Chapter Four

"I know what we should do," Piper said. They were on the taxi to the hotel, and had changed into their new identities, Alex wore a short haired blonde wig, and Piper wore a long haired black wig. They smiled at the irony, but at least in the hotel they were registered as a couple. Piper would be relieved after they bought a house and didn't have to keep wearing disguises. "We should get tattoos."

"Tattoos? What like you and Stella?"

Piper regretted bringing that up immediately. "No, god no. I mean, I need a new tattoo to cover up my old one," 'trust no bitch' wasn't exactly inconspicuous, they had covered it with make-up for their journey, but it would be annoying if Piper had to keep covering it up. "And I want something to mark us being together again, to celebrate it."

"Like your fish tattoo?"

"Yeah, like that."

Alex smiled. "I got my first tattoo when I was sixteen."

"I know, your mom was so cool."

"Hah, no, she was pissed off, that's what she was."

"I can't imagine what my mom would have done if I had gotten a tattoo at that age. Probably not talk to me for a month. Though she did that sometimes anyway. I still remember that time she found those magazines under my bed..."

"And you said they were your brothers," Alex laughed. "'Why were they in your room?' 'I don't know why that perv does what he does'"

Piper laughed with Alex.

"You already know all of my stories," Piper said.

"We'll just have to make new ones." Alex smiled and looked at Piper, that adoring look that seems to be reserved for Piper only. "God Piper, its amazing to me how normal you turned out, considering the parents you had."

"I'm normal?"

"Haha, no, maybe not completely." Alex smiled and winked. "That panty business was, pretty unique."

Piper pushed her shoulder playfully. "Shut up."

"Hey, its a good thing. With you I'm never bored."

Alex really loved her mom. Like, she had a really awesome mom.

Alex had her first girlfriend when she was still in grade school, and had known she liked girls long before then. But like most children, she had grown up in an environment that instilled the belief that there was something wrong with her. Whenever someone in middle school was hated and left out, people would start a rumor that they were lesbian, even if they weren't. Because in middle school, apparently being a lesbian was the worst thing you could be. Fortunately not all schools are like this anymore, but Alex's schools were.

One of the popular girls on the soccer team had gotten a crush on her. Alex was excluded at school because of her clothes, but she had never been ugly.

Alex used to sit on the bleachers when the soccer team was practicing. She would bring a magazine or a book, and look over the top of it. That girl had been really good at soccer. Graceful, captivating.

One time she had come into the girl's bathroom. It was just the two of them. She demanded that Alex give her her lunch money. Alex told her that was childish. The girl had kissed her, "you fucking lesbian," she said, and ran out of the bathroom.

She could only express her feelings for Alex through bullying, at first.

Alex had finally convinced her to go on a date with her. The girl liked her, but was afraid of them being caught. She didn't want her reputation to be ruined. Alex had promised that her mom wouldn't be home, she would be at work.

Her mom came home early that day, because it was Alex's birthday, and she caught them kissing.

"Love is the most beautiful thing in the world," Diane had said. "You should never be ashamed of it."

Alex's mom had always supported her. It was why she was so confident and self-assured. It didn't matter that the world tended to be against her. Her identity was validated.

Piper had never been as comfortable in her own skin. It was her supportive friends that had given her the confidence she had. Polly could be self-centered, but she never judged Piper for being bisexual.

The hotel room had a really nice bed. Piper used to like sleeping in hotel rooms more than anywhere else, it used to be easier for her to fall asleep, but that was before she had met Alex. When she was with Alex, she didn't sleep much, but somehow felt much better in the mornings and more awake then she ever did on a full nights sleep without her.

Alex looked into Piper's eyes to make sure that she wanted this as much as she did, and seeing that she did from the glowing lust in Piper's eyes, she pushed her onto the bed.

It was so good to feel Alex on top of her again.

Each of her kisses seemed to erase a day of the eight years that they had spent apart. It seemed that they would spend the rest of their lives erasing those years over and over again.

Piper pulled her fingers through Alex's black hair, so glad that their disguises were gone, that Alex looked like Alex.