Work Text:
It takes a while for them to get their lives together (or as close to that as possible), but they manage it. It's not a perfect life and it's not a normal life either, they're still Alex and Piper after all, and they stick together. They're not girlfriends, they're not a couple, they're just what they are: a package bounded by life; two people who are so each other's that it wouldn't make sense for them to be apart in this life. It's almost like a force of nature and the universe wouldn't dare to keep them away from each other.
They travel the world some more; it's their favorite thing. Almost everything is new or at least unfamiliar to their eyes but each other. And that is all they need. They don't owe the world a damn thing and it's good to keep all their secrets to themselves without really having to make an effort.
They go to Cambodia, well, because they love Cambodia and because it was a good feeling to see one of the things they thought about when they were hopeless come true.
They leave their shoes somewhere in the sand and take a walk on the beach, they'll probably be too tired to look for them later. They hold hands, they splash water on each other like they aren't 40 something and they laugh and kiss each other's slightly salty lips like they're as sweet as honey.
They're not doing X and there aren't any strangers in drag around. They're just there this afternoon, lying down on the white sheet they temporarily stole from their hotel bed and watching the sky go from blue to orange and then pink and a light shade of purple.
Everything from their fingertips to their breaths feels warm from the wine and probably also the sun. Except their hearts. Their hearts feel warm from the sheer delight of being alive. And happy, very simply so.
"Marry me."
The words come out of her lips softly and that's exactly how they hit Piper's ears. It's not a question, it doesn't have a single touch of uncertainty to it. It comes out like a new idea. It's loud and soft and warm and Piper is sure her voice doesn't interrupt the rhythm of the waves, it just naturally melts into it. Yet she can't help but laugh almost immediately, because it’s a joke, right? That's so Alex.
With a big sunshine smile on her face, she turns to look at Alex, whose eyes seem to be travelling around her lips lazily before they meet Piper’s, and she laughs again.
She laughs just like that time she laughed when they first met at a bar in Northampton nearly 20 years ago. Alex’s smile opens up to the sound of her laughter, but it’s still as lazy and relaxed and content as her gaze, and she reaches out to touch Piper’s hair, “I’m serious,” her eyebrows go up just a tiny bit, “marry me.”
“Who are you?” Her lips smile dumbly and her eyes join in. She places her hand on top of Alex’s, now framing her jaw, “What’s wrong with your plan of never making plans now?”
Alex laughs huskily, “I’m not making plans here, kid. It just so happens that I want you in my completely plan-less life. Through all of it.”
“But that counts as a plan, doesn’t it? It’s definitely a plan.”
“But I am allowed a tiny little single plan, right?”
Piper whispers a yes and they’re both looking at each other like it’s their first ‘I love you.’
They lean in and kiss and taste each other’s smiles; hands slowly caressing hands caressing cheeks and smoothing over hair and touching necks. They’re all skin kissing skin.
She doesn’t have a ring and it doesn’t matter.