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Annie Cresta is one with the waves (lifeisastorm) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-11-22 23:51:00

Who: Annie, Caroline and Peeta
What: Awkward introductions and attempts at pretending the world doesn’t exist
When: After this post
Where: Peeta’s apartment
Warnings: Interrupted sexy times, Panem related issues
Status: Log | Complete

Once again, Annie’s neighbours were being loud and she was unable to sleep. While she had options on where to go if she needed to sleep, she didn’t take them up often. This particular night, or early morning really, the brunette had been working on a project when she decided to check the network. She didn’t know what it was exactly, but once she saw Finnick’s single sentence post, she knew it had been a mistake.

Oh, Annie had known it was going to start eventually. How could it not? But as each day went by without comment, she had let herself hope he’d escape the dreams. So what did she do? Lock up and then go to the ocean to swim and clear her mind. It being the middle of the night really didn’t deter her at all. The ocean had been relatively calm the past few days. But even that didn’t really work for long. It had calmed her down at least some but not a lot.

Arms and legs feeling tired earlier than they should thanks to sleep deprivation, Annie made her way back to her apartment to get a towel and dry off some, as well as change. This wasn’t working. So she did the logical thing and went to Peeta’s apartment. It was quieter there and he had said if she needed anything, especially with the loud neighbours, she could go over there. Wrapped in a blanket though it was clear she’d just been in the ocean, Annie knocked on the door.

All she wanted was to pretend the world didn’t exist for a bit and pretend that Finnick hadn’t started dreaming. Was that really too much to ask?

It had been a lovely date night with Caroline and Peeta was even taking the fact that she was a vampire in stride. It had been a bit of a shock and he still couldn’t believe that he allowed her to feed on him, but he knew that she needed help and that was the type of guy he was. Always helping friends when they needed it most and he cared about Caroline. Acceptance of the fact that supernatural beings were alive in Orange County had taken a couple days, but he honestly shouldn’t have been surprised about that thanks to the dreaming.

So, tonight he had invited Caroline out to have dinner with him and the couple had come back to his place. He had yet to go over to her place, but with two other roommates he wasn’t really inclined to take a date back there. Things had progressed naturally and Peeta had just removed his pants when he heard the knocking on the door. A confused look crossed his face as he glanced over at Caroline and then back at the door. “Damn it,” he murmured before crossing over to it, “Sorry, Caroline. No one usually comes by this late unless it’s an --”

“--Emergency,” he finished after opening the door and finding a wet Annie wrapped in a blanket at his doorstep. He completely forgot about the fact that he was only in his boxers at the sight of her and quickly pulled at her blanket to bring her in, “Get in here before you freeze to death, Annie.”

Caroline was relieved that things hadn’t been all that awkward since the whole biting Peeta incident. A part of her was worried that even though everything had gotten back on track that morning he still wouldn’t want to see her again afterwards. Not that she would have blamed him. But everything was back to normal and she was definitely happy about that. Not just because of the sex either, the whole letting her feed from him thing instead of running away scared - it had changed things for her. Even though she wouldn’t admit it there were some feelings there.

The blonde was pretty feminine so she had worn a dress for their date, which was already on the floor by time someone knocked on Peeta’s door.

What the fuck? Who even came over this late? She just nodded her head at Peeta’s explanation stepping back into the shadows while Peeta answered the door, unable to be seen whoever was on the other side.

And then Peeta invited the girl in. Well okay then. This wasn’t awkward at all. Caroline’s eyes darted around the room trying to find something to cover herself up with. The first piece of clothing the found was Peeta’s shirt… again. Well whatever worked? With vampire speed she ran and picked it up and threw it over her head. “Um, hi?” Caroline said once she was covered.

“I’m sorry, I know it’s late, but--” And that was when Annie realised that Peeta had someone over. First sign that she had interrupted something. Then she noticed the state of dress, or lack thereof, and her face coloured in embarrassment. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I can leave.”

Was she still upset about Finnick dreaming because she knew what would come from it? Of course. It was hard for her to handle, even without everything that had happened in the past month or so. It was something she’d been dreading and her mind was racing. But she also hadn’t meant to interrupt Peeta and… the blonde she didn’t know.

“I can call Johanna or something…” Absently she tugged on the edges of the long sleeved top she’d put on, gaze flickering between Peeta and Caroline.

“Oh shit,” Peeta colored when he remembered that he was in just his boxers. He bit his lip for a moment before noticing that Caroline had entered the room wearing one of his t-shirts. Right now was not the time for admiring her and he quickly moved Annie over towards the couch. He wasn’t going to allow her to walk away from this because Johanna didn’t live as close as he did.

“Let me go grab some clothes. Annie, this is Caroline, the nice girl I’ve been seeing lately. Caroline, this is Annie who is basically the Disney Princess of Panem,” he had explained a little about his dreams to Caroline, but he hadn’t gone totally in depth into who was who. He had been waiting a bit to introduce everyone to her, but apparently the fates wanted him to start on that immediately.

“You can’t go to Johanna’s, you’ll stay here. I’ll get some pants and make you some tea, hold on,” he was starting to ramble a bit as he moved his way back to the bedroom. He stopped by Caroline and kissed her cheek before whispering an apology in her ear and then went to find a pair of pajama pants because it was too much work to also put on a shirt.

Caroline wasn’t shy, and she wasn’t embarrassed about what Annie had interrupted either. People had sex, it was nothing to be ashamed of. There was no need for the situation to be awkward and as much as she wanted to go back into the bedroom with Peeta it was obvious the other girl was upset about something. That definitely took priority.

She raised a brow at the introduction. Disney Princess of Panem? Well that sounded somewhat cheerful for a place that apparently made children kill each other. Caroline briefly wondered if she was going to have as much energy as Anna. As far as she was concerned Peeta had nothing to apologize for. Friends were important. She would do just about anything for her own so if his needed him right now then that was all that mattered.

While he was back in the bedroom getting some clothes Caroline made her way over to the couch, sitting down next to Annie. “Hi,” she said again this time with more cheerfulness in her tone. “You make jewelry right?” Peeta had mentioned something about one of Annie’s bracelets to cover up the bitemark Caroline had left. “That’s so cool. I wish I could do something like that.” Her skills consisted of organizing, party planning, cheerleading, and apparently singing.

“But hey,” she continued growing a bit more serious. “If you need to talk to Peeta alone or something I completely understand. I can head out.” And she would understand. Obviously she had come over to talk to Peeta and if she wasn’t comfortable with talking to him with Caroline around, well of course Caroline would be able to understand that.

And another comment where Annie would (normally) ask Peeta why he was so weird. She had no idea how she even counted as a Disney Princess for Panem. Though given his conversation with Johanna and how that had been awkward for her… Yep. Peeta was weird. Not like she had much time to really respond as she was being led to the couch and told to hold on as Johanna’s was too far.

“Hi.” Well it was a proper greeting instead of Annie’s stammering over her words because she was embarrassed by what she’d walked in on. She knew it was perfectly normal, but that didn’t mean she didn’t still feel bad about it. “Um, yeah. I sell at farmer's markets and started working for a movie studio for jewellery.” Despite the Disney Princess description, Annie was far from energetic. She could be playful, but she was much more mellow. Absently she fiddled with the arms of her shirt. Nervous habit.

At least until Caroline said she could always leave if she wanted to talk to Peeta alone. No, that wouldn’t do. Annie had interrupted them and it wasn’t like it was super deep or dark conversations. Just Annie freaking out about Finnick starting to dream.

“You don’t have to do that. I mostly was just wanting to forget the world is real for a bit.” She knew it didn’t sound completely sane and she’d been struggling with that more as of late. But she needed the distraction and swimming hadn’t been enough.

He quickly found a pair of pajama pants and threw on the nearest shirt he could find. Unfortunately it was one with a stupid looking frog in a sombrero some leftover souvenir from a trip to Mexico with fellow service men. Where in the world had that one come from? He padded back out to the living room and listened to Caroline speaking to Annie with a smile on his face. This was only making him enjoy spending time with Caroline more because she wasn’t instantly running away from the situation. He wouldn’t fault her for wanting to leave either since it seemed like their plans for the evening were going to be put on hold until the morning.

“So, what happened, Annie?” he called out to her as he made his way into the kitchen. He drank some tea, but he kept most of it around in case Annie came by. He started going through the motions of heating up the kettle and dug through his collection until he found one that would assist with her being able to get some sleep. It was a good thing that she had remembered to come over since her neighbors were still awful.

Once the kettle was starting to boil he ran back into his room and grabbed one of his bathrobes and brought it over to her. “You went swimming didn’t you? Do you want me to grab some of my clothes so you can change into them? Or else I can run downstairs and start drying your clothes for you.” He moved over to stand beside Caroline and slipped his hand into hers.

Forget the world was real? Yes that was a strange statement. Caroline could understand not wanting the dreams to be real and focussing on the real world but she wasn’t so sure about not wanting the world to be real. She wasn’t exactly sure what to say to that so she’d just let Peeta deal with it and comment on the jewelry part because jewelry? Yes that was something Caroline could talk about. “A movie studio? That’s amazing!” she commented excitedly, her eyes lighting up. “Do you get to like meet movie stars and stuff?” and hey who knew maybe Caroline’s questions were distracting her from the world or whatever.

She almost laughed at Peeta’s shirt but refrained. Maybe if she hadn’t taken one of his for herself, but putting her dress back on was too much work and it was a rushed situation so oh well Peeta got the frog sombrero. “Nice shirt,” she couldn’t help but comment, squeezing his hand when he was back at her side.

Well she didn’t get an odd look and Caroline just flowed with the rest of the conversation. That was a good sign in Annie’s book as she always tried to keep people from looking at her differently. Sometimes the real world was just too much for her though. Fears, anxieties, her past and what was to come. “No, I haven’t met anyone famous. I tend to keep to myself.” Or with Portia She liked her work, but she also didn’t like being around people.

Then Peeta showed up in a.. very interesting shirt and all she could do was blink. Much like the weird comment, if she were in a more coherent mode, she probably would have commented on it but instead she shrugged at the question.

“Finnick started dreaming.” And she pulled her knees to herself as if to disappear. She knew that everyone seemed to think Finnick being there and knowing her from the dreams would be a good thing. Even Annie thought on some level it would be a good thing. But she didn’t want him going through it. He could calm her down and ground her as he was. Why did he need to suffer the dreams of Panem?

“I changed before I came up here. But yeah. I went swimming…”

“Don’t even start with me, Forbes,” he teased at Caroline’s comment about his shirt. It was a shirt he only wore when he had nothing left to wear or was doing laundry. At least Annie was nice enough not to comment on it and he turned his attention back to her. A small frown appeared on his face when she mentioned that Finnick was dreaming. That made a lot of sense. As much as Peeta wanted to see Finnick around and have him dream it seemed selfish because no one should have to experience Panem.

He turned towards Caroline and spoke gently. “Finnick is another Victor and the love of Annie’s life in the dreams,” his attention turned back to Annie, “I’m sorry that he started dreaming. It was going to happen, but maybe having you around would be good for him? I know I was upset that I didn’t have anyone around, but we’ll be here to support him. It’s a tough thing to get through.” At least there were was a handful of people here to help Finnick out when he needed it and he would certainly need it the further along he got into the dreams.

He heard the whistling of the kettle and slowly got up. “Okay, wasn’t sure if you came straight here from the sea. You’re more than welcome to sleep here though. I can sleep on the couch if you two ladies want to share the bed,” he didn’t want to make either of them sleep on anything else. Once in the kitchen he prepared her tea the way she liked it and brought the cup over to her, “here you go, maybe it’ll help you sleep.”

Caroline would want to meet all the movie stars but she knew not everyone was like her. That would be weird. “That’s still really cool though.” Keeping to herself was so not Caroline’s thing, but again she knew everyone was different.

And then they were talking about some guy named Finnick that Peeta hadn’t mentioned before. But he explained to her and Caroline frowned slightly. It was always tough when someone new started to dream and if Annie cared about this person in the dreams chances are it bled over here at least a little bit. Granted Caroline wasn’t in love with any of her dream boyfriends. That would just be weird, especially considering none of them really existed here and the person she was in love with currently in the dreams was her roommate and practically her brother. Gross. But still she cared about all the people of Mystic Falls so it was probably the same for Peeta and Annie.

“Have you talked to him about the dreams?” she asked even though she really had no clue how intense they were. Just that they were horrible enough that Peeta didn’t know if surviving was worth it. “I mean I know my dreams are like completely different, but it still helps me when I talk to people from Mystic Falls,” which granted would mean nothing to Annie but it’s not like Caroline fully knew what Panem meant. “Even though I’m ahead from almost everyone else in my dreams it still helps me and I think them too.” She wasn’t sure if her advice was helping but it was all Caroline really knew.

“Wait, you swam this late? Is that safe?” she wasn’t judging. It was more concern. And yes she had noticed Annie’s wet hair but that could have been from like a late night shower or something. And then came the discussion of sleeping arrangements. Every scenario kind of seemed odd to her but she supposed her and Annie sharing a bed made the most sense. She refrained from comment on that part though.

As Peeta explained who Finnick was to Caroline, Annie just twisted her hands anxiously. It was a lot to take in. But clearly if Peeta was explaining about Panem to Caroline, that meant she was a dreamer as well. “I know. I plan to offer if he wants it…” Which was a lot for Annie. She struggled a lot with the dreams and kept to herself about it. She was always there for Peeta and Johanna, but she never had actively offered to talk.

Turning her attention to Caroline, Annie just shrugged. “Not really. I mean, he made a post about strange dreams. I apologised. Then I went swimming…” Not the most healthy of things. “But I never mentioned them before, though I’m sure he’s read about them….I already freaked out when I saw him the first time.” It was complicated and Annie didn’t know what to do. She had known it was bound to happen eventually but… “I don’t talk about them a lot….” Or ever if she could help it. But again, each person was different.

Taking the tea and letting the warmth go through her, she nodded some at Peeta’s suggestion before answering Caroline’s question.

“I swim when I’m stressed. Or need to clear my head….” No need to mention that she usually did it in her clothes when it was at that point. “I haven’t had any issues?” Never mind the time Peeta had thought she was drowning.

Peeta was happy that Caroline was here to help speak to Annie as he was distracted with other things. Sometimes it was helpful to get suggestions from an outside party and Caroline was still learning about the world of Panem. Annie did seem to be relaxed around her and that pleased Peeta as well since he knew that Annie was a good judge of character.

“Unless you want to try to squeeze onto the couch with me,” he commented to Caroline with a playful smirk. He didn’t want to make her uncomfortable and he didn’t want her to leave tonight either. Annie deserved the bed for her troubles and his couch could reasonably fit two people onto it with a bit of squishing.

“Not so far,” he wasn’t going to comment about the part where he had thought she was drowning either. He had quickly learned his lesson and knew that Annie was an incredibly skilled swimmer. He could understand Caroline’s hesitancy towards it as well though. “Anyway, I say at least speak to him a little bit and see if he offers up some details on his dreams. I’m going to guess he’s not starting with the Hunger Games. But offer yourself up to him to talk if he needs it.”

“That’s all you can really do.” It seemed like the best course of action to let first time dreamers come to the more experienced dreamers when they were ready. Caroline already knew most of the people she dreamt about so talking to them was never a big deal but she knew it wasn’t like that for everyone. However it sounded like Annie and this Finnick guy knew each other so he would hopefully talk to her when he was ready. And they obviously knew each other in the dreams with the whole love of her life thing.

“Well I mean as long as you’re safe?” Caroline still wasn’t all that convinced that it was safe. But it wasn’t her place. She had just met Annie. The girl obviously knew how well she could swim better than Caroline did.

“I might try the couch,” she replied giving Peeta a small smile. As nice as Annie seemed Caroline didn’t know her all that well. And yeah she would kind of prefer spending the night in Peeta’s arms even if it was a bit of a squeeze. But she did agree with him that Annie deserved the bed.

So much for pretending the world didn’t exist. While she really didn’t want to talk about it, she knew that it was bound to happen. Especially since there was someone else there and not just Peeta. If it were just him, it probably would have turned into a movie thing. At least until she fell asleep. If she fell asleep.

“That’s basically what I’m planning to do.” She didn’t look forward to it, but she had long accepted that she would push aside how uncomfortable talking about dreams was for her to offer Finnick someone to talk to if he wanted. She just needed to get focused, which was taking more time than usual. Frustrating but she would get there. She had to.

A small nod to the question of at least she was safe. Annie had survived worse than the ocean at night. But that was going into her games and that was something she never spoke about.

“Are you sure? I can take the couch, I don’t mind.” She was the one who interrupted them after all.

“Yup, you get the bed, Princess,” Peeta teased with a smile as he got up to study his bookshelf of movies and found The Little Mermaid amongst them all, “Let’s make this into a movie night or something. I think this movie will be very appropriate and we can just veg out and not worry about anything else.” He was even willing to make popcorn if the girls told him they wanted it. This may not have been the evening he had pictured, but he was pleased that Annie continued to trust him and that Caroline was so relaxed and able to roll with the punches.