Roommates, part 4 - continued/?
Title: Roommates, part 4 - continued/?
Author: sunnyday678
Characters/Ships: Ben/Leslie
Rating: G/PG - early chapters; PG-13/R - later chapters
Summary: Leslie invites Ben to be her roommate; begins at the end of "Master Plan".
Disclaimer: I don't own 'em.
Missed a Previous Chapter?: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2, part I | Chapter 2, part II | Chapter 3, part I | Chapter 3, part II | Chapter 4, part I
Author's Note: In this part, Leslie and Ben play Mad Libs, hug it out, and - oh yeah - Leslie sees Ben half-naked. :)
(4 - part II)
After they ate, even though it was growing dark, they stayed out on the back patio playing Mad Libs (Leslie, predictably, loved what Ben had gotten her).
"Okay, read it back to me," she said, after they'd finished one.
"Okay, so this is based on the Beatles' song 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'," Ben began. "So here goes: Picture yourself in a Harvest Festival on a river; With waffle trees and whipped cream skies..."
"I have done that," Leslie murmured.
Ben laughs. "Somebody calls you, you walk quite professionally; A girl with cute eyes." Instinctively he looks at Leslie. Despite the darkness, he can see the gleam in her eyes. They hold there a moment, before Ben clears his throat and continues.
"Cellophane ponies of red and green, drink over your head. Work for the girl with the government in her eyes," Ben says. Leslie whispers, mainly to herself, "Me." Ben smiles before finishing: "And she's gone. Ann in the sky with wildflowers... Ann in the sky with wildflowers... Okay, you get the gist -- I'm not going to sing anymore."
"Thank you -- for the Mad Libs and for quitting singing," Leslie says. She's silent for a moment before she says, "And for hanging out with me tonight. What with Mark quitting on us, I could have been really sad tonight, but it's been great."
"No where else I'd rather be," Ben says softly, looking at the ground. He looks up at her and says, "You know, it's still early -- want to watch a movie or something?"
"Sure, nothing sci-fi though." She giggles when she sees Ben make a disappointed face. "I'm in the mood for a drama or a political movie -- one that'll get me in the mood for brainstorming more on the Harvest Festival."
"Something tells me you have quite the collection of dramatic, political movies," Ben says as he gets to his feet. "Let's do it."
+++
Leslie chooses The American President. Not Ben's first choice, since it's really a romance disguised as a political drama and he didn't want to fall back down the emotional rabbit hole with Leslie. The more time he spent with her -- getting to know her, becoming friends -- the better he got at keeping his feelings in check. Not that they weren't still there, bubbling just under the surface, but he'd reigned himself in enough so he didn't come across as a Human Disaster (at least not with her).
But, as it turned out, they didn't watch the movie much anyway, spending the time talking about Harvest Festival. Leslie had already formulated a pretty thorough plan, but she was eager to bounce her ideas off of Ben. They talked about how many vendors she'd need, who she might contact, and how she'd lay out the park with the various vendor booths. They talked about hiring a carnival company to supply and run the rides and games, and how they'd recruit folks from City Hall to be volunteers and what their jobs would be. The Harvest Festival was planned for the end of the summer, right about when Ben would be leaving town, so there was a lot to do -- maybe that's why Leslie asked him to help her, or maybe it was something more...
When the credits on the movie began to roll, Ben noticed it was almost midnight. "It's getting late," he said, yawning and stretching. "How about we read your Chamber of Commerce speech again in the morning, and see if it needs any revisions then?"
Leslie looked back at him, her face scrunched up in confusion. "Late? It's only midnight!"
"Yeah... Midnight is late, isn't it?" Ben asked.
"I guess," Leslie said, getting to her feet. "But I'm a night owl. And a day...bird of some kind, too. So I'll work a little longer myself, but we should definitely work more tomorrow together -- if you have the time, of course." She looked at him cautiously.
Ben stood up, and faced her. "Yeah, I'd like that." He smiled, and then became acutely aware of how close they were standing to one another. Their eyes locked, and for a moment he was lost in how blue her eyes were. And how soft her skin looked. And how much he wanted to kiss her.
"Um," Leslie finally said, breaking Ben of his fantasy. "Thanks for all your help tonight." She then leaned in and hugged him, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head against his heart. Without hesitation Ben put his arms around her shoulders and squeezed ever so slightly. "Of course," he managed to say.
Their hug didn't last but more than a few seconds, but to Ben it felt like an eternity. Leslie was so warm -- she literally radiated heat. Her hair smelled like strawberries. She was petite and much shorter than Ben, especially in bare feet, but she still angled into him just right. In other words -- she fit.
When she pulled away, Ben said, "Well, good night."
"You too," she replied, her eyes looking down. She sat back down as Ben rounded the couch. He turned to look back at her before he went down the hallway. Her back was to him, but he could see she already had a pen and paper back in her hand. She appeared to be looking down hard at the paper, and she had the pen trained in her hand, but she wasn't writing. In fact, she was uncharacteristically still. Ben wondered what she was thinking as he headed toward his room.
+++
Ben had a hard time that night (literally and figuratively). He couldn't get Leslie out of his mind, and his whole body felt awake after getting to hold her so close. He finally managed to doze off, only to wake up at around 3AM needing to pee. He didn't see any light coming in from under his door, so he assumed Leslie had finally gone to sleep too. He untangled the sheets from around him, and opened his door. His feet padded down the hallway toward the bathroom. He reached to open the door when it suddenly flung open.
"Aah!" Leslie didn't shriek very loudly, but it was enough to startle Ben out of his grogginess. "Oh, Ben, you scared me," she said putting a hand over her heart.
It was dark. Leslie must have been just leaving the bathroom since the light was shut off. But a little bit of street light made its way through the blinds of the windows, helping Ben to see that her hair was pulled back, and she was wearing a little black tank top and blue jogging shorts. He didn't mean to, but he couldn't help but stare at her hand, and how it grazed the cleavage that was peeking through the tank top.
He then realized that he had to stop staring since he was wearing blue plaid boxers. Just boxers. And they were standing way too close to one another in the bathroom doorway.
"I'm sorry, I just had to pee," he said looking up at her, only to find her eyes were staring at his chest. And he watched as they slowly moved down to his stomach. And then further down...
He stared at her in total wonderment. When she finally looked up, she had a sly smile on her face. "No problem," she said, quite casually. She managed to squeeze by him and walked briskly down the hallway to her room, opening and shutting the door without looking back at him. He was still completely dumbfounded when he finally took a step inside the bathroom and closed the door. He looked at himself in the mirror, and suddenly couldn't remember why he'd even come in there to begin with.
On to chapter 5, part I: http://sunnyday678.livejournal.com/2012/03/15/