The Reign Of Vause

Piper before I met her

(Alex's POV)

Both of us giggling at Larry, Piper was pulling me up the Chapmans' pretty grand staircase to her old room. Any opportunity to poke fun at Larry and I was going to take it and revel in it.
The staircase was right at the front door to the house and once you got to the top there was an option to turn either left or right. It was one of those houses that had a west wing and an east wing. Piper turned left and opened the fourth door down.
I walked in and let go of her hand as she shut the door. Our cases were already here, Piper must have brought them up while I was admiring the size of her family home earlier.
Her room was covered in band posters like NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin and KISS. It was a very large, very Piper room. A cream carpet with a large white double bed, two nightstands with small lamps at either side of it, a desk in the corner at the far side of the room and a TV mounted on the wall opposite the bed.
A poster with all her favourite bands, their tour dates and who opened for them caught my eye. My deadbeat 'rockstar' Dad's band had opened for NSYNC when they played New York back in 97. My mouth was wide open with shock. Piper caught me staring.
"That NSYNC concert back in 1997 was a pretty fun night, Polly and I had just met and started college so decided to break the ice of our friendship by going to that concert together." Piper tells me shyly.
I turned to smile at her.
"Pipes, we were so meant to be." Hinting at my Dad's opening of that NSYNC concert.
Piper laughed and came closer to me to wrap herself around me and place her head in my chest. I put my chin on her head as she spoke, wrapping my own arms around her in return.
"I know Al. I think we figured that out a long time ago." She chuckles.
I moved my chin from her head, still with her in my arms, I held her out a bit so I could see her face.
"No. Pipes, the band that opened for NSYNC that night was my Dad's band. You technically met my Dad before I met my Dad, before you met me." I softly smiled at her. We really were star crossed. The universe seemed like it was literally screaming at us to be together.
Piper looked dumbfounded, but in a good way. She had her mouth open and partially closed it a couple of times, trying to find words.
"Oh my god wow. Alex I, I don't know what to say to that. I feel like I should apologise for meeting your Dad before you. I can't, I can't believe I met my future father in law before I even met you, my future wife. Wow, just wow." She manages to get out in an overwhelmed, apologetic and happy stammer. A tear fell from her eye.
"Hey Pipes, there's no need to apologise, or cry." I say wiping away her tear and pulling her impossibly close to me. I felt even closer to her now. I guess I had my Dad to thank for one thing; an even stronger connection with the woman I love.
Piper let out an embarrassed laugh,
"I'm sorry Al, it's just, I just, I can't believe it. I mean, I know we have a strong connection and pull to each other because my god, I could never get rid of you!" She chuckled as I laughed back and she continued,
"But I could never have imagined that we could be this perfect for each other."
I smiled and pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear,
"Well, now you finally know where I've stood all these years when it came to us. Pipes, you and I are definitely like yin and yang, polar opposites but there's a bit of each other in us, we fit perfectly together."
She furrowed her eyebrows in an 'Aw' way and the corners of her mouth started to quiver as if she was about to cry so instead, she kissed me, holding my face in her hands. When she broke it, she turned away from me and sniffed, wiping another tear from her eye.
"Right well, I'm going to turn the temperature up in here, I don't know about you but I'm freezing, even with a sweater on." She says fiddling with the thermostat at her door. I stood and watched her as she changed the subject. I could tell she knew she had hurt me years ago and regretted it but I also knew she loved me and our little moment there about our connection and our past before there was even an us had overwhelmed her. I found it adorable.

We unpacked and changed into our pyjamas a few minutes later, crawling into her old bed together and flicking on the TV to find the first Christmas movie we came across. As always, Piper moved down the bed and snuggled into me as I draped an arm around her shoulders and took my glasses off to place them on the nightstand beside me with my free hand. 15 minutes into the movie and my pyjamas had to go.
"Fuck Pipes, it feels like Jamaica in here." I cursed, taking my top and pants off, leaving myself in my black matching laced underwear. She giggled and put her head back on my chest as I draped my arm around her shoulders once more after removing my pyjamas to make my body come back to a reasonable temperature.
"Sorry babe, it usually gets so cold up here during the holidays so I turned the temperature up even more than usual." She apologises.
We continued to watch the movie in peace for a while until Piper started to squirm. She was under the covers one minute, on top of them the next, then under them again with a foot sticking out, refusing to give in to the heat. I was watching her in my peripheral vision, trying to contain my smirk until I eventually let out my laugh when she jumped up and gave in, pulling her own pyjamas off.
"Jesus Al you're right. Jamaica was cooler than this." She groans and got back into bed, also in her underwear.
I laughed as she pulled my arm around her again once she was back in bed.
"I told you Pipes."

After the movie, Piper switched off the TV and turned to face me, coming up to be slightly higher than me on the bed since I was on my back. She propped herself with her elbow and leaned on her hand.
"Ok, so be honest, you loved tonight. Embarrassing me, humiliating Larry who shouldn't be here in the first place, getting on with my parents..." She grinned and trailed off, lazily tracing patterns on my bare stomach with her finger, her eyes gleaming with boast.
I smiled and let her continue tracing her patterns on my stomach as I twirled her hair between my fingers.
"Only if you tell me what my Dad was like 'in concert'." I laughed and put 'in concert' in inverted commas with my fingers.
"Oh come on Al he was great!" She says in a high pitched tone. I knew her, I could tell she was lying in a bid to spare my feelings but I really didn't care, the dude was basically dead to me anyway.
"Pipes. I know you're lying. I know you. I don't care if he was shit, when I met him he could barely fill a basement let alone a stadium. He's such a fucking disappointment, he always has been. He let me down and he let my mom down which is why he wasn't at our wedding. He's a loser who said he'd fuck me if he saw me in the street not knowing I was his gay kid. He's nothing to me babe." I smiled up at her reassuringly and continued to passively twirl her hair in my fingers. I laughed and continued,
"So come on, you be honest, what was the infamous Lee Burley like to listen to?" I chuckled, teasingly daring her. She looked away, shaking her head with a grin on her face, coming up with a good way to meet my challenge.
"Ugh, honestly babe it was like listening to a bunch of cats getting murdered. The best thing about him was now knowing where you get your sexy husk from because you definitely get your looks from your mom; gorgeous and sexy inside and out." She laughs.
"Oooh gorgeous and sexy huh?" I smirked smuttily, pulling her in for a kiss as she giggled and nodded,
"Uh huh."
She broke it and said,
"Ok, fair's fair, your turn."
I smirked at her and scanned her up and down.
"Okay fine." I laughed and continued,
"Yeah babe, tonight was great. Embarrassing you is always fun since you get so cute and pink." I start as she playfully hits me,
"Hey!" She says defensively but I smile and continue,
"Your parents and family were lovely, I expected them to hate me but they seem to have forgiven me and as for Larry, humiliating him is always a plus." I say and smile, bringing my free hand up to her free hand and intertwined our fingers, using my thumb to rub the back of her hand.
She slid back down, keeping our hands laced together and began to giggle again,
"Pffft Bloomer. That never gets old." She giggles as I giggle back and our foreheads touch. She rolls slightly on top of me and we begin to kiss and laugh into it at Larry.
Piper and I both had a lot of time for Cal, we both liked him, Piper obviously had to love him what with him being her brother and my brother in law and all but the nickname he had bestowed upon Larry was definitely substance to make fun of Larry even more.
We continued to giggle and kiss with Piper on top of me as I pulled her on top of me even more and stroked her back with my hands when the door opened and Vanessa walked in.
"Oh my God! I'm so sorry! Cal said the fourth door on the left would be mine and Larry's bedroom!" She shrieked at us in her shrill voice, clearly embarrassed.
Piper and I both sighed into each other's mouthes and turned to glare at her, Piper really hated her going by the look on her face.
"Well this has always been my bedroom, so, sorry but, it's mine and Alex's not your's and Larry's." She said sarcastically and venomously.
She didn't wait for Vanessa to leave, she immediately grabbed my face and went back to kissing me, signalling to Vanessa that she was really not welcome.
"Um Piper I, which bedroom do we-?" She stammers but I flipped her off to get it through to her faster that we would appreciate it if she fucked off.
Piper raised a hand and pointed in the direction she needed to go, not breaking our kiss.
"Oh um yeah, thank you, I'll just, leave." She says quickly and closes the door behind her. Piper and I then proceeded to take Christmas Eve into Christmas Day with style and a lot of love.