemed about as interested in sex right now as the leaf floating down to land softly on the roof of her Audi.

"Nothing, nothing..." Alex fought to regain her composure, touching the frame of her glasses with her index knuckle before flattening her shirt and attempting to explain herself. "Yeah...this isn't my car, kid." Piper's head snapped up immediately, glaring at the woman in front of her.

"It's not your _what?"_ She seethed, stepping closer to Alex. The brunette raised her hands skyward in protest.

"The Aston's mine." Alex nodded to a sleek, grey car over Piper's shoulder. She turned for a split second, glancing at the vehicle before returning her vindictive gaze to Alex.

"Then why the _fuck _did you say it was?!" Now, Alex wasn't trying to be an asshole, she really wasn't, but the flush in Piper's defined cheekbones and the low timbre of her voice really wasn't helping the brunette here. She bit her lip lightly, attempting to rein in her libido and tried to formulate a reply that wouldn't add fuel to an already roaring fire.

"I just..._funny?_" Alex nervously offers; she can't really think of a justifiable reason, so she'll just go with funny. _Because that won't piss her off._ Unsurprisingly, Piper was actually so incensed by this whole debacle she couldn't even begin to reply to Alex, so she stood stock still. Her fists clenched and she glared at the aggravatingly attractive, maddening brunette with stormy blue eyes. "It's just an accident, Piper, they'll be out here soon and they'll understand. I'm sorry." Alex stepped closer to the enraged girl, taking her glasses off and tucking them into the front of her shirt. It was a simple, absent minded gesture, but Piper's eyes followed the trail of Alex's hand of their own accord, leading to a rather awkward situation to say the least. The brunette dropped her hand, smirking as the smaller girl's eyes lingered obviously at her cleavage before moving back up to her face. She expected the blonde to blush, but instead a smug grin made its way onto her features. Alex herself didn't back down, a cocky smile on her face as she regarded the blonde curiously, raising her eyebrows slightly. For someone with a girlfriend, she was enjoying Piper's close proximity far too damn much in all honesty.

But, for someone with an actual perception of sex appeal, beauty, charm, and just general attractiveness, Alex wasn't enjoying Piper quite as much as she'd like to be. Nowhere near enough in fact; for the only thing stopping Alex from grabbing the blonde by the hips and kissing her hard was the fact they were in a fucking school car park. Quite frankly, the matter of a girlfriend was the furthest thing from her mind. Finally, Piper spoke up, her voice thick.

"Fine, but you're keeping me company." She smirked winningly up at the taller girl whose jade irises glinted with an unnameable emotion.

"Be careful what you wish for, Miss Chapman." Alex's voice inadvertently came out huskier than she'd intended, not wanting to be too forward, but low and suggestive it was, and, _fucking hell_, Alex could practically see Piper's blue eyes darken right in front of her. The smirk was wiped clean off her face, replaced with an instinctive lip bite at Alex's tone, not really helping the brunette's dwindling restraint. Alex stepped away first, not trusting herself, turning and walking back up the kerb to a little stone bench underneath a tree just in front of the cars. Piper pursed her lips in a smug grin at her retreating form before following and taking a seat to Alex's right, stretching her legs out in front of her and crossing her ankles. Alex texted Nicky informing her of the situation, before pocketing her phone and leaning back, slipping her glasses back on and sitting in a similar style to the blonde.

"So, girlfriend, huh?" Piper nudged her playfully. Alex groaned without opening her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"It's complicated." She admitted.

"Sounds it." Piper replied, not really wanting to enquire further to a girl she hardly even knew. Well, she wanted to, of course, but it would probably be a little ill conceived.

"I mean, she's not exactly marriage material to say the least. She's a little...clingy, is all." Alex elaborated further, opening her right eye to observe the blonde staring up at her. Usually, she would make a smart comment telling a girl to stop staring, but she rather enjoyed how Piper's inquisitive irises observed her, so she proceeded to close her eye again and sigh contentedly.

"You shouldn't be with someone out of fear." Piper offered quietly. Alex's brow crinkled slightly before she nodded her agreement.

"I know, kid." She affirmed softly with a smile. Although her eyes were closed, she would put good money on Piper smiling too. And, sure enough, Piper sat on the bench beside the girl she'd only met that morning, and she looks at her carefully, the soft curve of her lips and crinkle at her eyes. No, Alex couldn't see it, no one could see it, but Piper smiled right along with her, wide and happy and strangely content underneath the broken sunlight filtering through the trees. She smiles, and it's fucking beautiful.

And so it goes, from lustful encounters in a boardroom, to forgetfulness of a lover's name, to car door scrapes and smiles on stone benches. This is how it starts, how Piper and Alex come to be, and it's the beginning of everything.

* * *

Piper goes home that night, to her big old empty house bought with money from her grandparents' will, but suddenly she doesn't feel so lonely. There's work to be done tomorrow, an early morning run to pace herself around the new track, but she has a delightful excitement accompanying her to bed, that soothes her to a dreamless sleep and invites her out of bed at six the following morning. It's a little unnerving; Alex is her rival, not to mention otherwise engaged (though for how long remains to be seen). But Piper's never been one to back down from a challenge or deny herself the pleasures of a beautiful woman, girlfriend or no girlfriend.

A little across town, Alex goes through a similar series of thoughts. She doesn't live with Sylvie (thank _God)_ and she invents an excuse to get out of seeing her, simply so she could crack open a bottle of red all on her lonesome and try to collect herself. Piper was hot, incredibly so, and she was smart, charming, witty, and most importantly steadfast against most of Alex's flirting. The problem remained that she was a colleague, a rival. But there's a mutual attraction there, and there's not a damn thing either of them can do about it.

* * *

So, on the second morning, whilst Alex sets up a practical for her first period seniors, she not exactly by chance happens to notice the blonde running around the track below and directly in front of their classrooms. She's pretty far away, but the brunette still observes the fluid movement of Piper running, her bronzed, toned legs in her tight shorts, and the halfway between adorable and fucking sexy as hell way she drinks from her water bottle when she's done, wetting her face and neck to cool off before slipping a towel around her shoulders and padding off towards the shower rooms, spikes in hand. Eventually, she disappears, and Alex's comes to her senses again, noticing how damn hard she'd been gripping the table whilst watching her counterpart. Running around in full view of the classroom she knows fine rightly Alex is in, in those skin tight shorts and pouring fucking water over herself? _That's just playing dirty, _Alex thinks. And if there's one thing she won't be beaten at, it's her own game.

It begins during third period. About halfway through the class, whilst Piper is explaining balanced symbol equations to a particularly confused blonde girl in the corner of her class, she's interrupted by the presence of someone poking their head around the storeroom door. Alex grins slyly as Piper finishes her equation on the whiteboard whilst looking her up and down before setting the pen down. The brunette strides confidently in, slipping behind the desk, sheet in hand.

"Good morning, Miss Chapman." She greets, despite the fact they'd spent all break time bantering back and forth, including the admission that Alex had gone to Princeton (paid for by the invisible man she calls Father), to which Piper had concluded there was a 'touch of the Holden Caulfields about her'.

"Miss Vause. To what do we owe the pleasure?" Piper replies, trying to keep her cool. It's really fucking difficult, though, because Alex has a brilliantly white lab coat on, unbuttoned and fitted tightly around her figure, only coming to halfway down her thigh. A grey dress resides underneath it, obviously longer than the coat but still short enough to expose her stunning, bare legs. Of course, Piper had seen her in the dress, but the addition of the lab coat had her trying desperately to get her mind as far from the gutter as possible. Whatever fantasies her mind would inevitably dream out about the gorgeous brunette in front of her would have to wait; there was the small matter of a class regarding the pair curiously.

"I accidentally printed out a spare syllabus, so you can have it." She gestures grandly to the stapled papers in her hands. Piper smiled wryly at the crafty brunette; of _course_ it wasn't a fucking accident. No, Alex knew exactly what she was doing.

"How gallant of you." The blonde narrowed her eyes at Alex but grinned crookedly despite herself. _She's good, I'll give her that._ Piper thought dryly as the brunette's smirk widened and she ran a hand through her hair. _Fucker._ Alex made no attempt to leave the room, however. She inspected the equation on the board with pursed lips, Piper and the class deathly silent. Suddenly, the older girl breaks into a wide, triumphant grin.

"Interesting way of balancing your chlorides, Miss Chapman." Alex announces loudly. She winks at the blonde, hidden from the view of the class before striding out of the room, lab coat flourishing behind her. Piper gapes at the space where Alex had stood for a moment, before scoffing and turning back to her equation.

"Motherfucker." Piper curses silently under her breath, blushing at her glaring mistake and ripping the cap off her whiteboard pen. Fucking Alex Vause and her stupid lab coat and incredible figure for making Piper write what looks like nothing but an illegible squiggle at the end of her equation where a two should be. Hushed laughter comes from her class as she wipes angrily at the mistake before correcting it, pen striking the whiteboard much harder than needs be, producing a toe curling high pitched noise that causes the class to groan in complaint.

"Settle down!" Piper commands sharply, and the pupils immediately fall silent. Her temper bubbles for the remainder of the period, but underneath her anger she can't help but be a little proud of the fact she already has Alex making up excuses to come visit her, even in the middle of class. It's kind of cute, actually. And it's only been about twenty four hours, and it definitely shouldn't be happening, but neither of them is at any particular means to put a stop to it.

* * *

The small matter of peer-assessment looms large on Friday, followed by the science department going out for a few drinks after the day's work is done. Throughout the week, ever since that third period class, Piper and Alex have been finding any sort of excuse to pay a visit to each other's classrooms, whether it be for a bottle of hydrochloric acid or even a pen. It's a never-ending battle to one up each other, a ceaseless crusade that ends with the visitor making a smart comment about the classroom owner's academic ability before turning on her heel and walking smugly out. It's very much light hearted teasing, though; they don't really _know_ anything about each other save for what's on their CVs and the fact Alex has a girlfriend who she very much couldn't give a damn about when she's around the blonde. Friday, however, will be a different story. Fifth and sixth periods will be spent with Piper seated at the back of Alex's classroom '_assessing' _her teaching abilities (i.e. doing everything she can to cause an upstart) while nine and ten are much the same only with the roles reversed. Thirty seconds of flirting is bearable, but seventy minutes flat of each other's company was a totally different ball game. Quite frankly, Piper just wants to get into that bar at the end of the day and nurse a margarita or four, to escape the growing tensions between Alex and herself that she has no choice to endure because of the interminably irritating fact that Alex has a psychopathic girlfriend.

Piper had offered to cover the first two periods of junior PE that Friday morning, so she found herself in the middle of the wide, open sports hall of the school, in her usual sports attire of tight black shorts and a turquoise Adidas top that fitted her snugly. Her blonde hair was swept into a high ponytail and she tied the laces of her free runs quickly whilst the class stretched and warmed up, a quiet chatter filling the room. It wouldn't be her first choice to cover, but it would certainly get a good word in to the Dean for her Head of Chemistry application coming up in a few months, so Piper had no qualms about setting up a circuit for the students and sorting them out into groups. She stood with her back to the glass viewing gallery above, setting out cones and dragging benches into place with the help of a few pupils. The group stood in a line facing her, all females, some tall and obviously athletic, others shorter and clearly less comfortable in their ill fitting clothes. Piper stood in the middle, thinking about how to approach the rather mixed bunch. Before she could, however, a student she didn't recognise called out loudly.

"Hi, Miss Vause!" The girl shouted brightly, waving vehemently to a spot above Piper on the viewing gallery.

_Fuck no._

The blonde groaned quietly before turning to her guest.

"Jennifer." Alex called down from the gallery with a slight wave, a Styrofoam cup between her hands. "Good morning, Miss Chapman." Piper could practically hear the smugness dripping from her voice.

"Miss Vause, what a surprise." She said dryly, crossing her arms and mouthing '_Fuck you' _at the flirtatious brunette whilst shaking her head. "Care to join us?"

"Oh, no thanks, I'll stick to...what was it you said? Learning the difference between my ions and my atoms?" She teased lightly, referring to Piper's comment from yesterday during one of her visits to Alex's room.

"Good idea." Piper confirmed with a solemn nod before breaking out into a wide grin. Alex shook her head whilst chuckling before waving again and stepping back out of view, presumably back to her class. The blonde turned back to her own class with a shrug as they laughed at the rather odd interaction between the two well-liked teachers. They were demanding, sharp and not to be crossed, but if you followed their rules, Piper and Alex were generally fair and approachable, not to mention very damn good at their jobs. A few hushed whispers ran through the hierarchy of students about the unusual amount of time they spent together, but it was nothing serious.

Not yet, anyway.

* * *

Alex's class worked in absolute silence at their sheets, allowing the brunette to sneak down to the back of the class to her '_assessor', _as in Piper Chapman, the woman who'd sat for forty minutes doing nothing but chewing on the end of her pen and staring at Alex like she just wanted to rip her clothes off.

Which, granted, wasn't a totally incorrect interpretation of her intense gaze. In fact, it was utterly correct.

"How am I doing, then?" Alex inquired in a whisper as Piper stood from her chair and turned her back to the class along with the brunette. The pair stood facing the wall, leaning forward slightly on a wooden tabletop with a cupboard underneath it.

"Nothing special." Piper replied. Obviously, Alex had been faultless, and Piper had enjoyed listening to her raspy tones far too much to be acceptable.

"Oh, I'm sure." Alex whispered sarcastically, leaning a hell of a lot closer to the blonde than she needed to. "You going to the bar?"

"Yeah, I guess. Are you?" Piper looked sideways at Alex who fiddled with her thumbnail nervously before grimacing and looking back at her.

"Yeah, but Nicky told Sylvie about it and now she's coming." The brunette frowned at the notion, and Piper felt a sinking feeling in her stomach for some odd reason. Why could she possibly be upset at her colleague going out with her girlfriend?

Except, it was so much more than that; it would simply remind Piper of why she wasn't the girl on Alex's arm or the one who got to go home with her at the end of the night. It was obvious that there was far too much attraction and chemistry between them for Piper and Alex to ever be 'just colleagues' or even friends, and the blonde was understandably dismayed that she was powerless to control the situation. Piper Chapman fucking _hated _not being in control.

"Lucky you." Piper eventually answered in a slightly more venomous tone than she'd meant to use.

"Lucky me." Alex agreed sarcastically in a hushed voice. Piper wants to ask how the hell Alex is going to sort this all out, but they're in the middle of classroom and she's quite frankly sick of worrying about it, so she offers a half sympathetic smile to her counterpart before turning back to the class. Alex stays still for a moment longer before retreating back to her desk at the front. Piper sighs heavily, rubbing her temple; it's only sixth period, yet she's already fucking tired of today.

* * *

"See you all tomorrow. Do _not_ forget that homework." Piper reminds her class as they filter through the door once final bell rings. She sighs heavily when the door closes, turning her attention to the brunette sitting perched on top of the desk between two fume cupboards at the back. "Not like you to be so well behaved." Piper offers, walking over as Alex slips off the desk and stands in front of her.

"I'm trying out this new thing where I don't act like an asshole all the time." She lies, smiling crookedly.

"I don't like it." Piper confirms. She has to physically stop herself from just hugging Alex or something ridiculous like that; it's been a long day, and she could sure as hell do with a hug. She stifles a yawn, but not before the brunette notices.

"Are you alright?" Alex inquires seriously, ducking her head to look up at Piper, touching her shoulder lightly. Piper smiles tiredly at Alex's concerned tone and the warmth spreading from her touch.

"All good. Long week. Need alcohol." She explains with a laugh. Alex straightens up, clearing her throat oddly before nodding.

"Agreed." She hovers slightly, seriously considering staying with Piper before thinking better of it. "I'll see you there?"

"Sure thing." Piper nods with a smile that doesn't reach her eyes. "And Sylvie." She tries to add with a wink, but again it doesn't come out as lightly as she would like it to.

"Fuck Sylvie." Alex growls under her breath. It's two quiet, simple words that slip from her mouth before she can register the enormity of what she's just said. Implying that she couldn't give a damn about her girlfriend to a girl she's been obviously flirting with for the whole week is just downright unfair on Piper. Because Alex is all talk right now, and unless Piper sees a little bite to her bark, there's no way in hell she's getting involved with the brunette, no matter how attractive she may be. Alex would love nothing more than to ditch her girlfriend, but it's never quite that simple. Even if she did, the fact remains that relationships between teachers in the school are absolutely forbidden, nonexistent; they just _don't _happen. Period. Added to the fact the Dean has a weird lesbian phobia and fixation with the gay agenda to take over the world, Alex and Piper as a couple would just be a disaster waiting to happen. Piper smiles sadly as Alex looks at her apologetically.

"I'm sure you will." The blonde replies quietly, looking up at Alex with those heartbreaking baby blues, filled with a thousand unattainable emotions that Alex would love nothing more than to figure out.

"Piper...I-" Alex tries to apologise, to explain herself, but there's nothing she can really do. The ball is well and truly in her court now.

"I'll see you there." Piper interrupts, her tone filled with finality. She turns, walking back to the front of her room to collect her bag, pissed off with just about everything. Pissed off with the Sylvie girl for existing, pissed off with Alex for flirting with her whilst involved with another woman, but mostly pissed off with herself for enjoying the flirting, for flirting back, for getting herself so worked up for something that won't happen, that _can't _happen. Piper's never been afraid of much, but God knows she's fucking terrified of whatever the hell is going on here. But, tragically, trouble is her only friend, and it looks like he is well and truly back again in the form of the irresistibly attractive Alex Vause.

* * *

"Oh God, I know that look." Nicky says ominously from the passenger side of the car.

"What look?" Alex asks irritably.

"The '_I've fucked up and now I need to drink so much alcohol that it will make my decisions for me'_ look." The shorter girl explains to her friend. Alex rolls her eyes, but accepts that it's sort of true. She's going to at least try to get absolutely fucking _hammered, _because she simply doesn't know any other way to deal with this.

"Nicky, we're hardly going clubbing here. It's like, ten people." Alex reminds her. "Plus Sylvie." She adds with a grimace.

"Yeah, but that means more alcohol, right?"

"Right." Alex nods along anyway, feeling unusually downtrodden for a Friday afternoon.

"What's up, Stretch?" Nicky notices her best friend's demeanour immediately.

"Piper." Is all Alex has to say, before the bushy haired girl nods in solemn understanding.

"Ah..._Piper._ You like her." It's not even a question.

"Sort of." Alex isn't really sure how she feels about her, but she rather wishes she could have free reign over her feelings rather than being pulled along by compulsory ties to Sylvie. It would be nice to at least have the option of going home with Piper at the end of the night, even if it didn't happen. She sighs, drumming her fingers off the dashboard and checking the time. It's only about four in the afternoon, and she reckons she'll be being dragged out of the bar by someone by six o'clock

It's just been that sort of a week for Alex Vause, the draining kind with far too many difficult decisions to make, and one too many enchanting blonde Chemistry teachers slowly dismantling everything she's ever known.

* * *

A/N: So, what's going to go down at the bar? Is it too soon for anything to happen between Piper and Alex? Let me know your thoughts; give me ideas in reviews, PMs, tweets, whatever. Love you all.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Okay, so I was initially planning to have a couple of scenes in this chapter, but I wanted to build up the tension a little more, so this is all taking place at the bar. Over fifty reviews on two chapters is literally indescribable, I am so overwhelmed! Thank you all so much. Hope this is good, I guess?

* * *

An ominous, expectant chill blanketed Piper's shoulders as she jangled the keys to her car nervously. It was half past four on a bright, crystal clear Friday afternoon, yet the blonde couldn't help the shiver running right down her spine. It was a spectacular sort of shiver, sending tremors of nerves and excitement rippling through her frame as she debated on what do with the Audi in front of her. Wordlessly, she pocketed the keys and instead pulled out her phone, texting a rather one sided proposition to her best friend.

"_Hey, Pol, fancy coming to that bar with me for a few hours and being my DD? I'll pay your cab fare?"_

Piper had spoken to her the night previously about going for drinks with her fellow staff members, therefore she knew exactly the spot Piper was talking about. The blonde wasn't particularly happy about having to pay for the cab fare and owing Polly one, but this wasn't the sort of drinking opportunity that Piper could survive with just one drink. She slipped her phone back into the pocket of her form fitting black cigarette trousers and pulled her cream blazer tight around her, fiddling with the button between her thumb and third finger as she didn't bother waiting on a reply from her friend, walking purposefully towards the bar. It was charming from what she could see, with glossy black framework set around windows looking into the establishment. Piper drew a breath and checked her watch before pushing open the door, realising she was probably quite late.

Not that she'd been putting off the inevitable tragically awkward run-in between Alex and her girlfriend or anything ridiculous like that.

* * *

"...and the penguin says, he's not an eggplant, he's retarded!" Nicky's booming laugh rings out across the bar, and Alex hears her best friend before she sees her. She chuckles lowly under her breath, weaving her way through the few groups of people dotted around the room, pulling Sylvie lightly by the wrist behind her. Finally, they round a corner and the area opens up, bits of checkered flooring between plain mahogany covered by various dark leather sofas and chairs. "Vause, where did you go to?" Nicky cries happily, already half plastered despite the fact its only about half four in the afternoon.

"To meet Sylvie?" Alex reminded Nicky, motioning to her girlfriend.

"Oh. Yeah." Is all Nicky musters in reply, offering no form of greeting to Sylvie. It would be an understatement to say the pair didn't really get along; there had been more than one drink thrown by Sylvie into the untameable mane of Nicky Nichols. She turns back to the group, which Alex notes does not contain a certain blonde, leaving Alex and Sylvie to it. She hears her girlfriend scoff at Nicky's remark but for once holds her tongue, turning to Alex expectantly.

"Well, aren't you gonna buy me a drink?" Her voice is already grating on Alex, sickly sweet and nothing at all like Piper's.

"Sure, but remember; you're driving. I paid your fare." Alex informs her with a forced smile before they make their way away from the group towards a row of striking red bar stools with metal frames sitting in front of a sturdy dark wood bar. Alex's face breaks into a wide grin, but obviously not solely from the prospect of alcohol; a rather fetching blonde sits on one of the stools, fiddling with a fray in her trousers whilst talking to a few staff members Alex barely recognises and one brunette she's definitely never seen. She excitably presses a twenty into Sylvie's hand, telling her to go knock herself out (_literally, would be nice)_ and strides over to the group, squeezing herself between Piper and the brunette, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Hey." She greets, fixing her glasses and pushing her hair back whilst making eye contact with everyone in the group, save for Piper. She leans her forearm confidently on the bar alongside the blonde, effectively trapping her. Piper rolls her eyes at her colleague's antics as she continues to talk easily to the group, ignoring her. Eventually, after about five minutes of incessant chatter and exasperated glances from Polly, the group clears, leaving Alex, Piper and her friend, Sylvie somewhere off in the back no doubt arguing over the price of drink.

"Finally." Alex mutters as she slides into the seat closest to Piper, facing her. "Hey."

"Hey yourself." Piper nods amicably, sipping at her margarita. Alex has the most riveting smile on her face, not smug like the previous one, but genuinely warm and happy; she looks positively delighted to see Piper. Despite her ignorance a moment previously, all is forgiven with the smile, and Piper grins back at her shyly.

"You okay?" Alex inquires softly, referring to Piper's strange demeanour in the classroom about an hour and a half ago, as well as Alex's rather presumptuous comment.

"I am now." Piper smiles warmly at the brunette, who continues to stare at her as if she's trying desperately hard to figure out the most complex question she's ever come across. And it's not a totally misguided analogy; Alex _is_ toiling interminably hard to figure out the blonde, figure out how she feels about her, _why _she feels anything other than resent for the girl supposed to be her rival. But then she looks into the infinite blue of Piper's eyes, to the dimple on her right cheek formed by her crooked smile, the pink tinge to her incredibly soft looking lips and the adorable way she fiddles idly with the straw in her glass, and Alex just _knows. _Piper in enticing, exciting, intriguing and everything Sylvie is not. Frankly, it's not even close to being a competition.

Piper's just so aesthetic, alluring, and astoundingly _gorgeous,_ that Alex is utterly inarticulate when it comes to the task of explaining what the blonde does to her. She just does it, and Alex is beginning to accept it.

Piper looks back at Alex, totally entranced by the fascinating way her jade irises dance with emotion behind her glasses. There's a story in those eyes, and Piper can't think of much she'd rather do than hear it described in its entirety by Alex.

But, as always, Polly Harper finds a way to fuck everything up.

"Hey, I'm Polly." She says after a beat, turning to Alex and observing the two women warily.

"Hello Holly." Alex waves a nonchalant hand in her direction, failing to draw her eyes away from Piper. The blonde, meanwhile, only notices the inviting way Alex's tongue had darted out to wet red, parched lips before saying something Piper failed to hear.

"It's not..." Polly trails off, crinkling her eyebrows in confusion. "Piper?" She appeals to her best friend, who's still playing with the straw and looking at Alex as if she's the second coming. "_Piper." _She repeats forcefully.

"Stop shouting, Holly." Piper scolds her without realising her slip up. Alex, however, notices, and starts snickering amusedly at the mistake. The trance breaks, and a blush colours Piper's cheeks as Polly scoffs in disgust.

"Fuck you, Piper, honestly, I came all the fucking way-" She's cut off by the sound of a chair scraping back loudly, Alex standing to her full height at a good five inches taller than Polly.

"Hey, don't talk to her like that."

"Who the fuck are you?" Polly narrows her eyes at Alex, who simply folds her arms and smirks, raising her eyebrows in surprise. Usually, Piper would break it up, but she can tell this is going to be good.

"Alex Vause. Yeah, _that _Alex." Piper continues to blush as Alex correctly surmises Polly's heard quite a lot about the infamous Alex Vause over the past week. "Piper talks about you _loads." _She says, sarcasm evident in her tone.

"Really?" Polly chirps happily, failing to pick up on the obvious sarcastic nature of the brunette.

"No." Alex deadpans, and she fucking wishes she could have caught on camera the way Polly's chipper expression dissolved into one of utter embarrassment. Thankfully (_sort of)_ the threesome were interrupted by the arrival of a redhead, carrying a beer and a cosmopolitan. She handed Alex the beer with a bright smile, before turning happily to the rather tense group in front of her.

"Hi!" She introduced, and Piper just fucking _knew_ by the tone of her voice who this bitch was. "Sylvie." The redhead extended a hand to Polly who shook it gruffly before affording the same courtesy to Piper who did her best to mask her annoyance, which wasn't saying much.

"Piper."

"Polly."

"How do you know my Alex here?" Literally, Piper had to grip the side of her chair to stop herself from throwing her drink all over the girl. "_My Alex? What is this? First grade?" _Piper thinks dryly, before attempting to construct a reply that didn't consist of "_She's been looking at me like something to eat for the past week, and I've gladly returned the favour, and basically we've been flirting non- stop behind your oblivious, ratchet-ass back for the past five days." _

"I teach in the classroom beside her." Piper informs Sylvie, who nods her head distractedly while draping herself around Alex, who sort of looks like she wants to light herself on fire. The foursome converse tersely for a few minutes, before Piper and Polly excuse themselves to move elsewhere (as in, anywhere that doesn't involve Sylvie).

"Well isn't she just a ray of sunshine." Polly surmises under her breath as the paring walk to where Nicky is seated.

"Absolutely." Piper nods and a grimace colours her face as she sits down heavily opposite the Biology teacher and other members of the department. Nicky looks at her curiously, observing the frown on her face before coming to a quick conclusion. She sets her drink down and nods understandingly.

"Ah, Chapman, I see you've had the pleasure of Sylvie's company."

* * *

The clock strikes twenty past five before Alex and Sylvie sit down in the lounge, along with Piper, Polly, Nicky, the sweater guy from Monday morning, another Physics teacher and a girl Alex is pretty sure doesn't work at the Academy. She sits rather close to Piper, their knees touching, with short dark hair and abhorrently red lips. Her accent is thick, irritatingly so to Alex, but what annoys her a thousand times more is the infuriating way she keeps leaning into Piper or putting her hand on her leg. They're both fairly drunk, Piper more so, but that doesn't make it any less fucking _annoying. _Yes, Alex has a perfectly willing girlfriend sitting beside her, but she's definitely not Piper, and she's really beginning to grate on the brunette on top of everything else. The worst part, though, is Piper knows damn well what she's playing at by responding to the Brooklyn girl's touch or reciprocating with a flirtatious comment of her own, because every time she does so she meets Alex's eye, and it's all so very calculated. Sylvie is bored, Polly is bored, and the other three main protagonists are drunk, but not enough. So, when Nicky calls for a few shot glasses and a bottle of vodka, Piper cheers happily and Alex leans forward in anticipation.

"Alex, honey, how long are you gonna be?" Sylvie complains, and Alex very nearly rolls her eyes. She doesn't miss the smug grin cross Piper's face because of her reaction, so despite her reluctance, she rubs Sylvie's thigh very deliberately and promises it won't be too long. Piper, meanwhile, just narrows her eyes in disgust and returns her attention to the short girl beside her, plastering a fake smile on her face and winking at the girl she's known for the past ten damn years of her life. As if Piper would harbour any romantic interest for Lorna Morello in a million years, or vice versa. The two were practically sisters, had gone to the Academy together and kept in touch whilst Piper gallivanted off to schools across the country. It had been no problem at all, then, for Lorna to agree to play up to Piper's flirtatious game, acting as a sort of wingwoman. Alex now believed Piper and Lorna were genuinely attracted to each other, when in actual fact it was all an elaborate ruse to evoke an intense feeling of jealousy in Alex. Piper drunkenly takes a slide from Lorna's hair, pinning it into her own and giggling whilst gesticulating wildly at her mannerisms, noting the way spectacularly jealous way her fellow Chemistry teacher rolls her eyes at Piper's actions.

So far, so good.

* * *

"Never have I everrrrrrrrrrrr..." Nicky slurs fantastically, getting lost mid sentence. They're halfway through the bottle now, Nicky of course having drunk most of the damn thing. "Had the hots for a co-worker!" She finishes after a moment, the shot glass in her hand staying firmly put as a knowing look is shared between Alex and herself. The brunette shakes her head, so subtle that unless you were Nicky or Piper you probably wouldn't have noticed. But, as always, Piper noticed.

A sly grin crept onto her face as Alex's eyes flitted to her own, flaring green meeting sparkling blue. Piper sat with the shot glass raised, her free hand on Lorna's knee. Alex faced her, directly opposite, in exactly the same manner, smirking despite the situation and drumming her fingers on Sylvie's thigh. The pair nodded ever so slightly before slowly bringing the glasses to their lips, gaze locked the whole time. Everyone else in the group faded to background, unaware of the little game going on between the blonde and the brunette. The bitter taste of vodka flowed down their throats as they downed the shots in time with each other, shaking their heads to rid themselves of the stinging flash across their minds before sharing a knowing grin. Not a word had been said between the pair for about an hour, but the simple matter of being the only two in the group to take a shot and staring lustfully at each other the whole time, spoke absolute volumes. Piper cleared her throat and excused herself, standing on slightly wobbly legs, not totally down to the alcohol, and escaping off into the bathroom at the far end of the bar. It was empty, thankfully, with two free stalls she had no intention of using and two porcelain sinks with a large, rectangular mirror hanging on the wall above them. Rather flustered by the whole silent admission of attraction only a few minutes ago, Piper attempted to collect herself, running a frustrated hand through the ends of her hair and adjusting the pin in it. She pursed her lips tightly, leaning forward more for support than a closer look at her appearance. Piper rifled through her bag , pulling out a lip gloss and applying it as best she could in her tipsy state before throwing it back in and turning the tap on. The sound of the door hinge behind her startled the blonde, the wood swinging open and shut again as a tall, feminine figure stepped into the soft lighting of the bathroom. A sharp intake of breath came from Piper involuntarily as her eyes met a pair of dark green ones behind black-framed glasses in the mirror. Wordlessly, Alex moved to the sink beside Piper, still holding the blonde's gaze in the reflection. The sexual tension that had built up between the pair all week filled the room, stifling them as Piper forgot all about the cool water coating her fingers. Alex looked at her sideways then, away from the mirror, but Piper failed to meet her gaze. The brunette's eyes roamed over Piper's slim form, her smooth, bare arms and finally to her lips.

They still hadn't spoken.

Alex stepped closer, leaning over Piper to collect some soap whilst still looking down upon the blonde's rather alarmed expression. She could practically hear Piper's shallow breaths and nervous pounding of her heart. Alex looked down at her own hands as she washed them nonchalantly, before drying them on a towel and regarding Piper lustfully again, the teasing from before absolutely unconditionally gone. Piper, rather naively, loosened her grip on the sink and moved to turn the water off, allowing the brunette to step right ahead into her personal space and pin her up against the cool sink, turning Piper's body so that they were chest to chest. Her left hand rested at the side of Piper's face, gaze boring into the blonde's as she leaned flush against her, reaching behind to turn the tap off herself. Piper drew a sharp breath at the feeling of Alex's body pressed so tightly to her own, her gaze flicking between Alex's almost black irises and her full, blood red lips. The brunette let her right hand rest on Piper's hip and curled her fingers to press coolly against the exposed skin of her back, the blonde's breathing increasing at the fiery touch. There sure as hell was nothing flirtatious or teasing about any of this. Alex moved her hand through Piper's mussed up tresses, sliding out the bobby pin and allowing Piper's hair to cascade more freely over her shoulders, an aroma of strawberries wafting over the pair.

"Lose the clip." Alex commanded in a tone laced with desire, low and husky, removing her hands from Piper's skin and placing them either side of the younger girl, whilst still hovering dangerously close to her lips. The blonde couldn't possibly formulate a reply to that, so she settled with parting her lips and gazing up at Alex wondrously for a long, drawn out moment. If the sexual tension was stifling before, it was absolutely fucking suffocating now, and if anyone were to intrude they'd probably be pushed back out by the sheer force of it. It was obvious, then, that this whole thing was destined to go so much further than some juvenile flirting at the front of a school room. Piper continued to blink as Alex stared intently at her, heart thumping at a mile a minute but mind completely blank as to where to go from here. Alex made the decision for her, however, pressing her body explicitly close to Piper's again for a split second and exhaling deliberately in her ear before pushing off the sink and stealing out of the bathroom, leaving Piper standing clueless in the empty bathroom, breathing heavily and feeling blind drunk on something utterly different to margaritas and vodka shots.

* * *

Piper would like to believe she's a fairly reasonable person. If a pupil came to her with a relevant excuse for not doing their homework or for failing a test, she'd usually let them off with a warning. She had a fiery temper to say the least, but she genuinely did try to give people a chance to explain herself.

But, really, there was no fucking way in hell anyone could expect to be even remotely calm if they were to find themselves in Piper's situation.

You could hardly blame the blonde, then, for being royally pissed off at the events that had transpired in the bathroom only to be greeted by the excruciating sight of Alex seated beside Sylvie at the bar, a nonchalant grin on her face as if none of it had ever even taken place. Piper, meanwhile, could still hardly stand straight or form a coherent thought through the haze of emotions clouding her mind. She was annoyed, upset, inexplicably turned on, angry, but mostly she was just damn confused. Confused, because _why_ did the brunette think it was okay to come on so strongly to Piper, and then return to her oblivious girlfriend, laughing and chatting as if she hadn't been millimetres away from kissing another girl a few minutes ago. No, that was absolutely not okay; Piper Chapman wasn't anyone's side bitch, no one's second choice, and Alex Vause would absolutely be no different.

Attempting to regain her cool and rearrange her emotions, the blonde weaved her way back to Polly who sat talking idly with the few staff members left, Nicky included.

"Let's go." Piper nodded to the door gruffly, placing the tips of her fingers on the armrest of the sofa to steady herself. Polly regarded her with narrowed, accusing brown eyes before standing to her sober feet and grasping Piper by the forearm.

"You okay?"

"Just fucking _brilliant,_ thank you!" Piper stressed alarmingly, allowing the brunette to drag her through towards the door. She waved drunkenly to her colleagues, coldly refusing to even acknowledge Alex as their arms inadvertently brushed when Piper passed by rapidly filling area at the bar. Alex opened her mouth to make a delightfully smart comment, but was meant by a light flow of air and nothing but the retreating blonde's form to answer to. The remark died pathetically on her lips, and she was rather dismayed at the fact Piper had utterly blanked her, looking a little stormy to say the least.

"Everything alright?" Sylvie asked in a rather bored voice, as Alex continued to lean down the bar, as if staring at the door would cause the blonde to return. Alex mumbled some sort of a parting comment about needing some air before hopping off the stool and pushing her way through the crowd towards the door. She shoved it open quickly, stepping out into the gloomy, smoky street and looking for Piper. Luckily, it looked like she was having a little trouble walking in a straight line, so she'd only got maybe ten metres down the street to the right, pausing at the corner with her friend as traffic passed.

"Piper!" Alex called after her, catching the blonde's attention as she turned in surprise, before her expression turned sour. Polly, instead, simply rolled her eyes and braced herself at whatever drama was about to unfold. Stupid lesbians.

"Fuck off, Alex." Piper raged as the brunette strode purposefully towards them, looking not even half as drunk as Piper did.

"Wait, let me explain." Alex Vause didn't often resort to pleading, but Piper had an odd sort of effect on her.

"Look here, Alex, can't you see that Piper-" Polly began to scold the brunette, but Alex just gritted her teeth in frustration, stepping between Piper and her friend.

"Can you just give us a minute, here, Dolly?!" She cut in massively, narrowing her eyes. Polly swore at the brunette before huffing and turning on her heel, mumbling something about a supercunt whilst she crossed the street towards where Piper had mentioned her car being parked. Relieved, Alex turned to the blonde again, a look of burning intensity blazing behind her glasses.

"What's wrong?" She enquired, attempting to move her hands onto Piper's shoulders only to have them swatted away.

"_What's wrong?!"_ Piper incredulously repeated in a high pitched, accusing tone. "What's wrong, is that you have a fucking girlfriend Alex, yet you seem to think it's perfectly okay to come on to me like you have done and then return to her as if not a damn thing happened between us." She informed the brunette, who considered the information she knew to be perfectly accurate before replying.

"Jesus Christ, don't you think I know that? I feel shitty about it okay_?_ But I _like _you, Piper, and I can't do a thing about it. I can't fucking control myself around you!" Alex insisted, pulling her glasses up into her hair. Piper let out a ragged, frustrated breath.

"_**Fuck**_ you." Piper swore in an incredible temper, raising her hands to Alex's chest and attempting to shove her away. The brunette was quick, however, and trapped Piper's wrists between her own dexterous fingers whilst stepping closer, face to face with the slightly shorter blonde. "Let go of me." She demanded, but Alex simply tightened her grip.

"Tell me what you want, Piper." She breathed, deliberately lowering the tone of her voice. Piper couldn't possibly begin to draw up a list of all the unspeakable things she wanted Alex to do, but she was saved from the task by a familiar shock of red hair stumbling into the street, looking agitatedly at her surroundings. Instinctively, Piper shoved as hard as she could against Alex despite her trapped hands, but instead of pushing away she pinned the brunette tightly against the wall adjacent to the bar and pushed herself against Alex's frame, hidden from the view of Sylvie. The taller girl loosened her grip on Piper's wrists, allowing the blonde's nimble digits to drop and press into Alex's hips.

"Get rid of her." Piper ordered in a threatening tone. Obviously, they both knew she wasn't just talking about for the next five minutes. "Either she goes, or I do." Alex's eyes widened at Piper's forward ultimatum, but she need not even think about her decision.

"Or what?" Alex decided to get in one last teasing comment, attempting to prolong the blissful feeling of Piper's lithe form pressed against her own, warm breath fanning over her face.

"Or I'll have to show someone else exactly what you're missing out on." Piper's voice dripped with lust as she drew her fingers underneath the hem of Alex's dress and squeezed her bare thigh, eliciting a low groan from startled brunette, who was allowed not a moment to recover before Piper's desirous voice was in her ear again. "And don't even _think_ about trying to play me." She threatened, splaying her fingertips down Alex's tensed thigh before stepping back with a cocky grin on her face. Alex gathered herself as best she could, clearing her throat and fixing her glasses back over her eyes.

"I'll see you on Monday morning then, Miss Chapman." Her voice was thick, hoarse. Alex Vause had been utterly outplayed, and this flustered nature was utterly foreign to her.

"I'm expecting big things, Miss Vause." Piper remarked with a flirtatious wink and a nod, cocking her eyebrow. She turned briskly from Alex and retreated into the smoggy street, towards Polly and away from the absorbing, provocative perplexity of Alex Vause. What she couldn't escape from, what Piper was irreversibly infected with, was the delightful sensation already twisting in her stomach at the prospects of what was to come in the presence of a single, utterly uninhabited Alex Vause. Piper grinned devilishly as she slipped into the plush interior of her car, anticipation thrumming through her body that would inevitably increase to unbearable levels as Monday morning drew closer.

For once, Piper could not fucking _wait_ for the school week to start.

* * *

Alex ran a hand through her rather dishevelled hair, sighing in thought as she reappeared from behind the corner. Sylvie huffed in frustration, walking quickly over to her girlfriend (although, soon to be ex.)

"Where did you fucking go?" She asked animatedly, only be met with a stern, cold glare from Alex. The brunette took a deep breath to gather herself before grabbing Sylvie by the wrist. The only difficult thing about ending this, would be trying to escape from the redhead without getting slapped. She spoke in a calculated, even tone.

"We need to talk."

* * *

A/N: Someone on ask sent me the bathroom scene, it's from a show called _Lip Service,_ apparently. In the next chapters, obviously I'll write more about Piper and Alex's backgrounds, childhoods etc... Leave a review :)


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I really don't know how I feel about this fic; it's certainly not Persuasion, that's for sure. But, it seems like a few of you enjoy it, so here you go. I'd like to know what you think about it :) Love you all. Sorry for typos.

* * *

"Oh my _fucking _god!"

"Keep it down!"

"She punched you, didn't she?!"

"_Nicky!" _Alex's voice is raised uncharacteristically high, green eyes widening in an attempt to appease the over-excited girl sitting opposite her at the little plastic table. Alex had successfully avoided Nicky all weekend, but come half eight on Monday morning in the cafe above the sports hall, there was no escaping her best friend. "Is it really obvious?" The brunette enquired about the bruise on her cheekbone she had attempted to cover up this morning.

"Um...not unless you're actually looking for a sign that a disgruntled girlfriend may have punched you in the face, no." Nicky explains with a smirk. "It's definitely noticeable if you're looking though, Vause, so spill." Alex looks at her pointedly, before sighing and casting her gaze downwards to the table. She chews thoughtfully on the inside of her lip, stretching her long legs in front of her and taking a sip of coffee. Finally, she draws a breath and shakes her head, beginning the tale. She commits to withholding the whole bathroom episode from Nicky, as well as the conversation with Piper outside the bar. Well, she'll try to, anyway. Nicky, however, has a way of drawing out even the most guarded information.

* * *

For mid September, it's a really fucking hot morning. Piper wipes at her forehead with her towel, emblazoned with the school crest as she treks towards the sports hall and its changing rooms. Obviously, whilst she couldn't compete at the highest level, Piper was still a keen runner to say the least. Running was liberating, an escape from the resounding cacophony of reality that allowed the blonde to clear her head before what would inevitably be one hell of a day. Soft grass collapsed underfoot as Piper padded over the ground, her running spikes hanging off her index and third fingers so as not to damage the field. Beads of sweat dripped down the back of her neck, staining her red shirt a shade darker. An empty bottle of water resided in her left hand, half the contents poured over her face and neck in an attempt to cool off. She looked flushed, but not flustered or even unattractive, her cheeks warm and blonde strands sticking to her face. Piper pulled back the blue door to the entrance of the sports hall, stepping into the upper area, below which was her destination of the changing rooms. Before she could step into the viewing gallery and make her way to the other side, a familiar voice made its way through the room. Piper halted her stride at the sound, before stepping back slightly and pressing herself against the wall, hidden from view of the voice's owner and whomever she was speaking to.

"Come on, Nichols, look at the girl! She's hot, she's smart, she actually manages to hold a conversation, you know? What was I supposed to do? I couldn't very well have just said to her, oh hey girl, we're over, see you on the flipside."

"You could have handled it better, dumbass. What's Piper going to say?" The blonde feels her temper bubble under the surface, because by the sounds of things, Piper is going to be doing something along the lines of slapping the shit out of Alex Vause if she hasn't dumped Sylvie. Piper grits her teeth and takes a step forward, before Alex's next words once again stopped her in her tracks.

"She'd better be fucking grateful. She got what she wanted out of it, and gets the satisfaction of me being punched in the face. I probably deserved one on each cheek from both of them." Alex quips light-heartedly, and Piper feels herself relax, sagging against the wall with relief. A rather sly grin adorns her face as she steps from her hidey-hole, into the view of the two teachers. Alex faces her, long legs crossed as per usual, pale and on display due to the nature of her black skirt, cut to her mid thigh but obviously riding up due to her sitting position. A collared white shirt was tucked into the waistband, folded over slightly over which the brunette wore a striking red blazer that contrasted delightfully with her dark hair and porcelain skin. Green eyes snapped up in alarm at the sudden arrival of a guest, before widening in shock at the identity of the intruder. The eyes continued to watch Piper for a long moment, Alex not very subtly at all gaping at Piper's rather dishevelled appearance and the way her shirt clung to the obvious muscles across the planes of her stomach. The plainly obvious eye fucking continued until Nicky swivelled in her chair, jaw dropping at Piper's sudden arrival. She turned back to Alex silently, who continued raking her eyes over the blonde. A palpable tension filled the room, suddenly making the vast, expansive area seem very miniscule indeed.

"Look at you, actually sitting in a chair for once." Piper notes, her voice coming out with a sarcastic air of impressiveness. "You got punched?" Piper finally inquires, her tone turning surprisingly compassionate. She makes her way over to the table, discarding her water bottles in a bin before pulling the towel that had previously rested over her shoulders, into her right hand.

"Sort of." Alex says amusedly, grinning up at Piper who involuntarily smiles back.

"Badass. Why didn't you try to cover it up?" Alex's grin falters as she looks desperately between the blonde and her best friend.

"Is it really bad?!"

"Yes." Piper insists with a laugh.

"No." Nicky lies, smirking crookedly at Alex.

"Fucking bitches." Alex whispers, narrowing her eyes at the pair. Piper continued to grin at Alex, licking her lips absent-mindedly before shrugging and continuing on her interrupted journey to the shower.

"Hey, we're not the ones who punched you!" She calls over her shoulder, noting how Alex had turned in her seat to blatantly observe Piper's back turned form and her ass in her black shorts. The brunette doesn't falter or shy away, but rather moves her eyes back up to Piper's face as the blonde winks before disappearing towards the showers.

"Why don't you just get up and follow her there? Ask her if she wants anything, a sponge perhaps? A chance to kick you in the throat?" Nicky inquires, and to be honest she's barely joking.

"Oh, you are hi-fucking-larious!" Alex remarks as she stands from the table. "Don't you have a class to teach?"

"I could say the same to you, yet you're still brooding over Chapman like a lost puppy." Nicky comments dryly.

"I saw your jaw drop when she walked in." Alex attempts to paint a picture in which she wasn't absolutely gawking at Piper and only Piper for the entirety of the blonde's presence in the room.

"No, you didn't." Nicky fires back as the pair make their way back to the school building. Alex considers defending herself, but she realises it's futile. Frighteningly, Nicky is absolutely true in her observation that Alex is already utterly consumed by Piper. The brunette looks towards the sun, warming her face and pursing her lips before replying.

"No, no I didn't."

* * *

Piper rubs angrily at the glaring stain of copper sulphate on the front of her lab coat, knocked onto her during last period by a disruptive child who now found himself in detention every day until half four for the next week. Excessive, maybe, but the turquoise liquid was a bitch to get out of clothing. Rather a lab coat than her light beige dress, though. The class in front of her, seniors, were much calmer, working dutifully at corrections to their papers from Friday. It was only a week into term, but the paper was set with questions to test how much of the subject they still grasped, and would allow Piper to plan her lessons depending on what the majority needed help with and compare them with Alex's pupils. In a rush this morning, however, Piper had left her laptop at home, meaning she had to improvise with her own mark scheme rather than being able to put up a slide on the projector. With the answers drawn in plain script over a few whiteboards, Piper was afforded a moment's piece which she gladly took, stepping into the store room to hang up her coat. Halfway through taking it off, she noted Alex sat in one of the chairs, marking her own set of papers.

"Hey, have you got your class' results? I have a free period, and I could really be getting on with this." She enquired as Piper busied herself with pulling off the rest of her coat.

"Actually, funny story that." Piper turned to the brunette, folding her arms. "Left my laptop at home."

"Huh, you'd think you were eager to get here this morning or something." Alex remarked smugly, setting down her papers and standing up.

"Or something." Piper hummed, straightening as Alex came to stand in front of her. Why was it literally impossible for the pair to have a normal conversation without the stifling chemistry between them building to extraordinary levels every damn time they were in the same room?

"Well, what's it doing at home, then?"

"Having more fun than me." Piper teased. Alex laughed breathily at the comment before taking her glasses off.

"Seriously, though, I really need to get those results. Fuck." Alex wasn't annoyed at Piper, of course, she just didn't like being behind on things. Piper nodded in understanding, thinking about how to make it up to her counterpart. Really, if it was anyone else, she'd probably be quite pleased with herself for holding a rival back, but with Alex? She just felt pretty bad; because it was unlikely Alex would ever put Piper in the same position. Suddenly, eyeing the slightly dark tinge underneath Alex's eyes, Piper felt an overwhelming urge to apologise.

"I'm sorry, Alex, I really am." The blonde said timidly, fiddling with the hem of her own dress. "About you getting hit, too." Alex ducked her head to meet Piper's eye, cocking a surprised eyebrow.

"Oh, come on, don't worry about it. I mean, I've never been punched before; it was probably a good life experience." The pair shared a slightly nervous laugh, attempting to ignore the growing tension in the small store room. Alex brushed back her hair before continuing. "I meant it, when I said that things were complicated... I'm new to this whole relationship thing, you know, I don't know the rules." She explained, shrugging lightly as Piper studied her with an unreadable expression.

"That's the whole problem, isn't it?" Piper's voice was thick and her blue eyes dark in the artificial lighting of the room. Alex felt her heart rate increase at the provocative nature of the blonde's tone. "Rules aren't any fun." She remarked blankly, letting the suggestive statement hang in the air before continuing. "Listen, I don't want to stand in the way of true love. I mean, if that is your future wife out there, by all means, tell me to back off."

Piper spoke quickly, purposefully, and it was plainly obvious by Alex's smirk that she had no intentions of going anywhere. Why the hell would she want to return to a girl who had literally given her a black eye, anyway? "But you pursued me, and I liked it." Piper breathed. "I've...I've never felt, you know..." the blonde's confident nature began to falter as she observed the dilated pupils of her counterpart. "I've never thought of myself as a very sexual person, but..." Piper leaned into Alex's ear, the brunette's eyes closing involuntarily at her proximity. Piper opened her mouth to finish her statement, but was cut off by an ear splitting sound of glassware shattering and raised voices. The pair jumped at the sudden interruption, suddenly very aware of their surroundings and how fucking inappropriate it was for Piper to leave her class unsupervised, even if they were only filling out fucking corrections.

"Fuck!" She swore, breaking away from Alex and back into the room to find a rather sheepish looking blonde girl standing over a shattered test tube or two. "What did you do?! How do you manage to go from writing on a sheet to smashing test tubes?!" Piper raged, her voice much sharper and clearer than it had been a minute ago in the store room. Frankly, it was a testament to the blonde that she managed to recover from the interaction so quickly.

"I'm sorry, Miss, I was looking for more paper." The pupil nodded to the block of file paper beside where the test tube rack had been sitting down. Piper rolled her eyes, ripping off a sheet of the paper and handing it angrily to the girl.

"See me after class, get this cleaned up, and don't you dare get out of your seat without my permission in my classroom again. That goes for all of you." Piper informed her pupils, who quivered in fear and didn't dare to meet her eye, instead studying their sheets of paper as if they were the most interesting damn things they'd ever seen. The blonde stepped back into the store room, remembering she had actually been going in there to retrieve her cobalt blazer rather than coming within seconds of whispering filthy promises in a co-worker's ear.

"Back for more?" Alex questioned, standing against the far bench with her arms folded, irises still flaring with desire.

"As much as I'd like to, I really can't afford to leave them alone for any longer." Piper explained as she snagged her blazer off the hanger.

"Aw, but I was so looking forward to seeing how sorry you were." Alex insinuated with a dark smirk. Piper rolled her eyes, but was struck with a thought. _What the hell,_she thought. _What do I have to lose?_

"Why don't you come over tonight, to my house, which by the way has my laptop with those results on them which are obviously what you're so desperate for?" Piper asked quietly, attempting to add a slice of humour to her invitation.

"Obviously." Alex smirked. "Sure thing, Miss Chapman. One problem, though; I don't know where you live." Piper rolled her eyes at the insignificant 'problem' as Alex put it, sauntering over to the brunette and taking her unlocked phone from between Alex's slack fingers. Quickly, Piper put her number and address in Alex's phone, texting herself before handing it back.

"Does seven suit?" Piper wondered, slowly making her way back to her classroom door.

"Oh, I dunno, Monday nights can be pretty crazy." Alex quipped dryly with a grin.

"See you at seven, asshole." Piper nodded to the taller girl.

"It's a date." The brunette confirmed as she walked over to her own door. The pair regarded each other closely, their stances almost identical, one hand on the door handle but facing each other. Piper considered her answer for a moment, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. She shrugged happily, opening the door slightly before replying.

"It's your call, Miss Vause."

* * *

_My call?! What does that even fucking mean?! _Alex panicked as she turned off the ignition, considering for the thousandth time that afternoon what the hell Piper meant by that. Did she mean, "_hey, I'm ready and waiting, come and get me!" _Or was it more of an "_um, sure, Alex, if you want to call going over pupil's results a fucking date, you sad case."_ Even here, in Piper's stone driveway outside her home, Alex still wasn't sure what the hell she was walking into. But walk she did, bag slung over her shoulders and combat boots crunching over the surface of the path. Skin tight black jeans adorned her legs, paired with a white V neck; it was still fairly warm but by the time Alex was returning home it would be much colder in little secluded area of New York in which Piper lived. Her house was a fair size, unusual of course for her not to live in an apartment. It wasn't overly grandeur, however, made from grey brickwork and glossy white windows. The door was black, with a gold number stamped on the front. Alex drew another shaky breath before knocking on the door purposefully, fixing her hair and glasses in a nervous habit as she waited. Why, she was so nervous, she couldn't figure out; she had been in much more nerve wracking situations with women before. But, most significantly, those women had not been Piper Chapman. Those women had been replaceable, generic, unimportant.

Even after a week, Piper Chapman is already painfully important to Alex Vause. Hell, the brunette was sporting a black eye over her, after all.

After what felt like hours, the door swung inward to reveal the striking blonde, wearing a tight grey t shirt with a Ramones logo on it covering her upper half and a pair of white shorts that left little to the imagination.

"Hi." Piper said warmly, stepping back to allow Alex in.

"Hey." The brunette greeted, standing opposite the blonde as she closed the door before following her down the hall. It was a metre and a half wide, maybe, with light wooden floors and two matching doors on either side of the corridor, panes of glass revealing certain aspects of whatever room was on the other side. A living room, a bathroom and a dining hall came into view before the door at the end to the left was opened by the blonde and the pair stepped into an open plan kitchen, island and cooker to the right of the room before it curved in a sort of L shape, revealing a fire place, sofas, a TV on the wall, a coffee table on top of a white rug and a tall little bookshelf beside the fireplace. It wasn't _huge,_ but it was modern and homely and fitted the blonde rather well.

"Nice place." Alex surmised as Piper walked over to the fridge, crouching down and peering at the contents.

"It's cool, yeah. You want a beer, or something?" Piper questioned.

"Doing schoolwork and drinking alcohol? Sounds rebellious." Alex mused with a suggestive eyebrow raise.

"Like you've never taken a drink or two whist grading junior papers." Piper took two bottles from the ice cold interior of the fridge before kicking it shut with her heel and cracking open the caps from the beers with a nearby bottle opener. "Drink up." She handed the bottle of the rather awkward brunette before nodding at her laptop sitting on the coffee table. "Knock yourself out." Alex looked from the coffee table, to Piper, before raising her eyebrows in confusion.

"You're not doing it?"

"I have to... ugh, I have to bake fucking cakes." She groaned, and Alex barked out a disbelieving laugh.

"_Cakes?!" _

"Oh my God, the track team are having a bake sale to raise money for new funds, and I stupidly agreed to help out. I promise I'll help you with those results, though." Piper insisted, taking a slow drag from her beer. Condensation drips onto her neck and slips between her collarbones, and Alex's eyes follow the movement of their own accord. Piper eyes her confusedly, not quite grasping the tremendous amount of self control the brunette is exhibiting at the present moment.

"Don't worry about it. I got it." Alex assures the blonde, raising her beer in confirmation before taking a gulp and walking over to the white leather sofa, taking a seat opposite the TV and opening up Piper's laptop, before setting her own up beside it. Honestly, if Piper was going to be walking around all night in those fucking shorts, perhaps it was for the best that the pair were working apart. Alex Vause was not exactly a master at controlling herself around inviting, beautiful women, and Piper Chapman was most certainly the most inviting of them all.

* * *

"Is Chinese okay?" Piper shouts over from the kitchen, after releasing she really has nothing edible in her fridge.

"Is water wet?" Alex replied from the sofa, a smirk on her face and a second, ice cold beer in her hand. Graphing and tabling the joint results had been incredibly quick and painless; it was only about an hour into the evening and Alex was already done. She would pretend, obviously, that she had much more work to do, but in reality there was no way in hell she was leaving so soon. "You want me to order it?" Alex offered, noting how many times the blonde had sworn at something or other in the last twenty minutes. Evidently, baking brownies and cakes was not as easy as it appeared.

"Would you?" Piper sighed gratefully, pausing her rushing movements to hand her phone to Alex with a smile, takeaway app ready and waiting. "Thanks."

"No worries." Alex leaned against the granite island whilst she flicked through the menu. "What do you want?"

"Whatever you're having."

"That's awful trustworthy." Alex remarked with a sly grin.

"Should I be worried?" Piper quipped back, looking back at Alex inquisitively over her shoulder.

"Terrified, Miss Chapman." The brunette informed her cryptically.

"Stop calling me that, we're not in school!" Piper cried. She could really do without the title that made her sound a hell of a lot older than she really was.

"What do you want me to call you, then?" Piper really, _really_ couldn't repeat all the things she would love nothing more than to hear Alex call her in those husky tones, so she settled on a few.

"Piper, Pipes, I dunno. Not 'Miss Chapman', ugh."

"Pipes?" Alex repeated, as if testing out the nickname.

"My Grandma used to call me that." Piper explained, turning back to her mixture. "I have no idea where it came from, and to this day she's the only one who calls-called- me that." She corrected sadly.

"Were you close?" Alex had a feeling she already knew the answer as she turned to face the blonde's back.

"Yeah, she was way more of a mother to me than my own mom ever was. I even lived with her when I went to the Academy, because apparently my fucking tight-ass parents wouldn't have their child running amuck in New York. But, she died a few years ago." Piper sighed heavily as she idly spooned the brownie mix, remembering fondly how her grandmother had taken her in, paid for her school and universities fees (not that it even scratched the surface of her grandparents' wealth) whilst her mother and father seemed to be having a competition over who could cheat on the other the most. Alex placed their order before locking the phone and setting it softly on the island. Finally, Piper was beginning to open up to her, and their relationship began to develop another layer, one of trust, admission.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Alex bowed her head, picking at the edge of the island whilst Piper continued to brood at the bench on the other side.

"It was shitty, but I'm over it. Life goes on." She mused, pushing the memories from her mind; it still felt a little odd to be opening up to someone who wasn't Polly, really, or even opening up to someone who seemed genuinely remorseful about the whole thing. Piper considers asking a personal question of her own, but Alex rather beats her to it.

"I wasn't close with any of my grandparents." Piper turns to face the brunette who's still dragging her thumbnail over the granite. "I only knew one set, anyway, and they died when I was way too young to remember. It was just me, my mom, and a mystery man who sent me to Princeton." Alex laughed dryly, no traces of humour evident whatsoever. Piper took a seat at the island, on one of the tall stools and Alex copied the motion, sitting down heavily and outstretching her palms across the surface. Wordlessly, Piper took one of Alex's hands between two of her own, studying her dexterous fingers whilst the brunette continued to speak. "Like, the situation was-_is-_ so fucked. I'll not bore you with the details-"

"It doesn't bore me, at all." Piper says earnestly, glancing up at Alex. The older girl smiles, fixing her glasses with her free hand.

"It's basically all in the past, anyway; I mean, I'm fucking twenty-nine. When my mom had me, my dad, whoever the hell he is, didn't want a damn thing to do with me. Mom never really explained, but I gathered it was a sort of drunken mistake, and the guy was more interested in protecting his image; couldn't be seen as the father of a child whose mother was working three jobs at once, you know?" Alex's voice was laced with regret, anger directed towards the man who'd been too much of a fucking coward to step up and take responsibility. "So, get this, he tries to fucking pay my mom off for her silence! He must be a musician, or a businessman although Mom never said exactly. She refused the money, obviously, but she sure as hell can't afford to send me to all the schools after me. Not to brag, but I was a pretty good student despite the insurmountable load of shit going on at home." Alex winks coyly at the blonde, who offers a crooked smile in return.

"I can imagine."

"Yeah, so she stays in contact with the guy, and says that even if she won't take the money, she'll use it to provide for me, you know? My mom's always been good at making the most out of a shitty situation. So, yeah, that's how I ended up at Princeton despite the fact my mother was literally working two or three shifts a day." Alex finishes, her mouth dry from speaking so rapidly and emotionally. Piper continues to play with Alex's fingers as she considers her reply.

"She sounds like one fucking boss ass bitch." Piper finally surmises, and despite her out pour of emotion Alex finds herself laughing, really laughing, bright and loud and just fucking happy. It's the sort of smile that most don't get to ever witness from Alex Vause; genuine, earnest, not like the fake smiles she puts on for strangers or the smirk she wears almost permanently. No, only the fortunate get to see the smile Alex is wearing at that kitchen island whilst Piper chuckles right along with her. It feels fucking amazing to get that all off her chest, and Alex can't think of anyone she'd rather tell than the charming blonde sitting across from her.

* * *

"Piperrrrr." Alex groans in complaint, head resting on the kitchen table as the blonde laughs from the oven.

"Please, Al, I need to know if they're nice!" Piper beckons the brunette towards her with a crooked finger once she raises her head.

"We had a Chinese like an hour ago, how can you be hungry?" Alex grumbles, but gets to her feet and walks over to the bench. Seventeen brownies are on a tray, beside which is a little shaker of icing that Piper sprinkles over the brownies, managing to get more of it on her hands and on the bench than on the buns.

"Just one!" Piper pleads, picking up a rectangular brownie between her thumb and forefinger, holding it out in question to the brunette. Alex sighs, and will probably be sick if she eats much more, but goes to take it from Piper before the blonde moves it away, blue eyes lighting with intent. "Actually, close your eyes." Alex stares at her pointedly, a confused look crossing her face before she obeys, standing straight and closing her eyes. The mischievous blonde smirks to herself as she deliberately leans closer to her, lifting the brownie to Alex's lips until the brunette takes a bite off the end. She opens her eyes, to be met with Piper standing much closer than she needs to, an expectant look on her face. Alex would quite like to insult her baking skills, but the food is actually fucking incredible. She licks her lips hungrily, nodding her approval.

"Not bad, Pipes." The blonde positively glows at the praise, a wide, dimpled smile lighting up her face. Alex opens her mouth, raising her eyebrows expectantly until Piper places the rest of the brownie on her tongue, deliberately leaving her fingers between Alex's moist lips for a split second before removing them. This time, the wicked brunette knows exactly what to expect, and despite it being a little over the top, she moans in delight at the taste, knowing exactly what it will do to Piper. Unsurprisingly, her innocent, happy expression falters to be replaced with one of surprise which then manifests into absolute, unadulterated desire. Wide, cerulean irises are dilated by dark pupils, and Piper's lips part in wonder, watching the brunette intently.

"Fucking incredible." Alex husks, tongue flicking out to capture any residue that may remain at the corners of her lips.

"You got, um..." Piper trails off as she lifts a hand to Alex's face, using her index finger to wipe a small fleck of chocolate her tongue had failed to reach. Alex, however, has other ideas; she traps Piper's fingers between her own, before drawing the blonde's finger between her lips, swiping away the brownie and releasing it out of her mouth with a deliberate pop.

"Thanks, kid." Alex's voice is incredibly low, almost raspy, and she sure as hell can't do a thing about it. Fuck this for being a shitty Monday night and not a Friday or Saturday, meaning that she should really be at home getting ready for tomorrow. Piper, meanwhile, fails to form any coherent thoughts, absolutely dumbfounded at what the ravishing brunette is doing to her. Their foreheads are almost touching, and Piper can feel Alex's hot breath on her face. The older girl moves a hand to the side of Piper's face, cupping her cheek ever so slightly.

It's all so fucking wrong; they're colleagues, rivals, strangers only a week ago, with reputations and permutations threatening to drive them apart at every turn.

But then, Alex presses her lips against Piper's; desperate, demanding kisses that the blonde reacts to instantly, parting her mouth as the brunette easily slips her tongue between Piper's lips, moving her hands to the blonde's ass and hoisting her onto the bench, ragged moans already coming from Piper as Alex's hands move to her front, kneading roughly whilst kissing her hard with all the lust and desire that's built up for the past seven days to unbearable levels.

And disastrously, devastatingly; it's all so fucking _right._


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: 100 reviews already is literally amazing, thank you all so much! I'm starting to get more into this story now, I think. As always, leave a reviee and let me know your thoughts. Sorry for typos. :)

* * *

Piper Chapman had kissed her fair share of good-looking women since she'd inadvertently forgotten to recover from her 'experimental' phase in college and involuntarily been dubbed '_Chapman; the stone cold lesbian" _by a rather flamboyant colleague in her first teaching job. Piper had been quite the little tease; in fact she still was the type of girl who could rarely hold a conversation with an attractive girl without finding herself flirting slightly. So, yes, it would be fair to say that she was far from the prudent girl her parents had wanted her to be.

What Piper Chapman was not used to, was coming mightily close to leaving a puddle on her kitchen counter, all over a kiss.

Except, kissing Alex Vause was not the same as drunkenly making out with a random girl in a frat house. No, the incredible feeling of the brunette's tongue slipping easily into the warm confines of her mouth and the bold, purposeful grip of Alex's fingers on her hips was infinitely more life changing. Piper wound her fingers desperately through Alex's silky-smooth strands at the base of her neck as Alex pulled the blonde flush against her, cool fingertips splayed across Piper's thighs. She grinned smugly into the kiss at the younger girl's breathy moan due to the sudden friction, before Piper seemed to come half to her senses at least, wrapping her legs tightly around Alex's waist and raking her nails down her back. It was a heated, feverous kiss; Piper drew her hands to either side of Alex's face and met the brunette's lips with as much pulsating desire as was provided, intermitted with soft moans spilling from Piper between kisses as Alex tightened her grip on the blonde's bare thigh. After an incalculable amount of blissful, juvenile making out between the pair, Alex's hand moved underneath the hem of Piper's soft cotton t shirt, gripping Piper's bare side as their lips continued to meet messily. A sharp intake of breath from Piper broke the kiss, but she proceeded to tug wantonly on Alex's hair. She took heed of the blonde's orders, moving her lips to Piper's neck, sucking and nipping lightly at the smooth skin before moving to her collarbones.

"Fucking _hell." _Piper's voice came out in a strained, ragged whisper, causing Alex to chuckle huskily, blowing hot air onto her counterpart's already heated skin. The older woman's dextrous fingrrs continued to teasingly tiptoe up the tensed planes of Piper's stomach, leaving a blazing trail in their wake. Alex continued her merciless assault on Piper's neck before the blonde grew surprisingly agitated, putting an abrupt stop to Alex's ministrations by pushing her harshly on the shoulders. The brunette slid her hands reluctantly from underneath Piper's shirt, stumbling back in surprise and opening her mouth to protest, only to be met with Piper hopping down from the counter and returning her lips to Alex's, impossibly more ardent than before. Alex fought to keep her balance, reaching behind herself blindly to find purpose. Eventually, she settled on wrapping her left arm around Piper's waist, pulling the blonde with her as they continued to kiss whilst she used her free arm to swipe off the objects residing on the kitchen table, sending them crashing to the floor. Piper ignored it, and Alex ignored it, the blonde shoving Alex onto the table before finding herself being pulled on top of Alex, straddling the taller girl's lap as she leaned forward and brought their lips together once more. Alex moaned in approval as Piper immediately ran her hands underneath the brunette's white V neck that had taunted her all night with the inviting manner in which it clung to Alex's stunning figure. The older girl, meanwhile, busied herself with groping Piper's ass roughly, rewarded with a loud groan from the blonde against Alex's lips. Things were progressing at a frightening pace, and there was absolute no desire from either woman to put a stop to any of it, despite the endless list of reasons that fucking on top of a kitchen table is probably a bad idea.

Because the single most important thing, that overrides all the doubts, is the fact that Alex Vause and Piper Chapman are inexplicably attracted to each other, so much so that they regard each other as simply irresistible. There is absolutely not a damn thing, nor person, nor reason that Piper should stop running her hands over Alex's lace-clad breasts, or that Alex should stop biting Piper's lip between hot kisses and trailing her fingers down the back of the blonde's thighs.

That is, except for a shattered jar of salad cream.

"What the fuck?" Alex growled against Piper's lips, swiping her index finger over a thick substance about halfway down the girl on top of her's thigh. Her eyes shot open in surprise, inspecting the odd appearance of the liquid with absolute disbelief.

"What?!" Piper cried incredulously, splaying her palms on Alex's stomach but sitting back, turning to look at the brunette's finger. She regarded it with little understanding, a heavy silence falling between the two teachers. Without looking down, Piper stood up, reluctantly leaving her position in Alex's lap. "Oh, what the actual fuck?!" The blonde jumped after standing in something, her bare feet almost slipping from underneath her.

"Is that..." Alex fumbled for her glasses that had slid off the top of her head when she lay back on the table, shoving them on and sitting off the edge of the table, staring downwards. "Is that fucking _salad cream?" _Alex looked from the white streaks that had skirted up Piper's bare leg, sharp lines of the substance as well as the small pool of it on the floor.

"It's fucking salad cream." Piper confirmed, stepping further from the shattered jar so as not to slice her foot open on the jagged remains.

"Why did you have salad cream out?!" Alex's mind was foggy, hazy, and she couldn't really fathom what had just taken place; she had just been denied what would undoubtedly be the hottest sex of her life, by a fucking jar of Heinz Salad Cream.

"Why did you knock the salad cream onto the floor?!" Piper's voice was raised a few octaves, her breathing heavy and her cheeks flushed. Alex pulled her shirt down where the eager blonde had worked her hands underneath, before bending over to lift the glassware.

"Fucking salad cream. _Salad cream!" _Alex repeated more than once under her breath whilst Piper leaned against the counter, attempting to draw breath. She dragged her hands despondently down over her face, not quite up to the task of cleaning the salad cream. Alex set the broken pieces softly in the bin where she had seen Piper discard the takeaway boxes, before making her way back over to the blonde.

"Where were we?" She whispers seductively, resting a hand on Piper's hip and using the other to brush back a ruffled curl from the blonde's face. Suddenly, however, the mood had dissipated slightly and the enormity of what was about to take place settled over the pair. Piper placed her own hands on Alex's hips, stroking the exposed skin above the waistband of her jeans as they kissed once more, much slower this time. Their tongues met leisurely, Alex's thumb stroking Piper's cheek soothingly. They stood in the warm lighting of the open plan kitchen for quite some time, lips brushing softly until the kiss broke mutually.

"I think you owe me much more than a quick fuck on a table to repay me for breaking my beloved bottle of salad cream." Piper murmured lightly against Alex's lips.

"I think you're right." Alex punctuated her agreement with a crooked grin, still running her fingers through the blonde's hair. "What did you have in mind?"

"Oh, you know...things." Piper's collected nature faltered under the burning gaze of the other girl, Alex's eyes almost totally black with lust. _Things? Real smooth. _Alex considered drawing out Piper's discomfort, but it was really getting late by this stage, and the pair still had a four day week to get through.

"Dinner. Friday night, unless you insist on going to that bar again." Alex propositioned confidently. Piper blinked in pleasant surprise at the offer, before breaking into a dimpled smile.

"I think we can afford to miss it for one week." Piper accepted, kissing Alex chastely once more before involuntarily yawning; to say it had been a draining evening would be an understatement. The brunette pouted in mock annoyance at being so heavily insulted with a yawn from Piper, before dropping her hands from the younger woman and padding over to her laptop bag, resting on the sofa. Piper wiped further at the remains of salad cream on her leg, blushing slightly before Alex hovered by the doorway to the hall. The blonde followed her out to the front door and hesitated slightly once Alex opened it to a terrifically dark night, a piercing chill entering the house.

"Think you can manage to not break any jars of salad cream between now and Friday?" Piper teased, reluctant to let Alex leave just yet.

"If you keep turning up in those damn running clothes, I'm not making any promises." Alex replied darkly, her voice still raspy from the night's events. Piper felt a heat rush straight to her core for what must have been the thousand time that night, attempting a pathetic nervous laugh to pass off her seemingly permanent lust for the ravishing brunette in front of her.

"Goodnight, Alex." Piper's voice was rather small, tired, and Alex smiled sweetly at her, leaning down to capture her soft lips once more in a hopeful, searing kiss. Piper wraps her arms around Alex's neck, twisting her fingers in that long, raven hair whilst Alex's hands wander around the blonde's waist and hover slightly above her ass. Alex deepens the kiss, because it's literally impossible to take things slow with Piper, such is the burning desire pooling deep within them both. She presses Piper up against the door, the pair tasting and probing and teasing each other like they have been for the past week. It's Piper that pulls away first, but she leaves her hands in Alex's hair as she looks into the taller girl's eyes. She wants Alex to stay so badly; fuck work, fuck everything else that isn't this incredible woman in front of her. But if she stays, Alex will never leave, so she kisses Piper again, and the two women share a rather nervous laugh filled with questions about what the actual fuck just happened, what will happen, how it happened; but a thousand more unattainable answers are simply visible in the passionate, lustful gaze the pair cannot seem to tear themselves away from.

"Night, Piper Chapman." Alex offers a small wave before turning her back to Piper, laptop bag slung securely over her shoulders as she unlocks her car and steps into it gracefully before stealing off into the night. Piper shuts her door heavily, practically thumping her head off the frame.

"Fuck me, Piper, you've really done it this time." She mutters to herself. Not because she's just agreed to go on a date with a woman who she came within a shattered jar of salad cream of fucking on her kitchen table, but because that woman happens to be the most attractive being Piper's ever laid eyes on, and that's quite a worrying revelation.

If word happened to get out that two same sex members of staff were in a relationship, to say Piper and Alex would lose their jobs would be an understatement; the Dean, Mr Healy, would see to it that their reputation is ruined absolutely beyond repair, so much so that the height of their next employment would be working at a job not even worth doing; perhaps packing jars of salad cream for horny lesbians to knock off kitchen tables, or something like that.

* * *

"Miss Vause, am I boring you?" The shrill, raised voice of the Acadamey's head of overall Science, Mr Caputo, jolted the brunette awake. Unsurprisingly, it had taken her quite some time to fall asleep the night previously, her thoughts plagued by a certain endearing blonde.

"No, Sir, not in the slightest." Alex muttered, picking up her pen that had inadvertently slipped from between her fingers as her mind drifted elsewhere during the man's briefing. No prizes for guessing what, or rather who, she was thinking about. Caputo's expression softened slightly; he was genuinely a nice man, but he just struggled a little with people skills.

"Late night last night, huh? Crazy Monday evening?" Alex's eyes flitted desperately around the group of Science teachers; most of them looked at her rather bored, whilst Nicky grinned with knowing clarity, and Piper peered up from her position beside the brunette, looking like a deer caught in headlights, blue eyes wide and panicked.

"Oh, really crazy." Alex agreed in a cocky tone, sarcastic to everyone but the blonde who attempted to disguise the slight blush in her cheeks. A tremor of laughter came from most of the teachers, before they settled down and continued listening to Caputo's outlines for the rest of the term. Well, almost all of them. Piper continued to steal glances at Alex like she was the second coming, and Alex continued to look sideways at Piper with a glint in her eyes and a slight smirk on her lips. It was evident to say the least, that they had made quite an impression on each other.

Thankfully, no one seemed to pick up on the little game between the two, save for the ever observant Nicky Nichols, who would manage to keep her mouth firmly shut until in the company of only Piper and Alex. When the opportunity arose however, My God, was Nicky going to let the love struck pair endure the worst lashings of her interminable insults and sly comments.

"So, Alex, Piper, how do you feel about the Chemistry department's outlook?" Caputo once again drew the pair from their staring, and Piper coughed nervously once Alex nodded for her to take the lead. The blonde opened the file in front of her, leaning back and drumming the end of her biro as her eyes scanned the pages.

"Really good, actually; most of the pupils are hitting their targets, save for a few who just need a little encouragement."

"You didn't need much encouragement last night." Alex couldn't bite back the almost inaudible whisper that came from her mouth. Piper, thankfully, was the only one who heard it, and her body tensed massively as she tripped over her words in surprise.

"Um..yeah, and..." Piper fought desperately not to erupt into laughter, as Alex beside her bit her lip to keep herself under control. "I think we're flying straight, you know?"

"Straight? That's an interesting way to describe yourself." Alex commented under her breath, only to be met with a sharp elbow in the ribs from the blonde as soon as Caputo lowered his gaze to write.

"Alex?" He moved onto her upon finishing his script, and Alex considered her reply carefully.

"Piper's right; everything's going smoothly. A couple of the students are actually _shattering_ our expectations." Alex placed a deliberate emphasis on the shattering, referring plainly to the salad cream incident. Piper shook her head, covering her mouth to hide her laughter.

"Everything going well between you two? No problems?" The oblivious man questioned. The other teachers at the table were as blind as he, obviously paying no attention to anything being said.

"No problems." The pair answered in unison, grinning crookedly at each other for a moment before looking back at the man.

"Glad to hear it. If you have any problems breaking into the job, let me know." Caputo inadvertently dredged up memories of the two women's antics the night before.

"Oh no, sir, Alex has no qualms about breaking things." Piper said aloud, nodding sweetly at her head of Department whilst Alex pursed her lips, consciously trying not to retaliate.

"Thanks, ladies." He continued taking notes before smiling at his staff and standing up.

"Well, that's that, sorry for taking up your mornings. Decisions on individual heads of Department will be made closer to Christmas time." Caputo buttoned his old fashioned, tweed blazer before shuffling out of the board room, most of the staff following him. Piper, Alex, Nicky, another biology teacher and 'Sweater-boy' as Alex had dubbed the man who'd remarked on her height the first day, remained. Piper got up to walk to the water machine at the other end of the room (not before knocking her knee against Alex's underneath the table), filling herself a cup and peering out at the morning sun filtering over the lush greens of the school grounds. Her serenity was disturbed by a cough from behind her that sounded nothing like Alex, so Piper turned to her intruder with a bored expression, noting Alex talking heatedly with Nicky at the coffee machine, directly opposite her at the very far end of the boardroom.

"Hi." Sweater-boy, who Piper actually knew as Larry, introduced nervously.

"Hello?" Piper replied unintentionally sharply.

"Piper, right?"

"That's me." Piper nodded smugly, taking a sip of her water.

"Larry." He said blankly, and the blonde simply stared at him, unable to comprehend what his reason was for talking to her. "Um...yeah, this is probably super weird... but," _Super weird? What age are you? Twelve?_ "Do you maybe, wanna, grab a drink sometime?" He spluttered, and Piper continued to regard him with utter amusement. She took one look at his drab navy sweater, before glancing at the advancing brunette in her tight black trousers and cream blazer with tousled raven locks and red lips to die for, and Piper literally felt the makings of a laugh bubble up into her throat.

"Sorry, Larry, I don't really...um, I'm sure you're a nice guy and all, but..." Piper considered making up an excuse, but it's 2014, and she's quite frankly tired of making up excuses to get out of dates with men. "I don't really swing that way." She finished blankly.

"Grab your coat, Harry, you've pulled!" Alex nudged the man-child sarcastically in the back before coming to stand by Piper's side, struggling with acting totally platonic in front of their colleague.

"It's Larry, actually." He muttered coldly. "And it's fine, Piper; obviously because you're a lesbian every man who tries to talk to you is automatically hitting on you!"

"You asked me out for drinks, Sally." Piper reminded him.

"Larry! It's Larry, you just said it like two seconds ago!" He raged, throwing his hands up in surrender and storming towards the door.

"Bye now, Barry." Nicky quipped just as he exited, and the three women left in the room erupted into laughter at his antics.

"Oh my God, his face!" Piper gasped, almost spilling the water in her hand. Alex's deep laugh reverberated straight through the blonde, causing her to lean into the older woman instinctively, forgetting about the inclusion of Nicky in the room. Alex, meanwhile, couldn't give a fuck what her best friend would say about it, as she wrapped her arm around Piper's shoulders, continuing to laugh. Nicky, to her credit, just rolled her eyes and continued chuckling for more reasons than one. The two weren't even close to being an item, yet they were cuddling up to each other like a pair of newlyweds. The laughter quieted after a few minutes, and Piper sheepishly withdrew from her position under the warmth of Alex's arm, blushing at her rather forward actions. It just felt so fucking right to Piper, so normal, to touch and kiss and talk and just _live_ around Alex, bound by no limitations or fear of judgement. Nicky cocks a curious eyebrow at the pair, before opening her mouth to speak.

"So, are you gonna explain to me what that fucking shit fit of giggles was about, or am I gonna have to guess?"

* * *

Alex looked amusedly between Piper and the last remaining brownie in her box. The hall around them buzzes with activity, members of Piper's track team appealing to their peers for a few dollars in exchange for whatever delightful creations they'd managed to conjure up. As usual, however, Piper and Alex only had eyes for each other. Alex handed over five dollars, insisting that Piper keep the change.

"You wanna feed it to me?" She teased lowly, picking up the brownie between her thumb and forefinger.

"Hilarious." Piper retaliated, eyeing the brunette rather lustfully as she wolfed it down in two bites before breaking into a wide smirk. Somehow, Piper knew what was coming. "Don't even say it, Alex! Don't you dare!" The brunette snickered at Piper's protests, licking her lips thoughtfully before of course replying with the running gag of the past two hours.

"They're alright, Miss Chapman." Alex mused, raising her eyebrows. "But they could use some more salad cream."

* * *

Friday afternoon; track practice for Piper, and a shit tonne of work Alex had to stay behind to complete, considering she really didn't fancy doing it over a weekend that she had a feeling would be involving a fair amount of the blonde currently coaching her team. A group of maybe thirty girls hung off her every word as Piper finished up her session, unaware of the brunette standing by the side of her car, arms folded and green eyes fixed intently on her. Piper shouted words of encouragement at the obviously tired girls, their legs heavy from the past hour of fitness and conditioning. Piper, for once, was wearing navy shorts rather than black and a white, fitted top that came to her elbows, showcasing the lean muscle in her arms. She gathered the group to finish, speaking to them about upcoming events and such, before dismissing all but one. A bright sixteen year old whom she also happened to teach, outspoken and a little mischievous but with the potential to achieve anything she set her mind to. In fact, the pupil rather reminded Piper of her younger self. The blonde led her student, a sprinter, to the start point, intending to explain to the girl how to improve her start.

Alex continued to observe, in plain sight of the student but only stealing select glances at Piper so as not to seem too suspicious.

"Right, so, if you put your thumb here and sort of change the angle of your back leg, it'll make a pretty big difference. Watch." Piper positioned herself down on one knee, the way she'd done a million times before, leaning her weight forward on her fingertips as she fixed herself on the blocks. Pausing, she tensed her muscles, raising her knee and crouching. She stopped for a moment longer before imagining the splitting noise of the starting gun, tearing off at full tilt for only about ten metres, simply to demonstrate to the pupil how a decent start made all the difference.

If Alex had looked suspicious before, the blatant staring she was doing at the marvellous way Piper's muscles rippled underneath her skin tight shirt or the fluid movement of her body as she ran, would be obvious to a blind man.

The blonde checked her phone, realising time was dragging on a bit. Making the pupil promise not to leave anything unlocked, Piper allowed her to use the track for as long as she pleased to practice. She bid goodbye to the grateful student, before beginning the short trek back to her car, intending to shower and such at home, considering the small matter of a date with Alex Vause occurring in a matter of hours. She noticed the object of her affections leaning against the roof of her R8, watching her intently.

"Hey." Piper greeted with a smile, taking her keys out of her backpack and unlocking the car, throwing the bag in with her marking and work clothes and the like before shutting the boot and standing in front of Alex.

"That, was really fucking hot." She announced pointedly, her voice low and inviting. Piper blushed at the compliment, placing her hands on Alex's shoulders, assuming they were in private. Ignorant, as always to everything that wasn't Alex when she was around the brunette, Piper leaned close to her ear, hot breath fanning over Alex's face.

"You should see what I have planned for tonight, baby." She husked, pulling back to smirk smugly at the speechless brunette. For once, Alex had no smart comment to reply with. She managed a disbelieving, wondrous grin at Piper, biting her lip slightly.

"See you at six, Pipes." Alex remarked, nodding with a flirtatious wink as Piper laughed giddily.

"Bye." The blonde waved herself, watching the confident sway of Alex's hips as she began the walk to her own car, which may happened to have been parked at the other end of the car park. What can she say? The fantastic, seductive sight of Piper Chapman running is not the kind of thing Alex is going to deny herself the pleasure of enjoying.

"Oh my _GOD!"_ The young track star bursts into the changing rooms, where most of her teammates are getting ready to leave. She, however, had stayed behind with her coach to practice her starts.

"What?" The group turn to her excitedly, wondering what has their friend in such a state.

"I _totally_ just saw Miss Chapman and Miss Vause basically dry humping beside Miss Chapman's car!" She squeals, greeted with exclamations of surprise and interest from her peers, as well as a few I told you so's.

"You know what?" One girl piped up from the middle of the crowd. She lowered her voice, the group leaning in as the girl spoke in a secretive whisper, as if revealing a terrifically unknown fact.

"I kind of... _ship it."_


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews, they genuinely are my favourite things about writing this. Let me know what you think of this one, I'd appreciate it. :)

* * *

Polly Harper never really understood her best friend. For years in high school, Polly would listen to the blonde rant on and on (and on) about how driven and determined she was to make it big in the world. But then, occasionally, Piper's judgement would inescapably fail her, and she'd make reckless decisions like going clubbing the night before a big exam or locking herself in her room for reasons she would never fully reveal to Polly. She never pried too far, however, and she was met with nothing but a brick wall in the form of Piper's tight lipped smile that never reached her eyes whenever she made the mistake of inquiring. And now, standing before Piper whilst the poor girl bounced off the wall with nerves before her date with a co-worker that would inevitably bite her in the ass (the date, but probably the co-worker, too), Polly could not even begin to fathom an explanation as to what her best friend was doing.

"You do realise you're gonna lose your job, right?" Polly Harper; forever the supportive best friend everyone (no one) wanted in their lives. Piper's head snapped up from her position in front of the mirror, glaring at Polly with wide eyes.

"_What?! _Jesus, Polly!" She scoffed, agitation lacing her tone. Polly shrugged, holding her arms aloft in defence.

"Pipe, every man and his dog heard what your boss did to those two women a few years ago." Piper rolled her eyes at the brunette's referral.

"God, I love it when people refer to me as an item of the plumbing system." Piper mumbled, turning back to applying her eyeliner in such a way that would unfortunately not be as striking as Alex's. "And, for fuck sake Pol, those two were caught fucking in a classroom! _By a pupil!_" The blonde tagged on for good measure. Not that she'd come frightfully close to doing anything of the sort herself.

"I should hardly think so." Polly insisted. "So, what, you aren't worried about it?"

"No." Piper spoke with finality, as reluctant as ever to consider the consequences of her actions.

"Right." Polly fired back from the foot of Piper's bed. "What time is she lifting you at?"

"Six."

"It's five to." The brunette pointed out, rewarded with a small squeal from Piper.

"Fuck!" She announced abruptly, for no particular reason at all; she was perfectly ready to go after all, on the outside anyway. On the inside, however, her stomach twisted a thousand times over, nerves plaguing the blonde much worse than they had done during gruelling job interviews or seconds before any exam she'd ever taken. Piper smoothed her hands over the front of her attire, turning to face her best friend. "I'm not too overdressed, right?"

"Well, Supercunt said to dress fancy, so...no." Polly surmised after a moment of observing Piper. A form fitting, ivory dress flattered her runner's body immensely, cut slightly above the middle of her thigh and paired with platform heels coloured somewhere between grey and silver. A black boyfriend blazer adorned her slender shoulders and effortlessly wavy blonde locks fell to just above her breasts. The not-as-striking-as-Alex's eyeliner was still sultry to say the least and Piper's lips were a soft, natural pink. If Alex Vause thought she was going to have it easy keeping her libido under control tonight, she was sorely mistaken.

* * *

Evidently, Alex of course did not assume anything of the sort, and her own stomach coiled in anticipation as she knocked once on the wood of Piper's door, then twice for good measure. For the first time in her life, the brunette was inexplicably apprehensive about a date, but not for worry of it going wrong. In fact, if Alex was brutally honest with herself, her biggest fear was that it would all go terrifically well and something catastrophic would happen.

Like falling in love.

To say Alex was conflicted on what the hell she wanted was an understatement. There was little room to ponder, however, as the small matter of the door swinging open to reveal Piper Chapman, made the brunette's decision absolutely final. She took one look at Piper's long legs and tousled hair, and the question to what the hell she wanted was answered instantaneously.

Alex wanted Piper, and she wanted her in absolutely the most animalistic, worst way possible.

To be fair, it's not like Piper was coping much better. Who could blame her when Alex was wearing a black number that fitted her stunning figure like a second skin, or when she had her dark locks pinned up at the front, with alluring red lips but little other makeup to detract from how knee weakingly _gorgeous_ she looked?

"Hi." Piper managed, blatantly checking out her date for the night, not so subtly letting her eyes rake over the ample cleavage provided by the dress. Alex would usually highlight her staring, but quite frankly she was giving as good as she got.

"Hey." Alex greeted as smoothly as she could, which, given the natural register of her voice and the fact she was incredibly turned on, was not very smooth at all. Eventually, Piper managed to avert her gaze to the modest bouquet of flowers in the taller girl's hands.

"Are those for me?" She inquired dumbly. Thankfully, Piper's dim question allowed the tension to diffuse somewhat, and Alex barked out a laugh at the blonde's inquisition.

"No, they're for your dog."

"I don't have a dog."

"Really?" Alex scratched her head satirically. "Guess you'll just have to take them, then." The brunette rather bashfully motioned to Piper with the roses. Despite the embarrassment painted perfectly on her face at her rather idiotic question, the blonde's expression blossomed into elatedness. She bit her lip in sheer wonderment, purely because someone as intimidating as Alex Vause was acting a little shy at giving her a damn bunch of flowers whilst picking her up to go out for dinner. Piper was more than a little amazed at the fact she'd manage to crack even a smidgen of the brunette's seemingly inexorable shell.

"Charming." Piper murmured, trying to play down her jubilant delight at the mere fact that Alex was _here,_ (with flowers) and Piper was going on a date with her. Alex stuck her tongue out and crinkled her eyes as Piper took the flowers inside quickly, nodding a final goodbye to Polly and earnestly returning to the brunette.

"Let's go." Alex proclaims, taking Piper's hand. They walk to her Aston Martin, hand in hand, hair flowing lightly in the breeze, and who genuinely gives a _damn _if they're co-workers? Alex Vause is holding Piper Chapman's hand, and all that remains is the bare, sordid truth that it's fucking _magnificent._

* * *

"You weren't kidding about the fancy thing." Piper states to the girl sitting opposite her. Alex smirks smugly, pushing her glasses a little further up her nose and sniffing proudly.

"Damn right I wasn't." She boasts playfully. The blonde laughs at her date's contemptuous nature, but takes reserved pleasure from the adorable way Alex is absent-mindedly playing with the ring on Piper's middle finger, their hands resting across the brilliantly white tablecloth. Soft violin music filters throughout the filled to capacity restaurant, most inhabitants in a similar situation to Piper and Alex; couples talking idly, some eating whilst others like the blonde and the brunette sat with a bottle of house red between them as they waited.

"It's really nice..." Nice. Piper hates the word. "It's amazing. Thank you, Alex." She grins crookedly at Alex, doing little to perturb the brunette's ego.

"Don't mention it, kid. You look...fucking beautiful, by the way." Alex admits solemnly, green irises flaring with poignant honesty. Piper's rather taken aback by the sincerity of the brunette's low tone, and her mouth forms a surprised 'O' shape before she can reply.

"T-thanks...you look nice as well?" Piper splutters awkwardly, that pathetic word slipping out again.

"Nice?" Alex teases, taking a sip of her wine.

"Much more appropriate than the alternatives." Piper explains, and before she remembers exactly who the inquisitive, unrelenting girl she's just admitted that to is, Alex has already moved on.

"And those alternatives would be?" Alex presses darkly, red lips curling into a knowing smirk. The blonde ponders her reply for a moment, fighting the embarrassment that should inevitably come along with the fathoming of her thoughts. _Two can play at this game._ Piper surmises dryly, not prepared to sit back and take the waves of flirting and suggestiveness from Alex without throwing back some of her own. She clears her throat, looking back at Alex intently and shrugging lightly.

"By nice I mean I'm wondering why we're sitting here holding hands like teenagers when really I shouldn't have let you leave my house as soon as I saw you in that fucking dress." Piper reveals.

"Is it bad?" Alex cannot fight the triumphant smirk that adorns her lips, nor the darkening of her irises at the blonde's forward revelation.

"Awful; it would look _much _better lying on my bedroom floor." Piper leans forward on the table, taking immense satisfaction from the way Alex's confident facade shatters instantaneously before her very eyes, the brunette's eyelids closing for a moment and an audible intake of breath sharply inhaled between her lips. The younger girl smirks gleefully, content that she's gotten her date more than a little riled up, judging by the tightening of Alex's fingers around her wrist. Eventually, Alex opens her eyes again, lust dilating her pupils immensely. She shakes her head in disbelief at Piper's manner, utterly infatuated with her ability to take her by surprise time and time again.

"I really, really wish I hadn't bothered with the fucking set menu."

* * *

It had been a fantastic, flowing conversation over the whole meal, however, with talks of hopes and dreams, aspirations and failures. Piper had studied her counterpart intently until she had just finished off an admittance to the blonde that she'd almost felt ashamed to tell her friends at Princeton of the situation between her mother and father, only to met with an incalculable amount of support and appreciation from her peers. When Alex's eyes had lit up upon speaking about that inherent need to just be _accepted_, no matter how much she didn't want to be that sort of person, was when Piper had properly repaid Alex's compliment from before.

"You're beautiful, too." Piper announced timidly when Alex had ended her speech. The brunette failed to make the connection for a moment, and was utterly at a loss at what to reply. Girls didn't call Alex Vause beautiful; they called her sexy, or hot, or seductive. Not once in her life, save for perhaps by her mother, had Alex been called beautiful. Eventually, Alex remembered her compliment to Piper, and an uncharacteristically shy smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

Piper's right; she _is _beautiful. Not just in how she looks. Not just in what she says. Alex Vause is beautiful in what she _is,_ right down to her soul.

* * *

Not only does it take them a fucking age to get through all the food, but by the time the dessert comes the pair's nerves are heightened to an almost painful level. Feather-light touches on arms or subtle brushes of knees underneath the table coupled with ostentatious glances at one another and quite frankly unrepeatable comments made in sultry whispers across the short distance of the table have all served to drive Piper and Alex halfway to insanity, and they still have another course to go.

"Oh God." Piper groaned once the waiter had deposited their insultingly large slices of cheesecake in front of them and scurried off elsewhere. "Alex, I really don't think I should eat this."

"Why, are you planning on eating something else later?" Alex insinuated effortlessly with a devilish smirk, rewarded with a blush from Piper.

"In that case I'd better eat it, then." She muttered, attempting to ignore the heat in her cheeks (and between her legs). Alex tapped her hand rhythmically off the rim of her empty wine glass as she regarded Piper desirously, eyes following the movement of her tongue as she licked her lips slowly, as if considering the cheesecake in front of her to be some sort of life altering substance. Intensity thrums deep within the brunette as Piper takes a sterling silver fork between dextrous fingers and slices effortlessly through the dessert. Alex, of course, pokes absent-mindedly at her own cake, but her attention is focused solely on the ravishing blonde in front of her, for she was infinitely more alluring than the strawberry taste on Alex's tongue. A fair amount of the dessert resided on Piper's fork, and she once more wetted her lips with her infuriating tongue before widening her jaw to accommodate the cheesecake, straight white teeth flashing for a moment as she chewed delightedly on the stuff, despite her earlier reluctance. And then, what does she go ahead and do?

Piper just goes right the hell ahead and fucking _moans._ Right there, in the middle of the restaurant, a rough, low moan escapes from her lips, and Alex grips the fork in her hand harder than she's ever held on to anything in her life. The blonde bites down on her bottom lip, squeezing her eyes shut in pleasure.

"That, is some good fucking cheesecake." She announces thickly. Alex fails to reply, only shifting her seat a little closer to the table and resting her knee nonchalantly against Piper's. The younger girl continues eating slowly, and Alex rather pathetically holds an odd jealously for the damn cheesecake. A trickle of dark pink strawberry sauce escapes from the corner of Piper's mouth for a moment before she catches it with her thumb, drawing it lazily across her lips for a moment before catching Alex's burning gaze boring into her own.

"You're staring." Piper points out with a smirk.

"Of course I'm staring." Alex fires back. Her intense look never faltered, and Piper felt herself flourish under the stare, rather than feeling intimidated and wanting to disappear like she so often did when someone so powerful and attractive looked at her so pointedly. This was different, though; no one had _ever_ looked at Piper on a first date the way Alex had looked at her tonight. Hell, no one had ever looked at Piper like that _period. _It was an almost reverent gaze, that noticed everything about Piper all at once but seemed to draw out every plausible emotion in her, and she found herself rather wanting to be questioned by the glazed look of the brunette, all dilated pupils and flares of passion behind thick-framed glasses. Piper didn't back down, and Alex didn't back down, and the two lapsed back into that unexplainable paradox of communicating a thousand thoughts without saying anything at all.

Piper's lips curl into a sated smirk when the last of the cheesecake disappears behind her lips, and Alex damn near sighs with relief. The brunette paws at her own mouth with her napkin as a comfortable silence envelops the pair. She moves to place it in her lap, but her grip slackens and the object falls to the floor.

"Oh." She expresses, moving to pick it up. Inadvertently, however, she positions her left hand for support to reach to the floor.

And that left hand just so happens to find purpose halfway up Piper Chapman's thigh.

The blonde's breath hitches loudly in her throat, and her blue eyes widen in surprise at the warmth spreading from Alex's strong fingertips. She smirks underneath the table, collecting the fallen napkin in her hand and sitting up straight again, but leaves her hand to rest on Piper's tense thigh.

"Something wrong?" Alex purses her lips amusedly at the younger girl's uptight expression, her bottom lip trapped so harshly between her top row of teeth that it will surely leave a mark.

"Nope." Piper squeaks, gulping down copious amounts of wine and thanking the good Lord she doesn't believe in that she doesn't have to drive tonight.

"You sure?" The mischievous brunette moves her hand behind Piper's knee, pressing her index finger hard on the sensitive skin there, rewarded with a ragged exhalation from the blonde.

"_Stop." _She whined desperately as Alex ghosted her fingertips back up the side of Piper's thigh, creeping under the hem of her dress and digging in ever so slightly with her nails.

"Why are you talking like that?" Alex wondered insincerely, furrowing her eyebrows as she moved her chair closer to the side of the table, further blocking off the other diner's view and giving herself much better access to the bare leg of the blonde.

"Because you're a fucking-" Piper's curse died on her lips as Alex exuded a sharp squeeze of her hand across the top of Piper's thigh, thumb pressing into the lean muscle on the inside. "_Bitch." _Piper finished raggedly, squeezing her eyes shut due to the frustration of not being able to do a damn thing about any of this. Desire ripped through Piper's very being as Alex leaned in, kissing her hotly behind the ear before whispering roughly to her, voice dripping with lust.

"Get the bill for me, please, baby." The brunette illustrated her request with another possessive squeeze of Piper's leg, fingertips stroking agonisingly slowly dangerously close to the blonde's centre. Before Alex had even finished her sentence, Piper was calling animatedly for the cheque to the closest waiter she could see.

"Oh my _fucking _God." Piper exclaimed for no reason in particular, wishing they'd bought more than one fucking bottle of wine. Alex continued her ministrations and breathed deliberately close to Piper's neck, enjoying immensely how the blonde leaned into her touch and occasionally let a groan slip. Alex chucked whatever money was in her purse onto the table the moment the bill arrived, not bothering to wait for change as she hastily thanked the staff and half-dragged Piper from the establishment. Quite frankly, the younger girl was in no fit state to do much else but follow Alex, lust clouding the pair in an insane haze. Upon reaching the car, rather than getting into it, Alex pushed Piper flush against the cool metal before kissing her roughly, sliding her hands immediately to the blonde's hips as their mouths and bodies entwined as one. Piper rakes shaky hands through raven locks as she moans submissively, opening her mouth to allow in Alex's ravenous tongue for a moment that sure as hell isn't long enough. It's almost too frenzied, and it takes a harsh bite on Piper's lip from Alex for the pair to pull away ever so slightly, foreheads resting against each other, Alex's thigh firmly between Piper's legs and their breathing laboured.

"Fucking take me home." Piper demanded breathlessly.

"Was I really that bad?" Alex managed to weave in a flirtatious comment despite the circumstances, only to be rewarded with a glare from the blonde.

"Alex, you have no hope in hell of getting anywhere close to your own bed tonight."

* * *

"Because, Piper, it's half past fucking nine on a Friday night!" Alex pleaded with the blonde. "I am not going to bed at this time!"

"We don't need a bed." Piper reasoned, trailing her hand underneath the t shirt she had so generously lent her guest for the night (and tomorrow, and the next day, probably).

"Piper, as badly as I want you, we have all fucking weekend to...well, fuck." Alex says blankly. "Meaning I refuse to have sex with you for the first time on your couch or on a kitchen table or whatever else you had in mind."

"Really?" Piper exclaims from her position straddling Alex's lap. The brunette's ankles are crossed on the coffee table and a bottle of beer rests in her right hand while the left strokes slowly up and down Piper's back, underneath her navy oversized shirt. "This is the one time you decide to be all noble and grand?"

"Yes." Alex chuckles huskily, kissing the despondent blonde chastely in hopes of cheering her up. Mostly, Alex just wants to get under her skin and tease her a little more. There is, however, something foreign within the brunette that wants her to treasure her time with Piper, something she has failed to even consider with any women before her.

"Well what the fuck are we going to do, then?" The younger girl pouts in disappointment, her face inches from Alex's. It takes a hell of a lot of willpower from the brunette not to just give in right there and then; such is the inherent goodness and innocence in Piper's wide blue eyes and bottom lip jutting out so pleadingly.

"You ever played poker?"

"You mean strip poker, don't you?"

"Yep." Alex smirks crookedly.

"Strip poker it is, then." Piper reluctantly removes herself from Alex's warm embrace, padding over to the bookshelf to hunt out a pack of cards, subtly swaying her hips as she walks, giving Alex a delightful view of her barely-covered ass. Upon walking back over, she's greeted with a proposition from the older woman.

"How about we make this into a little competition? Forget the cards, actually." Alex demands, crooking her finger and beckoning Piper towards her. Wordlessly, the blonde hands over the pack of cards to Alex, who proceeds to set them on the coffee table and look at Piper mischievously.

"What?" Piper enquires, folding her arms like a child about to receive a scolding. Alex leans back into the leather of the sofa, stretching her arms behind her head and grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Chemistry questions. For every one you get wrong, you have to remove an item of clothing. First person who's naked loses and has to deliver the first orgasm to the victor, aka me." Alex smirked proudly at her game, and Piper felt herself break into a smile of her own. Walking purposefully to grab two more beers from the fridge before returning, the familiar feeling of excitement begins to surface within the blonde's stomach.

"We'll see about that, Miss Vause."

* * *

"Are you even trying, Pipes? It's a lilac flame, not pink!" Alex shakes her head in mock disappointment as Piper huffs angrily from her chair.

"I'm fucking telling you, that mark scheme is wrong." It had taken a while, but eventually they'd come across a grossly difficult set of University level exam questions, and the items of clothing were dropping fast. Mostly from Piper, so far, however.

"The mark scheme never lies." Alex reminds the blonde, perhaps a little overeager to see Piper take her shirt off.

"You just want to see me with my shirt off." Piper correctly guesses.

"Exactly. Take it off, Chapman." Alex commands, flicking her wrist as she sets the phone over towards Piper and settles back to enjoy the abhorrently seductive way the blonde's lithe arms pull the offending navy garment from her form, revealing slightly toned abs and obviously smooth, tanned skin.

"Fucking beautiful." Alex murmurs, not quite meaning to say it out loud. Piper tucks a stand of hair shyly behind her ear, stepping over to pick up the phone, clad in only her white lace underwear in front of Alex whilst the brunette still has on a soft grey cotton shirt that's far too damn tight for her.

"This is hardly fair." Piper muttered, sitting with her legs crossed right over left on her hard leather chair and taking another drink of beer.

"You're telling me." Alex agreed, unable to look anywhere but the inviting figure of the blonde. It was an odd sort of 'first date' so to speak; how often did they end with a chaste kiss on a doorstep rather than whatever the hell was going on here? But then, nothing about Piper and Alex's time together so far gave off any indication that the relationship between the pair (for it was a matter of when, not if, one of them asked the other to be their girlfriend) would be even close to what society deemed as 'normal'. Piper read a wordy, extravagant question to the brunette, who found herself rather stumped.

"Um... chloroethanoic acid plus water goes to...?" Alex racked her brain for the answer.

"Alex, my juniors could tell you that something dissociated in aqueous solution is usually going to involve water."

"Fuck you, not always." Alex shrugged in defeat, standing to pull her t shirt off and discarding it at the foot of the sofa.

She could've sworn she heard Piper whistle.

So, Alex was staring at Piper, and Piper was staring at Alex, and there was not one valid excuse, not even Chemistry questions, as to why the blonde shouldn't walk the hell over to her half naked guest and literally drag her to the bedroom. And so, in true Piper Chapman style, she does so. Sort of.

Piper observes the pale form of the older woman, with her curvaceous hips and ample breasts covered by contrasting dark underwear, of a similar colour to her raven hair that cascades messily over strong shoulders. Alex still has her makeup on; lips red and inviting, and eyeliner flicked out expertly to draw attention to her mysterious jade irises. Her glasses lie discarded on the coffee table beside her emptied bottle of beer, and she has the most infuriating smirk on her face, lips curled in self satisfaction due to Piper's obvious staring. Alex Vause is not pretty, or cute, she's fucking unfairly attractive, with all the grand allure and mystery surrounding her that you can hardly blame the almost animalistic way Piper crashes their lips together, hands immediately searching through the silky strands of the taller girl's hair as Alex takes a moment to give herself a metaphorical pat on the back before returning the passion equally, hands groping roughly at Piper's sides before sliding down to her ass. Through all the teasing, flirting, lustful glances and forbidden promises, Piper had come to her.

And, my God, was Alex about to make it worth her while.

* * *

A/N: Not making any promises about writing smut. I do kind of owe you guys, though...


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Slightly shorter update, but I know how much you people like your smut. Coincidentally, I absolute detest having to write it, so cut me some slack. Also, I was kinda miffed at the reaction to the last chapter (I'm needy, I know), so literally any thoughts you have, good or bad, leave them in a review for me. Thanks :)

* * *

"We're not going to be interrupted by salad cream this time, right?"

"Ugh, talk dirty to me."

Despite the rather compromising position Piper and Alex found themselves in, breathy laughter escaped into the miniscule space between their lips at the exchange. Alex moved her thumb soothingly over Piper's cheek, gazing at her in utter wonderment, as if not quite believing the fact she was here, standing in the blonde's bedroom, half naked and looking into the dark blue irises of undoubtedly the most attractive woman she had ever seen. The taller girl drew her thumb over Piper's slightly swollen lips before brushing her own against them once more in what was supposed to be a slow, measured kiss, but Piper proceeded to produce an animalistic growl low in her throat, gripping Alex's face and bringing their lips together forcefully. The brunette was rather taken aback by the forwardness, stumbling backwards and gripping Piper impossibly harder by the side once the blonde deepened the kiss. Alex feels her knees hit the foot of Piper's bed, and she falls back onto it slightly, sitting and pulling Piper into her lap hungrily. The blonde smirks against Alex's lips before delving her tongue desirously into the warm confines of the older girl's mouth whilst instinctively grinding harshly into her lap. The kiss breaks roughly at the sudden contact, breathless moans coming from them both as Alex splays her hand across Piper's naked back, digging in slightly with her nails whilst the blonde dips her head and attaches her lips to Alex's pulse point, biting and sucking until she finds that spot of inexplicable pleasure that has the brunette breathing raggedly beside Piper's ear. She releases the skin from between her teeth, soothing it gently with her warm tongue while Alex hissed in a delightful mix of pain mixed with lust for the talented blonde in her lap.

Eventually, Piper returns her lips to Alex's, raking her hands through raven locks at the base of her neck and tugging harshly on them. Alex, quite frankly, is so turned on that she can do little else but allow the blonde to take the lead, opening her mouth wider to accommodate Piper's probing tongue and continuing to drag her nails over the younger woman's back before pressing on the dimples at the bottom of her spine. Piper continues the movement of her hips against Alex's front for a moment longer before the brunette comes to her senses, sliding her hands to Piper's hips and stilling them for a moment while she moves further up the bed, dragging Piper right along with her until Alex is lying mostly flat on her back, propped up a little by the array of fluffy pillows at the head of Piper's large bed. The committed blonde crawled up Alex's body, pressing a kiss to the valley between her breasts before reattaching their lips zealously and bringing a firm leg between Alex's.

This is new ground for Alex; never before has she been with anyone who's had her in such a submissive state, moaning like a schoolgirl and being completely overtaken by everything Piper's doing, the abhorrently lustful way she bites Alex's lip slightly or gropes her breast possessively over the lace of her bra only serves to drive the brunette impossibly further to insanity. There is not a damn thing that Alex can do to take control, and while that should probably annoy her, she's never been so turned on by anything in her life. Piper Chapman comes across as your typical WASPy blonde, with all the fire of a burnt out lighter, but for the past two weeks Alex has come to learn that presumptions of the blonde go completely out the window as soon as she opens her mouth to speak or runs her hands everywhere over Alex's body but the place she needs her most.

"_Piper." _Alex groaned lowly, tightening her fingers around the blonde's bicep as she nipped at the brunette's bottom lip.

"Hmm?" Piper questioned, smirking knowingly as she moved her thigh ever so slightly between Alex's legs.

"Fuck-" She hissed. "Fucking _do _something."

"I don't think you're in a position to be making demands, sweetheart." Piper reminded the girl beneath her, but abided slightly by moving her lips to Alex's collarbones and grazing them slightly with her teeth while her hands ran to the taller girl's sculpted back, unhooking her bra in one fell swoop. Alex sighs in relief as finally Piper shows signs of getting the hell on with it, peeling the offending item from pale arms and shifting back up towards Alex's soft lips. Piper swallows a moan from the brunette, tongues meeting slowly as the blonde worries a nipple between her thumb and forefinger. Alex arches into Piper's sure touch, and the triumphant blonde smiles into the kiss at her success in forcing Alex to utterly succumb underneath her dextrous fingers and confident manner. She's had quite enough of drawing it out, however, and she drops down to Alex's chest, drawing the other nipple harshly between her lips and grazing her teeth over it, causing a sharp inhalation from the brunette and a string of curses to spill from her mouth and she tangles her fingers in Piper's thick blonde locks. Piper pulls harshly on one nipple and bites down simultaneously on the other before moving down to above Alex's navel. As nice as her tits are, and they are _really_ fucking nice, Piper has more pressing matters to attend to. She peppers hot, open mouthed kisses on the smooth planes of Alex's stomach, taking immense satisfaction from the visible way the brunette's muscles quiver under her lips and fingertips. Piper's probably going to leave one hell of a row of hickeys from Alex's sternum to just above the line of her underwear, but quite frankly no one should be seeing the ravishing, emerald eyed beauty with her shirt off but the girl currently snaking the last shreds of underwear down Alex's shapely legs.

Piper peels the skimpy item away, before situating herself comfortably between Alex's legs and stroking her fingertips down the front of her thighs. Alex is already squirming in anticipation due to the proximity of Piper to her centre. The blonde digs the tips of her fingers into the slight indentation on the outside of Alex's shapely hips, lowering her mouth to the slight V above it and sucking harshly on the sensitive skin there, causing the brunette to raise her hips off the bed only to met with them being shoved back down into the mattress harshly by Piper.

"Don't move." She commanded, her voice thick and lustful.

"I need-" Alex was cut off by a moan ripping through her throat as the conniving blonde finally drew her long index finger across the brunette's dripping entrance, divinely teasing the older woman.

"I know what you need." Piper assured her lover, and Alex could do little else but grind against the blonde's hand and tangle her fingers in Piper's hair. Finally, Piper has a little mercy on the pleading girl below her, slowly delivering an open mouthed kiss against her core, eliciting a shiver from Alex and the tightening of her thighs. Like her rough, desirous kisses, the movement of Piper's tongue quickly turns unrelenting against Alex's centre, slipping inside her as she groans audibly at the divine taste of the brunette. Alex, meanwhile, already has her eyes shut firmly in pleasure once one of Piper's long digits joins her explorative tongue, twisting delightfully inside her and causing Alex to jolt in pleasure. The sudden movement takes Piper by surprise, and her nose inadvertently bumps off Alex's clit, enticing the brunette to swear incoherently and pull painfully on Piper's hair. It's a delicious, riveting sort of pain however, so as a second finger joins the first inside Alex's pulsating heat, the blonde attaches her lips to Alex's sensitive nub, swirling her tongue around it whilst fucking the brunette roughly. Illegible patterns were traced by Piper across Alex, causing that familiar coil in the older woman's stomach as the blonde grew harsher in her movements, Alex meeting her thrusts with equal fervour. Rough, raspy moans filled the air as Alex began moving towards an unprecedented crescendo of desire, the severity of which she has never experienced before. The movement of her hips becomes messier, the confident, unrelenting nature of Piper's thrusts hitting that inexplicable spot inside her causing an interminable amount of unattainable colours to splinter across Alex's vision. Her back arched into Piper's hand that grasped the swell of her breast roughly, whilst Alex's hands gripped Piper's hair and the bed sheet incredibly hard as her climax tore mercilessly through her, breathing ragged and uneven as her toes curled and muscles tensed under the talented touch of the smug blonde beneath her.

Alex collapses back onto the mattress, a bead of sweat running from her temple down to her marked collarbones as she attempts to even out her breathing. Piper, meanwhile, withdraws her fingers from the brunette and licks the residing moisture from them before running her tongue once more up Alex's entrance, eliciting another strangled groan from the older woman. Feeling incredibly pleased with herself, Piper wipes her mouth off a toned bicep and scoots back up the bed, kissing Alex soundly on the lips with a crooked smirk. The brunette isn't exactly one hundred percent with it, and Piper relents, pushing back Alex's hair from her forehead as she waits for her to collect herself.

"Holy shit." Alex breathed, not quite meaning to say it out loud. The blonde laughed smugly, pursing her lips in pride at turning the tables so effortlessly. Eventually, Alex came to, shoving Piper harshly off her and straddling the smaller girl. Quite perturbed at the fact she had been so utterly outplayed by the mischievous blonde, Alex was intent on making her pay for it, dragging it out to the point where Piper wouldn't be able to utter a word but Alex's name. Her voice raspy and inviting, Alex raked her nails sharply over Piper's stomach and leaned down to the blonde's lips, hesitating slightly before whispering lustfully.

"I'm gonna make you wish you hadn't done that."

* * *

Usually, at eleven o'clock on a bright Saturday morning, Piper Chapman would be out for breakfast with friends, or sitting at her coffee table reading, or something domesticated along those lines. She'd already have been for a run, gotten a shower, went grocery shopping and basically completed all her tasks for the day.

This Saturday morning, however, things went a little differently.

The filtering of weak sunlight through the gap in Piper's venetian blinds was what eventually woke her, due to the absence of her phone that was hidden somewhere downstairs. She opened her eyelids groggily, head pounding due to something that was for once not alcohol related. A warm weight pressed comfortably against her back and something secure was wrapped tightly around her waist, an odd smell of coconut filling her nose. Utterly perplexed, Piper looked around her airy bedroom for a moment, at the wooden floors and ivory walls, the sheets floating down from her four poster and could find nothing out of the ordinary. A minute or two passed before realisation crashed into her like a truck.

She'd spent hours upon hours with the one and only Alex Vause last night, doing what could only be described as downright animalistic, unrepeatable things to each other.

Yes, that Alex Vause, the one who happens to teach in the classroom beside Piper.

The recognition of this fact perpetually terrifies Piper for a moment, before she looks down at the secure arm tightened around her waist, pulling her flush against the snoring brunette. She remembers the inherently kind hearted manner in which Alex had spoken and listened to Piper at dinner the evening before, the fact that she had paid for the dinner, and the inexplicable pleasures she had inflicted upon Piper after the dinner, and suddenly the blonde doesn't feel so bad about any of it anymore.

In fact, Piper Chapman feels fucking fantastic.

Wordlessly, with a dopey grin on her face, Piper turns to face her guest. If Alex hadn't been dead to the world, she'd of heard an audible gasp from Piper at the sheer beauty of the woman in front of her. She just looked so damn peaceful, with a barely-there smile on her slightly swollen lips and her free hand tucked underneath her cheek. Dark locks fell in tresses over her shoulders and disappeared behind the comforter that was pulled snugly up over the two women in the early hours of the morning. Piper continued to observe the sleeping form of her lover for an incalculable amount of time before the brunette stirred slowly, jade irises eventually revealing themselves to Piper along with a sleepy grin.

"Hey you." Alex's voice was raspy with sleep.

"Hey you." Piper whispered back happily, shuffling closer. Alex hummed low in her throat, rubbing her hand up and down the blonde's bare arm.

"How you holding up?" Alex wondered smugly. Piper scoffed in mock annoyance, nodding her head to the harsh row of red marks trailed down Alex's stomach.

"Better than you, clearly." Piper announced, trying to ignore the burning feeling that had been rippling through her muscles since the moment she'd woken up. Alex just continued to smirk, her grin conveying a sense of pride at the marks Piper had felt so compelled to leave behind.

"Just because someone's a little possessive." The brunette teased, and before Piper could formulate a comeback, Alex's lips were upon hers, effectively silencing her. For once in her life, Piper didn't mind having to shut up. The paring kissed slowly, comfortably, Alex trailing her fingers over Piper's cheek softly.

And this is all very well and good, but the fact remains that they were _not_ in a relationship, yet everything that had transpired so far, from the good natured awaking, to the hand holding last night, to the loving manner in which their fingers laced together when the kiss broke, all seemed to point towards something very like a relationship.

"What d'ya want for breakfast?" Piper enquires, her speech a little slurred from the dizzying, electrifying way Alex had kissed her only minutes after waking up.

"You." Alex smirks, attempting to kiss the blonde again. Piper appeases her for the moment before the younger girl's stomach growls loudly, interrupting them.

"Try again." Piper demands lightly, a slight blush colouring her cheeks. Alex just laughs at the adorableness of it all before replying.

"You got any salad cream?" Alex questions with a husky laugh, tackling Piper to the mattress and climbing on top of her, playfully kissing the naked blonde on the tip of her nose. Piper giggles despite her embarrassment, arching her body into Alex's and narrowing her eyes at the teasing brunette.

"Are you _ever_ going to let that go?!"

* * *

Coincidentally, Alex couldn't actually stay long for breakfast, explaining that she'd promised to meet up with Nicky come twelve o'clock in the middle of the city. Added to the fact she had no clothes but the dress she wore last night, Alex should probably have been home by now. Instead, she had her arms wrapped around Piper's waist as the blonde faced away from her, plating up a pancake for herself and two for Alex to take home. She'd also leant Alex the biggest hoody she could find and a pair of sweats that were only a little too tight for her, so all in all; the clothes, breakfast, bed for the night and multiple orgasms she'd afforded to the brunette had Piper feeling like quite a good host to say the least. Evidently, Alex felt the same.

"When can I see you again?" Alex husked, brushing Piper's hair over her still very naked shoulder and pressing a hot kiss to the newly exposed skin over a mark she'd made the night previously.

"Someone's eager." Piper quipped, turning into Alex's embrace once she'd finished with the pancakes.

"For your pancakes, maybe." The brunette fired back, but made no movement for the plate. "Seriously, though, what're you doing today?" Piper's eyes widened at her forwardness, but she certainly wasn't complaining.

"Um..." Piper hesitated, mentally going through a checklist. "Absolutely fuck all." She deadpanned. A megawatt grin brightened Alex's face as she continued to press up against the blonde's lithe frame.

"Great, I'll pick you up at four; I need to go grocery shopping." Alex announced. Piper faltered slightly, wondering if that even constituted as a date. "Oh, dress casual, and pack an overnight bag. You're coming home with me this time." Piper had little time to protest, for Alex was kissing her quickly, reaching behind her to snag the pancakes off the counter and breaking away before the blonde had even reacted.

"Okay." She agreed dazedly.

"Thanks for the pancakes, Pipes." Alex winked flirtatiously. "See you later."

"Bye." She called to the retreating form of the brunette. Piper heard the front door slam before she turned back to her pancakes, appetite gone and replaced with a horrifying mix of apprehension, excitement, fear, and something Piper was intensely afraid of even acknowledging.

In between all the banter, teasing, fucking and flirting, Alex had treated her incredibly well thus far; with all the attention and care and utmost kindness that Piper had never even _half_ encountred in anyone before Alex, which had Piper utterly and completely in ruins. It scared the absolute living hell out of her, because she could feel herself irrevocably liking the brunette more and more with every waking moment in her company.

That something Piper was afraid of acknowledging? It was the inevitable and ultimately inexcusable fact that she was falling in love with Alex Vause.

* * *

"You're in love with her."

"Out."

"Of love?"

"Of my fucking car, Romeo!" Alex cried exasperatedly to her best friend.

"Actually, you're Romeo, I'm Benvolio." Nicky corrects as she opens the car door, just outside her apartment.

"Whatever." Alex waved a dismissive hand in the bushy-haired girl's direction.

"Doesn't make it any less true, Vause." She said sincerely.

"I'm not." Alex insisted, more to herself than anyone.

"You literally just spent two fucking hours talking to me about her. You never spoke to me about Sylvie for that long, even put together!" Alex sighs despondently, resting her head on the steering wheel of her Aston.

"I can't be in love with her." She whispered quietly. It's not like her best friend was lying; there was just something so sincere, becoming and enamouring about Piper that Alex found simply irresistible, and there was little she could to stop her descent down the slippery slope that she could only seen ending with an admittance of her total, undivided love for a ravishing blonde co-worker she'd met two weeks previously. It was not simply the way Piper had fucked her, or responded to her touch, nor was it just the way she cooked breakfast for them or looked so despondent when Alex had announced she was leaving. It was all these things, rolled up with a thousand other mannerisms that had utterly consumed the brunette for the past fortnight, and there was not much she could do about any of it.

Perhaps, though the risks to both their jobs and livelihoods were numerous, Alex should probably start with actually asking said blonde whom she was so infatuated with, to be her girlfriend.

Nicky looked solemnly at her best friend, patting her comfortingly on the back before clambering out and shutting the door. She leaned her mane of hair through the window and spoke evenly to the brunette once she raised her head from the wheel and gritted her teeth in determination.

"You know what they say, Vause." Nicky remarked.

"What?" Alex questioned with a raised eyebrow. Nicky smirked, her tongue pressing against the inside of her cheek as she shrugged lightly before replying.

"The course of true love never did run smooth."


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: 200 reviews. You guys are literally the fucking greatest. I, obviously, am not; I am very sorry for how long updates for this are taking me. I'm just finding it really difficult to come up with even half decent material, and it probably shows. So, from the bottom of my heart, I am very sorry. For the people asking if I have tumblr, I do, but I never use it. If you really want to meet the fifteen year old who's ruining your life (kidding, kidding), PM me for it or follow me on Twitter ( omgschilling). Enjoy this one; it took three separate sittings to produce.

* * *

Alex Vause did not like to be kept waiting. Granted, she may have turned up at Piper's an hour before she'd agreed to pick the blonde up, but the very empty house in front of her was causing more than a little annoyance to the brunette. Really, she has no reason to be early; there is school work to be done.

But there is also Piper, who is already so much more important.

So Alex turns up slightly before three, only to be greeted with the black wood of Piper's door staring back at her, as if to say "_Why are you here? Piper has a life too, you know." _Which she accepted, of course, but Alex just really (_really)_ wanted to see the blonde that had been so dutifully occupying her entire thought process for the past fortnight or so. Despondently, Alex sat back in her car parked parallel to the front door, sitting sideways out of the Aston Martin and leaving the door open, September sun warming her face and casting a bright glow over her frame. She pulls out a novel from her handbag, unfurling the dog eared corner indicating where she'd left off and beginning to pour over the words on the page.

No, she did not like to be kept waiting. But when it comes to Piper Chapman, Alex doesn't have much of a choice.

* * *

That's how Piper finds her ten minutes later, glasses almost slipping off the edge of her nose, her figure illuminated softly by the sunlight, raven locks framing her face and catching in the slight breeze; the picture of innocence.

But then, Alex looks up; takes in Piper's lithe form doused in sweat from her run, and she doesn't look quite so innocent anymore.

As is becoming a regular occurrence, Piper stares at Alex, observes the darkening of her jade irises and the abhorrently attractive way her dark navy jeans hug her legs so tightly. And Alex stares straight back at her; at the remnants of water that linger on Piper's neck and in the hollows of her collarbones and at those toned calves that she can now at least remember how they feel wrapped around her waist rather than having to imagine it.

"Hey." Alex smirks, quite pleased with the rather shocked expression on Piper's face.

"You're early?" Piper questions, her voice uncharacteristically high pitched. She's unsure; _why _exactly is Alex here? Is something wrong? "Why are you here?" The blonde is suddenly alarmed at the suddenness of it all, at the unannounced appearance of Alex, and at her infuriating half-smile that she wears from her position in her car.

"I missed you." Alex jokes light-heartedly.

Except, it's probably the most serious thing she's ever said to Piper. Alex knows that. Piper knows that. It's the honest-to-God truthh that Alex has utterly no reason to be here, other than the fact she just _missed_ Piper. It was that simple, only it somehow managed to be the most utterly complex and confusing thing the brunette had ever encountered. They're unequivocally not in love. But, _fucking hell_, are they well on their way.

Piper falters under the enormity of the statement, speechless for once in her life, the teasing nature of Alex's low tone betrayed by the sincerity all too visible in shining green irises behind her thick-framed glasses. But then, Piper just grins, wide and genuine and showing off her dimples, the way Alex loves. It positively kills her, that smile, it really does, so the brunette just smiles back at her rather bashfully. She knows, that Piper knows, that Alex really did miss the little shit.

Terrifyingly, it doesn't bother Alex one bit.

* * *

It strikes half past four before Piper slinks out of her bedroom; showered, changed, overnight bag in hand and absolutely thrumming with anticipation at whatever inevitably unorthodox plans Alex has for them this evening.

"Sorry I'm late." Piper apologises as she steps into the open plan kitchen, smiling at the sight of a tall, alluring brunette running her finger down the spines of an array of books sitting adjacent to Piper's fireplace. Her finger stills on one before pulling it from the shelf and into her right hand. Alex pauses, smiles at her choice, and replies.

"If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she's late?" Alex quoted, smirking and tilting the novel in her hand, light overhead reflecting off the striking red design on the cover.

"Nobody." Piper finished the quote with a grin, impossibly more enamoured with the older woman than she was five minutes ago. It's so ridiculous that Alex can have such a profound effect on the blonde just by quoting _Catcher in the Rye_ from memory, but affect her it does, and Alex's infectious charm is quickly becoming utterly irresistible to Piper.

* * *

"I'm telling you now, Alex, that if you don't buy Parmesan cheese I'm walking the hell out of this store right now." Piper threatens, folding her arms like a scorned child and furrowing her eyebrows.

"Are we really going to have a fight over cheese?" Alex sighed but questioned the blond with a half-smile.

"This isn't just _any_ cheese!" Piper hissed angrily. "This is _P__armesan _cheese."

"Yes, which I hate, and will never even use again after tonight." Alex returned, attempting to return the block of cheese to the shelf. "I am not buying a pound of fucking _cheese."_

"Then I'm not staying over for dinner. Pasta without Parmesan cheese, is not pasta." Piper countered.

A standoff commenced, right there in the middle of the grocery store, in the dairy isle currently inhabited by no one but a rather tall raven-haired girl and a persistent blue-eyed blonde. It was an odd sight; two incredibly attractive women in their late twenties, the tallest in a tight grey sweater and even tighter jeans, while her counterpart faced her challengingly in a open denim shirt, underneath which was a plain white tee worn with jeans of a similar style to the brunette's and paired with simple, laced brown boots. To anyone who happened to walk past, they would have looked like a married couple having an argument over what to make for dinner that evening.

When, in actual fact, they were colleagues who'd been on one proper date yet couldn't get enough of each other, so much so that Alex had actually invited Piper to come shopping with her. Because _that_ sure wasn't the typical behaviour of a couple at all.

Alex's hand hovered in mid air at the threat, torn between her own stubbornness or the possibility of passing up an evening with Piper because she couldn't part with a few bucks for a block of cheese. Huffing loudly, the brunette conceded and returned the Parmesan to the trolley while shaking her head.

"We can buy the damn cheese." She muttered, but couldn't help the small grin that tugged at the corners of her lips upon hearing the quiet exclamation of delight from Piper. The blonde subconsciously has to stop herself from hugging Alex, but she beams up at her gratefully with bright blue eyes and captivating dimples, and there's not much the brunette can do but smile back at her.

That's how they're spotted by her; she sees them looking at each other as if nothing else in the world even _exists, _never mind matters. Alex sees her first, love struck expression quickly changing to one of absolute panic as she spots the advancing figure behind Piper.

"Fuck." She curses softly, striding forwards to stand in front of the blonde slightly, protecting her from the inevitable onslaught currently barrelling towards them from the opposite end of the isle. Piper turns, confusing marring her face before a stark realisation blankets her and she stiffens, instinctively standing closer to Alex, half hidden behind the tense brunette. Alex inhales sharply, bracing herself.

"What the actual _fuck?!" _The shrill cry of the woman can probably be heard across the whole damn store. Alex bristles at the piercing tone while Piper grows a little more cowed, flinching slightly.

"Sylvie," Alex greets tersely, but she's quickly interrupted by her furious ex girlfriend.

"A week, Alex?!" She yells, gesticulating wildly at the compromising position Piper and Alex are in. The brunette is about to reply with something fairly civil, but any expectations of niceties are well and truly thrown out the window once Sylvie comes out with her next statement. "And you've already got a new fucking whore to mess-?"

"She's not a whore." Alex snapped immediately, nostrils flaring in anger as she pressed the length of her arm back against Piper protectively, who proceeded to curl her fingers around the smooth forearm of the brunette. It's not that she was intimidated by an ex girlfriend or anything, but she really didn't want to be on the receiving end of Sylvie's famous temper, whether that be verbally or physically.

"Oh, fucking silly me, is she your girlfriend then?" It's evident that she doesn't remember Piper from the night at the bar, but she continues her assault, stepping closer to the pair. Her question hangs awkwardly in the air between them, and Alex hesitates momentarily before replying.

"What's it to you, anyway?" She snarled. Sylvie was taken aback by the surprise of not hearing a smug _'Yeah, she is, actually,'_ from her ex, and for a long moment she doesn't quite grasp what Alex is saying. Eventually, it clicks, and she laughs caustically in their faces.

"Oh my God, you're standing here buying fucking groceries and looking like something out of the Twilight Saga yet you can't even ask her out?" Sylvie gloats, scoffing in disbelief at her luck in catching them out.

"Fuck _off." _Alex rolls her eyes at the utter immaturity of the girl, wondering what in God's name she ever saw in her. Here, seeing Sylvie and Piper in the same light, it's honestly unfair on her ex; Piper is infinitely more charming, alluring, beautiful, smart and ultimately just perfectly _suited_ to Alex. They fit together like pieces of a perfect puzzle (or, like pasta and parmesan cheese, according to Piper), and it's just a complete waste of time to even compare the blonde with anyone else.

Piper presses her fingertips into the lithe muscles of Alex's forearm, soothing the tenseness of them as she continues to regard the encounter with a semblance of fear that's quickly turning into annoyance.

"Let's just go." She urges quietly in Alex's ear. Sylvie hears it though, and continues to, what can only be described as, fucking screech in the general direction of Piper and Alex.

"Oooh, is big bad Alex Vause taking orders now?" She attempts to get under the brunette's skin, but Alex just chuckles amusedly, utterly unperturbed.

"Yes, I'm taking orders from Piper, who may not be my girlfriend but has managed to make me happier in two weeks than you managed in two years." Alex retorts effortlessly, smirking smugly at her speechless ex.

"_Fuck you." _Sylvie spluttered. Upon hearing Piper's involuntary chuckle at her pathetic comeback, she directed the final remnants of her temper towards the blonde. "And go fuck yourself, blondie!" Piper continues to smirk condescendingly at the poor girl who's making quite a fool of herself in front of a small crowd in the dairy isle. The blue eyed girl slips her arm around Alex's waist, the brunette returning the action as Piper leans into her embrace, rather provocatively pressing her warm body against Alex's. Piper stares lustfully at the taller girl's profile and inviting red lips for a moment before quickly coming up with a scathing response to Alex's ex. They're the first words she's ever spoken to Sylvie directly, save for the introduction of her name, and they're utterly magnificent.

"No need, I have Alex for that now."

* * *

Piper did a lot of thinking about the grocery store incident for the next hour or so as they strolled aimlessly past shelves housing food that Alex Vause would just never buy in a million years. But they walked, laughed about the encounter, talked about menial things and decided on a plan of action so to speak for the rest of the evening. She rather liked the way Alex had handled the girlfriend question, avoiding it rather than outright saying yes, or no, or really putting any labels on such an unquantifiable thing. They'd address it eventually, of course, Piper would make sure of it, before things got much further, but at the minute she is quite happy to inhale the delightful aroma of chicken arrabbiata that Alex is currently slaving over.

"I can't believe I'm making this for you, only for you to go and ruin it with fucking Parmesan cheese." Alex comments from her position facing away from Piper, towards the corner hob upon which rests her pot of pasta and saucepan of...well, sauce.

"No, _I_ can't believe you're making that for you, only to go and not even finish it properly without Parmesan cheese." Piper mocks teasingly as Alex looks over her shoulder, a half smirk playing on her lips before she turns back and begins to plate up. The blonde contents herself with trying as best she can not to stare at Alex's ass, instead looking around again at the rustic nature of Alex's apartment. It's fantastic, really, with black, granite-like countertops and light wood cupboards with a similarly coloured floor, a wrought iron twisting staircase spiralling up to the higher levels of the home. Beside the staircase rests a small bookshelf adjacent to the window, back-dropped by red brick which is covered in part by various pieces of artwork. It's an awesome sort of place, with a low ceiling and modern lights, all very reds and blacks and browns, right the way down to the leather sofa a little bit away from the kitchen. It's smaller than Piper's house, obviously, with an opposite colour scheme, but it's absolutely stunning without really trying too hard, much like its inhabitant.

"Appreciate." Alex commands sarcastically as she pulls the blonde from her reverie, setting down the white porcelain bowl in front of her that brims with a delectable blend of chicken, pasta, tomatoes, onions, herbs but of course lacking in that one thing.

"Where's my cheese?"

"You think I'm touching that stuff? Nuh-uh." Alex shook her head adamantly, sliding into the seat directly opposite Piper.

"So, you have a phobia of chairs and cheese, and a hatred of salad cream? Remind me why I'm here again?" Piper rolls her eyes at the antics of the brunette, but spots the cheese and a grater out of the corner of her eye. Briskly, she stands, takes the items from the counter and settles back into her chair, eyeing Alex with a sceptically raised eyebrow.

"Careful what you wish for." The older woman mused darkly, red lips curling into a smirk. Piper blushed a little, accepted the warning (_encouragement_) and drew the pasta onto her spoon before wrapping it around her fork. She eyes it suspiciously; aware of the fact Alex is anticipating her reaction to the meal. Piper wets her dry lips momentarily, tongue darting across the moist skin before she takes a steaming hot mouthful of the stuff. Alex watches her expectantly, smirking at the low hum of appreciation from the blonde and her expression of surprise at how damn good it tastes.

"That's quite something." Piper half-compliments Alex, rewarded with a dry laugh from the brunette.

"Judging by the way you're moaning like a cat in heat, yeah, I'd say it is _quite something." _Alex surmises. Piper purses her lips and shrugs lightly, unashamed at the fact she's one of those people who moans at the taste of good food on her lips.

The pair continue their seemingly endless effortless conversation over the meal, intermitted with a few suggestive comments from both parties, but nothing particularly serious is spoken about until Piper takes her last forkful of pasta, licking her lips appreciatively before leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs. Alex watches her for a moment, her own bowl set off to the side, before prying a little deeper.

"What made you want to be a teacher?" She inquires genuinely, resting her chin dramatically on her knuckles, elbow propped up on the granite tabletop as she leans in. Piper considers her answer, and thinks about giving the usual spiel of '_Oh, it's just __**so**__ rewarding', _but quickly decides Alex deserves a bit of honesty in reward for her sumptuous meal.

"Does any teacher really grow up thinking this is what they want to do with the rest of their lives? Teaching the same shit every single term for about forty years?" Piper asks rhetorically. Alex shakes her head in agreement, willing the blonde to elaborate.

"I never really had a clue what I wanted to do with my life, because I had a hell of a lot more to worry about." She explains cryptically, her gaze drawn downwards to the intricate detailing of the table top. "So I did my degree in Chemistry, because it was easy as hell to me, and I knew I wouldn't be stressing out night after night studying something I was never going to understand." Piper begins talking with her hands as she often does, waving them animatedly and scoffing slightly.

"I just needed something easy, something that wasn't going to make my life harder than it already was." She mutters finally, picking at the edge of the table with her thumbnail. Alex furrows her eyebrows in thoughtfulness, before grabbing Piper's hand and stilling it abruptly.

"Why?" She asks softly, gaze boring into Piper's own guarded one. A look of reluctance crosses the blonde's features, before she sighs heavily and takes her hand from Alex's grip, unclasping her watch. The brunette watches her with marked confusion, an eyebrow raised in question. Wordlessly, Piper tilts her wrist upwards underneath the light, exposing a jagged scar on the side, just over her bone. Not like one that would have been created deliberately, but a raised mark, white in colour and looking as if the blonde had been struck by something sharp. Alex pulls the younger girl's wrist towards her, caressing the scar with the soft pad of her thumb and feeling a little guilty that she'd failed to notice it before.

To be fair, she'd only ever seen Piper without a watch on once, last night, and they'd kind of been in the middle of more pressing matter.

"What..." Alex trails off, utterly perplexed at how the scar came to be on the left wrist of the blonde. Piper chews on her bottom lip for a moment, drawing further into her chair and looking at their linked fingers. Alex's hands are strong, sure in their movements, confident and bold when she touches the blonde (as she'd learnt the night previously). Piper meanwhile, has slim, dextrous fingers that are demanding and persistent against Alex's skin, unrelenting in their desire to draw out a reaction from the brunette (or, to have a reaction drawn out of herself). Really, it's uncanny how their hands reflect their personalities so closely. Alex, collected and assertive. Piper, insistent and perhaps occasionally frenzied.

Polar opposites, but unquestionably made for each other.

"Don't you ever wonder why I lived with my grandparents since I was about thirteen?" Piper questions quietly.

"I guess it's crossed my mind." Alex admits honestly.

"It was because of my parents." Piper's stomach churns at the memory, and she shifts uncomfortably before continuing. "They were just..such _shitty_ parents." The blonde laughs caustically, devoid of humour while shaking her head. Alex's heart thumps with fear for Piper's younger self, and her voice comes out shakily.

"Did your Dad do this?" Piper cringes immediately, attempting to hide it but not before Alex notices, her fingers tightening around the younger girl's slender wrist as she inhales sharply.

"It wasn't..." Piper isn't exactly sure how to word it. "It wasn't supposed to be me." She slumps, suddenly unwilling to talk about it for much longer. So she gets the hell on with it.

"He was drunk, as usual, slurring and screaming at my mom in the kitchen." Piper explains bluntly. "I was about thirteen, and I knew fucking rightly what was going on." Her voice is laced with bitterness as the memory comes flooding back to her. "So, being the dumbass that I am, I stormed right into that kitchen, full of bravado and anger and whatever else, only to be met with my mother sitting in the corner crying and my dad brandishing a fucking-" Piper chokes on her words, voice breaking, strong facade shattering in front of Alex's eyes.

"A beer bottle. And he- he was so fucking drunk- he just turned on me- and- and-" Alex stops her, waving a hand and pushing her chair back with a scrape, scarpering over to gather Piper in her arms as the blonde falls apart, breathing rapid but she surprisingly doesn't sob. A tear escapes, rolling down her face that the brunette seems to just _know _is there, despite the fact that Piper currently has her face burrowed into Alex's stomach. Alex catches the tear with her thumb, drawing it underneath the blonde's eye slowly before moving her hand to Piper's head and stroking her hair. They stay like this for a long moment, the only sounds being the even breathing of Alex and the slightly panicked breaths of Piper as the brunette continues to work her fingers through blonde tresses slowly.

Alex stares down at her, and she finally _sees. _She looks at Piper, but she looks through her, deep into the dark depths of her troubled soul. She sees further back than just thirteen year old Piper. She sees an ultimately more terrifying Piper, ten years old listening to her parents arguing outside her room over which one needs to stop drinking. Her little brother is in the next room crying for help, and Piper just wishes her parents had never even met. She's in her room, alone, and her tears threaten to overflow and stain the hardwood floor upon which her tired frame lies curled upon. Because, while Alex might have grown up without a father but with a mother who loved her totally, Piper might as well have grown up with out both.

"That's why I moved." Piper mumbles eventually against the soft material of Alex's sweater.

"What?" Alex is infinitely confused at what the blonde means.

"Don't put your happiness in other people's hands. They'll drop it." Piper says strongly, raising her head to look at Alex solemnly, blue irises flaring with emotion. "They'll drop it every time."

* * *

Alex wonders about Piper's philosophical statement for quite some time, and it distracts her throughout the drawn out process of agreeing upon a movie to watch.

"Why don't you have any rom-coms?" Piper complains from her cross legged position on the floor. Alex fails to answer her, mind a million miles away as she blindly keys in a number on the microwave for their popcorn. "Alex?"

"Hmm?" She shakes her head to rid herself of worry for the moment, sauntering over to the blonde and sitting on the arm of the sofa. "Romantic comedies? Are you fucking kidding me?"

"But Sandra Bullock," Piper pouts in annoyance.

"Mostly horrors, sorry kid." Alex shrugs idly. "Think you can handle _Insidious_?" The younger girl scoffs, before beginning a whole rigmarole explaining how she most certainly was not afraid of a horror movie.

Alex doesn't hear a word.

She sits, perched on the edge of the sofa, with that look of otherness clouding her jade irises, seeing things much too far as her thoughts hang off a deadly precipice. Alex clears her throat. Considers. Decides. Now or never.

She won't drop Piper's happiness.

"Pipes?" The brunette questions softly, interrupting Piper's speech.

"Yeah? Piper smiles amicably from her juvenile position on Alex's floor, shuffling closer to lean her head against Alex's knee, beaming up at her.

"I need to ask you something...and- and you have to listen to my reasoning, okay?" Alex's heart thumps with nerves as Piper raises her eyebrow in question.

"Okay..." Alex exhales slowly, taking her glasses off and setting them on the table, shifting onto the sofa and offering a hand to Piper. She takes it wordlessly, hoisting herself up onto the three-seater and facing Alex who plays idly with Piper's thumb.

"I know you probably think this is a really fucking stupid idea, and I kind of do too..." Alex starts, doing little to perturb Piper's confusion. "But, to be honest?"

"I like you, Piper. A lot. You're a little shit, and you're awkward and confusing and a little bit obsessed with foodstuffs." Piper laughs despite her apprehension. "But you're different, and I guess that's why like you." A delightful blush colours Alex's cheeks, and of course the blonde knows exactly what's coming.

Well, she thought she did, but she certainly didn't expect the next noise she heard to be piercing shrill of a smoke alarm and a colourful repertoire of expletives from Alex.

"What the ever-loving _fuck?!" _She yells, leaping from the sofa and striding over to the source of the eye-crinkling smell infecting her apartment and the blaring noise that had interrupted her dating proposal to the blonde. "Fucking shit the bed; Piper, can you give me my fucking glasses? Oh my god, fuck this, fuck that, fuck it, fuck off..."

* * *

Alex had continued to swear terrifically at the thing before the ruined popcorn had been replaced by Piper, who had sent Alex outside with a cold beer and insisted she leave her to it. The blonde dutifully watched over the microwave and managed to key in five minutes (rather than the fifteen Alex had accidentally pressed), removing the bowl upon hearing the beep and smiling when she saw the golden popcorn cooked to perfection, placing it on the coffee table and stepping out onto the small balcony to call Alex inside. Piper knew exactly what the brunette planned to ask her.

Happily at ease with herself, she knew exactly what her answer was going to be, too.

"Popcorn's ready." The blonde announced, slipping her arm around Alex's waist and leaning over the balcony with her. The typical sounds of Saturday night in New York City drift upwards to them, taxis beeping their horns and occasional roars audible from various corners of the capital. The street below them is quiet, shrouded in darkness. Piper looks at Alex, who's staring back at her seriously. Raven tresses fall over her shoulders, green eyes still visible in the dark, shining with a silent promise. She's beautiful.

It's dark, but Alex stays beautiful.

The older woman gathers herself, and refuses to be interrupted by anything else as she takes Piper's hand within her own. Pale moonlight falls over the blonde's face as she looks at Alex expectantly. She understood that they were different people together in daylight than they were in the dark.

"What were you going to ask me?" Piper encourages. The brunette purses her lips, smirks crookedly, and doesn't even have to ask.

"Be my girlfriend." Piper doesn't even have to consider.

"Okay." The blonde smiles, happy and elated and just fucking excited. There's nothing to worry about tonight, out here in the terrific blackness of Alex's balcony. They beam at each other adoringly, and they're happier than ever. They kiss, lips meeting slowly, Alex's hands cupping Piper's cheek as the younger girl encircles Alex's waist happily, a hopeful feeling to the long meeting of lips, a wordless promise that this will inevitably be one hell of a ride. Simultaneously, they both remember about the popcorn and the movie and the prospect of an entire night together, and the kiss breaks mutually. The first of many. Alex links her fingers sweetly with Piper's again, pulling her back towards the warm confines of her apartment. Just before she reaches the door, the blonde calls out to her, for no particular reason other than the fact she just cannot quite believe this is all real.

"Why me?" She asks Alex dreamily. The brunette turns to her with a wide grin. She says nothing.

They laugh, and the stars watch. It's good to be alive.

* * *

A/N: By the way, I have the story line for this all planned out, and I think it's just fair to warn you guys now; Persuasion's angst will look like a nursery rhyme compared to this. Read and review, please :)


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: As you can tell, I'm trying to give you guys as much as I can over the weekend to make up for my lack of updates during the week. I'm up to my eyes in schoolwork right now, and although I don't want to rush, I do need to be banging out as many updates in my free time as possible. It _is_ after 1am, though, so this is barely proof read at the minute. Sorry for the inevitable typos, I'll fix them in the morning. Enjoy, and please leave me a review. No reviews = no story, kids. Love you all.

* * *

They need to talk.

They really, _really _shouldn't dive into this headfirst without consideration or admittance of the problems posed by entering into an actual relationship. Piper wants to talk, but she also wants to stay right here on Alex's sofa, curled against her side and resting her head peacefully against the brunette's warm chest. There are rules that must be adhered to; they cannot continue flirting so openly in front of pupils and coming within inches of fucking each other senseless in-between periods.

_That's the whole problem, isn't it? Rules aren't any fun._

As if sensing the blonde's slight discomfort, Alex's fingers press a little harder against the dimples at the bottom of Piper's spine, exposed due to the persistence of Alex through the movie to pull her shirt up a little higher every twenty minutes or so. It's quiet, now; the apartment is dim and silent and there's nothing to be heard save for the occasional sharp intake of breath from Piper.

They need to talk, but Alex also needs to move her fingers a little lower. The blonde shifts suddenly underneath the blanket, hitching her right leg over Alex's waist and settling her weight down into the brunette's lap slightly. She leans over Alex, blonde hair falling over the older woman's face, but she continues to smirk as her fingers skim over the bare thighs of her girlfriend, occasionally squeezing the toned muscle there.

"You still haven't shown me your bedroom." Piper insinuates in a low voice, leaning down so that her lips are inches from Alex's. The brunette squirms underneath her, moving lower to attach her lips to Piper's neck greedily.

She should tell her not to leave a mark. She doesn't.

The taller girl continues to bite softly down the column of Piper's neck before her lips move to Piper's jaw line, blazing a trail of kisses before she pulls back ever so slightly.

"Now we're talking." She husks smugly.

_No, we're not._ Piper thinks.

But then Alex's breath fans over her face and her hips grind upwards into Piper's, and that's all it takes for her momentary resolve to fall apart.

Alex removes the doubt from Piper's mind with the wicked touch of her fingertips and the inviting timbre of her voice, and the blonde lets her, responds to Alex's touch like no one the older girl has ever seen before. More than that, she fucking _loves _it. The thrill of being dangerous, of being wanted, of breaking the rules with acquiescent abandon beckons Piper, and she stumbles after it blindly, without care or recognition for what the hell she's getting into. But then she's getting into Alex, so to speak, the brunette whispering her lover's name over and over like the most lustful prayer Piper's ever heard, raking her nails wantonly down the blonde's slim shoulders and soft skin of her back. Upon laying down beside each other, and looking at each other wondrously, naked and breathless, Piper doesn't even worry anymore. She just wants Alex, she doesn't want pupils or jobs or classrooms. She's got Alex.

They need to talk.

They'll talk later.

* * *

Sundays are good. They're relaxing and usually spent by Alex in bed with a good book and a takeout, with a phone call afforded to her mother after she finishes her preparation for the school week. This Sunday is different.

This Sunday is better.

Having been rather preoccupied the night before, sunlight filters freely though the large gap between Alex's curtains, casting a sharp line across Alex's field of vision. She awakens groggily, narrowing her tired eyes at the intrusion and shifting downwards so the comforter was over her head. Enveloped in a dim lighting, shielded from the blinding sunlight, she makes out the entire form of Piper Chapman almost attached to her side. Adorably, the blonde had fallen asleep all the way underneath the comforter, left arm strewn across her company's stomach as well as her left leg half entwined between both of Alex's. She had obviously cradled Piper throughout the night, for her body was turned inwards slightly, left arm numb underneath her girlfriend's weight and her right was loosely resting on the blonde's naked side as Piper's face was pressed right against Alex's chest. How in God's name they managed to fall asleep like that, Alex had no idea. But they had, and Piper's slow breaths were tickling Alex's sternum slightly as she continued to sleep. The brunette, meanwhile, is content to just lie still, pulling Piper a little closer and marvelling at how well their bodies fit together. Although she can't see her face, the slight change in Piper's breathing pattern alerts Alex to the fact that the girl is coming to. She shifts her body closer to her makeshift pillow, making no attempt to remove herself from Alex's blissful embrace.

"Marzipan." She mumbles into the soft skin of Alex's chest. An incredibly confused expression crosses Alex's face, and she thinks she's misheard Piper.

"Morning?" She questions.

"No." Piper breathes in deeply, before sighing happily, warm air hitting Alex's skin. "Marzipan."

"I'm not even going to pretend to know what you're talking about." Alex whispers into their little hideaway underneath the comforter, her chin resting on Piper's head slightly.

"Your nipples smell like marzipan." Piper deadpans, her voice thick with sleep. Evidently, so is her mind, because Alex seriously doubts she'd come out with a statement like that if she was one hundred percent awake. The older girl laughs, and Piper smiles tiredly at the vibrations deep within Alex's chest that her head currently rests on. Eventually, Alex quiets her laughter, and pulls her arm out from underneath the blonde.

"Piper?" She says, pulling back slightly so she can look down into the cerulean irises of her girlfriend.

"Yeah?"

"Hi." Alex smirks, pursing her lips in wonder at the blonde's ability to surprise her constantly.

"Hi." Piper whispers back sheepishly, shifting herself more on top of Alex and kissing her slowly. Alex's hands stroke slowly down the blonde's sides as Piper braces one arm on the mattress and brings her other to the side of Alex's face, threading her fingers through the raven locks at the nape of her neck. An unquantifiable amount of time is spent in that position by the pair, kissing desirously underneath the comforter, hidden from the trials and tribulations of everyday life, of the inevitable problems that will be posed to the forbidden love currently being shared underneath the downy covering pulled securely over their heads.

Piper doesn't want to leave. Alex doesn't want to let her go.

"Let me take you out for lunch." Alex husks against Piper's lips, trailing her hands up and down her girlfriend's sides teasingly.

"Lunch?" The blonde raises a questioning eyebrow. "What time is it?"

"About one." Piper's eyes widen in alarm, and her thumb stills on Alex's cheek.

"Are you joking?" She questions intently.

"If that was the height of my jokes, would you really still be here?" Alex attempts to humour the agitated girl, but she pokes her head out into the cool air of the bedroom to be met with the alarm clock staring back at her, reading _1:13pm_ in block red numbering.

"_Shit!" _She cries, looking down at the smirking brunette below her. "Shit!"

"Shit!" Alex repeats for no reason, raising her eyebrows and laughing in amusement. She presses her lips to Piper's chest while looking up at her, green eyes flashing challengingly.

"Nuh-uh." Piper shakes her head adamantly, attempting to scarper from the brunette's touch. She gets one leg off the bed before Alex pulls her back by the wrist, knocking out her arm from underneath her and causing her to be pinned underneath the older girl.

"Where d'you think you're going?" She enquires, her voice low and suggestive.

"To meet Polly, in literally ten minutes!" Piper cries, looking up at Alex pleadingly.

"Holly can wait." Alex husks, ghosting her fingertips low across Piper's toned stomach and moving her lips to her girlfriend's jaw line. Involuntarily, the blonde arches up into the touch, her body betraying her mind.

"Holly can't wait." Piper insists breathlessly, but her resolve is already lying in tatters around the bed frame.

"Leave, then." Alex smirks smugly against Piper's skin, dragging her tongue lustfully down the column of the blonde's neck while her fingers drawn illegible patters on the inside of her thigh. Eventually, she stops, abruptly removing all contact from Piper, leaving the girl glaring at her angrily, annoyed at her change in demeanour.

"No." Piper growls, tugging on Alex's hair and bringing their lips together again desperately. Alex smirks triumphantly into the kiss as Piper's hands run across her body searchingly. She knows Piper won't leave if Alex continues giving into her desires, knows that she cannot possibly tear herself away from the brunette.

She won't even try.

* * *

Piper doesn't stay for lunch, but she shows up to a very pissed off Polly Harper half an hour late, without so much as a shower or makeup on her face.

"You were fucking her, weren't you?" Polly rages from the booth as Piper slides in across from her, having appeared from the interior of a silver Aston Martin onto the sidewalk outside the bar.

"Yep." Piper smirks, before calling the waiter over and ordering herself a glass of water.

"_Jesus." _Polly shakes her head, looking down at her best friend with marked disappointment.

"What?" Piper turns her palms skyward in defence of her untameable lust for her girlfriend.

"You're not even dating her and you've basically spent the entirety of the weekend together." Piper attempts to mask the laugh that escapes at Polly's cluelessness as a cough, but the brunette picks up on it and her eyes widen in utter shock. "No...Piper, don't even say it. You're definitely gay now."

"I'm not gay. I'm not. I'm just experimenting."

"You're twenty-six and I haven't seen you kiss a guy since the final year of college." Polly reminds her best friend. The blonde shrugs, and her expression becomes quite far-off, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

"I'm telling you, it's like I just discovered what sex is supposed to be like." Piper says dreamily, mind wandering to the events of the weekend, of Alex's nails raking down her back and addictive voice in her ear, whispering unrepeatable promises into the early hours of the morning.

"She has a girlfriend!" Polly reminds the blonde, who shakes her head vehemently.

"She had a girlfriend." Piper hums happily. "They were having problems. It's over.

"For sure?" Polly presses further.

"Trust me, Pol, it is definitely over between them. She has a girlfriend, though." Piper presses her tongue cheekily to the inside of her cheek, shrugging as the waiter sets down her water before leaving again.

"You dog you." Polly shakes her head, but she's not even surprised. Piper wasn't exactly notorious for being cautious about things.

"I _really_ like her." Piper insists, more to herself than anyone. She thinks about the brunette for the remainder of her lunch with Polly, about the honesty afforded to her throughout their weekend, something she doubt Alex grants to many people. She reminisces about the ridiculously cute way she had watched parts of the movie from behind Piper's hair and finally about the fact she was actually the girl lucky enough to be Alex Vause's girlfriend.

Yes, it would be fair to say that Piper Chapman was pretty happy with that title.

* * *

They go for breakfast on Monday morning to make up for Piper's desertion the day before. An An Audi R8 pulls into the parking lot as the clock strikes half past seven outside the deserted cafe. It's pretty early, and a thin stream of rain falls from the grey skies, not falling in rivets but just drizzling down across the city. Alex pulls her jacket over Piper's head with a chuckle, ignoring the rain falling on her own figure so long as the blonde doesn't get her straightened hair ruined by the precipitation, suffering as a result of leaving her own jacket in the car.

"Thanks, baby." Piper places a chaste kiss on Alex's lips as they enter the warm confines of the building, shielded from the rain. The cafe is utterly empty save for one bored looking waitress who chews on her gum like it's the greatest thing she's ever tasted and takes their order with a grunt and not even an attempt at a smile.

"We really didn't plan this through." Piper realises upon sitting down and looking out at her car.

"What?" Alex asks, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

"Showing up to work in the same car is going to raise a hell of a lot of suspicion." The blonde begins to panic, and they've only just sat down.

"Hey, Pipes." Alex takes her hand and runs her thumb soothingly over her knuckles. "Relax, baby." Her smooth voice and earnest eyes plead with Piper, and she feels her nerves dissipate slightly. "Nicky and I share lifts all the time, it's no big deal." Piper nods, conceding the fact that she might have overreacted. Piper doesn't know if she's listening to Alex's logic or the incredible feeling of her fingers linked with her own, but she agrees anyway.

"We should have talked about this." Piper adds as their pancakes are set down between them. Alex's eyes flash mischievously behind her glasses, and she bites her lip slightly before replying.

"Guess we got distracted." The brunette surmises flirtatiously, knocking her knee against Piper's lightly under the table.

"I guess we did." Piper should be worried about the fact, but she hears her own voice lower slightly at the skin to skin contact. _God, I should have worn trousers, I mean it's fucking raining!_ Piper thinks, and she rather wishes Alex had gotten the memo too. Does she really, though? Would she trade safe and normal and not exciting at all for exhilarating, forbidden contact underneath the blind eyes of the waitress?

Not for a million dollars.

They should have talked. They didn't.

* * *

Alex Vause and Piper Chapman are very, _very_ lucky to be two of the most liked teachers at the academy. If it had been anyone but a few members of Piper's track team and some of Alex's tutees who'd seen the pair step from the same car, the pupils would have been sprinting down the corridors shouting about it at the tops of their voices.

They observe in silence as Piper steps out of the driver's side, looking like something straight out of Zara's office wear Autumn/Winter '14 catalogue, or something along those lines. Black heels, black pencil skirt and a form fitting, long sleeved white blouse tucked into the waistband, over which she pulled on a beige trench coat, tight fitting and shorter than her skirt. She shook out her blonde hair and fixed her collar before closing the door sharply and walking around to the boot. Alex Vause stepped a moment later from the opposite side, and almost every pupil in the gathering gasped at her appearance alongside the blonde. She was dressed similarly, only her grey skirt was slightly longer, and her black shirt was unbuttoned a little further than Piper's. Her heels were the same colour, and she slung a leather jacket over her arm, preferring to keep it off her figure now that the rain had stopped. Piper opened the boot, pulling out her bag and work she had unsurprisingly forgotten to mark, while Alex slung her marked work over her shoulders, encased safely in her laptop bag. They paused to smirk at each other for a moment, and that's when the pupils erupted into frenzied chatter.

"They're fucking." One girl surmised eagerly.

"How do you know? They just shared lifts, for God sake." Another fired back.

"When have you ever seen Miss Vause smile like that?!" The group turned back to the teachers currently walking towards the archway, and caught sight of a wide, full grin on Alex's red lips, laughing at a particularly well timed comment from her girlfriend.

"They're fucking. Awesome." The girl repeated. This time, everyone nodded. Miss Chapman and Miss Vause would get away with it this time.

Next time, they may not be so lucky. They should probably talk about it.

* * *

"Nervous?" Piper teases, swinging her legs off her desk as Alex for once sits in a chair.

"For what?" Alex fires back, taking a final sip from her steaming cup of coffee.

"For trying to control yourself all week around me." Piper raises her eyebrows suggestively. Alex sets down her mug on one of the tables as she stands to her feet.

"Who said I planned on doing anything of the sort?" She breathes, standing intrusively close to the blonde and staring down at her, a self satisfied smirk playing on her lips.

"You wouldn't even try it, Miss Vause." Piper had locked her door just in case, though. They did have a meeting in fifteen minutes, but Alex could do a lot in that time.

"Just watch me, Miss Chapman." The brunette replies, her voice dripping with desire. She presses her body against Piper's, taking off her glasses and slipping them into the front of her shirt, drawing the younger woman's gaze downwards similar to the way she had done in the car park on their first day.

This time, Piper doesn't have to look away.

She exhales slowly, shaking her head at Alex's incredible ability to get her riled up with only the smallest of movements, or the slightest lowering of her voice. Piper would like nothing more than to test Alex's conviction, but they really don't have enough time or privacy to play out exactly what the blonde has in mind. So she contents herself with bringing her lips to Alex's, resting her hands behind the taller girl's neck as Alex's splay low across her back, thumbs pressing harshly into Piper's hips. There's nothing innocent or chaste about the kiss, but it's not rushed or frantic. Piper parts her lips slightly to accommodate Alex's wicked tongue, but they don't fight each other for the lead in the kiss, simply brushing their lips and tongues against each other's for quite some time, punctuated with occasional quiet moans from Piper as Alex's hands groped her ass or low groans from the brunette as her girlfriend's dextrous fingers palmed her deliberately over the material of her shirt. It's a dizzying, electrifying kiss that has them both breathing heavily by the end of it, doing categorically nothing to sate their incredible desire for each other.

"Fuck." Alex curses softly with a breathy laugh, brushing away a strand of hair from Piper's face.

"Yeah." Piper agrees shakily, biting her lip to steady herself as she pats Alex's hip, signalling that she kind of needs to step back a little.

"Bye." The brunette smiles crookedly, fixing Piper's shirt collar before reinstating a normal distance between them and beginning to make her way over to the store room door and into her own classroom.

"I'll see you in five minutes, Al." The blonde points out with a laugh

"Yeah, but I won't be able to do _that _now, will I?" Alex winks, disappearing off to do whatever it is she should have been doing instead of making out with Piper for ten minutes.

No, she won't be able to kiss Piper in front of the rest of the staff. But then again, she wouldn't be allowed to press the blonde up against her desk and make out with her desirously, either. And she definitely, definitely would not be allowed to date Piper Chapman.

Terrifyingly, so many rules already been broken by the couple, that everything was already beyond repair anyway. And, needless to say, they'd find a few more to break before everything was said and done.

* * *

Anybody who says it isn't different working with someone when you've seen them naked is nothing but a dirty liar. There is unquestionably a shift in the air in the conference room come Monday morning, when Piper and Alex are seated beside each other, both in collared shirts to try and cover up the marks on their necks that had suddenly appeared over the weekend. A single sheet of paper is presented between the two, and Mr Caputo looks at them expectantly.

"Um...what is this?" Piper questions first, looking at the page blankly. Alex pulls it towards her, studying it while her girlfriend's question is answered.

"An itinerary." He offers.

"For?"

"Your trip." Piper's much too tired for his odd manner this early on a Monday, so she just turns to Alex who shifts the paper between the two.

"Boston?!" Piper whispers harshly, looking at Alex for clarity.

"Read the sheet, Pipes." She encourages under her breath, nudging the sheet towards the blonde. Caputo talks to the rest of his staff while the pair continue to read over the itinerary carefully, before Piper thinks she understands it.

"They're letting us, me and you, stay in a hotel for two nights with fifteen pupils at some sort of conference...thing?"

"Yeah, it's like a Chemistry course for..." Alex checks the sheet again. "_The gifted pupils of our up and coming generation." _

"Sounds riveting." Piper muses sarcastically.

"Piper..." Alex's tone is lower but incredibly inviting, audible only to the blonde who leans in slightly to the sultry voiced teacher beside her. "You, me, hotel room, for two nights, paid for by the blissful ignorance of our school's generous board." She reminds her counterpart with a quick smirk, looking down at the blonde as recognition colours her face. "Don't ask questions, babe." She adds quietly.

"Nope. No questions." Piper squeaks, before breaking into a sly grin and leaning back into her chair.

"Ladies." Caputo directs his attention to his two Chemistry teachers. "Obviously, because of costs, you'll have to share a room, which I trust you two will be able to manage?" His tone isn't suggestive, but he sounds rather apprehensive at two women who'd been strangers two weeks ago being thrust into a small hotel room together.

The poor man has no idea what the hell he's done by affording them such an opportunity.

"How tragic." Nicky mouths at Alex from across the table, earning her a swift kick in the shin from the brunette.

"No problem." Piper smiles as her partner nods in agreement.

"Now, you're getting this for free, technically, but I need something from you two in return." The two sit up a little straighter as his tone turns serious. "As I'm sure you're aware, the Fall homecoming is next week."

_Oh, for fuck sake._

"And you two are down to supervise it."

_Fuck that._

"Well, considering this is supposed to be a reward for both your classes' astounding progress so far, we'll draft in a few teachers from other departments, but you're our volunteers."

_Fan-fucking-tastic._

"Fair enough, right?"

"Sure."

"Yep." The two answer in unison, their shoulders sagging slightly. No teacher looks forward to having to spend the night listening to trashy pop songs and watch desperate boys run after girls. But when you're spending the night with your girlfriend, dressed to the nines only unable to so much as look at each other inappropriately...well, you can see why neither Alex nor Piper is particularly excited about it.

"Fantastic. Thanks, ladies." Caputo dismisses them with a wave, and they exit the room in silence, the first two to leave. Alex turns to her girlfriend, and they smirk slyly at each other for a moment, tension dissipating as quickly as it had appeared as they regard each other in the foyer outside the conference room. Eventually, the brunette speaks, the smugness in her voice clear as day.

"So... wanna come to homecoming with me?"


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: I'm sorry this took me so long, but I'm really struggling with inspiration for this fic. I kind of just want to get to the main plot, and this whole lead up is kind of frustrating me. I'm genuinely sorry, and I hope this makes up for it. Half term is soon, so I'll try and update more regularly. Thank you so much for your reviews, they make my day!

* * *

The animated chatter of Piper's youngest pupils filled the classroom as she left them to the final minute of their group discussion. She surveyed them quietly from the front of the classroom, arms crossed but the makings of a kind smile on her face. Piper cleared her throat, silencing the groups and began to question them on their findings on what they already knew about the mechanics of diffusion.

"Like, when you smell your favourite smell it's because the particles are spreading out across the room, from high concentration to low concentration. That's why..you can smell paint through the house." One able-minded student explained.

"The smell of paint is gross." Another boy commented from an opposing group.

"Everyone knows freshly cut grass is the best smell, like, ever!" A girl offered with an eye roll. Piper let them discuss the matter for a moment, considering how well they'd grasped the actual concept of diffusion.

"Alright, alright-" Piper began, but was cut off by a boy caught in the middle of a heated argument with one of his friends.

"Miss, what's your favourite smell?" He enquired eagerly, raising his eyebrows in question. The teacher opened her mouth to shout at him for interrupting, but he was a fairly good student, so she appeased him anyway. Piper considered her answer, smirking crookedly and laughing before pursing her lips momentarily and replying.

"I'd probably say..." She chuckles slightly. "Marzipan."

* * *

They made it through the first week, somehow. They didn't get caught making out between periods or sending flirty texts during classes when their pupils were preoccupied. If the pupils suspect anything, they don't say a word, and for the time being everyone is none the wiser to the affair going on between the two teachers.

The bell rings loud and clear on Friday afternoon, and Alex feels like a pair of shackles have finally been lifted after a week of not being to do much more than kiss Piper soundly on the lips before and after school, hidden from the prying eyes behind the locked door of whichever woman's classroom they found themselves in.

"Thank God." Alex commented as she strolled into Piper's classroom, only to find the blonde standing at the side of her classroom, scribbling angrily on a sheet of paper. "Piper?"

"This _damn _kid, I swear to God..." She slams the pen off the desk and braces her hands in front of her. The brunette strides over to her girlfriend, placing her strong hands on Piper's shoulders.

"What's wrong, babe?" Alex asks, peering over the blonde from her slightly taller position.

"This girl, she has so much potential and she just doesn't _try!" _Piper sighs despondently, leaning back slightly into Alex's embrace while the older woman runs her hands down Piper's arms. "I just..." She trails off.

"What is it?"

"I just don't want her to turn out like me." Piper's shoulders fall and Alex returns her fingers there, pressing on the tense muscles of her girlfriend.

"Pipes, you turned out fucking perfectly." Alex promises, digging her thumbs either side of the back of Piper's neck and smirking at the sharp intake of breath from her girlfriend.

"This doesn't look like fucking perfectly to me. This is so wrong, we can't-" Piper's cut off when Alex's fingers move under the collar of her shirt, kneading at the strong muscles of her shoulders before coming around to her front.

"Oh, come on, Miss Chapman." Alex husks, voice dripping with invitation. "You are a nice blonde lady, aren't you?" Two buttons are slowly unbuttoned by the brunette. "A proper young lady." Another button. Alex's fingers slip underneath the speechless girl's shirt. "Just grading a few senior papers before heading home to an evening that definitely won't include tequila and dirty dancing in a club with her girlfriend that she definitely shouldn't have." Alex gropes Piper's breast roughly over the material of her bra, lips curling into self satisfied grin at the blonde's gasp. The older girl turns her girlfriend around, trapping her against the desk.

"It's all fine."Alex takes her glasses off to look clearly into Piper wide blue eyes. "It's all good. And I will meet you at the bar for nine and everything will work out perfectly, babe. I promise." The brunette insists with a low voice and alluring smirk before drawing her fingers to Piper's neck and kissing her soundly.

It's the first time Piper has expressed any doubt about their relationship and the risks it entails, but judging by the persistent way the blonde is kissing her back, Alex has doused the fear in her mind the only way she truly knows how; with the seductive timber of her voice and irresistible touch of her fingertips that she knows already wield so much power over the younger girl.

The manner in which Alex can simply manipulate Piper any way she pleases should scare the blonde, but the adrenaline rush of having her fellow teacher touching her so intimately and whispering so huskily in her ear is already completely and utterly addictive.

* * *

"You gave her tequila, didn't you?" Polly almost gags at the state of the couple in front of her.

"Jesus _fuckingggggg_ Christ!" Alex slurs terrifically, laughing loudly at Polly's disgust. "Pipes, what the hell do you see in this girl? She's about as much fun as a brick." Piper giggles obnoxiously loudly at Alex's joke, pressing her face against the heated skin of the brunette's neck.

"Yeah, but she's driving us home, sooooo..." Piper allows Alex to pull her along the sidewalk to Polly's car that definitely isn't as nice as hers nor the blonde's.

"Oh my fucking God!" Alex cries suddenly as Polly opens the rear door and half shoves the pair inside, ignoring their drunken antics. "You're so right!" Alex affirms delightedly to the blonde, raising her eyebrows and grinning in inebriated surprise.

"Aren't I just...fucking _amazing_?" Piper beams up from her position resting on Alex's shoulder as Polly pulls out into the dark street and off to Piper's house.

"Like, how did you even figure that out?" Alex's is so far gone she's forgotten what the hell she's supposed to be talking about.

"Figure what out?"

"I dunno." And with that, the pair erupt into drunken laughter, Piper half falling into Alex's lap. They're at that fantastic level of drunkenness, not enough to be throwing up or unable to stay conscious, but the stage where everything is funny and there's not a damn thing in the world that could possible bring the two down from their high.

"You know you two have to supervise your stupid dance tomorrow night?" Polly attempts to chastise the two, but they're looking at each other the sort of way where the brunette already knows they aren't hearing a word she's saying. She scoffs at the love struck gaze Alex holds as she looks down into Piper's grinning face, and immediately averts her attention when her best friend sits a little straighter and grasps the lapels of Alex's jacket, pulling her in for a messy kiss.

"What did I do to deserve this?" Polly whispers to the roof of her car when Piper starts moaning like a fucking porn star as Alex's hands slip underneath her skimpy top. God doesn't answer her.

Unsurprisingly, neither do the couple basically dry humping in the back seat of her car.

* * *

"Look, I was drunk, wasn't I?" Piper pleads with her best friend.

"_Piper!"_ Polly shrieks, throwing Piper's eyeliner particularly hard at the blonde across the room. "She had her hand up your shirt!"

"Polly-"

"You were _moaning!" _Polly cringes at the memory, sitting down heavily at the foot of Piper's bed.

"Okay, okay, enough." Piper clamps her hands over her ears, squeezing one eye shut and looking at Polly in the mirror. "I'm sorry."

"You're a damn whore." Polly insists. Piper doesn't reply. She continues on with getting ready for the evening, rather ashamed of her actions the night previously. To say things had gotten a little heated had been an understatement, and she sure as hell owed Polly big time for the hell she'd had to endure for a good fifteen minutes. But, there was little she could do to appease her scarred best friend, and Piper had the rather pressing matter of supervising a homecoming dance to attend to.

Or, the rather pressing matter of spending hours upon hours of looking at Alex Vause in a dress but unable to so much as lay a hand on her.

Piper's not exactly planning on making it easy for Alex though, considering the cobalt blue dress she currently wore with a downright explicit slit up the right hand side and skin tight sleeves coming to her elbow. Her blonde hair hung in loose waves, feathered slightly at her fringe and cascading invitingly over her shoulders. Yes, she was only going to supervise and sit around all night, but she might as well look smoking hot while doing it.

"Oh, for fuck sake." Polly cried, striding over and snapping one of Piper's makeup brushes from the table.

"What?!"

"You have a massive hickey on your neck that's probably illegal to sport at a high school dance." Polly deadpans, drawing some concealer onto the brush and patting it over the mark on her best friend's neck. Piper blushes profusely but offers no excuse, unable to admit to the fact there was a hell of a lot worse hidden under the material of her dress.

"Thanks." She says sheepishly, rewarded with a glare from Polly. She finishes her makeup, grabs her clutch and car keys, and faces Polly.

"Don't do anything dumb, you stupid lesbian." Polly lets loose most of a smile, walking ahead of Piper to her front door.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Pol. Thanks, by the way." Piper grins at her best friend, closing the door to her home securely and crossing the short distance to her Audi. Polly looks back at her from her own car, opening the door and narrowing her eyes light-heartedly at the blonde.

"Let's just never ever mention it again. Like..._ever."_

* * *

Alex Vause had never liked homecoming. Frankly, she thought it was an opportunity for the popular to become more popular, and the outcasts to become further oppressed by the egotistical assholes who paraded around like the owned the damn school. She'd supervised them before, but never quite like this. Piper stood by her side, arms folded in utter boredom as throngs of pupils milled around them, swearing and laughing and half of them either drunk or high (frankly, neither woman had the willpower to escort out every single suspect, so they let it slide).

"You got any Vodka, or like...anything?" Alex questions the blonde with a slight inclination of her head.

"Yeah, let me just get out my half glass here, one second." Piper moves to open her clutch sarcastically, before looking up at Alex with a crooked eyebrow.

"No tequila? I'm surprised."

"Oh, like you weren't impartial to a shot of it." Piper narrows her eyes. "Or five."

"Touché." Alex is quite frankly so bored with the whole thing, that she can't even find it within herself to banter with Piper.

"I could think of about a thousand things I'd rather be doing than this right now." Piper muses out loud, more to herself than Alex. The brunette looks at her blankly momentarily before she smirks devilishly.

"Like what?" Alex wonders, her voice carrying an air of mischievousness. Piper recognises the tone; she had heard it more than once whispered to her in the dim lighting of her bedroom the night previously.

"Oh, you know, pulling my teeth out with a pair of pliers."

"My God, your dirty talk will never fail to get me going." Alex laughs despite her failed attempted at getting the blonde to flirt back, and Piper just shrugs and grins over at the brunette, looking her up and down and observing the abhorrently attractive way her red dress hugs her curves in all the right places and gathers to the left slightly under her bust. Piper eventually returns to look Alex straight in the eyes, and she doesn't miss the way the brunette's jade irises are a little darker and flare slightly behind the black frames of her glasses. Piper's resistance to Alex's flirting crumbles when she sees that look, and the blonde's voice is low and suggestive.

"Seriously though, I'd start with taking that fucking dress off you."

* * *

And that's how they entertain themselves throughout the night, whispering downright filthy things to each other but forbidden to lay so much as a finger on each other. In fact, they couldn't even stand together for too long, such was their responsibility to look after the students. But every now and then they would take a minute to themselves at the side, and Alex would perhaps spend the whole time speaking in her lowest register, getting Piper worked up into almost delirium without even touching her. Piper, to her credit, gave as good as she got, and the brunette had her eyes closed in unbearable pleasure at the things her girlfriend was promising to her.

"I swear to God, Piper, if you don't follow up on this..." Alex can't even finish her sentence, and her gaze settles on Piper's smug expression, her teeth bared in utter satisfaction.

"Of course I will. And then, I'm gonna-"She stops abruptly as one of the other teachers approaches them. Both women blush slightly at almost being caught, and the man turns to Alex immediately. Piper raises her eyebrows in surprise and is rather taken aback by his forwardness, while the brunette flashes her a sly grin before rearranging her expression into one of inquiry to the man she recognises as one of the English teachers.

"Miss Vause." He smiles down at her, taller than the brunette despite her heels.

"Mr..." She freezes, and looks at Piper for help. The blonde, already jealous at this point, just sneers and shrugs caustically. Alex tightens her jaw for a fraction of a second, but to Piper's disappointment, the older woman eventually remembers her colleague's name. "Collins."

"Oh, please, call me Lee." He insists, and Alex is already bored with his uptight manner. "Care to dance?" He asks, extending his hand. Honestly, Alex can't think of anything she'd rather do less. But she looks at Piper's furious, scorned expression, and she's struck by inspiration.

"Sure." Alex offers him a smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes. Piper's jaw drops in shock. _Fuck her._

"_Fuck you."_ She mouths over the man's shoulder, and watches the incredibly aggravating way the man pulls her off to the dance floor. Alex throws a flirtatious wink in the blonde's direction in reply, but is met with only a cold glare from her girlfriend. If Alex thinks making Piper jealous will turn out well for either woman, she's absolutely mistaken. But then, as if God himself was taking pity on the raging blonde, the track changed to something that there was no way in hell Alex could dance to with a damn English teacher.

Because this? This was Piper and Alex's song. This is what had lead to the hickey on Piper's neck, to the making out in Polly's car, to the four orgasms inflicted on Alex by the blonde upon returning home last night. Piper stops in her tracks as the opening beats fill the room, before an incredibly smug grin lights up her face and she does a one hundred and eighty degree turn, striding happily back the way she came. Alex, meanwhile, is not feeling so elated.

"Oh, Jesus." She groans, dropping her arms from the man's shoulders almost as quickly as they had got there.

"What?" He questions, confusion marring his expression.

"This song...it's not exactly the kind of song you dance to with someone, you know?" Alex offers awkwardly. That's a complete and utter lie, considering she'd been doing exactly that with Piper about twenty four hours ago.

Well, if you can call running her hands all over Piper's lithe body and grinding her front into the blonde's ass _dancing_, that is.

"Why? What is it?" The man asks, laughing nervously and scratching his head. He's not unattractive, with dark hair and brown eyes and tanned skin, but he's not exactly Piper either.

"It's um..it's called-"The brunette is cut off by the appearance of a familiar face in the thinning sea of bodies in front of her, grinning like a Cheshire cat as she moves towards the side. Piper leans against the wall and looks at Alex expectantly, but rage still flickers in her gaze. The brunette rolls her eyes and runs an agitated hand through her hair at her plan utterly backfiring, and finishes her explanation to the man before walking away as far from Piper Chapman as she possibly can, not quite ready for the inevitable backlash.

"Gotta go, um...toilet!" Alex calls over her shoulder.

"Wait!" He cries, and the Chemistry teacher halts her escape. "What's the song called?" Alex fights the urge to run, but groans under her breath and reluctantly shouts back the answer.

"It's...Milkshake. It's called Milkshake."

* * *

Alex successfully avoids her girlfriend for the next half an hour or so, busying herself with casting out most of the student body from the large hall. Piper is nowhere to be seen; unbeknownst to the brunette, she'd taken to the courtyard outside for a moment to clear her head.

While it had been slightly humorous in the end, if the song had been any other, Piper would surely be in a much more severe fit of rage than she was currently. The blonde sat down heavily at a wooden table, cursing herself for getting so riled up at what was only to be a platonic dance between two co –workers. But then, shouldn't that Monday evening that had ended up with a heated kiss in Piper's kitchen been initially platonic at the start? If Piper's being honest with herself, though, nothing between herself and Alex had ever been platonic, nor even friendly. From the moment they'd met, they'd been eyefucking each other, flirting, coming within inches of kissing, then inches of fucking, to dinner dates and burnt popcorn interrupting the eventual commencement of a relationship that was moving at such a frenetic pace that Piper and Alex were mere passengers on a breathless journey to whatever was to come next. The door to the ballroom opens, but it's not the person Piper hopes to see who emerges from the room. Instead, it's her old History teacher, a wiry old woman with all seeing grey eyes and a kind heart.

"Oh, good evening, Piper." She greets, sitting down beside the blonde and taking out a packet of cigarettes. It's terribly odd for the ex-pupil to be sitting so comfortably with someone who'd taught her only ten years ago, but she just smiles and says hello back.

"Want one?" The woman holds out the packet to Piper, who shakes her head. It doesn't seem right.

"No, thanks. I don't smoke." The blonde explains. A comfortable silence envelops them, before the woman speaks up again.

"How long have you been seeing each other, then?" she asks suddenly. And, fucking hell, does Piper's view just splinter right in front of her.

"What?!" She cries incredulously, almost leaping from her seat. Piper stares hard at the woman, her eyebrows raised in sheer disbelief.

"Oh, don't worry, dear, I won't tell. No one's noticed, don't worry."

"I'm not- who-she..." Piper's absolutely astounded, embarrassed, but most importantly she's fucking terrified.

"Hey now, settle yourself." The woman pleads, setting a comforting hand on Piper's shoulder. "I just see how she looks at you, that's all."

"Please don't say anything!" Piper begs, her voice raised an octave or two.

"Don't mind me now, Miss Chapman. I don't talk to anyone in this damn place now anyhow." The woman promises. Piper's panic levels begin to dissipate, but not before the door opens again and out steps a tired looking Alex Vause. The History teacher winks knowingly at Piper, patting the girl lightly before getting up and brushing past Alex with a smile. She returns to the room but leaves the door open, soft music filtering out into the dimly lit courtyard. Having thought about it for a while, and seeing Piper out here looking rather despondent, Alex realised it was probably a bit of a dick move to attempt to strike up a feeling of jealously in the blonde.

"Pipes-" Alex started but was cut off by Piper standing abruptly and walking over to her. "You're not gonna punch me, are you?" The brunette attempts to tease, but her girlfriend just looks absolutely crestfallen.

"Stop it." Piper mumbles, reaching Alex and hesitating slightly.

"Okay, you're not in the mood to banter." Alex surmises, kissing the blonde comfortingly on the cheek and drawing her into a warm hug. "I withdraw my bant."

"You're an asshole, you know." Piper says quietly against Alex's neck, but she kisses the skin there lightly and pulls back to look the brunette in the face.

"I know. I'm sorry, I genuinely am." Alex promises, brushing back a strand of hair from Piper's face. "I don't know why I did that."

"Neither do I." Piper narrows her eyes at her girlfriend, but she's already forgiven her. "Don't fucking do it again."

"I won't, I swear to God." Alex presses her lips to Piper's finally, and the tension built up throughout the evening evaporates into the pitch black of the night above her. The blonde however, is unusually slow to respond, and pulls back with a worrisome look. "What's wrong?"

"That woman...she knows." Piper explains, biting her lip in panic. Alex feels her own remnants of fear flash through her body, but she forces it down. "She said she wouldn't tell, but it's just...scary."

"Hey, look at me." Alex ducks her head slightly to look into Piper's eyes, grasping the younger girl's face within both of her strong hands. "No one important is going to find out, okay? Don't worry about it. We'll be careful." Alex insists. What a load of bullshit; they've been anything but careful. That's the thing, though; they're so irrevocably consumed with each other, that they are both utterly ignorant to the obvious way in which they look at each other in the staff room or touch each other lightly in the hallways. Piper believes Alex, though. She always believes her.

"I know. I'm okay." The blonde looks up at her girlfriend, at the genuine smile playing on her lips and marvels at the warmth spreading through her body due to the tight grip of Alex's hands that have moved to her hips. Piper wraps her arms around Alex's neck and kisses her properly, slowly and lovingly and just totally relaxed in the dwindling light of the courtyard. Things are as close to perfect as they're ever going to get for Piper, and she's at no odds to do anything to perturb the irrefutable stillness that absorbs them. The kiss breaks slowly, lips only centimeters from each other's, when Alex realises something.

For it's the night Alex starts living. Living for the moments alone with Piper, with nothing but the two of them and the background noise that fades to total silence when she locks eyes with the enthralling, cerulean gaze of her girlfriend. Alex can see nothing but the face of the blonde, lit up in wonder and amazement, and yet everything suddenly seems a bit more beautiful. The reason why is utterly simple, yet impossible to understand and even harder to articulate.

This is the night, under the watchful stars and pale moonlight, that Alex Vause comes to the realisation that she's inexorably and utterly in love with Piper Chapman.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Kind of getting to the heart of this fic now; only a handful of chapters left before the impending angst. This is the chapter that I knew I would write from the moment the idea for this fic struck me, so I'd be pretty happy to know your thoughts on it. As always, read and review, people :-) love you all!

* * *

The toned, lithe body of Piper Chapman provides ample distraction long into the night from the small fact that Alex might have accidentally fallen totally in love with her. The couple go back to the brunette's after homecoming and just get complete and utterly lost between Alex's white sheets, and quite frankly the older girl can hardly get a breath never mind sit Piper down to have a meaningful chat about her feelings for the blonde. Alex studies the peaceful planes of her girlfriend's face for an incalculable amount of time in the crepuscular lighting of her bedroom, and comes to another eventual conclusion.

Piper is different.

Everything about her screams confusion and uncertainty to Alex; not to mention the fact that she was completely off limits considering the circumstances. The forbidden nature of their relationship makes Piper all that much more enticing, and there's unquestionably a rush from their taboo affair that somehow makes the whole thing impossibly more exhilarating. The confusion and uncertainty comes from the perplexing fact that Alex feels so strongly for a woman she'd only met about a month ago; the brunette is not the type to fall in love easily, or at all in fact. Alex had never planned on falling in love with Piper; she had certainly not lied about the car scrape or made ridiculous excuses to see the younger girl with the intention of lying beside her sleeping form a month later and considering the best approach to articulating to Piper how exactly she feels. Quite frankly, Alex isn't really sure how to explain any of it, and even if she could, she's not sure she feels like it. Anyone who can formulate any reasoning into how or why Alex feels so strongly for Piper deserves some sort of medal, but the sordid truth remains that she just _does_ without knowing much about how or why. The brunette smiles softly to herself, kisses her sleeping girlfriend on the forehead and allows a deep, comfortable unconsciousness to envelope her, thoughts of blonde haired Chemistry teachers and the surprisingly pleasant feeling of being in love lulling her easily to sleep.

* * *

Piper has always been strikingly good at creating a facade of emotion that is the total opposite of what she's feeling inside. Usually, the blonde adorned a pretence of calmness, authority and general acceptance of whatever life happened to throw at her. Those closest to her of course understood it was a complete and utter act, her way of dealing with emotional turmoil, but often outsiders would see Piper Chapman as an ice-cool blonde with little to deal with in the way of struggles. Rich family, big house, good job, incredibly good looks and as intelligent as they come; you could hardly blame people for making presumptions.

Thankfully, her chosen front for this dreary, incessantly boring Monday was simply for the fun of getting under her girlfriend's skin.

_Of course_ Piper had gotten over Alex's little stunt at Homecoming. To say the brunette had made it up to Piper in bed later that night would be an understatement to say the least. But frankly, Piper was bored, and hadn't seen Alex in over twenty four hours, and Monday mornings had a funny way of making her do questionable things. So, just for the hell of it, Piper decided that giving Alex a taste of her own medicine wouldn't go amiss. A little ignorance here, a compliment to another teacher there, just to get a rise out of the unflappable brunette who was unfazed by seemingly everything. Except Piper, that is. The blonde smirked devilishly from her desk, propping up her heels on the wooden tabletop and checking her watch. Alex was always the punctual type.

_Three. Two. O-_

"Good morning, Miss Chapman!" Alex's domineering form burst through the door to her counterpart's lab, her boisterous tone ringing out across the classroom. Piper didn't reply, but raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at her girlfriend as she approached the desk. Alex hoists herself on top of it, shifting onto the other side to face the blonde, swinging her legs juvenilely and drumming her fingers along Piper's legs that rest beside her.

"What?" Alex narrows her eyes as Piper continues to grin knowingly at her but offers no reply. "I missed you."

It slips out so easily, as if the older woman is commenting on the weather, and Piper's resolve positively crumbles around her, left in tatters by the smooth sincerity of Alex's voice.

"I missed you too." Piper replies earnestly, her voice almost reverent and her eyes shining with pride. Alex grins crookedly, but it's fairly genuine by her standards, and she continues her innocent touching of Piper's calf muscles over the tight material of her trousers without really thinking about how they must look. They're staring at each other, as per usual; Piper has her legs half-sat in Alex's lap, and they have classes in about fifteen minutes, and they couldn't give a damn. Something about the way her girlfriend is looking at her has Piper utterly unable to even think about teasing her, or getting under her skin or doing anything other than gazing into the honest green of her irises for an incalculable amount of time.

"Gotta..um..." Alex trails off, the intensity burning in Piper's intense gaze startling her immensely. Piper smirks, inclines her head. Alex blinks.

"Class." The brunette finishes, inhaling sharply and stepping down from the desk. She leans over to kiss Piper, but once more she's startled by the desirous manner in which the blonde grabs a handful of her shirt and brings their lips together messily. Alex can do little but fight to keep her balance as Piper's searching hands run over her front, probing tongue easily snaking into the warm confines of her girlfriend's complaint mouth. All too suddenly, Piper breaks the kiss with a lustful bite on Alex's full bottom lip and abruptly removes her hand from the brunette's now slightly crumpled shirt. The older woman is now impossibly more confused, and she raises a high eyebrow in question. Piper says little, just continues to regard Alex in exactly the same position that she had when her girlfriend entered the room. The blonde shrugs and smiles cryptically at Alex.

"I heard you missed me."

* * *

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), Alex has little time to ponder over the intensity of her girlfriend, because upon stepping into her own classroom (almost a mirror image of Piper's), she's struck by such a pungent odour it almost knocks her straight back out the door.

"Oh, are you fucking kidding me?!" Alex seethes, covering her face with the sleeve of her jacket as she peers intently around the classroom. Nothing seems out of place save for the revolting smell poisoning the expanse of her classroom

_Poison._

The thought strikes her almost as strongly as the smell, and Alex swears loudly before walking back out the way she came and slamming the door loudly behind her.

"My classroom has a gas leak." She informs Piper pointedly upon crossing the threshold back into the blonde's room.

"Tragic." She offers back with a dramatic pout and furrowing of her eyebrows. Alex sticks her tongue out but doesn't retort as she steps from the confines of Piper's classroom and skips through the throngs of pupils towards the Principal's office.

"Mr Healy?" Alex knocks amicably on the door and pokes her head around the frame, taking in the slightly repulsive form of her boss.

"Ah, Miss Vause, what can I do for you?" He smiles up at her, his burly figure taking up most of the area behind his pompously large mahogany desk. Inquisitive beady eyes study one of his Chemistry teachers as she steps further into his office.

"My classroom has a gas leak." She repeats her words to Piper to the Principal, scrunching up her nose in reference to the smell. Healy hums knowingly, taking off his reading glasses and sighing heavily.

"We've had problems with that room before." He explains. _Wonderful,_ Alex thinks dryly. He scratches at the first remnants of stubble appearing on his face, eyes boring holes through his desk. Alex waits for a ridiculous amount of time before he seems to come to some sort of an epiphany. "You can't teach pupils in there, then." The Chemistry teacher has to take a deep breath to stop herself from rolling her eyes and bites back more than one sarcastic reply.

"Yeah..." Is all she can manage without insulting her boss. Healy drums the end of his pencil off a sheet of paper, seemingly deep in thought. Alex rolls her eyes and makes a suggestion. "I could teach my classes with Miss Chapman?" She offers. Healy looks up at her and blinks, before humming in agreement. He smiles a sort of smile that makes Alex feel slightly ill, but she returns it with a tight lipped one of her own.

"I think that could work. Let me know if you have any problems." He returns his glasses to his face, nodding at his Chemistry teacher. Alex thanks him with a slight wave and backs out of the office, starting the short walk back to her classroom.

Piper could hardly believe her luck when Alex informed her of their little predicament. A whole six hours in the same room with her girlfriend was the perfect setting to exact her revenge on the brunette for her little homecoming stunt.

"A gas leak?" Piper questions with folded arms whilst Alex leans against one of the three large desks in the room. There are two on either side of the room, a large space in the middle between them and a longer but thinner one along the back of the room, directly opposite Piper's desk and the whiteboard. Alex nods and shrugs idly.

"Good luck keeping your hands off me." The brunette teases, rewarded with a crooked smirk from Piper and a challenging raise of her eyebrows. The blonde rounds her desk, approaching her girlfriend with an explicitly sultry sway to her hips and abhorrently lustful fire blazing in cerulean irises.

"Oh, baby." Piper pouts in pity for the naivety of Alex Vause, her voice low and suggestive, sending a tremor up the brunette's spine. Piper brings her dextrous fingers to the hem of Alex's crisp white shirt, drawing it between her forefinger and thumb, not so subtly grazing across the planes of her counterpart's flat stomach. The younger girl regards her girlfriend intently, piercing gaze moving slowly from her fingers, up to Alex's inviting red lips and finally to her green eyes that look back at her with a silent urge to continue.

The bell for first period rings. They don't move a muscle.

Piper speaks eventually after biting her lip seductively, desire lacing her tone.

"You have no idea what you're in for."

* * *

Piper had managed to escape from Alex's searching lips, backing away from her girlfriend with a smug wink and sauntering off to open the door to her pupils with a practiced coolness that gave away absolutely nothing to the class. Alex, meanwhile, was left in a perpetual state of motionlessness, unable to move from her spot rooted to the floor beside one of the lab tables. The familiar chatter of pupils eventually roused her, and she leaned off the desk and attempted to reorganise her flailing emotions. Wordlessly, she stepped around the smirking blonde at the doorway to the classroom and out into the thankfully airy corridor. Her confused class of seniors stood at the other end, outside her own room and looking down towards their teacher. Alex approached them confidently, red heels reverberating off the polished floor of the corridor.

"There's a gas leak." Alex elaborated as the pupils looked between their teacher and the large "No entry" sign on the classroom door. "So Miss Chapman and myself are going to endeavour to teach our classes at the same time."

"How's that going to work?" One pupil asked while Alex led her class back down the corridor. She stopped outside the door, her back turned to the children as she came to the complete realisation that instead of sorting out how on earth one of them was going to teach a group of seventeen and eighteen year olds while the other taught pupils who had only been at the school a month, was ever going to work, Piper and Alex had spent their time flirting and teasing each other to the point where the brunette could hardly speak. Alex offered no reply in the end, instead choosing to open the windowless door with a flourish, striding into the room as her class shuffled in behind her. To her utter surprise, Piper had her side of the class lined up one side, some sitting on the counter stretching the entire length of the wall while others sat on stools, talking quietly between themselves. The blonde, meanwhile, was halfway through pulling on her lab coat over her fancy black sleeveless top. She caught Alex's surprised gaze, and Piper's actions suddenly turned more deliberate, pulling the tight material taut across her front with a smug curl of her lips.

"Sorted?" Piper smiled sweetly at her counterpart who was professional enough to not walk straight up to her and tear the offending material right from the self-satisfied blonde's infuriating form. Alex narrowed her eyes subtly before turning to her advancing pupils and ordering them to sit in the same fashion as Piper's class. Alex entered the store room briefly, snagging her own lab coat from the hanger before returning to her counterpart. The two stood side by side, clad in fitted white jackets with pleased, slightly mischievous smirks on their faces and arms folded while their pupils looked at them silently. Their commanding stance screamed total authority over their classes, and the students were almost afraid to move due to the absolute power the two women exuded together. Alex's trademark smirk widened slightly, her gaze shifting from the pupils to Piper who mirrored her actions while the brunette nodded approvingly from the middle of the classroom.

"Sorted."

* * *

They settled on a demonstration for first two periods. Alex's seniors were revising the theory behind what caused metals to react the way they did, while Piper's freshmen were simply learning the observations.

"So, if I put this potassium in water, what will happen?" Piper questioned to her side, raising an inquisitive eyebrow as Alex watched her amusedly. A blonde boy raised his hand eagerly and Piper nodded to him.

"It'll burst into a lilac flame." He informed her proudly. Piper smiled in approval.

"Good." She commented, turning to Alex smugly. The brunette inclined her head in mock surprise.

"And can anyone tell Miss Chapman why?" Alex asked her seniors, pushing her tongue against the inside of her cheek as Piper huffed but didn't rise to the teasing.

"Because it's an electropositive element so its electron transfers to the more electronegative substance." A bespectacled girl answered from her stool.

"And the flame?" Alex pressed further, gesturing to the water.

"It's an exothermic reaction." A girl answered from the other side of the room. Both teachers turned to the owner of the voice in confusion, surprised that a fourteen year old girl knew the answer before any of Alex's much older students. Piper afforded the girl a proud smile, unbelievably satisfied by the barely audible scoff from her girlfriend.

"Excellent." Piper said gleefully. "My, Miss Vause, haveyou taught them nothing?" She raises her eyebrows quizzically at her counterpart. Alex rolled her eyes but let loose most of a smile as both sets of pupils laughed at the exchange between their two well liked teachers.

"I've been rather preoccupied recently." Alex mused cryptically. Piper blushed a little but played it off easily, narrowing her eyes playfully at the brunette before scraping off a tiny piece of potassium and settling it on the end of the knife. Precisely, Piper brings it to the edge of the beaker and taps it once off the rim. The metal falls into the body of water, igniting spectacularly in a lilac flame and fizzing violently, moving around the surface of the water quickly for a second before extinguishing almost as quickly as it had appeared. Piper moves to set the knife back on the table, but 'accidentally' misjudges it and it clatters to the floor slightly in front of her feet.

"Oh." Piper remarks, bending over to lift the fallen item slowly, gathering the end of it in her hand before standing straight. She turns to Alex, who was staring hard at her, jade irises flaring dangerously behind the slight obscurity of her glasses. Of _course_ Piper had meant to drop the damn thing if it meant giving Alex a very deliberate view of her ass in the tight black trousers she had deliberately worn today. A skirt would have been too slutty, but the form fitting material flattered her long legs immensely. Absolutely beside herself at the frustration etched delightfully across Alex's face, Piper smirks in gleeful self-satisfaction as begins sauntering back to her desk to pick up the next metal. Her back turned to the pupil's eyes, she pauses momentarily just by Alex's side. Piper exhales breathily, taking unadulterated pleasure from the way Alex's jaw tightens visibly as she tries to reign in her desire for the blonde. The younger girl looks up at Alex, feigning total innocence with a fake pout of honesty playing on her lips but an almost sinful look in her eyes.

"Oops."

* * *

And that's how the day plays out, from dropped knives to needless brushing against Alex, from overbearing flirtatiousness in the staffroom at break until finally Alex's patience snaps.

She's head over heels in love with Piper, but _fucking hell,_ is the blonde a damn frustrating little tease.

They're sitting behind Piper's desk, Alex's sophomores working on a test while Piper's seniors revise for their upcoming one. Alex leans over her girlfriend slightly, giving the blonde a scintillating view down her half unbuttoned shirt.

"I never knew you were left handed." Piper whispers, looking confusedly between the brunette's hand that rests with a pencil between it on the desk, to her cleavage and back up to her face. Alex smirks when she sees Piper's gaze return to her chest.

"If you were paying attention to my hand you'd realise I haven't written a word." Alex muses darkly. Piper doesn't falter under the suggestiveness, simply biting her lip absentmindedly at the intoxicating presence of Alex sitting so closely to her. Piper looks out at the classes who are working in total silence, gaze fixed on their work, before her she flits to the clock on the wall. Unfortunately, there's still over five minutes before she can justify letting them go to lunch and catch a well needed break from being so agonisingly close to Alex without being able to do a damn thing. To be fair, it was nothing compared to what the older girl was going through. Piper smirked; the tension and frustration was practically rolling off Alex in waves due to the relentless teasing inflicted on her by the blonde. Returning to the task at hand (teasing Alex to the point of breaking), Piper stretched out her arms in front of her, flexing her muscles. Alex sat back slightly, looking blankly at the bronzed, exposed skin of her girlfriend who proceeded to yawn heavily, cracking her knuckles. Alex thought nothing of it, until Piper's yawn turned into somewhat of a groan, low in her throat and completely deliberate. Alex closed her eyes in an attempt to ignore the seductive nature of Piper's tones. The blonde quiets, sighing contentedly to herself as she splays her hands across the desk to flex out the slight cramps in her arms before dragging them down to her sides.

Well, almost to her sides.

Piper left hand falls onto the exposed thigh of her counterpart, rewarded with an immediate tense of the taut muscle there.

"Piper." Alex breathes, her tone warning. She looks at the blonde pleadingly, but Piper only proceeds to close her eyes and smile contently to herself, rolling her shoulders back and humming quietly.

"Relax, Miss Vause." Piper chastises under her breath, her eyes still closed. "You're so..." The mischievous blonde pauses and drums her fingers on Alex's thigh before opening her eyes, regarding Alex desirously. "_Tense."_ Piper finishes, digging her nails suddenly into the brunette's skin. Alex exhales agitatedly, her fingers curling around the pencil in her hand to the point where she can feel it almost snapping. She releases in from her grip and slips her hand under the desk, settling her fingers over Piper's that continue to creep under the hem of her skirt.

"I cannot stick this for another three hours." Alex would usually never admit to being outplayed, but she's quite frankly afraid of suffering a severe aneurism if this continues.

"Stick what?" Piper whispers innocently, looking at Alex with wide blue eyes as her thumb presses high up the inside of the brunette's thigh.

"What the _hell _did I do to deserve this?" Alex whisper-shouts, attempting to pull away Piper's prying fingers.

"Bored." Piper grins slyly, but allows her girlfriend's a moment's respite as she moves her hand away. Alex positively melts with relief, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger while resting her elbow on the desk. A few pupils look up in confusion at her demeanour, but are blind to the events that had just transpired under their noses. Piper looks at the clock again and notices it's basically lunchtime. _Finally._ She stands from her chair, leaving Alex to getting her emotions in check for a moment as she tells the pupils to pack up their stuff and leave their tests sitting on the table. Piper opens the door for them to file out in silence, an expression of utter composure on her face. She answers the question of an inquisitive boy about his test next week with her back turned to Alex for a moment before he leaves and Piper closes the door softly behind him, locking it. Piper saunters back to the front of the room, smirking winningly as her girlfriend comes to the front of the desk. The blonde opens her mouth to make a comment, but Alex interrupts her by grabbing her forcefully by the forearm and pushing her front against the desk, pressing her lithe body against Piper's as tight as she can manage. Piper gasps in surprise at the forwardness of her girlfriend, taken aback by the almost animalistic way Alex's hands tug her back by the arms so she's standing flush against the brunette's front. Piper braces her own hands on the table as Alex's brush her blonde locks over her right shoulder, exposing the skin on her neck that's immediately attacked by the older girl's lips.

"Fuck." Piper curses softly, her head lulling back in pleasure and further offering up her skin to Alex's lips. The older woman's mind is absolutely clouded by lust, and she can hardly think straight, unable to realise what the hell she's getting into. Piper finds herself in a similar state as one of her girlfriend's hands run all over the front of her silky top, groping her breast possessively for a long moment and eliciting a low groan from the blonde before she draws her fingers underneath the hem and works her fingers up underneath the annoyingly tight shirt over Piper's cool skin. Her other hand comes around to the button on Piper's trousers as her lips move down across the blonde's shoulder blades.

"Fuck you for not wearing a skirt." Alex growls, moving her right hand from halfway up Piper's stomach to join her other hand on tugging the tight material from the blonde's legs.

"Fuck me, then." Piper gasps wantonly when Alex's fingers press harshly against her hipbones. The brunette smirks, releasing the skin of Piper's neck from between her teeth and dragging her tongue up the column of the blonde's neck lustfully, placing a kiss on Piper's jaw line before finally coming within millimetres of her lips. Alex grinds her hips against her girlfriend's ass instinctively, pressing her impossibly harder against the robust desk while staring hard into the dilated pupils of the blonde.

"Oh, I intend to." Alex husks before kissing Piper hungrily, pausing her attempts to take off the younger girl's trousers for the moment as she contents herself with resting her strong hands on the curve of Piper's hips. The blonde moans against Alex's lips, utterly overcome with desire for the older girl as Alex deepens the kiss easily, tracing over Piper's lip lustfully before she opens her mouth to accommodate the brunette's wicked tongue. There's nothing loving, nor slow about the feverous way their lips meet; it's uninhabited, blind lust for each other that takes little notice for its surroundings, focused utterly on the pair of lips meeting their own. Alex relents her pressure on Piper's back turned frame for a moment, the kiss breaking for a second to allow the blonde to turn and face her girlfriend. Piper kicks her heels off desperately while Alex brings their lips together again, hands coming around to the back of her top. Everything about it is messy, risky and completely irresponsible, but it just manages to turn the couple on more. Alex struggles with the buttons running up the back of the blonde's tight shirt while Piper continues to kiss her desperately, her hands hiking up Alex's skirt and groping her ass roughly.

"Fuck this." Alex mutters against her girlfriend's lips as she rips the remaining buttons from their seams, finally able to rid Piper of the offending item.

They both fail to remember they have classes in the afternoon.

Piper reaches behind her blindly, clearing space off her desk and hoisting herself onto it, drawing her legs tightly around Alex's waist as the brunette rakes her nails desirously down the newly exposed skin of her back. The blonde threads her fingers through raven tresses, tugging harshly and attempting to move Alex's lips to her collarbones. The older girl complies, drawing her teeth over them as her hands again find purpose on Piper's hips. Finally, she manages to get a good grip of the trousers and tears them off the blonde's toned legs, discarding them along with her ruined shirt on the other side of the desk. Alex pulls Piper flush against her by the back of her knees, digging her nails in harshly as she returns her lips to the half naked girl's chest.

"Alex, please." Piper arches into the ruinous touch of her girlfriend. To her utter surprise, Alex doesn't fight her pleading, instead tugging down the blonde's underwear off her legs and fiercely kissing her girlfriend again, biting down on Piper's lip impetuously. Piper's surprisingly steady hands unbutton the rest of Alex's shirt, and she pushes it open before sliding her hands around the brunette's neck and pressing their bodies together. Alex's fingertips press against Piper's sides before she finally runs them down to Piper's thighs. The younger girl leans back on her forearm, pulling Alex with her by the back of her neck as their lips continue to meet lustfully. They're an absolute hot mess; Alex's skirt is hiked up beyond belief and her shirt is wide open, while Piper lies under her clad in only her bra, searching eagerly for more from the brunette. If _anyone_ were to walk in, their careers would be over. Yes, Piper had locked the door, but there was still a risk attached to the whole thing. They're utterly oblivious to any of it though, evident in the way Alex is currently running a teasing finger up Piper's dripping entrance.

"I thought _you_ were the one teasing _me._" Alex reminds the blonde smugly, but is granted nothing in the way of a reply save for an incoherent moan against her lips and the tightening of Piper's legs around her waist. Piper's thigh muscles quiver under Alex's other hand and her whole body shudders when the brunette moves her hot mouth to place wet kisses along Piper's jaw. The blonde grips Alex's shoulder almost painfully hard when she finally slips a long, talented digit inside her. She runs her hands through the older girl's hair desperately as she attempts to find anything to hold onto, low moans spilling from between her lips in time with Alex's sure thrusts inside her. The heel of Piper's foot digs into the base of Alex's spine in pleasure and her back arches up instinctively. Alex moves her free hand to the blonde's back and takes off her bra easily, discarding it along with the rest of Piper's clothing before attaching her lips roughly to one of her girlfriend's nipples. Piper bites her lip to the point of pain to keep from crying out at Alex's ministrations coupled with the feeling of a second finger slipping inside her. Piper curses under her breath when the brunette rakes her teeth over a nipple and worries the other between her thumb and forefinger, her fingers curling deliciously within the blonde on every other thrust.

"Fuck-" Piper groans wantonly while Alex moves her thumb relentlessly against her and moves her lips back up to the blonde's jaw line. Alex's wicked fingers cause the blonde to begin to unravel, the movement of her hips slightly less calculated against the brunette's rough fingers.

"Let go, Pipes." Alex commands lowly, drawing her teeth lightly across the jaw of her lover before sucking harshly on her pulse point. She curls her fingers with added fervour inside the blonde, and that's all it takes for Piper's vision to splinter and her toes to curl in sheer pleasure. Her orgasm explodes within her, igniting through every nerve ending in her body as she grapples for purpose with her nails drawn underneath Alex's shirt digging hard into her back. An inexplicable wave rockets through the blonde as Alex swallows her moans with a searing kiss, slowing her ministrations between Piper's legs before drawing her fingers outward and gathering the spent blonde in her arms.

"Fucking _hell,_ Alex." Piper exhales beside Alex's ear, smoothing her hands over the raven locks she had successfully managed to muss up. Alex laughed breathily, stroking Piper's naked back soothingly as she ducked her head to place a chaste kiss on the blonde's shoulder. She pulls back to look at Piper, resting their foreheads together and for once their faces are unusually devoid of smugness or teasing. Piper draws her thumb over Alex's lips reverently, gazing intently into the practically black pupils of her girlfriend. If they were _anywhere _but on top of Piper's desk in the middle of a classroom, Piper would tell Alex she loved her.

And Alex would say it back.

But the fact remains that they most definitely are in school, and lunch is over in five minutes. Alex allows the blonde to pull her bottom lip down with her thumb before Piper kisses her softly, drawing her fingers either side of the brunette's face and grasping her cheek. A calmness settles over them, a perpetual stillness that envelops them for a few minutes more before the horrifying sound of a knock on wood shatters their bubble.

"Shit!" Piper swears in alarm, breaking the kiss immediately and looking at Alex in panic. The brunette returns the expression for a moment, racking her brain for a solution.

"Hide!" Alex cries, releasing her girlfriend and gesturing to behind the desk. Piper jumps off it and cowers in sheer panic as Alex buttons up her shirt with incredibly shaky hands. The blonde busies herself with pulling on clothes as silently as possible while her girlfriend walks over to the door, taking calming breaths.

"Yes?" Alex questions to a pupil she doesn't recognise.

"Um, is Miss Chapman here?" The girl questions shyly. Alex almost sags with relief.

"No, she's not."

"Do you know where she is?"

"No." Alex answers bluntly, her confidence rattled. She usually wouldn't be rude, but the further the pupil is from the classroom, the better.

"Oh, okay. Thanks." The pupil mutters dejectedly, slinking back down the corridor. Alex shuts the door and leans her forehead against it, attempting to gather herself. She's afforded not a moment's peace, however, as the shrill cry of her girlfriend pierces harshly through the air.

"Alex!" Piper snarls, clad in her trousers, heels and bra, but holding her black top in her right hand while her left is outstretched in utter confusion.

"What?" Alex replies, raising a confused brow. Piper groans loudly, gesturing wildly to the garment, which has a visible tear down the seam at the back.

"You ripped my _fucking_ shirt!"


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: This update took me quite a while despite how quickly it's going up (for once). The angst is coming soon, by the way (just to warn you). Also, recently I hit 500 reviews on Persuasion, 300 reviews on this and 100k overall views of both stories. Now, when I started writing for the first time in the summer (Persuasion is genuinely the first piece of writing I've produced), I did not think I would come this far. For a 15 year old, to be getting this kind of reaction to something written just for the hell of it, is genuinely astounding. I honestly, _honestly_ cannot thank you guys enough. Okay, enough of me being a sap, enjoy!

* * *

"This is your entire fault."

"Now, Piper-"

"Don't you 'now Piper' me!"

Alex sighs, setting down the safety pins on the desk and coming around to face the perturbed blonde. Piper looks back at her sternly, arms folded with all the menace of a scorned three year old who'd had her toys taken off her.

"Please just let me go and get your damn running stuff." Alex reiterated her initial point to Piper that really there was no chance in hell of repairing the damaged shirt, and it would make much more sense to have her go to Piper's car and retrieve her clothes for coaching the track team after school.

"Like that won't attract suspicion." Piper surmises caustically.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Would you rather walk around for the rest of the day in a ripped shirt? By all means, go ahead; I sure won't be complaining." Alex quips with a wry smirk.

"Fuck you."

"Are you sure about that one?" The brunette fires back light-heartedly, raising her eyebrows suggestively. Piper would like to be angry, she really would, but such is Alex's effortless charm and ability to exude an air of complete calmness at all times, she finds herself shaking her head in reverent disbelief. Alex grins slyly at her, a silent inquiry to the whereabouts of her car keys. Piper _needs_ to be mad, she _has _to tell Alex (and herself) to stop this; the recklessness that had just occurred within earshot of the student body could not and should not ever even come close to happening again. Alex especially should know better; she's turning thirty in a little over a week, and they're both expected to be looking after twenty pupils over a three day period in Boston.

And yet they can't even keep their hands off each other in a classroom, never mind a hotel room.

Piper sighs but eventually concedes to Alex's earnest look once she moves her glasses to the top of her head and gazes at her girlfriend so sincerely that the blonde hands over the keys hastily before her insides turn to mush under the staunchness visible in Alex's green eyes.

"You better...you know, hide." Alex instructs sheepishly, nodding her head to the storeroom door behind Piper. The younger girl rolls her eyes but a smile inadvertently tugs at the corners of her mouth as she stands, holding her top together at the back awkwardly.

"I feel like a fugitive." Piper mutters quietly, but Alex picks up on it and smirks as she strides towards the opposite door.

"Ooh, role-play."

* * *

Piper is finally afforded a few minutes of silence alone in the narrow storeroom, hidden in an alcove on the off chance someone would enter looking for her due to the absence of the blonde in her classroom. Apart from the quiet mutterings audible from the class outside, the unusual absence of noise was welcomed by Piper. She picks absentmindedly at a pluck in her trousers while she waited for Alex to return, and was struck by the absurdity of the situation. Here she was, hiding from her pupils while she waited for her co-worker to sneak in her running clothes so she had something to wear for the remainder of the day. Added to the fact the co-worker also happens to be her girlfriend and had ripped Piper's shirt down the seam, causing the need for the blonde to change into more appropriate attire, it would be fair to say that the whole thing was a little surreal. The single most incomprehensible thing, however, is the unutterable truth that Piper Chapman has fallen in love with Alex Vause.

And it absolutely terrifies her.

Piper doesn't dwell too much on the location in which their ill-timed fuck had occurred. Rather, she focuses on the fact that even ten minutes later she still feels fairly dazed by the indescribable orgasmic pleasures inflicted on her by the brunette. No one has _ever_ had Piper Chapman in such a continuous state of delirium just by simply existing, by being around often or, of course, by the touch of their hands and lips across her body. Simply put, no one has ever made Piper feel even a smidgen of the way Alex does. There's a constant cycle of lust and happiness and anger and frustration and a thousand other unattainable emotions coursing through Piper's veins constantly when Alex is around, and if the blonde had to sum it up into one cataclysmic state, she would call it being in love. But Piper has never been in love; she doesn't know the first thing about what she can and can't do. Certainly, by the way things are looking; she's already struggling with the secrecy that must unfortunately come along with their relationship. She blames Alex, but only as a means of distancing herself from conflict and anything that may force her to face up to the fact that it is verboten, it is forbidden, and if she is found out the only thing that has mattered to her up until Alex will be ripped from right in front of her eyes; the prospect of establishing a name for herself in her chosen career path. And, while it may seem miniscule to an onlooker, from Piper's perspective the one thing she has been striving for since the moment she'd gotten her life sorted out, was a sense of stability, power and recognition that may only be granted to her through becoming Head of Department in one of America's most prestigious high schools. Up until now Piper has been obsessed with that goal, and one can hardly blame the blonde for still chasing after it despite the arrival of an incredibly endearing co-worker.

Alex Vause is bad; a dark streak that holds no regard for the consequences of her actions and how they may affect Piper now entwines them both, a deep-rooted ignorance that blossoms from both women's lust for power and perfection. But oh, there are some moments when Piper realises how fucking _good_ Alex Vause is, that they almost pain her to think about.

This is one of those moments.

Here is Alex, escaping out under the prying eyes of pupils and staff to retrieve clothes for her girlfriend by way of apology for tearing a shirt during the throes of passion; it is a reinforcement of the enormity of her love for the blonde that she should risk questioning by anyone for her suspicious actions, yet still she ignores the ramifications and focuses solely on what will make Piper happy (whether it be an orgasm or a new set of clothes). There are other moments, Piper realises now, where she should have known how important Alex was (and is); on Sunday mornings when she'll read meaningless passages from books to the blonde simply because Piper likes the pitch of her voice, or on the rare occasions when Piper is upset, Alex will set her glasses down on the table, cradle Piper in her arms and look at her with so much compassion and understanding etched beautifully across her face that she might as well have the words 'I love you' spelt out in bold lettering across her forehead. Alex Vause is a paradox of good versus evil that has utterly consumed Piper; a deadly concoction of the thrill of breaking rules coupled with unprecedented sincerity gifted solely to Piper that has the blonde falling impossibly harder for her.

Piper sighs happily into the natural lighting of the storeroom, content with her review of feelings for her girlfriend. The terror from before has manifested delightfully into something that curls in her stomach, something that feels a hell of a lot like anticipation. Now, she doesn't have to worry about telling Alex how she feels, it's more about choosing _when _to tell her. They have chemistry all right, and really they only need one other thing- timing.

But timing's a bitch.

* * *

There's an endless list of things Alex would rather do than spend her birthday looking after a group of over enthusiastic fifteen and sixteen year olds on a science trip to Boston. But, then again, there's not much she'd rather do than spend the evening of her birthday in a hotel room with her strikingly beautiful girlfriend who she _still _cannot catch a break with. Over a week has elapsed, and the pair have found little time for each other in between a hectic race to get the trip planned out. Wednesday morning comes with the promise of a lengthy train journey side by side but the responsibility to look after their students. Alex sighs in utter ambivalence and looks sideways at Nicky who had so kindly offered her less than stellar driving skills to her best friend so that Alex didn't have to leave her car in school while she was away.

"What're you so nervous about?" Nicky cries incredulously when she takes in the brunette's rather hesitant demeanour. Alex shrugs.

"What if she doesn't say it back?"

"As if that's ever stopped you before." Nicky reminds her best friend.

"I never, ever say it first. You know that." Alex fires back instantaneously.

"You still say it, though." The chemistry teachers concedes the fact that it's true, but realises that she really didn't give a shit whether her ex girlfriends said they loved her or not.

"Piper is different." It's perhaps the only way Alex can begin to explain why she cares so much about the blonde who should probably be here by now. She looks out at the various pupils gathering around the bus they're taking to the train station, and realises she should probably take it upon herself to look after them.

"Why?" Nicky presses, but is rewarded with nothing but a derisive snort from the brunette who steps from the car gracefully, moving to pull out her overnight bag. Alex slings it over her shoulder and shuts the door, leaning down to bid goodbye to her friend through the window.

"I'll let you know." Alex smirks, winking at Nicky with a quick nod before turning and making her way over to the bus. "Morning." She greets, attempting to mask her utter disdain at standing in a bitterly cold car park on an October morning with a bunch of children. They reply with a similar greeting to their teacher. "All set?" Alex directs to the pudgy bus driver who affords her a curt nod. _How pleasant, _Alex thinks dryly as she sets down her bag and pulls out her phone to check the time. 8:03. Piper should have been here for eight, and it's certainly not like her to be late. Added to the absence of a happy birthday text, it was unsurprising that Alex was feeling a little confused. Before she could press the call button under 'Pipes' name in her phone, the familiar roar of the blonde's Audi R8 echoed through the car park. Alex rolled her eyes at the drama of it all, but pocketed her phone and did her best to remain nonchalant as she sat down on the stone bench where she and Piper had sat upon Alex's admittance that she did not in fact drive a black Mercedes. Alex and the students' attention were drawn to Piper's flashy car, and the brunette did little to hide her staring as her girlfriend stepped from the confines of the matte black R8. Piper's grey jeans were literally the tightest pair Alex had ever seen her wear, almost like a second skin fitted marvellously over her long runner's legs. The blonde's denim button down shirt was wide open at the collar, exposing her collarbones for once (for the more time she spent with Alex, the less skin she was able to show due to the array of marks left by the brunette's searching mouth) covered by a thick navy coat into which she thrust a hand while the other pulled out her tan overnight bag and slammed the door of her car overbearingly hard. Alex was at once drawn from her staring solely at Piper's inviting figure and was forced to take in her whole aura; her girlfriend's eyes were obscured by dark Ray Bans which Alex seriously doubted was down to the wintery sun that would be gone in an hour or two and her lips were drawn in a tight line. Piper ran her free hand through her blonde hair and flipped it over her shoulder boldly before turning up the collar of her coat and striding purposefully towards Alex, the only audible sound from the sole of her Chelsea boots against the tarmac.

"Uh...go ahead and get on the bus, guys." Alex said to the pupils absent-mindedly as they looked confusedly between their two teachers. A few of them muttered comments to each other about the blonde's obvious rage that Alex was quite frankly glad she couldn't hear before they eventually all filtered onto the bus and the doors closed once more to keep out the stinging breeze of the early morning. Aware of the inquisitive eyes peering down at the pair from the bus, Alex kept a platonic distance from her pissed off girlfriend as best she could.

"Uhh..are you okay?" Alex inquired, standing to her full height and facing the blonde. Piper took her Ray Bans off and tucked them into the front of her shirt, revealing nothing particularly out of the ordinary. Her eyes, though, blazed with a familiar fire.

"No." She spat, but offered no explanation, just brushing past her girlfriend and waiting for the bus doors to open.

"Hey-"Alex instinctively reached out to grab Piper's wrist for a split second, before dropping it as if burned. "What's wrong?" Piper looked from Alex's hands to her face, and her stormy expression faltered slightly.

"I'll tell you on the train." Piper promised softly, reluctant to get into a rant when she was already late.

"Okay." Alex accepted half heartedly, watching as Piper turned once more. The blonde rearranged herself as best she could, attempting to reign in her fiery temper and drawn on the coolness she was well versed in the art of exuding.

"After you, Miss Vause." Piper encouraged, her tone turning surprisingly chipper.

"Just because you want to stare at my ass." Alex correctly insinuated, smirking as Piper shrugged in defeat.

"Hey, Al." The blonde whispered quietly, her expression softening into one of genuine happiness, unmasked by any preconceptions or facades. "Happy birthday." Alex grinned slyly at her, glancing from her sparkling blue irises to her lips that curled into a smirk before looking back up again.

"Thanks, kid."

* * *

Alex loves watching Piper rant. She really, _really _loves it. The way the words spill from her mouth without much context and her hands flow with the lilt of her speech absolutely enthrals Alex, and she's pretty sure she'll never get tired of watching the blonde talk. She hardly listens, really, but more observes the inherently adorable way Piper tries to get her point across about a topic she clearly feels strongly about. As always, Piper looks at the older girl for approval, and it takes Alex a second to piece together what the hell her girlfriend is actually talking about.

"I can't believe you fell for that." Alex shakes her head in mock disdain, looking down at the Styrofoam cup between her hands, steam rising from the hot contents. "That's like the oldest trick in the book." She looks up at the aghast blonde from through her lashes, smirking at her outrage.

"What is the oldest trick in the book?!" Piper repeats incredulously, spreading her hands across the table and turning her palms skyward. "_Poop?!" _Her voice raises an octave and her eyes widen in sheer disbelief. "In a _bag?! _Alex continues to smirk triumphantly at Piper's amazement. "_ON FIRE?!" _A few passengers turn their heads at the outcry from the blonde, who just continues to glare at Alex in unashamed dubiousness.

"It's a prank, Pipes." Alex, as usual, is the voice of reason, her tone calm and soothing to the blonde. Piper scoffs but settles herself slightly, crossing her forearms on the grey, plastic table and looking deep in thought. Alex continues to study her for a long moment, before the blonde's expression turns into absolute horror.

"Oh, my god. It's _her." _Piper's voice wavers with realisation, her expression faraway.

"Who?" Alex questions, raising one eyebrow in curiosity.

"Sylvie."

"My ex? Really?" Alex scoffs indignantly, but realises her ex is probably the sort of person to leave a steaming bag of shit at Piper's front door at seven o'clock in the morning. Sun streams through the vast window beside their table, lush greens rocketing past as the train hurtles towards their destination.

"Yes, she's fucking crazy!" Piper insists, her tone accusing. Alex nods her agreement, but shrugs amicably.

"Yeah, well, hopefully she's got it out of her system. Why didn't Holly give you a lift this morning?"

"Too busy cleaning up the shit on my doorstep." Piper deadpans. Alex lets out a loud, throaty laugh at the image of Piper's best friend scrubbing away at the doorstep. The infectious laughter filters throughout Piper and she can't fight the grin that spreads across her face. Suddenly, her annoyance at the situation is at once removed by Alex, and the blonde comes to see it as so ridiculous it's funny.

"I swear, the things you get me involved in..." Piper chuckles with a shake of her head. Alex looks at her a moment longer, before she breaks into that sort of devilish smirk that ignites a ferocious feeling of anticipation within her girlfriend.

"Oh, but Piper," Alex's voice is low, as if she's revealing a terrific secret. She glances around the carriage, at the various other passengers and handful of pupils who are preoccupied in conversations or fast asleep before returning to Piper with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Think of the stories you'll have."

And Piper tries to suppress her grin with a bite of her lip, but then she just smiles so fucking wide and happy and she just falls harder in love with the brunette. The honesty of her voice and the promises of futures together have Piper's heartstrings pulled irrevocably tight; a constant fluttering in her chest that momentarily manifests into an all consuming state of pure delight when she hears those words from Alex.

Yes, Piper Chapman would absolutely _love_ to live a story or two more with Alex Vause before it's all over.

* * *

Boston is a fantastic place. A thriving metropolis at its heart beckons with skyscrapers and shimmering waters and all the typical ruckus of a city, yet the sheltered outskirts that the train trundles easily through depicts chipped pavements and derelict warehouse hold as much charm as the far away city centre where the last remnants of morning sunshine were being quickly eaten up by menacing grey clouds. A quiet storm festers overhead, enveloping Boston and its inhabitants with a total dullness that has yet to grow into the thunderous lashings of rainfall the clouds so obviously possess. The hotel is sufficient, if not overly luxurious; it has a bar, a pool and of course a wide, open ballroom that has been transformed into the science exhibition.

But, most importantly, it has a room for two booked under the names of Alex Vause and Piper Chapman.

The train journey takes it out of Piper, considering the morning she's had, and by the time the troupe arrive at their hotel for half past one, she's already half falling asleep in the foyer. Alex lets her slump in one of the plush green chairs and sorts out their party's booking herself, wondering how in the hell her girlfriend can sleep for three hours on the train and still be basically passed out. The pupils are good; they don't run off or cause to much hassle when they go into a McDonald's for lunch and they wait quietly for Alex to divvy out their key cards. Frankly, her biggest problem is the drowsy blonde in the corner. The crowd disperses up to their second floor rooms to unpack and report back within the next hour, leaving Alex and Piper alone in the expansive foyer.

"Miss Chapman." Alex drawls. Hilariously, the blonde's hand that her head rests on gives way underneath her and she's roused with a jolt, blue eyes widening in surprise.

"What?!" Piper gasps, looking wildly from Alex to her surroundings. "Wha- where are we?"

"Oh, for Christ sake, you were awake ten minutes ago!" The brunette huffs, but the makings of a smirk flit across her face. Piper drags her hand across her face and ruffles her hair tiredly, standing from the chair and moving to grab her bag. "I got it." Alex says softly, taking it before the blonde can reach it.

"You'd think it was my birthday." Piper surmises with a wry smirk, her voice rough with fatigue. They step into the elevator and Alex sets the bags down before wrapping a comforting arm around her girlfriend's shoulders. Piper gratefully rests her head in the crook of Alex's neck, taking unreserved pleasure from the intoxicating scent of her sultry perfume.

"Mm, I'm expecting quite the reward, though." Alex reminds the blonde, rubbing her hand soothingly up and down Piper's arm. Piper smirks despite her tiredness, kissing her girlfriend's pulse point for a split second before the elevator doors slide open and the two are forced to drop their hold on each other and return to the infuriating pretence of being simply colleagues. A few students stand in the corridor or shout across rooms through open doors.

"Hey!" Alex barks sharply, and silence runs immediately through the length of the corridor. Piper smirks at the pupil's fear of her girlfriend, and although she wouldn't admit it aloud, she gets one hell of a kick from watching Alex in her element, powerful and domineering and cooler than ice. It's intimidating as hell, even to Piper, but fucking hell if it isn't one of the hottest things she's ever seen.

"Either go into your friend's room and close the door, or stay in your own room and close the door." Alex informs them harshly, looking hard at the guilty pupils who cower under the stern gaze of their teacher. They scarper away quickly, some all into one room while a few just step forward and pull the door shut tight. Piper looks at Alex amusedly, but bites her tongue as they walk to their room at the end of the corridor. Wordlessly, the blonde takes her bag from between Alex's fingers as she fishes out the key card from the tight pocket of her black jeans. She walks through the door first, Piper following, and discards her own bag against the wall beside the wardrobe. The door clicks shut behind them. Alex steps a little further into the room than Piper, walking over to just in front of the bed and looking around. It's surprisingly nice; the queen size bed frame and wall behind it is a warm chocolate brown colour, while the other walls and a lighter shade, more like taupe. The carpet underfoot is pinstriped in reds and browns and the window at the far end of the room is flanked by translucent white curtains and a brown, heavier pair. There's a TV and a few desks, a mini fridge but little else to occupy them.

However, judging by the manner in which Piper is wrapping her arms around Alex from behind, snaking her hands under the tight material of her shirt and attaching her lips to her shoulder, they won't need much else to occupy themselves.

"What're you doing?" Alex breathes but offers no real protests to her girlfriend's actions. Piper moves her lips across the brunette's shoulder blades and up the column of her neck while her dextrous fingers tiptoe higher up Alex's stomach. She smirks, placing a hot kiss behind Alex's ear before whispering roughly to her, her voice as rough as gravel.

"Rewarding you."

* * *

It is no easy task asking Alex Vause and Piper Chapman to be quiet during sex. Such is the intensity of their relationship, they can hardly be blamed for being so vocal. Of course, they're not too intimate or loving considering they are in the close proximity of their pupils, but when left with a good hour to kill in a small space together, there's only really one option.

"Rate your birthday so far out of ten." Piper demands gleefully, curled against Alex's side with her head on her chest. Alex is completely naked save for her underwear, while Piper has her shirt and jeans totally unbuttoned.

Thankfully, the blonde's shirt managed to stay in one piece.

"Well, that was fun and all, but I'd like to think there's more where that came from." Alex insinuates sultrily, skimming her fingers along the exposed skin above the waistband of her girlfriend's jeans.

"So needy." Piper shakes her head in mock disappointment, but there's not even a hint of denial. Piper can get a hell of a lot more done when they have a whole night ahead of them.

"You love it." It slips out before Alex can really think about what she's suggesting, and they both realise the enormity of the statement at the same time. Her fingers still on Piper's back and the blonde's breathing hitches, no longer hitting the sensitive skin of Alex's neck. Piper's heart thumps unbelievably loudly in her ears, so loud she's surprised her girlfriend can't hear it. Piper, to her credit, opens her mouth to reply, but a sharp knock on their door interrupts her. She may be half naked lying in bed with her co-worker within metres of her students, yet she's never been happier to be interrupted in her life.

"I think I better get that." Piper mutters, hastily buttoning up her jeans and shirt and attempting to tame her hair. Alex lies frozen on the bed, wondering if she's just fucked everything up with her innate forwardness. She fails to register whatever the hell Piper is saying to their intruder around the corner; the only thing she's able to register is the heartbreaking feeling of her girlfriend's hesitance. It wasn't an outright avoidance, and Alex hadn't quite said she loved her, but it was still incredibly unnerving. Alex Vause did not deal well with rejection; she usually made choices only when she was one hundred percent sure of success.

But this? The uncertain, blurred line between Piper reciprocating and Piper avoiding, gnaws away at her to the point where she becomes irritable. The blonde informs her that the exhibition is starting in an hour, and she should probably take a shower considering the activity of the past forty five minutes.

"Yeah, you go. I'll come join you." Alex tells her distractedly with her trademark smirk that this time doesn't reach her eyes. Piper smiles back, but notices the disappointment in her girlfriend's demeanour. It's not that she didn't love Alex, of course she fucking did, she was just surprised at the brunette's suggestiveness, and had the opportunity to reply snatched away from her before she could truly grasp it.

Alex never joins her in the shower. Piper isn't surprised.

* * *

The exhibition is borderline tragic. It's so geared towards the students, that the two Chemistry teachers genuinely feel alienated.

"Yeah, I definitely feel old now. Jesus." Alex whispers to the blonde as the two watch on in awe at their students engaging in different stations set up by the faculty, all neon colours and set to the music of some trashy pop song that neither woman recognises.

"You've been thirty for like, two seconds. Relax, babe." Piper chastises lightly, throwing a sly grin in Alex's direction. The tension has dissipated slightly, but an unspoken awkwardness hangs between them, irresolvable until the next time the pair are alone. Which won't be for at least another two hours by the time the students complete whatever hellish activity they're doing, followed by a lecture and then dinner.

"I mean, I love Chemistry as much as the next person, but...fucking hell." Alex mutters, her expression one of almost disgust directed towards the exhibition.

"Maybe it's not so bad." Piper offers with little conviction, but stands to her feet anyway and looks between Alex and the various stations pleadingly. "C'mon, only one way to find out." The blonde encourages with a glint in her eye. Alex looks at her with a perfectly sculpted eyebrow raised behind the frames on her glasses.

"Are you fuckin' kidding me?" She laughs breathily.

"Alexxx..." Piper complains, jutting out her bottom lip sadly.

"I'll be over in a minute, I promise." Alex nods, rewarded with only a scoff from Piper who turns angrily on her heel and walks away. The brunette sighs, dragging her hands over her face despondently. She shouldn't take out her frustrations on Piper considering she hadn't even been given the opportunity to reply, but Alex just doesn't feel up to the task of doing basic experiments she's done a million times over while the weight of uncertainty looms over her like a dead weight. A man takes a seat beside her, looking like a teacher from one of the other schools. He's pretty old, maybe late fifties, with an ill fitting suit and white hair but kind grey eyes.

"Hello." He greets.

"Hey." Alex replies tersely, taking a sip from her water. The man looks from her to the blonde currently helping her pupils with whatever activity they're up to. Alex follows his gaze, and at once becomes entranced by the manner of her girlfriend. Piper has a terrific sort of ability about her, with an infectious smile and comforting blue eyes that have a profound impact on everyone she encounters. Some think she's pretentious, or fake, but perhaps the only person who's ever taken the time to really _know_ Piper, is Alex. Stripped back from her pretences and cold fronts, Piper is perhaps the most kind hearted person the brunette has ever met. Alex could rant and rave about the reasons she loves Piper, but quite frankly she'd be here all night.

"What's so funny?" The man's voice startles Alex, and she's pulled from her unashamed admiration of her girlfriend. She turns to him, puzzled, her grin falling from her face.

"I'm sorry?"

"You're looking at that girl as if she's just told the funniest joke in the world." He tells her. Alex blushes uncharacteristically, looking back at Piper instinctively.

"Oh, Piper? She's... she..." Alex trails off, shrugging lightly. Where on earth do you begin to describe Piper Chapman to a total stranger? The man has a knowing grin on his face, and the brunette's confusion magnifies.

"I know that look." He insists.

"What look?"

"You look like you're in love." Alex almost chokes on her water, green eyes widening in total shock at the man's sudden outburst. She offers no reply for quite some time, looking between he and her oblivious girlfriend. There's a strong chance she'll never see this man again, though, so what the hell.

"Yeah." Alex agrees finally, standing from her chair. This time, she'll join Piper. There will be plenty of other opportunities to get her point across to the blonde. "Yeah, I guess I am."

* * *

Alex and Piper have the corridor in silence by ten o'clock. Not a sound escapes from any of the student's rooms as Alex steals down the corridor back to Piper, a bottle of champagne in one hand and two glasses in the other. Not enough to get them drunk, of course (they're not _that_ irresponsible), but it's still Alex's birthday and she'll be damned if she doesn't celebrate it as best she can. Awkwardly, she puts the key card in the lock and opens the door quietly, closing it softly behind her with the heel of her shoe. And then, she just fucking stops, and she looks at Piper, and she knows there's no way in hell anything about tonight is going to be quiet.

Piper stands with her back turned to Alex over at the window, curtains thrown wide open and pale moonlight streaming through from the blackness outside, casting a shimmering glow over her form. Her phone is pressed to her ear, and she draws patterns on the windowsill with her index finger as she listens to whoever is on the other end of the line. However, it's the small fact that she's wearing nothing but red, lace underwear and her ass is firmly on display to her girlfriend. Her blonde hair falls in effortless waves down between her shoulders, and her whole aura beckons Alex intently. She sets down the champagne and glasses on the bed, inadvertently clinking them together and alerting her girlfriend to her presence. Piper turns in alarm, cerulean irises widening in alarm at her intruder but quickly relaxing when she realises it's only Alex. The brunette shrugs off her jacket, never breaking eye contact with her girlfriend, whose grip on her phone has gone slack as well as her jaw when she takes in the pure desire visible in Alex's eyes.

"Polly, I'll... um, talk to you later." Piper murmurs, hanging up before her best friend has a chance to reply. The blonde beckons Alex with a sultry crook of her index finger, nodding her head towards the champagne. Alex smirks, forgets about her frustration for the moment and saunters over to her girlfriend, setting the bottle and glasses upright on the ledge and immediately bringing her hands to Piper's hips.

"What did Dolly want?" She questions huskily, pushing Piper backwards so that the blonde sits on the windowsill. Her hands tug at the hem of Alex's shirt slowly as she speaks.

"Updating me on the load of shit landed on my doorstep this morning." Piper replies, peeling off the garment and running her hands across Alex's collarbones, mussing up the bottom of her hair slightly.

"Look, Pipes, I'm really sorry about that. She's a crazy bitch, oh God..." The brunette cringes at the fact she actually dated Sylvie, but Piper just smiles softly at her and for once doesn't make a snide comment. Struck by a sudden bravado, the blonde asks a question so uncharacteristically bold she hardly recognises herself.

"Did you love her?" Piper asks quietly, linking her fingers around the back of Alex's neck but averting her gaze to her girlfriend's lips.

"No." Alex replies instantly, her voice sure and steadfast. It had been fun, sure, but now she knew what love felt like, Alex could categorically say that she did not love Sylvie.

And of course, Alex could leave it there. She could press her lips against Piper's and open the champagne and happily go along without admitting her true feelings for the blonde. Piper, too, would let her, but they would constantly be marred by hesitation and denial. So, Alex continues.

"But I love you." And fucking finally, Alex feels the weight lifted from her shoulders, filtering into the night sky outside. Piper's eyes widen but her gaze never moves from Alex's mouth, utterly transfixed with the fact her lips and tongue had genuinely formed the words 'I love you'. Eventually, she looks up, into the forest green of Alex's eyes that are uninhabited by anything but sheer honesty. Still, Piper cannot quite believe it.

"You do?" She whispers, so quiet that Alex barely hears her. The brunette brushes back a strand of blonde hair from her girlfriend's face, smiling easily at Piper who still looks like she's in shock.

"I don't say that to everyone." Alex insists, attempting to draw out some sort of a reply from the blonde. None is forthcoming, however, and the first remnants of panic begin seeping through the older girl's bloodstream. Piper continues to get utterly lost in Alex's total being; in her eyes and the touch of her fingers along her sides and the sincerity of her voice.

"You have to say it back." Alex pleads, her voice barely above a whisper. The dreamy smile has fallen from her lips, replaced by a solemn expression and wide jade irises staring back at Piper, silently begging her to say something. Alex doesn't like begging, she _never_ begs for anything, but the fear of rejection by Piper is something she doesn't think she could even begin to deal with. By now, Piper is vital to her, a piece of Alex that has irreversibly marked the brunette and will comprehensively stay with her for the entirety of her life. Piper's eyes sparkle with electric blue; her hesitance is only down to complete disbelief that someone like Alex Vause is actually saying they're in love with her. Piper's expression softens. A smile tugs at the corners of her lips. She speaks.

"I love you, too."

Liquid love ignites within Alex, erupting totally within and engulfing all that she is, a feverish warmth spreading to every nerve ending in her body that ardently consumes her, from her soul to her lips that curl into a wide grin. Piper smiles back happily, and despite all the hesitation and awkwardness and tension, all of it is simply forgotten when Alex brings her lips softly to Piper's and rests her fingertips lightly along the small of her back. It only lasts for a second, before the brunette pulls back and moves to open the champagne. She's stopped, though, trapped by the inexplicably intense way Piper's staring at her. Momentarily, the common paradox envelops them once more, and everything that needs to be said is told by what they see in each other's eyes.

It only lasts for a second or two, an intimate meeting of clear blue and emerald green that simply says, "Yes, this is going to be quite the story."

* * *

A/N: There are bits of this chapter I'm pretty proud of, and bits I'm not, so I'm curious to know what parts you guys liked the most? Leave a review :)


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: The reviews on the last chapter literally made me _so_ happy; it makes me smile so much whenever people leave genuine, in depth reviews of my work and talk about my characterisation, etc. So, I'd like to say this is a reward, but... you probably won't see it that way. Time skips from about October to December, here, and now things are really heating up. Enjoy, another A/N at the end.

* * *

Loving Alex Vause is _glorious. _

It's as effortless and easy as breathing, and quite possibly the most natural thing Piper's ever felt. Whether it be waking up the next morning in Boston and whispering it quietly underneath cool white sheets, voices low and secretive so as not to reveal too much to the students residing down the hallway, or if it's drunkenly screamed by Piper from the top of a table at a Halloween party, half of her costume already having been ripped by Alex who watches her amusedly from Nicky's sofa; every time they say 'I love you' to each other, Piper feels herself become impossibly happier. Alex, too, finds it both the strangest yet most fantastic thing to be in love with Piper Chapman. Strange because, well, she never thought of herself as the type to gush to her mother over the phone about a "fantastic little blonde thing from Connecticut" who may or may not have Alex "so fucking whipped, Ma, you wouldn't believe it." And then, of course, fantastic because upon her mother's hasty arrival in New York after hearing her daughter rant about her girlfriend, she and Piper had hit it off like a house on fire.

"Well, she's significantly nicer than my mother, I gotta say." Piper muttered sleepily into Alex's shoulder on a fearfully cold November evening in the brunette's home, her mother asleep in the guest room next door.

"So I've gathered, Pipes." Alex whispers back with a raspy chuckle, combing her fingers easily through the blonde locks she had so ardently been pulling on for the past hour or two.

"She's so fucking cool, Alex. I can see why the hell you love her so much." Piper muses, running her hand softly across the planes of her girlfriend's stomach. Alex smiles bashfully, unusually overcome with emotion at how well Piper and her mother are getting along. She hadn't paid much heed to what the hell she was going to do if they _didn't_ hit it off, but the fact they had, relieved the brunette immensely.

"Yeah," Alex hummed in agreement, turning on her side to look into the sparkling blue of Piper's eyes, a wide grin lighting up the older girl's features. "Yeah, she's pretty great."

* * *

Time stutters and skips and changes tempo constantly throughout the months leading up to Christmas. There will be Monday mornings and lonely nights that feel as if they will _never_ end, and there will be weekends that disappear from between their fingers like an unattainable smoke, as if only lasting for a split second before they slip away, replaced by another work week of hardships and difficulties.

And, while it may be odd to work with someone who you've seen naked, it is categorically, fundamentally _insane_ to work with someone you're in love with.

It is a hell of a lot harder for them to control themselves, to work in close proximity and keep appearing totally platonic. Admittedly, they had let themselves slip a little in Boston when Piper had leaned back instinctively into Alex's embrace as their party watched a light show across the water, but if any of the pupils noticed, none of them were at any odds to say a word about it. These are smart kids, and as Polly had once pointed out, _everyone_ knew what Healy thought about same sex relationships in his school. To be fair, the couple he had fired were caught red-handed in a classroom by a pupil, but there was an underlying feeling that had it been a heterosexual couple, the two would not have been forced to move to the other side of the country just to get a new job. Unknowingly, Piper and Alex had created a sort of bond with the pupils, and although they all rightly suspected what was going on between the two teachers, the students kept schtum about their correct assumptions simply down to the fact that the two were very, _very_ damn good at their jobs. People liked Piper and Alex, but that didn't mean they were blind to the obvious flirting between the two.

So, their desire for each other increased tenfold through the months, but in turn the two were more eager than ever not to fuck everything up. To the best of their abilities, Piper and Alex did not let their desire surface during school hours. It's not to say that there hadn't been a day or two where Piper would dress in particularly tight clothing, resulting in a lunchtime spent by Alex dragging her counterpart into a supply closet and having her wicked way with the blonde. But, to their credit, even in mid-December, only a handful of colleagues were aware of the blossoming relationship within their ranks. Nicky's constant ribbing was eventually quieted by the fact she'd become smitten with Piper's friend from the bar that first night, Lorna Morello.

"Hey, Chapman!" Nicky called across the staff room one Wednesday afternoon, the room buzzing with the activity of teachers having their lunch.

"Nicky?" Piper questioned sweetly, scribbling away at a form before setting it aside and turning to her food.

"Morello say anything about me?"

"Who's Morello?!" Alex interrupted from the chair beside Piper, the sandwich between her nimble fingers stopping inches from her lips.

"Ooh, Nicky, playing coy are we?" Piper inquired smugly, furrowing her eyebrows in Nicky's direction. The Biology teacher waved her hand dismissively, scoffing.

"No one you know." She insisted nervously.

"Now that's not strictly true." Piper reminded Nicky darkly, confusion marring her features before a wide grin spread across her face. Alex looked confusedly between the two, forgetful of the night she had in fact become acquainted with the object of Nicky's desires.

"Oh yeah!" Nicky cried happily. "What was it you said, Vause?" She asked rhetorically, glancing around the otherwise engaged staff members briefly before returning to the conversation. To Alex's utter horror, her best friend moved her hands to the front of her own shirt and stretched it in front of her, the shorter girl's voice taking on a comically deep tone. "Uh, hey girl, sorry I have a girlfriend but lose the clip and lemme lick your pussy."

A ferocious blush bloomed across Alex's features as Piper choked on her sandwich, erupting into raucous laughter at Nicky's mocking of her best friend.

"Oh, come on!" Alex pleaded with the two. "I was drunk!"

"Lose the clip, oh my _God!" _Piper giggled breathlessly at the memory, her shoulders shaking with laughter. A few of their colleagues fixed the threesome with disdainful expressions at the ruckus, but were unaware of the conversation's context.

"How the hell do you know about that, anyway?" Alex directed to Nicky, who continued to chuckle heartily at the brunette's embarrassment.

"What, you think Chapman over here was ever going to keep quiet about a line like that? Jesus, Vause, I don't think I've ever heard worse in all my life, even from you." Nicky shook her head wistfully while Alex continued to glare over at her.

"Whatever, it worked, didn't it?" Alex nudged the blonde playfully.

"Yeah, in getting you a black eye." Piper fired back instantly. Alex chuckled huskily despite herself, narrowing her eyes playfully at the blonde for a moment before turning back to Nicky.

"Whatever, assholes, I still don't get who Morello is?"

"Girl who gave me the clip." Piper explained, returning to her sandwich, most of which had been spat out upon hearing Nicky's impression. Alex gasped in horror, green eyes widening behind her glasses.

"_Her?!" _She half-yelled, aghast at Nicky having any sort of feelings for the tiny brunette with the irritatingly thick accent. "But she, I thought..." Alex trailed off, remembering the unbelievably frustrating way the girl had flirted all night long with Piper, who had gladly reciprocated.

"Jealous, are we?" Nicky teased, having been over the moon upon hearing that Piper and Lorna were, and had always been, just friends. Now that she knew it had all been an act to get a rise out of Alex, Nicky was determined to have a little fun with it. "What'd she ever do to you?" Alex faltered, the familiar makings of embarrassment creeping back up into her stomach.

"I...she, you know-" She hesitated. "Nothing." Alex muttered dumbly, picking idly at her food. Piper snickered beside her while sharing a knowing glance with Nicky.

"Sure about that?" Piper pressed, a lopsided grin adorning her soft lips as she moved her attention to her girlfriend.

"If I ever meet this girl, Nicky, I swear to God..." Alex leaned back in her chair, a jealous rage lashing through her. Piper considered taking her teasing a bit further, but she'd seen that vengeful expression before when guys hit on her in front of Alex, and the staff room was certainly not the place for the brunette to lose her temper.

"Hey, Al, you know that was all a joke, right?" Piper said, knocking her knee lightly against Alex and causing the older girl to open her eyes, the deep green irises flaring dangerously.

"What?" She whispered harshly.

"Lorna- I mean Morello- is like, one of my oldest friends." The blonde explained with an easy shrug of her shoulders. "I did it to make you jealous." Alex barked out a disbelieving laugh.

"Are you f-" she stopped herself slightly, remembering her surroundings. "I went through all that, a punch in the damn face, to get you away from a girl you had no interest in?!" Piper smiled awkwardly up at the raging brunette, attempting to paint on an expression of total innocence.

"Uhh...maybe?" Piper squeaked, doing her best doe eyed impression to attempt to appease the brunette. "Don't you agree that it was sort of worth it, though?" Piper stood from her chair, bringing her plate over to the side and discarding it before returning and picking up her form. Alex regarded her warily, a sculpted eyebrow raised for no particular reason and a signature smirk on her face.

"I'll get back to you on that one. Hey-" Alex nodded to the sheet in Piper's hand. "What is that?"

"Oh, this?" Piper replied, pocketing her pen and scoffing lightly as Alex rose from her chair and joined her girlfriend on their way out of the staffroom. "It's nothing, really." Before Piper could protest, Alex had pulled the sheet from her grasp and was skipping down the corridor with it. "Hey!" Piper cried, striding determinedly after her.

"You need a lesson in fudging a resume." Alex commented, stepping away from Piper's searching hands.

"Haven't you handed yours in yet?" Piper narrowed her eyes in confusion at the brunette.

"Are you fuckin' kidding me? Pipes, he already _has_ our resumes. You've never applied for one of these in your life, have you?"

"No." Piper replied listlessly. Alex pitied her girlfriend's saddened demeanour, and attempted to lighten the mood.

"So, Piper Chapman, an NYU grad with excellent listening skills, passionate about making pupils feel good." Alex mocked, reading the words off Piper's application form with a wide grin. "Mmm, sounds kind of dirty." She husked, eyes glinting behind the frames of her glasses. "Prepared, meticulous and exact when preparing-"

"Oh, God!" Piper squealed, snatching the form from between Alex's hands.

"I like that in a woman." Alex insinuated lowly, glancing up and down the empty corridor before dragging Piper inside an empty classroom and pressing her up against the door. "What else do I need to know about you?" She questioned, pressing a kiss to the column of Piper's neck.

"That I'm going to kick your ass when it comes to the interviews." Piper groaned at Alex's ministrations, her hands dragging down the brunette's back over the material of her blazer. Alex laughed huskily, hot breath fanning across Piper's cool skin. Alex pitied the blonde, she really did; there was just no way in hell that Alex wasn't getting the Head of Department job. She drew her lips to Piper's ear, her voice rough and teasing and infuriatingly irresistible to her girlfriend.

"I'd like to see you try."

* * *

Piper tries so much fucking harder than Alex.

She stays up all night rehearsing every damn question and answer under the sun, she writes her application out countless times, and still she knows deep down in her soul that she just has no chance of beating Alex. The brunette's classes' grades are slightly higher, her answers are a little more eloquent, and her entire aura is just that tiny bit more confident than Piper's. Alex Vause is the face of cool and collected, no matter what situation she finds herself in, and while Piper is no pushover herself, her inexperience is painfully obvious compared to Alex's effortless authority. No pupil would like to cross either woman, but if they had to choose one teacher to forget their homework for, most of them would choose Piper Chapman. Still, Piper tries and toils and does her utmost to get the job over Alex, while the brunette doesn't even seem to have lifted a finger.

"Piper, baby." Alex drawled from the doorway, an ice cold beer in her hand. "Come to bed, you've been sitting there for hours."

"I know, okay?! Jesus, what's it to you?" Piper snapped angrily, never tearing her eyes away from her laptop. Alex sighed despondently, making her way over to the sofa and setting down her beer on the coffee table.

"Because I miss my fantastic, beautiful girlfriend, and I wish she would stop worrying so much about something she ultimately has no control over." Alex dropped to her knees in front of Piper, running her fingers teasingly up and down the blonde's toned calves.

"Fuck me, your hands are freezing!" Piper squealed, attempting to escape from the cold grip of her distracting girlfriend. Unfortunately, Alex had her cornered, and all it took was a firm splay of her fingers across Piper's bare thighs for the blonde to halt her struggle and to look at Alex with wide eyes.

"If you insist." Alex husked darkly, smirking devilishly from her position between Piper's legs. The blonde was caught between a rock and a hard place; she could continue working on her interview and disappoint Alex, or she could let the brunette continue her little game and run the risk of being terribly unprepared for one of the most important days of her life. On the surface, an easy decision.

But when Alex Vause is kissing the inside of Piper's thigh and drumming her dextrous fingers across the waistband of the blonde's shorts, staring up at her with a downright sinful look smouldering in her eyes, Piper finds it a little hard to say no to her girlfriend.

"Fuck you." Piper hisses, but discards her laptop and tangles her fingers in Alex's thick hair, pulling her upwards so she can crash their lips together heatedly. The manipulative brunette smirks triumphantly into the kiss, her grip on Piper's thigh tightening when the blonde's tongue runs desirously over her bottom lip.

"But?" Alex asks between feverous kisses as her fingers brush tantalisingly close to where exactly she knows Piper needs her. The blonde moves her lips ravenously along Alex's jaw and down to her collarbones, pulling down her shirt roughly while a frustrated groan escapes her lips.

"But fuck me, first."

* * *

Piper's interview goes well, but if she's honest with herself, she could have done much better. Instead of sporting a wide, confident grin throughout her questioning, she's fighting off crippling tiredness and wearing a shirt buttoned right the top to hide the sizeable hickey she's sporting on her neck. Friday lunchtime comes along, and the hickey has faded along with Piper's aspirations and expectations that she's going to be walking out of Healy's office with a smile.

"Pipes." Alex whispers to her girlfriend as they wait outside, well aware of how important the job is to the blonde.

That doesn't mean Alex doesn't want it too, though. She loves Piper, of course, but she's not just going to give up on what she's good at.

"Hmm?" Piper questions idly, clearly very on edge.

"Promise we won't...uh..." Alex falters, scratching her head as she searches for the right way to articulate her feelings without coming across as clichéd and overdramatic. "Fall out over this." It sounds rather patronising, but she knows that Piper will probably lapse into a terrible mood of grumpiness for the next few days at least, depending on the outcome.

"What age do you think I am?" Piper fires back venomously, her infamous temper rearing its ugly head once more.

"Twelve?" Alex teases with a quick smirk, but judging by the fury spreading across Piper's face, it's quite an ill timed comment. The blonde just rolls her eyes childishly, and Alex thinks twelve years old might have been a bit generous for her girlfriend. Alex sighs; really, Piper has no reason to be mad at her. They both knew this was coming, that one of them would be promoted above the other, and the brunette cannot comprehend why her girlfriend has any reason to be angry at her for simply doing her job. Certainly, if the tables were turned, Alex would be congratulatory towards Piper. Shaking her head to clear her rather presumptuous thoughts, Alex contended herself with worrying a stray pluck in her trousers between her thumb and forefinger. "I'm sorry." She says quietly after an uncomfortable silence wraps around them for much too long.

"It's okay. I won't fall out with you. I love you, you asshole." Piper comments sarcastically, a kind smile lighting up her face. Alex feels the corners of her own mouth being tugged at involuntarily, her whole aura lifted by Piper's sudden maturity. Maybe they'll get through it after all.

"I lo-" Alex moves to reply, but is abruptly cut off by Healy's office door being pulled open, revealing his burly form that beckoned them inside silently. The pairing stand , and Alex gestures Piper in ahead of her, subtly tapping the blonde's ass as she walks in first.

God knows when Piper will let her touch that ass again.

* * *

No sooner have the two women stepped over the threshold, awkwardly standing side by side in Healy's office while he makes them coffee in his study, than the door behind them bursts open and in comes an obviously upset pupil. Tears stream openly down her face, leaving track marks through her thick veil of makeup. She's rather famous in the academic hierarchy of the academy for her constant crying over nothing, and both teachers sigh in understanding.

"Hi, Victoria." They say in unison, an underlying current of pity laced through their voices. The pupil sniffles sadly, wiping the back of her hand across her nose despondently.

"Where's Mr Healy?" The young brunette inquires, her accent thick and voice incessantly high. Alex nods to the closed off study room door, and a hilariously awkward silence ensues, intermitted with random sniffles from the student. After one particularly strong inhalation that has Alex cringing in horror, Piper sighs irritably and takes it upon herself to it sort out, considering that Victoria is her pupil.

"Victoria?" Piper questions lightly, walking over to the inconsolable girl. "What's wrong?"

"My boyfriend," She starts, but her body is wracked by sobs once more. Piper bites her lip to stop from chastising the overdramatic pupil. "Tommy, he- he-" Fearing that the poor girl is literally going to be sick with the amount of sobbing she's doing, Piper pats her shoulder comfortingly and draws her a tissue from the nearby box.

"Here." She offers kindly, grimacing at the deafening manner in which the pupil blows her nose. Relief crashes into her when she hears Healy return from his study, and she can barely stifle a laugh at how his expression falls from one of amicableness into complete and utter horror.

"Oh, for goodness sake. What is it now?!" He rages, setting down his Chemistry teachers' mugs of coffee heavily on the desk and ushering the sobbing pupil from his office, following her out the door. A split second of silence flows between Piper and Alex before they erupt into laughter, leaning on the desk for support.

"Oh my God, I genuinely thought she was going to make herself sick." Alex commented breathlessly, moving around to the far side of the desk to where their coffees had been so angrily set down. "Have you ever seen the guy, though? He's worse."

"No, but I drove past them once in town with Polly, and it was...enlightening." Piper replied, bringing the coffee to her lips and taking a grateful sip.

"Ooh, how is Polly Hobby these days?" Alex questioned smugly, leaning back on the desk and bracing her hands either side of her, fingers curling underneath the desk.

Neither of them hears the subtle click of the intercom.

"Oh, we had another fight again last night." Piper says sadly, drawing her thumb along the rim of her mug.

"About what?" Alex presses.

"About you, as usual."

"Does she realise that nothing fuels my, how does she call it, 'motherfucking condescending fucking irritatingly smug _damn_ ego', more?" Alex mocks happily, rewarded with an wide grin from her girlfriend.

"You know what shut her up, though?" Piper's tone is suddenly different; it's suggestive and low and oh-so-inviting, and Alex feels the familiar flashings of desire lick through her body eagerly.

"What's that?" She hums, unaware of the incredibly compromising position they're caught in. For one, Alex is sitting on the wrong side of her boss' desk, and her co worker is looking at her so lustfully that it would be obvious to a blind man.

"I said to her, 'Hey, Polly, I came _seven_ times last night." Piper reminisces gleefully, doing little to perturb the incredibly smug smirk that Alex's lips curl into. She laughs, a raspy sound that resonates straight through Piper and causes a shiver to run up her spine.

"Mmm, how about we go for eight tonight, that'll really piss her off." Alex husks suggestively, releasing her grip on the table as Piper sashays over to the other side of the desk.

This time, the click pierces the room.

"What the fuck?" Alex questions, looking wildly around at Piper who stares back at her incredulously. "What was that?"

"I don't know." Piper shrugs, but fear seeps through her bones at the stark noise that had echoed a second previously. Alex ducks her head underneath the table in alarm, and is met with a sight more terrifying than anything her mind could have conjured up in her darkest nightmares.

"_FUCK!" _She yells, not caring if the walls of the office aren't soundproof. "Oh fuck, Piper, I am so fucking sorry," The terror mounts within the blonde, from the uncertainty of not knowing what the hell is going on, to the unnerving nature of seeing her girlfriend so panicked.

"Alex Vause, you had better tell me what the hell is going on or you're definitely going to have something to be sorry about." Piper seethes, gripping Alex harshly by the shoulders as a vacant look enters her jade irises. A caustic laugh bubbles up through her throat and escapes her lips as she steps away from her girlfriend. "What-" Piper questions again, but is interrupted by the deafening crack of wood on plaster as the door to the office bursts open. The two turn in alarm to the intruder, revealing one very pissed off looking Principal of the school. Surprisingly, when he speaks on his way around to the desk, his voice is level. Such is the unbelievable raging coursing through Healy's veins; he lacks any motivation to yell as he turns to his teachers in an intimidating, more composed manner.

"Well, Miss Vause, I _was _on my way back here to congratulate you on becoming my new Head Of Chemistry and offering my sincere condolences to you, Miss Chapman." He says, crossing his arms across his burly chest and shaking his head in utter contempt. Piper feels her heart drop into her stomach as her hopes and aspirations crumble along with it. Alex clenches her jaw beside her, an overwhelming feeling of remorse enveloping her as she knows it's about to go from bad to worse for her girlfriend. Healy continues his growing tirade, eventual rage seeping into his scornful tone.

"But, judging by what the _hell_ I, and the entirety of this institution, just had the horror of listening to over the intercom, it seems like I have something else entirely to deal with."

And suddenly, the severity of the situation crashes into Piper all at once, and loving Alex Vause becomes absolutely, completely and utterly _ruinous._

* * *

A/N: As humorous as some people might see this as, and it_ is_ fairly comical, mark this down on your calendars as the day things go to absolute shit for our two protagonists. Leave me a review telling me what you're hoping/thinking/praying is going to come next, or tell me what you thought of this chapter. I'd be delighted either way. x


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Okay, so things are moving pretty quickly because I'm a glutton for punishment, basically. There's some cute fluff in the middle, of course, but the tension is really ramping up from here on out. Thanks for your lovely reviews, enjoy!

* * *

"She's not a bad kid, Sam."

"Hey, she still has her job, doesn't she? And so does her little girlfriend."

"But for how long?" Healy shifts his attention from the file on his desk to his secretary currently leaning against the doorframe. He laughs; a bitter, sarcastic noise that echoes throughout the small room.

"You know me too well." The principal takes his small, wiry reading glasses off and sets them on the file, a serious feel to the conversation now. He leers up at his secretary across the room, a pensive look crossing his face. His tone is low, threatening to convey the absolute luck that his two Chemistry teachers have unknowingly struck by catching their boss on a very, _very _good day. If they were not so _damn _good at their jobs, and Healy hated them for being so talented, and if they presented him with any physical evidence of a relationship, he would positively render their lives useless. He's just waiting for the right time, that's all. "You want to get to someone, Rachel; you gotta have a long game."

They always slip up, the ones in love.

* * *

Piper Chapman wasn't sure whether to feel like the most unlucky damn girl in the world, or the luckiest. Certainly, she was surprised to be walking out of Healy's office with her job still intact, but her reputation lay in tatters among the fibres of his swanky carpet and her dream promotion now belonged to the brunette currently trying to catch up with her. It was unfair, perhaps, for Piper to feel so incredibly angry towards Alex. After all, it _was_ a simple mistake. And it had been Alex who had spoken on both their behalf, and although the severity of the situation had rendered Piper mute and the tirade had passed in a blur, Piper could remember her girlfriend insisting that it was all some sort of elaborate hoax and that the pair were nothing more than good friends. But, their claims were of course seen straight through by Healy and the scathing tone of his voice told the pair that he knew they were lying, but his current lack of evidence and insurmountable load of shit that would be landed on him upon firing his two best teachers did not yet appeal to the principal. To put it bluntly, Healy had threatened them that should he gain one shred of evidence that they were seeing each other, he would have them out on the street before they could even blink.

Piper felt the destructive mixture of fear and anger ebb through her body as she stormed up the stairs to her classroom, taking the steps two at once and shoving open the double doors at the top. The animated chatter of Piper's final class before Christmas break ceased at once when they heard the ear-splitting sound of the doors bursting open, and a tremor of fear rippled through the crowd when they took in the anger etched across their teacher's face.

"Get inside, sit down and take out your books without a word." Piper instructed harshly. Not a moment's peace had elapsed before the double doors were thrown open again by the one and only Alex Vause, her own expression of rage clearly visible.

"Piper, for God sake-" She instinctively reached out for the blonde's wrist, only to be met with Piper taking a step back and shaking her head in disbelief. "It's not my fault!"

"Well, it's hardly my fault, is it?!" Piper fired back, ignoring the few pupils who lingered outside her classroom. One boy sniggered quietly at the fight between the pair.

"Looks like someone won't be getting anywhere close to eight times tonight." The boy commented under his breath to his friend, rewarded with no retort from Piper (who believed they kind of deserved that one), but a step forward in his direction by Alex who trembled with a visible rage.

"Hey." Piper scolded, stepping between the pair and shoving the brunette back with one hand after the boy scurried off into the classroom. "We aren't doing this here, Alex. Grow up." Piper flicked her wrist, indicating to her girlfriend's classroom down the corridor. Alex scoffed, turning on her heel and stalking away from the blonde, but not without turning her palm skyward in disbelief at how the situation had turned out. Piper sighed, watching her leave for a moment before stepping into her room and scratching her forehead, totally at a loss. It was the last session of classes before Christmas break, yet Piper had never been more apprehensive about a break from teaching in her life.

Judging by the deafening manner in which Alex proceeded to slam her door, the strident din probably audible through the whole school, she wasn't exactly looking forward to it either.

* * *

Alex Vause had not felt nervous around Piper Chapman since the night she'd asked the blonde to be her girlfriend. In the three months that had elapsed since then, the effortless nature of their relationship became one of the things Alex loved most about it. But sitting here in her car outside Piper's house, her forehead resting against the steering wheel, crippling nerves constricted her to the point where a sickening feeling of nausea began working its way through Alex's body.

She hated the feeling of not being in control, of ever having to make things up to someone. Alex prided herself on always being pragmatic, of never having to beg or grovel or even apologise for any of her choices. And it's not fair, really, that she should have to apologise to Piper; it was just a mistake that could so easily have happened to the blonde. Guilt eventually wins over as the supreme emotion affecting Alex, backed up by a legion of anger, fear, resent and a hundred other unwelcome feelings swirling around her brain. But it was guilt the gnawed away at her most ardently; upon seeing the heartbreaking expression on Piper's face during Healy's tirade, Alex felt an overwhelming sense of blame for putting the blonde through all of this. She knows, all too well, how important Piper's job is to her, and how reputations and appearances have plagued her family for as long as she can remember. So, to have her reputation destroyed and her job put in jeopardy by Alex's mistake, by the person she trusted most, was surely one of the most soul destroying things for Piper Chapman.

Alex slammed the heel of her hand off the steering wheel in frustration, a sudden sense of bravado overcoming her and she grabbed the bottle of wine and strode purposefully from her car. Of course, upon reaching Piper's front door, her bravery dissipated and manifested into something more like apprehension. She brushed hair back. Took a deep breath. Knocked. Waited. And waited...

"Hey." She greeted nervously upon Piper finally opening the door.

"Hi." Piper replied softly, her voice small and her demeanour unusually cowed. Alex scuffed her boots nervously, looking down at them before bringing her attention back to Piper.

"I brought wine?" She gestures, nodding her head to the bottle between her fingers. Piper laughs, but it's a forced, stilted effort, totally different to the sound Alex fell in love with.

"I guess you better come in then." Piper murmurs quietly but affords her girlfriend a quick smile before she turns and retreats back into the kitchen. Alex sighed but followed anyway, wondering how the hell she was supposed to get herself out of this one.

* * *

Piper watches her girlfriend grovel for the best part of twenty minutes, offering not much interruption apart from playing idly with Alex's ring finger, occasionally telling the brunette to relax and stop getting herself so worked up. It's downright unnerving to see the usually brash, inexorable Alex Vause so full of emotion; pain and heartbreak etched across her face as she practically begs for Piper to ignore Healy's threats and for the blonde to forgive her. It's a show of how important Piper is to Alex, that the brunette gets so emotional over her.

Alex Vause does not beg, _ever_, but when it comes to Piper Chapman, she'll do whatever it takes.

"You're not gonna..." Alex trails off, sitting down beside Piper on her leather sofa and looking hard at the blonde.

"What?" Piper urges, her voice comforting as she runs her thumb over Alex's knuckles. Flames of Piper's fire cast licks of light across their bodies, catching in the frames of the brunette's glasses and illuminating her forest green eyes that glitter with emotion.

"You're not gonna break up with me, right? Because I don't think I could handle that, Pipes." Alex pauses again, her gaze shifting upwards to look straight into the sparkling blue of Piper's eyes. "You're my rock, kid." And for the first time since Piper met the girl, Alex Vause is _vulnerable_. She is insecure and she is downright fearful of losing the blonde holding her hand. It positively breaks Piper's heart, the innocent look on her girlfriend's face, and the blonde's resent and anger melts along with the heat from the fire as she brings her gaze down to Alex's lips.

"No." Piper shakes her head slowly, breaking out into a smile. "No way." Relief engulfs Alex finally, her worry and stress and morbid thoughts finally disappearing, stolen by the sincerity of Piper's words and brought far, far from the couple sitting in front of the fire. "Come here, you fucking softy." Piper laughs, opening her arms and pulling Alex into a warm embrace. The brunette leans her weight into Piper, wrapping her arms around the blonde as they fall into the plush pillows of her sofa, nervous laughter coming from Alex. She was scared for a long moment there, scared that Piper would leave or push Alex out of her life. She brushes back blonde locks from the back of Piper's neck and kisses the exposed skin there lightly. Piper turns in Alex's embrace, pulling off the brunette's glasses and setting them above their heads. Green irises reflect the firelight, flames dancing from side to side in the deep emerald colours. Piper contents herself with staring into them for a while, tracing illegible patterns across the brunette's jaw as she studies Piper intently.

"Oh, hey!" Piper comes to a sudden realisation, her eyes widening and a smile coming onto her face. She puts her hands on Alex's shoulders, pushing her further into the sofa as she shifts on top of the taller girl, straddling her hips. Piper leans over her girlfriend, her demeanour changing from reverence into something delightfully more lustful and dark. "Congratulations are in order." She breathes, eyes glinting with suggestiveness. Alex laughs, a husky sound from the back of her throat and pulls Piper flush against her, fingers pressing lightly along the blonde's waist.

"What sort of congratulations did you have in mind?"

* * *

There is _nothing_ like New York City at Christmas. They take a cab on Christmas Eve into the heart of the city and they walk around just for the hell of it, and it's quite possibly the best night of their lives. Piper has on this hat, a grey beanie that covers her ears and sets free a few wispy blonde locks and her whole ensemble, from the fluffy cream sweater to the pink tinge of her cheeks absolutely kills Alex. It was _freezing_ that night, and as they walked around just for the hell of it, their bodies were pressed so tightly together that not even the light fall of snowflakes could fit between them. Sidewalks and buildings were coated with a terrific layer of snow, a white carpet that blanketed the entire city and an enchanting glow beckoned the pair down cobbled streets illuminated only by yellow cones of light spilling across the way by a handful of streetlights. They walk to Times Square, just for the hell of it, and take dorky photos in front of the lights, and then to a bridge where they eat fast food and drink malt liquor straight from a brown paper bag looking over the water and it's fucking _magical_, to be honest.

"This is unbelievable." Piper whispers aloud as they walk back hand in hand from the bridge, brushing snow from the lapels of her jacket. Alex laughs, dropping Piper's hand and pulling the blonde against her. Piper stumbles, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend's waist for balance.

"What, you've never been here at Christmas?" Alex asks confusedly, pulling the blonde along the sidewalk and trying not to slip on her ass.

"I was more talking about the fact that you're here and it's snowing and we're in love and it's just so _nice,_ you know?" Piper announces dreamily, slipping her hand into the back pocket of Alex's jeans as they walk to wherever the hell they're going next. Honestly, Piper doesn't care, as long as she's with Alex.

"You're such a sap." Alex comments, tugging off Piper's beanie playfully and putting it on her own head.

"Hey!" Piper squeals, releasing her grip on Alex as the brunette tears off down the street, laughing and pulling the hat over her ears.

"Suits me better, Chapman." She announces, checking her reflection in the window of a shop that's lit up by brightly coloured LEDs.

"Don't think that just because you're my boss I won't kick the shit out of you!" Piper yells, attempting to run after her girlfriend. Of course, in true Piper fashion, she forgets about the fact it's Christmas Eve and it's snowing and the pavement is frozen, and when she tries to stop at Alex's side she ends up slipping forward and pulling them both heavily onto the concrete.

"Oh, shit!" Alex huffs, falling in a heap as Piper tumbles right on top of her. "You fucking idiot!" She laughs through the slight pain, shifting uncomfortably. Piper, of course, has descended into full blown laughter, the type where tears are streaming down her face and her body positively shakes with happiness. The blonde picks herself up, stealing back her hat as Alex lies spread eagled on the pavement, her expression changing into one of pain.

"Get up!"Piper giggles, offering her hand to her girlfriend.

"Pipes, my arm-" Alex winces in pain, and fear shoots through Piper at her discomfort. "Ow."

"What's wrong?" Piper asks in a concerned tone, crouching beside her girlfriend and attempting to lean over her, missing the smirk that crosses the mischievous brunette's face.

"I think, I just..." Piper panics, trying to shift Alex's arm that she leans on, and before the blonde can blink she's met with a freezing cold mass of ice shoved in her face by none other than Alex Vause. Piper splutters, shaking her head agitatedly and sitting back heavily on her ass as Alex scarpers to her feet, her fake pain gone and replaced by juvenile amusement. Piper narrows her eyes at the smugness of her girlfriend, and gathers her own mound of snow between her fingers as she stands and chases after the laughing brunette.

"Oh, it is _on, _bitch!"

* * *

Piper Chapman positively adores Christmas. Alex Vause knows this; she's heard the blonde rant about it almost every day since Thanksgiving.

So, when Alex presents Piper with literally the shittiest gift she could find, for about five bucks, the brunette exhibits an almost supernatural amount of self control not to burst out laughing at the crestfallen expression on Piper's face, a candy cane tucked behind her ear as she fights the urge to throw the ugly ass scarf in the fire.

"Oh, Alex..." Piper attempts to sound enthusiastic, but Alex has never heard the blonde sound so utterly bored in all her life. "It's so..._pretty." _

"I know right?" Alex preened, biting her lip to keep from laughing as she hopped down from the sofa and down onto the floor in front of the fire, facing Piper with her legs crossed. "The woman in the shop said it was limited edition." She announced proudly. Piper laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of her neck in discomfort.

"Oh, it's quite something alright..." The blonde muttered, attempting to close the box back up and never have to look at it again.

"Wait!" Alex cried.

"What?"

"Put it on!"

"What, now?

"Yeah!" Alex encouraged gleefully. Piper hesitated, worrying the scratchy, multicoloured material between her fingers.

"Um... sure?" She said, grimacing slightly as she wound it around her neck. "Great." Piper looks positively wounded at this point, and Alex had planned to draw the whole thing out all day, but at the moment she's not sure she can last another five minutes.

"I'm glad you like it so much, Pipes." Alex nodded her head, leaning over to give Piper a kiss on the cheek and stifle her laughter. The blonde gritted her teeth in hatred for the gift, but leaned into Alex's warm embrace as the brunette lifted her blanket over her shoulders and faced Piper with an unreadable expression. The blonde continued to look distastefully at the garment, her bottom lip jutting out sadly, and Alex's resolve just crumbled at the adorable sight of her girlfriend. Alex burst into laughter, her shoulders shaking as she covered her face with her hands.

"What?!" Piper cried in alarm, shrugging off the scarf and looking hard at Alex. The brunette shook her head, biting her lip to control her tremors.

"You actually think I would fucking give you _that_ for Christmas?" Alex takes the scarf, box and all, and proceeds to throw the whole thing in the fire.

"Thank God." Piper breathes, thumping her girlfriend round the shoulder playfully. The older girl continues to laugh quietly as she rifles through the remaining presents under the tree she and Piper had decorated last night, half off the baubles lying amongst the gifts and wrapping paper.

"Here." She hands a small box to Piper, wrapped in red paper with a gold bow tied around it, only the size of the blonde's palm. Piper draws out the bow and unwraps it slowly, a turquoise box revealed underneath with grey writing emblazoned across the front.

"Fuck off." Piper whispers in disbelief, the familiar font of _Tiffany &amp; Co. _staring back at her. Alex grins crookedly at the childish manner in which Piper's face lights up and the way her shaky fingers pull off the top of the box. The blonde gasps audibly upon peering into the silk confines, a sparkling silver necklace staring back at her. It's not overbearingly striking, but there's a small diamante pendant glistening from the inside of the box, shimmering slightly in the light of the fire.

"Do you like it?" Alex pressed nervously after Piper uttered not a sound for over a minute, just staring at the obviously expensive gift. The question seemed to spur the blonde into life, and her eyes snapped up to meet Alex's concerned green ones.

"I love it! Oh my God, I love you so much, oh my God, put it on me!" She squealed, thrusting the box into Alex's hands and turning her back to her girlfriend. The brunette laughed, taking the jewellery from the box and carefully fastening it around Piper's neck. The younger girl stood up to look in the full length mirror beside her fireplace, fiddling with the pendant as Alex came and stood behind her.

"It's beautiful." Piper whispered, looking from the necklace to their reflection. Alex had her strong arms wrapped around her shorter girlfriend's waist, and they're in dorky Christmas pyjamas with reindeer and candy canes, firelight casting light up the right hand side of their bodies while the left was illuminated only by the thick layer of snow outside the window reflecting weak sunlight. Piper turned happily into Alex's front, pressing her lips against the slightly startled brunette's in a silent thank you for the gift, for the presence of her in Piper's house on Christmas morning and simply for just being around, you know?

That's what Piper loves about Alex. She never leaves.

* * *

The New Year comes and goes, taking with it any belief from either woman that they've got away with their little stunt. They're back at work no more than a month before Piper gets a call to Healy's office right in the middle of teaching her seniors.

"Miss Vause?" Piper pokes her head around the door of Alex's classroom, interrupting her quietly. Alex turns to her sweetly, raising her eyebrows in a silent question. "Can you watch my class for a minute? Healy wants me in his office." The brunette's expression darkens and she nods solemnly from the whiteboard.

"No problem." She promises resolutely. Piper thanks her and walks out the storeroom door, her mind reeling through all the things she might be in trouble for. Certainly, she and Alex had been doubly careful not to be caught doing anything remotely suspicious since their warning. Their classes, too, were hitting above and beyond their predicted grades from the year before Piper and Alex arrived, and the blonde was coming up short to any other slip ups she may have made. Still, Healy was the type to be vindictive just for the sake of extorting power over women.

"Mr Healy?" Piper questioned, knocking on the door and entering when he instructed to.

"Miss Chapman. Please," He nodded to the chair in front of his desk. Piper sat down in it, crossing her legs and smoothing down her trousers nervously. Healy, to his credit, got straight to the point.

"I'm taking you off the track team." He informed her bluntly, setting down his pen and peering at the blonde over his glasses. Piper's stomach lurched, and she swallowed thickly before answering.

"Why?" She questioned meekly.

"Well, after careful review of your performance and feedback from staff members and pupils alike, at this important stage of the academic year I feel you should be focusing totally on your classes. It's for the pupils' sake." He explains in a monotone voice. Piper feels another shred of her life being torn from her; the amount of work she's put into that team over the past months is almost incalculable.

"Mr Healy, with all due respect, those girls are destined for big things." Piper insists, trying to keep her temper under control. Healy nods in fake, infuriating compassion for his teacher that only serves to make the blonde angrier.

"I understand, Miss Chapman, and I will leave them in capable hands." The principal promises. Piper doesn't believe him for a damn second.

"Please, Mr Healy-"

"Enough, Piper." He interrupts sharply. "Get back to class." He waves a dismissive hand in the direction of his door. Piper swears then, that she's never wanted to break someone's jaw more in her life. She scrapes back her chair and leaves without a word, closing the door behind her with more force than necessary. This is the first time it happens, the first time Healy shows any bias towards her for the incident in December, for there is just no way in _hell_ that Piper would be banned from coaching the track team had she not been suspected of involvement with Alex Vause.

The second time, things don't turn out so well.

* * *

It's March, when it happens. Early March, the first blossoming of Spring visible in the sprouting of leaves on trees and tiny plants growing in the school grounds. A warm sunlight blankets Alex's shoulders for the first time in months, and she has a feeling it's going to be a good day.

She could not have been more wrong.

Piper, oddly, is not in her classroom, but her car stands proudly beside Alex's in the car park. The brunette pays little heed to the absence of her girlfriend, busying herself with measuring out chemicals for a good ten minutes before she hears the resounding slam of a door coming from Piper's room. Alex blinks rapidly in alarm, setting down the bottle of acid and striding into Piper's room.

"Jesus, Piper?!" Alex calls, heart lurching into her mouth as she takes in her girlfriend sitting slumped at her desk, head in her hands. "What's wrong?" Piper offers nothing but a ragged sigh and a quiet curse, not trusting her voice. Alex wraps her fingers around the blonde's wrists, softly easing Piper's hands away from her face. Piper looks finally up into the concerned green irises of her girlfriend, a panic stricken expression on her face. Alex raises her eyebrows in question, urging the blonde to just fucking _speak._

"Healy." Is all she says, in an almost broken voice that sends a surge of fear right the way up Alex's spine. The man's name recently has been having that sort of effect on them both.

"What the fuck did he do now?" Alex asks harshly, grasping Piper's cheek intently and drawing her thumb across it.

"He, oh _fuck-" _Piper says, wiping angrily at a stray tear escaping. "He threatened me."

"Threatened you how?" Alex growls, anger boiling in her veins at the thought of their boss saying anything even remotely out of line to her girlfriend.

"He said that if my freshmen don't pick up he's going to be forced to let me go." Piper scoffs, her voice thick with emotion that bubbles to the surface once more.

"Wha- but that's fucking bullshit!" Alex insists. "I have those grades, Piper, and there's not a damn thing wrong with them. Your averages are almost identical to mine."

"Yeah, I know right? But he said he'd thrown me a '_lifeline'_ by taking me off the track team and I should be showing more improvement." Alex scowls at the mention of the track incident, remembering how it had taken Piper a good ten minutes to coax her girlfriend out of giving the man a piece of her mind.

This time, Piper can talk to Alex for ten hours, and she still won't reduce even a smidgen of the bitter rage engulfing her.

"I'm going to fucking kill him, Piper." Alex says lowly, dropping Piper's hands and pacing in front of her desk.

"You can't say anything!" Piper pleads, wiping at the mascara currently marking underneath her eyes.

"Piper, he can't get away with this! I'll be careful, I promise." Alex tells her. It's a total lie, one that she can hardly make sound believable, but she throws a trademark grin in her girlfriend's direction and Piper's expression softens. It's so terribly naive of her to believe that Alex will suddenly not be rash and ruthless when it comes to protecting her, but her judgement takes that one split second to leave her, and the blonde simply nods her head in defeat. This is one of the moments where it hits her, how much Alex loves her. The brunette _never_lets people away with hurting the ones she loves.

It should also be one of the times where it should scare her. It doesn't.

Alex leaves the classroom, going back into her own room and grabbing her bag, intending to prove to Healy that he's talking complete and utter shit about Piper's classes. She never comes back.

* * *

Rage fuels her, resent motivates her and love compels her as Alex storms down to Healy's office, bursting through the door without so much as a knock.

"Piper Chapman." She snaps without breaking stride, spreading the files across his desk abruptly and standing back from her boss with her arms folded across her chest.

"Good morning to you too, Miss Vause." He leers up at her, a smug grin crossing his face. Three months, the girl had lasted; longer than he thought she would.

"Cut the shit, Healy, and tell me why you think it's okay to be so harsh on her? Isn't she my responsibility?" Alex demands, stabbing a finger at the comparison between her and Piper's classes. "There's practically no deviation."

"Alex, please, sit down, won't you?" He continues to ignore the brunette's visible rage, only heightening her temper.

"You listen here, you better give me a damn good reason as to why the hell Piper's being treated so harshly." She demands, her voice low and slightly intimidating to Healy. He stands, too, taking his glasses off and sending them to the surface of his wooden desk with a clatter.

"Who do you think you are, barging in here and telling me what I can and can't do with my staff? Piper Chapman is a liability right now, Alex. You know that." He chastises her, shaking his head in contempt. "Now, sit down and listen to me _very_ carefully." Alex glares at him, resolute in her stance.

"I'm done listening, _Sir._" She spits caustically, staring him out. "It's about time you do some listening. Piper Chapman is the twice the woman I'll ever be, and I'm not one to put myself down."

"How romantic." Healy rolls his eyes. "What do you want, Vause? She's losing her job if things don't change quickly."

"Good luck having no Chemistry teachers then, you homophobic _asshole_." Alex threatens, the conviction all too evident in her voice.

"Homophobic?" Healy returns icily, colour flooding into his cheeks. "Why the hell are you here, Alex? What, are you in love with her or something?" He laughs bitterly, but Alex's expression is deadly serious.

"Yeah, I am. And our grades are still better than anyone's in the damn school. Gonna fire me?" Alex smirks, leaning her fingertips on the desk. "You can't win here, Healy. I've had enough of your misogynistic shit. My lawyers will have you in a second."

"If I can't get rid of you, then you can kiss goodbye to your little girlfriend. Coming in here, threatening me, swearing at me, swearing over the intercom? I can fire whoever the hell I want." Healy strikes a nerve with the threat against Piper, and a dark look crosses Alex's face.

"You wouldn't dare." Alex whispers, her voice hoarse.

"This is _my_ school, Vause. And, judging by what you've just admitted, you've been breaking _my_ rules all year? Disobeying an order? I'm building quite the file against you." It's Healy's turn to smirk as Alex's bravado fails her, as usual emotion causing her to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. "I've done nothing wrong except encourage one of my teachers to do a little better in her classes. You think you're some sort of knight in shining armour coming in here and protecting your girlfriend? I bet you corrupted the poor girl. Piper used to be such a sweet, innocent thing. You did, didn't you?" Healy sneers.

"Fuck you." Alex seethes, shaking her head in disbelief. All she needs is an opening, one slip from Healy for her to strike. But he's smart. He twists and manipulates every word, every last action from Alex until she's defeated and he's built up a twisted case against her. A sickening grin worms onto his face that has Alex's insides churning, and she just knows that this is it. There is _nothing_ she can do to salvage this one.

"Get the fuck out of my school. But leave the girlfriend, hey?" Healy inclines his head smugly. Alex clenches her jaw. "Maybe she won't be so stupid."

* * *

A/N: Drama! How's Piper going to react to Alex being so hot-headed? Hope you liked the Christmas bit, by the way, because it's the last fluff you people are getting for a while. Read and review, please! x


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Right then! This didn't quite turn out the way I expected, and it's probably horrendous and clichèd and what not, but is what it is. Angst is my biggest insecurity, so your reviews would mean so so much to me. Love you all.

* * *

The worst part, Piper finds, is that Alex doesn't even have the fucking _courage_ to tell her. Instead, Piper is left to worry and stress and think up every possible scenario in her mind for a solid two hours before an inherent need to just _know _overcomes her, and she crosses into Alex's room to find the sweater-clad Physics teacher covering her girlfriend's classes.

"Where's Alex?" Piper demands, folding her arms crossly as Larry's head snaps up from the desk. _Alex's desk. _He narrows his eyes at her, gaze flitting from the students looking on in anticipation and back to the blonde's irritated demeanour.

"Not here." He remarks blankly.

"Obviously," Piper snaps. "Where is she?"

"Don't know." Larry says with an annoyed, slightly smug shrug. He smiles sarcastically at Piper, who simply scoffs and rolls her eyes while exiting the classroom, impossibly more angered than she was before she entered. The blank expanse of her own room stares back at her, devoid of pupils and clutter and glamour, providing no distraction from the growing uncertainty within its owner. Piper sighs despondently, sitting down in her chair and glaring at nothing in particular, idly flicking a lighter on and off as she considers her plan of action. She could call Alex. The flame ignites. She doesn't want to seem overly clingy and dependent. She could go and ask Healy. The flame extinguishes. Having already received a ferocious scolding from the Principal this morning, Piper didn't really fancy that either.

The lighter ricochets off the wooden table, clattering to the linoleum floor as the blonde's temper flares dangerously.

In the end, Piper does nothing. She waits, as always, for the situation to sort itself out with no effort at all on her part.

* * *

Alex Vause is a lot of things; she is beautiful, charming, rich, strong-minded and guarded, amongst other things. One thing she is not, is stupid. In fact, she and many of her peers would probably say she's quite an intelligent woman to say the least.

But losing her job and destroying her reputation over something that had nothing to do with her, is simply the most idiotic thing the brunette has _ever_ done.

And Alex would very much like to subscribe to Healy's claim that she was being a hero, Piper's knight in shining armour, but the sordid truth was that she'd let herself get in far too deep, let her emotions and love for the blonde fatally cloud her judgement, resulting in her being unceremoniously fired, leaving Alex standing in her apartment with a splitting headache and a hell of a lot of shit to sort out. Panic threatened to overcome her as the brunette paced, a hand on her forehead and a glass of wine in the other.

She didn't even want to know what Piper was going to say.

Alex knows she's fucked up. She knows that this isn't a situation she can charm herself out of with a low cut shirt and a husky voice, that this is something that is to change the course of her entire career and probably even her life. A stray novel is hurled angrily at the wall by Alex as frustration simmers within, indecision and confusion marring her usually calm nature. It fails to imprint on the stone walling of her open plan living room, unceremoniously falling to the floor with a thump. Silence once again fills the apartment, leaving Alex with nothing to do but brood quietly, afraid to even consider calling her girlfriend and dropping the line '_Hey baby, guess who just got fired?_'

It's odd for someone to have this power over Alex, to have an ability to strike fear into her without even being in the room, but it's definitely a palpable apprehension filtering through her as the afternoon grows older; her worries grow stronger, and time begins running out.

* * *

Piper would like to be one of those people who don't get angry over things they can't control. She'd like to be, but as her Audi tears through the streets towards Alex's apartment, she's just not one of those people. Piper Chapman is fucking livid with Alex Vause. How, _how,_ could she be so stupid?! She'd not only lost her job, but judging by Healy's venom directed towards the brunette, she'd gone right ahead and given him ammunition to absolutely destroy her career. Fragments of the conversation flitted through Piper's haywire brain as she streaked towards her girlfriend's apartment, rage coursing throughout her veins.

"_Were you and Miss Vause in a consenting relationship, Miss Chapman?" _Healy had asked upon Piper's timid arrival in his office.

"_What? N- no! Of course not, Sir!" _Piper spluttered instinctively, unbeknownst to the severe consequences that her denial would inflict on Alex.

"_I thought not. Well, after becoming aware of her slightly perverse interests, I regrettably had to let her go."_

Piper white-knuckles the steering wheel as she remembers the feeling of Healy's statement crashing into her, shock reverberating through her very being.

"_Wha-what? I don't...Alex?" _Piper whispered, disbelief laced though her tone. Her gaze dropped to the file Healy was currently filling out, block red lettering staring back at the blonde. A sickening feeling twisted in her stomach and she instead focused her attention firmly on the man in front of her, willing her emotions to stay in check. "_Why?"_

"_Now, you know I couldn't possibly tell you that, Miss Chapman. You'll find out in due course." _Healy explained darkly. A horrifically ominous undertone came with his tone, and it was becoming increasingly obvious to Piper that this was serious, it was real and it was happening right now. "_Anyway, that leaves us a man down. Obviously, I'll have a replacement in as soon as possible; we have a lot of applicants, you know..." _Healy continued to bleat on about irrelevant matters that Piper simply couldn't focus on. She could not care less. She was angry, frightened, apprehensive and everything else all at once, and when Healy posed her with a question, her instinctive answer was uttered before she even had time to think.

"_...new Head of Chemistry, Miss Chapman?" _Piper inhaled sharply as the gist of his offer filtered through to her. She paused.

"_Sure, Mr Healy. I would be delighted."_

It was a bittersweet sort of feeling now, standing outside Alex's front door. Sure, Piper had got her dream job, but at the expense of the only person she'd ever loved who was currently on the other side of the black block of wood probably stressed out beyond belief.

Perhaps if Piper was a more compassionate sort of girl, she wouldn't have thumped on Alex's door so hardly her knuckles began to hurt. Alex pulled open the door quickly, as if anticipating the blonde's furious arrival and offered no form of greeting to Piper as she slunk back into her living room. If she was going to get yelled at, and she's pretty sure she was, she didn't want to be in the middle of the street. Piper looks at Alex for a moment when the brunette turns, and she just looks wrecked, to be honest. She's still in her work clothes, one hand thrust deep into a pocket of tight fitting black trousers and her white blouse is unbuttoned a little further than it would be within the school grounds. She looks dishevelled but not wild, really; her dark locks fall messily across her shoulders and down her front but Alex's green eyes are tired and devoid of their usual infectious mischievousness.

Piper takes a moment to remind herself that this is simply the love of her life standing in front of her, and her anger fades as quickly as it had surfaced. The blonde opens her mouth to rant, but no scathing comments are forthcoming.

"Can we just...not fight right now? I've had a long day, Piper." Alex murmurs tiredly, her expression falling. "I'm tired of fighting." It's true that tensions have been growing between them ever since Healy had revoked the blonde's coaching status, and Piper accepts that maybe she shouldn't launch into a total tirade. Still, her temper bubbles.

"You fucked up." Piper comments through clenched teeth, walking over to come face to face with Alex.

"Thanks." Alex mutters dryly, brushing a way a wisp of blonde hair from Piper's forehead. "And I am really, _really _sorry." The earnestness of Alex's voice and her beaten expression is a serious blow to Piper's anger, and the immediate apology has her reeling for something else to be pissed off about. She can't help herself from fiddling with the hem of Alex's shirt, her blue eyes downcast. It's not a sexual thing, it's just an inherent need to touch the brunette that Piper will probably always be affected by. "We'll be okay, kid." Alex draws her fingers underneath the blonde's chin, tilting it upwards so that she's forced to look at the taller woman. Alex's eyes are pale green, shining with heartbreaking emotion and her voice is unerringly thick. Suddenly, she's not sure if she _can _make everything okay. She's lost her job. She's ruined her reputation. Alex Vause is absolutely powerless. The tremor of her voice and the uncertainty etched across her face strikes fear into the younger girl, and Piper, for the first time in her life, doesn't feel at all calmed by what Alex is saying.

It's one of those defining moments; when the axis of their lives shifts suddenly, and everything changes. It happens to everyone, sometimes two or three times, but this is the first for Piper and Alex. From this point onwards, nothing will be the same. Piper holds the upper hand, and she doesn't have a _fucking clue_ what to do with it. A terrible, sudden feeling of panic seems to erupt within both women, and Piper's alarmed gaze meets Alex's scared green eyes simultaneously and before the blonde can ask any questions that might seriously set their inevitable doom in motion, Alex crashes her lips desperately against her girlfriend's, pleading with Piper to just let go.

Even if it's for the last time.

Piper opens her mouth to protest, but it's invaded by Alex's probing tongue before she can speak, dousing the younger girl's worries the only way she knows how. Despite the nauseating fear in Piper's stomach, her hands are already grappling with the remaining buttons of the brunette's shirt of their own accord, shaky and panicked in their movements until she admits defeat and rips them from their seams instead. Alex's lips taste of wine, of sorrow and sadness, but Piper pretends not to notice as she places her hands lightly on the brunette's bare shoulders until her knees hit the back of the sofa and they fall down, down into the unforgiving leather and desperate hands remove obstructions from skin as their bruised lips continue to meet feverishly.

And for one fleeting, final night they drown their defeats in each other.

They never utter more than a rough moan or lustful syllable as the moonlight fades behind dark clouds and Alex's bedroom becomes shrouded in darkness. Unusually, the brunette falls asleep first, tangled with Piper's naked form and her warm, slow breaths beat evenly off her girlfriend's chest. It was almost scary, the way they'd fucked. It was as if they were trying to hold each other together; as if the tighter Piper gripped the mass of raven hair between her legs, the more likely it was that they would make it through the rocky waters ahead, or if Alex raked her nails harder down the blonde's back it would cause her to forget her troubles and anger directed towards her girlfriend. Really, they were pretending.

They are not okay. They will not be okay.

Alex's alarm clock rests over her shoulder on a bedside table. It sits there like an observer at an accident. It's deep into the night, and a haunting, unsettling feeling creeps through the blonde that someone, somewhere, is counting down the precious time Piper has left with the girl in her arms. Isn't it sad? She knows it's ending, but she just doesn't know when. Alex has changed things, upset the equilibrium of them, of their relationship. Piper sighs, squinting through the darkness as she makes out the familiar, peaceful features of her girlfriend. This is the love of her absolute life in her arms, and yet Piper has a sinking feeling that it's the last time she's ever going to see the brunette like this; tranquil and asleep and as if she hadn't just ruined her entire life. Tomorrow, stories and tales will surface about her that will inevitably rip her apart, and she will want to run. She's going to want to run far. She'll try to take Piper with her. And that'sthe catch. Piper would like to think it would be easy to run away with Alex, to a far off corner of America or even the world and start afresh, free from the shackles of their time at the Academy. But this is Piper Chapman, for God sake; she's not exactly known for making decisions for the greater good of other people. Not for a second will the blonde want to give up her dream job only after obtaining it and move from the city she's called home for most of her life because of a mistake she didn't even make. She decides against telling Alex about the denial of their relationship and her new post. When the sun rises, she'll slip away quietly to work, avoiding the onslaught of problems that her lying by omission will inevitably bring.

Piper shakes off her overbearing emotion, kissing Alex's forehead for a lingering, final moment. She doesn't want to love Alex; it would be so much easier if she didn't. But, fucking hell, she's absolutely infatuated with the girl and her heart splinters into tiny fragments as the weight of finality and Alex's mistake bears even harder on top of her. Doesn't want to love her, but doesn't want to leave her either. Oh _God,_ anything but that. Piper just wants them to be okay. Like before. But that doesn't even seem possible anymore.

"We'll try." She chokes out into the darkness, a soft whisper that falls on deaf ears. She tries to promise. She hopes she's right.

* * *

When Alex wakes the following morning, Piper's side of the bed is stark and cold, the covers folded back, leaving no evidence that she was ever there in the first place. Panic surges through Alex at her girlfriend's absence and her eyes fall on the blinking red numbers of her alarm clock. _09:06. _Instinctively, she stumbles out of bed and flounders for her clothes, before realisation sets in.

She doesn't have a job to go to.

The fabric of her shirt slips from slack fingers, floating down to the floor. Alex grimaces, sitting down heavily on the foot of the bed and putting her head in her hands. Piper had left without saying goodbye, without so much as a note; the only indication that she had ever been there in the first place was the devastating scent of strawberries left lingering on the soft material of the pillowcase. Apprehension begins to make itself at home in the brunette's stomach, twisting uncomfortably through her body as she realises how badly she's fucked up. Alex looks down at her hands blankly. For once, she hasn't got a damn clue how to get herself out of this one.

Hours pass, and Alex's anxiety increases with every passing moment. She goes grocery shopping to take her mind off it, but runs into a parent of one of her pupils.

"Hi, Mrs-" Alex begins amicably, but stops her sentence short when she sees the stormy expression of the woman. She glares at Alex, shaking her head in disgusted disdain while pulling the younger toddler in front of her protectively back behind her. The Chemistry teacher raises a clueless eyebrow at the odd nature of the woman.

"We heard what you did to Piper! Stay away from our kids!" The woman erupts, yelling at Alex across the frozen food isle. Alex's eyes widen beyond belief, eyebrows almost flying off her forehead in surprise at the outburst.

"I'm sorry, what?" Alex cries, thumping her yoghurt back onto the shelf and turning to the woman fully. She flinches, genuine fear appearing for a moment before it's replaced with hatred directed towards the teacher.

"You better get the _hell_ out of here before you run into the father of the wrong kid, lady." She threatens, jabbing her finger harshly at Alex. The brunette hasn't got the first clue what the woman is talking about, and she simply rolls her eyes and strides over to her angrily.

"I didn't do a damn thing, what the hell do you think I am? Some sort of predator?" Alex seethes. The woman cowers under the intimidating jade gaze of the taller girl, and takes a step back.

"I went to school with Piper, and she was such a lovely kid, why'd you have to corrupt her like that?"

"Are you fuckin' kidding me?" Alex scoffs incredulously.

"Hey!" She yells. "Swearing in front of little children? You're a disgrace!" Alex decides that there's really no chance of getting an explanation from the lady, and turns on her heel, storming back the way she came. Before she turns the corner, however, she turns back. Her expression is no longer angry or threatening, but rather upset.

"I love Piper, okay? Nobody's ever loved anybody the way I love Piper." Alex insists honestly, her voice laced with emotion. The woman is taken aback by her sincerity, and gasps at the sudden change in demeanour.

"Sometimes that isn't good enough, lady." She shakes her head once more. Alex nods vehemently, a sad, bitter smile tugging at her lips.

"Yeah." Alex whispers, more to herself than anyone. "Tell me about it."

* * *

The sun draws behind rainclouds, obscured by an ominous greyness enveloping New York. Dim shadows dance across the pavement with the rustling of budding leaves, but the first drops of rain begin hitting Alex's windshield as she steps gracefully from the confines of her Aston Martin. She's dressed head to toe in black or some variation of it, from her combat boots to her jeans, up to her grey Aerosmith shirt and her expensive leather jacket. Finally, she feels something more than fear.

She feels rage, hot and thick coursing through her veins as she storms towards the school. She has nothing left to lose, judging by the phone call with Nicky that had taken place about ten minutes ago. After the run in at the store, Alex had demanded answers from her best friend. Nicky, after a little brash encouragement from the brunette, revealed that Healy had sent a letter of apology home to every pupil's household yesterday, explaining that he was deeply sorry for having allowed 'such a disgusting discrepancy occur right under his nose'. Alex knew her words would be twisted and contorted, but to have her made out as some sort of predatory vixen who had corrupted the ex- Head Girl of the school and manipulated Piper into some sort of non-consenting relationship, was crossing the line. Everyone loved Piper Chapman; most of the pupils' parents had went to school with her and fallen for her charm and charisma, and only a handful of the staff had never had the pleasure of teaching the blonde when she was a bundling life force of energy, young and carefree with all the enthusiasm teachers craved from every pupil.

That is why Piper had not lost her job. That is why he'd tricked Alex into losing her cool, using the only thing that the brunette would risk everything for. By aiming empty threats at Piper, he'd gotten through to Alex and pissed her off to the point where she walked right into his little trap. Healy needed one of the couple gone from his school, and he wasn't prepared to risk an enquiry from Piper's wealthy parents or uproar from her legion of supporters. So he went for the outsider, the one who loved Piper to the point where she'd lost everything over her. He went for Alex, and it had been painfully simple to have her play into his hands.

Alex shook with a visible rage as she strode past classrooms, pupils looking out in pure shock at her appearance. Her fists were clenched and her gait purposeful, long strides fuelled by anger carrying her to the familiar office. The door cracked against the wall inside with a resounding crash, leaving a sizeable mark in the expensive plaster. Alex couldn't give a fuck.

"What the hell-" Healy looks up in fear from his desk, but his sentence is cut off by Alex grabbing the front of his shirt forcefully, pulling his burly frame across the wood and knocking papers flying.

"You're a dead man, Healy." She rages, pulling at his collar and restricting his oxygen supply. "You just had to been an insecure little bastard, didn't you?" The Principal struggles for breath, his face turning a delightful red. Alex shoves him harshly back into his desk chair, but continues to loom over him.

"Why are you here, Vause?" He chokes out, unbuttoning his stiff collar in an attempt to draw breath.

"You've fucking ruined everything!" The brunette slams the heel of her hand off the table in a temper, green eyes blazing with flaming anger.

"I only went by what your girlfriend told me." He grins slyly, raising his hands in mock defence and leaning back in his chair.

"What?" Alex spits, her voice lowering to deathly whisper.

"I asked her if she was in a consenting relationship with you, and she said no. Why should I ignore a complaint like that from my Head of Department?" The sickening reveal of Piper's deceit rockets through Alex, knocking the wind from her sails. She retreats from the desk, standing straight and wavering slightly. Of course Piper would lie through her teeth if it meant she could get her a shiny new job. Of course she would throw away everything she has with Alex over a title.

You can hardly blame Alex for being upset. She thought she meant a little more to Piper than that.

"Of course not, Mr Healy." Alex announces finally. "I won't be bothering you, your staff or your pupils any longer." She's finished. Defeated. Her voice is quiet and her exit of the office is beaten and tired.

Cheated and lied to by the only girl she's ever loved, Alex Vause has _nothing _left.

* * *

The grey clouds continue to hang overhead, bearing down upon Piper as she fiddles nervously with the takeaway coffee in her hand. It's as if they're waiting for the right moment to open; perhaps the rain will come cascading down about the same time Piper's life falls apart, spilling freezing raindrops that may mask the hot tears spilling down her cheeks.

It's not to say that Piper isn't hoping and praying to God that they can work something out, but judging by Alex's gruff nature on the phone, she's fairly pissed off about something. She's sitting on a stone wall, legs crossed and dangling over the edge of the bridge that crosses the small stream below. The quiet noise of trickling water is all she has to distract herself from the pounding of her heart and sickening nausea in her stomach. Seconds tick by, and her anxiety only grows with every passing moment as Alex fails to make an appearance. Piper drums her knee up and down in a nervous tick, her denim jacket offering no refute from the cutting wind slicing across the bridge the couple often frequented on a Saturday morning.

And then, finally she sees her, dressed in mostly black and advancing towards Piper purposefully. _Jesus, _if Piper was apprehensive before, she's goddamn terrified now. The blonde hops off the wall, scuffing her converse awkwardly against the concrete and thrusting her hands into the pockets of her coat. Surprisingly, Alex gives her girlfriend a lingering kiss on the cheek when she reaches her, which has Piper thinking that maybe this won't be so bad after all.

Really, Alex only does it because she's not sure she's ever going to feel her lips on Piper's skin again.

"I went to Healy today." Alex informs her girlfriend with a level voice and unreadable expression. Piper pauses, her eyes widening in fear.

"Fuck..." She breathes nervously, raising her eyebrows and biting her lip agitatedly.

"Yeah, don't worry, I mostly felt the same." Alex fires back caustically. "Thanks, by the way, for landing me in it."

"Look, I didn't tell you-"

"Save it, Piper." She interrupts harshly. "Not only that, but I got threatened by one of my pupil's mothers in the grocery store and glared at by every single parent who I happened to come across."

"Wait, what?" Piper raises a confused brow, gesturing cluelessly with her free hand.

"Oh, sorry, have you conveniently forgotten about the part where you said we weren't in a _consenting_ relationship?" Alex asks, her tone mocking and accusing. The words sting Piper like acid, rendering her speechless. The unadulterated _hatred_ in the brunette's jade irises streaks dread through Piper's entire body, and she visibly quivers under the gaze.

"I'm sorry, okay? I thought I was protecting us! You fucking forgot to tell me you got fired!" Piper defends herself eventually. Alex rolls her eyes, expecting that kind of reply from the blonde.

"I did that for you, Piper. I was standing up for you!" Alex proclaims, her eyes widening as Piper shakes her head adamantly.

"No, no fucking way. You don't get to put this on me." Piper snarls. "I never asked you to do that."

The couple stand, divided, glaring hard at each other. Their love burns out at a frightening pace, like a melting candle discarded in an empty room, replaced eagerly by contempt and blame placed by one on the other.

"Yeah well, I did. And now, my career is in bits." It's clear that Alex still holds Piper responsible for her getting fired, but at the end of the day, does it really matter whose fault it is? The blonde scratches absent-mindedly at the scar on her wrist as she often does in times of stress as Alex's accusation opens up old wounds and memories of her troubled childhood. It was all too familiar for Piper; being blamed and damned by the people she thought loved her most, subject to hateful glares and soul-destroying words.

"What're you gonna do?" Piper asks finally, rage replaced by uneasiness as Alex continues to smoulder.

"I'm leaving." She says bluntly. _And it's your fault, _Piper's conscious adds of its own accord. Piper's heart sank into her stomach as she realised the enormity of Alex's words. _She is leaving. _Finally, it hit Piper how much she fucking wanted the girl. No matter their catastrophic mistakes or cutting accusations, she wants Alex so fucking badly it pains her.

Alex gauges Piper's reaction to her words carefully. The blonde's expression falls slowly, her rage transforming into a blank stare. Her blue eyes cloud of their own accord, and Alex can guess what she's seeing, what she's feeling.

_Lonely. Lost. Broken. _

"No..." Piper whispers softly. "You can't just leave."

"I have to, Piper. There's nothing for me here." The words tear Piper apart, make her feel impossibly more tiny and insignificant than she ever has in her life.

"What about me?" Piper insists quietly, her bottom lip jutting out and quivering with sadness. Her ocean blue eyes are brimming with unsaid words and unshed tears. Rain begins to fall, and it sounds like the most bittersweet song the pair have ever heard. Time, too, begins to run out.

"Come with me." Alex pleads, grasping Piper's cheek. There are still a few people who love desperately in the world, and Alex Vause is one of them.

"Al..." Piper trails off, her words taken by the rain and pleading in Alex's eyes. "I can't go with you."

"Why?" Alex drops her hand, and her brows furrow in confusion. Piper loves her, so fucking much, and this needs to be the moment she allows it. She needs to reach for it and hold on with both hands. Just once.

She doesn't.

"This my _home_, Alex. Just stay." Piper begs, failing to realise that for the last seven months, home has been Alex's lips, Alex's hands, Alex's arms.

For Piper, Alex is home.

"And do what, Piper?" Alex's voice turns hard again. "Sit around all day like your little fucking housewife?!"

"You know that's not what I mean, Alex." Piper shakes her head, rain soaking her blonde locks right through. "I love you...you can't just fucking leave me!" Her hands come to the lapels of Alex's jacket, her coffee cup clattering to the ground, spilling its contents over the concrete and being quickly washed away by the rain.

"Watch me, Piper." Alex's voice wavers, cracking on the last syllable. "If you love me so much, why can't you just come with me?" She slaps Piper's hands away from the leather of her coat.

"I can't just throw my life away like that!" Piper returns angrily. "This was _your_ mistake, and now you're just leaving?"

"I'm trying to fucking fix it, Piper!" Alex insists desperately. "Why is it so important you to be right all the time? I fucked up, I'm sorry, okay? It's my entire fault, but I'm still leaving." Piper pauses. Angry, irrevocably in love with her and tremendously sorry, she turns away. "No." Alex snaps, pulling her back harshly by the wrist. "I want to hear you say it." Rain fogs up her glasses and flattens her hair, and she moves the black frames up into the dripping raven locks so that Piper is forced to look at the pain clearly visible in her shining green eyes.

"I'm sorry, Alex. I really fucking..love you so _fucking _much," Piper's defence crumbles, and tears flow freely from her eyes while her voice cracks. "But I can't be your girlfriend anymore." Alex releases her hand, relinquishes any fight she has left for their relationship. She stands silently for a moment as Piper begins retreating through the growing rainfall back to her car.

"You're just a fucking coward, Piper!" Alex yells after her. "God, I _hate_ you!" Fury consumes her, marring her judgement as her own angry tears mix with the torrential downpour. Once more, Piper turns back, taking in the form of the brunette for the last time. Piper's voice is packed with emotion, and carries to Alex despite the pounding of rain against the bridge. She's not even angry. She's absolutely ruined.

"Maybe we just weren't meant to be, Alex." The blonde announces hoarsely through her tears. A sad, terribly empty smile crosses her face as Alex looks on in complete and utter finality. "Keep living, Alex." She tells her. "It's only our story that ends here."

* * *

A/N: So...emotional enough? I never know how to gauge my own angst. Tell me what you think, please, I'd really appreciate it!


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Sorry this took so long; I've had the week from hell to say the least. I've done my best to keep my personal struggles out of my characters' feelings, but this chapter is probably a fucking train-wreck. I know you guys deserve better, and I'm genuinely sorry for how poor it is. Thanks, though, for 400 reviews! Love you all very much.

* * *

Piper Chapman had always been a terrific liar. She could charm and sweet talk her way out of the stickiest of situations, and had in fact become _so _good at lying, she could even convince herself of things she knew to be utterly untrue.

But not even Piper Chapman at her deceitful best could look into the tear streaked face of Alex Vause, the love of her life, and believe that they are not meant to be.

Because, even after Alex's scathing admission of hatred for her, Piper is still irrefutably in love with every single part of the girl. She's still in love with Alex when she turns and walks painfully away and certainly still in love with her when anguish and regret tackle her to the unforgiving floor of her bedroom. It appears, then, that Piper will _never_ stop being in love with Alex Vause. Which doesn't really explain why she's completely and totally alone, night descending balefully outside her home that now seems as cold and empty as it had since before she'd met the brunette. Already, after only a few excruciating hours of loneliness, Piper misses Alex.

How the _fuck_ is she going to deal with forever?

So Piper knows she loves Alex, and judging by the sizeable hole in her chest, she's pretty sure she misses her, too. She doesn't even hate her, which the blonde imagines would be much easier to do than loving her. And still, she left her. Piper's job does not bring her comfort, it will not bring her the relief or euphoria that she'd once dreamed of it doing. It will only serve to remind the girl of what she's chosen, and who she has lost. It may bring her distraction, if she could move further past the liquor cabinet, but right now all Piper can even consider doing it drowning her sorrows in a bottle of vodka, attempting to ignoring the agonizing sorrow that ardently consumes her, tainting the very air that is inhaled raggedly into unwilling lungs. The alcohol tastes harsh and cruel, a little like her soul.

One thing Piper cannot do, however, is even begin to try and put herself back together. In fact, if putting herself back together involves the absence of Alex Vause, Piper's not sure she even wants to try.

* * *

It's twilight by the time Alex returns home. She moved past the stage of denial so effortlessly, as if it had not even existed in the first place. As if she could attempt to ignore the white hot rage which courses zealously through her veins, igniting her body in a feverish hatred directed solely to the blonde who had taken it upon herself to rip Alex's heart from her chest and trample it into the concrete of the bridge, as if it were nothing to her.

As if _they _were nothing to her.

And Alex longs desperately to subscribe to that medium, but quite frankly Piper still occupies every thought that zips around her disconsolate mind.

Piper is still _everything_ to her.

But she's not everything in an '_Oh, I'm so in love with you that you just make everything better' _way anymore. To Alex, Piper is everything in an '_I fucking hate that I believed for even a second you would love me the way I loved you. I hate that I can't get you of my head, and I hate that I'm not in yours' _kind of fashion. Alex curses a lot, drinks a lot and rages a lot that night, but the single fact remains that she never stops loving Piper, even through all of it.

It is perhaps one of the most exhausting things to both hate and love someone so completely, yet all at once.

Alex debates on where to go for a long, long time. Eventually, after little to no human contact for about three days, a blunt text to Nicky detailing her need for the shorter girl's presence and a lot of alcohol results in Nicky facing her best friend on the brunette's balcony, a six pack of beer resting on the small, iron table between them.

"That sounds like the most clichéd young adult novel ever written." Nicky deadpanned after Alex's solemn recount of the past few days' events. The brunette cracked a smile, but it was a poor effort and only spread to one side of her mouth.

"Yeah, well..." Alex pauses, her gaze faraway, squinting into the setting sun over the silhouetted horizon of New York. "It hurt like a bitch, so..." Nicky grimaces; she's uncomfortable with her usually boisterous, unflappable best friend looking so dejected.

"Come on, Vause, she's just a girl!" Nicky insists earnestly, leaning forward in her chair. "Why are you so hung up on her?" The fair-haired girl spreads her hands across the table, palms turned upwards in confusion. Alex sighs. How can she expect Nicky to understand why she loves Piper so much, when Alex can't even understand it herself? They are simply _made _for each other; Alex is a calming anchor in Piper's seemingly infinite sea of raging emotion, while Piper is a constant source of brightness in Alex's otherwise mundane days, smouldering with an iridescent glow that Alex cannot help but crave.

Or, they were, anyway.

Now, as the glowering sun peeks between two skyscrapers, casting a shimmering line across Alex's vision, they are _nothing. _Piper is everything, still, but _they, _Piper and Alex as one all consuming couple, are simply not existent.

"I don't want to talk about her." Alex says bluntly, fixing her gaze to the cool bottle of beer between her fingers. Nicky groans, dragging her hands despondently down her face in frustrations.

"You need to get away from her, Alex." She tells her best friend sharply.

"I'm not with her." The brunette points out.

"_No."_ Nicky shakes her head harshly. "I mean _really_ away from her. You need a fresh start, Vause. Going to Jersey to visit your mom for a few days doesn't count."

"Where am I gonna go, huh?" Alex frowns deeply. "I have no one left."

"You don't need anyone!" The bushy haired girl cries, splaying her hands across the table once more. "What you need, is a big ass house and an even better job, and a line of chicks outside your door, yeah? You're better than..." Nicky pauses, looking disdainfully at the pathetic bottles of beer discarded at their feet and cigarette ashes strewn over the balcony. "_This." _Alex's expression matches her best friend's before she begins nodding her agreement, and for a fleeting second she can imagine a somewhat happy life, in a new state with new people and new opportunities. No Piper, sure, but Nicky's right. The slow, agonising burn of missing Piper Chapman is beginning to destroy her.

Alex deserves better.

* * *

Monday morning comes around before Piper can even blink, and sobriety feels rather odd to her.

It's just been that sort of weekend, with one too many tearful breakups and soul-destroying desertions by alluring brunette Chemistry teachers.

The strangest thing of all, however, is that everyone else is so _normal. _Piper's colleagues hadn't just gone through hell, and her students certainly hadn't, only three days ago, watched the blurred outline of the love of their lives yelling biting remarks of hatred at them through an onslaught of pounding rainwater. But Piper most definitely had, and despite donning her most expensive blazer, skirt and heels while covering the bags under her tired eyes with a substantial layer of makeup, it would be evident to a blind man that the blonde was in a hell of a lot of pain. Simply put, she was wrecked. _Ruined. _It was extremely disorientating to be so utterly out of sync with the rest of the world, and Piper initially struggles with getting back on her feet. On the outside, at least. Inside, her morose thoughts are rather more tailored to one thing. She doesn't think of Alex constantly, of course; that would be impossible. But she simply cannot deny that every time her mind wanders fancifully, it always finds a way to be pulled back into the dark, twisted void of memories that plague her relentlessly.

And not the happy kind, either.

Piper finds it hard to focus on the good in their relationship anymore, because she knows how it ends. For every memory she has that involves Alex, a smile and a laugh, it's followed by a terribly more haunting one, usually involving a bridge, Healy or an intercom. It's like every happy moment in her life, every blissful second spent with Alex Vause, has now been irreversibly tainted by her wicked stubbornness, her inherently sick need to be the victim all the damn time.

That's what kills her the most.

Not only is Piper physically without Alex, unable to feel the brunette's lips and hands across her body, but the constant lapsing back into painful memories of what she has now lost, is slowly but surely tearing her apart. Still, there's a thronging mass of pupils waiting to be taught, and if nothing else, Piper is going to make _damn _sure they pass their exams with flying colours. While that may be easier said than done, the blonde trudges through her first few days easily enough, calling on her ability to create a facade now more than ever. She's just...blank. No one notices anything off with her, and she gives them no reason to. It's Thursday afternoon when it happens, and Piper is strolling briskly through the corridor with a pile of homework tucked under her arm. In somewhat of a daze, however, she fails to notice the very pissed off woman advancing towards her. In fact, she only notices when her papers are sent flying from her grip and she's pushed back against the wall harshly, her spine connecting painfully with the brickwork.

"What the _hell?!" _Piper yells, bringing an immediate hand to the small of her back and glaring hard into the raging face of Nicky Nichols.

"That was for Alex. How can you just walk around her without giving a shit?" She says bluntly, puffing out her chest but considerably shorter than the blonde. Piper scoffs, and for the first time in days feels some form of emotion other than sadness shoot through her system. She glances around the empty corridor for a second, making sure they're alone before a white hot flash of rage consumes her and she places her hands on Nicky's chest, shoving her hard away and causing her to stumble backwards.

"Fuck you, Nicky." She seethes, shaking her head disdainfully. "Fuck you." She adds with another smaller shove so that the bushy haired girl bumps against the far wall. "You want me to be angry? Well, guess what, I'm really fucking angry." Piper's bottom lip quivers with emotion, and her blue eyes are flashing. "I have really been trying to keep my shit together, but if you really need to see me Hulk out over this..." Her sentence falters, cut off by a wave of sadness mixed dangerously with fury, and Nicky watches in stunned silence as her colleague closes her eyes for a moment and tries to gather herself. "I _love_ her, Nicky." Piper's eyes are blazing now with something more than anger; there's hurt and remorse and an unnameable amount of other emotions swimming in the cerulean irises. "I love her and I fucking _hate _her." Piper's voice is strong, but her eyes shine with the unutterable truth that she couldn't hate Alex Vause, even if she tried. Nicky rolls her eyes at the similarity of the two women, having heard a rather similar speech from her best friend a few days ago.

"Back off, Chapman." Nicky narrows her eyes at the blonde who continues to glare down at her.

"You don't have a fucking clue what I'm going through." Piper informs her lowly, gritting her teeth and refusing to back down. The shorter girl scowls, considering bringing up how much Alex was, and _is_ hurting. Deciding against it, she laughs caustically in Piper's face.

"At least you have a shiny new job to keep yourself occupied."

"What do you want me to do, huh?" Piper asks harshly. "_Run away?"_ It comes out much more cutting and accusing than she'd of liked, but Piper has an uncanny ability to speak her mind without really thinking about the consequences. Nicky, surprisingly, breaks out into a smug grin, brushing down her lapels as Piper steps back quietly, her bravado gone with her unwarranted insult to Alex's actions.

"Hey," Nicky shrugs self-confidently. "I hear California's nice this time of year." Piper's head snaps up, eyes widening in question.

"What?" She whispers hoarsely, blood pumping loudly in her ears and stomach lurching nauseously. Surely not.

"I would say call Alex and ask her all about it..." Nicky trails off, satisfied laughter booming throughout the hallway. "But she's probably far too busy throwing a housewarming party for her new L.A. babes, you know?"

* * *

For a start, she's not even in Los Angeles, nor California for that matter. It's true that she'd enquired about an illustrious job offer back in the second high school she'd first taught in, but right now Alex was nursing a piping hot cup of tea at a small kitchen table in New Jersey. The flyscreen door is wide open, and sun paints her mother's features kindly. Her old eyes shine with wisdom as she studies her daughter intently.

"Stop looking at me like that, Ma." Alex grumbles, rubbing her fist at the last remnants of sleep that linger in her tear ducts. Alex's mom says nothing, continuing to sport that trademark Vause smirk at the younger girl's reluctance to elaborate on her feelings. The fridge in the background adds to the ambiance, buzzing constantly and irritating Alex to no end. She feels claustrophobic.

"Why d'ya love the damn girl so much?" Diane asks again.

"Why's it matter?"

"I'm curious. I don't understand it, yet I can't even be around you pair for ten minutes without wanting to vomit at how bloody in love you two are."

"_Were."_ Alex corrects sharply. She takes a long, sad drag from the tea and sets it back down on the table with a thud.

"Whatever you say, sweetheart." The older woman shakes her head, not believing a word of it.

"I hate her." Alex insists, and it's mostly the truth. Really, though, she hates that Piper isn't here, that Piper didn't come with her. But more than that, Alex hates herself. She absolutely _despises_ herself for being so reckless and careless with Piper's love, and feels revolted at the fact she's fucked the whole damn thing up by being far too hot-headed. It's frustrating as hell that Piper had been so stubborn, but the whole situation itself could have been avoided by Alex.

That's what keeps her up at night, staring at the empty space across her bed where she had been so used to seeing a messy head of blonde hair poking up from underneath the covers. That's why she stays awake until the sun rises in the early morning and thinks about what she'd say to Piper if she was still around. But Alex had left, and she couldn't go back. Piper would _never_ forgive her for leaving.

These are Alex's demons to be plagued by, and the brunette has little choice but to bear the brunt of them alone.

"But you love her." Alex's mother tells her wisely.

"We've established that!" The brunette pleads, her intonation rising in embarrassment.

"_Why?" _Her mother stresses with a laugh. Alex sighs raggedly in frustration, before quieting and tracing a thoughtful finger around the rim of her stained cup. Her gaze lowers.

"I can't even help it, Ma. I just _do." _She begins, eyebrows raising slightly as she continues to stare into the tea as if it will reveal the answers to the age old question of why the hell Alex Vause feels so strongly for Piper Chapman, for a girl who had straight up broken her heart. Maybe that's the key, though; the fact that Alex loved the blonde so much that she was able to _ruin _her with only a simple refusal, perhaps signified that their emotional bond would be nearly impossible to sever, and certainly physical separation would not even come close to stopping Alex loving Piper. In fact, Alex was beginning to doubt if she was ever going to stop being in love with the damn girl. She hated Piper, though. She really did.

"Like..if I'm ever down or stressed or missing you she'll fix me up with cheap wine and rub my back and we'll chill out on the sofa with a corny film, something old and long that stretches way into the night, you know those kind?" Alex asks her mother with a nervous laugh. Diane nods sadly, Her daughter wipes at a stray tear angrily before continuing, yellow light from the porch casting a forlorn glow over her figure. "And Piper just sits there in her old college t shirts and the shortest pair of shirts you've ever seen, and a little while into the film she'll end up falling asleep on my shoulder and I'll get us a blanket and it's as if nobody else even exists, Ma." Alex's voice wavers with sentiment, and tears threaten to silence her monologue. Still, it feels good to list all the reasons why she loves the blonde. "She had a family, once, but it was one of those beat the crap out of each other situations. Piper...she genuinely did love them, for a time, and all they did was hurt her. And that's why she refuses to love anybody, I guess. Even me. I didn't want that for her, Ma." She chokes back a sob. "I wanted to prove her wrong."

"You did, honey, I'm sure you did." Diane rubs her daughter comfortingly on the shoulder, drawing the younger girl into a motherly embrace as her emotions finally get the better of her after without a doubt the worst week of her existence. Through her barrage of sadness, Alex whispers out a quiet, heartbreaking admission.

"I wanted her to be able to love me."

* * *

Piper's sick of it, by this point.

She wishes Alex would stop appearing in her dreams, her nightmares. She wishes she could stop fucking _crying _all the time; she wasn't sure how many more nights she could bear with the infuriatingly smug Polly Harper doing little to hide her gleefulness at Alex being gone. Piper wishes she could stop missing Alex, but the absolute truth is that Piper's completely in love with the girl; how can she _stop _missing her? She misses everything; the glimmer of her deep green eyes or the confident smirk that could instil an inherent belief into Piper, no matter what sort of quixotic comment she was making. Piper could go on and on about every minute detail, and it's slowly driving her insane. She _hates_ missing Alex, and she cannot even think about the fact that she has lost her for good. Piper doesn't want to miss her anymore.

Piper wants to go home.

Home to the infinite bliss of Alex's warm, strong arms and intoxicating, seductive scent that Piper yearns desperately to return to the addictive familiarity of. Alex is Piper's home away from home; she needs to get away from the stifling expectation of her job and constant reminders of Alex's absence. But, the blonde pushed away the one girl who'd ever loved her properly, so she has to settle with crippling guilt haunting her relentlessly as she begins the trek out of school and back to her car for the final time this school year.

It's summer, at least.

It's ironic that the very thing that had driven them apart was what had held Piper's broken pieces mostly together in the last handful months; her job. At least she had the satisfaction of drilling the syllabus into her pupils so well that they would pass their exams without even batting an eyelid. Now, Piper won't even have work to distract from her unforgiving loneliness. The football fields smell like freshly cut grass and an odd scent of cigarette smoke permeates the air as Piper heaves open the double doors and out onto the football fields, away from the exam hall where she'd been invigilating. In the past, Piper would beam up at the sunlight splitting the trees as she would walk briskly to the car park where Alex would be leaning sexily against her car, one ankle crossed over the other as she waited for the blonde to finish whatever it was she was doing.

This time, Piper doesn't smile at the sun.

In fact, she doesn't look anywhere but at the ground until a rustling up ahead of her causing her gaze to snap up at the noise.

"Oh, fuck." The pupil curses under his breath as he fumbles for the pocket of his leather jacket and moves to stub out his cigarette quickly.

"James." Piper waves a dismissive hand as a sad smile crosses her face. "It's fine." The teacher climbs the bleachers and takes a heavy seat beside the boy. He's handsome; about seventeen with dark hair and a strong jawline, a British accent that has the entire female population of the school swooning over him and a carefree attitude that meant his teachers found him a joy to be around. James and his Chemistry teacher, however, had struck an instant rapport that probably came from their striking similarities. Piper had been like him, once; popular and intelligent, effortless at striking up a conversation and making a room smile, yet always carrying a slight mystery that would never fully be revealed. Why else would one of the Academy's star pupils be sitting outside smoking on school grounds where he thought no one would find him? Everyone has their secrets, and it's almost always the popular kids who hide under a facade of confidence and self assurance.

"Christ, I'm sorry, Miss." He sighs, scratching his forehead but making no move to extinguish his half-smoked cigarette.

"Don't worry about it." Piper assures the boy. "How'd the exam go?" She knows it's James' last day at the high school as a pupil, and wonders why he's not at home getting ready to go to some sort of party.

"A breeze, Miss. Thanks to you." He grins slyly at her, closing one eye as Piper laughs genuinely for the first time in weeks. She can see why people find him attractive, with his charm and cheekiness and jet black hair.

"Don't mention it. What's troubling you? You don't have to tell me, but I was pretty familiar with a cigarette on the bleachers after a day in this shithole." She reminisces, eliciting a laugh from James.

"Girl problems, that's what."

"Tell me about it." Piper muses with an agreeable nod. "Let me guess, the blonde girl who sits at the front of my room whom you stare at instead of listening to my lessons?"

"That's the one." James confirms with a smirk before his expression falls slightly and he sighs in frustration. With his brown eyes closed, his confident demeanour, leather jacket, combat boots and dark hair mean he could very easily be mistaken as a relative of Alex's.

Maybe that's why Piper thinks so highly of him.

"She's a who, not a what, James." She chastises him, but smiles teasingly at her pupil. "She likes you, too." Piper assures him, ever observant of how the girl looks longingly back at him from time to time when she thinks no one can see. James opens his eyes and grins in happiness, taking a slow drag from his cigarette and warming his face to the sun.

"Want one?" He asks suddenly, turning to Piper and looking hard at her while producing a packet of cigarettes. She hesitates. "You look like you could use one, Miss." Piper considers his reasoning and takes one, accepting the lighter from James' waiting grasp. The flame ignites effortlessly, and although Piper had kicked the habit quite some time ago, it's still like second nature.

It's one of those things she'll never forget how to do. It joins a pretty short list, one that also involves loving Alex Vause to the point of excruciating pain.

"You miss her?" The boy asks suddenly, his voice sombre now. Of course he knew Piper was in love with the hot brunette from the classroom next door. Smoke escapes up into the atmosphere from between Piper's lips as she looks listlessly up into the clear blue skies of New York City.

"Every second of every day, kid." Piper says seriously, sighing slightly. The sunlight offers no pity to the blonde for her grave mistake, and the nicotine does little to numb her heartbreak. James observes the woman intently, and realises she's not the same woman who'd taught him for the first time back in September. She's changed, massively. He hopes it's for the better.

"Why?" James asks curiously, stubbing out his cigarette and redirecting his full attention to the blonde. Piper continues to gaze out at nothing in particular as she ponders on the question.

"You're gonna grow up, James, and you're gonna find a girl who is just _everything _to you. She'll be the first thing you think about when you wake up and the last thing you feel before you go to sleep. And, _Jesus_, kid; you're gonna love that girl to the point where it kills you, and you cannot ever let her leave, okay? No matter what." Piper's voice is surprisingly level as she speaks to the boy, and he nods silently for Piper to continue.

"You better love her, because she's worth it."

"Don't do what I did, and let go of the only thing that even matters anymore. Because going from having someone there every second of every day as this intense, constant _thing, _to complete nothingness, is just..." Piper struggles for the right word. "Soul destroying." The red tip of her cigarette glows harshly in the late afternoon sun and begins to fade along with Piper's hope.

"And that was...Alex, was it?" James enquires, empathising massively with the blonde.

"That was Alex." She quips miserably. A gloomy smile, devoid of happiness crosses her face. "She was what I paid attention to. _Who _I paid attention to." She reminds herself. James cannot speak, his words taken by the startling truths spoken by Piper. Her final words are something she's known for a long time, but it still feels good to let them out.

"She was the love of my life." Silence eagerly fills the space between them as Piper looks on in regret. James eventually lets out a low whistle, and Piper shakes her head sorrowfully, more to herself than anyone.

"Bloody hell, Miss." James scrambles for any sort of opinion to give on the obviously calamitous love between the two women, but he fails to come up with any effort worth articulating. "You're talking like she's dead or something." Piper purses her lips at that, feeling at once exhausted, as if the world had drained her for all she had.

"She hates me." She whispers quietly.

"So fix it." James offers. Piper laughs in pity, longing desperately to be that young and juvenile again, when she thought things were all so much easier than they appeared.

"I don't even know where she is. It's been months." Piper informs him, cigarette dwindling out from between her slender fingers. She throws it dejectedly to the ground, extinguishing the glowing embers with her heel.

"So go find her!" James exclaims, suddenly full of life. "Come on, Miss Chapman!" He hops down from the red bleachers, gravel crunching underfoot as a bright smile lights up his face. "What do you have to lose?" Piper considers him, with his cheesy grin and optimistic manner, and for a brief, indescribable moment, hope ebbs and flows through her body.

It's long enough.

Piper finds herself grinning back, taking the pupil's jocular offer of a hand down from the bleachers and a pleased laugh bubbles up into her throat.

"Go find that girl, Miss Chapman." He instructs her dramatically, green eyes glinting with expectation.

"I will, James." Piper tells him honestly, letting go of his hand. "Good luck, kid. You're gonna go far."

"Appreciated, Miss. Now, go on." He urges with a wide grin. Piper smiles back, turns on her heel and journeys back to her car. Finally, fucking finally, she feels something positive when her Audi melts into the hustle and bustle of rush hour New York. She feels hopeful, belief coursing through her veins as self confidence ardently returns to her.

She's going to get Alex Vause back, even if it kills her.

* * *

If Alex was still at the Academy, today would have been her last day before summer began. Instead, she's standing in a San Diego beach home that was much too big for her lonely soul to reside in all alone.

Man, they weren't kidding when they told Alex her new job would be illustrious.

A calm breeze filters through the open French doors as Alex looks out onto the glistening blue waters and golden sands. Her mother sure had a point when she'd told her that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and considering the mess she'd gotten herself into in New York, Alex should take it, run and never look back. It's about eight in the evening, and the sun is setting low across the distant horizon as waves wash softly up against the beach in front.

And _fuck _if Piper wouldn't have bloody loved the place.

A wistful sigh escapes the brunette's lips as she walks forward, pulling the doors shut tight and retreating back into her airy bedroom, just in time to hear her familiar ringtone begin playing from somewhere within the white sheets of her four poster bed. Alex searches urgently for it, an odd feeling of apprehension coming from somewhere that she can't quite place. Her fingers eventually curl around the cool metal and prise it from between her pillows as her suspicions are confirmed and her entire world splinters right in front of her.

It's so terrifically twisted; how Alex strives to convince herself that she wants absolutely nothing to do with Piper Chapman again, yet now that the blonde's familiar ten digit phone number is lighting up her screen, a thunderous wave of relief erupts through her and douses her veins in liquid euphoria. Shaky fingers unlock her phone as nervous anticipation creeps up into her stomach when the phone reaches her ear.

"Piper." Alex breathes, eyes closing involuntarily as her body thrums with excitement. All remnants of hate for the girl are at once forgotten, and she waits eagerly to hear Piper's voice. And waits.

And waits.

"Alex?! _Alex?_" An unfamiliar voice cries agitatedly down the phone, almost drowned out by the piercing shrill of sirens in the background. Alex's heart leaps into her throat as she places the voice.

"What the fuck? _Polly?!" _Alex begins pacing her room, her hope immediately replaced with fear. For once, she gets something right.

Because Alex Vause is about to be faced with the only thing that could ever bring her to her knees, unable to withhold her already faltering grip on a world without Piper Chapman for any longer.

"It's Piper, oh _fuck, _Alex... I'm so sorry."

"Sorry for what, for fuck sake?" Alex growls, her breathing shallow as she waits for an eventual reply from Piper's best friend. When it comes, Polly's voice trembles with audible fear.

"There's been an accident."

* * *

A/N: I think this is absolute trash, but tell me what you think. It's not even close to being over yet, by the way.


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: This just accidentally typed itself and I'll probably regret it in the morning. Isn't that how all great stories go, though? Anyway, enjoy! Thanks for your lovely reviews threatening to kill me, I love you all.

* * *

She's always been the fanciful type.

Even when the sickening sound of metal on metal echoes through her body and a sharp edge tears through her skin, Piper doesn't question it. Licks of firelight danced in her eyes and her mind, veiled by a strange, translucent film.

She thinks the colours look fantastic; from the red staining her shirt to the indigo twilight overhead, bearing down on the road like some sort of terrific, omniscient entity.

There's no pain. There's no sound either, save for the muted shrill of sirens that appear after a very long time. There is sight, of forgotten dreams and enchanting flames, but there is no pain. Glass rains down overhead, fragment sprinkling around and through her like the sweetest melody she'd ever felt, but it doesn't hurt her.

The darkness overcomes her kindly, bringing with it promises of delightful endings and lucidity from the mask that veils her mind.

And when it comes, the clarity is brief and fleeting, but it is perfect.

A shock of raven hair and wondrous green eyes flashes in crystal clear definition, and Piper smiles as her eyes slip closed, the breathtaking apparition disappearing as quickly as it appears.

The vision of the girl with the bright green eyes and peaceful smile is all Piper has to hold onto as she fades into a splendid nothingness.

* * *

A tiny sliver of moonlight creeps through the vast clouds as Alex rests her head against the window of the plane.

The miniscule light represents all the hope she has left within a sea of despair and anguish.

Alex can hardly remember what Polly said on the phone. Harrowing words like _acute_ _blood loss_ and _hypervolemic shock_ had reverberated most powerfully through Alex, but most of the conversation had been blocked out by her body's instinctive defence against pain. After an hour of perpetual stillness had elapsed, Alex never once moving a muscle from her position sat perched on her bed, every black item of clothing she owned had at once been thrust into an overnight bag, flights had been booked back the way she came, money had been snatched, and through a frightening blur Alex had ended up on the next flight from California to New York. It is here, as the plane flies over bright lights and winding roads, that Alex breathes.

And it's the most painful thing she's ever done.

Misery grips her excruciatingly hard, and she closes her eyes to expel the paralysing terror. It doesn't work, and every single memory she has with Piper floods her at once, suffocating her to the point where Alex's knuckles turn white against the black armrest of her chair. From the good memories of the night they'd first said 'I love you' to each other, to the awful day Piper had turned and walked away on the bridge.

The pain Alex had felt that day was incomparable to the unbearable sadness that enveloped her now. That day was happy compared to this.

* * *

By the time her aching body slips into the taxi, sunlight is beginning to illuminate the recognizable streets of New York. It casts a mocking, almost sardonic glow across all the familiarity. Alex looks out across the memories, at neon bars where she and Piper had danced the night away and at the now boarded up shop window outside which Piper had tumbled on top of Alex last Christmas Eve in a desperate plea to retrieve her hat. She doesn't smile at the memories anymore; their vibrancy much too real for her to reminisce peacefully over.

That could take her years.

The buildings eventually blur, and Alex isn't quite sure if it's due to the speed of the taxi or emotion welling up in her eyes. Maybe it's both. A fierce longing pulls suddenly at her heartstrings as the radio blares across the small confines of the car.

"Hey, can you turn that down a bit?" Alex says gruffly to the cab driver, who glances in the mirror. He takes one look at Alex's stormy expression and clouded eyes, and turns the volume down to a more respectable level.

"Sorry, I just really love that song. Would be great to have someone feel that way about you, you know?" He laughs nervously, attempting to diffuse the tension. He's a nice guy, mid forties with a round face and matching beer belly.

"What way?"

"To care about you that much."

"I'm not following." Alex says tiredly, rubbing at her eyes underneath the lenses of her glasses.

"Well, the song's about making someone unafraid to love, and I just think it's a nice sort of idea to have. I'd kill for a girl to love me like that." He muses, shaking his head. "Sounds like the kind of love you only hear about in movies, though." Alex barks out a caustic laugh suddenly, devoid of humour and the cab driver looks at her in confusion.

"Doing everything to make someone love you back, but they can't because they're too afraid, no matter how much they try, is a very real thing, pal." The brunette mutters dryly as the closing lines of the song play quietly.

"_Nothing that I wouldn't do. Go to the ends of the earth, for you, to make you feel my love..." _

The man clears his throat awkwardly, uncomfortable with how affected his passenger seems to be by his whole breakdown of the lyrics. Alex continues to gaze out the window despondently.

"So...what brings you here? You coming home for the summer?" He asks, in an attempt to make small talk. Alex pauses for a moment, a sad smile playing on her lips as her gaze falters and lowers to her lap. She plays idly with her ring finger on her left hand.

She's pretty sure it's going to remain bare for the rest of her life.

"Yeah." Alex sighs eventually, her shoulders rising and falling as if the admission had taken her breath away. "I'm coming home."

It's like coming home after a long trip. That's what love is like. It's like coming home.

* * *

Why on God's earth she agreed with this, Alex will never know. When Polly had offered it to her, Alex had been much too upset to do anything else but to jump at a final chance to see the love of her life.

But this is not how she wants to remember Piper Chapman.

Fear and apprehension paralyses her for a moment, and Alex is frozen in place. Beyond the weighted doors lies an impossibly bigger amount of suffering for her, and she's not sure if she can do it. She cannot see Piper without the life dancing in her blue eyes and the mischievous grin playing on her soft lips.

She can't.

Alex shudders in fear, knowing it will be much cooler when she steps outside the small room she cowers in currently. No one is with her, as she insisted this was something she had to do alone. The tall man clad in a crisp shirt and smart slacks had already made an exception by letting Alex see her in the first place.

Usually, bodies in a similar to condition to Piper's were seen only by immediate family.

She had a deal to honour beyond the doors. Alex's blood resounded deafeningly in her ears as she took a tentative step forward, one hand on the cool metal door handle. She pauses. Sucks in a ragged, painful breath. And pulls.

The first thing that hits her is the cold. Weirdly, she'd excepted it to be warmer inside, although Biology had never been her strong suit. The next thing that draws her attention is the silence. Outside on the streets there had been hustle and bustle as New Yorkers got on with their days, oblivious to what Alex was about to go through. In here, the silence of despair hangs in the air, the only noise coming from Alex's hesitant, fearful steps forward. The third hit is the worst, though.

The third hit is Piper Chapman.

Alex hasn't laid eyes on the girl for over four godforsaken months, and when she does, she must suppress an incredible urge to empty the contents of her already vacant stomach. Alex's fingers falter by the frame upon which Piper's body rests, much too scared to venture closer. Her hair is still blonde, and her skin looks as soft as it did on early mornings when Alex would wake with Piper tangled warmly in her arms.

Alex wonders if her eyes are still the same shade of ocean blue.

She wishes it was darker, for the harsh lighting of the room highlights the visible scars on Piper's body. Traumatising lines of red are scraped down her arms from remains of her Audi's windshield, and Alex would put good money on there being a hell of a lot worse residing under the coarse material covering Piper's body. Alex would like to say she looks like she's sleeping, but the only time she's ever seen the blonde asleep has been in Alex's arms or with her head snugly burrowed underneath bed sheets.

Alex wonders if this is how Piper slept when she was alone.

She opens her mouth to speak, for no reason at all considering the blonde isn't exactly fit to reply. But her screams are silent, and Alex can focus on absolutely nothing else in the room but the absolute blankness of Piper's face. Even as death stands beside the pair, watching over them quietly, Piper doesn't look much different. She's still breathtaking. Maybe that's why Alex doesn't say anything. Eventually, she tears her gaze downwards to the small tag on Piper's left wrist, and draws it between her shaking fingers for a moment before sliding it upwards.

Because while many people will see Piper with the incalculable scars of her accident, only Alex knows about the tiny jagged line on her wrist.

The whiteness of it is stark in the lighting of the room, and it makes Alex smile through her sadness for some reason as one glistening tear falls onto the scar. It's perhaps insignificant that she's the only one who'll notice this mark, while everyone else will put it down as yet another drawn into her skin by shards of glass.

But it's kind of nice, the way Alex is the only who truly noticed everything about Piper Chapman.

* * *

Alex is leaning against the wall, cigarette between her lips and black dress catching in the breeze when she meets them.

"Excuse me." A man calls out to her, walking briskly across the car park with a woman in tow. They're both fairly old, Alex thinks, maybe in their sixties. The woman has blonde hair and blue eyes, and Alex doesn't like her much.

"Yeah?" Alex replies curtly around her cigarette. Her long index and third fingers of her right hand draw it outwards and smoke drifts from her mouth into the sunshine above as she looks the couple up and down.

"Do you know where Piper Chapman is?" _Of course_, Alex thinks. She should have guessed who they were by their grandiose, yuppie manner anyway. She takes another drag before replying.

"Let me guess, you're the dad who abused her and the mom who let him?" Alex questions casually, even though she knows the answer. The woman, Carol, audibly gasps and takes a dramatic step backward, as if slapped. Piper's father makes a similar motion and furrows his deep set brows in anger.

"Excuse me?!" He yells at the top of his voice. Alex doesn't move a muscle apart from expelling another plume of smoke between her full red lips, looking smugly at him through her glasses.

"I said-" Alex begins repeating herself, but Bill Chapman cuts her off.

"I know what you said, who the hell do you think you are making accusations like that?" He barks out harshly, coming face to face with Alex who stands at the same height as him due to her heels.

"My name is Alex." She replies nonchalantly, looking mildly disgusted at his close proximity.

"Bill, come now." Carol chastises, pulling him backward by the sleeve of his overcoat. "It's not like what she said isn't true." She whispers under his breath. The man's face turns a delightful shade of purple as he looks between his wife and the intimidating brunette who continues smoking her cigarette arrogantly.

"How do you know our daughter?" He questions, anguish lacing his tone. Alex relents slightly; they might have treated Piper like shit, but she was still their daughter.

"Does it matter?" Alex says mysteriously. She throws the cigarette to the ground, stubbing it out with her heel and turning to walk away, figuring they're probably entitled to some privacy with their daughter. The nicotine doesn't even begin to numb her pain.

"Then what the _hell _gives you the damn right to go around making accusations like that!" Bill yells after her as Piper's mother starts dragging him inside. Alex laughs bitterly, turning back to him and spreading her arms wide, an sardonic grin on her lips.

"Not like she's around to stop me."

* * *

Her mother comes with her, once. Holding her daughter's hand tightly, it gives Alex the courage to speak.

"Hey, Pipes. It's me again." Alex scuffs her feet nervously against the ground as Piper's name and short details of her life look back at her, listening to what she has to say. "It's been a while, huh, kid? I miss you. A lot. It hurts." She says honestly, her voice thick. "Everyone misses you. My mom's here, I think she misses you, right?"

"Yeah. We all miss you, sweetie." Diane says quietly, squeezing Alex's hand.

"What'd I tell you?" Alex laughs anxiously, and she hopes Piper can hear the smile in her voice. Or see it, maybe. She'd always told Alex how she loved her smile. "And I'm sorry, Piper. I'm sorry that the last words you ever heard me say were a lie-" She quiets, unable to even think about the fact Piper had left with the sound of Alex screaming _'I hate you'_ at her through the thunderous rainfall. "A real big fucking lie- oops, can I say that?" Alex looks at her surroundings, and remembers no one can hear her except her mother. And Piper, maybe. But probably not. "Anyway, I don't hate you. I could never. I loved you, and I still love you, and I'll never _ever_ stop, Piper." She tells her honestly. The bouquet of flowers in her hands begins to weigh her down and Alex's chest constricts painfully. She hopes the numbness of loss comes soon, because there's only so much hurt her body can withstand.

"I don't blame you for leaving, Piper, the way you probably blame me. I had a choice, and I chose wrong. You didn't get a say, I guess. And I hope you never have to think of anything as much as I've thought about leaving you, kid, because that will haunt me until the day I die. I'm so goddamn sorry, and I miss you and I wish you were here and-" Alex disintegrates into sorrow, and she becomes a vulnerable wreck, the one thing she had vowed to never become. Diane soothes her with a warm rub of her shoulders, but it's not enough.

It will never be enough.

Through her tears and mother's comforting words, Alex sets down the flowers and prays for closure. Their story does not have a definable middle or end, despite what the blonde had proclaimed through the rain. Because, even when only one truly remains, their tale continues weaving a destructive saga without a discernible light at the end of the tunnel.

Alex has nothing left to hold onto, yet she cannot let go.

* * *

Eventually, Nicky's had enough. She understands that Alex is upset, but after weeks of being metaphorically forced out of her own home by the brunette's sadness, Nicky really has to say something.

"Fuck this." She growls, snatching the bottle of beer from between Alex's fingers and hurling it against the wall where it cracks harshly against the plaster and shatters stridently. "Get the fuck up." She pulls Alex upwards by the material of her ragged t shirt, one of Piper's old college ones, and drags her to the bathroom.

"What the hell, Nicky?" Alex cries drunkenly when her best friend turns on the shower and shoves Alex under the spray, t shirt and all.

"Get yourself fucking sorted out. You have ten minutes, and then we're gonna talk." She barks, slamming the door closed before Alex can even reply.

Nicky cleans up the shattered beer bottle as she waits for the brunette to return, wondering about what to say. She's sick of looking at Alex wasting away her summer and suffering from her tangible despair, so Nicky's going to sort it out the best she can. Shards of glassware are just being deposited in the bin when Alex steps out of the bathroom, wet hair dripping onto the wooden floor but still wearing the same shirt.

"Are you fucking joking me?" Nicky yells angrily. "Look at you!"

"You know what, Nicky?" Alex says sadly, beginning to pick up her things that linger around her best friend's home. "Save it. I don't give a fuck what you think, because you're much too cool and hardcore for believing in true love, right?" She says bitterly. "So _fuck _you."

"Ey, well _fuck _you too, Vause!" Nicky bellows, storming into her bedroom and dragging out Alex's clothing. "You lived without her for four months, why's this even change anything?"

"Are you even fucking hearing yourself?" Alex screams back, shoving past Nicky to pick up her bag. "She is the love of my fucking life, and now she's just nothing! Before, she was still something!" Attire and toiletries begin being hurled in the general direction of Alex's bag by both women, and within a few minutes, a grave standoff has ensued. Alex stands before her best friend of the last twelve years, in one of her ex girlfriend's college t shirts and wet hair, black jeans and converse, while Nicky faces her in her dressing gown.

"Where the hell are you gonna go?" Nicky demands in a threatening whisper, inclining her head at Alex's bedraggled demeanour.

"A hotel, anywhere..." She trails off, averting her gaze to a spot on the floor.

"What're you waiting for, Vause? A miracle?" Nicky asks cynically, shaking her head in disappointment. Alex's head snaps up.

"Fuck you. I can do whatever the hell I want." Deep down, Alex knows her best friend is right. The likelihood of any good coming from Alex paying mountains for a hotel room in the hopes of some divine intervention, is miniscule. But still, she can't bring herself to give up. "This is my home."

"You don't even have a home anymore, Alex..." Nicky reminds her sadly. _Piper. Piper is my home. _Alex wants to say. _Piper isn't really here._ Nicky would reply. Instead, the brunette says nothing. She turns, and walks away from another person who only wanted the best for her.

It's raining again, despite being summer. Alex is glad of it; it cools her boiling rage at Nicky's words. She just doesn't understand what Alex is going through. As she trudges through the quickly empting streets, a storm raining down on her loneliness, Alex wonders if _she_ even understands anything anymore. It wasn't supposed to happen like this; she and Piper were meant to be together, growing old under the pale moonlight and sitting on their porch playing mindless card games as time stretched endlessly ahead of them. They were not meant to be alone. _Fucking hell, _does Alex miss that girl. It doesn't even matter anymore, whether Piper would have had the courage to love Alex the way she knew she could. Alex just wishes fiercely for another chance to see Piper's face, lit with any sort of emotion other than the utter blankness she had witnessed previously. For Piper was never one to be quiet or ambiguous; the girl had a strong opinion on just about everything, for God's sake.

Alex was the exception; Piper had never really loved to her full capacity.

Still, her love for the brunette was fierce and potent, and made Alex feel like the most powerful girl on earth. It may not have been as much as Piper could give, but it was enough. It was more than enough, and Alex would give everything to feel even a sliver of that love again. It's strange, how they came to be, and how their love had entwined so massively, manifesting into one uncontrollable being that still burned brightly in Alex's chest.

Their souls had walked into a room, acknowledged each other with a small wave and grinned with hopefulness at each other, and just went "Ah, there you are. I've been looking for you, you know."

* * *

Piper dreams a lot. Sometimes they are happy, and sometimes they are sad.

The worst dreams are the ones that turn out to be both.

They usually involve Alex, of course. In the happy ones, Piper feels as though she's remembering something, a morning spent underneath clean cotton sheets or an evening spent over an expensive dinner. The sad ones are memories too, and there's a lot of rain and yelling in them. Piper doesn't like them much. The dreams that are both, are whimsical imaginings, a quixotic picture that her mind paints of a long and happy life with Alex Vause. They start off really well, sometimes involving a kid or two, or something about a porch and card games, only to end with Piper being jolted awake, the image disappearing before she can reach out and grab it.

She hates that kind, because they fill her with hope. And then they take it away again. And there's not a damn thing she can do about it.

Consciousness is odd, because it's in fact not consciousness at all. She can hear and she can feel, but she cannot complain about the numbness nor tell the whining voice of her mother and father to shut the _fuck _up. Piper spends most of her wakefulness trying to scream, but nothing ever happens, and people continue as if she's not doing anything at all. She can't see for fucking _ages_, either. It's been a few dreams (that's how she counts her days, considering she can't tell the time) since Piper's heard Alex's distinctive voice, when her sight returns. It's brief and odd, everything blurred together slightly. Whites and greys and blues of the hospital room are smeared across her vision as one, and the lights hurt her head. Piper opens them a few more times, before going back to sleep. She'll try again, after her next dream. She hopes it's a happy one.

* * *

To her surprise, it actually works. The handsome doctor with the dark hair goes through his routines of trying to rouse her, and when she opens her eyes at his command, a megawatt smile lights up his face.

"Good morning, Miss Chapman." He greets softly, glancing around the ICU and seeing that all his other patients remain comatose. Piper mumbles an incoherent reply as usual. "Don't worry about that, it'll come." The doctor seems to lose his composure for a moment, and wipes at his brow agitatedly. "Sorry, sorry." He apologises profusely when Piper narrows her eyes a millimetre. "This part gets me every time." Piper doesn't have a clue what the hell he's talking about, but flexes her index finger a little. It takes a lot of effort, but the slight movement catches her doctor's eye and he smiles widely. The blonde looks down at her arms, and slight red scrapes are fading against her fair skin. She wonders where they came from.

"You're doing great, Piper." He tells her. Piper looks up at him again. "Don't push yourself too hard." The doctor moves to the bottom of Piper's bed, taking off the clipboard and scribbling animatedly underneath the details of her life and block lettering of her name. She manages a twitch of her lips, genuinely happy at something. She's not sure what, but she has a feeling it will come back to her eventually. She feels good.

* * *

For the next few days, all her dreams are happy. Alex comes to visit again, but the doctors don't reveal too much yet, trying to gauge if Piper's regaining of her senses is a fluke, an involuntary reaction, or if she really is communicating to the best of her abilities. Piper's resting, not asleep, when Alex fills her in on her day, like always. Piper wants to open her eyes, but she feels exhausted again. A frustrated sigh attempts to escape, detailing her annoyance at being unable to look at or talk to Alex, but it's blocked by the glass that seems to encapsulate Piper's entire body these days.

She keeps chipping away at it, though.

The thing that keeps her going is the vibrant memories of Alex. Where everything else is blurred and soft at the edges, Alex is a striking constant that dominates most of Piper's time. She really likes it. _Loves _it, in fact. She remembers everything about Alex, because when the brunette tells her stories, Piper nods and smiles to herself. _Hey! I remember that, too!_ She exclaims silently. That's her favourite thing; when Alex will come to her side and hold her hand and talk to her as if Piper's the only thing that's ever existed. That keeps her going alright.

* * *

A week after opening her eyes, the doctor notices a difference in Piper. John sets his coffee down quietly by the table beside his patient's bed, wanting to get through this quickly as he knows Piper's girlfriend...ex-girlfriend, soulmate, whatever is waiting outside. It's probably about time to tell the woman that Piper's responding well, but the doctors were supposed to tell family that first. For whatever reason, the blonde's parents aren't around that often. Anyway, Piper's eyes open immediately at the sound of a visitor, and they seem disappointed.

"How are you, Piper?" He asks cheerfully, not expecting a coherent reply. When one is forthcoming, he's so surprised he has to ask her to repeat it.

"What did you say, Piper?" John inquires urgently, leaning over her so that he can hear. Piper's voice is rough and groggy, but it's an improvement on the mumbles she's been uttering for the past week.

"Alex." Comes the reply, and she blinks tiredly, flexing the fingers in her right hand to signify her frustration. Piper looks him as seriously in the eye as she can, hoping the burning gaze can convey that which she cannot say.

"Alex? Alex, right." The doctor immediately waves over a nurse, instructing her to call in the woman who waits outside.

"Five nine, secretary's glasses. You'll know her." He tells the woman who scurries off to find her.

"Alex?" Piper says again, her voice quieter and expression softer. The doctor smiles warmly and nods, and both corners of Piper's mouth curl upwards in agreement. She relaxes. John leans back in his chair, and he watches the whole scenario play out like the finest movie he's ever watched.

Alex Vause bursts through the doors of the ICU, biting her lip and eyes wide as she strides purposefully to Piper's bedside.

"Piper." She whispers. "Piper, Piper..." Alex repeats it again and again like a grateful prayer falling from her bruised lips. For a long time, no one says anything. Alex stares straight at the ocean blue eyes she thought she'd never see again, and Piper gazes back at the emerald green of her dreams. Eventually, Piper seems to have gathered enough energy again. Her lips part, and she speaks to the love of her life for the first time in far, far too long. And it is without a doubt the tenderest, most tear-jerking whisper Alex has ever heard.

"Maybe this is a bad time to say hi?"

* * *

A/N: Did I have you worried, at all? It was kind of meant to read as if Piper was dead, and Alex was at the morgue, the funeral and the grave, when really she was over the hospital bed/outside the hospital. Tell me how it worked out :) Again, I haven't got a clue about what happens when someone's in a coma. I haven't even sat my GCSE Biology exam, so allow for any mistakes. I'm young, I'll learn :)


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Look at me, updating during the week. What a miracle, huh? Funny story actually; I was in hospital earlier this week and I considered taking a trip to the ICU for a little inspiration, but I figured 'fic writing' isn't exactly a good enough reason to be admitted. Yeah, no idea what's happening in this chapter. I don't like it, but there you go. Thanks for five hundred reviews; literally never would have expected it! If you have any requests for scenes you want me to write, leave me a review/tweet/PM and I'll see.

* * *

Truth be told, Alex hadn't even thought about what to say at this part. You'd think that she would have at least spent a minute or two here and there while she spent a summer by Piper's bedside, but she was at an absolute loss right now.

Really, though, how do you even begin to formulate a reply to someone who's supposed to be dead?

Alex shakes her head mutely, hot emotion threatening to overflow as she looks into the pair of blue eyes she thought she'd never see again. They're exactly the same, and they ignite the same fireball of emotion in Alex as they always have, and probably always will. After a long moment stretches out across time, Piper begins to fade once more. The blue is obscured by heavy eyelids as Piper slips back into a comfortable unconsciousness, and Alex's opportunity disappears as quickly as it had appeared.

"No, Piper, wait-" Alex cries, instinctively reaching out to hold her by the shoulders before the doctor pulls her back sharply.

"Miss Vause-" He begins, but the brunette stops him short by shoving him off curtly.

"Fuck!" Alex curses in frustration, the sudden shift from happiness to anger sending her reeling.

"You should be happy, really, she's doing well." The doctor tells her.

"I am, but...shit, this is so fucked." Alex's voice drops to a whisper as reality sets in. "In all of this shit, I forgot that she hates me. But she's talking to me. Does this mean she doesn't hate me anymore?" She rambles aloud to herself, pacing the length of Piper's small bed.

"She's happy to see you." The doctor smiles kindly at her, grasping the understandably confused woman and leading her from the ward. "I'm willing to bet she's not exactly holding grudges today." Alex nods distractedly, almost in a daze. For the past six and a half months, she hadn't even laid eyes on Piper Chapman. She's spent the last month and a half thinking each day would be the last day Piper takes a breath.

A whole summer spent believing the love of her life is going to die.

You can hardly blame the girl for being speechless.

* * *

Time plays a cruel trick on them for the next few days; as if the pair hasn't suffered enough, each time Alex would visit, Piper would be unconscious or unresponsive. The doctors were faced every time with assuring an almost inconsolable Alex that things were looking up for her friend/ girlfriend/ blonde girl in the ICU. Of course, as is always the way of it, Piper would wake up blearily and wonder why Alex wasn't there. A few of the nurses and doctors were becoming frustrated with Piper's ignorance of the fact she should probably be dead, and her insistence to keep asking for 'her Alex'. Still, they persevered with the blonde, and slowly but surely she regains her functions. She doesn't talk much, nor remember anything, but the staff refrain from telling her much until she can stay awake for more than maybe ten minutes at a stretch. The most reassuring thing is the way her blue eyes dart intelligently from person to person in the room or follow her doctor's finger perfectly. One day, Piper even gets to sit in a chair for a while.

She thinks it's pretty damn cool.

So although the periods of wakefulness are frustratingly brief, they are hopeful and as much as a previously comatose person can, Piper exhibits the same energy she's renowned for. Somehow, Piper feels lucky. She's pretty sure she didn't suffer any brain trauma, because her hair is definitely all still there and her mind is vigorous and filled with questions, despite how sluggish her body feels.

Yeah, Piper's educated enough about comas to know that if she was under for as long as the doctors had said, she was pretty damn fortunate to be able to feel the familiar flames of love lick through her battered body when Alex had entered the room.

During the now maddening periods of consciousness that aren't consciousness at all, Piper at least can smile to herself when she reminds herself that Alex still looks the same; her jade irises still glint with mystery and her glasses are still black and her lips are still delightfully red and Piper still thinks the girl's a bit pretty. So, taking into account that Alex has said 'I love you' to Piper's unconscious form so many times Piper sometimes wants to tell her to shut up, and she looks as astoundingly beautiful as she did the day Piper first met her and most importantly that she'd come back to Piper, the blonde was feeling pretty happy locked up in her half-comatose. She was feeling pretty in love with Alex's voice and her brief appearance, to be honest.

Still, she doesn't have time to focus on the good in her sorry excuse for a life, because she's sort of still in a coma and one cruel twist of fate away from suffering fatal heart failure.

On one particularly tough day, when a painful alertness grips her, Piper for once prays for sleep. It's not forthcoming, and she's resigned to staring up at the ceiling with an irritatingly large oxygen mask on her face.

"How are you, Pipe?" Polly chats to her cheerfully from the bed; because while Alex might have no luck when it comes to visiting, Polly always seems to strike when the iron's hot. _Lucky me, _Piper thinks dryly. The blonde raises her hand from her side and curls it into a fist, thumb protruding upwards in a signal to Polly that she's just peachy.

"Aw, I'm glad to hear it!" Polly chirps gleefully, before launching into her usual tirade about how exciting her life is and how life continues to drift by without care or consideration for the blonde in the hospital bed.

Because while Alex might tell Piper how much she and everyone misses _her,_ Polly chooses to almost chastise her best friend for missing _out_ on so much.

Piper focuses on keeping her breathing steady and her heart beating while Polly drones on, but the tightening across her chest begins to flare up every other minute or so. She decides to wait until Polly stops talking to air her complaints, but unsurprisingly she never stops talking. _Ever. _In fact, the thing that interrupts her soliloquy is the abrupt arrival of a tall brunette with thick, black framed glasses and an intimidating set to her shoulders. Piper, with a painful amount of effort, shifts to look down her bed at the new arrival.

And under the oxygen mask, she smiles.

"Piper." Alex gasps, a relieved smile lighting up her face. Piper goes to move her hand, but Polly proceeds to grasp it tightly and hold the blonde in place.

"Excuse me," Polly narrows her eyes at Alex, who finally manages to notice her presence in the ward. "We're having a conversation here?" Alex looks mildly disgusted while Piper sighs into her oxygen mask and gets comfortable to watch how this one's going to turn out. Well, as comfortable as she can when her body thrums with pain and her chest feels like it's on fire.

"Sounds riveting; I bet Piper's really enjoying it. Your incessantly boring, yuppie life story? Boy, I can't think of anything I'd rather listen to after waking up from a coma." Alex comments sarcastically, leaning her forearm confidently off the end of Piper's bed.

"Oh, sorry, I suppose she'd rather listen to you grovel for forgiveness?" Polly fires back, and Piper really wants to remind them that she's still here, that she's awake and that she's actually in quite a lot of pain.

"I'd imagine so, yeah. Leave." Alex demands, jabbing her thumb backwards to the door. Her jaw tightens and her eyes flare challengingly, but Polly makes no move to go apart from standing up to face the taller woman.

"What gives you the right to decide what Piper wants?" Polly questions angrily. "Last time I checked the only person here who leaves her, is you." It's a low blow, one that heightens Alex's frustration with the woman she's hated from the very first night she met her, and her rage flickers dangerously.

"Fuck you." Alex shakes her head in disbelief, aghast at the audacity of Piper's supposed best friend. "You haven't got a fucking clue what happened; you were much too interested in getting knocked up by that Australian dude. Where is he, by the way? Alaska is it?" Piper groans quietly, and it's not all down to the petty nature of their argument. Polly's hand begins to tighten excruciatingly around Piper's wrist, and a sharp stabbing feeling shoots through her system.

Well, at least she's regaining her senses quickly.

"Let go of her." Alex instructs irritably, nodding her head at Polly's hand.

"Why should I? So you can come along and act the hero? She wouldn't even _be_ here if it wasn't for you." Polly voices the one thought that has plagued Alex relentlessly for the entire summer, and her temper snaps.

"Oh that's rich coming from you." She steps forward, and shoves Polly backwards so that she stumbles over her bag and release her grip on Piper. The sudden noise startles the blonde, and she immediately reaches for her oxygen mask. Oddly, that frustrating feeling of sluggishness begins to overcome her as the violence by her bedside escalates. Polly lets out a colourful stream of expletives and tries to step past Alex.

"You're a fucking psychopath." She rages, and gets to the front of Piper's bed before Alex pulls her back harshly by the wrist.

"You were supposed to look after her!" Alex yells, her voice accusing and threatening. Polly, to her credit, doesn't back down.

"I wouldn't have fucking had to if you hadn't _ran away!" _She yells back, and Piper really wonders where her doctor is. She tries to look around the ward, but her chest constricts so painfully that black spots appear across her vision. Her fingers scramble for purpose against the smooth plastic of her oxygen mask, but she can't get a grip of anything. Her stress levels sky rocket and fear begins to set in amongst the unbearable pain spreading through her body like wildfire. Alex and Polly are utterly oblivious, because Piper just looks as she always does; moving a little and staring intently at whatever is in front of her.

Suddenly, a frenzied, piercing noise begins to beat through the ward, and everything changes.

About the same time the noise goes into overdrive, the argument in front of her ceases in a split second. Everything slows down, from Piper's breathing to the scene in front of her. She catches a glimpse of doctors and nurses bursting through the double doors, some pulling Alex and Polly from the room and others yelling things that Piper can't quite make out through the murkiness overtaking her. It's actually quite peaceful inside Piper's mind, and she wonders why everyone's making such a big deal around her as time ticks blank on the doctors' wrists. She barely hears the slam of the door and she can't make out the agitated faces by her side. She's glad.

It's serenely quiet when her eyes slip closed, and she doesn't register the agonizing pain in her chest any longer.

* * *

When Alex's fist makes contact with Polly's nose, it's the most satisfying noise she's heard in a while.

It distracts the brunette from the throbbing on her own cheek where Piper's best friend had slapped her a moment previously.

Hospital staff break them up, pulling Alex back by her jacket until she's against the far wall.

"Hey!" A tall, slim doctor yells in her face, standing over her and trapping her against the wall. "You want me to write you up for assault? You think your girlfriend appreciates what the _fuck _you've just done to her?" His dark eyes burn with fury, and Alex feels her anger fade, replaced arduously by crippling fear.

Alex is scared, because she can hear the terrifying shouts of _'Clear!' _being repeated more than once behind the double doors.

Across the hallway, nurses tend to Polly's bloodied nose. Alex slips to the floor when the doctor releases his grip on her shirt, and her head falls into her hands. She stares hard at a tiny scuff on the linoleum as she waits for reality to set in, for the unutterable truth to envelop her. Long, long after the flurry of activity has calmed, Alex remains in the same position.

"She's not my girlfriend." Alex whispers, her voice thick. No one hears her. "She'll never be my girlfriend."

* * *

It's really, really bright whenever Piper comes to.

"Am I dead?" She asks quietly, and is surprised to hear her voice come out unobstructed. _Yep, definitely dead._ A chuckle resounds beside her.

"No, Miss Chapman. You're very much alive." The chuckle says. Confused, Piper turns her head to the side. It's her doctor, not a chuckle.

"That's good." Piper says. "Doctor Anderson?"

"Yes?" He inquires with a soft voice and kind smile. For the first time in a long time, Piper begins to worry about something.

"What happened to me?" Piper's whispers fearfully. She's not sure she wants to know. The doctor shifts slightly, his smile falling a little as he turns serious.

"Are you sure you don't want someone here with you for this?"

"No." Piper answers immediately, tired of delaying the inevitable.

"Okay, but if at any point you don't want to hear anymore, you need to tell me. Or I'll do my best to figure it out." He adds dryly, and Piper is slightly confused but nods slowly anyway. "On Friday, June twenty-seventh, you suffered a collision with another vehicle at about five o'clock in the evening. Do you remember where you were?" Piper struggles for clarity, but pieces together the evidence.

"On my way home from work, probably. Last day of term."

"Good." Dr. Anderson smiles and scribbles down something on his chart. "Now, it wasn't your fault in the slightest; a man in an SUV decided to overtake the car in front of him, taking no consideration for what might be just around the corner he was overtaking on, which happened to be your Audi." Piper's heart rate spikes a little, and the doctor looks at her with concern. "Do you want me to stop?"

"No." Piper assures him, but she feels a little emotional. "My car..." The doctor laughs a little at the blonde's strength of feeling for the car, but considering the amount of money it probably cost her, he couldn't really blame his patient.

"Don't worry, it's all sorted." He tells her, continuing hastily. "I'll not go into too much...detail," He frowns for a split second as he remembers the day Piper's broken body was thrust into the emergency room. "But you lost a lot of blood, Piper. Nearly half your blood count, to be exact." Piper stiffens slightly. "There was no head trauma, thankfully, but you had a huge wound across your abdomen from a jagged piece of metal and countless numbers of cuts from broken glass, and you went into hypervolemic shock. Do you know what that is?" He inquires, aware of the blonde's intelligence.

"Yeah." She affirms, her voice barely above a whisper.

"We did an emergency blood transfusion, of course, and you lapsed into a coma. It sounds bad, but trust me, Piper..." Dr. Anderson shakes his head and looks out across the ward. "I still can't believe you're alive." Piper feels an overwhelming amount of gratitude for the man.

"Thank you, Doctor." She says honestly as her fingers run absentmindedly over the scar on her stomach that she'd wondered about for quite some time.

"You exhibited enough voluntary response to be considered conscious on August 18th, when you actively asked for one of your visitors and completed a coherent sentence." He continues, ignoring her thanks for the moment.

"What day is it now?"

"Tuesday, August 26th." Piper's eyes widen in alarm, and she wonders where the time went.

"What?" Last time she'd asked, it was definitely not Tuesday.

"What's the last thing you remember, Piper?" The doctor questions intently, looking seriously at his patient. The blonde grapples for a memory, and settles on her answer after a long minute or two.

"My best friend, Polly and my..." Piper pauses. "And Alex. Alex Vause. Standing there." She nods her head to the foot of her bed.

"That was about forty-eight hours ago." He nods solemnly, writing down something on his sheet. "What were they doing?"

"Uh...talking. Fighting, probably." Piper peers through the fog that clouds the memory for some reason, but she loses it after Alex raises her voice. "I can't remember how it ended." She says honestly.

"Piper..." The doctor hesitates, always unsure how to inform patients of this. "You went into cardiac arrest from the adrenaline being pumped into your body, added to the stress due to their fight and your frustration at being so helpless. Do you understand what I mean?" Piper, reeling from the fact she was about two minutes away from dying, nods her head mutely. "It can happen sometimes. We're sorry that we let them both into the ward, but we had no way of knowing things would escalate so quickly."

"It's okay."

"You're perfectly stable now and remarkably close to full recovery; they just caught you on a rough day, I think." The doctor smiles at Piper once more, putting the lid on his pen and standing up.

"Am I going to be okay?" Piper's voice is hoarse and quivers with fear as realisation sets in. She should have died when that car hit her, or when her heart gave out. She is impossibly lucky to be lying here now.

"Yeah." Dr. Anderson informs her. "You're gonna be okay, champ." He winks at her and moves to the foot of her bed before Piper calls out to him.

"Wait! Is Alex here?" The doctor's chipper demeanour falls and his expression hardens at the question.

"No." He lies, withholding the brunette's almost permanent residence in the hospital from his patient. "You need to rest, Piper."

"Okay." She says quietly, feeling at once as if she's being scolded by a perturbed parent. He throws her another smile, but it doesn't reach his eyes. He exits the room briskly, and gets on his way to give Alex Vause a piece of his mind.

* * *

"Is she alive?"

"Yes."

"Can I see her?"

"No." Alex sighs in frustration, resting her head off the window frame and facing away from Piper's doctor. "You need to take a seat, Miss Vause. We have a lot to talk about." Alex considers fighting him, but she hasn't slept in two days and her energy levels are nonexistent. She sits, and he hands her a piece of paper and a pen.

"I want you to write down how you felt when you were almost responsible for the death of the so called 'love of your life'." Dr. Anderson instructs her clearly, unbuttoning the stiff collar of his shirt. Alex looks at him with wide, fearful eyes.

"Are you fuckin' kidding me? Is this therapy?"

"No. It's to show you why I have no reason to ever let you near my patient again." Alex's empty stomach twists in apprehension, and her argument dies on her lips. Silence fills the room. The doctor watches with unashamed distaste for the brunette, as she battles through the ridiculous amount of self hatred she feels to try and write something down.

"I can't." She says eventually, shoulders slumping. "You have to let me see her."

"Why can't you write anything down?"

"Because I feel empty." Alex says immediately. "That's all I feel. Piper could have died because of me, and it makes me feel empty." Her voice is quiet, defeated. "Doc, I'm nothing without her. She's everything, and I'm nothing." Alex gets up again, and walks over to the window, her figure becoming silhouetted against the late sunlight and warm lighting of the room. She extinguishes one of the candles resting on the windowsill, and the dwindling light outside becomes further shrouded in darkness.

"I have to see her, even if it breaks me." Dr. Anderson crosses his legs as he watches her back turned form struggle to come to terms with the enormity of her mistake. Even from the back, Alex looks broken.

"Do you think she'll forgive you?" He asks. Alex draws absent minded patterns on the glass that fogs up when she breathes on it.

"I have to try. I'll try harder than I've ever tried at anything in my life."

"Why?"

"Because I love her." Alex answers, turning to the doctor as her eyes blaze with emotion. "I love her more than anybody's ever loved anyone, and I won't be able to live with myself if I don't at least try to make her love me again." The man sets down his coffee and wonders when his ICU ward turned into something off a movie scene. He watches the woman in front of him battle to hold it all together, trying not to fall to pieces. Alex is a shadow of her former self, he can tell, and she doesn't know how to deal with it when the other half of her fights for her life in a hospital bed. He checks the time.

"Go home, Alex." He begins, and he sees the brunette's heart break a little more. It's awfully sad, the way Alex has spent the few months of her life trying so damn hard to make Piper happy, that she's forgotten about herself. And one slip up has sent Piper to the brink of death and Alex to the edge of a breakdown. The doctor eases her back from the precipice as he opens the door for her to walk out.

"Come back this time tomorrow. She'll be happy to see you." Alex never thought she would be happy to be invited back to an ICU ward, but the brunette has to suppress an overwhelming urge to hug the doctor for giving her a second chance. Determination begins to ebb and flow through her body as she leaves, and Alex begins to get herself into gear for the first time in months.

She has one chance. One shot at the rest of her life.

* * *

Alex isn't the first person Piper sees the next day. It's about eight o'clock in the morning, and Piper is sitting up slightly, picking idly at her tray of food when the doors to the ward open. A boy steps through, pulling a young blonde girl with him by the hand. Piper recognises them instantly, and a wide grin spreads across her face.

"Well, isn't that a sight for sore eyes?" She grins, and the familiar laughter of the two teenagers warms her heart. The boy lets his girlfriend sit down in the free chair as he hands Piper a little bag of gifts.

"I remember how much you liked them, Miss." He comments with a crooked, coy grin when Piper's laugh reverberates through the ward.

"You cheeky..." Piper stops her sentence short, wrapping the packet of cigarettes back up in the tissue paper, God forbid her doctor might ask any questions about them. She looks happily between her former pupils and feels unbelievably cheerful at the adorableness of the couple. Piper crooks an eyebrow at a free chair and inclines her head towards it.

"Sit your ass down there, James, and tell me _all_ about how you finally grew a pair and asked her out."

* * *

It's perfectly easy to love Alex Vause when Piper wakes up at four o'clock on a bitterly cold winter morning and Alex is still holding her so closely that she feels as if she's going to explode with happiness.

It shouldn't be so easy to love Alex Vause forty eight hours after she sent her to within millimetres of death.

Why, then, does Piper feel nothing but the warmth of love spread through her body when Alex walks through the doors to the ICU the next day?

She sits down by the bed, and she's afraid to look at Piper's face. Her hand hesitates by the side of the mattress, and Piper glances down at it amusedly. She smiles at her bashfulness, and links their fingers easily as she grins up at Alex. The brunette stares down at their hands, as if trying to figure out if this is all real. She looks up into Piper's beaming face, her green eyes wide as every emotion of the past six months hits her with the weight of a freight train. The thing that makes Alex smile back is the glint in Piper's eyes and the dimple on her cheek.

That's how Alex knows she's forgiven; because the answer to Piper's question is finally answered.

Piper forgives Alex completely, holds her hand tightly and never _ever _wants to let her go again. She loves her fiercely with all that she is, because the answer has been right in front of her all this time. Finally, Piper reaches for it, and she graciously accepts it while gazing into the familiar green of Alex's eyes. The reason they're going to be okay, despite all that has happened, is simple:

They are _inevitable._

* * *

A/N: I'm so bipolar with this story. I liked the last chapter but I don't like this one much; there's a lot of dialogue, I know, but I need to tie up a few things. Leave a review, please :)


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: This happened because I can't face anymore angst and this story is nearly finished, surprisingly! Few more to go though, and here's another :) Enjoy, and thank you for all your lovely reviews. I'd appreciate some on this one.

* * *

"You know, I thought you'd have a bit more to say for yourself."

"You and me both. I'm sorry."

"You've said that thirteen times already and it's only been ten minutes." Piper chastised gently, a laugh escaping as a slight red tinted Alex's cheeks.

"It's been six months, Piper; I have a lot more than thirteen apologies to give you back." Alex's earnest gaze bore into Piper. She was sitting on the hospital bed now, body turned sideways as she stared intensely down at the blonde.

"Yeah, well, I don't have the energy to get mad at you for leaving-"

"You would if I hadn't left." Alex points out immediately. Piper sighs, crooking her right eyebrow upwards and shaking her head in disdain.

"_This," _Piper starts, gesturing with her free hand downwards over her hospital bed and around the ward. "Is not your fault, Alex." She holds up her index finger when the brunette attempts to interrupt her again.

"Look, you're here now right?" Piper smiles warmly, her eyes widening in question. Alex looks from their linked fingers, stroking her thumb slowly over the blonde's soft knuckles before drawing her gaze back to the innocent blue of Piper Chapman's eyes that had plagued her dreams and nightmares for the last six and a half months. They make Alex smile back.

"Yeah." Alex answers quietly, her voice thick. Piper's grin gets that little bit wider. "I'm not going anywhere, kid."

* * *

Piper may not have said exactly that Alex was forgiven, but the fact that she'd had to pry off the blonde's fingers from around her wrist when Piper had eventually fallen asleep, was as good an indication as any that she didn't hate Alex, at least. As Alex left a soundly sleeping Piper in the ward and stepped briskly from the cool ward of the ICU, there was nothing that could deflate the brunette's buoyant mood.

Not even Polly Harper.

So when Piper's best friend with the broken nose rounded the corner and stopped in her tracks upon seeing the imposing figure of Alex Vause, the taller girl did absolutely nothing to wipe the contended smile off her face.

"Hey, Dolly." Alex winked, but it was certainly much more friendly than their last altercation had been. Polly huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, looking disgustedly up at Alex.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm sorry?" Alex scoffed, but upon glancing at the doctors around the hospital's reception looking on at the pair apprehensively, she decided to be the bigger person. "I was apologising to Piper for what _we _did to her."

"I did nothing wrong." Polly announced surely, and Alex felt her patience disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. "I'm going to talk some sense into her, I can't believe she let you-" Alex cut the shorter girl off with a painful grasp of her bicep as she attempted to brush past her.

"If you so much as disturb her from her sleep, never mind piss her off, I'll fucking put you in a hospital bed of your own." Alex threatened with a low whisper as she leaned down to Polly's ear. Polly visibly trembled with fear when the taller girl released her, shoving her off down the corridor and slipping out of the hospital before Polly could collect herself. Alex's good mood returned enthusiastically to her as the warm evening air of New York City embraced her.

San Diego was nice, sure, but nothing compared to the constant buzz of the big city that currently inhabited one very quickly improving blonde.

* * *

The next time Alex comes to visit, Piper's heart nearly leapt out of her chest for more than one reason upon waking up. The ceiling was very different, as was the lighting and the softness of her mattress, but most important the sound was different.

The room was silent.

Nothing disturbed the acoustics of Piper's life for the first time in months, and it upset her greatly; she'd grown used to the constant beep of her heart monitor that reminded her she was alive. Fleetingly, its absence and the room's appearance made the blonde feel as though she was dead, her soul silenced during a peaceful sleep.

But, as her eyes settled on the pale, wooden doorway of the room, her heart beat so profoundly in her chest that Piper had never felt so alive.

There was nothing like the sight of Alex Vause in a leather jacket and combat boots, white shirt clinging to her stomach and mostly transparent with rainwater.

"If I'm dead, I really wish you bastards would have let me go sooner." Piper muttered, unashamedly dragging her drowsy eyes over Alex's figure. The brunette chuckled huskily as she closed the door and continued to smirk when she settled on Piper's bed, patting her thigh through the material of the bed sheet.

"You're not dead, Pipes. It's raining outside."

"Are you trying to kill me?" She said, her voice terrifically rough with sleep. Alex laughed once more, ruffling her now much longer blonde locks playfully as she leaned over Piper. The younger girl did her best to avert her eyes from straight down Alex's shirt, which wasn't saying much as her gaze lingered at her ex-girlfriend's cleavage for much too long.

Cut her some slack; she'd been in a coma until about two weeks ago. She's still tired.

"I could catch a cold." Piper points out after a minute or two of Alex looking down at her with a smirk, her fingers still tangled in Piper's hair. She pursed her lips, as if contemplating staying like this for a moment before shifting over onto Piper's other side and laying down on her back beside the blonde, their forearms barely touching.

"Thank God they gave you some privacy." Alex mused, familiar electricity beginning to buzz between the miniscule space between their bodies once more. Piper nodded her head mutely, her original questions being suffocated beneath her strength of feeling for Alex.

"It's weird." Piper replied, her eyes tracing over the shadows on the ceilings peacefully. The room was nice; it was one of those private ones with a carpet and a window and blinds and a lamp and a bed that could fit two ex-girlfriends with more history between them than they cared to acknowledge. Briefly, she remembered her doctor mentioning something about moving her for her final few days. A sudden burst of energy exploded through her as she sat up quickly and rifled through the bag left at the side of her bed.

"Oh my God, Alex, Alex," Piper cried happily, pulling out the reams of stuff that had been returned to her and left by Polly.

"Hmm?" The brunette inquired, but made no movement to sit up.

"Clothes! And chocolate!" Piper exclaimed, excitedly pulling off the wrapper of a chocolate bar as she fluffed up her pillows and lay back against them slightly, grinning down at Alex who lay flat on her back. When she made no further movement but to smirk up at Piper, the blonde covered Alex's face with the grey cashmere sweater she knew Alex loved. The scent of Piper, unobstructed by disinfectant and death, crashed into the brunette, and her breath caught in her throat for a moment before she inhaled deeply, deeper than she ever has in her life. Piper watches, enthralled by the way Alex's hands come to her face and press the sweater impossibly closer, not giving a damn how she must look.

"What's it smell like?" Piper asks, confusion lacing her tone as she continues to wolf down her chocolate.

"You." Alex says first, her voice muffled by the material.

"Obviously." Piper replies with a laugh. She shifts further down the bed and presses against Alex's side , pulling the sweater half towards her so it covers both of their faces. Alex's eyes gleam with emotion as she smiles crookedly over at Piper. "What else?" The blonde presses. Alex breathes in again, like it's the easiest damn thing in the world and she'll never ever get tired of it, and she grins as her green eyes glint happily.

"Home." Alex tells her. "It smells like home."

* * *

Alex Vause never thought she'd be so happy to see Piper Chapman standing in front of her in normal clothes, but truth be told it's the happiest she's been in months.

"I thought these jeans wouldn't be so snug on me after all this time." Piper comments as she stands sideways in front of the room's small mirror.

"You've eaten more food since you woke up than I've seen you eat in seven months put together, Pipes." Alex teases, but she's quite relieved that she can still see the solid indent of Piper's hips when she pulls up her shirt to assess the damage more closely. Her slender fingers hesitate slightly when the bottom of her scar appears, before Piper drops the shirt back down and pats her stomach self consciously, looking a little disillusioned.

"Yeah." Piper says distractedly, still seeming a little forlorn as she stands dumbly in front of the mirror.

"C'mere." Alex instructs, but Piper doesn't even seem to hear her as she continues tracing her finger absent-mindedly over her shirt. The brunette stands and comes behind Piper, putting her hand over the blonde's and stilling her worries.

"Sorry." Piper whispers, allowing Alex to bring her hands back to her sides and turn her so they're facing each other in the crepuscular lighting of the room.

"Don't be sorry." Alex insists, smiling a little as Piper bites her lip in thought.

For two ex-girlfriends, they're standing awfully close to each other.

For two women who are inexplicably attracted to each other, they're not standing close enough.

Alex knows she has no right to be affecting Piper like this, though, which is what eventually makes her turn her back to the blonde and slink back to the bed. Piper has to come to her, when she's ready, and Alex has no option but to wait. It was her mistakes that had landed them in this position, and she wasn't about to pressure the blonde into anything, no matter how much they both wanted it. Piper's quite aware of the fact, too; she's not stupid enough to not realise the ball is firmly in her court. Wherever she goes, Alex will follow.

They're tired of running.

* * *

It's a day before Piper gets discharged, when she tells her. They're enveloped in a comfortable silence, lying on top of the hospital bed sheets and fingers linked between their bodies as they stare upwards at the ceiling again. Moonlight steams through the window but their bodies are shrouded in darkness, as Piper considers how to put her question across.

"So, when're you going back to San Diego?" Well, at least she got to the point, Alex gives her that.

"What?" Alex laughs in disbelief, looking sideways at Piper who refuses to meet her gaze. "You think I'm leaving again?"

"Well, no, I just thought-" Piper stammers, looking everywhere but at Alex. "I dunno." She deflates. "Do you want to go back?"

"Do you want me to go back?"

"No." Piper shakes her head adamantly and subconsciously squeezes Alex's hand.

"Then I'm not going back." Alex shrugs, as if the prospect meant little to her.

"I'm sorry, you know." Piper says. "I'm really fucking sorry I didn't go with you." She looks at Alex finally, and she's surprised to see her looking so solemn. Briefly, Piper thinks she's about to be yelled at, but Alex's eyes smoulder with something that's utterly different to anger.

"You don't have to be sorry." Alex insists with a low voice. "It was my fault, and I left and I shouldn't and...fuck, I've never regretted anything as much in my life. Please, Piper-" Her voice cracks, and Piper's eyes widen in shock, straining to see Alex through the darkness. "You _have_ to forgive me." Piper had forgotten that she hadn't actually admitted her forgiveness despite the length of time they'd spent together.

"Oh-" Piper starts, and immediately lets out a brief giggle before she can help herself. "Fuck, sorry, that's not funny."

"Piper." Alex warns, her eyes still pleading. Piper steadies herself, taking a deep breath.

"No, it's just, of course I forgive you. Hell, I don't even blame you, Alex. I _love _you. And I never stopped and I never will, you know?" Piper bites her lip around a smile as she shifts onto her side to face Alex. The brunette mirrors her actions, her glasses discarded somewhere in the room. She nods, and Piper studies her face for a long while in the dim lighting, mapping out all the familiar features of the brunette.

"Why do you always feel so inevitable to me?" Piper whispers, her eyes narrowing slightly as if trying to find the answer to the hardest question she's ever faced.

The answer, is unimportant. The simple fact is that they a_re_ inevitable, and they're tired of fighting it.

"I heart you." Alex grins, and Piper breaks out into one of those smiles that sets the brunette's heart racing a little faster.

"You heart me?" Piper repeats through her laughter. "What is that? Is that like I love you for pussies?" She mocks, but it's their way of lapsing back into the effortless teasing that the pair are so well-versed in.

"Say pussy again." Alex flirts back, rubbing her hand across Piper's shoulder softly. They laugh, like a pair of idiots hopelessly lost in love, that haven't just gone through heartbreaking trauma and near-death experiences, and it's the most magnificent sound they've ever heard. Eventually, it quiets mutually, and Piper is faced with a decision. She says it back, and they're right back where they were months and months ago in a Boston hotel room. She doesn't say it back, and they're right back where they were months and months ago on a stormy New York bridge.

Not exactly the hardest decision she's ever had to make.

"I heart you, too." Piper murmurs back, her eyes drifting from Alex's lips and back into her green eyes that gleam with emotion. And, when they get lost in the absorbing gaze of each other, they couldn't give a damn about anything but the girl staring back at them with love blazing in their eyes.

They get lost, but they have each other. And that will _always _be enough.

* * *

A feverish summer had blitzed past Piper Chapman. She was twenty seven years old now, standing at the top of the steps to the hospital in the middle of the city. Below her, yellow taxis weaved in and around pedestrians who strained to catch the final days of summer break or went about their day to day tasks that they constantly took for granted.

As the familiar air filled her lungs for the first time since June, Piper Chapman didn't take anything for granted.

Not the air that she breathed, the sound of the city, or the doctors that had brought her back to health. She wholly appreciated the clothes on her back and the blinding sunlight that poured over her. And for the first time in maybe forever, with her arms outstretched, palms turned skywards and a dazzling grin on her face, Piper Chapman felt eternally grateful to be alive.

When Alex comes up behind her, slipping an arm across her shoulders as they look out across their lives that stretch endlessly ahead of them, Piper still smiles until it hurts. She turns into Alex's embrace, encircling the brunette's waist securely as she presses her face into Alex's neck so tightly that the taller girl can feel Piper's smile against her skin. Alex's arms rest around her shoulders comfortingly, pulling the blonde impossibly closer as she closes her eyes to the sun.

Finally, Piper knows what Alex means when she talks about being home. Locked in a warm, loving embrace in the middle of New York City, Piper is home.

"You okay, kid?" Alex asks after a long, long moment has elapsed and a few bystanders watch them with slightly reverent smiles on their faces. Her hand strokes through Piper's hair as she continues to breathe evenly against the skin of Alex's neck.

"Yeah." Piper answers her. "I'm okay." Alex smiles at that. It's good to be alive.

* * *

Piper's been through a lot of shit in past few months, and stared death in the face for a terrifyingly long time, but as she stands at the end of her driveway, she experiences her first honest-to-goodness miracle.

"Alex?" Piper whispers, as if speaking too loudly will shatter what must surely be a dream.

"Yeah?" Alex asks in confusion, squeezing Piper's hand.

"Is that..." The blonde squints, testing to see if the image will disappear depending on how she looks at it. "Is that real?"

"Is what real?"

"_That." _Piper emphasises, pointing at the front of her house with her free hand.

"Oh-" Alex chuckles, pushing her glasses further up her nose. "That's real, yeah." She confirms. Piper continues to look on in awe of it, shaking her head in stupendous disbelief. The sunlight casts long, tall shadows in front of them as the pair stand silently for a long time. "Pipes, _go." _Alex insists eventually, releasing the blonde's hand. She fishes in the pockets of her jeans for something, before pressing it into Piper's palm and patting her on the ass teasingly.

"Wait, wait," Piper stands in front of Alex, shielding the brunette's view of the house. "Where are you staying?" One eye closes in question, squinting up at the taller girl.

"The Hillgrove; room 203." Alex smirks suggestively at the grinning blonde before turning on her heel and stepping back into her car. She winks, and nods her head to the end of the driveway. Piper waves, before taking a deep breath and turning back to the object of her obsession.

She tries to walk slowly, she really does, but she gets halfway up the driveway before she breaks into a run and presses the button in her hand more times than she cares to admit.

Alex watches with an amused smile as Piper throws her whole body across the hood of her fully repaired Audi R8, the matte black paintwork beckoning invitingly in the sunlight as she splays her outstretched arms across the front.

Alex can practically feel the waves of happiness roll off the blonde from all the way down the driveway.

* * *

She gets a hell of a lot of strange looks when she strides through the hotel reception with an armful of candles, bath salts and a fantastic array of other things, but Alex Vause couldn't give a damn.

In fact, she feels pretty damn excited, in all honesty.

The sun is just setting over New York City when Alex returns to her room that she's occupied for the past few weeks. She settles her plethora of purchases on the double bed and slips out onto the small balcony, leaning over the railing and surveying all that is before her. Her lighter and cigarettes rest on the table, and she lights one for the hell of it, the glowing embers of the end harmonizing with the cool orange of the sunset.

And finally, Alex is at peace.

A haze of colours stretched endlessly ahead of her; pinks, reds and purples streaked across the darkening sky as a cool breeze cooled her hyperactive nerves and blew the ends of her hair slightly. Alex, without a doubt, never wants to leave this place again. There's something about the memories hidden in darkened streets that ties her to the place, not to mention Piper's residence in the city. She flicks the end of her cigarette, watching the ashes get lost in the impending twilight as they fall, forgotten to the streets below.

Of course, she's supposed to start work in three days, all the way across the country. It doesn't worry Alex in the slightest; the Principal is an old friend, and would surely be supportive of her sudden change in direction. The house, too, could be sold within days, considering the amount of competition Alex had to hack through to buy it. The last licks of sunlight lingered in the sky, burning out at pace as the horizon was painted indigo.

Finding a job in New York, doing what she loved, is perhaps a different story. It was one that was not as impossible as it had once appeared, though; Sam Healy had taken the executive decision to step down as Principal of the Academy. Alex had heard something about a mass revolt from pupils and parents over his treatment of her, but the irony of it had been lost on her considering Piper's condition. Anyway, whoever had revealed the truth had done Alex a big favour in restoring most of her reputation, but a nine-to-five job had lost all its appeal. The sunset drew her attention for more than its beauty; it gave Alex an idea. As twilight finally settled its navy canvas across New York City, Alex broke out into a wide grin as the last of the cigarette smoke drifted up into the atmosphere.

She needed a break. She needed sunshine, sea and a hot blonde to occupy her side. Maybe then she'd get her mojo back.

* * *

Piper's motives are more than a little muddled as she scuffs her feet nervously outside the door of Alex's hotel room. She's absolutely shattered from the amount of time she's spent on her feet, yet her body thrums with anticipation. It's late on, after eight, and night has fallen over the city. She's dressed to kill; her dress is fitted and dark, slight plaid patterns in places and her hair is flat-ironed straight; her self-confidence and terribly vain nature had been sorely missed over the last two months.

And maybe a little sliver of her mind had wanted to make Alex remember what she's been starved of since March.

The bottle in her hand occupied the spaces between her fingers on one hand as the others curled into a fist and knocked on the solid wood of the door twice. She was allowed not even a moment to collect herself as it was pulled inward, revealing the inviting silhouette of Alex Vause, half-illuminated by a soft light overhead.

Still, Piper didn't miss the way her green eyes raked over her form, darkening with every passing second.

"Fuck." Alex curses under her breath, closing her eyes to block out the images running through her mind due to the impossibly seductive figure of her ex-girlfriend.

"What?" Piper cries in alarm.

"Nothing, it's just..." Alex opens her eyes again and exhales quietly. "You're fucking _beautiful, _kid." Piper blushes at the amorous compliment, looking shyly down at her feet and fighting to keep the grin off her face. She looks up, at Alex's tight grey V neck and even tighter black jeans.

"You're not so bad yourself, Alex." Piper's eyes linger at the bottom of her shirt's V before travelling upwards to the smug smirk on Alex's lips.

"Charmer." Alex comments as she steps back and Piper brushes past her into the hotel room. She sets the bottle down with a thud on the cabinet stretching most of the length of one wall.

"Nice room." Piper says, looking around it with fake interest. There's only one thing in the room she's remotely concerned with, and it's currently standing behind her with folded arms, obviously eyeing her figure.

"Go look in the bathroom." The brunette instructs, raising an eyebrow and inclining her head to the door beside her. Piper narrows her eyes playfully, wondering what Alex is up to, but follow her orders and pushed the door handle down, stepping into the dimly lit room.

And, for the umpteenth time in the last two months, Piper wants to cry for the love of Alex Vause.

"Christ, Alex-" Piper gasps, her hand flying to cover her mouth in shock. "You didn't have to do all this." Piper doesn't know where to look, from the steaming hot bubble bath, to the remarkable display of candles dotted around the mostly marble bathroom, or the two glasses of red wine that rest beside the sink. Alex leans against the doorway, her intense gaze meeting Piper's in the large mirror.

"I wanted to." She shrugs. "I knew you'd be tired." Piper nods her head, entranced by Alex's powerful eyes. _Fuck me, _Piper thinks. _I never even came close to not loving her._ Despite her sudden wave of emotion, the water looks incredibly inviting, and the blonde takes a tentative step forward. Alex moves with her, her eyes asking a silent question as her hands involuntarily move to Piper's hips. Piper nods as strongly as she can, but suddenly feels weak at the knees due to the blatant sexual tension in the cramped room. Alex doesn't act smug, nor cocky; she's one hundred percent focused on making this all about Piper.

Her slender fingers stroke Piper's alluring hips over the fabric of her dress as she steps closer again, so that the blonde can feel Alex's slow breathing against her neck and front pressed against her back. Piper's already putty in Alex's hands; she always has been. Silently, save for their calculated breathing, the brunette brings one hand to the gold zip at the back of Piper's dress while the other continues to grip her side, thumb stroking her hip ever so slightly. Piper watches Alex in the mirror and is at once spellbound by the way the older girl focuses on drawing the zip agonisingly slowly downwards, eyes travelling desirously over the skin being revealed. Piper's breathing picks up a little when the sound of the zip ceases, and Alex's lips twitch with a fleeting smile at the blonde's response.

And when Alex's lips then make contact with Piper's skin for the first time in almost seven months, Piper nearly melts into a puddle, right there in the hotel bathroom.

It's not even a sexual thing, the way Alex worships every irresistible patch of flawless skin as she pulls Piper's arms from the dress. It's exactly that; it's appreciating Piper. It's appreciating the fact that she's here with Alex and she's still alive and she's fucking _gorgeous, _basically. Alex continues to trail chaste, open-mouthed kisses down Piper's spine, unhurried as the dress gathers at the blonde's hips. Alex drops to one knee, continuing to drag the tight material down over Piper's incredible figure. When it comes to her knees, the brunette's dextrous fingers caress Piper's thighs as she leaves kisses on each hip, leading Piper to bite down harshly to stop herself from crying out. Painfully slow, the dress is eventually pulled down far enough to pool at her feet and Alex slips the blonde out of each heel, slender hands holding each of Piper's ankles with care. Alex ghosts her fingers over Piper's exposed skin as she stands back up, her lips lingering on the blonde's pulse point as her arms wrap around her toned stomach, fingers tracing lovingly over the pale, thin scar that runs the length of her abdomen.

"I love you." Alex murmurs against the smooth skin, and when Piper catches sight of their appearance in the mirror; a tall brunette with strong, pale arms encircling a slim waist and lips moving across the neck of a slightly shorter blonde clad in black lace underwear, Piper's resistance instantly snaps. She turns in Alex's embrace, settling her arms around the taller girl's neck and looking hard at her. Alex stares straight back, but she makes no move to press her lips against Piper's as the blonde draws her thumb over her cheek.

So it's Piper, then, who makes the first irreversible move, moulding her lips against Alex's for the first time in far, far too long.

Alex doesn't do anything condescending or smug, and she lets Piper set the pace as slow as she likes. It's weird for them, to be so calculated yet delightfully natural in the tentative way their lips meet. It's slow and torturous and intensely divine as Piper's fingers sneak into silky smooth raven tresses, encouraging Alex to open her mouth that little bit wider. They kiss, over and over again in the hotel bathroom, velvet tongues dancing a well rehearsed routine with Alex's arm wrapped sure and steady around Piper's waist until they're forced to break for air.

"I love you, too." Their foreheads rested against each other as their gaze met, dark and sultry but so much happier than they've ever been before. Piper draws her bottom lip between her teeth, marvelling at the familiar taste of Alex that now resides on it again. She lets the brunette peel off the remaining obstructions from her body in somewhat of a haze, and gladly takes Alex's hand that helps her into the still exquisitely warm bath. Piper groans in pleasure as the water soothes her tiredness, sinking down into the velvety bubbles until only her head remains above water. It's a lavish sort of bathtub, obnoxiously large with room for more than one person, Piper notes.

"Get in with me." Piper demands, grinning slyly up at Alex who nearly chokes on the sip of wine she's taking.

"What? Me?"

"No, that person beside you." Piper teases. Alex sticks her tongue out, but stands off the edge of the tub and peels off her shirt. Piper does nothing to hide her searching gaze, taking unreserved pleasure from the pale, exposed skin of the brunette. Alex meets her gaze every step of the way, smirking at how Piper's eyes visibly darken when her fingers come to the button on her jeans or how she has to bite her lip around a moan when the brunette removes her bra. Alex winks at her when she removes her glasses, setting them to the side before slipping in behind Piper and pulling the blonde's naked body flush against hers under the warm water. Piper sighs in content as her head lolls back against Alex's shoulder, grinning drowsily up at the brunette.

"Actually, wait; sit up." Alex tells her, pulling up a toggle on the tap and taking the tiny showerhead from its hilt the wall. A pleasured groan escapes Piper's lips when the warm water appeases her scalp, Alex's sure fingers combing through her blonde locks slowly. Piper's bones feel like jelly at this point, replaced by something that must be love, and she lets out a few quiet sighs of approval but little else as Alex works strawberry shampoo and conditioner through her hair before lavishing her head to toe with vanilla body wash.

"Jesus, Alex." Piper murmurs when the brunette envelops her in an impossibly fluffy bath robe upon stepping out of the water and being towelled down devotedly by Alex, who stuck to her task incredibly well. "I think I'm gonna pass out." Alex chuckles huskily, downing the contents of her wine glass before taking Piper's hand and switching the light off, leading them back into the bedroom. The conniving brunette smirks as she lies down on the feathery duvet, pulling Piper into her lap and tangling her fingers in the blonde's still-wet hair. Their lips meet again, and it's just that little bit more feverish and lustful. Alex rolls over, pinning Piper to the bed and straddling her lap while her fingers play with the tie of her robe.

"I'm sure I'll be able to keep you awake."


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: I know the length of time between updates for this is growing; I'm really sorry. I honestly wish I could convey to you all how stressful my life is right now, but half of you probably don't even read this. I'm going to try and finish it before Christmas, but I'm not making any promises. As always, your reviews make my life! It's my birthday this week, so I'd quite like to hit 600 reviews? Over to you guys, love you all. No pressure.

* * *

Piper Chapman has spent a sizeable portion of the past year _begging_ for it from Alex Vause. She has this uncanny ability to draw out so much desire from Piper that she feels like she's on fire, only to tease and taunt the blonde until she's reduced to a quivering, pleading mess under Alex's touch.

Tonight is no different, really.

Alex lapses back into the motions of worshipping Piper's exquisite body as if she's never been apart from it; her hands grip the strong hips she's ever so used to holding as her lips draw well-rehearsed patterns over every inch of bare skin on Piper's body. But the difference this time, is she keeps looking to Piper for reassurance and whispers sweet nothing for hours upon hours until Piper collapses into her arms, spent. So while Alex makes her beg, again and again like she always has, Piper actually feels like she has a choice. Before, the brunette's smug commands for her to plead were always that; asking for a question she already knew the answer to, just because she enjoys the boost to her ego. Now tonight, her husky voice floats up from between Piper's thighs and asks what she wants because Alex really, _really _needs to know. Of course, Piper's response is the same as it's always been; to beg and plead and cry out for more because she'll never _ever_ get tired of the way Alex makes her feel. Apart from being overcome with emotion when the brunette takes a moment to press her lips to every single scar on Piper's body, from the one on her wrist to the line across her abdomen, Piper lusts after Alex harder than she ever has before.

Alex fucks her long and slow and so _damn _lovingly under the warm lighting of the nearby lamp and Piper's got the most delicious burn in her muscles when she wakes up to a startling darkness, and for a moment she's unnervingly disorientated. Something constricts tightly around her chest, and the blonde almost feels like she's suffering another heart attack as she becomes more alert. Piper blinks and struggles for clarity as she prises the obstruction from her chest, turning to its owner in confusion. Alex is asleep, but her brows are furrowed and her breathing is heavy, as if trying to cry out for something.

"Alex?" Piper whispers, her voice laced with worry. Her fingers instinctively reach out to touch the brunette's face but Alex recoils in her sleep and continues to tremble, causing the younger girl to drop her hand in shock. Piper swears under her breath and fights off the shackles of drowsiness. "Al, wake up." She pleads, but Alex continues to become more agitated. Piper, cluelessly, goes to touch her again but finds her hand being knocked forcefully back as Alex's eyes fly open and she sits up with a jolt. The blonde cradles her throbbing hand as she looks on in fear, Alex's eyes darting around the room and continuing to gasp for air.

"Fuck!" She yells suddenly, leaping from the bed and still refusing to look at Piper. Alex stumbles through the dark over to the hotel room table, her movements agitated and frantic and downright frightening to Piper as the brunette throws open the small window and lights a cigarette, the orange flame of the lighter revealing her tense expression for a split second before she becomes veiled in darkness once more. Piper watches her, a deathly silence coming between them. Smoke cascades from Alex's lips as she closes her eyes in frustration and wills her heart rate to calm.

She's used to it by now.

Not a word is said by either of them, both too afraid to acknowledge what had just taken place. Piper squints and makes out the time as a little past two in the morning, so she hasn't even slept for long. Her tiredness, however, is long forgotten, the last thing on her mind as she wills Alex to talk to her. The moon reveals itself for a moment, and a murky light filters into the hotel room. Piper can see Alex clearly now, and she's fucking terrified in all honesty. She's never seen Alex smoke before, and as attractive as the brunette makes it, Piper wonders why she ever thought their road to recovery would be easy.

The cigarette is callously flicked out the window and Alex turns little more so Piper can only make out her back turned form, all lustrous hips and sculpted shoulders, naked save for a matching set of black lace underwear that she'd evidently forgotten to take off. Piper silently steps from the bed and slips the on the old Princeton college shirt Alex was wearing over herself, taking the brunette's glasses from the bedside table and padding over to her. Alex's fingertips are braced on the windowsill, and she's motionless save for the rise and fall of breathing that seems like an incredible effort. Piper taps her shoulder softly, like a child looking the attention of a parent. Alex does nothing. Piper shifts from foot to foot as the taller girl straightens and tenses, hands dropping to her sides. Wordlessly, the blonde presses Alex's glasses into her hands, curling her fingers around them before releasing her grip on the older woman. Piper stands behind Alex, still, as she takes the glasses and looks down at them.

Piper would like to think she's smiling.

The brunette sighs, shoulders sagging as the weight of the word bears down upon her, and she places them on the windowsill. Piper's confused for a moment, before she hears the taller girl inhale raggedly, and releases she's on the verge of tears.

"Alex, baby, talk to me." Piper pleads, rubbing her hand soothingly across the middle of Alex's shoulder blades and taking her hand, pulling her down onto the soft, white chaise longue just to the side of the window. Alex lets her, of course, lifting her discarded satin black robe and tying it around her body lamely. "What was that about? Are you okay?" Piper questions intently. "Was it-"

"Piper." Alex interrupts, her voice flat. "Stop." Piper quiets, her blue eyes wide as moonlight continues to pour into the room. The brunette fiddles with Piper's fingers between hers and closes her eyes, gathering herself.

"It was a nightmare." She says. "I'm used to it." Alex tries to play it off as nothing, but Piper knows her better than anyone. Piper can see how she's fighting to keep it together. The blonde frowns, concerned for Alex.

"Used to it _how?" _Piper asks, remembering Alex as the type who was dead to the world as soon as she settled into sleep.

"Pipes-"

"Alex, please." Piper interrupts. She masks a grimace when Alex squeezes her bruised fingers, and she's thankful the brunette doesn't notice. Alex groans, leaning back and covering her face with her arm, struggling through her emotions.

"It just happens sometimes." She mumbles, trying to hide from Piper's prying eyes and invasive questions. Alex just isn't the type to voice her emotions, having struggled through a childhood where there was no simply no time to feel sorry for herself, and as a result her adulthood had been spent building walls around her feelings that Piper Chapman had proceeded to tear down within a matter of weeks.

"Since when?"

"Take a guess." Alex mutters, dropping her arm and looking honestly at Piper. The blonde stares back at her, afraid to even answer. She withdraws from Alex's grip and her head falls into her hands, willing herself not to cry.

"_Jesus." _Piper groans, her voice breaking. Alex sits, immovable, praying for Piper not to burst into tears. Not just for the fact that when Piper cries, she really cries, full blown sobbing and ugly crying faces included, but Alex just really cannot be the reason for her tears.

She's done enough damage.

"It's not your fault-"

"Yes, it is, Alex!" Piper cries suddenly, standing from her seat. "It's both our faults." And for once, she's the voice of reason. "I'm an emotionally manipulative narcissist who bailed on you when you needed me."

"And I'm a ruthless pragmatist who sold you out and left when you wouldn't give up your life for me." Alex says, and Piper lets out a small chuckle despite the sadness of reality. "We suck."

"Alex, I need you to listen to me, okay?" Piper tells her seriously, sitting down again. Alex nods. "You cannot keep beating yourself up about this. We both made mistakes, and I'm as much at fault as you are. I mean, fuck-" Piper pauses to wipe at the frustrated tears forming, and her voice raises an octave. "I lied about being in a relationship with you!" Alex would never dare to ask why; they both know Piper did it to protect her, but it's just the whole damn principle of it. "God, why do you even give me the time of day?" Alex laughs at that; a loud, disbelieving chuckle that has Piper staring attentively at her.

"You really don't see it do you, kid?" Alex shakes her head, biting her lip in utter incredulity. "Piper Chapman, I give you the time of day because I'm in love with you. As in, you're the fucking love of my life and I never want to have to love anyone like this again, because I won't be able to. You're flawed, Piper," The blonde nods at that, as if it's the only part of Alex's little soliloquy that she believes. "But fuck if that isn't one of the things I love about you. You're my person, Pipes."

"I don't believe you." Piper tells her quietly as Alex gets up, putting her glasses on and shutting the window before sitting down again, grabbing the blonde's hand and looking hard at her.

"Well, I do. I know that I love you and I want you and I'm never ever going to leave you again. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, whether it's here or off in fucking Nevada, I don't care. I just want you, kid." Piper's eyes widen further, and she inhales sharply. She looks tortured and broken by all that life has thrown at her.

Reality begins to set in, that the pair of green irises staring back at her belong to a girl who loves her the way always Piper's wanted to be loved.

"If you love me," Piper whispers after a long silence. "Promise me you'll stop berating yourself over your mistakes. Because I can't see you like this, Alex." Piper continues when the brunette looks like she's about to protest. "It fucking kills me. It really does. I just want you to be happy, Alex; you're the only thing I care about now." Piper shuffles closer, resting her head on Alex's shoulder. She glances up, love catching her eye for a moment before she gazes down at their hands. "I know I have a funny way of showing it, but I'm done with putting you through hell. I _need_ you, Alex."

And it's funny, you know, the way Piper doesn't even have to say she loves her. Piper needs Alex and she depends on her and that's just something that runs through her far, far deeper than love. They are _necessary _to each other, now.

"I'm here." Alex whispers sincerely, wrapping her arm around the blonde. Piper lets loose most of a smile, inhaling the distinct scent of Alex and raising her head a little to place a chaste kiss on the brunette's shoulder.

"Good." Piper sighs contently. Finally, despite the obstacles ahead and the sadness in the room, they're on their way to happiness.

* * *

The next time Alex wakes up, she feels like a different person. She's not being jolted violently awake from a terrifying nightmare involving Piper suffering death by Alex's very own hands. She's still awoken suddenly, but it's by an altogether more fantastic experience. Piper Chapman is working her way down Alex's body, soft lips caressing the planes of her stomach and hands ghosting over the brunette's hips. Alex's heart rate increases rapidly the further Piper gets, and when she pauses to look up through her lashes, a downright sinful grin on her lips, Alex can't help the groan that escapes.

"Oh fuck, you don't-" Alex tries to speak, but when Piper drags her teeth over her hipbone, Alex's mind goes completely blank as arousal shoots through her system. "Don't have to."

"Oh, come on, Alex," Piper husks, laughing a little. "You know I want this as badly as you." That line just completely ruins Alex, and coherent thought goes out the window as she tangles her fingers in Piper's hair and lets desire wash over her. The blonde hasn't lost her love of teasing Alex, of course, as she slips lower under the covers and her slender fingers drag the brunette's underwear down off her shapely legs. Alex's body quivers with anticipation, starved of Piper's touch for much too long. Piper exhales deliberately, and the brunette shivers, toes curling in pleasure.

And just when Piper's about to put her hot mouth where Alex needs her most, the moment shatters as the hotel room door crashes open, ricocheting off the wall. Piper's heart drops at the intrusion and she draws her legs up beside herself, awkwardly attempting to conceal her position between Alex's legs. Alex scrambles to fluff up the duvet so that the blonde's residence is somewhat hidden and she grabs a book from the bedside table, opening it just in time for their intruder to make themselves known.

"God, I thought that fucking maid was never gonna let me in here." Nicky grumbles as she takes a seat at the foot of the bed, thankfully at the opposite side to Alex (and Piper, though she doesn't know it.)

"Nicky?" Alex cries, though it's a stupid question that deserves the blunt answer it gets. She's a little thrown off by the events of the past ten minutes, not to mention the fact she can feel Piper's warm breath on the inside of her thigh.

"What a revelation." Nicky comments dryly.

"What are you doing here?" Alex asks, attempting to keep her voice steady as her fingers thread subtly through Piper's hair. She hasn't spoken with Nicky since she'd stormed out a few weeks ago, and right now the circumstances of their reunion couldn't be less ideal.

"Came to see how you're holding up."

"I'm not following."

"I heard Piper got out." Nicky says blankly. Alex groans, not just from frustration as Piper idly draws patterns on the inside of her thigh.

"Yeah, she did, so?"

"And?" Nicky's idleness begins to seriously irritate Alex, and she sets the book down beside her with a thump.

"And we're sorting it out." Alex retorts. "I don't want talk about this right now."

"Why?" Nicky cocks her jaw, looking down at Alex slightly. The brunette shakes her head, opening her mouth to reply, but she's cut off when Piper proceeds to sink her teeth lightly into the sensitive skin of Alex's inner thigh.

"Fuck!" Alex exclaims, her hand tightening in Piper's hair underneath the covers. Nicky glares at her in alarm, and the brunette grapples for an excuse. "Uhh, leg cramp." She says pointedly.

"Right." Nicky mutters. Alex caresses Piper's cheek gently, trying to still the mischievous blonde between her legs.

"Look, are you free for dinner?" Alex asks quickly, trying to hurry the situation. Nicky nods sceptically. "Right, me and Piper will meet you at the Italian a few blocks from here, yeah? Bring Lorna." Alex correctly assumes Nicky's still with her girlfriend as the shorter girl nods again.

"Seven o'clock suit?" Nicky asks and stands up, realising she's outstayed her welcome as Alex's bites her lip to keep from crying out.

"Yep!" Alex squeaks out as Piper continues to tease her, and Alex can almost feel her smile against the inside of her thigh. "Bye!" She calls, rewarded with an odd look from Nicky before she disappears around the corner.

"See you, Vause." Nicky replies happily, pausing to check her phone before she leaves, just inside the threshold of the open door. Alex never hears her, though, as she falls back against the pillows and lets out the low moan she'd been holding in. Nicky's eyes widen in surprise, and her eyebrows nearly fly off her head when she hears the strikingly familiar laugh of Piper Chapman filter through to her. Nicky scarpers from the room, grinning like a Cheshire cat as she hears Alex's gravelly voice just before the door closes.

"You're gonna pay for this at dinner if you don't hurry up and fuck me."

* * *

New York's surprisingly quiet for Saturday as Piper and Alex walk hand in hand down the streets that have sorely missed the pair over the past two months. It was as if they hadn't let go of each other since Piper had arrived in Alex's room last night, but you could hardly blame them considering what they'd been through. A late afternoon sun cuts across the city; they're both in shorts but Alex is in a fitted navy hoody and has her arm around Piper's shoulders for warmth as they duck into the Italian to make a reservation. The never-ending conversation between the pair continues to ebb and flow effortlessly, and Piper's jaw is sore from laughing by the time they get to the counter. Alex kisses her soundly on the lips, half laughing into the kiss.

"Hello." Alex bites back a grin at another one of her jokes as she greets the tuxedo-clad man at the counter. Piper stifles her laughter in the crook of the taller girl's neck, leaning into her comfortable embrace and letting Alex do the talking. A hurried chattering catches her ear, though, and Piper opens her eyes and lifts her head from Alex's shoulder.

"Oh, fuck me." She whispers as she locks eyes with an uncountable number of familiar faces. Alex finishes her conversation, unaware of Piper's predicament.

"Not here, Pipes." The brunette chuckles, but Piper says nothing as she looks in panic from the eyes staring back at her to the hand that she has placed firmly in the back pocket of Alex's shorts; she's almost provocatively draped around the taller girl, and a warm blush stings her cheeks as she withdraws slightly. The chatter stops as they realise Piper's looking at them, and the blonde clears her throat loudly to catch Alex's attention. She turns, facing the same way as Piper with her arm still draped around the blonde's shoulders.

"Oh, right." Alex deadpans, but doesn't move her arm from around Piper as they walk towards the group.

"Hi." Piper attempts to sound confident, but it comes out rather embarrassed as Alex positively beams beside her. A chorus of hellos are parroted back at the couple from an unnervingly large mix of Alex's old pupils and Piper's current ones, and Alex can't help her smugness.

"What're you guys doing here?" Alex preens, delighted to be free of her inhibitions in front of the students. Piper continues to blush a little, but to her credit she settles her arm around Alex's waist snugly, somewhat showing Alex off to the pupils.

If you got it, flaunt it, right?

"Last Saturday before school, Miss!" A few of them answer her, and Alex doesn't bother telling them to call her anything else; she kind of likes the power. The couple smile and talk idly with them for a few minutes, still pressed rather tightly together. The pupils seem genuinely elated by their appearance, and the notion makes Piper smile. She doesn't need approval from anyone anymore, but at least the evidence of their very _consenting_ relationship expels the ridiculous rumours about Alex.

"Miss Vause?" One girl asks after a lull in conversation, and Alex raises her eyebrows with a smile in question. "Are you coming back?" Piper drops her eyes to the hem of Alex's hoody, drawing it between her fingers as she pretends not to care about whatever Alex has to say. It doesn't matter, really, but it's something they need to address eventually.

"Not right now." Alex avoids the bigger question quite well. "I think me and Pipes- uh, Miss Chapman- are gonna take some time off." Piper nods her agreement, chuckling as a few of the boys wolf whistle good-naturedly.

"Everyone wants you to come back, especially now Mr. Healy is leaving!" The girl almost pleads with Alex, and Piper's ear prick up at the end of the sentence.

"Healy's leaving?" She asks incredulously; it's another one of those moments when she remembers a whole month and a half had elapsed without her and time had ticked relentlessly onwards while Piper fought for her life. The kids nod happily, and Piper can't fight the grin that works its way onto her face. Alex takes Piper's hand sweetly, squeezing her fingers. "Shame." Piper comments sarcastically as she looks up at Alex's smirking expression.

"Terrible one." Alex mocks with a pout. The students, and Piper, laugh at the joke before bidding goodbye to the two teachers and waving them on the merry way. They step back into the sunshine, and Alex stops for a moment outside the restaurant.

"You don't have to take time off if you don't want to." Alex says honestly, swinging their arms a little as she faces the blonde on the sidewalk.

"Oh, sweetie." Piper grins as she steps into Alex's personal space and links her fingers behind the taller girl's neck. "I don't give a fuck where I am, whether it's work or a house or fucking Cambodia, as long as you're there." She shrugs. "I've kind of learnt to appreciate the more important things in life now, you know?" Alex smiles, leaning down to kiss Piper, ignoring the fact they're in front of a very large window that the students can see straight through.

"This," Alex says between kisses. "This is why I love you, kid."

* * *

"No, I'm sorry." Piper shakes her head adamantly. "You're not going out like that. I can't take it. I'm going to be back in hospital."

"I'll be joining you." Alex murmurs, unashamedly dragging her eyes over Piper's figure-hugging red dress and softly curled hair. "God, I love your hair like that." She voices aloud, and the blonde positively glows at the compliment.

"Yeah, well," Piper says as she closes the door to her house and takes Alex's offer of a hand. She glances downwards over Alex's ridiculously seductive body in the black dress she has on. "I love your boobs like that." She declares, as if it's the most normal thing in the world. Alex barks out a laugh into the night, opening the door of her Aston and letting Piper step inside. She saunters over to the driver's side, still laughing as Piper grins crookedly over at her.

The two make conversation, of course, all sexual innuendos and suggestive comments during the drive, but Alex's hand is halfway up Piper's thigh within two minutes and Piper can't decide if it's too high or not high enough. She bites her lip to stifle a groan as Alex digs her nails in occasionally, but she knows this is only the start of her revenge after Piper's actions this morning. By the time they walk into the restaurant, they're ten minutes late since they'd spent their time making out like high schoolers across the middle of Alex's car.

They have six months of lost time to make up for, and neither of them intends to waste another moment together.

"Hey." They greet Nicky and Lorna as they slide into the large, red leather booth across from them.

"Couldn't have fixed your makeup, eh Chapman?" Nicky berates immediately, and Piper remembers that the pair hadn't exactly ended on good terms either. The blonde raises a brow at Alex, who draws her thumb across Piper's lips to fix her smudged lipstick.

"Sorry." Alex lies, grinning slyly at her. Piper narrows her eyes but doesn't scold her, turning back to the couple in front of her.

"Hey, Lorna." Piper grins at her old friend, not having seen her for months.

"Hey, Piper. You're looking much better." Lorna tells her, and Piper's momentarily confused before remembering that she must have come to visit her.

"I'd like to think so." Piper chuckles.

"So," Nicky interrupts, her trademark smirk coming into play. "You two together, or nah?" Alex glares hard at her, already growing frustrated with her so-called best friend.

"For fuck sake, she only got discharged yesterday." Alex seethes. Piper takes her hand under the table to calm the brunette who visibly relaxes under the touch. Nicky grins wider at the expected answer, and moves in for the kill. Piper, the queen of getting her timing wrong, takes a gulp of her wine glass as Nicky speaks.

"And she was between your legs this morning, so what's the deal?" Piper chokes, Alex gasps and Lorna slaps Nicky on the shoulder as soon as she says it. The blonde launches into a coughing fit and draws the attention of every other diner in the restaurant. Alex rubs her hand across Piper's back and shakes her head disdainfully at Nicky who continues to smirk.

"We haven't talked about it." Alex says honestly, playing with the ends of the blonde's hair the way she knows Piper loves. "Hey, Pipes?"

"Hmm?" Piper hums dreamily, utterly infatuated with Alex, ignorant to the pair across the table. Alex threads her fingers through the younger girl's hair at the nape of her neck and scratches at it lightly, and Piper struggles not to sigh at the feeling. Nicky watches them, trying not to be sick, and Lorna's rendered speechless by the way they look at each other.

"Wanna be my girlfriend?" Alex questions in her most seductive voice, biting her red bottom lip and positively ruining Piper.

"Yeah." The blonde replies, looking blissfully up into Alex's enchanting jade irises. "I like the sound of that." She murmurs against Alex's lips before she kisses her softly. By this time, Piper's already had enough of the menial task of a double date, and she wants nothing more than to get the hell back to her house or Alex's hotel room or just fucking anywhere where she can keep feeling Alex's lips pressed against hers.

"Jesus, where's the waiter?" Nicky mutters to Lorna, who looks at her in confusion. "Gonna ask for no cheese on my pizza."

"Why?" Lorna whispers back, as Piper and Alex continue to get lost in one another.

"Because," Nicky nods her head at the couple. "Got enough fucking cheesiness from these two, to do me 'til the day I die."

* * *

As much as Piper appreciates how lucky she is to be sitting here with Nicky and Lorna, and she _is_ genuinely thankful, by the time ten o'clock comes she's basically drunk and getting inappropriately handsy with her girlfriend who's comfortably sober. Alex escapes from Piper's lust for a moment and stands outside with Nicky who smokes a cigarette thoughtfully.

"Where to next, Vause?" She inquires seriously.

"You know me, Nicky. I'm not used to having a plan." Alex admits, scuffing her heels off the pavement and looking up at the obscured sky.

"What do you want, then? And don't say _just Piper. _Think about it." Nicky urges. Alex allows herself a thought or two, about a serious future.

"I might ask her if she wants to buy a house together, I guess." Alex shrugs. That seems like a logical plan to her. Nicky nods agreeably, surprised at how far her best friend has come within a year.

"I'm proud of you, you know. I mean, you're still a character alright, but fuck if that girl hasn't made you a better person." The bushy-haired girl confesses, extinguishing her cigarette and clapping Alex on the shoulder.

"Proud of me?"

"A year ago you'd have told me there's no such thing as love and you couldn't give a fuck what happens next."

"I guess." Alex muses. "Piper's important, though. She matters."

"Well, good luck, Vause." Nicky smiles a little as they walk back into the restaurant. "You two are good together."

"Who's good together?" Piper slurs, outstretching her arms for Alex to lean into her embrace.

"Not you and red wine, that's for sure." Alex quips, rewarded with a pout from her girlfriend.

"Red wine is my girlfriend." Piper mutters, letting Alex pull her from the booth with a strong arm around her waist.

"I'll have to do something about that, then." The brunette smirks, fishing out a few notes from her clutch and setting them on the table along with Nicky's lot. "Now come on, so I can get that fucking dress off you." Despite her drunkenness, Piper shivers at Alex's lustful whisper and follows her orders, leaving the restaurant with a happy wave in Nicky and Lorna's direction and a promise to see them again soon.

"Hey, Al," Piper grins as she remembers something she'd figured out earlier. "This is where we had our first date."

"There's a reason it was the first restaurant I thought of." Alex informs her as they stroll down the dimly lit street through pools of yellow streetlight, away from one memory and onto the next.

"That's so fucking _cute, _babe." Piper says cheerfully as they reach Alex's car.

"Cute?" The brunette repeats, cocking a surprised eyebrow. Piper nods vehemently, but the smile is wiped off her face as Alex presses her up against the cool metal of her car.

"How about what happened right after that date, hmm?" Alex husks, eyes glinting and darkening at the memory. "Not so cute, was it?"

"Actually," Piper slurs, raising a finger. "That little squeak you made when I fucked you was pretty cute." Alex laughs despite the mocking, something she's never done with anyone but Piper. Alex hates being teased or mocked, but she feels positively overjoyed that Piper remembers all the little details about her, embarrassing or not.

"How do you even remember that?" Alex chuckles as Piper clambers into the car. She steps, much more gracefully, into the driver's side.

"Because I love you, Alex." Piper tells her. "It's my job to remember."

Alex has heard a lot of things that have made her happy, but Piper's honest reminder streaks through her most vividly. All the emptiness, hurt and confusion is at once removed when Piper says that, and Alex feels whole again, the missing piece of her finally returned. She feels right. Words of love like that from Piper Chapman make all the awful suffering of the summer worthwhile.

* * *

A/N: I need your help; what shall I do about Alex's job? I'll honestly write the best suggestion I get, or try to come up with something but I'm quite stumped at the moment. Let me know, and review this one please. I'd really appreciate it :)


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: Firstly, thank you _so _much for 600 reviews! Means the world to me. This is probably the second or third to last chapter, unfortunately, but I'll try and squeeze in as much as I can. Leave a review, please :) Sorry for typos.

* * *

The sheet in her hand is brilliantly white, upon which bold, black lettering is printed that screams formality and prestige before Alex even reads the words being spelt out. So she reads and eventually the lines begin to elide together and the words blur and she doesn't know how to feel, really.

The letter falls to the carpet of her hotel room, and Alex realises she needs to buy an aparment.

She knows exactly what day it is, but she checks again, hoping in vain that time may have started creeping backwards within the last five minutes she's spent staring at a sheet. But she knows that minutes will tick by and she needs to do something, talk to Piper, because Alex now has twenty four hours to decide on the rest of her life. She picks the letter up, stuffs it in the pocket of her leather jacket, and snatches her car keys from the table. The expensive paper slices her finger in her haste, and Alex thinks that's one hell of a metaphor.

Anyway, she's going to need tougher skin than that if she's to be a Headmistress.

* * *

A warmth hangs in the air around New York City, sweet sunlight glowing over branches of trees that sway in the gentle breeze. Piper sits across from Alex, studying the concerned planes of her girlfriend's face. Couples and families walk by, but Piper's only focused on the way strands of Alex's hair glint in the light and her full bottom lip juts out in inviting thought.

"Did you make this up?"

"Even I couldn't think of this one, kid."

"I can't tell if that makes it better or worse." Piper admits quietly, leaning back on the soft grass of Central Park and closing her eyes to the sunlight. The stillness of air surrounds them, watching on expectantly.

"Small world though, right?" Piper implies rather awkwardly. Alex hums a distracted agreement as she continues to pour over the words, as if trying to validate every single inch of fine print. But they're definitely real and terrifyingly official-looking and the surname signed off at the bottom is undoubtedly the same one as Piper's doctor from the hospital. The school crest at the top certainly belongs to the Academy and Alex rather wishes she'd paid more attention to the school president's last name before now.

"It's your Doctor's dad then, yeah?" Alex asks and Piper nods, sure of herself.

"I can't believe I never thought to ask." The blonde muses, her eyes still closed. Alex tells her she had a few more important matters to worry about, and Piper has to admit that's true. Still, Alex is just waiting for her girlfriend to ask the bigger question. The brunette lies down by Piper's side, underneath a large oak tree that broke up the sunlight in terrific patterns and spilled over the pair in splintered designs. So, before Piper asks one big question, Alex asks her own first.

"Do you wanna buy an apartment Pipes?" Alex questions amicably, and grins at the way Piper's eyes fly open in surprise. Her eyebrows raise and searching blue eyes demand a further explanation from Alex. "I mean, I need to buy one anyway, so..." Piper smirks at Alex's adorably flustered nature, and the decision is as clear to her as the sky above them. Her own house has been cold and lonesome for as long as she can remember, more so now that she'd been gone from it all summer, and Piper nods as she shifts on top of her girlfriend, straddling Alex's hips. She lingers on the green of the brunette's enchanting gaze, at the hope promised in her irises.

"Okay, Vause, I'll buy a place with you." Piper's eyes glint at the prospect and Alex smiles up at her as she loops her fingers through the belt buckles of the blonde's jeans. "Now it's my turn to ask the questions."

"Fire away."

"Are you gonna take that job?" Piper asks seriously, looking down at her girlfriend expectantly. Alex sighs and strokes Piper's skin above her waistband as she ponders on her answer. Certainly, taking Healy out of the equation, Alex had never enjoyed her job as much as she had at the Academy. The prospect of more and more time with Piper begins to entice the brunette as she gauges her girlfriend for a moment longer.

"Do you want me to?"

"Nope, no answering questions with another question." Piper announces, placing her hands over Alex's to stop her efforts to distract the blonde. "What do _you_ want?" Briefly, Alex thinks about answering with _'You', _but she has a feeling it may be a little ill-conceived.

"I want to go on holidays, Pipes. I want to go to Cambodia and then I want to come home and move into a house with you," Alex starts to go off track, but Piper glares at her despite the offer of a holiday. "...And I want to go to Healy's final address tomorrow and I want to see his fucking face when I get announced as his successor." She admits.

Alex has changed a lot over the past year. She has lost all her inhibitions around Piper, and she has gone from a ruthless pragmatist who fucked girls for fun, to a hopeless romantic who gets more joy from lazing in Central Park with her girlfriend than she does from anything else. There are a lot of things that have changed her. Maybe it's the fact she's finally grown up. Maybe it's the fact she fell in love.

Or maybe it's just the way Piper loves her.

Maybe it's all of these things, but one thing Alex hasn't lost is her lust for power. The more Alex thinks about it, the more it makes sense to her; she can protect Piper and be with her as often as she likes and she'll get to see that condescending smirk wiped clean off Healy's face. She'll make the students happy and prove to people that sometimes, despite her flaws, she can be the good guy in a story.

Alex Vause deserves a happy ending.

Piper breaks out into a blinding smile, dimples and all, and kisses Alex with all the hope and happiness she can muster. Alex grins into the kiss and slides her hand underneath Piper's grey shirt, splaying her hand across her back and pulling the blonde's lithe body flush against hers. Piper positively melts with relief that things have worked themselves out so quickly. Their lips are soft against each other's, as they have been for the past few days, a welcome change from their previous frenzied affair. Alex can see how Piper's excited already, and she chuckles breathily when her girlfriend lies down by her side and looks at her as if Alex can offer her the world. Really, if Alex can offer her presence by Piper's side for the foreseeable future, that's enough. The blonde ghosts her fingers delicately across Alex's face for an incalculable amount of time, basking in the serenity of the moment.

"I love Cambodia." Piper whispers, as if a louder register would shatter the tranquillity.

"Me too, kid. But we'll go wherever you want to go." Alex shrugs nonchalantly, pulling one of Piper's legs over her waist and resting her fingers by the edge of the blonde's jaw. Sunlight catches in rivets of Piper's hair and across her collarbones, and Alex feels like the luckiest girl in the world that she gets to see Piper like this, bright and smiling and looking back with love burning in her captivating blue eyes.

"I could live with Cambodia." Piper murmurs. "But I'm pretty happy right here."

"Are you?" Alex asks, though she knows the answer. She looks up to the sky for a moment, and they both smile as their hands find each other through the blades of freshly cut grass.

"Yeah." Piper tells her. Alex looks back at her expectantly, a coy grin playing on her lips. "This is good." Alex kisses her then, softly with her fingers lightly pressed against her cheek, and she would have to agree that things are really rather perfect.

* * *

Polly Harper's not useful for much, but she damn well owes Piper and Alex for the way she's acted in the past few months. Sure, she was around when Alex was gone, but it was as if she was rubbing the relationship's failure in Piper's face rather than being a decent best friend. Added o the fact that she and Alex had literally come to blows over the blonde, Polly is more than a little surprised when the happy couple come to visit her in her realtor's office. Piper's got a huge grass stain on the right knee of her jeans that Polly notices the moment she walks through the door held open for her by Alex, who pats the blonde on the ass as she walks through before standing proudly by her side in front of a gobsmacked Polly.

"Um...hi?" Polly offers dumbly, nodding her head to the two seats in front of her desk.

"Hey." Piper and Alex say in unison, grinning widely. Alex sits down in a chair and pulls Piper into her lap. They offer no explanation, quite enjoying Polly's awkwardness in wake of their intimidating presence. Alex idly brushes Piper's hair over her right shoulder while continuing to smirk in the direction of her best friend.

"Can I help you...?" Polly asks them, crooking an eyebrow and outstretching her palms in frustration.

"Yep!" They exclaim happily, and Piper bites her lip to stop from bursting out into raucous laughter at how annoyed Polly is becoming. The blonde shifts a little further downwards in Alex's lap so that she can feel her girlfriend's breath against her neck, adding to Polly's discomfort.

"Why can't you just sit in separate fucking chairs?" She blurts out, endlessly ignored by their antics. Piper shrugs, and Alex's lips not so accidentally brush against her shoulder. Polly's within a second of losing her temper, though.

"We need an apartment." Piper elaborates slightly, attempting to ignore how Alex's fingers are creeping up the back of her shirt, hidden from Polly's view. Polly visibly deflates with relief, pulling out a few files from a cabinet and setting to work. It's a little hard to take Piper seriously when she's literally sitting in someone's lap, but Polly really is happy for her best friend. She's known Piper for a long, long time, and she's well aware of the fact the blonde has been to hell and back more than once. She's never going to be best friends with Alex, but Polly's honestly grateful for the smile she puts on Piper's face, because she's never seen Piper so at ease with herself than when she's with Alex. They're a little overbearing and borderline intimidating as a couple, but Polly's sure she's never seen any two people made for each other the way Piper and Alex are. So Polly pretends not to notice that Alex has her hand halfway up the back of Piper's shirt and she pays no attention to whatever the brunette whispers in her girlfriend's ear, because Alex is making Piper smile and laugh and she's happy and that's really all that matters in the end.

Alex lets Piper talk through their plans, eventually removing her hand from Piper's back so she can scroll through flights to Cambodia and decide on what _she_ wants. Of course, she's going to have to go to the school tomorrow, considering she'd just spent an hour on the phone with the school's president to take him up on his offer on a condition or two. Alex agrees to take the job as principal, provided she and Piper get the whole month of September off to sort their lives out. Of course, Alex makes it very clear that she's running the school the way _she _wants to, and if anyone so much as makes a snide comment about her inexperience, she'll be out of there faster than anyone can blink. Mr. Anderson had assured her that every good head teacher must start somewhere, and his faculty were adamant that she'd be _more_ than up to the task.

And that was that, really; Alex is going to be headmistress of the Academy and she's going to live with Piper after they spend a few weeks in Cambodia and maybe she'll even shake Polly Harper's hand if she does a good enough job.

* * *

"Alex?" Piper nudges the brunette, but is rewarded with nothing but a grunt. "Alex!" Piper knocks her shoulder against Alex's a little harder. Still nothing. Polly raises her eyebrows in silent amazement as Piper's girlfriend continues to lie fast asleep against the pale oak desk. Piper narrows her eyes in frustration, deliberating momentarily before a sly grin adorns her lips and she leans down to Alex's ear. Polly watches in confusion as the blonde covers her mouth with her hand and whispers something inaudible to her girlfriend. Piper's lips are obviously close to Alex's skin, and Polly rolls her eyes in knowing clarity a split second before Alex jolts awake, raven hair sticking to her face slightly and glasses askew.

"No fucking bitchens, Piper!" Alex exclaims as her head shoots up. "Wha-" Alex starts, looking wildly between a smirking Piper and a bewildered Polly. Piper laughs in disbelief as a blush makes its way onto Alex's cheeks, staining them a delightful red.

"Bitchens?" Piper teases while Polly lets out a chuckle of her own. "What's the blush for, sweetheart?" Piper inquires smugly. Alex frowns, fixing her glasses and ruffling her messy hair, glancing down at Piper's watch. It's been _hours _since the couple sat down across from Polly and Alex had fallen asleep halfway through it, minutes after shifting Piper off her lap.

"I think you know just well what it's for, Piper." The brunette grumbles. "Are you finished?" Piper nods, still chuckling a little as the threesome stand to their feet.

"Thanks so much, Pol." Piper grins, enveloping her best friend in a grateful hug.

"No worries, I'll get you guys sorted." Polly promises and throws a hesitant look towards Alex before continuing. "It's the least I can do." Alex inclines her head forward slightly and a slightly appreciative smile tugs at her lips for a moment and it's quite possibly the nicest thing she's ever done to Polly.

"Thanks." A pause. "Really." Piper almost faints at Alex's candidness, and Polly too seems a little surprised. To her credit, Polly nods slowly and smiles a little at the imposing brunette. Piper settles her hand affectionately in Alex's and waves goodbye to her best friend, slipping out of the establishment with her jaded girlfriend in tow.

"I'm pretty sure she's more whipped than me." Alex points out to Piper as they stand on the sidewalk, attempting to hail a cab. She's referring to Polly's odd enthusiasm for taking on the entire task of the couple's moving process, from selling Piper's old house to finding them a new one.

"Maybe I'll leave you for her." Piper replies amusedly, grinning sideways at her girlfriend. Alex, narrowing her eyes in mock horror, leans down to Piper's ear slightly as a cab pulls up.

"Judging by what you were whispering in my ear back there, you have no interest in doing anything of the sort."

* * *

Slender fingers brush underneath the collar of her girlfriend's crisp white shirt before trailing slowly downwards, smoothing the lapels of her fitted black blazer. She runs her hands across the brunette's lustrous hips, tugging slightly at the waistband of her tight-fitting trousers.

"This is so weird." Alex commented hoarsely as she followed the movements of Piper's fingers carefully. The blonde glanced upwards, catching Alex's gaze and smiling warmly at her.

"You'll do great. You always do." Piper reassured her. "C'mon, we're gonna be late." She took Alex's hand, intertwining their fingers sweetly after pulling the hem of her own black dress downwards slightly. The familiar archway of the Academy welcomed the pair, its darkened threshold beckoning with untold promise. Their heels fill the void of silence as they cross the marble floor towards the hall where Healy's final address to the staff and teachers was to commence in a matter of minutes. The couple pause outside the door.

"You okay?" Piper asks earnestly, trailing her thumb across Alex's cheek. The taller girl nods assuredly, but a sense of nerves still washes over her slightly. Alex isn't used to dealing with nerves, and they're not the crippling kind that make her want to vomit, but she's used to feeling almost smugly convinced in herself at all times. She's still confident, of course, but the unfamiliarity of the situation unsettles her slightly.

"Yeah." Alex replies sincerely before turning to the heavy black doors in front of her. She hasn't shown her face to most of the hall's inhabitants for months, and while they may be aware of her unfair treatment, there's still a fair amount of judgement still to be passed. A beat passes, involving a deep breath and an instinctive squeeze of Piper's hand before the blonde slides it through Alex's elbow and curls her fingers around Alex's wrist. The older woman lets loose most of a smile at the gesture, and pulls backwards on the gold handle. The quiet chatter continues for a second or two, before the hundreds of people in the room become aware of the clicking of heels on hardwood floors. Silence ensues, and every head in the room swivels.

Not in their wildest dreams did they expect to see Alex Vause looking like literal sex on legs with a delightfully smug, impossibly healthy Piper Chapman by her side.

Alex picks out Nicky from across the room, who's shaking her head with a wry smirk on her face. The expression makes Alex chuckle a little, and she probably looks awfully arrogant when she throws a wink in her best friend's direction. Thankfully, this is Alex Vause we're talking about, and she could not give a _fuck _if people think she's arrogant. The silence lengthens for an unbelievable amount of time before chaos erupts within the hall and pupils are practically salivating over the pair almost at their seats by the front. Boys turn to their friends and slap each other on the shoulders, nodding suggestively at the attractive couple and the girls are almost at the point of yelling with excitement. The teachers, too, exchange disbelieving glances, wondering where the fuckthat entrance came from.

Mostly, though, people are happy; the return of the Academy's best two teachers can _only_ be a good thing.

Healy watches them too, beady eyes snapping up from his prompt sheet to land on the two women he thought he'd never have to lay eyes on again. Piper's appearance didn't annoy him much, but his blood boiled at the sight of the confident brunette currently taking a seat right in front of his podium. Healy looked around in confusion, wondering who the fuck she thought she was taking the seat that was reserved for his successor, whoever he may be. Eventually, Healy decided to think nothing of it, deciding it was obviously Alex being ignorant as usual rather than there being any chance whatsoever that _she_ was getting his job.

"What are you doing here?!" One of the teachers whispered harshly towards Alex. The brunette, annoyed at being interrupted from her conversation with Piper, turned around to the voice's owner. When his identity comes to her, a megawatt grin spreads across Alex's face.

"Surprise, bitch." She grins. "Bet you thought you'd seen the last of me."

"You can't sit there." The teacher insists, ignoring her smugness.

"Ah, Barry!" Alex cried cheerfully, taking unreserved pleasure from the way his expression began to turn more and more annoyed. "Why ever not?"

"That seat's for the new Principal." He naively explains. Piper stifles a laugh while Alex does little to mask her amusement.

"Aw is that so?" She teases. "You know much about your new boss?"

"Well, obviously not. I've never met him." Larry defends himself abruptly.

"How do you know it's a he, Sally?" Piper buts in, cocking a sceptical eyebrow. Larry says nothing, sinking further into his seat and averting his gaze from the intimidating couple in front of him. Piper and Alex chuckle lightly to themselves as they turn back around, the irony of his comments providing endless amusement. A hush ran through the hall suddenly as Healy cleared his throat. His hefty figure was back dropped by a vibrant red curtain with the navy and white school crest emblazoned across it. Piper and Alex settled themselves, inwardly groaning as his monotone voice began what would inevitably be the most mind-numbing speech the pair had ever heard.

Eventually Alex entwined her fingers with Piper's discreetly, contenting herself with studying the blonde's knuckles and delicate hand instead of listening to Healy, and then the school president drone on and on (and on). She mapped out the familiar features, from the tiny freckle on the side of Piper's wrist to every minute detail of the small ring on her third finger. The light overhead bounced off the sapphire middle in every direction, and provided Alex with the sudden thought of putting a ring of her own on Piper's finger one day. Startled by the unexpected idea, Alex's eyes widened of their own accord and she quickly attempted to stifle her fanciful imagination. What calms her eventually is the fact that she has all the time in the world with Piper. Neither of them are going anywhere, and when the time is right, Alex will pop the question without a second thought and Piper will reply with a tearful _yes_ and things will be as they've always been. There's no rush. Piper glances downwards at their fingers, and she's reminded of the day Alex came to visit her the very first day she was able to speak after her accident. Their nails are varnished and Piper's hands are softer, smoother, but the ease at which their fingers fit together still makes her smile to herself, the way it did that day in the hospital.

Mr. Anderson begins speaking about successors and futures, pulling the couple from their reverie. Alex's stomach twists nervously and Piper can sense her apprehension. They wait, Piper running her thumb sweetly over Alex's knuckles as the anticipation builds and builds. Healy becomes more agitated as he realises Alex _still _hasn't had to move from the seat and the brunette smirks at his obvious discomfort.

"Somebody needs to get his face on video." Alex whispers to Piper who stifles her laughter behind her free hand. A tension fills the room, people's ears pricking up as the president finishes his address.

"And now, it gives me great satisfaction to welcome your new Headmistress," The female introduction sends shockwaves rippling, and Healy's expression visibly falls. Alex grins. "Whom most of you will already know. Ladies and Gentlemen, your new Principal of Litchfield Royal Academy...Alex Vause."

It's picture perfect. It really is. Healy looks ready to blow a gasket, Piper is almost bursting with pride, Nicky is laughing and Alex is smiling bashfully when applause erupts through the hall, intermitted with whoops and cheers from all of the pupils. Piper kisses her girlfriend proudly on the cheek, pulling back to grin at Alex triumphantly.

"I told you." She says over the raucous applause.

"You sure did." Alex laughs slightly as she stands, smoothing down her trousers before ascending the steps confidently. Her reception continues as she shakes hands gratefully with Mr. Anderson, who nods knowingly at his new Principal. He just _knows_ that Alex Vause could run this place with her hands tied behind her back. Unsurprisingly, Healy doesn't even acknowledge her presence on the stage, which simply gives Alex even more pleasure. She clears her throat slightly and leans her elbows on the podium, bringing herself closer to the microphone. She winks subtly at Piper, who has on that magnificent smile that fills Alex with confidence.

"So," Alex smirks at how her audience lean forward in anticipation. "Let's see how this one pans out, shall we?"

There are few things in life that Piper enjoys more than listening to Alex Vause talk. In fact, the dulcet tones of her girlfriend's voice are only bettered by a handful of other things that also involve Alex's lips and tongue. Alex keeps her introductory address short and sweet and when Piper takes a moment to pause her admiration of the sublimely confident woman on stage, the expressions around the room bring a small smile to the blonde's face. Every pupil sits straight-backed, listening attentively and grinning at Alex's occasional jokes. Piper's bottom lip makes its way between her teeth, attempting to mute the wide smile that threatens to bloom across her face.

She is so _fucking _lucky.

Every person in the hall, minus a select few who are _really _missing out, are falling for Alex's charm and wit and poignant honesty that is such a rarity to find these days. Such is the sincerity of her voice that every single word that comes out of her mouth is swallowed up eagerly by the crowd, no matter how quixotic her ideas may be. And Piper's grateful to be experiencing all this, sure, but that's not why she feels so fortunate. She'd come within _millimetres_ of not being here today, listening to Alex talk, and somehow she still gets to be the girl who goes home with Alex at the end of the night.

Piper's lucky to be alive. But she might be even luckier to be the love of Alex Vause's life.

* * *

There are moments that remain etched into memory. A split second where the permutations and attitudes of a room shift suddenly and every individual is thrust into another stage of life, where their outlook on life changes rapidly.

When Alex Vause slips quietly into the staff room where her faculty are having a meeting before most of them go back to work, everyone is still a little confused about what exactly happened, or is happening, between Piper and Alex. One moment Alex was being portrayed as some ridiculous lesbian villain who had forced Piper into a weird relationship agreement, and a handful of months later Alex was spending an extortionate amount of time by an unconscious Piper's bedside. Their relationship was unsurprisingly the topic of much discussion, mostly by the female staff, and their answer for what the _hell_ was going on between the two was about to be answered.

Alex receives a warm round of applause from her staff, her charming presence sorely missed within the school. She smiles modestly before her eyes lock with a familiar pool of blue. Piper excuses herself from a conversation as most of the staff go back to theirs, and strides towards her girlfriend with a crooked smirk on her lips, mirrored by Alex. A few eyes track her purposeful walk, and every head in the room snaps up when the blonde moulds her body against Alex's and brings their lips together, her hands gripping the lapels of her girlfriend's jacket as Alex grasps the curve of Piper's strong hips as the blonde kisses her hard.

And _fuck _if it isn't one of the most liberating kisses they've ever shared.

The sixty or so teachers in the staff room erupt into a chorus of wolf whistles and disbelieving laughs at the sight, and Piper and Alex smirk against each other's lips at the response, at the acceptance. Alex opens her eyes, chuckling quietly at the contented smile on Piper's lips and the adorable way she still has her eyelids shut, leaning her forehead lightly against Alex's.

"Hey." Alex laughs softly, grinning down at her girlfriend.

"Hello." Piper hums dreamily, opening her eyes as a lazy smile tugs at her lips. Alex has only been in the room about a minute and already every opinion of her has changed; Alex looks at Piper the way guys do at girls in movies, her green eyes twinkling with emotion for the blonde in her arms.

And Piper looks back at her exactly the same way.

So that's how the staff find the answer to the question of _what_ exactly Piper and Alex are, and each and every one of them is quite content with their findings. It's in the way they look at each other, as if nothing else in the world even comes close to existing. It's in the way Alex's thumb brushes across Piper's cheek, so lightly it barely registers. It's in the way Piper smiles at Alex as if they could conquer the world. It's simply in the way they _are._

The answer, if you haven't figured out yet, is that they are in love.

* * *

A/N: Oh yeah, before I forget; thanks to everyone who suggested Alex take Healy's old job, because I hadn't even thought of that! I'm writing an epilogue to _Persuasion _that's going to double as Christmas one-shot, but I might write the finale of this fic as Christmas based as well. Tell me what you want :)


	22. Chapter 22

A blanket of darkness readily descends outside the plane's window, shrouding the cabin's inhabitants in a cloak of obscurity. Piper peers up at Alex with a sleepy sort of a grin on her face as she combs the fingers of her free hand slowly through the blonde's hair. Piper's head is in her girlfriend's lap, her body curled inwards slightly underneath a blanket and her fingers linked tightly with Alex's underneath the warm wool.

"You okay?" Alex asks quietly after a long moment has elapsed, solely consisting of Piper gawking up at her.

"Cold," Piper whispers, her voice fatigued. "Tired." Alex opens her mouth to reply, but Piper cuts her off. "But more than okay." She smiles tenderly through the darkness, and Alex returns it while continuing to absent-mindedly run her fingers through Piper's thick blonde locks. Cambodia beckons the couple, only hours away, with promises of endless beaches, blistering sun and two weeks of nothing but Piper and Alex. The plane grumbles onwards through the starry night, its engine noise fading out into the shadows as Piper continues to admire Alex as if she's the second coming. They're both tired, but the prospect of dreams pales in comparison to the opportunity of an excuse to just _look _at each other. To _appreciate. _

"Alex Vause..." Piper murmured suddenly, her eyes narrowing as she studied Alex intently. The brunette cocked a surprised eyebrow at the expression when a sly smile of sorts tugged at Piper's lips. "Do you have any idea how important you are?" Alex is taken aback by the candid honesty of her girlfriend for a moment, and her train of thought abandons her.

"I'm not important, Pipes. I'm just me."

"Yes." Piper nods vehemently from her position in Alex's lap. "You are just you, Alex, and 'just you' is really quite important."

"Is that so?" Alex smirks, her confidence returning after her initial surprise. They share a grin in the dark cabin, before Piper yawns widely. Alex pulls the blanket over her a little further, so that only face is visible.

"Smug asshole as you are," Piper mutters unconvincingly, and Alex's grin only widens. "You're still the love of my life. And that's certainly important." Her consciousness begins to fade as her eyelids droop closed, leaving behind only a wispy, playful smile tugging the corners of her mouths upwards. Alex really isn't sure how she's supposed to beat that one, so she contents herself with brushing Piper's hair off her forehead, drawing her thumb ever so softly across her cheek and smiling quietly to herself as her girlfriend slips into a deep slumber.

And finally, she understands.

She had asked Piper to come with her once before, and Piper had refused. She hadn't even _considered, _only to tell Alex minutes later that she loved her. When she looks back, that's maybe one of the reasons that compelled Alex to go. It had become a plea, rather than an admission, the way they said they loved each other (_stay because I love you, _or_ come with me because I love you). _They thought they loved each other fully, yet one had left and the other had refused to go. And the intent behind it was no longer enough. Now, things are different. Piper is here, asleep in Alex's lap, halfway to Cambodia without a care in the world.

Because this, this is execution.

This is upping sticks and abandoning responsibilities because they don't owe a damn thing to anyone. Piper and Alex have been to hell and back, and they're ever so tired of denying themselves the giddy delights of a fortnight in a foreign country with little to occupy themselves with but sun, sand and an obscene amount of sex. This is putting happiness and love and all those other joyful little things first, rather than jobs and money and reputation. Alex's legs are numb under the weight of Piper's torso and there's no way she can sleep like this, but she's not complaining in the slightest.

She'd go through the pain day after day, until she stops breathing, if it means Piper stays right by her side.

* * *

Cambodia is _breathtaking. _The quaint little vacation home Nicky had so kindly leant them after the couple had begrudgingly listened to the bushy haired girl voice her sheer disbelief at Alex's new position, is airy and open and strikingly beautiful in its contrast to the white sands and turquoise waters. The journey to their home for the next two weeks was stressful and frustrating and by the time they got there, it was a testament to them that they'd managed to fall asleep inside their bed rather than on top of it or at the front door or even on the beach, they were that tired. Piper stirs from her slumber first, but the room is thankfully dark as the curtains had remained closed during the house's vacancy. Half her suitcase is already strewn across the floor and she's in a cotton grey t-shirt and black Calvin Kleins that she'd insisted on changing into rather than her expensive jeans. Alex, lazy as she is, had fallen asleep in a tangled mess of limbs with Piper, still in her jeans and white V-neck, having only taken off her shoes and glasses before hauling ass to bed.

Piper reluctantly removes herself from Alex's homely embrace and pads quietly across the wooden floors of the house out into the wide, expansive area of the kitchen and living area. It's delightfully open, with French doors out onto the balcony and beachfront and flowing white curtains that would billow in the calm breeze should she open the windows. Piper pulls open a few of the copper brown cupboards, readily stacked by whoever tended to the house during Nicky's absence, taking out coffee and milk as iridescent sunlight weaves in and around the room. The blonde hums cheerily to herself as she goes through the familiar task of loading a coffee machine the way she and Alex both like (one shot of espresso and milk, plus a sugar for Piper, if you're wondering). She's a little jetlagged and jaded, but the promise of good coffee and two weeks of not moving more than a few metres extols a vibrant enthusiasm in Piper, and she cannot fight the grin she proudly wears as she shuffles back into the bedroom, setting Alex's mug down by the bedside table as she takes a grateful sip of the stuff. She realising the time to be after one in the afternoon, yet Alex shows no signs of stirring. Piper, perhaps a little selfishly, throws the curtains open wide and allows the blinding sunlight to pour through the room. She smirks to herself and perches on the dresser, bare legs crossed and mug in hand as Alex groans in annoyance and shoves her face into the pillow.

"Good afternoon sweetie." Piper calls gleefully from her position, grinning when one of those seductive eyebrows rises in surprise at the time frame.

"Afternoon?" Replies a delectably husky voice, dextrous fingers groping upwards to find her glasses. Alex emerges into the light, all cloudy eyes and dazed expressions, staring at Piper in question. The blonde nods slowly, a shiver running up her spine at the way Alex is unashamedly looking her up and down. The older girl sits up further, peeling off her uncomfortable shirt and beckoning Piper towards her with a crook of her index finger. Piper hops off the dresser, an added sway to her hips as she makes her way to the bed, straddling her girlfriend's lap. Alex grips the blonde by the back of her thighs before trailing slowly upwards over the skin-tight material of her underwear, toying with the waistband.

"These are nice." She muses, her voice abhorrently seductive with sleep. Piper nods mutely from her position above her girlfriend, eyes involuntarily closing while the brunette drags her nails agonisingly slowly up her sides. Alex tugs the offending item from Piper's body, wrapping her arms around the blonde's waist and moulding their lips together as the familiar burn of passion begins to build between them. Coffee long, long forgotten, both deciding that this is a _much _better way to wake up, Alex's hands slip under Piper's waistband and grope her ass strongly, eliciting a riveting moan from the blonde and Alex takes the opportunity to trail kisses down the side of her neck while Piper stretches upward. Alex's hands are gentle, still, as she pulls the Calvin Klein's off her girlfriend's shapely legs, leaving her completely naked. The older girl smirks at the dilation of Piper's pupils, stroking her fingertips over the blonde's hips and driving her insane with desire.

"This is better." Alex remarks, drawing back the covers for Piper to lie down, pulling her girlfriend on top of her, mind hazy with lust. The two slip into a familiar intimacy, illuminated by the shimmering glow of sunlight that disappears as Piper's body slips down underneath the comfort of darkness.

* * *

It's late into the afternoon when they finally venture outside, evening beginning to touch the edges of blue skies, yet a warm sensation still soothed their muscles as they walked hand in hand down to the waterfront. They inhale the sharp scent of saltwater as it laps by their feet, white sands spread infinitely either side of them as palm trees rustle a few yards behind.

"Holy shit." Piper whispers, amazement lacing her tone. The warm breeze catches in locks of her hair, blowing it across her face slightly as she looks out across the colours, from the turquoise waters to the pale blue sky tainted with the beginnings of orange. Alex nods beside her, the moment's perfection silencing her. They wade into the water eventually, Piper in a barely-there white bikini while Alex's is a little more conservative in electric blue. A comfortable silence envelops the couple, almost afraid of breaking the serenity as a lazy smile tugs at Alex's lips, basking in the incredible warmth of sunlight and Piper's fingers between hers underneath the heated seawater. Eventually, it comes to above waist level and they stop, toes digging into the sand below.

"Look at that." Piper says stupendously, pointing to the jagged mountain off in the east. A dot in the horizon, miles and miles from their personal bubble but still towering ominously over the ocean, a black entity that is obviously a source of great interest to Piper. "Can we go there?"

"Sure." Alex answers, squinting against the sunlight to make out the sharp scar against the skyline. Piper turns back to her girlfriend, beaming up at her winningly. Moments like these, with sunshine pouring over Alex's pale skin and green eyes sparking with mischievousness, is certainly when Piper feels as though she's the luckiest girl to have ever walked the earth. "Sure you can handle it?"

"I'm sure you'll keep me safe." Piper affirms, linking her hands sweetly around the back of the taller girl's neck and pressing their bodies together. Alex adorns that trademark smirk, equal parts smug and smitten with the blonde as Piper draws a thumb over her girlfriend's cheek.

"Always, kid." Alex promises with a slight laugh, her velvety voice affecting Piper right down to her core. It's more than lust, though. It's happiness. She's standing in the middle of the ocean in a foreign country with barely any civilisation nearby, yet Piper has never felt so at peace. She's absolutely enamoured every single part of Alex, be it bad or good, and she grins into the kiss as Alex's wet hands trail upwards to grasp her cheeks and press their lips together slowly. Alex still seems a little hesitant in the way she kisses Piper, ever since the accident, as if she's afraid of hurting her girlfriend, but the blonde certainly understands considering what Alex had gone through. Determined to put her mind at rest, because underneath her prim and proper exterior Piper really does like it rough, her hands come forcefully to Alex's hips and her lips drag down the column of her neck lustfully.

"I trust you." Piper assures between kisses upwards to the brunette's ear, enjoying how Alex's breath comes a little shorter and her head falls forward onto Piper's shoulder.

"I know, Pipes." Alex breathes, grateful for Piper's strong hold on her.

"No, I _really_ trust you." Piper tries a little harder, voice dripping with suggestiveness as she nips at the skin below Alex's ear and inhales the scent of her coconut sunscreen. The brunette picks up on the double entendre at once, but she'll be dammed if she's going to give in that easily.

"That's nice." She smirks against the blonde's shoulder, taking Piper's hand off her hip and stepping back from her wanting embrace. Piper, understanding the game Alex is playing, pouts and looks up at her girlfriend with her best Bambi impression. Their constant push and pull to one up the other trundles on as Alex ignores the look, wading back to shore and pulling a despondent Piper behind her. The blonde splashes water at her girlfriend, to prove she's not really upset but ends up causing a full out war as they sprint back towards dry land. Alex chuckles heartily as she reaches their towels, throwing them out on the dry sand and a half-laughing Piper on top of her. Water drips from the ends of her hair, cascading over her sculpted collarbones and toned stomach while she looks down at Alex expectantly.

"What's that look for?" Alex asks, though she knows the answer. Piper narrows her eyes but concedes a momentary defeat, shifting to lie by Alex's side on the towel so that the sun hits the front of their bodies.

"You know what for." She mutters, closing her eyes. Alex laughs breathily, endlessly pleased with herself. She turns to look at Piper, staring until the blonde is forced to open her eyes and look back at her. A smirks plays on Alex's lips, looking Piper's wet body up and down for a lingering moment before returning her burning gaze back to her girlfriend's.

"If you want it rough, baby, all you have to do is ask." Alex husks, and Piper swears she can almost _feel _her resolve crumbling.

* * *

Piper holds out until after Alex has cooked her dinner, they've polished off a bottle of wine and she's standing overlooking the beachfront that's cloaked in complete darkness. The water continues to shimmer underneath a full, incandescent moon and the blonde listens to the quiet lap of waves for a minute or two while Alex cleans up. It's dark, but the way the ocean glimmers in the pale moonlight is without a doubt one of the most breathtaking things she's ever witnessed. A hand presses against the small of her back, warmth spreading from Alex's touch over the material of her sundress. Alex comes to her side, settling an arm around the blonde's waist as Piper rests her head on her girlfriend's shoulder.

"Look at this view." Piper murmurs. Alex glances down at Piper's dumbfounded expression, all parted lips and wide eyes, and the sight brings a slight smile to the older girl's face.

"I am looking at the view." Alex replies. Piper looks up at her, sees where Alex is looking and lets out a disdainful groan.

"That's so fucking cheesy!" Piper cries, pressing her face against the brunette's neck as Alex chuckles, thumb drawing circles over Piper's hip.

"You love it." Alex correctly surmises, and Piper hums a happy agreement.

"I do." She beams up at Alex, crashing their lips together suddenly to stifle any smug comment from her girlfriend. Piper's lips are wanting, eager, and her hands run searchingly across the brunette's shoulders, attempting to convey her need. Alex pushes Piper backwards lightly, much too light for the blonde's liking, and she sighs in frustration at Alex's game.

"Oh for fuck sake!" Piper rages, breaking the kiss and glaring at her girlfriend. "I want you, so badly, Alex, stop being so-" She runs a hand through her hair, frustrated with the satisfied expression on Alex's face.

"You've got me, kid." Alex says sweetly, trying to hold in her laughter.

"Jesus!" The blonde is yelling now, and she shoves Alex backwards. "You're deeper than that fucking ocean!" Piper grabs a hold of Alex's shirt, bringing them chest to chest so that Alex can feel the heavy breathing coming from her girlfriend.

"I'm just being romantic." Alex defends dramatically, kissing Piper's nose and increasing her frustration ten-fold.

"Stop being romantic and fuck me. _Properly._" Piper growls aggressively, her hands grapping roughly with the collar of Alex's shirt. The brunette would really like to keep getting a reaction out of the blonde, but her own pent up desire is bubbling to the surface and she can't help the way she steps into Piper's personal space, hands gripping the blonde's hips and pushing her flush against the balcony.

"Fuck you how?" Alex inquires, raising her eyebrows suggestively. Piper fights the shiver attempting to crawl up her spine at the look her girlfriend is fixing her and desperately tries to unbutton Alex's shirt. The brunette grabs her wrists, stilling them so that Piper has to give an answer.

"Fuck me how I know you want to fuck me." Piper smirks, and the lust woven through her voice is what Alex gives into as their lips find each other again in a hot mess. She releases Piper's wrists, rewarded with the buttons being ripped from their seams as her hands slip to Piper's ass, hiking up her dress and groping much harder than she had done this morning. Alex's lips come to her girlfriend's neck, biting down roughly, hard enough to leave a mark. Their breathing already laboured, Piper looks down at the mark as Alex continues to make her way down the blonde's sculpted body. A colourful bruise begins to bloom just above her collarbones, and Piper's pretty sure she's never been so turned on in her life as a gravelly moan escapes her lips. Alex glances upwards, following Piper's gaze to the bruise before their eyes meet, unadulterated desire staring back at each other. Piper smirks, unable to look away, and lets the pleasure overcome her.

* * *

It's a bloody good thing there's not another human being within five miles of them.

It has been too long, longer than they care to truly remember, since Piper has raked her nails down Alex's back while Alex grips Piper's hips hard enough to bruise. Piper's honest-to-goodness screaming after a while, painfully grabbing onto the brunette's offer of a hand, and Alex has that lazy, sated smirk on her glistening lips as she looks at Piper's euphoric features through the dimly-let bedroom. Sunlight is beginning to emerge on the horizon, lines of orange creeping slowly through the darkness that Piper and Alex are completely oblivious to. Alex's face hovers above her girlfriend's, heavy breathing permeating the silence as they regard each other absolutely, their gaze unwavering. Piper's hair is matted to her forehead and her chest rises and falls quickly while her thumb draws idly across Alex's soft bottom lip. It's been hours since Piper had literally dragged Alex to bed, and she's at the point of losing consciousness. Still, the sight of Alex's flushed cheeks and dark eyes staring back at her keeps the blonde more than awake.

"I missed you." Piper proclaims softly, trailing her fingers from Alex's lips to the redness of her collarbones as the brunette smiles crookedly down at her. "I missed _this." _

"Missed what?" Alex asks, arms tiring from supporting herself above Piper for so long. She shifts onto her side, lying on her back beside her girlfriend. Instinctively, she wraps her arms around the blonde because she knows that's how Piper likes to sleep; her head on Alex's chest, listening to the steady thump of her heartbeat.

"Being with you like this, you know," Piper's still dazed and body aches, and she can't quite articulate her thoughts. "Before time started running out." Alex, thankful for her profound intelligence, understands what Piper's getting at.

"Me too, kid." Alex whispers back, drawing the covers up over their bodies. "I love you." She says quietly as Piper presses herself closer.

"I love you, too." Piper mumbles back. Alex smiles, mentally scoring their first day down as a rip-roaring success.

Because this is how it used to be, before Healy got much too involved in the balance of relationship and things got very real and very scary much too quickly for either of them to deal with. The last few months of their relationship had been heading for disaster; they would fight between classes or refuse to answer calls if the stress of it began to weigh them down. Alex remembers the night Piper had gotten blind drunk at a bar on her own after they'd had an argument over Healy taking Piper off the track team; she was worse than Alex had ever seen her girlfriend, and had turned up at her house in the dead of night. Piper was absolutely out of her mind, crying and sobbing and slurring her words beyond belief. In fact, Alex could only make out a handful of what the blonde was saying through her tears.

But what a hard-hitting handful they'd been.

Piper's face had been pressed against Alex's chest, body draped over the taller girl's on the sofa as Alex ran her fingers through blonde locks to calm her down. An inconsolable Piper had choked out something into the soft material of Alex's t-shirt, so muffled that the brunette had to ask her to repeat it.

"Why does it feel like this is all going to come to end?" Piper had slurred, marginally clearer this time. The words had sent a jolt through Alex, and her fingers had stilled their stroking of her girlfriend's hair. How does she even begin to answer that?

"Things only come to an end if you let them, Pipes." Alex had said eventually, resuming her calming ministrations. She wiped the tears from underneath Piper's sad baby blues, but the blonde was still terrifically drunk and frustratingly upset.

"Please, Alex," Piper sniffled, raising her head to look up at Alex seriously. The older girl had looked at her, wide eyed and perturbed by the blonde's sadness. "Please don't give up on me." Piper's hands twisted in the front of Alex's shirt, clinging to her for all she was worth.

"Never." Alex had lied. Piper believed her. And that was the beginning of the end.

* * *

"Ow! Jesus, _fuck!"_Alex exclaimed in agony, pressing her sweaty face further down into the pillow. Piper huffs, removing her hands from her girlfriend's back abruptly.

"Stop complaining!"

"It's sore!" Alex yells back.

"This is what you get for deciding to go down on me on a fucking _beach!" _Piper chastises angrily, having sat with her legs either side of Alex's backside for the past ten minutes as she tried to sooth the older girl's sunburn.

"You should have put the suncream on properly!" Alex is practically squealing in pain, and Piper does her best to stifle a laugh at the unusual situation. Ignoring her pleas, Piper squeezes another sizeable dollop of Acriflex onto her finger and drags it between Alex's shoulder blades. "Motherfucker, fuck off, Piper!" Alex curses for the millionth time.

"Stop swearing at me, or I won't have sex with you for a week." Piper threatens, smoothing the burn cream over the harsh red skin and doing her best to avoid the scratches she'd left across her girlfriend's back that were now causing so much discomfort.

"Fuck yourself." Alex mutters, but grits her teeth through the agony. Half the pain comes from being so vulnerable and helpless, relying on someone else for help.

"Maybe I will."

"We wouldn't be in this mess if you didn't have sex with me, so-" Alex never finishes the rest of her sentence, biting her lip around a scream as Piper not so accidentally brushes her finger along a scratch.

"Oops." Piper says, and Alex can hear the smirk in her voice clear as day. "Seriously, Alex, I'm doing my best." She claims solemnly after another over-dramatic outcry from her girlfriend.

"I know. I'm sorry." Alex concedes, taking calming breaths against the pain. "Thank you." Her back is a sight for sore eyes, between the marks from Piper's nails and the angry redness the sun had burnt into her pale skin, and Piper really does feel quite sorry for her.

"I'm sorry too." Piper deadpans, and the couple share a slight laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation, serving to diffuse the tension somewhat. "C'mon." Piper stands, one foot either side of Alex's spread-eagled body on the floor. "You look like a really sunburnt version of that guy from the Da Vinci code."

"That is so fucking random." Alex mumbles into the floorboards, making no attempt to move her aching shoulders. Piper pokes the brunette in the side with her toe, rewarded with an immediate jolt from her girlfriend. She does it again and again, laughing extraordinarily loudly at how Alex shuffles her body to get away from her touch. "Stop it!"

"My, my, is the great Alex Vause ticklish?" Piper asks gleefully. Alex groans, attempting to get up despite the roaring pain that shoots through her body. Realising her opportunity, Piper grins as she sets her knees back down either side of Alex's waist again, pinning her to the floor. Her dextrous fingers come to the brunette's sides, dragging up and down and in and around the front of her stomach.

"Stop it, fuck," Alex gasps, tears pricking the corners of her eyes due to her laughter and pain across her shoulders.

"Make me." The blonde grins, keeping up her merciless assault on her girlfriend who's still in her bikini, right there in the middle of their vacation home. A lustrous brightness grips the entire room, spilling over their bodies as Alex tries to get to her feet. Piper clings on for dear life, though, so when Alex ignores the pain for long enough to stand up, Piper's hanging off her pained shoulders. She yelps in surprise as Alex's strong hands grip the underside of her thighs, and wonders where they go from here.

"That didn't really work." Alex surmises as she stands still, hands supporting the weight of her girlfriend who she's somehow now giving a piggyback. Piper laughs brightly, the sort of infectious chuckle that has Alex laughing as well, and makes no move to clamber off the brunette's back.

"Giddy up, horsey." Piper encourages, and Alex is struck with an idea. She walks, slowly, for a moment to confuse the blonde. Piper does her best not to touch the sore area of Alex's shoulders, and she's so light that the brunette could probably hold her with one hand. Before Piper even has her breath back from laughing, though, Alex breaks into a run through the house, giddily laughing at the exclamations of surprise from her girlfriend. She bursts through the French doors with a squealing Piper on her back when the blonde realises where she's headed.

"Nope! Nope nope no-" Piper shrieks, but Alex is running so quickly that she knows she's stuck. Alex leaps, Piper in tow, and for a moment they're floating in mid air, sun beating down on them and a winning smirk on Alex's face, gobsmacked expression on Piper's.

And then, there is water.

The two sink into the warmth of the pool, almost touching the bottom after Alex cannonballs into it, millions of bubbles dancing delicately either side of them as a tremendous shower of water erupts above them. Miraculously, when they break the surface, Piper's still on Alex's back and their hair is dripping wet as the brunette laughs manically.

"I hate you!" Piper cries, relinquishing her hold on the brunette and trying to swim to the edge. She pulls her back by the wrist, and when Piper turns to yell at her, she's cut off by Alex kissing her forcefully. Piper groans in pleasure as Alex's hands come to her hips underwater, pressing their bodies together as their lips continue to meet heatedly. Alex's tongue invades her girlfriend's mouth while Piper tangles her fingers in soaking raven locks, pulling Alex closer by the back of her neck. It's one hell of a kiss, and Piper's dizzy by the end of it, drunk on the effect of Alex.

"No, you don't." Alex smirks. Piper's bottom lip makes its way between a blinding white set of teeth as she composes herself, revelling in the pure happiness ardently surrounding the pair.

"No," Piper kisses Alex once more, whispering the admission against her lips. "No, I don't."

* * *

Alex's sunburn and a strange insistence from Piper means she's confined to the house the next day, left to wonder what her conniving girlfriend is up to as she escapes on a bus somewhere off into the big smoke, promising to be back by sunset. Alex lazes around, really, acknowledging the fact that Piper had done a tremendous job at soothing the pain with after-sun and burn cream and countless other weird bottles of things she'd insisted on bringing. She calls Nicky, meaning she's grilled on the amount of sex she's having and threatened that if she doesn't leave the place spotless before she leaves, Nicky will post all the drunk videos of Alex (of which there are many) she has on the school website. She calls her Mom, promising to visit with Piper when they're home, and gets halfway through her battered old copy of _To Kill A Mockingbird _before Piper returns. Briefly, during her absence, Alex wonders how she ever got through over six months without the blonde considering the amount of time she spends thinking about her. Alex realises, though, that she might have got through the months, but she never even came _close _to living. All those moments with Piper she'd taken for granted, because she'd simply assumed they'd never come to an end, had been ripped from her wanting grasp and she had been left a shadow of her former self. So when Piper's pretty little head pokes around the bedroom door and her face lights up into a smile, Alex makes sure she appreciates every minute piece of the girl.

"Hey you." Piper points at her, narrowing her eyes at Alex. "Don't move 'til I come back, okay?"

"What're you gonna do about it?" Alex asks, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

"Please." Piper pouts, trying to convey her seriousness. Alex chuckles before nodding her agreement, Piper's seriousness piquing her curiosity. The blonde lets out a soft exclamation of glee, scarpering from the room before Alex can ask any more questions. A moment later, her head pops back around the door.

"Actually, go put something fancy on."

* * *

Alex can't see through the blindfold, obviously, but she can tell it's dark outside. Piper's hand leads her somewhere that's sand-based, assumedly down to the water's edge, but Alex has no idea why she's in a black dress with her makeup nicely done and hair softly curled if Piper only wants to go swimming. Neither does she know what Piper's wearing, considering the blonde had snuck up behind an unsuspecting Alex and blindfolded her with zero explanation apart from a soft laugh. So now, they're stood hand in hand, and Alex can make out the soft crash of waves against the shoreline. Wordlessly, Piper slips the blindfold off her girlfriend and watches as Alex's expression changes from one of confusion into surprise before manifesting into total and utter bliss.

"Did you..." Alex can hardly speak for smiling, a wide grin spread across her face that's the biggest Piper has ever seen. "Did you spend all day doing this?"

"Mmhm." Piper hums, taking Alex's hand to lead her to the candlelit table situated metres from the water's edge. Alex looks back towards the house, her eyes following a blazing trail of candles stretching the fifty or so metres and casting a romantic glow over the entire beachfront. Lanterns hang from the palm trees, spilling a soft light onto the sand and across the wooden table, upon which more candles rest between plates of piping hot food and various hot plates. A sole bottle of red wine, Alex's favourite, stands proudly in the middle and the nearby ocean shimmers underneath a glowing moon intermitted with bright stars. They sit down, across from each other, and for once neither of them is smug or self-impressed. Piper has a shy smile playing on her lips as she distracts herself with the wine. Alex looks at her, _really _looks at her.

And it's as if nothing in the world but Piper Chapman could ever even come _close_ to holding a semblance of importance for Alex Vause.

Piper glances upwards, breath hitching in her throat at the intensity of Alex's gaze. Her eyes sparkle a deep, enchanting blue and her skin seems to glow with the rays of sunshine collected over the past few days. Her hair is lighter, blonder and slightly in her face with the calming breeze coming off the ocean.

"You are so fucking beautiful." Alex says suddenly, shaking her head. "This, everything, oh my God-" Alex, unusually flustered, doesn't even know how put her love into words. "Get over here." Alex stands slightly, leaning over the table to kiss Piper soundly on the lips, one hand grasping the side of her cheek. Their foreheads rest against each other, and Piper wears this adorably soft smile as she glances between Alex's lips and her eyes that gleam with emotion.

"You are everything I've ever wanted, Piper." Alex whispers. It's unusual for her to be so sentimental and serious, but this is without a doubt the kindest thing anyone has ever done for her. The little girl who grew up with no money and no father had dreamed of a love like this. Piper smiles a little wider before Alex drops her hand from her face and they sit down again.

"You look beautiful, too." Piper replies, and Alex positively _glows._

And so it goes; Piper cooks her a meal and they never stop talking the whole time and Alex thanks a god she doesn't believe in that Piper Chapman is alive and she's absolutely beautiful and they're more in love than they thought it was possible for two people to be. Piper buys a _hammock, _for fuck sake, and has it tied between two trees. They fall into it, shivering lightly in protest to the cold. Piper, vigilant as ever, has a blanket propped up against the side of the tree that they cover their shoulders with.

"Why'd you pick tonight?" Alex wonders as they look upwards into the void of darkness above. Piper checks her phone for the time, smirks at her timing, and settles her head on Alex's shoulder.

"Watch. Out there." Piper nods her head towards the faint outline of the mountain. Alex follows her gaze, but she sees only blackness and an incalculable number of stars looking back at her. She draws small patterns across the tiny scar on the blonde's wrist but before she can question Piper further, a burst of colour splinters in front of her eyes. Fireworks erupt, seemingly off the mountainside, in a cataclysmic explosion of greens and blues and reds, painting the calm waters of the ocean.

"Holy shit!" Alex laughs in desbelief at the show as Piper grins winningly beside her. "How did you manage that?"

"There's some sort of festival." Piper explains happily, settling into Alex's side more. They bask in the shower of light in a stunned silence for a good ten or fifteen minutes. "Alex?"

"Yeah?" The brunette questions quietly as the soft eruption of fireworks continues in the background.

"Did you ever think about, you know," Piper plays with Alex's fingers between hers for a moment, overcome with shyness. "What'd you'd have done if I...if I..." Piper scoffs, and doesn't finish her sentence. "Doesn't matter." She says sadly.

"No, Pipes, hey," Alex takes her free hand to tilt Piper's chin upwards so they're looking at each other. "What is it?" Piper looks down again, gathering herself.

"If I didn't, you know, wake up." Piper hadn't planned on asking it, but the question had plagued her for quite some time. Alex is quiet for a long, long while.

"No. I didn't." She says quietly. "I couldn't give up on you again." Piper squeezes Alex's fingers tightly, reassuring her that she never did anything of the sort.

"You didn't give up." Piper assures her.

"But if you're asking me if I was afraid, then yeah." Alex continues. "I was, I still am and I always will be, fucking terrified of losing you." Piper looks up at her again in shock, but there's nothing funny about Alex's expression. They regard each other carefully, colourful explosions still echoing in the background.

"I'm not going anywhere, Al, you don't have to worry." Piper tells her, voice barely above a whisper.

"Oh, but I do." Alex insists with a crooked smile. "If I stop being afraid of losing you, that would imply that I'd be capable of living without you, which simply isn't true." Piper bites her lip around a smile, shaking her head in reverence towards Alex. The question of their love ceases to be '_How do I love you so much?' _and becomes '_How am I ever going to stop?' _

"Maybe I do kind of like it when you're romantic." She says eventually, kissing Alex with all the love she cannot even begin to fathom. It's messy and they're laughing and smiling against each other's lips and if anyone were to see them, they'd quickly realise that Piper and Alex are simply not like the rest of them.

But why would they even _begin _to want that?


	23. Finale

A/N: Yes, I'm still alive. Yes, this is the last chapter I am ever writing for this website. Yes, I would love to get 700 reviews, and if you don't read the A/N at the end, just know that I love you very much for sticking with me for the last few months. Enjoy, and happy holidays :)

* * *

The beauty of the morning light filters through the window, weaving leisurely between flowing white sheets cascading downwards from atop the four-poster. Bare skin blurs into focus slightly as dark hair falls down sculpted shoulders. A delightful freshness begins to stir in the room, as if chasing the tail end of a sweet dream and replacing it with something altogether more fascinating.

Piper blinks away the tiredness in eyes, but makes no effort to move an inch. An involuntary smile adorns her lips at the sight of Alex's wonderfully serene face; her eyes are firmly closed and full lips are parted slightly to accommodate slow, level breaths. Raven locks frame her defined cheekbones and fall into her face before making their way down her back. It's Alex's back that captivates Piper the most, all enchantingly smooth skin and sculpted muscles ending in an inward curve before meeting the soft white bed-sheets. Her skin has lost the redness of before, replaced with a fair tan, if not as bronzed as Piper. The blonde reaches out, without so much as a second thought, tracing her fingertip lightly across her girlfriend's spine and between her shoulder blades, at once enthralled with the very being of Alex Vause and everything she entails.

Piper had once described Alex as a paradox of good versus evil who brought with her the thrill of breaking rules and an unique, cataclysmic love for Piper,which the blonde was completely and utterly infatuated with. And she'd been right, of course; Alex _was_ all of these things and invariably she still represents a lot of forbidden promise, but Piper left behind her desire for all things illicit the moment she was brought to within an inch of her life. It's a good thing, then, that they've managed to come to a point where Piper can lie in a house in Cambodia and trace patterns across Alex's skin and not worry about time running out or secrets being revealed. Their love, however hard people may strive to compartmentalise it, has brought them down a deadly path, but Piper can't help but think it's been worth the pain to bring her to this point.

So there in the soft glow of Cambodia's early morning, Piper lies by Alex's side for quite some time before she drifts back into unconsciousness with her head on Alex's shoulder and her forearm strewn across the brunette's shoulder blades. Eventually, Alex's stirs with a yawn and opens her eyes to a loudly snoring Piper Chapman whose face rests so close to her own that she can feel the blonde's breath against her neck. Alex can only see through one eye, the other pressed against her pillow, but she sees enough of Piper to bring a smile to her face. She shifts a little, bringing her right arm upwards to hug Piper's naked body flush against her own as the younger girl's arm rests loosely around the back of Alex's neck. Piper's awakened by Alex's lips against her forehead, so lightly she barely feels it, a ghost of a kiss that disappears so quickly Piper's not sure if she dreamt it.

"Couldn't have just let me sleep, huh?" Piper mumbles, eyes remaining closed as she presses her face further into the crook of Alex's neck and inhales that addictive scent of home.

"Considering you were lying on top of me, no." Alex replies, her voice throaty and dangerously close to Piper's ear. The blonde blushes and scratches lightly at the nape of her girlfriend's neck, her fingers tangled in Alex's hair. They're quite literally latched onto each other; their legs are entwined underneath cool bed-sheets while Alex's fingers press at the small of Piper's back to pull her impossibly closer.

"I got distracted." Piper mutters. "I don't wanna leave." The younger girl admits quietly. Doesn't want to leave Cambodia, leave this bed, and leave the idealistic little world the pair have constructed over the course of two weeks. It had been incredible, really; time was spent on the most peaceful, stunning beaches either of them had ever laid eyes on but their trip was intermitted with treks up a mountain through lush greens and the accidental discovery of a waterfall lit up at night like something from their wildest dreams. Piper had cooked some nights, Alex had cooked others, sometimes they took a bus into the nearest town and sampled the rather outrageous cuisine and other nights they'd forget to eat at all.

Simply put, it had been the best two weeks of their lives.

"Me either, kid." Alex admits, already at odds with the strange feeling of leaving a place. She's taking Piper with her, of course, the only thing that matters, but weirdly she's going to miss the quirky shop owners who sold her some shady looking goods and even the incessantly boring Cambodian tour guide who helped them up the mountain. There's a myriad of memories being left behind; Piper and Alex will never again be as they are, wrapped up in this specific bed in this specific moment.

"I'm kind of excited, though." Piper says, drawing Alex from her reverie. She pulls back, looking down at the blonde happily. Alex nods in assent, a sly grin spreading across her lips. The slow burn of excitement begins to replace their unhappiness at leaving as Piper's eyes gleam with promise.

"Why's that?" Alex asks, though she knows the answer. A glance at the clock tells her they still have a good amount of time to kill before heading to the airport.

"Living together!" Piper exclaims, her joy so uncontainable that she bursts out laughing.

"So there's nothing exciting at all about sleeping with your boss?" Alex teases, moving to straddle Piper's hips.

"Nothing at all." Piper shakes her head with zero conviction, the smile on her face giving her away as clear as day. Undeniably, it excites her to the point where her stomach is already coiling in anticipation. They're not breaking any rules, but Piper gets one _hell _of a rush from it all. Alex smirks, leans her weight into Piper a little before slipping abruptly from the bed and pulling the sheet with her. "Hey!" Piper pouts, annoyed at being left hanging. The brunette ignores her, striding out onto the balcony with the sheet billowing behind her. The beach is quiet, only a handful of people scattered along the shore despite the fact it's just after midday. Piper comes storming after her, ignorant to the fact she has no clothes on, pulling Alex back sharply by the bed-sheet.

"Come back to bed." She pleads, looking agitatedly around in case anyone should look up towards their house.

"Why should I, if I'm so unexciting?" Alex fires back, trademark smirk on her lip and sheet still around her body.

"I lied." Piper says quickly. "You excite me massively, let me prove it." She urges, but Alex holds firm, quite enjoying Piper's flustered nature.

"_What's that?"_ Alex yells at the top of her voice. Every head turns towards them, and Piper's face has never been as red. "I excite you massively?" Alex continues to holler as her girlfriend scarpers back inside. The glass door is unceremoniously shut in her face and locked before she can get inside. Piper glares at her from the other side, sticking up her middle finger as she retreats back to a bed with no sheets. Alex sighs, still laughing quietly to herself before sitting down on the balcony, warmth of the sun beating down upon her as she waits for Piper to remember what she's missing out on.

* * *

House hunting really isn't all it's cracked up to be. Sure, the first few properties are exciting and there's a real air of expectation, but by the time evening has fallen across New York City, Alex is at the end of her tether and Piper's about to join her. Polly's getting annoyed with them being so particular about every _damn _thing, from the colour of the bathroom to the size of the windows, and all in all everyone's about ready to kick off.

"Alright!" Polly snaps, rubbing her temples to calm her frustration as Piper and Alex cease their bickering. "If you don't like this one, you can take your goddamn attitude and stick it up your ass." She says bluntly, and Piper has to grip her girlfriend's hand painfully tight to stop her from landing another punch across Polly's face. Alex continues to swear under her breath as Polly leads them through the apartment block and into a sleek elevator, grey doors sliding open to reveal mirrored walls.

"Calm down." Piper whispers harshly, her patience wearing thin with the both of them. Polly's done a lot for them; she's got a buyer ready for Piper's house the moment the couple move into their new apartment, but it's the new home that's providing a snag. Polly rhymes off the specifics of the loft apartment as the threesome idle in the elevator and Alex taps her thumb rhythmically off Piper's hand to distract herself.

"Okay." Polly exhales, handing Piper the keys. "You two knock yourselves out, I'm going to wait out here." She explains, taking a seat in one of the small chairs outside the few doors along the long corridor. "Door at the end."

"Thanks." Piper smiles tightly, dragging Alex towards the apartment.

"How can you fucking be _bothered_ with her?!" The brunette exclaims the moment Piper shuts the door behind them. Piper opens her mouth to chastise her girlfriend, but she's cut off abruptly by the apartment's decor. The wooden floors are an ashen brown, spread out in front of the couple. Grey, stone-like but smooth walls stretch overhead before meeting a ceiling made from lighter wooden planks. There's already furniture in the expansive area; contemporary white leather sofas and chairs rest low to the ground with a dark metal coffee table in the middle of the room facing a flatscreen TV mounted on the wall above a black gloss unit. Alex stares at the bookcases behind the sofa, made from cool, rustic metal and indented into the wall. Stairs sit to the left of them, leading to a second floor with more bookcases and a hallway with deep red walls, obviously leading to the bedroom and bathroom. Half the wall on the left slopes downwards with the shape of the roof and encloes slanted windows that allow the city lights of Manhattan to spill through the home.

"Holy shit." Alex whispers, shaking her head in admiration for the place. It's not _huge_, but it has everything they need and a fantastically modern, sophisticated charm to it.

"Yeah." Piper agrees softly, stepping further into the apartment. She runs her finger over the hard leather of a seat before climbing the small staircase while mentally mapping out where all her things would go. She's already decided that this is it, this is where she wants to live.

This is where she wants to spend the rest of her life. And the girl she wants to spend it with is right behind her.

Due to the loft apartment's open feel, the entrance to the bedroom is simply a rectangular cut out in the wall rather than a physical door. The couple step through hand in hand, impossibly more in love with the place than they were a minute ago. The floor is the same ashen brown with a sleek, blue-grey wardrobe lining the far wall and more bookshelves on the wall to their left, complete with a black ladder resting against it. The right hand wall, though, is what really seals the deal. It's mostly made up of glass that reveals a stunning view of New York City, all bright lights and cars weaving through the late-night traffic. Familiar landmarks and skyscrapers surround the apartment, creating an astonishing outlook across the city, right from their very own home. It only tells a tiny sliver of New York's secrets, but it's more than they could ever have hoped for. A large bed faces the view, covered with a shimmering, dark duvet and midnight black sheets. There's a desk underneath the slanted windows where the right wall meets the back wall, but the couple only have eyes for the view.

"Alex, please, _please-" _Piper begins after a long moment of staring out across the lights.

"Yes." Alex cuts her off, standing by her girlfriend's side and wrapping her arm around Piper's shoulders. "This is the one, Pipes." The city dances with a thousand unattainable colours before their eyes, reflecting their happiness as Piper beams excitably up at her girlfriend.

"Really?" Piper whispers, as though she can't believe it.

"Of course." Alex affirms. Piper turns to face her, so that they're side on to the windows. One of Alex's hands rests on Piper's jaw and her fingers tangle in blonde locks while the other holds her securely by the hip as the younger girl continues to grin widely, dimples and all.

"How the fuck did I get so lucky..." Piper murmurs disbelievingly. "My job, this house, my life, _you..._What did I do to deserve this?" She rests her forehead against Alex's, gazing at the familiar green of her eyes through her glasses. Amazement is etched clearly across the blonde's face as Alex stays silent, admiring the way Piper's eyes are lit with a blazing happiness. Yes, they have to go back to work in less than two weeks, but they're going to live in this fucking _magnificent _house together and nothing is ever going to bring them apart again, of that they are certain. It's over a year since Piper met Alex, and from the moment they met a fire was sparked deep within her scarred, troubled soul.

A fire that has manifested into an uncontrollable desire, a _need_ to be with each other. They are _necessary _to one another.

Through all of the tragic, tear-jerking moments they have loved each other more than anybody ever thought was possible. It's incomprehensible and unfathomable but _my God _they love each other to the point of pain and it might be tumultuous but it's endless and they're never _ever_ giving up.

Alex doesn't really know how to tell Piper that she certainly deserves to be loved without quoting that Nicholas Sparks' movie with Zac Efron and the hot blonde, but she'll figure it out eventually. She presses her lips softly to Piper's, thumb brushing across her cheek as Piper sighs happily into the kiss.

"You deserve everything, kid, I assure you." Alex tells her as they break apart. Piper bites her lip to stifle a smile as Alex takes her hand. "C'mon, let's go tell Holly the good news."

"Never seen you so eager to talk to her." Piper points out as her girlfriend leads her back towards the front door. Alex turns, quirks an eyebrow and smirks back at her.

"The sooner we move in," Alex says in a voice laced with suggestiveness. "The sooner we get to christen that bed."

* * *

Piper doesn't like to dwell on her past. It's not something she's proud of, even the abusive father situation that was beyond her control, and she'd rather just ignore the fact that she could have achieved so much more than being nervous before her first day back at work as a schoolteacher. The excessive underage drinking, the pushing away everyone who tried to care about her, the insistence to do everything herself from the age of about fourteen, had all been her own demons that had led her to this point. For a long time, Piper had considered herself an underachiever. She hadn't even bothered to study for a PHD that she could have passed without much trouble at all. When she took a good hard look at herself, Piper thought of herself as a failure. Unhappy with her life and living in a big house with too much money and no one to spend it on, had moulded her into an inherent narcissist with a destructive streak that led her to give up on almost everything she put her mind to if it didn't come to her effortlessly.

Maybe that's why she didn't give up on Alex.

Maybe it's because loving her is perhaps the most natural thing in the world and Piper feels like she belongs in Alex's arms. Maybe she didn't give up because Alex she looks at Piper in a way that makes the blonde feel like she's absolutely the only thing that matters. So as they walk back into the school, hand in hand in front of pupils and co-workers for the first time in a long time, Piper doesn't feel like a failure at all.

In fact, she wouldn't have it any other way. This is the stuff of _dreams._

Alex looks like something out of Piper's wildest fantasies by her side; she has on an expensive silk white blouse and her trousers are tailored to fit snugly around her shapely legs, matching with the tight, black blazer she has buttoned over her shirt. Her dark hair falls in flawless curls over her shoulders and her lips are the signature red she so often adorns. It's the same sort of thing she usually wears to work, but with this added air of authority that radiates from her. Piper's kind of glad she doesn't have to teach beside Alex anymore, because her lust for the girl seems to increase tenfold with every passing day in her company. Alex isn't faring much better, because there's something about Piper Chapman in a navy blazer, grey skirt and black heels that gets to her every time.

They've said their good lucks to each other in the car, so Alex bids her girlfriend goodbye with a chaste kiss on the cheek and a pat on the ass when no one's looking, just inside the archway entrance. Alex would be lying to herself if she said she wasn't nervous, even though she has no one to impress. She'd met with her Vice Principal the afternoon previously to catch up on all the happenings, and Alex was mightily relieved that the whole place was running smoothly. Really, apart from meeting each of her teachers individually, there's not much for her to do until things start going wrong. She pours herself a glass of water, sits down in her stupidly expensive leather chair and checks her schedule.

"Enthralling." She muses aloud as she realises all her day consists of is meeting the teachers of each different departments for every subject. English first, then History, Geography and a whole list of others before the eight Science teachers at two o'clock. Alex grins quietly to herself, already looking forward to that one.

* * *

It's weird how normal it feels. It's as if she's never been away from the place. Piper recognises most of the faces, save for the new pupils obviously, and they treat her with the same reverence and respect as before. The few that come up and say how happy they are to see her alive and well bring a genuine smile to her face, and she would gladly admit to having missed the place a bit. She'd missed Nicky's teasing in the staff room and the new Chemistry teacher next door is a lovely sort of a guy if a little over the top and obvious in his flirting. She hasn't seen Alex all day, though, so by the time two o'clock comes she steps into the boardroom along with the rest of her colleagues, with a sizeable amount of eagerness coursing through her veins. She's talking to Nicky about something to do with Cambodia when the door opens to reveal her girlfriend, and everyone immediately stands straighter by the table and drops their hands to their sides. Piper's nothing if not professional, but Alex being her boss and seeing everyone positively shit themselves when she enters a room is going to take a lot of getting used to. Nicky keeps making comments as Alex shakes hands with everyone, too, and Piper's lip is bruised from keeping her laughter contained. The blonde is at the end of the line, the final one Alex is to speak with. Nicky's having none of it from her best friend, and she basically laughs in Alex's face when she sticks her hand out for the bushy-haired girl to shake.

"Watch it, Nichols." Alex warns with a wry grin when Nicky eventually takes her hand.

"Sure thing, boss. Anything you need to know about me?" She preens, sticking her chest out exaggeratedly and tonguing the inside of her cheek.

"Unfortunately, I think I know far too much already." Alex shakes her head in mock disdain as her best friend barks out another laugh, taking a seat and folding her arms to watch the next event unfold in front of her. Piper tries to compose herself before Alex stands in front of her, but the whole situation is so ridiculous that a wide grin spreads across her face the moment they lock eyes. Alex, aware of everyone staring at her, some in on their relationship and some still in the dark, blushes a little as she fights to stifle her laughter.

It just feels so _wrong _to be shaking hands with someone who she'd fucked four times last night.

They grin at each other for a moment longer before Piper caves and falls into a fit of laughter, her shoulders shaking with the sheer hilarity of the situation. Alex laughs too, only it's much more composed and she shakes her head in helplessness as she shoves her girlfriend lightly by the shoulder.

"Take a seat, Miss Chapman." The brunette chuckles, as do most of the other teachers at the table after being informed of what exactly is going on between the two.

Alex talks fluently and succinctly about her expectations for the upcoming year, and everyone provides her with their undivided attention (even Piper after her girlfriend passes her a glass of water to calm the blonde's laughter without so much as pausing her speech). Piper feels her nerves dissipate the longer Alex speaks, such is the sincerity of her husky voice, and she finds herself longing for the next week to pass so they can finally move into their new apartment. Alex has been living with her since they returned from Cambodia, but there's something far more exhilarating about starting from scratch in a new home rather than being in one Piper's lived in for over a decade. It takes over an hour for Alex and her teachers to sift through all that she had planned to talk about, and the meeting finishes not a moment before a bell sounds to signal the end of the day.

"Here." Alex hands Piper a sheet of paper as they walk out first, pausing for a moment to lift Alex's bag from her office as Piper looks down the page. The younger girl lets out this ecstatic little squeal, hugging Alex from behind. "What, you didn't think I'd forget, did you?" She asks as she turns around, still pinned to the desk.

"No." Piper admits, kissing Alex forcefully on the lips. "Still, it's awesome. Thank you." Piper grins, the page of track team runners' names still in the blonde's hand as her girlfriend pulls open the door out of her office.

"No worries, coach."

* * *

"Piper?"

"Hmm?"

"Have you ever considered the fact that we both drive sports cars?" Piper turns back in surprise, hating her purposeful strides forward.

"What? Why?" She asks as Alex tiptoes across to her, trying not to get mud all over her Doc Martens.

"You really expect to get a nine foot Christmas tree in the back of an Audi?" Alex folds her arms promptly, brow arching in an expression that's somewhere between pity and contempt. Piper scowls, sticks her tongue out and flicks the toe of her boot through the mucky ground underfoot so that mud splatters perfectly across the front of Alex's glasses. "Hey!"

"Stop moaning!" Piper cries as Alex opens her mouth to yell. The brunette frowns but doesn't complain further, taking her girlfriend's outstretched hand and wiping her glasses as they continue their journey through the Christmas tree farm. The strong scent of pine permeates the air as they walk between towering masses of green, looking from side to side at their choices. It's almost deserted, save for the cheery, red-faced groundsman who greeted the couple upon arrival. Alex was discontented from the moment she'd stepped foot out of the car and into a murky puddle, not to mention the fact it was close to freezing. Piper, on the other hand, revels in the outdoors and the adorable shade of red the end of her nose turned in the cold as she half-skips between the trees, tugging Alex along with her.

"How about this one?" Alex halts Piper in front of a large, coniferous tree with thick branches, looming over the couple expectantly. Piper makes an indecisive sort of hum and shifts from foot to foot as she ways up the pros and cons of the tree.

"It's nice," Piper starts, and Alex can already hear the 'but' coming next. "But let's keep looking."

"They're all the same!"

"Why are you so eager to leave?" Piper turns angrily to Alex, who raises her free hand skyward in protest. Realising that she's perhaps getting on Piper's nerves, the brunette steps forward and draws a few stray locks of her girlfriend's tousled blonde hair between her fingers.

"You look absolutely ravishing today, Piper Chapman." Alex says charmingly, flashing her girlfriend a crooked smirk. Piper would like to tell people she's well past the stage of being reduced to a gaping, blank mess when Alex turns on the charm, but truth be told she's as enthralled by the older girl's persona as she was the day they met. The cool aroma of pine is at once displaced by something altogether more tantalising; a seductive, addictive scent that is distinctly Alex. The brunette slips her fingers underneath the collar of Piper's trench coat and pulls it open slightly along with the scarf she'd worn all day to work, exposing the row of hickeys on her neck she'd been so desperate to conceal. Alex's smirk widens while the blonde's breathing hitches in her throat, transfixed by what her girlfriend is doing as she traces over the marks.

"So, baby," Alex husks, staring hard at Piper who nods slowly, not trusting her voice. "How about this one?" The blonde nods with a little more conviction, her gaze flitting between Alex's dark irises and soft, inviting lips."I thought so." Alex grins smugly, tugging Piper towards her by the scarf and pressing their lips together. The blonde dazedly falls forward into her girlfriend's embrace, sighing dreamily as her arms fall around Alex's waist and they kiss languidly between the evergreens whilst a quiet storm brews overhead.

"Okay," Piper gasps as the brunette places kisses against her jaw line. "Let's go." She takes Alex's and begins the hunt for the groundsman, which takes much longer than it would if Alex would stop wrapping her arms around Piper's waist and kissing her neck at every available opportunity. Eventually they find him, explain the sports car predicament and strike up a deal that involves him following the couple the short distance home with the tree in his van. Of course, Alex spends the whole drive with her hand drawing circles on Piper's thigh and whispering unrepeatable promises in her ear to the point where the blonde overpays the groundsman far too much because she doesn't have the patience to wait around for change. Between the two of them, they haul the tree through the apartment block and up to the top floor, panting for breath by the time it's in place. Well, sort of.

"Fuck that." Piper gasps as the thing lays half lopsided in the holder, still in a net. She pushes Alex's jacket off her shoulders and claws to un-tuck her shirt as the brunette chuckles lowly.

"That's not very Christmassy, Pipes." Alex grins, pinning Piper back against their front door. She unties the front of her girlfriend's coat, splaying her hands across Piper's hips. The blonde jumps, wrapping her legs around Alex's waist and groaning at the sudden friction created.

"There's mistletoe." She breathes, head lolling backwards against the door as Alex's ravenous tongue licks a blistering trail up the column of her throat. "It'll do."

* * *

They christen the bed, every available surface in their house, Alex's new desk, and the sofa in her office before the year's end. The last day of term before Christmas break is a rather unusual one; it absolutely _pours_ with rain; the clouds erupt all of a sudden at about eight o'clock in the morning, a real thunderstorm that has Piper resting her head off the dashboard of Alex's car in complete frustration.

"This is fucking shit." She groans. Alex rubs her back soothingly across the car, pulling Piper into a hug and kissing her hair softly.

"I'm sorry about scratching you, but I can't do anything about the weather." Alex admits, having already apologised profusely for raking her nails down Piper's back last night after getting a manicure that wasn't exactly made for having particularly rough sex with your girlfriend. Of course, Piper had loved it at the time, but she was feeling the effects of it this morning and had sworn at least thirty times upon resting her back against the cool leather of Alex's car. "You didn't have to come to work." Alex points out as the blonde withdraws from her embrace.

"Didn't want people to think being with you comes with special privileges." Piper teases, leaning into the back to look for a jacket. Coming up short, she lets out another flurry of profanity before sitting back down with a sigh.

"Being with me comes with a lot of privileges, or have you forgotten?" Alex raises an eyebrow but Piper continues to smoulder angrily. "Wait." She instructs, stepping out into the rain and retrieving something from the boot of her car. She thrusts it into Piper's lap, shaking her hair out from the rain and grinning as the blonde pulls on Alex's waterproof navy jacket, school crest stitched across the front and the initials AV on the opposite side. It's absolutely too big for her and the sleeves are too long, but Piper has to stand outside all day with her track team and it's certainly better than nothing.

"You just want everyone to see me walk around in your clothes." Piper quips with a wry smirk, but gives Alex a soft kiss on the corner of her mouth despite her comment. Alex shrugs, no offer of a denial forthcoming considering Piper's absolutely correct.

"It's kinda hot." She replies, kissing her girlfriend a little more forcefully over the middle of her car. Piper makes a sound low in her throat, somewhere between a growl and a purr as Alex grabs the front of her jacket and pulls her into her lap.

"You're _such_ an exhibitionist."

"Little extreme." Alex mutters against the blonde's lips, pulling on her hair as she kisses the younger girl hungrily.

"Not real-" Piper starts to speak again, but Alex's tongue swipes along her bottom lip and she loses her train of thought

"Stop talking and kiss me back." Alex growls, hands sliding to grip her girlfriend's ass and pull her closer. Piper gives in, opening her mouth to Alex's pleas and probing tongue as she rests her hand at the base of the brunette's throat. None of their wild groping and overtly sexual kissing is doing anything to alleviate their need for each other, yet Alex only groans out low encouragements when Piper slides further into her lap and bites softly on her pulse point for a moment or two. The blonde continues her assault and slides her hands underneath her girlfriend's blouse before Alex comes half to her senses.

"You fucker!" Alex groans, pulling Piper's hair upwards as the younger girl releases the skin of Alex's neck from between her teeth and smirks arrogantly.

"Now we're even." She grins, familiar conniving glint in her blue eyes. Alex scowls at the blonde straddling her and attempts to fix her hair over the glaring red mark clearly visible on her neck, but it's still far too evident.

"You're lucky you're so good at that." Alex reflects before opening the door to her car. "Shift it." Piper doesn't move, obviously, smirking downwards from her position in Alex's lap. "You gonna make me carry you? Really? There are pupils out there." Alex warns, but the blonde continues to fiddle with the ends of her girlfriend's hair and straddle her lap. "_Piper."_

"Do we have to go this stupid staff dinner tonight?" The blonde pouts, reluctantly clambering off Alex's lap and out into the rain.

"Yes." Alex raises her eyebrows quickly over the frame of her glasses as she follows Piper outside, frowning at the rain cascading over her faded leather jacket. Piper pulls down her shorts where Alex's hands had sneaked up a moment previously before huddling under Alex's shoulder for shelter. "It'll be fun."

"You sound bored already."

"I am." Alex says sideways to her girlfriend as they amble past a handful of gawking pupils who still can't get over the fact the pair are together. "But it's my job. And yours."

"Look at you, playing by the rules for once." Piper grins slyly, reaching on her tiptoes to kiss her girlfriend awkwardly on the corner of the mouth. "Have a good day, sweetie." Alex laughs at her cheery mannerisms, wonders how she ever got so lucky, and prays to a God she doesn't really believe in that the dinner won't be as boring as she's pretty sure it will be.

* * *

The dinner is incessantly boring. Save for a few side comments about the obtrusive hickey on Alex's neck and the fact Piper had walked around all day with Alex's initials splayed across her chest, it passes without incident and is largely forgettable. The only saving grace is the fact that when they wake up the following morning, it's officially Christmas break and they have a few days ahead of nothing but themselves. Alex is awoken by a pillow hitting her square in the face, groggily opening her eyes to a giggling Piper standing at the foot of their bed, sunrise streaking across the sky behind her and creating an impressive silhouette of her figure.

"Rise and shine, beautiful." Piper exclaims, much too loudly for this time in the morning.

"Come back to bed." Alex implores her throatily, pulling the covers over her own head to displace the cold.

"Nuh uh." She hears Piper say. The covers are torn form Alex's body, leaving her stark naked and exposed to the coldness of the room. "Farmers' markets, remember?" Alex perks up at that, moves to slip on her glasses and robe and tells Piper to give her half an hour.

Forty-five minutes later, Piper and Alex are in the midst of a booming, hectic market, streams of people flocking from stall to stall either side of them as they stroll contentedly through the hall. Fairy lights are strung below the glass ceiling above and warm scents of cinnamon swathe the air around the couple. Piper's left hand is jammed down the back pocket of the brunette's jeans while Alex's right arm hugs her girlfriend close to her side.

"You want a brownie or something?" Alex asks as they stop in front of a bakery stall lined with every tray-bake imaginable, from gooey chocolate brownies to splendidly coloured cupcakes. The heady aroma of freshly baked bread washes over the pair as Piper ponders.

"I've been eating so much lately." She sulks, but doesn't walk away. Alex scoffs and drums her fingers over Piper's stomach, feeling the taut muscle quiver under her touch.

"Pipes, you basically have a six pack." The brunette says pointedly. Piper laughs, a warm blush stinging her already rosy cheeks as she concedes the fact that she sort of does. They order a brownie each, and Alex takes a bite of hers before she remembers something.

"Oh my God," She laughs, drawing the blonde's attention. "Do you remember that time you fed me a brownie? Just so I would kiss you?" Alex can hardly talk through her laughter as Piper blushes wildly and lets out a squeak of protest.

"Stop it!" She elbows Alex playfully in the stomach before linking their fingers together. "You were worse, you licked my finger! I was just being a good host." The blonde insists, but she knows Alex is on to her.

"Right." Alex chuckles as the couple saunter on underneath the soft lights, surrounded by familiar Christmas songs and a general buzz about the place that brings a contended smile to both their faces.

"Technically, that brownie changed our lives." Piper says after a beat, staring up at Alex with wide cerulean irises. "I mean, you might have left without kissing me and that would have been that, you know?"

"I think you know I would have kissed you whether you fed me brownies or not, kid." Alex assures her girlfriend, allowing Piper to stop her in front of a stall stocked with hundreds of spices, half of which Alex has never heard of.

"You know what I mean." Piper rolls her eyes good naturedly before launching into a stream of wordy, intricate names of spices to the gentleman behind the stall as Alex stands by her side, left to her own devices for a moment. Briefly, the vision of a life where Piper remained nothing more than a colleague to Alex streaks through the brunette's mind vividly, and she makes a mental note to appreciate every damn brownie she ever eats again.

* * *

"Someone's had far too much mulled wine." Alex, much more well versed in hiding her own drunkenness, keeps a firm grip on Piper's hand as they try to keep their footing on icy pavements. A steady fall of snowflakes brushes their shoulders and paints New York a glorious white, the pureness of it broken up by spectacular lights casting radiance of green and red across Times' Square.

"And wine, and beer, and tequila." Piper adds with a slight slur, although she's in a better state than normal after going to a bar with her girlfriend. Tourists and city-dwellers alike remain utterly transfixed by the novelty of Christmas and the white blanket descending across New York, but Alex and Piper walk the opposite direction to the crowd, preferring to finish their night off at home.

"And that." Alex agrees, rubbing Piper's shoulder over her coat for warmth. Utterly content with their day so far and thrumming with expectation with what's to come when they're at home, Piper's mood is sky-high, as is Alex's.

"Today was so fucking great." The blonde sighs as the couple cross a street and escape from the yellowish light of a streetlamp and into more darkened company, cutting through a narrow alleyway with lights strung between the roofs above. "I love you, Alex." Piper says dreamily, looking up at Alex with her wide, innocent eyes the way that positively _ruins _the older girl. Alex, relieved to know Piper's at the _overly affectionate _stage of intoxication but quite dismayed she hasn't reached _exceptionally sexual_ yet, kisses the blonde softly on the forehead over the fabric of her bobble hat and hugs her closer as they walk.

"I love you too, kid." She replies as the couple disappear further, retreating from New York City's steady snowfall and slipping into the utterly enthralling experience of each other.

* * *

It is the Christmas morning to end all Christmas mornings. It involves a blonde, a brunette, a puppy and a proposal, amongst other things.

It starts like any other. The apartment is utterly silent, save for the even breaths of Alex Vause and her girlfriend, Piper Chapman. They stir almost simultaneously, Piper's back pressed against Alex's front as the stillness of the morning filters through a crack in the curtains. Alex groans the way she always does in the morning, hoarse and deliciously raspy in Piper's ear. She lays a kiss on the back of the blonde's neck before she turns and they look at each other sleepily, falling in love all over again.

"Merry Christmas." Alex smirks tiredly before their lips meet in a slow, lazy kiss to start the morning properly. Piper whispers it back after they break apart a millimetre. They slip out the same side of the bed, wiping away the remnants of sleep from their eyes as Alex ties her black robe around her body while Piper opts to stay in her flannel bottoms and long sleeve top. The blonde throws open the curtains, and gasps at the sight. A grey sky hangs overhead, but below it rests a city that sleeps; New York basks in the glow of snowfall, complete silence weaving through empty streets as the population takes a step back from its usual organised chaos to appreciate the peace, one snowflake at a time. It's the sort of vision that takes your breath away, and Piper would be content to admire it if her own vision wasn't leaning against the doorway clad in black silk.

"I hope you didn't get me a scarf this year." Piper murmurs as they amble downstairs into the living room. The younger girl makes coffee for them as Alex switches on the fire and lights on the tree they'd eventually gotten around to putting up. _No, not a scarf, _Alex thinks dryly.

_Just an engagement ring. No big deal. Oh, and a dog. _

Alex can be inconspicuous when she needs to, though, so Piper doesn't notice a thing as they sit down on the floor, Piper sitting with her back pressed against Alex's front and the brunette's legs either side of her. They exchange the usual gifts of chocolate, books, and Piper buys Alex this tremendous poster of her favourite Vinyl record covers on it for them to hang in their bedroom. Piper's much too absorbed in the way Alex is grinning at it like a fool to notice the fact that she hasn't gotten anything significant back yet.

"Okay, this is the last thing." Piper explains as she crawls around to the back of the tree and pulls out a sizeable box. She hands it to Alex, sitting upwards on her knees and watching expectantly as she tears the wrapping paper off.

"No." Alex gasps as the familiar logo of Giorgio Armani stares back at her. Immediately, she knows what it is, because she'd almost been reduced to tears, firstly over the beauty of it and secondly over the price of it in the store the day they'd gone shopping. "You didn't."

"Oh, but I did." Piper smiles winningly and cannot stifle her laugh at how childish Alex looks, her eyes wide and a disbelieving 'O' forming on her lips. Carefully, she pulls the lid off the box so slow as if she's afraid of damaging the item. The lid falls to her side and Alex cautiously brings her hands inside, taking the jacket by the lapels and holding it in front of her. The premium, black leather glints in the artificial firelight as the various zips sway with the slight tremor of Alex's hold. She shakes her head, before slowly tucking the leather jacket back into its box and beckoning Piper towards her with the crook of a finger. "Do you like it?" Piper asks, though she knows the answer.

"Hmm, I love it." Alex kisses her hard for the first time that morning with her hands either side of Piper's face, smiling against her lips. The blonde kisses her back with as much fervour as was provided, and momentarily Alex forgets that she's meant to be proposing. "Okay, let me go get your present." She mutters, leaving Piper to fester in her own thoughts as Alex disappears somewhere off into the apartment. The brunette bursts into the airy storeroom, the light momentarily blinding her as she searches for the object of her desires. In the corner, a small Pomeranian dog lies fast asleep on a bed, already well trained. Alex had hunted through just about every borough in New York for a seller after Piper had spent an entire forty eight hours rambling on about _Boo the Dog_ and how goddamn cute he was. So, naturally, Alex had bought the blonde her own. The small matter of a wedding ring sits on the shelf beside the dog, and Alex puts it in her pocket before scooping up the puppy and stealing back out into the main room. Piper is looking through her initial presents, so Alex sets the now very much awake dog down and points at her girlfriend.

"Go get her, boy." She whispers. It doesn't exactly bolt, but it sort of jogs over to the blonde and looks at her curiously.

"Oh, what the fuck?" Piper squeals, staring back at the animal. "You didn't." She directs towards Alex, not knowing where to look.

"Oh, but I did." Alex repeats Piper's words as the dog inches towards the perplexed blonde. Suddenly, Piper comes to realise that Alex has literally bought her a puppy for Christmas, and she breaks out into the widest smile the brunette has ever witnessed as she gathers the thing in her arms and scrunches up his face.

"Look at his little face!" Piper exclaims through a laugh, running her fingers through the incredibly soft coat of fur as the dog unceremoniously licks her cheek.

"Hey, man, that is _my_ girlfriend." Alex chastises the puppy as she ruffles its fur a little. The brunette allows Piper to have her fun with the dog as she herself tries to calm her nerves. "Hey, uh, there's something else, up there." Alex nods her head to the top of the tree, at a red envelope Piper hadn't noticed before.

"Weirdo." Piper shakes her head in mock disdain. Alex explodes into action while Piper's back is turned, directing the dog to the strategically placed bowl of food in the kitchen. It scarpers off, thankfully, and Alex just has time to get down on one knee as Piper reads the note.

_Read this really slowly, okay? And after maybe five seconds, turn around, and look down. _And then, just in the corner of the small page, _Oh, and please say yes. Al x._

"Say yes to-" Piper starts as she turns around, but her question is answered by the fact Alex Vause is crouched in front of her with one knee on the ground and a small box resting by her side.

"Hi." Alex smiles shyly up at her, taking the blonde's limp right hand in two of her own. "You didn't think I was just going to get you a dog for Christmas, right?" She asks, but Piper's much too overwhelmed to reply.

Alex clears her throat and flicks her hair back as she scrambles to remember her lines. "So, Piper Chapman, what a ride it's been. A couple of months ago, you stood in that bedroom, just up there," Alex nods her head to the right. "And you asked me what you did to deserve this, as in your life and me and all the rest of it. Piper, to be honest I could sit here for hours and list all the things I love about you in the hope that you'd understand that you deserve the world and more. But, since I can't literally promise you the world, I can promise you this." Alex smiles shyly and shifts her knee slightly as Piper chokes back a sob.

"I can promise to love you for the rest of my life, and I will stand by you through the worst of times. Even when you're drunk or upset or feel like you never want to speak to anyone again, I'll love you through all of it. You're all I've ever wanted and come what may, I am prepared to fight for what we have until the day I die. I know what it feels like to lose you Piper, and it's not a pain I would wish on my worst enemy. So yes, I might drive you to an early death, but I care enough to fight for what we have and I refuse to ever let you go again." A pause. Alex takes a steadying breath. "I love you, Piper Chapman, and I'd go to the ends of the fucking Earth for you, if that's what you want. I want- I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I swear to God I'll love you however you want to be loved. But I can't live without you, Piper, because God knows I've tried." Tears flow freely down Piper's face as Alex moves to pick up the ring. The puppy pads back over and nudges into Alex's side. It looks up at Piper with wide eyes, and Alex's expression matches it identically.

"So, what do you say?" Alex raises an eyebrow and smiles rather shyly. "Will you marry me?"

Piper is _speechless. _Nothing in her head makes sense; she does not deserve to be one of those people who marries their first love, who marries the only person they've ever longed for. Surely, for all her past mistakes and glaring faults, she is not worthy of a love like this. There is a fucking _dog_ by Alex's side, for Christ sake, looking up with puppy eyes that aren't half as adorable as the brunette's.

But for once in her life, Piper stops asking why. She stops asking why Alex would ever propose to someone like her and she stops asking why there's a puppy by her side because there _is, _and Piper's never felt as happy in her life. For once, Piper just accepts.

"Yes." She gasps after a long moment has elapsed, feeling like a lifetime for Alex. "Oh God, yes, I'll marry you." Piper half-chokes, wiping at her eyes with her free hand as Alex slips her ring on before gathering her up in a strong, warm hug.

"Jesus, kid, you scared me for a second there." Alex breathes, relief laced throughout her voice. Piper laughs through her tears as they collapse back onto the sofa, the blonde in her lap as their lips meet messily through a haze of almost sickening happiness.

"I love you." Piper repeats it until the words begin to sound strange to them, but she'll never ever get tired of saying it. She kisses Alex's forehead, her nose, lips, neck, anywhere she can reach as a colossal euphoria swathes around them and the novelty of Christmas is long, long forgotten.

"Do you like the ring? Because if not-"

"Yes." Piper interrupts Alex with another kiss. "Oh God, I love it!" She exclaims gleefully as she admires it behind Alex's head, small sapphires glinting in the light overhead. Guests are due in a few hours time, and Piper will take no prisoners as she shows off the girl on her arm and the ring on her finger to Nicky, Lorna, Alex's mom and whoever else might arrive. The puppy hops onto the sofa beside them, squeezing itself onto Alex's lap so that Piper is relegated to her fiancé's side. She curls up underneath Alex's arm, listening to the familiar beat of her heart that sounds like home as the brunette combs her fingers slowly through Piper's hair. Alex's silk robe and grey, tattered Ramones t-shirt absolutely exudes the scent of safety, and Piper decides that _yes, _everyone deserves a home like this.

"Hey, Holden, come here, buddy." Piper coos, beckoning their new puppy towards her.

"No." Alex almost jolts at the name. "Seriously, Pipes?" She raises a quizzical eyebrow at the name, taken straight from the pages of Piper's favourite book, _Catcher in the Rye._

"Aw, c'mon." Piper holds the animal's face beside her own and juts out her bottom lip, the picture of feigned innocence. "Doesn't he just look like a Holden?"

"No."

"Please?"

Alex sighs, giving into Piper's innate ability to be cuter than a puppy (literally), and shrugs a defeat as she kisses the blonde's forehead, linking their fingers together as she glances down at her mother's engagement ring on Piper's slender fourth finger of her left hand. "You're crazy." She says jokingly.

"But you love me for it." Piper tells her. The entire world fades to background, replaced by the calm, softly smiling face of Alex Vause that stares back at her. And they're happy; they know that wherever one goes, the other will follow. They will _always_ have each other. Their love is chaotic and intense and borderline dangerous, but it never disappears, it never runs out.

"Yeah." Alex replies, hugging her closer. "You're damn right I do."

It's easy, really, the way they love each other. And yet anyone would know, even by the way they look at each other, that no one has ever loved the way Piper and Alex love. It is simply _effortless._

* * *

A/N: That's all from me folks. I'll maybe post a longer author's note in a few days, but for now let me thank every single last one of you for sticking with this story. This is without question my last fanfic for the forseeable future due to my busy schedule. Please, leave a review even if it's only a few words and have a fantastic Christmas (if you celebrate it, of course.) Love you all!


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