A/N: Prompted by a reviewer and anonymously on tumblr as "Andy has to fulfill his wedding vows about protecting April." I've gotten this request a couple times and, although I'm always hesitant to do continuities and extend one-shots, I think this works really well within the "Her" timeline I've set up.

So it's not technically his vows yet but the idea's the same. Has themes of transphobic characters and child abuse, so remember that.

Normally the glittery night's sky would be the first sign for April to go back inside, but she didn't mind the stars so much when she was more focused on the other person outside Leslie's house with her. In Andy's lap she didn't pay much attention to the stars, not when he was busy touching her hair and turning her around in his lap to kiss him, and she wasn't that annoyed by the fresh air when it had the tinge of an air freshener. In a dim light she'd normally feel more comfortable around people but it wasn't like that with Andy - she didn't feel the need to hide from him. Something about that was comforting.

"Thank you," April said, her face hovering inches away from him.

"For what?" Andy asked, his mouth barely twitching. "Today? If I wasn't here it would have been Leslie or anyone..."

"No, not today. I mean, yeah, but more like..." April looked away from him briefly, unsure how to word it without making herself bare. "I mean, like, for everything."

"I guess I do give pretty good piggyback rides," he admitted and April gave him a shy smile.

"You know what I mean," she whispered, afraid someone else would somehow hear it.

If there was one thing April liked about being around Andy, it was never being afraid. Though she had doubts at first that he was going to be different, those were long gone, and she never felt in fear that he would discover what he already knew. In the myriad ways she knew people could overreact, none of them even so much as occurred to Andy and even if they did he hid them so well April only felt safe around him.

Andy knew something was wrong when April looked at her phone and she visibly shrank back. He didn't know someone so outwardly aloof could be hiding so much, but when Andy thought about it things started to make a lot more sense, and when things like her posture changed, curling inward almost defensively, he knew pretty well something was bothering her. If he hated anything, and Andy couldn't really think of much he ever disliked other than Mark but that was stupid anyways, it was watching April glance over at him and refuse to say anything.

This side of April made him uncomfortable. Not because he didn't know what to do about it, or that he even wanted to change anything about her, but because he didn't like how natural and easy it seemed to be for her to sink back into. When she was laughing occasionally and smiling every once and a while, apparently not worrying, Andy had a vague happiness he didn't really understand or remember ever feeling from anyone else. Sitting on the couch in Leslie's house while Andy April tapped the back of her phone and stared at it with wide eyes like a hand would reach out from the screen and drag her inside.

"Everything okay?" Andy asked, moving closer to April.

"Yeah," she mumbled. "Everything's fine."

Despite her words, April had moved closer to Andy and shrugged his arm over her shoulder while still staring at the phone. They were waiting on Leslie to get home so they could make one of those little gingerbread houses that Andy loved making and then immediately eating the entirety of himself. April made an offhand remark one day about never making one before, and never really wanting to, but between Andy and Leslie there was no way that would stand. The moment she said that Andy was incredulous and demanding they do one the very next day.

"Shit," she said under her breath moments later. "No, no."

"Did Leslie forget those little gingerbread guys? Oh man, you gotta have people to live in the house," Andy groaned and tapped April's shoulder absentmindedly in frustration. "That's-"

"No, Andy. I think my parents figured out I'm not coming home," her voice wobbled in a way Andy wouldn't have ever expected.

"So? No one's gonna tell them where you are," Andy tried to soothe her, but that didn't seem to be working judging by her rapid breathing.

"I changed the address at my last appointment," she explained, eyebrows furrowed. "I forgot to do it after I took my dad's card off the bill. He probably got the charge and the bill, and now-"

"Hey, calm down," Andy interrupted when she seemed to be melting over.

"How can I calm down, Andy?" she turned to give him a bewildered, frantic expression. "They know where I am now. He knows where I am."

"So?"

"So, he'll know I'm still... y'know, and with you, and he's gonna..." her words fell aside when another alert made her eyes widen further.

"When he's gonna what? What do you think he's gonna do?" Andy asked, worried at her sudden silence. "You're twenty-one. It's not like he owns you or something."

"He says he's coming to pick me up," she barely managed to say. "My dad's picking me up."

April didn't move from her position, stuck to Andy, for another minute or so and when she did it was only to rest her head on his shoulder instead of lean forward to stare at the screen. For some reason she seemed hesitant to say anything else to him and instead refused to move away from him or even let him stand up. When he tried to she only tugged at his sleeve, forcing him to stay. Andy wasn't intending to leave, but April's insistence meant that he wasn't going to move if that's what she needed.

She didn't say much when someone pulled up into the drive. April didn't react at all to the sounds of someone stepping out of the car, but when it was Leslie she let out a breath that Andy swore had been held for at least a minute. Explaining the situation to Leslie, she said much the same things as Andy but April still seemed convinced that she was going to have to leave. No matter what either of them said, she wouldn't be swayed.

Then, after an hour of silently rubbing April's arm and trying to figure out a way to make it clear she didn't have to do anything she didn't want to, Andy looked out the window to see an unfamiliar car drive by and pull up. An unfamiliar man walked to the front door and rang the bell. April tensed in Andy's arms and when he stood up she pulled away and fell back much like when she got the first text. She looked so tiny with her legs curled up on the couch, so wary of the visitor, that Andy had a brief flash of anger at whatever enemy - invisible or the man at the door - she was tangling with.

Andy's hand stopped at the doorknob for a moment. Looking back, April was staring at the door like a dam was about to smash and let floodwaters rush in the house. He smiled at her, but April didn't seem to notice, and in one quick motion opened the door and stepped out, closing it behind him. Outside of the house and in front of him was a short man who, if Andy didn't know better, would have been a kind-looking, pot-bellied little man save for his face contorted in anger.

"I know he's in there," the man said brusquely, pointing at the door.

"Who?" Andy asked, a little agitated at the man's choice of words.

"Don't play stupid," he laughed, trying to move past Andy and through the door. "Though from what I've heard it's not really playing at stupid."

"Sorry, there's nobody here other than me, Leslie, and April," Andy said, stressing her name loudly for her dad to hear.

"Oh, so he's got you on that kick too?" again he tried to force entrance but Andy stood in the much smaller man's way.

Even if Andy was able to keep him out as long as either of their energy went, he couldn't stop April opening the door behind him and stepping outside. When Andy put his arm over her shoulder, intending to keep her close, she was shaking just standing there and didn't seem to want to look up at her father. The bruises had horrified Andy, that someone could do something like that to their own kid was completely out of Andy's sphere of understanding not to mention everything else she said he had done - the physical abuse had only made her retreat further and further inward until she had become who she liked to pretend to be.

Now, Andy relished the fact that April didn't seem to move.

"I'm... I don't want to go," she said to the welcome mat at her feet.

"Then who'll pay for your bills?" her dad presented, pointing at her. "I know you used those loans for that bullshit and not college."

"I'm still not going," April repeated, her voice so shaky and her shoulders tensing up even as Andy slowly massaged her with his hand.

"Come on," he insisted, his hand reaching for April's wrist and pulling hard.

April resisted and it only made her dad try harder, nearly yanking her out from under Andy's arm. Andy watched the struggle for a second before he stepped forward instinctively to stand between the two of them. Looking down at the man, Andy couldn't figure out what was making him try so hard to refuse everything that April wanted right then. This was his kid, his daughter, and he seemed just as fine with dislocating her shoulder as he was to fume at Andy.

Andy didn't really like when he even played around rough with people, let alone hurting them. It wasn't that he didn't like messing around with his friends, his brothers, or occasionally April but when things got out of hand it always reminded Andy that he was much bigger than most people that weren't his brothers. But something was different here, something he didn't quite understand, and if he saw the dainty man make another aggressive move at her Andy didn't know what he was going to do, only that that he wouldn't hesitate.

"He's not staying here," the small man shouted. "He needs us. He can't pay for everything on his own."

"April's staying here," Andy returned, grabbing April's hand and lacing his fingers through them. "She's better off without you, anyways. People actually care about her here."

"You have to stop saying that," her father was visibly shaken by something Andy said.

"What? That she's your daughter?" a new voice spoke up, Leslie standing behind the confrontation.

"Yes, that," he gestured at April.

Andy mistook that as another move and took another step at him, forcing the man back off the step and onto the walkway leading from the driveway. Without taking his hand out of April's, Andy continued walking the man backward towards his car.

"Don't come back, man," Andy suggested, unsure if his voice was threatening or just plain goofy. "She doesn't want you around. You don't deserve a kid, anyways, the way you treat 'em."

Turning back to look at April, she still wasn't looking at her father but had lessened her incredible grip on his hand, Andy gave her the most reassuring smile he could muster before returning to the offender.

"Whatever, it's not even my son anymore," he waved the two of them off, huffing as he went back to the driver's seat. "It's just a useless waste."

"I'm not an 'it,'" April whispered to Andy.

When the car drove off, Andy turned around and looked at April. She was still staring down at their hands, reluctant to make another move after that. Andy tipped her chin up and immediately wondered how childishly romantic a gesture that was, and since it was April he could only assume she would hate it, but she gave him a short movement of her lips.

"You're April," he assured her.

"Yeah, I am," she responded before leaning up on her toes to kiss him.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Andy told her.

"For everything," she found the will to finally say quietly. "I... thanks."

April didn't want to let go of his cheek, cupping his face perpetually in the hopes that she could find the strength to tell him what she really wanted to. No matter what had happened, no matter who he said he was or had even proved he was, April still had a nagging worry about those three words. They could really spell doom for the two of them and April was too used to feeling Andy's hands move along her back and hold her closer.

"Hey April?" he broke her thoughts with those whispered words.

"What's up?" she asked, wondering why she hadn't just told him.

"Wanna finish that gingerbread house?" he offered, grinning.

"Totally," she answered, standing up with him and trying to maintain his sprint back inside Leslie's house.

an2: I'm going to take a break for the rest of the week partly to spend some time with the family and also to work on some potential ideas for an AU that I've been sitting on since forever.