The Reign Of Vause

Night of loneliness

(Piper's POV)

I was in the shower in our ensuite. The last time I was in here was this morning and that was a different story entirely, I was in Alex's arms, safe, loved and not alone. The water was set to hot this time since I didn't have Alex telling me that thanks to her I would need a cold shower.
I used Alex's marzipan smelling body lotion and my own shampoo.
Showers were my happy place when Alex wasn't around. Before I met Alex, showers and baths were my happy place, even with Larry, showers were my happy place but Alex has always been my favourite and happiest happy place. I stood in our rain shower, covered in soap with warm water sliding down my body under the huge square silver shower head and thought about what Alex was doing right now. Was she still on our jet? Had she gotten to Caesar's Palace yet? Had she gotten her room key? When would she call me?
I knew she would call me and that she probably already had and if she had she would be getting worried since the whole shooting thing but I just couldn't bring myself away from the shower.
I smiled when my mind rewatched the video of Alex dreaming about me that Jason had sent to me and giggled slightly because I knew he was going to be one very dead Jason by the time he got Alex back to New York. I may have revelled in sending her the video and saved it to my camera roll.
Our bed was going to be lonely and cold, yes the shower was lonely right now but at least it was warm, the tingling sensation the water gave me when it dripped onto my body was close to the tingling feeling Alex gave me everytime she touched me. I craved her touch and this was the closest thing I could get to it.
I was standing there, thinking about 8 years ago when I left her. It took everything in me to walk out of that apartment in Paris. I will also never forgive myself for being the world's biggest asshole for abandoning her when Diane died, my late mother in law. As soon as I had gotten back to the States I went to a bar, got out of my head drunk and hit on anything with legs, drunkenly telling them, "I've just left my really hot girlfriend in Paris because she doesn't love me anymore." Well, I had been wrong about the not loving me anymore part. I hated being alone and soon after Alex, I had found Larry who then filled the next 6 years of my life until Alex herself had dragged me to prison and the rest is history.
Sighing I turned off the shower, dried off and couldn't find my pink lace panties with a black bow on them, I was sure I had just washed them. I shrugged it off and put my black ones on then pulled on my pyjamas. I walked back out to our huge open plan living area and kitchen, put Alex's bottle of Jameson back at the bar to wait for her when she came home, put the whiskey glass in the sink and the half eaten tub of ice cream back in the refrigerator.
Sadly, I shuffled back to bed for my first night away from Alex since the night before our wedding. Our king size bed felt very fucking big when she wasn't in it. It's not like we needed all that room anyway, every night we spooned each other and when we drifted apart in our sleep we somehow found each other again in the darkness and woke up in the same position. Literally you could fit a giant penguin in the space we didn't use due to the cuddling and...other things.
I got to the foot of the bed and flopped backwards in a starfish position.
"Ugh." Was all that came out of my mouth.
I remembered.
"Fuck! Alex!"
I got up from bed and went back out to the couch I had been lying on to get my phone. Sure enough, I had 1 missed FaceTime call from Alex.
"Shit." I said to the air.
Before I called her back an idea came to me.
I grabbed a hot water bottle and put boiling water inside it, I let it cool for a while then put it inside Alex's pillow. That way, I could hug it through the night and do this every night this week and it would smell and feel like Alex. I smiled, proud of my idea.
I looked at the time, it was 1:05AM.
"Oh she's going to kill me." I sighed and shuffled back to bed with the pillow in my arms and phone in my hand and sat up against our huge black leather headboard and called her back.

(Alex's POV)

I was lying upright on the hotel's bed with the bed-side lamp on, awaiting Piper's call back. I was re-reading an Agatha Christie novel that I had discovered in prison which Piper had bought for me in a quaint bookstore in Manhattan upon us leaving.
"Jesus Pipes, how long is that shower of yours?" I lovingly cursed my wife, who, I guess was in a different state entirely, casting the book aside. I put my head back against the headboard and sighed, I was exhausted and was hoping she'd call me back soon, leaving her in New York didn't sit easy with me and I couldn't sleep without knowing her safety was under lock and key.
I had my phone on my chest, screen facing upwards, the vibrations of her call and my screen lighting up startled me but I welcomed them.
"Hi baby." I yawned, "That was a long shower tonight like Jesus, I was starting to think you'd forgotten about me or that you'd sneakily gotten a head start on me in the land of sleep."
She looked guilty and confused and I could see her cleavage due to the fact she was wearing her adorable red flannel pyjamas. She always wore those at Christmas and I guess it was November going into December. I wasn't complaining though, I myself was wearing a baggy Led Zeppelin T-shirt that went down to my thighs and sweat pants.
"I'm sorry baby, I was trying to drag out the night so I didn't have to get into our huge, cold, lonely bed, the shower was warm so I stayed there for a while." She admits.
"Aw Pipes." I reply sadly, knowing that I too was in a huge, cold and lonely bed. Fuck, I was going to kill Polly and this Wyner person when I got back. Admittedly, I would struggle to keep a straight face through it with names like their's. Piper's name wasn't an everyday name either but I just found her name and her in general just downright cute.
"Plus, I was searching for my pink lace panties with the bow on them, I gave up and am now wearing my black ones." She continues, snapping me out of my thoughts and I smirked with that image now in my head and the knowledge that I had stolen her pink panties and they were currently in bed with me. I had also ordered a body pillow to snuggle in the night and planned to pretend it was Piper, her soapy, Gucci smelling panties would help me in this endeavour.
"Alex? Al? Helloooo? Baby!" She snapped me out of my thoughts again.
"Hmm huh what?" I go back to her.
"I said, you don't happen to know where they went do you?" She said this, raising her eyebrow, in a knowing, accusing and 'I know exactly what you did you thief' tone that was meant to be inquiring but I found it sexy. She was challenging me to own up and admit that I had stolen them.
"Oh, you mean these?" I raised my own eyebrow and smirked back at her, holding her panties up to the camera as they dangled from my index finger.
"Yes. Those exactly. You thief!" She exclaimed with raised eyebrows and a shocked open mouth which was laughing. I smiled and took in her laughter, if I could put Piper's scent, eyes, smile, laughter and just her, into a bottle, I would.
"I'm not even sorry." I laughed back.
"Oh I bet, no, I know you're not." She quipped back.
"Hey! If I couldn't have you, I was definitely having something that belonged to you! Leave me alone!" I defended myself.
She then proceeded to torture me as revenge for my theft. She put her hands under her pyjama top and dragged them up and down her skin, exposing her very toned stomach, then ran them through her hair all while saying,
"Bet you're jealous, I have me. ALL of me."
My eye started to twitch and my smirk turned to a wanting pout.
"Hmmm well, Piper Vause, two can play at that game." I tell her and in one swift motion I removed my T-shirt exposing my naked upper body, I then did exactly what she had just done.
Piper was pouting at me through the screen.
"Alex, ever wonder why I keep telling you I love you but I hate you? Well, this is your answer and one of those times. You're so close but so far." She groans as she reached out a hand to the screen to try to touch me. I laughed and pulled my T-Shirt back on. She scolded me, "That, darling, was not fair, at all, I didn't do that to you!"
"Aaah well, I guess I'm learning from my sexy little teaser of a wife." I smirk back at her.
"I will get you back for that." She tells me narrowing her eyes.
"Is that a promise?" I ask.
"Ooh yes, that, is a promise."
I smirk at her as my answer.
She yawned. I looked at the time, it was 2AM.
"Shit, babe, you're tired and it's 2AM, maybe like 3AM where you are. I'm also exhausted. We both have important days tomorrow but I will be texting and calling you every chance I get." I tell her sadly, not wanting to hang up but we both needed sleep.
"Is that a promise?" She asked sleepily.
"Babe put the screen to your forehead." I told her so she did, I kissed the screen and voiced my kiss. I was giving her a virtual kiss on the forehead goodnight.
"Yes babe, that is a promise." I then said.
"Ok, night baby." She sadly yawned.
"Night baby." I sadly and softly said.
At that we hang up and I was once again plunged into quiet, lonely emptiness.
I turned the lamp off and immediately hugged the body pillow, spooning and pulling it close as I would do if it actually was Piper.
"I can't wait for Friday night." I sighed and drifted to sleep. My mind immediately flashed back to my first night alone and away from Piper 7 years ago.