(Imagine Person A of your OTP constantly annoying person B while they're having art class, and Person B gets mad and throws a bottle of paint at Person A. It results in a paint fight with the whole class joining in. The teacher finds out who started the fight and sends your OTP to detention. In detention, Person B tells Person A: 'You're the most beautiful painting I have ever seen.')
Alex Vause had been a nuisance since day one.
Piper had seen her around school several times before. Brief glances. The occasional brushing in the hallway. A glimpse of her on the bleachers as she made her way around the track below. She'd seen her around. She was almost sort of intrigued by her, if she was being honest. She was somewhat of an outcast and Polly had told her that there were a plethora of rumors about what kind of person she was, what kind of life she led, what she did outside of school. So sure, Piper couldn't help but feel a little curious. (It also didn't hurt that she was drop dead gorgeous, but Piper tried not to focus too hard on that particular line of thought.)
That was before she actually met her.
Alex Vause was a year ahead of her and so they'd successfully managed to avoid having any classes together up until this point. But Alex was a senior and had put off taking an art elective until the last possible minute, and Piper was a junior who couldn't get into the theater elective due to more of the seniors schedules taking priority, and so somehow they'd ended up in the same art class.
Alex had immediately zoned in on Piper.
Piper wasn't sure if it was her WASPy disposition, or her teachers pet reputation, or the fact that she sometimes kept company with girls who were widely hailed as Alex Vause's enemies, but something about her had caught Alex's attention and it wasn't in the good way. They'd been assigned to a pair of desks parallel to each other at the ends of two long rows.
It had taken Alex all of four minutes to begin her harassment.
Piper had taken out her notebook to begin taking notes and Alex had snickered.
"What?" She demanded self consciously.
"You're taking notes in art class?" Alex laughed.
"Well there are tests."
"Do you really think they're going to be so challenging that you need to have notes to fall back on." Alex mused dryly.
"It never hurts to be prepared." She growled.
"Yeah. That's what I've heard about you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Piper's interest peaked slightly. Alex Vause had heard of her?
"Nothing." Alex laughed shaking her, attention turning back to the teacher.
Piper scowled at the older girl's mocking demeanor. She watched her heatedly for a moment before returning to her notes.
.
It continued like this for awhile. Alex making snippy comments about Piper's habits, teasing her with lazy observations and judgmental opinions. Piper, for the most part tried to ignore her, though occasionally couldn't help snipping back. It only ever seemed to amuse Alex further when she did.
Eventually Alex must have decided her verbal harassment wasn't enough. It didn't take long for their picking to develop into actual arguments. Alex would amble into class, drop into her desk, and absentmindedly prop her feet up on the side of Piper's seat. Piper would push her feet away with a huff and a grumble and Alex would eventually slide them back into place several minutes later. Thus carrying on in a vicious (slowly growing more and more aggressive as class wore on) cycle.
And as if that wasn't enough, Alex had then taken to making sure she was using anything and everything Piper needed whenever she needed it. Piper would rise from her seat, about to move across the room to collect a box of charcoal for her sketch and Alex's hand would be sliding over top of it right before she could grab it. She'd reach out absently for a jar of paint, looking up in confusion as her hand met with empty air, only to find Alex clutching it with a smirk. She'd stick a paint brush back into the cup, about to select a new one when Alex, without fail, every time, would grab exactly the one she needed.
Piper had always prided herself on being someone who was in control, but Alex Vause was slowly starting to unravel that control.
And Piper Chapman was slowly starting to learn that she may have a bit of a temper.
.
She'd been having an especially rough day already when day Alex decided to push her to her limit.
Her alarm had failed to go off and she'd nearly been late for school. Her mother had scolded her for not being better prepared as she rushed out the door. She'd gotten a test back with a B- written across the top in large, angry, red letters. Polly had been nitpicking at her for the smallest things all day. Tommy Anderson had called her a teacher's pet in Biology when the teacher asked her to explain to the rest of the class something that no one else seemed to fully yet grasp. And she'd spilled her drink all over herself during lunch and spent half the period trying to clean her shirt under the air dryers in the girls bathroom.
And then Alex Vause had ambled into art class.
She'd been in especially fine form today. Teasing Piper endlessly about everything. It wasn't until she made a comment about Perfect Piper that hit a little too close to home when Piper lost it. The teacher had stepped out of the room for a moment and Alex had immediately taken her opportunity to unabashedly get under the younger girl's skin.
She couldn't help it. She snapped.
Grabbing the nearest object, she hurled it across the desk at the older girl. Alex froze in momentary shock as the bottle of electric blue paint collided with her collar bone, splattering a vibrant layer of color across her. Blue paint dripped from the lens of her glasses, ran in thick lines down her neck, and spread slowly across the white of her shirt. Piper froze too. The room fell silent.
"Oh-ho..." Alex laughed dangerously, and Piper found herself tensing in equal parts fear and anticipation. "You are so going to regret that."
Before Piper could recover from her own initial shock a wave of yellow crashed over her. She shrieked, standing abruptly from her chair as the dripping paint container dropped to the floor, now mostly empty, it's contents spread marvelously across Piper's outfit and face. Her temper swiftly took control and before she could process what she was doing she hurled another bottle at the now grinning Alex.
Alex cried out in muffled shock as a hue of green mixed with a spraying splash against the blue already coating her, shooting up from her own seat.
"PAINT FIGHT!" Someone suddenly screamed out and paint began flying in all directions.
Piper, however, took no notice as her attention remained on Alex. A clap of red splatted across her and her temper flared to the same shade as Alex Vause laughed at her handy work. She began hurling every bottle of colored goo she could get her hands on at the laughing brunette as Alex returned the favor in full. They were slipping against the rapidly coating floor in their haste for more ammunition and their bodies collided as they reached quickly for the same bottle. Piper kept her footing, Alex didn't. But she managed to hook her hands against the material of Piper's shirt as her feet slid out from under her and they both went crashing to the ground.
At some point (Piper wasn't sure when) she had begun to laugh. Alex groaned lightly before bursting into another round of laughter and neither of them paid any mind to the fact that they were practically laying on top of each other as they dissolved into a fit of giggles amid the puddles of paint on the floor. It didn't last long though.
"WHO is responsible for this!?" A loud voice suddenly bellowed from the doorway. Shit.
Alex and Piper froze as forty pairs of eyes slowly turned to locate them.
"Principal's office. NOW!"
.
They fidgeted silently before their principal, somehow finding the grace to look repentant, as he scolded them both for their less than amicable behavior. He released them to detention with a sigh before calling out to Piper as they made for the door. Alex paused with her momentarily as she turned back to face him.
"I expected better from you." He said. And the smile that had been alight at the corner of Piper's eyes finally faded.
She nodded slowly, ducking her head and slipping out behind Alex as they exited the room in silence.
.
The teacher sat with them for all of twelve minutes before making some excuse about copies (interspersed with a light forewarning about talking and staying in their seats) and slipping away to the teachers lounge.
Piper kept her head down, studying the cracking paint on her hands in silence. Alex watched her thoughtfully, mind churning with the principal's parting words and the way that grin she had worked so hard to pull from Piper's eyes faded away quietly.
"Sorry about tarnishing your record, kid."
Piper picked absently at the paint on her hands, nodding. There was a foreign tenderness to Alex's voice, as if for once in her life she meant it and wasn't just mocking Piper's uncontrollable need to be perfect.
"Listen." Alex began, somewhat hesitantly. As if she were a traveler about to enter foreign territory. "I know I give you a lot of shit for being a goody two shoes, or whatever... but I really am sorry. I know it means a lot to you. Your reputation. I didn't mean to fuck that up."
"It's not your fault." Piper murmured softly, finally engaging, and Alex lifted her head to watch her once more. "I'm the one who started it. I threw first paint."
Alex huffed out a quiet laugh, as Piper's gaze rose to meet her own, the faintest beginnings of a smile touching her lips once more before fading away again.
"I just..." She sighed, returning her attention to hands.
Alex watched her silently a moment longer before leaning forward and placing her hand under the younger girl's chin. "Hey."
Piper's gaze quickly flicked back to her and their eyes locked. Alex's thumb stroked lightly against a swatch of red on her jaw as they studied each other. Her blue eyes shown with something soft and gentle and Alex found herself absolutely enraptured by it as she held Piper's face in her hand.
"I think you're the most beautiful painting I've ever seen." She whispered softly, watching closely the faint light in Piper's gaze.
The younger girl's lips parted slightly, her eyebrows rising imperceptibly in soft shock at Alex's hushed words, and Alex couldn't help herself leaning forward and capturing that soft mouth in a gentle kiss. Piper's eyes fell closed. It was brief, nothing more than a gentle caress of lips, before Alex was pulling away to rest their foreheads together.
"I think... you might be the most beautiful painting I've ever seen too." Piper murmured softly.
Their eyes opened and their gazes met once more, and Alex found herself smiling a genuine smile as Piper's face slowly lit up once again with that soft glowing happiness. And she quietly corrected herself, deciding that now Piper Chapman was undoubtedly the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.
A short one. I just needed to write something.