"Shit."

"What?" Silence. "Alex?" Piper snapped her fingers in front of her eyes.

"You're so pretty." She answered, swatting her hand away. All Piper did was laugh.

"You're drunk."

"I don't get drunk."

"Yes you do." She said, placing a kiss on her nose. The corners of Alex's lips tugged up in spite of her annoyed look and she hid it by taking a sip of her glass.

They were sprawled on the couch of Alex's apartment, two empty bottles of champagne on the coffee table and the remains of their dinner still in the living room. The lights dimmed, there was soft music playing in the living room, one of Alex's favorite and she was tapping her feet at the rhythm, Piper smiling to herself looking at her. Alex had managed to drink a bottle and a half of champagne and so many beers that she had lost count. She was smiling goofily very much un-like Alex and her eyes dazed but focused on Piper's face. They were idly watching each other, their heads resting on their hands with their elbows on the headrest of the couch, both their cheeks flushed from their drunken bliss.

"So I can't say you're pretty without being drunk?"

"You can." She conceded, smiling. "I'd just never heard you before."

"I've called you pretty." She protested and Piper laughed softly. She was slightly dizzy herself, a pleasant buzz in her head.

"You've called me hot. Not the same as pretty." She mused, her free hand running mindlessly down her calf, Alex's eyes trailing after it with a smirk.

"You are hot."

But instead of following the thread of the conversation, Piper lazily drawled, "You're cute when you're drunk."

Alex chuckled, leaned away, reaching for her glass and finishing it before letting it drop carelessly on the carpet and resting her head completely on the headrest.

"I don't think anyone's ever used that word to describe me in the history of the universe."

Piper laughed again, her shoulders shaking and Alex smiled.

"You have a pretty smile."

Piper snuggled closer, holding her knees against her chest with her free arm and said, "How so?" with that shameless toothy grin that had Alex's heart taking a leap every time.

She bit the inside of her cheek, attempting to hide her embarrassment because she had started this and she wasn't really fond of these sappy conversations where she always ran the risk of saying too much—because god, sometimes she thought she liked too many things about Piper Chapman and only the thought of saying them aloud made her feel slightly dizzy and out of control. She successfully suppressed the nervous smile threatening to show and instead she craned her neck back a bit, as if the radiance in Piper's smile could be professionally assessed; and in her hazed brain she began running over the words she wanted to say and mentally cross the ones that were too forward and so clearly something else. And when she spoke, she did so in a defiant manner, like Piper was forcing her to say things and she was challenging her to contradict her.

"Well, it's just pretty." She said first, like shrugging it off. "Your whole face lights up and you just… have a spark. And it makes your face look wide open and … you look…" Alex swallowed; glanced around the room like making sure no one else was listening to this out of some wild and paranoid self-consciousness. "You just glow." Piper's smile faded a bit and instead took residence in her eyes this slightly surprised reverence that had Alex squirming in her seat before chinning up like she wasn't at all nervous about what Piper would say after her words.

But instead of milling on the subject, Piper shook her head slightly, releasing Alex from her stare, and ducked her head for a second and when she looked back up there was this 100 watt smile on her face that had Alex rethinking her words because they definitely hadn't even grazed what this right in front of her was. It had Alex thinking of the sun until Piper dropped her next inquiry loosely.

"So, what else?" It was shameless again but also flirty and now this was something Alex felt comfortable with.

Her smile turned into a grin as she wiggled in her seat closer to Piper and she raised her hand to softly brush her thumb along Piper's cheek, before pressing her index finger to the tip of her nose. Her insides seemed to melt when Piper scrunched up her nose, smiling with her whole face. Alex's favorite.

"You have a pretty nose." She let her finger glide up her nose— "I like the arch." She mused lowly and Piper bit her bottom lip, holding back a giggle. Alex gave her a sideways smirk before letting her finger fall to the side until her thumb followed and brushed her cheekbones, "and pretty eyes, and." She trailed her eyes down as slowly as her fingers and her voice was a tone lower, the slur in her words becoming more apparent when she said, "Pretty lips."

"Yeah?" Piper asked in a low tone, her eyes trained on Alex's own lips and leaning in the slightest bit.

"Yeah." She answered sharply, raising her eyebrows in that challenging manner that always made Piper purse her lips in restrained fondness, and Alex leaned in as well but right in the last second Piper pulled back, and grabbed her glass from the table, taking a long sip.

"Thanks. That's nice."

Alex threw her head back and laughed, staying there staring at the ceiling. She hummed to herself and drummed her fingers against her thighs, her mind inevitably wandering away, even slightly dozing off until Piper's almost inaudible voice brought her back to the present.

"You're beautiful too." Alex glanced at her and her heart dropped because Piper looked a little too lovely with her cheeks flushed and her wavy hair framing her face and a few strands crossing her face down because her head was tilted and she was looking at Alex with something too big for her head to process right at this moment so she said the first thing she could think of to alleviate the air. Too much meaning could lead into too many things.

"I said you were pretty, not beautiful." She mumbled slightly incoherent with a quirk of her eyebrows and a teasing smirk but Piper didn't take the cop out, instead rolling her eyes and saying, "well, I think you're beautiful," before leaning forward and pulling Alex in with her hand on the back of her neck. Once she was comfortably close, Piper threaded her fingers through her hair, and ran them down her scalp. She was kissing her sheepishly, like she wasn't very sure what to do even though they'd done this a fair enough amount of times. There was just something about tonight. There was definitely something about the fluttering in their stomachs. They were kissing sloppily, slow and warm, bumping noses and shy tongues and fumbling hands attempting to reach every unattended stretch of skin like there wasn't enough time or patience to care about the clumsiness of it all.

Except when Alex tugged at her waist, Piper barely moved an inch before tugging right back at Alex.

"Come here." Mumbled Alex, in between kisses.

"You come."

"No. You."

"I'm comfortable."

"Me too."

And suddenly they were laughing, foreheads pressed together until Piper slid down, burying her face in Alex's neck and Alex let her head fall on the headrest with a sigh and slurred words.

"Fuck. I'm exhausted."

"Too much food, Al."

"And booze."

Piper hummed her agreement and snuggled closer to Alex who snaked an arm around her shoulders and gathered her hair away from her face.

"We should go to bed." Mused Piper, nuzzling her nose against Alex's neck and she hummed for a second, deliberating before answering.

"Can't. Move." She decided and Piper laughed, making Alex's whole body resonate and she was starting to doze off again, what with Piper's warmth against her own and the way her laugh let lose lovely things inside her chest and the buzz still reigning in her head and then Piper was pushing her forward, Alex falling on her back and groaning at first but then stretching her long legs, tangled with Piper's, with a satisfied hum. "Good idea." She mumbled and she could feel Piper's lips on her neck.

"Good night, Al." And suddenly it felt very important and very not harmful that Piper knew something pretty—like her, intruded the thought— because Alex wasn't sure she could communicate that with just herself like Piper did.

"I think your smile is just lovely, Pipes." She whispered so low she wasn't sure she'd even said it aloud but then Piper whispered, just as low.

"You do?" And the question was in a way so painfully earnest that it made Alex think it was not the time to hold back.

"I do."

Alex fell asleep with the ghost of Piper's smile on her neck.