Short fic but I wanted to write it because wow this is the first pairing I've ever actually shipped
Jeff wasn't exactly sure at what point Britta had started sleeping over even when they didn't have sex. He guessed that it must have happened gradually, but he couldn't be sure. Eventually, though, it had become such a regular thing that they agreed that there was little point in Britta paying rent on the apartment she was barely using. She stopped needing to disappear for clothes or mail or school stuff. Everything, including Yoko the cat, came to Jeff's place.
The group thought that this was a big deal. Jeff didn't. Neither did Britta. The others questioned them for hours, firing endless questions about where this was going, what it meant for the group, but the two of them barely listened. They always had been pretty selfish.
Their dynamic didn't really change. They still ragged on each other mercilessly, still had sex on occasion, were still there for each other. Sure, they let down their defences a little more around each other than anyone else, but that wasn't really anything new.
And none of it freaked Jeff out.
It didn't freak him out when Britta fell asleep in his lap watching some political news show he'd put on just for her. It didn't freak him out to wake up to an empty bed, only to find Britta eating breakfast in his living room wearing novelty pyjamas. It didn't freak him out when Britta phoned him from the grocery store to ask what kind of cereal he wanted to replace the box she'd eaten. It didn't freak him out because it felt… normal. It felt nice.
They didn't really do couple-y things, because they weren't really a couple. Sometimes they had sex, sure. Other times, though, they just co-existed in the same space, barely interacting. It didn't matter that it was Jeff's apartment, because now it was Britta's apartment too.
Jeff went with Britta to the sanctuary to choose a new cat when hers died. Britta went with Jeff to the law firm to wait outside while he had an interview. Jeff took Britta to the doctor's when she was sick, and when the results meant that they needed more space, they went to the estate agent's together.
They still didn't consider themselves a couple, but they were, without a doubt, life partners.