34
"Ahhh!," Harper was still screaming as the slam of the bedroom door echoed down the hall. Alex burst through the door to find her daughter covering her mouth with one hand and slapping Jamie repeatedly with the other.
"Stop!," she says pulling her away from him as he laughs amusedly in her face. "I'm sick of this. She's moving to the office, fighting all the time, s'ridiculous," she says with a huff.
"Yes!," Jamie says happy to have his own room again.
Harpers eyes furrow, she wiggles her loose tooth in her aching mouth.
"You're helping pack it up...," she looks between her kids, "both of you." She lifts the string that hangs from the doorknob and then brings Harper's chin up to see her tooth.
"Why do I have to help?" Jamie asks, "she said I could try to get her tooth out. Not my fault she's a baby."
"I'm not a baby," she yells and stamps her foot as she tries to push her way out of Alex's arms to whack him again.
"Enough!," she tightens her arms around Harper and looks at Jamie. "Every time you 'help' she ends up crying or you end up mad."
"But it's disgusting, she keeps playing with it!"
"It'll come out when it's supposed to come out. I want you to take her and go downstairs to the deli and ask if they have boxes to store books and files from the office."
"But ma, we were just..."
"Go!"
Piper hears Alex pulling the drawers of their office desk open, rummaging through papers muttering under her breath.
"Hun?"
"What?!"
Somewhat shocked at Alex's tone she takes a second to respond. "They should be in different rooms anyway, they're overdue."
"I know that," she says with obviousness but all the while clearly irritated.
"So why are you upset? Why do you always get so upset when they fight? It's almost always over something stupid."
Alex shoots her a glare. "I'm not upset that they're fighting. Well I am. I'm upset that they're growing up. They're supposed to oblige by the unspoken agreement that they're to never grow taller, nor wiser, but to stay small and innocent. Not rip each others teeth out."
They use the cardboard boxes to pack up as much stuff as they can from the office, and move the boxes into their bedroom. They disassemble the desk and reassemble it in the living room.
Piper takes her daughter down to their local hardware store; she tries to hype the pros of having her own room, to an unconvinced Harper.
"You'll get to decorate and paint it whatever color you want, except these," she says as she removes a bunch of extremely loud colors from the wall of choices. The muscles of her butt clench, she feels like her mother. She replaces the colors she briefly forbade her daughter from choosing and told her to really pick out whatever color she wanted. She decides on a bright purple.
"But I won't fight with him," she tells Piper as they walk back to their apartment with a gallon of Purple Mountains' Majesty.
"Baby, soon you and Jamie are going to be going to different schools it's better to have your own rooms, he needs some more privacy."
As they walk in the door, Alex still seems annoyed, and Piper catches her telling them to "enjoy the night because tomorrow is painting day," before retreating to their bedroom and closing their door.
They lay in bed reading, Alex closes her book, she kicks the sheets off her legs while Piper peers at her from her sideways glance. She gets up and cracks the window, bending down momentarily to let whatever remnant of summer breeze there is hit her face before crawling back into bed.
Alex removes her glasses and presses the side of her face into her pillow facing Piper. The blonde starts tracing a hand through her hair automatically, while she flips each page. She nods off several times only to be awoken by Alex's hand encouraging her to continue rubbing her head.
After the 4th or 5th time Piper asks, "can't sleep?"
"Mm mm," she cuddles closer into Piper's side.
"Want me to tire you out?"
Alex roughly turns over to her other side away from Piper.
"Oook, bad week?," Piper does the math, "nope that's not it," she says playfully. She sinks lower into the bed and runs her fingertips along the length of Alex's body. The breeze flows through the window, Piper pulls the excessive amount of sheets over her exposed skin, the sheets overlap slightly onto Alex's body.
"Pipes please it's so hot, "she tosses the sheet away from her body and onto Piper's side.
"What's up Al? The kids fighting still got you heated? We're getting her room ready tomorrow, we can't do anything until then so there's no need to get all upset when we can't..."
"This isn't a bad week for me. I don't think I'll have any more bad weeks," she exhales."Or I'll have an eternal bad week- depends on how you look at it."
Piper hardened her face until she realized what Alex had told her and the muscles around her mouth went soft.
"I haven't gotten a period in three months."
"Maybe you're pregnant."
Alex turns onto her stomach and stretches her arms underneath her pillow and burrows her face in deeper. Piper sits on the small of her back and glides her hands over Alex's shoulder blades and gently squeezes the muscles under the straps of her tank top.
"Al, so what? It's just another part of life." "When did I get this old?"
"You're not old, just older. Think of how much we'll save on Midol and maxi's. No more riding the cotton pony."
"Yeah peace to the red dot special and send in the welcoming committee to embrace my saggy tits," Alex mumbles.
"These," she sneaks her hands underneath Alex's chest and gently squeezes her wife's full breasts, "aren't saggy."
"Yet. And my," she reaches her own hands back to poke her butt but Piper pushes her hands back down to the bed, "neither is your ass. Vause please."
"And," she wiggles slightly to move her hands toward her face, "I've been fighting my skin..." Piper lunges forward and pins her hands down on either side of her face.
"And you win that fight, over and over again. Al you're a fox. A dark haired..."
"Artificially dark haired," Piper moves her hand from holding down Alex's hand to the bed and plunges it over her mouth to stop the disparagement.
"A dark haired fox, with these gorgeous sparkly eyes hidden behind these sexy fucking glasses, with a smirk,that says fuck you, that I want to just slap off your gorgeous little fucking face, and pillowy breasts and an ass that goes on for days."
She feels Alex's mouth move underneath her palm, she raises her hand away from the brunette's face and sees her bite her lip and smirk. She shoves her hand back against her face "and I'm still sitting here waiting, nestled above said perfect ass, for my fucking dance."
She cant hide her smile, though she exhales deeply and shakes her head from side to side, "I know Pipes just bare with me alright?"
"No, I've waited all summer. I'll give you tonight, because it's late and I'm tired. But come morning, you better dig out the stilettos and brush the dust off your jazz hands."
"Okay okay."
"Did you prepare anything?"
"This is not a freaking variety hour, you'll get what you get."
As the second layer of bright purple paint dries, the belongings Harper collected in her five years, are moved little by little. Her clothes from the closet, her dresser, her toys, and of course not without argument some choice items that belonged to both her and Jamie. As the night sky darkened their apartment and her story was through, Piper tucked Harper into bed and closed her light. She wiggled her tooth with her tongue for a while, trying to distract herself from this new eerie silence, the shadow from neighboring buildings, the new arrangement of her things. She walked down to her moms' room,
"mama, can I sleep with you tonight?." She doesn't even need the pout as Alex gladly welcomes her into their bed, she burrows in beside Alex. She absentmindly gently scratches Harper's head while she picks up where she left off in her novel.
"Al!," Piper whines from the doorway as she notes Harper in their bed. She walks over and leans into the bed and sees Harper fast asleep, she glares at Alex.
"She was scared. It's her first night sleeping alone in a new room. I told her just for tonight."
"And this has nothing to do with you avoiding your end of the bet?"
Alex doesn't look up, but just shrugs her shoulder, "happy coincidence."
Alex awakens to Harper's foot in her side. She pinches her toes, causing her to dig her head into Piper's ribcage which causes the blonde to sit up sharply, elbowing their daughter in the face.
"Mmm!," she brings her hand up to her mouth, "my tooth!," she holds it up disregarding any pain from the elbow to her face.
"Oh thank the Lord, go show your brother, he'll be thrilled that its not dangling from your gums anymore."
"Jamie look!," she screeches and barges into his room waking him up.
"Harper! You have to knock, this isn't your room anymore!"
"Sorrrrrrrrry," she says with a bit of an attitude. She closes his door and knocks, "can I come in?"
"No!"
"Jamie!"
He opens his door with a smirk, "lemme see," he says and lowers his bottom lip to mimic the expression he wants Harper to make. "Cool. You have to put it under your pillow or the tooth fairy won't know where to find it."
Piper trudges by to start a pot of coffee.
"Does it have to be the pillow in my room?," she asks Jamie in all seriousness trying to get the details from her oh so wise big brother about this tooth fairy business.
Piper widens her eyes and nods her head at him.
"Yeah, it needs to be the pillow on your bed or she won't know where to find it."
"Do I have to be in my bed?"
He looks up at Piper again who's frantically nodding and then looks down at Harper, "yeah you need to be sleeping in your own bed."
She turns around and sees Piper standing behind her and looks back at Jamie, "is there really a tooth fairy?"
He looks back at her in shock, "yes! Of course."
She pushes her tongue through the new hole in her mouth and looks at him skeptically, "it's not mom?"
"No! Why would you think that? The tooth fairy isn't mom, she doesn't have wings...she can't fly."
He takes the time to convince her that there is in fact a tooth fairy, along with the ins and outs, including all regulations to abide by in order to ensure her visit.
Once she's been settled into bed, she goes back and forth over being brave enough to sleep alone versus trying to convince one of her moms to let her sleep with them while knowingly missing out on having the tooth fairy come into her room. Like the night before, she gets out of bed and stands outside Jamie's door and knocks until he lets her in. She comes to him for comfort and reassurance hoping there's some loophole around having to be in her own room. She tells him that she doesn't care if the tooth fairy finds her, she just wants to sleep with their moms. She holds back her tears and tries to be as brave as she can but with the fear that reads clearly over her face, she's obviously upset as shes been waiting for this tooth to fall out and meet this fairy for quite some time.
He walks her to their moms' room and once again Alex welcomes her in. The lights are shut down in the kitchen, followed by the living room, and eventually the hallway before Piper makes it to their bedroom and sees Harper in their bed again. She's visibly more pissed this time as this is now feeling habitual, when Alex had assured her it would only be one night; she's not interested in the reasons her daughter provided to be promoted to sleeping in their large bed as she's horny and has been chronically deprived of Alex's usual charm.
Piper walks out annoyed and Jamie tells her to give him five dollars and says he'll make sure it looks like the tooth fairy came. He says he'll put some pink glitter near her pillow, take the tooth and leave the money. She rubs his head in loving thanks for his ability help preserve Harper's belief in magical things.
Alex tells Harper to wait in their bed while she goes to talk to Piper. Meanwhile Jamie gingerly passes them in the hallway and goes into their room to calm an audibly distraught Harper. Jamie keeps his arm around her while he explains that because its her first tooth, as long as shes home, she can sleep anywhere but she still has to leave the tooth under her own pillow. She looks at him skeptically again as the rules have suddenly changed and challenges him, saying it's one of their moms who's really the tooth fairy. He tells her to sleep by the door reasoning that they would have to open the door inwardly in order to go to her room, therefore she'd feel the door hit her if either of them tried to get out.
In the hallway Alex's voice deepens as she goes on a rant, "at her age I was worrying about what neighbor was available to watch me while my mom did the graveyard shift at her 2nd or 3rd job of the day. Whether it would be the neighbor who brought over leftovers, you know the kind that tasted like she spent all day cooking, or the one who smoked and talked on the phone all night so my dreams could be intercepted with the reminder that she was in my apartment instead of my mom. Or no, I was busy mastering my walk so that my pants didn't show another inch of my ankle so I didn't have to hear the worry in my mother's voice as she tried to figure out how she was going to take me hunting for new clothes again. So if she wants to cuddle up with us or worry about the God damned tooth fairy, let her! Were obviously doing something right. I'm glad those are her worries, let her have normal five year old concerns!"
Piper nodded in agreement, she put her hand out, palm up, "I need five dollars."
"What?," Alex hisses.
"For Jamie. He said he'd handle the tooth fairy fiasco for Harper."
Like day to night, the brunette's hardened exterior melted, her eyes looked similar to Piper's when she had her whole Bambi shtick going on. Piper leans her head back slightly as she witnesses Alex's 180, "oh God," she mutters, "you're ridiculous. How am I supposed to keep up with you?"
Alex raises her eyebrows and shrugs. She laughs through glossy eyes. "You promised me forever," she says while she grabs Piper's hands.
She pulls Alex in close and drapes her arms around Alex's neck. "I'm sorry if I'm being impatient," Piper says leaning into the brunette's shoulder. Alex let's her hands rest on Piper's waist and subtlety sways her hips back and forth in a slow dance.
Jamie steps out of their room after comforting and setting up Harper on their floor. He stops in his tracks as he sees his moms slowly swaying in the hall. He takes a step back and retreats back into their room.
"Were going out," Piper talks into her shoulder. "I'm calling Nicky and at her first availability, we're getting into some nice clothes and we're going out."
The kids are dropped off at Nicky's with overnight bags while she's filled in on Harper's recent difficulty sleeping in a new space. She catches up with them;
"she's totally moody. For no reason. Like one minute she's laughing at some show and then she snaps and complains that the we leave the refrigerator door open too long when were in the kitchen but then she goes and she stands in front of the freezer with the door wide open," he says completing his rant.
"Aw, well it's summer kid and maybe with more time she's lost her patience with you gremlins," she says as she sprays detangler through Harper's damp hair and tries to comb through it by causing the least amount of discomfort.
"Aunt Nicky do you have a prince?;" Harper asks as her head is pulled back slightly. Nicky's mouth drops open, she smirks to the side, "no."
"I want you to have a prince."
"Can I have a princess instead?"
Harper thinks for a moment, "but why?"
"I like princesses better."
"Alright, what is your princess like?"
"I'm not picky kid, why don't you keep your eyes pealed for me and if you see a good one tell her you have a great aunt who would make her happy okay?"
"Okay!"
"J, any princesses catch your eye lately?"
His face reads a swirl of revulsion and embarrassment, "that would be a no."
She raises her hands in surrender, "alright alright. Princes then?"
"Haha, no," he retorts with a deadpan expression.
"Just assessin my competition Romeo. Does your ma train you to make those faces? Because honestly, it kinda freaks me out."
Alex and Piper are standing by the bar, the pink uplighting gives the room a warm glow. She fans away the sweat that starts to accumulate above her brow after Piper has once again convinced her to dance out her recent frustrations on the dance floor. Pink shines off of Alex's satin blouse, she scratches her nails down her fitted black jeans before hooking an arm around her neck and taking a look around the lounge, she feels slightly out of place.
Piper plays with the button that holds Alex's halter fastened closed, she teases her with the button while she keeps her other hand splayed against her back.
Alex reaches back to grab her thigh and squeezes slightly, "what're you gonna have?"
"Surprise me," she says in Alex's ear and heads to the bathroom.
The bartender sets two drinks on the bar in front of Alex, a younger woman slinks up beside her, "are you a lush or are you here with someone?"
Alex keeps her eyes forward and takes a sip of her drink.
"Well damn if you're not interested all you have to do is say so."
She looks up, and swallows, "me?"
"No the other lady killer behind you."
She smirks at the younger woman, "with someone."
"Yeah?," she asks taking the seat beside where Alex is standing and angles her bent knees in the brunette's direction. "And how attached are you to this someone?," she questions as she rests her hand over Alex's that's leaning against the bar.
"I'd say pretty attached," she looks down blushing as she removes her hand.
"Would you Alex?," Piper's voice comes from behind her.
"So the sexpot has a name," she says practically ignoring Piper's presence.
"She's like 50!," Piper says with a whip of her head, astonished. "Excuse us, we were just leaving." She turns to leave and pushes the strap of her purse up her shoulder. She turns back when she doesn't feel Alex behind her. She sees the brunette trace her finger along the rim of her whiskey tumbler.
"Didn't you just order those drinks?," the woman asks Alex.
"I did," she nods her head once in confirmation and hands Piper the drink she ordered for her. "I did just pay for these," she reasons, highly amused at Piper's displeased expression. Piper's lips tighten into a line before she steps forward to receive the drink and stands as close as humanly possible to Alex without sharing her outfit.
"Attached," Piper hisses toward the other woman and waves her hand around herself and Alex.
The close mouthed smile stretches across Alex's face as Piper positions herself between the two women, somewhat shielding her wife. "Have a good night," Alex tells the other woman in polite dismissal.
Once the woman is at a safe distance away, Piper turns toward Alex who's polishing off the rest of her drink. The look of fire that met Alex's eyes forced her to banish the smirk off her face in order to prevent spewing her drink all over the blonde.
She swallows the contents within her mouth, "I did nothing," she says swinging Piper's lifeless hand in her own.
Piper tongues her cheek, knowing this is true but cant simply shake the jealousy on command.
"Come...," Alex says and drags her wife smoothly across the dance floor and out onto the street, "I owe you a dance."
Alex drags a chair from their dining room table and sets it in the middle of the floor space of their bedroom. She pulls Piper over and has her sink down in the chair, she asks her for a moment to change.
"Oh I get a costume as part of this non-variety hour?"
A few minutes later, she hears the opening chords of a familiar song but she can't place it. She tries to figure out where she knows it from, noting it's burlesque undertone, she settles her back against the chair. She feels Alex's fingers curl around her shoulder as the lyrics play and Alex whispers, "have you ever had the feeling, somebody's watching you?"
The piano keys bang, she squints her eyes,"your friend!... Rachel... with the Ray Romano puppet." Her eyes go wide remembering Rachel's dance as Alex slowly makes her way in front of her. Piper drinks her in in her heels, her long legs shadowed in sheer black tights. Her eyes draw up and meet the zipper that starts at the base of the narrow black pencil skirt and runs, she can only assume, the full length of the fitted garment for the loose white button down man- tailored shirt covers her ass. Her red lipstick makes an appearance after being locked up for far too long. Her hair is tucked away underneath a black fedora her glasses rest at the tip of her nose.
The brunette leans forward, placing her hands on Piper's knees. She keeps her legs straight and presses her ass back, she sways it from side to side before rocking her hips in a singular slow sensuous circle. She steps to the side and takes her time bending down properly while tracing her hand down the length of her leg. She pauses when she reaches her ankle giving Piper a chance to thoroughly take in the sight. Her hand drags up the back of her leg and stops at the bottom of her skirt. She reaches behind and unzips the skirt from the base upward until it's completely undone. Piper catches a piece of the black satin material underneath the white shirt and resists the urge to graze her hands underneath the shirt as Alex tosses the skirt to the side. She slinks her leg over Piper's thighs, and places her hands on Piper's shoulders as she slowly eases lower and lower until the backs of her thighs rest against the blonde's.
"Through the eye of a needle I see you, and make you kiss and tell, oh kiss and tell," the music echoes. She leans in smiling and nips the blondes lower lip between her teeth before giving her mouth a thorough workout.
She breaks their kiss, "is this what you had in mind?"
"You never disappoint."
She hears the satisfaction in the blondes voice as they're pressed against each other, finally. She peers at the thirsty blonde over her glasses before single handedly removing her frames, she folds them and slips them into the neck of Piper's blouse. She drapes her arms around Piper's neck and grinds her ass into the anterior aspects of Pipers tensed legs. The blonde brings her hands up and grasps the collar around the brunette's porcelain neck and pulls her closer.
"What took you so long?," she asks with twinge of mild desperation.
"I've wanted to do this for you, just wasn't feeling like myself," she traces her hand along Piper's inner thigh sending chills over the blonde's body.
Piper's shoulders shake in response to the nails that are now so close to the space that tingles.
She pants out, "but you're back now?"She leans her forehead against her neck and breathes Alex in, she tilts her hips further into the palm of Alex's hand.
She pushes her hand up the blonde's torso and roughly cups the underside of her breast.
She grins at her wickedly, "you tell me," she says with a hoarse rasp.
A small moan escapes from the back of Piper's throat. Alex pulls back slightly to read her eyes, they're lust filled she notes as she runs her fingertips across the brim of her hat before lifting it, allowing her hair to tumble from within and places the hat on the blonde's head. As if there was a magnetic pull, Piper's hands are drawn towards the dark hair that curls slightly at the ends and runs her hands through the strands as Alex leans her chest against Piper. The blonde's eyes don't break contact with the brunette's, she lowers her hands to feel around for the top most button on her wife's shirt; she fumbles before it releases, revealing more of the porcelain skin she so desires to feel against her palms. She unbuttons the second button, and peers into the shirt slightly to see the lacey lines of the black satin lingerie, masking all but the top bit of the long line of cleavage she knows is hidden deeper. Alex dismounts, and turns her back toward Piper. She takes a step away before she slides the shirt over her shoulder and peaks over at Piper. She throws her a wink before turning around to face her, she lets the shirt sink down the full length of her arms before removing it and tossing it to the side.
Piper's hand grazes Alex's hip, her hand rubs delicately along the fabric, "where'd you get this?"
"Your mom's closet," she says while taking a seat on Piper's lap again, her back faces her. She feels the tension in Piper's legs release. She laughs out, "I bought it... too long ago."
"Mmmm," Piper purrs as Alex nestles her knees in between her own and pushes them outward. "It's too darn hot," Ella Fitzgerald sings against the extra beat of the next track. In rhythm with the song, Alex jaggedly bends her body forward, she stretches her long arms toward her ankles, pushing her ass back further into Piper's lap. Piper palms her ass with both hands and smoothes her hands over her back, "I love this," Piper says tracing her hand up and down the ensemble, "I do," she wills on, "but I want it off." She starts to unhook the clasp at the top, when Alex turns around and leans into Piper's knees, she squats lower on the floor. She twists her waist in figure of eights while she eyes the natural V between the blonde's thighs. She eases up and presses her heel into the seat of the chair and lunges forward."I'd like to sup with my baby tonight," the music plays on as she straddles the blonde and grinds herself sexily into her lap. She massages Piper's pert breast upward past the rim of her blouse and takes it in her mouth, she sucks on it at a deliberately slow pace driving Piper mad, "yes... yes you're back," she says with a fistful of dark hair.
Alex continues to suck at the heated flesh before letting the skin go with a pop. She eyes the obvious redness, "well that's going to leave a mark."