***A/N: Don't worry, everyone. That special Alex/Dane story you requested is coming, probably in the next chapter. Shout out to cakedinmud for the prompt and the rest of you for backing it! This one was already written, though, so bear with me. This chapter also has a shift of POV about halfway through, but I wanted to give you both Piper and Alex's wedding day thoughts. ALSO, keep those reviews coming.***
When Alex walked into the apartment after work, Dane was seated at the old piano that rarely saw use. The instrument faced the wall near the window, so the boy's back was to the door and he didn't hear her come in.
Alex hadn't seen her son play the piano since he was much younger when Carol had insisted on paying for lessons. Dane had always seemed to prefer his guitar, claiming that the piano "wasn't cool." He must have kept up with it, however, because the effortless way he played could not have come from an impromptu sit down.
Alex made sure not to make a sound. She just wanted to watch the kid play for a moment. She found herself less wrapped up in the sweet melody and more caught up in the way the sandy-haired 15-year-old seemed to be putting on a show for no one, not unlike Jarrod Radnich.
His shoulders moved ever so slightly as his fingers grazed across the keys, tapping out a familiar classic. It was Liszt's "Liebestraum" otherwise known as "Love Dream," the song she and Piper had walked down the aisle to 20 years ago tomorrow.
[19 Years and 364 Days Prior - Give Or Take a Few Hours]
Alex took another steadying breath. This was the moment she had been waiting for since she the day Piper walked into her life. However, she hadn't seen the blonde in almost two days, and like the junkies she used to supply, she found herself craving the woman like a drug.
She silently cursed Polly, Carol, and Neri for keeping her fiance so busy with final preparations, and she added a curse for herself for agreeing to go the traditional route of not seeing each other last night or today.
What was Piper feeling? Was she as nervous as Alex? What did she look like in her dress?
Fuck tradition, Alex thought.
Their relationship had never been traditional anyway. She burst out of her dressing room in search of her soon-to-be-wife. As she rounded a corner in the venue, Alex stopped short upon hearing Carol's heavy sigh.
"Piper, let us in," Polly demanded outside the door of her friend's dressing room. "We promise not to change your hair again."
"Just give me ten minutes," Piper called back. Alex could her that her voice was constricted with nerves.
Opting to avoid the two lionesses outside Piper's door, Alex took a side exit to the building's wrap-around balcony. She followed it to the outer door of the blonde's dressing room. Without knocking, she slipped in.
Piper was seated at the vanity with her face buried in her hands. At the sight of her, Alex swallowed several times, begging her body to remember how to breathe. Piper's dress, hair, and makeup were all gorgeous, but it was nothing compared to what it all meant: This woman would soon be her wife. To have and to hold…
To hold.
Alex's hands ached to hold Piper. She shut the door and moved further into the room.
At the sound of the door closing, Piper looked up and made eye contact with Alex in the mirror. All the anxiety drained from her features, and she bounded across the room into Alex's waiting arms.
"I missed you," she breathed into Alex's neck.
"I missed you, too, Pipes. If only there was some way we wouldn't have to be apart ever again…" Alex joked.
"Shut up," Piper said, smiling.
The shorter woman started to pull her in for a kiss but stopped short.
"What's wrong?" Alex said, suddenly self-conscious.
Piper's blue eyes roamed over her face and then down her body. A slow-spreading grin threatened to split the blonde's face and tears welled in her eyes.
"What?" Alex asked again.
Piper shrugged, unable to speak for a moment.
"You just look really beautiful, Al."
Alex couldn't wait any longer. She pulled Piper's body flush against hers and kissed her passionately. It was all teasing and taunting before it grew into a fever pitch of open-mouths and shared breaths. She refused to pull away until the knocks on the door reached a crescendo.
"Piper Elizabeth Chapman, you will not be late for your own wedding! Let us in." Carol shouted from the other side of the door.
Alex nuzzled her nose against Piper's and whispered, "Yeah, you wouldn't want to keep me waiting, would you?"
Piper kissed Alex hungrily once more before shoving her toward the door.
"See you soon," she said.
"I'll be the one in white," Alex returned with a wink.
[A Little Later]
Piper's heart pounded in her chest as Bill kissed her cheek and took her arm in his. It was time. All that was left was to wait for the musical cue, and she would be on her way to becoming Piper Vauseman.
The butterflies in her stomach were no longer from nerves. They were aflutter with excitement knowing that Alex would be at the end of the aisle waiting for her. It was an agreement they had come to since Alex had no one she wanted to walk her down the aisle.
The piano melody began, and Bill looked over at Piper.
"You ready?"
"I've been ready for so long, Daddy. Get me to her quick, okay?"
Bill smiled at his ever-impatient daughter and patted the hand she had looped around his arm. He opened the door and guided Piper in.
At first, Piper's eyes flitted nervously around the spectators, but when she finally looked at Alex, she was transfixed. The dark-haired beauty - her dark-haired beauty - was watching her with an expression that was the perfect blend of complete adoration and unabashed lust.
Piper found she couldn't get to Alex quick enough. She was nearly pulling her father down the aisle. When he finally handed her off, he seemed a little relieved.
"Hey," Alex said softly as they joined hands.
"Hey yourself."
The officiator began the ceremony, but Piper barely heard his words. They didn't matter anyway. What she and Alex had transcended all of this. She and Alex were inevitable to each other. A wedding wasn't necessary to prove that, but Piper would hold the memory of Alex standing before her in white for the rest of her life.
"Pipes," Alex's whisper shook the blonde from her thoughts. "You have to say it back."
"I do!" Piper said quickly.
Alex let out a quick laugh as the officiator pronounced them married and told them they could kiss their bride. Piper fit herself against her wife like a puzzle piece and kissed her deeply. When the applause started, she rested her forehead against Alex's. She was dizzyingly happy and this woman was her anchor.
"I heart you," the dark-haired woman murmured.
"I heart you, too," Piper replied without hesitation.
[Present Day]
Suddenly, Dane found the perfect moment in the classical song to transition to an energetic piano cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and Alex snapped out of her memory, laughing out loud.
The song cut off as Dane whirled around on the piano bench.
"When did you two get home?" he asked, clearly embarrassed.
Alex turned, realizing Piper had also returned home sometime during the song. Judging by the look on her face, she, too, was recalling their special day. Alex stared at her, not wanting to blink and break the magic of the moment. Piper stared back at her with her with a half-lidded look of adoration and reached over to intertwine their fingers.
Oddly and without provocation, the words of Oscar Wilde popped into Alex's mind: "The very essence of romance is uncertainty." But Alex disagreed with the playwright. For over 20 years there had only been one thing she was ever sure about, and that was Piper.
"Can you guys at least wait until I get to my room and put headphones on before it gets premium cable up in here?" Dane said with a smirk and a roll of his eyes.
"You better move fast," Alex replied without taking her eyes off Piper.