Work Text:
Undoubtedly there's no question if Troy would be up for a movie night with Abed in his dorm room after classes and Study Group, because he's always up for a movie or even a couple of episodes from a certain TV show, even when he has half-finished assignments to complete. Abed didn't object to the idea of being roommates with his best friend, nor did he mention a word about Troy overstaying his timely visits since the first time an invitation to study alone with him was brought up. He likes Troy's company the same way Troy likes Abed's company.
Once or twice a week or other weekend, Troy and Abed would watch anything action-heavy, kid-friendly, or whatever. While one scene would transition to another on the TV screen, Troy would rest his head against Abed's shoulder and allow his eyes to slide close to sleep for a little bit of a nap, also something the latter was not opposed to, not even if Troy happened to dribble or drool on his stylish-looking cardigans or flannels while sleeping, but he does often gets embarrassed over it and wonders if Abed knows about it, and that thought scares him.
On one evening, as Abed and Troy were watching Beast, first scene in and the latter already screamed at a high-pitched tone to the top of his lungs when the bloody attacks of the lions appeared on screen. Troy's eyes widened to the size of saucers and mouth wide open as the ends of his gaping mouth reached the corners of his eyes. You could guess that Abed might have forgotten to tell his best friend it's a thriller film or that he does not enjoy scary thrillers or horror movies.
So, at any time scenes featuring the attacks of the lions came up, Troy had to shut his eyes close and buried his face in Abed's arm for most of the movie, even hugging him tight to be guaranteed safety if in case the lions suddenly happen to jump out of the TV screen and into the room. This was a thousand times much more worse than having to sing a love duet with Abed for their environmental science class to make a pet rat get out of the vent, back to them (when it ran up into Troy's leg) and at last tighten the lock within it's cage.
Finally, the movie was over, but Troy wouldn't allow Abed to go and remove the disk from the DVD player, his grip only tightened to his left arm. So, with his right hand and pressing on the right remote buttons, Abed switched out of the DVD component and was back to regular TV mode and turned it off. He'd heard the crying sounds of his best friend muffled into his arm, and was positive that his flannel shirt was probably soaked with tears, but he could not care less for that. What'd mattered now was comforting the spooked and scared guy next to him. Eventually, after catching his breath, Troy looked up into Abed's gentle and mysterious eyes, filled of worry and concern, while his eyes were red and dry with tears streaking his smooth face.
Without questions, Abed got to work in pampering Troy, helping his best friend down a glass of cold water and with his hands underneath Troy's armpits, he pulled him back closer to him, applying the weight of his body on his slender, tender frame as his arms are wrapped around his chest with just enough tightness. Troy felt secure and protected by Abed's words, explaining that it's merely a movie and nothing like that would even happen in real life.
Abed didn't degrade or belittle Troy at all while reassuring the latter for his dislikes in gory movies (unless if its cartoony) and continued to gently pat down the curls of his hair. They remained like this on Abed's couch, nothing except for silence filling the walls in the dormroom and its single few rays of the setting sun slightly illuminating the blank TV screen.
In his sleep, Troy somehow temporarily broke free from Abed's firm grip as he flipped over to the other side to rest his cheek upon his best friend's chest, even the latter too still wrapped his arms around Troy's back and drew calming circles on his back with the palms of his hands, as his fingers traced and trailed up and down his spine. Troy later woke up with drool dribbling down from the end corner of his mouth, onto the arm of his shirt and a part of Abed's flannel. He looked confused and there too was Abed still there with him, wide awake and smiled a little at Troy.
When asked what'd happened, Abed explained everything to Troy, which took a few seconds for the latter to process, until at last deciding to settle watching Scooby-Doo. Seeing Scooby scooped up in Shaggy's arms afraid of some bad guy, not only did it make Troy laugh, but he looked over at Abed with super large heart eyes, whose gentle eyes were still fixated on the TV screen, thinking about nothing except for the both of them together in as many romcoms as possible, his new favorite position - bridal-style. He might know Abed is probably thinking about the same thing right now, too. But until that could happen, all he will have to do is wait until the right time arrives to confess and then they can have things going on between them.