('The person living in the apartment across the wall to mine is a nymphomaniac and yeah okay they're p hot but it's v hard to write an essay on feminism when all I can hear is sexual screaming.' au) [(soft) M RATING (ish)]
The moaning from next door grew louder as Piper clenched her fists above her books.
It had been going on for several weeks now. This never ending parade of loud sexual women through her neighbor's apartment. It had been silent when she and Polly first moved in two months ago, but roughly about midway through last week the parade had begun. Out of nowhere. Piper hadn't even known she'd had a neighbor before the nightly rituals started up.
Women. Women upon women upon women upon women. All screaming her neighbor's name. All night long. Sometimes even during the day.
She'd tried to talk to Polly about it, but the other woman just apparently could not be bothered. ("I don't know what you're talking about Piper, I never hear anything.", "I think you're just being dramatic, you obviously need to get laid.") Polly's room was on the other side of the apartment. Piper gave up the argument about forty three seconds in.
"Oh, oh, oh, oh... Alex!" Tonight's particularly shrill voice screamed. Piper buried her face in her hands.
This was getting out of hand. She needed to say something. She was beginning to worry she wouldn't pass the semester.
She was pounding against the wall before she knew what she was doing.
"Could. You. Please. Shut. The Fuck. UP!"
Silence. One brief, achingly beautiful moment of silence.
Piper almost dared to believe it'd be as simple as that before a loud laugh rang out.
The noises picked back up.
Her head fell to her books.
.
So she did her best to live with it.
.
She lasted three weeks.
Three weeks of loud, raucous, primal fucking.
Three weeks of shrill, ear splitting, delighted screams.
And three weeks of Piper Chapman barely resisting the urge to tear all her hair out.
The inevitable downfall had begun at 8 AM, when Piper's alarm clock failed to wake her up for her first class.
The screaming began at 8:47, jarring Piper from sleep and into the bad mood that would cloud her every action for the remainder of the day. She had 13 minutes to make it to class. Her foul mood intensified.
The rest of the day had gone downhill from there and by the time Piper stumbled back into her apartment at three in the afternoon a new voice had begun screaming 'Alex's' name. Piper tried to unclot the black cloud hanging over her head. She really did. She attempted a nap, settled for a run, and returned to what couldn't possibly be louder animalistic screaming (but every fiber of Piper's being was insisting it somehow was).
She'd been attempting to write a paper for the class she'd stumbled 20 minutes late to when something inside her finally snapped.
She was out the door and into the hallway before her tired mind could process what was happening.
Her fist collided with her neighbor's door with more force than she'd ever felt her small frame give to anything.
"HEY. ASSHOLE. I AM RUNNING ON THREE HOURS OF SLEEP. I HAVE A FUCKING PAPER DUE IN FOUR HOURS, AND I HAVE FUCKING HAD IT WITH YOUR ENDLESS CYCLE OF SHRILL SCREAMING WOMEN, IF YOU DON'T FUCKING KEEP IT DOWN I AM GOING TO-"
The door swung open. The rest of her thoughts died on her lips.
A tall dark haired woman stood in the doorway, eyebrows furrowing briefly before evening out as a slow smirk worked it's way across her lips as she studied Piper.
"Ah. You must be the wall pounder. You know, if you wanted to join all you had to do was ask."
"I..." Piper faltered, as she eyed the other woman leaning against the doorjamb.
She definitely wasn't a student. She looked a good few years older than Piper and way past college dazed as far as worldly presence. She was tall. Taller than Piper, which didn't happen all too often. She wore dark glasses and a thin black robe. Silk. Piper noted absently. Long creamy thighs stretched deliciously out of it and Piper found her eyes trailing up them before she could help herself. The robe was cinched at the waist, though not tightly, as a fair amount of cleavage all but spilled through the deep V parting. A dark eyebrow cocked gleefully and a set of sharp white teeth flashed wickedly as she took notice of Piper's unsubtle inspection.
"Look." She collected herself upon meeting the older woman's gaze, she could feel her cheeks tinging pink. "Could you just tell Alex to please keep it down with the sex. I have a huge fucking essay due and I'm falling behind in more than one of my classes and I can't ever get any studying done anymore through the loud ridiculous amount of sex he is constantly having."
A loud amused laugh barked from the woman's lungs as Piper finished her defeated tirade. Piper eyed her wearily, bristling.
"Sure, kid. I'll let Alex know."
She continued to smirk in unabashed amusement as if she was in on some joke Piper was not privy to. She narrowed her eyes at the woman in exhausted suspicion before finally turning to leave. She'd taken a single step back towards her own apartment before hesitating and whipping back around to face the grinning woman.
"No. You know what, no. I'm fucking serious, I'm done. I can't allow this to continue, something has got to change or I am going to involve the landlord. I need to speak to Alex, because this has gone too fucking far and I'm fucking tired and I'm done. I'm done. I'm pissed. Let me talk to Alex. I can't fucking do this anymore I can't just fucking pretend everything is okay because it's not and he isn't the only person who lives in this building and he is being a fucking asshole! Let me talk to Alex!"
She'd begun striding back towards the woman as she'd started speaking and now stood face to face with her, breathing heavily. They eyed each other in silence, the amused expression previously adorning the older woman's face fading into a quieter more restrained sort of amused contemplation as she studied the blonde before her.
"Well!?" Piper huffed.
"Well what?" She returned, eyes darting back and forth between Piper's own.
"Can I fucking speak to Alex!?"
Her lips tipped in the slightest of gleeful smiles before falling back into her mask of gently amused contemplation. "You are."
"I-... what?" Piper spluttered, suddenly thrown.
"I'm Alex." The brunette murmured, smirking at Piper's fumbling.
"Y... You're Alex?"
The brunette chuckled softly, eyes alight with a fanciful sort of glee Piper couldn't quite place. "What's the matter, kid? Cat got your tongue? Where'd all that burning fire that was under your ass just a minute ago go?"
"Fuck you." Piper growled. Her hands fisted tightly at her sides, arms twitching with the barely restrained urge to shove this woman. Alex eyed her quivering arms with a raised brow before flicking her eyes back to Piper's face. The fight trickled out of her all at once. Her shoulders slumped. She was never going to win. Not when Alex kept looking at her like she was the most amusing thing that's happened to her all day. Her voice was soft with defeat as her hands unclenched. "You have been making my life a living hell for the past several months. Seriously. Fuck you."
Alex's amused gaze softened slightly as Piper turned to leave. "Kid." She called with a barely contained groan. Piper debated with herself before settling for a half turn to face the woman. "All you had to do was ask." Alex smiled. A genuine one. For once.
Piper continued to eye her wearily before turning back towards her own apartment once more. "Thanks."
As she tiredly closed the door to her home she vaguely noted the soft exhale of a heavy sigh from down the hall.
.
Things actually seemed to get better for awhile.
Alex was visited by the occasional heavy screamer, but she always made sure things were quiet by midnight and began no earlier than noon.
Piper's thoughts had trailed to the mysterious woman several times since their confrontation. Maybe she'd been too hard on her (or maybe if she hadn't been as hard as she was Alex would still be churning through overly vocal sexual partners like a goddamn sex factory). She told herself it wasn't that she missed the telltale signs of Alex's presence in the building, but it was certainly strange living in this new silence. Almost... empty somehow.
She found herself pausing outside her door one day, on the way back from class. Her keys dangling from her hand, poised and ready to enter the lock. But her gaze had slid to Alex's door. In the absence of the sex she could now occasionally hear the muffled sounds of Alex's day to day life. It was almost nice in a way (though anything was nicer than a constant trumpet of sexual screams), knowing Alex was just through the wall singing softly to herself or laughing at whatever stupid show was currently drifting from her TV.
She hadn't heard her much in the past few weeks though. And now, come to think of it, as she stood outside her door like some sort of idiot, keys in hand, yet making no move to actually unlock the door and go inside, Piper realized she hadn't heard Alex at all in the past two weeks. She continued to gaze in silence at Alex's door, an internal debate warring inside her, before flicking her gaze to her own door and palming her keys.
Her eyes flicked down the hall as she tentatively stepped from her own door and slowly towards Alex's.
Just to see if she's actually in there. She told herself. Just to make sure she's okay.
She crept silently to Alex's door, pausing as the tips of her converse sneakers just barely brushed against it. Another quick gaze down the hall before slowly leaning her ear against the cold door.
Silence.
She squinted in concentration, squeezing her eyes shut, straining her ears for any hint of sound.
"What're you doing?"
She'd nearly jumped out of her skin.
Alex stood behind her with a wry smile stretching across her lips. Fuck. She was leaning against the Bannister of the stairs as she watched the blonde with a wicked sort of amusement. Piper begged the ground to swallow her.
"I was just... I wanted to check- I haven't heard... I thought maybe... you..." She fumbled for an explanation as Alex's smirk turned into a full on grin. "You've been so quiet lately." She finished lamely.
Alex watched her silently for a moment longer, enjoying the way the girl squirmed as she waited for her reaction. "That's because I was out of the country."
Piper's eyes now dropped to take in the suitcase at Alex's feet. The duffle bag hanging from her shoulder. Oh.
"Oh."
A husky chuckle fell from Alex's lips as she hefted the bag further over her shoulder, leaning down to retrieve the case at her feet. "Did you miss me?" She cooed teasingly.
"What?" Piper fumbled. "No, I- Of course not! Like I said I was just... worried that you..." She sighed in frustration. "Never mind. Welcome back."
Alex's arm shot out as she moved to push past her, intent on finally slipping into her own apartment and away from the woman's infuriatingly amused gaze.
"Hold on." She purred, eyeing Piper intently. "I just got back, you know."
"Yeah?" Piper murmured wearily.
"Yeah. So I don't exactly have anything lined up for tonight." Her blue-green gaze pierced into Piper's. "If you know what I mean."
Piper's eyes narrowed as she tensed under the older woman's touch. Alex's face was alight with mischief, but there was a small flicker of something else Piper couldn't quite place dancing just under the surface.
"You wouldn't wanna come in and keep me company, would you?"
Piper's heart started racing with such fervor that she could swear Alex must be able to feel it through her own palm still resting lightly against her. She told herself it had absolutely nothing to do with Alex's astoundingly attractive face, or incredibly alluring charm, or ridiculously enticing mystery. No. It was absolutely because she was being propositioned by a woman she barely more than hates in the dirty hallway of their shared apartment complex. Completely. 100%. No other explanation.
Wiping the initial shock from her face, she schooled her features back into a blank canvas. "No thanks. I've got a paper on Women's Studies due tomorrow."
"I can teach you a thing or two about women's studies." Alex all but whispered (and Piper definitely did not all but swoon). "I find a hands on approach is often the best way to learn."
Piper inhaled sharply, her eyes fluttering closed for half a second as she stepped back from Alex's overwhelming presence before she did something rash. "I'll pass."
She silently congratulated herself as she pushed past the older woman (and the quietly shocked, yet still somehow amused look on her face) and finally slipped inside her own apartment, Alex's soft chuckle drifting through the hallway as she closed the door.
Piper tried not to think too much about it when she heard a muffled stream of moaning start up through the walls several hours later.
(And she definitely didn't let her thoughts linger on the fact that Alex was absolutely alone on the other side of the wall.)
.
She'd only seen Alex a handful of times (all fleeting glances) since her propositioning in the hallway a month ago.
She'd managed to push the woman out of her mind for the time being and was content to continue with this Alex-free line of thinking. Finals were coming up and she definitely didn't need the distractions.
Polly however didn't seem to get the memo.
She was once again trying to finish a paper for a teacher that expected it the following morning when Polly brought up the party she'd forgotten to mention earlier in the week. After much whining (on both sides) She told Piper it'd probably just be a handful of people anyway, no big thing.
Polly's idea of no big thing and Piper's idea of no big thing were two drastically different ideas of no big thing.
She'd lasted all of three hours before finally storming out of the apartment with her laptop. She ended up no further than the hallway (the library was too far, it was way too late, and she didn't really feel like going anywhere else in pajamas).
She knocked her head against the wall behind her with a soft thud as she rubbed her eyes tiredly against the heels of her hands. She'd been sitting in the hallway attempting to finish this paper for an hour now and was close to giving up, laying down, and crying. She was on the verge of a breakdown when a low husky voice drawled out from the end of the stairwell.
"We have got to stop meeting like this." Alex. Letting her hands fall to her lap in defeat she peered tiredly at the older woman, once again leaning smugly against the banister. Alex's eyes flicked to the wall behind her before returning to meet Piper's, and her brows furrowed in confusion as she turned to see what the older woman had glanced at. Oh.
At some point her frustrated shifting and desire to distance herself from the raucous of her own home had moved her closer to Alex's apartment door than her own. Much closer. Her back was leaning slightly against the door frame closer.
"Sorry." She muttered. "I'll move."
Alex's ever present amused grin faded as she watched the girl before her. She enjoyed pushing the kid's buttons but she'd never seen her so tired and beaten looking. Her gaze flicked to the door closest to her, taking note of the steady thumping of a muffled bass drifting through it.
She nodded towards the door once as her gaze returned to Piper. "Holly throwing some sort of rager?"
"Yeah." Piper murmured, too tired to correct her mispronunciation of her friend's name. "And she neglected to tell me about in until an hour before it started. So. It's not like I really had the chance to prepare any sort of plan B."
"Hence the hallway?" Alex asked softly.
"Hence the hallway." Piper confirmed. A sigh. "This paper is due in six hours. I'm so fucked."
Alex cast a quick look around the hallway before making her way towards her door with a sigh.
"C'mon kid." She mumbled, pulling out her keys and unlocking her door. Piper shot her a startled and weary glance, shuffling away from the opening door. "Hey, I promise, no funny business. You really look like you could use something a little more comfortable than a dingy apartment hallway. And... I still kinda owe you for being the reason you're probably behind in your classes to begin with."
"No funny business?" Piper eyed her through narrowed slits.
"Scout's honor." Alex smiled.
The tired girl hefted herself to her feet slowly, shrugging her shoulders as she adjusted her hold on her laptop. "I doubt you're a scout." She mumbled petulantly as she slipped past the door Alex held open for her. And that ever present smirk slid across those enticing lips once more as she moved to follow the tired blonde into her apartment.
.
Alex had proved to be surprisingly pleasant paper-writing company.
All suggestive jokes and teasing comments aside she really did know a thing or two about Women's Studies that Piper found extremely helpful to her overall essay. She'd provided a steady flow of coffee and the occasional thoughtful insight and Piper was just finishing up her last paragraph as Alex reentered the living room with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate. She set one down in front of Piper on the coffee table before sinking into the couch beside her with long low sigh.
"And... done." Piper chimed, with a flick of her wrists. "Oh my god. I'm done. I did it. I might actually manage to pass this class."
Alex smiled her amused smile at her from the end of the couch, though it was a great deal warmer this time. A soft sort of affection shining through.
"Congratulations, kid. What are you going to do now?" She teased in a low voice.
"Mmm..." Piper hummed tiredly with a laugh. "I'd say I'm going to Disney World but honestly I don't think I'd make it further than the hallway before collapsing."
Alex laughed softly and Piper took notice of the mug of hot chocolate before her, leaning down to swap it's place on the table with her laptop and bringing the mug to her lips with a satisfied hum. A chorus of cheers drifted through the wall to them and Piper rolled her eyes with a groan.
"Ugh. Are they still going?"
"Mm. Yep." Alex murmured, taking another sip of her drink.
"I am going to murder Polly so hard once I've had enough sleep to properly plan her murder."
Alex watched her thoughtfully. "You gonna head back?"
"I should." Piper murmured, eyes scanning the apartment before falling upon Alex. "I honestly cannot thank you enough for this. Seriously. You've been so..." She shook her head, unable to find the words, "and I'm the last person who deserves any sort of hospitality from you but you've been so good to me tonight. Thank you."
"Yeah well," Alex murmured. "We both got off to kind of a shitty start."
They sat in silence, watching each other for a moment.
"Can I ask you something before I go?" Piper asked softly. "Like something..." She trailed off, once more unable to find the words. (Personal? Weird? Potentially uncomfortable?)
Alex's eyebrow rose gently. "Sure, kid."
"That night you... propositioned me. In the hallway..."
"Yeah." Alex prompted with a smile.
"After I turned you down and we both went out separate ways... was that... were you... did you want me to hear that?"
Alex's eyes darkened as she met Piper's gaze head on. "Yes."
Piper swallowed heavily, she could feel her heart rate picking up, her pupils dilating. Her voice was nothing more than a whisper when it came out. "Why?"
"Because I wanted you to know what you were missing." Alex's voice lowered to match Piper's. "And I wanted you to think about what you'd forced yourself to turn down." She leaned closer to Piper with every soft, sharp word. "And I wanted you to know that I was thinking about it too."
Piper's eyes fluttered, her heart pounding in her ears, as her gaze dropped to Alex's lips before jumping back up to her smoldering gaze.
"Don't go." Alex murmured (all but purred) (demanded) (begged). "I meant it. When I invited you over that night. I haven't stopped thinking about you since you nearly broke down my door several months ago."
"Me either." Piper whispered.
.
Their lips met feverishly as they both moved towards each other at once and Piper gasped softly as Alex's chest collided against her own before shifting to pull the younger girl onto her lap. Her legs fell open around Alex's thighs as she straddled her, knees digging into the cushions of the couch. They leaned into and away from each other in a steady pulse, like crashing waves. One of Alex's hands had moved to grasp the back of Piper's neck as the other gripped possessively against her hip.
"Alex." Piper gasped softly as their lips broke apart.
Alex shifted her higher against herself, pushing their heaving chests together once more as she recaptured Piper's lips. The hand that had been holding her waist released it's vice-like grip to slide slowly up the underside of Piper's t-shirt. She grinned against Piper's mouth as she tweaked at a nipple, causing the younger girl to arch violently against her with a strangled moan.
"Lemme teach you a thing or two about women's studies." Alex whispered hotly against Piper's gasping lips.
Her shirt was ripped over her head and before Piper could properly realize what was happening Alex hoisted them off the couch. Her palms wrapped firmly around Piper's thighs, just below her ass, fingers digging delectably into her quivering muscles. Piper's legs wound tightly around Alex's hips as she carried her several steps across the room to her small kitchen table. She released one of Piper's thighs to sweep a hand across the top of the table, scattering the various papers, folders, other temporarily unimportant things across the floor. Piper barely noticed the small drop to the table as Alex laid her out before her. Her back arched at the contact of the cold tabletop against her heated skin, her chest thrusting upwards towards Alex's waiting mouth as she came down to meet her.
"Lesson number one." Alex murmured harshly around one of Piper's aching nipples, teeth grazing the straining bud just slightly. "The female orgasm."
Piper couldn't stop the noise that exploded from her lungs as Alex wrapped her lips fully around the small peak and sucked. She writhed underneath Alex's talented mouth as the woman kept her straddling the line between pleasure and pain. Her ministrations were forceful but not invasively so, and Piper felt a rush of heat exploding through her lower abdomen as Alex sucked insistently at her chest. Another grin stole across her wicked lips as noises continued to force their way out of Piper's heaving lungs, and Piper could feel it in the brush of teeth against her sensitive nipple once again.
She pulled her mouth from Piper's chest and attached her lips to the pulse point of her neck as her hands squeezed Piper's hips before pulling her further down the table. Piper's hands fisted against the material of Alex's shirt and she tugged roughly, dislodging Alex from her neck as she pulled the obstructive garment off the brunette's heated body. Alex returned to the bruise she had been painting across Piper's neck as the blonde busied herself with ridding the older woman of her bra.
Her own taut nipples grazed the skin of Piper's stomach as the blonde's hips rolled under her in her quest to discard Alex's bra and Alex bit back a moan. Detaching herself from Piper's neck and the slowly flowering bruise she'd left upon it, Alex dove for Piper's lips once more. Their mouths moved hungrily against each other and Alex took advantage of Piper's temporary distraction to swiftly rid her of her pants and underwear, tossing them somewhere to the floor behind her.
Kissing a blazing trail down Piper's squirming body, Alex hoisted one of the girl's quaking thighs over her shoulder. Their eyes met briefly as Alex's free hand wrapped itself around Piper's hips once more and the burning look in the blonde's sapphire gaze nearly did her in right there. Piper's head fell against the table with a slam and she cried out loudly at the first touch of Alex's mouth against her heat, her tongue working through Piper's folds as Piper's cries grew louder.
Alex played her like a symphony working her higher and higher to crescendo and when Piper finally came with a final shout Alex laughed out loud.
.
"You're good at that." Piper gasped, trying to catch her breath as Alex climbed lazily back up her body several hours later. They were in her bed now, having exhausted almost every conceivable surface of the apartment in their cacophonous exploration of each other's bodies.
"I told you I knew a thing or two about women's studies." The brunette grinned.
"Yeah..." They fell silent, the soft sounds of their heavy breathing filling the room. "So what else do you know?"
And Piper found the wicked grin of amusement that curled across Alex's mouth as she rolled on top of her to be her most enticing grin yet.
.
She came seven times that night, and managed to scream out Alex's name at least once during each of them.
She'd eventually managed to escape from Alex's apartment (after one final morning rendezvous in Alex's shower) with the promise of more 'women's studies' lessons in the immediate future and a lingering kiss in Alex's open doorway. Smiling softly to herself as she slipped silently into her bedroom before Polly could take note of her absence.
"You were totally right, by the way." Polly grumbled later when they both finally emerged into the kitchen. "The woman in the next apartment must be some sort of sex maniac. Her partner's screams were echoing through the walls for hours! We could barely turn the music loud enough to cover them."
"Oh Polly." Piper murmured, bringing her mug of coffee to her lips to mask her growing smile. "Don't be so dramatic."
Someone asked me in the last chapter about a tumblr account, and I did finally create a public tumblr account under the same name. I haven't really used it much accept to sort of collect inspiration but you're welcome to check it out or message me there any time.