A/N: Requested after last night's episodes! Spoilers for 7x05/7x06 a little bit, but also hey guys... those episodes revived my belief in the pregnancy theory. So, yeah. That's pretty cool.
I had to play a little bit with the request because, unfortunately, the new doll-head factory asylum house doesn't have any kitchens of its own!
The first thing that April thought when Craig, so calm and collected and weirdly not explosive, asked her why she convinced Jen to leave was regret. To be honest, that kind of sucked. Regretting stuff was stupid and usually reserved for people that actually bothered to care about their actions, something April desperately wanted not to be. No matter what she told herself though, April still had a strange niggling annoyance at doing that.
Though, and it was only fair, Jen didn't care at all about that job. April didn't either when she was just a bit older than her, so why make her waste time there? Waste time or, as Craig put it, get to work with Leslie freaking Knope, Ron fucking Swanson, and of course meet Andy Dwyer.
So, hopeful, April makes a stop to Leslie's house with a grocery bag in hand. She's busy, but April doesn't actually have a kitchen in her new house (God, she loves that place already and something about talking to Jen makes her like that house more. It's weird though, because those two are totally disconnected and don't mean anything at all) and if there's anything that college kids like it's free food. What better way to lure them to a death by thousand cuts at the hands of the local government than with sweets?
Confections provided by, and she shudders for a moment thinking about how she knows how to actually bake cookies, April Ludgate-Dwyer.
It's just a few minutes of convincing and Leslie's completely on board. April gets to see Sonia, the two boys out with their father, and it's not the worst thing ever. Again, that stupid feeling about the house seeps in when the little girl walks over and watches April roll the little balls of dough curiously.
Leslie trusts April with her children, and Andy, but sometimes there's a confusion over that contract. They weren't adult or responsible enough to be relegated to handling taking care of kids even if just for a few hours every week. Then again, April stands there with Ben's apron on and Sonia picks up the much smaller one hanging from a series of pegs lower on the side of the fridge. Normally she wouldn't bother with an apron but the little girl insisted on it. You can't really bake without an apron, after all. That's not how it works. April hands her a bit of dough to roll up, following April until Leslie walks in and takes some of her own.
"You never said what this was for," Leslie mentions when the first dozen are in the oven and they're prepping another batch. Chocolate chip, after Leslie told her they didn't have robin's blood, would have to do.
"Just because I want to bake cookies seemingly at random in your kitchen doesn't mean they're for anybody," April shrugs and puts down the first small ball of dough and chocolate.
"April," Leslie says knowingly.
Sighing, she puts her hands on the counter and turns around. "Fine, I feel bad because I kinda convinced one of Craig's new interns to become a salty sea wench, or violent man-eating siren. I'm not really sure," she says through the sigh and shrugs again.
"Why'd you do that?" Leslie asks her, prodding forward and eating some of the dough that was still meant for cookies.
"I dunno, she seemed... it was like I got a chance to talk to me eight years ago," April raises her hand and lets it fall down, unsure what to do with it because she's not even sure why she was so bothered by it all. "I mean, if I hadn't been working at the Parks department I'd miss a lot of people but I don't think she should do something because she's being pressured into it. Even if it's just, like, college credit pressure it's still pressure, y'know?"
"Mhmm," Leslie mumbles, giving April a curious look.
Ignoring that, April continues. "For me, I'm glad that I did what I did," April remembers to take a breath before going on. "She might not have that, though, and she should probably have her own life experiences and stuff that I never thought to do, or whatever."
Leslie keeps nodding, and it's so weird. April doesn't even get why she keeps nodding, and when Sonia comes back to get her cookie that she worked so hard to help April and her mom bake, Leslie looks down at her and maybe there's something about seeing the two of them together. It's something, but April doesn't really get it at all either.
It's kinda like jealousy.
April returns home late at night, exhausted from walking around a gross college campus and talking to stupid barely-adults and teenagers, armed with a Saran-wrapped plate of cookies leftover. Most of them were hard and a bit too crumbly now, but they actually turned out all right. Either way, free food was an easy way to attract a bunch of kids so her plan worked flawlessly. Pamphlets were easy to get from the Parks department proper, and all she had to do was mention credits and internships and people were in.
Walking up the steps to the new house as a collective series of howls from some unknown animals in the area echoed out into the night, April's greeted immediately by an excited Andy.
"Babe, you won't believe this: Tom got me a four hundred dollar raise!" he's smiling and looking down at her excitedly. "Like, a week! Isn't that awesome?"
"Yeah, it is," she leans up and kisses him before moving over to the one small table they kept from Burly's old house. "How'd he manage to do that?"
"By being the best agent ever," Andy's smiling broadly and then looks down at the plate in her hand. "How was your day?"
"I kinda got that annoying thing where I wanted to be nice," she grimaces and Andy just keeps smiling at her, "because I screwed something up for Craig. I got a bunch of potential interns and stuff to go there, so that was basically it."
"What're these?" he unwraps the cookies and his eyes light up, instantly scarfing down one of them and groaning happily. "Babe, where'd you get these? They're awesome."
"I baked them," she mumbles, sitting down and resting her chin on her crossed arms. "Leslie and I did it, I guess."
"Whoa, you can make cookies?" Andy looks surprised and she just scrunches her nose up at him.
"Dude, we did the cake for your birthday," she explains and laughs a little.
"Oh, yeah," he scratches his chin before snatching another cookie and polishing it off. "I thought you just made Leslie bake it."
"That's what I told you because I didn't want you to know I can bake," she looks down like she's embarrassed. "It's... ugh, it's kinda fun."
"And these are awesome," Andy shakes his head, chuckling, before taking three cookies and slamming them in his mouth.
He looks ridiculous with all of them in there, chewing slowly. His cheeks bulge out from the crammed sweets and it looks like he's going to take an age eating them. Moving over across the table, April kisses him lightly on the lips and she can taste a strange combination of chocolate and dirt.
Going to the bedroom, their bizarre little cloister, April falls asleep. In the morning, she finds the plate completely empty and Andy's got another cookie on the endtable next to the bed. She can't help smiling at that, either.