The truth is lots of girls like me because, let's face it, I'm pretty adorable, and, uh, my aloofness unconsciously reminds them of their fathers, so... I'm more used to them approaching me."

Abed's words came back to haunt him as he spent yet another night lying awake, listening to the soft sound of Troy's breathing, and the even softer, sweeter sound of Annie sleeping, muffled though it was by the dividing wall.

He wasn't sure when he had started feeling this way. It must have been after Annie broke him in the dreamatorium, when she taught him empathy and helped him to work through some of his own self-doubt. He had made her his favourite food, afterward, flexing the muscles of this new technique, this empathy that would help make his life easier.

Except it hadn't.

This empathy gave way to a strange feeling of longing, a burning rock in his stomach. It felt uncomfortable, and made him want to shriek and withdraw from the world. Maybe then, Annie would realize that there was something wrong with him, something that she could help fix. That was cowardly, though, thought Abed as he focused on the rhythmic sleep patterns of his two best friends. If this was going to work... he needed to do it well.

He thought of Annie, in her adorable pajamas. He had snuck in to watch her sleep more than once, until she had caught him with a camera, trying to get a shot of her waking up. She had called him creepy, but wasn't that what the love interest of those awful twilight books had done? He didn't understand how she could find a character in a book endearing, and yet, when her best friend and roommate did it in real life, he was a pervert? Even empathy could not help him with this question.

His head full of confusion, and so he left his bed, left the blanket fort that he shared with his best friend, and went and sat in his recliner in the dark.

"I want to chase after Annie." He whispered to himself.

Annie had never approached him as more than a friend, as far as he could tell. He thought back to all they had done together- the paintball kiss, Don Draper, how he had forgiven her for breaking his batman movie, her saying she wasn't in love with Jeff but just in love with the idea of being loved.

His rationality said that Annie treated a lot of people this way- Jeff, Troy, Britta, Vaughn. Something about that list bothered him, but he ignored it, searching for more reasons he couldn't have what he wanted.

"I don't want to make Annie feel bad." He whispered to himself.

This... empathy meant that he would hurt if she was hurt, he would feel bad if she felt bad. That thought made him anxious. He drew his knees up to his chin, perching his feet on the edge of his recliner, and rocked, softly.

Then something stopped his rocking.

She sat down on Troy's recliner, and held Abed's hand.

"You woke me up when you got up." She whispered, and he froze. Had she heard his whispered confessions?

"Abed... you don't have to chase me. You don't make me feel bad. In fact-" she stood up, "You make me feel wonderful. I couldn't tell if it was just the characters you play, but," she lent over, her face near his, her sweet breath on his cheek, "I know for certain now that it is you."

Then, fumbling in the dark, their lips both tingling like fireworks, their mouths met, softly in practice. Abed felt electricity shoot through his body, from his lips down to his feet, the inside of his brain as soft as the inside of Annie's mouth. So, this was the start of a relationship...

As if she knew what he was thinking, she pulled away, and in the faint light coming from between the curtains, he saw her smile.

"We'll make this work."