Chapter 10: Nothin' On You.
Piper sped down the freeway as she tried to get to Alex as fast as possible, her stomach was churning and she was glad that she had not had all of her triple mocha that now sat cooling in the cup holder. The thought of Alex being worried or angry due to her was not nice to comprehend and brought back too many painful memories of their in prison power battles. However Pipers focus on getting to Alex as fast as possible was broken when once again her phone buzzed over the sound of the car radio.
"Piper, it's your mother. Your Father and I are in the city and we want to take you to lunch."
"Mom, I can't. I am on my way to Litchfield to collect Alex."
There was silence on the other end of the phone and she knew that a hushed conversation was now happening between her parents as they discussed their wayward daughter. In the back of Pipers mind she could not help but worry if someone else was trying to call her, but she knew she could not just hang up on her mother no matter how much she wanted to hit the 'end call' button. Carol Chapman maybe annoying to her daughter but she was harmless.
"Whatever happened to Charles, he was nice."
Piper and Charles had avoided each other all day at work after once again they had argued over the breakfast table about a certain, spectacle wearing woman. After a long day at work their car ride back to Pipers apartment had been painfully awkward as not a single word was spoken between the couple. Ever since their visit to Litchfield the cracks in their relationship had formed, they would argue about the smallest of things and neither of them would back down.
As Piper slammed her front door shut, she ignored Charles who was lingering around the kitchen and walked straight into her bedroom to change out of her white blouse and black pencil skirt and into an old faded t-shirt and a pair of sweats. That was when she noticed that the photo of her and Alex that normally sat on her bedside table was missing, a quick glance around proved that it had not been knocked over meaning that there was only one person who could have moved it.
"Charles!" Piper stormed out of the bedroom and into the kitchen where he was making himself a cup of tea. "Where the fuck is my photo frame?"
Charles looked at Piper with a blank expression and simply shrugged his shoulders. His resentment from the morning argument was still apparent and he refused to be sucked into yet another verbal battle with Piper, but Piper was not going to leave this alone and once again she asked where the photo was. This was the straw that broke the camel's back and Charles vow of silence latest as long as an ice cream left out in the sun.
"You mean why did I move a picture of my girlfriend and her on and off again Lesbian lover from the bedside table?"
"It was not yours to move Charles! I think you had best leave-" Piper paused as she frowned at the sandy haired man, she ran her tongue over her chapped lips as it all became clear what needed to be done. "-permanently."
The Englishman slammed the mug that was in his hand down on the kitchen counter and picked up his coat off the back of a kitchen chair. He glared at Piper as he roughly pulled his coat on before taking long strides towards the apartment door.
"I hope you and Alex are happy together, clearly she is the only person who can deal with all of –" Charles waved his hand in the general direction of Piper. "-this."
With that Charles left the apartment, slamming the door shut behind him leaving Piper standing alone in her apartment. She felt no remorse.
"Piper, are you still there?"
"Mom I need to go"
Piper could hear the disgruntled sigh from her mother as it appeared once again her only daughter was proving herself to be a disappointment.
"Piper, I don't understand why you keep going back to her, your Father and I…"
"I love Alex Mom. That is all that matters."
"Love is a strong word Piper."
"Alex is all I think about day and night, I live for the moments we can sit around a small table in a room full of people and just be near one another."
"But Piper-"
"Bye Mom!"
With one swift action Piper cancelled the phone call, leaving the car to be filled with only the sound of Bruno Mars crooning away about his love. Piper understood why people were worried but they had traveled together for a year and lived together in the real world and in prison. Despite their ups and downs Piper knew that everything would be fine.
"Come stay with me?"
Piper could not tell if this was a question or a statement, the playful smile that danced on Alex's lips would have suggested the former. However with the hesitation, the smile on her girlfriends face faded ever so slightly. "I am not joking Pipes, when we get home come live with me."
Alex had moved closer, Piper could feel the warmth of Alex's breath on her neck and could smell spearmint from her freshly brushed teeth. Piper's whole body screamed out for Alex, she longed for the caress of her lips on her exposed skin, the gentle touch of her soft hands as they glided south over her body on their journey towards their final destination. As if reading Pipers mind Alex's right hand traced Pipers spine and instantly Piper could feel her body react as her nipples grew hard and her back arched pushing her body into Alex's.
"Okay." Piper's voice was quiet, but Alex didn't care she got the answer that she wanted and before either of them could say another word Alex had pushed Piper onto the double bed in their hotel room and quickly followed her onto the mattress, straddling her girlfriend and immediately engulfing her in a passionate kiss.
Daylight was creeping through the gap in the curtains. Blurry eyed Piper turned to read the alarm clock at the side of their bed. The little red LED lights flashed in the shape of six forty-five and Piper could not help but let out a groan, jet lag was a bitch. Turning her head to the right Piper watched Alex as she slept beside her. She looked so peaceful; there was no frown on her face like the night before after her phone rang for the fifteenth time with yet another phone call from Farhi. Like this, she was her Alex.
It was at this moment when watching Alex in her peaceful state that Piper decided to do something nice for her, she thought back to her childhood fantasies and the many romance movies she had watch with Polly on a Saturday night and came to the decision to make Alex breakfast in bed.
Gingerly Piper removed herself from the bed, taking extra care not to wake Alex. She stepped over the loose floorboards and carefully squeezing between the gap between the door frame and the bedroom door and entered the living area of their apartment. The leftovers from their Chinese takeout still littered the coffee table along with an empty bottle of wine. Pipers bare feet padded across the wooden floor as she approached the small kitchen area, taking care not to step on any vegetable spring rolls or prawn toast that were strewn across the floor from the food fight the night before.
Feeling around the kitchen, Piper opened cupboards looking around for anything that could be turned into breakfast. "Whoa Alex you said my diet was bad." Piper muttered to herself as she reached around boxes of kids cereals and pop tarts. After finding some mouldy bread and a bag of potatoes that were growing new life Piper reluctantly pulled out the pop tarts "so romantic" she mumbled as she double checked the best before date on the bottom.
"Now I need a toaster."
Spinning around on the spot she scanned the worktop surfaces, nothing, surly Alex would have a toaster if she had pop tarts. As quietly as possible she started to open cupboards, she found glasses and plates, bottles of wine and even a load of shoes (Alex would have to explain that later) but still no toaster. But as Pipers Grandma always said you would find whatever you lost in the last place you looked and there was toaster in the last place Piper looked, on top of the cupboards.
Carefully Piper climbed onto the workshop surface, the cold black granite caused her feet to tingle as she cautiously peered on top of the dust covered cabinets and among the empty tins and champagne bottle corks she saw the little red toaster. As Piper reached out she could hear her Fathers voice in her head telling her to keep three points of contact at all times from when she used to help get the Christmas decorations down from the loft, no matter how dysfunctional they were Piper missed her family and made a mental note to call them later.
Now came the hard bit, how was she going to get down?
Piper closed her eyes and imagined she was standing on top of the rocks by a waterfall in Malaysia, she could hear Alex's jeers from the lagoon below telling her to jump. With a deep breath Piper leapt off her imaginary rock and into the expecting water below, but instead her bare feet landed on the cold floor tiles. Catching Piper slightly off guard she stumbled forward and smashed the toaster against the breakfast bar. The sickening crunch of plastic and metal made Piper wince and glance over at the bedroom door in fear of disturbing Alex from her slumber. When no noise could be heard from the bedroom Piper turned her attention to the now redesigned toaster, it was a sorry sight. The red plastic casing had split in two and the wires from within were spilling out the hole like intestines. Swearing again and again Piper placed the toaster on the kitchen counter and looked around for some divine inspiration. Day one of living with Alex and she had already destroyed the toaster.
But maybe it was fixable, just maybe Alec didn't have to know. Immediately Piper plugged the toaster in, hoping it was merely cosmetic damage but as she pressed down the leaver nothing happened. "Shit". On closer inspection Piper could see that a wires were not just hanging out, in fact they had come loose, she may know nothing about electrics but she knew that wires needed to be connected!
Frantically she started looking around all the draws in the apartment, rummaging around for electrical tape or a soldering iron (surly everyone had one of those) and it was only when doing this did Piper feel like she was learning more about her girlfriend. Alex always struck Piper as a clean and organised person; everything she did seemed to ooze with style, grace and confidence. But now as she searched through her draws she could see the unorganised chaos that lay beneath. After finding draws full of wires and cables, another with a wide variety of stationary from various hotels from around the world Piper finally came across something that could possibly work, a hot glue gun. She had used one once before when her and Polly had been at University and decided to glue rhinestones onto an old denim jacket, it had not turned out well.
"Second time lucky" she muttered to herself as she wondered back to the kitchen area where the broken toaster miserably sat. Setting up the glue gun Piper licked her lips as she planned how she was going to fix the toaster. Carefully she picked up the glue gun and gently pulled the trigger only to be horrified by the mass of hot, liquid glue to come firing from the nozzle and all over the insides of the toaster. "Fuck!"
Putting the glue down to one side Piper quickly looked around the kitchen for a dishcloth or paper towel but there was nothing. Turning back to the toaster Piper could only look on with horror as she noticed the glue gun had continued to leak and was running all over the kitchen counter. "Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!"
Piper knew she needed to clean up and with one quick movement she pulled off her vest top and quickly started to mop up the counter. That was when Piper heard a noise beside of her and as she looked up Piper saw that she was being watched by her roommate. Alex looked Piper up and down, a frown burrowed away across her usually smooth brow.
"What's wrong?" the blonde questioned, totally unaware of the weird situation her girlfriend had found her in.
"Oh nothing." Alex folded her arms as the frown transformed into a quizzical smile as her eyes absorbed the comical scene in front of her. "Just waiting for all of this to play out Pipes."
With a small huff of determination Piper picked up the glue gun and was about to put tip to plastic when she looked directly at the bewildered Alex.
"Why do you have a glue gun?"
"For crafts." The little smile that tugged on Alex's lips made Piper feel this was not the whole truth but she was not going to ask further, not today anyway.
"Do you need a hand Piper?"
"No!" Piper was determined to do this alone, Alex often called her stubborn but she wanted, needed to do this however the watchful gaze and running commentary of Alex was not helping.
"You're so cute when you're frustrated." Alex cooed at her girlfriend as she walked over towards the mess she seemed to have found herself in. "Are you sure you don't need a hand?"
"Yes, I am managing."
"It looks it." Alex could not remove the smirk from her face as she stood behind the blonde and wrapped her arms around Pipers middle. Alex could feel how tense Piper was, the Chapman temper seemed to be getting the best of her. "Babe you need to calm down."
Piper attempted to shove Alex away but the dark haired woman had her embrace tightly locked. After a few more swears and huffs under her breath Piper slammed the glue gun on the counter and defiantly refused to look at Alex. The problem was that she was making it hard for Piper to ignore her; Alex had pushed Pipers hair to one side exposing the back of her neck and was proceeding to gently plant small kisses from the top of her spine and along her shoulder line. Piper's breaths grew short as she tried to keep both her temper and desire for Alex under control, which was hard when all she could feel was the warmth of her breath on her exposed skin.
"Shall I let you in to a secret?" Alex's voice was a husky whisper as her hold around Pipers waist loosened ever so slightly in anticipation of the reaction her reveal would cause. "That toaster has been broken for months."
"What!" Piper wiggled out of Alex's arms and slowly stepped backwards away from her girlfriend as if she was a strange, wild creature. The blondes blue eyes then started to dart back and forth form Alex to the toaster, her mouth slowly opening as her tired jet lagged brain began to put the pieces together. "Why have you kept a broken toaster?"
"It was on top of the cupboard for a reason Pipes, anyway how did a short arse like you get it down anyway?"
In annoyance Piper threw her glue covered top at Alex and was disgruntled to see her catch it with ease. Alex looked down at the glue covered top with a quizzical brow; Piper knew her girlfriend too well and could tell that Alex's dirty mind was racing with an unlimited number of crude and inappropriate jokes which thankfully remained behind buttoned lips. Even just standing watching Alex and the mischievous smile dance across her lips made Piper feel calmer, made her realise that out of all the problem in the world a broken toaster was low on the priority list.
"I can't believe you tried to fix a toaster with a hot glue gun." Alex dropt the top on the floor and sauntered over towards Piper. She carefully placed her hands on Pipers hips before gently kissing the blonde on the cheek. "I guess we will laugh about this one day."
"Maybe" Piper muttered more to herself as Alex started to nuzzle at her neck like a needy vampire. Soon Alex's kisses became more urgent as they sexual heat between the two of them intensified. Piper wrapped her arms around Alex pulling her in closer. The couple soon became lost in one another as their hands traveled over the familiar paths of each other's bodies. They knew where to stroke, where to pinch to get the most from one another and to help the other reach the desired level of pleasure.
Alex had now pushed Piper up against the kitchen counter; she could feel the handler from the draws and cupboards digging into the back of her legs. Breaking away from Alex's sweet kiss for the briefest of seconds Piper pushed the toaster to one side and jumped up to sit on the worktop before quickly wrapping her legs around Alex's middle. The desire that burnt in Alex's eyes drove Piper mad with lust and without a moment of hesitation she pulled her closer by the collar of her t-shirt and began to kiss Alex again. This unexpected pulling action caused Alex to put a hand out onto the kitchen counter to steady herself and that was when she quickly broke away from Piper looking directly at her now glistening hand.
"What the fuck?"
Angry that Alex had broken their rhythm Piper was about to complain when she realised that her pajama shorts were damp and not in a good way. As soon as she looked down she realised she was sat in the puddle of glue that had leaked from the glue gun.
"Shit."
Alex didn't seem to care, her voice was still seductive and playful as her eyebrow raised and a smirk crept across her features. "We had best get you cleaned up."
Piper could only grin back; Alex knew that Pipers favourite place was always in water and especially in water when Alex was with her. It seemed this was not going to put a stopper on their passionate embrace, merely change its location. Tightening her grip around Alex with her legs and wrapping her arms around her neck Piper pretended to try and get off the counter.
"Oh dear, it seems I am stuck."
Laughing at Pipers terrible acting Alex lifted Piper up off the counter and taking extra care not to drop Piper as Alex carried her precious cargo to the bathroom where a long, hot and steamy shower awaited.
Looking back on it now nothing or anyone had compared to Pipers time with Alex. Yes, she had loved Larry but there was never that heat, that desire as there had been with Alex. Even now, after all this time she got butterflies in her stomach every time she visited Litchfield to see Alex, she still longed for Alex's touch and their hugs goodbye after visitation had increased in length as their desire to be close to one another grew.
The thought that in a couple of hours' time they would be together again instantly brought a smile to Pipers face, knowing that she could fall asleep once more as Alec's little spoon tonight made everything in the world seem right.
BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEEP!
"Fucking get off the road idiot I have somewhere to be!"
And she did, Piper had the most important person in her life waiting for her.
A/N: Firstly I can only apologise for how long this has taken me to upload, I will not bore you with the details but all I will say is that adult life is a bitch!
Anyway here is a fun fact for you, this was the first part of the story I wrote. It was originally going to be a one-shot which I wrote when I first started to watch OITNB. I was fascinated by a passing comment in Season 1, episode 8 by Alex when she mentioned how Piper had tried to fix "our toaster with a hot glue gun." I just had to write it and I hope you guys liked it.
There will be even more of a Vauseman flashback in the next chapter purely to make up for the lack of it in Season 3!
Thank you again for the lovely reviews and all the favourites and follows, it really makes me smile.