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Two young men who were both born and raised in different houses where they were pushed by their families to be perfect sons exceeding in all school subjects and expectations, were denied any sort of comfort, care, protection, and validity, but instead are faced with suffering and punishment in failure to meet their demands. Sure, they understand a little bit about the concept of tough love, but how tough is that love, and why? All they had ever wanted was to simply be themselves and to be alone with one another, just doing their own thing in silence without massive crowds of people surrounding and hovering over them, having to keep their staring eyes on them and forcibly push the duo into conforming with the normalities of this wicked world we all reside in.
This is the case of Troy Barnes and Abed Nadir.
Troy and Abed undoubtedly do spend lots of their time together, doing almost anything and everything they can think of, and involving themselves entangled within likely and unlikely scenic scenarios, be it historical, real, or fake, as if they were the character(s) themselves from that TV show, either main or supporting, or characters being written by the writer(s) merely for a debuts or cameos episodes to just exist in the background, or probably for a crossovers with another TV show or to be scripted as fanfic for platforms of online writers who could write any other scene or episode a lot much better than the original and explains what should've been seen that were not included or missing from said scene or episode. Sure they might spend some moments without speaking any words, but the love and communication is always still there.
Emotions are at an all-time high for Troy Barnes, because once he starts, he cannot stop. He isn't the smartest or brightest in his classes regarding math or physics, or even where there are words and languages hard enough to understand or be familiar with. Five or ten minutes according to him, the senses in his brain are easily overloaded with information hard for him to process and he'd be looking for ways to leave right on the spot without explanation, with just the remaining mobility that he's got left.
Each and every single night, Troy cries himself to sleep, believing that he'd never be good enough for anything or anybody. Clearly, he won't try expressing his feelings out in the open in front of folks, because society has wrongfully taught young men to mask their emotions and that being strong was to only remain silent. In his mind, Troy would play a pretend game of imagining living life in an alternate timeline, where he wouldn't have to pretend to be somebody he isn't, and just be unashamedly be his own person, loud and proud, learning to self-regulate his feelings with the proper resources he has to assist him, and not receive harsh consequences or criticisms for displaying them.
A part of Troy within his heart felt empty and its void needed to be filled by somebody whom could genuinely and honestly assure him that it's okay to let it all out and go, somebody who he can connect with on personal levels, listen to him and take seriously with on a foundation built on consistent communication and understanding, as materialism can never be enough.
Troy was alone, lost, and lonely, trapped inbetween both the good and bad sides of his brain. One, he fantasized and romanticized impossible scenarios tropes with a guy he'll never have a chance with, and two - the interposing voices in the behind of his head attempting to drive him crazy and deluded, but the lateral option would never win no matter how hard it may try, and he'd resorted to muting them by playing music in his ears, as loud as he can control the volume and as long as he wants, frequently nodding his head to the rhythm or singing along.
Abed, and others like him know that feeling all too well better than anyone else - how it feels to be unwanted, and unneeded. He just served as the target of ridicule and severe, relentless bullying every single day - from primary to high school. During classtime, he would get yelled by his teachers for disrupting his "fellow classmates" or get written up for rocking back and forth in his seat, giving his arms a stretch or cracking his knuckles, while in the corridors, he was shunned by the majority of the vast student body, but the only time that he is ever given attention, are by the stupid, dumb jocks of the football team, who reserved the worst of their treatment for the poor TV, movie and pop-culture obsessed young guy, calling him a plethora of slurs and derogatory names, rather than freak, loser, idiot, moron, or even an emotionless monotone robot, they treaded on the back of his shoes, purposely sticking out a leg to make him to trip and fall to the linoleum floor, slamming him against rows of metallic lockers and get thrown away in the above-mentioned uncomfortable, claustrophobic spaces.
Abed knew that when being treated by tough hands, it is pathetic to cry and yell from how hard the pain feels on a body that's as frail and lanky as his own, and he does not want to make it happen as it'll only make things much more worse for himself. A hit, slap, smack, clap, punch, or any hard touch to his soft, tender, fragile body, made Abed feel like a defenseless, vulnerable rag doll, damaged and broken after having been thrown and tossed around back and forth, and here and there.
That is nothing special to him.
Not just the self-absorbed jocks, but their evil girlfriends, their cheerleaders too attacked Abed from the other, mocking him in a very much condescending manner, mimicking overly high pitched sweet voices when talking with kids. In movies, while imagining about having a hero moment for himself in character, unleashing all of his hidden anger on to his tormentors in the most aggressive of ways that were almost likely, Abed hoped to use that when finally standing up against his bullies, making them feel the pain he'd felt at their hands, with heroic and triumphant music playing in the background.
All Abed wanted were friends, or at least even one genuine friend who truly understands him and his passionate love for sci-fi. Every lunch, he would look for a location someplace within the school to have his food - be it the back halls, beneath staircases, the bathroom stalls (no matter how terrible it smelled), or even outside behind the school's building or sitting on the bleachers in front of the grass fields, refusing to even set foot into the school's cafeteria for obvious reasons, one, because of people being mean to him, and two, bad sensory overload.
His wish came true one day when a boy named Troy Barnes came and sat down next to him, back against the walls made of brick, a sad expression on his face, although the sparkles in the eyes were still visible.
Abed could not tell if Troy came over to him on his own free will or if he had been sent by a group of jackasses to hassle him further, half-expecting the second option, and waited for something to happen, but Troy gave him absolutely nothing as a reply, just sitting there looking down at his crossed legs. From his peripheral vision, Abed can see that Troy appeared to be gloomy about something, but what can be causing it, he wondered. What seemed like a long stretch of an uncomfortable silence between them, Troy broke it to Abed, explaining that he's gay and is almost always being endlessly bullied for his sexuality, due to which he failed to overdose.
So, Abed was not the only one who was going through a hard time, and in some way, Troy is just as much as in pain as he was, both hurt together in different ways. Even as he said this, Troy's eyes welled up with tears and closing his eyelids, letting the tear tracks freely running down his smooth face. Troy pulled the hood up over his head and brought up his knees to hide his face in even as he crossed his arms around them, feeling ashamed of himself for sobbing, crying, and displaying emotion and feeling. Instead of speaking, all Abed could do was to gently rest his hand onto Troy's knee, out of empathy. Troy then lifted his head to look up at Abed, his eyes red from salty tears and lips trembled, his face crinkled at the same time as the lines of his forehead into a concerned expression.
Abed and Troy, neither one wanting to go back in the school building, spent the rest of their day by talking about how it would feel like to take revenge on the people who wronged them by standing up for themselves against an army of them, while the teachers and principal do little to absolutely nothing to truly stop the bullying despite the dumbass ineffective posters just taped on the walls.
Just the stereotypical high schools being inaccurately portrayed on TV and movies, Abed thought, even as he stood up, removed his hoodie, tied the sleeves in a knot around his waist to the front as an apron and showed Troy his slit wrists and half faded cuts, scrapes, or bruises planted onto his arms, to the latter's shocked expression and once again a fresh new round of hot salty tears came flooding down his glassy, unblinking eyes. He could not wipe them away now on having witnessed the state of self-harm the other guy brought onto himself even though an explanation was given.
Abed could have sworn he saw one of Troy's teardrops fall on one of his cuts, but he doesn't want to entertain that thought right now even as the latter stood up to his feet and hesitantly placed a hand on to the taller guy's shoulder, and Abed settles into his touch as he felt goosebumps over his skin. There is just something about Troy's touch that made Abed melt - it was soft, genuine, and kind. Now it is his time for the tears to well up his eyes and come streaking down his gentle, doe eyes.
For the first time ever in his life, Troy had never met or come across a dude like Abed, who is just as broken as him, cry in a way that is not fake, nor exaggerated, and that made his heart hurt, although they'd just happened to meet on the first day. With his thumb, and a silent nod of approval, Troy wiped away his tears and asked to go out for a drive with him to go and get some yogurt at a yogurt shop, and Abed accepted it as he slung the straps of his knapsack over his back, and Troy copied the same action, walking to the school's parking lot to locate Troy's car, which they did as they got inside the vehicle, started the engine, pulled out of the lot and drove away from the school to the yogurt shop, talking about timelines on their way.
By late afternoon, which slowly lead to the evening, Troy at last felt finally happy and at ease to have Abed Nadir as a real, true, honest and genuine friend. As Troy talked and expressed his feelings on the inside, Abed listened without any interjection, even if there were pauses.
Abed wasn't weirded out when Troy came out to him as gay, nor was Troy when Abed came out to him as bisexual. Troy thought to himself that he can have a chance to shoot his shot with Abed while he still can, and that led him to dream of endless romantic scenarios tropes with Abed that he wants to turn real the minute they approached the driveway of the latter's house.
Slowly leaning in, both closed in on the little space between them, their lips pressed together in the form of a kiss. Abed's lips tasted exactly like strawberry chapstick, and Troy tasted the sweetness that had lingered on to the latter's lips as his and Abed's tongues both danced in the other's mouths, waiting to fight and be locked together at any given moment, but that can wait for another time for as long as it takes in the upcoming years of their unity.
Finally freed from the four painful years of high school post prom where they both came out to the entirety of the student body, and now as young adults enrolled in community college, Troy and Abed can at last do the romantic hand-in-hand walking to class troupe. They'd also discovered in the library of Group Study Room F, a newfound group of friends changed into a family that they had chosen four individuals who are just as flawed and imperfect like them, learning about each other's backstories while doing their assignments.
United, regardless of the rocky moments of life, they do have the other's backs, embarking on their most craziest and wildest adventures, and playing challenging team-building games that requires them to put their heads together, work as a team and contribute appropriate solutions to problems. Such moments as those are the happiest years, highlights and memorable experiences and events of their lives.
Troy was Constable Reggie to Abed's Inspector Spacetime, and Abed is Inspector Spacetime to Troy's Constable Reggie, also. Nothing could change their dynamics.
Wedding day, when it came time to read their vows, Troy confessed that he thought as if he hit rock bottom, until the man standing in his direction, Abed Nadir came in his life, showing him it's normal to let out his emotions and inner thoughts he'd kept to himself for too long.
Abed had always felt like an outcast for the majority of his life, destined to spend the rest of his living days of life alone, until Troy Barnes came into the picture and pulled him out of his hermetic lifestyle by his perseverance.
Pronounced husband and husband by the Dean, Troy and Abed sealed their vows with the trademark signature double-five handshake, following a kiss, then a sing-song tune at the end with the announcement in full view that Troy and Abed just got married. The newlywed husbands slow danced to their rendition of "Somewhere Out There", from An American Tail. Their eyes are filled with love, tiny smiles crossed their faces, and hand-in-hand following the leading steps in tune of the high bagpipes and snare drums.
Whisked away in a limousine that picked them up, the newlywed husbands are on their way to a hotel in the warm Springs for a month of fun to mark the beginning of their honeymoon.