|| ᴍᴜʟᴛɪ-ꜰᴀɴᴅᴏᴍ ᴏɴᴇ-ꜱʜᴏᴛꜱ ||

|| ᴛʀᴏʙᴇᴅ // ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ||

Emotions are incredibly weird, that's a given. But with each day, Abed found himself encountering them more and more often. He'd talked to Annie about this, and she told him that he should get a journal. Abed had considered this before, and even tried it a couple times, but it never did seem to work. But now that he was older and needed it rather than wanted to indulge in it for a sense of normality, he figured he'd likely be able to keep the entries consistent and helpful. That's when he started noticing a pattern in his feelings.

He knew that he found Troy conventionally attractive, I mean, he found lots of people conventionally attractive whether he was attracted to them or not. But he'd subconsciously started jotting down little notes on the sides of his journal entries that expressed his affections for Troy. They said things like "Troy Barnes, my best friend and roommate, is seemingly perfect. While perfectionism is an unobtainable principle, and no-one can truly be perfect, he meets all standards of which I've subsided to equal perfection." or even just simple things, like "Troy looks rather attractive today, more than usual. He also smells like a pillow fresh from the dryer." and "Troy hugged me today. I've never felt more comforted and safe. It was a mere display of affection, but it meant so much more to me than I feel it should've." He hadn't even noticed he was doing it! He just thought these things, and so he wrote them down. It wasn't until he was reading them back aloud that he realized how often he was doing it. This concerned him, as it would most people, and so he decided to bring it up with Annie. 

Abed climbed off of the top bunk quietly, so as not to wake Troy, alas to no success. "Abed? What're you doing? It's two in the morning." He shushed him dismissively, and told him that he was just going to grab a quick drink. Troy nodded and told him to hurry back, and he nodded and quickly tip-toed to Annie's bedroom. "Annie." He whispered as he knocked on her door.  "Abed? Is that you?" The door crept open, and he nodded. "What is it?" She asked, clearly having just woken up. "I need to talk to you." He expressed with eager hesitation. She invited him in and they both sat on her bed. "I've been writing in a journal, like you said." She looked tired and irritated, but urged him to go on. "I think I'm attracted to Troy." Her eyes widened, and she looked stunned. "What?" He elaborated, "I've just been kind-of dumping my thoughts down onto the pages without thinking about it, and apparently I've been writing these notes off to the side about him." She still looked confused, "Show me?" She asked, and he quickly complied.

When she looked at the pages she saw jumbles of words like 'Stressed', 'Confused', 'Connect' and 'Emotions.' But then off to the side, just as Abed had said, were little notes. She read a few aloud, "Recently I've begun to realize that Troy is beautiful. His skin, his eyes, his hands, his soul. Everything about him, visible or not, is truthfully astonishing", "I've started staying up later at night after Troy's fallen asleep to think clearly without interruption, but as I've listened to him snore and mumble, I've noticed just how adorable he really is", "I wonder what holding Troy's hands would feel like.. Or his lips, perhaps. He takes great care of them, so I imagine kissing him is probably similar to the texture of how a cloud may feel", "Falling asleep on the couch next to Troy started as an accident, but I seem to be doing it more and more often. I guess it's just to feel him sleeping beside me. I do, however, long for a day where I don't have to do it accidentally, and I could slumber beside him without question. He makes me feel more comfortable, safe even, he's like a soft pillow that you could befriend on your darkest nights." She was taken aback while she read, almost as if she'd never read something more romantic before. "Abed," She started, "I think you're in love with him." He sighed and threw his head down. "That's what I was afraid you'd say." She looked confused, "Why?" He looked back up at her, "Because Troy likes girls, and he doesn't like me in that way." She smiled, "Can I let you in on a little secret?" He nodded, "He does." It was almost as if Abed's entire pursuit of knowledge had been ripped from his hands and shattered right in front of him, it seemed so simple now. Of course he did. Obviously, Troy was attracted to him, how did he not see it before? It was almost as simple as the obvious fact that Abed was in love with Troy. It seemed as though the only people oblivious to it were Abed and Troy themselves.