Sheldon x Penny

Chapter 3: The Friends With Benefits Explanation (part 2)

{Just moments after part1. Sheldon is in penny's bed. Penny is sleeping on the couch.}

"Penny" Sheldon whispered. He lay on his back in the centre of the bed, his eyes wide open in the darkness. The room was cold and the apartment felt emptier than it had earlier that evening.

"what?" she hissed back at him,  annoyed that he had disturbed her. He could see the outline of her head as it bobbed up and peered out at him from the side of the couch.

"I can't sleep. I feel homesick"

"your home is 20 feet from here."

"20 feet, 20 lightyears. It doesn't matter. It's in a galaxy far far away"

Penny huffed as she pulled herself up from the couch and trudged her way into the bedroom. "What do you want me to do?" She asked him, her tone more sympathetic than he had expected.

Reaching his slender arm out from the bed, Sheldon flicked on the lamp that was balanced clumsily amongst the assortment of multi-vitamins and various magazines upon the nightstand. The light cast a honeyed sheen across the room that spilled out into the living area, producing a faint shadow that swayed gently behind Penny. The light made her look soft and warm, the same way she had felt when he hugged her for the first time. She stood in the door way, her blonde locks falling around her face in elegant waves. Sheldon's pupils doubled in circumference, absorbing the moment like miniature black holes that expanded within his irises, leaving behind nothing but piercing sapphire rings that separated the white from the black. He found himself lost in her, his mind completely absent for the first time in his entire existence.

"Sheldon sweetie", she said, still awaiting his answer. Her mellifluous tone enticed him back into reality.

"Sing me soft kitty" He requested, his eyes following her as she walked around to the other side of the bed, sitting beside him. She adjusted the pillow, placing it behind her as she leaned backwards against the headboard, lifting her legs onto the bed.

"Really Sheldon? That's only for when you're sick" she said, looking down at him. His narrow features softened in the warm glow of the light - His eyes looked darker, more intense than they had looked earlier that evening.

"Homesick is a type of sick" he said solemnly, in hope that she would take pity on him. And she did. He watched her lips move as she began to sing, her tune discordant but still pleasing to him, melting into something euphonious as it entered his ear canal and tickled at his eardrum.

Tentatively, she placed her hand on his forearm that remained exposed above the covers, tracing his veins with the tips of her fingers as she continued her song. A small part of her expected him to pull away, repulsed by her touch, but instead his arm stayed still, his hairs standing on end as he indulged in the intimacy. Her fingers stopped in their tracks for a moment. This was a completely different Sheldon to the one she was so used to being relentlessly berated by for her off-key country music caterwauling and her refusal to pay for her own wifi. It was as though she had unlocked a completely new level of his personality and there was something about this side of him that she liked. A lot. She had always admired Sheldon in a way she could never truly articulate, but for once she didn't feel as though he was pushing her away, isolating himself in a theoretical bubble of solitude.

She slid down the bed, readjusting the pillow behind her head before settling down beside him, her eyes now level with his. She had finished singing and it was quiet for a moment.

"thank you for letting me stay here, Penny."

"Aw no problem sweetie" she said, planting a gentle kiss on his cheek before nestling into the crevice between his neck and his chest. She could feel his heart thumping softly behind his ribcage, increasing in pace as her fingers glided up the side of his face, her thumb brushing past his bottom lip. He remained still, his pulse rising rapidly along with his temperature. Everything about her, everything that she did took control of him and this was both terrifying and magical.