Reunion (And What Comes After)

Something Wrong

[AN: This chapter is written in split perspectives from Abed and Troy!]

After the fiasco at the frozen yogurt shop, things slowly started settling into a new kind of normal. Troy re-enrolled at Greendale. He, Abed, Britta, Annie, Shirley, and Chang continued taking classes there while Jeff and the Dean taught (well, taught was a strong word as neither of them were actually doing much teaching). After about a week of this new routine, Abed began to notice something strange.
He had noted the distance between him and Abed, of course he had, but he had assumed the gap between the two of them would eventually be bridged, and the pair would be as close as ever. But nearly two weeks had passed now since Troy got home and Abed still couldn't read him like he used to be able to. It worried him. What if the time apart had changed their friendship so much it could never be like it used to be?
'or maybe', some small, forbidden part of Abed whispered. 'Maybe it has something to do with the way you feel when you hold his hand. Maybe he knows about it and it's making him act weird.'
Abed tried his hardest to ignore the voice, but a lingering doubt niggled at the back of his mind. What if Troy COULD sense how Abed felt and it was making him uncomfortable?
But the largest, most sensible part of his brain told him that was outrageous. There was no reason for Troy to be uncomfortable, because there were no feelings for him to sense! He loved Troy, obviously, he was Abed's best friend, but not like that. End of story.
Right as he was reassuring himself that he had absolutely no feelings for Troy, his best friend walked through and gave him an adorable smile. Abed felt his heart shoot up to his throat. Ok, so maybe he did have feelings for Troy. But it wasn't like it could go anywhere. Troy was straight...right?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TROY'S POINT OF VIEW~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Abed was acting weird. Troy knew him better than anyone else and he could tell that something was up. And so, he developed a plan to figure out what was up with him. The next day, he pretended to be sick and said that he would stay home from school. Once Abed, Annie and Britta left for Greendale, he jumped off the couch and he hurried into his and Abed's room. They had been sleeping on their old bunk beds since Troy got back. Abed had kept them and continued sleeping on his bunk, saying it was because 'there's no point in buying a whole new bed' just because he was sleeping alone now. Troy had a small suspicion that it also had something to do with the fact that Abed had missed him and the bunk beds made him feel closer to Troy. He realized that he was just standing in the middle of the bedroom with his mouth slightly open, lost in his thoughts. He shook himself back to reality.
He was there to look for whatever it was that Abed was hiding. Whatever it was that was making him act so different, so unlike himself. "If I were Abed and I wanted to hide a secret from my best friend, where would I put it?" he wondered aloud. He began opening drawers and peeking under the bed and furniture. After a few minutes of fruitless searching, he finally got an idea. He hadn't looked in the closet yet. He flung open the doors and looked behind and beneath all of the clothes. There was nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. He stood on his tip toes and looked on the shelf at the very top of the closet. There was a large box up there, labeled 'LETTERS'.
He didn't know what it was, and so he grabbed it and pulled it down. It came flying off the shelf, lighter than he expected, and the contents spilled all over the room. The box contained hundreds of pieces of folded paper. Letters. Troy picked one up off the ground. "Dear Troy," it read. "You've been gone 3 months now and I miss you so much. only 9 more until you come home. it might be a relatively small number, but to me it seems like an eternity, because it is time spent without my best friend. I hope that you are safe and you haven't gotten into trouble out there on the ocean, but I really have no way of knowing whether or not you are ok. If there is a god out there, and if he has any mercy at all, he will make sure you are safe. Love, Abed."
Troy was stunned. They were letters, from Abed to him. And if he wasn't mistaken, it really seemed like they were... love letters. He picked up a second letter from the floor. The format was mostly the same.
"Dear Troy, It's been 27 weeks since I last saw you. That's almost 7 months. It feels like it has been so much longer, but also like I just saw you yesterday. You should be more than halfway done now, if you aren't dead. I saw a story on the news about pirates attacking boats near where you should be. I really hope they don't attack your boat. I hope you're ok because I don't know what I would do without you. Maybe that's selfish of me, but I really don't. I know you had to leave, to be your own person, but I'm sad to say that I don't know how to be MY own person. I used to be just weird abed, but then I met you, and we were Troy and Abed, and no one hated me because I was weird. They loved me because I was with you. It seems like the rest of the group is trying their hardest to forget about you, but I never could. No one talks about you and I don't remember the last time I heard your name. I can barely remember what it was like to hug you. I miss you more than anything. Love, Abed."
Troy was crying a little bit at this point, but he still picked up a third letter.
"Dear Troy, 22 weeks. That's how long you've been gone. And we are not even halfway through yet. The school is getting sold to Subway, unless we find some magical way to save it in the next few days, before the sale is final. But it's not likely. We fixed the school so well that now they can make more money by selling it then by keeping it. And so they are. Chang betrayed the group again, for the last time (can I even call it a group without you here?). Jeff and Britta are planning to get married, but everyone else knows it will be a train wreck. It's a horrible idea for a spin off, not to mention they are too similar to work well together. I hate wedding episodes. Too much emotional complexity. Too little action. But they'll probably get into a fight and call off the wedding within a couple hours. I don't know what we'll do with ourselves after they sell Greendale. Its been our home for the past 5 years. Even without you, it's still my home. Jeff has gotten an offer to teach 'sandwich law' at the subway sandwich university. We don't know if he'll take it yet. I don't know what I hope he'll do. Well, wish us luck, I guess. Love, Abed
Troy stood there in shock. Here was everything that Abed had told him about, in real time, encapsulated in letters from him to Troy.
He was still in disbelief about what he was seeing when he heard the sound of keys in the door. "Shit," he whispered, scrambling to pick up the letters that were everywhere. He heard the front door swing open and the sound of Abed's footsteps. "Troy," his best friend called. "I forgot my... Troy?" The footsteps paused. "Where are you?" Troy was still struggling to fit the letters back into the box when he saw the doorknob start to turn...