Fic: A Ludgate Galentine
Title: A Ludgate Galentine
Fandom: Parks and Recreation
Characters: April Ludgate-Dwyer, Natalie Ludgate, Andy Dwyer
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~1,200
Summary: April starts a new Galentines Day tradition
Author's Note: I didn't claim any prompts in the Galentines Day exchange, so instead I wrote this as my Galentines Day gift to the entire Parks fandom. Sisters celebrating sisters. Happy Galentines Day!
"I'll have to drop you off at work early," says April, wincing at the sound of responsibility come out of her own mouth. "Leslie's doing her Galentines breakfast thing again tomorrow."
"Awesome! Leslie throws the best parties. I mean, the best parties without tons of booze and live music. She's the best at the other kind of parties." Andy absently tosses his nerf football up and down as he lounges in front of the tv, watching Ultimate Battle Smoothie.
"Yeah," says April, almost to herself.
She still has all of Leslie's homemade gifts from Galentines, her birthdays, and Christmas over the years. Most of them are on display around April's desk at work, but a few choice items decorate her bedroom here at home. She likes them. They remind of-well-good stuff.
Later in the evening her mom calls to chat at her. That's usually how calls with her mom go. Mom chats, April listens.
Tonight, her mom mentions that Natalie broke up with her boyfriend.
"She's feeling really down about it. She's been moping around the house for days," says her mom. "And this afternoon, out of the blue, she said she's thinking of dropping her dance classes. Can you believe that?"
April frowns. Dance is, like, the only thing Natalie really cares about. What did that douchebag dickhead do to her?
"I'll call her," says April suddenly.
"Really? Would you? That's so sweet, honey. She really needs someone to talk to right now. Like I was saying . . ." Her mom keeps rattling on about fifteen other things that April only halfway hears.
She has an idea.
"Do want to go out lunch tomorrow, and then, like, hang out, or something?" she says as soon as Natalie answers her call.
"Uhhhh…" Natalie draws out her sound of confusion. "Why?"
Yeah. Did that wrong. April frowns. "Just because. We're sisters. And we're adults. Well, you're almost an adult. And this is the sort of thing that adult sisters do, sometimes."
"I don't know."
How does Leslie make this sort of thing seem so easy? But April isn't ready to give up, yet. "Look," she says, "remember my crazy blonde friend from work?"
"Yeah. She bugs me about my grades every time I see her. She's weird."
April can't disagree. But weird isn't always a bad thing. "Yeah. I know. Anyway, she does this thing every February 13th where she calls it Galentines Day and gets all her girlfriends together to celebrate lady friendships. I guess I was just thinking you and I could do something like that."
Natalie lets out a soft, scoffing laugh. "That sounds so lame."
"Yeah. Yeah. It is." April pouts a little. This was a dumb idea, anyway.
"Let's do it," says Natalie suddenly.
"Really?" April's eyebrows shoot up.
"Really."
~ ~ ~
April takes Natalie to a sushi bar, and they play a game to see how much wasabi they can eat without needing to take a drink. It's pretty cool.
After a while, April asks Natalie about dance. "I mean, I thought you totally loved dancing. I thought that was your thing."
Natalie shrugs and pokes at piece of sushi with her chopsticks. "I thought it was too. But I'm twenty, you know? Classes at a local studio and a dance minor from a community college aren't going to get me anywhere, at this point. If you haven't made it in dance by twenty, you're not going to make it."
"Mom said you talked about teaching."
Natalie shrugs again and pops the piece of sushi into her mouth.
April waits for her to chew and swallow. She knows she can't push this.
Finally Natalie says, "I guess teaching at a dance studio would be cool. I like kids."
"I like kids, too." April wouldn't have admitted as much, two years ago. But she's an adult now (there's no more denying it), and adults are allowed to say stuff like this.
Natalie pokes at another piece of sushi. "Do you think you'll have some? Kids, I mean?"
April breathes in and out. This is something she's been thinking about a lot, lately. Especially since she heard Ann is trying to find some man-seed for her womb. That reminded April how lucky she is to have someone she loves. Someone who will make a pretty awesome dad, someday. "I think I will. Not right away. Andy needs to finish cop school and get a job first. But, yeah. I think I will."
"That's cool."
"Yeah."
They lapse into silence as they both finish the last few pieces of sushi on their plates.
"Troy left me for a ballerina in a touring company," Natalie says just after she swallows her last bite.
April scowls. "God, what a dick."
Natalie smiles just a little. "He was kind of a dick."
"Let him go follow his black swan bitch. You can do better."
Natalie nods. "I hope so."
"I know so."
Natalie meets her eyes. "My old ballet teacher told me that when I finish school, she can probably give me a job. So I guess I should stick with it."
"Totally. Maybe you can even take over the studio, someday."
Natalie smiles at that. "Yeah. Maybe."
There. Sisterly duty done. Galentines quest accomplished. April feels a warm sense of pride welling in her chest. Her eyes get a little moist.
Stupid emotions.
"What about you? Are you ever going to finish school?"
Natalie's question catches April off-guard. She freezes. This is supposed to be about checking up on Natalie-on about Natalie checking up on her.
"Um. I still take one or two classes a term. So it's slow going, but, uh, I'm getting there." April fumbles her answer. Because it's a question she has trouble answering, herself. She's been so caught up in work and marriage and special projects like the campaign and the new park that finishing her degree seems like a very low priority.
"You should finish. If you want to go anywhere with this whole government thing," Natalie waves her hand in the air, indicating April's work attire, "you'll probably need a degree."
This is something April has been trying not to think about. But if she's adult enough to think about kids, she's adult enough to think about stuff like careers, too. She nods. "You're right. I haven't been pushing it. But I should."
"If you ever need to carpool to class, or like, a study buddy or something, call me." Natalie looks almost nice as she makes the offer.
The corners of April's lips twitch up. "Sure. I'll do that."
"Cool." Natalie's smile gets a little bigger. "Do you want to go egg Troy's house with me? That's a good Galentines activity, don't you think?"
"Absolutely."
April pays the check, and they head over to Food 'N Stuff for some eggs.
She may not be sending Natalie home with a gift bag of personalized crafts, but for a first-time Galentines Day with her sister, this feels pretty damn successful.
Maybe she'll do it again next year.