alwaysaboom:

Top 12 Leslie/Ben Moments
8. ‘Stay here. Help us build something.’

Leslie: You should stay. [pause] Don’t go back to Indianapolis. You should stay here.
Ben: You think?
Leslie: Yeah. Yes. It’s a great city here, y’know, and there are great people, and you’ve made a lot of friends. And what are you gonna do, go back to your old job and hack up people’s budgets? Stay here. Help us build something.
Ben: I already accepted the job. I’m, uh…I’m staying here.
Leslie: That’s good!
Ben: Yeah, I think so.

Things that I love about this scene: everything. Literally everything. If Ben had just decided to stay in Pawnee by himself without Leslie talking to him about it, it wouldn’t have been right; I wanted to see Leslie reaching out to him and letting him know that she wanted him to stay. But if he’d stayed in Pawnee just because Leslie had asked him to, it wouldn’t have been right; it would’ve put a weird sort of pressure and responsibility on Leslie, to know that he was staying in Pawnee just for her. But in this scene, we got both of them in the most perfect combination. We got Ben making that decision for himself. He hadn’t waited for Leslie’s approval, so we knew he’d taken stock of his life, and the life that Pawnee could offer him, and decided that this is where he wants to be. And we got Leslie opening up and admitting, for all intents and purposes, that she wants him to stay, to stay and build something in Pawnee. Actual perfect scene. Also faces. Smiles.