A/N: SIX YEARS! Not a prompt, popped into my head and I realized this was one thing I've never written about! Or it is and I've forgotten.

This thing takes place right after April breaks up with Derek (the other) Ben during the Valentine's dance in 2x16 "Galentine's Day".

Enjoy!

Though Andy and his band were supposed to play for the whole night at the dance, at some point they needed a break. When that happened, the music abruptly shifted to uncomfortable adult contemporary blaring straight out of the PA system, the volume dropping quickly after the audible gasps from so many surprised seniors. April snickered to herself at their reaction, sitting pointedly at the exact opposite end of the hall from where Derek and Ben sat.

They were assholes, calling her out like that - just because she had a new friend didn't mean anything. Ironic how they were completely okay being with each other and then picking her up whenever Derek felt like it, but the moment she had interest outside of the two of them she was "boring" and deserved a verbal lashing. April drained her glass, forgetting that it wasn't alcohol and the sparkling water burned on the way down anyways.

"Jerks," she mumbled, still staring at the two of them laughing. She grit her teeth and didn't notice someone approaching.

"Who's a jerk?" Andy asked, his voice cracking a bit and his face plastered with sweat.

April about jolted out of her chair. Getting a hold on her surprise, she instead glared up Andy. He was grinning. It fell down his face an imperceptible sliver of an inch but April felt the mood change from his - if not embarrassing, at least utterly flattering - quite personal shout-out to her early in the night.

"Nobody," she said and nodded at the chair across from her. "Wanna sit?"

Andy didn't answer but collapsed into the small plastic chair. It gave a squeal under the sudden weight before the music piped into the hall overwhelmed it again. Annoyed at herself for staring in frustration, April turned to face Andy who had a faint smile on his face like he was content about something. The necessary sarcastic, cold comment died in her throat and disarmed April temporarily while the two of them looked at one another with atrocious music getting louder again before an old man would yell for it to quiet. So it did, and the noise in the hall shifted from melodic saxophones and limp keyboards to polished shoes scuffing the center dance floor and the thud of April's heart in her chest.

"So... how'd you like the concert?" Andy asked after a moment, leaning back in his chair and taking a drink of the same drink as April. "Ugh, I thought this was booze."

April chuckled before looking down at the glass she was tapping absentmindedly. "I liked the first song," she said.

"Cool."

Every bone in her body reminded April she shouldn't have said that. The song itself was boring and despite Mouse Rat's somewhat more energetic performance, it didn't sound like anything that April would normally like. The hackles should be raised. A bit of venom. Anything.

I liked the first song.

Just as April wanted to sigh and walk away, frustrated with the realization that Derek and Ben were absolutely right, Andy sat forward like he was going to say something.

"Hey April, uh," his voice doing this weird cracking thing like he was a teenager made April smile for some reason. Almost as if he was as nervous as she felt. "I like that dress-"

The moment April's face flared up in heat at that comment, an old couple appeared in sight like they'd silently sprinted into view. Either that or April had tunnel vision and couldn't pay attention to anything else right now, but it had to be the stealthy, athletic seniors. It didn't occur to April until later that night that they were the same couple she had complimented.

They had come up to thank Andy for the performance, but when April broke out of her reverie they apologized for interrupting, as they put it, "Such a lovely couple."

If Andy's interrupted comment made her anxious of the situation, that bit she caught only exacerbated the situation. Andy stumbled out an explanation and gratitude into a confused mess of words and April couldn't take it anymore. She stood up without a word, hearing Andy say her name, and walked out of the hall without a word into the February chill.

In the cold, her mind could relax and she breathed hard away the excess stimulation. The door she exited, an employee entrance, creaked open behind her.

"You okay?" Andy asked her, his voice fraught with concern.

April nodded and sniffed. The cold was starting to stuff up her nose after recovering from a light head cold, but it was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Then Andy was down to his silly but cute undershirt and he had that dark brown jacket in his hand, offering it to her.

She felt her lips curl into an smile of their own accord. "Thanks," she said with a shiver.

"D'you... uh, wanna talk about that?" Andy scratched his beard as April leaned against the building with his jacket to ward off the cold. And it did, it was abnormally hot like he was a blast furnace under the thing. "Was it something I said?"

"No, Andy," she answered. She spent the next few seconds staring at the asphalt of the parking lot. "I needed some fresh air."

"Oh, okay. Well, thanks for showing up," he said and without the awkward shuffling of out-of-step dance moves and aggravating music around them, April heard that nervous cracking clearer than ever. "Means a lot to me."

April looked up from one of the only parts of the parking lot not blanketed in snow. Andy was biting one side of his mouth and chewing at it, looking away from her and down, and she realized that Derek and Ben had barely even scratched the surface on the situation here. They thought they knew what April and Andy were up to, being weird friends together, but the warmth here in the secluded lamplight underneath the dim light over the employee's entrance sang of so much more than a simple friendship. Something she wanted.

When April pushed herself off of the building to say something, feeling for the words like she was afraid of them as her hands jittered in the overlong sleeves of Andy's jacket, that door opened and one of Andy's bandmates appeared. He let Andy know they were due on stage again and awkwardly nodded at April.

As Andy made to go back inside he said, "I'll see you inside?"

"Yeah," April answered and only after he went back to the dance did she realize that she still wore his jacket.

It was a nice feeling, like he was still outside with her. As she organized her thoughts and practiced what she would say to him, the sounds of Mouse Rat starting their set bled through the walls. The anxiety dug back into her as she walked into the hall again, the rehearsed words collapsing under the weight of reality as she found her place at a table without observers or company. She could see him and he could see her and that would do for now.