peeta_mellark: (Default)
peeta_mellark ([personal profile] peeta_mellark) wrote in [community profile] bigapplesauce2014-07-17 08:47 pm

Muffins and Interrogation [CLOSED]

After breakfast, Peeta spends most of the day camped out in various areas of the park, sketching whatever catches his eye and people watching. He'd hoped to come across Daine while he was out as he hasn't seen her for a couple of days, but neither she nor the dogs ever appear at any of the places he stops. He settles for working on one of his sketches of her with Molly.

Near three o'clock, he packs up his bag and heads toward the northern end of the park and Sunshine's apartment. He's never been to the rebel apartments before, but Sunshine gave him directions on how to get there, and he dutifully pulls those from his bag as he leaves the park near 96th. A little while later he's outside the building, a nondescript apartment complex that stands out from its neighbors only by its comparative simplicity.

After a last quick glance at the directions sheet, Peeta folds it and returns it to the bag. Then he finds Sunshine's apartment number on the call box and presses the call button.
rae_of_sun: (what is even in this)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-07-18 01:55 am (UTC)(link)
… Who the hell is buzzing her apartment?

Sunshine straightens up from where she'd been kneeling next to her couch, the better to clean beneath it. She's midway through a deep clean of her entire apartment, in fact, from the floor right down to the stains in her teapot (which has, over the last twenty-four hours, been put to far more frequent use than normal). And she's definitely not expecting company.

Maybe someone's buzzed her unit by accident. That's a thing that happens, right? She gets up and pads over to the intercom, absently swiping aside a few strands of hair that have escaped the messy bun that's barely containing the rest of it, and then presses the button. "… Hello?"
rae_of_sun: (self recrimination time)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-07-18 02:21 am (UTC)(link)
… Oh. Oh, shit, she did, and she completely forgot. Considering the circumstances, it's sort of understandable, but she's been trying so hard not to consider the circumstances.

"Right! Sorry. Yes. Hang on, I'll buzz you in." Sunshine holds down the buzzer for a few seconds, then spins around with a muttered, "Shit."

Well, okay. This is not a disaster. The apartment's in decent shape thanks to the work she's already done, and she can change into something less dust-smudged in the time it'll take Peeta to get up to her unit. She hustles to the bedroom portion of her apartment to do just that, pulling her hair out of its bun as she goes so she can redo it into something a bit less desperate looking.

It's a little too warm for jeans, but it can't be helped; none of her shorts are quite long enough to cover a tragically noticeable hickey on her thigh, and she's not slumming it in sweatpants when she has company. She compensates with a sleeveless top (at least there's no incriminating evidence of her previous afternoon's activities on her arms), then pulls her hair back up into a loose ponytail and ties a scarf over it - standard baking procedure.

She gives the kitchen a sweeping glance as she walks back over to the door - she never allows it to get that messy by sheer force of habit, so it's in good shape - then waits for Peeta's knock.
rae_of_sun: (friendly)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-07-18 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
By the time Peeta knocks, Sunshine has managed to settle herself a little. The prospect of baking helps - she remembers, now, that she'd invited him for a sort of muffin workshop. Which is perfect, actually. She's great with muffins, but they aren't something that's evolved into a borderline brand for her; she doesn't give them special names or feel overly attached to her recipes. Now that she doesn't spend anywhere near as much time in the base as she used to (which had never been all that much time to begin with - she doesn't like being underground), she might as well pass on a few trade secrets to someone who can put them to good use down there.

"Hey," she says, stepping back to let him in. "Come on in. Sorry, I was distracted - I've been cleaning." Yes. That is all she has to be preoccupied about: tidying.
rae_of_sun: (smile - medium)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-07-19 12:38 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah," she insists, flapping a hand. "The rest of the apartment could use a break from cleaning. Hell, I could use a break from cleaning." Now that she has another means of distraction, she doesn't mind leaving some of the work for later. Might as well stretch it out for as long as she can.

Smile widening, she adds, "And I take your education seriously."
rae_of_sun: (smile - small)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-07-19 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
"There's always room for improvement." Sunshine steers him into the kitchen, then asks, "Do you want anything to drink before we start making a mess? Water? Tea? Or there's juice and milk in the fridge."
rae_of_sun: (eyebrow)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-07-19 02:47 am (UTC)(link)
"Thanks," Sunshine says as she pours him a glass and passes it over. "I told them I couldn't handle a garden-level unit because of the lack of sunlight, and I think they overcompensated. Not that I'm complaining." She's had the blinds pulled up all the way since dawn, and the sunlight has been a steady comfort.

She starts pulling out supplies for a muffin-making extravaganza as she continues. "It's not a bad building, all things considered. If you ever feel like moving out of the bat cave…" she raises her head above the temporary shield of a cupboard door and arches an eyebrow at him. Honestly, she has no idea why anyone passably human enough to get around above ground would choose to live down there.
rae_of_sun: (glancing)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-07-19 07:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Fortunately, Sunshine prepped for this before she got distracted. There's no shortage of baking supplies, so they'll be able to experiment with flavor combinations. And she's not worried about overproduction; there are enough people living at the base that whatever they make should get snapped up pretty quickly (though they will have to make sure they don't make more than can be comfortably carried back - Sunshine can help with that, though).

"Muffin workshop," she says decisively, arranging their supplies on the counter and stacking a few muffin tins on the stove. "By the time you leave, you'll be able to make spartan muffins out of just about anything. That's the idea, anyway." She surveys the little set-up with a critical eye and absently adjusts her headscarf, unaware that there's a pretty incriminating bruise behind her ear.
rae_of_sun: (stop talking sunshine)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-07-23 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
"Huh?" Sunshine glances over at Peeta, then lifts her hand toward where he's pointing, as if expecting to find a substantial amount of hair out of place (not impossible, given how hastily she'd put it up). But nothing feels amiss.

… Wait.

Sunshine lets out a low groan under her breath and strides into the bathroom so she can look at herself in the mirror. And there it is: a sizable hickey right behind her ear. As she runs her finger over the mark, she experiences a brief, dolby sensurroundsound flashback of how it got there, but she quickly banishes the memory.

Well… damn. There's really no way for her to hide it with her hair up - and not much point in hiding it now that Peeta's seen it. She walks back out into the kitchen with a resigned look on her face. "It's fine," she says flatly. "It's, uh… yeah."
Edited 2014-07-23 01:53 (UTC)
rae_of_sun: (listening - sidelong)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-07-23 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
Sunshine feels a brief surge of panic - how in the hell did he know?! - before remembering that she and Spike actually ran into him mid-trek through the park. So he'd seen them holding hands, and… oh, gods. Now she doesn't even have plausible deniability. So much for heading him off with an: oh, well, it was just a magic thing, we're not involved. (And they're not involved. One afternoon of - of questionable life choices does not constitute involvement.)

Shit. She presses her lips together and busies herself with peeling apart muffin wrappers and putting them in the tins. Is she blushing? She's pretty sure she's blushing. Gods and frigging angels.

"Do we?" she asks, giving him a sidelong glance. She's not sure if she should go for warning or pleading, and consequently achieves neither.
rae_of_sun: (patience while I bake)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-07-24 03:30 am (UTC)(link)
Look at Peeta, getting all male. Granted, it's milder than what she'd expect from, say, Pat, Jesse or Theo - and having it come from someone so much younger than her is unexpected enough that it takes her a minute to recognize it for what it is. He's trying to look out for her - probably not on behalf of absent boyfriends, but still.

She can't decide if that should make her more inclined to answer him honestly, or less. It's not his carthaginian job to monitor her relationships for shenanigans (not least of all because she doesn't need Peeta to tell her she was being impulsive and dumb yesterday; she's figured that much out on her own). But she knows Peeta well enough to know that wherever he's coming from, here, it's genuine and well-intentioned.

And hell, it's not like he's prying. Not yet, anyway.

Sunshine sighs and shifts the completed tin aside so she can start placing wrappers into a second one. "Right after I arrived. He was the first rifty I met." 'Met' feels like an awfully dry word for an experience that included a decent amount of panic, a couple deeply unhappy wards, and nigh-incessant sniping, but she doesn't really want to go into detail, here. "He brought me to the base so I could get processed."
rae_of_sun: (ashamed)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-07-26 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
Sunshine lets out a quiet huff. Okay, so she can't pretend that nothing happened aside from your garden variety magic handling, but that doesn't mean she can sell them as a couple (especially without Spike here to do the heavy lifting). She doesn't want to sell them as a couple; it's not as if there's any compelling reason to peddle that particular lie anymore, since she isn't actively helping Spike avoid incarceration or an unpleasant demise. So, she and Spike are bound to some degree. That's... unavoidable. But that's all. Sleeping together doesn't make them an item. She frowns down at the muffin tins, avoiding Peeta's eyes.

"We're not," she replies just as bluntly, making no attempt to soften it. "I was just... helping him out of a tight spot yesterday." She could call it returning a favor if she wasn't wholly opposed to discussing what Spike did to deserve it. As far as conversational topics go, the Giggler is absolutely off the table. Still, look at all that refreshing honesty.
Edited (okay I promise I'm done now) 2014-07-26 14:48 (UTC)
rae_of_sun: (stop talking sunshine)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-07-27 11:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, gods and frigging angels. "It was a magic-handling thing," she says impatiently, though she's not quite fed up enough to clarify that it was a vampire thing, as well. "I - I was saving his life. In the park," she clarifies, because she doesn't need Peeta to think she either fell for the stupidest line in the book or genuinely had to screw Spike to save his life, like this is a ridiculous episode of some sci-fi show.

Finished with the tins, she sets aside the remaining paper cups and rubs the back of her neck. Then she turns and levels Peeta with an embarrassed glare, wondering if she's going to have to really spell it out for him that life-and-death situations can get a bit, well, fraught, and that sometimes they lead to… other peak experiences. Gods. Of all the life lessons she has no business teaching this kid.
Edited 2014-07-27 23:40 (UTC)
rae_of_sun: (confused)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-07-27 11:59 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh, shut up," she says in response to his damn laughter. She's not sure if she should be grateful that he apparently gets it or peeved that he also finds it hilarious, and her impulse to defend herself is tempered by a competing desire to talk about literally anything else.

So when Peeta gives her an opening, even a colossal non-sequitur of an opening, she takes it. "No," she says, brow furrowed.
rae_of_sun: (incredulous)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-07-28 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
Whatever Sunshine was expecting, it wasn't that, and she stands, stiff with growing horror, as Peeta tells his story. At first, she has no idea where he's going with it, or if this is just some attempt to even the scales now that he knows more about her personal life than she wanted him to. But what's he spilling this disproportionate tragedy for?

Then, 'it was true,' sends a jolt through her, sympathy mingling with anxiety, and she thinks poor kid even as she remembers a disappointed sigh ghosting over her skin and a brief nuzzle against her bare shoulder. She gets it.

No. He gets it.

Sunshine remains silent for a few moments after he stops and offers her a smile - look at him, still smiling after all that - and then she says, stupidly, "… Damn." What else is there to say? It's not enough, though, and she gives her head a little shake to clear it. "Um. Gods, that's… appalling." Bad things happen to kids back home, too, but it's not institutionalized badness. It's not like the Hunger Games. It's just… unfortunate accidents, overdoses, moments of stupidity, maybe a vampire with certain tastes, not a slaughter on the television. "I'm sorry." The apology is more for what he went through than her own understandable presumption that Peeta wouldn't have had experience with faking a relationship to save someone's life, but it could cover both.

She also can't help thinking that it's not that straightforward. Yesterday afternoon might not have been smart, or her proudest hour(s), but… it wasn't a lie, either, or a - a show.
rae_of_sun: (we're cool)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-07-28 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
Sunshine absently runs her fingers over her necklace as Peeta comes into the kitchen, and nods her understanding when he speaks. Yeah, she gets that, too. Maybe that kind of thing is inevitable, when you throw two sexually compatible people into an intense situation and make them claw their way back out of it together. Hell, maybe it would have happened even without the earlier fake-outs. Though she can't help wondering just how much of it all was a front and how much… wasn't. Or wasn't necessarily. And she can't help remembering his question: not so bad, was it?

Oh, gods.

Focus on Peeta, Sunshine. It's not hard when he shoots her such a thoroughly depressing smile, and she can't resist pulling him into a brief half-hug, as if he was one of her brothers, before giving her own hands a good scrub. And when he turns the conversation back to muffins, she doesn't object.

"More than one lesson's worth," she replies with a wry smile. "But you already know the basics, so I figured we'd focus on flavor combinations."
rae_of_sun: (listening - sidelong)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-08-03 01:52 am (UTC)(link)
Sunshine shakes her head. When she was searching for herbs for teleportation purposes, she got a pretty good idea of what this universe has to offer, and there wasn't anything wholly unfamiliar to her. "There are some different names that I've noticed, but that's about it. I'm not even sure if it's a different-universe thing or just a different-region thing, honestly."

She knows enough about how limited his resources were in his hometown to be a little hesitant in turning the question around on him, but he's the one who brought it up. "What about you?"