Interest [Community]
Title: Interest
Characters/Pairings: Annie and Abed, slight one-sided Annie/Abed
Rating: G
Warning: None.
Prompt: Abed/Annie - science project
Interest
“I want to try something.”
“Oh?” Annie says, her head perked to the left, upturned by a few degrees, mouth slightly pursed, eyes wide. “Like what?”
“I dunno,” Abed answers, breaking eye contact, turning his head to the right, eyes looking at the sticky cafeteria floor. Eyes pop back up. “Something new.”
Perspiration starts to form on her brow. “New.” She says it like it’s a question and like it’s not a question all at the same time. Interesting.
“New,” he counters. “It means--”
“I know what ‘new’ means, Abed, I just don’t know what you mean, I mean, do you have something specific…ly new that you want to do?”
“Yes. I suppose it isn’t actually new. It’s just new with you.” He emphasizes his point with a single finger in the air, tilted toward Annie. “Will you get angry with me if I do something new with you?”
The perspiration on her brow furrows. She’s thinking about what he just said.
Now is probably the best time.
He leans across the table and kisses her, not quite on the mouth but just on the side of it, half of his lips on hers and the other half against her skin. She tastes like fruit. Interesting.
“Abed!” she yells almost immediately, pulling back and gasping, her head straight and neck stiff, mouth in an “O” and her eyebrows pushed together. She seems like she’s going to say something else, but in the end just repeats his name, this time a little more confused than surprised.
“Are you angry?”
“I don’t know what I am!” she sputters. “Did you do that for…” a pause, “a reason?” She says it like she’s telling him a government secret. If he knew her better, he’d understand that the question she’s asking isn’t really the question she’s asking at all.
“I do everything for a reason,” he answers. Doesn’t everyone?
Annie’s skin flushes just barely. “Well,” she begins, her eyes off to the side and her eyebrows raised as her head moves in just slightly. “What was the reason?”
She looks…anticipatory. Anxious, even. Interesting.
“You’re different than the others,” he starts, and notices her eyes widen. “Britta patted me on the hand and said I was sweet. Pierce tried to hit me. Jeff did hit me--”
“Wait, you’re, you’re,” she stammers. Then her face drops in realization. “Is this one of your little science experiments?”
“Social science, yes.”
“You, you --” More stammering. She twists her hands in her lap. Clenches her jaw. Looks around the room like she’s waiting for someone to argue on her behalf.
Then, she stops. Composes herself, runs her hands down her shirt and over her skirt to smooth it. Smiles, and stands up, holding her books to her chest. Her flush has cooled and her eyes are steady.
She swallows hard. “You really shouldn’t do things like that, Abed.” Her voice isn’t steady. “Not if you don’t--” Another pause. Lots of pauses today. “You just shouldn’t do things like that.”
He doesn’t break eye contact. “Noted.”
The click clack of her heels starts out fast, urgent. Then they slow, then stop, and she sighs a little, then almost looks back before trotting off.
Interesting.