inspired by captainscarletts and her Orange AUs on tumblr
and, of course, the song Florida Kilos by Lana Del Rey [M RATING]
"Come on down to Florida, I got something for ya..."
She wonders how in the world she ended up on a flight from Jakarta to Florida.
Florida. Of all places. Even when she'd been working jobs stateside, Alex Vause had always been above Florida. Up until a week ago, when her boss had called her in for a meeting and told her about the small cocaine ring he'd bought into in what she was now certain was her least favorite state. The young man he'd partnered with had recently run into a string of bad dealings and was dangerously close to losing the entire operation. He wanted Alex to fly down and try to save what she could. Or put an end to situation indefinitely.
"Relax, Vause," Kubra drawls, bored with the discussion already, "it's spring break, all the sweet young ass you can get your fill of. Truthfully you should be thanking me."
Alex doesn't agree. But she'll never tell Kubra that. The real truth of the matter is that she was beginning to grow bored with impressionable young co-eds. She was beginning to grow content in the jet setting life and being able to take the women to bed she wanted to take to bed, women who no longer fit the description of the ones she fucked for her job. The truth of the matter is that Florida is below her. Cocaine is below her. And playing maid to a shitty side project gone awry is definitely below her.
She slips on her aviators and tells him she'll handle it.
.
It's a sweltering bitch of a place.
There's hot, she's been to hot, she's felt hot, Florida is not hot. Florida is unbearable. Florida is a sticky heat, thick and constricting. And Florida is a dry heat, arid and chafing. And the two intermingle in a way designed to make you question whether you ever truly knew what comfort was to begin with. Because if there was one word Alex could think of to perfectly sum up Florida, it was uncomfortable. Florida is the tropics for those who do not know what the tropics are.
She's assaulted by a heat that makes her shift her weight irritably from foot to foot as she steps from the cool staleness of the airport in search of her ride. The sun is beating down on her and she thumbs her aviators a little further up the bridge of her nose as her lip curls in distaste.
She can't fucking wait to leave.
The man who arrives to pick her up grins excitedly, and she rolls her eyes behind the dark lenses, somewhat disappointed that he can't see. He talks a mile a minute about anything and everything she couldn't have less of an interest in, and she takes the opportunity to wonder if he's just the preamble for everyone she's about to meet in this sorry state.
He rambles about the business in the way an excited child might talk about the kingdom they'd created out of blocks and loose twigs with their friends during recess. Obnoxiously large houses roll lazily past their windows. And when they pull up to the gate standing guard outside the McMansion she knows she'll be spending the majority of her stay avoiding he shoots her another grin. He's strangely proud about the entire ordeal, and she watches him with dull boredom as he squirms in some sort of male-entitled excitement, as if he must think something about this is impressive to her. But Alex has seen wealth, and Alex has seen paradise, and this was nothing more than a obnoxiously large house in a obnoxiously dull state.
.
Meeting the kid in charge isn't much of a change of pace.
Eckhardt is his name, and he's exactly what Alex had expected him to be; young, wealthy, and entitled. She won't feel too much of a loss if she can't save the business. His sand-colored hair falls stylishly against his brows, perfectly tousled in a manner to suggest it hasn't been, and his teeth shine with a sickly intensity that's almost unreal. She thinks she might have admired his easy charm if she weren't being forced to endure it.
Their introductions are brief (for which she is thankful) and she's quickly offered the guesthouse just off the edge of the property, past the obnoxiously large pool complete with fake waterfall and strategically placed greenery for a more authentic feel (to which she politely declines, quietly thankful that Kubra had offered her his own modest property for the duration of her stay). They make plans to meet again later, depending on whether Alex feels up to it (she's quite sure she won't, but delaying it for the night is another ten hours spent in the clutches of Florida and truthfully she'd rather get through this entire ordeal as quickly as possible).
Another proudly gleaming face drops her outside the small beach house Kubra has left her the keys to and for the first time since she entered the sorry state she begins to feel the slightest tinge of comfort. It's a far cry from the over-sized houses she'd just passed through and she feels her burning hatred for the man dissipate the tiniest bit at the gesture. He might have known how pissed she was about the entire ordeal, but he'd also known what kind of atmosphere she'd feel most comfortable in.
She deposits her bags at the door, moving quietly through the house until she's face to face with the gentle rolling ocean. She stands on the back deck for a long while, the sky churning from shades of blue to pinks to purples, wondering yet again how exactly she'd managed to land herself in this sordid situation.
.
It's well past ten when she finally gets around to the club she'd been instructed to meet at.
Moving through the crowd effortlessly, it doesn't take her long to spot the VIP section and the collection of glamorous faces within it. Eckhardt beams proudly, as if welcoming an old friend and she allows him a patient smile, the best she can do while weighed heavy with lingering jet lag. She's got a drink in her hands in a matter of seconds and she listens half-heartedly, choosing to play the silent spectator, as the boys talk business around her. Kubra, if anything, has made sure to teach her that it's often easier to glean information by remaining quiet and letting the parties around you do the talking. And she opts to do just that as she gets a feel for the place and the people she'll be spending the next several months in the company of.
Her eyes slide over a group of women in the corner, laughing merrily as they gyrate against once another to the beat of the club's music. No doubt the girlfriends of her temporary business partners. Her gaze lingers on one in particular for a moment, head tipped back, blonde hair cascading graciously over her shoulders, as she sways to the music and laughs into her drink. But the spell is quickly broken by Eckhardt's hand at her elbow. He's telling her some inane story about some "sucker" they'd "totally taken advantage of" last week and by the time her eyes drift back to the corner the blonde is nowhere to be seen.
It's for the best, Alex muses wryly. Any sort of distractions right now would only inevitably prolong her stay in Florida.
She downs the rest of her drink and quickly gestures for another.
.
She's half passed buzzed when she catches sight of the girl again.
Weaving her way through the pulsing crowd she approaches the group almost as if she were gliding. Alex's eyes follow her raptly. She slips an arm around Eckhardt's waist, molding herself to him seamlessly, her gaze fixed on Alex, and it takes the brunette a moment to notice the man speaking.
"Hey babe! Are you having fun?" (and the blonde nods, eyes never leaving Alex's) "Do you need some more treats?" (she nods again, and her eyes are blue, so blue, the bluest blue Alex has seen since entering this sorry state, the bluest blue Alex has maybe ever seen in her life) Eckhardt fishes something out of his pocket, hands it to her and finally follows her gaze to the woman across from them "Oh! Piper this is Alex, she's who I told you about; The Savior sent to rescue us from damnation! Alex, this is my girlfriend, Piper."
"Pleased to meet you, Alex." She purrs, extracting herself from the man's grasp to offer Alex a delicate hand (and Alex thinks she's never loved the sound of her name more, and vaguely wonders just how drunk she is).
"Likewise... Piper."
Alex Vause has never been one to believe in fate or love or any sort of Hallmark bullshit like that. But she can't entirely convince herself that the thrill of nerves that shot down her arm the moment her hand enveloped the blonde's is anything to do with the alcohol currently pounding through her system.
A slow smirk works it's way across Piper's lips as she gently takes her hand back, gaze still lingering on Alex's as she drops a kiss to Eckhardt's grinning cheek and retreats back into the smokey confines of the crowded club.
Alex suddenly has the sinking fear that she'll be spending more time in Florida than originally anticipated.
.
Piper, she finds, is a doper.
And Alex had never had much respect for the people who use their own product, but something about the blonde coaxes her to reconsider. Piper uses with an ease that suggests the drugs need her, and not the other way around. She rolls a hundred between her fingers, leans over the naked laughing body of the woman lying stretched across the bar, and chases that white line with a practiced ease. Swiping a thumb deftly across the underside of her nose she catches Alex's stare and winks.
She's been in Florida for just under a week and her fascination with the blonde has since tripled.
Her eyes seeking the girl out as she sits with the boys and listens as they talk strategy. Piper's there every night. Gliding through the crowds with an ethereal ease. And Alex's eyes follow like a dog who's been commanded to heel. She knows Piper knows she's watching. The thought alone makes her want to redirect her gaze. Refuse to give into whatever game the girl is playing. But something inside her refuses. And she eventually convinces herself that if she's going to be trapped in fuck-awful Florida, she might as well enjoy the view.
And oh what a view it was.
On the seventh day Piper approaches, and tells Eckhardt she's had enough of the club for the night, tells him she's heading out to swim. He humors her for a moment, tells her she knows he doesn't like her out alone so late and her eyes fall to Alex's as she says "so send someone with me."
"Babe," he begins with a sigh, and suddenly Alex is speaking before she realizes what she's doing.
"I'll take her." Her gaze fixed on the blonde, she can fell Eckhardt's confused glance landing at the side of her face, "I was about to head out anyway. Starting to feel a little cramped. And hey, it gives me a chance to see a little more of the city. Call it a night?" She asks, tapping her empty glass against the arm of her chair.
"Alright, if you're sure." He agrees amicably, "don't be afraid to tell her it's time to leave whenever you're ready to though. She's notorious for spending way too much time in the water once you let her in there. Like a fuckin' fish, this one."
He drops a kiss to Piper's cheek and sends them off without a second glance.
Piper's eyes remain fixed on Alex the whole way to the exit. That maddening smirk slowly tugging across her lips once more.
Alex knows she's playing with fire.
She just can't quite seem to make herself care.
.
Piper takes her to a private pool, just down the beach from the club.
"Eckhardt owns the hotel," she murmurs, sliding open the gate and stepping aside to allow Alex in, "and the pool closes at ten for anyone without access to a key." She glides past Alex, pausing to lean slightly into her space as she murmurs, "which leaves me, Eckhardt, and a couple of the boys."
She smells like lilies and citrus and something Alex would assume is probably called "waterfall" or "rain forest" or "tropical" (and for the first time since entering the sorry state Alex thinks maybe Florida does have a hint of paradise hidden somewhere within it). She watches the girl slide by and vaguely notes the beginning of a smirk tugging at her own lips. She thinks it might be the closest she's come to a genuine smile since Jakarta. She tries not to think too much about it.
Sinking into one of the vacant pool chairs, she's suddenly aware of just how tired she is as she reclines slowly, eyes lazily watching the blonde as she circles the edge of the quiet pool. She pulls her shirt from over her head, shimmies her pants down her legs, and dips a toe into the gentle waters.
"Hmmm..." she hums quietly. And Alex lets her eyes trail over the newly exposed expanse of skin.
Then Piper turns, tossing a slow smirk over her shoulder, and Alex watches in restrained fascination. Her fingers glide up her sides to tangle in the thin string of her top, toying with the loose knot until it leisurely falls away. She slides the bottoms down her legs to the concrete beside it and dives in.
And Alex's heart is suddenly hammering in her chest.
Her blonde head breaks through the water as she breaches for air halfway across the pool and she swims a few long laps, back and forth across the pool, before surfacing for air and leaning up on her elbows along the edge in front of Alex's chair.
They study one another for a moment, Alex's eyes tracking the wet rivulets gliding slowly down Piper's tan skin.
Piper lips her licks before finally breaking the silence, "you should come in."
A small chuckle slips from the back of Alex's throat as she eyes the shining blue irises, surprisingly clear and open, "something tells me that might not be the best idea."
"Why not?" Piper's blonde head cocks gently to the side and Alex is suddenly struck by just how young and innocent she looks. A far cry from the pantheress who'd been quietly enticing her throughout the club all week. She can't tear her eyes away from those shining irises, suddenly a much lighter blue than they'd seemed to be an hour ago.
She sucks a lung-full of air, shaking her head just slightly, "because I won't be able to keep my hands to myself."
A genuine smile blooms across Piper's face, the first one Alex has seen since meeting the girl, and she knows she's done for (it's a smile Alex knows she'll do anything for) "Who says I want you to?"
It doesn't take much more convincing to get her out of her clothes and into the water.
Piper's floating a few feet away from her when she returns to the surface for air, blue eyes watching her with a quiet interest as Alex slowly makes her way over to her. She knows she should say something, put an end to this altogether, but she's sick of listening to Eckhardt's self-gratifying stories. She's sick of this sorry state and it's suffocating uncomfortableness. She's sick of playing errand girl for a paycheck that's never going to compare to what she could be making in Jakarta right now.
Suddenly Alex Vause finds herself not caring about a lot things.
Because suddenly the only thing Alex Vause wants is the blonde floating patiently in front of her.
And suddenly Alex Vause thinks she deserves a little bonus for all the trouble she's being put through for other people's messes.
Piper's lips are soft against her own when they meet. She allows Alex to set the pace for a moment, content to follow her tentative lead now that she knows she's successfully pulled the older woman in. Alex's hand raises to cup the back of her neck, pulling the blonde's lips into her own as she coaxes her mouth open, quickly sneaking her tongue past Piper's teeth. Piper's hands rise to settle against her jaw, sliding slowly across her cheeks as the tips of her fingers dig lightly into the dark hair at the base of Alex's skull. It's a slow and gentle discovery, until Piper breaks away with a soft gasping moan, and suddenly Alex is aware of just how badly she wants this.
She crashes their lips back together forcibly, dragging Piper's face towards her own once again with the hand still buried within the hair at her neck. Her free hand drops to Piper's hip, gliding smoothly against the bare skin as she hitches the blonde's leg up over her own. Piper goes willing as Alex quickly walks her backwards towards the shallow end and the long sloping stairs. She stretches her out along them for a moment, slowly easing the girl further and further along the steps until she's just barely in the pool.
The water laps at the base of Piper's thighs as Alex slowly eases her to lie back over the top stair, her shoulders coming to rest on the pavement outside. Alex's lips begin a slow descent down her body, stopping to tease at the nipples pebbling proudly in the cooling air of the night before continuing their downward journey. Piper squirms deliciously under her touch and Alex pauses a moment to watch the water lap gently against her exposed cunt before placing a slow kiss against her straining clit.
Piper's body jerks pleasantly, pulling her into a sitting position, and Alex eases her back down against the cool concrete with a hand splayed widely across her chest.
"Alex..." she murmurs, her own hand gliding up to tangle with the fingers of Alex's pressed against her chest.
Alex says nothing, continuing to study the girl's parted legs before her as she drags a slow stiff finger between the folds.
"Uhn." Piper grunts, hips flexing desperately against Alex's light touch.
"You're so fucking wet," Alex mutters absently, enraptured by the contrast of the girl's own fluids against the gently lapping waters of the pool.
"I've been waiting for this for awhile," Piper breathes quietly, and Alex's dark gaze flicks from the sight between her legs to her face. Piper's eyes are closed, her head tipped back against the edge of the concrete, as she vainly flexes her hips for attention under Alex's stilled movements. She watches her for a moment, quietly taken aback by how beautiful Piper suddenly looks stretched out beneath her, panting and wanting. The blonde had been nothing but seductive up until tonight and Alex was finding it hard to keep track of all the new and undiscovered sides to her. Suddenly she's filled with the desire to discover them all.
She leans forward, dropping a gentle kiss to the curve of Piper's hip bone before dipping a finger in. Piper lets out a low gravelly sound, arching her back like a cat under Alex's firm hand, still pressing gently against her chest. She watches her fingers slide in and out of the blonde's tight channel, completely enraptured with the sheer effortless ease of it all, before leaning forward to place her mouth against her protruding clit once more.
It doesn't take long to bring Piper over the edge, and Alex is torn between watching her squirm beneath her grasp and leaving her mouth against her pulsating cunt for the rest of the night. She finally pulls away when Piper stills, sinking bonelessly against the concrete below her as she struggles to catch her breath.
Licking her lips, Alex runs her hands gently up her slowly heaving sides, sliding her body over Piper's as she returns to the girl's gasping mouth. Piper wastes no time tangling her fingers in the dark tresses of Alex's neck and pulling her to her lips once more.
"Mmm..." she hums as they slowly pull away, "I figured you were good, but... fuck." She breathes with a quiet laugh, and Alex smirks as her thumbs brush against Piper's red-tinged cheeks.
"Was it everything you'd dreamed it would be?" Alex murmurs softly, dropping a slow kiss to the pulse point of her neck.
"More..." Piper hums beneath her, and Alex can feel the soft vibrations of the skin of Piper's throat running through her lips. They lay in silence for awhile, dropping quiet kisses and trailing gentle touches against heated skin, before Piper pulls Alex's lips to her own for a long deep kiss. "Take me home," she murmurs softly as they part, their faces only centimeters away.
And Alex chuckles huskily, brushing back a strand of blonde hair, "isn't you're boyfriend going to wonder where you are when he wakes up to an empty bed?"
"I have my own room. And Eckhardt knows I enjoy the privacy of coming and going as I please. A small price for a girlfriend who turns her head the other way whenever he decides to entertain himself by bringing home a new toy."
Alex is silent for a moment, processing, as her fingers stroke lightly across Piper's slowly drying skin. She knows it's a bad idea. She shouldn't get involved with the man she's supposed to be correcting's girlfriend (should never have let it get this far). But Piper's gazing at her with those infuriatingly blue eyes and she can't quite bring herself to care about Eckhardt's feelings on the matter. Especially if he's too stupid to see what he's got in front of him (if the blonde's recent admission is anything to go by).
She places another slow kiss against Piper's waiting lips, pulling back with a slight tug against her lower one before murmuring, "okay."
.
Piper stays over more often than not.
Alex had woken up to an empty bed after that first night and had assumed that was that. Until she found the blonde curled against one of the recliners on her deck under the warm mid-morning sunlight with one of Alex's old books splayed open across her lap. She'd stood silently in the doorway, watching her for a moment before Piper spoke, asking her if she was going to stand there watching her like a creep all day. And Alex had laughed, quietly admitted she hadn't expected to find the blonde still there and was kind of glad she did. Piper smiles gently. And they spend the greater portion of the morning rediscovering each other in the light of day.
She slips out a little after noon, promises to see Alex later, and leaves her to the rest of her day.
She tries to focus on her work; exchanges a couple emails with Kubra, goes over a handful of plans for Fahri, looks over a collection of spreadsheets she'd gotten from Eckhardt. But her mind keeps drifting to the blonde between the lulls.
And Alex tries not to think about just how deeply the blonde has effected her.
.
Piper sits in on the meetings, Alex begins to notice, as they grow more and more important the blonde's presence becomes an increasingly familiar sight.
They're a couple weeks into their... whatever it is... sitting quietly under the setting sun on her deck when she finally broaches the subject.
Piper turns to her with a quiet surprise when she asks, as if somehow shocked that Alex had noticed. "I just like being near you..." she murmurs, and Alex purses her lips, unconvinced.
"Really."
Piper's gaze flicks from it's study of the ocean before them to Alex's own gently pressing one before letting out a sigh. Slowly she begins to admit the story to Alex. The entire story. And suddenly the pieces Alex feels like she's been missing fall seamlessly into place. Piper tells her how she's been with Eckhardt since the beginning. How the whole business had been accidental sort of luck. She quietly tells Alex about how they'd been a bunch of stupid kids, fresh out of college and eager to conquer the world, how Eckhardt had had no idea what he was doing, how she'd helped as best she could with what little she'd learned from her business classes in college. She tells her how easy it was for Eckhardt to convince himself that the transition from buyer to seller would work.
They'd taken a gamble, bought into a high stakes game they didn't fully understand and by some miracle had come out on top for it. She tells Alex how she'd tried to talk Eckhardt out of it when her boss had approached with a partnership proposition. She'd told him they shouldn't get greedy, they were doing well enough on their own, shouldn't push the envelope any further when they were barely managing to keep their heads above water as it was.
Things had gotten shaky after Eckhardt agreed. Their carefully balanced kingdom suddenly collapsing under the new-found pressures and weight.
"Eckhardt doesn't know how bad it is," Piper finishes quietly, "but it is bad, isn't it? Otherwise you wouldn't be here."
And Alex lets out a quiet sigh before promising she'll do whatever's in her power to fix this.
Piper's smile doesn't quite reach her eyes.
.
As happy as Piper is to be within a pool, Alex notices she's twice as when it comes to walking along a beach.
Often spending the time she isn't devoting to Alex's bed upon the expanse of her deck, face turned high against the warm salty breeze of the ocean, as Alex exchanges various emails and spreadsheets with "the boys back home".
They've taken to long quiet walks down the stretch of sand outside Alex's back doors, under the fading light of the setting sun.
"I love it here," Piper murmurs quietly one night after Alex makes an offhand comment about missing the real tropics. There's a faraway look in her eye as she gazes out over the rolling water. The pinks of the setting sun blending with the pinks of her cheeks and Alex watches with rapt admiration as the changing shadows and colors dance across her sun-kissed skin. She's silent a moment, before she says, "It's the only place that's mine. I chose to be here. I chose my life here. I built something for myself here. And for that reason it will always be beautiful to me. Even if the beaches wash away, and sunsets fade to nothing. My heart will always belong here."
There's a soft smile on her lips as she turns her face from the warmth of the low sun to Alex's, holding her gaze with gentle admiration before tangling her fingers against Alex's own and tugging her gently along the beach once more.
Alex Vause has never been in love, but she suddenly finds herself thinking it must be devastatingly easy to fall for Piper Chapman.
.
Eventually Alex asks her how a girl like her wound up in a world like this.
And Piper quietly tells her about her family.
She tells her about the way she was raised and how she'd been engaged to the man of her parents' dreams. She tells her about how she'd graduated college and come down to Florida for one final spring break before settling into the life that had been so carefully planned out for her. She tells her how she'd fallen in love with the fires that dance across the skies every night, and the beaches that she'd slowly sink into as she watched the setting sun disappear below the horizon, and the advancing ocean ate gradually away at the sand beneath her feet.
And Alex listens as Piper Chapman tells the story of how she'd finally found the courage to live life for herself.
The sand isn't quite so rough as they walk silently along the beach later that night. The breeze isn't quite so sharp as the warmth of the departed sun gradually seeps out of the cooling air around them. This place isn't quite as uncomfortable as it had been when Alex had first arrived.
She's not entirely sure when it'd changed, but she has a pretty good idea.
.
Alex often finds Piper gently tracing a finger along the lines of her various tattoos in the stillness of the early dawn.
When the curtains dance with a gentle breeze, and the sheets lay cool and light atop their naked skin, before the sweltering heat of day can begin to kick in.
Most of her attention is spent on the roses, fingernails tenderly mapping along their outline as her sapphire gaze follows, still heavy with sleep. She never asks what any of them mean, and Alex kind of likes it that way.
Eventually her mouth will join her fingers in their exploration, licking a slow path along the back of Alex's shoulder blade, as if hoping to find a taste of the spilling salt tumbling down her back. Her legs will spread as she lifts herself across Alex's naked back, and a low rumble will finally fall from Alex's lips as she grinds her heated wetness against against the older woman's backside.
Her lips will move from the tattoo, attaching themselves to Alex's neck as she nurses gently at her pulse. And Alex's palm will finally begin it's trail up her naked thigh, rising as far as it can in their position, pressing Piper's warm skin against her own, as Piper's nipples tighten lazily against her back.
Eventually they'll roll over, capturing one another's lips as the room grows warm under the rising sun, the thick Floridian heat of the day, and their heady lovemaking. And when Piper trails her tongue over that salt shaker on Alex's shoulder as they slowly untangle from one another to begin their day, she'll taste the salt of Alex's exertions and smile.
.
For every ounce of Piper's carefully guarded innocence, there's just the right balance of dangerousness.
Alex learns this the night she attends a particularly heavy meeting inside Eckhardt's home.
They're discussing a collection of rivals dipping in on a pocket of their regular customers and someone mentions handling things the old fashioned way. Alex's brow furrows as they introduce her to their overwhelming collection of firearms. She puts a quick end to it, telling them there are more effective ways to reign in wandering customers. Ways that don't involve bringing anymore heat upon them than is already present.
They conclude several hours later with a subtler battle plan, and she's somewhat surprised when Piper shows up outside her door later with a case housing several firearms. She notices Alex's uneasy look and quietly tells her that just because they're taking the high road doesn't mean their competitors are. And she reminds her with a gentle hand against her cheek and a light peck upon her lips that being Eckhardt's girlfriend is always going to mean carrying a target upon her back.
Alex tries not to focus on the flippant ease with which she comments on the danger.
As if it's just another consequence of life.
Alex has never been overly fond of weapons (preferring instead to rely on her wit and charm, fighting her battles through gentle manipulation and carefully chosen words) but Piper handles them with a fluid ease. Dissembling and reassembling them in the low lights of the bedroom as Alex types out a progress update for Kubra, her gaze flicking from the screen of her laptop to Piper's mesmerizing fingers in their dance across the cool metal of the weapons.
She finishes the email, tapping send and shutting the laptop as she crawls across the bed towards the quiet blonde. Piper raises the reassembled weapon to her eye, carefully inspecting it before flipping the base towards Alex.
"I want you to keep this one," she murmurs, and Alex begins to protest, "I'm serious, Alex. I know you don't have much use for them where you come from, but things are different here. This isn't a gentleman's game. This is the jungle. And it's kill or be killed if you wanna get to the top. I want you to be able to protect yourself if any of Eckhardt's enemies should come calling."
She studies the blonde's hard expression for a moment before sighing and sliding the gun from her patiently waiting grasp.
"Thank you," Piper murmurs, pressing her lips into Alex's own before leaning back to clear the rest of the mess away. She gathers her collection, packing them back into her case and moving it to the desk by the doorway as Alex studies the cool metal of the weapon she'd left her with. Sliding open the drawer of the nightstand beside her, she delicately settles it inside before easing the drawer closed once more. Piper's sliding back onto the bed when she turns back around, and she snuggles into Alex's open arms with practiced ease.
They sit like that for a moment, quietly listening to the heartbeats thrumming through one another's bodies before Piper rises to press a kiss against Alex's lips.
She fucks Piper a little harder that night. Holds her a littler tighter. Loves her a little more.
She tries not think about her growing disenchantment with a world she used to feel so comfortable in.
.
Their souls become a little further entwined as time stretches on around them.
In the evenings they walk along the beach, pausing to admire the slow setting sun and the fire it paints in the sky.
Piper leans into Alex as she hooks her chin over the blonde's shoulder, an arm sliding around her waist to draw their bodies closer. A cigarette hangs loosely between Piper's lips and she takes a breath, pulling it away with the smoke curling from her mouth to hold it up to Alex's own. She steadies the blonde's hand with a light grip around her wrist and takes a long slow pull of the tobacco.
They've been slowly trying to ween Piper off the cocaine.
It wasn't a deep addiction, but it's enough to leave her shivering and sweaty for a long handful of nights.
Their evening walks had become a little more important, as the gentle roar of the waves and the soft sand of the beach seem to anchor the blonde in a way nothing else has yet to. The cigarettes help too. Though Alex sometimes wonders how helpful it is to ween her off one harmful addiction by shifting it onto another. She decides she'll worry about that later though, content for now to focus on one battle at a time.
They don't quite manage to walk as far anymore, even though Piper softly insists she's more than capable.
Alex always tells her it's for her own benefit that they turn around, and grins gently as Piper rolls her eyes at her "I'm not as young as I used to be" excuse.
"Because you've aged so much since we made the journey last month," she mutters petulantly as they turn around and begin their trek back.
She never stays mad for long though.
And Alex can never quite fight the warmness that curls through her chest as they climb the stairs to her deck, Piper's head laying heavily across her shoulders as she supports her tired weight into the house.
.
Eventually Alex begins to lose patience with Eckhardt and the business and the lack of unease anyone other than Piper seems to posses.
They're in the club, another tense meeting, and she hasn't seen Piper for several days (she'd slipped from Alex's bed half a week ago murmuring something about having to spend a few days around Eckhardt's place for reasons not fully explained). They'd been at it for close to six hours (all of them biting back tired sighs and yawns) when one of the men makes a teasing comment about Eckhardt's stamina, who then makes a particularly crude comment about Piper, much to the amusement of his buddies.
"Don't talk about her like that," Alex murmurs quietly, threateningly, "she's the only reason your entire fucking operation isn't six feet deep right now."
The group falls silent, torn between chastisement and quiet shock.
"Fuck, Vause," Eckhardt laughs, and there's a subtle steel-like edge to it, "keep talking like that and I might start to think you're trying to fuck my girlfriend."
She wants to say she doesn't need to try. She wants to say she already is. She wants to say a lot of things, but Kubra had sent her here for a reason and she's already so fucking far out of her boundaries if she were to botch the operation now he'd surely have her head. Instead she smirks, takes a sip of her drink, tells him he should be more appreciative of the women who keep his sorry ass alive, and tries to enjoy the way the rest of the men heckle him good naturedly about being whipped. They're still ribbing one another when she leaves.
She sinks into bed with a lingering air of annoyance, tossing and turning and only managing to scratch the edge of sleep as she lingered in that halfway state that only ever leaves you feeling more tired when you awaken again. She vaguely notes a warm presence at her back halfway through the night, just before she finally manages to fall into a proper sleep.
When she cracks her eyes open against the streaks of sunlight the following morning Piper's blonde head is tucked against her shoulder.
And she lets out a quiet sigh as she tugs the blonde a little further against herself.
She doesn't admit aloud to either of them how much she'd missed her.
But she's pretty sure Piper gets the idea when she wakes her up with a long slow bout of lovemaking.
.
Alex takes Piper dancing in Miami, away from the prying eyes of the cartel and the identities they wear while around them.
It's in the sweaty bodies of the clubs that she'll catch glimpses of the real Piper Chapman; the carefree spirit who she might have once attempted to lure into the lucrative business herself. She likes to think she wouldn't though. She recognizes the beauty for what it's worth, untainted and pure, and silently scorns the man who'd enticed the young girl into this world in the first place. Though another part of her rejoices it as Piper turns her back to her, meeting her gaze over her shoulder as their bodies move in unison amid the mass of sweat and strangers.
They enjoy teasing each other in every aspect of their relationship, but when they're lost in the haze of the clubs and anonymity there's a different shade to it. Playful, and carefree, Piper will smile as she pulls her mouth just out of reach every time Alex attempts to get closer. And Alex can't quite bring herself to feel anything other than giddy happiness over it.
They dance until Piper's feet can no longer support her. Until she grabs Alex's hand and drags her off the dance floor towards the private booths of the VIP lounge to regain their breath and come as close as they can to publicly fucking one another without becoming illegally explicit. Until Piper ends up straddled across Alex's lap and they can't push each other any further and their attentions turn to the next activity.
Alex had never much cared for getting high (not since high school, when she'd occasionally light up and share a spliff with a couple of the burnouts under the bleachers to pass the time before the final bell rang) but there's something about sucking a lung-full of smoke from Piper's grinning lips that she finds positively addicting.
"People never die in Miami," Piper whispers, before drawing a long slow lung full of smoke and angling her open mouth next to Alex's. Smoke coils past her teeth, caressing her lips as it leaves her mouth, before tumbling into Alex's, "that's what they all say."
And she sinks further and further into a hazy world of dulled senses and heightened emotion as Piper moves slowly atop her lap.
.
Eventually Alex realizes that they're not getting out of this alive.
The empire Kubra had sent her to save was crumbling to dust around them, and now was the time he expected her to put an end to it, quickly and cleanly. Three months ago she'd been more than eager to do just that; put a bullet in the brain of this whole sordid ordeal and fly happily back to real beaches and real sunsets and real paradise. But that was before she'd met Piper Chapman. Before her idea of paradise was blonde hair and blue eyes and gentle temptation.
Piper can sense it coming too, but somewhere along the line they'd stopped caring.
They lie in bed at night watching the quiet storms move across the ocean, creeping closer and closer as they bury themselves in one another's skin and hide their faces from the lightning flashes and rolling thunder. They're the captains of a sinking ship but they can't help but notice how freeing it all feels, in the darkness of the bedroom, under the gentle patter of the rain, tucked against one another's warm skin, to finally let it all go.
Kubra will be angry. But he'll get over it. His important ventures all well out of reach, he'd all but admitted himself that this was nothing more than a sort of hobby to pass the time. She's fairly certain she'll be his biggest loss, but as long as she doesn't turn over anything important when the time for reduced sentencing comes he won't waste the time or energy on punishing her for her failure (consider prison to be punishment enough).
And truthfully, she's not entirely sure anymore that he'd expected her to save this failing venture at all.
The thought makes her feel a little less guilty as Piper's fingers tangle with her own and the thunder cracks heavily around them.
.
They're ready for it when it happens.
They'd long since given up trying to save the crumbling ruins and had turned their attentions to how to escape as unscathed as possible.
In the end it's not a rival gang that does them in, it's a DEA officer who's been silently on their trail since around the time Alex arrived to "fix" things. They learn of his encroaching investigation a week before it happens and Alex arranges a meeting, quietly offering him full cooperation for as much lenience as he can provide for her and the blonde. He tells them there will still be consequences, that there's no way they can realistically come out of this without prison time (though they'd never expected otherwise, they'd learned a long time ago the dangers of being unrealistic), but with their cooperation in the coming week he promises to get them as much reduced sentencing as he can.
That's how they find themselves in Eckhardt's house among a slew of screaming officers several days later. Eckhardt seems to know immediately what's happened the moment he's fitted with cuffs (Alex can't quite help but allow him some credit for figuring it out, though she also can't help the smirk that crosses her lips at the thought of "too little too late" as he's lead from the house screaming about "those fucking unfaithful whores").
Alex is held back as the men are escorted out, quickly giving a rundown to the agent of where every weapon and kilo is stashed before being fitted with her own pair of handcuffs and being lead from the house.
There's an officer at her elbow, leading her from the scene, and another swings out holding Piper in a similar manner. They catch each other's eye and a slow contented grin works it's way across Piper's lips. Ducking their heads they go willingly, until the cops bring them as close to one another as they're going to get. Sensing their opportunity, they lean forward, both at once, and catch one another's lips in a final searing kiss. By some miracle the policemen allow it for several fleeting seconds, before pulling them away with a flat "alright, that's enough."
Alex is grinning as they lower her into the back of the cruiser, Piper's shining blue eyes lingering in her memory, the brilliant smile she'd been wearing as their mouths pulled away...
They'd see each other again soon enough.
"Prison isn't nothing to me if you'll be by my side..."