Disclaimer: Homages to "Parks and Recreation" and "How I Met Your Mother" are sprinkled in the fic.
When Annie woke up, it took three seconds to remember that she was in Jeff's bed – and why she was naked in it. But she didn't celebrate for long, once she saw she was alone. She briefly feared he had walked out on her, like in his typical one night stands, and called out "Jeff!" in a panic.
Yet since Jeff would have walked out of his own apartment, she saw how silly she was. Especially once she heard Jeff answer, "I'm out here," outside. Annie soon found last night's clothes and got dressed, then began to think/hope that Jeff was cooking breakfast for her.
Instead, she left the bedroom and saw Jeff sitting on the couch. This made Annie 0-for-2 so far today – which was rather unlike her. If that's what sex and confessions with Jeff did to her, she had to be more careful.
"Whatcha doing?" Annie asked before she knew it. Wow, she really was off her game.
"Just thinking. Thinking out of bed at 11 a.m., on a Saturday. You're witnessing history here," Jeff quipped.
"Wait, it's 11?!" Annie realized. "Why'd you let me sleep that late?"
"Don't worry, Troy and Abed still aren't coming back until tomorrow. They don't have to know you violated curfew. Among other hotter things," Jeff joked a bit better.
"Hold on, 11 a.m. is way early for you. So why are you here instead of in bed with me?" Annie wondered. "Is that your way of saying this was a mistake?"
"What? Annie, I didn't screw your short term memory out of you, did I? Granted, if anyone could…" Jeff bragged, then stopped when Annie scowled extra harder – despite the tiniest hint of a blush. "Okay, then. In that case, you should remember me saying I wanted to be with you. None of that's changed, so it doesn't make this a mistake, right?"
"It doesn't sound like it now," Annie admitted as the blush got bigger. "Do you mean it? If you're only saying that so I don't cry in your apartment…."
"Annie, if I said I wanted a real relationship and didn't throw up, it must mean I meant it," Jeff commented, yet soon looked more somber. "Now I just have to doit. It already got me out of bed at this ungodly hour, so that doesn't bode well."
"Jeff, if you're having second thoughts, we don't have to label this now," Annie offered.
"Actually, you sound like the only one thinking twice," Jeff accused. "Now this is the third time I'm telling you I want this! I just don't know how to pull it off."
He went on with, "Look, Troy and Abed are on their little movie shoot or whatever, so you don't have to go home. That means we can actually spend the whole day together. But I've never done that with anyone before. I know I have to figure out stuff like that! It'd be a bad sign if I failed on day one, though."
"You want to spend the day with me?" was what Annie got from that.
"Now I just need to know what couples do for a whole day," Jeff lamented. "Or how they spend any time together the morning after. Yeah, I don't know how that goes either."
"You think I do?" Annie chuckled. "Jeff, this is new to me too! But I am a day planner, you know! How hard….no, never mind," she stopped, not wanting to jinx them.
"Well, if we're talking about hardness," Jeff teased.
"I didn't mean that hardness and you know it!" Annie squeaked. "Look, I'm awake in time for brunch, no thanks to you. Let's have that and then plan out our day, okay?"
Although Jeff never had brunch after sex before – not with another person – he still had the tools to put a decent one together. It was a little too needlessly non fattening for Annie's tastes, but it still filled her hunger – in a different way than last night did.
"So, is having sex all day completely off the table?" Jeff asked – fortunately after Annie swallowed her food. "Or on it after brunch, maybe?" he asked while knocking on the living room table.
"Jeff!" Annie called as she caught her breath.
"Well, there goes my best idea for the afternoon," Jeff lamented. "What do you have?"
"Jeff, this isn't thatdifficult," Annie stated. "We like spending time together, and we just had our best night ever. I know we can think of other ways to have fun."
"Even if our definitions of 'fun' are a little different?" Jeff warned.
"Yeah, we do have different tastes," Annie remembered. "Well, in relationships, people do lots of stuff the other doesn't want to do. Or so I gather."
"I've been doing that for almost four years with you, so I'm wayahead of the curve!" Jeff recalled. "Well, you must have a whole Saturday routine anyway. So we might as well start with one of those things."
"We don't have to," Annie said uneasily. "I mean, you can't be the only one making compromises here"
"Who said you won't be making them?" Jeff warned. "After we do your stuff, I'm sure I'll have some real payback ready for you." Once Annie frowned a bit, Jeff thankfully changed his approach.
"Look Annie, I know sex and admitting things doesn't totally make up for….other past things," Jeff danced around. "But I have to try. I don't know much about doing that with clothes on, but I have to learn. So even if I'm bored out of my wits, I want to do something youreally want to do first. It's milady's choice here."
"Well….if it's my choice, there is something I should get out of the way," Annie reflected.
As it turned out, Jeff regretted his offer after 10 minutes in the library – and two warnings from librarians to turn down his phone.
Every Saturday, Annie got work done in a real, legitimate library, which got her out of the way of Troy and Abed's Saturday projects. And she usually stayed an extra hour or so to read for fun. But she cut it to a half-hour for Jeff's sake, as he strained to survive a real library with limited phone reception.
Despite these special circumstances, Annie wouldn't let them cut into her work. It was rather healthy of her, really. Granted, she had to keep Jeff from complaining and falling asleep, like she would a child. But after over a year living with Troy and Abed, there was nothing to that by now.
Finally, Annie got Jeff out when her work was done, before he became comatose. "Okay, I get the point. A real learning environment isn't fun for you," she recounted. "Well, now you can take me somewhere that's less fun for me."
"Annie, I don't have nearly as much cruelty as you do. I should try, but I'm a bit too sleepy," Jeff informed. "There is one place that could wake me up, though."
Fortunately for Jeff, he had enough energy left to drive to L Street. Soon he had enough energy to drink some afternoon shots and shoot a few pool games. Since this wasn't Annie's scene – and since Jeff couldn't get nude to make pool more exciting this time – she had to stifle a yawn or two.
Yet when she remembered that she was last here as Caroline Decker, she got wide awake. She then spent her time getting back into character, and even acting as Caroline when she was alone with Jeff, just in case. Playing her brought back bad memories and existential crisis's, but Jeff's jokes and insistence that this wasn't necessary didn't throw her off too much.
As it turned out, fleshing out what Caroline had been up to the last two years was a neat little challenge. Even Jeff played along without as much nitpicking after a while. Although this was supposed to be Jeff's fun activity, Annie had her own fun with Caroline's new favorite drinks, bar songs and Texas catchphrases.
Once Jeff took Annie out to the parking lot and she detoxed Caroline out of her, he stated, "Well, I don't know if both of us having fun stuck to the rules. At least Caroline would be proud of you for sticking it to the man. More than you already have lately, I mean."
"Caroline's a small time man-sticker now, you know that! Hopefully they did too," Annie hoped.
"I think your deep dark secret identity is safe, Annie. Wait, they can still hear me from here, can't they?" Jeff fake panicked. "If we retreat now, they might not revoke your double-0 status!"
"You're just lucky we're really not close to them!" Annie warned. "But just in case, we shouldget out of here."
"So where to, then? It's your turn to pick another phone-hating dictatorship, right?" Jeff predicted.
"There's no need to go that overboard about hating libraries. Okay, Leslie Knope?" Annie warned.
"Who?" Jeff said to Annie's surprise.
"Seriously?! You don't watch….huh. The things you learn in a relationship," Annie wowed over.
"Does this Leslie of yours know where we're going?" Jeff got on with it.
"Wherever it is, it shouldn't be somewhere just oneof us likes. Or that one of us learns to like later," Annie laid out. "We should do something we both like to do together. Something just the two of us can do."
"Well, other than sex and watching me play pool, what do we like to do together?" Jeff asked, but regretted doing so. Both hoped they didn't find a huge flaw in their relationship before it even started. They racked their brains to find a common interest – then it came to them in a flash.
"PAINTBALL!" they called simultaneously – the cleanest simultaneous thing they called since last night. Yet Jeff soon deflated again.
"Wait, it's December, this isn't paintball weather," Jeff remembered. "Plus I don't want to scrub paint off for the rest of the night. Not off my body, anyway! And there's probably nowhere we can play!"
"Nowhere good, anyway," Annie groaned, then lit up again. "Wait, of course! There's one way we can shoot each other without getting messy! I did it all the time before the second paintball war!"
"Pick out sexy cowgirl clothes? I can get on board with that," Jeff leered.
"Sure, that you'll get on board with," Annie noted. "But it might be harder to get you on board for this. I mean, I don't know if it's something a self-respecting, mid-30s, looks-obsessed guy would be caught dead doing."
And yet not long afterwards, Jeff eagerly covered Annie's back at the local laser tag place. He used his paintball shooting skills to take out all those who would shoot Annie down – although Annie was getting most of them herself.
"This is how you got so good at paintball?" Jeff breathlessly asked.
"This game's the same thing as paintball, but less dirty. So I practiced here whenever I could. Especially in those last few weeks before paintball war 2," Annie informed.
Jeff instantly knew why Annie practiced – and let out a lot of aggression – in the weeks before paintball war 2. But this wasn't the place for his latest "Annie of it All" apology in the last 24 hours – especially with three little brats approaching.
"Take cover!" Jeff warned before shooting it out with Annie's attackers. Yet Annie then forced Jeff down and shot someone coming at him, before taking care of the rest.
"Go shoot someone else's wingman, zombies!" Annie called out to the 'dead' youngsters, as Jeff watched in awe.
"You're even better here than in paintball! Outfit notwithstanding," Jeff praised. "You're legend-" But he had to pause that sentence once he saw an ambush coming.
Annie saw it just in time too and retreated down the laser tag course with Jeff, shooting wildly before they took cover behind a corner. "All right, they seem to be weakest on their left," she analyzed. "I'll take out four of them and give you time to escape."
"Don't be a fool, Edison!" Jeff said, getting carried away and not really caring. "We all get out of here or no one does!"
"Don't get cocky, kid!" Annie stated, then looked embarrassed. "Wait, you're supposed to say that."
"I am?" Jeff questioned.
"Okay look, just say 'I like you,' and then we can charge them together, all right?" Annie offered.
"Weird, but….I like you?" Jeff half-asked.
"I know," Annie responded, not missing a beat. With that, she reached over and kissed Jeff – something which Jeff didn't question after a half-second. When they finished after several long moments, they were both emboldened enough for a heroic last stand.
"For Greendale!" Annie cried, with nothing better to say. But both she and Jeff charged out, yelling war cries as they tried to take their young prê-teen enemies down – and were promptly shot down in seconds.
"So, I guess we get a pretzel, then?" Jeff asked.
"Pretzels are for winners," Annie growled and headed off as Jeff tried not to laugh.
But over time, Annie got calm enough to get dinner a while later. Eventually, she found the funny side to their adventure again, and happily shared her past laser tag exploits with a smile before dinner arrived. Jeff was actually enthralled enough to listen, which gave him a realization.
"Does this count as our first date?" he asked. "This isn't fancy enough for a real date, but could we count it anyway?"
"Why are you eager for that?" Annie inquired.
"Look at me, Annie. I'm listening to a woman talk about herself. And I'm not just nodding off while thinking about sex later. Or the sex we already had," Jeff needled. "I'm enjoying listening to you and your stories. And I likelearning more about you, even though I've been doing that for three years! I don't do these things on dates, or ever! So if this was officially our first one, we could call it a really good sign."
"This whole day's been a good sign, Jeff," Annie assured. "See, we can spend a day out as a real couple." She left it there, still fearful that Jeff would run away if she sounded too serious. Yet he still didn't seem scared – it was astonishing, really.
"How did you do it?" Annie dared to ask. "What got you to do all this, Jeff?" She waited patiently as Jeff hesitated for a while.
"Annie, this is supposed to be a great time for me," Jeff started. "I'm almost out of Greendale, and that's reason to celebrate right there."
"Jeff, you're really still pretending you're happy about that?" Annie deadpanned.
"I don't see any pretending here," Jeff still insisted. "But our little drama was starting to ruin that happiness! I couldn't let that go on for six more months, it'd kill me! So I figured if I….made some overdue moves, those months would stay great after all! Maybe the months after that, too. No sense not being greedy, right?"
"And you wouldn't have felt so great if you didn't make those moves?" Annie tried to play along.
"If I didn't, it might have ruined the best time of my life. Leaving Greendale is too awesome to wreck like that," Jeff concluded.
Annie knew Jeff's best time wasn't leaving Greendale, but attending it – and that not being with her would have ruined it for him. Jeff wasn't naïve enough to think Annie didn't know that. But he still had to keep up an image, even in front of someone who saw right through him.
Yet there were enough coded messages there for Annie not to mind at all. As such, she just smiled in understanding and finished up her dinner with him. "So, is that it for our first official day out?" she asked when she was almost full.
"You're the day planner, remember? Your plans are probably way better than mine," Jeff reminded.
"It is too bad it's getting colder, or we could just take a nice walk. It's a shame we couldn't get our act together in summer," Annie rued. "But with all those trials and losing friends and getting expelled, we didn't have time anyway."
"Wait. There is some kind of summer thing we can still do," Jeff realized. "You might like it, actually. It involves going back to school."
Yet Annie wasn't quite that thrilled as they broke into Greendale's Borshort Hall, home of the school swimming pool. "We don't have permission to be here, Jeff! Especially not to go swimming!" Annie whispered although no one was around.
"Hey, at least your Greendale withdrawal symptoms won't be too bad this weekend," Jeff teased.
"That's not the point!" Annie hissed. "How did you talk me into this, again?"
"You being at Greendale on a Saturday was a good opening argument," Jeff recounted. "I'm sure the image of me in swimming trunks and nothing else helped too. Plus we ate over an hour ago, so we should be good to go."
"You just want to see me swim around in a two piece," Annie called out.
"Hey, we barely saw any of that this summer, you owe me!" Jeff quickly backtracked to correct, "I mean, Greendale owes me! It kept us too busy with Chang takeovers, losing friends, trials and cellular mitosis to go swimming! I'd say it owes me huge!"
"Greendale's the reason you met me and even saw my two piece. So I think you guys are even," Annie rolled her eyes and took the lead, getting the last word and making sure no one could see or arrest them.
Somehow, they avoided the long arm of the law and got to the deserted swimming pool. When the coast was officially clear, Jeff opened up a duffel bag full of their bathing suit material. And once Annie made sure Jeff wasn't peeking – and vice versa – they took off their dress clothes and got into their swimming attire.
Of course, Jeff made extra sure his dress clothes weren't in any splash zones. Then he could let himself ogle Annie in a deep purple two piece with no distractions. But Annie didn't stay in place too long as she dived into the water. Yet after she emerged and Jeff saw her hair all wet, he jumped right in at a moment's notice.
"Shh, let's not splash too loud! Just in case," Annie said quietly.
"I don't know how to tell you, but splashing around isn't a quiet pastime," Jeff reminded.
"We're not splashing, we're swimming. There's a difference," Annie stated.
Instead of explaining in words, Annie went underwater and swam over to the wall before coming up to breathe. She then went back under and swam all the way to the other side before reemerging quietly. "There, that shouldn't wake anyone," she said when she caught her breath.
Instead of mocking her paranoia, Jeff followed her lead and started maneuvering underwater as well. They each swam a few laps, then Annie performed some underwater acrobatics, flipping and jumping around and even standing on her own two hands. Certain maneuvers gave Jeff quite a view behind her and above her, so he was eager to play along and give her a show as well.
Eventually they got a little waterlogged and Annie's paranoia was gone, so they just lazily swum around in the middle of the pool. "I'll admit, this is a good end to a great day," Annie conceded.
"A great day," Jeff reflected, then looked a little down. "Just one day."
"Well, you can't get to two or three or more without one, Jeff. You have to start somewhere," Annie laid out as she floated in the water. But not even that sight snapped Jeff out of it.
"I can't do this every day. It's not in me to do….this stuff all the time. You know that," Jeff reminded.
"I know," Annie said evenly. "That makes these days all the more special."
"There'll be a lot more aggravating days with me, though. That's what you're in for," Jeff feared. "I don't want to happen, but I know it will. That's why this didn't happen sooner."
"That wasn't the only reason, you know that," Annie still tried to stay nonchalant.
"Well, it was in the top five. The point is I don't want to set up….unrealistic expectations for you," Jeff hoped. But he went back and said, "But at the same time, I want to. Because….God, this'll be sappy even by today's standards. Come on, say it anyway, Winger…."
"Jeff, for the last time, I'm not forcing you to be sappy!" Annie insisted. Yet Jeff still muttered on.
"You can look in a really big Gap mirror tomorrow if you say it. Okay?" he asked himself. He agreed with himself, then stated, "I want to because I wish I could make you feel special every day. Not just our regular old special….the kind of special I've never wanted to make anyone feel before. But I know there's a good chance I won't pull it off, and we won't have many days like this again. You should have had thousands of them already! But I hate that I'm not the guy who can give you that many. Hell, I hate it more than I love my abs and my hair!"
After both of them were speechless, an embarrassed Jeff restarted, "Okay then. If we can forget I was that over the top, we should be fine."
"Maybe that's best," Annie answered. "I mean, you didn't say anything I don't already know."
"You've really become a mini-Abed, then," Jeff joked, desperate to get back his jokey, aloof persona somehow.
"Jeff, I'm serious. I don't need you to validate me like that anymore," Annie assured. "Granted, if we got together earlier, I might have. That's why it's good this took so long! Now I'm not dependant on you to make me feel valued and princess-cy! I also have Greendale, all my friends, my future, my work and how I feel stronger now! You're just one part of what makes me feel loved, Jeff. The rest will pick me up in no time if you screw up."
"I don't want it to come to that," Jeff repeated.
"Then don't go overboard just because you're afraid it will. I don't want to be worshipped that way, Jeff," Annie counted.
"In that case, don't worry. After that little speech, I won't go back in the sappy end for a while," Jeff cracked. "But I should want to. I do want to, because you're worth it. Doing it enough to make a long term relationship work is another problem."
Annie thought it over, then stated the best solution she had. "I know we can't have days like this all the time. That doesn't mean we can't do something."
"Does this something get any more specific?" Jeff checked.
"A little," Annie promised as she swam to Jeff. "How about this? No matter what we're going through, or even if we're fighting, we make time each Saturday to do something together. Whether it's five minutes or five hours long. Maybe we just talk or text, or work through an argument, or do something silly. Or do bed stuff, I don't know." That last part made Jeff smile, so Annie knew she was getting somewhere.
"I don't need grand gestures that much anymore. Once in a while is pretty good, though," Annie admitted. "But knowing you care enough to make room for me, even on your lazy Saturdays, means a lot more. It makes me feel special to you. Only five people besides you have ever made me feel that way," she finished without tearing up.
"And I want you to feel special from how I'm adapting to you too. I mean, I'm leaving my Saturdays wide open and unstructured now, that's huge for me! I still think it's worth the aggravation to have those moments with you. But only if you think so too," Annie laid out.
"I do," Jeff said quickly, to assure her and stop himself from another sappy speech.
"Good," Annie responded, looking resolute and moved all at once before offering her hand. "So it's agreed that Saturday is our special day. Deal?"
Jeff smirked at her assertiveness and shook her hand under the water. Annie shook back, smiling her formidable smile, then went underwater and resumed swimming to celebrate.
Jeff let her swim while he stood in the shallow end to take it all in. He was relieved – kind of – that he finally stopped himself from talking so out of character. Or at least out of the character he was to everyone else. Around Annie, those kinds of sentimental words and admissions felt more….normal.
At least he stopped before saying if he messed up and hurt her, he could never look himself in the mirror ever again. He didn't even have any jokes about how much of a crime that would be.
And he had no words in general when he saw Annie swim up and climb out of the pool.
Seeing her wet and dripping in that purple two piece was one thing. But seeing it after those emotional moments – and now knowing what was underneath the little that was covered – made Jeff's throat close up. Until she reached for her towel on her longue chair.
"Don't you dare use that towel," Jeff rasped out.
"Why not?" Annie asked, legitimately puzzled. But Jeff had too many explanations caught in his lungs. So he settled for climbing out himself and showing off his own dripping, mostly bare body.
"Do you want me to use it?" Jeff rhetorically questioned.
"Uh uh," was all Annie could muster while staring at Jeff's wet arms, chest and abs. But when her brain started working again, she soon understood Jeff's larger point. Then she wondered why she should be more affected when her body drove him crazy first – this time.
So Annie riled him up some more by grabbing the towel anyway. She nearly began to dry herself off, but before she could, Jeff breathlessly rushed over to her.
"What did I say?" Jeff asked quietly. But this was no longer a time for words.
Instead, their vocabulary was reduced to moans and groans as their lips and tongues collided. But their hands were even busier as they rubbed the other's wet, halfway naked, already tempting enough bodies. They all but fell onto the longue chair, then resumed groping, kissing, and making each other drier and wetter at the same time.
For all of Annie's fears about making too much noise, they were long gone soon enough. Yet if anyone made enough noise for someone to spot them, it might have been Jeff.
But after they finished, cleaned up and dressed back up, Annie felt more embarrassed over their semi-public show. However, she soon felt too overwhelmed, tired and waterlogged to get worked up, so Jeff just drove her back to his apartment.
She stayed awake long enough to sit down on the couch with Jeff, yet dozed off lying on his now dry, clothed chest after a few minutes of TV. Unwilling to wake her or to move from this position, Jeff just let her sleep and soon dozed off himself.
Despite not getting to sleep on his comfy bed, or getting in a second round with Annie before bedtime, this still felt like the perfect end to the perfect day. A couple hundred – or thousand – more like this and Jeff and Annie might have something to go on.
It was almost worth it when they woke up in the morning, panicked over getting Annie back home before Troy and Abed returned, raced to get there first and struggled to cover up any plot holes Abed would notice. Almost worth it.