Nov 2, 2018
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Arya at Sansa and Jon's wedding: My sister is lame, but Jon is sort of cool. I guess I kind of see why he'd marry her. Also, if anyone finds my grey cloak, I lost it. Thanks.
Sansa: *in tears, hugging Arya*
Jon: That was beautiful
Newt: My brother's really lame. But Leta's pretty cool. I guess I kinda see why she would marry him. Also, if anyone has seen my niffler I lost it, thanks.
(Parks and Recreation; Season 3, Episode 9: Andy and April's Fancy Party)
Round 1 Poll 4
Ann vs. Natalie
Ann Perkins
Natalie Ludgate
Preliminaries Round #1 Poll #5
Kelly Larson
Natalie Ludgate
Kelly Larson:
Description: The Twilight Dad
Notable Appearances: Appeared in the time capsule episode, attempting to get the Twilight books in the time capsule by whatever means necessary in order to impress his daughter
Natalie Ludgate:
Description: April's younger sister
Notable Appearances: Got Andy arrested in "Media Blitz" when April sent him to pick her up from school, briefly meets Ron in "94 Meetings"
My headcanons are April knows sign language so she can communicate with her grandfather since he's deaf and her sister Natalie's dance class is ballet. It centers her.
Also, I know April hates writing letters to him so I’m thinking she either hates that he lives far away or just hates writing letters.
Twelve Days of Ludgate-Dwyer (Chapter 3/12)
Christmas 2032. Andy, April and their children, still living in Washington, were invited to spend the holiday season at Leslie and Ben’s in Pawnee. Time to reunite with all their friends they haven’t seen in years and be up to all sorts of shenanigans!
Each chapter represents one day and one person/couple they meet up with. Tags will be updated as the story progresses. The four younger children are original characters by @anotheropti.
The children I’m using in this story are as follows: Jack (9), Roberta (6), Samantha (4), Lucy and Victoria (3). Note that the Knope-Wyatt triplets are 17. I’ll be posting every chapter early in the morning on the day the story happens (Central Europe time).
23rd December: The One where Natalie has cats [AO3]
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Andy asks after April's knock goes unanswered.
"Yeah," April sighs, "She's just sleeping or something, I dunno."
She knocks one more time. No one comes. The children are starting to fidget and Andy seems more doubtful than ever.
"Ugh," April rubs her temples, "Okay, monsters, I'm gonna do something that you can only do if the person not answering is really annoying, alright? It's not super nice."
The little heads of her dear tiny brats nod along − they love seeing her being 'not super nice'.
"NATALIE!" She yells and bangs on the door. "GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE AND OPEN THE FREAKING DOOR!"
That seems to do the trick, as they hear shuffling on the other side of the door and a moment later, the door inches open and a pair of eyes identical to hers stare right at April.
"Yeah?"
"It's your sister," April says exasperatedly. "I told you I was coming."
Natalie snorts, then pulls the door open, letting everyone in behind her. She hasn't changed much since April last saw her a few years ago. Her hair sports a purple stripe above her left eye and the piercing on her nose is new, but she looks exactly like the little sister April has always known, even at forty.
"I almost didn't recognize you," Natalie says with a smirk. "You look like a middle-class soccer mom."
"And you look like a dirt poor tattoo artist who has too many cats."
You could say that just from seeing the place. Dirty clothes scattered on the floor, a few empty pizza cases on the table, some mild smell of cat urine and paintings and pictures everywhere, the place is some beautiful mess. So is Natalie. There's also men clothes. April can't wait to see what partner her sister has gotten herself this time − it's a different one every time she visits. As Natalie is fine with that and seems as happy as she ever lets on, April is totally fine with it as well.
As they cross a narrow and overly messy hall, Natalie, who answered the door wearing only a tank top and boxers, picks up a pair of jeans from the floor, sniffs them, grimaces, and pulls them on anyways.
"So, how many tykes you got?" She asks as she leads them to her small living room. A cat jumps off the coffee table when he sees them.
"Five!" Roberta says and she's the only one brave enough to say a thing. Jack is standing there quietly, bravely, but the twins are already clutching Andy's legs and Samantha is hiding behind April.
"Yeah, well, Mom and Dad are gonna be over the moon."
"We're totally visiting them too, right, babe?" Andy says excitedly as he plops onto the couch.
April promised Leslie she would visit her parents at least once during her stay, so she nods and takes seat on an old neon green armchair with fabric softened by years of Natalie sitting on it probably every hour of the day like the lazy butt she can be. Sam hides on the other side, sitting on the floor, and April reaches over to hold her hand still. Sometimes she gets overwhelmed when she's in unknown places. Sometimes she's fine with it. Depends.
"You want soda or something?" Natalie asks half-heartedly.
"Sure," April shrugs.
Natalie disappears into the kitchen and Andy barely has the time to give April excited thumbs up before she comes back. Robbie almost rushes to hug her in all her loving candor (she really loves soda), but April eye-gestures Andy to pick her up and keep her on his lap. Natalie isn't always the best with little ones − April wouldn't want Roberta's feelings to get hurt by her reaction. Lucky their daughter loves getting all cuddly with anyone, but her dad best of all, and Roberta just snuggles against Andy and doesn't notice a thing.
"I only have Vernor’s. Careful, don't shake 'em," she smirks as she throws them one by one for them to catch, shaking them all up in the process. April rolls her eyes — some things never change.
"You're such a hilarious troll," April sighs, but can't help the smile turning up her lips as she remembers when they used to live together and pranks like this were an everyday occurrence. Still, Andy has to open the cans for the kids slowly and carefully in case they geyser the whole place up and everyone sips their soda awkwardly.
"Kitty!" Lucy's high-pitched screech breaks the silence as she points to the doorway leading to the bedroom where a fat ginger cat is peeking its big round head. Ever since Andy took them to that Johnny Karate concert at that kid's house where there was a big old tomcat who agreed to be snuggled and petted to their heart's desire, the kids have all been really into cats, especially fat cats.
"Do you have a lot of cats?" Jack asks in all his awkward politeness that's the result of being shy but raised by Andy.
Natalie holds up four fingers while she takes a big sip of soda, but doesn't seem to have much more to add when she's done. She just sits there, legs crossed under her, playing with the rim of her top.
"Can we pet it?" He adds.
"Sure," she shrugs.
All five kids rush to pet the cat who, despite being surprised, lets them be nice and gentle to him − that was the first rule taught by Johnny Karate about cats. Well that's something taken care of, April thinks.
"Oh, I got you something," she remembers and hands Natalie the present she got her for Christmas.
"Thanks," Natalie says and puts it down on the coffee table, unopened. For more than twenty years, they've exchanged CDs of old bands from the 80s every Christmas and birthdays. If Natalie is anything like April, and she is, she has a special place where she puts all of these and listens to them from time to time with that old CD player she keeps for that exact purpose. She hands her a similar loosely wrapped CD − April will make sure to listen to it as soon as they get back to Washington.
"What are you doing for Christmas, Natalie?" Andy asks, keeping an eye on the kids playing with the cat.
"Sealtiel and I are watching Christmas specials and making fun of bad actors."
"Oh wow, that sounds super fun! Can we come?"
"Andy," April elbows him, "We're spending Christmas with Leslie."
"Oh, yeah, right…"
"You're such a nerd," Natalie smirks, "Spending holidays with your boss."
"Yeah, she hasn't been my boss in like fifteen years."
"Still."
"Shut up," April snickers, because Nat will never stop being her brat little sister.
"Mommy, there's another kitty!" Robbie cries out and points behind her and lo and behold, a sleek tuxedo cat jumps over the couch and rushes into the room next to where the children are crouching and before April can stop them, they're all following the cat into the room. Ensue a bang, a hiss, a groan. The kids squeak and rush back out, and out also comes a big bulky man wearing just sweatpants, his arms covered in tattoos.
"The fuck?" He says in a low raspy voice.
Immediately, Andy and the children's mouths fall agape and they turn to April − it's not everyday the f-word is heard in the Ludgate-Dwyer family. She shakes her head. Now is not the time for politeness lessons for her sister's boyfriend.
"April, Sealtiel. Bebe, te dije de mi hermana."
He nods in her direction, then looks at Natalie expectantly. Apparently still not over the kids rushing into his room and possibly waking him up.
"Ella vino de visita con su esposo y sus hijos."
"Gusto en conocerte," April says and he winks before disappearing in the kitchen.
"El esta bueno," April tells her sister, and thank god the kids aren't paying attention to any of this anymore.
In the kitchen, Sealtiel snorts. Natalie nods with a dirty glint in her eyes and makes sure to grab onto Sealtiel's muscles when he comes back to sit next to Natalie. Because even as the years go by, some things never change. Natalie will always be the little brat who dates hot guys and doesn't like kids, April will always be the big sister who teases her about everything and pretends she wants to ruin her life. Natalie will always pretend she doesn't care, April will always pretend she cares even less. Before they realize it, a few hours have gone by, spent with pretend taunting and, for April, watching the kids play around quietly from the corner of her eyes, and it's probably time to get back to Leslie's if they don't want her to launch a full investigation for missing children already.
"Goodbye, Aunt Natalie!" Roberta says when they're all heading out and this time, April lets her give Nat as big a hug as she wants, because they're leaving anyway.
"Yeah, sure…"
"Bye, Natalie!" Andy crushes her into one of his bear hugs and April is only slightly jealous of her own sister − she'd better get a hug like that of her own as soon as they're out of here.
"Bye, dumbass," April mutters so the kids don't hear. Only Jack is close enough but he turns his head and pretends he hasn't caught that. The hug between her and her sister is longer and tighter than either of them will admit.
"Yeah, yeah," Natalie says and pats her back awkwardly. "I'll catch your ugly face in Washington one of these days or so."
"Anytime."
Natalie goes as far as walking them out of the building after the other kids have said their goodbyes, and even waves them off as they leave. In truth, it had been too long since April last saw her. Maybe she'll actually invite her to visit them in Washington for real, with a set date, sooner rather than later. And if Natalie happens to be woken up by an army of overexcited little kids at some point, well, that's only fair.
Hey, if you read this and enjoyed it, please reblog and consider leaving a comment to tell me what you liked :) It really means the world to get feedback.