AN: None of these characters are mine!
They're at another stupid motel for debate club, high off their successes from winning against Lakewood Community College 63-34. Jeff isn't even sure how he got roped into this except that the Dean said something about possible priority registration for the next semester and a reserved parking space in the student lot so really, what choice did he have?
The Dean had come in earlier, congratulating him with a firm hand against his shoulder that had turned into a wandering hand down his arm until he'd had to casually slip out of his grasp and excuse himself saying they had a long drive tomorrow to get home and he was pretty tired. He's still wired from the win though, adrenaline running through him as he sits on the edge of the bed in jeans and a light blue dress shirt, debate cardigan slung over the armchair, nursing his second stale beer from the minibar and trying to figure out if there's a bar close-by that he can slip out to and still be back in time to leave at 6am. He's about to pull out his phone and open up google-maps when he hears a knock. Sighing, Jeff stands, dropping his bottle onto the shabby coffee table, and walks to the door, preparing to tell the Dean to go back to his room before he has to open a lawsuit against a member of Greendale staff for sexual harassment. He's surprised instead to find Annie standing there, her hair hanging loose against her shoulders and wearing just a singlet top and skirt.
"Oh," Jeff breathes out, "hey."
"Sorry, I didn't disturb you did I?" She asks with a small smirk at his surprise
He gestures for her to come in. "No, it's fine- what's up?" She steps inside and closes the door behind her, leaning against it and tucking her hands behind her back. She examines the room behind him; his overnight bag strewn across his bed half-open; the beer bottle sitting on the coffee table, making a wet ring on the glass. "Nothing really."
Okay, Jeff thinks, eyeing her warily. "Congratulations about today, by the way." He says, reaching for his beer and taking a sip.
She looks up at him "Oh," she smiles, "you too. It's as much your win as it is mine-we're a team remember."
Jeff gives a soft laugh and takes another sip of his beer. There's a pause.
"I can't sleep." Annie finally confesses, and Jeff laughs again, more fully this time.
"I know what you mean. Too much adrenaline, right?"
She nods and Jeff watches silently as she reaches one arm up to tuck her hair behind her ear. He swallows.
"Big day tomorrow, though." He announces, too loudly for the small space they're occupying. "Better get some sleep."
Annie blinks, momentarily confused and he steps toward her, leaning to open the door except that she's leaning against it and he seems to have forgotten. He stumbles instead and reaches to grab something, his hands falling to clutch her shoulders. Quickly he rights himself, cursing internally for drinking that second beer and when he looks down, Annie's looking up at him, all bright eyes and pink lips and Jeff can't really help himself.
Annie shivers as Jeff moves one hand from her shoulders to the back of her neck, drags his fingers down her spine, spiralling slow circles down to the concave dimple at the small of her back. He slides both hands to her hips, settling them there and squeezing, pulling her flush to him so she can feel his hot breath heavy against her ear. He pulls the edges of her tank top up just enough, digging his fingers into her sides and inhaling the scent of her fruity shampoo. It's too gentle to mark her, mar the unblemished skin there but it feels possessive somehow, like he's trying to stake some kind of claim.
Annie straightens carefully, keeping her expression guarded and moves her hand to his chest and pushes. He lets go of her hips immediately, blinking in surprise as she slides away from the door and turns with a flick of her hair to walk over to the double bed in the centre of the motel room. His eyes follow her fastidiously as she crosses the room, watching as she turns again to face him and plops down on the bed, crossing her legs. She sighs, reaching down to take one shoe off and then the next, placing them neatly next to each other on the floor while he stands there awkwardly, hands drawn into neat fists at his sides. Finally Annie looks up at him, guileless smile on her face, and he realizes instantly, how this whole thing is going to play out.
She re-crosses her legs, sliding one creamy calf on top of the other deliberately, waiting for him to take the hint. Jeff sidles over to her cautiously, hands still fisted but now in his pockets, until he's standing above her, jaw clenched and waiting for her to make a move. Annie reaches her hand out and places it just above his knee, feeling the heat radiating through the fabric of his jeans. He watches her every movement, feeling each muscle tense in his back as she splays her fingers out flat across his thigh, slowly drawing her hand up to his belt. She turns her head up toward him as she shifts both hands to the belt buckle, watching him watch her as she tugs the belt out of the clasp.
He notices her hands fumbling a little and wonders if she's done this before. With Vaughn maybe? Or Rich? Jeff can hardly think about that right now though as he watches her finish unbuckling his belt and slide it out of the belt loops. She drops it on the floor next to him and moves her hands to the tails of his shirt hanging out of his jeans. She pulls the fabric between her fingers, admiring it momentarily before dragging her hands to the lowest button and pulling it out of the hole. She does the same with the next, inching higher with each buttonhole until she reaches his collar. Gently, Annie tugs on the lapels, pulling him down to her level.
"Jeff," she breathes huskily in his ear.
That's when he loses it.
He reaches to circle his arms around her waist, lifting her as he stands and walking her towards the closest wall opposite the bed. She wraps her legs around his waist and he almost has to splutter out a cough when she tightens her legs around him, sliding against him just a little. He makes it to the wall and leans her against it, leaning his mouth down to lick at her collarbone. Annie drops her head back as he moves to suck at the crease between her neck and shoulder, one hand firmly supporting her ass and the other splayed across her thigh, inching the hem of her skirt up slowly. She audibly moans when he reaches her neck, pressing quick kisses across to her jaw and stopping at her mouth. She can feel his breath hot against her lips and his eyes flicker up to hers, unsure. His fingers stutter against her thigh as she inches her mouth a tiny bit closer, flicking out her tongue to wet her lips almost touching his own. Agonizingly slowly, she leans to slide her lips against his, feeling reckless and foolish and secure all at once. Jeff presses back forcefully, scraping his tongue across her lips, then teeth and finally pushing inside her mouth. He tastes of beer and faintly of mint, like maybe he'd brushed his teeth earlier and suddenly the gravity of what they're doing hits her. Annie freezes and drops her arms from were they were tangled around his neck and in his hair. Jeff stops just as suddenly, pulling back to look at her quizzically and letting her down from where he'd been holding her against the wall.
"Uh.." She starts, focusing her eyes on the door instead of him as she smooths her hair down and rearranges her cardigan. She can feel him watching her intently. "I should uh- I mean- we have a long drive tomorrow and um-" She struggles to find the words, hoping desperately he understands and fill in an excuse. Jeff remains silent, still watching her.
She pauses, eyes still on the door, "Anyway I'm going to- I mean we shouldn't have…" she sighs and flattens down the creases in her skirt before slipping out from under his towering stance and crossing to the door.
"Night, Jeff." She says quietly and walks out into the hallway without turning to look back. It's only once she's gone that he realises she left her shoes behind.
The drive back the next day is awkward. To say the least.
The Dean chatters animatedly in the front seat about how great they were and how well Jeff and Annie worked as a team and 'had they thought about going pro, because there was an interstate debate competition coming up and it would look great for the school if they decided to enter?' Jeff drives, hands grasped tight on the steering wheel, trying not to glance at Annie in the rear-view mirror every five minutes. For the most part she seems completely normal listening to her iPod and watching the scenery go by from the side window. Her music is too loud though and while ordinarily he would gripe at her to turn her insipid bubblegum-pop boy-band music down, that would mean having to talk to her, which- yeah, that's not happening. Instead he focuses on watching the road and ignoring the Dean and the stupid knot starting to form in his stomach, and eat away at his insides.
For a week, everything's totally normal. Jeff goes to class and study group and hangs out with Britta at L-Street on Thursday night, acting as her wingman when she tries to pick up a scruffy-looking guy wearing yoga pants who turns out to be gay. He avoids sitting next to Annie at lunch and talking to her during Biology, trying to figure out when his life became an episode of Lizzie McGuire.
He thinks Abed notices something's different but can't quite put his finger on it, because he watches Jeff closely when he thinks he's not looking and tries to sit next to Annie whenever possible, like he's trying to silently pry out of her whatever it is that's going on between them to change the group's dynamic or absorb it through osmosis. For the most part though, everything's fine and the rest of the study group doesn't seem to notice any difference.
It's because of paintball that everything finally unravels.
The Dean finally seems to have learned from his mistakes the previous years of offering too valuable-a prize, so this year the prize really is a portable DVD player and it's hardly worth joining the game at all.
The study group does anyway though, because at this point it's more habit than anything else (and secretly they all kind of love the high-stakes atmosphere).
Jeff's hiding in the storage closet at 4pm, having escaped from the math and chess teams who have combined this year to form a kind of nerdy paintball super-group. He's about to peek out to check if the coast is clear when suddenly the door opens and closes in front of him and someone slams smack bang into his chest.
"Ow!" The person whisper-squeals and- great, this would be just his luck.
"Annie?" He whispers through the darkness and he can feel the person still against him.
There's a pause. "Yeah." She whispers back, trying to shuffle away to create some space between them. The problem is the store-room is tiny- Jeff doesn't even know if this qualifies as a storage room in fact, it's more of a closet with cleaning supplies- so even at the furthest points of the room they're still almost touching.
They stand in silence for a few minutes until Annie finally asks, "What are you even doing in here?"
"I could ask you the same question."
"Okay," she says, "but I asked you first."
Jeff relents. "I needed an escape from the chess team. You?"
"Glee club."
"Huh."
Outside, the sounds of feet shuffling up and down the hallway makes them freeze.
"Great, now we're stuck here." She shifts away from the wall and he hears the soft clunk of a gun falling to the floor. From the sliver of light coming from beneath the door he can see her pulling her vest off, leaving just a cotton t-shirt and the lavender skirt she'd been wearing earlier that day. Pushing further against his side of the closet, he closes his eyes and hopes to god someone finds them soon so they can get out of here.
"God when did it get so hot in here?" He wonders out loud, pulling his own gun out from where it's lodged at his waist and dropping on the floor next to where he guesses Annie's is. He slides down to the floor, scrubbing his hands over his face and hears her do the same.
"Look Jeff, about last night-"
He cuts her off, "I agree, it was totally stupid and we shouldn't have done it.
Silence.
Right? He thinks. That's definitely what she wanted to hear isn't it?
He hears the swish of fabric and feels something brush against his leg. The sounds of people outside gets louder so that he can't call out to her for fear of being discovered. Something small and cool lands on his arm and his head whips around to where Annie's now sitting next to him, her hand resting on his elbow. "Annie… He whispers slowly. There's no response as he feels her slide closer to him, her knees poking into his thigh and then another shuffling sound and she's straddling his waist.
He sucks in loudly. "Annie," he grits out, real quiet, "what are you doing?" before a hand comes up to cover his mouth. He can feel her leaning in close, her hair tickling his shoulder as she whispers "Jeff, you're going to have to be quiet, okay?"
He thinks he nods but he can't really be sure. He feels dizzy and like they shouldn't really be doing this for a number of reasons he probably couldn't name right now.
He's uncomfortably hard and Annie can feel it against her thigh, grinds into him a little just to test it out. He groans quietly, so that only she can hear and moves one hand to grasp the outside of her thigh where her skirt's ridden all the way up. The other hand moves to her waist and then up to her ribcage, sliding to the outside of her torso and grazing the side of her breast on the way up. She has to bite her lip not to make a sound and his hand goes to her shoulder, sliding down her arm to land back on her hip. Annie arches into him again and he groans louder this time, bringing his hand around to the small of her back to pull her closer. He reaches to kiss just above her collarbone, trailing down to the scoop-neckline of her t-shirt. Tentatively he moves down to catch her nipple through the shirt, sucking there and she arches further into him, sliding her hips against his at the same time. He grunts and she reaches down to slam her mouth against his, slipping her tongue inside quickly to quiet him. He moans into her but the sound is muffled and he reaches to cup her breast with her free hand, sliding his hand beneath her shirt and thumbing her nipple through her bra. It's cotton and Jeff imagines he'll definitely be going to hell for thinking that makes this even hotter. Annie gasps and pushes harder against him, can feel him thrusting toward her involuntarily. She reaches down between them, scraping her fingernails across his stomach, just above his jeans, and moving to slide her hands underneath the fabric, when suddenly the sounds from outside turn into yells. They both still and Jeff nudges her hard; she leaps off, scrambling to the other side of the store-room and waits but the voices die down and suddenly they're alone again.
"Oh my god." Annie says quietly and Jeff wants to say 'yeah' but he's still kind of reeling from what just happened so he keeps his mouth shut.
"I shouldn't have done that." Annie says after a moment's silence.
"It's fine." Jeff says quickly, readjusting his jeans and slinging his gun into his back pocket. "I just-" he pauses. Annie doesn't say anything so he continues, "I was just a little surprised. After the other night and-"
"Yeah." She says, fiddling with the buckle on her shoe. "Sorry about that, I guess I freaked out a little. You were drunk and I was-"
"I wasn't that drunk." He cuts her off.
There's more shuffling outside and Abed calls out her name from the hallway. Annie stands, pauses for a second like she's going to say something but instead just opens the door and steps out into the hall, closing it quietly behind her.
Jeff stays in the closet until dark, waits until he's sure most people have gone home before exiting into the hallway and walking to his car. When he gets there he finds a note, yellow and folded, stuck on the front windscreen:
I lied. I'm not sorry. – A.E
Jeff blinks twice before grinning and tucking the note into his pocket. He pulls out his phone to text her, but can't think of anything that doesn't sound overly creepy or that Britta wouldn't totally lecture him on if she ever found out. Instead he drives home, trying to dispel thoughts of Annie's thighs tight around him and her breathy gasps the whole way.
He arrives late to study group the next day as usual, unsurprised to find them chattering away when he walks in. Annie notices him walk in first and her eyes meet his warily. He smiles carefully and slowly she smiles back, looks around at the rest of the group to check no one's watching before sliding a small pink piece of paper across to him with a smirk. He accepts it discreetly and pulls it under the table. After a few seconds he laughs out loud, looking up at her and she has to stifle a smirk by pressing her hand against her mouth. The note reads:
Could I please have my shoes back?
The group turns to him to ask what's so funny. "Nothing." He says, glancing over to Annie who's grinning. Britta eyes him suspiciously and he sits up. "Guys we have an exam in like three days- maybe we should start studying?" He glances over to Annie one more time before opening his textbook and she's looking back at him, still smiling.
When she presses a hand to his under the table in Biology later that day, he finds he doesn't mind at all.