Please Stay
Title: Please Stay
Pairing: Leslie/Ben
Rating: R
Timeline: Takes place during Sweet Sixteen.
Summary: After a 2:00 AM birthday party, sleeping with Jerry, and her talk with Ron, Leslie finally takes a nap.
Notes: I never understood why Ben just let Leslie sleep on Jerry.
She’s still so exhausted that Leslie misses the look that passes between Ben and Donna. The one that ends with her friend and co-worker narrowing her eyes at her boyfriend and campaign manager in annoyance, but finally, grudgingly nodding her head. Then Ben’s big, warm hand is reaching for hers and leading her down a hallway and into a secluded bedroom. A very comfortable, quiet looking room with a big bed and lovely, tasteful furnishings. It’s like being inside a glossy, beautiful home magazine-sort of like Donna’s whole amazing, secret lake house.
"What’s happening?" She asks when he shuts the door behind them.
"You should take a nap."
"Here?"
"Yes," he confirms, gesturing for her to hold her arms up. Leslie does and Ben gently pulls her striped sweater up and over her upper body, and then tosses it on the dresser.
"Wait," she looks at him, then at the rumpled bed. "Did you sleep in here?"
Ben nods as she starts unbuttoning her shirt. “Well, for about two hours, after you fell asleep in the living room.”
"It’s nice." And it is. She looks around the room and takes in the antique dresser, dark red throw rug over the hardwood floor, and the fluffy looking bed. Is that a down comforter? God, it looks so cozy. Leslie was out there slumped over Jerry and Ben was…in here sleeping on a magazine-worthy, fluffy cloud-bed?
"It is," he agrees, watching her as she unzips her jeans and tugs them down her hips.
"So let me get this straight," Leslie pauses as she steps out of her pants altogether and leaves them lying in a puddle on the floor. "You slept in here, in this beautiful, fancy looking bedroom and you left me out there to sleep on Jerry? Ben, I smell like Jerry now, which honestly, is more pleasant than I would have guessed, but still…"
"I slept in here for, um, maybe a total of about two hours," he says again, slowly. "And I did plan on going back out there and waking you after a few minutes, so you could come to bed too, but then…I fell asleep," he admits a bit sheepishly.
She frowns at him before unhooking her bra, tossing it on the dresser next to her shirt and sweater, and getting into the bed in just in her panties. “You let me sleep with Jerry last night,” Leslie complains again.
Ben walks over and sits on top of the covers next to her, tucking her in. “I was tired because of the 2:00 AM birthday party. I’m sorry.”
It only takes her a second or two to consider his apology. “No. It’s my fault. This was all my fault. I’m going down to 10 hours a week,” she tacks on quickly at the end.
"That’s a good thing, Leslie."
"Then why does it feel so wrong?"
"Because you love your job and you’re used to working on a lot of things and excelling at them all and right now…you’re not," he answers honestly. "But it’s going to be okay." Ben leans down and kisses her gently on the forehead. He’s about to get up when she grabs his hand.
"Wait. Where are you going?"
Ben motions with his head towards the bedroom door. “I was going to go out there, see if I can help pack things up.”
"Please stay. Take a nap with me. You look exhausted too."
He gives her a small smile, sighs lightly like he’s weighing his options, not like he’s annoyed…just like he’s really, really tired. But then, Ben seems to make up his mind and starts unbuttoning his dark blue cardigan and then taking off his shirt and pants. He finds his earlier discarded grey t-shirt in his bag and puts it on again.
Then it’s her turn to smile when Ben gets into bed next to her and spoons up behind Leslie. His arm wraps around her and pulls her back, flush against his front and he starts lazily rubbing his palm against her bare stomach.
"I love you. And I messed up the signs," she confesses quietly, facing away from him.
"Which signs are-"
"The ones at Sign-tology. The yard signs. I gave them the link to the image instead of the actual image. But honestly, they should have known that I meant the image there, not the stupid letters and complicated url-nonsense. I mean-”
"The sign order that I was going to finish up but you insisted on doing yourself?" He asks, interrupting her, not madly, just well, like she screwed up.
"Leslie, I’m your campaign manager," he tugs at her softly until she turns around to face him. "You need to let go of some tasks, at least give them to me to do. And I love you too."
"I know," she agrees. He looks so serious and concerned. All-business Ben mixed with Disappointed Ben, but still with a large amount of In love with her Ben too. So that’s good.
"A couple of months from now, we’ll probably even have volunteers. Volunteers who will be doing low-level tasks, like sending orders to the printers and if you can’t trust me with that, how are you going to-"
"I know. I know. I’m sorry." And she really is…screwing up is bad, but having Ben think that she doesn’t trust him is the worst.
"I appreciate that, really, but I don’t want you to be sorry. I want you to trust me with, well, campaign stuff," he presses on.
"I do," she leans in to kiss him softly. "I will. I trust you-with everything. It’s just hard to let go all of the details. To delegate. Even to you, the person who I think is so smart and I love so, so much."
"I understand. But that’s exactly what you need to start doing." His tone is soft and gentle and full of affection and he’s looking at her like he’s much more sympathetic than annoyed about her actions. "We’re a team."
"We are a team," she repeats, before adding truthfully, "the best team."
He smiles at her, kisses her again-a reward she’s happy to have earned. “And you do need to focus on the campaign full-time. You can’t keep this pace up. Going down to 10 hours a week at work is for the best. Really." When she still looks slightly unconvinced, he adds, “I promise.”
Leslie sighs deeply. She knows he’s right. It’s just so hard to imagine only spending 10 hours a week at the Parks Department. Her Parks Department-it’s such a big, important part of her life. It makes her stomach hurt just to think about it. But Ron and Ben are both giving her solid, good advice and she needs to take it. She knows that too.
“Ron said things were slipping through the cracks and that I should whole-ass my campaign instead of half-assing both my job and my campaign.”
"Well, Ron has a point."
It’s quiet for a few minutes before Ben tells her, “oh, and speaking of things slipping through the cracks…and asses, I was slightly insulted when you made me hang up Jerry’s birthday banner and you didn’t even make one comment about my butt,” Ben teases.
Leslie’s eyes widen and she stares at him. How in the hell did she not notice his butt when he was hanging the banner? Screwing up campaign signs is one thing, but this is just…inexcusable. She’s pretty sure she looks like she’s going to cry and given Ben’s concerned expression, that’s probably exactly what she looks like. “Oh my god. Ben. Oh, babe. I am so sorry.”
"That’s okay," he tries to assure her. "I was messing with you. It’s really-"
"No. No it’s not. That kind of oversight is never okay. Never. Turn around right now."
"What? Um, why?"
"I need to apologize to your butt. Face-to-butt. Remind it of how much I love and appreciate it." While she speaks, she slips her hand around his hip and slides it under his plaid, flannel boxers, and over his bare ass. Gives him a little reassuring squeeze.
"No. You really don’t. That’s okay. I’ll pass the message along."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," he nods, kissing her. He looks like he’s trying not to laugh. "Go to sleep. Who knows when Donna’s going to kick us out."
Leslie leaves her hand on Ben’s butt, her face buried against his shoulder until she can’t stay awake any longer. The bed really is like a big, fluffy cloud…not like sleeping on Jerry at all. And also, even though Jerry smelled just fine, Ben smells a lot better.
He’s a much better pillow too.
***
Ben isn’t sure how long they’ve been napping, maybe an hour or two, maybe seven, when a soft knocking on the bedroom door wakes him up.
"Yeah?"
Donna opens the door a couple of feet and sticks her head in to whisper, “Hey, we’re all taking off.”
"Oh-" Ben starts to get up but she motions for him to stay put, which is just as well considering he’s just in his boxers and a t-shirt.
"Relax, Wyatt. Here are the keys to the house," she lays them on the dresser, next to Leslie’s discarded pink bra. "Just lock up when you leave and you will be giving the keys back to me tomorrow."
"Are you sure? We can…oh, but what about Ron?"
"It’s fine. He’s getting a ride in my Mercedes with Tom and Ann. And Chris is taking Champion, April, and Andy back to Pawnee in his car. Just make her unwind," Donna says, looking at the bed and making a face.
Ben glances over and notices that Leslie’s still fast asleep, lying on her stomach with her face away from the door, one knee bent and pulled up to the side, with her section of the covers kicked off. She’s just in her pair of black underwear and he should probably try to cover her up, but it’s just Donna and Leslie has the sheets and comforter all tangled up down by her foot anyway.
"Uh-huh," Donna continues. "Strip the bed before you leave and make sure to put those sheets in the washing machine."
Something about the way she says it makes it fairly obvious that Donna thinks they’ve already…broken what he’s pretty sure is one of her lake house rules. “Oh. Um, no. That’s…I mean, we haven’t, uh…we wouldn’t…because--”
"Stop. Don’t even pretend that you’re not gonna get it," she gestures towards his girlfriend’s fairly provocative position. "Leslie may be a high-strung, over-extended, hot mess right now, but she’s your half-naked, high-strung, over-extended, hot mess. And let’s face it, girl definitely needs to…relax,” she draws the word out, giving Ben a knowing, suggestive look that makes him blush. “And damn, she’s got a killer ass, too. Just strip the bed and put the sheets in the washing machine, okay?”
"Okay," Ben agrees, quickly, hoping for an end to this conversation. "Thank you."
"Mmm-hmm," Donna answers, widening her eyes, before finally shutting the door behind her.
He settles back down under the covers but it only takes a few minutes before Leslie starts to stir.
"So, Donna thinks we’re going to have inappropriate sex at her lake house?"
"You heard that?" He starts stroking her hair as she turns to look at him. Ben moves his hand slowly down her back, finally resting his palm on her backside.
"I woke up around the time she was calling me half-naked and high-strung."
"You forgot the hot mess."
"Is that what you think?"
That’s not at all what he thinks. “I think you’re amazing. And I believe in you and you’re going to win this election,” Ben smiles at her. “And you definitely have a killer ass too.” He accents that by rubbing against the cotton of her panties. Then he slowly stretches his fingers down between her open thighs. She’s so warm.
"Well, since Donna already assumes that we’re gonna do it at her lake house…" Leslie starts, turning over, making him reposition his hand on her hip. "We should go ahead and do that then. But probably all sleepy and cuddly, because honestly, I’m still tired from sleeping with Jerry."
Ben laughs. “That works,” he agrees, moving his hand lightly across her rib cage and up to palm a breast.
When he leans over to kiss her, he also starts playing with her nipple, lightly-just little feathery touches with his fingertips at first, the kind that make her moan and shiver, and then pinches harder, just how he knows she likes it. Leslie groans against his mouth, as his other hand starts to wander along her soft, warm curves.
While they’ve actually been having a lot of still-great, but sleepy and definitely fast sex lately, mainly because of all the hours she’s been working, this time is decidedly less rushed. More lazy than hurried-it’s really good. He’s looking forward to taking his time with this right now…with her.
Ben leaves his fingers pressed against her nipple and he feels her hips start push forward, wanting more. His other hand works its way down to her underwear again, slips beneath the soft cotton to rub against her, where she’s already starting to get wet. Her hips buck forward when he grazes her clit with his index finger, making him smile against her lips. He feels her smile back, and Ben pulls back briefly to look at her.
Yeah, he’s definitely looking forward to taking his time, getting her completely naked, and burying his head between her thighs.
"If I only work 10 hours…we’ll have more time to do this," Leslie teases, before she reaches down to lazily grasp him through the flannel shorts, the ones that have been growing increasingly tight as they touch and snuggle.
"That is an excellent point. Hey, after this, we should check out the hot tub before we head back."
She gives him a shocked look. “Ben. You sexy, rule-breaking man-moth.”
"Um..." he starts to answer, but then Leslie grins and pulls him back down, touching her nose against his a few times before she kisses him, all soft and wet and he can’t even finish his thought.
Pairing: Leslie/Ben
Rating: R
Timeline: Takes place during Sweet Sixteen.
Summary: After a 2:00 AM birthday party, sleeping with Jerry, and her talk with Ron, Leslie finally takes a nap.
Notes: I never understood why Ben just let Leslie sleep on Jerry.
She’s still so exhausted that Leslie misses the look that passes between Ben and Donna. The one that ends with her friend and co-worker narrowing her eyes at her boyfriend and campaign manager in annoyance, but finally, grudgingly nodding her head. Then Ben’s big, warm hand is reaching for hers and leading her down a hallway and into a secluded bedroom. A very comfortable, quiet looking room with a big bed and lovely, tasteful furnishings. It’s like being inside a glossy, beautiful home magazine-sort of like Donna’s whole amazing, secret lake house.
"What’s happening?" She asks when he shuts the door behind them.
"You should take a nap."
"Here?"
"Yes," he confirms, gesturing for her to hold her arms up. Leslie does and Ben gently pulls her striped sweater up and over her upper body, and then tosses it on the dresser.
"Wait," she looks at him, then at the rumpled bed. "Did you sleep in here?"
Ben nods as she starts unbuttoning her shirt. “Well, for about two hours, after you fell asleep in the living room.”
"It’s nice." And it is. She looks around the room and takes in the antique dresser, dark red throw rug over the hardwood floor, and the fluffy looking bed. Is that a down comforter? God, it looks so cozy. Leslie was out there slumped over Jerry and Ben was…in here sleeping on a magazine-worthy, fluffy cloud-bed?
"It is," he agrees, watching her as she unzips her jeans and tugs them down her hips.
"So let me get this straight," Leslie pauses as she steps out of her pants altogether and leaves them lying in a puddle on the floor. "You slept in here, in this beautiful, fancy looking bedroom and you left me out there to sleep on Jerry? Ben, I smell like Jerry now, which honestly, is more pleasant than I would have guessed, but still…"
"I slept in here for, um, maybe a total of about two hours," he says again, slowly. "And I did plan on going back out there and waking you after a few minutes, so you could come to bed too, but then…I fell asleep," he admits a bit sheepishly.
She frowns at him before unhooking her bra, tossing it on the dresser next to her shirt and sweater, and getting into the bed in just in her panties. “You let me sleep with Jerry last night,” Leslie complains again.
Ben walks over and sits on top of the covers next to her, tucking her in. “I was tired because of the 2:00 AM birthday party. I’m sorry.”
It only takes her a second or two to consider his apology. “No. It’s my fault. This was all my fault. I’m going down to 10 hours a week,” she tacks on quickly at the end.
"That’s a good thing, Leslie."
"Then why does it feel so wrong?"
"Because you love your job and you’re used to working on a lot of things and excelling at them all and right now…you’re not," he answers honestly. "But it’s going to be okay." Ben leans down and kisses her gently on the forehead. He’s about to get up when she grabs his hand.
"Wait. Where are you going?"
Ben motions with his head towards the bedroom door. “I was going to go out there, see if I can help pack things up.”
"Please stay. Take a nap with me. You look exhausted too."
He gives her a small smile, sighs lightly like he’s weighing his options, not like he’s annoyed…just like he’s really, really tired. But then, Ben seems to make up his mind and starts unbuttoning his dark blue cardigan and then taking off his shirt and pants. He finds his earlier discarded grey t-shirt in his bag and puts it on again.
Then it’s her turn to smile when Ben gets into bed next to her and spoons up behind Leslie. His arm wraps around her and pulls her back, flush against his front and he starts lazily rubbing his palm against her bare stomach.
"I love you. And I messed up the signs," she confesses quietly, facing away from him.
"Which signs are-"
"The ones at Sign-tology. The yard signs. I gave them the link to the image instead of the actual image. But honestly, they should have known that I meant the image there, not the stupid letters and complicated url-nonsense. I mean-”
"The sign order that I was going to finish up but you insisted on doing yourself?" He asks, interrupting her, not madly, just well, like she screwed up.
"Leslie, I’m your campaign manager," he tugs at her softly until she turns around to face him. "You need to let go of some tasks, at least give them to me to do. And I love you too."
"I know," she agrees. He looks so serious and concerned. All-business Ben mixed with Disappointed Ben, but still with a large amount of In love with her Ben too. So that’s good.
"A couple of months from now, we’ll probably even have volunteers. Volunteers who will be doing low-level tasks, like sending orders to the printers and if you can’t trust me with that, how are you going to-"
"I know. I know. I’m sorry." And she really is…screwing up is bad, but having Ben think that she doesn’t trust him is the worst.
"I appreciate that, really, but I don’t want you to be sorry. I want you to trust me with, well, campaign stuff," he presses on.
"I do," she leans in to kiss him softly. "I will. I trust you-with everything. It’s just hard to let go all of the details. To delegate. Even to you, the person who I think is so smart and I love so, so much."
"I understand. But that’s exactly what you need to start doing." His tone is soft and gentle and full of affection and he’s looking at her like he’s much more sympathetic than annoyed about her actions. "We’re a team."
"We are a team," she repeats, before adding truthfully, "the best team."
He smiles at her, kisses her again-a reward she’s happy to have earned. “And you do need to focus on the campaign full-time. You can’t keep this pace up. Going down to 10 hours a week at work is for the best. Really." When she still looks slightly unconvinced, he adds, “I promise.”
Leslie sighs deeply. She knows he’s right. It’s just so hard to imagine only spending 10 hours a week at the Parks Department. Her Parks Department-it’s such a big, important part of her life. It makes her stomach hurt just to think about it. But Ron and Ben are both giving her solid, good advice and she needs to take it. She knows that too.
“Ron said things were slipping through the cracks and that I should whole-ass my campaign instead of half-assing both my job and my campaign.”
"Well, Ron has a point."
It’s quiet for a few minutes before Ben tells her, “oh, and speaking of things slipping through the cracks…and asses, I was slightly insulted when you made me hang up Jerry’s birthday banner and you didn’t even make one comment about my butt,” Ben teases.
Leslie’s eyes widen and she stares at him. How in the hell did she not notice his butt when he was hanging the banner? Screwing up campaign signs is one thing, but this is just…inexcusable. She’s pretty sure she looks like she’s going to cry and given Ben’s concerned expression, that’s probably exactly what she looks like. “Oh my god. Ben. Oh, babe. I am so sorry.”
"That’s okay," he tries to assure her. "I was messing with you. It’s really-"
"No. No it’s not. That kind of oversight is never okay. Never. Turn around right now."
"What? Um, why?"
"I need to apologize to your butt. Face-to-butt. Remind it of how much I love and appreciate it." While she speaks, she slips her hand around his hip and slides it under his plaid, flannel boxers, and over his bare ass. Gives him a little reassuring squeeze.
"No. You really don’t. That’s okay. I’ll pass the message along."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," he nods, kissing her. He looks like he’s trying not to laugh. "Go to sleep. Who knows when Donna’s going to kick us out."
Leslie leaves her hand on Ben’s butt, her face buried against his shoulder until she can’t stay awake any longer. The bed really is like a big, fluffy cloud…not like sleeping on Jerry at all. And also, even though Jerry smelled just fine, Ben smells a lot better.
He’s a much better pillow too.
***
Ben isn’t sure how long they’ve been napping, maybe an hour or two, maybe seven, when a soft knocking on the bedroom door wakes him up.
"Yeah?"
Donna opens the door a couple of feet and sticks her head in to whisper, “Hey, we’re all taking off.”
"Oh-" Ben starts to get up but she motions for him to stay put, which is just as well considering he’s just in his boxers and a t-shirt.
"Relax, Wyatt. Here are the keys to the house," she lays them on the dresser, next to Leslie’s discarded pink bra. "Just lock up when you leave and you will be giving the keys back to me tomorrow."
"Are you sure? We can…oh, but what about Ron?"
"It’s fine. He’s getting a ride in my Mercedes with Tom and Ann. And Chris is taking Champion, April, and Andy back to Pawnee in his car. Just make her unwind," Donna says, looking at the bed and making a face.
Ben glances over and notices that Leslie’s still fast asleep, lying on her stomach with her face away from the door, one knee bent and pulled up to the side, with her section of the covers kicked off. She’s just in her pair of black underwear and he should probably try to cover her up, but it’s just Donna and Leslie has the sheets and comforter all tangled up down by her foot anyway.
"Uh-huh," Donna continues. "Strip the bed before you leave and make sure to put those sheets in the washing machine."
Something about the way she says it makes it fairly obvious that Donna thinks they’ve already…broken what he’s pretty sure is one of her lake house rules. “Oh. Um, no. That’s…I mean, we haven’t, uh…we wouldn’t…because--”
"Stop. Don’t even pretend that you’re not gonna get it," she gestures towards his girlfriend’s fairly provocative position. "Leslie may be a high-strung, over-extended, hot mess right now, but she’s your half-naked, high-strung, over-extended, hot mess. And let’s face it, girl definitely needs to…relax,” she draws the word out, giving Ben a knowing, suggestive look that makes him blush. “And damn, she’s got a killer ass, too. Just strip the bed and put the sheets in the washing machine, okay?”
"Okay," Ben agrees, quickly, hoping for an end to this conversation. "Thank you."
"Mmm-hmm," Donna answers, widening her eyes, before finally shutting the door behind her.
He settles back down under the covers but it only takes a few minutes before Leslie starts to stir.
"So, Donna thinks we’re going to have inappropriate sex at her lake house?"
"You heard that?" He starts stroking her hair as she turns to look at him. Ben moves his hand slowly down her back, finally resting his palm on her backside.
"I woke up around the time she was calling me half-naked and high-strung."
"You forgot the hot mess."
"Is that what you think?"
That’s not at all what he thinks. “I think you’re amazing. And I believe in you and you’re going to win this election,” Ben smiles at her. “And you definitely have a killer ass too.” He accents that by rubbing against the cotton of her panties. Then he slowly stretches his fingers down between her open thighs. She’s so warm.
"Well, since Donna already assumes that we’re gonna do it at her lake house…" Leslie starts, turning over, making him reposition his hand on her hip. "We should go ahead and do that then. But probably all sleepy and cuddly, because honestly, I’m still tired from sleeping with Jerry."
Ben laughs. “That works,” he agrees, moving his hand lightly across her rib cage and up to palm a breast.
When he leans over to kiss her, he also starts playing with her nipple, lightly-just little feathery touches with his fingertips at first, the kind that make her moan and shiver, and then pinches harder, just how he knows she likes it. Leslie groans against his mouth, as his other hand starts to wander along her soft, warm curves.
While they’ve actually been having a lot of still-great, but sleepy and definitely fast sex lately, mainly because of all the hours she’s been working, this time is decidedly less rushed. More lazy than hurried-it’s really good. He’s looking forward to taking his time with this right now…with her.
Ben leaves his fingers pressed against her nipple and he feels her hips start push forward, wanting more. His other hand works its way down to her underwear again, slips beneath the soft cotton to rub against her, where she’s already starting to get wet. Her hips buck forward when he grazes her clit with his index finger, making him smile against her lips. He feels her smile back, and Ben pulls back briefly to look at her.
Yeah, he’s definitely looking forward to taking his time, getting her completely naked, and burying his head between her thighs.
"If I only work 10 hours…we’ll have more time to do this," Leslie teases, before she reaches down to lazily grasp him through the flannel shorts, the ones that have been growing increasingly tight as they touch and snuggle.
"That is an excellent point. Hey, after this, we should check out the hot tub before we head back."
She gives him a shocked look. “Ben. You sexy, rule-breaking man-moth.”
"Um..." he starts to answer, but then Leslie grins and pulls him back down, touching her nose against his a few times before she kisses him, all soft and wet and he can’t even finish his thought.