A/N: This is a silly "what-if" that was inspired from a conversation with parksandfluff about what would happen if instead of giving Tom startup money Andy had taken that apartment in 2x17 - "Woman of the Year." I think it's better what happened in canon, and that Andy giving away what little money he had was vital to A/A and his character. Still, this fic needs to exist. It kinda baffles me that it doesn't already, honestly.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know in the comments :)
For once, April stuck to her word at her own expense and for someone else.
Waking up early, even earlier than she normally considered too much just to get to work, she grumbled her way in the car to the little complex where Andy lived now. The place wasn't a total trainwreck, either. Not that she hadn't already been there a few days before helping Andy move in - though what that amounted to, and little more than moving a few boxes that were surely completely empty, she didn't know - but for whatever reason April thought this was some sort of insane fever dream that she'd boot herself from eventually.
It was only a matter of time before she forgot that this was reality and she drove away, tired of waiting for something that wouldn't come. It only took a few minutes, and her mind did the unfortunate thing of going to many places with what they could do with that time. What they could do. The pang in her heart hurt more than usual, because April knew what they would really be doing: driving. She would come pick him up, and then they'd carpool to work together. That's it.
But what if that wasn't all?
Her brain, malicious in its usual ways, kept reminding her that there was always the chance of something more and likewise dashed those hopes with nervous wonder. Like always, she just considered that hopeless especially after Andy gave her a great, big hug when he signed the lease and she nearly returned it in a way he surely would have hated. He just would have. Sighing, April texts Andy that she's waiting for him - and remembers that she has his number now in a totally normal way that may lead to some regrettable drunk calls at some point. Even inside her car, April's breath was visible and her hands shivered on the steering wheel. Stupid car and its stupid broken heater. She glanced back down at her phone and tapped her feet on the floor of the car again.
Wouldn't it be cool if he just called you, she thought. Just to hang out. Make out spontaneously in front of the TV playing some dumb video game. Do it up against that wall in the bedroom before tumbling into bed, his large, warm hands-
April took a deep breath just as she heard the loud crash of Andy slamming into the door to his building before opening it up and looking back at it as if he definitely didn't do that. She could only laugh and, then, when he got into the car realize that she was totally done for.
After pulling away from his building, April had a shock of an idea. It was so clever she was a little surprised it came this easily, this close to Andy. He smelled like a warm fire and the woods, earthy and like a disaster of garbage and mud but somehow comforting all at once, and before long she had to shake away the thought of analyzing his smell. She had a devious plan to enact, anyways.
"You wanna get some coffee?" she offered, being subtle enough that if he took it for a date she would jump on it in a flash but it could be friendly enough that she could just get her morning coffee out of the way early. "Like, at the Dunkin' or something-"
"Yeah, that sounds awesome! I gotta get, like, ten scoops of sugar in my body right now!" he said with a laugh, and April joined in.
Secretly, she was disappointed.
"So, you're super good at driving, huh?" he asked casually, stepping out of the car in the employee parking lot. It was still freezing, not that April expected anything else. "Thanks so much, by the way. It's so cool of you to let me hitch a ride today."
April laughed and locked her car before stopping in her tracks behind him. "Wait, I thought we were carpooling?" she asked, and she attributed the heat in her face to the cold. That had to make sense, right? April gave up thinking and told herself it made sense.
"Yeah, but... um, I thought that was like for a day?"
"Why?" she asked, incredulous.
"Because Ann always used to get mad at me for bumming rides off her," he said quietly and then scratched at the back of his neck. The look in his eyes, a little squinty and all too warm, felt apologetic. "I'll just walk or something."
"Dude, it's a ten minute drive. I live, like, right next door basically. It's cool," she said, shrugging and picking her pace back up so that she would focus less on being angry at this chance slipping away.
"I know, but-"
"But, what?" she lashed back and turned around. Andy's eyes jolted open, whatever drowsiness gone. "Sorry."
"So, um... you're cool carpooling every day?" he asked tentatively.
"Totally," she answered like it was a grand engagement they were making. Andy's response - fist pumping in the air, then high-fiving her - made it feel far more important and April led them into the building with a well-hidden smile for quite a long time, or at least until they had to part at the shoeshine stand.
It was apparent on her face, and to the point that Tom asked how his boo was doing. She grimaced, he chuckled, and she felt a bit better. At least Tom was cool, and his dumb chauvinism was a gag with her - and then he'd text her asking if she was at least a little tempted, and she only responded by turning at her desk and glaring daggers at him. But he got the joke, played along and acted terrified. Or was actually terrified. Sometimes April couldn't tell with Tom and made him kind-of frustrating to deal with when he overloaded on awful swagger and even worse cologne. That's what made Andy easier, he was so simple to decode. He was kind, and gentle, and a big softy and he certainly never wore cologne. He was tall, a little chubby, and had muscle - it was the antithesis of everything April had ever dated before.
And there it is, she thought with a shake of her head and a broken pencil between her fists. Always about the dating thing.
It was true, and had been for far too long. It all started out as an innocuous crush that she didn't feel bad about having. Derek was dating Ben, and she was this weird hanger-on that felt better than being completely alone because at least they laughed at her being ironic, or whatever dumb hipsterism was fashionable in an anti-fashion way that month. She liked Andy because everything about him felt genuine. The way he smiled reached his eyes, and they shone. April felt like some terrible high schooler in that moment, doting on how shiny someone's eyes were and yet she didn't regret a moment of it.
It was hard to cope with this, because at first April assumed sucking on his neck would alleviate the feelings of simply enjoying being around someone without any pretense. A hickey would make Ann jealous, and that would be it. She could go back to being around Derek and Ben and not being extremely jealous of Ben, who was obviously the favorite. It took April a little while after they started "dating" to realize that she was the second choice, and definitely expendable.
It stopped being satisfying almost instantly afterward.
She stopped going to the shitty, bohemian cafe with them to heckle slam poets, texting them and telling them that it was lame now. They asked what they should do then, but April never answered. She was too busy moving a cardboard box into Andy's apartment labeled Burly's Nintendo stuff.
"Hey," a voice interrupted her. It was Leslie, breaking away her reverie of being a few inches from Andy, smiling; being there, wondering if kissing him would work out okay. Obviously she decided against it. "I want you to come along with me. We've got a meeting."
"Ugh, gross," April complained.
"I think you'll find an incredibly important meeting about public waste extremely interesting April! Besides, how do you expect to gain any upward momentum within City Hall this way?" Leslie asked seriously, and all April had heard was something boring about working. "You're blossoming into a spectacular, beautiful and well-developed government employee and I don't want to see you withering away doing nothing all day!"
"I think I can sue you for saying that," April said dully and stood up, taking her jacket with her. "For sexual harassment."
"April-"
"Get away from me, deviant!" she yelled, alarming Donna and Jerry, before switching her frightened look to a simple smile and tilting her head. "I mean, let's go Leslie!"
Looking her over once, Leslie dropped her look of confusion and fear for her usual glowing optimism.
In reality, April really liked Leslie. She was like Andy in that way. Easy to decipher, all on her sleeve, and openly positive about the world in a way April had never been. In kindergarten, she was obsessed with violence and drawing dead things, upgrading to finding dead things in middle school and eventually leaving them in lockers in high school. When she was young, she loved fairy tales, even the ones with horrifying endings, but especially the ones that depicted everyone happily ever after.
Years later, she learned that wasn't reality.
Leslie was like an antidote to that cynicism that she had forcefully injected five days a week. At first it was boring, and she hated it and her, but as time went on it softened her and although she didn't want to drop the scary outer shell, inwardly April let Leslie's warm layers of hope comfort her sometimes.
She was like Andy, and if April couldn't be around Andy right then because of lame work then she would settle for Leslie. There was even the microscopic, infinitesimal chance that the meeting wouldn't be the absolute worst hour of her entire existence on the planet.
April told herself she'd learn to trust her gut better on these things.
Not only was it the worst hour of her whole life, Mark was one of the people presenting. There were people she tolerated at City Hall because she never had to be around them, and there were people she outright hated. Mark was this weird middle ground where she had no real reason for having any negative feelings towards him, other than the fact that Leslie crushed on him which was the most hilarious concept possible, but wanted to dislike him.
Thinking about Leslie and Mark sparked a memory, and April's stomach emitted a deep gurgle. She looked down, hoping no one was looking at her with all of her might and will, and remembered the feeling vaguely: guilt. She had a pile of blurry upskirt pictures the day Leslie fell into a pit that she tried to sell to Mark.
The pit was the last thing she should have thought about, because then it only lead one place.
"I think it's in the City's best interest to invest heavily into innovative methods of..."
April tried not to listen to any of that again. Thinking about thick thighs in board shorts was way better, anyways.
Her lunch hour finally approached, and April had never felt more like tossing her entire lunch into the trash. Everything was getting on her nerves, and she couldn't stop picking at her nails and fingers because of that dumb tingle in her stomach and shake in her legs out of impatience.
Maybe if she avoided him altogether, leaving the dingy rothole of a public government building, this would go away.
The next thought, spiked into her mind when Jerry passed by and attempted to be friendly and wave, was why give it away? In reality, April had never felt better. Sure, there were times when she felt like she might explode because Andy would look at her and his gaze was so strange and soothing, and she relaxed and let his smile infect her and creep onto her own face, and there were times she stayed up at night and could only get to sleep when she calmed that buzzing in her mind and between her legs by thinking about him.
Sure, she thought about sleeping with him casually, screwing up against every wall, and when she was especially upset almost forcing herself on him.
Sure, she had the hots for a guy that slept with rats at some point.
And, yes, April would go down in the very flames she stoked herself every day by thinking about him more and more. Thinking about that damned apartment, and the fact that she didn't even have the mild inconvenience of being Derek's chosen make out second-stringer to impinge some false guilt on her, April felt even more queasy and wondered why she couldn't just make out with him. Or, at the very least, admit she liked him.
But no, that had possibilities and she knew what almost all of them were.
Oh, that's weird, he said in her dream-rendition. Or, perhaps he'd tell her that he didn't feel the same way. Oh, sorry, he'd say and she'd realize they were in Ann's bedroom and she was on top of him.
April had to leave the department and go to the bathrooms. The sick feeling escalated and she felt closer to death than a crush. Why'd everything have to be so complicated for someone so simple to her? April struggled against and didn't let it worm its way into her brain. It was a feeble word, and it definitely didn't apply to someone she had a crush on whatsoever.
She could get over this. It would be easy.
It would be so simple she told herself. April told herself that all the way until Andy and her were opening tiny candy bars and balling up the wrappers to fling at passersby. They didn't seem so thrilled, but Andy wouldn't stop laughing until one of them glared at the pair. Then they would duck behind the counter, hiding from them for the moment as if no one had seen them at all and that hiding behind a very small half-wall more than counter was at all a good idea.
Still, she couldn't stop laughing and neither could he.
Easy. Get over it.
Easy, she thought. Over him already.
But that was before she had been alone in a bath, and with a removable showerhead. Her parents weren't supposed to be home for an hour since they had their weekly date night, and Natalie hated being around the house these days. It was such an easy mark, and April kept telling herself that it would be simple to just get over him in that time span when she had free reign over both volume and pleasure.
So she uncorked the little jar of bubbling bath liquid, and let it run until it was a fine layer of suds, and all the while she told herself that this would be over in a day or two. This month long crush would just shrink away in that moment, thinking about him with a rather perfect velocity tool right there. April told herself that all the way into the tub. She told herself that all the way to making herself more comfortable, reaching her hand into the water.
April thought it would be easy just as she sat up, interrupted herself, and unhooked the showerhead before running the water. All the way down till she was purring along to the hum of the water jets underneath the surface, she thought about scratchy facial hair, those lips smiling against her, and she couldn't help but curling her toes, biting her fist, and shaking under a veneer of bubbles. She shook water out of the tub, her legs uncontrollable at picturing him there with her.
She might have breathed a fuck or two, even.
All April knew was that by the time she had came, arching out of the water and still insanely turned on by the makeshift toy and her simple fantasy of his mouth and tongue replacing it, was that this could never be easy.
Over the course of the next few days, April tried her best to stave it all off. For what reason, she wasn't entirely sure. Some part of her kept reaching out, clawing at this notion that she had to stop thinking of him like this and just stop. It kept asking why she couldn't just be happy, and be happy with him potentially.
Surely, it was something more.
She spent those days idly following Leslie into whatever was the new, crucial meeting that would decide her fate as an exceptional government employee; and she made fun of Jerry more out of habit than actual malice; and she sort-of ignored Donna except when April called her, high on post-tooth removal painkillers, to go see some awful movie that she could barely remember the name of. Even being around Ron felt staid and placid, and like she was using the time to position her flesh suit so that she could actually think about what was important. It just happened to be Andy at the time, is what she told herself.
Yeah, just a really momentary crush that I've had for weeks on end, she thought. Yep. Totally.
She lived with that thought until it was her lunch break.
"Hey," she called out to Andy, holding up a bag of greasy burgers she pilfered from the cafe.
"Oh my God, this is perfect," he said, exasperated and tore into the bag. April couldn't help but chuckle at how eager he was. He bit into one burger and groaned appreciatively. "Perfect. April," he said, speaking with a full mouth. "You are so amazing."
And there it was. Some weird combination of heat in her chest, warmth all over, and a smile she couldn't suppress from instantly reaching her.
I'm fucked.
On some level, April knew better than to fall this hard.
On another, she started following Andy up to his apartment after really needing to use the bathroom.
Afterward, he sort-of fumbled around with a question. She should probably be nervous that he's nervous, or seemingly so, and instead it just struck her like lightning and she needed to run a thousand miles an hour for an instant. At least he didn't do or say anything that affected her like calling her so amazing or saying that he loved when she hung out. That, as it turned out, made incredible showerhead fodder.
"Um, you wanna... I was just about to order a pizza-?"
"Yes," she blurted out quickly.
Andy smiled wide. "Awesome," he said and dug his phone out of his pocket. "Um, you wanna split it? Like... uh, money-"
"Sure," she nodded. "I gotta go get my wallet out of my car. Gimme one sec?"
Andy nodded and began ordering what sounded like a true nightmare of a pizza. April could barely restrain herself down the stairs, feet going far faster than she's ever let them, and by the time she was at her car she was out of breath. It's not like she actually worked out, so it wasn't a surprise. All she could do was run the scenarios over and over in her head. They were having pizza. Together, in his apartment, alone, and without any context other than it was the end of the work day and they could do it.
By the time she made her way back up, Andy was lounging on the couch. The small CRT on a crate in his living room stand-in was flashing cartoons.
"Oh, hey! I ordered, should be here in like twenty minutes," he said. April continued standing awkwardly in the kitchen for a few moments. Andy looked over his shoulder and laughed. "C'mon, sit down! We got tons of time to kill."
April cautiously stepped onto the carpet and padded over to the grimy couch. It was comfortable, and she sank into it just by sitting there. By the time she was done being consumed by the sofa, Andy looked at her and laughed - she was a full few inches deep in it and looked, somehow, smaller. She certainly didn't feel small, though.
She was sitting next to Andy, his arm slung inconspicuously over the back of the couch where her head rested. He was laughing at the Looney Tunes skit playing quietly, and they were ordering a pizza. The only weird thing, she realized, was that she was still wearing a jacket and shoes. Standing up, she discarded them on the floor next to her and sat back on the couch. Curling her feet up underneath her, she leaned back again and felt Andy's arm sit against her shoulder.
For a few seconds, he stayed there and April's mind went wild. His hand touched her shoulder, and he felt so warm and near and she almost considered snuggling into him. Almost. And, damn, the thought of burying herself into his side and cuddling there, looking up and getting a peck on the lips casually because this was their norm, it almost pushed her over the edge.
Then his arm moved away, and she was cold again.
"So... um, whaddya wanna do?" he asked her, fidgeting with his hands and looking over at her. "I mean, we could watch TV or play some video games or something? I dunno. That's dumb, you probably like to read and watch plays and smart stuff like that-"
"Ew," April half grimaced, half smiled. "Nah, let's just watch TV. I'm super hungry, though."
Andy quieted and looked at her awkwardly before focusing on the TV again. Andy kept playing with his hands, rolling thumb and fingers, and April couldn't help but watch him do it. The cool air wasn't so bothersome, but she still sat in her curled position and watched his fingers tap and roll around each other.
She's never felt more like a high schooler in her life, and even more than when she was actually in high school. She watched his lips, curious, and found herself licking her own briefly like she was in anticipation.
Andy looked up at her, and she did it again - bit her lip by habit - and for a second, she saw his eyes flicker down towards that small gesture. And then the buzzer rang and Andy jolted up to answer it.
They ate pizza on the couch, watching Sylvester the cat grapple for the cage again and again. When he stumbled, or muttered in lispy anger, Andy laughed and April couldn't help smiling.
"So," she said, finishing up while watching Andy wolf down his third slice. "You wanna, like, go downstairs and try and break into the vending machine? I saw one with Pop-Tarts in it."
"That sounds cool but, um," Andy coughed, stuffing the folded crust in his mouth and chewing loudly. "I... ugh, think that's illegal."
"Duh," April said, laughing. "That's what makes it fun."
"Oh, yeah," he nodded.
"So?"
"I dunno, I was kinda thinking we could play some video games or something?" he asked, scratching his beard with greasy hands. He pointed to a cardboard box next to the TV Crate.
"Sure, but I'll totally crush you," she warned him.
"Oh, a challenge Miss Ludgate?" he said with a laughable accent and an exaggerated lift of his eyebrow. "If you say so!"
They spend an hour or so trading blows in a beaten copy of Street Fighter II. April still couldn't figure out how to throw a fireball by the time Andy was already wiping the floor with her, but once she caught up April was a quick learner. April ended it on what seemed like a tie, nudging him in the side with her elbow to break his focus.
Andy dug out some weird cartridge with an awesome, pulpy zombie cover. It was a two-player game again, and April assumed the role of the token woman in the game. Still, she thought it was hilarious when they were fighting a giant baby and Andy was blasting the screen with bullets constantly.
They took breaks to grab at pizza, getting their greasy hands even greasier, and once April leaned over him to open the box. She couldn't keep her balance and landed in his lap, ass first, and just stuck to her spot without care.
"Um," was all Andy had said.
April didn't answer, high on being around him and full of delicious pizza to care. She turned in her newfound seat to get a better look at the TV, picked up her controller, and tucked herself in right there.
They didn't get very far in this one, but April didn't really care because, after a while, her brain started to function again and question what she was doing. Not only was she hanging out with Andy in what felt like an already comfortable space, playing video games with him and eating fatty foods, but she had sat in his lap. Andy rolled with it, his hands and controller underneath hers, tall enough to look right over her head if she crouched just a little bit, and April had never understood the word cozy until then.
But eventually somebody died in the game, and their steam ran out when April got tired of blasting the brains out of identical looking zombies. It was cartoonish gore, perfect for her, but even so it grated on her eventually.
She sighed. "Ugh, this is boring," she exclaimed and put her controller down on the floor. She refused to move from her spot, mostly because the way Andy had to be forced to put his arms around her to play made her feel oddly safe, and again that damned cozy and delightful feeling of relaxation swept over her. Still having a little bit of forethought left over, she didn't grind backwards or move at all as best she could just in case what she would think was a hot I-need-you-boner became an awkward oh-no-boner.
"Um, I think I've got other games if you want me to check," he told her, and weirdly enough Andy didn't move or push her away.
She meant to tell him that sounded fine, April's sure of it. That had to be what she said, but Andy didn't reply and she didn't move an inch. She didn't budge save for the thundering heart in her chest, and the nerves of realizing that she's right there and there's no way he lets Burly sit in his lap while they play video games together. That's just not how this works, and April knew that. Her body bursting with anxious wonder knew it too, and God she just wanted to act. For once, she wanted to act.
April turned, looking over her shoulder and there was no doubt in her mind it was creepy and not inquisitive like she hoped, but Andy only stared back. He breathed shortly over the din of the attract mode of Zombies Ate My Neighbors, glancing down at her lips again in the oh-so-obvious way that April instantly rationalized away. His hands were tentative, but they moved upward and closer to her body.
"Uh..." he stuttered out, clearing his throat. He made to say another word, but April had given up.
She'd given up this pretense that she could get over him, and just let it go. She let go of the idea that sitting in his lap didn't feel like home, and that his hands were grazing her legs and shifting up to her stomach and she twisted herself in his lap without warning. He made a sound, started to speak, but April darted in for what she considered just as likely to make her freak out the next day or have a panic attack when he rejected her.
Their lips met hard, but April didn't force anything. Andy's hands, soft and warm, touched her lower back hesitantly and, in that fleeting moment where April's heart fluttered rapidly to the point where she might hyperventilate against his lips, he closed his eyes. He leaned into it, pushing himself forward into the kiss until April had opened her mouth for him and Andy responded in kind. His hands twisted into her shirt, tugging it up so that the bare skin of her back felt the cool, April's arms over his shoulders and legs working up so that her socked feet dug into his back as she wrapped herself around him. She couldn't help herself, moaning a whispery noise when they broke apart and rocking herself down on him gently. Andy didn't stop, going for another kiss that left her wanting to laugh, cry, and freak out in the same way that she worried this would go wrong. Her hands shook, locked behind his neck, and her feet rubbed mindlessly on his back while his hands felt bare skin and he held her back beneath her shirt.
They didn't struggle, or bite, or attack. It just flowed, and April felt that insane burst of heat swell within her and spread everywhere when his tongue slipped into her mouth and he groaned numbly.
It felt right, his hands caressing the bony curve of her back and her hands shifting up to wander in his curls.
Part of her brain screamed for more, screamed to lower her kisses, or his, until they were living out fantasy. Instead she broke apart to breathe, her lungs burning for help but overridden by the immense reaction to the kiss. She felt him push against the back of her leg, and that simple thing - a little physical reaction - nearly burst her heart.
"Um," Andy started, his lips red and swollen and his eyes hazed with excitement, happiness, and hopefully, April thought, lust. "That was... uh, pretty, um-"
"Cool?"
Andy nodded and April sighed relief, sitting up taller in his lap with her legs still wrapped around his trunk of a chest to get more of this insatiated taste. The taste of relief, and joy, and his lips. Andy's hands traveled further up all the while, hitching on her bra, and flattened against her back so that they stretched out her already thin shirt and sat huge against her body.
She could imagine those hands covering her breasts, warm and welcome, and she'd want to kiss them and kiss more of him. All of him, preferably. She'd want those hands everywhere, and yet she stopped. Caught short of breath, they stared at each before April swallowed and finally felt some moisture break down her dry, exasperated throat.
"Hey," she breathed. Andy smiled and chuckled, his hands refusing to move from her back and April all-too fine with that. "Um, so... I guess I kinda like you."
"Woah, me too," Andy said jokingly and she shook her head but couldn't help curling her lips into a half-smile. "Yeah, I... dunno. That was really, really cool."
"Yeah," was all she could manage to say.
"How long?" he asked before April tilted her head a little in confusion, her brain still warped by extreme lust, a lack of attention to the intense warning throb that was seated against his chest, and everything else didn't process anything well. "How long have you, like, liked me? 'Cause I really, really do April... you're so awesome."
"A... while," she finally said, afraid of how different the time schemes would be. Maybe later she'd have Andy tell her how long, but that was for later. Later, as in when they were still dating later. Dating, still. Dating. April's heart beat faster again.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," she answered simply.
Andy's smile, if it were possible, seemed even brighter after that. It was like that simple affirmation turned him from gently excited that a pretty girl kissed him to jubilant in an instant, and April took solace in the possibility that he was as worried as her that she wouldn't reciprocate. April laughed to herself, and before long Andy had joined without understanding why or caring in until it was a chorus of hands along skin in a cold apartment, quiet save for their laughter over the running sounds of the video game.
They didn't try to hide it, but they didn't put it out there either. April was noticeably happier while working, something that pleased Leslie because she didn't get the same pure hatred from work and could actually deal with it and upset Ron because she looked the part of an affable government employee.
Donna even asked her whether she was okay or not, because at one point April was texting Andy and got a random message - a string of heart emojis - that made her smile. While working.
During lunch, April swarmed him with kisses. They were inseparable, and April found she loved that position from the day before. Sitting in his lap, rolling hips just a little, and evoking that dumbfounded grin in him and that wealth of craving in her. The butterflies wandered freely in her lungs, and she had never felt better.
It was silly, but at the same time why not indulge?
In the middle of a likely too passionate for work make out session, April's hands half-tempted to work open his pants and see just how far too far could be, a loud gasp sounded from behind them. April knew it instantly.
"What... who... wha-?" It was nonsense, but April couldn't blame Leslie. The ramp up was a vertical wall here, and she had slammed herself straight into it. "You... April? Andy? Why are... kissing? You? Each other? Okay," she steadied herself and took a deep breath. April couldn't help but roll her lips into a smile, Andy's thumbs along her belt just as impatient as her own hands (and, frankly, April was still getting over that.) "Okay! Okay."
"Okay?" Andy asked, confused.
"Okay," Leslie insisted.
"Okay," April repeated just to complete the circle. Leslie gave her a stern look. "What?"
"Why didn't you tell me you two were dating!" Leslie said incredulously. She raised her hands in defeat and slammed them back down on the sides of her legs. "You guys! This is so... adorable! You two are just, so, so perfect and this is, honestly, one of the greatest things I've ever bore witness to."
"Leslie-"
"Aww, thanks Leslie!" Andy said, smiling at her over April's shoulder.
April shook her head, but didn't look remotely angry.
"But, please..." Leslie walked forward a few inches. "Don't do... what you were about to do on government property?"
"What the government doesn't know won't hurt it," April shrugged and turned around to invest her full attention in making out with Andy again.
Leslie opened her mouth to say something, then shook her head in accepted defeat. Even still, she was bursting to tell everyone and had a smile the whole way back to the department. When April had returned, her hair a mess and lips deep red, Tom high-fived her - their usual ritual when the other gets lucky, though April fumes that in the fifteen hours they've been dating she definitely hasn't gotten lucky - and Donna said something about being lucky, and that she was jealous.
Jerry said something, but April tuned it out, and Ron? Ron pretended he hadn't heard anything or that he didn't care one bit, though when April gave him a pile of folders without any paperwork in them (all shredded already) he cleared his throat like he was going to say something. Instead he just grumbled, and nodded.
Weirdo.
"Um, so... you wanna come up again?" Andy asked as they pulled into the parking lot of the apartment building. "Or, wait that's too forward right? Sorry. We can go on a date? If you want to, I mean. Right? Oh, man. I'm screwing this all up-"
"Dude," she stopped Andy before he gave himself an aneurysm. Leaning over to him in the passenger seat, April gave him a quick kiss and sat back in her spot. "I would totally love to hang out at your place again."
Even if she meant every bit of that, the way he smiled at that and bounded out of the car like it was the most thing he'd ever heard in his life made her happier beyond reason. Up at his apartment, after he had opened every possible door for her and her face flushed and she called him a weirdo, there were only so many things to do. Video games, eat, watch TV.
Make out.
It didn't take much time before they were all over each other. April had gone to the little kitchen to get something to drink, quickly followed by Andy and it didn't take long before her drink was forgotten on the counters and her back was up against the wall, mouths hot against each other in an instant. They deserved that honeymoon period anyways, since it was literally still the first day of being together. Did that make April's desires weird? No, she told herself. She wanted him.
She breathed it out. "I want you," she said, her mouth dragging sloppily up his neck where she sucked this time for their own pleasure rather than to make someone jealous. "So bad."
"Huh?" Andy asked, his hands on her hips again and April desperately wanting to test out the thickness of the walls.
April didn't want to waste time. Not with this, and with her brain potentially giving in and letting worry and anxiety flood her until those talons tore him away from her. Perhaps it was wrong to go about it this way, but she'd spent too long - far, far too long - needing to come unwound to thoughts of him night after night just to give this up. Even still, Andy seemed hesitant and if there was anything that she needed it definitely wasn't that.
His hands didn't explore up her shirt like before, and for some reason that pain pinged her heart harder than it should have. April didn't dare stop kissing him, but his previous assured movements changed.
"H-hey," she stuttered when they broke away for a moment's breath.
"Mmh?" she grunted her question, weaseling her hands down to try and get a firmer grip on his butt. It was too nice to ignore.
He smiled, but something seemed wrong. "Do you... um, we should we probably stop right?" he asked, but didn't move. That part eased her, but only a little bit. If he wanted to stop, he'd have left her there against the wall.
"Why?" she asked, nipping a kiss at his mouth featherlight and leaning back with her hands trailing up his back to listen.
"Dunno... um, we just started this?" he tried.
"So?"
Andy stopped, clearly confused. It was a such a sweet, innocent confusion on his face that she couldn't stop the half-smile she had after a moment.
"So, you're... um, cool? I mean, you're cool! You're awesome," he backpedaled like he was saying she was the worst. April only laughed. "But you're cool, right? With this?"
"Dude," she stepped forward, unable to push Andy but he got the idea. She turned them and walked back towards where she knew his bedroom was. "I do wanna ask you one thing, though."
"Sure, whatever you need! Um, we can go in the, uh, bedroom but..." he looked over his shoulder and tapped his door open to reveal a mattress on the floor and a few spare blankets. "It's not super comfy. But, um, what'd you want?"
"Where are the condoms?"
Andy slowly shifted from concern to that trademark grin and let go of her to bolt into the bedroom. She hurried inside and flopped onto the mattress, unzipping her pants and shimmying out of them like they were burning her skin. She was getting impatient by the time she had removed them.
"I swear I have some in here," he told her, his voice rapidly more panicky. "I totally do. They're just... ah hah!"
When Andy finished rummaging through a small duffel bag and had turned with his treasure, April was sprawled out waiting for him. His eyes drifted to her bare legs and his eyes took on that same misty look from the day before. If there was any doubt in the pit of her stomach, April took it and showed it those eyes and screamed triumphant in its face before stamping it out and deciding whether she should not try and analyze the underwear she's wearing because, really, he can't care.
His eyes flicker up to hers again, and April nods. He shambles forward slowly and drops to his knees to fit between hers. The squeak of the mattress underneath her is the only real sound as April sits up, still obsessed with running her hands in his hair and the musk of mud and that strange, only Andy way of making her heart thud cruelly in her chest, or at least until his low grumbles arc out of him into her when she opens her mouth for him. His body is heavy against her, big and big when she can feel him grinding against her leg. It takes her a minute to calm herself down because, really, this can't be happening could it? That feeling of suddenly becoming a high schooler again hits her then, because it all felt surreal in that second to be on his bed and his hands are running up her calves and she's kissing his neck and wondering why he's still wearing a shirt.
"Too many clothes," she whispered, pouting her lips on his shoulder.
April reached her hands underneath his shirt and helped him pull it off, taking in the sweet sight of all that semi-muscled but mostly chubby beauty before running her hands up his stomach. He laughed and looked down at her, his hair mussed now and she felt that same sweltering heat in her heart and between her legs.
His pants came off in a brief flush, and she was undeniably hungry for him.
It was all too familiar, and when she turned them on the bed a few moments later and straddled him it nearly melted her.
"Hey," she said, mindlessly grinding herself down on his groin. It eked a soft moan from her, and Andy's eyes fluttered open and closed. "Um..."
"Oh, right!" he said, and reached into the pile of blankets, showing off the found condom package. He tore into it and April chuckled at how eager he was, taking it from him and lifting herself up and back so that he was sitting stiff and tall against the inside of her thigh.
She took a deep breath and leaned down, kissing him while she slid her hand into his boxers. She grinned against his lips, encircling her fingers into a fist around him. He was hot and hard in her hand, a few idle, slow strokes making him squirm. Part of April wanted to drag herself down there, get a taste for herself and watch him crumble from just that, but then again she was borderline on fire and she didn't know if Andy would be up to go down on her afterwards.
April looked down between them, sitting up again when he was bare in front of her. She made note of a little vein pulsing on his underside and how he twitched to the side when her admittedly cold hands groped him, trying to remember them and not the fact that she just wanted to screw his brains out. That all faded when one of his hands left her hip alone and moved cautiously between her legs, fingertips carefully brushing her lips. She sighed and nodded, and Andy stayed there with curious fingertips that curled up and drifted around lazily.
After stroking the condom on him, she looked down into his eyes and lifted herself up slowly. His hand and eyes stayed fixated on her, both drifting up to her clit right before she sunk herself down on him and he stared up at her.
April stayed on top of him for a few moments before moving. She felt full, naturally so, and breathed out a sigh of appreciation at the weight beneath her. He groaned and thrust gently upward, causing April to close her eyes and crane her neck and force her knees inward closer to his body. The lights in the back of her head shone and colors seemed brighter around her, and most importantly Andy felt perfect - his eyes shone differently, and his hands felt rough enough on her skin but soft in their touch, his lips tasted fine when she leaned down and rocked on him briefly. He didn't force himself up into her any harder, and she whispered nonsense against his lips while they kissed. Her elbows on either side of his head, April focused on feeling his messy hair - Sex Hair, she thought and snorted a laugh out - all while trying to build up her rhythm.
One of his hands reached underneath her shirt and felt around for her back. He fumbled around the claspless back for a second before looking at her confused.
"Uh... there's not a, um, where's the... uh," he stammered, groaning when he slid deeper into her and she couldn't tell whether his eyes were green or purple or vibrant pink because nothing made sense anymore save them. "Ugh."
"Front," she breathed, and his hand quickly found it. He took a few moments, another total fumble, and she laughs before he shifted his legs. The angle was incredible, and she nearly dropped on top of him. "Oh God," she whispered. "Like this."
"Mmh?" he muttered breathlessly against the side of her neck, thrusting experimentally.
"Yes," she answered. April rolled her stomach and hips as best she could in this position, bouncing on him momentarily before she thought about the heft of him again and could nearly feel him in her chest. "God."
"H-hey," he whispered, helping her get rid of her bra and finagle her shirt away from her body. "Wow."
April sat tall on him, mostly to feel him deeper, but then felt a strange sense of empowerment astride his cock with his eyes plastered on her breasts and one hand reaching up to palm them. She grabbed his other hand and guided it between them where they met and touched his fingers. He got it, but she showed him the pace she wanted. His fingers worried at her clit while she sat and bounced her body on top of his more. He dug into her skin, biting into her nipples with hungry lips after a while, and April let her hair and sweat fall on him as she picked up speed.
His hand stayed as consistent as he could help. April took in every sound with new interest, and she wanted to see his eyes when he came, and she needed to let that pulsing thunderstorm in her entire body let go and bring her crashing into him with a loud cry. She'd test the walls. April grabbed his wrist and sped him up. She went faster, grinding herself along him until she was forcing him to touch himself as he slammed into her and then up to her clit. Each stroke brought her so close, but she tried to even the pace and relish that perfect angle for a few more moments at the least.
Andy gave a strangled cry soon before her, but he stayed sitting up with a drowsy look across his face.
"April," he whispered before letting his mouth drift from her chest to a nipple. He bit and sucked, and she whined loudly.
April didn't feel him go soft, but he did lift her off of him. The whole time April felt him drag against her and shift those wet, swollen lips around his whole shaft until they were separated and she felt empty. She just needed one more stroke, was the only thought going through her head. She wrapped her hand around him instinctively, but Andy pushed her to her back and brushed her hand aside.
"Andy... I-"
She stopped when he growled and eased himself back onto his knees on the floor, seated in front of her with his mouth just above her pussy.
Okay, she thought. That works.
Though she would have to remember to get herself off with him still fucking her - a feeling she'd never gotten with anyone else, but so damn close with him that it frustrated her until his mouth was hot against her clit - this would definitely do. He suckled her clit, budding against her, and she dropped her head back onto the soft blankets. His tongue worked inside of her, and she truthfully could have came on the spot with the sudden attention back on her, but he found his way back to her clit and suckled while his fingers spread her and threatened entrance.
Okay, she thought but in reality it was a static wave of pleasure and delightful twisting nethers in her chest that screamed so many things. They wanted his tongue, his mouth, his fingers, his cock, everything everywhere.
"Fuck," she held it like she was singing falsetto, dropping lower when he hummed against her and April bit down hard on her bottom lip. She ground her heels into his back and slammed herself forward, stuffing his mouth full of her and being rewarded with eager eating and that damned growl. "Holy... oh God, Andy. Andy, Andy, Andy."
Faster, she spoke and yet he didn't lick any faster or lap with anything but focused urgency. Her stomach rolled, and she arched her back up as best she could, and her legs clamped onto his body while she tightened around his tongue and came hard.
Dazzling somethings lit the back of her eyelids and her fingers clawed at her skin, the blankets, her breasts, his hair, and everything they could touch; his mouth stayed on her writhing form as she came around him, hands on her legs; April sucked in air hard and let it out with a sharp cry when he kissed her clit and the sensitivity blasted her with another wave. After a few moments more, Andy fingering her with the slowest, lightest touch that was barely a press more than anything, she finally wound down and saw reality again.
Her body was pockmarked with bites along her breasts and her skin where Andy roughly handled her was reddish from his grip, his mouth was slick and lips wet, and she could see that wild lust sated in his eyes now slowly burning her up again. But there was no way she could go again, so she reveled in the post-orgasm broiling in her and settling down. Andy lurched up and curled up against her body.
"That was so... so, so," he said, catching her eyes when she looked over. She turned in his arms and kept the focused stare. "So, so, so... cool."
"Yeah," April said with a laugh. "That was awesome. You didn't have to-"
"You didn't, uh, y'know... you didn't come yet," he said. "I kinda wanted to see what you looked like when you did."
When he said it, Andy was quiet, and April's cheeks may as well have lit on fire quite literally. "And?" she asked. Andy looked up, confused. "So, how'd I look? You have to tell me if I looked dumb."
"You definitely didn't look... dumb," he muttered and kissed the palm of her hand that had cupped his cheek. "You're so... you looked beautiful."
The next day, April went to work wearing the same clothes. Andy offered her some of his but it turned out that an XL-sized MUDDERS shirt wasn't really her style. She checked the skirt and shirt for any anomalies, because before work she had to know and went down on him just after he took a shower (which she had to make him take) and came up blank, so all was well.
All was well.
It repeated in her head when he held her hand into City Hall, which was something she normally would have thought was silly considering they've had sex but for Andy it felt just right. It was quiet, and sweet, and she liked the way his paw of a hand covered hers all nice and warm, and safe and small, and she smiled at him all the way to his stand.
She smiled all the way to the Parks Department where she sat down at her desk with a real, pleasant smile, and wondered about what would have happened had they not gotten together now. It hurt to think like that usually, but right then she had such a thick skin to it because she still had a remnant of how he felt hard in her mouth and, frankly, that washed away whatever nerves she could have had. She wondered about how terrible it all could have been, letting go.
With that thought, her phone buzzed. Looking at the message, she smiled. Still Andy, and another massive string of heart and heart-eyes emojis.
Her mind cleared because, instead of any of that bullshit, her boyfriend wouldn't stop texting her all day. So much so that Leslie scolded her and Ron smiled approvingly.
She even got another high-five from Tom.
When she went to his shoeshine stand, April threw away any pretense. It didn't matter anymore. She didn't have to hide her feelings, and they didn't have to hide anything from anyone here. April sat in his lap, turned, and kissed him because, well, she could now.
April could kiss him as much as she wanted now and she would make him promise that she was the only person he was going to kiss for a good, long time.