Ode to Optophobia (5A)
Title: Ode to Optophobia, or: Ten Men That Loved Annie Edison (9/19)
Author: veryspecial0ne
Rating: R for the whole series, to be safe.
Word count: ~2300 for this installment, ~25,000 for the series thus far.
Disclaimer: I have now been tweeted by both Dan Harmon and Alison Brie. I'm pretty sure that's the closest I'll ever come to having any ownership over Community.
Spoilers: Through the end of Season 2.
Summary: Chapter Five (in which Annie is loved for who she might be) Part One. Starring Vaughn Miller. "He imagined what it would be like when he and Annie cruised past the Greendale city limits later that night with sweet tunes playing and Annie draped easily over the passenger seat, her right hand playing with the wind that rushed past her open window."
A/N: Unbeta'd. Title is from the song "Ode to Optophobia" by Danielle Ate the Sandwich. Another long wait for another short chapter. Sorry, you guys. This is both the halfway point of the story and our entrance into Annie's time at Greendale. Oh, and there's an Easter egg in this one for anyone who knows the song from which I took the title of this fic.
Previously: Chapter 4B.
Vaughn gazed down at Annie, clutching her water bottle in the middle of a kegger and looking crestfallen. He hadn't wanted to admit to himself that he had hoped a little, in the time it had taken him to reach her since getting the offer, that she would be sad to see him go -- after all, he never wanted his mountain flower to be sad. Not really. But he couldn't help that it gave him a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach to know how much it bummed her out that he'd be leaving, that she was going to miss him.
And he was going to miss her too.
He was going to miss her boysenberry smell and her high-pitched sighs and how adorable she was when she tried to appear relaxed, even though Vaughn knew she was inwardly stressing out about something or other. She tried her best to hide it from him, but Vaughn knew Annie always had something to stress out about, though he liked to think there had been an improvement in that area lately, and maybe that he'd had something to do with it. It was getting less and less difficult to convince her to spend time outside with him, just sitting under the tree and not studying, even if it was usually only for half an hour or so at a time. Hell, this morning she had been contentedly teaching herself to play a bongo drum before taking off with Jeff. And she had seemed relaxed. Happy, even. Maybe she was becoming happy. Maybe Vaughn could keep making her happy.
In that second the answer was clear.
"Come with me," he said.
Her response was immediate and predictable. "What?"
"We could go to Delaware together." It had only been ten seconds since he thought of the idea and Vaughn was already excited. He imagined the two of them road tripping out there together in his '95 Crown Vic, finding a place to live and moving in together, starting a new band -- maybe Annie would join them on some songs to play the bongo drum and he could introduce her to the crowd as his mountain flower and she would blush as she walked onstage to give him a kiss before they started the song...
From the awed but wary look on Annie's face, Vaughn discerned that her mind was probably heading in a similar direction to his, but she wasn't quite as willing to trust the visions of domestic and musical bliss. "Don't you think it's...a little fast?"
"Not if it's right, babe," Vaughn assured her.
Her gaze then flitted somewhere over Vaughn's shoulder. When he looked, he saw Shirley, apparently discussing the logistics of doing a keg stand with the two guys who would be holding her legs, if he was reading the gestures correctly. He turned back to Annie, whose face had become wistful.
Vaughn wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her away, a little ways down the hall. "I know you've got your study buds and everything," he said in her ear, "but you'll always be connected to them if it's meant to be that way. And you'll make new friends." They came to a halt and Annie turned to him with a doubtful look on his face. "Of course you will." He tucked a lock of hair from her temple behind her ear. "Look at you. Who could resist loving you?"
Annie melted visibly, but wasn't entirely convinced. "It's not just them I have to think about," she protested. "What about school?"
"You'd transfer in with me."
"And my apartment? And my car, and..." but Annie seemed to have run out of things that were keeping her here. She deflated, looking confused.
"We can do this, mountain flower," he encouraged. "I want you to make a new life. With me."
"Can I have some time to think about it?" Annie pleaded, and Vaughn could already see her making a list of pros and cons in her head that was just dying to be written down on one of those sheets of flowered paper that she kept on a pad on her desk at home and she thought he didn't know about.
"I wish you could take as much time as you needed," Vaughn said honestly, "but I've got to leave tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Annie squeaked.
Vaughn only nodded. There wasn't much left to say at this point. He sort of wished he had his guitar with him.
Annie glanced around her as if she'd find the right answer written on one of the flyers that plastered the walls of the dormitory hallway around them. Something through the nearest doorway seemed to catch her eye and she looked at it fixedly. Vaughn followed her gaze to find Britta sitting on a bottom bunk with Jeff. Jeff was reaching out a hand towards Britta's hair and Britta's response was to jerk so hard she hit her head on the bottom of the top bunk. Vaughn chuckled involuntarily before catching himself. He looked at Annie with a guilty expression already making its way onto his face, hoping to avoid another disappointed reprimand about making an effort to get along with her friends, but Annie didn't seem to have noticed. She was still watching Britta and Jeff. She didn't look sad or confused anymore, just thoughtful.
"Yes," she said without looking at him, and Vaughn was sure he'd heard her wrong over the noise of the party.
"What?"
Now she turned to face him fully and there was excitement in her eyes, as well as some disbelief, like even she had trouble grasping what she had said. "Yes, I'll go."
"That's great!" Vaughn enthused, and punctuated his exclamation by wrapping her in a hug and lifting her so that her feet dangled inches from the ground. She kicked a little bit, letting out squealing giggles until her set her down.
Her face became serious again as he pulled back. "But can we wait to leave until tomorrow night? So I can go to the dance? Just because...you know, Britta's nominated for queen, and I told the Dean I'd help out, and I do have this new dress, and..." she looked back towards Jeff and Britta, who were now standing in the company of a leggy brunette. Annie wrinkled her nose for half a second before turning back to Vaughn and finishing, "And I want to tell my friends at the right time, you know?"
Vaughn grinned down at her. "For you? Yeah, we can make that happen."
Annie's eyes popped out. "Oh! I have to get going, then! I have to pack and start making the arrangements to transfer my credits and talk to my landlord--" Though her mouth was going a mile a minute, she already looked a little calmer with a list of tasks in mind. She pressed a kiss to his lips before rushing off in a flurry of floral skirts. Vaughn gazed after her, trying to believe his own good luck.
She had only been out of sight for seconds when Jeff's voice came from behind Vaughn. "You haven't seen Abed, have you?"
Vaughn turned. "Nope. Just got here."
Jeff looked up and down the hallway. "Wasn't Annie just out here?"
"Yeah. Just took off. She, ah, had some stuff to do."
Jeff nodded distractedly, with a hint of disappointment. "Of course she does. It's not like classes are over or anything." He drained his drink and threw a look over his shoulder before grimacing at Vaughn. "I think I'm gonna get going too." He stuffed his cup into a trash bag hanging off of the nearest doorknob. "If you see Abed, will you let him know?"
Vaughn nodded. "'Night, man. Take it easy. See you."
Jeff was already walking away, in the opposite direction that Annie had gone, throwing a weary wave over his shoulder.
There were plenty of texts from Annie the next day, asking Vaughn questions, sending him updates, and reminding him not to let word get around that she'd be going with him until she got a chance to talk to her study group at the dance. There were also random questions, like how far from the ocean they would be and did he know whether or not Delaware observed Daylight Savings Time? Vaughn answered every one of the texts patiently and immediately, even when he was at his farewell dinner with his sister. He imagined what it would be like when he and Annie cruised past the Greendale city limits later that night with sweet tunes playing and Annie draped easily over the passenger seat, her right hand playing with the wind that rushed past her open window. When he packed the car with his own bags before going over to campus to meet Annie, he made sure he had an extra bongo drum for her.
It was close to twenty-four hours after their initial conversation about Delaware that Vaughn was loading Annie's few bags into the backseat of his car after picking her up at the dance. "So it went okay telling your friends? They seemed pretty cool about it."
He stood up straight and found Annie's face flushing rapidly. "I didn't tell them," she admitted, "not really. They all think I'm only going for the summer. Well, except Jeff."
"Jeff?"
She nodded. "He'll tell them after I'm already gone. I just...I didn't want anyone to try and talk me out of it."
Vaughn nodded slowly back as he walked around to open the passenger side door for Annie. "And Jeff..."
"He said he hopes it works out," said Annie as she sunk into the car and smoothed her dress over her thighs. "And that I should visit."
Vaughn pushed her door closed and slid between his own front bumper and that of the car opposite his to reach the driver's side. He settled in behind the wheel and looked at Annie. He didn't ask, but she answered anyway.
She rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "I don't know! He just seemed like the right person to tell, okay?"
"I didn't say anything," claimed Vaughn, and turned the key in the ignition. He backed out of his parking spot as Annie rolled down her window and then wiggled around, trying to find a comfortable position in her seat. He navigated his way through the parking lot towards the street, starting to get that deliciously fresh feeling that comes from knowing there's one of life's adventures lying in wait for you, just needing to be found. Though the parking lot was crowded with cars Vaughn could already see in his mind the dark, open highway sliding away underneath his car, white dash after white dash disappearing at the bottom of his windshield.
"Stop the car." The edged words came abruptly from Annie in the passenger's seat.
Vaughn started to brake and stole a glance over at her. "Did you forget something at the dance?"
But Annie was gripping the side of her seat so that her knuckles had turned white, shaking her head in a panic. "I can't do this."
Vaughn brought the car to a full stop, still inside the parking lot, his hand hovering over the gear shift without yet moving it into park.
"Delaware?" she was exclaiming softly, almost to herself. "What am I supposed to do in Delaware? I don't know anyone there. I haven't even been able to look into dentists in the area, and I'll have no idea where I should go for N.A. meetings…"
"Annie." Vaughn shifted into park and had to repeat her name twice more before she met his eye. "You'll know me, mountain flower. We can figure it out. We love each other. That's always enough."
He could tell, however, that he'd already lost her, which was only confirmed when she mumbled "not always" and finished: "This just isn't who I am."
Annie was out of the car before Vaughn could speak again. When she opened the back door to pull her duffel bag and backpack out he managed to get in an "Annie" before she slammed the door again and was standing next to the car, leaning over so she could see in through the open window.
She didn't quite meet Vaughn's eyes as she whispered, "I just need you to trust me and believe me when I say…when I say I'd be going with you for the wrong reasons."
With just as much determination as she had gone off to prepare for this trip last night, Annie scurried back towards the school buildings. Vaughn sat with his eye on the rear view mirror, watching long enough to see her to collapse onto a bench illuminated by a lamp post some distance behind him and start taking deep breaths. They were too quick at first and Vaughn kept watching to make sure she didn't hyperventilate. Then the breaths became slow and even, and her body relaxed and slumped into the bench.
Vaughn tried to figure out what he should do. He had convinced her to go with him once. Maybe he could do it again. At the very least he could offer her a ride home. On the other hand, he was pretty sure they had just broken up, so maybe that wasn't the way to handle things. He glanced at the clock on his dashboard, mentally calculating how long it would be before it was absolutely necessary that he leave so as to make it to Delaware on time.
His cell phone chimed, the one Annie had helped him pick out after he had thrown his previous one in the river. Vaughn dug it out of his pocket and flipped it open to read the message.
From: Annie
go
Vaughn tossed his phone onto the vacated passenger seat, put the car in drive, and went.
Next: Chapter 5B.
Author: veryspecial0ne
Rating: R for the whole series, to be safe.
Word count: ~2300 for this installment, ~25,000 for the series thus far.
Disclaimer: I have now been tweeted by both Dan Harmon and Alison Brie. I'm pretty sure that's the closest I'll ever come to having any ownership over Community.
Spoilers: Through the end of Season 2.
Summary: Chapter Five (in which Annie is loved for who she might be) Part One. Starring Vaughn Miller. "He imagined what it would be like when he and Annie cruised past the Greendale city limits later that night with sweet tunes playing and Annie draped easily over the passenger seat, her right hand playing with the wind that rushed past her open window."
A/N: Unbeta'd. Title is from the song "Ode to Optophobia" by Danielle Ate the Sandwich. Another long wait for another short chapter. Sorry, you guys. This is both the halfway point of the story and our entrance into Annie's time at Greendale. Oh, and there's an Easter egg in this one for anyone who knows the song from which I took the title of this fic.
Previously: Chapter 4B.
Vaughn gazed down at Annie, clutching her water bottle in the middle of a kegger and looking crestfallen. He hadn't wanted to admit to himself that he had hoped a little, in the time it had taken him to reach her since getting the offer, that she would be sad to see him go -- after all, he never wanted his mountain flower to be sad. Not really. But he couldn't help that it gave him a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach to know how much it bummed her out that he'd be leaving, that she was going to miss him.
And he was going to miss her too.
He was going to miss her boysenberry smell and her high-pitched sighs and how adorable she was when she tried to appear relaxed, even though Vaughn knew she was inwardly stressing out about something or other. She tried her best to hide it from him, but Vaughn knew Annie always had something to stress out about, though he liked to think there had been an improvement in that area lately, and maybe that he'd had something to do with it. It was getting less and less difficult to convince her to spend time outside with him, just sitting under the tree and not studying, even if it was usually only for half an hour or so at a time. Hell, this morning she had been contentedly teaching herself to play a bongo drum before taking off with Jeff. And she had seemed relaxed. Happy, even. Maybe she was becoming happy. Maybe Vaughn could keep making her happy.
In that second the answer was clear.
"Come with me," he said.
Her response was immediate and predictable. "What?"
"We could go to Delaware together." It had only been ten seconds since he thought of the idea and Vaughn was already excited. He imagined the two of them road tripping out there together in his '95 Crown Vic, finding a place to live and moving in together, starting a new band -- maybe Annie would join them on some songs to play the bongo drum and he could introduce her to the crowd as his mountain flower and she would blush as she walked onstage to give him a kiss before they started the song...
From the awed but wary look on Annie's face, Vaughn discerned that her mind was probably heading in a similar direction to his, but she wasn't quite as willing to trust the visions of domestic and musical bliss. "Don't you think it's...a little fast?"
"Not if it's right, babe," Vaughn assured her.
Her gaze then flitted somewhere over Vaughn's shoulder. When he looked, he saw Shirley, apparently discussing the logistics of doing a keg stand with the two guys who would be holding her legs, if he was reading the gestures correctly. He turned back to Annie, whose face had become wistful.
Vaughn wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her away, a little ways down the hall. "I know you've got your study buds and everything," he said in her ear, "but you'll always be connected to them if it's meant to be that way. And you'll make new friends." They came to a halt and Annie turned to him with a doubtful look on his face. "Of course you will." He tucked a lock of hair from her temple behind her ear. "Look at you. Who could resist loving you?"
Annie melted visibly, but wasn't entirely convinced. "It's not just them I have to think about," she protested. "What about school?"
"You'd transfer in with me."
"And my apartment? And my car, and..." but Annie seemed to have run out of things that were keeping her here. She deflated, looking confused.
"We can do this, mountain flower," he encouraged. "I want you to make a new life. With me."
"Can I have some time to think about it?" Annie pleaded, and Vaughn could already see her making a list of pros and cons in her head that was just dying to be written down on one of those sheets of flowered paper that she kept on a pad on her desk at home and she thought he didn't know about.
"I wish you could take as much time as you needed," Vaughn said honestly, "but I've got to leave tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Annie squeaked.
Vaughn only nodded. There wasn't much left to say at this point. He sort of wished he had his guitar with him.
Annie glanced around her as if she'd find the right answer written on one of the flyers that plastered the walls of the dormitory hallway around them. Something through the nearest doorway seemed to catch her eye and she looked at it fixedly. Vaughn followed her gaze to find Britta sitting on a bottom bunk with Jeff. Jeff was reaching out a hand towards Britta's hair and Britta's response was to jerk so hard she hit her head on the bottom of the top bunk. Vaughn chuckled involuntarily before catching himself. He looked at Annie with a guilty expression already making its way onto his face, hoping to avoid another disappointed reprimand about making an effort to get along with her friends, but Annie didn't seem to have noticed. She was still watching Britta and Jeff. She didn't look sad or confused anymore, just thoughtful.
"Yes," she said without looking at him, and Vaughn was sure he'd heard her wrong over the noise of the party.
"What?"
Now she turned to face him fully and there was excitement in her eyes, as well as some disbelief, like even she had trouble grasping what she had said. "Yes, I'll go."
"That's great!" Vaughn enthused, and punctuated his exclamation by wrapping her in a hug and lifting her so that her feet dangled inches from the ground. She kicked a little bit, letting out squealing giggles until her set her down.
Her face became serious again as he pulled back. "But can we wait to leave until tomorrow night? So I can go to the dance? Just because...you know, Britta's nominated for queen, and I told the Dean I'd help out, and I do have this new dress, and..." she looked back towards Jeff and Britta, who were now standing in the company of a leggy brunette. Annie wrinkled her nose for half a second before turning back to Vaughn and finishing, "And I want to tell my friends at the right time, you know?"
Vaughn grinned down at her. "For you? Yeah, we can make that happen."
Annie's eyes popped out. "Oh! I have to get going, then! I have to pack and start making the arrangements to transfer my credits and talk to my landlord--" Though her mouth was going a mile a minute, she already looked a little calmer with a list of tasks in mind. She pressed a kiss to his lips before rushing off in a flurry of floral skirts. Vaughn gazed after her, trying to believe his own good luck.
She had only been out of sight for seconds when Jeff's voice came from behind Vaughn. "You haven't seen Abed, have you?"
Vaughn turned. "Nope. Just got here."
Jeff looked up and down the hallway. "Wasn't Annie just out here?"
"Yeah. Just took off. She, ah, had some stuff to do."
Jeff nodded distractedly, with a hint of disappointment. "Of course she does. It's not like classes are over or anything." He drained his drink and threw a look over his shoulder before grimacing at Vaughn. "I think I'm gonna get going too." He stuffed his cup into a trash bag hanging off of the nearest doorknob. "If you see Abed, will you let him know?"
Vaughn nodded. "'Night, man. Take it easy. See you."
Jeff was already walking away, in the opposite direction that Annie had gone, throwing a weary wave over his shoulder.
There were plenty of texts from Annie the next day, asking Vaughn questions, sending him updates, and reminding him not to let word get around that she'd be going with him until she got a chance to talk to her study group at the dance. There were also random questions, like how far from the ocean they would be and did he know whether or not Delaware observed Daylight Savings Time? Vaughn answered every one of the texts patiently and immediately, even when he was at his farewell dinner with his sister. He imagined what it would be like when he and Annie cruised past the Greendale city limits later that night with sweet tunes playing and Annie draped easily over the passenger seat, her right hand playing with the wind that rushed past her open window. When he packed the car with his own bags before going over to campus to meet Annie, he made sure he had an extra bongo drum for her.
It was close to twenty-four hours after their initial conversation about Delaware that Vaughn was loading Annie's few bags into the backseat of his car after picking her up at the dance. "So it went okay telling your friends? They seemed pretty cool about it."
He stood up straight and found Annie's face flushing rapidly. "I didn't tell them," she admitted, "not really. They all think I'm only going for the summer. Well, except Jeff."
"Jeff?"
She nodded. "He'll tell them after I'm already gone. I just...I didn't want anyone to try and talk me out of it."
Vaughn nodded slowly back as he walked around to open the passenger side door for Annie. "And Jeff..."
"He said he hopes it works out," said Annie as she sunk into the car and smoothed her dress over her thighs. "And that I should visit."
Vaughn pushed her door closed and slid between his own front bumper and that of the car opposite his to reach the driver's side. He settled in behind the wheel and looked at Annie. He didn't ask, but she answered anyway.
She rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "I don't know! He just seemed like the right person to tell, okay?"
"I didn't say anything," claimed Vaughn, and turned the key in the ignition. He backed out of his parking spot as Annie rolled down her window and then wiggled around, trying to find a comfortable position in her seat. He navigated his way through the parking lot towards the street, starting to get that deliciously fresh feeling that comes from knowing there's one of life's adventures lying in wait for you, just needing to be found. Though the parking lot was crowded with cars Vaughn could already see in his mind the dark, open highway sliding away underneath his car, white dash after white dash disappearing at the bottom of his windshield.
"Stop the car." The edged words came abruptly from Annie in the passenger's seat.
Vaughn started to brake and stole a glance over at her. "Did you forget something at the dance?"
But Annie was gripping the side of her seat so that her knuckles had turned white, shaking her head in a panic. "I can't do this."
Vaughn brought the car to a full stop, still inside the parking lot, his hand hovering over the gear shift without yet moving it into park.
"Delaware?" she was exclaiming softly, almost to herself. "What am I supposed to do in Delaware? I don't know anyone there. I haven't even been able to look into dentists in the area, and I'll have no idea where I should go for N.A. meetings…"
"Annie." Vaughn shifted into park and had to repeat her name twice more before she met his eye. "You'll know me, mountain flower. We can figure it out. We love each other. That's always enough."
He could tell, however, that he'd already lost her, which was only confirmed when she mumbled "not always" and finished: "This just isn't who I am."
Annie was out of the car before Vaughn could speak again. When she opened the back door to pull her duffel bag and backpack out he managed to get in an "Annie" before she slammed the door again and was standing next to the car, leaning over so she could see in through the open window.
She didn't quite meet Vaughn's eyes as she whispered, "I just need you to trust me and believe me when I say…when I say I'd be going with you for the wrong reasons."
With just as much determination as she had gone off to prepare for this trip last night, Annie scurried back towards the school buildings. Vaughn sat with his eye on the rear view mirror, watching long enough to see her to collapse onto a bench illuminated by a lamp post some distance behind him and start taking deep breaths. They were too quick at first and Vaughn kept watching to make sure she didn't hyperventilate. Then the breaths became slow and even, and her body relaxed and slumped into the bench.
Vaughn tried to figure out what he should do. He had convinced her to go with him once. Maybe he could do it again. At the very least he could offer her a ride home. On the other hand, he was pretty sure they had just broken up, so maybe that wasn't the way to handle things. He glanced at the clock on his dashboard, mentally calculating how long it would be before it was absolutely necessary that he leave so as to make it to Delaware on time.
His cell phone chimed, the one Annie had helped him pick out after he had thrown his previous one in the river. Vaughn dug it out of his pocket and flipped it open to read the message.
From: Annie
go
Vaughn tossed his phone onto the vacated passenger seat, put the car in drive, and went.
Next: Chapter 5B.