FIC: How Ben Wyatt Finally Gets the Girl [R]
Title: How Ben Wyatt Finally Gets the Girl
Pairing: Leslie/Ben
Rating: soft R
Word Count: 1847
Summary: The first time Ben kissed Leslie was on his birthday, which was also the day he was supposed to go back to Indianapolis.
A/N: Written for swayinisdancin 's prompt "Firsts" for the Hiatus Fest Redux. It's pretty cheesy, so I hope you like it!
The first time Ben kissed Leslie was on his birthday, which was also the day he was supposed to go back to Indianapolis.
He had come into his temporary office for the last time and a wrapped box had been sitting on his desk. He knew it had to be from Leslie; she was the only person here who he had told.
So he had unwrapped it to find a box set of the original three Star Wars movies and smiled to himself. There was a post-it note stuck to the front that read:
I got the ones with the theatrical versions because I can guess how you feel about the special editions. I feel the same way.
His hand had hovered over the note, tracing I feel the same way and he had pretended, for just a moment, that she wasn’t talking about his favorite childhood movies.
And it hit him, as he was driving back to his apartment that night, about forty-five miles out of Pawnee, that he never once said “I’m going home” that day. It was “I’m going back to Indy” or “back to the city” or “back to work”.
He got off at the next exit and headed south again. Rain began falling on his windshield, and he thought the whole thing was becoming terribly cliché.
Ben arrived at Leslie’s house late that night, not entirely sure of what he was going to say or do, and he thought, wildly, as he knocked on her front door, soaking wet, If thunder crashes when she finally opens this thing, I’m going to lose it.
But she opened the door and he just stood there, the air silent around him, the heavy rain filling in the gaps. Her eyebrows shot up and the only thing she can say is a puzzled “Ben?” before his lips are on hers, because he can’t bear another second of not knowing what it was like to kiss her.
***
Their first date was kind of a disaster, but in more of a humorous way than a mortifying one. Ann had warned him not to use the words “first date”, but he was so excited that she agreed, he forgot.
But, really, there wasn’t much Leslie could do, or say, that would make him change his mind, cancel the date, and move back to Indianapolis.
And she spilled her water everywhere, brought up an ex-boyfriend, and stammered nervously about not letting him in at the end up the night.
“Leslie. You know me better than that, don’t you?” He asked, smiling. She smiled back and he saw her shoulders relax.
The rest of the night went smoother; they finished dinner and walked through Ramsett Park in the setting sun. Ben shyly took her hand as she fed the fish in the pond and she turned to smile at him and squeeze his hand.
Everything about it was comfortable and Ben realized, in that moment, that he had never had a relationship that felt as natural and comfortable as he and Leslie already felt.
They did go back to Leslie’s house and she did invite him inside, but they spent most of the night talking and he left her front door with a polite kiss. She smiled brightly.
“I have to do some Christmas shopping tomorrow. Do you want to go with me?”
He returned the smile. “Sure.”
***
The first time they “sealed the deal”, as Tom said, and he said it frequently, asking if they had almost every time he saw Ben, it was as they were moving his stuff into Ben’s new apartment.
They had only been an official couple for about two weeks and it was getting harder and harder to control himself. But he wanted to do everything right, to take it slow, to show he had the utmost care and respect for her.
So when things started getting heated as they moved the last of his stuff out of his place in Indianapolis, he had to put a stop to it.
“No,” he said gently. “I don’t want this memory here.”
Later that night, back in Pawnee, back in his new apartment, he cooked her dinner and after they ate, he scooped her up and carried her to his newly furnished bedroom.
He took it as slow as he could handle and it was better than anything he had imagined for the last few months. It was sincere and sweet, yet passionate and heated. It was serious and silly.
It was the most Ben had ever laughed during sex; when he tripped on his way to the bed, when she had trouble with his belt buckle, when they both went in for a kiss and missed horribly.
The intensity of the emotional and physical connection between them heightened the experience and it was almost too much for Ben. The sight of Leslie, naked in his bed, the feel of her around him, the sound of her sighing out his name; he had never felt so connected to anyone.
So when Leslie shuddered, her eyes half-closed and her mouth half-open, a soft “God, Ben” slipping out, he couldn’t hold on any longer.
Later, as they are curled up facing each other, Ben drawing lazy circles on her back, Leslie smiled sleepily and said, “I’m glad we waited until we were back here.”
***
The first fight they have as a couple is about, of all things, a park. He should have known, he mused to himself as he walked into her bedroom. They had started out fighting about parks, so it made sense, in a weird, the-universe-is-mocking-me kind of way.
She was sitting on the edge of her bed, staring out the window. He shut the door behind him, leaning against it, trying to figure out what he could say.
“I’m sorry,” he finally decided on. She sighed.
“Why are you apologizing? You’re just doing it to do it, you don’t know why,” she said, but the malice from earlier was gone.
He paused for a minute, considering. “No. I don’t. But I must have said something to really upset you. It’s been a long time since you’ve called me a jerk.”
He meant it to sound light and teasing, but even to his ears, it sounded hurt.
“Yeah, I’m sorry for that. It’s just…” she turned towards him. He took it as an opening and sat down beside her. “I don’t think you know what that park means to me. It’s been my project for nearly two years. And almost everyone I know has told me, over and over, that I can’t do it, it’s never going to happen.”
Ben remained silent, but brought a hand up to rub her back slowly. She leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder.
“I never thought in a million years I’d hear it from you, too.”
His chest ached from the hurt in her tone. “Leslie,” he said softly. “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant, right now, I can’t find the money to build a playground there. You have to know that if I could, I’d do anything to help you get that park.”
“So when you said ‘it’s not going to happen’?”
“I meant, now, as in these next few months. I guess I should’ve chosen my words better,” he said, resting his head against hers. “I know you don’t need my approval, but you know I believe in you, right? I hope you never doubt that.”
“No, I know. I just had a flashback, I guess, of everyone trying to bring me down and I panicked, thought, ‘what if they were all right?’” She said and Ben squeezed her shoulder. “Sometimes reality checks like this scare me and I get carried away.”
“Well, the reality is that we can’t put a playground on Lot 48 right now. But maybe we could do something else in the meantime? Like, a volleyball net?”
Leslie smiled. “Okay, yeah. Let’s talk solutions.”
***
The first time Ben proposes, because yes, he is an idiot, and he actually proposes more than once, it was after an office party at the Parks Department. He and Leslie were totally wasted but they somehow made it back to her house.
For whatever strange reason, they decided the best way to sober up was to pop in Return of the Jedi and make out in between bitching about Ewoks.
“A planet full of Chewies would be so much cooler,” Leslie slurred out at one point.
“Wookies,” he corrected automatically and Leslie giggled.
“I know, I just like it when you geek out over these movies,” she said and it just slipped out, making its way past the murkiness in his brain and falling out of his lips before he even knew what he was saying:
“Marry me.”
She giggled and pulled him down for another kiss. This make out session led them into the bedroom and he almost forgot that he’d accidentally proposed to Leslie. He was pretty sure Leslie was drunk enough to forget too.
But a few days later, he went out and bought a ring, making plans to do it right. Because the first time might have been an accident, but it didn’t change the way he felt. And he felt that this was right.
A little over a month after that night, he brought Leslie to Lot 48, under the guise of showing her the new goldfish pond he had approved.
She immediately noticed the wooden bench next to the pond and pointed to it. “Oooh, you didn’t tell me about that! Where’d you get it?”
They walked closer and Ben suddenly felt his heart leap into his throat. “Look at the back, there’s something cut into the wood.”
Leslie bent over to get a closer look and read aloud, “To Leslie, Love Ben.” She stared at it for a moment, silent, then turned back to him, a questioning look on her face.
“I built it. Well, Ron helped. Or, well, Ron did mostly everything. But he let me help, too. But, yeah, I built it. For your park.”
Leslie paused, then grinned radiantly, closing the small gap between them to envelop him in a hug. He let her hold on as long as she wanted, but as soon as she pulled away, he lowered himself down on one knee.
Her eyes widened and a hand flew to her mouth. He nervously fumbled in his pocket for the ring he had been carrying around for a month, finally finding it and bringing it out.
“Leslie. Will you marry me?”
She didn’t move her hand as she asked, “Are you serious?”
He couldn’t help it; he was so nervous, the only response he had was to chuckle uncomfortably. “Yes.”
The shock finally drained from her face and filled back up with glee. “Yes! Of course!”
Ben could finally breathe as he stood up to kiss her. And they spent the next few hours sitting on her new bench, watching the pond, and making future plans.
The End
Thanks so much for reading! Please let me know what you thought.
Pairing: Leslie/Ben
Rating: soft R
Word Count: 1847
Summary: The first time Ben kissed Leslie was on his birthday, which was also the day he was supposed to go back to Indianapolis.
A/N: Written for swayinisdancin 's prompt "Firsts" for the Hiatus Fest Redux. It's pretty cheesy, so I hope you like it!
The first time Ben kissed Leslie was on his birthday, which was also the day he was supposed to go back to Indianapolis.
He had come into his temporary office for the last time and a wrapped box had been sitting on his desk. He knew it had to be from Leslie; she was the only person here who he had told.
So he had unwrapped it to find a box set of the original three Star Wars movies and smiled to himself. There was a post-it note stuck to the front that read:
I got the ones with the theatrical versions because I can guess how you feel about the special editions. I feel the same way.
His hand had hovered over the note, tracing I feel the same way and he had pretended, for just a moment, that she wasn’t talking about his favorite childhood movies.
And it hit him, as he was driving back to his apartment that night, about forty-five miles out of Pawnee, that he never once said “I’m going home” that day. It was “I’m going back to Indy” or “back to the city” or “back to work”.
He got off at the next exit and headed south again. Rain began falling on his windshield, and he thought the whole thing was becoming terribly cliché.
Ben arrived at Leslie’s house late that night, not entirely sure of what he was going to say or do, and he thought, wildly, as he knocked on her front door, soaking wet, If thunder crashes when she finally opens this thing, I’m going to lose it.
But she opened the door and he just stood there, the air silent around him, the heavy rain filling in the gaps. Her eyebrows shot up and the only thing she can say is a puzzled “Ben?” before his lips are on hers, because he can’t bear another second of not knowing what it was like to kiss her.
***
Their first date was kind of a disaster, but in more of a humorous way than a mortifying one. Ann had warned him not to use the words “first date”, but he was so excited that she agreed, he forgot.
But, really, there wasn’t much Leslie could do, or say, that would make him change his mind, cancel the date, and move back to Indianapolis.
And she spilled her water everywhere, brought up an ex-boyfriend, and stammered nervously about not letting him in at the end up the night.
“Leslie. You know me better than that, don’t you?” He asked, smiling. She smiled back and he saw her shoulders relax.
The rest of the night went smoother; they finished dinner and walked through Ramsett Park in the setting sun. Ben shyly took her hand as she fed the fish in the pond and she turned to smile at him and squeeze his hand.
Everything about it was comfortable and Ben realized, in that moment, that he had never had a relationship that felt as natural and comfortable as he and Leslie already felt.
They did go back to Leslie’s house and she did invite him inside, but they spent most of the night talking and he left her front door with a polite kiss. She smiled brightly.
“I have to do some Christmas shopping tomorrow. Do you want to go with me?”
He returned the smile. “Sure.”
***
The first time they “sealed the deal”, as Tom said, and he said it frequently, asking if they had almost every time he saw Ben, it was as they were moving his stuff into Ben’s new apartment.
They had only been an official couple for about two weeks and it was getting harder and harder to control himself. But he wanted to do everything right, to take it slow, to show he had the utmost care and respect for her.
So when things started getting heated as they moved the last of his stuff out of his place in Indianapolis, he had to put a stop to it.
“No,” he said gently. “I don’t want this memory here.”
Later that night, back in Pawnee, back in his new apartment, he cooked her dinner and after they ate, he scooped her up and carried her to his newly furnished bedroom.
He took it as slow as he could handle and it was better than anything he had imagined for the last few months. It was sincere and sweet, yet passionate and heated. It was serious and silly.
It was the most Ben had ever laughed during sex; when he tripped on his way to the bed, when she had trouble with his belt buckle, when they both went in for a kiss and missed horribly.
The intensity of the emotional and physical connection between them heightened the experience and it was almost too much for Ben. The sight of Leslie, naked in his bed, the feel of her around him, the sound of her sighing out his name; he had never felt so connected to anyone.
So when Leslie shuddered, her eyes half-closed and her mouth half-open, a soft “God, Ben” slipping out, he couldn’t hold on any longer.
Later, as they are curled up facing each other, Ben drawing lazy circles on her back, Leslie smiled sleepily and said, “I’m glad we waited until we were back here.”
***
The first fight they have as a couple is about, of all things, a park. He should have known, he mused to himself as he walked into her bedroom. They had started out fighting about parks, so it made sense, in a weird, the-universe-is-mocking-me kind of way.
She was sitting on the edge of her bed, staring out the window. He shut the door behind him, leaning against it, trying to figure out what he could say.
“I’m sorry,” he finally decided on. She sighed.
“Why are you apologizing? You’re just doing it to do it, you don’t know why,” she said, but the malice from earlier was gone.
He paused for a minute, considering. “No. I don’t. But I must have said something to really upset you. It’s been a long time since you’ve called me a jerk.”
He meant it to sound light and teasing, but even to his ears, it sounded hurt.
“Yeah, I’m sorry for that. It’s just…” she turned towards him. He took it as an opening and sat down beside her. “I don’t think you know what that park means to me. It’s been my project for nearly two years. And almost everyone I know has told me, over and over, that I can’t do it, it’s never going to happen.”
Ben remained silent, but brought a hand up to rub her back slowly. She leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder.
“I never thought in a million years I’d hear it from you, too.”
His chest ached from the hurt in her tone. “Leslie,” he said softly. “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant, right now, I can’t find the money to build a playground there. You have to know that if I could, I’d do anything to help you get that park.”
“So when you said ‘it’s not going to happen’?”
“I meant, now, as in these next few months. I guess I should’ve chosen my words better,” he said, resting his head against hers. “I know you don’t need my approval, but you know I believe in you, right? I hope you never doubt that.”
“No, I know. I just had a flashback, I guess, of everyone trying to bring me down and I panicked, thought, ‘what if they were all right?’” She said and Ben squeezed her shoulder. “Sometimes reality checks like this scare me and I get carried away.”
“Well, the reality is that we can’t put a playground on Lot 48 right now. But maybe we could do something else in the meantime? Like, a volleyball net?”
Leslie smiled. “Okay, yeah. Let’s talk solutions.”
***
The first time Ben proposes, because yes, he is an idiot, and he actually proposes more than once, it was after an office party at the Parks Department. He and Leslie were totally wasted but they somehow made it back to her house.
For whatever strange reason, they decided the best way to sober up was to pop in Return of the Jedi and make out in between bitching about Ewoks.
“A planet full of Chewies would be so much cooler,” Leslie slurred out at one point.
“Wookies,” he corrected automatically and Leslie giggled.
“I know, I just like it when you geek out over these movies,” she said and it just slipped out, making its way past the murkiness in his brain and falling out of his lips before he even knew what he was saying:
“Marry me.”
She giggled and pulled him down for another kiss. This make out session led them into the bedroom and he almost forgot that he’d accidentally proposed to Leslie. He was pretty sure Leslie was drunk enough to forget too.
But a few days later, he went out and bought a ring, making plans to do it right. Because the first time might have been an accident, but it didn’t change the way he felt. And he felt that this was right.
A little over a month after that night, he brought Leslie to Lot 48, under the guise of showing her the new goldfish pond he had approved.
She immediately noticed the wooden bench next to the pond and pointed to it. “Oooh, you didn’t tell me about that! Where’d you get it?”
They walked closer and Ben suddenly felt his heart leap into his throat. “Look at the back, there’s something cut into the wood.”
Leslie bent over to get a closer look and read aloud, “To Leslie, Love Ben.” She stared at it for a moment, silent, then turned back to him, a questioning look on her face.
“I built it. Well, Ron helped. Or, well, Ron did mostly everything. But he let me help, too. But, yeah, I built it. For your park.”
Leslie paused, then grinned radiantly, closing the small gap between them to envelop him in a hug. He let her hold on as long as she wanted, but as soon as she pulled away, he lowered himself down on one knee.
Her eyes widened and a hand flew to her mouth. He nervously fumbled in his pocket for the ring he had been carrying around for a month, finally finding it and bringing it out.
“Leslie. Will you marry me?”
She didn’t move her hand as she asked, “Are you serious?”
He couldn’t help it; he was so nervous, the only response he had was to chuckle uncomfortably. “Yes.”
The shock finally drained from her face and filled back up with glee. “Yes! Of course!”
Ben could finally breathe as he stood up to kiss her. And they spent the next few hours sitting on her new bench, watching the pond, and making future plans.
The End
Thanks so much for reading! Please let me know what you thought.