Title: Sweet Dream - Or A Beautiful Nightmare?
Author: Carly
Character(s)/Pairing(s): J/A, slight T/B, Study Group
Spoilers: Up to 3.16
Rating/Warnings: PG
Word Count: 4090
Disclaimer: I don't own Community.
Summary: Annie, Jeff and the Dreamatorium - real or not real?
Notes: Ficcy Friday prompt from M/M on LJ: Facing a delicate situation within the group or on campus, Abed takes Annie and Jeff into the Dreamatorium to run scenarios. They take turns portraying various people, until they somehow reach a point where Annie is playing Jeff, and Jeff is Annie. This swiftly devolves to the two of them acting out their perceptions of what the other person feels toward themselves.

Jeff unfolded another slip of paper from the study group's 'Suggestion Box' and read the typed message aloud. "Pants should be worn during every study session." He paused. "And the word 'every' is in bold, italics and underlined." Six heads immediately turned to stare at Pierce.

"What?" he said, acting offended. "I bloat when I eat too much – something had to come loose. Am I right, girls?" Britta and Shirley scoffed at him, while Annie looked lost in thought.

"… It's so true with salty food," Annie mused, faltering under the silence. "I mean, eww Pierce, stop being gross."

"My underwear's perfectly clean, what's underneath the underwear is perfect," said Pierce with a shrug. "I don't understand the problem."

"The problem is it's disgusting," said Shirley. "I'm sure it breaks some sort of health code violation. And if it doesn't it should."

"You're all acting like a pack of princesses," Pierce retorted. "If Troy or Ay-bed did it you'd think it was the funniest thing since Mickey Rooney."

"Um, that's because we're young and adorable and don't wear boxer shorts with buttons missing in important places," said Troy. "And we're totally funnier than some dude named after a mouse."

"OK, let's just vote," said Jeff. "All in favor of Pierce keeping his pants the hell on at all times raise your hand." Everyone's hand shot in the air except for Pierce. "Excellent. Sanity has prevailed. Moving on."

"You'll all be sorry next taco day," Pierce muttered.

Ignoring him, Jeff took out the last slip of paper from the cardboard box. He broke into a smile as he read it to himself first. "Nice joke you guys."

"Just for the record, none of us have mind-reading powers, Jeff," said Annie.

"Working on it," Abed interjected.

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly as Abed and Troy high-fived. "None of us have powers yet so you're going to have to share with the rest of the class."

"My suggestion is changing up the seating arrangements for a little while. Like, just a random thought, we could put Troy next to Britta. Or whatever, I don't know man." Jeff put the paper down. "Gee, I wonder who wrote that?"

"I don't know, man," said Troy, sneaking a glance at Britta. "It's a mystery."

"It's not a mystery, it's ridiculous," said Jeff. "We're not changing seats."

Britta scowled at him. "No one said you had to, jackass. It's just a simple two-person swap. Abed could change places with Troy." She flinched when Abed's eyes went wide. "Or, um, I could trade places with Pierce?"

"I'm not sitting next to Captain Underwear," said Jeff.

"I'm not breathing in Winger's fake tan fumes," Pierce blurted out at the same time.

Shirley raised an eyebrow. "Britta, do you really want to put your behind where Pierce's barely-covered behind has been?"

"I really, really don't," said Britta, swallowing back some bile.

Annie scribbled a few drawings in her notebook. "OK, how about I swap with Britta and Shirley swaps with Troy, that way they can sit together?"

"And I still get stuck next to Pierce?" frowned Shirley. "Where's my change of scenery, hmm?"

"Hey!" said Pierce. "You're lucky you get to be in my presence. Every one of you schmucks should count yourself lucky!"

"Yeah I'll remember that next time you fall asleep in your chair and start choking on your own drool," Shirley muttered.

Flustered, Annie scrawled another hasty diagram. "Right, well I could sit in the spare seat beside me." Jeff smiled to himself. "And Jeff could swap places with Shirley…"

"No," Jeff said bluntly.

"Just let me finish."

"No."

"But…"

"No, Annie. I'm not moving, end of story. Roll the credits. Pick up your empty popcorn bag and exit the theater."

"OK elaborately long retort guy, we get it," she said, crossing her arms furiously. "You suck."

Troy gingerly clasped his hands in front of him on the table. "Cool… so that went about as smoothly as I thought it would." He turned to his friend. "First of all Abed, I didn't put that suggestion in so we'd get split up. We're best friends until we die and then our reanimated zombie corpses will be best buds too, you know that." Abed considered this before nodding. "I just thought it might be cool to sit next to Britta for a while as well 'cause she's like fun and stuff," he added with a shy smile. Britta smiled back, ducking her head slightly.

"Well then why can't you two pork and be done with it?" said Pierce. "Then no one will have to swap seats for their mating rituals."

"What?" yelped Britta. "That's not… We weren't…" She clenched her fists. "I hope you have to wear pants 24/7 in whatever your Laser Lotus version of hell is!"

Pierce gasped. "You take that back you meddlesome wench!"

Everyone started bickering with each other in groups leaving Abed to observe. After a few moments, he grabbed one of Troy's candy cigarettes from their container and stuck it between his lips, before leaping up onto the table. "Guess who I am!" he cried out, dancing like he was being electrocuted.

The room fell quiet aside from Abed's shoes squeaking against the wood. "One of the mental escapees from Footloose?" said Jeff, warily.

"Not even close." Registering the lull, Abed stopped flailing around and calmly climbed back into his seat. "I was being Chandler Bing, who was being Shelly Winters in The Poseidon Adventure in episode seventeen, season three of Friends." He bit into the cigarette. "Basically I just wanted everyone to get distracted and stop yelling because I have an idea how to solve this argument."

"Please say blazer tag," whispered Troy, crossing his fingers.

"That'd be pretty great, but no, I have a different idea. The answer lies…" Abed gestured his hands in front of him like he was presenting something on a game show. "In the Dreamatorium."

"Oh brother," Jeff sighed.

"Sweetie?" said Shirley. "Why does the answer lie in your extremely strange room that never sees the sun?"

"Because of a recent discovery I made in there, Shirley. As well as learning that I can still only manage a half-accurate Chang, I also learnt that it's a very good place to empathize with people." He looked towards Annie, who gave him a cheering smile. "I thought that since we can't reach an agreement here, we could go into the Dreamatorium and think about how our choices would effect others."

"Oh, that's nice," smiled Shirley.

"That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea," said Annie, hearing a scoff next to her. "What's that Jeff? Got some stubbornness caught in your throat?"

"Yeah, and some magical fairy dust because that's what we're all obviously smoking at the moment," said Jeff.

"What a surprise, Winger doesn't agree with something he won't be completely in control of," said Pierce.

"Shut up, Pierce," said Jeff. "As if this is something you want to do either."

"Anything that annoys you is OK in my books," he smirked.

"Me too," said Britta. "See? I'm agreeing with Pierce, it's working already."

"This is gonna be awesome," beamed Troy. "Maybe we can fit in an episode of Inspector Spacetime too when we're done empathizing?"

"If time – and space - permits," said Abed, shooting finger guns at him.

"Guys, once again," said Jeff. "I'm not going to stand in a room and pretend to be other people. If I wanted a horrible acting career I'd be David Hasselhoff."

Annie flipped her notebook shut. "Sounds like we need to take a vote. All in favor of working things out in the Dreamatorium raise your hand." Everyone complied except for Jeff. "Six against one, you're outnumbered, Jeff."

"Annie…"

"Before you say anything else, let me just say this," Annie interrupted. "If you don't come with us I'm going to tell everyone what really tipped you over the edge to join the Glee Club last Christmas."

Jeff's face paled. "You wouldn't dare."

"Oh Jeff, Jeff, Jeff," she replied, a smirk pooling across her lips. "I really would."

Swallowing hard, Jeff slowly faced Abed. "So, Dreamatorium you say?"

"Forget that. What happened before Glee Club?" Shirley asked, eagerly leaning across the table. "You've hit the hot spot where my interest is outweighing my morals."

"Dammit Annie," Jeff growled.

"OK gang," said Annie, biting back a laugh, "let's just focus on the matter at hand. Abed, want to elaborate more on your idea?"

"Sure. So I was thinking that since the room is pretty small we should go in groups. I know how she operates, so I'll captain the ship each time, leaving the rest of you in pairs." He jerked his thumbs out to the sides. "Troy and Britta can go together because the original suggestion was about them. Shirley can pair up with Pierce because I'm sensing some deep-seated tension there that should be interesting. This leaves Annie to pair up with Jeff – also because of tension-related reasons." He waggled his eyebrows. "Of a different kind."

"If Ay-bed means sexual tension then I don't think Shirley and I are all that different," said Pierce, gently patting Shirley's arm.

"You better get your hands off me or so help me I will strangle you with your discarded pants," muttered Shirley, feeling a weight lift from her arm.

"Dibs on not role-playing Pierce," Jeff whispered in Annie's direction.

"… And this is the control panel where we register the simulations," said Abed, pointing to the piece of cardboard on the Dreamatorium wall. "Or, of course, there's just the normal verbal cues once we're really into the role-playing."

"Mmm-hmm," Jeff mumbled, preoccupied with his phone. Annoyed, Annie yanked the device away from him and shut it in the closet. "Hey! I was in the middle of something important."

"You were playing Draw Something, Jeff," Annie retorted. "I'm sure your elaborate stick-figure men can wait."

"My apologies. I forgot I was in the presence of Picasso."

"At least I send you things that make sense!" she said, hands on hips. "Since when does a drawing of a lopsided house mean 'anger'?"

"Uh, Full House meaning John Stamos meaning I hate that guy, which equates to anger." He shook his head in mock-despair. "Are you sure you're an A+ student?"

Abed stood between them. "As energetic as your playground hair-pulling is, I think we should get started. Since you're the last pair I told the others to wait for us back at school."

"How do you want us to begin, Abed?" said Annie.

"That's up to you guys. I already worked some stuff out during Troy and Britta's games, so I'm more of an observer this time around."

"Alright then," said Annie, stepping towards the control panel. "Are you ready Jeff?"

"Hang on one sec." Jeff clicked something into place across his torso. "Just putting my imaginary seatbelt on for the imaginary wild ride we're about to have."

"So mature." Annie pushed down on the fake intercom. "Execute simulation Troy slash Britta, render environment the study room." Flicking her hair over her shoulder, Annie pretended to sit down at the table. "Hi Troy," she smiled towards Jeff. "I was just thinking about heading to the cafeteria for lunch. Wanna join me?"

"Nope," said Jeff.

"Je- I mean, Troy!" she said, shooting him a warning look.

"I already ate."

"Abed, hit pause." Annie waited until Abed pressed the right button before glaring at Jeff. "Here's the thing, you either play along properly or the Glee cat is out of the bag."

"Cat? Is this still Britta talking or…?"

"Jeff."

"Fine." Sighing heavily he slowly walked to where Troy's spot would be and stood with his arms folded. "Lunch sounds legit," he said in a monotone. "The vegetables are on me."

Smiling, Annie nodded at Abed to restart the process. "Great. But I just want to talk about something first."

"Is it about butt stuff?"

"No, it's about whatever's going on between us."

"So, butt stuff," Jeff repeated.

"Oh my God, gross, it's not butt stuff," Annie snapped. "Um, I mean, I grew up in New York, nothing shocks me… but I actually want to talk about us spending more time together and how it will affect the group."

"Who cares how it affects the group, it's none of their business," said Jeff, earning an eyebrow raise from Annie. "It's none of their business… dude?"

"Seriously?" she said in exasperation. "This won't work. You're going to have to be Britta and I'll be Troy." Annie stood up and nudged Jeff into her old spot before he could protest, taking Troy's place. "So, like, I was thinking me and Abed could swap seats so I could sit next to both of you. Dope or not dope?"

"The dopiest," said Jeff. "But let's tell everyone it was my idea because girls rule and boys drool."

"Awesome." Annie glanced towards Abed. "Do you think Abed will be OK with it? He likes change about as much as Cougar Town hiatuses."

Jeff registered Annie's legitimate concern and gave a bit more gravitas to his performance. "You know what? I think after the Pillow Fort ordeal Abed might be more willing to make small sacrifices for his best friend."

Noticing Abed absorbing this, Annie smiled. "I think you might be right. You're pretty cool, Britta."

"Sometimes," said Jeff. "But then I start talking about 'baggles' and the whole façade comes tumbling down." He scratched the back of his head. "So… are we done?"

"Not yet," said Annie, heading back to the control panel. "Execute simulation Pierce slash Shirley, render environment the cafeteria."

"Annie, I'm not being…"

"Can you believe I nearly sat on my balls again?" said Annie, earning a look of surprise from both Jeff and Abed, and a small note of disgust at herself. "Well?"

Hiding a smile, Jeff pretended to sit in the booth across from Annie. "I'd say that's nice," Jeff began in a high-pitched voice, "but putting the word 'nice' alongside your genetalia would make baby Jesus cry."

"So would a lot of things I do." Annie gestured at where Jeff was sitting. "Am I that repellent that you won't even sit next to me at lunch? What's with you guys?"

"What's with your cologne that smells like sewerage?" Jeff said in his normal voice before remembering. "Sweetie, pumpkin… sugar-cookie?"

"I just want to be part of the group," said Annie. "We're the closest in age, I just figured we should stick together."

"Pierce, we're like chalk and cheese – and Big Cheddar isn't keen on becoming BFF's with chalk."

Annie screwed up her nose in confusion. "Big Cheddar?"

"Nevermind," Jeff rushed. "The point is, Shirley… I mean my mysterious age bracket shouldn't define me. I'm actually pretty cool once you spend some one-on-one time with me playing foosball or what have you," said Jeff, smiling at the memory.

"Foosball? More like lose-your-balls? Am I right!" Annie's leer faded at Jeff's look. "Yeah, I nearly made myself vomit with that one. Switch?"

"Allow me," said Jeff. "Rendering Jeff and Annie, simulating the study room."

Abed put up a finger to protest. "That's not how you say-"

"Close enough, Abed," said Annie, lowering his hand and speaking near his ear. "Social cue alert – Jeff's actually playing along so let's leave him be." She turned around to find Jeff crouched in a sitting position, miming buttons on a phone. "Jeff?"

"You rang? Cause this cell sure didn't."

"You simulated a version of yourself? Isn't that kind of redundant?"

"I thought anything goes in here?" said Jeff, looking up from his fake phone. "I'm just playing a little bit of Draw Something while we wait for everyone to get back from class."

"What am I supposed to do? Sit and watch you?"

"I don't know. WWDAD?"

"World war dad?"

"No, 'What would Dreamatorium Annie do'?"

The room fell quiet as Jeff focused his attention on the phone and Annie glowered at him. Abed started to hum Daybreak to fill in the silence.

"Jeff, we were making good progress," said Annie, breaking the lull. "Why did you stop it?"

Jeff shrugged. "We're not really making progress, Annie. This isn't actually going to solve anything. I mean sure, we can make our own theories about why people behave the way they do, but what's it all mean if they're not in the room to validate it?"

"I suppose you're right," said Annie slowly. "Maybe we should find out?"

"Huh?"

She banged her fist against the control panel. "Execute simulation, Jeff slash Jeff."

Jeff pursed his lips. "That does not sound good."

"Hi Jeff," said Annie, pretending to shove her hands into her pockets. "Nice shirt. Did we do a midday change again?"

"Annie, can you just…"

"Annie's not here. It's just you and me. Well, me and me. Can this room contain the excitement of so much handsomeness?" Annie chuckled. "Let's find out shall we?"

Realizing she wasn't about to back down, Jeff played along. "OK, me, sounds great. Why don't you take a seat?"

"I can't. It's already taken."

"Well just sit somewhere else. There are plenty of make-believe chairs around."

"What? And give up the Winger throne? I'd rather use ninety per cent less product in my hair."

"The Winger throne? Oh please."

"It's true," said Annie, folding her arms. "I can't give up my position at the head of the table, even if it means doing something nice for my friends."

Jeff matched her stance, giving up all pretence of holding a phone. "Is that what I really think of myself?"

"Seems like it."

"Interesting." Jeff pointed at Abed. "Press the button thingy and render this junk back to Annie and Jeff." As Abed mucked around with levers, Jeff knelt down on the ground to make himself shorter. "I can't believe you're being so harsh on yourself, Jeff," he said, peering up through his eyelashes.

Annie rolled her eyes. "Real cute, Jeff."

"Don't you mean Annie?" he replied in a girly voice.

"Fine, Annie. Maybe I do need to be harsh on myself once in a while to remember that the world doesn't revolve around me."

"Lessons, hey? Boy do I love lessons." Jeff swayed from side to side. "I think my main lesson should be not to blackmail people into situations they don't want to be in."

"Well if I wasn't so pig-headed I wouldn't have to be blackmailed in the first place."

"I'm sorry, I missed that," mocked Jeff, tugging down the V of his shirt. "I can't hear you over my ever-deepening cleavage line."

Annie gasped. "Well I can't hear you over my vanity ordering me to change my outfit for the tenth time today," she countered, trying to shrug out of her sweater.

"Render environment Greendale courtyard, last day of school first year," yelled Abed over their arguing.

"Abed!" cried Annie, coming to her senses and pulling her sweater back on. "Why are you taking me here again?"

"Again?" said Jeff, standing up. "What again? Where are we?"

Annie sighed and looked him in the eye. "We're in the courtyard where we met after the Transfer Dance… when we kissed."

"Oh," said Jeff, looking around the room and conjuring up the image in his head. "Why here?" he asked curiously.

"I don't know. Abed, what are you trying to prove?"

"Nothing," said Abed. "The other scenario was about to head into HBO territory with the nudity. I thought a nicer memory might help."

"You know how I feel about this situation," Annie said quietly.

"Annie what's going on?" said Jeff, stepping closer.

"I thought you were Annie?" said Abed.

"Enough of this crap," said Jeff. "Simulate Jeff slash Annie, same environment, same Bat Channel." He straightened up. "You're you, I'm me, we're Jeff and Annie." Jeff waited for her to respond. "Aren't we?"

Annie fiddled with one of her rings. "Yeah, we're Jeff and Annie… whatever that means," she added with a sad smile.

Jeff hesitated. "It means we argue about silly things?" he said, hearing her laugh softly. "It means we may not always see eye-to-eye on stuff, but we're still passionate about our friends because we want to feel like we're wanted?"

"We love the idea of being loved," Annie murmured.

"Exactly," said Jeff, catching a downtrodden glance between Annie and Abed. "Seriously, what am I missing here?"

"It's nothing," said Annie, knowing Jeff wasn't buying it. "OK, it's something. But it's a personal something I kind of want to keep in here for a while," she said, patting her chest.

"Fair enough," said Jeff, keeping his gaze on her. "Are we alright?"

Annie painted on a smile. "Of course we are."

"Of course," Jeff echoed. He could almost feel the pretend night air breezing around him, stirring up a feeling in the pit of his stomach that something still wasn't quite right. "I've got a few things locked away in there too."

"Sorry?"

He pointed to his own chest.

"Oh."

"Therapist endorsed real talk for a second?" Annie nodded encouragingly. "Some of the stuff in there scares the shit out of me – but that's a good thing, y'know?" The lines around Jeff's eyes crinkled as he smiled at her. "It means it's real."

Annie's faced softened. "Jeff…"

"Anyway," he said, clearing his throat. "Sorry about the fighting and whatever before. I shouldn't discourage the low-cut shirts," he added with a smirk.

She gave him a coy smile, her face tinged with the slightest amount of pink. "And I suppose I shouldn't rag on the locker changes either. Your body is a wonderland after all," she mocked, laughing when he gave her an exaggerated bow. "Are you ready to return to the real world?"

"Almost." He gently trailed his fingers down her arm, making her shiver. "Since we're here, I really want the chance to end things differently and not run away like a dick."

"Maybe we should just…" but Annie's words were lost in the momentum of Jeff pressing his mouth against hers, kissing her gently at first, but then hungering for more. Annie felt waves of déjà vu flood over her as her arm slipped around Jeff's waist and his hand snaked up to thread through her hair. They barely broke apart to breathe, Jeff slowly backing her towards the pillar of the building until they hit it with a soft thud.

"Um… guys?"

Annie and Jeff opened their eyes as the courtyard environment faded away leaving them stuck in a corner of the Dreamatorium – with Abed squashed behind them.

"Oh my God," yelped Annie, leaping off her friend.

Jeff reluctantly let go of Annie, running a hand through his already-ruffled hair. "Sorry Abed… We thought you were the building."

"I've been called worse," Abed shrugged.

"Maybe we should, uh, head back to school?" Annie suggested, licking her lips. "I'm sure the others are waiting for us."

"Yeah, school," said Jeff. "We should probably go there and… learn things."

Abed opened the Dreamatorium door. "I'm hungry. You guys want some buttered noodles before we go?"

"Sounds good," said Annie. When Abed left she snuck a glance at Jeff. "Crazy room, huh?" she tittered nervously.

"It's definitely something," he agreed, trying not to act too awkwardly. "I can see why people might like it in here though," Jeff added.

Annie smiled. "Yeah, me too."

Abed poked his head around the corner. "One more thing," he said, startling them. "Any chance of bonus DVD footage where I get to know what happened during Glee Club?"

Jeff's eyes widened as he stared at Annie, who was struggling not to laugh.

"Um…" Annie began, closing her eyes and reliving the memory.

Christmas 2011

Clothes were draped across the privacy screen in the costume room. Annie played with the fluff on the hem of her outfit, smiling broadly. "So, was I right or was I right?"

Jeff emerged from behind the screen – dressed in red velvet booty shorts with a fluffy white trim, red suspenders and nothing else. "You were totally right. This Sexy Santa costume really does give you more confidence!" He clapped his hands in excitement. "Regionals here we come!"

"… That's something I'm going to have to keep in here too," said Annie, tapping her chest.

"Thank you," Jeff exhaled.

"Or put in a speech for Jeff's next birthday," she added with a sly grin.

Jeff turned to the control panel on the wall. "Render environment anywhere but here," he said, manically pressing all the buttons. "Anyone? Inspector Spacetime, hello?"

End