A/N - A few back, I was watching 'The Justice League Recombination' with Molly and I just suddenly had this idea, and the idea was this fic. Anyway, since Molly is feeling sick today and she was annoyed at me for not telling her what my idea was after going "ooh, I just thought of a one shot!" - I thought I'd publish this today. Plus I finished work early so that puts me in a good mood even when I am tired - or maybe it's all the coffee I made myself today. Enjoy! (and feel better soon Molly, the duck is taking up your side of the bed) :)
"I guarantee you'll be the prettiest girl there."
It was a sentence that made Penny's face light up with a smile, managing to nudge away how upset she had been feeling only seconds before. His compliments always came from the heart and now that she was his ex-girlfriend they were all the more special to her. And if he had put in the effort to try and convince his ex-girlfriend to come to a New Years costume party with her new boyfriend, then clearly this was important to him. Wearing a wig was nothing compared to what he was doing for her. Smiling shyly, she held up a thick strand of her own blonde hair. "I'm guessing Wonder Woman doesn't have black and blonde hair."
He continued grinning at her in that adorable way. It made it difficult to do anything but reciprocate his expression. "Let's get that blonde tucked away. Sheldon might just blow a fuse if we turn up with Wonder Woman stuck in hair limbo and the costume loses its authenticity."
Yeah, Penny thought, that's who I'm doing it for. Sheldon. Sometimes Penny wondered how Leonard didn't pick up on these things that she did for him, brushing them off. Was it shyness? Modesty? Had his upbringing left him so broken that he simply didn't see when people did things because of him, for him? It was a thought that brought a pang of pain through her heart. She definitely needed to be the best Wonder Woman there could be tonight. "I'll put my hair up with some hair ties and bobby pins." Heading to her bedroom, she looked back over her shoulder as she took the wig off. "You can come with me in here, you know."
"Oh, right. Sure."
Leonard sat down on the edge of her bed as she set to work on her hair. He couldn't help but stare as she leaned forward to look into the mirror on her dresser. She was breathtaking; there was no doubt about that. Especially in that costume. But the fact that she was about to spend her New Years at the Comic Book Store wearing a Wonder Woman costume and properly wearing the wig, not even as a compromise because she was his girlfriend and last year they went out to celebrate in a club, just added to her beauty. She had her flaws and issues, and she had always rolled her eyes when he told her she was perfect, but to him her heart was gold.
"Can you help me with the front bit?" Penny asked, turning around and breaking him from his thoughts. "Every time I move the front of the wig into place, it makes the blonde bits come out."
"Of course." Leonard nodded, getting off the bed and coming to stand in front of her.
He positioned the front of the wig correctly, and she giggled as she felt the strands of hair under the wig being pushed forward, blonde becoming visible once more. Gently, he brushed those strands upwards and tucked them in beneath the wig using his thumbs, his index and middle fingers holding down the wig.
His hands on her face made her heart flutter; his touch was so soft and her hands moved automatically to cover his on her face, bringing them down to her cheeks. He looked at her with confusion for a moment as she closed her eyes, a soft smile playing on her lips. Then she opened them again and their gazes were locked with an intensity and intimacy neither of them had felt in a very long time. It was almost like a staring contest, neither of them daring to move or blink in case anything happened to break the moment. Penny knew she was going to lose, just as she had lost all the other battles she'd been trying to (admittedly only half-heartedly) win today. The way he was looking at her and his hands on her face were both helping her and disadvantaging her; they made her weak but she never wanted this moment to end.
Inevitably, the moment had to end. And just as she had predicted, Penny lost, but she secretly in her heart and mind considered it a victory. Because when she gave in and kissed him, Leonard neither pulled back nor stopped her. It took him a while but eventually he was kissing her back. More tender than they had ever kissed before, more longingly. Her hands slid down to his shoulders and his to her waist.
It was everything a midnight kiss on New Year should be, only it wasn't midnight. All the other factors were irrelevant.
Her hands moved down to his chest, only to remember he was wearing a Green Lantern (not Arrow, she remembered now) costume and she couldn't feel him through it. Moaning softly, her hands moved round to the zipper at the back. Cautiously, Leonard's hands moved slowly down to her ass, and he kept them there when she didn't show any objection.
A series of loud knocks caused them to stop, lips still attached but not moving. "Come on! Are you guys coming or not? We're going to be late!" Howard's voice was ever the turn-off.
Reluctantly pulling back, Penny cleared her throat. "I... this costume is really difficult to get into anyway." She said, attempting a laugh and instantly hating herself for not being able to come up with anything else. Her face and body were completely flushed, her lips were tingling and her heart was pounding.
Wishing he had his inhaler, Leonard sat back down on her bed, trying not to look at her. "Yeah. Mine too."
"Okay. So... cool." Penny stared at him for a moment, nodding to herself in attempt to convince herself that it was a good thing that they had been interrupted. "You have lipstick just-" Sitting down beside him, her hand reached up to his face to rub at her lipstick on his mouth, but she quickly changed her mind. Dropping her hand, she looked on dejectedly as he removed a glove and wiped at his mouth. "Yeah. There."
"You should probably put some more on." Leonard pointed out.
"Yeah. Yeah, I probably should." Penny agreed, nodding.
There was another set of knocks. "Hello? Penny, did you punch Leonard for making him wear the wig? If you did, I'm sure we can win without a Green Lantern as long as we have you there."
"No we cannot." Penny muttered angrily as she stood to reapply her lipstick. "Lets go win this thing."
Leonard stood and looked at her for a moment. "Thank you, Penny."
The way he said it melted her heart, and she stood there a while as he walked to the door. He had no idea what he was thanking her for, but it covered up some of the anger she felt at herself (and Zack, and Howard and Sheldon and probably Raj too by default) that evening.
Shaking her head, she checked herself in the mirror quickly before returning to the front room. Leonard opened the door, saying "sorry, we were just trying to fix her wig" and she quickly gulped down the glass of wine she had been drinking earlier.
Penny had never paid attention to the comic books or TV shows or movies, and she had no idea where Wonder Woman was from or where Green Lantern was from. Whether they were in the same universe or not she had no idea. But in her own universe, this Wonder Woman she had formed was probably not the Wonder Woman Leonard read about, because she was struggling too hard to be her own heroine to be anybody else's. Green Lantern was the hero and the bad guy all at once; her strength and her weakness.