Using the combinatorics of a-unimodal sets, we establish two new results in the theory of quasisymmetric functions. First, we obtain the expansion of the fundamental basis into quasisymmetric power sums. Secondly, we prove that generating functions of reverse P-partitions expand positively into quasisymmetric power sums. Consequently any nonnegative linear combination of such functions is p-positive whenever it is symmetric. We apply this method to derive positivity results for chromatic quasisymmetric functions and unicellular LLT polynomials.