Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"My part as Sheldon should be obvious. Troy would make a good Leonard even with his sports abilities. Britta makes a natural Penny, the sexual appealing blonde who doesn't understand pop culture references. I fear the rest of the cast is in applicable as none of them fit the-"

"I could be that one girl, the smart one with the glasses," Annie said excited that she'd known the show well enough to think of that. She'd only recently caught up with the newest episodes.

"You're thinking of Amy, but that wouldn't work," Abed said without thinking too much about it, "Amy is Sheldon's girlfriend and since I'm Sheldon that'd be weird."

"Weird…" Annie repeated a bit shocked. Weird? It'd be weird if the characters they were claiming were dating? Abed thought she was too weird to date even in a simulation situation? But they had kissed more than once and he hadn't thought she was too weird then. She fidgeted with her hair as she realized that her feelings were hurt.

She realized the topic had changed. They were discussing how Jeff would be Howard's idealized self. Jess refused to be in any way connected with a character who owned that many ugly belt buckles. Abed was impressed that Jeff had seen Big Bang Theory at all.

The rest of the study group went by uneventfully, besides Troy refusing to believe that cheese was mold. It was just too delicious to be something so disgusting. Annie didn't try and correct him, leaving it to Jeff and Britta. She was staring down at her pen when she felt eyes on her. She glanced up slowly and saw Abed staring at her, waiting and expecting her to say something. When she met his eyes, he didn't turn away. Instead his expression changed. He pondered for a moment then turned his attention back to their friends. Annie didn't know what to think about his expression. She went back to copying highlighted text from her book onto her paper. She felt eyes again, but she didn't look up.

The group casually dismissed at six o'clock and Annie didn't linger, her bag already prepacked. She left first and waited in the hallway by Abed's locker. He came around the corner casually and saw her, eyes going wide for a moment before calmly going to his locker.

"We're going to have a talk, aren't we?" he asked his focus on his opening his lock.

"I just-I mean-"Annie started then stopped. What could she say? Hey weirdo what right do you have to think I'm too weird to date? You should be happy I even considered the idea for a second. She hated herself as she realized that was basically what she had been thinking. Between what he'd seen and what Jeff had said before, it made her feel like something was wrong with her. She could be a good girlfriend, she knew it.

"Can we skip this one?" Abed asked breaking her train of thought.

"Skip what?' she asked her eyes squinting slightly and frowning again.

"The realizing a platonic friend is a romantic option and then regretting it trope," Abed explained. The words romantic option made her shift awkwardly, putting her hands on her backpack straps.

"I don't get it," she admitted watching him suspiciously. Abed sighed and rolled his eyes.

"I understand. It's not commonly used and for good reason. It's long winded and can easily ruin the dynamic of two characters," Abed said opening his locker and pulling out his books He held them in front of himself as he turned back to her.

"What does that mean? What are we skipping?"

"I said it would be weird if we were Sheldon and Amy, because they are dating. After so many rejections from Jeff-"

"That so does not bother me anymore."

"Of course," Abed said a bit too quickly and Annie knew he didn't believe her,

"After unsuccessful romantic entanglements you're worried that it has something to do with you. You've begun to pressure yourself into proving that your worthy of a guy, any guy. My pseudo rejection brought up those feelings in earnest and now you feel determined to show me that it wouldn't be weird at all. Your plan will start out this talk, but no matter how much I reassure you, you won't believe me. You'll fixate on proving that you'd make a great girlfriend and hatch a plan. We'd spend more time together, which would be nice, but things would start changing. You'll start engaging in more physical contact, casually pressing your arm against mine during a movie or leaning your head on my shoulder when you get tired. You might even fall asleep in the pillow fort with me after a long discussion on movies, life and everything, and then we have an awkward morning moment when we wake up, possibly in one another's arm," he said then watched to make sure she understood. She nodded so he continued.

"You would be especially anxious about it. You'll start believing that these encounters suggest you have an attraction to me after all and you feel like you should act on it. Things will become tense as you realize I'm a sexual being, one you could see yourself with. Finally, after a particularly moving moment, you'd kiss me. I'll be shocked, but after analyses not surprised. After the kiss you'll realize that it didn't make you feel like it should. You compare it to kissing Jeff and even Vaughn. You decide there is nothing there after all and have to let me down softly. I take it well, but there is still an odd air of tension for an episode or two before we have a reconnecting event and then we pretend it never happened."

Annie stared at him, her mouth hanging slightly open. She was trapped between being angry at him for assuming he knew her so insanely well and being impressed at the details. She shivered slightly, imagining waking up in his bed. The imagery was so sharp in her mind that she blushed.

She'd say he was wrong, but she'd been here to have a talk with him. Step one and she was on it. Abed was rarely wrong about these things either.

"Okay," she said with a little roll of her eyes as she tried to make the conversation lighter, "Okay, I agree. We can skip all that."

"Cool. Cool. Thanks," he said his lips curling into an almost smile, but it didn't reach his eyes. For a split second he looked sad, but it was so fleeting she wondered if she hadn't imagined it.

He turned without much ceremony and went down the hall. She watched him go; feeling like the world was slightly upside down.

She'd never, ever considered Abed like that. She'd thought about Troy, mostly in high school, but some in community college too. She didn't think about him at all these days, but that was only because she'd grown past him. Jeff was a completely different situation, one that was still ongoing and insanely confusing. Abed had been her safe guy. He was so nice, funny, and smart, but she'd never thought of him like that. He helped her escape her own over organized world and enter his chaotic, imaginative one. He made her playful and gave her the courage to try new things. He'd let her explore the Dreamatorium with him and she'd actually been able to help him.

Her heart did an odd jump as she thought about it. She'd started calling it to the Jeff Jump, because it had never happened for anyone else before. She put a hand over heart and realized she'd had a Jeff Jump for Abed. No, no she'd had a heart palpitation. That made way more sense. After all the two of them together…well that'd be weird. She turned and started down the hallway as quickly as she could as if she could outrun the situation.

Chapter Text

Annie was doing very well at not thinking about what had happened. It was a silly thought and a stupid burp bubble, which it turns out, can totally feel the same as a Jeff Jump. It’s been a coincidence. She refused to think about it, refused to let herself become some tv cliche. It’d been a week and honestly, she’d almost forgotten about it. She was only reminded on the rare occasions that she caught Abed staring at her. He stared at everyone, especially if they were talking, but the scrutiny now made her blush. She knew he must notice, but he never said anything.

She was walking home on a bright sunny Friday with a fresh bagel in one hand and a soon to be read book in her other hand. She wasn’t at all ready for the baby that was thrust into her arms. She dropped the bagel and book. She held the screaming Spanish infant from down the hall and watched as it’s mother dashed off.

“Miss Garcia!” she started a bit indignant and confused until she saw the older woman rushing towards the street. Her second son, just a toddler who had only recently started walking properly, was in the middle of the street. He had chased after a ball and gone straight into the middle of the road. Miss Garcia raced after him and picked the boy up, pulling him out of the way a second before a car drove past honking.

Annie had babysat the two a few times and was glad she was on hand when Miss Garcia needed someone to hand the baby off too. She bounce the baby in her arms as Miss Garcia scolded the child who had began wailing about the ball on the other side of the street. She understood the woman’s need to confront her child, but the baby in Annie’s arms wasn’t calming down.

“I am so sorry, Annie,” the woman said with a thick accent, “Miguel scared me to death, I thought he would really get hit by that car.”

“No problem. I’m just glad I was here to-,” Annie stopped suddenly as she felt a splash of something warm and sticky go down her shirt. The baby’s head had lolled forward and he’d thrown up directly aiming for the v of her v neck shirt. She screamed and handed the baby back as delicately as she could. Her book fell and was soon forgotten on the floor with her snack.

“I’m sorry,” Amy said as she backed away, “But I- I’m sorry. Oh my god. I’ve gotta go clean up.”

The smell hit her hard and made her nauseous. It was sickening sweet and milky like baby vomit always was. She gagged and almost added her own to the level of vomit on herself. She held herself together, but rushed inside. She bypassed the elevator, fearing someone would smell her. She raced up the stairs double time and got to the apartment door. She had trouble opening it, her hands shaking as her stomach turned in upset knots.

Her shaking hands finally opened the door and the deafening sound of a party poured over her. She ignored them, rushing to her bedroom. She’d almost forgotten that Troy had found most of his high school football buddies. He’d reconnected with them on facebook and now they were all over for a visit. This hadn’t been planned and he hadn’t even texted to warn her, but she’d be angry later. For now she just needed to get to her room.

Humiliated, she ran past them as fast as she could. She had to edge pretty close to some of the party goers and she just knew they could smell the vomit on her. She wanted to cry right there, but she could feel the mess drying between her breasts and couldn’t afford to stop.

The door to her room was easier to open than the front door and she got inside quickly, slamming it behind her. She stripped off her sweater and tossed it into her trash. She saw that there was vomit all over one of the cups of her bra and quickly ripped it off, letting it join the shirt in the trash. She grabbed the water bottle from her nightstand and poured the water liberally down her chest. She searched for something to use as a towel and decided to strip off a pillow case. She started mopping her front and finally felt somewhat clean. She let out a breath as the urge to be sick was lessening and the smell as well.

“I’d fake cough again, but as you didn’t hear the first one so I’ll assume you need a more direct approach,” said a very familiar male voice behind her. Holding the soiled pillow case firmly against her breasts she turned back towards the door.

Abed stood there, back to her, but she could see his reflection in the mirror on her door, at least his eyes were closed too. Her cheeks went hot and she screamed in shock and mortification. Remembering the football team outside her room, she put a hand to her mouth. This day could not get any worse.

“How long have you been there?” Annie asked in a stage whisper.

“The whole time,” he said and Annie made an audible squeak.

“Why,” she said flustered, “Why are you in my room, Abed?”

“I came here to escape the party. Troy is acting like a jock again and pretended not to know lines from Batman Begins. All the other doors were being blocked by muscle heads who pretended not to hear me when I asked them to move. So, I took the past of least residence and ended up in here. I didn't think you'd mind...or be back so soon."

Annie could understand that, but it didn’t make her embarrassment any less. She put both arms on the pillowcase around her chest, wishing she’d grabbed something that didn’t smell so bad.

“Did you see anything?” she asked dreading the answer.

“ I turned my back and closed my eyes.”

Annie awed at that. Abed could be so sweet sometimes. If it had been Troy or Jeff they would have gawked for as long as they could.

“You know, you can be a real gentleman. I’m impressed.”

“In the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that I did open my eyes for one point seven seconds. As a hot blooded male I couldn’t resist the temptation. I had expected to get a flash of bare back and had no intention of seeing everything down to the color of you n-”

“No, no, no! I take it back. I don’t want to know what you saw,” she said, but she already did. He’d seen everything.She whimpered at that and would have covered her face in shame, if it wouldn’t risk exposing her further.

“Should I apologize?” he asked, sounding lost. She felt bad for making him so worried. He hadn’t done anything wrong, not really. It wasn’t as if he was the first guy to sneak a peek in a similar situation. She wondered if he didn’t open his eyes because every normal guy in this scene always did. Or maybe he’d just wanted to see. The thought made her body run hot for a second, but shame quickly followed on it’s heels.

“No, no it’s okay. Just keep your back turned and your eyes shut this time. I just need to grab another shirt,” she said quickly moving to her dresser, doing her best to keep her back to him.

“Okay, cool, cool,” he said sounding a bit awkward, even for him.

She opened the drawer with one hand and tenderly picked up a shirt, careful to keep the filthy pillow case against her bare breasts. It was a bit tricky. She glanced back and saw Abed was keeping his promise. She rolled her eyes, because she should have known he would. This was Abed she was thinking about.

“This could get awkward, like on that episode of Friends where Chandler sees Rachel semi naked. She insists on seeing him naked and the whole group ends up trying to spy on one another. You might even see Peirce naked,” Abed said a hint of worry in his voice.

She tried to ignore his brattling as she slipped into a loose fitting shirt, another v neck, but she doubted she’d have the same trouble twice. In the process she had to expose herself a few times, which was awkward knowing Abed was in the room, but she trusted him to stay turned. Annie heard him shifting behind her, but didn’t think any of it.

Now fully covered she turned to look at him and let out a gasp. Abed was standing with his pants and boxers, pulled down to his thighs and his shirt pulled up exposing his smooth stomach. She could see everything, even the fact that he obviously and surprisingly kept everything trimmed. She could see every inch of his manhood. She was shocked that what he was working with was a bit bigger than any other that she’d seen. Although, if she wasn’t mistaken, he might be somewhat excited. Which made the whole situation even weirder.

She squeaked and turned away, putting her hand over her eyes.

“Abed!” she cried, “What the Hell?” Sometimes curses were needed and deserved, this was one of those situations. Abed had just flashed her.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t let you see Peirce naked. That’d be bad weird,” Abed said and she thought she heard him zipping up his pants, but she didn’t dare look, “I’m willing to consider us even though you did look for three seconds compared to my one point seven.”

“Even,” she agreed, refusing to admit that she’d looked longer than him. She just wanted them to drop this topic and never admit it happened ever again.

“Cool, cool. Should we go back to the party?” Abed asked casually, changing the subject. Annie slowly peeked out between her fingers and saw that he was dressed. The mental image of him nearly naked was burned into her mind and she had to fight to keep her eyes above his waist.

“I don’t know,” Annie said sitting down on her bed, “I just ran through a room full of my arch enemies from high school covered in vomit. I mean these are the same people who made me feel invisible and worthless, who had mocked me after they found out about the drugs. I don’t know if I can go out there and pretend everything's okay.”

“Annie, it’s been four years. You’re a different person now. You’ve grown and you’ve changed a lot. You’ve got friends who’ll have your back no matter what,” Abed said insightfully before adding, “I’m stepping on Jeff’s toes a bit here, but he’s not here to do his job. I had to improvise.”

Despite herself she had to smile. She didn’t mention how glad she was Jeff wasn’t here, but the thought was amusing.

“Friends like Troy? He’s been treating me differently all week, in fact, he’s been treating us all differently. I thought he was past this, but maybe it never really leaves a person. I’m afraid I’ll go in there and he’ll act like I’m invisible again.”

“Troy is being strange, but I’m pretty certain it’s just the pressure of trying to live up to who these people expect him to be,” he said his voice even, but his face looked hurt.

“Did he even introduce you, Abed?’ she asked reaching out to take his hand, to ease that discomfort. It was something she’d done before, a casual gesture that she did all the time, but after the talk about skipping the romantic mistake, she couldn’t leave her hand there. She let it drop, trying to make it as normal as possible. He noticed the loss and put his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.

“As his roommate.”

“See,” she said, slumping down on her bed, “I’ll be invisible again.”

“No, you won’t, because you’re...” he said and trailed off looking at the decor, when he glanced back at her his eyes were alight with an idea, “A princess.”

“A princess?” she asked, the light in his eyes making her smile.

“Isn’t it obvious?" he asked, jumping on the bed and swatting behind her. She didn’t even chide him for putting his shoes on her bed. He put one hand on her shoulder and the did a sweeping motion of the room. “You’re a princess and this is your tower. You’re trapped here, fearing that when you step outside the masses will rip you to shreds. The enemy is at the gates and your only knight has become a traitor.”

The room changed then, turning from her boring room and becoming a castle, the window opening in cobblestone. She imagined herself in an elegant, but hard to move gown with her hair down and grabbed a nearby hairband to use as a crown.

“Who does that make you, good sir?’ she asked looking back at him.

“The misunderstood wizard who uses his magic for good and to give the princess courage to fight the hordes of the mindless muscle men,” he said, his voice hinting at a European accent.

Abed gracefully jumped off the bed and Annie could picture in a wizard’s robe. and pointed hat. Her imagination suggested that maybe he was naked under that robe. The previous situation hadn’t left her mind, no matter how hard she tried. She felt like a pervert for the misguided thought and blushed.

“And how do you plan to do that?” she asked, a slight British accent creeping into her voice.

“With a magic mirror,” he said, holding up a mirror of silver that sparkled with an unnatural light, “That shows her true beauty and reminds her that she no longer is that toad, but is now the princess.” He handed her the mirror and she looked into it sheepishly. She didn’t see a stunning princess, but a shabby community college student that still didn’t know how to do her hair right.

He must have known that wasn’t working since he grabbed her comb, which was really a wand.

“And I’ll use my magic,” he said as he started dancing around, the comb held above his head, “To make her see the truth.” That made her laugh, especially when he started jumping about, the “wand” doing silly little circles.

The door to her room opened suddenly and Abed stopped a moment later, interrupted but not embarrassed. Annie was staring at the man in the door, a handsome guy with blond hair and muscles bulging under his shirt.

“Well, this isn't the bathroom,” he said a bit bewildered and then turned to yell out across the party, “Hey Troy! Your roommate is here being all crazy with your girlfriend.”

“What?” Troy demanded sounding completely unlike himself. He came to the door and gave them both a look, guilt written all over his features. “Oh that’s just Annie. She’s not my girlfriend, just another roommate.”

“And your friend, close friend,” Annie said standing up, defending herself from being invisible. The magic dance had done it’s work and she felt strong. Abed stood beside her, back still particularly to the door. He gave her a nod of encouragement.

“In fact, we’re both his best friends. He spends all his free time watching movies with Abed these days, not guys who treat people badly,” she said, memories of her high school senior year playing in her head.

“Okay,” the guy said slowly, looking over at Troy, “Is that true?”

Troy paused then nodded, “Yeah okay. I like Inspector Spacetime and cosplay. I lied about the pillow fort being for my non-existent cousin. I helped build that and..and I love it.”

“Alright,” the guy said nodding his head, “No need to get all emotional on me. No one really cares what you do now. It’s been four years, we’re not all the same. I’m gay and no one seems to care anymore.”

Troy’s mouth hung open and he didn’t say anything for a moment.

“Then why is everyone acting like nothing has changed?” Troy asked.

“Because we’re all saving face,” the guy said and shrugged, “But I got a feeling, it’s all a show. It’s been four years, shit happens.”

“Like you going gay?”

“I was always gay.”

“I have one very important question,” Troy said seriously and the guy waited, “Did you ever have a crush on me.”

“Huge one.”

“I thought so,” Troy said with a huge grin before turning to Abed and Annie, “Do you guys want to come watch the movie with us? We’re watching Fight Club, because it’s manly and stuff.”

“Troy, you’re forgetting the first rule. Don’t talk about fight club.”

“Hey, I just feel like destroying something beautiful,” Troy said, walking over and offering his hand to Abed. They did their secret handshake and Troy looked over at Annie before giving her a hug. She hugged him back, grateful that he’d gotten out of that stupid mindset. With his arm slung over both their shoulders, they headed out into the living room. It would have been a smooth, beautiful move if they didn’t have to turn sideways as they exited the doorway.

Chapter Text

Annie felt like she was forgetting something and remembered what only when the movie had started, long after Troy had given his speech about being a changed guy and his team had opened up about how they too had changed. She was smashed between Troy and Abed on the couch, another of Troy’s friends beside him, making the situation extremely tight. There were six other guys, besides her friends, and she couldn’t move as the movie started to play.

She hadn’t put on a bra. In her rush to cover herself, she hadn’t wasted time with one. Now, awash in a sea of testosterone, she felt insanely exposed. Her shirt, besides showing a tiny bit of cleavage, was light blue and thin. It was such a cute shirt, but now she hated it. All she had to do was sit still and keep her arms crossed. She could feel that her nipples were hard still and could only guess it was because of the cold water she’d washed with. First Abed saw her nearly naked and now this. She wanted to cry, but kept calm. She could make it two hours.

“Hey Annie,” Troy said leaning into her, “Could you grab my beer?”

“What?” Annie squeaked. Troy gave her a confused look.

“On the table,” he said, pointing and moving his arms dangerously close. She flinched and moved closer to Abed who turned at the action. She landed almost in his chest and lurched back, trying to stay between them.

“Could you get Troy his drink?’ she asked hoping to avoid leaning over Abed to reach it.

Abed nodded, grabbing his drink with his ‘something isn’t right’ face on. Her arm was pinned the movement, pulled down and away from it’s post. She had to let her crossed arms fall to her side for a moment and didn’t have time to pull them back up before Abed reached across her, arm hitting her breasts. As Troy was taking the drink Annie was watching Abed’s face horrified. At first he didn’t seem to notice anything, but then his face changed slightly. He gave her a questioning look as he settled down beside her and his eyes flickered down during a particularly bright scene. He was suddenly stiff his head twitched to one side then the next.

Annie wanted to die. She wanted to sink down into the couch and never wake up again. The humiliation was simply too much. Abed had felt her boobs. Well, not directly, but enough to know she wasn’t wearing a bra. He knew and she knew he knew and her life couldn’t possibly get any worse. She couldn’t even look at him.

“Hey Troy,” Abed said a moment later, “I forgot that I need to go pick up my copy of Android Menace from Game Slobs.”

“You sure?” Troy said, leaning forward to look past Annie. Annie kept her head down and her arms firmly over her chest.

“You know how they are. If you don’t pick it up on release date then they sell it to someone else and you have to wait for the second wave which is always weeks out. I’ve only got,” he said and looking at his arm like he was wearing a watch, “Four hours to get there.”

“Well, okay, but only because I’ve been dying to play it. I can’t believe you almost forgot,” Troy said looking a bit suspicious.

“Me too. It must be all the weirdness going on,” he said, his finger going in a circle and pointing at all the strangers and Annie could have sworn that he pointed at her for a moment, “I’ll be back in an hour. Annie should join me. She’s uncomfortable.” Her breath hitched for an unbearable moment before he finished, “I think it’s the violence.”

“Oh man. I didn’t think it’d bug you,” Troy said sympathetically patting her arm, “Okay, you guys can go as long as you promise that’s all it is. Because if anyone is making you uncomfortable I’ll make them leave. You guys come first”

“I swear it,” Abed said and got up, doing their not so secret shake before heading towards the door. Annie followed, giving Troy a thankful grin.

“Kay, you guys have fun,” Troy said, settling down among his old buddies.

“You look cold,” Abed said as they got closer to the door, “Why don’t you change into a sweater? I heard it might rain.”

“Good idea,” Annie said and used the excuse to race back into her room.

She closed the door and went straight over to her dresser. She pulled out a bra and put it on quickly, stumbling once or twice in the process. She put a different sweater on, something very covering. She knew that no matter how she was dressed she’d feel like Abed could see through it. Sight and touch in one evening.

She couldn’t stay in her room, safely hidden away with some grand excuse and her brain wasn’t clear enough for that.

She stepped out of her room, zipping up a hoodie over her already thick sweater. She saw Abed standing by the door and went over. Without a word he opened the door and headed out. She followed him to the elevator. Once they were inside he turned to her.

“Should I expose myself again? Or do you want to feel it? Would that make us even?” he asked, sounding horrifyingly sincere about both suggestions.

“No, no it’s okay,” she said quickly holding up one hand, “We’re even still.”

“I don’t think so,” he said and her heart stopped, she didn’t know if she could survive seeing anymore skin today, “I believe ice cream is in order. My treat.”

“Thank you,” she said, bouncing slightly. They were quiet as they exited the building and started down the street. There was an awkwardness to it where there normally was comfort. She bumped into him casually and couldn’t stop apologizing. She couldn’t do it, the silence. It made her want to scream. She was so glad when Abed finally said something.

“That was true blue sitcom stick bad there,” he said as they crossed the street, “I wish I’d had a camera. Maybe we could redo it so I could video tape it"

“Abed!” Annie said, outraged. There was no way she was letting him videotape her topless. She glared and he backed down from the video idea, obviously disappointed.

“I would have used a censor bar,” he said and she hit him in the arm. He shrugged it off and opened the door to the ice cream shop.

“Thanks,” she said, walking in and over to the ice cream case. They chose theirs, chocolate swirl for Annie and Napoleon for Abed, then sat down across from one another. She started to eat then, between unsuggestive licks, spoke.

“You know, I’m proud of you today. You handled that situation at home, really well. A few years of go you would have bluntly said,” she coughed and did a horrible impression of Abed, “Annie, I believe you forgot your bra, would you like me to go get you one?”

“I’ve been watching a lot of spy movies lately. I had a feeling a covert would be a better approach. You’ve been very insecure about your breasts on numerous occasions.”

“See,” she said, reaching out and touching his arm in that casual way again before retracting the touch. She hated that it felt so awkward to be physically close to him now., “That’s growth, even if that statement was a bit inappropriate, it was in a private setting. I’m not the only one who has changed in these four years.”

“Thanks,” he said, his brows drawn together, as if confused as to whether or not that was a compliment.

“It’s a good thing,” she assured him and he made a soft ‘aw’ of understanding. They ate in companionable silence until Annie was done with her cone.

“I thought this would have lasted longer,” he said with a soft sigh and his mouth twisted to the side.

“What do you mean?” Annie asked, feeling like the day had lasted forever.

“This chapter. It felt short and mostly filler. Some of the themes were carried over shamelessly. It worries me, because overall it’s been unique and emotionally charged. I’ve got a feeling that something intense is on the horizon.”

“Are we in a book now?” she asked.

“A fanfiction. It’s different.”

“I know what a fanfiction is,” she said self assuredly, as if everyone should know what fanfiction was. She just didn’t want to look stupid about this fandom stuff, but she really didn’t have a clue about it. She’d have to google it the second she got home.

Chapter Text

It is strangely emotionally draining for nothing to happen. Annie found herself waiting for another emotionally fulfilling moment with Abed, but there was nothing. She was the only one acting weird, but no one called her out on it. No one noticed her watching him more, laughing louder at his jokes or walking him to classes in directions different than the one she was going in. No one asked and there was no one to tell. The only one she could talk to about it was Abed and she didn’t want to risk opening that can of worms.

It was in this eagerness for another encounter with him that she realized there was something there. She wanted a moment with him, because it’d make her happy. He made her happy and that was the first time she’d really thought that about a guy in a long time.

Living with him and Troy wasn’t helping her forget about him. He was always there. He’d always been there, but now she felt it. She felt him sitting a few feet away while they watched a movie, and felt him sleeping in the next room. She saw all the extra little things he did for his friends. The way he turned down the television down when he knew she had a headache or how he moved all his questionable food to it’s own drawer so it wouldn’t bother them as much. Had he always been so considerate or was she now just noticing?

She also felt like she’d gotten a delayed message about how cute he could be. Not cute like a puppy, which she feared was how she’d always thought of him before, but handsome cute. He could be so good looking when he was being informative or confident. His hands were also her new fixation, long and delicate fingers that could move impossibly fast when he was working on something.

Something, she couldn’t remember what, had called for a costume change and he and Troy had torn their shirts off in front of her. She’d always noticed Troy was well built, but Abed was all lean muscle and caramel skin. She couldn’t help licking her lips at the memory. His face might be all angles and a bit too narrow to be ever be considered traditionally handsome like Jeff, but there was something in his brief smiles and the way he tilted his head that was majestic.

Annie dropped the pen she’d been using to make a list of things she’d suddenly noticed about Abed.

“Majestic?” she asked aloud and closed the diary and secured the lock. The lock might be a bit much, but she always worried. She wrote down things when she couldn’t talk about them. She normally wrote about her worries about school or those regretful urges she got for a little extra help when finals came around.

She had three notebooks filled with things relating to Jeff, books that if he ever found out about would make things awkward for a while. She’d throw them out, but they reminded her of a certain point in her life and that was important. Now, she had a notebook with Star Wars on the cover instead of kittens or flowers. It was different from the other’s, because it was different from anything she’d ever written about before.

She was writing in a crush journal about Abed. She wasn’t sure what was weirder, that she had a crush journal at her age or that it’s single topic was Abed. Abed was no means a typical guy, but she was used to that by now. He was unique, but that wasn’t always a bad thing.

“I wish I’d never realized he was a guy,” Annie said, stuffing the book under her mattress after checking the lock three times.

She could pinpoint the moment when that had changed, the moment when Abed had gone from one of the group to one of the guys she wrote books about. It’d been Abed’s own fault. He was the one who had put the image of her in his bed into Annie’s mind. She could almost feel it, being wrapped in his extra long arms and snuggling close to his warm chest, listening to his heartbeat as he awkwardly wrested his chin on top of her head as if unsure of where to put himself.

She didn’t keep the journals to be childish or to act like a stalker. They were there in order to keep herself on track. With Jeff she’d gone full steam ahead and held nothing back. That hadn’t worked well at all. This time she was at a standstill. He wanted to skip all of this. She knew he wasn’t interested from the get go and yet here she was. She should see a therapist since she seemed to only go after guys that didn’t want her.

“I should be asleep,” she said, seeing it was two hours after midnight. She went to lay down and instantly regretted the bottle of water she’d been sucking down for the last half hour. She got up and headed into the living room through to the bathroom.

She came out a few minutes later and heard the faint whispering of voices. She paused and looked to the pillow fort. There was a light flickering inside and she could only guess that Abed was awake.

She should leave him alone. His prediction that she’d spend a night in his pillow fort came back to her mind and she pushed it back. She could totally go say hi to her friend if she wanted. She went back to her room for a moment, putting on a thin wrap over her tank top. It was unseasonably warm and the apartment, windows open and all, was full of sticky heat. She was still dressed modestly, tank top with a wrap now and regular length shorts. Absolutely appropriate attire for visiting a completely platonic roommate no matter the hour.

“Abed,” she said as she approached the blankets.

“Polo,” Abed responded and Annie smiled.

She timidly opened the flap and looked inside. She wasn’t exacting what she saw. Abed was in a black tank top, which did temptingly nice things to his arms and a pair of black boxers that looked like they were possibly made out of silk. He was in his underwear. She should go now. She wanted to turn back, but she couldn't. If she did, he’d know something was up.

“What are you doing up?” she asked, walking inside and sitting next to him on the side of his bed. She could understand why he was so underdressed. It was hot with all the extra layers overhead and a laptop going.

She had done this dozens of times, but now the intimacy of it had her shivering despite the heat. Abed didn’t turn to look at her. He didn’t seem to notice the close quarters they were suddenly keeping.

“Watching a movie,” he said then when she didn’t ask what still added, “French Kiss, with Meg Ryan. It’s a classic, but not one of her best works. It’s my third viewing, but I still don’t completely understand how the hero goes from scoundrel to romantic interest. It does have a pretty good tagline though. You see he’s going to say I want you and she’ll pause for him to continue. The first time he does and the second time he simply repeats I want you indicating that he’d like a relationship with her.”

There was something about the way Abed’s mouth formed the words ‘I want you’ that made Annie’s stomach do somersaults. She pushed those feelings away. She was an adult. She could do this.

“A romcom?” she asked still surprised at how much of their terminology she could use these days.

“More or less. It’s not very heavy on the com, in my opinion.”

“I’ve never seen it.”

“You’d like it.”

“Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I love all romantic movies,” she said a bit irritated. She didn’t want him to think she was obsessed with romance, which she wasn’t. She was obsessed with a very particular romantic situation and that’s how it tended to go.

“That was very Britta of you,” Abed informed her with a sideways look, “I thought you would like it, because the main character is like you. She’s high strung, demands perfection and makes a fool of herself from time to time which makes her human.”

She wasn’t sure how to take his description. It didn’t sound very flattering, but he was still watching a movie that made him think of her. She decided that made up for it and sunk into the bed beside him. She could feel the heat of her bare arm touching his. It wasn’t something she would have ever paid attention to before, but now she was hypersensitive to his closeness. She could even smell him, like good shampoo and some off brand deodorant.

She tried to watch the movie, uninvited, but she never felt like an unwanted guest. She did her best to focus on the film even though he was halfway through and nothing made sense, but her eyes kept wandering. His arms and chest were just so perfectly framed. She’d remember sneaking peeks at Jeff from time to time and wondered why she’d never thought to look

“This isn’t working,” he said, pausing the movie. Annie stared at the screen, realizing the situation must be dire if he’d turned something off. His face turned to her and she felt uneasy under his scrutiny.

“What do you mean?” she asked, still looking ahead.

“Skipping this part,” he said, self assured he was right.

“I didn’t mean...I don’t know what you’re...” she said, but it was all lies. She knew exactly what Abed was talking about and hated herself for having ignored his wish to skip past it. She had come to his bed on the hopeless day dream that maybe she could just fall asleep here.She’d wanted it so stupidly bad.

“It’s okay. It was never possible. Some story arcs are simply too powerful to avoid,” he said as Annie found it impossible to look at him and then it got worse, “The situation has become intensely sexually charged. First I see your breasts and present myself to you and now you’re looking at me like I’m the first candy cane at Christmas time and you want to...even though you didn’t interrupt me, I’m going to censor myself there. I realized mid thought that it was highly suggestive.”

“I am so not looking at you like that,” she defended a bit too quick and far too loud. She crossed her arms indignantly even if she didn’t have a leg to stand on.

“Even I know that you’re lying,” he said a smile twitching at the corner of his lips.

“Do you mind if I fast forward?” he asked and Annie finally looked over at him. He wanted to go back to watching the movie and pretend that none of this had happened? She could handle that.

“Okay,” she said nodding.

She went to turn back to the screen when she felt his fingers on her chin. Those fingers that had been her fixation for weeks. His thumb gently pushed her face back towards him and her breath caught in her throat. She turned willingly, trusting him so completely it was a little scary. She expected him to talk, to set down ground rules. She expected everything besides what happened.

Abed leaned in slowly and kissed her. It was a simply touch of lips to lips. The other’s they had shared had been passionate, but not this one. It was slow and full of emotion, bare to each other and brutally honest. It was clumsy and it was raw. She kissed him back, lips experimentally parting.

He didn’t take the invitation, the hand under her chin twitched before he pulled away. He turned back to the laptop and turned the movie back on again.

Chapter Text

“What the hell was that?” she demanded. This was another of those situations that demanded a curse. Her heart was pounding out of her chest and her lips tingled. Her whole body was covered in a cold sweat, both excited and scared as could be. Abed wasn’t even looking at her, as if what had happened hadn't bothered him at all. Was he playing another character? She couldn’t tell anymore.

He grabbed a handful of popcorn and ate it a piece at a time. He still hadn’t answered.

“Abed,” she said, worried by the mood swing and that made him turn back to her, offering some of the snack. She pushed it away.

“Should I pretend to be shocked? I thought the cat was already out of the bag,” he said as if he’d missed a scene in a film. She shook her head,

“No, no you don’t have to be anything,” she said, her confusion growing as he talked. Had that meant nothing at all to him? Kisses had always been something she considered special. She saw them as a gift. You gave them out once in a while, but not to too many people so they would continue to be special. No one should steal them, because gifts should always be given willingly or they weren’t gifts at all. “I just don’t understand why you did that.”

“I had to do it in order to skip to the climax of the story.”

She blushed.

“I didn’t intend that sexually,” he said, “But I can understand how it was taken that way.”

“So, if that was the...apex,” she said, finding it impossible to say climax, “What happens now?”

“You come to the realization that our kiss meant nothing special to you. That it was nice, but not something you need. Now that the build up is gone that should be a simple task,” Abed said before going back to eating.

A simple task? To stop feeling everything she’d started feeling in these last few weeks? That was supposed to be a simple task? She forced herself to stare at Abed and see only normal Abed there instead of the man she’d been seeing lately. The handsome Abed who was licking the salt of his fingers in an awkward way that still made her stomach twist in odd ways.

“And if I can’t?” she asked, wondering where this was leading. If she really couldn’t get over this obsession with him could they still be friends? With Jeff, even if he hadn’t rejected her time and again, he’d been flattered by her attention and grown up enough to deal. Abed couldn’t even deal with a new sitting arrangement.

“Should I change my shirt?” he asked, shifting and to grab a different one.

“No,” she said, shrugging, “But I’m serious. What if?”

“You will. You’ll remember your emotional attachment to Jeff and go back to it. We’d be a great side ship or mid series pairing, but never endgame material,” he said using those weird terms that she’d started looking up ages ago.

“And if I don’t?” she asked her feelings about Jeff the last thing she wanted to focus on. Right now, there was only Abed, the smell of his shampoo, this bed and the two inches of skin on their arms that were touching. It was hard to imagine that a world outside the pillow fort existed.

“Then I’ll have to give a long winded speech that might get pretty boring and involve a lot of basic information repackaged.”

Okay, she might be good at his jargon, but half of that didn’t make sense. It was frustrating, but only because she was so anxious to understand him.

“What’s the speech?” she asked, her voice peaking oddly at the last word. She had a feeling she wasn’t going to like this. The rollercoaster of emotions wasn’t fun anymore.

“I wish I could fast forward through this part too,” Abed said softly then turned off the movie all together, but left the screen on for the lighting, “Do you remember how the group got together?”

“We all needed a study group, because we were failing Spanish,” she said, remembering the whole situation fondly.

“No, that’s not it,” he corrected her, “Jeff was trying to sleep with Britta and offered to help her study. She invited me to join this group to ease the sexual tension and I invited the rest of you. I hand picked each and everyone one of you for different reasons. Based on personalities and abilities to make a cohesive group. You know, some people daydream about winning the lottery, but back then, it was friends for me. That was my lottery.”

She couldn’t believe what he was saying. He’d manipulated them into working together. She bit her lip, trying to hold back any sign of being upset. He hadn’t done anything wrong, not in the long run. She’d never change a thing, but it was still wrong to use people. It was oddly sweet though in an Abed way. She let it pass, wondering now what any of this had to do with the present.

“I knew Jeff’s obsession with Britta could only last so long. Past episode six he’d need a secondary outlet for his sexual prowess. That’s where you came in.”

“I was a decoy?” she asked, officially upset now. That was a low blow even for him.

“That was one of the reasons. The other’s had to do with your need for friends. It was almost as deep and desperate as mine and you’d help be the glue that kept us together.”

Annie couldn’t help the tears that sprung up at the corner of her eyes. She always knew Abed could be calculating, but this was a bit much. It was like he’d planned out her whole life and she hadn’t even known. She crossed her arms and turned away from him.

“You’re upset,” he said, looking her over.

“I don’t think I want to hear this,” she said and he put his hand on hers. She turned and saw his face, compassion touching the edge of his features. It was the best he could do and she knew he had to feel it if it happened to show.

“It gets more flattering as it goes on,” he said, removing his hand and going back to talking, “I really did envision us as more of a Chandler and Phoebe situation, as you know they never really had adventures together. I didn’t envision you being willing to put up with my antics or understand let alone participate so impressively with my Dreamatruim.”

She waved her hand at that, a blush lighting her cheeks. She’d thought she’d done okay, but to hear him call her impressive at something that was obviously his mindset was really flattering. She really did try to do the best she could when she could. That had definitely turned her frown upside down.

“The more time we spent together the more possibilities I started suspecting.” he told her.

“Possibilities? What sort of possibilities?”

“You’re a beautiful, available woman who googles phrases I use in order to repeat them correctly and make me happy. How could I resist looking into other timelines?”

“What happens in them?” she asked eagerly. She was a bit excited now. He’d called her beautiful and that was high praise coming from him.

“You're interrupting me a lot,” he said curtly. It was the sort of statement that would have upset her years ago, but that she was used to and understood now. He wasn’t trying to be rude, only misunderstood the best way to address the situation. She spoke Abed now.

“Sorry,” she said and put her fingers to her mouth and zipped it closed. He nodded appreciatively.

“Thank you,” he said she knew he was sincere, “I found timelines where we ended up as a couple.”

The words made her heart sing. She couldn’t help the excited smile on her lips, but tried to cover it up. She turned away and put her hands firmly into her lap. She would not grab his hand or coo about this. It was sweet, really was. This had to be Abed’s way of telling her he had a crush on her.

“Most are pretty intense. Let’s admit it, Annie, neither of us are short term people. We don’t like change and don’t handle losing people well. If anything ever happened it could never be casual. It’s all or nothing.”

All or nothing? She smiled. She liked the idea of that, someone who could commit happily. She’d been looking for that and to find someone who could openly admit it? Well, that was definitely a plus. This conversation was doing nothing more than cement that her recent musings had been on the right track.

“In the timelines where that happens, it’s not pretty,” he said and her stomach dropped, “The beginning is. We're happy and things progress well. That is until things change, after college is over and we're on to what is considered the real world. You want to settle down, own a house and have a stable dual income. You want the kids and the white picket fence and I still want to make movies and spend what you consider an outrageous amount of time watching tv. What you think is cute now becomes annoying and you grow increasingly frustrated. You work more, see the kids less and start using again. There tends to be three endings. You overdose after picking up illegal drugs at work, you cheat with the handsome stud of a doctor or we divorce and I find it impossible to live on and become a catatonic."

Annie felt like she was going to be sick. She’d gone from such a high to the lowest. This ride was no longer fun and she wanted off. She put her hands on her stomach as if the butterflies might really try to swarm out and spray all over the table.

"There is no guarantee that will happen,” she said clutching to hope.

"I won't change, Annie. I've pretty much maxed out my potential and that's pretty awesome normally, but it's not what you need. It never would be. I could pretend I was the guy you needed, but neither of us would be happy.”

"Are you saying," she said tears streaming down her face, she didn’t know when they had started, "We're toxic together?"

"In the short term we could do great things, but in the long term,” he pursed his lips and shook his head. He turned to her and put a hand on her cheek, using a thumb to wipe away a tear. Those stupid long fingers cupping her face and making her sob out.

She swayed as she started weeping uncontrollably and Abed turned to her, opening up his arms. She fell into him, burying her face into his chest. She held onto his shirt, pulling it to her face and letting herself feel it. It was like she was watching all those stupid timelines die. Like she was letting all the possible good memories wither away. His hand on her back, making small circles, was only making it worse.

Annie had been let down a lot in her life. Her parents had given up on her when things got hard. Her friends had shunned her and then even recovering addicts couldn’t be bothered to pick up her phone calls. The group that Abed had created was her home, her family now and they accepted her. Abed accepted her. He was even accepting her now as she was crying and making him highly uncomfortable.

He shushed her softly and she let out a rather loud wail. She couldn’t help it, his kindness was like a knife stabbing her. It was what she shouldn’t have, couldn’t have. They’d do amazing things together, but he’d already ruled it out. It wasn’t worth the risk and she had to agree. He’d been right about that. That’s where the real pain came from.

“Hey, guys,” Troy’s timid voice came from between the blanket curtain, “Everything okay? Is Annie in there?”

Abed went completely still then kissed her forehead gently. She couldn’t imagine a sweeter thing and sat back. She leaned forward and kissed him, desperate and pleading, but he didn’t respond. He put his hands on her shoulder and pushed her away, face impassive. He put his finger to his lips and she knew he wasn’t asking her to be quiet in sound, but about the idea of them. She understood. If the group got wind they’d want them together and would try to force it. Hell, it might even work and they knew where that went.

“Yes, come in,” Abed said and his hold on Annie suddenly became awkward. She was quieter now, but the tears wouldn’t stop and the occasional sob escaped.

“What’s going on?” Troy asked his eyes going between them then over to the screen. He was flinching.

“She started crying,” Abed said as if it wasn’t obvious.

“Why?” Troy asked, going over. Annie couldn’t meet his eyes, afraid he’d know the truth.

“I don’t know what to do,” Abed said as she started to pull away.

“It’s okay, I’ll be okay,” Annie lied and gave Abed one last look as she got to the edge of the fort. The daydreams of sleeping next to him made her heart heavy and the tears started up again.

She quickly turned and ran into her room, shutting the door behind her. She laid on her bed feeling worse than she had after any break up. She held a pink stuffed animal to her stomach and wished she was too grown up to have it. She wished she was grown up and too mature for body to have such control over her. It was her eyes that wouldn’t stop watering, her throat that wouldn’t stop sobbing.

Her door opened and she didn’t look up. She assumed it was Abed and she couldn’t face that.

“Hey, Annie,” Troy said and she looked up surprised to see him there, “Abed told me what happened. That he talked to you about the future, about after we graduate. I’m sure he didn't mean it, but sometimes he can be so super insensitive. He’s made me cry sometimes too.”

Troy sat down on her bed, a few inches from her, letting her cross that space. His hand went out though, touching her shoulder. She looked up at him, big eyes watering and then crawled into his lap. She curled as close as she could to him, holding onto one of his arms instead of a stuffed animal and tucked her head under his chin.

“Woah, woah,” he said, but he didn’t push her away, “It’s going to be okay.” His free arm went around her protectively.

He stroked her hair until her sobs became little whimpers. She’d gotten his shirt wet, but he didn’t seem to notice or care. She had such good friends. Friends that let her move in with them and take up space they had lived in. Friends who put up with her neurotic ways and ever flowing tears. Nothing could take them away from her, not time or space or inspectors.

The hell ride was over and she was tired. Crying had taken it out of her and the morning light was bright in the window. The gentle thump of Troy’s heart was the last thing she remembered being aware of before she just gave up and let herself fall asleep.

Chapter Text

Annie woke up alone that morning and thought about cancelling everything. She didn’t though. She wasn’t that little girl who ran and hid anymore. She got up and put on her makeup, then did her hair. She dressed in something nice, black and short. She put a sweater over it and made sure at least a little cleavage showed. She looked amazing and she felt powerful. She could get any guy she wanted and she didn’t have to be limited by timelines and other’s perspectives of her.

She went into the living room like a Dante walking into Hell, unsure of what she would find, but knowing it wouldn’t be good. It really wasn’t all that exciting. Abed was sitting at the table with extra pancakes on the table in front of him. Troy wasn’t up yet, his door still closed. That was a good thing, she wanted a moment with Abed even if it was hard to look at him right now.

She paused and lost some of her resolve. She felt tears in her eyes and she took a step back. No, she’d done this last night. She’d cried and given up. She was so tired of being the girl that got pushed to the side and told when enough was enough. She wasn’t going down without a fight this time.

With resolve she took another step forward.

“I need to ask you something,” Annie said, refusing to let him speak first, not that he’d attempted to. He seemed to know something was up and he silently let it happen.

“Were you happy? In the other timelines?”

“I told they ended-”

“I know, you told me how they ended,” she said, almost breaking her resolve, “But you told me the start was great. In the start, were you happy? Did you like being in a relationship with me?”

“Don’t you know the answer to that?.”

“No,” she said firmly, “Please, I just...I want to hear you say it.”

“Yes,” he said, his face turning back to his plate, “I was happy.”

“I’m sure I was too,” Annie said and stormed out of the room. She slammed the door and felt the resolve settling in her. She had forgotten her backpack inside, but she wasn’t going back for it now.

She went towards Greendale and did the thing she was best at. She went to school to sign up for a class she was going to ace.

----

Six months later and an extra art credit later, Annie was ready to do what she’d planned all that time ago. She wheeled a cart with tv and VCR into the library and put a video into it. She stood by it and waited for her friends to come in.

The time had been hard, but she needed to do it. More than that, she’d wanted to research her feelings. It had all happened so fast and she worried she’d fallen in love with the idea of love. She needed to know that her emotions were real and she’d realized as time went on, that they were. More than that, she found herself wondering if they hadn’t always been there, only hidden. She could understand how off putting he might seem, but she could also see the sweetness and how much he tried to understand a world that was alien to him. He'd given up his possible happiness to protect them. After everything she was positive this was what she needed in her life and could only pray her idea would work.

“Hey, it’s movie day at the middle school,” Jeff mocked as he came into the room. He sat down in his normal seat, phone still in his hand.

“Abed made another movie?” Britta asked. Annie had removed her chairs from her side of the table, so she had to come around to sit. She picked the one on the end next to Shirley.

“Well,” Annie started sheepishly. She never got to finish, because Troy came in.

“Sweet, movie day! Are we watching Cars? Because I really want to watch Cars!” Troy said as he slung his bag over his seat then sat down.

“Oh great, another power hour of home movies made by the nutcase,” Pierce said as he entered and Shirley hit him in the arm.

Annie was barely paying attention to their banter. It was a cruel joke that Abed was late. She had her finger on the controller, ready to hit play. She kept fearing she might not have the courage after all.

Finally, he walked in and stared at the television cart. His head sharply turned to look at them, first at Troy and then at Annie. Annie tried not to give anything away.

“So, what are we watching, Abed?” Jeff asked as he was sending a text.

“This isn’t mine,” he said, running a hand over the tv then going to sit down in his seat. He saw it wasn’t there and panicked. His eyes went up wide and desperate, his hand clutched for a chair that wasn’t there.

“Hey, Abed,” she said and patted the seat next to hers, “It’ll be okay. This is just for today.”

He struggled with it before nodding. He came over and sat stiffly in the chair. It wasn’t technically his, but he hadn’t started screaming, so she knew it was okay. She put a comforting hand on his arm and Abed turned to her then back to the screen. She couldn’t read his face and that made her even more nervous. He knew something was going on and he was upset, but she wasn’t going to back out. She had something she wanted to show all of them.

“This is getting spooky. Is someone going to clue us into what is going on or what?” Jeff demanded and Annie finally coughed.

“I took a class,” she told them.

“Surprise,” Jeff taunted.

She glared at him.

“Storytelling in film,” she said and Abed gave her a confused look.

“Making videos is my thing,” he said suspiciously, “I took that class. You don't takr film classes.”

“I know, but I needed an art credit,” she lied. Abed went to say something and she knew he’d counted her credits. She wasn’t about to have him point that out to the whole room.

“Anyways, I just wanted you all to see it. I thought it’d be fun,” she said.

“Can’t wait,” Jeff said, but he actually put down his phone. She took that a sign of support, the sort Jeff didn’t give easily.

Annie nervously sighed as she hit the play button.

The movie started and the first shot was a badly lit set. There were rocks in the background like a cave and a lantern hanging from the ceiling. There were paper trees to the side and dirt scattered on the floor. It was obviously a classroom converted poorly into a cave. It looked painfully ametuer, but it was acceptable considering this was Greendale.

A man came on screen dressed in black tights, a white tunic and fairy wings. There was glitter on his face as well a white makeup and a purple swirl design on his head. His purple shoes, which seemed to trip him slightly, had curls at the toes and wings on the sides. He was supposed to be a fairy, but Annie wasn’t sure how well it came out.

“Gay!” Peirce yelled out.

“Shut up, Peirce,” Jeff said as the rest of them glared at him. Annie smiled, glad for the support. She only hoped she’d have a reason to smile after this was done.

A princess had come on stage by then. She was a brunette with long brown hair, wearing an elegant ivory gown that was soiled with dirt. She had a tiny tiara on her head that was half falling off. She righted it and went over to the fairy.

“We found it. The last ingredient for our spell. We can finally release the prince from his stony prison,” he said holding up a tiny glittering stone in his hand, “We’ve fought dragons, imps and madmen for each piece. It’s been four years and now you can go home, be wed and be merry.”

The princess looked indecisive even as the fairy was excited. She went over and sat on one of the rocks and took off a shoe.

“But there isn’t any rush right? I mean, we still have to travel home,” she said, shaking the rock out of her shoe.

“We’re three days flight from the kingdom and it will only take a few hours to make the potion,” he said, not noticing how upset this seemed to make the princess. She put her shoe back on and sighed softly. The fairy seemed to be aloof about her bad feelings, still wanting to celebrate, a big smile on his lips.

“I had thought we were further from home.”

“No, your highness. We’re on the last leg of our voyage,” the fairy said, then turned to her, “Aren’t you excited?”

“I am...I’m so glad I can finally save the prince, this hasn’t been fair on him, but..” she paused looking up at her companion, “But I am not the same as I was four years ago. I am no longer the innocent child that is happy to marry any man of title. I’ve learned the joy of adventure and to face fear in the eye. I do not know if I can go back to the courts where the most important decision I shall make is which dress to wear to the latest dance. I am not sure if I can marry a man who I...who I do not love.”

“Then find one you do,” the fair suggested, having pulled a cauldron from off stage and starting to make the potion.

“What should I do then?” she asked anxiously. The fairy didn’t seem to notice the way she was looking at him, but the audience was bound too.

“Ask for his hand and go buy a big bed. That’s what you humans do isn’t it?” the fairy asked and the princess gasped. That got a few chuckles from the tiny audience.

“I suppose,” she said sweetly, “I wouldn’t know anything about that. What I worry about is that this man might say no.”

“To you?” the fairy asked, “Never.”

“Then will you marry me?” she asked a bit too quickly.

The fairy man almost dropped the delicate looking bottle he was holding. He caught it before giving her his full attention.

“Me?” he asked, then laughed, “But I’m a fairy.”

“And a man,” she said standing up and going over to him, “A certain bath in a badly concealed pod showed me that early on in our adventures.”

“In figure yes, but not in mind. Fairies do not marry as you humans do, we do not settle down. We live for adventures and never limit our imaginations to one place. To limit yourself is to lose the ability to fly.”

“I know that. You taught me to fly and to have adventures. You’ve shown me that world and I’ve fallen in love with it, with you.”

“Fairy’s are immortal and childish. You’ll grow from maid to woman and wish me to become a man. I can’t. I’m no knight or lord nor would ever wish to be. I could never make you happy, princess. You wish to change me and when you can’t you’ll be resentful.”

“I want to b-”

He put his fingers on her lips, firmly holding them there. He shook his head and her eyes welled with tears.

“As I told you fairies can see other worlds, futures most possible and likely. I am seeing them now, as we stand at this crossroads and there is nothing good that comes of us. If there was, perhaps, I’d let us risk it, but,” he said and he shook his head, “No. I am saving you much misery by denying you this one wish.”

“But I am in misery!”

“It will pass.”

“And if it doesn’t?” she asked through tears.

“Let’s speak of this no longer. Come we have a spell to make and I need your courage to make it work.”

“Tell me one more thing, friend and I shall ask no more.”

The fairy looked nervous, but he nodded his head.

“Were you happy, in these other worlds? Could you be happy with me?”

“The happiest I will ever feel, but it’s far too fleeting and causes you pain. Now, come princess, we’ve much work to do.”

The scene faded to black and there was a pause, a gentle piano playing in the background. It continued to play as the next scene, the same rocks, came up and the princess entered. This time she looked much different. She had her own wings now and make up, white with a blue swirl under her left eye. Instead of a long dress, she wore a shorter one with tights under it, both of pale pink.

“My friend,” she called into the empty space, “My friend, are you here?”

“Yes,” said the fairy as he came on stage from the right and stared her wide eyed, mouth dropped open, “Princess, what have you done? It’s been but six months and yet...you’ve changed. It’s not possible.”

“I heard what you said before, that as a human I couldn’t be with you. I found a way to become a fairy so we could be together.”

“You didn’t hear me at all,” he said walking over to her and taking her hands, “Oh my silly princess. It was never your body that was the problem. It was your mind. The fact you did all this proves it.”

“What? That can’t be possible. This solves the problem.”

“No, it doesn’t. You can’t change yourself anymore than I can change who I am.”

“There has to be something I can do,” the princess said on the brink of tears, “I’ve never cared for someone the way I care for you. I love you.”

“For now,” he said and wiped a tear away, “For now you do.”

“For always, why can you not believe it?”

“Because I can see-”

“What if you see these other worlds as dark, because ours is the brightest of them all? This is the world where it works out.”

“Such hopefulness,” he said and kissed her forehead, a bit of her makeup brushing off on his lips, “You almost look like a fairy when you spoke of it.”

“I am a fairy.”

“You’re a princess in a fairy suit,” he said, but there was a fleeting moment where he smiled down at her, full of all the love he wouldn’t let himself have, “A very lovely fairy suit.”

“Oh A-”

“But no true wings do you have. These are but borrowed decorations,” he said, his hand brushing the wings, “Still, while you’re a fairy you should come with me. I’ve got another quest. This time I’m to steal the heart from a dying star. It might be the best adventure of all time.”

“I’ll come, just give me a moment, I’ll catch up. I always fly faster.”

“Because you fly in a straight line. What fun is that?”

The fairy ran off stage, a flutter of glitter suggesting he’d used his glittery wings to fly off. The princess sat down on a rock looking forlorn.

“What do I do now?” she asked no one, “I could find another, but even if I did I’d only be pretending they were him. No one would be though, no one could match such a unique creature. I will do what is my only choice. I’ll stay with him, as his friend. I will go on his adventures and be with him in the only way he will allow. I’d be better than being without him, which I could not bear. I cling to some hope that he shall see he is wrong, but even I know that is without point. I must do as I’ve always done and be thankful he taught me how to fly.”

The screen faded to black as the princess ran off the stage and did a wonderful leap off as if she was going to fly away.

There were deafening silence.

She turned her head slowly to see Abed’s reaction. Everyone else could wait, but she had to know how he was feeling. His head was slightly tilted and he was staring at the blank tv still. His face hadn’t changed much. It was completely unreadable and she felt her heart sink.

Chapter Text

“What the hell did we just watch?” Jeff asked sitting forward and turning towards Annie,”Was that about me? Because if it was, we need to talk.”

“I get it,” Pierce said, “The fairy was gay. The princess couldn’t get with him, because he liked guys. He’s even a fairy for god’s sake.”

“No,” Annie said sharply, “It’s not about you, Jeff and the fairy definitely wasn’t gay.”

“That was depressing,” Troy said and Annie saw he was crying. She grabbed a box of tissues from her backpack and pushed it over to him. She’d planned for this. He dabbed at his eyes. “I really wish it had been Cars.”

“Annie,” Britta said, peering down the table at her, “Are you okay? I mean, really okay?”

“Yes, yes I am,” Annie said getting up. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. She felt like everyone was looking at her like she had some big, dark secret. Maybe she did, but she wasn’t going to tell them. She should have shown this to Abed in private, but she thought the group being here to support him might have made it easier. She’d been wrong, she felt like this whole idea had been so very wrong.

She walked over and grabbed the tv stand, pushing it towards the wall. Shirley came over and put her hand on her shoulder.

“Honey,” she said in that overly sweet tone she got when she was worried, “Did something happen?”

“No,” Annie said, glancing back at Abed, “It was just a story. I was just trying to tell a story.”

Abed still wasn’t moving, his eyes still on where the tv had been. She wondered if anyone else would notice, if she’d have to explain what had happened if he went catatonic again. Oh hey guys, sorry I broke Abed. I’m like eighty-five percent sure I’m in love with him. He must have figured out the video was about what had happened between us and been unable to deal with it. He’d already told me no, but I don’t take rejection well.That was going to be the best conversation ever, she could tell.

“Do you need help? Because I’m a psych major now. We can work through this together,” Britta told her, putting an arm on her other shoulder.

“Did that guy have the swirl on his forehead because mine is so big? Was that the link?” Jeff obviously did not listen to what she had said. Annie sighed, starting to feel like she was crushed under the attention of her friends.

“Why couldn’t he just love her? I mean, she turned into a fairy for him. Obviously, that’s love, right? If that’s not love I don’t know what is,” Troy whimpered, “He even said they would be happy. What kind of psycho does that?”

“Why did you make her a princess? Do you feel like you’re trapped in a tower away from your emotions?” Britta asked and Annie almost laughed. She’d never been so in touch with her emotions before, that was the problem.

“You really need to stop reading that dream dictionary,” Jeff said and that time Annie let out a chuckle. She was cracking up under the pressure and she wasn’t sure how long she could keep her mouth shut about the video.

Her smile faded completely as she saw Abed get up. His face hadn’t changed much, but he was moving. She was so glad she hadn’t gotten him stuck in his mind again. She couldn’t hear the rest of her friends banter as he came up. The world had narrowed to only the two of them. She said a silent prayer then bit her lip. She wouldn’t cry, she’d promised herself that.

“Fine,” Abed said once he stood in front of her, all eyes on him, “I’ll marry you.”

“What!?” Was the unison cry at the question. Annie’s mouth fell open with a soft gasp and her eyes went wide.

“What?” she asked in the silence that was after that.

“We’ve already discussed that any such relationships would have to be long term. I was only trying to avoid the time we’d spend dating and skip to the more permanent solution. That and I’ve always preferred fiancee to girlfriend as a way to address a partner,” Abed said, but he didn’t explain why that was.

“Well,” she said stunned, but happy, “Let’s stick with dating first. We saw what happened when we tried to skip forward before.”

“True enough. Okay. Cool. Cool, cool, cool,” Abed said, then went over to the table and started moving his chair back to its original location.

Annie’s scope of the world opened up and she saw her friends staring at her. She hadn't met their eyes yet, she couldn’t. She was embarrassed. She knew they were going to judge her and her choices. It made her realize that everyone was going to judge this. These were the people that knew Abed the best and even they would be shocked.

“The movie was about Abed?” Jeff asked skeptically.

Annie nodded.

“When did that happen?”

“Six months ago. Some stuff happened and...it just all worked out like this,” Annie tried to explain. She glanced over to where Abed had put his chair back and was sitting in it. She made her way over to the table, putting a hand on his shoulder. He glanced up, expecting her to tell him what to do. He was doing his best to be calm, but she had a feeling he was as anxious about this new arrangement as she was. She smiled at him before going to sit down in her own seat. She had friends who needed reassurance.

“That was you?” Troy said pointing at Abed whose only response was shrug, “You bastard. You broke Annie’s heart. That’s totally not cool.”

“The situation was complicated,” Abed started, then Jeff jumped in.

“You’re telling us,” Jeff said, sitting down and starting over at Annie, “Seriously?”

“Yes, Jeff,” Annie said sharply, “Seriously.”

“What about,” he said, then motioned a pen between them both.

“Us? Oh you mean the us you’ve been ignoring for years? You know some girls don’t want to wait a lifetime to find a guy who will notice them.”

“And Abed is that guy. He noticed you?” Jeff snapped.

“Yes,” Annie said looking over at Abed, “He’s always seen me. I understand that now.”

Abed met her eyes for a moment and his lips curled into a rare smile. It only lasted a moment before he started writing something in a notebook.

“I think we need to stop judging Annie. No one grilled Troy and I this long when we got together. We don’t have any right to question her decisions,” Britta said and for once Annie was thankful for her support. She might not have Britta’d that one.

“That’s it,” Troy said pointing over at her, “This is why you were crying that night. Why didn’t I put the pieces together sooner?”

“Because your IQ was seriously lowered when you got hit in the head during football,” Jeff said and Britta hit him on the arm. He faked a wince, but didn’t look remorseful.

The conversation turned to Troy’s possible head injuries and then to racism in sports thanks to Britta. Pierce had a lot to say in that matter. Sherly brought up that she was a cheerleader and that opened up a whole different conversation. Annie went with the flow, but her heart wasn’t in it. Her heart was sitting across the table, writing like a madman in a notebook. She didn’t ask him what he was writing, but she’d find out sooner or later.

The end of the session seemed to never come. No one cracked a book, but that was pretty normal. No real studying was done and that was alright this time. Everyone got up, grabbed bags and said their goodbyes. Abed was the only one still sitting and working. Annie made her way over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder and hoping he didn’t mind her taking liberties.

“What are you writing?” she asked softly.

“An alternative ending, I wanted it to reflect the actual outcome,” Abed said and Annie couldn’t help but find it very romantic.

“That’s so sweet,” she cooed, leaning down and kissing his cheek.

“We’ll also need to reshoot your first video. The lighting is horrible, the set was worthless and it was a single camera angle. This video calls for at least three cameras and very close up reaction shots."

“Oh,” she said, some of her excitement dying down. She’d thought she’d done a good job. She’d gotten an A after all.

“See. I hurt your feelings and I don’t know why,” Abed said tilting his head slightly, “I’m not a very good friend sometimes and I have no idea how to be a good boyfriend. Still not loving that term either. Maybe we should stick with lover.”

“Listen,” she said then went through the massive amount of movie quotes she’d been memorizing lately and found one that she thought would fit, “I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay… small acts of kindness and love.”

She was almost sure that was word for word what Gandalf had said in the new Hobbit movie. Abed stood up suddenly. Annie was half afraid she’d insulted him and he was about to storm out. She was wrong. His arm went around her and pulled her to him forcefully. He had that look in his eyes, like when he was Han or Don. She didn’t know who he was pretending to be, but her heart raced.

“You had me at brightest timeline,” Abed said and then kissed her. His kiss had all the passion she’d been longing for. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed back. This time when she opened her mouth to him, he didn’t flinch.

This was the perfect moment. Not an ending, but a beginning. It wasn’t going to be easy, but it was going to be exciting. Best of all, she was lucky enough to be in love with her best friend, someone who would truly liked her because she was a neurotic mess, not inspite of it.

Abed broke the kiss and pointed a finger up to the ceiling as if instructing some invisible crew.

“And we fade to black,” he paused for a few seconds and Annie waited a bit confused, “Now.”