Work Text:
itai dōshin (異体同心)
(n.) li. “different body, same mind”; the harmony between different people, as if having one mind; two persons acting in perfect accord and unity
|Japanese|
And now his clothes smell like her and all the photographs on his desk remind him of special times he shared with her. Like that one night, she dragged him into a photobooth so she could have proof that this date actually happened, even though he told her at least twenty times that he would never deny it but she didn't listen to him, instead kissed him with so much passion in the first photo that he still looks dazed in the next three shots.
He really should be over all these butterflies by now but then she smiles at him and he feels like someone has punched him in the guts all over again. And now all he wants to do is show her what she's really worth and put her first because he has never seen anyone as beautiful as her late at night in the refrigerator light. Loving her forever just cannot be wrong when it feels this right to be with her.
When she first smiled at him on that first day, he felt like Alice who fell into wonderland through that rabbit hole. And from that moment on he was technically single but so much in a relationship with her it was not even funny anymore. The first night when he lay in his bed in that cheap motel, he wished for nothing more than to not have to cut the town's budget because he really, really, really didn't want to see that look on her beautiful face again because he felt like “My, uh, partner Ben is gonna stick around for a little bit.” and her excited face was what started them in the first place.
And now she's the taste of sugar and adrenaline on his tongue and the sight of sunshine in his mind. She is, by far, the brightest star he's ever seen. At the point when he met her, he had not much to lose, but everything to gain and the wish to make his life a living work of art with her by his side. Because she was beautiful, charismatic, amazing and everybody knew it. Even Chris and him knew it right away, right after meeting her for the first time.
He knew falling in love with her was inevitable because every time she looked away, he stared at her. Even though it was stupid to fall in love with her. But then it was a meeting and they were laughing way too hard at something that wasn't even remotely funny and he simply knew he was screwed. And because everyone has a thing, she was his (next to a woman in skates, preferably her). In the end, he thought, you never regret the best choices you make, so he kissed her. He didn't know what he wanted them to be just then but when she kissed him back, he knew he wanted it to be forever.
And for the first time in forever, he decided to let someone in. Before, he never really saw the point because, let's face it, he would be gone before his words even left a mark. But when he met her, it was different. He didn't know he would be staying forever but he wanted to, god, he wanted to so much, it made him gasp for air. And he wanted her to see what was behind his shut doors, what was behind his masquerade, what was in his past.
Wanting only the best for her, he would've probably been okay with it if it wasn't him. Actually, no. He did want her to be happy but only really, if she was happy with him because he couldn't imagine a life in which he was happy without her by his side anymore. In the matter of all but five seconds, she had spun his entire world around. Even though he tried to fight it at first, he knew it was to no avail because you just cannot fight Leslie Knope.
:fin: