A/N: Sorry sorry, I know... It took me forever to update this but life really got in the way, and then I was in a pretty major post-divorce Japril funk for a while there. But now I have an idea where I want to take this so hopefully the next update won't take me so damn long. Hope a little AU Japril is a light at the end of the tunnel for you, as it is for me.

Please always let me know what you think, ok? I live for your reviews!

"I hate him!"

"Hate who?"

Reed's eyes are clenched shut, exhaustion written all over her face.

"Jackson Avery, of course!"

"Of course."

Reed's deep sigh reverberates in the tiny on-call room reserved for the interns, not particularly interested in humouring her in another round of her daily rants.

"I mean he is such a…"

"Grumpus, yes I know, we literally have this same conversation every single day, April."

Reed is squeezing her eyes shut even harder, trying to block her out, deep frown marring her perfect forehead as she burrows deeper into the pillow in the bunk across from her. She doesn't talk about him that often does she? As soon as the thought has entered her head she knows that she does.

"It's just, he is so rude," she continues, because she can't help herself.

She should be tired, she should be already passed out on her uncomfortable, scratchy blanket, but instead adrenaline is still surging through her. She is on the 21st hour of her overnight shift, she finally has some time to rest, but instead her mind is filled with his stupid, arrogant smirk.

"I mean he talks over me, all the time. Today, when we were rounding on Dr Chan's patients, he cut me off right in the middle of a sentence as I was explaining the steps of Mrs Wilson's mitral valve replacement and said exactly the same thing I was going to say. And then he gets picked to scrub in, and you know I've been dying to see a mitral valve replacement, but instead I end up doing scut for Dr Sackler all day instead. And it was my patient! I did all the pre-op tests and the charts and everything! And when I confronted him about it he actually winked at me and just said 'snooze you lose'!"

"He is the worst," Reed mumbles from her cot, her voice heavy with sleep.

"He just thinks he is entitled to everything, just because he is an Avery, but he isn't even that good, he just winks and flirts with the nurses so they help him with scut, and he does the same to the attendings, male and female, it doesn't even matter. And it works, that's the worst thing! He has this sparkle that he just turns on and all of a sudden everyone is fawning over him!"

"You just don't like the fact that he's seen you naked," Reed remarks, pulling out her trump card, the one that usually shuts this exact conversation down, every time.

"We don't talk about that, remember?"

"Sometimes we do."

Reed's eyes are suddenly open and twinkling, despite the red lining her lashes, a small, knowing smile spreading across her lips.

"Stop it."

"Sometimes we talk about the fact that you've seen him naked," she chuckles lightly, arching an eyebrow at her.

"Go to sleep."

"I'm trying, but you keep jammering on about this guy, who you supposedly hate, yet is the only thing we ever talk about."

A pager goes off then, saving April the task of having to explain to her yet again that this isn't some playground crush she has on the boy who is mean to her, but an actual vitriolic hate for a man who has been nothing but a pain in her ass, quite literally, since the very first time she met him. They both scramble to check their pagers, and it's Reed's deep groan that reveals who's drawn the shortest straw.

"I hate my life," she grumbles, as she drags herself to her feet.

"I just really wish I could un-meet him," April sighs loudly, mostly to herself as Reed leaves.

"Un-meet who?"

His voice is annoyingly familiar and even the light mirth in his tone makes her want to get up and slap the smirk off his face.

"Of course you're here, you are always here."

"Aw, what's the matter April, you still sore about earlier?"

There it is, the sparkle, the glittering eyes and the dazzling smile that makes her stomach turn and her blood boil. She glares back at him, jaw clenched and her hands balled into tight fists.

"Unless… is it your ass that is sore? Still? It's been weeks, April, maybe I should take a look at that for you."

He chuckles to himself as he throws himself down on the bunk Reed just vacated, and before she can stop herself she grabs her pillow and throws it at him as hard as she can possibly manage.

"You're an asshole!"

It's been like this between them since the first day of their internship. It's been like this since she refused to meet his eyes across the empty OR during orientation, since she awkwardly slid past him on the way out of the door on her way home without saying anything. It's been like this since Charles Percy turned up the next morning clutching her missing shoe in his hand like a goddamned trophy, waving it over his head and declaring to the entire locker room that he was looking for his very own Cinderella. When she begrudgingly slid up to him to yank her shoe out of his hand, she heard Jackson laugh and then Charles bellowed "nice one, Avery" before the unmistaken slap of skin against skin in a brotastic high five echoed in her ears as she shuffled out of the room.

He'd tried to talk to her a couple of days later, brows furrowed and the sparkle nowhere in sight. But by then the hospital was already filled with rumours of nurses and residents having succumbed to his charms and she had no time for him.

"I didn't tell anyone about what happened, or didn't happen between us," he'd said, eyes wide and Adam's apple bobbing in his throat. She'd taken it to mean he didn't want anyone to know, that she'd somehow didn't fit his standards.

"Let's just be friends, ok?" There might have been sincerity on his face as he'd said it, palms open in surrender, but instead of relief she felt a bitter twang of disappointment on her lips instead.

"It's fine," she'd retorted, an iciness to her voice that she couldn't recognise, "you don't have to pretend."

She'd walked away quickly before he'd had a chance to respond, and that had been it for a few days. He'd kept away from her, avoiding her like she avoided him. And it would have been fine, they would have been fine if Charles hadn't decided Reed was the best thing since sliced bread and insisted on joining them for lunch.

"So are you ladies seeing anyone special," Charles had boomed, clearly hoping for a negative answer from Reed but directing the question at both of them.

Across the table from her Jackson had shot her a quick glance before concentrating hard on the fries in front of him. Under the table Reed had kicked her shin hard enough for her to choke on her soda, silently demanding she take one for the team and answer Charles.

"Um.. nope, no one special," she had mumbled, feeling Jackson's eyes on her.

"Keeping your options open in case you get another chance at some Jackson action?" Charles' tone had been light and playful, giving no indication that he knew anything at all.

Jackson had assured her that their drunken night had stayed their secret, and Charles could have easily drawn his own conclusions, but none of this was lunch conversation as far as she had been concerned and she had felt anger bubbling up under her skin.

"Maybe I'm just not interested in syphilis action," she had snapped, meeting Jackson's eyes across the table. His eyes had been cold and hard, but there had been a challenge in there too.

"Whoa, ok little lady, sorry I asked," Charles had laughed, dropping the subject like a hot potato. "How about you, Reed?"

"Never gonna happen, Charlie," Reed had sighed heavily, rolling her eyes as she pushed her chair back and getting up to leave.

"Just drop it, man," Jackson had snapped, throwing his fork down on his unfinished plate of lunch with a loud clatter. "She's obviously not interested, don't waste your breath on someone who can't even be bothered to be polite to you."

He'd glared at her as he spat his last words out, his chair scraping against the floor as he rushed out of his seat, leaving her gaping at his disappearing back. She had mumbled out an excuse about not being hungry anymore to Charles, but it had been the truth. She hadn't missed the brief flash of hurt in Jackson's eyes, but she hadn't been able to explain it either. She'd pushed that thought right to the back of her mind as soon as it had entered her head and decided right there and then that Jackson Avery was an incurable asshole.

Watching his back as his chest rises and falls with heavy breaths makes anger wash over her again, unchecked and boiling, at this guys nerve. She sees the privilege, the cocksure attitude, the overbearing behaviour and she wonders how she ever ended up in a bed stark naked with this man, with matching tattoos that are still a mystery to her. How she ever found anything redeeming about his personality she will never know. Sure, the eyes and the face and the body on him make a nice first impression, but she can't even let herself think about that anymore because he even breathes loudly.

She sighs heavily, tossing and turning on the small cot, the blanket still impossibly scratchy and uncomfortable. Sleep, April. She tries again. Tries to get her brain to run around in endless circles about how much Jackson Avery gets on her every last nerve. Tries to get her brain to stop sending her flashes of dark skin stretched across hard muscle. Tries to get her brain to focus on anything but. Behind her his breathing his heavy and slow, almost rhythmic, almost soothing.

When she wakes up to the sound of her pager hours later, he's gone, and so is her anger.