Fic | That’s Poignant. Right? | Jeff/Annie
I did a Community fic. I'm not quite sure about it to be honest, but I hope you enjoy anyway!
That’s Poignant. Right?
Jeff/Annie
PG-13, ~1800 words
My gratitude to firthgal for the beta.
"Man is a collection of base animal urges. To act on them, and experience sinful pleasure, would be morally no different than taking a breath."
Academic Year 2009-2010
The Human Being © is recognized as the official Greendale mascot.
("Pierce you can't copyright human beings."
"No Britta, you can't. But you can copyright
The Human Being. I know. Jeff told me.")
He feels her hands first turning his face around, and then she's kissing him, and then he's kissing her, and it's just instinct to drop Simmons and grab her. Except then, instead of coming closer she's gone. She's standing back talking, and he was kissing her and now he's not, and that's upsetting. Slowly, sense and a coherence beyond the level of a five year old who just lost his toy returns to him, and he realizes, she kissed him. Even later outside, they're awkward because he can't quite get over the fact that he and Annie kissed. And it was good, and really he thought she'd be all virginal and stuff (not that he ever actually thinks about her, nope) but no, she knows something, because seriously, that was not a first kiss. It's kind of weird though, because she's 19 and he's… not, and really he should just stop thinking about her. But, the thought keeps coming back to taunt him, they kissed. He can't quite get over that part.
Academic Year 2010-2011
Community college Spanish teacher accused of trying
to strangle a student in his second year class.
Academic Year 2010-2011
Senor Ben Chang takes a two-month sabbatical.
Annie and Troy. Troy and Annie. Annie and Troy, Jeff decides, sounds better. If that horrible, horrible mess of a combination has to be mentioned, it should be Annie and Troy. Troy and Annie sounds too much like they're waiting for a shared last name on the end, and that's ridiculous. (He ignores, pointedly, that one time last year when he found Annie pouring over a notebook from high school that apparently she knew her “English teacher said that, and Professor Duncan would love it" and there in the corner, incongruous, with all the rigidly ordered notes was an "Annie Barnes." He'd teased her then, she'd blushed and finally said something about her being sure Britta's name was encircled with hearts somewhere in his Spanish notes. He'd denied this, obviously.)
It took Annie six years of her life to get the guy. Jeff should be happy for her, because they're friends. (And he really stresses and draws out friends in his mind 'cause that is Totally. What. They. Are.) He looks up from his Spanish textbook to see Annie and Troy sitting across from him in the study group room, Troy's arm is around the back of her chair and she's leaning into him in a way that lacks any self-consciousness; the way she usually leans into Jeff, not Troy. And Jeff wonders what the hell it means that he even notices that. Honestly, why is he thinking about Annie at all? He tries to focus on the blonde-ness of Britta.
Academic Year 2011-2012
Local Greendale Student is given a five million dollar
grant for a film project of his choosing.
("Wow, really Abed?"
"Well, I figure if my films tell the future, I can make
the future as well as divine it.")
For her twenty-first birthday party they get her drunk. Drunk drunk. Somehow Jeff is the only one halfway sober enough to get her home. She rests heavily against him, but it doesn't bother him. She's tiny and they're friends and so what if the press of her breast into his side feels ridiculously good for something that's so fucking simple?
She's so lazy and uncoordinated that it falls to him to buckle her in. He finds himself stuck leaning over her for a second and he's aware that her gaze, still strong and determined, is upon him. He looks at her for a second and is just about to kiss her when a look of confusion crosses her face. "I can't go home," she says. He's still kind of stuck on the plumpness of her lips and he kind of thinks, it's okay, I’m not homeless anymore. Then she explains, "my parents." It hits him in the gut and he pulls back. He crouches down by the side of the car, her eyes following him, "You're 21 now. It's okay."
She shakes her head adamantly.
"Annie," he begins, a grand and perfect argument on his lips.
"You don't know where I live," she says cutting off his grandiose ideas. "You can't take me home." She manages to sound uptight despite the liters of alcohol running through her system.
He ponders this predicament for a moment before he makes a lunge for her handbag.
There's a gasp when she realizes what he’s doing. Her lips purse in determination as she tries to get her handbag back from him. They’re far too close now and there’s just the stupid, stupid, too small bag between them and like any minute he's gonna end up kissing Annie and then Chris Hansen will pop up out of the bushes with that nut Senor Chang and why is he even thinking about Senor Chang? Probably because he often associates Senor Chang with To Catch a Predator. And while all these thoughts of men he really doesn't want to be thinking about crosses through his mind she cocks her head to the side and says, "please Jeff," her lips stretch into a small lazy, drunk smile, "don't take me home."
Just when he thought he was finding an antidote to her tears she finds a new way to make him her total bitch.
He pulls back from the car, takes a deep breath of the night air to steady himself; he knows he won't sleep with her, won't even kiss her, not tonight anyway, but he won't take her home either.
As he lays her down in his bed for the night she reaches her hands out to him. He deftly avoids them and pulls back until one pale hand fists in the bottom of his shirt. He looks down at her, the lights from the street making her skin seem ridiculously pale. "You know why I broke up with Troy?" She asks, her words still slurred but there is a quiet intensity in them.
Jeff shakes his head slowly.
"You're a better kisser."
He isn't entirely sure what that means, but deep down inside he's pretty sure he's lost a battle when he can't help but think "TAKE THAT T-BONE." Really, since when did he get into competitions with 21 year old guys nicknamed T-Bone? (And somewhere deeper still there's a little army doing a victory dance, with trumpets and everything.)
Academic Year 2012-2013
Professor Ian Duncan was found guilty of a DUI & is now serving
one hundred hours of community service. And a ten thousand dollar
fine for a contempt of court charge at having blamed his drinking on 9/11.
"So."
"So."
There's a comfortable silence while they sit and watch the campus. Finally, she breaks it, "you get to go right back to being a lawyer?"
He gives a brittle laugh, "not quite that easy."
She nods.
He looks over to her. Her hair is down. He tries to picture her that first day in that fake study group that somehow became not fake. She's the same but she's not. She got the guy she wanted in high school; she dumped the guy she wanted in high school. She had, he knew, two more finals and then he was reasonably sure she was graduating with a 3.9 average (Ian never could quite forgive her for that whole Abed incident. Jeff wonders vaguely if he ever said thank you to Annie for giving him that tape) and Senor Chang could never quite forgive her for existing; so she was still an over achiever, but she had done it without pills, even more than that she had managed to do it and relax some. She no longer felt compelled to torture teachers into giving her endless amounts of extra credit, and when a professor gave her a B on a test last semester she was only in hysterics for like 15 minutes (after going over everything so that she never made the mistake again, it was discovered to be a grading error, Annie's record was unblemished). Her hair had slowly been down more and more often since the day of the debate. He tells himself he had nothing to do with it but he still feels a bit of pleasure at the fact that she had asked him then, he had been there when that first tangible bit of over-the-top-hysterical-Annie became this kind-of-human-only-slightly-too-high-strung-to-be-completely-normal-Annie. "What are you going to do?" He finds himself asking.
"Well, I'm looking at some positions for social workers until I find a good master's program."
"Right." He nods; he knows this. He isn't entirely sure how he knows it, but he does. It is just that osmosis of seeing everyone five days a week for four years. He knows her life plans. (Which thankfully no longer include little Troy and Annie babies, and really he thinks Starburns slipped something into the cafeteria food that day 'cause otherwise why would he have had those horrible nightmares of axe wielding babies with Troy's face and Annie's hair? Seriously, that was scary.) He's pretty sure she knows his plans, so it hits him to wonder why she asked. He looks at her again. She's staring at him with that really intense gaze that always kind of scares him.
"Jeff," she begins.
He feels like he should know what is coming.
"I've been thinking."
He hates not getting a situation that he is apparently a part of.
"Would you like to get a coffee with me?"
He opens his mouth to say "yeah, duh." Before he can reply though he wonders why the hell she had to think about that. It wasn't like it was an odd occurrence. Then slowly his mouth opens. "Oooooh," is what comes out.
Annie looks at him for one moment and then grabs her bag, muttering things about "stupid," and "bad idea," and how "she should've known," and she won't stop talking. So Jeff kisses her because she's right there, and really he's been wanting to pay her back for that debate for a while now. She's still completely still. He pulls back.
There's yet more silence before Annie smiles. "So is that a yes on the coffee?"
"It's an ‘I don't give a damn about caffeine right now.’ And I really want to do something that’s morally no different than taking a breath.”
That’s Poignant. Right?
Jeff/Annie
PG-13, ~1800 words
My gratitude to firthgal for the beta.
"Man is a collection of base animal urges. To act on them, and experience sinful pleasure, would be morally no different than taking a breath."
Academic Year 2009-2010
The Human Being © is recognized as the official Greendale mascot.
("Pierce you can't copyright human beings."
"No Britta, you can't. But you can copyright
The Human Being. I know. Jeff told me.")
He feels her hands first turning his face around, and then she's kissing him, and then he's kissing her, and it's just instinct to drop Simmons and grab her. Except then, instead of coming closer she's gone. She's standing back talking, and he was kissing her and now he's not, and that's upsetting. Slowly, sense and a coherence beyond the level of a five year old who just lost his toy returns to him, and he realizes, she kissed him. Even later outside, they're awkward because he can't quite get over the fact that he and Annie kissed. And it was good, and really he thought she'd be all virginal and stuff (not that he ever actually thinks about her, nope) but no, she knows something, because seriously, that was not a first kiss. It's kind of weird though, because she's 19 and he's… not, and really he should just stop thinking about her. But, the thought keeps coming back to taunt him, they kissed. He can't quite get over that part.
Academic Year 2010-2011
Community college Spanish teacher accused of trying
to strangle a student in his second year class.
Academic Year 2010-2011
Senor Ben Chang takes a two-month sabbatical.
Annie and Troy. Troy and Annie. Annie and Troy, Jeff decides, sounds better. If that horrible, horrible mess of a combination has to be mentioned, it should be Annie and Troy. Troy and Annie sounds too much like they're waiting for a shared last name on the end, and that's ridiculous. (He ignores, pointedly, that one time last year when he found Annie pouring over a notebook from high school that apparently she knew her “English teacher said that, and Professor Duncan would love it" and there in the corner, incongruous, with all the rigidly ordered notes was an "Annie Barnes." He'd teased her then, she'd blushed and finally said something about her being sure Britta's name was encircled with hearts somewhere in his Spanish notes. He'd denied this, obviously.)
It took Annie six years of her life to get the guy. Jeff should be happy for her, because they're friends. (And he really stresses and draws out friends in his mind 'cause that is Totally. What. They. Are.) He looks up from his Spanish textbook to see Annie and Troy sitting across from him in the study group room, Troy's arm is around the back of her chair and she's leaning into him in a way that lacks any self-consciousness; the way she usually leans into Jeff, not Troy. And Jeff wonders what the hell it means that he even notices that. Honestly, why is he thinking about Annie at all? He tries to focus on the blonde-ness of Britta.
Academic Year 2011-2012
Local Greendale Student is given a five million dollar
grant for a film project of his choosing.
("Wow, really Abed?"
"Well, I figure if my films tell the future, I can make
the future as well as divine it.")
For her twenty-first birthday party they get her drunk. Drunk drunk. Somehow Jeff is the only one halfway sober enough to get her home. She rests heavily against him, but it doesn't bother him. She's tiny and they're friends and so what if the press of her breast into his side feels ridiculously good for something that's so fucking simple?
She's so lazy and uncoordinated that it falls to him to buckle her in. He finds himself stuck leaning over her for a second and he's aware that her gaze, still strong and determined, is upon him. He looks at her for a second and is just about to kiss her when a look of confusion crosses her face. "I can't go home," she says. He's still kind of stuck on the plumpness of her lips and he kind of thinks, it's okay, I’m not homeless anymore. Then she explains, "my parents." It hits him in the gut and he pulls back. He crouches down by the side of the car, her eyes following him, "You're 21 now. It's okay."
She shakes her head adamantly.
"Annie," he begins, a grand and perfect argument on his lips.
"You don't know where I live," she says cutting off his grandiose ideas. "You can't take me home." She manages to sound uptight despite the liters of alcohol running through her system.
He ponders this predicament for a moment before he makes a lunge for her handbag.
There's a gasp when she realizes what he’s doing. Her lips purse in determination as she tries to get her handbag back from him. They’re far too close now and there’s just the stupid, stupid, too small bag between them and like any minute he's gonna end up kissing Annie and then Chris Hansen will pop up out of the bushes with that nut Senor Chang and why is he even thinking about Senor Chang? Probably because he often associates Senor Chang with To Catch a Predator. And while all these thoughts of men he really doesn't want to be thinking about crosses through his mind she cocks her head to the side and says, "please Jeff," her lips stretch into a small lazy, drunk smile, "don't take me home."
Just when he thought he was finding an antidote to her tears she finds a new way to make him her total bitch.
He pulls back from the car, takes a deep breath of the night air to steady himself; he knows he won't sleep with her, won't even kiss her, not tonight anyway, but he won't take her home either.
As he lays her down in his bed for the night she reaches her hands out to him. He deftly avoids them and pulls back until one pale hand fists in the bottom of his shirt. He looks down at her, the lights from the street making her skin seem ridiculously pale. "You know why I broke up with Troy?" She asks, her words still slurred but there is a quiet intensity in them.
Jeff shakes his head slowly.
"You're a better kisser."
He isn't entirely sure what that means, but deep down inside he's pretty sure he's lost a battle when he can't help but think "TAKE THAT T-BONE." Really, since when did he get into competitions with 21 year old guys nicknamed T-Bone? (And somewhere deeper still there's a little army doing a victory dance, with trumpets and everything.)
Academic Year 2012-2013
Professor Ian Duncan was found guilty of a DUI & is now serving
one hundred hours of community service. And a ten thousand dollar
fine for a contempt of court charge at having blamed his drinking on 9/11.
"So."
"So."
There's a comfortable silence while they sit and watch the campus. Finally, she breaks it, "you get to go right back to being a lawyer?"
He gives a brittle laugh, "not quite that easy."
She nods.
He looks over to her. Her hair is down. He tries to picture her that first day in that fake study group that somehow became not fake. She's the same but she's not. She got the guy she wanted in high school; she dumped the guy she wanted in high school. She had, he knew, two more finals and then he was reasonably sure she was graduating with a 3.9 average (Ian never could quite forgive her for that whole Abed incident. Jeff wonders vaguely if he ever said thank you to Annie for giving him that tape) and Senor Chang could never quite forgive her for existing; so she was still an over achiever, but she had done it without pills, even more than that she had managed to do it and relax some. She no longer felt compelled to torture teachers into giving her endless amounts of extra credit, and when a professor gave her a B on a test last semester she was only in hysterics for like 15 minutes (after going over everything so that she never made the mistake again, it was discovered to be a grading error, Annie's record was unblemished). Her hair had slowly been down more and more often since the day of the debate. He tells himself he had nothing to do with it but he still feels a bit of pleasure at the fact that she had asked him then, he had been there when that first tangible bit of over-the-top-hysterical-Annie became this kind-of-human-only-slightly-too-high-strung-to-be-completely-normal-Annie. "What are you going to do?" He finds himself asking.
"Well, I'm looking at some positions for social workers until I find a good master's program."
"Right." He nods; he knows this. He isn't entirely sure how he knows it, but he does. It is just that osmosis of seeing everyone five days a week for four years. He knows her life plans. (Which thankfully no longer include little Troy and Annie babies, and really he thinks Starburns slipped something into the cafeteria food that day 'cause otherwise why would he have had those horrible nightmares of axe wielding babies with Troy's face and Annie's hair? Seriously, that was scary.) He's pretty sure she knows his plans, so it hits him to wonder why she asked. He looks at her again. She's staring at him with that really intense gaze that always kind of scares him.
"Jeff," she begins.
He feels like he should know what is coming.
"I've been thinking."
He hates not getting a situation that he is apparently a part of.
"Would you like to get a coffee with me?"
He opens his mouth to say "yeah, duh." Before he can reply though he wonders why the hell she had to think about that. It wasn't like it was an odd occurrence. Then slowly his mouth opens. "Oooooh," is what comes out.
Annie looks at him for one moment and then grabs her bag, muttering things about "stupid," and "bad idea," and how "she should've known," and she won't stop talking. So Jeff kisses her because she's right there, and really he's been wanting to pay her back for that debate for a while now. She's still completely still. He pulls back.
There's yet more silence before Annie smiles. "So is that a yes on the coffee?"
"It's an ‘I don't give a damn about caffeine right now.’ And I really want to do something that’s morally no different than taking a breath.”