A/N: I have no idea when this would be set. I just wanted to write cute, pre-relationship Christmas fluff.
Somehow they had ended up hanging out on Christmas Eve. When Andy asked her why she didn't go home, she just told him that it was boring there. He smiled then and April wondered why it was so easy to return it, a little heat in her cheeks that was unwelcome, before coughing and looking away from him. They weren't actually doing anything, unless walking around a CVS at eleven o'clock was considered something.
Andy was a giant oaf, and when she first met him he was incredibly selfish, but things had changed a little. Only for him though, because April certainly wasn't thinking any of these things or wondering why they were still awkwardly skirting around the very thing that they both clearly wanted. Either way, she just had fun being around him.
"Hey, where's the good toothpaste? Like, the bubblegum stuff - all they have here is the gross regular flavor," Andy grimaced and pushed aside some things on a rack before sighing.
"Do you even use toothpaste?" she asked sincerely, her hands stuffed in her jacket to try and catch some of the warmth of the place before they walked out into the Pawnee cold again.
"Well, that depends," he said with a very serious look on his face, "on whether you mean I use toothpaste or I have ever used toothpaste."
"Gross," April scrunched her nose up and Andy laughed. "Why'd you even want to come in here?"
"I didn't get decorations and stuff for Burly's Christmas party," he explained, picking up a tube of paste with a Santa on it, "so I gotta do that too."
April chuckled but walked around to the miniature aisle with all the small candy bars, picking up one of the mini-sized festive Kit-Kats and taking another handful. There was some actual Christmas themed candy, a few candy canes in variable flavors, so she picked those up too. They were disgusting but it didn't matter if they were decorations anyways.
Meanwhile, Andy had a greeting card and a gift bag in his hands when April walked over to him. He was staring at a tiny fake tree and bag of green plastic and oddly reflective red baubles labeled mistletoe. He was scratching his chin with the Holiday card, looking around when he spotted her.
"Hey, d'you think he would want us to get another tree?" Andy asked.
"I doubt it. Who cares, this stuff's enough," she raised the bag of candy and looked at his meager Christmas offerings. "He should be happy you thought about it at all."
"You're right," Andy agreed, smiling widely. "You're so smart April, you're the best."
He walked towards the register, leaving April standing there with a tiny spark of heat rising through her chest and an odd, uncomfortably warm smile on her face. Without another thought she leaned down and picked up one of the plastic bags, quickly shoving it in her pocket. As she approached Andy, April wiped away whatever vestige of a grin she had in an effort to maintain absolute apathy. After all, what was there to smile about when she was hanging out with a really cool guy on Christmas Eve, buying stupid things that only vaguely related to the holiday at all?
Throwing her haul onto the counter, the employee sighed and looked at the large pile of goodies with nothing but contempt in her eyes. If April wasn't apparently going to a Christmas party, one that Andy never told her about until that night, this sullen late-shifter and her would probably become best friends that night.
"That'll be $58.95," she droned, ringing up the massive pile of stuff.
"Okay," Andy said flatly, looking at April.
She looked back at him, and he nodded to her. April squinted and shook her head, which made Andy purse his lips and give a small chuckle. Before either of them could say anything the woman in front of them sighed again, bringing Andy and April to look at her once before exchanging an equally mischievous look. They both lunged forward, grabbing as much of the enormous pile as they both could and bolted out of the pharmacy.
The woman only muttered a low whine, and before long April and Andy were out of breath with arms full of candy and Christmas cards. April eventually rolled her sweater up so that she could look at the haul while walking and picking at it. Grabbing one of the festive Kit-Kats, she bit into it and gave Andy a tiny flicker of a smile. His face nearly split in half from the smile, every bit of joy the guy was capable of in that moment, and April felt that same rising heat.
"That was really illegal," April intoned.
"And super fun," Andy pointed out, reaching into her pile and taking out one of the peppermint candy canes. "So I would say that was... a success."
"Totally," she said through chewing the chocolate. "When's Burly's party."
"It was a week ago," Andy said nonchalantly, breaking the cane in half before crumbling it and dropping the dust in his mouth.
"So why did we have to get this stuff now?" April asked while trying to hide a tinge of annoyance.
"Because he got candy for the party and it was super good, so I wanted more," he replied with a few flecks of white and red sugar on his lips.
"Oh, of course," April laughed, unsure why she was suddenly okay with being so cold and outside for basically no reason other than some candy.
They continued walking like that for a little while until April's phone buzzed with what she assumed was Leslie wishing her a Merry Christmas. Pulling it out of her pocket, the little plastic bag she pilfered at the store dropped onto the ground. Before she could pick it up, Andy had already crouched down and grabbed the faux-mistletoe that had fallen into the snow. Wiping it off, Andy looked at it curiously.
"I don't remember getting this," he bunched up his eyebrows in confusion. "April, d'you remember getting this?"
"Yeah," she answered truthfully. "I stole it when you went to go buy everything, or steal it all I guess."
"Y'know, this stuff never works," Andy said like he was relaying a series of facts to April. "I've never gotten anyone to kiss me when I pull this stuff out. They usually just say 'ew, no,' or 'Andy, I'm not making out with you in front of your parents.'"
"That sounds stupid," April nods, assuming he was talking about Ann and pushing that indignation away because an idea was forming in her head. "Besides, you don't just carry it around. You have to hang it up somewhere, like over a threshold or something."
"Isn't that what they use to dig up corn?" Andy asked curiously, unpackaging the plastic flora.
"No it's... whatever, here let me show you," April continued walking up to a closed shop's entrance. "I need a lift."
Andy complied immediately, crouching and letting her sit on his shoulders. When Andy stood up she flailed a bit while trying to keep her balance, eventually catching herself without tumbling over. April found a bit of paint that had chipped off, using it like a little clip for the mistletoe to nestle against awkwardly and hang precariously from. April didn't tell Andy to let her down for a few more moments, until he asked if she was done, and stepped under the bad decoration.
"Now you know what it's like to kiss someone under the mistletoe," April said confidently.
Even as April took his hands and looked up at him expectantly, Andy only had a confused look across his face.
"What, no I haven't, I just told y-"
Still confused, April leaned up on her toes and interrupted him with a lingering, warm brush of her lips on his. Whether she wanted to or not, April couldn't for the life of her stop smiling at him after that. Maybe it was the cold, relatively fresh air destroying her brain or the fact that Andy had a bowled over expression. April didn't know, but she didn't stop smiling and she only let it grow wider when his lips eventually curled upwards.
Without another word Andy put his large, gloved hands on her cheeks and leaned down again. April didn't hesitate to move closer to him, arching into him when he kissed her again. There was more desperate want there than before, the first innocuous and possibly just friendly. Breaking apart, April struggled to find the words where they deserved to be but Andy had that infectious smirk that made words a little unnecessary.
"Merry Christmas," he said slowly, eyes never breaking off of hers.
"Merry Christmas," she laughed, pulling him down once again to her lips.