Work Text:
“Abed! I love you.”
“I know.”
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When they wake, everything is blurry. The world moves in slow-motion. Someone guides them over to a gurney; they sit, dazed, staring blankly at the commotion of confused partygoers like themselves.
Abed looks over at Troy, who looks about as scared and worn out as Abed feels. His clothes are ripped and he’s got cuts on his neck and arms… No, wait, those look like…
“Bite marks,” Abed whispers. Slowly he turns his attention back to himself. He gingerly inspects the tears in his own clothes, and the broken skin beneath them.
“Abed?” Troy is looking at him, eyes wide. “What happened?”
Abed can only shake his head. A paramedic comes over and bandages the worst of their cuts (bites?). Even once they’ve been taken care of, the frightened look doesn’t leave Troy’s face. Abed’s heart is still working double time and he doesn’t have any kind of explanation; it makes him uneasy.
Troy is looking at him again, searching Abed’s face for answers he doesn’t have. Abed opens his mouth, but words fail him; Troy probably wouldn’t be able to hear him over the chaos around them, anyway.
Troy bites his lip, and then slides across the gurney so they’re sitting side by side. Their thighs are touching; Abed doesn’t mind. It helps tether him a little, and he thinks maybe he’s not the only one who needs that right now.
“I can’t remember anything,” Troy whispers. “I keep trying, but there’s nothing there.”
Abed nods. “Just these,” he says, gesturing to their battered arms. Troy gently grabs Abed’s hand, inspecting the blood-soaked bandage. When he’s done, he doesn’t let go of Abed’s hand, instead holding it in his lap and absentmindedly making small circles with his thumb.
“Do you want to sleep over in my dorm tonight?” Abed asks softly.
Troy hums, and nods. He leans over and rests his head on Abed’s shoulder. They sit like that for a while, the two of them on their own little island in the pandemonium surrounding them.
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Troy keeps a pair of pajamas in Abed’s dorm, so they head straight there. It’s quiet on the walk to Abed’s dorm; they’re both stuck in their heads.
They get changed, and Troy presses play on Marmaduke . They sit on the couch, but they’re both holding themselves a little too rigidly for it to qualify as a relaxing movie night.
Abed’s knee won’t stop bouncing. There’s a pit in his stomach that’s been growing ever since he woke up at Greendale. He tries to pay attention to the movie, but he can hardly hear it over the mantra of something’s wrong something’s wrong something’s wrong that’s on repeat in his head.
Troy puts a hand on Abed’s restless knee. Abed can’t stop the movement right now, but he appreciates the gesture. Neither of them are really watching the movie, but the thought of trying to sleep right now makes Abed’s stomach turn.
It’s technically morning by the time the movie’s over. They climb into their bunks, but residual adrenaline keeps them awake. Abed stares at the ceiling. He hears Troy roll over every few minutes.
An hour goes by. The sick feeling in Abed’s gut has amplified tenfold, and he curls up on his side, holding back a groan. It continues to build until abruptly he sits up, nearly falls down the bunk bed ladder, and staggers to the bathroom.
The noise rouses Troy. As Abed is retching into the toilet, he hears footsteps behind him and a comforting hand on his back. It’s a few minutes before he can stop gagging. Abed hates throwing up.
Finally, he sits back on his heels, and whimpers miserably. Troy’s hand is still on his back. “Hey, it’s okay. Honestly I’ve been feeling kinda gross tonight too. Can I help you up?”
Abed nods with a pinched expression. Troy puts an arm around Abed’s waist, and stays that way while Abed rinses his mouth out in the sink. Then they stumble back to Abed’s room. Troy guides Abed to the couch and hands him a bottle of water. He grabs his blanket off the bottom bunk; they can share.
“I can’t figure out what happened and I don’t like not knowing. It makes me feel like… like I wasn’t in control of my body,” Abed mumbles. “It all feels really off and I have no way of figuring out why.”
Troy nods, frowning. He gets an idea. “What if there’s something on the surveillance cameras at Greendale? Maybe the army guys didn’t take all of it. We could check tomorrow, when the school’s open.”
Abed hums, slightly placated. “Yeah, I guess.” He leans against Troy, resting his head on his chest. Troy’s arm is around him, secure. “What do you think happened?”
“I think… Maybe there was something so crazy, the army guys had to roofie us so we’d forget it. Like aliens! I bet there was a alien spaceship that crashed near Greendale, and we all saw it, so they had to erase our memories.”
Abed goes along with it. “Maybe… but wouldn’t we have noticed a spaceship wreck? There would probably be a big crater.”
“Okay, maybe they didn’t crash, but they just beamed down a couple aliens. And they heard all the noise at our party, so they-” Troy yawned. “So they came to check it out.”
Abed closes his eyes. “Were they good or evil aliens?”
Troy rests his head on Abed’s. “Uh… both. Maybe some of them were bad, and that’s why we have bite marks. But the other ones were good, and they tried to…”
Abed drifts off to the sound of Troy’s voice. Troy doesn’t remember falling asleep, but when he wakes a few hours later, he’s wrapped around Abed like a koala hugging a tree. Troy sighs, content.
“Hey, Abed?”
Abed’s voice is rough. “Yeah, Troy?”
“I think… I love you.”
Abed shifts so he can look up at Troy. “I know.”
“What- really? You knew?”
Abed smiles. “No, not for sure. But I couldn’t miss the opportunity for the Empire Strikes Back reference.” He grabs Troy’s hand, traces his finger along the bandage on his wrist. “I love you, too.”
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