Disclaimer: I don't own Community, yo

Moment 2: The Locket

Chapter rating: G

Jeff and Annie lay sprawled on their couch, watching the credits to their latest Tuesday night movie scroll by on the screen. Annie closed her eyes and sunk her face into the haven between Jeff's shoulder and neck, finding the small enclave warm and comforting with his scent. She breathed in deeply through her nose, committing the sense to memory. She breathed out, tickling his skin with warm air.

Jeff closed his eyes, too, as her lips began to move on his neck. His hand found the dip of her waist and turned her toward him before he guided her knee up over his leg, tangling their limbs together. The soft music that scored the film became the backdrop for unhurried movements, as lips moved against skin, and then against one another.

Annie sighed into Jeff's mouth when it came to cover her own. They drew their lips together over and over, calmly and lazily drawing patterns and rediscovering the texture and the taste.

This is what life is supposed to be like, Annie thought to herself as Jeff's hand began to lightly explore her curves: two people just being; just loving, without any hassle or hurry. Two people discovering each other once more, for the hundredth, or thousandth time.

Jeff ghosted his hand over her ribs, dipping it into the space between them and up through the crevice between her breasts. He flattened his palm against her chest when he reached it, his index finger caressing the delicate gold chain of her locket, then tracing the pattern on its heart-shaped face. He pulled away from the kiss, opening his heavy eyes and finding hers staring back, blue on blue. They allowed a moment just for this; just for looking, before he averted his gaze to the small golden heart that had found its way into his hand.

"You always wear this," he said. His voice, though very low, was jarring in the silence of the space.

"I do," she confirmed. Jeff returned his gaze to hers.

"Why?"

"I don't know," she whispered. "It's special."

Jeff looked back at the small golden trinket and allowed his thumb to run over the raised heart that decorated its face, a look of concentration knotting his brows. Annie watched him learn the locket, taking in each crevice. After a few moments, she reached up with her free hand and covered his where it worked.

"I knew by fourteen that my parents were going to get divorced," Annie said softly. Jeff looked back up at her, but her eyes were downcast. He pulled his hand away from the locket and put it back on the dip of her waist, letting his thumb caress back and forth.

"They fought—a lot. About everything, from the time I was twelve or so. For a while I tried to shut it out, pretend it wasn't happening, but after a few months that became impossible. It was constant, and exhausting, and upsetting, and I really didn't know what to do about it, so one day, in an effort to make them notice me and the way they were hurting me, I ran away." Jeff's eyebrows raised. Annie, though dramatic, had never struck him as the type to act out.

"Of course," she continued, with a small smile, "I didn't actually know how to run away." Jeff chuckled. That sounded about right. "So I just grabbed my backpack, wrote my parents a strongly-worded letter, and walked three blocks to my aunt's house to do my homework. I figured they'd get the point."

"That sounds like you." She offered a small smile, and continued on.

"My aunt was always kind of an advocate for me, where my parents were concerned. She stuck up for me when no one else would—and so I knew that she'd be livid with my parents for fighting like that in front of me. I counted on it.

"What I didn't count on was the way she reacted. Instead of going to my parents and chewing them out like usual, she just gave me a hug, and sat me down at her kitchen table with hot cocoa to do my homework. The normalcy of it was so comforting. I had gone in wanting her to come to my rescue, and she'd surprised me by actually doing it. Before I left to go home that night she gave me a hug, told me everything was going to be okay, and offered her house as a safe haven for the next time I felt like running away. I ended up spending the next two years doing my homework on her kitchen table, listening to stories about her and my mom as kids, and escaping into her world whenever mine became too difficult. She was there for me when my parents divorced, and she never let them drag me down into the gutter with them."

"Around my sixteenth birthday, I was doing homework in her kitchen when she brought me this," she said, fingering the locket gently. She dipped a fingernail into the crease and pried it open for Jeff to see—it was a very small image of an older woman holding a baby. "It was taken two days after I was born. She was there for all of it. She used to say that happiest day of her life was the day I came into it. She never had kids of her own, so she kind of treated me like I was hers." Jeff smiled fondly at the picture—it was old, black and white and faded, but the joy that radiated from the woman was clear. That's the kind of joy he expected anyone to feel, holding Annie in their arms.

After a moment, Annie clicked the heart closed once more and wrapped her hand around in. Her lips fixed in a frown.

"This is the last thing my aunt gave me. She had a stroke a few months later and passed away. A week after she died was the first time I took Adderall—I just didn't know how to concentrate with all of the pain swirling around in my head. A friend of mine had ADD and offered me some, and it just worked. It cleared my head so I could focus on anything other than what I was feeling." She sighed heavily, lifting her eyes to him.

"I can't help but think things would be different if she hadn't died. She would never have let me fall so far." Jeff reached up and tucked a stray hair behind her ear, resting his hand on her neck.

"I think she's probably pretty proud of the way you built yourself back up," he said softly. She offered a sad smile.

"Maybe. Probably." She leaned in and kissed him lightly. "I miss her—but I'm glad for this," she whispered. "Does that make me a bad person?" Jeff smiled at her affectionately.

"Honestly, Annie. I'd be surprised if this isn't what she wanted for you all along." He leaned in and pressed his lips against her forehead, resting them there a moment. Annie sighed contentedly, closing her eyes and leaning in to his touch.

"I think you're right."

AN: This was a ficcy Friday prompt from the lovely canadianiana on the LJ Milady Milord site, based in the locket that Annie's been wearing since season 1.

Hope you like it. Let me know.