It was early on a Saturday morning and Leonard was up, combing the last of his stray hairs in place. He had promised Sheldon the night before that he would take him and Amy to the zoo, as Amy's car was in the shop for repairs.
"Leonard, we better leave soon or we are going to be late." Sheldon called out from the living room.
Straightening the glasses on his face, Leonard replied, "Relax Sheldon, the Zoo is open all day, it would be impossible to be late."
"No, but I told Amy that I would pick her up at 8:30 and its nearly 8:30 Leonard, so please, hurry up before we are late." Sheldon said as he headed out the door.
Leonard rolled his eyes and started to second-guess why he agreed to take them to the Zoo in the first place. He could have saved himself a lot of trouble and maintained his sanity if he were to make them take the bus.
After picking up Amy and having to listen to Sheldon explain during their drive just how much Koalas made him melt inside, Leonard pulled into the zoo parking lot. Looking towards Sheldon and then back at Amy, "Ok you two kids have fun, call me when you need me to pick you up." Unbuckling her seat belt Amy leaned forward towards Leonard and asked "are you not staying, a new baby Koala has been born and will be debuted for the first time today. It will be quite a spectacle." Leonard instinctively shook his head and started to say no as past experience has taught him that a day filled with the Shamy would be close to unbearable. Sheldon chimed in, "Leonard, not only will there be Koalas, but there will be baby Koalas." Sheldon gave Leonard the look that said 'need I say more'.
Being so early in the morning Leonard knew that Penny wouldn't be up for another few hours and the only thing he had going on this morning was re-runs of Dr Who. "I guess I could stay for an hour or two, well that is if you both don't mind me being the 3rd wheel on your date." Sheldon raised his hand as if to stop Leonard from going any further, "This is not a date. Date night occurs on the second Thursday of every month or the third Thursday for months with 5 Thursdays. Seeing as how it is not Thursday, this certainly is not a date." Sheldon shook his head disapprovingly at Leonard.
Leonard trailed along from exhibit to exhibit following on the heels of his two friends. Instead of watching the animals, Leonard found himself watching the interaction between Sheldon and Amy. He was starting to realize, just how close they have become to one another. Sure their relationship was nothing near the standard of 'normal'. There was no handholding, no kissing, no physical contact of any sort for that matter. There was definitely no coitus going on as Sheldon has made it perfectly clear on more than one occasion that it is a messy and unsanitary process. But even without all that, Leonard began to realize that Sheldon and Amy had their own kind of intimacy between them.
Lost in thought, Leonard laughed at himself at that fact that he now considered Amy to be one of his friends. Upon first impressions of one another, he found Amy to be condescending and obnoxious, Amy finding Leonard to be tedious. It was not until he agreed to be Amy's date to her colleagues wedding that he started to see a different side to her. Through the months of Amy being Sheldon's girl/friend and eventually becoming Sheldon's official girl friend, he couldn't help but notice the effect Amy had on Sheldon.
Through all the years of living with Sheldon he has come to know him as someone with a robotic personality, a person that didn't express a lot of emotion and took in little consideration for others. That all changed once Amy came into the picture. Over the past few weeks Leonard had begun to notice subtle changes from Sheldon. Leonard would often catch Sheldon laughing at a text message Amy sent or find him engaged in a serious conversation with Amy over Skype discussing their next Fun with Flags webisode.
But it was even smaller things that Leonard would begin to notice. Whenever Sheldon would come back from Amy's place he would always walk though the door smiling lost in thought of the events that took place that evening. Whenever Amy was hanging out at their apartment and struggled to get a cup off the top shelf in the kitchen, Sheldon would always be quick to assist her being that he is considerably taller. Leonard frowned slightly at that fact that Amy was a few inches taller than he was and Sheldon had never helped him get anything off the top shelf, a feat he struggles with on a daily basis and he's been his roommate and best friend for years.
Breaking his train of thought was Sheldon's voice, "Leonard this way, Amy wants to see the monkeys."
Leonard watched as Amy was pointing excitedly at each of the monkeys explaining to Sheldon her theory of why people love monkeys. He noticed how Sheldon wasn't paying attention to any of the monkeys but he was instead focused on Amy, watching her mouth move as she talked. Being careful not to miss any words that may slip by her lips. Sheldon's smile would grow bigger every time Amy would catch his gaze and stare back into his eyes. It was an unspoken talent that Sheldon had the ability to talk for hours. Leonard was convinced it was Sheldon's attempt to drown out the hum-drum-chit-chat of lesser minds, yet he noticed that Sheldon would always take time to stop and listen to what Amy had to say.
As Leonard continued to watch Sheldon and Amy, he couldn't help but feel a little jealous inside. Everything seemed to come so easy for Sheldon. It's no secret that Sheldon is a genius, a fact that he gets reminded of often. Sheldon grew up with a loving mother, something Leonard longed to experience. Sheldon was at the top of his field at Cal Tech and to top it all off he just so happen to stumble across his soul mate Amy Farrah Fowler. Leonard began to think back to all his past relationships. Penny had broken his heart, Leslie Winkle had used him for sex and Priya had cheated on him. Leonard reminded himself that it takes a few relationships before you find the 'right one'. People spend their whole lives searching for their soul mate. Sheldon found his on his first try and then again, he wasn't even trying. What was meant to be a hilarious prank on Sheldon had somehow backfired and created what they all now know as the Shamy.
Heading towards a large crowd in front of the Koala exhibit, Leonard watched as Sheldon held out his arm to Amy and guided her through the crowd so they could get a better view. As Sheldon and Amy were smiling intently at the baby Koala, Leonard noticed that they hadn't let go of each other's arms. Every once in a while, he would see Amy blush when they would accidentally or maybe not so accidentally brush up against one another. Leonard knew that there was a side of Sheldon no one except for Amy has ever seen before. Amy was someone Sheldon trusted, she was the only person that understood him and would never refer to him as a 'skinny weirdo'.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Leonard looked around and noticed that Sheldon was frantically scribbling on a piece of paper using a borrowed crayon that belonged to one of the children near by. Sheldon was calculating the timing, angle and speed that he would need in order to successfully retrieve a stuffed animal out of the claw machine. 15 minutes and 30 dollars later Sheldon emerged victorious. He picked up his prized stuffed animal from the machine and handed it to Amy. Leonard watched Sheldon fill up with joy at Amy's reaction. Leonard knew that in that moment Sheldon felt like a super hero and Amy felt like a princess.
Having seen all the exhibits at the Zoo they gathered in the car and headed for home. Pulling up to Amy's apartment complex, Sheldon and Amy got out of the car. Leonard could still see them from the rear view mirror, feeling somewhat guilty that he might be spying on an intimate moment between the two; he couldn't convince himself to pull his eyes away. Leonard watched as Sheldon, being raised a Texas gentleman, walked Amy to the front entrance of the building. Sheldon and Amy smiled and exchanged their goodbyes , when Sheldon did something that took Leonard by surprise. Sheldon leaned down and Amy stood on her tiptoes and gave Sheldon a kiss on the cheek. Leonard said out loud to himself, "if this is what goes on during non-dates, I wonder what happens on actually dates." Leonard couldn't help but smile to himself and be happy for his two friends.