"Hey, I was thinking, how about we invite Abed over for Christmas? He's back home for break, but I don't think he's doing anything for the twenty fifth."

Pierce's hand stopped midway to his mouth, toast hanging in mid air. The moment stretched on, and Troy shifted in his seat, wondering exactly what he would do if Pierce stroked out over breakfast. Pierce slowly lowered the toast back to his plate, and Troy tried not to sigh too audibly.

"Didn't we do enough of the Christmas thing with Aybed already? What, did he start hallucinating everyone as sock puppets?"

"Nah, man, I just thought it'd be cool" Troy said. "Hang out, watch some movies and stuff, maybe get drunk and go make snowmen."

"Of course, movies. Always with the movies. But hey, I thought you were too busy killing digital Ruskies. You've been locked up in that room all break."

"Yeah, so it'd be cool to hang out with Abed."

"…Oh."

Damn. The Troy from high school never would have noticed it. The Troy of a year ago might have seen it and let it go. But Troy, the Troy who had been sharing a house with the guy for months, couldn't get over how sad and lonely this old man could manage to look.

"Ooooh, wait, I just remembered, Abed said he had…a…mmmmmosque to go to on Christmas, something like that."

"What, planning the next attack?" Troy wasn't sure if Pierce was joking or legitimately worried.

"…Yeah, I don't know. Anyway, he's busy. Guess it'll just be the two of us."

"Well, I'm sure we'll find something fun to do. We're a couple of cool guys, we can fill our time."

Sure they would. Troy wasn't exactly looking forward to hearing more stories about how great sex was back in Pierce's day (eww), or which one of his ex-wives had called to yell at him most recently. He wasn't looking forward to all of the uncomfortable jokes or references that he was decades too young to get or even care about.

But that wasn't the point. Troy had been willing to spend a day wandering in Abed's fantasy world. He was willing to spend a Christmas in the mansion with the old white man. They were friends, and that's what friends do.

"Hey, Troy, listen to this joke."