Title: When the Clock Strikes Midnight

Author: lovepass77

Rating: T

Genre: Romance

Summary: This is a one shot fic I wrote today for New Year's Eve about the whole Big Bang Theory gang going to Stuart's Comic Book Store this year for New Year's Eve and what happens this time when the clock strikes midnight.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. They all belong to CBS and Chuck Lorre.

Sheldon stands in front of his white board holding a marker ready to make a final decision. He has written down several choices that have already been crossed out and there are only a few more choices to choose from left on the board.

Leonard sits in the big armchair with his arms folded staring at the white board while Howard and Rajesh sit on the couch. They are all trying to decide which costumes to wear to Stuart's annual New Year's Eve party. Howard speaks up first.

"I say we go with the Avengers. They were huge this year, we'll win for sure."

Sheldon shakes his head against that idea and crosses out The Avengers on his list of costume choices.

"Nope, we can't. As much as I want to be the Hulk, Stuart says everyone is switching from Justice League of America to the Avengers this year. If we do the same thing then we won't stand out from the crowd."

Howard sighs annoyed that Sheldon keeps shooting down all their good ideas and because he really badly wants a chance to finally wear his Iron Man helmet outside of the bedroom.

Leonard makes another new suggestion in order to incorporate everyone into it.

"How about we all go as members from X-men that way we can make the girls each a costume too."

He grins lustfully as he pictures in his mind Penny wearing nothing, but a barely there bikini and lots of blue make up dressed as Mystique.

Sheldon immediately shakes his head in disagreement with Leonard's idea as well.

"No, Amy refuses to wear anything too form fitting and revealing like the X-men costumes and if I go as Professor X in a wheelchair everyone will just think I'm Stephen Hawking again."

Leonard rolls his eyes at Sheldon then looks over at Rajesh expecting him to make the next suggestion.

Rajesh sits there thinking for a minute, and then he gasps excitedly, jumps up off the couch and walks over to the white board. He picks up another marker off the coffee table and prepares to write down a new choice.

"I've got one word for you guys...PIXIES!"

Howard, Leonard and Sheldon all frown up their faces at how totally ridiculous and gay that idea sounds. All three of them shake their heads and say at the same time…"NO!"

Raj's excitement quickly fades away at their reaction then he sulks back over to the couch sadly as Sheldon crosses out his suggestion.

"Guys we're running out of time here, the party is tonight! Let's just wear our Muppet costumes."

Raj gasps in despair when he hears Sheldon make this suggestion.

"Oh…no way man…come on, Scooter sucks! I'm not going as him again."

Sheldon realizes they are out of options so he decides to be little more accommodating than usual just to get them on board with his plan.

"Alright, Raj then you can be Fozzie."

Leonard frowns at Sheldon not really into the idea yet either. He also doesn't like it that Sheldon always gives away his costume choice to someone else in the group.

"Hey I'm always Fozzie! If he gets to be Fozzie…then…then…I want to be Kermit!"

Howard quickly chimes in before Sheldon can steal his costume from him too.

"Well I still have dibs on Gonzo the Great!"

Sheldon puffs out air loudly as he shakes his head at them for being so demanding, but then he decides to give in this time because Sheldon already has a new Muppet costume in mind to wear.

"Fine, then I'll be…Dr. Bunsen Honeydew."

Leonard, Howard and Rajesh all smile a bit glad to have finally reached a decision on what to wear.

Howard takes one last sip of his Red Bull then he stands up ready to get this ball rolling.

"Alright-y then men to the sewing machines, let's all meet back here…Say… six o'clock?

"Agreed."

"Agreed."

"AGREED!"

Rajesh gets up too and follows Howard out of the apartment so they can get to work on their new costumes.

Sheldon puts down his marker and goes to his work desk to send Amy a Facebook message about their new plan.

Leonard looks at Sheldon concerned that he isn't really prepared for what is going to be expected of him tonight at the party now that he has a girlfriend.

"So Sheldon, are you sure your ready for tonight?"

"Of course I am. I've got my award acceptance speech all prepared."

"No, I mean you and Amy. This is your first New Year's Eve party as girlfriend and boyfriend."

"Oh don't worry…I already spoke with Amy; she told me it's alright if I pick out the costumes this time as long as they're not Star Wars or Star Trek themed."

"Yeah, that's not…really what I'm talking about."

" Hey, I already had to compromise once on Halloween by wearing that ridiculous Raggedy Ann wig. I'm not doing it again. Everyone knows C3PO is naturally bald-headed."

He shakes his head and types away on his computer while the memory of that humiliation plays through his mind.

"But, what about when the clock strikes midnight?"

Sheldon finally stops typing the he looks at Leonard with a disappointed face.

"Leonard get serious now, don't be so naïve. The world is not going to end at midnight. The Mayans were proven wrong, so just relax."

"Oh never mind."

Leonard shakes his head and decides to let him figure it out the hard way since Sheldon thinks he is so smart. He walks down hallway to his bedroom to start working on his costumes.

Sheldon finishes leaving his message for Amy about their Muppet costumes then he gets up from his desk and heads for his room to also start getting ready for the party.

Six o'clock rolls around and Howard grins as he happily jogs up the stairs to the third floor dressed up as Gonzo with a big blue nose and a magician's cape. Once he reaches apartment 3B, he yells back down the stairs to his wife.

"Come on Bernie, you can make it."

Bernadette huffs and puffs hard as she holds her big, fat feathery belly and tries to get up the stairs.

"This costume is so heavy!"

"But, baby doll you look good enough to eat."

Howard grins stupidly at her and Bernadette glares back at him wondering why she let him talk her into wearing this stupid chicken outfit.

"Yeah and I thought your mother was going to eat me when she saw it. I don't know why we couldn't just wear our Smurf outfits again. I was so Smurfing cute in that one."

"I told you…the New Year's Eve party we always go as a group, its tradition. We're the reigning champs. Now no more talking you're a chicken so say…. cluck…Cluck!"

Bernadette sighs very annoyed by him right now.

"Cluck…Cluck," she replies with very little enthusiasm and slight amount of contempt in her voice.

Howard knocks on the door and Leonard lets them both in. He is already all dressed up like Kermit the frog from head to flippers and Bernadette smiles at him when she sees how nice his costume looks.

"Wow, Leonard you look great."

"Thanks. So do you Camilla."

"Where's Sheldon?"

"He'll be out in minute; he's still putting on make-up."

Howard 's face makes an evil smile because he is already anticipating Sheldon's reaction to seeing a giant chicken in his living room.

"Hey, hun why don't you go sit over there."

He points at Sheldon's spot on the couch. Bernadette frowns at him.

"Oh…no… I'm not falling for that one again; I don't want have to take Sheldon's class."

"Ah...come on baby…at least go hide in the closet and jump out at him. Ten bucks, he screams ….twenty he wets himself. "

Leonard laughs at Howard then smiles as Bernadette shakes her head. He realizes how well she has gotten to know Sheldon at this point. Leonard then looks back out the door wondering why Raj hasn't come in behind them.

"Where's Raj? I thought he was coming with you guys."

"No, he and Stuart went to the comic book store already to set things up. But, he sent me a pic of them in their costumes. Take a look at this."

Howard pulls out his cell phone to show Leonard the picture of Rajesh dressed like Fozzie the Bear and Stuart dressed up like Animal from the Muppets. Leonard looks at the picture and then gets confused.

"Uh why is Fozzie wearing a cone bra?"

Howard shakes his head at the picture slightly embarrassed knowing exactly how weird his best friend is at times. Bernadette goes into kitchen to get some water.

"Hey don't ask me. Raj just insists that bears like to feel empowered too."

Sheldon finally comes out of the bathroom wearing a white lab coat and surrounded by a full chemistry set he has attached to his waist like he is inside of a science lab. His face is covered in green make-up and he has a honey dew colored green bald cap on his head too match.

"Oh look its Bunsen!" Howard exclaims, but Sheldon quickly corrects him.

"No, that is DOCTOR…. Bunsen Honeydew."

Bernadette taps him on the shoulder from behind to hand Sheldon bottled water she got out of the fridge. But, as soon as he turns around and sees her dressed as a big fat chicken he screams loudly and passes out breaking most of his chemistry set equipment when he hits the floor. Leonard races over to help him out.

"Oh jeez, here we go again. Bernadette can you please get the smelling salt for me, it's over there third drawer from the left."

"Yeah, sure."

Bernadette puts down the water and quickly rushes over to the kitchen drawer to get the smelling salt.

Howard walks over to Leonard and holds out his white gloved hand in excited triumph.

"You so owe me ten bucks."

Leonard just rolls his eyes and tells Howard to help him get Sheldon to the couch.

Howard looks down and notices a puddle of urine forming under Sheldon on the floor.

"That's twenty!"

Howard grins happily as he finally helps Leonard move Sheldon over to the couch. Several minutes later after they manage to wake Sheldon up, he goes to change his stained smelly pants and underwear. He returns to the living room and tells Howard to keep Bernadette away from him.

Penny comes in to the apartment dressed as Miss Piggy and frowns with embarrassment.

"Do we really have to do this again?"

Sheldon frowns back at her when he sees how bad her costume looks.

"What is that on your head? Why are you wearing a brown wig? Everyone knows Miss Piggy is a blonde."

She scoffs at his annoying disapproval of it.

"It's not a wig Sheldon. I dyed my hair this time and I kind of like it. My hair stylist Jennie says being a brunette makes me look even smarter."

Sheldon shakes his head arrogantly in sad disappointment.

"Oh Penny, you need to fire that woman immediately. She lied to you."

Penny glares at him and then looks at Leonard expecting him to defend her choice.

"What do you think of my hair, Leonard? You like it right?"

Leonard hates it. He thinks she looks much hotter as a blonde, but he doesn't want to piss Penny off and miss out on getting laid tonight.

"You know you always look great to me Penny."

She smiles sweetly at him and then kisses his cheek. But, Sheldon is still totally unimpressed. He decides to ask Bernadette what she thinks hoping that she'll be able to talk some sense into Penny.

"Bernadette, please tell me your eye sight is better than his. Doesn't she look awful? I mean being a little on the plump side is one thing, Miss Piggy was too, but brown hair that is just all wrong."

Bernadette frowns at him for being so rude to Penny.

"Oh leave her alone Sheldon. It's her hair she can wear it however she wants too. You like Amy's hair and she's a brunette."

"But…Amy is different; she actually looks pretty with brown hair."

Just as he says this Amy walks in the door and hears him. She grins happily and looks at Sheldon.

"Sheldon, you wonderful flatterer you...you…really think so?"

Everyone turns to look at Amy as she comes in the door dressed in the sexiest outfit they've ever seen on her. Amy has borrowed Penny's sexy cat costume that she once wore at Halloween and now Amy looks just like a pretty Soft Kitty in it.

"Of course…I…"

Sheldon pauses when he sees Amy's outfit and then he screams and faints all over again.

"Ha! Yes! Twice in one day!" Howard exclaims loudly as the rest of them all keep staring at how beautiful Amy looks in the outfit.

An hour later Sheldon is sitting in the back room of the comic book store all alone pouting to himself. Amy walks in looking just as cute as before. She brings him a cup of punch and sits down.

"Come on, Sheldon I said I was sorry. I didn't get your message on Facebook so I just decided to wear this instead. I thought you'd like it. You use to love cats."

"That's not the point, Amy. We were supposed to come as a group. You were supposed to be my lab assistant Beaker. That outfit has absolutely nothing to do with the Muppets. And...In that outfit you look… you look…."

"I look what?"

Sheldon doesn't want to have to say it, but he finally breaks down and tells her the truth. He says it softly so no one else will hear him.

"You look… if you'll excuse my language… too sexy."

Amy smiles excited to hear this word come out of his mouth about her.

"Really, you think I look sexy?"

He nods back sadly not at all understanding why she seems so happy about this.

"Well, I'm glad you think so Sheldon."

"What? Why?"

"I always tell you that you're sexy, but you never say that about me. I wanted to look sexy tonight."

Sheldon shakes his head at her totally unexcited about this.

"Amy, you just don't get it. I don't care when Penny dresses this way or even Bernadette that's fine too cause they are like that, but you always look so different from them."

"Yeah, I know. But, this is a costume party on New Year's Eve. Can't I look sexy like them for one night?"

"No! You are my girlfriend and I don't want people to see you looking this way."

She frowns at him sadly feeling totally confused and not sure what to think now. It also makes her upset that he doesn't get why she chose to borrow this outfit in the first place.

"Sheldon, I wore this for you! I'm tired of being ignored. I'm a woman and it's nice sometimes as a woman to hear people say that I look good. I wish you'd at least come out there with me the Ball is about to drop any minute. I don't get it! Why is it, you never want to show me off as your girlfriend?"

"Because…because…I shouldn't have to."

"Why not!? You're friends do it with the girls all the time. Are you really that embarrassed to be seen with me?"

"I'm not embarrassed, I'm insulted!"

Amy opens up her mouth in shock; she can't believe he just said something so mean to her. She is just about ready to cry, but Sheldon continues on complaining because he wants to be totally honest with her.

"I know you're beautiful, I've always known that. But, so what! Lots of people meet the current European standards of modern day beauty and physical attractiveness. But, no one is like you. You're a brilliant woman and scientific like me that's what really matters. I'm not with you because of how pretty you can look. I'm with you because I love being around you, talking about anything and everything. You fascinate me, Amy and I just can't figure you out sometimes. It remind me of physics."

"Physics…?"

"Yes, physics makes me happy because I love figuring it all out, solving new equations, discovering alternate universes, doing ground breaking new research. I'm a genius and you are like an entire galaxy with spinning planets and shining stars for me to try to understand. If I wanted to be with an ordinary sexy looking girl I'd have hooked up with some tart on Howard's list long time ago and paid her to spend time with me. You're better than all the other girls I've ever met, and I don't want you to be more like them. They should all be trying to be more like you! "

Amy's sad, tearful eyes suddenly turn into happy tears as she processes what this means.

"Oh my…Sheldon…I…I had no idea you felt this way about me."

"Well now you know. So will you take that disturbing outfit off?"

Amy feels her heart skip a beat as she realizes just how much she really means to him for the first time.

"But…wait I'm still a little confused so are you saying I'm not allowed to wear sexy costumes anymore?"

"Amy, I don't care what you wear just as long as it's not that and it looks exactly like what you always wear."

"Okay, well I'm sorry Sheldon, but that doesn't make sense. You finally say that I'm beautiful and sexy looking, but then you tell me not to wear this outfit. Is it just because now other people are saying I look good too? That sounds more like jealousy to me."

He rolls his eyes at her and scoffs in arrogant defiance trying to seem as though he is not jealous at all.

"Anyone who can't see that you're a perfectly, wonderful person inside and out must be completely stupid and isn't worth me getting jealous over. I just don't want you to change. I like the way you always look and that is the way things should stay. I didn't even want Penny to change her shampoo. Did you really think I was going to let you start dressing like a hooch-y mama? No way, not my woman."

"I don't want to change the way I look either, but I like it that you're complimenting me. It makes me feel pretty. So the next time I put on a costume or we go to a party together or even out on a date no matter what it is that I choose to wear I want you to tell me that I look nice. I want you to start complimenting me more often. Can you do that for me, Sheldon?"

Sheldon thinks about this request for a moment then he sighs and nods his head realizing that this must be another one of those compromises he'll have to make in his relationship in order to keep his woman happy. He figures it's a small price to pay to keep Amy.

"Very well, I'll give it a try."

"Thank you. Now come on…if you want me out of this costume, you're going to have to go get my lab coat out of the trunk of my car. Then help me take it all off. And, you better hurry up because Stuart is going to announce the winners of the contest pretty soon.

Sheldon finally smiles a little at her as he stands up and takes the car keys from her hand.

"Alright, Amy."

Twenty minutes later, Amy and Sheldon emerge from the back room both dressed up in matching white lab coats. Sheldon even cut up an old red orange wig that he found in the back of Stuart's shop to look like Beaker's hair and Amy now has it on her head. They both look totally silly to everyone else, but they don't care about that. They are happy with themselves just the way they are and Amy gets very excited when she looks at clock on the wall knowing soon the clock will strike midnight and a whole new year for them is about to begin.

Stuart announces the winner of the contest. A group of nerds including Lonely Larry and Captain Sweatpants are dressed up like the Avengers and they win this year because after all it was the biggest movie of the year and their costumes actually have something to do with comic books. Sheldon immediately starts to pout about not winning the contest, but the ten second countdown begins and everyone starts yelling in unison excited for midnight to come.

"TEN!"

"NINE!"

"EIGHT!"

"No wait, this is totally unfair! I demand a recount!"

Everyone just ignores him and continues counting.

"SEVEN!"

"SIX"

"FIVE!"

"The Muppets are classic television and movie characters! Everyone knows that the Avengers movie is totally overrated!"

"FOUR!"

"THREE!"

"TWO!"

Sheldon sighs totally annoyed that everyone keeps ignoring him, but then he looks around at all of his friends. They all look happy and don't care anymore that they lost the contest. They are just glad to be together. And when the clock strikes midnight they all turn to kiss each other.

"ONE!"

First, Bernadette kisses Howard then Penny turns and kisses Leonard. Rajesh surprisingly even kisses Stuart. But, Sheldon just looks at Amy for a second. Then he finally shrugs his shoulders and just goes for it too out of social convention.

Amy blushes in total surprise and closes her eyes as Sheldon's lips touch hers. Their kiss only lasts for a few seconds, but when he pulls back and looks into Amy's eyes Sheldon realizes something he never has before about kissing. He realizes that he doesn't hate it and without thinking he speaks up.

"You know what, we should do this more often."

Amy grins with glee to hear him say something so wonderful to her. This is something she has wanted to hear Sheldon say again ever since the first time she made spaghetti with little hot dogs cut up in it for him. Amy softly giggles to herself and then she whispers at him.

"Happy New Year, Sheldon."

The End.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading my story and I hope you all have a Happy New Year too.