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Advanced Breaking and Entering - Community - Gen (Annie, Abed, Troy) - Words: 1,514
Written for Dark Fest 2012. Prompt: Annie's apartment really isn't safe at all.
Summary: Living above Dildopolis was never easy, but Annie's prepared, or so she thinks.
Content Notes: Fear of assault in a threatening situation. PG-13
Author Notes: Takes place in season three, in between Remedial Chaos Theory and Studies in Modern Movement. Spoilers for those episodes.
On AO3: Advanced Breaking and Entering
Annie's eyes opened though she couldn't immediately place what had woken her. The soft glow of the red neon light below her window cast strange shadows on the ceilings and walls, shadows that had more than once come to life in her dream-mares (not unpleasant enough to be considered nightmares, but not just dreams either). The shadows, outlined in red and shaped like all sorts of horrible creatures, had haunted Annie for the first few months that she'd occupied the apartment. The varied cliental that frequented Dildopolis, the 'marital aid' store that was located beneath her apartment, hadn't helped either.
One evening, after nearly falling asleep from exhaustion during a study session, she'd told Abed about her dream-mares and he, with Troy's help, had made a dream sequence video that made the shadow creatures on her ceiling friendly and interesting. Now when she was falling asleep she remembered the video Abed and Troy had made for her and it was easier to wrap her hand around her canister of pepper spray and curl up under the covers. It reminded her a little bit of her Dad reading stories at night and dutifully checking every corner of her room for lurking monsters, but she tried not to think about that because it reminded her of how long it had been since her Dad had talked to her.
She'd almost fallen back to sleep, her eyes slipping closed as she instinctively rolled onto her left side, when the creak of a floorboard caused her eyes to open wide and her body to freeze. It could simply be someone in the hallway, she heard people passing through at all times of the night and sometimes stepped over them on her way to school in the morning, but she knew that particular creaking sound. That was the sound of the slightly sunken boards right next to her kitchen sink. There was someone inside the apartment.
With one hand latched onto her pepper spray she mentally located her handgun that was placed neatly in the drawer of her nightstand. She'd been practicing at the firing range and while she felt quite confident shooting a paper target she wasn't so sure about a person just yet. The pepper spray had already gotten several uses and this wasn't the first time she'd heard footsteps in her apartment in the middle of the night. She already knew that no one in the building responded to a girl screaming and shrieking as loud as possible for help. She was on her own.
There was a second creak, still near the sink, but then a shadow moved near her closet, at the other end of the room. Annie did everything she could to stop the high pitched noise that wanted to come out of her throat, halfway in between a whimper of fright and a warrior's battle cry. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, channeling her inner Shirley, and slowly drew her knees up under the blankets in what she hoped would look like she was just moving in her sleep. With one person she thought her best bet would be to pepper spray them into submission, lock them in the bathroom, and then call the police. That was what she'd done the last two times even though it had made her entire apartment painfully spicy for days. With two people, one near the exit and one closer to her bed, she needed to choose escape over fighting. She could still use the pepper spray, it would at least hold them off for a moment, but using the techniques she'd been taught in Beginning Karate Moves was probably out. And she kind of thought that their teacher was mostly working out of Jackie Chan movies anyway, but she kept going to the class because it was fun and good exercise at the least - and it made her feel pretty bad-ass.
Now that she was in position, her finger on the pepper spray nozzle, her blankets clutched in one hand and ready to be thrown at the figure that was edging closer to her bed, and her feet ready to launch her off the mattress in one smooth move, Annie counted down from five. She arched up from the bed on number two and threw the blankets over the figure on one, screaming as loud as she could in hopes that she would at least startle her would be attackers.
She had grabbed her cellphone from the nightstand, so she could call the police as soon as she was hiding in the loose air vent in the stairway, and was halfway across the room before she realized that the people in her room were also screaming. And that their voices sounded a little bit familiar. The wall was closer than she'd realized and Annie hit it with a small thump, turning immediately so that her back was against the wall and her pepper spray was aimed, just in case she was wrong. She found the light switch with her hand that was still holding her cellphone and turned on the overhead light.
"Please don't shoot me!" Troy shouted. He was crouched down against a kitchen cabinet and holding his hands over his face in an attempt to prevent himself from being pepper sprayed.
"I should have got that on film. That was the most realistic noir horror film scream I've heard so far. Annie, could you do that again? I could wake you from a sound sleep," Abed said as he pulled he pulled Annie's floral comforter off of his head.
"What are you doing here?" Annie shouted, her voice only increasing in pitch as she rested one hand against her chest to feel her heart as it raced frantically.
"It's our turn," Abed said as though that explained everything.
Annie stared. "Your turn for what?" she asked, one finger still on the trigger of the pepper spray. After the scare they'd given her it would almost serve them right if she did spray them just out of spite.
"We're not supposed to tell you," Abed said.
Annie turned to Troy and folded her arms, giving him the look that worked on Jeff, Shirley and Troy, but strangely not on Britta, Pierce, nor Abed. She still hadn't quite figured out why.
"Jeff arranged it so that someone in the group drives by your apartment every night to make sure you're okay. Abed and I come together when it's our turn. We thought we saw something moving in the window, so we came up to check tonight," Troy said, sounding at least somewhat apologetic. "Sometimes we wear superhero costumes. We were Batman and Robin last week."
"You guys," Annie said, stopping as her voice gave out and tears started to well up in her eyes. "You all did that for me?"
"It's just for another three weeks until your lease is up and you move in with us," Abed said, like that changed anything. "And when you're staying with us, Batman and Robin will be there all the time."
Since Troy was closer, Annie threw her arms around him in a tight hug.
"Drop the pepper spray, drop the pepper spray," Troy said quickly, only relaxing in her hug when the canister clattered to the floor.
She bounded back to Abed, helped him out of the rest of the blankets, gave him a brief hug - brief because Abed wasn't as comfortable with hugs as Troy was - and smiled. "You know what, why don't I just move in this weekend?" she said. Now that her heart had stopped racing and she could think clearly she didn't know why she hadn't thought of that earlier.
"What about your lease?" Troy asked as he sat on the edge of Annie's now unmade bed.
Annie shook her head and pushed her hair away from her face. "It doesn't matter. I'll pay the money for the month and come stay with you. You know, I'm not going back to sleep anytime soon, so why don't we grab the ice cream from the freezer and watch a movie. Butter pecan and Abed can pick the movie," she said, knowing that she covered both Troy and Abed with that statement.
Abed smiled and did his special high five with Troy. "Chick flick night," he said and Troy bounded over to the freezer with as much enthusiasm as a teenage boy going for a tub of ice cream.
"Great," she said, dragging the blankets back onto her bed and setting up the pillows so that they'd all be able to sit up and see her laptop screen.
An hour later she was nestled in between Troy and Abed, three spoons in the carton of ice cream that was sitting on her lap, and feeling safer and more content than she'd ever been. There must have been something about listening Abed whispering along with all of Hugh Grant's lines from Notting Hill while Troy's feet bounced restlessly against her legs. Overall, she thought it was the best break-in ever. She'd miss this apartment.
Written for Dark Fest 2012. Prompt: Annie's apartment really isn't safe at all.
Summary: Living above Dildopolis was never easy, but Annie's prepared, or so she thinks.
Content Notes: Fear of assault in a threatening situation. PG-13
Author Notes: Takes place in season three, in between Remedial Chaos Theory and Studies in Modern Movement. Spoilers for those episodes.
On AO3: Advanced Breaking and Entering
Annie's eyes opened though she couldn't immediately place what had woken her. The soft glow of the red neon light below her window cast strange shadows on the ceilings and walls, shadows that had more than once come to life in her dream-mares (not unpleasant enough to be considered nightmares, but not just dreams either). The shadows, outlined in red and shaped like all sorts of horrible creatures, had haunted Annie for the first few months that she'd occupied the apartment. The varied cliental that frequented Dildopolis, the 'marital aid' store that was located beneath her apartment, hadn't helped either.
One evening, after nearly falling asleep from exhaustion during a study session, she'd told Abed about her dream-mares and he, with Troy's help, had made a dream sequence video that made the shadow creatures on her ceiling friendly and interesting. Now when she was falling asleep she remembered the video Abed and Troy had made for her and it was easier to wrap her hand around her canister of pepper spray and curl up under the covers. It reminded her a little bit of her Dad reading stories at night and dutifully checking every corner of her room for lurking monsters, but she tried not to think about that because it reminded her of how long it had been since her Dad had talked to her.
She'd almost fallen back to sleep, her eyes slipping closed as she instinctively rolled onto her left side, when the creak of a floorboard caused her eyes to open wide and her body to freeze. It could simply be someone in the hallway, she heard people passing through at all times of the night and sometimes stepped over them on her way to school in the morning, but she knew that particular creaking sound. That was the sound of the slightly sunken boards right next to her kitchen sink. There was someone inside the apartment.
With one hand latched onto her pepper spray she mentally located her handgun that was placed neatly in the drawer of her nightstand. She'd been practicing at the firing range and while she felt quite confident shooting a paper target she wasn't so sure about a person just yet. The pepper spray had already gotten several uses and this wasn't the first time she'd heard footsteps in her apartment in the middle of the night. She already knew that no one in the building responded to a girl screaming and shrieking as loud as possible for help. She was on her own.
There was a second creak, still near the sink, but then a shadow moved near her closet, at the other end of the room. Annie did everything she could to stop the high pitched noise that wanted to come out of her throat, halfway in between a whimper of fright and a warrior's battle cry. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, channeling her inner Shirley, and slowly drew her knees up under the blankets in what she hoped would look like she was just moving in her sleep. With one person she thought her best bet would be to pepper spray them into submission, lock them in the bathroom, and then call the police. That was what she'd done the last two times even though it had made her entire apartment painfully spicy for days. With two people, one near the exit and one closer to her bed, she needed to choose escape over fighting. She could still use the pepper spray, it would at least hold them off for a moment, but using the techniques she'd been taught in Beginning Karate Moves was probably out. And she kind of thought that their teacher was mostly working out of Jackie Chan movies anyway, but she kept going to the class because it was fun and good exercise at the least - and it made her feel pretty bad-ass.
Now that she was in position, her finger on the pepper spray nozzle, her blankets clutched in one hand and ready to be thrown at the figure that was edging closer to her bed, and her feet ready to launch her off the mattress in one smooth move, Annie counted down from five. She arched up from the bed on number two and threw the blankets over the figure on one, screaming as loud as she could in hopes that she would at least startle her would be attackers.
She had grabbed her cellphone from the nightstand, so she could call the police as soon as she was hiding in the loose air vent in the stairway, and was halfway across the room before she realized that the people in her room were also screaming. And that their voices sounded a little bit familiar. The wall was closer than she'd realized and Annie hit it with a small thump, turning immediately so that her back was against the wall and her pepper spray was aimed, just in case she was wrong. She found the light switch with her hand that was still holding her cellphone and turned on the overhead light.
"Please don't shoot me!" Troy shouted. He was crouched down against a kitchen cabinet and holding his hands over his face in an attempt to prevent himself from being pepper sprayed.
"I should have got that on film. That was the most realistic noir horror film scream I've heard so far. Annie, could you do that again? I could wake you from a sound sleep," Abed said as he pulled he pulled Annie's floral comforter off of his head.
"What are you doing here?" Annie shouted, her voice only increasing in pitch as she rested one hand against her chest to feel her heart as it raced frantically.
"It's our turn," Abed said as though that explained everything.
Annie stared. "Your turn for what?" she asked, one finger still on the trigger of the pepper spray. After the scare they'd given her it would almost serve them right if she did spray them just out of spite.
"We're not supposed to tell you," Abed said.
Annie turned to Troy and folded her arms, giving him the look that worked on Jeff, Shirley and Troy, but strangely not on Britta, Pierce, nor Abed. She still hadn't quite figured out why.
"Jeff arranged it so that someone in the group drives by your apartment every night to make sure you're okay. Abed and I come together when it's our turn. We thought we saw something moving in the window, so we came up to check tonight," Troy said, sounding at least somewhat apologetic. "Sometimes we wear superhero costumes. We were Batman and Robin last week."
"You guys," Annie said, stopping as her voice gave out and tears started to well up in her eyes. "You all did that for me?"
"It's just for another three weeks until your lease is up and you move in with us," Abed said, like that changed anything. "And when you're staying with us, Batman and Robin will be there all the time."
Since Troy was closer, Annie threw her arms around him in a tight hug.
"Drop the pepper spray, drop the pepper spray," Troy said quickly, only relaxing in her hug when the canister clattered to the floor.
She bounded back to Abed, helped him out of the rest of the blankets, gave him a brief hug - brief because Abed wasn't as comfortable with hugs as Troy was - and smiled. "You know what, why don't I just move in this weekend?" she said. Now that her heart had stopped racing and she could think clearly she didn't know why she hadn't thought of that earlier.
"What about your lease?" Troy asked as he sat on the edge of Annie's now unmade bed.
Annie shook her head and pushed her hair away from her face. "It doesn't matter. I'll pay the money for the month and come stay with you. You know, I'm not going back to sleep anytime soon, so why don't we grab the ice cream from the freezer and watch a movie. Butter pecan and Abed can pick the movie," she said, knowing that she covered both Troy and Abed with that statement.
Abed smiled and did his special high five with Troy. "Chick flick night," he said and Troy bounded over to the freezer with as much enthusiasm as a teenage boy going for a tub of ice cream.
"Great," she said, dragging the blankets back onto her bed and setting up the pillows so that they'd all be able to sit up and see her laptop screen.
An hour later she was nestled in between Troy and Abed, three spoons in the carton of ice cream that was sitting on her lap, and feeling safer and more content than she'd ever been. There must have been something about listening Abed whispering along with all of Hugh Grant's lines from Notting Hill while Troy's feet bounced restlessly against her legs. Overall, she thought it was the best break-in ever. She'd miss this apartment.
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