A/N: The reviews on the last chapter literally made me so happy; it makes me smile so much whenever people leave genuine, in depth reviews of my work and talk about my characterisation, etc. So, I'd like to say this is a reward, but... you probably won't see it that way. Time skips from about October to December, here, and now things are really heating up. Enjoy, another A/N at the end.
Loving Alex Vause is glorious.
It's as effortless and easy as breathing, and quite possibly the most natural thing Piper's ever felt. Whether it be waking up the next morning in Boston and whispering it quietly underneath cool white sheets, voices low and secretive so as not to reveal too much to the students residing down the hallway, or if it's drunkenly screamed by Piper from the top of a table at a Halloween party, half of her costume already having been ripped by Alex who watches her amusedly from Nicky's sofa; every time they say 'I love you' to each other, Piper feels herself become impossibly happier. Alex, too, finds it both the strangest yet most fantastic thing to be in love with Piper Chapman. Strange because, well, she never thought of herself as the type to gush to her mother over the phone about a "fantastic little blonde thing from Connecticut" who may or may not have Alex "so fucking whipped, Ma, you wouldn't believe it." And then, of course, fantastic because upon her mother's hasty arrival in New York after hearing her daughter rant about her girlfriend, she and Piper had hit it off like a house on fire.
"Well, she's significantly nicer than my mother, I gotta say." Piper muttered sleepily into Alex's shoulder on a fearfully cold November evening in the brunette's home, her mother asleep in the guest room next door.
"So I've gathered, Pipes." Alex whispers back with a raspy chuckle, combing her fingers easily through the blonde locks she had so ardently been pulling on for the past hour or two.
"She's so fucking cool, Alex. I can see why the hell you love her so much." Piper muses, running her hand softly across the planes of her girlfriend's stomach. Alex smiles bashfully, unusually overcome with emotion at how well Piper and her mother are getting along. She hadn't paid much heed to what the hell she was going to do if they didn't hit it off, but the fact they had, relieved the brunette immensely.
"Yeah," Alex hummed in agreement, turning on her side to look into the sparkling blue of Piper's eyes, a wide grin lighting up the older girl's features. "Yeah, she's pretty great."
Time stutters and skips and changes tempo constantly throughout the months leading up to Christmas. There will be Monday mornings and lonely nights that feel as if they will never end, and there will be weekends that disappear from between their fingers like an unattainable smoke, as if only lasting for a split second before they slip away, replaced by another work week of hardships and difficulties.
And, while it may be odd to work with someone who you've seen naked, it is categorically, fundamentally insane to work with someone you're in love with.
It is a hell of a lot harder for them to control themselves, to work in close proximity and keep appearing totally platonic. Admittedly, they had let themselves slip a little in Boston when Piper had leaned back instinctively into Alex's embrace as their party watched a light show across the water, but if any of the pupils noticed, none of them were at any odds to say a word about it. These are smart kids, and as Polly had once pointed out, everyone knew what Healy thought about same sex relationships in his school. To be fair, the couple he had fired were caught red-handed in a classroom by a pupil, but there was an underlying feeling that had it been a heterosexual couple, the two would not have been forced to move to the other side of the country just to get a new job. Unknowingly, Piper and Alex had created a sort of bond with the pupils, and although they all rightly suspected what was going on between the two teachers, the students kept schtum about their correct assumptions simply down to the fact that the two were very, very damn good at their jobs. People liked Piper and Alex, but that didn't mean they were blind to the obvious flirting between the two.
So, their desire for each other increased tenfold through the months, but in turn the two were more eager than ever not to fuck everything up. To the best of their abilities, Piper and Alex did not let their desire surface during school hours. It's not to say that there hadn't been a day or two where Piper would dress in particularly tight clothing, resulting in a lunchtime spent by Alex dragging her counterpart into a supply closet and having her wicked way with the blonde. But, to their credit, even in mid-December, only a handful of colleagues were aware of the blossoming relationship within their ranks. Nicky's constant ribbing was eventually quieted by the fact she'd become smitten with Piper's friend from the bar that first night, Lorna Morello.
"Hey, Chapman!" Nicky called across the staff room one Wednesday afternoon, the room buzzing with the activity of teachers having their lunch.
"Nicky?" Piper questioned sweetly, scribbling away at a form before setting it aside and turning to her food.
"Morello say anything about me?"
"Who's Morello?!" Alex interrupted from the chair beside Piper, the sandwich between her nimble fingers stopping inches from her lips.
"Ooh, Nicky, playing coy are we?" Piper inquired smugly, furrowing her eyebrows in Nicky's direction. The Biology teacher waved her hand dismissively, scoffing.
"No one you know." She insisted nervously.
"Now that's not strictly true." Piper reminded Nicky darkly, confusion marring her features before a wide grin spread across her face. Alex looked confusedly between the two, forgetful of the night she had in fact become acquainted with the object of Nicky's desires.
"Oh yeah!" Nicky cried happily. "What was it you said, Vause?" She asked rhetorically, glancing around the otherwise engaged staff members briefly before returning to the conversation. To Alex's utter horror, her best friend moved her hands to the front of her own shirt and stretched it in front of her, the shorter girl's voice taking on a comically deep tone. "Uh, hey girl, sorry I have a girlfriend but lose the clip and lemme lick your pussy."
A ferocious blush bloomed across Alex's features as Piper choked on her sandwich, erupting into raucous laughter at Nicky's mocking of her best friend.
"Oh, come on!" Alex pleaded with the two. "I was drunk!"
"Lose the clip, oh my God!" Piper giggled breathlessly at the memory, her shoulders shaking with laughter. A few of their colleagues fixed the threesome with disdainful expressions at the ruckus, but were unaware of the conversation's context.
"How the hell do you know about that, anyway?" Alex directed to Nicky, who continued to chuckle heartily at the brunette's embarrassment.
"What, you think Chapman over here was ever going to keep quiet about a line like that? Jesus, Vause, I don't think I've ever heard worse in all my life, even from you." Nicky shook her head wistfully while Alex continued to glare over at her.
"Whatever, it worked, didn't it?" Alex nudged the blonde playfully.
"Yeah, in getting you a black eye." Piper fired back instantly. Alex chuckled huskily despite herself, narrowing her eyes playfully at the blonde for a moment before turning back to Nicky.
"Whatever, assholes, I still don't get who Morello is?"
"Girl who gave me the clip." Piper explained, returning to her sandwich, most of which had been spat out upon hearing Nicky's impression. Alex gasped in horror, green eyes widening behind her glasses.
"Her?!" She half-yelled, aghast at Nicky having any sort of feelings for the tiny brunette with the irritatingly thick accent. "But she, I thought..." Alex trailed off, remembering the unbelievably frustrating way the girl had flirted all night long with Piper, who had gladly reciprocated.
"Jealous, are we?" Nicky teased, having been over the moon upon hearing that Piper and Lorna were, and had always been, just friends. Now that she knew it had all been an act to get a rise out of Alex, Nicky was determined to have a little fun with it. "What'd she ever do to you?" Alex faltered, the familiar makings of embarrassment creeping back up into her stomach.
"I...she, you know-" She hesitated. "Nothing." Alex muttered dumbly, picking idly at her food. Piper snickered beside her while sharing a knowing glance with Nicky.
"Sure about that?" Piper pressed, a lopsided grin adorning her soft lips as she moved her attention to her girlfriend.
"If I ever meet this girl, Nicky, I swear to God..." Alex leaned back in her chair, a jealous rage lashing through her. Piper considered taking her teasing a bit further, but she'd seen that vengeful expression before when guys hit on her in front of Alex, and the staff room was certainly not the place for the brunette to lose her temper.
"Hey, Al, you know that was all a joke, right?" Piper said, knocking her knee lightly against Alex and causing the older girl to open her eyes, the deep green irises flaring dangerously.
"What?" She whispered harshly.
"Lorna- I mean Morello- is like, one of my oldest friends." The blonde explained with an easy shrug of her shoulders. "I did it to make you jealous." Alex barked out a disbelieving laugh.
"Are you f-" she stopped herself slightly, remembering her surroundings. "I went through all that, a punch in the damn face, to get you away from a girl you had no interest in?!" Piper smiled awkwardly up at the raging brunette, attempting to paint on an expression of total innocence.
"Uhh...maybe?" Piper squeaked, doing her best doe eyed impression to attempt to appease the brunette. "Don't you agree that it was sort of worth it, though?" Piper stood from her chair, bringing her plate over to the side and discarding it before returning and picking up her form. Alex regarded her warily, a sculpted eyebrow raised for no particular reason and a signature smirk on her face.
"I'll get back to you on that one. Hey-" Alex nodded to the sheet in Piper's hand. "What is that?"
"Oh, this?" Piper replied, pocketing her pen and scoffing lightly as Alex rose from her chair and joined her girlfriend on their way out of the staffroom. "It's nothing, really." Before Piper could protest, Alex had pulled the sheet from her grasp and was skipping down the corridor with it. "Hey!" Piper cried, striding determinedly after her.
"You need a lesson in fudging a resume." Alex commented, stepping away from Piper's searching hands.
"Haven't you handed yours in yet?" Piper narrowed her eyes in confusion at the brunette.
"Are you fuckin' kidding me? Pipes, he already has our resumes. You've never applied for one of these in your life, have you?"
"No." Piper replied listlessly. Alex pitied her girlfriend's saddened demeanour, and attempted to lighten the mood.
"So, Piper Chapman, an NYU grad with excellent listening skills, passionate about making pupils feel good." Alex mocked, reading the words off Piper's application form with a wide grin. "Mmm, sounds kind of dirty." She husked, eyes glinting behind the frames of her glasses. "Prepared, meticulous and exact when preparing-"
"Oh, God!" Piper squealed, snatching the form from between Alex's hands.
"I like that in a woman." Alex insinuated lowly, glancing up and down the empty corridor before dragging Piper inside an empty classroom and pressing her up against the door. "What else do I need to know about you?" She questioned, pressing a kiss to the column of Piper's neck.
"That I'm going to kick your ass when it comes to the interviews." Piper groaned at Alex's ministrations, her hands dragging down the brunette's back over the material of her blazer. Alex laughed huskily, hot breath fanning across Piper's cool skin. Alex pitied the blonde, she really did; there was just no way in hell that Alex wasn't getting the Head of Department job. She drew her lips to Piper's ear, her voice rough and teasing and infuriatingly irresistible to her girlfriend.
"I'd like to see you try."
Piper tries so much fucking harder than Alex.
She stays up all night rehearsing every damn question and answer under the sun, she writes her application out countless times, and still she knows deep down in her soul that she just has no chance of beating Alex. The brunette's classes' grades are slightly higher, her answers are a little more eloquent, and her entire aura is just that tiny bit more confident than Piper's. Alex Vause is the face of cool and collected, no matter what situation she finds herself in, and while Piper is no pushover herself, her inexperience is painfully obvious compared to Alex's effortless authority. No pupil would like to cross either woman, but if they had to choose one teacher to forget their homework for, most of them would choose Piper Chapman. Still, Piper tries and toils and does her utmost to get the job over Alex, while the brunette doesn't even seem to have lifted a finger.
"Piper, baby." Alex drawled from the doorway, an ice cold beer in her hand. "Come to bed, you've been sitting there for hours."
"I know, okay?! Jesus, what's it to you?" Piper snapped angrily, never tearing her eyes away from her laptop. Alex sighed despondently, making her way over to the sofa and setting down her beer on the coffee table.
"Because I miss my fantastic, beautiful girlfriend, and I wish she would stop worrying so much about something she ultimately has no control over." Alex dropped to her knees in front of Piper, running her fingers teasingly up and down the blonde's toned calves.
"Fuck me, your hands are freezing!" Piper squealed, attempting to escape from the cold grip of her distracting girlfriend. Unfortunately, Alex had her cornered, and all it took was a firm splay of her fingers across Piper's bare thighs for the blonde to halt her struggle and to look at Alex with wide eyes.
"If you insist." Alex husked darkly, smirking devilishly from her position between Piper's legs. The blonde was caught between a rock and a hard place; she could continue working on her interview and disappoint Alex, or she could let the brunette continue her little game and run the risk of being terribly unprepared for one of the most important days of her life. On the surface, an easy decision.
But when Alex Vause is kissing the inside of Piper's thigh and drumming her dextrous fingers across the waistband of the blonde's shorts, staring up at her with a downright sinful look smouldering in her eyes, Piper finds it a little hard to say no to her girlfriend.
"Fuck you." Piper hisses, but discards her laptop and tangles her fingers in Alex's thick hair, pulling her upwards so she can crash their lips together heatedly. The manipulative brunette smirks triumphantly into the kiss, her grip on Piper's thigh tightening when the blonde's tongue runs desirously over her bottom lip.
"But?" Alex asks between feverous kisses as her fingers brush tantalisingly close to where exactly she knows Piper needs her. The blonde moves her lips ravenously along Alex's jaw and down to her collarbones, pulling down her shirt roughly while a frustrated groan escapes her lips.
"But fuck me, first."
Piper's interview goes well, but if she's honest with herself, she could have done much better. Instead of sporting a wide, confident grin throughout her questioning, she's fighting off crippling tiredness and wearing a shirt buttoned right the top to hide the sizeable hickey she's sporting on her neck. Friday lunchtime comes along, and the hickey has faded along with Piper's aspirations and expectations that she's going to be walking out of Healy's office with a smile.
"Pipes." Alex whispers to her girlfriend as they wait outside, well aware of how important the job is to the blonde.
That doesn't mean Alex doesn't want it too, though. She loves Piper, of course, but she's not just going to give up on what she's good at.
"Hmm?" Piper questions idly, clearly very on edge.
"Promise we won't...uh..." Alex falters, scratching her head as she searches for the right way to articulate her feelings without coming across as clichéd and overdramatic. "Fall out over this." It sounds rather patronising, but she knows that Piper will probably lapse into a terrible mood of grumpiness for the next few days at least, depending on the outcome.
"What age do you think I am?" Piper fires back venomously, her infamous temper rearing its ugly head once more.
"Twelve?" Alex teases with a quick smirk, but judging by the fury spreading across Piper's face, it's quite an ill timed comment. The blonde just rolls her eyes childishly, and Alex thinks twelve years old might have been a bit generous for her girlfriend. Alex sighs; really, Piper has no reason to be mad at her. They both knew this was coming, that one of them would be promoted above the other, and the brunette cannot comprehend why her girlfriend has any reason to be angry at her for simply doing her job. Certainly, if the tables were turned, Alex would be congratulatory towards Piper. Shaking her head to clear her rather presumptuous thoughts, Alex contended herself with worrying a stray pluck in her trousers between her thumb and forefinger. "I'm sorry." She says quietly after an uncomfortable silence wraps around them for much too long.
"It's okay. I won't fall out with you. I love you, you asshole." Piper comments sarcastically, a kind smile lighting up her face. Alex feels the corners of her own mouth being tugged at involuntarily, her whole aura lifted by Piper's sudden maturity. Maybe they'll get through it after all.
"I lo-" Alex moves to reply, but is abruptly cut off by Healy's office door being pulled open, revealing his burly form that beckoned them inside silently. The pairing stand , and Alex gestures Piper in ahead of her, subtly tapping the blonde's ass as she walks in first.
God knows when Piper will let her touch that ass again.
No sooner have the two women stepped over the threshold, awkwardly standing side by side in Healy's office while he makes them coffee in his study, than the door behind them bursts open and in comes an obviously upset pupil. Tears stream openly down her face, leaving track marks through her thick veil of makeup. She's rather famous in the academic hierarchy of the academy for her constant crying over nothing, and both teachers sigh in understanding.
"Hi, Victoria." They say in unison, an underlying current of pity laced through their voices. The pupil sniffles sadly, wiping the back of her hand across her nose despondently.
"Where's Mr Healy?" The young brunette inquires, her accent thick and voice incessantly high. Alex nods to the closed off study room door, and a hilariously awkward silence ensues, intermitted with random sniffles from the student. After one particularly strong inhalation that has Alex cringing in horror, Piper sighs irritably and takes it upon herself to it sort out, considering that Victoria is her pupil.
"Victoria?" Piper questions lightly, walking over to the inconsolable girl. "What's wrong?"
"My boyfriend," She starts, but her body is wracked by sobs once more. Piper bites her lip to stop from chastising the overdramatic pupil. "Tommy, he- he-" Fearing that the poor girl is literally going to be sick with the amount of sobbing she's doing, Piper pats her shoulder comfortingly and draws her a tissue from the nearby box.
"Here." She offers kindly, grimacing at the deafening manner in which the pupil blows her nose. Relief crashes into her when she hears Healy return from his study, and she can barely stifle a laugh at how his expression falls from one of amicableness into complete and utter horror.
"Oh, for goodness sake. What is it now?!" He rages, setting down his Chemistry teachers' mugs of coffee heavily on the desk and ushering the sobbing pupil from his office, following her out the door. A split second of silence flows between Piper and Alex before they erupt into laughter, leaning on the desk for support.
"Oh my God, I genuinely thought she was going to make herself sick." Alex commented breathlessly, moving around to the far side of the desk to where their coffees had been so angrily set down. "Have you ever seen the guy, though? He's worse."
"No, but I drove past them once in town with Polly, and it was...enlightening." Piper replied, bringing the coffee to her lips and taking a grateful sip.
"Ooh, how is Polly Hobby these days?" Alex questioned smugly, leaning back on the desk and bracing her hands either side of her, fingers curling underneath the desk.
Neither of them hears the subtle click of the intercom.
"Oh, we had another fight again last night." Piper says sadly, drawing her thumb along the rim of her mug.
"About what?" Alex presses.
"About you, as usual."
"Does she realise that nothing fuels my, how does she call it, 'motherfucking condescending fucking irritatingly smug damn ego', more?" Alex mocks happily, rewarded with an wide grin from her girlfriend.
"You know what shut her up, though?" Piper's tone is suddenly different; it's suggestive and low and oh-so-inviting, and Alex feels the familiar flashings of desire lick through her body eagerly.
"What's that?" She hums, unaware of the incredibly compromising position they're caught in. For one, Alex is sitting on the wrong side of her boss' desk, and her co worker is looking at her so lustfully that it would be obvious to a blind man.
"I said to her, 'Hey, Polly, I came seven times last night." Piper reminisces gleefully, doing little to perturb the incredibly smug smirk that Alex's lips curl into. She laughs, a raspy sound that resonates straight through Piper and causes a shiver to run up her spine.
"Mmm, how about we go for eight tonight, that'll really piss her off." Alex husks suggestively, releasing her grip on the table as Piper sashays over to the other side of the desk.
This time, the click pierces the room.
"What the fuck?" Alex questions, looking wildly around at Piper who stares back at her incredulously. "What was that?"
"I don't know." Piper shrugs, but fear seeps through her bones at the stark noise that had echoed a second previously. Alex ducks her head underneath the table in alarm, and is met with a sight more terrifying than anything her mind could have conjured up in her darkest nightmares.
"FUCK!" She yells, not caring if the walls of the office aren't soundproof. "Oh fuck, Piper, I am so fucking sorry," The terror mounts within the blonde, from the uncertainty of not knowing what the hell is going on, to the unnerving nature of seeing her girlfriend so panicked.
"Alex Vause, you had better tell me what the hell is going on or you're definitely going to have something to be sorry about." Piper seethes, gripping Alex harshly by the shoulders as a vacant look enters her jade irises. A caustic laugh bubbles up through her throat and escapes her lips as she steps away from her girlfriend. "What-" Piper questions again, but is interrupted by the deafening crack of wood on plaster as the door to the office bursts open. The two turn in alarm to the intruder, revealing one very pissed off looking Principal of the school. Surprisingly, when he speaks on his way around to the desk, his voice is level. Such is the unbelievable raging coursing through Healy's veins; he lacks any motivation to yell as he turns to his teachers in an intimidating, more composed manner.
"Well, Miss Vause, I was on my way back here to congratulate you on becoming my new Head Of Chemistry and offering my sincere condolences to you, Miss Chapman." He says, crossing his arms across his burly chest and shaking his head in utter contempt. Piper feels her heart drop into her stomach as her hopes and aspirations crumble along with it. Alex clenches her jaw beside her, an overwhelming feeling of remorse enveloping her as she knows it's about to go from bad to worse for her girlfriend. Healy continues his growing tirade, eventual rage seeping into his scornful tone.
"But, judging by what the hell I, and the entirety of this institution, just had the horror of listening to over the intercom, it seems like I have something else entirely to deal with."
And suddenly, the severity of the situation crashes into Piper all at once, and loving Alex Vause becomes absolutely, completely and utterly ruinous.
A/N: As humorous as some people might see this as, and it is fairly comical, mark this down on your calendars as the day things go to absolute shit for our two protagonists. Leave me a review telling me what you're hoping/thinking/praying is going to come next, or tell me what you thought of this chapter. I'd be delighted either way. x