A/N: Well this is sure strange... This is a PG-13 fic and I'm 12 years old... But that's beside the point. Forget that. Forget all of that. Never mind.
Am I the only person who gets writer's block? It literally attacks me! Lately, the only story I can write in I can't even post until Home Sweet Home is finished… (Don't ask. Seriously, don't ask.)
Been a while, huh? Isn't it weird how fast time goes? It like, oh, I've still got a few days before the week is up to shake this, and all of a sudden, poof! No more time.
Here is it, folks. The update you've all been waiting for…
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Piper woke the next morning to an empty bed. She glanced around her and sighed. She closed her eyes and opened them a moment later, forcing herself out of bed.
She made her way downstairs to the kitchen and made some coffee. Prue and Phoebe weren't home, but it didn't matter. What mattered was that Leo wasn't there.
A red flag went up in her mind, telling her she had done something wrong. The little imaginary devil version of herself on her left shoulder even told her so. But the angel version on her right shoulder was quiet.
When Piper was little and she had to make big decisions, she turned to the angel and devil on her shoulders. The devil was evil and the angel was good, and they were basically her conscience. She smiled, knowing she hadn't listened to them in a long time.
The devil on her left was warning her for a change, instead of encouraging her to do the wrong thing. She was telling Piper to watch her back and not trust anyone, but to do what she needed and forget about anybody else's needs.
The angel told her to follow her heart and to keep her head above water, because she was in deep. Piper knew that, of course, but she couldn't help but love it. The sense of danger in it was enticing and she couldn't help herself.
Piper whirled around when she heard the now familiar sound of orbs. Her eyes lit up. "So what am I, a one-night stand?" she teased.
"Piper…"
"I'm kidding… I'm just glad to see you, otherwise I wouldn't be."
Leo sighed. "We can't do this anymore."
"I--I know what we… did wasn't exactly right, but--"
"I'm serious, Piper, if this goes any further, we won't be able to work together without getting our hearts involved and if that happens--"
"Wait a second, Leo, my heart is already in this."
"I… I know that, but we've still got nine months, and if something happens between now and then… If somebody in one of my Houses finds out, we're one for, and because Anackalen is physic, it's been hard enough to hide you from him. If he feels even one tiny bit of suspicion, he'll rat us out. I can't risk that happening. Not to you."
"I'm not scared, Leo. And I don't want to end something that just started because of a single demon. I know the risks. Remember? I came to you for help. I had thought everything over, Leo--everything."
"Piper, we can't do this…"
"Says who? We weren't supposed to work together, either, but here we are."
Leo shook his head.
"Please, Leo." Piper walked up to him. "You can't give up just because we're… a little more than friends, now…" She took another step and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Leo stared at Piper for a moment before answering her. "…Well, you can't very well go through this by yourself…" He sighed and added, "Besides, I've already thrown my heart into it, what's the rest of my life compared to that?"
Piper smiled and kissed Leo. The front door opened and Phoebe and Prue came inside.
"Talk about your timing, huh?" Piper asked before her sisters got into the kitchen. "You'd better go," she told Leo.
"Call me if you need anything."
"I will," Piper promised. Leo kissed her and orbed out as Phoebe and Prue came in.
"Hiya!"
"Hey," Piper greeted her sisters.
"Hey, did I hear orbing sounds or something?" Prue asked.
"Huh? No, why?"
"Well, because we don't have a whitelighter, so I was curious."
"No. No one was here," Piper lied.
)))()((( (that night...)
Piper stared at Leo, asleep beside her. There was nothing more she could ask right then. Here she was, in his arms once more. Piper smiled.
She was sleeping with the enemy.
But he wasn't the enemy. He was a good guy. She couldn't imagine what he had to do to protect them from his Houses. It was easy for Piper. Her friends and family understood she wanted to lead a life of her own, so didn't question her. If Leo left for three days without word, Piper could imagine Decima sending every demon in the Underworld after him to find him…
But no one could find out. It would be hell for them both. They would have to stay a secret… But could anyone find out in the end? Or would they stay like this forever? Never telling anybody about them?
Piper looked at Leo's face once more and rolled into his chest. She sighed deeply and fell asleep with a little smile. But her dreams were nothing to be smiling about…
"Piper, Phoebe, Prue! Mother! Brooke, Chris! Nick, Faith!" Patty called, running inside the House. The eight people came running in. They were all upstairs, talking about what they would do after the marriage, when Patty's call scared them.
"What is it?" Faith asked.
"We've got a chance to vanquish one of them," Patty said, serious but happy.
"What? Where?"
"Out here, hurry!" Patty ran off, the eight people following her closely.
They were in the gardens quickly. Patty led them through the maze of bushes that were all as tall as she was and into the courtyard. They stayed in a bunch, ready for a sudden attack, and saw what Patty was talking about. Prue and Phoebe grinned.
Patty froze him. Not that anything would've happened; he was unconscious.
"Vanquish him now, Patty!" Chris encouraged.
Prue took the honors and let an energy ball develop in her hand.
Piper was last up, since she'd stayed back to charm the House like they always did when no one was in it, and it took her a moment. She pushed through the eight people around the entrance to the courtyard but couldn't see anything. The first thing she saw was Prue. She threw the energy ball at something on the ground. Patty's freeze had just worn off.
As Piper made her way to the front, she saw what Prue had hit. She gasped and screamed. "No! Leo!" She ran to his side as Prue tried to pull her away. No one knew what was going on.
The tears streamed down Piper's face as she fought to get away from her sister. The energy ball hadn't killed him, but the darklighter's arrow in his shoulder would. Finally out of her sister's grip, Piper scrambled to Leo's side.
"Please no… Leo, please… Please don't die on me… Not like this…" Piper's mind raced. She recited a spell to switch powers. She knew it would work, since she'd used it with her sisters before. "Um…" As the tears streamed down her face, and the eight people in the Houses of Good watched her, she said, "What's mine is yours, what's yours is mine. Let our powers cross the line. I offer up this gift to share. Switch our powers through the air."
Lights came from Leo to Piper, and from Piper to Leo. She moved to the arrow in his shoulder, still crying and saying, "Please, Leo, don't die… Not now… Not like this…" Tenderly but firmly, she pulled the arrow out, praying that because Leo was unconscious, he didn't feel it.
She placed her hands over the place where the arrow had been. It was bleeding badly, and Piper knew he wouldn't last much longer. She didn't know the trigger to his healing powers, though…
Trusting herself above all else, and not caring about her family and friends watching her, Piper let her heart take over her mind and her hands started to glow. The wound the energy ball had caused disappeared. Soon the blood went away and the arrow's wound was gone.
A second later, Leo opened his eyes. The tears came in a flood from Piper as she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him to sit up. At first, Leo didn't know what was going on, but could feel Piper's arms around him, and remembered being shot by the darklighter. But the wound was healed.
Still not knowing what was going on, he put his right arm around Piper, the other holding himself up from the ground. He could hear her crying.
"Piper…" Penny started slowly.
"Piper, a whitelighter's healing powers, good or evil, are triggered by love," Brooke said quietly.
Piper wasn't listening. She didn't even hear them. She finally pulled away from Leo and looked at him, smiling. He pulled hair back from her face that had fallen over her shoulders and stuck to her cheeks, her tears working like glue.
There was a flash and Piper was living a different dream…
"No!" Piper yelled. Her sisters held her back. "Let me go! Let me go!" she yelled, the tears streaming down her face. "Why are you doing this?"
"It's the right thing to do, Piper," Prue said calmly.
"No! You can't do this to me! To us!" Piper yelled, struggling to get away from her sisters. "Leo!" she called. "Leo!"
Leo came diagonally from her right side out of the shadows. He was accompanied by Patty, Penny, and Bianca, who was silently crying, the tears slowly creeping from her eyes. Patty was on Leo's left, Penny on his right, and Bianca was behind him.
He walked up to Piper slowly, his eyes on the ground. Piper stopped struggling, and waited for him to reach her. When he did, he looked up, raising his head slowly. Her tears slowed as she looked into his eyes.
"Leo, please…" she pleaded.
"Piper…" he said quietly.
"No, Leo, no. Please... Don't do this... Don't let them win…" Piper shook her head and sobbed. Her sisters let her go, and from the force she'd been pulling away from them at, she fell forward and into Leo's arms. "Please don't do this…" she cried, wrapping her arms around him. He held her to him with one arm around her lower back, the other around her shoulders. "Leo…" she sobbed.
"Piper, I can't let something happen to you. If this is the only way…"
"No! It's not! They can't win! We can beat them!" she cried into his chest.
He kissed the top of her head, and she sobbed. "We could have. They can't hurt you if I do this."
Piper didn't respond. The tears had started up again.
"I promise you they can't and they won't," he whispered into her hair. He kissed the top of her head again.
She looked up at him, the other people in the room completely forgotten. She looked into his eyes as a last plea and he captured her lips in his to seal the promise.
Piper didn't pull back, but, after a second, deepened the kiss. Leo slowly pulled back from her after a long moment. "I love you," he said.
At that. the tears came in a flood down her face and her body was racked with sobs. She kissed him again. "I love you, too," she whispered in return. After a final kiss and a tight hug, Leo took a step back.
Her eyes locked onto his, and they held the gaze until Leo orbed out. Piper turned her head and waited. Prue threw an energy ball at the orbs and they exploded. Piper fell to her knees.
"Leo!" Piper choked, waking with a jolt. She flew forward on the bed, unable to breathe. "Leo…" she choked out again. She gasped for air, crying uncontrollably, her whole body shaking and covered in sweat.
A hand held her up, another gently pulling hair from her face. "Shh… It's okay…"
"No, it's not!" she managed to choke out. "Prue! She--" Piper couldn't even say it.
"Piper... It's okay. Prue's in the First House with Phoebe."
"No! No, it's not okay! She... They won. They're going to win, Leo! Prue--I saw it! She killed you," Piper sobbed.
"Piper, it was only a dream…"
"No, it wasn't! It--It was like a premonition or… something…"
"Piper, it's over now. Don't worry. Nothing's going to happen to you or me or anyone," Leo promised.
"No, Leo, you don't understand!" Piper cried. "First you were shot by a darklighter, then my sisters were holding me back, and you orbed out and…"
Piper shook her head furiously. She sobbed again and leaned to her side, falling back on Leo. He held her body against his as she sobbed into his chest about something that was going to happen, something that wasn't good. He held her until she fell asleep.
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A/N: You know, I wrote Piper's two dreams a long timeago, and I read them a few hours ago and thought to myself, I wrote it, so what the hell? and stuck it in. What could it hurt? I thought. So I hope it didn't hurt anything.
Had to do the italics thing again, sorry. Just can't seem to get a space in between time lapses...
A bit of a slow chapter, I think, and very Piper/Leo one, too, but what can you expect from me? Ah, well. 'Till next time!