fic: A Perfect Snow
Title: A Perfect Snow
Author: FredtheSled48
Ships: Ben/Leslie
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,500
Summary: Ben and Leslie prepare to leave 2013 behind
Author’s Note: Not my best work but I still hope you all enjoy it. Happy New Year!
“Leslie.” The annoyance and exhaustion is palpable, but she can hear the slightest note of amusement in his voice, “What in the world are you doing?” He hasn’t stirred much aside from his initial reaction to her pulling on his feet, waking him from his sleep, but his eyes flicker open.
“It’s snowing!” she responds happily.
“And that warrants you putting socks on my feet in the middle of the night?”
“You can’t go outside without socks, Ben. It will be too cold, even in your boots.”
He sighs and sits up to get his first real look at her. She is already bundled up in a coat and snow pants. Her hat and gloves sit in a heap on the corner chair. “Come on, Ben! It’s the first real snowfall of the season! We have to go enjoy it!” she proclaims as she pulls the last of the fabric over his foot.
“Babe, it is 4:30 in the morning.”
“I know you want to sleep but Mother Nature doesn’t care, and neither do I. UP!” she nudges his leg but he doesn’t stir. “Bennnnnn,” she whines moving up his body to see his face.
He moves so quickly that she doesn’t have time to resist. His arms are around her, pulling her towards him as she laughs and struggles to get away. He pulls her down on top of him. They stare at each other for a moment in the semi-dark room.
“How about,” he begins. His breath tickles her neck and she snuggles into him in search of his warmth, “we stay in and enjoy the snow from the inside? I am sure I can come up with some nice, indoor activities.”
She groans against his chest, considering the counter offer. She is tempted to throw all of her plans out the window in favor of his mouth, which is already joining hers. After a minute or two of the kiss, Leslie pulls away with a hum. “Mmhm. No, outside. Now.” And with that she is up and grabbing his snow gear.
“Leslie…” he whines, but begins to shift out of bed. He has learned that in their relationship there are times to challenge Leslie and other moments when he has to just accept her cute, adorable craziness. This early morning, no sleep, walk in the dark during the snow fall was exactly that.
“I already laid your snow pants out and the black sweater that can easily fit under your winter coat.”
“I don’t have snow pants.”
“Yes you do. I bought them for you last year when you wouldn’t go sledding with me. There is no reason for a man from Minnesota to not have snow pants so I went out and bought them for you.” She was far too full of energy for him right now. His legs swing over the bed and the harsh air hits his skin. “Here, put them on,” Leslie says as she shoves the puffy fabric in his face.
He looks at her and he can tell that she is exhausted. After two years together he is used to her odd sleeping patterns, but things had been much worse recently. He suspected that lately she had been waiting for him to fall asleep before she would sneak out of bed, not even trying to sleep. The rare nights that she did sleep she would toss and turn while mumbling about failed elections and broken dreams. His concern for her was through the roof. “Babe, did you sleep at all?”
“The snow is going to stop soon!” She dodges the question and Ben decides to let it go for now. He knows better than to force an issue. When she was ready to talk about it, she would come to him.
------
“It is so pretty!” Leslie exclaims as she takes in the winter wonderland that is before her. The flakes are large and falling at an enjoyable rate - enough to see it piling on the sidewalks but not enough that she can’t keep her eyes open to take it all in. A perfect snow that happens so rarely.
“mhmm,” Ben adds.
“You don’t sound excited, Ben!” she chirps.
Ben looks at her and responds, “I am,” adding a light squeeze to her hand for emphasis. It is 4:30 in the morning, what can she expect from him, especially in this cold?
“This is the best time to enjoy falling snow. The snow coming down in the glow of the streetlights, landing where no one but us will walk for hours… it makes it seem even more magical.” She grabs onto Ben’s arm and pulls him closer to her as they walk.
Ben gazes at Leslie as she watches the snow dance to the ground. The snow has momentarily made her glow and Ben resolves to spend the rest of his life worshiping it for that. Ever since the recall her heart has been more heavy than usual. She tries her best to hide it but the people that know her best (Ann and Ben specifically) are not fooled by her act. She still smiles but her warmth is slightly diminished, her laugh doesn’t have the same kick, and her passion seems more distant from her activities than ever before. It is like her spark has been extinguished as she fights with everything she has to get it back.
He would be lying if he said that he wasn’t worried about her, though he will never tell her that. Out of everything he has learned about Leslie, he knows that she will fight her way back. She will find something new to light her fire, and away she will go with new batteries to become her energizer bunny self once more. The whole problem was getting her there. Next week they were going to head into the worst of it. Sure, losing the election was hard on her, but actually leaving the office that she worked so hard to get would be overwhelming. She would have the sharp reality of hours upon hours of extra time. Leslie Knope and free time do not go well together. Ben has secretly been stashing documentaries that they missed, movies they always said they would watch, biographies she wanted to read, and binders full of activities for the last month to keep her busy in the down time.
“Wasn’t getting up at 4:30 worth it for this?” Her voice pulls him from his thoughts.
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
“What is another hour or two of sleep, Ben? You can’t see this every day! And with the rate that global warming is descending on us, who knows how many days like this we will have left.”
He grins at her and sighs, “I get to spend the morning with you. I am happy. Sleep or no sleep.”
Leslie stops and leans down to tie her shoe. Ben waits patiently for her to finish so that they can continue moving. She stands back up and looks at him. Ben cocks his head to the side, trying to process what she is doing. A wild flash crosses her eyes and before Ben has the chance to register what is happening, Leslie throws something at him.
“Will this wake you up?” she shouts as a large chunk of snow scatters across his jacket with a thud. Leslie laughs at his startled expression and bends down to build another snowball. She runs ahead of him, attempting to distance herself from the retaliation she knows is imminent.
“Good Lord,” he relents. “Picking a snowball fight with a boy from Minnesota?” he adds as he grabs a chunk of snow and runs after her. “Really?”
“I can hold my own!” he hears her yell from the short distance in front of him. He runs after her attempting to make his offense count. They both miss each other a few times until one hits Leslie square in the leg, and another slams into Ben’s shoulder. Their competitive spirits definitely get the best of them as they race after each other, await the next round. Leslie launches an illegal one to the head that Ben is just barely able to dodge.
“Illegal! You will pay for that one Kno- ahhh!” Ben finds himself sliding across a path of ice until he whips out completely, landing on his back with a loud thud.
Leslie had been watching him, laughing at his reaction to the snowball when he hit the ice. At the sight of his fall she gasps. “Ben! Oh my God!” she shouts, rushing over to him.
“Are you okay? Did you break anything? Can you move?” her questions come at an alarming rate even as she notes that Ben is laughing so hard that he cannot breathe. She kneels down next to him, placing her hand on his knee. “You scared me.”
Ben just smiles and pulls her onto him. She lets out a content sigh at his embrace. He kisses her, happy for the moment of pause in their game even though it would cost him a black and blue mark.
“It is getting pretty cold out here,” she says reluctantly against his mouth. Ben nods, pulling her up and placing a soft kiss on her forehead. He can tell that she is finally getting tired. She grabs onto his arm once again. He hugs her closer and feels her lean into him as they continue their walk. After several minutes silence falls between them and Ben can sense, even in the darkness that her mind is speeding at an uncontrollable pace.
“Hey, where did you go?” Ben says as he squeezes her arm.
“Oh, nowhere. Sorry.”
“Hey,” Ben stops. She is a bit taken aback by his actions and almost crashes into him on the sidewalk. Ben smiles warmly at her closeness as he reaches out to push an abandoned blonde curl back underneath her hat. “Will you tell me what you are thinking about?”
Her heart melts at the love and worry in his voice. She takes a moment to let out a deep breath before spilling her feelings. “I was just thinking about how the year started and how it is ending. So much happened this year, I mean, we got married, you got a job at Sweetums, we went to Partridge and London, you got your job with the government back, beautiful friend and nurse Ann Perkins got pregnant with Chris’ baby, they decided to leave town, and, well, I got kicked out of office.” She paused, taking a breath. Ben waited, knowing that she needed to say more before he entered the conversation. “So many wonderful things happened, which I am so grateful for, but this year just seemed to be a real bummer.”
Ben nods in agreement, “it has been a rough year.”
“What if next year ends up being just like it? I am out of a job, Ben. My city, my home, rejected me. My year literally starts with me stepping down from office. How can that kick off a good year?” she was spewing her thoughts now, wanting to get everything she could out in the open in the hope that it would make everything better. She drops her eyes to the black boots on his feet, his eyes being too much when she is vulnerable. Speaking just above a whisper she adds: “this year is going to be really hard, isn’t it?”
Ben’s heart broke as he listened to his wife. She was always so full of optimism and energy that these rare moments of reality feel sharper, like a knife piercing his skin.
She hears him let out a sigh, not a bad or good one, just one that lets her know he is processing the correct way to answer her. “I think that the New Year is going to start out very hard, yes.” He wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her towards him. Every part of him is trying to offer support that he cannot put into words. “However, I think the rest of the year can go however you want it to go. It is a brand new year, and you can literally do anything you want to as of January 3rd.”
“But what is the point if you don’t have the career side of it? Or your best friend? Pawnee is rejecting me.”
“Pawnee isn’t rejecting you. This is your home - our home. I’ll be honest, Leslie. I don’t know what the answer is for the next few months. Things are going to change a lot and it is not going to be easy.” He rests his forehead against hers. “Here’s what I do know: I will be right by your side on New Year’s Eve when the clock strikes midnight and that is where I will be the rest of the year. I am not going anywhere.”
“I love you.”
Ben smiles at the sentiment while brushing away the few tears that she had let fall. He kisses her nose and finds her blue eyes. “Babe, we have so much still ahead of us. It is easy to get caught up in this, to think that you have hit your peak - I felt the same way when I was impeached. Eventually though, things become manageable and a whole new set of goals come into being, taking up all the empty space this left behind.
“Like what? Politics is out for a while at least and Ann and Chris are leaving town. You have a new job, Ron has Diane and his family now, April has Animal Control. I could focus a good amount of my efforts back to the Parks Department but that could only take up 70% of my time - tops.”
“We can travel, finish up the landscaping in the backyard, put in a pool? You could write another book, focus your efforts on building the park? We could start a family. We could start our mission to see all the presidential libraries. We can have a whole brain storming session of what to do with your extra time.”
“We could get a pet?”
“We already have April and Andy…”
“Good point.”
“There are plenty of things left to do, Leslie. I know you and I know that you care a lot about your career. This is going to be a rough year but you don’t have to focus on it. Take this time to explore another part of life and revisit politics in a year or so.”
“They do say voter’s memories fade,” she says as optimistically as possible.
“Absolutely. You’re not out of the game for good. Just give it time and they will know what they’re missing.”
“Maybe I will spend some time creating the best waffle. Even better than JJs. What am I saying? Nothing is better than JJs.”
“You can try to out waffle JJ,” Ben jokes with a grin.
He takes her hand in his the best he can in the puffy gloves. She leans into him as they begin to walk their route back home. “So, start a family huh?”
“We can talk about it. Once you get a full night sleep. I can’t have two people with erratic sleep patterns under our roof.”
Author: FredtheSled48
Ships: Ben/Leslie
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,500
Summary: Ben and Leslie prepare to leave 2013 behind
Author’s Note: Not my best work but I still hope you all enjoy it. Happy New Year!
“Leslie.” The annoyance and exhaustion is palpable, but she can hear the slightest note of amusement in his voice, “What in the world are you doing?” He hasn’t stirred much aside from his initial reaction to her pulling on his feet, waking him from his sleep, but his eyes flicker open.
“It’s snowing!” she responds happily.
“And that warrants you putting socks on my feet in the middle of the night?”
“You can’t go outside without socks, Ben. It will be too cold, even in your boots.”
He sighs and sits up to get his first real look at her. She is already bundled up in a coat and snow pants. Her hat and gloves sit in a heap on the corner chair. “Come on, Ben! It’s the first real snowfall of the season! We have to go enjoy it!” she proclaims as she pulls the last of the fabric over his foot.
“Babe, it is 4:30 in the morning.”
“I know you want to sleep but Mother Nature doesn’t care, and neither do I. UP!” she nudges his leg but he doesn’t stir. “Bennnnnn,” she whines moving up his body to see his face.
He moves so quickly that she doesn’t have time to resist. His arms are around her, pulling her towards him as she laughs and struggles to get away. He pulls her down on top of him. They stare at each other for a moment in the semi-dark room.
“How about,” he begins. His breath tickles her neck and she snuggles into him in search of his warmth, “we stay in and enjoy the snow from the inside? I am sure I can come up with some nice, indoor activities.”
She groans against his chest, considering the counter offer. She is tempted to throw all of her plans out the window in favor of his mouth, which is already joining hers. After a minute or two of the kiss, Leslie pulls away with a hum. “Mmhm. No, outside. Now.” And with that she is up and grabbing his snow gear.
“Leslie…” he whines, but begins to shift out of bed. He has learned that in their relationship there are times to challenge Leslie and other moments when he has to just accept her cute, adorable craziness. This early morning, no sleep, walk in the dark during the snow fall was exactly that.
“I already laid your snow pants out and the black sweater that can easily fit under your winter coat.”
“I don’t have snow pants.”
“Yes you do. I bought them for you last year when you wouldn’t go sledding with me. There is no reason for a man from Minnesota to not have snow pants so I went out and bought them for you.” She was far too full of energy for him right now. His legs swing over the bed and the harsh air hits his skin. “Here, put them on,” Leslie says as she shoves the puffy fabric in his face.
He looks at her and he can tell that she is exhausted. After two years together he is used to her odd sleeping patterns, but things had been much worse recently. He suspected that lately she had been waiting for him to fall asleep before she would sneak out of bed, not even trying to sleep. The rare nights that she did sleep she would toss and turn while mumbling about failed elections and broken dreams. His concern for her was through the roof. “Babe, did you sleep at all?”
“The snow is going to stop soon!” She dodges the question and Ben decides to let it go for now. He knows better than to force an issue. When she was ready to talk about it, she would come to him.
------
“It is so pretty!” Leslie exclaims as she takes in the winter wonderland that is before her. The flakes are large and falling at an enjoyable rate - enough to see it piling on the sidewalks but not enough that she can’t keep her eyes open to take it all in. A perfect snow that happens so rarely.
“mhmm,” Ben adds.
“You don’t sound excited, Ben!” she chirps.
Ben looks at her and responds, “I am,” adding a light squeeze to her hand for emphasis. It is 4:30 in the morning, what can she expect from him, especially in this cold?
“This is the best time to enjoy falling snow. The snow coming down in the glow of the streetlights, landing where no one but us will walk for hours… it makes it seem even more magical.” She grabs onto Ben’s arm and pulls him closer to her as they walk.
Ben gazes at Leslie as she watches the snow dance to the ground. The snow has momentarily made her glow and Ben resolves to spend the rest of his life worshiping it for that. Ever since the recall her heart has been more heavy than usual. She tries her best to hide it but the people that know her best (Ann and Ben specifically) are not fooled by her act. She still smiles but her warmth is slightly diminished, her laugh doesn’t have the same kick, and her passion seems more distant from her activities than ever before. It is like her spark has been extinguished as she fights with everything she has to get it back.
He would be lying if he said that he wasn’t worried about her, though he will never tell her that. Out of everything he has learned about Leslie, he knows that she will fight her way back. She will find something new to light her fire, and away she will go with new batteries to become her energizer bunny self once more. The whole problem was getting her there. Next week they were going to head into the worst of it. Sure, losing the election was hard on her, but actually leaving the office that she worked so hard to get would be overwhelming. She would have the sharp reality of hours upon hours of extra time. Leslie Knope and free time do not go well together. Ben has secretly been stashing documentaries that they missed, movies they always said they would watch, biographies she wanted to read, and binders full of activities for the last month to keep her busy in the down time.
“Wasn’t getting up at 4:30 worth it for this?” Her voice pulls him from his thoughts.
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
“What is another hour or two of sleep, Ben? You can’t see this every day! And with the rate that global warming is descending on us, who knows how many days like this we will have left.”
He grins at her and sighs, “I get to spend the morning with you. I am happy. Sleep or no sleep.”
Leslie stops and leans down to tie her shoe. Ben waits patiently for her to finish so that they can continue moving. She stands back up and looks at him. Ben cocks his head to the side, trying to process what she is doing. A wild flash crosses her eyes and before Ben has the chance to register what is happening, Leslie throws something at him.
“Will this wake you up?” she shouts as a large chunk of snow scatters across his jacket with a thud. Leslie laughs at his startled expression and bends down to build another snowball. She runs ahead of him, attempting to distance herself from the retaliation she knows is imminent.
“Good Lord,” he relents. “Picking a snowball fight with a boy from Minnesota?” he adds as he grabs a chunk of snow and runs after her. “Really?”
“I can hold my own!” he hears her yell from the short distance in front of him. He runs after her attempting to make his offense count. They both miss each other a few times until one hits Leslie square in the leg, and another slams into Ben’s shoulder. Their competitive spirits definitely get the best of them as they race after each other, await the next round. Leslie launches an illegal one to the head that Ben is just barely able to dodge.
“Illegal! You will pay for that one Kno- ahhh!” Ben finds himself sliding across a path of ice until he whips out completely, landing on his back with a loud thud.
Leslie had been watching him, laughing at his reaction to the snowball when he hit the ice. At the sight of his fall she gasps. “Ben! Oh my God!” she shouts, rushing over to him.
“Are you okay? Did you break anything? Can you move?” her questions come at an alarming rate even as she notes that Ben is laughing so hard that he cannot breathe. She kneels down next to him, placing her hand on his knee. “You scared me.”
Ben just smiles and pulls her onto him. She lets out a content sigh at his embrace. He kisses her, happy for the moment of pause in their game even though it would cost him a black and blue mark.
“It is getting pretty cold out here,” she says reluctantly against his mouth. Ben nods, pulling her up and placing a soft kiss on her forehead. He can tell that she is finally getting tired. She grabs onto his arm once again. He hugs her closer and feels her lean into him as they continue their walk. After several minutes silence falls between them and Ben can sense, even in the darkness that her mind is speeding at an uncontrollable pace.
“Hey, where did you go?” Ben says as he squeezes her arm.
“Oh, nowhere. Sorry.”
“Hey,” Ben stops. She is a bit taken aback by his actions and almost crashes into him on the sidewalk. Ben smiles warmly at her closeness as he reaches out to push an abandoned blonde curl back underneath her hat. “Will you tell me what you are thinking about?”
Her heart melts at the love and worry in his voice. She takes a moment to let out a deep breath before spilling her feelings. “I was just thinking about how the year started and how it is ending. So much happened this year, I mean, we got married, you got a job at Sweetums, we went to Partridge and London, you got your job with the government back, beautiful friend and nurse Ann Perkins got pregnant with Chris’ baby, they decided to leave town, and, well, I got kicked out of office.” She paused, taking a breath. Ben waited, knowing that she needed to say more before he entered the conversation. “So many wonderful things happened, which I am so grateful for, but this year just seemed to be a real bummer.”
Ben nods in agreement, “it has been a rough year.”
“What if next year ends up being just like it? I am out of a job, Ben. My city, my home, rejected me. My year literally starts with me stepping down from office. How can that kick off a good year?” she was spewing her thoughts now, wanting to get everything she could out in the open in the hope that it would make everything better. She drops her eyes to the black boots on his feet, his eyes being too much when she is vulnerable. Speaking just above a whisper she adds: “this year is going to be really hard, isn’t it?”
Ben’s heart broke as he listened to his wife. She was always so full of optimism and energy that these rare moments of reality feel sharper, like a knife piercing his skin.
She hears him let out a sigh, not a bad or good one, just one that lets her know he is processing the correct way to answer her. “I think that the New Year is going to start out very hard, yes.” He wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her towards him. Every part of him is trying to offer support that he cannot put into words. “However, I think the rest of the year can go however you want it to go. It is a brand new year, and you can literally do anything you want to as of January 3rd.”
“But what is the point if you don’t have the career side of it? Or your best friend? Pawnee is rejecting me.”
“Pawnee isn’t rejecting you. This is your home - our home. I’ll be honest, Leslie. I don’t know what the answer is for the next few months. Things are going to change a lot and it is not going to be easy.” He rests his forehead against hers. “Here’s what I do know: I will be right by your side on New Year’s Eve when the clock strikes midnight and that is where I will be the rest of the year. I am not going anywhere.”
“I love you.”
Ben smiles at the sentiment while brushing away the few tears that she had let fall. He kisses her nose and finds her blue eyes. “Babe, we have so much still ahead of us. It is easy to get caught up in this, to think that you have hit your peak - I felt the same way when I was impeached. Eventually though, things become manageable and a whole new set of goals come into being, taking up all the empty space this left behind.
“Like what? Politics is out for a while at least and Ann and Chris are leaving town. You have a new job, Ron has Diane and his family now, April has Animal Control. I could focus a good amount of my efforts back to the Parks Department but that could only take up 70% of my time - tops.”
“We can travel, finish up the landscaping in the backyard, put in a pool? You could write another book, focus your efforts on building the park? We could start a family. We could start our mission to see all the presidential libraries. We can have a whole brain storming session of what to do with your extra time.”
“We could get a pet?”
“We already have April and Andy…”
“Good point.”
“There are plenty of things left to do, Leslie. I know you and I know that you care a lot about your career. This is going to be a rough year but you don’t have to focus on it. Take this time to explore another part of life and revisit politics in a year or so.”
“They do say voter’s memories fade,” she says as optimistically as possible.
“Absolutely. You’re not out of the game for good. Just give it time and they will know what they’re missing.”
“Maybe I will spend some time creating the best waffle. Even better than JJs. What am I saying? Nothing is better than JJs.”
“You can try to out waffle JJ,” Ben jokes with a grin.
He takes her hand in his the best he can in the puffy gloves. She leans into him as they begin to walk their route back home. “So, start a family huh?”
“We can talk about it. Once you get a full night sleep. I can’t have two people with erratic sleep patterns under our roof.”