Fic: Make Tonight Our Own
Title: Make Tonight Our Own (also available on AO3)
Pairing/Characters: Sheldon/Penny, Amy
Rating: R
Spoilers: 5.10
Word Count: 3100
Summary: At an awards ceremony in San Diego, Penny drinks too much and Sheldon drinks just enough.
A/N: So... I have a paper due tomorrow. I wrote this instead. Luckily, the paper's not very long.
Penny is grouchy and hungover when Sheldon first knocks on her door bright one Saturday morning. She thinks about ignoring him, but all that means is that he'll come back later or just knock again.
"What, Sheldon?" she demands before he's finished his third knock. He stares at her silently for a moment before shifting his fist to rap on the doorframe instead and says Penny one final time. "I'm seriously not in the mood, so just spit it out so I can take my advil and go back to sleep."
"You shouldn't drink so much," Sheldon says instead. "You'll ruin your liver. Not to mention the few functioning brain cells you have left."
She glares at him with narrowed eyes but he doesn't seem to realize that he's just insulted her. "Seriously? That's what you came to tell me? I'm shutting the door now."
"No, sorry," Sheldon says, holding out his hand to stop her. Like he would actually win if it came to a struggle between them. "I came to ask for a favor."
"Not a great way to start, but I'm willing to hear you out."
"I need a ride to San Diego next week for an awards ceremony. Of course I'm going to win, but there are some few choice things I would like to say when I deliver my acceptance speech so I need to be there in person. As you are aware, Leonard will be leaving with Koothrappali on Tuesday on their trip to India to visit his girlfriend and the rest of Koothrappali's family."
And oh god, that right there is the reason she'd been drinking. Leonard, who she may or may not still have feelings for, who has a normal, happy, functional long-distance relationship with another pretty girl, while in the past few months, Penny's sad excuse for a love life has consisted of nothing more than a series of ill-advised one-night stands.
"Wolowitz and Bernadette will also be taking a pre-wedding trip to visit Bernadette's family that weekend, so that leaves you."
Okay, Wolowitz, Leonard and Raj she understands (she's pretty sure Howard and Bernadette scheduled this trip just to get out spending the weekend with Sheldon without Leonard and Raj around to distract him), but she's pretty sure he's leaving someone out. "What about Amy? Your girlfriend? Shouldn't you ask her first?"
Sheldon gives her a confused look and the bridge of his nose scrunches up. "We broke up. Last week. Surely she told you this?"
Penny thinks maybe she had, but there had been wine involved at the time. Many, many bottles of wine, of which Penny had drunk the lion's share. She should, perhaps, lay off the liquor. Or at least tone it down just a touch. "That does sounds somewhat familiar…" Penny says.
"We're still friends, but she asked that I give her some space. Apparently a two hour car right does not count. So, as I already explained, I’m asking you. I'll pay for the gas. We'll have to spend the night, but the hotel room is complementary for nominees."
"There'll be two beds, right?"
Sheldon scoffs. "Of course. Do you think I'd be able to sleep with all your tossing and turning during the night?"
"Fine," Penny agrees. "But I refuse to sing Soft Kitty if you lose."
"Please, like I'm going lose. I'm-"
"Yes, yes, one of the greatest minds of the twenty-first century, how could I ever forget."
Sheldon sniffs. "Yes. Just be sure to wear something appropriate. The ceremony may be formal, but it's for academics. They don’t need to be distracted by your bare midriff."
"Oh, I will," she lies. Just for that comment, Penny resolves to wear the shortest, shiniest, neon pink dress she can find.
Sheldon looks like he's not sure he believes her but thankfully doesn't say anything else about it. "Be ready to leave by three. Next Saturday," he says as he turns back towards his own apartment. He pauses outside his door. "Don't forget," he adds.
Penny rolls her eyes. "I won't forget," she says. "I'll even write it down. Right on my calendar." Sheldon nods approving as she shuts her door.
*
The following Saturday, Sheldon knocks promptly at 2:45. Penny had expected him to be early so she's already dressed and ready to go when she opens the door, resplendent in a bright pink sheath dress with tiny sparkly sequins scattered on the skirt and straps made out of rhinestones. She'd decided to rein it in a bit, if only so the drive there would somewhat peaceful, but she's certain she'll still be the flashiest dressed person there. No, make that flashiest dressed woman. Sheldon's friends seem to have quite the taste for brightly colored suits. She's willing to bet at least one will be wearing teal or maybe purple.
Sheldon, wearing his favorite plaid suit, stares at her without saying a word.
"Like the dress?" she prompts.
She's expecting a lecture. Instead, he merely clears his throat and drags his eyes up from her midsection to meet her gaze. All he says is, "Ready to go?"
"Um, yeah," she answers, surprised. "Let me just grab my bag."
Sheldon nods and waits for her in the hallway. "Did you remember your notes for your acceptance speech?" she asks as they head down the stairs.
He looks nervous for a moment as he pats down all his pockets. He breathes a sigh of relief when he finds them in his breast pocket. "Yes, of course I have them," he answers, as if the last thirty sections of near-frantic searching by feel hadn't happened.
"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Penny asks as they're leaving the apartment building.
"Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I be?"
"You just don't normally act like this, is all." When they reach her car, she suddenly turns and beams at him. "Are you nervous?" she asks a little bit more gleefully than perhaps she should.
Sheldon scoffs. "Me, nervous? I never get nervous."
Penny just grins, unconvinced, and unlocks the car doors.
*
Sheldon, amazingly enough, loses out to an eighty-year-old professor with a hunched back and cane. Penny's worried for a moment that Sheldon might try to fight him for the trophy - that cane looks like it could do a lot of damage - but to her surprise, Sheldon storms out of the banquet hall without a word and straight to the hotel bar.
"What are you doing?" she asks, coming up behind him just as the bartender places a shot of… something in front of him. Penny can't tell. She is so not in the mood to deal with this. She'd had to teeter after him in her stiletto heels and she's feeling pretty buzzed from all the champagne she'd had before the ceremony when the scientists had been schmoozing.
"Getting drunk, what does it look it?" Sheldon says, throwing back the shot in one large gulp. He gags but swallows it down and waves to the bartender for another. "Isn't this how you deal with your problems?"
"Yeah, but do you really want to take me as an example for anything?" she asks. She picks up Sheldon's empty glass and takes a tiny lick of the leftover liquor. "Tequila? You're drinking Tequila?"
Sheldon doesn't answer, just throws back the second shot and collapses onto the nearest barstool. Penny has to catch his arm to keep him from falling off the other side. "That's it," she says. "You're cut off." She's still holding onto his arm to keep him steady as she flags down the bartender and orders an extra-large margarita. The bar is practically empty, so the bartender delivers it to her fairly quickly then heads to the other end of the bar to dry an arrangement of clean glasses.
"I thought I was cut off," Sheldon mumbles and making a clumsy grab for the glass.
"You are," Penny says, drawing the drink closer to her. "This is for me." She doesn't think she can deal with him without a great deal more alcohol.
"I think you're a good waitress," Sheldon says, apropos of nothing.
"What?" Penny asks.
"Before… you said I shouldn't follow your example for… things," he answers, adding, "keep up," as if he hadn't just slurred and stumbled his way through the previous sentence.
"Oh right," she says, draining half her margarita in one large sip. She can't wait to hear what he has to say next. Really. Can't.
It's surprisingly complimentary. "You're a nice person. And a good friend. You're not afraid to ask for what you want."
"Sheldon, why did you and Amy break up?" Penny asks, giving voice to something she'd been wondering for a while. In her vague memory of Amy telling her about their breakup, Amy hadn't mention why, just that it had happened.
Sheldon heaves out a loud sigh, swirling his finger through the condensation left behind on the bar from Penny's glass. "She kept wanting to have sex. I told her I didn't like her that way. It turned out to be, as she called it, a 'deal-breaker.’ "
"Do you like anyone that way?" It’s something else she’s been wondering for a long time. The other guys think he’s mostly asexual, but she’s not so sure.
Sheldon's eyes flick up to meet hers, a little bit bleary from the alcohol, but so very, very blue. This is dangerous territory, she knows, but she can't look away.
Later, she's not sure who kisses whom first. She has a sneaking suspicion that it was Sheldon who made the first move, surprise, surprise.
What she does remember, clearly, is his hands gripping her butt on the elevator and the way she'd tried to shrug his suit jacket off his shoulders and wrap her legs around his waist at the same time. How he dropped the keycard outside their door because she wouldn't tear her mouth away from his long enough for him to get it the lock.
After that, it's more of a blur, indistinct memories of his hands on her body, her mouth on his. She'd been 99.9% certain that Sheldon was a virgin but of course he approached sex the same way he did everything else. In other words, he was very thorough. She lost count of the number of times he made her come with his fingers and his tongue. By the time he'd finally pushed into her (wearing one of the condoms she always kept in her travel toiletry bag just in case), she'd been too blissed out to care that he hadn't lasted long.
"Wow," she said, breathless, when it was over, "just… wow."
"I'm good at everything," Sheldon had said before collapsing on top of her, unconscious.
"Except driving," she'd felt the need to add, shoving his arm off her chest so she could breath before drifting off herself.
*
In the morning, when she's sober, it's another story entirely. She can't believe what she's done. She's supposed to be in love with his roommate! How many of these nerd boys is she going sleep with? God, she'd thought Sheldon had been safe, but oh, had she thought wrong. She always had a soft spot for him, which is now turning into feelings - no. There is just no way.
Sheldon is still conked out and (thank you, thank you god) and stays that way as Penny hurriedly gets dressed and gathers her things, whispering a constant litany of "oh shit, oh shit," under her breath as she does so. She silently makes her way out the door and speed walks down to her car without sparing a thought for how Sheldon will get home. All she can think to do is run away and not think about this newest complication she's added to her life.
*
For a week, Penny avoids him. It's surprisingly easy to do considering he lives across the hall, so she figures he must be doing the same.
He only tries to talk to her once, that night very morning. A few hours after she gets home, there are three knocks on her door. Her heart skips a beat every time he says her name, but still, she doesn't answer. She listens from the other side of her door until she hears his footsteps, walking away across the hall, and breaths a sigh of relief.
She wants to appear indifferent, but of course she's not. It only works because no one else knows what happened. Leonard and Raj are still away in India. Bernadette doesn't say anything, so Penny figures Sheldon hadn't said anything to Howard. On Thursday, Amy calls her.
"Sheldon kissed me," she says.
"Today?" Penny asks. She can't quite keep the tinge of incredulity out of her tone.
"Yes. He came over during my lunch break and asked if he could."
"So, are you back together?" She absolutely does not have heart palpitations at the thought.
"No, I don't think so. He kissed like he was testing a hypothesis. It wasn't very romantic."
"Oh… that sucks, I guess," Penny says. Her memories from that night might be fuzzy, but she's certain Sheldon hadn't kissed like it was a science experience. He'd kissed her like a boy kissed a girl when the only thing scientific between them was pheromones. It was the same way she'd kissed him back. It was probably the best kiss she'd had in years. Maybe ever.
"No, it's perfectly alright," Amy answers. "Did I tell you about the guy I met at the grocery store? He's an exemplary representation of the male muscular system. We have a date for Friday night."
"Good," Penny says, "I'm glad."
*
When Penny opens the door on Friday afternoon and finds Sheldon on the other side, she blushes deep red. "You didn't knock the way you usually do." Otherwise, she'd never have answered.
He obviously knows that's exactly what she'd been thinking. "If you had known it was me, you wouldn't have opened the door," he says.
Penny sighs. "What are you doing here, Sheldon?"
"Here, these are for you," Sheldon says instead of answers her question and hands her a bouquet of brightly colored daisies.
The last guy who had given her flowers was her date to junior prom - a sweet, slightly nerdy guy a year ahead of her in school who left a few short months on a full-ride to UNC Berkley. She'd always wondered what would have happened if they'd kept in touch, if she hadn't started dating Tommy Franklin, star quarterback and kind of a dick, but oh, had he known his way around her body so very, very well. He'd became the guy who'd set her dating standard for years to come. She's dating quite a few losers over the years. It's starting to become obvious to her that she's been dating all the wrong guys. She thinks perhaps it's not so much Leonard she's been missing as being treated decently by the guy she's dating, like he thinks she's something special. He'd been the first nice guy she'd slept with in years but even he hadn't given her flowers.
"What are these for?" Penny asks. She wonders if Sheldon thinks she's special, or if he's just trying to repair their friendship.
"I believe traditional to give a woman who you have engaged in coitus with flowers of some kind when you wish to continue to engage in coitus with her. I thought you would prefer these to roses, which are more commonly associated with romantic encounters."
"Are you asking me out on a date?" Penny asks, her heart pounding a little faster in her chest at the thought. God, she thinks he might be, but of course this is Sheldon - who has to say everything in the most complicated way possible - and she has to ask to be sure.
"Yes," Sheldon answers. "That is what I'm asking."
"Amy told me you kissed her. She said it was like you were testing a hypothesis."
"That was not an incorrect supposition," Sheldon answers. He won't look Penny in the eye as he explains this but trains his gaze down at her toes. "For a number of years, I made certain assumptions about my interest in sex, in that, I had none. That night in San Diego proved me incorrect. I am certainly attracted to you. I wanted to know if my level of attraction to Amy Farrah Fowler had changed. It did not. It seems I have a type, and that type is blonde, bitchy, former cheerleaders." He looks up and offers her a rueful smile. "High school suddenly makes a great deal more sense."
"Weren't you like twelve when you were in high school?"
Sheldon nods. "It was a very confusing six months for me," he answers.
"So, a date, huh?" Penny asks, running a finger over the soft petals of a large gerbera daisy. Sheldon knows her pretty well after all; she does in fact prefer these to roses.
"Yes," Sheldon said. "There's an Italian restaurant that is a five minute walk from the theater on Third. If we leave now, we should have time to eat dinner and still make it to the 8:15 showing."
"Of?"
"The Avengers."
Of course. She should have guessed. He is, after all, wearing a t-shirt printed with the cartoon version of the Hulk.
"Alright," Penny says. "It's a date. Let me just put these in some water and we'll go."
"Don't forget to grab your keys," Sheldon calls after her. "You'll have to drive."
If anyone else would have said that to her, she would have been insulted. With Sheldon, though, she's learned to just laugh and go along with. "I figured," she calls back since Sheldon is still patiently waiting in her doorway. "If you tried to drive, I'm fairly certain this date with be taking place in a jail cell."
Sheldon frowns, but can't argue. Penny places the vase full of his flowers on the coffee table, slips on her jacket and grabs her purse and her keys. "Let's go," she says after locking her door, and Sheldon obediently follows after.
On the way down the stairs, Penny tangles her fingers in his. "So," she asks, "how was your day?" She has a feeling this date is going to the beginning of a beautiful thing.
Pairing/Characters: Sheldon/Penny, Amy
Rating: R
Spoilers: 5.10
Word Count: 3100
Summary: At an awards ceremony in San Diego, Penny drinks too much and Sheldon drinks just enough.
A/N: So... I have a paper due tomorrow. I wrote this instead. Luckily, the paper's not very long.
Penny is grouchy and hungover when Sheldon first knocks on her door bright one Saturday morning. She thinks about ignoring him, but all that means is that he'll come back later or just knock again.
"What, Sheldon?" she demands before he's finished his third knock. He stares at her silently for a moment before shifting his fist to rap on the doorframe instead and says Penny one final time. "I'm seriously not in the mood, so just spit it out so I can take my advil and go back to sleep."
"You shouldn't drink so much," Sheldon says instead. "You'll ruin your liver. Not to mention the few functioning brain cells you have left."
She glares at him with narrowed eyes but he doesn't seem to realize that he's just insulted her. "Seriously? That's what you came to tell me? I'm shutting the door now."
"No, sorry," Sheldon says, holding out his hand to stop her. Like he would actually win if it came to a struggle between them. "I came to ask for a favor."
"Not a great way to start, but I'm willing to hear you out."
"I need a ride to San Diego next week for an awards ceremony. Of course I'm going to win, but there are some few choice things I would like to say when I deliver my acceptance speech so I need to be there in person. As you are aware, Leonard will be leaving with Koothrappali on Tuesday on their trip to India to visit his girlfriend and the rest of Koothrappali's family."
And oh god, that right there is the reason she'd been drinking. Leonard, who she may or may not still have feelings for, who has a normal, happy, functional long-distance relationship with another pretty girl, while in the past few months, Penny's sad excuse for a love life has consisted of nothing more than a series of ill-advised one-night stands.
"Wolowitz and Bernadette will also be taking a pre-wedding trip to visit Bernadette's family that weekend, so that leaves you."
Okay, Wolowitz, Leonard and Raj she understands (she's pretty sure Howard and Bernadette scheduled this trip just to get out spending the weekend with Sheldon without Leonard and Raj around to distract him), but she's pretty sure he's leaving someone out. "What about Amy? Your girlfriend? Shouldn't you ask her first?"
Sheldon gives her a confused look and the bridge of his nose scrunches up. "We broke up. Last week. Surely she told you this?"
Penny thinks maybe she had, but there had been wine involved at the time. Many, many bottles of wine, of which Penny had drunk the lion's share. She should, perhaps, lay off the liquor. Or at least tone it down just a touch. "That does sounds somewhat familiar…" Penny says.
"We're still friends, but she asked that I give her some space. Apparently a two hour car right does not count. So, as I already explained, I’m asking you. I'll pay for the gas. We'll have to spend the night, but the hotel room is complementary for nominees."
"There'll be two beds, right?"
Sheldon scoffs. "Of course. Do you think I'd be able to sleep with all your tossing and turning during the night?"
"Fine," Penny agrees. "But I refuse to sing Soft Kitty if you lose."
"Please, like I'm going lose. I'm-"
"Yes, yes, one of the greatest minds of the twenty-first century, how could I ever forget."
Sheldon sniffs. "Yes. Just be sure to wear something appropriate. The ceremony may be formal, but it's for academics. They don’t need to be distracted by your bare midriff."
"Oh, I will," she lies. Just for that comment, Penny resolves to wear the shortest, shiniest, neon pink dress she can find.
Sheldon looks like he's not sure he believes her but thankfully doesn't say anything else about it. "Be ready to leave by three. Next Saturday," he says as he turns back towards his own apartment. He pauses outside his door. "Don't forget," he adds.
Penny rolls her eyes. "I won't forget," she says. "I'll even write it down. Right on my calendar." Sheldon nods approving as she shuts her door.
*
The following Saturday, Sheldon knocks promptly at 2:45. Penny had expected him to be early so she's already dressed and ready to go when she opens the door, resplendent in a bright pink sheath dress with tiny sparkly sequins scattered on the skirt and straps made out of rhinestones. She'd decided to rein it in a bit, if only so the drive there would somewhat peaceful, but she's certain she'll still be the flashiest dressed person there. No, make that flashiest dressed woman. Sheldon's friends seem to have quite the taste for brightly colored suits. She's willing to bet at least one will be wearing teal or maybe purple.
Sheldon, wearing his favorite plaid suit, stares at her without saying a word.
"Like the dress?" she prompts.
She's expecting a lecture. Instead, he merely clears his throat and drags his eyes up from her midsection to meet her gaze. All he says is, "Ready to go?"
"Um, yeah," she answers, surprised. "Let me just grab my bag."
Sheldon nods and waits for her in the hallway. "Did you remember your notes for your acceptance speech?" she asks as they head down the stairs.
He looks nervous for a moment as he pats down all his pockets. He breathes a sigh of relief when he finds them in his breast pocket. "Yes, of course I have them," he answers, as if the last thirty sections of near-frantic searching by feel hadn't happened.
"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Penny asks as they're leaving the apartment building.
"Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I be?"
"You just don't normally act like this, is all." When they reach her car, she suddenly turns and beams at him. "Are you nervous?" she asks a little bit more gleefully than perhaps she should.
Sheldon scoffs. "Me, nervous? I never get nervous."
Penny just grins, unconvinced, and unlocks the car doors.
*
Sheldon, amazingly enough, loses out to an eighty-year-old professor with a hunched back and cane. Penny's worried for a moment that Sheldon might try to fight him for the trophy - that cane looks like it could do a lot of damage - but to her surprise, Sheldon storms out of the banquet hall without a word and straight to the hotel bar.
"What are you doing?" she asks, coming up behind him just as the bartender places a shot of… something in front of him. Penny can't tell. She is so not in the mood to deal with this. She'd had to teeter after him in her stiletto heels and she's feeling pretty buzzed from all the champagne she'd had before the ceremony when the scientists had been schmoozing.
"Getting drunk, what does it look it?" Sheldon says, throwing back the shot in one large gulp. He gags but swallows it down and waves to the bartender for another. "Isn't this how you deal with your problems?"
"Yeah, but do you really want to take me as an example for anything?" she asks. She picks up Sheldon's empty glass and takes a tiny lick of the leftover liquor. "Tequila? You're drinking Tequila?"
Sheldon doesn't answer, just throws back the second shot and collapses onto the nearest barstool. Penny has to catch his arm to keep him from falling off the other side. "That's it," she says. "You're cut off." She's still holding onto his arm to keep him steady as she flags down the bartender and orders an extra-large margarita. The bar is practically empty, so the bartender delivers it to her fairly quickly then heads to the other end of the bar to dry an arrangement of clean glasses.
"I thought I was cut off," Sheldon mumbles and making a clumsy grab for the glass.
"You are," Penny says, drawing the drink closer to her. "This is for me." She doesn't think she can deal with him without a great deal more alcohol.
"I think you're a good waitress," Sheldon says, apropos of nothing.
"What?" Penny asks.
"Before… you said I shouldn't follow your example for… things," he answers, adding, "keep up," as if he hadn't just slurred and stumbled his way through the previous sentence.
"Oh right," she says, draining half her margarita in one large sip. She can't wait to hear what he has to say next. Really. Can't.
It's surprisingly complimentary. "You're a nice person. And a good friend. You're not afraid to ask for what you want."
"Sheldon, why did you and Amy break up?" Penny asks, giving voice to something she'd been wondering for a while. In her vague memory of Amy telling her about their breakup, Amy hadn't mention why, just that it had happened.
Sheldon heaves out a loud sigh, swirling his finger through the condensation left behind on the bar from Penny's glass. "She kept wanting to have sex. I told her I didn't like her that way. It turned out to be, as she called it, a 'deal-breaker.’ "
"Do you like anyone that way?" It’s something else she’s been wondering for a long time. The other guys think he’s mostly asexual, but she’s not so sure.
Sheldon's eyes flick up to meet hers, a little bit bleary from the alcohol, but so very, very blue. This is dangerous territory, she knows, but she can't look away.
Later, she's not sure who kisses whom first. She has a sneaking suspicion that it was Sheldon who made the first move, surprise, surprise.
What she does remember, clearly, is his hands gripping her butt on the elevator and the way she'd tried to shrug his suit jacket off his shoulders and wrap her legs around his waist at the same time. How he dropped the keycard outside their door because she wouldn't tear her mouth away from his long enough for him to get it the lock.
After that, it's more of a blur, indistinct memories of his hands on her body, her mouth on his. She'd been 99.9% certain that Sheldon was a virgin but of course he approached sex the same way he did everything else. In other words, he was very thorough. She lost count of the number of times he made her come with his fingers and his tongue. By the time he'd finally pushed into her (wearing one of the condoms she always kept in her travel toiletry bag just in case), she'd been too blissed out to care that he hadn't lasted long.
"Wow," she said, breathless, when it was over, "just… wow."
"I'm good at everything," Sheldon had said before collapsing on top of her, unconscious.
"Except driving," she'd felt the need to add, shoving his arm off her chest so she could breath before drifting off herself.
*
In the morning, when she's sober, it's another story entirely. She can't believe what she's done. She's supposed to be in love with his roommate! How many of these nerd boys is she going sleep with? God, she'd thought Sheldon had been safe, but oh, had she thought wrong. She always had a soft spot for him, which is now turning into feelings - no. There is just no way.
Sheldon is still conked out and (thank you, thank you god) and stays that way as Penny hurriedly gets dressed and gathers her things, whispering a constant litany of "oh shit, oh shit," under her breath as she does so. She silently makes her way out the door and speed walks down to her car without sparing a thought for how Sheldon will get home. All she can think to do is run away and not think about this newest complication she's added to her life.
*
For a week, Penny avoids him. It's surprisingly easy to do considering he lives across the hall, so she figures he must be doing the same.
He only tries to talk to her once, that night very morning. A few hours after she gets home, there are three knocks on her door. Her heart skips a beat every time he says her name, but still, she doesn't answer. She listens from the other side of her door until she hears his footsteps, walking away across the hall, and breaths a sigh of relief.
She wants to appear indifferent, but of course she's not. It only works because no one else knows what happened. Leonard and Raj are still away in India. Bernadette doesn't say anything, so Penny figures Sheldon hadn't said anything to Howard. On Thursday, Amy calls her.
"Sheldon kissed me," she says.
"Today?" Penny asks. She can't quite keep the tinge of incredulity out of her tone.
"Yes. He came over during my lunch break and asked if he could."
"So, are you back together?" She absolutely does not have heart palpitations at the thought.
"No, I don't think so. He kissed like he was testing a hypothesis. It wasn't very romantic."
"Oh… that sucks, I guess," Penny says. Her memories from that night might be fuzzy, but she's certain Sheldon hadn't kissed like it was a science experience. He'd kissed her like a boy kissed a girl when the only thing scientific between them was pheromones. It was the same way she'd kissed him back. It was probably the best kiss she'd had in years. Maybe ever.
"No, it's perfectly alright," Amy answers. "Did I tell you about the guy I met at the grocery store? He's an exemplary representation of the male muscular system. We have a date for Friday night."
"Good," Penny says, "I'm glad."
*
When Penny opens the door on Friday afternoon and finds Sheldon on the other side, she blushes deep red. "You didn't knock the way you usually do." Otherwise, she'd never have answered.
He obviously knows that's exactly what she'd been thinking. "If you had known it was me, you wouldn't have opened the door," he says.
Penny sighs. "What are you doing here, Sheldon?"
"Here, these are for you," Sheldon says instead of answers her question and hands her a bouquet of brightly colored daisies.
The last guy who had given her flowers was her date to junior prom - a sweet, slightly nerdy guy a year ahead of her in school who left a few short months on a full-ride to UNC Berkley. She'd always wondered what would have happened if they'd kept in touch, if she hadn't started dating Tommy Franklin, star quarterback and kind of a dick, but oh, had he known his way around her body so very, very well. He'd became the guy who'd set her dating standard for years to come. She's dating quite a few losers over the years. It's starting to become obvious to her that she's been dating all the wrong guys. She thinks perhaps it's not so much Leonard she's been missing as being treated decently by the guy she's dating, like he thinks she's something special. He'd been the first nice guy she'd slept with in years but even he hadn't given her flowers.
"What are these for?" Penny asks. She wonders if Sheldon thinks she's special, or if he's just trying to repair their friendship.
"I believe traditional to give a woman who you have engaged in coitus with flowers of some kind when you wish to continue to engage in coitus with her. I thought you would prefer these to roses, which are more commonly associated with romantic encounters."
"Are you asking me out on a date?" Penny asks, her heart pounding a little faster in her chest at the thought. God, she thinks he might be, but of course this is Sheldon - who has to say everything in the most complicated way possible - and she has to ask to be sure.
"Yes," Sheldon answers. "That is what I'm asking."
"Amy told me you kissed her. She said it was like you were testing a hypothesis."
"That was not an incorrect supposition," Sheldon answers. He won't look Penny in the eye as he explains this but trains his gaze down at her toes. "For a number of years, I made certain assumptions about my interest in sex, in that, I had none. That night in San Diego proved me incorrect. I am certainly attracted to you. I wanted to know if my level of attraction to Amy Farrah Fowler had changed. It did not. It seems I have a type, and that type is blonde, bitchy, former cheerleaders." He looks up and offers her a rueful smile. "High school suddenly makes a great deal more sense."
"Weren't you like twelve when you were in high school?"
Sheldon nods. "It was a very confusing six months for me," he answers.
"So, a date, huh?" Penny asks, running a finger over the soft petals of a large gerbera daisy. Sheldon knows her pretty well after all; she does in fact prefer these to roses.
"Yes," Sheldon said. "There's an Italian restaurant that is a five minute walk from the theater on Third. If we leave now, we should have time to eat dinner and still make it to the 8:15 showing."
"Of?"
"The Avengers."
Of course. She should have guessed. He is, after all, wearing a t-shirt printed with the cartoon version of the Hulk.
"Alright," Penny says. "It's a date. Let me just put these in some water and we'll go."
"Don't forget to grab your keys," Sheldon calls after her. "You'll have to drive."
If anyone else would have said that to her, she would have been insulted. With Sheldon, though, she's learned to just laugh and go along with. "I figured," she calls back since Sheldon is still patiently waiting in her doorway. "If you tried to drive, I'm fairly certain this date with be taking place in a jail cell."
Sheldon frowns, but can't argue. Penny places the vase full of his flowers on the coffee table, slips on her jacket and grabs her purse and her keys. "Let's go," she says after locking her door, and Sheldon obediently follows after.
On the way down the stairs, Penny tangles her fingers in his. "So," she asks, "how was your day?" She has a feeling this date is going to the beginning of a beautiful thing.