ɢᴀʟᴇ (traps) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-06-06 15:14:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, alyssa hamilton, gale hawthorne, peeta mellark |
Who: Gale, Alyssa, and Peeta (guest appearance by Flowers the farting cat)
What: Checking up on Peeta since his dreams are giving him a rough time, and having a nice, normal dinner without demons
When: Last week sometime
Where: Alyssa's house
Rating/Warnings: Low; references to Capitol torture/hijacking
Status: Complete
Peeta had finally reached the point where he couldn’t decide if he should try and sleep or stay awake. If he dreamt then maybe he would be able to get past this point of torture, but if he dreamt then there would still be more torture. Staying awake was a lot harder and taking a hard toll on his body, but so were the dreams. He had developed a tremor in his hand, often he woke up with bruises covering his body that could only be explained by the dreams, and his body was beginning to lose some of it’s muscle. The worst was probably the hijacking because he constantly felt like he was hallucinating and he wasn’t sure what was real or not real about the dreams anymore. Gaunt was not a good look on Peeta and he was trying to build back the fat and muscle. Baking was still one of the few things that he could do that would take his mind off of things and he was currently working on a batch of muffins. Alyssa had been instrumental in helping him as well and he felt horrible that she was having to deal with him, he was not a good bedmate anymore, and he wanted to make it up to her. Gale had contacted him again and he suggested coming by Alyssa’s place because he wasn’t sure how much he would enjoy going out into the real world like this. Gale honestly wasn’t sure what to do, but he had to do something. He couldn’t just stand idly by and watch Peeta plummet down a cliff, an avalanche growing stronger and just getting worse. Oh, he knew things would get worse before they got better, but a friend being tortured and hijacked was something that left him kind of stumped as to how to deal with it. Especially because he hadn’t dreamed of it yet, but these were some goddamn spoilers - he’d just do the best he could with what he knew now, in the present, try a few things. If they didn’t work, he’d try again. Something else. No way would he give up on Peeta. That wasn’t what friends did. He went to Alyssa’s and since Peeta had mentioned his love for painting, in the dreams (or art in general - must have to do with the cake decorating), Gale brought him a sketchpad and colored pencils he’d just picked up. Maybe it would help. Maybe it wouldn’t. But it’d be something to focus on, to purge any leftover dream emotions onto, in addition to baking. Arriving at Alyssa’s, he knocked on the door, hoping for the best. For her part, Alyssa was trying to give Peeta a bit of normalcy. She cooked him the most lavish, unhealthy meals she could think of - steaks and creamy mashed potatoes, stews, all the sorts of things people who watched their figure shouldn’t eat. Because Peeta needed it, and she wanted him to feel cared for. But she also thought that she should be his refuge, his escape from things. Which was why she’d put on a pretty dress and done her makeup as if they were having a little dinner party, which they may as well be having. Because Peeta deserved the best. She smiled weakly when she opened the door and saw how worried Peeta looked. “Come on in. If you see a furry orange thing, it’s the cat, don’t worry about him. Flowers is sweet.” The cat had even taken quite the liking to Peeta, curling up close to him every time he was in bed. Alyssa was just glad her housemate was fine with all of this. Her home was well kept, and larger than most girls her age had, simply because she’d gotten it when her mother passed away. She kept things tidy, and strangely not as feminine as most would expect from her - dark colours, lots of wood. She preferred older things to new. And it smelled like freshly baking muffins. This whole situation was one big mystery to Peeta. It would be different if he had been a POW, but his time in the military resulted in a whole other kind of PTSD, which didn’t give him a lot to work with when it came to coping and trying to figure things out. It was almost like his dual lives were constantly conflicting in his head and he wanted nothing more than to just tune it all out and just live one life again. So, he basically soldiered on, hoped for the best, and was constantly thankful for Alyssa and his friends like Gale. Hopefully nothing would be too off-putting tonight since any memories that were being hijacked consisted of Katniss and heaven help him if he ran into her during this. He knew that he had absolutely no idea how he would react to that because the line of real and fiction was starting to blur to the point of no return. But, that wasn’t something for him to focus on tonight - tonight was about trying to get a sense of normalcy back to his life. Alyssa looked amazing, as per usual, and he finished putting the muffins to the oven when he heard the door. He wiped off his hands before moving to join her in greeting Gale. His change in appearance may come as a slight shock, but he was growing used to this new version of him, which was never a good sign. Things were going to have to change soon before they got worse and Peeta would not let himself go down without a fight. The dreams were not worth losing anything over, especially one’s own life, and he wasn’t the type to go quietly. His hand shook slightly as he moved to take Alyssa’s in his, “Hey Gale. Thanks for coming over, it’s good to see someone who doesn’t live here.” A wry smile tugged at his lips as he greeted his friend. “I can’t believe you named your cat Flowers,” Gale chuckled, stepping further into the house - and he could see why Peeta liked it here, it was a cozy place, soothing and comforting, and Alyssa had that vibe about her in general. She was also steely, that he knew, and she wouldn’t give up on her boyfriend just because things were difficult now - for Gale, that was important, and he was glad Peeta had found someone like that in this life. They would all need to buckle down and stick to their guns. “Leliana has three pig-bunnies though, one named Schmooples, so that probably takes the cake.” In terms of cutesy names. Aw. Then he saw Peeta, and gunmetal eyes nearly fell out of his skull - the physical changes were worrying, but he was steely too, and he knew they would come back from this. “It smells good in here, I wanted to see what you were making anyway,” his mouth tipped up in a grin, small but genuine, and he offered the art supplies he brought. “Got you a present too, in case you get bored?” “Pig-bunnies? Please tell me you have photos.” Alyssa smiled and moved so that Gale could come in. The gift was a thoughtful one, and Alyssa immediately thought about making the home office into a makeshift art studio for Peeta, a place he could go if he wanted alone time. She knew she’d get sick of people fussing over her, and assumed most people would as well. Wrapping her arms around Peeta’s waist, she nuzzled into his neck. “And I named him Flowers after the skunk in Bambi. They probably smell about the same.” “This is a great gift. Thank you so much, Gale,” Peeta took the sketchpad and colored pencils and fondly rubbed his thumb over them. This would be really good for him since he had left some of his art stuff back at his apartment and he hadn’t really felt like going back to get it. It meant a lot that Gale had brought him something like this and he managed a genuine smile at his friend. It was definitely something he hoped would help with his sanity and he would take any little thing he could to get his mind off the dreams, “And Alyssa did most of the cooking. I’m trying out a new muffin recipe. It’s a double chocolate Nutella and bacon muffin. I knew you were coming over and both of you are crazy over Nutella, so that was easy to figure out.” And at the mention of pig-bunnies he wasn’t surprised at all that Alyssa was excited about the prospect of seeing them and he had to admit finding out what they looked like would be interesting. The nuzzle to his neck earned a soft laugh as he held her close for a moment. “Yeah, don’t let Alyssa name things for you. It doesn’t really work out well. And please try not to show her a pig-bunny because if they’re cute then she’s going to want about twenty of them,” Thankfully his voice still managed a teasing lilt to it as he affectionately placed a kiss on her temple before stepping away to go put the gift on the coffee table, “Come on in and make yourself comfortable.” Nutella and bacon muffins? Holy shit. “Those muffins sound genius, gotta say,” Gale chuckled, and before he got comfortable he rummaged in his pocket for his phone, pulling up photos of the three nugs. He even had pictures of them playing with Tella, his very excited chocolate lab who loved to slobber and roll around in cuteness with her new friends. “Here, I’ve got pictures of all three of them. Schmooples, Schmooples II, and Boulette. Dumpling. Whichever you want to call her.” Him. It. Supposedly Leliana got the nugs fixed, but you never knew what would happen with pig-bunnies from a whole other reality. “They’re kind of cute, but ugly?” he grinned, handing Alyssa his iPhone. “Next time I’ll bring one over.” Maybe it would help too, pet therapy or something? Anything that would anchor Peeta to the present, and not to their shared, war-torn dreamland. “If you need anything done at the bakery too, let me know,” Gale offered. “I went by earlier. Your brothers still think you have the flu.” “Oh my god they’re adorable,” Alyssa squeaked. She showed Peeta the phone as well, smiling when her own animal came out to investigate the new arrival. Finding Gale inoffensive, Flowers flopped down next to him, farted, and started to snore. Alyssa beamed like a proud mother. Standing up, Alyssa kissed Peeta on the cheek and moved to the kitchen to pour them all glasses of milk. Anything that chocolatey would require a beverage. “Well, if it tastes genius then I’ll have to put them in the shop. And thank you for stopping by the bakery. I may give them a call later and tell them it’s a PTSD thing and they’ll understand. I feel horrible for not being there, but there’s not much I can do when it gets like this,” it was a hard thing to handle, but at least his brothers would understand if he explained it as being something to do with his PTSD, which it was in a way. Peeta leaned over to look at the phone and furrowed his brow just slightly, “They’re...interesting. I think I’m with you on the cute/ugly thing. Just like Flowers.” The fact that Flowers farted next to Gale and then fell asleep earned a smirk. When Alyssa got up he waited a moment before leaning back. “You can probably bring out the muffins. I think they’re cool enough to handle. Let’s do dessert first,” he turned back towards Gale, “So, the girl with the pig-bunnies is the one you’re totally in like with, right? How’s that going?” Wow, being deemed inoffensive and worthy of being farted near was a really high honor for Gale. He had to laugh, rubbing the back of his neck, then re-pocketed his phone once the beauty of the pig-bunnies had been appreciated by all. “What the hell are you feeding that cat?” he called teasingly, to Alyssa, before turning his attention back to Peeta’s question - the same question that sort of made him want to squirm, or run out of the room. But he’d put on his big boy underpants and handle it just fine. “Yeah, same girl,” he rolled those pale, wintry eyes, and giving Flowers a few scritches behind the ears while the stinky kitty snoozed. “It’s...well, I guess it’s still complicated. Maybe less so? I don’t know. Basically it’s going okay. I think whatever it is just works for us. I mean, I built her a pen for those nugs, so, it’s probably more than just a casual fling.” “Cat food,” Alyssa shot back. She was carefully taking muffins out of the baking sheet, then putting them on plates for everyone. She had a roast chicken working in the oven, so it didn’t need to be tended to. Moving back into the kitchen, Alyssa handed Gale a glass of milk and a plate with his muffin on it. “Don’t worry about defining it, just enjoy it while it happens. When you’re ready to discuss what you are, you two will. Besides, I’m sure you’re having fun, yeah?” Alyssa winked at him before moving to grab Peeta his food. Boys. Idiots about relationships, the lot of them. Except Peeta. “She could just be using you for your handy skills. Alyssa’s basically using me for my baking skills,” Peeta pointed out with a playful laugh as he watched Alyssa go grab the food and gave a small shrug. It was only slightly true, but he didn’t mind at all because it was probably something that attracted her to him in the first place, “But yeah, just enjoy it while you can. Some day it’ll feel right to bring up the definition conversation. You don’t want to potentially ruin something by trying to define it too early.” “But sometimes it all just works out,” his voice lowered slightly as if whispering a secret as he leaned in towards his friend, “Like, I know that I’m going to marry this girl some day.” He straightened back up as food was offered to him and his hand trembled as he reached out to take the plate. A stormy look passed over his face and those blue eyes dimmed just slightly as he suffered through it and took the plate quickly, wanting to hide the tremor, and tried to give a smile that indicated things were fine, “But yeah, I’m just glad you seem to be happy with her. We’ll have to drag her out on a double date and we can judge her.” Boys really were idiots about relationships, Gale wouldn’t dispute that. “Yeah, you’re right,” he said, taking the milk n’muffin from Alyssa with a thanks. “You’re both right. Mark it down. Might be the only time it’ll happen,” he pointed out wryly, or at least, one of the few times he’d admit it? He and Leliana tried to have ‘the talk’ but really just ended up dancing around it for the most part. They both knew what the other was thinking, or wanted to say, however, nothing really came out of their mouths. The words were avoided but maybe the possibility of a relationship wasn’t - they just didn’t define it explicitly yet, was all. And he did notice the tremor but didn’t comment on it, since Peeta probably wouldn’t have wanted him to anyway. They would all get past this, it would just take some time. He had to even smile a little, at the mention that wedding bells would be ringing off in the horizon for these two lovebirds. “When you know, you know, I guess,” he shrugged. “Double date anytime, man. I’m sure we can figure out something fun to do.” Alyssa returned with her own muffin and milk, sitting in the middle of the two boys but leaning her head on Peeta’s shoulder. “As long as it’s nothing too sappy. Don’t want your lady to think that we’re trying to force her into romance or something. Maybe we could go to In N’ Out or something.” She might have been a little mad about their burgers. “You’re obsessed with those burgers,” Peeta teased. He thought that would be a much better if they didn’t something stupidly romantic if Gale and his lady weren’t quite at that point in their relationship. But planning things for a future that didn’t involve him being laid up thanks to crazy dreams was something he was quite enjoying. He took a bite of his muffin and made a noise of approval, “Mmm, this isn’t half bad, actually. I gotta say that this is one of my better creations.” Burgers were always going to be a hit with Gale. Bring on the cow. “I haven’t even been there in awhile,” he said, stroking his chin, all contemplative. “So that sounds good to me. We just did a thing at Disney with two others, because I had a couple of passes for the anniversary so if we can handle that, then I think In-n-Out will be pretty easy to go with.” Now to assess the state of the union...er, the muffin. He took a bite, and it was basically a perfect explosion of sweet and salty on his taste buds. Then again, if you added bacon to most anything, it was a hit. “Good job, Peeta,” he grinned. “One of these days I’ll learn something else from you besides cookies.” Baking (bonus with Nutella) was apparently the key to romance, as demonstrated by these other two people struck by Cupid’s arrows. “I love a good burger,” Alyssa beamed. “Powers, they give me a hummingbird metabolism.” She shrugged and dug into the muffin, her normally chatterbox self silenced for a few moments. “Dear god, chocolate and bacon is perfect.” She felt her lids flutter shut and smiled to herself. “This is perfect. I feel like my dinner’s not going to be up to snuff,” she chuckled. Alyssa leaned over to kiss Peeta on the cheek, wanting to kiss him, but also wanting to spare him the embarrassment of PDA in front of his best friend. “Muffins are also easy to make, so you can learn that some day,” Peeta pointed out with a soft laugh as he watched Alyssa try the muffin and promptly received a kiss on his cheek for his efforts. At least he knew he had a winner now that could go into the bakery. A smile was flashed to her before he took another bite and nodded. “Mmm, yeah, this is going to be a new item. Glad I could test it out on you two. But yes, In N Out sounds perfect. And if she hates In N Out then you need to dump her, sorry.” He was completely joking about that part and hoped he managed to get that tone right in his voice - it was kind of hit or miss right now. He reached over to gently pat Alyssa’s thigh, “And I’m sure your dinner will be fine. I can help you dish it up if you want.” They were sweet to watch, Gale had to admit. Not that he was staring. But it was more noticing that the affection between them was natural, not forced, and they were just...into each other. “She wouldn’t hate In-N-Out,” he snickered, and that was a lofty promise - but Leliana had good taste. Mostly she liked cute little French pastries and, well, cute things in general - but she’d slit a throat faster than you could say Benihana, without spilling a drop of blood on herself. It was an interesting contradiction. “I’ll see when’s good and we can plan an adventure.” Another bite of his muffin, chased with milk - because it really did help to have the moo juice with something dessert-like and sticky. “And here’s to ruining dinner, I guess?” Life was short. Eat dessert first. It was a motto everyone should live by. “That’d be nice, thanks. Gale, I hope you don’t mind roast chicken. I figured something easy would be best so I can watch you two.” She liked teasing Gale; he was always so damn serious, he needed someone to rib him a little bit. And it was pretty funny thinking of how Peeta had actually been jealous that Alyssa had met Gale first. She stood up and went to the kitchen to fuss over the chicken and some dill potatoes she’d thrown together, putting it all on plates and handing it to Peeta to give to Gale. This was nice, it felt really homey and domestic. It was good to have normal, for everyone. Normalcy was something he craved when he woke up in the middle of the evening from the Dreams and it was something that Alyssa was actually able to give him. He had followed along to the kitchen and helped her with dishing out the food. “It smells great and I’m sure it tastes amazing,” he gave her a quick kiss before taking the plate for Gale into his hands. Managing to be himself for a while and do things like this always felt like he was winning against his Dreams - at least in some small way. He brought the plate out and handed it over to Gale before going back to get his and Alyssa’s, bringing them out to where they were sitting, and sat down. “If it sucks, feel free to tell her about that. I don’t think she’ll hurt you too severely for telling the truth,” he warned his friend with a playful smile as he took a bite of the food. The normalcy of having a simple dinner with friends was definitely nice, and Gale wouldn't say no a homecooked meal. He didn’t get those very often. “I would never,” he was mock-offended at the notion he’d tell Alyssa that her roast chicken and dill potatoes sucked. The little spitfire she was - he didn’t really want to piss her off, no thank you. “But no worries here.” A bite of chicken was taken, tasting, assessing. And really, it was as good as it smelled. He’d be hoovering all of this in no time flat. “It’s awesome, as I fully expected. We promise we’ll behave too, boy scouts honor,” he added, because sometimes watching your boyfriend and his fellow soldier friend was like babysitting. That Alyssa, such a trooper. One night of normalcy. One night. Then tomorrow, maybe they could go back to the effects of being hijacked, nightmares that felt so real they were nearly tangible, and whatever the OC decided to throw at them next. Did Flowers just fart again? |