Author's Note:
So my last story, 'Categorized under Empathy' was real success, and I decided to pop out another short while I work on my longer piece, which will be titled "Studies in Modern Bromance", which should emulate an actual episode of Community! I have plans for more Abed/Annie shorts, and perhaps a Troy/Britta one, if I feel like it.
Anyway, enjoy this one. It's inspired by my lovely sister's snoring which is keeping me up right now.
Community/"Sound-proofing 101"/ (Set after "Introduction to Finality")
"Sound-proofing 101"
Summary: Abed can't sleep. Annie's breathing too loud.
There were many benefits to Britta's moving in; Abed had made a list of them in his journal while trying to convince himself that this deviation from his plan for the series was a good thing. Britta and Troy's get-together didn't violate the course of action on their sitcom, it was simply unexpected, a side effect of attraction that Abed hadn't planned for.
Earlier this month, while Abed had been filming the Abed and Annie scenes in the dreamatorium, it occurred to him that maybe he was being too uptight about the situation. Maybe a deviation wasn't a catastrophe. Maybe deviation from the plan could renew the spice in his series.
And let's face it, Abed's baby, which he'd decided to call "Community", was losing its spark—Jeff wasn't as much of a jerk as he'd been the first season. Pierce had mellowed out, Shirley was still trying to convert them, or guilt them into caring for her boys. Troy and Britta hooking up could be just the spice he needed to renew the heart of the show.
But every deviation caused a sacrifice, and no matter how many reasons he thought Britta moving in could be beneficial, there was no denying that he'd have to give up a portion of Troy time.
Like now, when he and Annie sat on the couch, mortified, as Troy and Britta had sex right in front of them while watching "Annie", for Annie's birthday. He could feel Annie beside him, getting more and more agitated every time Britta squirmed beneath the blankets or Troy released even the slightest moan. Both of them were trying really hard to pretend like they didn't notice. And Abed would've succeeded, too. Had it not been for Annie's…
"ALRIGHT, THAT IS ENOUGH! Don't you have any respect for Abed and I? Can't you see that we're trying to…"
…outburst. Moving quickly, Troy and Britta didn't even answer. It was as though they were looking for an out, and while Abed was glad they'd found it, their hasty exit left Annie in tears. Her eyes turned and met his, desperate, searching for words. Wanting to help, Abed blurted:
"You're offended."
The furrow of her brows indicated that that was not exactly what she expected to come out of his mouth. She threw her hands up in the air, screaming to the ceiling, "OF COURSE I'M OFFENDED! We were watching that movie together, and they didn't even have the decency to get up and move to another room before they—"
"It's your birthday. You wanted them to watch the movie with you."
She blinks, surprised again. "I… well of course I wanted them to. I… Oh Abed!"
She slams into him, crying on his shoulder, and he's not really sure what to do. He could pat her nicely on the back, but that might imply that he doesn't enjoy the hug, which isn't true. He could lift her and spin her, but she's incredibly upset and that might seem insensitive. He could move her to the couch again and wrap her in a hug, letting her cry into her chest…
And he does just that, letting her curl into him and cry away, the sound of Troy and Britta's moans echoing throughout the apartment.
It's only then that he realizes that that positioning almost always leads to a romantic pairing of the two characters. He starts to get up, but he finds that his body is held down by more than just the weight of the girl crying on his chest.
After a couple of minutes, Annie lifts her face to look at him, her lips still quivering and her eyes still puffy, surrounded by dried tears. Her eyes dart down to his lips and he can almost feel himself slip into every TV character ever, but he holds himself back long enough to notice that the credits to "Annie" are rolling and that it's 12 minutes to midnight.
"Annie. You're almost 21."
She lifts herself to look at the clock, pushing herself off of Abed gently and instead choosing to lean against his side.
"So I am."
They both stare at the clock for what seems like a full 3 minutes, but because the clock only changes once, Abed knows they weren't actually staring that long. He lifts off the couch, surprising both of them, and walks to the fridge. When he returns with two beers and hands one to Annie, she laughs lightly.
"We both know I've had one before, Abed."
"Still. It's customary." He pops the cap off his.
At that, Troy moans very loudly.
"It seems like Troy agrees." He says, and Annie pops her cap off too.
Annie smiles, "I'll toast to that."
Abed realizes that adding alcohol at this point in the mix could potentially end with him kissing Annie, but for some reason, this realization doesn't seem to worry him as much as it most likely should. Still, he can't afford another deviation from the plan, so he takes a sip and sets his drink down on the coffee table.
Annie gives him a look, and while he runs that look through his index of looks to try to process what it might mean, she rises from the couch. With the credits now over, the apartment is now completely dark aside from the light from the blue TV screen.
"9 minutes left."
"You're already drinking."
"I've done plenty worse." She walks over to the kitchen and opens the freezer, getting out her birthday cake.
Abed grabs his drink off the table and approaches her from behind as she begins to cut a piece. He can smell her shampoo but it doesn't faze him, so he just stands there. She senses him behind her.
"I guess it's just you and me, then?"
"Looks like it."
He takes a piece, and she cuts one for herself. Suddenly, he sets his plate down and digs through a drawer, finding a single candle and placing it directly in her slice before she can even say she doesn't want it. He takes Britta's lighter off the counter and lights the candle. He can see the fire's reflection flickering in her eyes.
Their eyes contact could light fires, he decides. Or maybe that's just the fancy voice over in his head speaking…
He begins to sing, slowly, softly, the Happy Birthday song. She smiles brightly, blowing the candle out at the end, and he claps for her. Then she sets the plate aside, hugging him.
"Oh Abed, you're the best."
She pulls away, tears having re-appeared on her face. He's confused.
"What's wrong?" He says, cocking his head. She just shakes her head and smiles, picking up his plate and handing it to him. They take their first bite of the vanilla cake together, and she lets her eyes travel down to his lips again, so Abed takes a step back and places the plate down, just in time to hear that Troy and Britta have started up again in the other room.
Annie wipes tears from her eyes before groaning, "Geez, again? They went four for four last night."
Abed shakes his head, "No, five. Britta started something again after you finally went to bed."
"Yeah, you can't really hear it in my room."
"The blanket fort is a lot of things, but it never quite achieved sound-proof-ness."
He means it as a sort of joke, and she kind of smiles. He thinks of it as a success. It's rare that people other than Troy are able to appreciate his humor, but Annie's always been better than average.
They finish their beer and their cake, and Annie washes the dishes diligently before turning and telling Abed that she's going to sleep. She gives him a big hug again, thanking him for the 'amazing evening', as she puts it, and heads back into her room. He takes his copy of Blade Runner off the shelf and considers watching it, as he's been craving Sci Fi all day. He gets as far as opening the DVD case, and then decides he needs proper gear: a blanket to cover his toes. Just as he's stepping into the blanket fort, she returns, clad in pink pajamas. He'd had pajamas on all night, but for some reason Annie entering in what looks like a half-dress makes him feel sort of naked. He checks, for good measure.
"Do you want to maybe… sleep in my bedroom?" She starts, "I mean, you won't get much sleep out here…"
He cocks his head. Another potential way to end up romantically paired. But this time, Annie suggested it. Could it be that she wants that to happen? He silently wished that they hadn't taken down the dreamatorium, because he couldn't really theorize effectively without it. Well, ever since Annie had changed the course of dreamatorium's engine and fueled it with "empathy" rather than "Abed's thoughts", things had been a little harder to process.
That was it! Annie changing the dreamtorium's engine, Annie crying, Annie's face earlier, on the couch—she must want him. That's why she was inviting him to bed with her.
"For…sex?"
The disgusted look on Annie's face tells him that he'd misread the situation entirely.
"Oh… no, no, just… sleeping, is all."
"Oh. Sure."
Her cheeks were tinted slightly red as he followed her back into her bedroom. It was at this moment that Abed knew that he should be feeling embarrassment. He decided remaining silent would help make it seem that way.
"Okay, Abed, you can sleep on this side of the bed…" She starts to roll down the sheets, suddenly feeling awkward and stopping before the sheets are halfway down.
"Uh… you should be good, right?" She looks up at him, sort of smiling.
"Yep. Goodnight." He takes the covers and climbs in, closing his eyes as she turns off the lights. He feels the bed shift, and he can tell Annie's climbed in with him.
"Goodnight…"
They toss and turn for a while, and Abed can't stop thinking—Is this a deviation from the script? Well, technically it is, but is it permanent? Was it going to set the Jeff/Annie storyline off its course? Did he want it to?
Did he want her?
He decides to shut his brain off, hoping that that alone will keep any deviation from happening.
But that's when he notices it.
Annie's breathing very loudly.
He tries to sleep through it for a while before taking his pillow and folding it over his ears. Was she doing it on purpose? Was she asleep yet?
He shut his eyes tightly, but no matter what he did he could still hear the in, out, in, out of her breaths.
…in, out, in, out…
He finally he gets so irritated he turns over, "Annie!"
Her eyes meet his. She wasn't asleep.
"Abed?" She seems a little disturbed. After all, he is leaning over her in the middle of the night with no explanation.
He realizes that this is his bad. "Oh. I'm sorry. You were just…"
But this time it's his eyes that travel down to her lips for just a second and when his eyes meet hers again, she's a whole lot closer—propped up on her elbows, she leans in for a kiss.
Their bodies are entirely still as they kiss, and Abed's able to focus on how softly Annie's hair is brushing his left hand, and how close together their bodies are. They kiss with slow, calculated passion, not desperate and hurried like Britta and Troy, but instead as though they're both looking for something, and, since they share that, they're not in any hurry to find it.
She pulls back with another face he doesn't recognize.
They stare at each other for a while, breathing. He decides to break the silence, "Why did we stop?"
"I wanted to thank you."
He cocks his head, rolling off of her.
"Thank you?"
"Hey, hey, come back here…" She rolls on top of him, placing her forehead to his.
"Seriously, you're the best friend I could ever ask for." And she kisses him again, slowly, softly, on top this time.
He reaches around her and pulls her close, breathing out "Happy 21st Birthday, Annie," before leaning in for another kiss.
Looking back on the course of this past hour, there really was no other way for this script to end, was there?
As Annie's hand fists in his hair, he decides that the Jeff/Annie storyline can suffer a little.
It's not like it was really going anywhere, anyway.
.
.
.
Three hours later, when they're all wrapped in each other, he realizes he left the DVD case to Blade Runner open and that dust was now collecting on his favorite Sci Fi movie. His internal Luke Skywalker screamed "NOOOOOO!", but there was no chance of him actually leaving the bed. Far too warm.
…or something like that.
Let me know what you think! -MA