Where the hell were they? Piper's mind flickered off for a moment, away from all the commotion it had been immersed into, to poke her on the side figuratively and question her judgment. She had no clue of where they had ended up or who all those people were. The most concrete thing she could recall was the bar closing and somebody -one of Alex's acquaintances- announcing that there was a party at so-and-so's house, and by that time, she was already blind drunk. So at the moment she hadn't really cared, and now… well, it was like her brain was telling her that she should care, but the actual concern was unable to reach her.

The rest of the world appeared to be further away than ever and, unexpectedly, it wasn't an unpleasant sensation at all. Piper's universe had somehow condensed and adjusted itself to the inside of that unknown house, bending at its corners, snaking around the furniture, stretching out across the ceilings. Nothing but that instant and that place mattered to her, and it had to do with the innumerable drinks she had downed combined with the person in front of her.

They were standing in the center of what had once been a living room, and Alex was stomping her feet on the hardwood floor, one hand raised up high over their heads, holding a beer, and the other grasping Piper's waist. The raven-haired woman was so into the music that Piper could only conclude that she had provided it herself. With her head thrown back, crying out the lyrics, Alex seemed like the happiest and freest person alive, and Piper could only look at her in wonder and try to match her jumping and feet-stomping.

The following song was even more energetic, but instead of stepping back to give them more room to move, Alex slid her arm around Piper and pulled her closer. In fact, this was the closest she had been to the brunette, and it was pretty close, since she could feel the cold stones in Alex's heavy necklace against the skin of her cleavage. Piper had to tilt her head up a little to look at the taller woman in the eye and, together with the smell of alcohol and very intoxicated human beings around them, she perceived Alex's scent, which was more than a layered array of makeup, cologne, and hair products. All she knew was that, if she could have made it into a drink, it would have inebriated her.

The brunette started singing again with her deep voice, her clear eyes wide open and fixed on Piper, as if the lyrics were meant for her. However, that didn't make a lot of sense, since the song's narrator was explaining that she was nervous around some sexy person and didn't know what to do, which didn't sound like Alex at all. Honestly, it sounded more like her, and maybe that explained the goofy little smile on the other woman's lips. Not knowing what to do with her hands, Piper allowed them to be gently redirected by Alex to rest on her bare shoulders. Noting the softness of the woman's skin, she then locked her fingers behind Alex's head, sinking her thumbs into the black strands of hair with random blue streaks. Both of Alex's arms were now surrounding her waist -she could feel the beer bottle pressing against the small of her back-, and their hips were swaying from side to side in unison, following the rhythm, which was now picking up. With the chorus, the song took a turn towards the feverish and, although the music was quite loud, Piper could no longer hear the singer's voice, only Alex's.

She would've liked to believe that they were just bouncing around and dancing to a fun song, but alcohol had effectively handicapped her brain and it could not presently activate its bullshit mode, and so she couldn't pretend to not know what had been going on all night, or pretend to be blind to Alex's present actions. How could they be so calculated and yet, at the same time, appear to be so natural? It would've been mind-boggling to her if there had been a mind to boggle, but Piper's mind was on an alcoholic vacation, and it felt too amazing not to indulge in it.

Without thinking, she trailed her hands down Alex's shoulders, focusing on the large rose and the tiny naked woman tattooed on her right arm.

"Hey," the brunette said, bringing Piper's attention back to her face. "You okay?"

"Yes." Piper didn't know where to look, her eyes jumping from Alex's eyes to her bright red lips. "Yes, of course."

"I don't know… It kinda looks like you want something." Alex's open hand started moving up and down her back, which was distracting, to say the least.

The brunette chuckled knowingly. Her loud and throaty laughter had caught Piper off guard when they'd first met back at the bar. During those few hours, she had grown accustomed to the sound - moreover, she found that she enjoyed it very much. It seemed honest, not at all like the polite, girlish giggles of Piper's friends. However, this present chuckle of hers was different; this was how villains in movies and cartoons laughed when they were concocting their evil plans.

"No, I…" Piper closed her eyes for a second, not wanting to lose her train of thought. It was tough, fighting Alex's little touches. "What do I want?"

Alex raised her eyebrows for a moment and then let out a string of laughter, while Piper looked on, wide-eyed and starting to feel impatient.

"I can only assume…" Alex said, bringing a hand up to Piper's tumbled, dirty-blonde hair, her hairpin lost hours ago. "But assumptions are boring."

Yes, they were. Moreover, assumptions were inconsequential and useless, and she was finding out now, on the craziest night of her life. She had never felt so drawn to anybody, and it had happened instantly, like the purest form of chemistry.

Piper nodded slowly, her drunken bravado enabling her to smile at the woman without breaking eye contact. Alex smiled back, her magnetic self-confidence shining through. Her hips started swaying slightly to the rhythm of the song, perhaps subconsciously, perhaps deliberately, and they were applying an intermittent and delicious pressure on Piper's lower abdomen. However fantastic the feeling, it was also strangely unsatisfying, incomplete, like an unfulfilled promise, and Piper wanted more. That was the single, existent truth for her right then: she wanted more of Alex. It was better to go ahead and admit it.

The dark-haired woman smiled cheekily at Piper's pleading gaze. She took one last, eternal look at her before bowing her head and pressing her lips against Piper's. It was enough to stop time, the music, and the blonde's anxiety, but the contact was too brief, and it left her reeling for more.

"See? I knew that you wanted something." The words were unapologetically sardonic, but they had been pronounced in such a weirdly sweet tone that Piper wasn't offended at all, even if the joke was on her.

However, she still felt short-changed, while the brunette was clearly enjoying her stunned reaction to the kiss too much. Frustrated and slightly irked, Piper was at the point of protesting when she felt those warm lips against her own once more. She opened her mouth to the other woman's, finally allowed to share her hunger, even though Piper could feel her smiling between kisses, which was equally irritating and alluring.

Her lips tasted of another woman's lipstick. That was a fact, and that was a new thing for her. She wasn't even surprised to find out that that didn't trouble her at all. The only problem was that she still wanted more - and that was the infuriating thing.

"Let's get out of here." Alex said, at last.

She didn't even care enough to ask where. Piper would've accepted the hand that Alex was offering and walked with her anywhere. She was barely aware of leaving the living room, of being led up the wooden staircase and into some room. These were actual things that were happening to her, dream-like as they felt. Alex reached out around her, shut the door, and kept her hand there. She then moved closer, until the fabrics of their clothes grazed.

One floor above the ruckus, the muffled music sounded eerie. Compared with how loud and clear it sounded before, now it reached them with an underwater-like quality which was close to silence. With no other distraction apart from a soft vibration of the floorboards, her senses concentrated wholly on Alex and, all at once, that woman was more intoxicating than anything she had drunk that night.

Piper felt a warm hand on her cheek and a hot breath on her neck. She leaned forward instinctively, dying to feel those lips on her skin, and Alex pushed her back, pinning her against the door with the entire length of her body. It paralyzed her for a moment, and all she could do was gasp. Profiting from her temporary paralysis, Alex kissed her way back to Piper's mouth and bit her lower lip, caressing it with her tongue while it still was between her teeth.

Her clothes felt like the thickest barrier in the world and as heavy as fur coats stuck to her scalding skin. If her lips and tongue hadn't been reclaimed by Alex's mouth at that point, she would've thanked the brunette for pulling down the loose shoulder of her dress. She thought she had never been more anxious to get out of her clothes.

"Come here," Alex whispered, moving away from the door.

There was a bed in the room, with a big rectangle of yellowy light projected by the window. It was their only source of illumination, but it was sufficient. Alex's skin was all but phosphorescent, gleaming in the grey darkness, and Piper was a mere moth to its light. They stumbled towards the bed, with the brunette walking backwards, which didn't mean that she was being pushed - on the contrary, she was the one taking Piper with her. During the way, two expert hands snaked under Piper's dress and moved upwards, discarding the garment as soon as it slid off the blonde's head.

Their landing on the bed was rough but calculated, at least for Alex, who somehow managed to end up on top. She administered a maddening string of kisses and nibbles down Piper's neck and chest before sitting up, straddling Piper's hips. The blonde watched her unbuckle her belt, undo her dress, and throw both items over her shoulder. She was still wearing more clothes than Piper though, and that was intolerable.

Perhaps sharing that same thought, Alex then gestured with her index finger for her to come closer. Piper sat up immediately, holding onto Alex's thighs, and the woman's lips met her halfway, not aggressively, but in a surprisingly tender way. Blindly, her hands moved to the hem of Alex's white tank top and, when she was about to pull it off and they had to break the kiss, the other woman's devilish smirk made her stop. She felt strangely self-conscious all of a sudden. Was it so obvious that she didn't know what she was doing? Was Alex only too aware of it?

"I-I…" she stuttered, recoiling slightly from the other woman's body.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Alex asked, her voice no louder than a whisper. Otherwise unaffected by Piper's retreat, the brunette kept on stroking her hair, her back, the skin under the straps of her bra.

"I've never…" Piper sighed. "I've never been with a woman before."

"So what?"

"So… I don't know." Piper sighed and threw her head back. "So maybe it shows?"

"Uh-huh, I see…" Alex took off her slick, black glasses for the first time that night and tapped them on her own chin for a moment, pretending to ponder the question. "Well, you do know that's there's just one way to solve your problem."

Without waiting to see how Piper reacted to her remark, Alex stretched out her arm to place her glasses gingerly on the bedside table. Then, she returned that blue gaze of hers to Piper and took off her own tank top and bra in a couple of swift moves. Piper lowered her eyes from Alex's face to Alex's generous breasts and felt lost in a sea of skin.

"Listen, it's okay," whispered the brunette, cupping her face. She kissed Piper lightly on the lips before starting an irregular trail of damp kisses up her neck. Upon reaching her ear, Alex started sucking and nibbling on her earlobe. "Everything's okay. I'm gonna show you. It's okay, hon."

She must've muttered more reassuring token-like words, but Piper was unable to pay attention to their meaning. They were like drops of candle wax that Alex was dripping on her skin. The deftly administered kisses and the level hum of Alex's voice were enough to make her dizzy. She wasn't even aware that her bra was gone until she felt Alex's warm breath around her nipples, and when they hugged, the shock of having Alex's breasts against hers, feeling their naked skin together, made the air catch in her throat. She thought she had never experienced anything quite as erotic in her entire life.

Piper lied back on the bed very slowly, with the feeling that she had floated down from a great height, but it was only Alex guiding her, Alex giving her things she didn't know she wanted.

Her boots dropped on the floor with two dull thuds, and then she felt Alex's hands navigating up and down her thighs. That sensation was enough to switch off her stupid brain and allow her body to be carried away by the current of desire. Through half-closed eyelids she watched the grinning brunette manipulate her limbs like some kind of all-knowing entity which Piper couldn't and didn't want to fight. Her tights slid down from her legs easily, as if they were willing to comply with what was going on.

And then Alex was on top of her, her movements creating a slight current that made goose bumps bloom all over her highly sensitive skin. The brunette combed back several strands of Piper's hair and continued trailing her fingers down her chest, and then lower still, grazing her belly button. She toyed with the rubber band of her panties, tugging it upwards so that Piper became all too conscious of how this was affecting her body, of what her body demanded, because she actually felt how very wet she was.

Having proven her point, so to speak, Alex relieved her of her damp underwear. A sigh escaped from Piper's lips with the relief of being absolutely free, and when they kissed again, she would've crashed her whole body -and not just her mouth- into Alex if she'd been able, to show her how she wanted her everywhere.

The woman with the Cheshire cat grin gave her one last kiss before embarking on a tortuous southbound journey.

"Stop teasing. Please? Stop teasing," she said, with a voice so dense with desire that it sounded alien to her, like she was the one who was submerged underwater now. Alex's answering chuckle, however, told her that her voice was completely audible.

The brunette propped herself on her elbows and kissed down the insides of her thighs. Piper shut her eyes tightly, wondering if there was something else she could do to get Alex where she wanted her. Her hands wandered across the bed, looking for something to hold on to, and then searched for Alex, reaching down. She lifted her hips, hoping to obtain some direct contact, but the merciless brunette had started biting softly around her outer lips and the sensitive area where her legs met her ass.

"Oh my… God," Piper groaned, unsuccessfully trying to push Alex's head into her. There was no trace of pretense left in her now, no need for politeness. That woman had stripped her of everything, both physically and metaphorically, and all that Piper could hope for now, and all that she believed she deserved, was her release.

Alex started kissing her lips, sucking on them very lightly, slowly making her way deeper between Piper's legs. Whenever Piper raised her hips, Alex stopped and pulled away, which was so exasperating that it was going to drive her insane, she was sure. Her legs had started to tremble, tense as they were, as tense as her arched back, but she dared not move any more, now that the brunette had started to explore her with her tongue. She stroked her slowly, painfully, circling her clit but not touching it.

"Alex," she hissed, simply. "Alex."

"I like it when you say my name," murmured the deep voice.

Perhaps as a reward for that, or to end her desperation, the brunette closed her mouth around her clit. Even if Alex couldn't see her, with her face buried between her legs, Piper frowned and nodded emphatically. Yes, yes, this was what she wanted. Maybe she even said it out loud. Alex sucked on her faster now, moaning against her clit, alternating it with brushes from her skillful tongue, creating a delicious rhythm Piper would want to etch in her memory forever.

Piper knew that she was close, dangling from a precipice and starting to lose her grip. If only Alex didn't stop, if she kept going… But Alex was not one to settle. She started working her even faster, which surprised Piper and made her cry out. She fumbled around the sheets until Alex guessed what she wanted and found her hand. With their fingers interlocked tightly, Piper finally let go of the edge of the precipice and welcomed the fall.

She shook and shook and covered her eyes with her free hand. Maybe she was whimpering, maybe she was screaming, she no longer knew, and Alex only stopped when it became apparent that there was nothing left in her. She was absolutely spent, empty, strewn across the bed like a broken doll.

"Hey you," Alex said, forcing her to open her eyes.

When she did, she saw that the brunette was now lying next to her. Her hair was messy, her smiling lips were shiny and moist. Piper would have expected her to appear proud of what she had just done, but strangely, in her eyes and face she could only read happiness. This woman was a mystery to her and every signal seemed contradictory, but their fingers were still entwined, and Piper didn't feel the slightest need to let go. That was something, wasn't it?

Rolling onto her side, Piper chased the warmth of Alex's body. She kissed the woman's cool, humid lips, tasting herself, until her lips were warm and she only tasted Alex.

"Don't even think of falling asleep," warned the throaty voice. "You're not done here. We're just getting started."