OK, there you have it: a sequel to Single Origin. I actually made myself anxious with finishing this unplanned thing in time for my birthday, and though it's somewhat set up to possibly turn into a multi-chapter, don't expect anything else in the very near future. If I ever write more in this particular universe, I'll put it up as a stand alone story but I don't want to give you hopes otherwise (I hate having to wait for a story to be updated or to see one abandoned where the last comments from the author are "I have a whole set up for the next chapters of this story").

PS: if you leave any requests/questions/whatever about a story in the comments, I will answer them by updating its own chapter.

PS2: thank you for the wishes, Jamla :-) I'm usually quite inspired, it's just when life gets in the way and throws off my concentration... ejm, it's good to hear you're enjoying them all. I started writing for my own entertainment (on occasion literally when I'd run out of fun stuff to read) so it's sometimes hard to gauge what others would like. I just felt it was a shame to keep these stories in the vault now that I wrote them.

"Hey, boss, I think you've got a runaway bride there," Stella grinned, handing Larry his second coffee of the night. The clock showed 18:50.

Larry had to admit the barista was right. Almost an hour had passed since Piper rushed back to the shop, after a brisk call from Polly. He was still pumped from having his column green lighted (or was that green lit?), but tiredness was slowly starting to replace elation. As he was finishing his coffee and the first pangs of hunger stirred in his gut, dying sunshine sent its last peek over rain clouds. Chinese sounded pretty good, he thought, scratching his chin, absent-mindedly watching the string of pedestrians zipping up and down the sidewalk, car lights pulsating rhythmically in the background. He probably needed to shave if he was hoping to get lucky. He vaguely did.

Larry: Hey Pipes, I'm gonna order Chinese on the way home. Just meet me there, k? Love you :-)

Radio silence from Piper.

When Larry left Starbucks he wasn't particularly worried. It wouldn't be the first time Piper forgot to check her phone. Better yet, the battery was probably flat. He wasn't sure how she did it, but Piper's phone was more often than not dead.

It had taken a bit of convincing. Polly, nosy as usual, was giving her the side eye over the phone. But Piper was on a mission and nobody messes with determined Piper. She'd made her mind up as soon as she felt the warmth of Alex's hand disappear.

Luckily, Larry was on a got my column approved high, because Piper was too busy following Alex's receding figure to contribute to the conversation. She wasn't even sure if Larry had noticed she was talking to somebody when he'd arrived; he never mentioned it.

"Let me get a tissue," she'd smiled sweetly at him and quickly made her way to the counter. Stella caught her eye again. Piper gave her a distracted little wave, failing to notice the thoughtful look the barista cast between her and the exit. For her part, Piper had a good view of the entrance and could see Alex still lingering outside.

Piper: Pol, I need you to call me pronto and tell me you need me in the office.

For a moment there upon exiting Starbucks she had the sinking feeling that she had lost Alex. Hastily, she looked left. She looked right. The sidewalk was crawling with the early evening crowd proceeding at a much too slower pace for Piper's racing pulse. Dusk was quickly turning into sunset and the ambiguous light wasn't supportive of her sleuthing exercise, turning the moving bodies into a homogeneous mass of muddled shadows.

Finally she thought she'd caught a flash of pale skin against dark hair. Yes, Alex was just turning a corner. She appeared to have company, though the damn people on the sidewalk blocked the one glimpse she had of the person. Drats, Piper thought, punching the door handle she was still clutching, a stab of jealousy slashing her chest. Gritting her teeth, she sprinted towards the corner, only to see Alex close the door of a quickly departing recent model sedan. Without looking around, Alex stuck her hands in her pockets and crossed to the other side. Piper kept a careful distance in the rapidly elongating shadows of the dingy side street until she saw Alex descend the stairs of a subway station.

Of course, Piper reasoned while making her way to the turnstile, with her eyes pinned to the top of Alex's head now disappearing down the stairs in the direction of Queens (seriously?!), a normal person would simply call. They would wave at each other, perhaps a little awkwardly (Piper) or too smugly (Alex), and after the initial "oh" and "yea" they would… well, what would they do, then? And that was the reason Piper had absolutely decided against calling.

Her card didn't work. The air was almost knocked out of her when her midriff slammed into the metal bar.

"MOTHERFUCKER!" Piper's shout reverberated against the tiled tunnel walls, her voice twisted comically. She gave the turnstile a good kick, and then another one, for good measure. She tried again. The card was definitely not cooperating. The train, on the other hand, approached fast. She could clearly hear the whoosh of the metal juggernaut rushing through the underground tunnel. The breeze brought a whiff of the unmistakable subway tunnel mixed aromas, causing her nose to scrunch in distaste and exasperation.

That's when she realized she was using her credit card.

Arms and legs flailing, she scrambled to the platform just as the doors were closing. For a bare moment she saw Alex board the next car. Piper had just enough time to squeeze her thin frame between the rubber padding of the slamming doors. Without stopping, she advanced through the busy car, trying to ignore the unfriendly looks jabbing her way.

About three thirds in, she got stuck between two large ladies who were most certainly determined to stand their ground in spite of her repeated squirming. With a disgruntled sigh, Piper resorted to craning her neck so she could peer through the door at the end of the car. The breaks screeched as the train took a sudden turn. Piper felt bags and elbows poke her in the back. A few people offered apologies and she nodded silently to no one in particular. One of the large ladies dangerously pressed her heavy bosom into her chest, invading Piper's senses with a strong floral perfume. Piper sneezed. As the train graciously swayed and the cars changed position relative to each other, Piper caught the sight she was hoping for: Alex sitting down just across the door, eyes riveted to her phone.

The corners of Piper's lips turned up with an idea. Allowing the tight embrace of the crowd to carry her, she pulled out her phone and texted.

Piper: Hey. Where are you?

At first nothing happened and, with her view obstructed again, Piper wasn't sure anymore if Alex was indeed in the car up ahead. But then the train shook again and, dutifully, everybody got reacquainted with each other, awkward smiles in place. The brunette returned within her sight-line and Piper saw her smirk and start to text. On cue, her phone pinged.

Alex: On the train. You?

Piper scoffed. So like Alex, to tell you the truth without revealing anything. She typed back.

Piper: Almost home.

Alex: Good night, Pipes. It was nice to see you today.

Well. That was a bit underwhelming, wasn't it? Piper thought, uncharitably. Alex had smirked upon receiving the text, she'd seen that with her own eyes. So what exactly did she expect, after 10 years? A gallant invitation to dinner? Especially after the way they'd parted all those years ago... Piper winced at the memory. She liked to think she was a better person now. Somebody with a spine. Someone who would make a gracious break if needed. Someone who could stand up for herself without unduly hurting others in the process.

Piper: Good night, Alex. It was a nice surprise.

Nice. What an inoffensive word, right? Like a floral arrangement or the thought of your boss calling you when you were home with the flu (perhaps with the ulterior motive of gauging the real intensity of your indisposition). Is that what they were to each other after 10 years of no communication? Inoffensive?

The train stopped, jolting her self-awareness from its usual cozy torpor. In true Piper fashion, she was starting to get worked up over things that should've been sorted out a long time ago. Trying to flatten herself away from the exiting passengers, she felt the phone vibrate in her hand. She checked it eagerly but the hopeful enthusiasm in her eyes faded as soon as she saw it was just Larry letting her know he was picking up Chinese. Just Larry, she chastised herself, lifting her head. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a flash of Alex exiting the train.

"Fuck!" she mumbled, frantically elbowing her way against the incoming stream of passengers.

"Forgot your stop, sister?" someone chided her.

Piper rushed down the stairs, eyes darting wildly about her. She had no idea where she was (Queens had not featured highly on her 10 hidden places every New Yorker should know about list) and she had, once again, lost sight of Alex.

She made her way to the busy road under the railway bridge and looked about herself, taking in long, steadying breaths. It was dark now but the traffic was still gridlocked, a row of red stoplights bouncing off the bridge above. Two SUVs, a moving van and a larger truck were vying for territory with a loudly honking yellow cab that inched its way through it all with sudden impertinent jerks. People on each side of her streamed off the sidewalk, weaving through the stationary traffic.

What was she thinking when she'd rushed after Alex? With a bemused sigh, she admitted to herself that she had not thought that one through. She just… she thought she just wanted a bit more time, just the two of them. Right until now it hadn't quite occurred to her that she no longer had a place in Alex's personal life. Wasn't that what Alex's last text implied? All things considered, she should be pleased that Alex had been so friendly and polite. Instead, her first instinct had been to demand more.

The lights changed and, as she stepped onto the zebra, she saw Alex cross from the opposite side. Shit, Piper thought, turning on her heels and taking refuge behind a bus shelter. What were the odds that Alex had spotted her? She reasoned it was dark, busy and Alex's eyesight had always been famously shit, with no hopes of improvement. Hopefully. She followed Alex with curious eyes as she passed right by the bus shelter on her way to the mysterious place where she was headed. The brunette looked impassible, her eyes inscrutable behind glasses, her expressive mouth – often such a good gauge of her emotions – now calm and relaxed.

Piper was almost surprised at how easy it was to pick up following about half a block behind Alex. This was getting ridiculous, though somewhat trilling, too. But she had come this far. Now she really, really wanted to see where the hell Alex was headed. In fucking Queens.

Alex took a couple of turns in a badly lit area of car washes and garages. Piper had slowly been shortening the distance between the two of them, just in case, although here the streets were almost deserted. The only faces she encountered were ethnic locals carrying shopping bags, on their way from – by all appearances – menial jobs. Piper really didn't want to judge, but how else do you even call it? It was an area of apparent poverty, the likes of which it had so far never occurred to Piper to associate with her NYC. And she wasn't wrong. This wasn't her NYC.

The destination was a cubic construction at the end of a cleanly paved but empty parking lot. It wasn't an apartment building, nor was it offices. To Piper's surprise, it was a self storage facility.

She saw Alex walk casually to the office and exchange words with the person behind the glass. An older redhead? Piper couldn't see very well from her hiding spot. Alex's body language was neutral. No, in fact, it was a bit friendlier than that, Piper thought. She had known Alex as well as you can know someone and she remembered that the brunette never leaned too close unless… well, she was quite sure Alex hadn't come all this way to flirt with the self storage manager. The thought made her snort. Then again… Alex had always had her secrets.

Piper took the opportunity to sneak inside when the manager's back was turned. She swiftly slipped around the first corner, flattening her back against the corrugated metal. Not bad at all for self storage, she mused as she took in the industrial space, though she really had nothing to compare it with, her only "storage unit" up until this point having been the room she'd grown up in Connecticut. But this was well lit and cleanly painted. Piper was pretty sure it smelled like a cheap-ish hotel lobby. Go Queens.

Once again, Alex passed right by her, ostensibly on the way to her own unit. Piper followed with soft steps, feeling very clever for having eluded Alex thus far. As she rounded another corner (the umpteenth of the evening), she came face to face with Alex's open unit.

"Looking for something, Pipes?"

Alex was leaning against the wall, just inside, arms crossed over her chest in a gesture so familiar, Piper had a déjà vu. A knowing smile was tugging at the corners of her ex's lips.

"Are you… did you know I was following you?" Piper asked, casting her eyes around in hopes of hiding her blush.

Alex laughed, hey eyes full of mischievous mirth.

"You're not exactly James Bond, Piper. Plus, I was kinda hoping you would be. Following, I mean," Alex added, walking closer, green eyes on blue. She held out her hand.

"Oh. Oh!" There. The warmth of Alex's hand was wrapped around hers again. Mission accomplished. "What are we doing here?"

"I found this," Alex said, pulling a bottle of red wine out of a dusty cardboard box, "so I'm thinking picnic."

"You keep red wine in your storage unit?" Piper asked, her eyes scanning the cluttered place. There were things in there she recognized and some of them pushed buttons she'd rather leave untouched. For the time being, at least.

"Do you wanna know what else I keep in here?" Alex's smile was warm and Piper's incipient uneasiness relented.

"What?"

"Come closer," Alex beckoned her with a wink. "Turn the light off."

"You want me to switch the light off?"

"Just humor me, Pipes. Close your eyes."

With a deep sigh, Piper complied. A moment later she felt the soft slap of cotton against her cheek.

"Jesus, Alex, what the fuck?" she started laughing as she blinked her eyes open. It was the Senor Parrot's t-shirt, still faintly smelling of sun and sand. Or maybe it was the power of memory, reassembling the past in a dizzying flash. "You kept this?" her voice sounded soft and wistful as she held the t-shirt to her chest.

Warring reminiscences unsettled her. On the one hand, there was that deceptively sunny day in Paris when she'd packed her side of their life away, never to fully bring it out into the light again, rather allowing it to fester in the far recesses of her unconsciousness. On the other, the stupid t-shirt had gleefully yanked her to the time when their boat had run out of gas in the middle of the Caribbean. Piper instinctively touched her fingertips to her lips. She may have pushed it to the untended backyard of her mind, but the ghost of Alex's lips on her skin took this opportunity to break free of its shackles.

She was laughing into the kiss, sky and sea mingling into tranquil blue-green around her when she opened her eyes to see the colors reflected in Alex's smiling ones. The kiss lingered, more about taste – salt and weed and tequila – and texture than intensity, with her arms loosely wrapped around Alex's smooth, warm (yet still inexplicably pale) shoulders.

"It's like floating in fucking pea soup," Piper had let out a tipsy giggle. Her head dropped back and sea and sky switched places, miraculously failing to drip into each other. With a satisfied moan, she stretched into her girlfriend's touch, as the breeze caressed her skin.

"All right, time to get your drunk ass home," Alex had chuckled against her belly. Piper squeaked and screamed, trying to push the brunette's tickling hair away. But that only incensed Alex, who launched a nibbling and nipping attack against Piper's sides. Amidst Piper's laughing protests, Alex pushed Piper's bikini top out of the way. "You really don't need this out here," she laughed, chucking it into the water.

"Asshole," Piper said, but her seductive smile betrayed her intentions. Keeping her eyes on Alex's, she slowly eased her bikini bottoms off her hips. With a flick of her wrist, she disposed of them into the docile blue-green waters. Alex's sea-shimmering eyes were anything but tame. Neither was her mouth or her fingers, as the sun and the sky started to drip into each other.

"OK?" Piper asked later, lifting herself up on her elbows as she overheard Alex's muffled expletive.

"Race you!" had been Piper's unconcerned answer to the emergency. Without further ado, she'd jumped into the "pea soup", immediately easing into backstroke. "Come on," she'd laughed at a hesitating Alex, "you're gonna get heatstroke if you don't cool off."

"Yea?" Alex smirked, following her into the balmy waters, "and what are you gonna do when you get to the shore?"

"Shit," Piper had blushed, agitating the perfectly clear waters into protective foam, suddenly self conscious even of the colorful fish weaving around her legs.

Piper involuntarily smiled at the silly memory. Alex had given her a piggy back ride from the shallow waters all the way back to their hotel room. They had got curious looks from the mostly middle aged tourists sipping mid-afternoon cocktails. They'd just giggled hysterically, too drunk with sun and mirth to care.

"What do you think this is?" present time Alex gestured at the unit, eyes unreadable.

"Oh." The mood had turned sober, with the relics of their shared past looming over them. Piper folded the t-shirt, unsure how to continue. "Alex, I…"

"Hurry your ass back out, Alex, I'm locking up for the night."

Alex rolled her eyes at the call echoing from down the corridor. She grabbed the wine bottle and extended her hand to Piper, her eyes still closed off.

"Visiting hours end at 7pm."

"It's 8," Piper dumbly said.

"Exactly."

Alex handed her the wine as she locked up. On the way back to reception, Piper interlaced their fingers again. Their eyes briefly met in a tentative smile.

"Why doesn't it surprise me that you're hiding cute blondes inside your unit?" the manager commented from the main entrance. Piper stiffened and looked down, unable to meet the woman's inquisitive eyes.

"And she's not even inflatable, Red," Alex grinned, amused by Piper's embarrassed face.

Piper shyly searched her face. It seemed like her ex's mood had changed again; or maybe it was just a front she was putting on for the third party. But for once, Piper was really glad she was providing entertainment. And that Alex's hand was still in hers.

Guess what? It's single digits Celsius outside and my boiler's busted, so naturally I had to sneak some sea and sunshine in before I gift myself a heater first thing tomorrow :-) I really should've booked a tropical holiday instead of spending my two-ish weeks off at home, updating Vauseman fanfic ;-)