Who: Peeta Mellark and Alyssa Hamilton What: Peeta's dreams get a little darker Where: Peeta's apartment When: Monday evening Rating: PG-13 - mild torture and pancakes Status: Complete
It was supposed to be just another typical night with Alyssa, but Peeta felt something strange in the pit of his stomach as he laid his head down to sleep. It was a completely founded sense because he launched right into his Dreams. Things were going down in the Arena and they were putting together a plan to wipe out the rest of the Careers and get towards the end of this Game. Unfortunately, that meant splitting up with Katniss and his anger took over as Brutus killed Haymitch’s friends and he killed the man in a rage. He didn’t even have time to process this because suddenly everything went white and there was a large explosion that knocked him unconscious.
This was not how things were supposed to go. He and Katniss were supposed to make it the end together. And he knew things were not right when his Dream self woke up in a very sterile environment. There was only one place that his mind immediately went to and his stomach filled with dread. The Capitol. They had picked him up out of the arena after the explosion and he immediately went to the doors to look outside and noticed other Victors were there - including Johanna and Annie - what in the hell was going on. He started to scream out at the guards, which hadn’t been the best of ideas because one of them descended upon him quickly with a syringe full of something. It wasn’t until it hit his veins that he realized it was tracker-jacker venom and his mind began to swim.
His back lifted off the bed as he woke up with a loud gasp. The venom had left a feeling in his body that he thought he would have shaken upon waking up. And he scrambled slightly as he sat up and made sure to take in his surroundings and realize he wasn’t still in the Capitol. However, when he turned his head and looked at his nightstand he saw a bowl of nightlock berries. This was so not funny. He let out a growl of annoyance as he buried his head in his hands and tried to fight off the feeling of the venom.
Alyssa rolled over, wrestling with her own dreams. It was easier for her since they just looped, but she heard a gasp that wasn’t part of her dreams, not part of the predictable replay of her screaming and demons cackling. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes. “Peeta? Are you all right?”
“Dreams,” he managed to get out as his body shook. The venom was still working through his veins and leaving him feeling quite loopy. He wasn’t feeling the full effects of it, like he was in the Dreams, but he knew if he lifted his head that everything was going to be swirling. He also was really hoping that he wouldn’t be hallucinating, but everything else was going on. If the Capitol was going to use this on him then he would begin to feel all the effects and who knew how long this would going to last. That scared him the most.
“What’s happening? How can I help?” She didn’t reach out to touch him right away, if only because sometimes that wasn’t what someone wanted. She saw his body shaking, but didn’t know if her light would do anything to help that. “Let me know what I can do.” Her hands were gripping the duvet, absolutely hating the world that he dreamed of and wishing she could make someone pay for putting Peeta through this.
“The Capitol,” his voice was shaky as he lifted his head, keeping his eyes closed, and he wanted so badly to see her face but he didn’t trust his eyes. He didn’t want to open them to only see something false and horrible happening to her, “They captured me after an explosion in the arena. I saw Johanna and Annie there as well. They’re starting their torture of me. I got a shot of tracker jacker venom right before I woke up and I can feel it inside of me. And there’s a bowl of nightlock berries, which is pretty fucking awful because I can’t kill myself in those Dreams.”
“May I touch you? It might ground you to the here and now.” She didn’t know specifically what a tracker-jacker was, but venom? Never good. And she knew about the berries from their conversations before. “You’re here, in your house, in California. The Capitol doesn’t exist here.” Almost against her will she was glowing, and she hoped it would do something, anything, to ease his suffering.
“Of course,” he had no issue with her touching him because he didn’t think that would affect anything inside of him. Maybe her powers would help get that venom out of his body faster. His head fell forward to rest on his crossed arms that were resting on his knees, “I know..I… just can feel this venom and that’s not good. This stuff kills people in my Dreams. It makes you hallucinate and I get the feeling this is just the beginning of their torture. I’m… I’m so scared.” His voice caught as he admitted the last part. Not letting the Dreams win was something he strived to do, but now that he was being tortured and it was manifesting outside the Dreams? All bets were off.
She moved to wrap her arms around him from behind, feeling tears slip down her cheeks. Suffering on one’s own was bad enough, but watching someone you loved suffer was its own form of torture. “Peeta. I’m not leaving you until you feel better. Period. If I have to stay here for a month with you and nurse you back to health, whatever it takes.” She closed her eyes tighter, trying to focus and channel her energy into helping him, letting as much power as she could envelop them both.
When those arms went around him he moved so he could place his hands over hers. He could feel her tears on his bare skin and it killed him that he was making her cry. It wasn’t his fault, per se, but he didn’t like the idea of her crying over anything that involved him. “I -- I don’t know how long this is going to last, Alyssa. This was just the beginning and I know it’s probably just going to get worse. They’re going to use me to get to her. And I’m already feeling the effects of this first round of venom,” he explained to her as he could feel some of her power beginning to help him. The venom was still present, but beginning to dissipate at a slightly faster rate and his heart rate was finally starting to normalize.
“I don’t care, Peeta. I love you, and I’m going to stay with you.” Her voice was shaking, and she figured this was the best way for him to learn how stubborn she was. “I will stay with you for as long as you need me. If it’s going to get worse, you’ll need me.” She kissed his back, eyes closed. “If my dreams bothered me, you’d do the same thing.”
“I love you too, but I don’t want to potentially hurt you. I have no idea what they’ll be doing to me,” he admitted with a shaky voice. He hoped that they didn’t warp his mind enough that he would want to hurt anyone who came in contact with him. He also didn’t want to have her sit there and have to watch him go through the torture because his heart was already breaking as she cried over him, “And I would do the same thing, which is why I know you won’t listen to me. I’m scared to stay here though because I don’t know how I’ll be. I need to get away if this is happening.”
“Peeta. I don’t care. I’m a warrior anyway, I’ll be fine.” She moved to kneel in front of him, cupping his cheeks and gently kissing his mouth. “We could get a hotel room, or go somewhere else if you fancy. I could teleport you to a cabin?” It didn’t hold many fond memories for her - she’d been kidnapped and held there once, but her teleportation worked to take her to alternate dimensions and anywhere she’d already been. “It’s in the woods up north.”
When she kissed him he reached out and held onto her waist. How in the world was he so lucky to have a girlfriend like her? “Do you want to go back to that cabin?” his mind knew that it had to be somewhere she had gone before if they were going to teleport. He wanted to make sure that it was a safe place, “And I don’t care where we go as long as it’s not here. I’m so sick of these Dreams messing with my life. My brothers are really going to question me taking more time off work.”
“Not really, but nobody knows where it is but me. Not anyone I know, not anyone you know.” She let their foreheads rest against each other and smiled to herself. “There’s only one other person in the world who does, and if she shows up, I’ll kill her with my bare hands.” Her fingers ran through his hair, and she smiled to herself. “We’ll be safe, that’s what matters.”
His eyes were still closed, but he could hear the emotion in her voice as she spoke. And especially when she threatened to kill the woman with her bare heads he knew what was going on, “We don’t have to go there, Alyssa. I don’t want to make you ever go there. We can rent a different place to escape to for a little while.” Her happiness outweighed his safety and going to that cabin seemed like a bad idea.
“We’ll go wherever you want, Peeta. I just want you safe.” She sighed, running her fingers over him. “Do you hurt? Do you want anything?” She felt useless, and she hated it.
“I’ll figure it out. And I’m okay….I think the venom is finally starting to get out of my system. Thank you so much for being here because it would be much worse if you hadn’t used your powers,” he could hear the heart in her voice and he slowly opened his eyes. To his relief she didn’t look like a warped version of herself and he pulled her close, “I love you so much, Alyssa Hamilton. Just don’t go leaving my side anytime soon.”
She shook her head. “I meant it. I’m going to be physically with you from now on. You’re not sleeping by yourself for the near future.” Folding her arms, she stood up. “I’d been planning on offering you the spare room at my place if you wanted it for sleeping - just to not be alone, but you’re sleeping with me every night until your bloody stupid dreams end. Deal?”
“Are you forcing me to move in with you?” his voice had a hint of amusement in it because she was adorable being pushy right now. He appreciated her concern and knew it was probably a wise idea for him to be near her so that she could assist with the side effects of his dreams, “And why would I sleep in your spare room when I could sleep with you?”
“I ... suppose I am, if you put it that way.” She chuckled to herself and shook her head, moving to sit next to him, her arms gently around his waist. “You can sleep with me. And don’t worry about Kitty, she’ll understand.” Dream shit? Kitty got that. “And even if you tried to hurt her in some dream state - I know you’ll worry - she can make it where she can move out of things. Like, she’d be able to slip through your fingers. Very handy, can’t lock herself out of anything.”
An arm looped easily around her shoulders as he tilted his head and gently rested his against hers, “That’s very convenient. I’m not not completely sure about holing up in your place, but maybe that would be cheaper and easier than renting a hotel room or finding a different cabin to hide in. And you are the greatest girlfriend on the face of the planet.”
“I just don’t want you to be alone or lonely. I know sometimes the dreams can feel like the loneliest thing.” She ran her hand over his back, smiling sadly to herself. “But this makes me so angry. I can’t think of anyone who deserves this less than you.”
His lips pressed gently against her temple as he sat there with her. He loved her so much and he appreciated that she hated the dreams as much as he did and she didn’t even know anything about Panem before now. It made him feel better to know that he had someone like her in his corner, “I love you and I’m so glad I have you. I’m not sure what I’m going to do because a part of me wants to go without sleep for as long as I can, but I know that could be just as bad as dreaming.”
“It’d be worse, if only because you’d pass out at random times. I know, I tried. Don’t do Ambien either, you’ll have really weird dreams. Not the dreams with a capital D, but just weird sleepwalky sorts of things.” She wrinkled her nose. “Just... remember you’re not alone in this anymore, yeah? I might not be in that horrible place with you, but I’m here with you now. I’ve got your back, sleeping or awake. We’re a team, you and I.”
“Ugh, there’s much I can do, is there? Maybe I should make an appointment with Anatoly soon and talk to him about this before it gets out of hand and then he knows what’s up if I do freak out,” he mused before smiling at her next comment. He turned his head, cupped her cheek, and leaned in to give her a passionate kiss, “You are seriously one of the most amazing people in the world. I’m glad you have my back.”
“That’s your psychologist, yeah?” She cocked her head to the side before smiling while he kissed her. “I’m all right. I just try very hard, and it’s only a little bit because I’m smitten with you. Beyond loving you, you’re my friend. That means a lot to me.”
“Mmmhmm, psychologist. He’s pretty cool. And you don’t have to try, there’s a lot of good inside of you, beautiful. You have an amazing soul and I’m privileged that you consider me a friend and worthy of your love,” he truly enjoyed playing her compliments because she was one of the most impressive people in his life. He didn’t think he was all that great sometimes, so he depended a lot on his friends to keep him going occasionally.
“How’re you feeling?” She liked compliments, she just wasn’t very good at receiving them. She was still worried anyway, so asking seemed like a good idea.
“Much better than I was. I’m actually kind of hungry. Wanna come raid the fridge with me?” the kitchen was just down the short hallway, but he hated leaving her in bed. He was also tempted to add in that he was considering catching up on his Netflix queue, but he would let her discover that by herself. He just wasn’t going to fall back asleep anytime soon out of fear, so he might as well find something to do.
“Of course.” She smiled and threaded her fingers through his, standing up and stretching. She was wearing the shirt he’d worn out, and it hung a little big on her smaller frame.
“Stop looking so cute in my clothes,” he commented as he watched her stretch. It was such a sight to see and he really couldn’t get enough of her, so with a smile he got up and tugged at her to follow along. They padded to his kitchen and he dropped her hand as he began to grab ingredients, “I’m thinking pancakes. What would you like?”
“I can help make pancakes. I learned how to make them Yank style a while ago.” She kissed his cheek and moved to find the measuring cup in his cabinets. “Do you have syrup, or shall we just do powdered sugar?”
“I’ve got both, of course. And I’m thinking a lot of chocolate chips. Maybe some strawberries,” Peeta was almost tempted to make them into a kind of kitchen sink type pancake. He watched her walk around his kitchen like she belonged there and it made his stomach flip. She had no idea how much he was affected by her. He grabbed a bowl and gathered up all the ingredients he would need.
“Of course you have both. You’ll have to let me cook dinner for you sometime,” she smiled, leaning over for a kiss. Just being near him made her feel happy, all cosy and warm somehow. And they were doing a pretty good job of ignoring the rather awful obvious.
“I am a cook and a baker, so I have a lot of stuff in my kitchen. And I’m kind of fond of eggo waffles sometimes,” he mentioned with a laugh before returning the kiss, “And I would love for you to cook me dinner.” He measured out the ingredients and began to mix the batter before reaching over and turning on the radio he kept in the windowsill.
“Those things are addictive, yes.” She opened up the bag of chocolate chips, sneaking a couple and popping them into her mouth. Hopping up to sit on the counter next to him, she grinned. “What is it about men cooking that’s sexy?”
“It helps that I’m only wearing a pair of boxers right now, doesn’t it?” he asked with a smile as he leaned over to kiss her cheek and lightly sway along with the music, “And maybe it’s because this is typically seen as a feminine task, so when a man comes along and takes charge it’s sexy. Like how it’s sexy to see a girl use a grill.”
“It doesn’t hurt,” Alyssa chuckled. She crossed her legs and watched him work, handing over the measuring cup when it was called for. “And using a grill isn’t hard, you’d think it’d be a gender-neutral thing.”
“We all have such weird gender roles in society. No one has really started to break through that and make it all gender-neutral. But I hope you know that gender-neutral is fine with me for our relationship,” he was more than happy doing whatever was needed and not expecting anything from either of them. He lightly ran his finger under her foot with a grin as he passed over to the oven and pulled out his griddle.
“Well, obvious - augh!” She didn’t know that he’d been about to tickle her, and she pulled her legs in. “Devious thing,” she laughed. “Rude.” But really, the fact he was a gentleman while still knowing she was going to do what she wanted was one of the things that had initially drawn her to Peeta.
He looked over his shoulder and gave her a wink. This may one of the last good days he will have in a while if his dreams have anything to say about it, so he was going to enjoy as much as he could. He set the griddle up and began to make the pancakes, “Do you wanna quick chop up some strawberries for me, if you’re not upset with me about the tickling, that is.”
“I can chop up the strawberries, you taskmaster.” Hopping off of the counter, she moved to rinse them, find a cutting board, and set to chopping. It was quite obvious from the way she cut that she was a fairly good home cook; she held the knife properly, thumb along the flat of the blade, for more precise cutting.
"There is that sass I know and love," his tone was teasing as he reached over to grab some strawberries and sprinkled it into the batter on the griddle. He gave it a bit more time before flipping them and then put the rest of the strawberries in the mixing bowl.
“Is that the only reason you fancy me? I’m sassy?” She stuck her tongue out at him, swatting him gently on the bum. “I’m just glad I was here for you tonight.”
"I'm glad you were too. And we don't have enough time for me to list all the reasons I fancy you, but your sass is near the top," he admitted before swiping a bit of batter onto her cheek. Once that was done he removed the pancakes from the griddle and put them on a plate for her before leaning in to playfully lick the batter away.
Alyssa couldn’t help but giggle, wrinkling her nose. “Ew, boyfriend spit.” She flailed a little at him, but it was playful and she was laughing. “So, I assume you’ll be moving a few things into my place?”
The flailing only made him laugh before moving over to put a few more pancakes on the griddle, "I guess I have to. Although, we should really think about if we want to make it more permanent down the road." That was a big step to take, but he could sense that it was going to happen sooner rather than later. At least if they didn't kill each other during this trial run.
“We can figure that out when we get there. I’m in no rush to have you move in permanently, but I definitely don’t want you getting hurt if you sleep alone. Like I said, you’re my mate, I’d do this for any of you. Well, you in particular, but that’s for boyfriend reasons on top of the friend reasons.” She blinked. “Did that make sense? It feels like I’m talking rubbish. I blame it on being hungry.”
“Mmm, I’m getting that you don’t want me to move in anytime soon, yet you still really like me and want to take care of me. So, I’ll take what I can get,” he made sure his voice was teasing as he spoke. The moving in idea scared him, so he was a little relieved nothing would be happening with that right at this moment. The next set of pancakes came off the griddle and he moved them to the plate.
“Oh, hush, I’m saying that we’ve only been dating for a month.” She reached out to ruffle his hair, then saw he had whipping cream in the fridge. “Want me to make whipped cream?” Hey, she knew things!
"Feels like a lot longer than that," he pointed out to her. It honestly did. There was something about their relationship that fit so neatly it felt like they have been together for a long time already. He put a few more pancakes on the griddle, "Whipped cream would be amazing, go for it."
“It does, yeah. That’s because you’re perfect, though.” She got out sugar and started to work at the whipped cream, doing it by hand instead of using a mixer.
That comment earned a snort of disbelief from him as he rolled his eyes, "I am far from perfect, but you go on thinking what you want." He finished up the last couple pancakes before moving over to her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and nuzzled against her cheek.
“For me, then. Perfect for me.” Alyssa smiled and nuzzled in return, turning her head to kiss him gently. “Peeta, for all of the struggles you have - I’m glad you’re in my life. One, because I love you, and two, because I can help.”
The kiss was returned as he continued to hold her close. Life was much better with her in his life and he was happy to hear she was happy with him. "I am incredibly lucky that life managed to give me a good hand and brought you into it. But let's stop being sappy and eat some food before going back to bed."
“Deal,” Alyssa smiled, leaning in and kissing him again. He always said it was his good luck he’d found her, but she knew it went both ways. </lj-uct>