A/N: This is my first foray into the OITNB fandom; I know the plot isn't exactly original but any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
"Let's sit." Alex motioned away from the bar with a tilt of her head. After a brief pause, Piper grabbed her drink and followed. Alex ushered her forward with a hand at the small of her back, and Piper half-turned toward the table where Alex had been sitting, only to be urged past it with a firm pressure at her back.
"Aren't we going to sit with your friends?" Piper turned to ask, faintly puzzled.
"No," husked Alex, moving closer to whisper hot breath against her neck, "I want you all to myself." She chuckled as Piper suppressed a shiver and averted her face to hide a faint blush. Damn, she thought, as the two women settled into a booth, the things I could do to this girl. Alex took in the blonde across from her, smirk firmly in place. Piper was fidgeting, placing her hands on the table and restlessly intertwining her fingers. Her gaze remained studiously askance, looking toward the group at the front of the bar and then shifting to grab a menu wedged against the side of the booth.
"Do you know if the food here is any good?" she asked, making brief eye contact before returning to her perusal.
"It's fucking terrible." Alex laughed at Piper's stricken expression. "I'm kidding. The burgers are decent, and anything fried is pretty hard to ruin." Alex relaxed against the booth, stretching out an arm across its low back and bending the elbow to rest her fingers lightly against her head. Her eyes never wavered from Piper's face.
"Ok," Piper bobbed her head, continuing to study the menu for a moment before setting it aside and returning her elbows to the table and her fingers to their wandering. Her eyes darted to Alex and then quickly away before returning once again. "What?" she finally asked, acknowledging the other woman's intense gaze and knowing smirk with a furrowed brow.
The corners of Alex's mouth twitched, and her smirk widened. "You're fucking adorable." Piper blushed again and looked away briefly, but when she returned her gaze to the brunette she wore a soft smile of her own.
"You say 'fuck' a lot."
Alex barked a laugh and raised her eyebrows, leaning forward to mirror Piper's posture. "Yeah, yeah I do. Is that a fucking problem?" Piper laughed in return and shook her head.
"No, not at all. I just think that modern culture sometimes embraces expression through profanity at the expense of a well-developed vocabulary. Words are important." Her response affected solemnity, but her eyes glinted with humor.
"Well, Miss Smith Grad, you can go fuck yourself." Both women laughed, maintaining eye contact. As the laughter died down, Piper folded her arms on the table and returned her gaze to the group at the front of the bar. Her expression was sober, and Alex puzzled over the shift in the blonde's demeanor.
"You weren't kidding, were you?" Piper asked, her eyes not leaving Alex's friends.
Ah, Alex thought, not as naïve as she seems perhaps. "About the food? It's fine." She was going to make Piper say the words.
Turning back to the booth, Piper rolled her eyes. "No, Alex, about the international drug cartel. You really are a drug dealer."
Sucking in a breath and adjusting her glasses, Alex leaned back against the booth. "I never said I was a drug dealer."
"You want to explain to me how you work for a drug cartel but you aren't a drug dealer?" Piper's eyes conveyed bemused disbelief.
"I don't sell drugs to anyone." Piper raised an eyebrow. "I don't. I just arrange for the movement of large amounts of heroin." Alex shrugged and looked away.
Piper narrowed her eyes. "Are you seriously trying to play semantics about what does and does not constitute a drug dealer?"
Alex turned to the blonde, her expression deadpan. "Words are important, Piper."
Piper's surprised laugh was full and genuine, and Alex couldn't contain her own broad smile at the sound. She noted with pleasure how the blonde's posture relaxed, uncrossing her arms and leaning back into the booth but still wearing a smile.
"So, Alex…" she played with the stem of her glass, twirling the margarita. "Why do I get the feeling I'm not the first girl you've sat across from and flattered in the back of a bar?"
"Are you calling me a player?"
Piper chuckled. "No, I'm just wondering how long you usually wait before you ask a girl to help you move these 'large amounts of heroin.'" Her smile was smug, but Alex had been expecting something like this and maintained her composure.
"Wow, you must have some self-esteem issues. Do you assume everyone who approaches you in a bar is intent on coercing you into felonious behavior?"
"Only the drug dealers." Piper's smug smile remained fixed in place.
"Touche." Alex leaned her forearms onto the table and caught Piper's blue eyes with her own emerald gaze. "Look, there's no ulterior motive here." She noted Piper's raised eyebrow and continued, hands upraised. "Seriously, the only thing I want is to get into your pants."
Alex chuckled as Piper flushed and looked away, biting her lower lip to contain a soft smile. "So what's it gonna be, kid? Do you have to scamper back to the Little House on the Prairie, or are you gonna let me buy you a burger?"
Piper looked back at Alex with a sly smile. "Just so you know, it takes more than a burger of questionable repute to get into my pants." Alex raised an eyebrow and smirked. "It does, huh? Ok, no problem." Shifting in her seat, Alex caught the bartender's eye. "Hey Gary, can we get a couple more margaritas over here?"
Piper laughed. "I thought you said it was too cold out for margaritas." Alex frowned in mock confusion. "Oh no, they're both for you." She waggled her eyebrows and Piper laughed harder.
Two hours, two burgers, and three margaritas apiece later, Alex was smitten. Piper was in the middle of story about her semester abroad in Ireland, and Alex was only half-listening. She was fucking adorable, but she was also sexy as hell, smart, witty, and dorky in a way that was impossible to resist.
"So they started playing Janis Joplin, which I guess was the only American song they knew, and they literally pushed me onto the stage and made me sing Piece of my Heart. I'm a terrible singer, Alex, like truly awful, but I swear to god I was amazing that night." Piper smiled wistfully at the memory, then returned her gaze to Alex and her somewhat blank stare. "I'm sorry, that wasn't a very good story, was it?" She laughed self-deprecatingly.
"No, it was a great story. I just got distracted by the beautiful woman who was telling it." Making Piper blush was quickly becoming one of Alex's favorite activities, and she couldn't help but let her mind wander to the ways she could make her blush without using words.
Piper cleared her throat and glanced around the nearly empty bar. "Your friends left," she said softly, turning back to Alex. Dismissing the comment with a shrug, Alex held her gaze as she answered. "I didn't even notice." Piper smiled softly in return, then broke the eye contact to glance at her wrist.
"It's getting late, I should probably…" she tilted her head toward the door. "Yeah…yeah, me too," Alex nodded. The two women gathered purses and jackets before shuffling slowly toward the front of the bar. Alex took Piper's elbow lightly and ushered her through the door and onto the sidewalk, where they stood silently for a moment before both women began to speak.
"Hey Piper-"
"Alex-"
They laughed self-consciously, and Alex looked down at her shuffling feet before continuing. "So um, I was wondering if I could get your number. I don't know if you picked up on this, but I think you're kinda cute." She looked up to see Piper giving her a wide, toothy smile. "I thought I was fucking adorable?" she teased. "Oh that too, definitely. And many other things, but I want to save a few compliments for future occasions. Assuming I get that phone number, that is." Alex ended with a raised eyebrow, expectantly.
"Hmm. Well as long as we're paying compliments, Alex you are…disarmingly charismatic. And also many other things, so I guess we'll just have to see each other again if we want to hear more nice things about ourselves." Piper's eyes twinkled briefly, before she reached into her purse for a pen. She held out a hand and Alex quickly grasped it, squeezing briefly. Piper carefully wrote out seven digits, then dropped their joined hands without letting go. Alex ran her thumb over the back of Piper's hand a few times before raising it toward her lips. Without breaking eye contact, Alex gently brushed her lips across Piper's knuckles. "See you soon, Piper Chapman," she whispered huskily, releasing her hand and stepping back with a wink as a slightly slack-jawed Piper watched her walk away.