One Last Time [Vauseman Fanfic]

8: You've Got Time

You get yours, I'll get mine,
Then we run out of time,
You're the only one that I desire,
'Cause I love to play with fire.

Good girls do bad things sometimes. Alex knew that better than most. It had been the one thing she relied on each time she sought out a new mule. It was common knowledge to most that Alex loved to play with fire, especially when she was out in the city - in her element. In prison, her fire had been extinguished and she had nothing to play with anymore. She knew every aspect of her life at Litchfield, every day it was the same routine. Wake up, eat, work, eat, workout, eat, read, sleep. Of course Piper was there with her, that didn't mean that the familiarity of the prison routine wasn't starting to wear her down. Alex thought of herself as a sturdy rock positioned on the shore, the brave front that took the brunt of the harsh waves. Alex never imagined that one day the waves would start to chip at her exterior, making her vulnerable and small. It was with this thought that Alex looked upon her own life now, she was still the rock and the prison with all it's guards and confining ways was the sea. Alex sat up in her bunk and looked around her, she wanted to shout out her frustrations. She couldn't. So, she went outside to the yard instead. The lack of workout equipment in the prison was a slight annoyance but Alex managed to use the tree by the track as a kind of pull-up bar and so whenever she felt like she couldn't cope, outside she would go and outside she would stay until her limbs felt like they were going to fall off if she did even one more exercise.

As Alex hopped down from the tree branch she took a moment to get her breath back before using her jumper as a towel to wipe the sweat from her face. She looked at the track and watched Piper run, she wasn't jogging today as she normally did but she was flat out sprinting. Alex frowned and walked over to the fence that separated the track from the rest of the yard and watched her. It was a little fascinating to Alex the way Piper seemed to get lost in her own little world when she was running. She couldn't help but wonder if Piper really was transported out of the prison when she ran, she wondered if Piper felt like she was free and running through the park like she used to do. Finally, Piper noticed Alex and jogged over to her, panting heavily.

"Been a while since I heard you pant that hard," Alex said as a form of greeting as Piper got closer.

Piper smirked, too breathless to form a coherent reply. Instead, she just flipped up her middle finger at Alex. This, of course, made Alex grin like a child who'd finally gotten their way after hours of pestering. They stood in a comfortable silence for a while longer until Piper's breathing was almost back to normal. "What are you doing outside?" She asked.

Alex shrugged, "I was working out my troubles."

Piper frowned, disapproving. "I wish you would talk to me about what's going on in that head of yours." She sighed but held up a hand to halt any response that Alex was going to make, "I know. I worry too much. Shut up."

Alex smirked and reached through the holes in the fence to grab Piper's fingers with her own. "I love you though."

Piper wasn't able to hold back from her smile, "Yeah yeah. Love you too you little shit."

Alex chuckled and let go of Piper so that the blonde could join her on the other side of the fence, they hugged each other briefly before heading back inside the prison side by side. When they got back to the suburbs Alex smiled at the sight of Nicky and Morello cosying up to each other on Nicky's bunk. "Hey Nichols," Alex greeted. "Morello, good to see you've come to your senses about Nicky. I swear, she was driving me mad with her constant pining." Alex chuckled at the sight of both Morello's blush and Nicky's glare at her words. She held up her hands in defence as Piper dragged her away from the two. They eventually ended up at Alex's cube, they cuddled up to each other on the bunk, hands linked together as they sat in silence. Alex watched Piper, stuck deep in thought about something. They hadn't talked much about anything serious since Piper had found Alex's letter. They'd been stuck in a kind of honeymoon period again. Alex couldn't quite work out if this was a totally good or bad thing though, they both knew that they still had a shitload of issues to sort through but both appeared to be content to just ignore them for now. Why try to fix something that wasn't broken, right? They were broken though. Alex reminded herself. They were both broken beyond repair in one way or another. Alex's sigh at that thought seemed to snap Piper back to reality.