Work Text:
Abed and Troy, it turns out, are both afraid of thunderstorms. Annie knows this because at one-thirty in the morning, long after any reasonable person should be in bed, someone starts pounding frantically on her door. At first, in her muzzy state, she mistakes it for some weird new kind of thunder she's never heard before, but then the yelling starts, and as far as she knows thunderstorms haven't learned to talk yet.
"Annie, wake up. This is important!" That's Abed, and there's the slightest edge of anxiety in his voice.
"Annie, Annie Annie Annie, wake up, Annie, hurry!" And Troy, because he's Troy, sounds like he's pretty much switched into full-on panic mode.
"Alright, alright, I'm coming," Annie groans, pushing herself out of bed. She's pretty sure if she doesn't open the door they're never going to let her sleep. "Hold your horses!"
When she opens the door, Abed is clutching a pillow to his chest so tight that Annie thinks it might pop and Troy is wrapped in a Batman snuggie that she's pretty sure is actually Abed's and looks like he's seconds away from crying.
"Please tell me you guys are not seriously scared of thunderstorms," Annie says.
"I'm not afraid," Abed says, and Annie would find that a lot more believable if he hadn't just woke her up in the middle of the night because of it. "I find the booming noises and bright flashes of light startling and uncomfortable, which isn't the same thing as being afraid. Also in the unlikely event of a disaster, your room is structurally more sound than the blanket fort."
"I'm scared of thunderstorms," Troy announces.
"Troy's scared of thunderstorms," Abed repeats, helpfully.
"Come on, you guys can't seriously expect me to–"
A loud crash of thunder interrupts her. The whole room flickers bright white for a moment, and before Annie can even register what's happening Troy is shoving past her to fling himself on her bed.
"Troy has the right idea," Abed says. "Neuroscientists have done studies to show that most fears are lessened when surrounded by comforting stimuli, such as pillows and blankets or close friends."
"Okay, fine," Annie sighs, because she's pretty sure there's no winning this one anyway. "But just this once, because I am not letting you guys do this every time there's a thunder storm."
Annie is pretty sure neither of them heard anything after 'okay'. She hasn't even finished talking before Abed has scurried onto the bed next to Troy. She ends up crawling up on Troy's other side, both because Abed doesn't like being in the middle and because Troy is easily the most afraid, and three years ago she probably would have been scandalized by the idea of letting two boys sleep in the same bed with her but this is Troy and Abed and she can't really bring herself to feel uncomfortable around them.
The next thunder clap is loud enough to startle even Annie. Her alarm clock and her nightlight – which is only so that she can see when she has to get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night because Annie is definitely not afraid of the dark, not even a little – both flicker on and off for a few moments before finally staying off.
Troy is clutching onto the blankets for his life. "Uh, guys, the power just went off," Troy says frantically. "What if it never comes back on? What if we can't watch TV anymore? What if this ends up like that show on ABC I can never get through an episode of because I always get bored in the first ten minutes?"
Abed is making that high-pitched whine that means he’s seconds away from having a total meltdown.
"Troy, Abed, it’s going to be fine." Annie squeezes Troy's hand. "Power outages happen all the time. We're not going to turn into a post-apocalyptic dystopia. The power will probably be back on in a few seconds."
Right on cue, her her nightlight and alarm clock flicker back to life.
"See? It's back on already." She snuggles back down into the pillows and yawns. "Just try to go to sleep, okay guys? It's late and I'm really tired."
Eventually, by some miraculous stroke of fate, the thunder and lightning seem to fade off into rain and Troy and Abed finally drift off into sleep.
When Annie wakes up, she's curled up against Troy's back, who's sort of wrapped around Abed like an octopus and snoring into his shoulder, and Annie's pretty sure they're not going to listen to what she said about this being just this once, but that's okay because she probably won't mind that much next time anyway.