Disclaimer: I don't own Community, yo.
The drive back to town was cold and shivery for both Jeff and Annie, who had spent a good twenty minutes working their way out of the progressively muckier woods to get back to Jeff's car. He had a momentary panic attack when he realized that he had no towels with which to protect his leather interior from the water dripping off each of them, but soon enough got over it when his body became wracked with chills.
"Alright," Jeff said as they re-entered Greendale city limits. "Let's just go to my place. It's closer and I have coffee there," he suggested. Annie nodded in agreement, her teeth still chattering despite the hot air blowing from the car's heater.
When Jeff finally pulled into his apartment's parking lot, he looked outside and frowned. It was still pouring, even harder than it had been when they were in the woods.
"Alright, we're about to get really wet," he said with a frown. Annie raised an eyebrow.
"I think we're past that now, Jeff," she said, gesturing to their drenched clothes hanging limply from their bodies. Jeff peered over at her (thankfully not see-through) dress and nodded.
"Alright, more wet. You ready to make a run for it?" he asked. Annie quirked a small grin.
"Like a race?" she asked with a glint in her eye. "What do I get if I win?" Jeff thought about this a moment.
"Loser has to pay to dry our clothes," he suggested. Annie rolled her eyes.
"Lame." Jeff raised an eyebrow. "But it'll do in a pinch. On your mark, get set, GO!" Annie was out of the car, racing for the entrance before Jeff even had a chance to turn off the engine and grab his camera bag.
When he met her at the door, he was dripping with water, and slightly winded.
"I win," she gloated, despite her teeth once again chattering and the army of goosebumps that had risen up on her exposed arms. Jeff rolled his eyes.
"You cheated," he said, pulling out his keys and working them into the lock. He stopped to look at her. "I've never been more proud of you." Annie giggled, though it was backed with a hint of chill-induced hysteria. Jeff chuckled and finished opening the door, holding it open for her as the two raced inside to get warm.
Once safely inside the apartment, Jeff came to a fairly sudden realization: Annie had no clothes other than the sopping wet ones on her back, so she was probably going to have to wear something of his. Under normal circumstances, Jeff would never dream of letting a girl wear his clothes (they had a tendency to steal them in a sick attempt to get him to see them again), but this was Annie, and she was his friend, and having her standing in his apartment in wet clothes was doing horrible things to his sense of decency, so he relented.
"Alright, let me find you something to wear," Jeff said, mostly to himself as he disappeared into his bedroom. Annie stayed out in the main room looking around. It wasn't a large space, and it was clear that Jeff had never really taken the time to turn it into much of a "home." Nonetheless, there were a few cute little knickknacks around that made her smile, like a framed photo of the study group that Shirley had given him for his birthday, and one of Abed's "Paintball 2010" hoodies hanging over the back of a chair. There was a box of Cheez-itz on top of the fridge, and a half-empty bottle of scotch on the counter.
If placed in a line-up, Annie definitely would have pointed out this apartment as Jeff's.
Speaking of Jeff, he emerged a few moments later dressed in sweats and a t-shirt, holding out a similar set of clothes for her.
"They're going to be huge on you, but at least they're dry," he said, running a towel through his hair. Annie watched a moment, intrigued by Jeff in his natural element. "There's a towel in the bathroom," he said with a hint of a smirk, having caught her staring at him. A little embarrassed, Annie quickly grabbed the clothes he was offering.
"Oh, right. Thanks." She looked around awkwardly for a moment.
"Bathroom's next to the kitchen," Jeff said, pointing in that direction. Annie smiled back at him.
"Right... thanks," she said, wandering away from him. Jeff chuckled lightly when she closed the door and headed back into his room to collect his wet clothes to put in the dryer. As he did so, he thought of the way things had progressed between them that day. He hadn't missed her checking him out in the woods and during the ride back... flustering her completely was doing wonders for his ego.
He shook his head lightly at his own thought process. Things hadn't happened between him and Annie because he'd put a stop to them whenever they started. Recently, though, he'd been thinking that he might be open to changing that, should the opportunity arise again.
Having Annie in his apartment, wearing his clothes seemed like a pretty clear-cut sign to him that his opportunity was rapidly approaching.
Making his way back out into the main room, Jeff dropped his clothes in a pile by the door and headed into the kitchen to make some coffee to take away the last remnants of their chills. Just as he clicked for it to brew, the bathroom door opened and Annie came out with her clothes, dropping them on top of Jeff's pile. She looked like she was drowning inside of his massive clothes, the shirt falling most of the way to her knees and her hands holding up the sweat pants, lest they fall down completely. Jeff chuckled.
"You look like you shrunk in the wash," he teased. She rolled her eyes.
"It's not my fault you're a giant," she shot back. He grinned.
"You also have mascara running down your face," he noted. "I take it you didn't look in the mirror when you were in the bathroom." Annie's face flushed slightly.
"I was in a bit of a rush to get out of my wet clothes." Jeff offered her a small smile before she turned on her heel and headed straight back into the bathroom. He chuckled when she closed the door with a bit more force than necessary. With a smile he picked up their pile of wet clothes and headed out to the laundry room to dry them up. Annie was probably eager to get back into her own clothes after being relegated to something eighteen sizes too big for her.
When he got back into his apartment, he spotted Annie sitting on a small bench by the window. She'd shucked the pants, opting to just wear the dress-length shirt (a fashion choice that Jeff had no problem with whatsoever).
What struck him though, as she looked out at the pouring rain beating down on the window, was how utterly beautiful she looked. Her hair was wet and a little wild in the way it slicked over her head and shoulders, and her face was totally devoid of any makeup. Combined with the dim light cast into the space by the window and she almost looked...tragic...but in a good way. A way that made Jeff realize that he'd completely missed the point when he was taking pictures of her that afternoon.
Annie watched him curiously as he pulled his camera out of the bag and flicked off the lamp, casting the room into darkness save for the light of the window.
"What are you doing?" she asked. He wandered over to her side and turned the camera on.
"Mind if I take a few more?" She frowned.
"Jeff, I look like crap," she moaned. "I have no makeup on, I'm wearing your shirt, my hairs a mess..."
"You look perfect," he interrupted. She bit her lip, watching him sceptically. "You do," he insisted.
"Fine," she sighed. "But if I look like death those photos you have to promise not to use them," she warned. Jeff offered a small smile.
"I promise," he said with a little wink. She eyed him sceptically for another moment before finally relenting.
"Alright. Let's get this over with," she grumbled. She shook her head a little, before peering up at Jeff with a small smile.
"No, don't smile." She offered a pout. "No, don't do that either," he said. She rolled her eyes before twirling the damp ends of her hair around a finger and looking up at him with a bit of a coquettish grin. "Nope," Jeff said. She sighed deeply and dropped her hand.
"Well what do you want me to do?" she exclaimed. Jeff bit the inside of his cheek, thinking about this. She'd looked so perfect just as she was when he walked in... how could he describe that look to her?
"Just... do nothing. Lean into the window, and look at the lens, and do nothing." Annie sighed, trying to figure out exactly what he meant by that. She felt such a weird mix of emotions, sitting here in front of him wearing just his t-shirt as he watched her like this. It was like he was looking right through her, and the intensity of his gaze was a little unnerving, but also endearing. She'd never seen Jeff so passionate about something as he seemed to be about this, and being a part of it made her feel kind of...special.
With that thought, she rested her head against the cool pane of glass and peered up at the lens, her face relaxed. She wondered if her eyes showed the depth of affection she held for him, or if they betrayed her anxiety. She wondered what he thought as he watched her through his lens, if he saw her or just the picture.
She saw his Adam's apple bob up and down as he swallowed, the room heavy with the quiet, steady beating of rain against the window, and then filled with the almost imperceptible 'click' of a photo being taken in the barely lit room.
Jeff slowly lowered the camera, his gaze unreadable.
"That was it," he said, his voice low. Annie watched him as he set the camera down gently on the kitchen counter and returned to her. She shifted over on the bench where she sat, making room for him to join her.
The rain battered against the window behind them as they sat in silence for a long moment. Annie wasn't sure how, but something had changed over the past few moments. This wasn't a game anymore, she realized. This was something more.
She peered up at Jeff, finding him staring down at where her hand rested on the seat between them. She dropped her gaze to his own hand a few inches away and moved to hold it. Jeff's eyes shot up to hers as she did so.
"What's so special about that picture?" she asked quietly. Jeff watched her just as intently as he thought about this.
"It..." he let his thought drop away and turned his hand over beneath hers, threading their fingers together. There was another moment of silence. "It was beautiful," he eventual said, the rasp in his voice sending a shiver through Annie's no-longer freezing body. She swallowed hard and leaned over to him, resting her head on his shoulder.
"Thanks for asking me to do this," she said quietly. Jeff unthreaded their fingers and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her tighter against him.
Annie felt his lips on top of her head, and she knew that in the past five minutes, everything had changed.
Late that night, long after Jeff had taken Annie home, he pushed his memory card into his computer and began going through the photos he'd taken with Annie that afternoon.
After taking that picture in the darkness of his apartment, the feeling between them had become something... different. He wasn't sure what it meant that every time she looked at him he felt electrified, or that every time she touched him he wanted to grab on and never let go. He'd known for a long time that he wanted Annie, that he was enamoured with her, but it had never been so...potent as it was in those few hours.
She'd stayed a while. They drank coffee and talked and joked while waiting for their clothes to dry... but despite the normalcy of the whole scene, it was clear to Jeff, and he assumed clear to Annie too that there had been a shift. It was like they were finally honest with each other, even though no words had been spoken about how they felt, or what this all meant for them.
Of course, that's just how Jeff perceived it. He knew Annie was not one for subtle glances, and he knew that he would eventually just have to man-up and tell her how he felt. That morning he had in no way been ready to do that. Tonight, he thought maybe he was.
As the photos appeared on his computer screen before him, he skipped immediately to the end and clicked to open the last photo he'd taken of her. He was struck again by her utter beauty, but more-so by the clarity of her eyes. She looked so open, so vulnerable in the diffused light of a late-afternoon shower, wearing his white t-shirt and nothing else. Her face, devoid of makeup was so clear and unmarred, so free...
And suddenly he realized that he had it. The story that Professor Lewis was looking for: the connection between photos, the honesty...it was all right there on his computer screen, reflected in the clarity of the blue eyes staring back at him.
"Alright," said Professor Lewis. "I've graded your final portfolios. Very well done, on the whole. I can really see great improvement in your work over the term, which is wonderful."
Jeff sat in the back of the class, his knee bouncing rapidly under his desk. He'd never in his life been this nervous about a grade—but this was so much more than a grade. This was Annie—or, more specifically, this was him and Annie. This mattered.
Two weeks had passed since the photoshoot, and the change that had occurred between Jeff and Annie on that day was still palpable between them. Jeff didn't bother pretending anymore that there wasn't something between them. He walked a little closer, he looked a little longer and he refused to go back to the place where they were just friends and nothing more.
However, despite all of that remarkable internal progress, Jeff still had one small problem: he had no sweet clue how to relay those feelings to Annie. Sure, he could sit her down and lay his feelings all out there for her, but that wasn't really his style, and he tended to fumble over words when they mattered the most. He could write it in a text message, but that seemed like the coward's way out after keeping her on the line for nearly four years.
Whatever it was, Jeff knew he had to do it soon. The school year was rapidly coming to an end, and with it would come graduation. If there was one thing he refused to do, it was leave Greendale without telling Annie he wanted her. He hadn't realized until the day of the photoshoot that this was a goal in his life, but after sitting on that bench with her and holding her hand, there was little else he could think of. It was time. He knew that now.
He was pulled from his rambling thoughts by his portfolio landing on the table in front of him.
"Well done, Mr. Winger," said Professor Lewis with a smile. "This is by far your best work." Jeff smiled up at her before looking at the small portfolio in his hands. Inside were four pictures of Annie that, he believed, actually told her story.
The first photo was the one he'd taken of her standing behind the tree, sadness evident in her eyes as she looked off into the distance. He opened to that page and smiled at the comment beneath the photo from Professor Lewis: "Beautiful girl, beautiful photo. There's a true depth of emotion here. I'm interested to see where this leads."
He flipped to the second photo. It showed Annie sitting along the river bank peering down into the water as she poked at a lily pad with a twig.
The comment read: "Such a lovely sadness here. Loneliness. It makes sense following the last picture."
The third picture was the second one he took of Annie, when she'd peeked at him over her shoulder and he made her laugh.
"Beautiful. There's a hesitance in her eyes that belies the smile on her lips, and yet the smile holds such radiance. It's like her happiness is trying to fight through the sadness, and it's very nearly winning."
Jeff bit his lip nervously as he turned to the final page. It was the last picture he took of Annie, in the darkness of his apartment with only the rainclouds for light. He was once again stunned by the look in her eyes as she peered out at him from the page. He knew when he took it that this photo was special, and he remembered why every time he looked at it.
With a deep breath, he skipped down to the comment.
"The true strength of a person is exemplified by their ability to be vulnerable. Your muse is a beautiful representation of this, finding the truth within her and making it available to you as a photographer. The vulnerability of this photo, from the staging, the clothes, the wet hair and the clear skin without makeup as a veil is stirring. This is a very special girl."
Jeff smiled when he read the final comment. Momentarily, he peeked at the back where she had written, "Beautiful work, Mr. Winger. A+." He didn't linger there, though, instead flipping back to the last page, to the beautiful image of Annie and the comment that perfectly summarized everything he'd been trying to say to her ever since he first saw her sitting there in his apartment looking out the rain-splashed window.
Finally, he knew how to tell Annie how he felt.
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