Title: Time to Begin
Fandom: Community
Pairing: Annie Edison/Britta Perry
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: #020 Remainder - #001 Begin
Word Count: 600

“My flights at 11:30, Abed’s is just after midnight. He’ll be with Jeff. So that’s another hour before I have to go.”

Annie had been all packed for a week, because of course she had. She’d left the rental agreement, the paperwork and the landlord’s email address with Frankie. Again, of course she had. Britta got – what? The second-best coffee machine and an apartment she couldn’t afford, full of junk she didn’t want? Thanks.

Annie looked around the living room, beaming at the cleaned-out shelves and cardboard boxes marked for charity. “See how much you can get done if you get organized?”

“I would’ve held on to your stuff for you, you know.”

“Oh, it’d just tie you down. So, what do you wanna do?” Annie dropped down next to Britta. Her happiness was infectious. Like a disease. “Last chance for girl talk before I strand you here with the baboons and Frankie.”

“Oh God, don’t remind me.” Britta groaned and flopped back against that awful couch her parents had paid for.

Annie cocked her head and twirled a strand of hair around her finger, her expression mingled – like someone who had just bitten a lemon but liked it? Was that pity? Britta felt bile at the back of her throat, ready to spew out, or be choked on. She shut her lips tight over it, because Annie was leaving. This could be the last time they wcere together, ever.

She opened her arms. Annie slid into the embrace, resting her head on her shoulder. She smelled sweet, like flowers, and a bit like paper. “Anything you need, ever, you can come to me, okay?”

“Or get it from your parents.”

“Don’t,” Britta said, the bile making her throat rasp. “Not now. I mean it. I know I screw up, a lot, but I’d give a fucking limb for you. Okay?”

“Britta, you’d give a limb for a one-eyed—“

“Annie.”

Annie pulled back, big blue eyes inches from Britta’s, framed by a graceful fall of that perfectly brushed hair. She was young and whole and ready for the world, and then she was kissing Britta, dry lips, warm wet tongue.

Britta had just time enough to register what had happened before Annie pulled back again. “Sorry. That was rude. Can I kiss you? I really want to kiss you right now.”

“What?” Britta’s mind was swirling. “Why?”

Annie’s mouth opened and closed, and she began to retreat, and Britta knew instantly she couldn’t let that happen, so she grabbed her arms and pulled her back on top of herself. She landed with a squeak.

Britta was out of breath and shaking with need by the time Annie pulled away again.

“Jeff’s coming to pick us up soon. I gotta get ready.”

The couch bounced as Annie left. Britta curled up over the empty space in her lap. “Annie. Why… What?”

“You’ll figure it out.”

“Annie, you’re leaving and you kissed me and I’m not gay. You’re not gay! Is this, like, the college experience you didn’t get to have yet or, or…”

“Oh, Britta.” Annie buttoned up the top of her shirt. “You are gay. You are so, so gay. I’m bi but you are gay.”

“Are you trying to insult me, or…?”

“Come on, Britta. If Chang can figure it, so can you. Besides, I wanted to kiss you. Even if it was just once.” She gave a cute little shrug. Holy shit. Holy shit.

“I’m a little gay,” Britta admitted, her voice barely audible.

“That’s the spirit.” Annie’s expression melted. “And I love you, too.”

The doorbell rang.