Alex: Want me to pick up dinner on the way home?
Piper: Yeah, what about Greek?
Alex: Okay, will pick it up on my way. Be home soon.
She reads the message and sets her phone down. She continues making Ella and the babies' dinner. Chicken and rice for Ella and pureed veggies and applesauce for the babies.
Ella is sitting across from her eating her dinner as Piper feeds Aiden and Addie, who are just making a mess, and making Piper laugh.
They've really grown into their personalities. Aiden is very silly and extremely happy. He's always smiling and laughing, rarely crying, much like Ella was. Addie is more reserved, and sits and watches everything. She's very quiet and laid back, where Ella has that fire that doesn't burn out. On top of their personalities, they're starting to look different. They both still have dark brown hair. Aiden's eyes are green, like Ella's, but Addie's eyes are blue. So blue, much like Piper's. Aiden is bigger than Addie, and Alex calls him a tank. All he does is eat. He's way bigger than Ella was at his age. Addie is definitely smaller.
As Piper is wiping off their faces, Alex walks through the door and Ella jumps from her seat to meet her. "Mommy!" she yells, crashing into her legs like she does every day.
"Hey El." She says, running her fingers through her blonde ponytail.
Alex walks over to the table and gives Aiden and Addie a kiss on the head before bending down to give Piper a kiss. "Hey babe."
"Long day?"
"Yeah, but it's the weekend, so it's fine." She smiles, getting the food out of the to go bag and bringing it over to the table.
"So good." Piper says, taking a bite of her dinner.
Ella is sitting on Alex's lap, taking little bits of food off her plate, trying to be sneaky.
"It's too hot outside." Alex says
"I know! It's like 100 degrees out. It's only the end of June. There's still July and August. Al, I'm gonna die."
Alex laughs at her wife's exaggeration. "Oh yeah? Leave me with these three kids, one of which keeps stealing my food." She says, wrapping Ella up with her free arm and tickling her side, making her laugh.
Piper laughs with them.
"July!" Ella says and they both look at her.
"Yeah? You know what July means?" Piper asks her
Ella pauses for a moment, and then "Birthday!"
"Yeah, that's right. Do you know what you want to do for your birthday?"
"Pool." She says, smiling
"A pool party?" Alex asks, looking at Piper
"Maybe Aunt Polly will let us come over to her apartment and we can have a party there and use her pool."
"Yeah!" Ella says excitedly.
There's a noise and Piper and Alex look at each other, and then the apartment goes dark.
"Shit." Alex says, grabbing her phone.
"Al!" Piper says, reminding her that Ella is right there.
"Power's out. Heat must have made it knock out."
"Ughh. That mean no air conditioning." Piper says sadly
Alex uses her phone light to go and find flashlights and candles.
They finally get it lit enough so that they can sit in the living room and see each other.
Alex is leaned on one arm of the couch, Addie reclined on her thighs, chewing on a rubber toy, while Piper sits next to her with Aiden in her lap, playing with her hair. Ella is playing with one of the flashlights.
It starts getting warm in the apartment, and Piper quickly strips down into a pair of running shorts and a sports bra.
"Are we just going to sleep out here tonight?" Alex asks, looking at Piper.
"I guess so. It would probably be easier, since it's all right here."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking."
Piper smiles at Alex, "Here, take him. I've got an idea."
Alex sits up and moves Addie so she can also put Aiden in her lap.
Piper scampers off to the bedroom.
"El, you okay? Not afraid of the dark?" Alex asks her
"I'm okay."
"Let me know if you get scared, alright?" she says and Ella nods back, still playing with the flashlight and shining it on the wall.
Alex looks over and sees Piper dragging all the sheets from their bed into the living room with a huge smile plastered on her face.
"What the hell are you doing?" Alex asks her. She can't helping but smile at how cute Piper is.
"Building a fort!" Piper says excitedly
"A fort?"
"Yeah, Cal and I used to make them and they're really fun. So that's what we are gonna do."
She starts moving the coffee table and moves one of the couches so it is facing the other, and drapes a sheet across the top, so it makes a ceiling. She makes it so that all but one side is covered, and then puts the rest on the ground inside so that they'll have something to lay on.
"Pipes, you're ridiculous." Alex says, holding the two babies, and just watching.
Ella is in total awe of Piper at the moment, and what she's made. She's so excited, she can barely contain herself. She crawls on in, and lights it with a flashlight, letting Piper crawl in. Alex passes her the babies, and makes her way inside, laying on her back facing everyone.
"This is actually really cool." She says, taking Piper's hand and looking around.
"You never made one of these before?" Piper asks her, sounding surprised.
"No, never."
"Well now you've been in one." She says, leaning over and kissing her.
Aiden and Addie lay on their back, watching the flashlight zip around the fort, thanks to Ella. Alex lies on her side watching their faces light up, and watching how Piper is looking at them, eyes full of love. After a while the babies fall asleep and are moved to one side of the fort so that they're out of the way. Piper and Alex lay near each other, watching Ella make shadows with the flashlight and laugh.
"Mama, look!" she says, pointing for Piper to see
"I see, baby. It's amazing." Piper smiles at how happy Ella is.
Alex props herself up on one elbow and drapes her other arm over Piper, kissing her neck.
"I love that you made a fort." she says int her ear
"Yeah?" Piper turns to her, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear.
"Yeah. It was sweet and cool, and look, Ella loves it." She smiles at the little girl who is so happy it makes her heart hurt a little.
"Yeah, well I am sweet and cool." Piper playfully says, and Alex shoves her a little.
"Smart ass." And she kisses her.
Ella crawls in between them, something she never does because she sleeps in her own room. They lay on their sides facing her and talking into the night until Ella's eyelids grow too heavy to keep open, and she falls asleep, blonde hair all over the place. She looks just like Piper when she sleeps. Alex kisses her on the forehead, and lays her head on the pillow behind her, grabbing Piper's free hand that isn't resting on Ella and tracing over it with her thumbnail.
"Best power outage ever." She says, looking into Piper's eyes.
"I loved it." Piper says sleepily, trying to stay awake. Alex looks over at the babies who are still fast asleep.
"We should do this again. Even if there is power." Alex says
Piper smiles and nods, "Yeah, we should." And she is taken by sleep, just like Ella.
Alex wakes up to an empty fort, and makes her way out of it to see Piper making breakfast.
She takes a step and realizes she's kind of sore.
Piper looks over, hearing the floor creak. "Morning sleepy head." She looks at Alex's face and knows she's sore from sleeping on the floor all night. "Aw, someone is sore from not sleeping in a bed."
"Ha ha. Very funny. I'm just a little too old to be sleeping on a hard ground all night." She says, rubbing her eyes
She wraps Piper up from behind, and kisses her neck. "Did you sleep good?" she whispers into her skin.
"Yep. I slept great." She smiles, flipping bacon in the pan.
"Smells so good." Alex says, making her way to the table, running her hands over the babies' hair and kissing Ella good morning.
"El, did you sleep good?"
"Yep!" she says, taking a bite of one of the pancakes in front of her.
"So I guess the power came back on since you're making breakfast."
"Yeah, about 2 hours ago. Thank God, because I was dying of heatstroke."
"Always so dramatic." Alex laughs
Piper walks over to the table and sets a plate in front of Alex, and then sits next to her.
"Hey, Al, I was thinking, maybe we could build a fort in our room some time for an adult sleepover." Piper whispers in her ear tracing her finger up the inside of her thigh, sending shivers up Alex's spine.
"Hell yeah." Alex smiles at her, taking a bite of her pancake. "I'd love that."
Hopefully you all liked this chapter. It was fun to write. Thanks for the review on the last chapter. They're always appreciated. I will try my best with updates this week, but I have 4 finals in 4 days, so not promising updates every day, but I will definitely try. I have a few ideas swirling around. Also, best of luck to anyone reading this who is going through finals week this week, or any time soon. Thanks again for reading, and everything else! :)