He was never one to get attached. After his failed run as mayor Ben learned to stop caring so much about anything, it made his life that much easier, especially when it came to cutting budgets. Girls had always called him cold or cruel when they wanted to take the relationship to the next level, the amount of hate mail he got after leaving a town would have made a grown man cry, if Ben cared. There was of course a part of him that did, but he kept that part pushed down so low no one could find it, occasionally it would scratch at the surface but he made sure to drown it with numbers and beer. That was of course until Pawnee.
Pawnee was different, and it wasn't just because of Leslie Knope, even though she had an awful lot to do with it. He had been to a lot of cities and met a lot of different people, but there was no one he had met that compared to the citizens of Pawnee. They cared, actually gave a damn about their town and it warmed that forgotten part of Ben's soul. When he sat in that town meeting watching dozens of people argue over what to put in a time capsule he realized something. Pawnee was special.
He had turned to look at Leslie who was frazzled and annoyed but she offered him a small smile. He wanted to badly, in that moment, to whisper in her ear that she had been right. Of course Leslie was always right. She was right about Pawnee being special, she was right about the Harvest Festival, he knew even though it hadn't started yet that it was going to be enough to help the town and secure Leslie a job forever, and she was right about him.
He still remembered the first time they met and she so proudly suggested that city hall had feelings. He hadn't been sure what to think then, and sometimes he still wasn't sure what to think. Leslie was something else, something he wasn't sure existed anymore, a fairytale. Everything about her, from her blonde hair to her insane love of whipped cream was something he had to convince himself he didn't make up. It wasn't just that though, she was good at what she did, he didn't want to admit it at first but she had good ideas, and if you gave her a little she was willing to work with you. Most of all she cared.
He had seen politicians that had essentially given up, turned hard and cynical by the daily grind, hell he was one of them. Boy mayor turned budget slasher, not exactly a hopeful and heartwarming story. He was a cynic living among cynics and there was Leslie, walking alone with her head held high and a hopeful smile on her face.
"Ben!" Her voice sounded friendly even when being frantic. "Thank goodness you are here. The Sweetums vendors are here and they are trying to take the space that I had reserved for the petting zoo. Now I could probably move the petting zoo to quadrant four but then it would be too close the Tilt-A-Whirl and I don't want anyone throwing up on the animals. – Don't look at me like that, it's happened before. Oh also, how do you feel about running one of the game booths for a few hours, Tom just called he was delayed picking up our surprise guest – I hope they make it on time, oh well, we've got plenty of entertainment. Anyway, could you please cover the fishing game for a few hours, I'll give you a free caramel apple." She flashed that famous smile of hers and Ben knew that he was a sucker.
"Sure." He said, shrugging his shoulders. He had volunteered to help, there really wasn't anymore budget stuff to do, Chris was already gone, things had gotten unbelievably awkward after the whole Anne fiasco so he had decided to move ahead early but Ben had stayed.
I'm staying to see the Harvest Festival through to the end. That is what he kept telling himself, Chris, and his boss. It wasn't because of the way her hair seemed to glow in the moonlight, it wasn't because of her infectious optimism, it certainly wasn't because of the way she touched his arm and called him Benji after a few drinks. In fact, it had absolutely nothing to do with her at all. It was about Pawnee, this broken town that he had helped put back together.
"Thanks Ben, you're a lifesaver." She squeezed his arm and smiled at him and with that she was gone. Disappearing into the mess of pre-festival preparations, but if he looked hard enough he could still see her blonde hair bobbing up and down as she approached Jerry to probably yell at him for putting the sign to the corn together wrong. Ben laughed to himself - it definitely wasn't because of her.