Ode to Optophobia (6A)
Title: Ode to Optophobia, or: Ten Men That Loved Annie Edison (11/19)
Author: veryspecial0ne
Rating: R for the whole series, to be safe.
Word count: ~2000 for this installment, ~28,900 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 Six (in which Annie is loved by someone not used to showing it), Part One. Starring Abed Nadir.
A/N: Unbeta'd. Title is from the song "Ode to Optophobia" by Danielle Ate the Sandwich. So here's the deal. I feel awful. I let this story fall by the wayside as a result of my new job, and my computer crashing, and random other things. And now here we are five days from the season premiere, and in the meantime a few of the spoilers have put some of the plot points and chapters I already have planned well into AU territory, which is fine, but something I kind of wanted to avoid.
So what I'm gonna try and do this week is a blitz, basically. Five chapters in five days (remember, most chapters are split into two parts, so it will actually be the remaining nine installments). If I accomplish my goal, the last chapter should go up on Thursday before the premiere. If I don't accomplish it, I'll still finish the story, but my purpose in letting you know I'm going to take a shot at the blitz is that it might make me more likely to finish it if I remind myself people like this story and are excited about it getting finished.
That being said, these are going to be some tough chapters, because now we're into members of the study group, and I find them really hard to write. They might be a bit shorter too, but I hope that's okay with you guys. LET'S TAKE A JOURNEY TOGETHER.
Previously: Chapter 5B.
Abed liked these moments. He liked his study group's adventures, sure, and more often than not he was a major proponent of their shenanigans, but all the space bus adventures and hallucinatory trips through Winter Wonderland wouldn't mean as much without the moments spent winding down on a couch at the end of yet another Greendale dance. He and Troy had spotted Shirley giving her feet a break in a cozy corner of the cafeteria and wordlessly joined her on the couch. Troy had promptly leaned back and closed his eyes, though Abed knew he wasn't asleep. Dancing always took a lot out of him. Sometimes after modern dance class Troy would come over to Abed's dorm room, ostensibly to play video games, but always ended up taking a nap on the lower bunk. One time Annie had come over because her philosophy class had been cancelled, and the two took turns trying to get popcorn to land in his open mouth. Abed won, and when Troy woke up half an hour later he had merely chewed the mouthful of popcorn, swallowed, and plopped down between the two on the couch to watch a Golden Girls rerun.
Abed himself merely watched the remaining dancers, who over the course of the night had firmly paired off and were now tiredly swaying to some song about gravity. He decided that four of the couples would end up going home together. Spotting a pretty brunette alone at another seating area across the room, Abed briefly debated breaking his usual pattern and going over to talk to her, but remembering Troy at his side, kept his seat and instead turned his mind to the task of coming up with a good outing for the group to take next month on St. Patrick's Day. A moment later, his view of the brunette was blocked by Annie's midsection.
"Have you seen Pierce?"
Abed looked up to meet her gaze. She looked troubled. "I did, about twenty minutes ago. He looked like he was on his way out."
Annie nodded. "He must have gone home." She looked only marginally reassured, but sank onto the couch next to Abed. She turned her body slightly into him and snuggled into his side, letting out a deep sigh. Abed could feel her breast brush against his upper arm. Neither one of them bothered mentioning it. "We missed you at judo today."
"I had stuff to do with Troy." Abed had found that this answer usually had the desired effect of providing a reason for almost anything without further interrogation. This time there was the added benefit of it being true.
As expected, Annie merely bobbed her head up and down, bumping her chin against his shoulder in her acknowledgement that she had heard and understood. "You'll be there on Thursday, though, right?"
"Sure."
Across the way, the pretty brunette was standing to accept someone's gallantly offered hand for a dance. As the pair turned to make their way to the floor, Abed saw that the man was Dr. Rich, who waved cheerily to the group on the couch. Abed let Annie's half-hearted wave in return speak for the both of them. On her finger was a cheap plastic ring with a cheap plastic pink gemstone in the shape of a heart. There had been a basket of them on the way into the dance -- Greendale's idea of party favors, Abed supposed. He hadn't seen anyone else wearing one all night, except for Dean Pelton who had two or three on each hand.
"You're the best one in the class now," observed Abed. "You could move up to the next level if you wanted."
He felt Annie shrug against him. "This one fits really well into my schedule, and I wouldn't want to ask to change my hours at work so soon after I started."
This made sense as a reason for Annie, which was why Abed was slightly surprised when she continued, "Plus I like getting to see you. You know, outside of anthropology or study group. Just the two of us."
"Yeah, I like it too," Abed said automatically, before stopping to think about it. Sometimes he and Annie helped each other stretch out before class. And occasionally he would walk her to her car after class, before heading back to his dorm room in the opposite direction, if they were in the middle of a good conversation. He did like seeing Annie in judo class.
"You and Troy are kind of the only ones I see outside of big group stuff anymore," Annie remarked.
"You just spent the whole day with Britta," Abed pointed out.
Annie response was a drawn-out and doubtful-sounding "Yeeeeeeeah..." but she didn't continue or clarify. She picked at a loose thread on the outer seam of Abed's pants. The heart on her plastic ring caught the reflection of the twinkly lights on the fake trees arranged around the seating area. Rich spun his partner in a neatly executed twirl under his arm before lowering her into an expert dip as the song ended and the deejay announced this next dance would be the last one of the night.
"I know what you mean. Jeff and I don't really hang out anymore either."
"Same," said Annie glumly.
For the first time since she had sat down, Abed turned his head to look at Annie -- or, rather, the top of her head where it was propped up on his shoulder. He had never asked what had happened the night Annie had been shot down by Rich and Jeff had gone running into the rain at the news. All Abed knew was that, if anything, the two had been fighting even more often in the ensuing weeks. To Abed's left, Troy shifted, now apparently half-asleep. Abed turned his face back forwards.
"You're an only child, right Abed?" Annie asked unexpectedly.
Abed wasn't sure why she was asking this, because she knew the answer. "Yeah. Technically I have a half-brother now but I've never met him."
"I'm an only child too," said Annie, continuing in the vein of saying things out loud that both of them knew. "And so is Troy."
"So is Jeff," Abed added, unsure where this was going.
"And Pierce," agreed Annie softly.
Abed thought about asking what was up, but before he came to a decision, Annie sighed again, burrowing even further into Abed's side, resting her head fully on top of his shoulder and taking his hand. Abed knew his shoulders were somewhat boney -- all of him was -- but Annie seemed comfortable as she murmured, a little sadly, "It's nice to have family."
Abed studied their joined hands. Her skin was so much paler than his, and softer -- he knew girls generally had softer hands, but Annie's were among the most unblemished of any he had observed, except for the one callus she always had from holding a pen. He shifted their grip, then slid the plastic heart ring off of Annie's unresisting hand and onto his own finger. He looked down at her again, and though he couldn't see her whole face, he thought she was probably smiling tiredly.
Abed felt a vibration in his sweater pocket, accompanied by the once unfamiliar text-message tone of his phone. A split second later, he registed that everyone else's tone had gone off too -- he had them all memorized -- even Britta's who was just approaching the other four. He glanced around curiously as he pulled his phone from his pocket to reveal the words "ONE NEW MESSAGE: JEFF WINGER." Sliding his eyes side to side, he saw that Annie and Troy's phones were displaying similar captions, and assumed the same of Shirley and Britta, who had now taken a seat at the end of the couch and settled onto Shirley's shoulder just as Annie had been settled onto Abed's.
Abed read through the text quickly.
It might not shock you guys to hear the real reason we had a fight today. It wasn't about the Barenaked Ladies (although I do have some unresolved issues there). Caring about a person can be scary. Caring about six people can be a horrifying, embarrassing nightmare, at least for me. But if I can't say it today, when can I say it? I love you guys. Oh, and Pierce, take it from an expert, these knuckleheads are right outside your heart. Let them in before it's too late.
Abed glanced to his left. Britta, Shirley, and Troy were still gazing at their cell phone screens. Shirley was nodding along as she read and all three of them looked newly serene. Abed turned his gaze back to his own phone briefly.
I love you guys.
Looking to his right, Abed saw that Annie was positively beaming at the words on her screen as the soft, tinkly piano music of the last song drew to a cadence. The five occupants of the couch looked at each other uncertainly but happily as the regular fluorescent lighting of the cafeteria replaced the dimmed version used to set the mood. Abed handed Annie her ring back, which she placed on the table next to her before she stood up.
"Troy, do you need a ride home?"
Troy glanced around. "Aw, man, did Pierce leave without me?"
"I think so," answered Abed for her.
Troy grumbled as he pulled himself to his feet and then offered a hand to one of Shirley's as Britta offered the other so they could help pull her off the couch, "That dude is lucky I just got put in a better mood."
"Come on, I'll take you," said Annie kindly, taking out her keys. "I kind of want to talk to Pierce anyway."
"You do?" said Britta skeptically, and Annie turned a light shade of pink before saying defiantly, "Yes."
"He's probably passed out already," warned Troy. "And believe me when I say you do not want to be anywhere near him if he starts having a night terror."
Annie shrugged. "I'll take my chances."
With that settled, the group meandered through the cafeteria doors and through the parking lot. Shirley and Britta split off in the direction of their cars after fond "goodnights," leaving Annie and Troy lingering with Abed. Annie had her phone out again.
"Are you texting Jeff back?" asked Abed.
"Nope," answered Annie quickly, and slid her phone back into her purse.
"That's probably a good idea," commented Abed. "The fact that he sent us all that text is less of a sign that he needed to say it to us all as soon as possible, and more a sign that he's still not ready to admit he cares about us to our faces. He'll probably pretend like it ever happened when we all see him next."
Annie looked troubled again, and Abed figured out too late that it was the wrong thing to say. Luckily Troy jumped in with "But that doesn't mean he didn't mean it, right Abed?"
Abed nodded and Annie looked appeased. She wrapped her arms around Abed tightly. Abed wondered if the exponential increase in the amount of hugs he'd gotten in that evening was due to the holiday. "I love you," Annie whispered in his ear, and Abed reflected on the similar increase in the amount of times someone had said that to him in the evening as well, before he thought to say back, "Love you too, Annie."
When Annie pulled back her gaze was fixed over Abed's shoulder and she smirked a bit before saying loudly, "Come on, Troy, let's go home," and pointedly wrapping her arm around Troy's waist. Troy looked at her a bit quizically before draping his own arm around her shoulder, raising his eyebrows at Abed, and the two strolled off into the parking lot.
Abed turned to head back to the dorms, but was immediately met by the sight of the brunette who had been dancing with Dr. Rich. "Hi," she said breathlessly.
"Hi," said Abed.
"Fun dance, huh?"
"Yeah, it was good."
"I'm not quite ready to call it a night yet," she said, grinning. "You want to get a drink?"
"Okay," Abed shrugged. "You ever been to the Ballroom?"
Next: Chapter 6B.
Author: veryspecial0ne
Rating: R for the whole series, to be safe.
Word count: ~2000 for this installment, ~28,900 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 Six (in which Annie is loved by someone not used to showing it), Part One. Starring Abed Nadir.
A/N: Unbeta'd. Title is from the song "Ode to Optophobia" by Danielle Ate the Sandwich. So here's the deal. I feel awful. I let this story fall by the wayside as a result of my new job, and my computer crashing, and random other things. And now here we are five days from the season premiere, and in the meantime a few of the spoilers have put some of the plot points and chapters I already have planned well into AU territory, which is fine, but something I kind of wanted to avoid.
So what I'm gonna try and do this week is a blitz, basically. Five chapters in five days (remember, most chapters are split into two parts, so it will actually be the remaining nine installments). If I accomplish my goal, the last chapter should go up on Thursday before the premiere. If I don't accomplish it, I'll still finish the story, but my purpose in letting you know I'm going to take a shot at the blitz is that it might make me more likely to finish it if I remind myself people like this story and are excited about it getting finished.
That being said, these are going to be some tough chapters, because now we're into members of the study group, and I find them really hard to write. They might be a bit shorter too, but I hope that's okay with you guys. LET'S TAKE A JOURNEY TOGETHER.
Previously: Chapter 5B.
Abed liked these moments. He liked his study group's adventures, sure, and more often than not he was a major proponent of their shenanigans, but all the space bus adventures and hallucinatory trips through Winter Wonderland wouldn't mean as much without the moments spent winding down on a couch at the end of yet another Greendale dance. He and Troy had spotted Shirley giving her feet a break in a cozy corner of the cafeteria and wordlessly joined her on the couch. Troy had promptly leaned back and closed his eyes, though Abed knew he wasn't asleep. Dancing always took a lot out of him. Sometimes after modern dance class Troy would come over to Abed's dorm room, ostensibly to play video games, but always ended up taking a nap on the lower bunk. One time Annie had come over because her philosophy class had been cancelled, and the two took turns trying to get popcorn to land in his open mouth. Abed won, and when Troy woke up half an hour later he had merely chewed the mouthful of popcorn, swallowed, and plopped down between the two on the couch to watch a Golden Girls rerun.
Abed himself merely watched the remaining dancers, who over the course of the night had firmly paired off and were now tiredly swaying to some song about gravity. He decided that four of the couples would end up going home together. Spotting a pretty brunette alone at another seating area across the room, Abed briefly debated breaking his usual pattern and going over to talk to her, but remembering Troy at his side, kept his seat and instead turned his mind to the task of coming up with a good outing for the group to take next month on St. Patrick's Day. A moment later, his view of the brunette was blocked by Annie's midsection.
"Have you seen Pierce?"
Abed looked up to meet her gaze. She looked troubled. "I did, about twenty minutes ago. He looked like he was on his way out."
Annie nodded. "He must have gone home." She looked only marginally reassured, but sank onto the couch next to Abed. She turned her body slightly into him and snuggled into his side, letting out a deep sigh. Abed could feel her breast brush against his upper arm. Neither one of them bothered mentioning it. "We missed you at judo today."
"I had stuff to do with Troy." Abed had found that this answer usually had the desired effect of providing a reason for almost anything without further interrogation. This time there was the added benefit of it being true.
As expected, Annie merely bobbed her head up and down, bumping her chin against his shoulder in her acknowledgement that she had heard and understood. "You'll be there on Thursday, though, right?"
"Sure."
Across the way, the pretty brunette was standing to accept someone's gallantly offered hand for a dance. As the pair turned to make their way to the floor, Abed saw that the man was Dr. Rich, who waved cheerily to the group on the couch. Abed let Annie's half-hearted wave in return speak for the both of them. On her finger was a cheap plastic ring with a cheap plastic pink gemstone in the shape of a heart. There had been a basket of them on the way into the dance -- Greendale's idea of party favors, Abed supposed. He hadn't seen anyone else wearing one all night, except for Dean Pelton who had two or three on each hand.
"You're the best one in the class now," observed Abed. "You could move up to the next level if you wanted."
He felt Annie shrug against him. "This one fits really well into my schedule, and I wouldn't want to ask to change my hours at work so soon after I started."
This made sense as a reason for Annie, which was why Abed was slightly surprised when she continued, "Plus I like getting to see you. You know, outside of anthropology or study group. Just the two of us."
"Yeah, I like it too," Abed said automatically, before stopping to think about it. Sometimes he and Annie helped each other stretch out before class. And occasionally he would walk her to her car after class, before heading back to his dorm room in the opposite direction, if they were in the middle of a good conversation. He did like seeing Annie in judo class.
"You and Troy are kind of the only ones I see outside of big group stuff anymore," Annie remarked.
"You just spent the whole day with Britta," Abed pointed out.
Annie response was a drawn-out and doubtful-sounding "Yeeeeeeeah..." but she didn't continue or clarify. She picked at a loose thread on the outer seam of Abed's pants. The heart on her plastic ring caught the reflection of the twinkly lights on the fake trees arranged around the seating area. Rich spun his partner in a neatly executed twirl under his arm before lowering her into an expert dip as the song ended and the deejay announced this next dance would be the last one of the night.
"I know what you mean. Jeff and I don't really hang out anymore either."
"Same," said Annie glumly.
For the first time since she had sat down, Abed turned his head to look at Annie -- or, rather, the top of her head where it was propped up on his shoulder. He had never asked what had happened the night Annie had been shot down by Rich and Jeff had gone running into the rain at the news. All Abed knew was that, if anything, the two had been fighting even more often in the ensuing weeks. To Abed's left, Troy shifted, now apparently half-asleep. Abed turned his face back forwards.
"You're an only child, right Abed?" Annie asked unexpectedly.
Abed wasn't sure why she was asking this, because she knew the answer. "Yeah. Technically I have a half-brother now but I've never met him."
"I'm an only child too," said Annie, continuing in the vein of saying things out loud that both of them knew. "And so is Troy."
"So is Jeff," Abed added, unsure where this was going.
"And Pierce," agreed Annie softly.
Abed thought about asking what was up, but before he came to a decision, Annie sighed again, burrowing even further into Abed's side, resting her head fully on top of his shoulder and taking his hand. Abed knew his shoulders were somewhat boney -- all of him was -- but Annie seemed comfortable as she murmured, a little sadly, "It's nice to have family."
Abed studied their joined hands. Her skin was so much paler than his, and softer -- he knew girls generally had softer hands, but Annie's were among the most unblemished of any he had observed, except for the one callus she always had from holding a pen. He shifted their grip, then slid the plastic heart ring off of Annie's unresisting hand and onto his own finger. He looked down at her again, and though he couldn't see her whole face, he thought she was probably smiling tiredly.
Abed felt a vibration in his sweater pocket, accompanied by the once unfamiliar text-message tone of his phone. A split second later, he registed that everyone else's tone had gone off too -- he had them all memorized -- even Britta's who was just approaching the other four. He glanced around curiously as he pulled his phone from his pocket to reveal the words "ONE NEW MESSAGE: JEFF WINGER." Sliding his eyes side to side, he saw that Annie and Troy's phones were displaying similar captions, and assumed the same of Shirley and Britta, who had now taken a seat at the end of the couch and settled onto Shirley's shoulder just as Annie had been settled onto Abed's.
Abed read through the text quickly.
It might not shock you guys to hear the real reason we had a fight today. It wasn't about the Barenaked Ladies (although I do have some unresolved issues there). Caring about a person can be scary. Caring about six people can be a horrifying, embarrassing nightmare, at least for me. But if I can't say it today, when can I say it? I love you guys. Oh, and Pierce, take it from an expert, these knuckleheads are right outside your heart. Let them in before it's too late.
Abed glanced to his left. Britta, Shirley, and Troy were still gazing at their cell phone screens. Shirley was nodding along as she read and all three of them looked newly serene. Abed turned his gaze back to his own phone briefly.
I love you guys.
Looking to his right, Abed saw that Annie was positively beaming at the words on her screen as the soft, tinkly piano music of the last song drew to a cadence. The five occupants of the couch looked at each other uncertainly but happily as the regular fluorescent lighting of the cafeteria replaced the dimmed version used to set the mood. Abed handed Annie her ring back, which she placed on the table next to her before she stood up.
"Troy, do you need a ride home?"
Troy glanced around. "Aw, man, did Pierce leave without me?"
"I think so," answered Abed for her.
Troy grumbled as he pulled himself to his feet and then offered a hand to one of Shirley's as Britta offered the other so they could help pull her off the couch, "That dude is lucky I just got put in a better mood."
"Come on, I'll take you," said Annie kindly, taking out her keys. "I kind of want to talk to Pierce anyway."
"You do?" said Britta skeptically, and Annie turned a light shade of pink before saying defiantly, "Yes."
"He's probably passed out already," warned Troy. "And believe me when I say you do not want to be anywhere near him if he starts having a night terror."
Annie shrugged. "I'll take my chances."
With that settled, the group meandered through the cafeteria doors and through the parking lot. Shirley and Britta split off in the direction of their cars after fond "goodnights," leaving Annie and Troy lingering with Abed. Annie had her phone out again.
"Are you texting Jeff back?" asked Abed.
"Nope," answered Annie quickly, and slid her phone back into her purse.
"That's probably a good idea," commented Abed. "The fact that he sent us all that text is less of a sign that he needed to say it to us all as soon as possible, and more a sign that he's still not ready to admit he cares about us to our faces. He'll probably pretend like it ever happened when we all see him next."
Annie looked troubled again, and Abed figured out too late that it was the wrong thing to say. Luckily Troy jumped in with "But that doesn't mean he didn't mean it, right Abed?"
Abed nodded and Annie looked appeased. She wrapped her arms around Abed tightly. Abed wondered if the exponential increase in the amount of hugs he'd gotten in that evening was due to the holiday. "I love you," Annie whispered in his ear, and Abed reflected on the similar increase in the amount of times someone had said that to him in the evening as well, before he thought to say back, "Love you too, Annie."
When Annie pulled back her gaze was fixed over Abed's shoulder and she smirked a bit before saying loudly, "Come on, Troy, let's go home," and pointedly wrapping her arm around Troy's waist. Troy looked at her a bit quizically before draping his own arm around her shoulder, raising his eyebrows at Abed, and the two strolled off into the parking lot.
Abed turned to head back to the dorms, but was immediately met by the sight of the brunette who had been dancing with Dr. Rich. "Hi," she said breathlessly.
"Hi," said Abed.
"Fun dance, huh?"
"Yeah, it was good."
"I'm not quite ready to call it a night yet," she said, grinning. "You want to get a drink?"
"Okay," Abed shrugged. "You ever been to the Ballroom?"
Next: Chapter 6B.