Sun Been Down for Days (Community, Abed/Britta)
Title: Sun Been Down for Days
Author: fangjam
Characters/Pairings: Abed/Britta
Word Count: 1,291
Summary: Britta's plan was to stay as far away from Greendale as possible; Britta didn't plan on movie nights.
Rating: PG
Notes: It's been so long since I've written fanfiction - and I've never written Community fic before! So that's different.
Britta Perry, GED, isn’t entirely sure exactly when she stepped into a time warp and back to her high school years. Surely one would be aware of that sort of thing? But before she could blink all of a sudden she was standing in a pretty dress, with a microphone in her hand, declaring her love for a man she’d tastefully screwed in the middle of a apocalyptic paintball game. The words are out of mouth before she can stop them.
Later, after she’s driven herself home to her hollow apartment, and she opens up a tiny ninety-nine cent cup of Haagen-Dasz to join her while she watches the latest episode of Chuck (because, contrary to popular opinion, she is a certified girl and is entitled to this sort of thing), Britta laughs. The whole thing abruptly strikes her as absolutely hilarious. She cries, just a little, in the midst of it, but she doesn’t have the time nor the desire to spare more than few tears for that debacle. This summer, she won’t think of Jeff or the study group or that damn Slater woman who flared up her pride until it turned into a competitive monster. Instead, she’ll get a job and live her life away from Greendale because she doesn’t need it right now.
All that goes out the window a week later when Abed leaves her a voicemail, asking her to a dorm movie night.
Britta groans when she gets it in the morning and promptly buries herself back under the covers. "No, no, no." It's not that she doesn't want to but - okay, it is that. She loves these people, but crowding into Abed's dorm room with them, with Jeff - not today. No.
Maybe she’s more affected by this than she’s willing to admit.
She ignores the second voicemail, and the third. By the fourth she’s pulling on a pair of jeans and going to Greendale because the guilt just nags and nags at her. Abed wouldn’t be so persistent if he couldn’t get anyone else to come; he wouldn’t ask her if he didn’t want some sort of company.
By the time she gets there it’s seven in the evening and the summer day is just beginning to die. The night students start pouring in, so the campus doesn’t look quite as abandoned as she thought it would. Britta had meant to avoid this place for a good three straight months, so she doesn’t understand the spark of comfort and familiarity that flickers within her. She wants to hate this place.
When she gets to Abed’s dorm he opens the door before he knocks, like he knew she was coming, and Britta really hopes she hasn’t become so predictable as that. “Hey Britta. Tonight it’s Kicksplasher.”
She takes a look around. No Jeff. Thank God. But there is Troy, Pierce, and Shirley, all looking rather happy in each other’s company. Britta does her damn best not to look Shirley in the eye, because she can feel the pity coming off from the woman in waves. Any minute now she’ll want to go to the bathroom and Britta can’t handle the sympathetic, meddling version of Shirley right now.
“Sit down Britta. Troy’s got the popcorn.” Abed sits down next to her and turns on the movie. For the next two hours Britta is sure she’s losing IQ points, but the movie is made into a treat by the running commentary surrounding her. She laughs and for the first time this week its not from the pain or embarrassment.
Her head lolls around to look at her friends: Shirley beating off Pierce with her purse, Troy visibly suppressing the urge to down what‘s left of the popcorn in one stomach-pump inducing swallow, and Abed going on about a very large cookie as a means of dissuading him from the idea. “Can we do this again?”
“Once a week,” Abed says. “Usually Tuesdays. Tuesdays make a good movie night.”
It becomes a tradition, a way of knitting them together through the summer. Blessedly absent from the first night, Jeff shows up the next, Annie in tow. The tension stretches between them and Annie, sweet girl, tries to spare feelings by sitting between them - though Britta doesn’t understand why she fidgets and looks at her like she’s frightened. Jeff doesn’t manage to crack a single joke at the bad movies and Britta can practically taste the we need to talk that sits on her tongue. But they won’t talk, she knows - they’re still pretending they never had sex. Communication isn’t their strong point, really. And there’s nothing to talk about in the first place, because they both know she didn’t mean it and that he’s a coward, and eventually they’ll grow up and get over it. Just not yet.
“Britta? Britta?”
She opens her eyes with a start as Abed gently shakes her shoulder. “Did I fall asleep?”
“Right in the middle of Snakes on a Plane 2: Electric Boogaloo. Shame.”
She’s curled up inside the bottom bunk and everything feels sore and properly sleepy. If she had her choice she wouldn’t move, but she does and stretches out the aching muscles that are angry at her for sleeping the wrong way. “Sorry, Abed. Did everyone else already leave?”
“Yep. They’ve been gone for a couple of hours. Troy left a little earlier because he ate the popcorn this time.” Abed sighs. “He could only hold out for so long.”
“You could’ve woken me up earlier.”
“You looked tired. I figured you wouldn’t have been sleeping well due to emotional turmoil brought on by acute public humiliation.” Britta winches at the accurate appraisal, and Abed manages to look just the least bit sheepish for his bluntness. But she doesn’t mind it, not from him (though anybody else - she would’ve popped them in the mouth for that).
“So, Abed.” She fishes blindly for conversation, finding silence undesirable right now, when she wants something to fill the space, to erase the fact that what Abed says is very, very true. “Why are you staying here in the dorms? Aren’t you going back home with your dad?”
Abed shrugs nonchalantly. “It’s easier for him if I stay here. I’m doing summer classes.”
He says it so completely unaffected, Britta can’t help herself from reaching for his arm. “Oh, Abed. You know, if you ever get lonely again, you can -”
“I’m not the one who’s lonely, Britta.” He cocks his head to the side in that distinctly Abed-like way of his. “I set this movie night up for you.”
“For…me?”
“You needed us, even though you wouldn’t admit it. You‘re the classic, guarded female heroine, Britta - closing yourself off to people when you really need them because you‘re afraid you‘ll get hurt. And this time, you did get hurt, so that compounds the problem and you cut yourself off from the rest of us. So,” he shrugs, “movie night.”
She stares at him for a minute, and he stares back, quirking his eyebrow up and down, practically daring her to laugh at him. Britta doesn’t, though; instead she picks up a nearby DVD case and holds it up between them, an offering and a thank you because if she speaks her gratitude she’ll just screw up the moment.
“Do you have time for some Kicksplasher II?”
Abed smiles and claims the top bunk before Britta can get a word in, and she doesn’t mind, because no matter how awkward this summer gets for her - and she knows it will get so very, very awkward - here, in Abed’s dorm, she can try for a bit of normalcy, or whatever their version of it is.
Author: fangjam
Characters/Pairings: Abed/Britta
Word Count: 1,291
Summary: Britta's plan was to stay as far away from Greendale as possible; Britta didn't plan on movie nights.
Rating: PG
Notes: It's been so long since I've written fanfiction - and I've never written Community fic before! So that's different.
Britta Perry, GED, isn’t entirely sure exactly when she stepped into a time warp and back to her high school years. Surely one would be aware of that sort of thing? But before she could blink all of a sudden she was standing in a pretty dress, with a microphone in her hand, declaring her love for a man she’d tastefully screwed in the middle of a apocalyptic paintball game. The words are out of mouth before she can stop them.
Later, after she’s driven herself home to her hollow apartment, and she opens up a tiny ninety-nine cent cup of Haagen-Dasz to join her while she watches the latest episode of Chuck (because, contrary to popular opinion, she is a certified girl and is entitled to this sort of thing), Britta laughs. The whole thing abruptly strikes her as absolutely hilarious. She cries, just a little, in the midst of it, but she doesn’t have the time nor the desire to spare more than few tears for that debacle. This summer, she won’t think of Jeff or the study group or that damn Slater woman who flared up her pride until it turned into a competitive monster. Instead, she’ll get a job and live her life away from Greendale because she doesn’t need it right now.
All that goes out the window a week later when Abed leaves her a voicemail, asking her to a dorm movie night.
Britta groans when she gets it in the morning and promptly buries herself back under the covers. "No, no, no." It's not that she doesn't want to but - okay, it is that. She loves these people, but crowding into Abed's dorm room with them, with Jeff - not today. No.
Maybe she’s more affected by this than she’s willing to admit.
She ignores the second voicemail, and the third. By the fourth she’s pulling on a pair of jeans and going to Greendale because the guilt just nags and nags at her. Abed wouldn’t be so persistent if he couldn’t get anyone else to come; he wouldn’t ask her if he didn’t want some sort of company.
By the time she gets there it’s seven in the evening and the summer day is just beginning to die. The night students start pouring in, so the campus doesn’t look quite as abandoned as she thought it would. Britta had meant to avoid this place for a good three straight months, so she doesn’t understand the spark of comfort and familiarity that flickers within her. She wants to hate this place.
When she gets to Abed’s dorm he opens the door before he knocks, like he knew she was coming, and Britta really hopes she hasn’t become so predictable as that. “Hey Britta. Tonight it’s Kicksplasher.”
She takes a look around. No Jeff. Thank God. But there is Troy, Pierce, and Shirley, all looking rather happy in each other’s company. Britta does her damn best not to look Shirley in the eye, because she can feel the pity coming off from the woman in waves. Any minute now she’ll want to go to the bathroom and Britta can’t handle the sympathetic, meddling version of Shirley right now.
“Sit down Britta. Troy’s got the popcorn.” Abed sits down next to her and turns on the movie. For the next two hours Britta is sure she’s losing IQ points, but the movie is made into a treat by the running commentary surrounding her. She laughs and for the first time this week its not from the pain or embarrassment.
Her head lolls around to look at her friends: Shirley beating off Pierce with her purse, Troy visibly suppressing the urge to down what‘s left of the popcorn in one stomach-pump inducing swallow, and Abed going on about a very large cookie as a means of dissuading him from the idea. “Can we do this again?”
“Once a week,” Abed says. “Usually Tuesdays. Tuesdays make a good movie night.”
It becomes a tradition, a way of knitting them together through the summer. Blessedly absent from the first night, Jeff shows up the next, Annie in tow. The tension stretches between them and Annie, sweet girl, tries to spare feelings by sitting between them - though Britta doesn’t understand why she fidgets and looks at her like she’s frightened. Jeff doesn’t manage to crack a single joke at the bad movies and Britta can practically taste the we need to talk that sits on her tongue. But they won’t talk, she knows - they’re still pretending they never had sex. Communication isn’t their strong point, really. And there’s nothing to talk about in the first place, because they both know she didn’t mean it and that he’s a coward, and eventually they’ll grow up and get over it. Just not yet.
“Britta? Britta?”
She opens her eyes with a start as Abed gently shakes her shoulder. “Did I fall asleep?”
“Right in the middle of Snakes on a Plane 2: Electric Boogaloo. Shame.”
She’s curled up inside the bottom bunk and everything feels sore and properly sleepy. If she had her choice she wouldn’t move, but she does and stretches out the aching muscles that are angry at her for sleeping the wrong way. “Sorry, Abed. Did everyone else already leave?”
“Yep. They’ve been gone for a couple of hours. Troy left a little earlier because he ate the popcorn this time.” Abed sighs. “He could only hold out for so long.”
“You could’ve woken me up earlier.”
“You looked tired. I figured you wouldn’t have been sleeping well due to emotional turmoil brought on by acute public humiliation.” Britta winches at the accurate appraisal, and Abed manages to look just the least bit sheepish for his bluntness. But she doesn’t mind it, not from him (though anybody else - she would’ve popped them in the mouth for that).
“So, Abed.” She fishes blindly for conversation, finding silence undesirable right now, when she wants something to fill the space, to erase the fact that what Abed says is very, very true. “Why are you staying here in the dorms? Aren’t you going back home with your dad?”
Abed shrugs nonchalantly. “It’s easier for him if I stay here. I’m doing summer classes.”
He says it so completely unaffected, Britta can’t help herself from reaching for his arm. “Oh, Abed. You know, if you ever get lonely again, you can -”
“I’m not the one who’s lonely, Britta.” He cocks his head to the side in that distinctly Abed-like way of his. “I set this movie night up for you.”
“For…me?”
“You needed us, even though you wouldn’t admit it. You‘re the classic, guarded female heroine, Britta - closing yourself off to people when you really need them because you‘re afraid you‘ll get hurt. And this time, you did get hurt, so that compounds the problem and you cut yourself off from the rest of us. So,” he shrugs, “movie night.”
She stares at him for a minute, and he stares back, quirking his eyebrow up and down, practically daring her to laugh at him. Britta doesn’t, though; instead she picks up a nearby DVD case and holds it up between them, an offering and a thank you because if she speaks her gratitude she’ll just screw up the moment.
“Do you have time for some Kicksplasher II?”
Abed smiles and claims the top bunk before Britta can get a word in, and she doesn’t mind, because no matter how awkward this summer gets for her - and she knows it will get so very, very awkward - here, in Abed’s dorm, she can try for a bit of normalcy, or whatever their version of it is.