Parks Fic: Water Aerobics
Title: Water Aerobics
Rating: PG
Timeline: Season 3, sometime after "Soulmates."
Summary: The Parks Department goes to water aerobics.
Author's Note: Cross-posting from tumblr. This was prompted by stillscape in the Ben/Leslie community discussion post tonight-the Parks Dept. goes to a water aerobics class. Taking advantage of my post-Parks high to write this.
“Go, Ann, go! Go, go, go, go, go! Go faster, Ann! Ann! Go!”
For some reason, Leslie’s encouragement does not prompt a burst of superhuman speed from her best friend. It does earn Leslie a glare, though, which isn’t really helpful at all since Ann needs to keep her eyes forward and focused if they’re going to win this thing. She resists the urge to kick her feet-paddling would be cheating-but it’s hard considering they’re being passed by two old ladies who entered the natatorium with walkers. This shouldn’t be hard; Leslie is tiny and they’re in water, which is basically like being weightless, and all Ann has to do is use the pool noodle to pull her from one end of the pool to the other, and yet somehow they’re losing.
The problem has to be traction. If Ann had just bought those water shoes like Leslie had asked her, none of this would be happening.
The old ladies reach the wall about thirty seconds before Ann, but they’re slow to turn around, switching who is the horse and who is the cart. Leslie, on the other hand, practically whips the noodle around her waist, and barely gives Ann a chance to grab on before she takes off at a gallop. The old ladies are left in her dust. As Andy and April have taken to beating each other with their noodles, Donna is simply using her noodle to float around the pool, and Tom still hasn’t managed to stick more than a toe in the pool without complaining (“Chlorine is not a bottled scent. You think I’m wasting a day’s worth of hair products by getting in a pool?”), that only leaves Chris and Ben ahead of her.
And Ben is the horse.
Piece of cake.
Leslie lengthens her stride, ignoring how the water keeps sloshing up into her mouth, and focuses on Ben. Focuses on beating Ben, that is. Certainly not on the fact that Ben is shirtless, and not at all at the captivating way the swing of his arms is making the muscles in his back move, and definitely, definitely not on his cute butt flexing in his sexy blue swim trunks.
No way is she doing any of that.
Halfway to the wall, Leslie comes in stride with Chris. He turns to her as she gains, flashing a blinding smile. “Great effort, Leslie! Way to go!” And then he lets go of the noodle to give her a double thumbs up, floundering momentarily before he regains his grip. It’s the advantage Leslie needs, and she jumps on it. Suddenly she’s neck in neck with Ben, the wall basically within her grasp, and this race is hers to lose.
“Eat my dust, Wyatt,” she taunts, maybe on purpose sending waves in his direction to slow him down. Ben turns to look at her, cocking a confused eyebrow, but Leslie ignores him. With one last burst of energy, she pushes up on her toes and lunges for the wall, her fingertips brushing it seconds before Ben’s do.
“Ha ha!” She throws her hands in the air triumphantly. “I win!”
“Good job, Leslie!” says Chris. “And Ann. And Ben. And me, too. And everyone, really. Everyone’s a winner in water aerobics because it’s all about improving your personal health!” He grins and slaps a hand against Ben’s shoulder, ignoring Ben’s wince. “This was a great idea, Leslie Knope. Great health initiative!”
This motivational speech seems to be lost on Chris’ audience. No one is even listening except for Ben and Ann, who both look perturbed by this burst of enthusiasm, and Leslie, who is more annoyed by the fact that no one is acknowledging she won. Even the instructor is too busy trying to coerce the pool noodle away from April to offer any accolades.
“You saw it,” she says a bit aggressively, rounding Ben and waving a finger in his face. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Ann shake her head, and then she follows Chris, who has decided that shouting encouragement will motivate the rest of the class. “I beat you.”
Ben’s staring at her in that way that make her insides feel gooey and her toes curl, and all of that adrenaline is still rushing through her veins and it’s all making her feel a little lightheaded. God, she really wants to kiss him. She can’t. But she really wants to. Really, really wants to, and he needs to stop staring at her like that when Chris is right there.
“Sure,” says Ben, ignorant to Leslie’s thoughts. “As long as you don’t count the cheating.”
“I did not cheat!”
“Okay, sure. I guess your definition of cheating doesn’t include distracting Chris and splashing me as you passed.”
“Just like yours doesn’t include your stupidly long legs,” she counters irrationally. Ben’s lips quirk, and seriously, he needs to stop staring. Impulsively, she moves closer to him. His eyes widen, mouth opening to sputter her name, and she manages to catch him completely by surprise as she raises up on her toes to dunk his head under the water.
She’s laughing when he bobs back to the surface, sputtering and coughing, his hair plastered to his forehead. “That’ll teach you to call me a cheater.”
“You’re a dead woman, Knope.”
Leslie yelps as Ben lunges for her, unable to escape before he grasps her around the waist and hoists her up on his shoulder. She kicks erratically, half-yelling, half-giggling for him to put her down, super conscious of his large, warm hands and the way her boobs are kind of squished against his shoulder, but she barely has a chance to enjoy it when Ben throws her. She splashes into the pool a few feet away, and then pops back into the surface, slicking her hair back from her face. Ben’s laughing now, and Leslie immediately starts toward him, not certain what she’s going to do, just that he’s going to pay. Before she can make her move, though, she hears Andy give a bellowing battle cry, and she turns just in time to get a face full of water as Andy cannonballs into the pool.
It probably goes without saying that they’re banned from water aerobics for life.
Chris is the only one who cares.