A/N: Hi guys! It's been literally forever since I put up anything on FFN! So sorry about that! The good news is that I'm back from my long hiatus now, and so stoked about actively writing again! My recent obsession has been The Big Bang Theory (I mean, come on, who doesn't love that show?)
I'm actually a fan of quite a lot of pairings on the show, but Shenny is definitely one of my faves. So, I thought I'd inaugurate my arrival with a small OneShot I cooked up. Hope my writing's not too terrible, and even if it is, hopefully I'll get better over time, once I get back into the groove.
I would like to give a shout out to my (first) beta reader, who goes by the pen name Sapphire93. Thank you so much for being so co-operative and helpful! I hope we can continue to work together in the future.
Also, I would like to credit bigbangtrans which I shamelessly utilised for making the dialogues and scenes more accurate. Awesome site for TBBT transcripts.
As far as writing style is concerned, I've been trying out this paranthesized format, to sort of give it a "reading between the lines" feel. (Thank you for cleaning that up, Sapphire!) Also, I read a lot of "Five Times..." type fics and this sort of unintentionally turned out to be one of those; meaning, an alternate title for this could have been, "Five Times Sheldon Touches Penny...and one time he does of his own volition." Anyway, I'm just experimenting. Hope it turned out as well as I hoped it would!
I should also mention the episodes which have been referenced, in case of possible spoiler alerts:
Episode 1 Season 1 - Pilot
Episode 11 Season 1- The Pancake Batter Anomaly
Episode 11 Season 2- The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis
Episode 8 Season 3- The Adhesive Duck Deficiency
Episode 15 Season 3- The Large Hadron Collision
Well, that's it. Happy reading! R&R please!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE BIG BANG THEORY OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS.
~The Contact Continuation- Sheldon x Penny~
They step into 4A, a rather sorry looking pair, fresh from a "pantsing" courtesy of Penny's giant of an ex-boyfriend. Leonard has a hangdog expression and stares down at his feet miserably while Sheldon looks rather resigned, as he shuffles in, flashing his tighty whities.
They are met with a gasp and an exclamation from the damsel in distress responsible for their fate. After babbling away for a few minutes, she suddenly rushes towards them, and before Sheldon can even comprehend what is going on, she wraps her arms around him and squeezes, giving him a tight-albeit, awkward-hug, as a token of her appreciation, presumably. He visibly starts and cringes at the contact, being unaccustomed to receiving embraces from pretty women, or any women, for that matter and more importantly...he feels astonished at the discovery that he hasn't found it as repulsive as he should (given his general disposition to any and all forms of physical contact.)
Leonard stares after her wistfully, the corners of his lips turning up slightly in the beginnings of a goofy, love-struck smile. Sheldon tries not to feel exasperated at his roommate's oh-so-obvious attraction to the blonde waitress. And as he opens his mouth to once again lecture his best friend on the demerits of blindly agreeing to favors asked by pretty (naked) women, he unconsciously tries to distract himself from the remnants of her vanilla scent.
He makes sure to warn her to stir counter clockwise lest the hair on his chest mats up. He leans back contentedly-well, as contented as he can get with snot clogging up his nostrils-and watches as she begrudgingly rubs VapoRub on his chest. He's distinctly and uncomfortably aware that he's breaking his own rules by letting another human being touch him. In fact, unsurprisingly, he has never let anyone do this for him apart from his mother-not that anyone has ever agreed to-but somehow, the request flies unbidden from his lips when the blonde says, "Okay, sweetie, I'll take care of you." There's something reassuring in the way she says that, and even though there's no conclusive proof, Sheldon knows that she means it, and that she won't abandon him like his so-called "friends".
He breaks another rule and asks her to sing "Soft Kitty" to him; again, something he has only allowed one other woman to do. He is still not very adept at reading emotions, but seeing the exasperation in her eyes, (he also has his suspicions that she's fighting back an eye-roll with difficulty) he expects her to decline. So when she asks him to teach her, he's rather taken-aback, but wastes no time in singing it for her. And as he closes his eyes for a moment, he's suddenly five again, and lying sick in bed, just like this, with his mother rubbing Vicks on his chest. Then he opens his eyes, and it's Penny instead. It unnerves him just how much this isn't bothering him; the way her small palm goes around his chest in circles, a warm, soothing pressure for his weakened senses.
As he looks up at her-sitting on the edge of his bed-he realizes with a start that he's broken yet another rule. People aren't allowed to be in his bedroom. But, he quickly reasons with himself, this is an exceptional scenario, and there was nothing else he could have done. Besides, for some inexplicable reason, it feels...good.
Suddenly she's staring at him strangely, and for one heart-stopping moment, he wonders if he's spoken aloud. Then he catches her blank expression and her mouth slightly agape and realizes that she doesn't know the words.
"Little ball of fur..." he prompts, looking at her pointedly and then, "Keep rubbing."
She finally breaks and rolls her eyes.
For the first time in his life, he's extremely shocked to admit, he has absolutely no idea what he is doing. He inches towards her slowly, experimentally twisting and turning his body in several angles to perfectly accommodate her small frame in his arms. She looks confused and wide-eyed, but for some reason, she doesn't move away from his strange lunges and advances. At last, when he is close enough, (to feel her breath on his neck), he clumsily wraps two lanky arms around her and hesitantly tugs her to him. He is acutely aware of her (female) body parts pressing into his (male) body parts at awkward angles, and he feels distinctly uncomfortable and uncertain and hopes that he is doing it right (for the one thing Sheldon Cooper hates to be, is wrong.) It's a strange, but not an altogether completely unpleasant sensation. He feels her place a small warm hand on his sleeve in response to the most awkward hug (in the history of hugs, presumably.) He hears her exclamation of delight ("Leonard, look! Sheldon's hugging me!") and unconsciously pulls her in closer. She tightens her grip, in turn.
He's still reeling from what has to be the best gift he has ever received; he is oddly touched by her thoughtfulness. While it is true that he subscribes to the many worlds theory which posits the existence of an infinite number of Sheldons in an infinite number of universes, he has never once believed that in any of them he would be willingly hugging another human being. It is an unnecessary and highly unhygienic form of physical contact; then again, what isn't?
However, as he holds onto her, (and inhales her vanilla scent) he finds that when it comes to this woman…he really doesn't mind so very much.
(…Despite the fact that this woman reeks of trouble.)
He has touched Penny before, far too many times for his liking, in fact. But knowing that the only thing separating him from her (naked) body is a flimsily draped blue shower curtain, inexplicably changes things. He helps her out of the tub, however, firmly gripping her elbows, lest she slips again (and that confounded shower curtain should fall off.)
It is no surprise to him that her wardrobe has no organizational system whatsoever; we're talking about the woman whose apartment he was forced to clean in the middle of the night, for Lord's sake. What does surprise him is that she dismisses the need for clean underwear (which again, shouldn't be surprising either, given that the woman's thoughts are as disorganized as her drawer.) The unfortunate situation Penny has put him into is starting to seem somewhat manageable, right up until the point she asks him to help put her clothes on; and asks him not to look.
For a brief moment, the intellectual part of his brilliant mind questions the logic of her request (how on earth is he supposed to clothe her if he is not allowed to look?)
"Don't look?" he voices out, skeptically.
"…I don't want you to see me naked!"
Oh.
(There it is again, that irksome word: naked.)
He immediately accedes to her request and his eyelids flutter shut and he clumsily holds out her shirt so she can stuff her head into it while he babbles on about Greek mythology on the side. Now all that's left are the sleeves.
Well, that's simple enough, he muses.
Only, his hands stop a little short of her arm and grab onto…oh.
He has never understood his friends' fascination with the female body; especially since that disturbing incident with Wolowitz's six-breasted robot. After all, there is nothing extraordinary about mammary glands ; they simply exist to perform a -highly unnecessary, if you ask him- natural purpose.
Be that as it may, what is in fact, extraordinary at the moment, is his apparent inability to let go of Penny's; until she prompts him, of course.
It is a wildly different (and mildly erotic) sensation, incomparable to any other he has previously experienced. He files it away in a corner of his brain, for later analysis. But before he "let's go", so to speak, he unconsciously savors the feel of her soft, soft skin, cradled in his large, large hand.
Although, he later reasons, as he considers her soup tattoo, his actions (and feelings) must have been merely due to scientific curiosity.
…Also, the hero always peeks.
"If it means that much to you, you should go."
It takes about a split second for that statement to sink in, and another for him to practically toss away his laptop and make a headlong rush towards her. It's less hesitant, the second time around (in fact, considering the fact that he basically collides into her, it's anything but), and he finds that she's small enough for him to wrap both his arms all the way around her. He fervently thanks her, and feels her place a hand on his waist in response.
(He also feels wispy strands of her hair tickling his ear and almost involuntarily shivers.)
There's a (small) part of his (large) brain that's warning him that this kind of proximity is dangerous; he later finds out that he's right, when she passes on her wretched germs to him, as well. He is, without a doubt, extremely grateful to her , which is turning out to become a more frequent feeling, disturbingly enough, but that doesn't explain the warmth spreading through his chest, the swooping sensation in the pit of his stomach, or the heat creeping up his neck. He has no idea what it is (yet; he doesn't possess an IQ of 187 for nothing!), but he knows it's wrong, inconsistent, and uncharacteristic. He should let her go, for he must have sufficiently expressed his gratitude by now ("Oh, Penny, thank you!")
He can think of endless reasons why he shouldn't be doing this, but now that he is, strangely enough…he's finding it hard to find a single reason why he should stop.
(He manages it with a, "Since I rarely hug, I'm relying on your expertise regarding duration.")
"…Sheldon?"
"What is it now, Penny?" He stares up at her, his bright blue eyes piercing through her even in the darkness. His arrogance is almost believable-and certainly characteristic of him. The only giveaway being the way his voice cracks on the final syllable of her name (and that he's trembling beneath her.)
Oh, that's right. Beneath her.
(Because when it comes to Penny, all logic and reason fly out the proverbial window, don't they?)
"Sheldon…I just wanna make sure, well, you know, that you're…ready for this." She speaks haltingly, biting her lip and looking the other way; well, that certainly isn't characteristic of her, seeing as she's a "Big Ol' Five".
"Penny, Penny, Penny…" he begins- and this elicits a frustrated groan from her, as his triple repetition of her name marks the beginnings of a condescending Sheldon-style tirade- and predictably, never gets to finish, for a warm pair of lips come crashing down on his own. So much for the man who used to abhor physical contact.
(And he never admits it to her, but he thinks…he could probably get used to this.)