It was morning at Litchfield and Alex, Piper, Nicky and Lorna were gathered at a table for the breakfast routine. As usual, Lorna was going on about how she and Christopher were taking a break; how they still loved each other but found the separation too hard to handle. It was the same story she'd told them for the past week, and Nicky looked hard-pressed for a tip from Yoga Jones on how to find your inner strength.

Alex and Piper had been steady for almost 7 months, which in itself was quite the miracle considering the limits of prison compared to their previous stint – the laundry room just didn't really cut it as a romantic getaway in comparison to Paris. And then there was their history of mutual betrayal. Alex had been pissed when she got back to Litchfield after having been released on a plea bargain. Piper didn't deny giving her up, and they didn't talk for a while. But as it always seemed to happen, at some point the hate did a 180 and Alex couldn't fight the love she had for the blonde.

"I don't think we'll ever be able to move on from each other," Piper had said in the chapel after they'd made up. Alex agreed.

They were now holding hands under the breakfast table, and Alex was drawing circles with her thumb in Piper's palm. It had become part of their morning routine when the guards for a period had been particularly strict with the small signs of affection like hand-holding and hugs. Healy feared they worked like a gateway drug and turned people into fully fledged lesbians. After a while, Healy had become obsessed with other things – like Boo and Pennsatucky's unlikely friendship - but Alex and Piper still held each other's hand under the table every morning.

Lorna finished her story, and Nicky offered her a faux applause. She had been in a bad mood all morning but Lorna wouldn't be baited by her mockery.

"Still not over me, Nichols?"

"Don't you have a van to get to?"

"I do, actually." She turned her attention to Alex and Piper. "There is a new batch of inmates coming in today."

"Better be a hot one among them," Nicky said as Lorna left. She stabbed her egg with precision, but kept it on the plate.

"Why are you being such a dick today?" Alex asked.

Nicky looked from Alex to Piper and back.

"Nothing ever changes around here," she finally said. "Morello's illusional as always, Red's off doing her thing – greenhouse, contraband, whatever – and you two lovebirds are like an old married couple."

Piper let out a snort. "We are not like an old married couple."

"You have sex on a schedule."

"It's a prison!"

"You're holding hands – only teenagers and old people hold hands."

"Guess all your girlfriends have missed out on the romance," Alex said.

Piper jumped to her feet. "Shit! I have a meeting with Healy." She let go of Alex's hand but managed to sneak a quick peck on her cheek without the guards noticing. "I left my banana bread for you."

"I rest my case!" Nicky yelled as Piper ran off then she said to Alex: "You gals are unbelievable."

"Come on, Nichols. What's your problem?"

Nicky seemed to actually think about the answer.

"Nothing's happened at this shithole for ages. It seems like time's standing still."

"Time's moving in here? Fuck, I hadn't noticed."

"You know what I mean," Nicky said. "First there was drama with you and Chapman, then drama with Red and Gloria over the kitchen, Pornstache was a pain in the ass but he was entertaining, there was the hilarious long con with Pennsatucky, Piper's Christmas meltdown, your extradition, your return to prison and the ensuing drama with you and Piper." She looked thoughtful. "Actually, why is there no more drama between you and Piper? It was like living in a soap opera."

Alex put her glasses on top of her head then reached over for Piper's banana bread.

"We're done with all that shit," she said.

Nicky raised an eyebrow. "Yeah right, and Red's done with cooking."

Alex gave a non-committal shrug. Red appeared to enjoy her time in the green house, especially after her truce with Gloria. Now that Nicky mentioned it, the prison had been fairly quiet recently. Daya was getting big, Caputo was doing a better job than Fig ever had and the Ghetto was as cozy as ever – apparently they had seen all the drama they could handle back when Vee was in charge. Alex and Piper were at a place in their relationship where everything had been thrown at them – love triangles, betrayal, lies - but they had come out stronger.

"Entertainment…" Alex mused as she ate the last piece of banana bread. "Why don't you and Boo have a competition?"

Nicky perked up almost immediately.

"You're a genius, Vause."

"Tell that to my old grade book." She put her glasses back on and got up. "I have some dirty laundry to air, unfortunately not in the metaphorical sense."

Nicky watched Alex as she walked away, silently agreeing with her that it was unfortunate that there would be no metaphorical airing of dirty laundry. That would have been first class entertainment. An idea suddenly formed in Nicky's mind. Not a competition with Boo, a bet.

Nicky and Piper were on their way from the repair shop to lunch when they passed the row of new inmates being introduced to Litchfield by Morello.

"Holy shit," Nicky exclaimed, slowing down to look them over.

There were four of them, two of which were Sevens on Nicky's scale. Another one was a Two and the last one was a Five. A decent haul.

"Look at that, Chapman. Not bad, huh?"

Piper didn't answer. Truth be told, she had never known a woman as sexy as Alex. It was incredible how she seemed to always exude sex – it was in her voice, her laugh, the way she moved her body. Just thinking of Alex made her lower parts tighten.

But Nicky didn't give up that easily.

"I know you're with Vause. But let's say she didn't exist, who would be your type?"

Piper shrugged. "I never really thought of that."

"Then it's about time. You can't be a real lesbian if you only jerk off to one woman."

Her crude comment would undoubtedly have shocked Piper six months ago, but even small pleasures like that had been taken from Nicky. Piper had gotten immune.

Piper looked at the four women and tried to suppress an image of Alex strolling around in their old apartment wearing nothing but an oversized dress shirt.

"I guess the blonde is pretty decent," she finally said.

"Decent? She's sex on a pair of long, slim legs. Shit, I think she just got upgraded to an Eight."

"Eight?"

"Eight of ten," Nicky explained. "You got good taste, Chapman."

Oddly enough, Piper was touched by the compliment.

It was a little to five and Alex was finishing up the last laundry for the day. As she folded the brown shirts in a neat pile, her mind drifted off – as it often did – this time to the feeling of Piper's small breasts in her hands. Their sex life had waned a little in the past couple of weeks but Alex planned to take her really hard in the broom closet after dinner.

"Problems with your dryer?" She heard a voice and for a split second her imagination went wild. Hell, she could fuck Piper right there on the laundry pile.

When she saw Nichols make her way towards her, the lust faded to a weak simmer. Even if she wanted to, she could never really get the feel of Piper's skin against hers out of her mind.

"No," Alex said. "All the girls are working fine."

"Oh, someone must have misunderstood something," Nicky said. She leaned against one of the empty washing machines and twisted a wrench in her right hand.

"Less of a dick?" Alex asked.

Nicky let out a raspy laugh. "I'm always a dick, Vause. I just don't flash it in public too often."

"I'm not really into that anyway," Alex smirked.

Nicky sobered up. "Did you always know? Like back in the days did you fantasize about Jennifer Aniston when all your girlfriends wanted to marry Brad Pitt?"

"I was more of an Angelina Jolie kind of girl," Alex said with a suggestive lift of her eyebrow.

"Piper doesn't look much the part."

"My girlfriend before Piper was more of the like. It just wasn't quite right."

Nicky put the wrench back in her tool belt.

"Piper knows your ex?"

Alex laughed. "If you only knew." But she didn't elaborate, and Nicky didn't dig any further.

Alex and Piper didn't meet before dinner like they usually did. Piper had been held up on her way to the Suburbs after work by Boo, who seemed desperate to have her bedside lamp fixed as soon as possible.

"I didn't even know you read at night," Piper had said but she followed along anyway. They went down past the bathrooms. "Don't you live in the Suburbs?"

"I was on my way to the repair shop with the lamp when I realized I could just catch you on the way," Boo had explained. "But I left the lamp in the B-corridor."

Piper found it odd that Boo would leave a lamp in the B-corridor, but she thought no further of it.

Turned out the lamp worked fine after Piper screwed the bulb in a bit tighter, but the delay meant Alex had already gone down for dinner. The Suburbs were mostly empty when they checked in and Boo dropped off her lamp.

"I overheard your conversation this morning," Boo said as they made their way towards the cafeteria. "Sex on a schedule?"

"We're in a prison," Piper repeated.

If she was being honest with herself, sex had become a bit monotonous lately. It was hard to be creative when the nearest XXX shop might as well have been on the moon and the geography only stretched from corridor A to C. She had been used to Alex taking her all over the world. Sex on a beach in Bali, sex in an elevator in Tokyo, sex wherever and whenever they were consumed by lust. Now they had to make sure Healy wasn't around, Bennett was on guard duty, and they wouldn't be disturbed by people of belief in the chapel, smelly people in the showers, or cleaners in the broom closet. There were so many things to consider, it took a bit of planning beforehand. Not very sexy. That's when Piper realized she hadn't been with Alex as much as they used to lately.

"At least we get some," she concluded out loud.

Boo's silence said it all.

Alex sat at the table and stared at her untouched dinner. Nicky sat opposite her, shoveling in both mashed potato and sliced meat.

"What if she doesn't get here in time?" Nicky asked after swallowing. "Then you'll miss dinner."

Alex leaned forward on the table, head close to Nicky's.

"I'll just eat her," she whispered in a husky voice.

"Can I come if I promise to bring dessert?" Nicky joked.

Alex went back to looking at her food. The mashed potato looked extra good today.

"Hey, can I sit here?" A voice inquired. Alex looked up at the girl it belonged to. No more than 25, black hair, big brown eyes like that of a baby doe. The rest of her was much less a baby doe and much more a bikini model. The orange jumpsuit actually complimented her sun-tanned skin nicely.

Alex's first instinct was to look at Nicky for a reaction but her friend seemed unnaturally engrossed in her dinner.

"Sure," Alex then said and scooted to the right.

Nicky, probably choking on her food, let out a loud cough. She still hadn't cast a single glance at the beauty on the other side of the table.

"I'm Melanie," the girl said as she sat down next to Alex. "Love your tats."

She ran a finger down Alex's bicep slowly, tracing the lines of her rose tattoo. Alex raised her eyebrows in surprise but accepted the compliment.

"Thanks."

She had barely uttered the words before she felt a pair of lips brush against her ear.

"I will fuck you senseless," Piper whispered and tugged at her arm.

"Now?" Alex said incredulously, but the look Piper gave her spoke volumes.

Alex jumped up, grabbed a piece of sliced meat to charge up on and followed Piper out of the cafeteria.

Nicky's eyes were glued to them both until they disappeared from sight. When she turned her attention back to her table, she found herself face to face with a smug-looking Boo.

"You owe me two Snickers, Nichols."

"Damn," Nicky said. "I really didn't think Chapman had it in her."

"She's a fighter," Boo said. "Now where did that young piece of ass go?"

Normally, Nicky would have gone straight for the new girl's panties before she had time to say 'orientation', but she and Boo's bet had called for the help of a sexy new prisoner, and Mel had been more than willing to put on an act for extra supplies.

"Wait a second," Nicky said with a grin. "Double or nothing?"

The next morning, Nicky was in the bathroom brushing her teeth when she felt a presence behind her. She looked up in the mirror.

"What's up, Vause?" She said through the toothpaste.

"I know what you did," Alex said. "You set me up to make Piper jealous. A girl who looks like a younger, much hotter version of my ex suddenly drops down from nowhere just as Piper walks in. Come on, Nichols, that's dirty."

Nicky threw her hands in the air, toothbrush dangling from her mouth like a cigarette.

"Fine, I'm a dick. Don't tell me you didn't enjoy the ravaging sex that followed?"

Alex looked around the bathroom and was satisfied that no one else was there.

"Holy shit," she whispered. "I don't kiss and tell but I think I came closer to God than I ever have in a chapel."

"Maybe you can pay Boo the two snickers then," Nicky said.

Alex narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"A bet?"

"Whether or not Piper would act on her jealousy."

Alex laughed. "You didn't think she'd do anything?"

Nicky didn't have to answer.

"I've actually never seen Piper jealous before," Alex admitted. The thing was, Alex had never thought about being with someone else when she dated Piper. The need had never been there.

"I would have guessed her flavor was of the more passive aggressive kind though," Alex said. "This was a pleasant surprise."

Her last words seemed to wake up Nicky. She took out her tooth brush, rinsed her mouth with water and turned to face Alex.

"We did have another round planned already… You know, to see whether Piper would be baited again. The problem was Boo and I both agreed that she would. So we bet on the time instead. Based on her swift reaction yesterday, I only gave her 30 seconds."

Alex knew what Nicky was hinting at.

"What do I get?" She asked.

"Besides meeting your creator? Two Snickers."

Piper was heading down to the TV room for a game of cards with Alex. She had been woken up with a peck on her cheek but before she had time to fight the pull of sleep, Alex was gone. Instead a small note had been placed on her desk that read 'meet me for a game of cards'.

"Christopher always left me small messages before he went to work," Lorna had said while Piper put on some clothes. "It's very romantic, you know."

Piper knew Alex was a romantic at heart. When they first started dating, she had invited Piper to fancy restaurants, bought her sexy cocktail dresses and showered her with jewelry. Thinking back, most of it was probably paid with drug money, but then again, in your twenties who cares? Still, Piper wondered whether there was a reason behind Alex's romantic gesture this morning. Maybe she was sorry Piper got jealous the day before.

Piper hadn't even made it to the rec room when she heard Alex's laugh. She expected to find Alex at a table with Nicky, Lorna, Yoga Jones, or even Boo. What she didn't expect was to find Alex in front of Mel the Skank with her hand on the young inmate's tan stomach. Worse was it that Mel looked like she enjoyed Alex's touch. Piper froze in the doorway as her body was hit by waves of anger. That bitch better watch it. And why the fuck did Alex have her hand halfway down the girl's pants? Didn't Piper just make her come three times yesterday?

"I'm sorry," Piper said through gritted teeth. "Am I interrupting something?"

Alex looked up with a cheerful smile as if she was oblivious to the compromising situation. She kept her hand on Mel's stomach.

"Babe," she said. "Mel was showing me where she wants her next tattoo."

Her finger slid down right below the belly button. Piper's eyes followed the movement, feeling her pulse pick up the further south it went. Then something clicked. Even though Piper had been the other woman when she first met Alex, she had never worried during their relationship. There hadn't been a single time she'd felt jealous, not a single time Alex had given her reason to. Now it was twice in two days. Something was up.

Piper decided to go along with it for now. She strolled over to Alex, taking no notice of the other girl. She grabbed Alex's finger from Mel's stomach and placed it on her lips, kissing it softly.

"I think we can find better use for that," she said in a low voice.

Alex arched an eyebrow. The lust in her eyes made Piper forget she should be angry. She felt her nipples harden as they went for the exit.

Nicky and Boo, who had been hiding away in a corner, were staring intently at the clock on the wall.

"We have a winner!" Nicky exclaimed the moment Alex and Piper were out of sight. "27 seconds!"

Nicky was sitting cross-legged on her bed counting her four Snickers for the third time. She felt Boo's eyes stare a hole in her from across the room. What Boo didn't know was that two of them were actually Alex's. Nicky found it a bit unfair that Alex had turned out to be the biggest winner of their little game, getting both candy and sex just by running her finger over a Seven. At least the bet had taken Nicky's mind off the utter boredom that was always lurching in the background when you were in prison.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something blonde emerge from the hall.

"Shit," she mumbled and quickly shoved the chocolate under her pillow. If Piper had found out, she didn't imagine this was a congratulatory visit. Piper went straight for Nicky's stall, eyes shining with the same determination they had displayed when she grabbed Alex in the caf. Nicky heard Boo let out a malicious laugh.

"Piper, long time no see," Nicky said lightly as Piper stopped in front of her bed. On some level, Chapman intimidated her a little. There had been a distinct change in her after she was attacked by Pennsatucky and then moved to max in Chicago. She didn't take any bullshit from anyone anymore, except maybe Vause.

Piper sat down next to her but said nothing. She folded her hands in her lap and took a deep breath. Nicky cast a nervous glance at her.

"Okay, let me just apologize-" Nicky started but Piper interrupted her mid-sentence. "I'm being played."

They looked at each other.

"Apologize?" Piper asked.

Nicky shook her head. Her wheels were spinner faster than a racecar's. Piper didn't seem to know.

"No, you go first," she said.

Piper leaned in and lowered her voice. "I think Alex is making me jealous on purpose."

"Really?" Nicky feigned surprise.

"I'm not sure why," Piper said. "But it calls for a payback."

A grin was threatening to ruin Nicky's act. She fought hard against it, trying to keep a serious face. She was very much digging this turn of event.

"Payback?" She finally asked in a low voice.

Piper flashed a mischievous smile. "I'm gonna make her jealous, too."

Nicky thought about it. Vause would never fall for that. A jokester would never bend down to pick up a dollar after having played the same trick on someone earlier.

"I already asked Lindsey for help," Piper said. "She's the Eight we talked about yesterday, remember? She was a bit hesitant but I convinced her it was in her interest to help me out. "

Nicky barely heard her. It was all coming together so beautifully, she wondered if some higher power had taken pity on her for once.

"You can't do it," she baited Piper.

The blonde let out a snort. "Of course I can."

"Wanna bet?"

Piper jumped on it without a second thought. Her eagerness would probably have worried Nicky any other day but she didn't see Vause being that stupid.

"How much?"

Nicky saw her chance to double her earnings.

"Two Snickers."

"Deal," Piper said. "But you can't tell Alex."

"And no inappropriate touching between you and Eight," Nicky added. "And no kissing." Anyone would be jealous if their special someone was making out with someone else.

When Piper left, Nicky pulled out the four Snickers just to get a feel of how it felt to own that much chocolate.

Alex came out of the shower. Her body was well-spent after another surprisingly wild ride, this time in the laundry room. Piper really had some tricks up her sleeve they needed to make some more use of. It hadn't been this exciting since Piper's silent orgasm at breakfast a couple of months ago.

In spite of this, Alex knew she had to come clean. It had been fun while it lasted but she couldn't play with Piper's feelings like this. And Nichols had no right to be a dick for a while now.

She went over the apology in her head as she headed to the Suburbs.

Someone was playing music.

"The fuck?" Alex muttered as she came to a stop in the middle of the entrance.

Several inmates had formed a circle around something or someone and were cheering and clapping. Alex came closer, unsure what to expect. She had a strong feeling something was up. Bennett was on guard duty and seemed more engrossed in the pregnant Daya than in shutting down the illegal party.

As Alex came closer, the circle seemed to shift a little and the hole that emerged gave her direct view to the people inside. Piper was one of them.

"You gotta be fucking kidding me," Alex said with an incredulous smile as she watched her girlfriend's hip move from side to side in a sexy 8-shape in the middle of the circle. Piper wasn't looking at anything in particular and her arms were raised above her head as she followed the rhythm of the music. She wasn't the only one dancing but Alex saw nothing but her. She watched the length of Piper's body, pausing at her breasts and her cute little nose. She wanted to run her hands over the blonde's stomach, touch the skin under the waistband of her pants.

Alex was on her way to join Piper in the circle when another girl beat her to it. She had long blonde hair, full lips and a pair of legs that could match most models'. Alex stopped in her track and watched as the new inmate came up from behind and fell into the same rhythm as Piper.

Alex Vause knew when she was being played. It takes one to know one - she was a master manipulator herself - and she had been played several times in the past. Mules are surprisingly good liars and often have more than one explanation as to how the money balance suddenly came to be at a ten grand deficit. Alex was well-versed in the world of deceit and games, she even thrived in it. She had no doubt Piper had set her up, and Alex admired her attempt to get back at her, even if it wouldn't work. Not anymore.

The young inmate moved in closer, and her slender fingers curled around Piper's hips. Piper met the tall blonde halfway - she backed up to align her body against the other inmate's. Piper closed her eyes and quickly found the rhythm. The two of them danced as one, the lengths of their bodies pressed against each other. Alex's heart picked up pace and her hands turned to knuckles as she tried to suppress the primal feeling that was shoving its way through her logic.

"Fuck," she said as she felt her mind succumb to the jealousy.

As if on cue right when Alex was most helpless, Piper opened her eyes and their gazes met. It was a silent invitation. Alex felt the lust instantly, and it was a potent mix with the jealousy. Her instincts took over. She made her way through the crowd, passing Nichols on the way. The frizzy-haired woman looked at her as if Alex had grown a third limb.

The young inmate barely had time to register what was going on. One moment she was dancing with the blonde, the next she was pushed aside by a black-haired woman who instantly claimed her spot without looking at her twice. Her body language spoke volumes, though. The blonde was hers.

Piper felt Alex behind her. A pair of hands reached around her stomach and pulled her closer.

"That's not fair, Pipes," came a deep voice next to her ear.

Piper smiled victoriously.

"It took a lot less than I remembered," she said. "You're the worst."

"I really thought I was past that," Alex said thoughtfully. She rested her head against Piper's.

"I knew you weren't."

Alex laughed. "At least no one got hurt this time."

"You were drunk," Piper said. "And the guy was an asshole."

She traced Alex's arms with her fingers, and the touch made Alex sigh. They swayed along to the music.

"I think it's hot when you go all territorial on me," Piper said after a while.

"Yeah?"

The blonde turned around. Alex looked at her through black rimmed glasses, hands resting on Piper's lower back. There was nothing more Piper wanted than to stretch up and kiss her, run her fingertips over the soft skin on the side of her face, but prison didn't care if you were in love.

"You're staking out what's yours."

Alex leaned forward. Her lips were warm and soft against Piper's and tasted like danger and excitement. She had never followed the rules.

"Mine," Alex said when they pulled apart.

"Always."

It was another morning at Litchfield, and Piper and Alex were late for breakfast. Nicky scowled at them from the usual table as they made their way through the cafeteria.

"Shit, I think someone's back to being a dick," Alex said with a grin. They knew exactly what had brought this on.

She and Piper sat down, and Piper's hand snaked up on Alex's thigh under the table. They shared a knowing look. It had been a good week despite the jealousy and mind games – or because of. Alex's body was still sore from being used in ways it hadn't been since the mechanical bull riding incident in Mexico.

Nicky wasn't in the mood for their lustful stares.

"You paid them off!" It was framed as a statement but Alex noticed the disbelief in Nicky's voice.

"You wanted things to change around here," Piper said with a straight face.

She had always been a good liar, even if there was one person she rarely fooled. Alex laced her fingers with Piper's hand, at the same time stopping it in its quest to move further up her thigh. It was distracting her from the joy of watching Nichols suffer under their payback.

"Not sexually. You can't pay off my future sex partners not to sleep with me," Nicky said, running a hand through her massive hair. "I need Eight in my life… or, you know, on her back moaning as I lick her pussy."

"Well, apparently both she and Seven would rather eat Snickers than be eaten," Alex noted with a smirk.

Nicky shook her head. "Not even Snickers are that orgasmic."

Piper failed to suppress a laugh. After she and Alex had paid off Melanie and Lindsey not to sleep with Nicky and Boo within the foreseeable future, there were two Snickers left. Safe to say they proved to be quite orgasmic if used right - and delicious, too.

"Do you doubt my cunnilingus skills, Chapman?"

"I think Seven and Eight were easily bought," Piper said plainly. "Not sure you made the best of impressions."

As it also turned out, Boo had already made an attempt on Lindsey - a frank and obnoxious one - which might have hurt Nichols' case as well. The girls had teamed up as they both felt "exploited". Alex had been a great listener and humored them as they complained. The two girls had been convinced it was in their best interest to stay away from both Nichols and Boo for a while.

"It might be a couple of weeks," Alex said.

Nicky leaned forward on the table, face inches from Alex's and Piper's. She was smiling and there was a glint in her eyes.

"Is that a bet?"

The end.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, so feel free to leave a comment.