Chip In The Head
About This Story: Alvin and Brittany discover a secret about each other that they may have forgotten to discuss with Dave after all these years. They aren't sure how to tell him, especially after another emergency takes priority. Warning: some chapters contain more adult-ish themes than others (chapter warnings provided). Age-wise they are 11. I don't own any part of the Chipmunk franchise, just borrowing them from Nickelodeon, Janice Karman, & Ross Bagdasarian, their family, & their company.
About This Chapter: Rated PG-13(+), for the sexual innuendos and conversations of child abuse involving inappropriate relationships and interactions, but nothing explicit.
Pairings: Alvin/Brittany
1. Repressed Memories
"Alright, Britt, I'm here to 'collect'." Alvin reluctantly sighed as he knocked on the door to his own bedroom one night in early summer.
"It's open." A voice could be heard from inside.
Alvin pushed open the door and stepped inside. "Let's get this over with."
"How do you want to do this?" Brittany asked from where she was sitting at the foot of Alvin's bed. "On your bed? On one of your brothers' beds? On the floor? I was gonna let you choose where you would be most comfortable, since you won that card game fair and square. And since most of our money is in various trust funds, anyway, we all decided to wager various chores and favors for each other instead. Still feel like a winner, now that you know you won that back massage from me instead of Jeanette?"
"Yeah, there's some fine print for ya." Alvin chuckled sarcastically. He sighed and continued, "I guess I'd be more comfortable on my bed. Should I take off my shirt for this? I wouldn't think you would want to go any lower."
"I guess..." Brittany sighed. A thought struck her. "So, if Jeanette were giving this back massage instead of me, you would take it all off?"
"Hey, Jeanette is a professional." Alvin stated as he cast off his shirt and stretched out across his bed to lie on his belly, while hugging a pillow under his head and chest. "I'd have a towel or something covering the lower half of me."
"Like there's anything to see there, anyway..." Brittany muttered as she reluctantly placed her hands on his shoulders and started kneading his tired muscles. His back was warm, and the fur on his dorsal stripes was soft.
Alvin originally rolled his eyes at her comment. But once she started massaging him, he closed his eyes and started feeling more relaxed. Her hands felt good. She seemed to know just where to apply pressure on him. "Oh, yes, that's the spot..." He mumbled into the pillow.
"Feeling like a winner, now?" Brittany chuckled.
"Uh-huh..." Alvin moaned into the pillow again.
Brittany continued, "I can still feel tightness in your neck and your lower back, but you have loosened up some. And I'm kinda glad to know you are enjoying this. I mean, I have practiced on Jeanette, and she's given me tips."
"No kidding?" Alvin resisted the urge to turn around and talk to her. "Now, when you say you 'practiced' on Jeanette, do you only have experience...above the waist? Or did she teach you to massage...anything else?"
Brittany sighed, "Well, I have a little bit of experience with foot massages, but I really don't want to handle your stinky feet right now."
"Understandable," Alvin muttered. "I don't want to handle my own stinky feet right now, at least not at the end of the day, before I shower." He added a slight smirk. "But I think you know that when I said 'anything else below the waist', you know that I meant - "
She drilled her knuckles a little deeper into his shoulder blades. "Yeah, I know what you really meant, you sick little munk. And before you get any more disturbing images in your head, I'll have you know that when Jeanette let me practice on her, she was wearing a cami and pajama pants. I was usually wearing the same thing when she massaged my back. We never had any reason to go any lower than the waistline of our pajama pants, anyway. Honestly, you guys can have sick minds. Just what is it with guys and their interest in sick things like girl-on-girl action?"
"Geez, Brittany, I just wanted to know in case I get a pulled hamstring or tight hip sometime while playing sports." Alvin groaned. "And here you are accusing me of having a sick mind? Like you being born female grants you automatic sainthood, and me being a guy automatically dooms me to being a life-long sinner."
Brittany seemed a little taken aback and defensive at his comments. "Sorry for accusing you of having a sick mind. For some reason I misread the signals and thought you were harassing me. I don't know what I was thinking..." She looked like she might start crying.
Alvin sat up and looked at her apologetically. "Oh, Brittany, I'm sorry if you felt like I was yelling at you, there. I mean, you know by now how tense I am, but you're doing great at helping me feel more relaxed. And I'm sure between you and Jeanette, I'll be OK even if I happen to pull a hip or a hamstring. We can worry about that if and when it happens." He sighed as he patted her shoulder. "Right now, I guess I'll just lie back down and let you continue the massage."
Once he returned to his prone position, he could feel Brittany resting the side of her face between his shoulder blades. Her hands rubbed and patted on his shoulders and around his neck. It took Alvin a few moments to realize he was being hugged - he thought at first that it was just another type of massaging move. "We're cool now, Alvin." She sat up and continued to massage Alvin's back.
When Alvin settled back to his relaxed state, he decided to be brave and venture another conversational topic. "By the way, Britt, has anyone else besides a doctor or other healthcare professional ever been 'below the waist' on you?"
She paused for a brief moment.
Alvin started kicking himself for asking such a personal question, it probably was none of his business, anyway. He tried to think of another question to ask instead.
"Well..." Brittany began as if taking it as a seriously legitimate question. "Do you remember that guy Giorgio, who was Ian Hawke's intern or personal assistant? Back when my sisters and I lived with Uncle Ian when we were like four or five, Giorgio used to give us baths." She shuddered. "I hated his baths. In some ways I would actually feel dirtier after the bath than before it. Even though I'm sure I was Uncle Giorgio's favorite, because he just spent a lot more time bathing me or dressing me up."
Alvin turned over to look at her. "I remember that guy... Yeah, Giorgio would give my brothers and me baths when we were like two or three. He had a gentle touch, and his hands were soft, don't get me wrong, but for some reason I still felt like he...hurt me, even though he didn't leave any physical scars. I'll admit that at the time, nothing felt wrong, it was only once I got older and wiser about it that it actually started feeling wrong. I'm sure Giorgio would never want to physically hurt me either, I mean, he had this...particular fondness and favoritism, maybe even an attraction for me."
"Yeah," Brittany agreed. "He told me that he wanted to keep me a virgin, so he didn't actually try to...how shall I say this? Uh, he never 'forced entry or entered beyond the screen door', but he still seemed to spend a lot of the bath time...uh...'messing around the door frames and the front steps'. Ugh!"
"Exactly!" Alvin stated. "He used to take pictures of us in the bathtub, too. He would handle me down there, too, which I realize now was totally inappropriate and it feels creepy to look back on it. At the time, I was two or three years old and didn't know any better. I believed him when he told me that I had 'insufficient blood circulation' to my...you know...my 'area', and all of his...affection to that area, including handling and even kissing, was supposed to improve circulation...there."
"Eww! He kissed you there, too?" Brittany gagged. "He told me I had 'insufficient blood circulation' to that area, too!"
Alvin continued, "He said it was a good sign that circulation was improving the more I would..." He nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "Gee, I'm not sure I know how to say this...but he tried to get me to..."
"Would you feel more comfortable whispering it, Alvin?" Brittany interrupted with concern after reading the anxiety on his face.
"Yes, thanks!" Alvin heaved a sigh of relief. "But he tried to get me to..." He sat up and whispered something in Brittany's ear. When he returned back to his prone position, he saw that Brittany's eyes had widened. He chuckled awkwardly. "Sorry if that grossed you out..."
"Oh, you didn't gross me out too bad, since he would try to make me do something to that effect, too." Brittany cringed. "Funny how I haven't really thought about it in...what, six years? But now that I remember it, I just feel so... Ugh!"
"Totally." Alvin shuddered as he shared her pain. "There was even a time when Simon tried to confront Ian and Giorgio and tell them that there was no such medical condition, especially at my age, and that they needed to stop doing that to me. He even directly shouted at them, 'Hands off my brother!' For him standing up for me like that, they stripped him, whipped him, took his glasses away and made him spend the night in the 'Punishment Cage'."
"Poor Simon!" Brittany gasped. "Ian used to make Jeanette spend similar nights in the 'Punishment Cage'. It just broke my heart seeing them do that to her. And the next morning, since Poor Eleanor was left to sleep alone, without being able to cuddle with either sister, because Jen was in the Punishment Cage and I was usually taken to the bedroom with Giorgio or Ian - she would still be tired. She would try cuddling with a teddy bear, but it wasn't the same as cuddling next to us."
Alvin almost wanted to cry after hearing this. "And I think the time Simon was in the Punishment Cage, Theodore was having a nightmare, and he tried to snuggle in bed with Giorgio, and me. Luckily, Giorgio was asleep, so I let Theodore snuggle with me for a while. At one point during the night, Theodore started crying and telling me how much he missed Dave. When Giorgio saw Theo in bed with us, he didn't seem to mind so much. But all Theodore's crying woke up Ian in the other room, and he came into Giorgio's room and picked up Theodore by the tail, asking how he got in, and then he literally threw Theodore out of the room! Poor Theodore must've hit his head when he landed, since he had a bump on his head the next day, and said he didn't remember anything about what happened that night. I felt like such a lousy brother after that."
"Why would you think that?" Brittany asked with concern. "I don't see how any of that was your fault."
Alvin started wiping away a few tears that had welled up in his eyes. "It was my fault for thinking that Dave had too many rules, and I got rebellious and convinced my brothers that he was the bad guy. It took eight whole months of living with and slaving for Ian to convince us that we belonged with Dave - eight months. I first thought Ian loved us more than Dave did. Ian spoiled us rotten for a few months, but then he overworked us with a hectic touring schedule. We were starting to get sick from exhaustion. Once we were back with Dave, life was good once again. But I'm just a horrible son, and I still give Dave more headaches than hugs. Remind me to hug him next time we see him - I owe him a LOT of hugs."
Brittany pulled Alvin into a hug and patted his back. "Looks like I helped you release a lot of tension as well as repressed childhood memories tonight. I honestly didn't think my massages were that good."
Alvin smiled. "Brittany, thank you. Would you like me to try giving you a back massage as a way to thank you for listening and sharing this with me?"
Brittany chuckled. "Sure." She removed her pink cardigan. "But I'm leaving on my cami, just so you know."
Alvin chuckled as he took his place rubbing her shoulders. "Yeah, I think with the kind of 'emotional nudity' we've just bared and shared, we've already reached a new level in our relationship. That's enough for me for now."
"Definitely." Brittany agreed. "You know, once upon an earlier time, after I told you I would leave on my cami, I would've expected you to say something like, 'Why? There's nothing to see under there anyway?' But I guess once again, you've proven me wrong about you."
Alvin chuckled as he kneaded his knuckles into the muscles between her shoulder blades. "To be honest, the thought crossed my mind, but I just didn't feel in the mood to give you a hard time, after we just bonded over sharing all that stuff."
"I owe Dave lots of thank-you hugs, too." Brittany sighed. "How did Dave react when you told him about what all Giorgio did to you?"
Alvin paused. "Did I ever tell him? I know Dave knew about the exhausting tour schedule, and the Punishment Cage, but I don't know if I ever told him about Giorgio and the baths. My brothers haven't ever mentioned to me that they remember all this. I wonder if they ever told him."
"Really?" Brittany wondered aloud. "Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I ever really told him, either. I never meant to keep that secret from him all these years, it's just...somehow something else would come up whenever the opportunity presented itself, and other times I just forgot about it. I wonder if either of my sisters ever told him, or if they even remember. I'd actually be very surprised if Jeanette forgot, since she can still remember the most random things from even our early childhood in almost photographically-accurate detail."
"Do you think we should tell Dave about all this? Or is there a time-limit, since it happened so many years ago, and we're supposed to just forget it and move on with our lives?" Alvin found a tight spot at Brittany's neck, so he concentrated his efforts there. "I mean, I have a fear that if I told him now, he'd be mad at me for not telling him years ago, and he'd just tell me to get over it, and maybe just blow me off for being so dramatic about everything. That would be a lesson learned for me to never share stuff with him ever again. What about you?"
Brittany groaned as the tension released from her neck. She sighed as she thought about his question. "Well, I'm at least sure he won't lock us or our siblings in the Punishment Cage for telling him. But I would think he would like to know if something was still bothering any of his kids, even years later. He does care enough about us to keep us around. Why don't we tell him about it tomorrow, sometime when we are at the beach? Like when he goes to take a nap in the tent or something."
"Nice..." Alvin started brainstorming. "What better setting for telling Dave that someone 'touched our bathing suit areas' than while we are actually wearing bathing suits?"
"Oh gosh, Alvin!" Brittany laughed as she slapped her forehead. "It's nice to see that you still have your sense of humor about this, even though I'm starting to feel a little guilty about it."
"Sorry, that was bad, I'll admit." Alvin sighed apologetically. "But now you know that I'm as broken as you are. Now, how should we tell him? 'Oh, Dave, Brittany and I were giving each other back massages one night, and we got to reminiscing...' Do you think we'll get in trouble if he finds out about these 'topless' back massages? Or if he realizes we told each other before we told him?"
Brittany wrinkled her nose. "Uhh...I'd feel better if we left that stuff out. We could just tell him we were talking and reminiscing about when we were littler, and something that came up in our conversation reminded us that we were bothered by something, and we may have forgotten to sit down with him and really talk to him about it in depth or to closure, even though we may have given him a basic heads-up about it years ago."
"Oh, that's good." Alvin nodded. "Do you think we should be writing this down?"
A/N: This story is sort of a prequel to "Munkin' To The Extreme", with some angsty adolescent and pre-adolescent drama mixed with humor. But it also involves some of the memories of abuse in "Chip-ergarten". Jeanette being the masseuse is based on the Nickelodeon cartoon episode "What A Gem", where she is into alternative healing arts (Ha! A little "witch-doctor"!). I also thought Jeanette reminds me of Phoebe from "Friends". Ian Hawke threw Theo out of a bedroom, after Theo complained of a nightmare, in the 2007 live-action movie "Alvin And The Chipmunks".