The work had gone on so long Annie could barely remember what they were doing; her normal sense of purpose had all but disappeared behind page after page of the documentation they had to prepare. It all would Save Greendale... but at the moment she wasn't exactly sure how.
Of course everyone else had fallen away for one reason or another; Jeff and Britta to drink, Abed to watch TV, Elroy back to his trailer and Chang and the Dean... well, best not to even think about that. It was all down to her, as usual.
Well, her and Frankie, this time.
Nights like this she missed the pills that had gotten her through high school. The pull had been particularly strong this evening, driving through the dark in her barely running used car with the busted heater, bundled up against the bitter cold that had followed a freakishly strong blizzard. More than once as the wheels had started to slip on black ice she'd been tempted to turn around, but had kept going out of sheer inertia. There was so little to look forward to - just more dark, more cold, more mindless work that she'd barely be acknowledged for, all of it in an endless cycle...
...and then she looked up the stairs to Frankie's apartment complex, to see Frankie standing in her opened door, offering warmth and light and a steaming cup of cocoa in her hands.
The steps were icy, and she nearly fell on her face twice ascending them, but something about the door, and the light, felt so welcoming she practically ran to the second floor.
Frankie's apartment was as bland and cookie-cutter as a thousand others around town, with the same cottage cheese ceiling and balcony that looked out on nowhere. But Frankie had gone to some lengths to make it comfortable - nice rugs, comfortable furniture, tasteful pictures and decoration. It wasn't run-down the way Abed and Troy's stuff was, or disgusting freecycle stuff like Britta's place, or cold and empty like Jeff's. It was... adult, in a way Annie had always dreamed of, but hadn't actually seen all that often around Greendale.
There wasn't much small talk before they both found themselves at opposite ends of Frankie's table, each typing up a storm on her laptop and moving through document after document kept perfectly organized in their respective binders. Annie felt herself slipping into the zone, aided by a faint vanilla smell from Frankie's candles and some light jazz from a corner iPod player and...
Had Frankie just glanced up at her?
Her typing faltered for a moment, but she made herself type through the rest of the page before looking up, just in time to see Frankie glancing back down at her own screen. Annie quickly glanced back down, but not quite quick enough to avoid Frankie glancing up again, and seeing Annie glance back down.
Annie felt her cheeks glowing red, and she forced herself to speed up her typing and go through another page before giving into temptation and looking up again... only to see Frankie glancing up at the same time.
Their eyes locked and they both started nervously laughing at the same time. Frankie shook her head, and said, "Sorry, thought you were trying to get my attention."
"No, no!" Annie nearly yelped. "Everything's fine here, just... fine."
"Oh, ok." Frankie looked back down at her computer and typed a bit more before looking back up again. "Do you want to take a break?"
Annie nodded gratefully. "That'd be great! Just, you know, a little time off before we make a final push to get this done."
"Sure! Why don't you sit over by the couch and I'll bring us a little more cocoa."
Annie sat on the couch, which was actually more of a love seat, and touched her cheeks, still surprised that they were as warm and red as they were. Frankie sat down soon after, body mostly oriented towards the gas fireplace, but slightly towards Annie.
The cocoa had cream and a bit of cinnamon, which Annie thought was a nice touch. They sipped their drinks silently for a minute before Annie started fretting about finding a topic for small talk.
"So..." she started, only for Frankie to start talking at the same time.
"I meant..."
They both laughed, and Annie tried to cut off more confusion by forestalling the inevitable. "You go first, please!"
Frankie laughed and continued. "I, um, meant to ask... where'd you go on your holiday break?"
"Oh, you know, visited home with my mom and brother, low key traditions, studied a bit, watched some... well, a lot, of TV with Abed. Nothing spectacular, how about you?"
Frankie sighed. "Well, I have a large family, but... things were just too busy for all of them to really get together. And since my sister passed away, I don't have anyone in town, so... just stayed in, really. But it was nice to have some time off!" she chirped, trying to end on a high note.
"Oh, you should have mentioned, we could have hung out together!"
"I'll... I'll do that next time, sure!"
And they went back to awkward silence.
After a minute, Annie spoke up again. "I really like this cocoa..."
Frankie nodded. "Yes, it's good, isn't it? My ex got me hooked on it, she gave it to me for Christmas one year and I've been hooked on it since. The... the cinnamon is really nice."
Annie paused for a moment, unsure of whether Frankie realized she'd mentioned a past relationships, after all the fuss she'd put up about the email leak a few weeks back. Rather than call attention to it, she tried to roll with it.
"That's so nice! None of my exes ever got me interested in anything like that... Vaughn just liked hacky sack, and my high school boyfriend was interested in exactly the same things that I was. And... well, I guess that's it! All this time in college, and I haven't had time to have a lot of relationships, between school and the Study Group."
Frankie sipped her coffee, and nodded, leaning her head back on the couch. "That's the way it tends to work, isn't it? Sera and I... we were together, but her work or my work was always getting in the way. And when I had to move here for my sister, she stayed behind, and that was that..."
"You've never thought about moving back to her?"
Frankie shook her head. "I found out she was with someone new not long after I came out here. And it's just as well, I suppose... she deserved someone who could focus more on her, and I..."
She stopped talking, and just stared at the fire for some time. Hesitantly, Annie reached out and lightly touched her hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up..."
Frankie pulled her hand back and shook her head, laughing but also palming a tear away from her eye. "No, it's fine, it's fine... all in the past now, right?"
She sniffed, then paused and reached out to squeeze Annie's hand. "But... thank you. It's... not bad to talk about it sometimes, you know?"
Annie squeezed her hand back, and smiled. "No problem."
Frankie put her drink down, then stood and stretched in a quick yoga pose. "Well... shall we get back to work?"
Annie nodded, and they sat down again.
The work began to flow once more, moving through page after page in the binder as she processed them... but she found herself glancing up at Frankie more and more, and seeing Frankie looking back without things being awkward or breaking their stride. It was just relaxed and pleasant and now that she had the opportunity, she could take a moment here and there to admire Frankie's face while she was focused on her own work... the pleasant fall of her hair across her face, the eyes and lips and nose and light perfume and tasteful blouse...
She realized her work had come to a stop, in part because her work was done - there were no more pages to process, and it was already approaching midnight. And before she could say anything, Frankie passed the last of her binders over onto the done pile and looked up. "Done!"
Annie smiled half-heartedly, coming to a slow realization that she didn't particularly want to leave. But she stood up, stretched, refused an offer of more cocoa and gathered her things. She put on her coat and Frankie walked her to the door, opening it to look out on the silent black parking lot, blue streetlights reflecting on the ice that covered so much of the world.
"You'll have to come again," Frankie started, when a wave of cold from outside hit Annie, making her shiver.
She came to a decision, reached out, and closed the door, then turned to Frankie.
"Frankie, I... hell with it..." and she took Frankie's face in both her hands, stood on tiptoes, and kissed her.
The kiss was warm and soft and just a little wet, and it made Annie nervous and excited and happy, just like when she'd kissed a boyfriend for the first time... maybe just a little bit more.
Frankie didn't fight the kiss, but only reciprocated slightly; Annie broke it off after a few moments, hoping Frankie wasn't upset, only surprised. She looked down, then back up, looking deep into Frankie's eyes.
"I won't apologize for that, unless you tell me you really didn't like it. And I know I'm usually too shy to come straight out and talk about liking somebody, about sex, but it seems to me that's really silly, given how I run the rest of my life... and I think you're the same way, Frankie. So... yes, I like you. I think I want to stay here tonight, with you. I think you might be interested too, and frankly it's not like either of us has anything else in our lives going on. And I know you might resist doing this because it's not something you planned on, but maybe you should ask yourself why you shouldn't do this instead of why you should, because..."
She was cut off when Frankie leaned over and kissed her, again warm and soft and a little wet, but this time with more passion.
"You're right about everything, Annie," she said when they broke off. "But while you were talking it just occurred to me that I should admit to myself that I've wanted to kiss you all night, so... yeah."
They kissed again, Annie stripping off her coat and kicking off her boots at the same time. "I don't know where this is going to lead..." Frankie started.
Annie kissed her again, this time reaching around her to put her hands on Frankie's shoulders. "I don't know either. But college is supposed to be about experimenting, and frankly that's something I think I've been failing at, so..."
Frankie smiled, and stepped back into the living room, guiding Annie by the hand. "It's never too late to learn, I guess."
And they ended up in Frankie's bed for the rest of the night.
Annie was once more impressed by how adult Frankie's room was, with the high thread count sheets, and potpourri, and soft down comforter.
But her favorite thing to discover that night was Frankie.
Author's Note:
Forgot I started this during the last season of Community; recently decided to finish it as a bit of fluff while finishing other projects. Hope you enjoyed!