nothing to say but the things i know by Cereal (R)

[ishie]

Fandom: COMMUNITY
Pairing: Jeff/Britta
Length: 8k
Author on LJ: cereal
Author Website: Tagged on LJ
Why this must be read:

This is one of the first fics I read for Community and the one I return to most often. It was written during the first season's winter hiatus, when some of the character dynamics still hadn't quite gelled, but cereal has a deft hand at filling in even the barest of sketches. Well, and it helps that it combines two of the tropes I love best: roommates and fake dating.

The following 30 seconds are kind of a blur, but she remembers throwing open the sliding glass door, pitching herself onto the floor and then kicking her feet wildly to get her boots off, like maybe there's a rat in there.

Then, before she even realizes it, she's calling Jeff from her cell phone and Abed on her house phone and screaming into both receivers. Her logic, in retrospect, was probably along the lines of: Jeff's tall and can stomp on rats? And Abed could probably play them a song on a piccolo and they'd follow him. Or something like that.

Abed doesn't pick up, but Jeff does. Like any normal, calm person, she starts yelling: "RATS! RATS! My fucking apartment is infested with RATS!"

The part of her that's still just slightly in control is expecting him to make fun of her and then go back to practicing smirking in his wall-sized mirror (well, not really, but sometimes she holds onto that image of Jeff because it's easier to pretend he's like that than to think about feelings).

Instead he says: "Pack a bag, I'll be there in 10."

She can't even get anything out, not a warning that she won't be sleeping with him, not a disavowal of this as the "damsel-in-distress" archetype, nothing.

nothing to say but the things i know