Chapter Text
They were having a luncheon.
The entirety of Mythic Quest was meeting at a banquet hall to celebrate the upcoming release of Raven’s Banquet.
David watched Brad in the corner of the room, fiddling with his phone. He looked almost… sad.
Not that David was concerned with Brad’s emotional well-being. He was Brad after all. He was an asshole, everyone knew that.
But… David was worried about Brad. He’d seemed slightly off all day. Hadn’t even complained once when Poppy had suggested a sale to commemorate the third anniversary of the release of Mythic Quest.
He walked over.
Brad didn’t look up once as David approached, staying engrossed with something on his phone. He had a headphone in, and he looked more upset than David had ever seen him.
By the time David was standing in front of Brad, he realized that he had no Earthly idea what he could say to him.
“Hey,” David said, eyes finding purchase on Brad’s untouched plate of food, “Uh, don’t eat the crab dip.”
Brad’s eyes snapped up to David’s. For a moment, David could have sworn that Brad looked… scared.
“Just, you know. Not exactly from a reputable source. Probably won’t do great things for your insides. Make you shit a lot… or other… butt stuff.” David finished lamely.
Brad’s grip on his phone only tightened.
“How do you know?” Brad’s voice was soft.
“What? I mean, seafood from a—”
“Not that.” Brad ran his free hand over his face, and David could see he was shaking slightly.
“David, I don’t know how you found out, but you’re not exactly being subtle here, so just…” Brad spoke stiltedly, before sighing, “So just tell me what you want. Don’t make it harder than this needs to be.
“Brad, I don’t know what—”
“Walk with me.” Brad left no room for argument.
David nodded, more and more worried by the second.
They stepped out of the banquet hall, and Brad walked them through hallways, and into a bathroom far away from the hall.
“Alright. David, you have my attention. I am… at your service.” Brad spat, spreading his arms wide.
“Brad, you’re scaring me a little.”
“It’s not a coincidence, don’t try to play it off as one. Who’d you meet, huh? Was it Jeff, Annie, Shirley, Britta? Who told you? Did you talk with Montreal, because they’re the only ones, the only ones in this whole fucking thing that know about Greendale, so… talk.”
“Talk about… Greendale?”
Brad let out a bark of laughter, sounding desperate.
“You know, I always thought you were softer than this, but clearly I underestimated you.”
“I’m… sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“No, you don’t get to come to me and talk to me saying ‘Don’t eat the crab dip’, ‘Butt stuff’, and to do it today of all days. No… What. Do. You. Want?” The last word was ripped from him with a sob as Brad reached out to grab David’s lapels.
“This is all a misunderstanding… Brad I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Brad’s face fell slightly, “Oh. You… you…” He took a step back, and another, until he was flat against the wall.
He sank down until he was seated, back to the wall, clutching his knees in front of him. He wasn’t looking at David anymore.
“I miss him, David.” His voice was so soft and broken that it didn’t even sound like Brad.
David sat cautiously in front of him, “Who?”
“His name is Troy Barnes. Was. He’s… he’s gone now. I should have let him go years ago, but… but I’m weak.” Brad sounded bitter.
“Do you wanna… talk about it?” David sat down across from Brad, trying to sound gentle instead of terrified.
“I don’t want to, but… it’d probably be best.” Brad took a deep breath, “I went to a community college. Called Greendale. It was… something else. A lot like Mythic Quest, really. Always chaotic, always insane, always… fun. I met a guy in class, his name was Jeff, he was a dick at first… he started a Spanish study group to try and get with a girl in our Spanish class.
“That study group defined me for six years. It still defines a part of me. We were a family. So much happened in six years that it’s hard to sum it all up.” Brad was looking somewhere beyond David, clearly lost in thought.
David stayed quiet, hoping to not break the spell.
“Troy was like… Troy was like Han Solo.” The way Brad said this, David knew there was some part of this he was missing, an inside joke of sorts.
“Not the smartest, but he more than made up for that with his personality. Troy was… he was the first person to ever treat me like a normal person. To treat me like I had worth.”
And if that wasn’t the saddest goddamn thing David had ever heard…
Brad grabbed his phone and pulled up a picture on it.
“This was the day we made a pillow and blanket fort that spanned most the campus. It became a bit of a feud, but… Jeff forced some sense into us. This was the peace summit.” Brad stared down at the picture as if just looking at it hard enough would pull the men in the picture back to him.
The picture featured Brad and who David had to assume was Troy. They were wearing pajamas, both grinning, and holding left hands as if shaking on peace.
“Look at him.” Brad said softly, “He’s—was—so…” He trailed off, as if he’d said enough.
And, David figured, he probably had.
“You were in love with him.” David stated the obvious. He almost expected Brad to snap at him, but he just nodded.
“Yeah. I still am.”
“Can I ask…?”
“It was six years ago today that he left. A trip around the world in Peirce’s boat. I didn’t ever hear back from him.”
“And then… what I said, about the crab dip, and… butt stuff?”
Brad let out a watery laugh, “The thing about crab dip was just a one-liner. But Troy… he joked about ‘butt stuff’ constantly. There was one time, early on, Annie asked him to be part of a psychological experiment one of the professors was putting on, and he asked whether they’d pay extra if they did butt stuff. When she said no, he just sighed and told her that fine, he’d do it anyway.”
Now that Brad had started talking, it seemed difficult for him to stop.
“We had a fake morning show, the dean had a dalmatian fetish, we would have paintball wars that involved nearly everyone on campus, our Spanish teacher turned out to be a fraud, and also kind of evil? David, I wanted to stay there forever. I never wanted anything to change. But when Troy left… I stayed another couple years, sure, but… it was never the same.
“So I left. I moved here, got this job and… Brad Bakshi was born. Once I got here, Abed Nadir ceased to exist.” Brad tilted his head to the side in contemplation, “I wonder if I’ll ever get him back. I miss him.”
“Abed Nadir?” David asked, feeling like he’d lost the train of conversation.
Brad smiled sadly, “That’s my name. My real name. Bakshi is my half-brother’s family name, and Brad… I just stole that from Rocky Horror.”
David blinked, trying to process what Brad—Abed?—had said.
“Don’t bother trying to call me Abed, not even in your head. You’ve never met Abed, even now.”
“But…”
“Seriously, you’ll hurt yourself if you think too hard about it.” His voice was somewhat biting and sarcastic. Some of the Brad that David knew shining through.
“And… thanks,” Brad’s voice was softer again, “For listening.”
“Yeah…”
Brad stood and left without another word.