Who: Peeta and Alyssa (they really need a ship name) What: Hanging around and discovering Alyssa’s weird purchase Where: Alyssa’s place When: July 3rd Rating: PG-13 for sexual references Status: Complete
The filming for Peeta’s Food Network competition had finished up last week and while he knew that he was the winner he wasn’t allowed to say anything. There was an anticipation to actually being able to tell people and see how it played out on the TV tomorrow evening, which was going to be the highlight of his July 4th most likely. There wasn’t a ton planned, but Peeta wanted to make sure she was invited to his family’s festivities and he figured he would see how the day went on if he wanted to put up with fireworks or not. Fireworks were always a touchy thing when it came to him and his military experience.
It was probably due to this increase in activity that he probably didn’t notice the new blanket that Alyssa had purchased a few days ago. Okay, scratch that, he had noticed the addition of the blanket, but hadn’t looked at it properly. Today was different though and when he walked by, soda in hand, he couldn’t help but stop and stare at the floral design. And then it finally registered to him what he was actually seeing on this blanket.
“Alyssa….did you know this blanket has penis flowers on it?” his brow furrowed as he called out to her and hoped that she could hear him.
Alyssa looked up at Peeta before smiling impishly. “Only took you a week, I’m impressed!”
“It’s been a week? You’ve got to be joking.And did you mean to buy it looking like this?” It wasn’t horrible but it was a little unsightly now that he realized what was on the blanket. It could be an interesting conversation starter around the house. Why in the world had she decided that this blanket was the one that needed to come live with her?
“It’s been a week. I was going to get it in pink, but I thought it’d be too obvious, so I got it in blue.” She smiled impishly at him. “It kind of reminds me of my mum. She used to have a replica whale penis dildo in her room, you know. Well, her room was where my room is now.” Ew. That made Alyssa think about the fact she and her mum had both had sex in the same room. At least it was a different bed?
“What in the world does someone need a replica whale penis for?” Peeta questioned as he ran his hand along the blanket and shook his head. He had never gotten to meet her mother, but he was always amused when he learned a new thing about the woman. She and Alyssa were quite different, but also quite alike in some ways.
“I was more worried about the sparkly dragon penis,” Alyssa grinned. She shrugged and moved toward the kitchen to make herself a cuppa. “I still have it all in the attic. I don’t know if you can recycle used... that. But throwing it out seems like the dustbin man would find me a biiiiit mental.” She wrinkled up her nose and laughed, putting on an American accent. ‘’Oh, look, here’s a huge pile of sex toys in the rubbish, nothing odd there, nope.’”
Her comments just left him standing there with a confused look upon his face and a raised eyebrow. Wow, he really wasn’t expecting to learn all of that about her mother. The trashmen would find them quite strange if you tried to recycle that stuff, “It would probably be good to put it in a big black trash bag. Then by the time they get it to the dump if the bag breaks open they won’t remember where it’s from. But honestly, if there’s a bunch of weird sex toys up there that you don’t want we should probably go through the attic.”
“Oh god I didn’t even think of the attic.” Alyssa set down the kettle before facepalming. “It’s probably some sort of creepy sex dungeon up there.”
He wandered over to where she was in the kitchen, setting his soda on the counter, and then wrapping his arms around her waist, “Should we attempt to go up there? Maybe find some weird things that we can try out and try not to think about your mother using them. We should probably do a bit of spring cleaning if I’m to bring my stuff over here.”
She chuckled and nodded. “Probably. You feeling well enough to catch me if I faint?” She wrinkled her nose, sighing. “In one way, I’m sorry you can’t meet her, but in many others I’m thankful?”
“I may have tried to run away if I had to meet your mother, beautiful, but I really would have loved to know her. I think this is just slightly easier to have a relationship because we probably wouldn’t be at this point since you mentioned that she made you want to stay away from the idea of marriage and children. It’s still fun learning things about her though and the way you look when you have a happy memory,” Peeta pointed out to her with a smile as he leaned over to kiss her neck, “And don’t worry, I will always catch you if you faint.”
“I don’t have many happy memories of her as a mum, but she was a fun person. I just think she was a bit of a crap mother.” Alyssa smiled and leaned into his touch, switching on the electric kettle. “Want to head up there while my water boils?”
“It happens. My father wasn’t the best father in the world,” it was definitely a parent thing, none of them would ever be perfect, but he couldn’t help but smile. His lips trailed up to her earlobe and he chuckled against her skin, “We can wait. Otherwise we may never come back down here. There may be some crazy toy up there that I have to use immediately on you.”
“Ew! I hope not!” She flailed her hands and put them over her ears. “If they’re up there, they were Mum’s, and no thank you. Mine are in my room, thanks so much.” She wrapped her arms around him, cuddling closer. “But you like your blanket?”
That comment earned a hearty laugh from him and he held her close as she flailed around. It was kind of amusing to bring that sort of thing up because she gave the best reactions to things. But when she mentioned it being his blanket he arched an eyebrow at her, “My blanket? I don’t think so, beautiful. That thing is yours and I will not claim ownership on it.”
“Oi, I bought it for you. I even gave a lot of thought to which colour I should get you.” She tiptoed up to kiss him on the cheek, but it soon turned into blowing a raspberry. Teasing went both ways.
“Well, that just means that we will have to sleep with it on the bed,” he countered with a laugh as he reached his hands to playfully tickle her and feel her squirm against him. Soon enough the kettle was whistling and he let out a laugh, “Oops, better let you make your cuppa because I don’t want you to spill on me.”
“That makes sense to me.” She smiled and wiggled out of his embrace, moving to pour herself the cuppa. “Do you want some? I made enough water for two.” You could take the girl out of England, but she’d stop drinking tea when she was dead.
“Sure,” he wasn’t a huge tea drinker, but he was slowly coming around thanks to Alyssa always making him an extra cup. He watched her from his spot and smiled to himself. How in the world did he get so lucky? Life was working out pretty well now that he wasn’t held hostage by his dreams.
The fact he always had a cup of tea when she did made her smile, and Alyssa beamed as she poured him a cup. She put one sugar and a dash of milk into her own mug, offering Peeta the sugar bowl when she was done. “Do we have any plans for your mad American holiday tomorrow? Blowing things up and grilling meat day?”
“You get to become an American very soon, so maybe we should make this special. My father usually has a barbeque if you want. I’m kind of iffy on big fireworks thanks to the military, but I don’t mind smaller ones to shoot off,” he took the mug from her and put some sugar into it before setting it down on the counter, “What would you like to do?”
“Meat sounds good. You lot and your fire cracker obsession are the worst.” She shuddered. “But I do want to be home before evening in case Flowers doesn’t like the noise. The fourth is the day animals are most likely to run away from home or hurt themselves.”
“Like I said, that’s not really my thing anymore. I can do fine sometimes if I’m there watching, but hearing random people shoot them off is the worst. And that’s understandable. Although if we make sure not to leave any doors or windows open then he should be okay,” Peeta was fine with making sure they checked in on the cat. He felt bad for animals that didn’t fully understand what was going on.
“I still want to snuggle with him when he’s not sure what’s going on, you know?” Alyssa looked over at her cat, snoring, “I love him.” It should’ve been obvious to Peeta that Alyssa defended those she loved to the death.
“I know you do,” he pointed out to her with a small laugh. Oh yes, he certainly knew how much she loved that cat and he was more than happy to let her enjoy that. He would never try to take all over her attention, “Alright, should we head upstairs?”
Taking another sip of her tea, Alyssa nodded. “I am literally terrified of what we’re going to find upstairs. I really just hope there’s not a body or a weird sex robot or something up there.”
“A sex robot would be preferable over a body,” Peeta commented with a laugh as he waited for her to lead the way up to the attic. It would be quite amusing to see all the crazy stuff her mom had stashed away and hopefully Alyssa wouldn’t be too embarrassed.
“I dunno, a body will have less of my mum’s DNA on it,” she sighed. Pulling down the ladder to the attic, she swallowed thickly and started to ascend. Peeta had looked up her skirt before, who cared?
Her sigh of relief was audible when she saw that it was mostly furniture and linens that were visible in the attic. It was also fairly tidy. “Oh, thank fuck.”
“Nice view from down here,” he commented jokingly as he ascended behind her. He had been in her skirt quite often, so it wasn’t a big deal, but he still wanted to tease her about it. He looked around the moment he made it up and chuckled at her sigh of relief, “This isn’t that bad, sassy. I think most of this we can probably donate.”
“Yeah. There still might be some suspect things in the boxes, but it’s not quite the cache of debauchery I’d feared.” She looked down at him and teasingly wiggled her hips. “Oh, hush, last I checked you liked my bum.”
“I really like your bum,” he answered as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed against her, lightly kissing her ear, and chuckled, “Well, shall we just go through some random boxes? We can make donate and throw piles and if I find anything with sex toys I’ll give it to you to go through?”
“That sounds about right,” she sighed contentedly. “Thank you. For being here with me. I really appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome, but honestly, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. I’m in it for the long haul,” he reminded her with a smile and reached over to squeeze her hand that held the engagement ring, “I love you. Now, let’s get to work.” Time for work instead of sappiness and he was happy to help her with these big life moments.