Work Text:
Nervousness was a foreign feeling to April Ludgate. She never let it manifest for long enough to become relevant and overpower her nonchalantness.
Heck, she had already been through a councilwoman campaign, one marriage, college and a divorce. Not necessarily in this order, even though the events were connected.
And none of this made her as nervous as working on Congressman Murray’s campaign.
Well, she wasn't nervous because of the campaign per se, David Murray was exactly the kind of boring, pretentious and machine trained man that the citizens would love to elect. That alone made hers and Ben’s work so stupidly easy.
It was their ‘’boss’’ who was driving April insane.
She had seen Jennifer Barkley a few times before, out and about Leslie’s office and electoral debates, never making much of the woman. The only thing she knew was that she appreciated how the political strategist always looked deeply disgusted by every aspect and person of Pawnee. Yeah, April liked that, even if that feeling in herself wasn't limited only to the small Indiana city.
In the last couple of months, things had taken a turn. Leslie’s campaign, success aside, had strained her relationship with Andy to the point she felt more like his friend than anything else, it took him sometime to understand but he eventually got there. It was amicable and April still considered him a friend, coming to terms with how much he had been important in her life, specially when she was growing into an adult, now she was going on twenty-five and called for a change.
That’s why she didn't hesitate when Ben Wyatt offered her an intern position to work alongside him at the Barkley Group in Washington. The girl secretly longed for new things to gear and take her out of marasmus, too afraid to become boring as she got older like those seniors back at Pawnee whose highlight of the day was feeding the pigeons with a different type of bread.
Washington D.C brought a very welcome fresh air - and she hated fresh air - and new opportunities. April would not be caught dead admitting it, but she didn't loathe the job as much as she thought she would. She had her own box in the office to decorate with gothic ancient artifacts, and there wasn’t much emotional drama aside from Ellis, the intern who had been a real pain in the ass, but she managed.
And there was the infamous Jennifer, the head of the firm. Who asserted dominance and confidence at every step when strutting inside the office in her perfect fitting pencil skirts and blazers. She stopped by on their floor occasionally, mostly spending the work hours on her own office at the top of the building, and when she did, April watched her.
Watched how the perfect coiffed light-brown curls bounced, how she was always so elegant on nine-inch high heels, the way her pearl necklace glistened in the bright office lights. Jen was smart-mouthed, bossy, intelligent and knew how to command a room like no one else, with the right words and tones that sometimes could border the line of mean.
April, when she really started to notice her, thought that Jen was hot. Aside from being beautiful with her blue eyes, long lashes, crooked nose, defined jaw, pink lips… - She had some kind of allure that seemed to draw April in even from afar, especially the way she didn't seem to notice her out of Ben’s shadow or even acknowledge her existence. April hasn't even talked to the older woman directly yet, and the campaign was coming to an end soon.
Maybe the fact that she was eleven years older contributed to April attraction, maybe she had a type.
The thing was, Jen’s not noticing her seemed fun in the beginning, admiring from afar and running scenarios in her head after the gossip heard on the Parks department about how Chris Taeger’s world was turned upside down after their one night stand. But now, she felt something close to yearning and it pissed her off.
Now her breath hitched every time she heard the elevator’s ping followed by the clacking of needle heels, she fumbled the words in the meetings held towards the campaign when Ben asked her to tell Jennifer about their progress. April soon caught herself wishing that Jen would pass by each day, at the same time being nervous with the possibility.
April Ludgate had a crush, and she was embarrassed as hell about it.
And she was disappointed too, when Ben barged in at their shared rented apartment beaming like the king of the world and breaking the news that Congressman Murray victory was guaranteed. Their job was done.
When she clocked in at work on the following day and saw some people organizing champagne bottles and glasses to celebrate, a sense of dread started to grow. It was frustrating, because she had done a hell of a good job and wanted to feel content with the result, not be disrupted with feelings for a woman who may not even know her name. Jen probably thinks her name is Abigail or some dumb shit like it.
Truth be told, April never was much of a starter. She acted when needed because Andy was taking too long and that was already hard enough. Another truth; she was scared of women. Felt paralyzed every time a girl - who had taken the first step - kissed her, like a frozen statue that didn't know how to move its own hands.
Jen on the other end seemed like the type of person that never lets what she wants get away. So if she wanted to, she would. Right?
And April wasn't even on her radar, imagining that Jen would want her was a childish daydream.
The only thing left to do was run. Run from Jennifer,from the sense of rejection, and from Washington now that there wasn't anything left for them to do.
She saw Jen walking in strutting directly in Ben's direction with a big satisfied smile on her face, it would be impossible to not acknowledge her presence even if April wanted.
At the middle of the morning, champagne glasses began rotating in the office and Ben called attention for a speech with Jennifer by his side. Damn, she looked good . “Well, Congressman Murray has an 18 point lead.Calloway is out of money and has stopped campaigning. So, congratulations!”
Applauses erupted and April felt it was time to sip her champagne.
“Great work, all of you!” Jen's voice projected in the room in that politician tone.
What did it take for Jen to notice her? She arguably had been one of the people who worked the most, even as an intern. “But especially me!”
“Especially everyone.” Ben, always the mediator, stepped in. “This was a team effort, really.”
“But I was the best.Thank you.” April told the people around her, and the only one she truly wanted to get attention from was focused on her cellphone and sipping champagne.
“You were all fantastic!” Ben said to the other employees.
“Most of all me,April Ludgate, the real hero.” And Jen kept glued to the screen, ignoring her completely as if she was a ghost. “Thank you and you're welcome.”
“Actually, April, if you want,you can head back to Pawnee early.” Ben told her and a wave of relief went through her, finally a chance to escape. “Wrap a few things up and..”
“Great” April didn't even let him finish, grabbing her purse and rushing off, noticing a few seconds too late that she had dropped the glass of champagne on the floor with the loud noise of shatter.
“Whoo! That's an exit!” She heard Jen’s humorous voice from outside, the first time the woman said something directly about her. “Gone but never forgotten!”
April stopped at the other side of the door, pondering if it was too late to go back inside. Until Jennifer talked again, loud enough for her to hear. “Who was that? I’m just kidding.”
Great. The lack of interest was more clear than ever. Deep inside, April was grateful for it. It would help her get over faster, and it's not like she would know what to do if she had the chance with a woman like Jennifer Barkley.
On top of it all, she was frustrated to find out that getting out of a job didn't consist in only gathering your things and leaving the building. There was an atrocious invention called the “HR Department” who insisted that she should pass a dimissional exam on the building and sign a million different copies of documents. Who knew working demanded so much bureaucracy.
“Ms.Ludgate, as an early dismissal we will only have your papers by the end of the day.” The secretary told her with an annoying smile. “Can you pass by later to sign them so we can take you off the system?”
April groaned. “Are you kidding? What am I supposed to do until then?”
“Well, why don't you clear out your table and say goodbye to your peers?”
April rolled her eyes, stomping out of the office and mumbling “Or murder them.”
She decided to annoy Ben for a bit longer by the lack of better things to do. First, she stopped at the small cafeteria to see if a cup of coffee would help her get through the next tortuous hours.
April put the luxurious french press to work and poured a generous amount, using all of her concentration to not spill when she felt the familiar scent of perfume entering the room where she was alone before.
Only one person wore those maddening notes of green wood and azaleas. At least the only one she noticed.
The person she was decided to get over her stupid crush. April grabbed her coffee and sat at the table, pretending to have more important things to do on her phone than watch Jennifer prepare her own coffee with cream in a mug.
Before getting out the door, Jen said something that left the girl shocked and out of words,staring at the wall in disbelief. “Good work on the campaign, April. ”
*
Making her away to Ben’s office, she couldn't stop replaying that frase in her head. She was feeling so foolish, she was a divorced woman! How could she be so flustered with that simple interaction?
April knocked at Ben's office and he welcomed her in, looking disheveled and sad like he hadn't just won a electoral campaign.
“What's up?” Questioned sitting in front of him.
Ben sighed and explained to her how Jennifer had proposed to him a job position running a governor's campaign in Florida, now of all times that he and Leslie had signed the lease on their house.
“What would you do, April?” He asked her, as if they were the father-daughter duo people made of them.
“I mean, I dunno.” She answered, not very helpfully. “I would think about my future. You have so much more at stake than me back in Pawnee.”
Suddenly, Ben's face lit up and his eyes widened. “April! That's it” He laughed, hands towards her like April was a saint.
Still, she was confused. “What?”
“Think about it! April, you're young and you were brilliant on the campaign.”
“Of course i was, but-”
He interrupted her. “April! For so long I didn't know what I wanted for my life. Now I do, it's Leslie, April, Leslie!”
“That 's cute.” No, it wasn't “But I don't understand what it has to do with me.”
“My future is Leslie.” He declared. “And yours, April, could very much be here.”
Oh. Now she understood.
“What?”
“Yeah. I mean, you obviously can say no and go back to Pawnee with me.” Ben explained, like April already didn't know that. “But I can put you in my position and you would be running the campaign.”
April thought about it for a second. Did she really want to go back to Indiana and spend a few more years figuring out what to do while she sits at Ron’s assistant chair? Washington hadn't been bad and the campaigns she had worked until now proved how much she loved bossing people around. Of course, she would probably hate Florida with its sunny sky and happy people at the beach. On the other hand, it also had a large population of alligators and sharks.
“You think it's too late to cancel my resignation?” April asked Ben, who smiled large at her.
A few days later she was saying her goodbyes while Ben prepared to fly back to Indiana with an engagement ring tucked into his blazer pocket.
Well, that was it. She was all on her own now. April loved solitude, however at the same time she wondered if she was enough for the job.
Ben told her that all the arrangements were made and April couldn't help but to tremble a little when he said that Jen went along easily with the ideia and specifically said “ There's not many people who can run a campaign, you and her can .”
Again, Jennifer acknowledged her work and her existence. April was so confused.
She hadn't seen Jen again since that moment in the cafeteria and now, boarded on a plane to Florida - where Jen already was - , she felt some sort of excitement in seeing her again.
Time was short and they sent her from the airplane directly to meet the said business man aspiring to be governor on a goddamn boat.
April arrived in her best formal attire, a gray set of pants and blazer with a light pink shirt underneath. Necessary but a torture in Florida’s sun.
Her heart jumped with the view of Jennifer waiting for her in the pier, dressed in all black blazer and skirt, the loyal pearl cord resting on her gorgeous neck paired with Chanel sunglasses. April liked the contrast it made with the excessively blue horizon and white boats.
“Hi.” She greeted from a certain distance, taking Jennifer’s attention off her phone.
“Hi! Come on, he's waiting for us.” Jen rushed her in to go first on the boat, passing her by as sliding her hand on April’s waist so quickly it felt like a ghostly touch to the younger but lit her up anyways.
Howard Kurtzwilder was like any of the wannabe politicians, dressed in all white and overestimating his own potential. At least he had an entertaining tale about a man having his junk cut off by his mistress who threw it to the alligators that made April laugh. Jen explained to the businessman that he had little to none name recognition, which narrowed his chances of winning, but April managed to convince him that the Barkley Group was a good asset to get there, just like she knew Ben would.
A handshake and an offer to run his campaign later, April and her overnight bag were inside the car with Jennifer, heading to the hotel.
“You did great.” Jennifer said to her, breaking the silence that engulfed them since the start of the ride.
“Thanks.” April replied awkwardly, toying with her blazers sleeve. She felt something different in hearing Jen's approval, a certain urge to reach out and feel her closer. “Big work ahead, huh?”
“Yes, we have.”
We? “We?” She gathered the courage to look at Jennifer's stupidly beautiful face.
“Oh, for sure!” Jen chuckled. “It’s your first big campaign and that guy needs all the help he can get. I’ll work with you.”
April looked to the floor of the moving car, unsure on what to say or do, feeling anxious with a rambling in her lower belly with the prospect of spending more time with Jen now that she knew who she was.
She was in such conflict, at the same time her rational part, who used to be so dominant, kept telling her that it was purely professional and her attraction was a teenager’s wet dream.
The car parked and promptly Jen opened her own door. “You’re a natural.” She praised with a wink while simultaneously squeezing April's knee. Jen stepped out of the car and April stared dumbstruck as she passed through the hotel’s glass door.
*
After calling Leslie to know how things in Pawnee were going - and discovering that they were holding a fundraiser after Jerry had a fart attack to cover his bills - April kicked off her shoes and rested on the expensive hotel room, making sure to raid the minibar and flip the pay per view channels on the TV. The Barkley Group didn't play about their employees' comfort, and she would make full use of it.
A strange knock on the door called to her, because she hadn't ordered anything. She got up from the bed and didn't bother to smother her clothes before opening the door and finding Jennifer Barkley standing there.
She held herself differently now, more relaxed and carefree, leaning against the door frame and exuding an effortless calm. “Hi, April.” She greeted in a low voice, looking around the inside of the room. “Can I come in?”
April swallowed nervously and gave her passage, closing the door as she watched Jennifer kick off her heels and sit on the bed’s edge. She stared at Jen for a few seconds, not knowing what to make of her presence until the other woman gestured with her head for April to sit down next to her.
She walked in slow steps and sat so clumsily that the bed squeaked. “Did I do something wrong?” She asked, even though she was sure that their meeting with Howard had been successful.
Jennifer wrinkled her nose and denied with a nod. “Well, not exactly wrong. But I'm not pleased.”
“What did i do, then?” April turned at her and found Jen’s body already turned towards her much closer than she expected.
“You see, April…” She enunciated every word like she was savoring them. Her manicured hand found a large lock of April's hair and caressed it the front of her shoulder, sending shivers down her spine with the sudden contact. “I’m very good at reading people.”
April reeled the information in her head, trying to peel it and find out exactly what it meant. Has Jennifer been able to break through the facade she puts on top of all of her emotions to the outside world?
“And I've been reading you for some time now.”
From the very first step she gave inside the building on Washington as Ben’s pupil, she knew April was somewhat different. Well, Ben was one of the only good things that Pawnee had, so April must be one too.
Jennifer felt intrigued by her at a first moments notice, she had always been able to figure out people quickly cause none of them were smart enough to know how to truly discreet their feelings but April seemed so uncaring all the time, with everything around her.
With time she realized how April's facade cracked everytime they were in the same room. The way she looked at Jen, how her fingers fidgeted on top of the table at every meeting Jen commanded, the older woman could practically feel how April's stare burned her as it followed her entrance on their floor.
Jen wasn't dumb, in fact she was very much smart, thank you. She knew what that meant and recognized her morals weren't high enough for vowing never getting it on with a coworker. She just hadn't found anyone interesting enough.
Sure, Chris was an nice guy and they had a fulfilling night - and an adicional thirty minutes in a supply closet - but she didn't care enough for him to even say goodbye. April, however, was intelligent, cunning and incredibly attractive with a smart mouth and sense of humor that Jen thought it matched so well with hers.
But she wanted to play a bit with April, test the limits of her attractions toward Jen. So, she decided to ignore her completely and watch April squirm with a side eye. Pre-meditating every time she would look anywhere where April wasn't when the girl was talking, pass by her in the hallways and pretend the intern was one of the plant vases tucked in the wall, always speak directly to Ben as if she wasn't there. Surprisingly, April's actions and looks only seemed to intensify.
That girl had a serious delight in degradation. Jen liked it.
She would never put this much effort in a hook up. Sex was enjoyable and she was good at it, not wanting to spend more time than needed on it. But something about April challenged her, made her want to challenge her back. She expected April would reach her limit and act, time was ticking and her patience was growing weary.
Impatient and itching with want, Jen would have acted when the campaign ended if Ben wasn't the most emocional man in the world and left for the cursed town of Pawnee, throwing April directly into her claws. A win-win situation in reality since April was essential to Murray’s election and would make a great asset to the firm.
Jen Barkley left for Florida with a goal, now it was time to achieve it.
“I’ve been waiting for you to make a move.” She admitted, still playing with the tips of April's jet black hair.
April's breath hitched as control slipped from her fingers directly into Jennifer's, leaving her reduced to a mush. Her eyes fell directly in Jen's lips. “I didn't think you wanted to…”
The older woman infiltrated her fingers in April's scalp, which gained her a low whimper as the girl leaned into the touch. “I do want it, April. I want you .”
Finally Jen brought their lips together in a slow kiss that made both moan when their tongues met, releasing all of their pent up desire and force of attraction. April found in herself an unknown force - or maybe desperation - to slip her hand on Jen's waist and grip the lapel of her blazer with the other, trying to bring her impossibly closer as she let Jennifer dominate the kiss completely.
Not a minute later and she was laid down on the bed with her blazer gone, top buttons of her shirt open and Jen partially on top of her, holding her waist and legs entangled as they made out like teenagers on prom night.
Jen kneeled between her legs, taking off her expensive black blazer and throwing it at some corner of the room. She quickly moved to the buttons of her own shirt, her already messy hair falling on her face as the piece went to the floor.
She breathed for a second and looked at April, who stared at her wide eyed, face flushed and hair pooling around her head on the white pillow, taking note of all of Jen's curves.
Jen chuckled with the realization that April probably never had been with a woman like that. She held April's face and kissed her again, trying to tell her without words that she was going to do it gently. During the kiss her hands traveled to the waist of April's pants, pulling it down with the girl’s help as she instinctively propped her hips up and moved her legs to slip the fabric off more easily.
April wrapped her legs around Jen's waist as the older held her by the jaw firmly and maneuvered her head to get more access to her neck, leaving a trail of wet kisses and suctions that made April moan very low and circle her hips unconsciously trying to get more contact. Jen's lips were pliant and came without the pinch of a growing stubble or beard. April ran her hands through Jen's arms, shoulders and back, noticing how different she was from men, soft in places where she used to touch taut muscles, skin smooth and hairless.
And her smell, god, her smell. The floral fragrance filling her nose and clouding her senses, driving her even more desperate to unwrap Jennifer and feel her body heat inside her.
April's hands palped the back of Jennifer's bra anxiously trying to feel the opening of it and rid the woman from the cotton fabric, grunting in frustration by not finding it. Jen hovered on top of her and licked her lips before smiling wickedly and whispering. “ The clasp is on the front .”
She groaned and immediately brought her fingers to the front, unclasping the piece and sliding it down Jen's arm, blushing like a virgin with the view of another woman's boobs for the first time in real life. “You're making me look so uncool right now.”
Jennifer giggled at that and laid by her side, getting rid of her skirt and pulling April by her shirt that now was open all the way by Jen. “Come here.” She urged and held April's head, guiding her eager mouth and tongue to her bare breasts.
She sighed with the wet contact in her sensitive spot, conducting April's hand to knead her other boob. The younger was a bit inexperienced but enthusiastic, and Jen moaned loudly by thinking how much she could teach April. April, who was having the time of her life with her face shoved in Jennifer's bosom.
Jen let April have her fun - and she was having a lot of fun too - for some time until her need was too much to ignore. They got rid of the remaining clothes and Jen got back on top, bringing her hands to the back of her neck to open her necklace when April held her arm. “Leave it on.” She pleaded and Jen complied, shaking her head in amused disbelief of how perverted April was.
The woman reclined April on the headboard and pillows, stradling one of her legs for support and parting them. Jen pumped two fingers in her unbelievably wet entrance with care and want, curling them in and giving it to April good. As she kissed the moans out of her mouth, Jen felt April's hand traveling down her belly and opened her own legs, letting the girl bury two knuckles deep into her and massage her inside, making her feel amazing .
Late afternoon merged into night merging into midnight as they couldn't part from each other. April felt spent after reaching her climax number three of the night. The second when Jen's fingers didn't stop moving inside her after the first and the third not even fifteen minutes later, after Jen asked the question “ Have you ever sat on a woman's face? ” Knowing damn well that the answer was “No”. Now April had.
Jen, betraying her great sexual stamina, felt dizzy and lightheaded after just two. But it had been incredibly two’s. One riding April's digits at the same time her own drawed out the girl's second, and going over the edge again when April laid her down on her back and put three fingers, this time with the pressure of her thumb on her bundle of nerves and asking earnestly “ Like this? ” as Jen moaned and held her wrist to guide the movements, panting “ Yes, just like this. Oh,April!”
Surprisingly, April was clingy after sex. And even more surprisingly, Jen enjoyed it. The girl laid on her chest like a damsel and played with her hair while Jen involved her with one arm and used the other to call room service, starving for something other than April now.
When it knocked on the door, Jen got up and fished one of the bathrobes on the hotel's bathroom, opening the door and checking the empty hall before pulling the cart inside the room.
As soon as she closed the door, April's bare body held her from behind and startled her. When the girl turned her around and pressed her on the doorframe, Jen realized that she had created a monster. And she wasn't sorry. April kissed her face, sucked on the lobe of her ears and behind it, even traveled with her lips to her neck and bit into it, taking the pearls of her necklace into her mouth along with her flesh and suckling on it. Her hands opened Jen's bathrobe at the same time her knees touched the ground, having the taste of Jennifer for dinner before the actual food.
When Jen collapsed, overstimulated against the wall with shaky legs and a fistful of April's hair on her left hand, she knew that she was ruined for any other.
They ate on the messy bed with at least five pillows on the floor around them and talking over the TV show still playing in the background like the room hadn't witnessed the hottest and rawest sapphic session of its history.
For heaven's sake, Jennifer Barkley spooned with her when exhaustion started to crip in. And she woke up next to her, staying long enough to say good morning and tell April that they needed to prepare to go back to Washington at noon.
When she got up to collect her clothes and shame-walk to her own room like she had been hit by a bus who backed up just to make sure she had been run over, April gave her big eyes that said “I’m ready again if you are.” and she couldn't resist falling back into the sheets.
*
April Ludgate was in a good mood. She wasn't like most people, but she truly would be an alien if she wasn't looking at life with more colors after being fingered through the night by the hottest woman she had ever met. Sorry, Joan Callamezzo.
It had been three days since that night and both decided it would be best to keep it down from the office's prying eyes until that first campaign was over. Or even after that, they didn't own them anything.
Eventually, as things evolved, she would tell Leslie. Because;
- Leslie was a good friend.
- She was also a gossiper, what would spare her the work of telling everyone else.
It wasn't a relationship per se, but Jennifer had buyed her breakfast the morning after and caressed her hand on the plane, giving April her personal phone number. In the office they worked quite well and in sintony together, and in the after hours they would text each other about, really, anything. April felt more confident, but she still kept giving Jen the upperhand.
“Hey, April?” One of the interns stopped at her desk on the fourth day.
“Yeah?” She asked, bored, without taking her eyes off the computer.
“Miss Barkley asked to see you at the end of the day.” She announced and walked away.
And, if April unplugged her computer and left in quick steps to the elevator when the clock hit four p.m, that was no one’s business but her own.