Authors Note: What follows was never intended to see the light of day. It was written as part of a personal crusade to try and bring me some closure on the whole 'strangers-friends-best friends- lovers?' dynamic after it had crept into one of my key friendships (No Holly, not you). It was only after it was completed that a friend read it, claimed it was good and pestered me to stick it up here. You kind people can be the judges of that. Many thanks to Woobloo for beta-ing. I hope you realise just how much your Sunday morning email saying "I really like this!" brightened my mood considerably!

All that's left is to say please read, enjoy/ hate and review. Writing FF is not something I've done for a long time. Writing romantic FF is something I've never done. So I'm relying on you kind people to tell me if it's actually any good!

Oh, and the standard disclaimer applies. I own nothing. Shame really.

Beginnings:

'I brought stuff people use for capers… suction cup, credit card, chloroform.

If the credit card doesn't work, the chloroform will.'

They quickly found themselves at Alan's office door.

This was awesome! The first of what he hoped would be many increasingly epic second year capers.

Whilst he waited for one of his partners in crime to tell him the plan he took a moment to take stock of his friends.

Firstly there was Troy.

Troy was by far the best friend he had ever had. Period. He was relieved they had straightened out their misunderstanding from the end of last year. Thankfully the giant cookie had done most of the hard work.

Then there was Annie.

When they had first met he had been pretty certain that they would not spend much time together outside of the Study Group. They just seemed too dissimilar.

He had quickly been proven wrong.

Indeed over the last few months he had found himself spending almost as much time with her as he had Troy, and as they had hung out he had begun to see a completely different side of her. She wasn't the serious straight-laced, book smart girl she had seemed at the beginning. Granted she was some of those things but there was a lot more too her than that. As they had talked, chatted and messed around he had learnt more about her and as strange as it seemed every little thing he had learnt had made him want to get to know her better.

Then there was tonight.

There was something different about her tonight.

The way she was acting, the way she was carrying herself. He didn't see the 'young girl' everyone talked about. He saw an older, more mature, more confident young woman.

Tonight she looked different.

Tonight she looked…

Suddenly he was struck by the feeling that he had just realised something. Something important. Something almost life-changing. He didn't want to call it an epiphany because they didn't happen in real life (or at least not to him anyway) but something had definitely changed.

The only problem was he wasn't sure exactly what that was.

In those few short seconds he found himself getting hot under the collar, his pulse had quickened. It was almost like someone had instantly turned the heating up several notches. He looked to Troy to see if he had felt it too but his best friend seemed oblivious.

He was confused. He tried to rationalise it.

It had happened when he had been thinking about Annie. So she was the key right?

It began to happen again.

So it was something to do with her?

But what?

He wasn't sure, but he'd find out.

'I only know one thing: nobody is this good a person and nobody can get any worse than this…'

His phone vibrated in his pocket.

Text message.

Annie.

'I asked Rich out...'

On reading these four words his body immediately began to react in the strange ways it had recently whenever he was around her: quickening pulse, clammy hands, his stomach turning circles.

He ignored them. He was now pretty sure he knew what they meant. He'd done enough research since their escapade with the chloroform to have a good idea. He'd watched hours of TV shows and films to try and find some similarities with what had happened stood at Alan's office door. When he had found them they had been in the strangest genre …

He stopped himself. He knew his role. He was the one who looked in from the outside. He was the analytical one. He stood aloof. He didn't have feelings like that. He shouldn't have feelings like that.

He read on.

'… he said no. Said he liked me but that I'm too young. How does that even make sense?!'

He sighed. He was genuinely disappointed; he knew how much she liked Rich. He'd listened to her talk about him enough over the last few weeks. It had been practically all she had talked about over the winter break, severed fingers and all.

She'd just sworn him to secrecy so he hadn't told anyone what he knew.

She'd told him secrets. That's how close they had become. He would have trusted her with his if he ever had any.

Deep in his soul, however, he also felt… relieved. He knew this was a strange thing to be feeling. How could he be relieved by one of his best friend's failures? Surely that made him a bad person, and worse, a bad friend? The worse thing he thought he could be was a bad friend to her and yet it wasn't a new concern. It had been bothering him ever since she had first talked about asking the Doctor out.

He grabbed his bag, threw it over his shoulder and headed out the library.

On the steps overlooking the Quad he found Jeff staring out into the rain.

If the evening's events had underpinned one thing in Abed's mind it was that Jeff liked Annie. He was just afraid to admit it. Why else would he have gone to such great lengths to stop Rich joining the group? Despite what had happened today he was also pretty sure that she carried a flame for him too. He had seen the way that she looked at him. The 'googly eyes' as Shirley had called them.

In his own mind he knew it was only matter of time before the two of them realised their mutual attraction and got their act together and started dating. It was the romantic sub-plot of the series. Jeff was the leading man and Annie was the leading lady. After what had happened at the start of the year he knew it wouldn't be soon. But then it never was, was it? Like any good film or TV show couple they would probably wait right till the day of graduation before they finally realised how much they meant to each other.

Then he himself realised something.

He was wrong.

That moment wouldn't be graduation. That moment was right now.

This was that moment.

This was the scene where the leading man realises just how much he is in love with the leading lady and dashes off to win her. It all made sense. It was all set up.

It was it was even raining.

It always rained in those scenes, made it more epic.

Life imitating art.

He was pretty sure he knew how he felt, but at the same time he knew Jeff and Annie belonged together. It was an established order of events and established orders should be respected.

So he did something selfless.

'Annie asked Rich out'

Jeff looked at him.

As was the "done thing" he paused for dramatic effect.

'He said no. Said she was nice, but too young'

Time stopped.

Then his friend ran off into the rain.

He smiled. Something's just weren't worth standing in the way of.

Destiny would always take over.

And he was pretty sure that that was destined.

'In other words it seems we've left the Western motif and are entering more of a Star Wars scenario… I know I wish it had happened sooner too.'

The paint poured down. They had done their part. The library was Greendale's. City College's forces had been decimated. 'Operation Troy's Awesome Plan' had worked and it was now down to Jeff's 'Operation Actual Operation' to win the day.

Right now however he did not care.

Suddenly the bell rang and the paint stopped pouring down.

The illusion was shattered.

He immediately broke off the embrace.

He didn't want too but he knew it was the right thing to do. As good as it had been he knew it couldn't be kept up without the pretence and without the character. The character gave him the reason. He was Han, she was Leia.

Without that character he did not have the reason. And Han had just died.

Yet he had not wanted it to end. He had reached the conclusion that he liked her more than just as a friend. At first he had tried to ignore it but it had refused to go away. So he had bottled it up and promised himself that one day he would build a 'Dreamatorium' and the first simulation he would run would be what would happen if…

Then there had been these past two days. They had shown him, and he hoped, the world, that Annie was no longer a kid. She was an adult. And she was even more awesome than even he had given her credit for.

'Cool' he found himself saying.

He meant it.

As he turned to walk off more than a little part of him felt sad, and as the summer extended before them some regrets followed.

' 'Welcome to Greendale, you're already included'? What losers!'

'Welcome to Greendale...'

'…You're already dead'

The paint poured down. They had done their part. The library was Greendale's. City College's forces had been decimated. 'Operation Troy's Awesome Plan' had worked and it was now down to Jeff's 'Operation Actual Operation' to win the day.

Yet these thoughts were furthest from her mind.

Suddenly the bell rang and the paint stopped.

He quickly broke off the kiss. 'Cool' he said before walking off.

She was left reeling.

What had just happened? Where had that come from? Cool?

In that one crazy moment she had felt closer to him than she had ever done, and in that one crazy moment as their victory had been confirmed it had just felt right.

But it was Abed.

She'd never felt this way about Abed…

Hold on.

Was it even Abed?

Was it not Han?

That's the character he had been playing and he had not broken out of it all day. She had had no feelings for her friend before this. Surely then that meant she had fallen for Han?

Yet she wasn't sure.

Throughout the day he had had her back and stood up for her. He'd put Garrett in his place, put himself in danger when she had been captured by the Black Rider, and then covered her while the paint flew.

But even at those times it had just been him in character right? That's what outlaws would do for each other and it's what Han would do for Leia.

The more she thought about it however, the more she wondered.

Recently she had begun to see a new side of him.

He was funny, he was caring, he was compassionate, he was cool.

Then out of nowhere a rogue thought popped into her head.

He was cute?

'No' she told herself. He was not cute.

She was not attracted to him. She liked Jeff, and she was pretty sure he liked her too. They'd kissed at the Tranny dance. Yeah he had blown her off afterwards but she had (eventually) understood why. There had been this constant tension between them all year. Sure the revelation that he and Britta had been sleeping together had thrown a spanner in the works, but the way she saw it this had obviously meant nothing; as soon as they had been found out they had ended it.

If anyone was 'the one' it was Jeff, and she knew that all she had to do was wait it out.

Their moment would come.