I got this idea while sitting up and watching the "Big Bang Theory" on late-night TBS. Since I love Sheldon x Penny, I absolutely had to write this down! It's my first fanfiction for the "Big Bang Theory, so it's only a one-shot!
I hope you enjoy!
*Insert Disclaimer*
Chapter One: Deja Vu
Sometimes, Penny got an extreme sense of Deja Vu around Sheldon Cooper- like she had seen him somewhere else before. Not as in "I might have caught glimpse at him at the local market" kind of somewhere else, for one- Sheldon didn't drive anywhere and she did most of his shopping in the first place and two, it was a kind of distant-past that was so far off it was blurry.
But normally, she dismissed it.
Though, today it was more than normally weighing heavily on her mind.
Sheldon sat on his side of the couch, eating his noodles from the same place they always ate at. His fingers clutched the chop-sticks, eating the noodles in silence. He was concentrating on getting the noodles into his mouth and chewing it a specific thirty-three times, as he always did.
Penny drummed her fingers on the white, run-down, lap top sitting in her lap. Everyone else had gone out to a bar. They had invited Sheldon but naturally, he refused to partake in such "chivalry that is consuming alcohol", adding, "I hope you know that by the young age of thirty all of your livers will have already slowly detierierated into nothing".
Of course, they just shook their head and ignored his comments on their unhealthy consumption of alcohol and how they should be tucked into their beds, because they had to work the next day.
In all honesty, Penny didn't know why she was here. There was just... something that was weighing heavy on her mind.
Sheldon looked up at her, slowly chewing his food. Sighing, he swallowed and set down his chopsticks and Chinese take-out box neatly down onto the coffee table, as he had always been a stickler for perfection and balance.
"Is there something that you are wanting, Penny? I would think that at some point you would tire of eating our food and freeloading off of our internet and go home" He said.
Penny rolled her eyes at this comment. By now, she had become accustomed to his snarky and rude remarks. In fact, if he didn't make a snarky remark then she would immediately assume that something was wrong, or she was ill.
"No, Sheldon, I just... am thinking" She replied, her head throbbing. She had to have known him from somewhere before she met him when she moved in across the hall from them. Think Penny! Think!
"Wouldn't you enjoy your thinking process much more if you were in the comfort of your own room?" He asked her, his hands resting on his knees like they usually did.
She rolled her eyes again.
"If you keep rolling your eyes, Penny, they might just tire and roll straight out of their eye sockets"
"Ha. Very funny, Sheldon"
"Funny? How could you think that funny? I would think that it would be very painful to have your eyeballs roll out from your sockets, wouldn't you? I mean, that was if they were still attached to-"
"I get it, Sheldon" She interrupted with a snap.
He fell silent, shifting in his spot awkwardly.
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of Lenard's bed today" He commented.
"Sheldon!"
"I'm merely stating the facts, Penny"
She rolled her eyes again, tapping her index finger against the side of her forehead.
"Hey, Sheldon?" She asked, her voice quieter than usual.
"What is it, Penny?"
"Do I know you from somewhere?"
"Well, I would hope so. We see each other on a daily basis" Sheldon said, shifting again. What was she getting at?
"No, not from now! I mean, have we met before the first time I moved in?"
Flashback:
He drew a picture of the famous "Flash" symbol in the dirt with his stick. None of the other kids enjoyed playing what he enjoyed playing. While they enjoyed rough-housing and stuffing their faces with dirt and any insect that they could get their hands on, he enjoyed reading from books about space, or comic books. His favorite comic book was "The Flash". There was something about a man running at that fast of a speed that just intrigued him.
He was different.
So naturally, they made fun of him for that.
It used to get to him, at first. But soon enough his emotions had dulled enough to the point that he didn't even care whether or not his own mother loved him or not. It was the side-effect of their taunting and teasing, a defense mechanism, if you will. If he couldn't feel, then he couldn't hurt. Right?
Of course, though, there were some times that he would get lonely- or the words they taunted him with were harsh enough to get under his skin.
"Hey, loser"
A kid prodded at the little boy with the slicked-back brown hair with the tip of his toe.
He didn't reply, just continued to finish drawing the symbol of the flash in the dirt. He was always a perfectionist. Everything had to be neat and in shape. His therapist said it was part of the anxiety issues that came with the aftermath of the bullying. He just figured it was because he liked seeing everything nice, neat and perfect.
"Hey loser, hey nerd, hey what are you drawing, nerd? Drawing a stupid picture again? What is it- the green booger or something?" The kid asked, a few of his short midget followers circling near him.
"For one, it's not the green booger- it's the Green Lantern. And for two... I am drawing the symbol of The Flash, not the Green Lantern" He replied quietly.
"Whatever. Only nerds care!" He spat, spitting on the ground near him and kicking up the dirt, laughing sadistically.
"Hey!" The little boy in the flash shirt cried, swatting at their shoes and trying to get them to stop.
The others had joined in by now, kicking at the dirt and causing the particles to fly into the air. He choked on the particles slightly, trying to wave it from his face and coughing. What a wonderful time for his asthma to start acting up. The boy stumbled for his inhaler inside his pocket, clasping it in his hands.
"Hey,what's this" One boy piped up, snatching the inhaler from his hands.
"That's my inhaler" The kid replied with a cough. It was red, and his mother and twin sister had taken the liberty to paint a golden lightning bolt on it the front upon his request.
"Oh- Inhaler? Can't breath without it can ya?" The other boy asked, clenching it in his hands.
"I shouldn't need it for much longer, just until my lungs develop fully" Answered the smallest boy, sitting in the dirt coughing.
The group of boys looked at each other, smirking. All at once, his inhaler dropped and multiple feet were stomping on it, smashing it into little red and gold pieces.
Dust particles flew around in the air, clogging up his breathing tube and causing him to go into another coughing fit.
"Hey, losers!" Another, much higher voice called.
The group of boys turned to face a blonde girl with short hair that was pulled out of her eyes by a headband.
"Who are yooou?" The ring leader sneered, "And what do you want?"
"I just moved to Texas! Now leave him alone!"
"No way we're listening to a girrrl! Go play with your makeup!"
It was all too quick, her fists balling into dainty-looking balls and cocking back. She sucker-punched the first one in the face, kneeing him in the stomach. He let out a cry and dropped to his knees.
"Ow! You hit me!"
"You bet your ass I did!"
"Ooo! She cussed! I'm telling!"
"You tell and I'll take this fist and shove it into your throat!" She said, showing them a balled fist, "Now beat it!"
They all disbanded, rushing away in different directions, leaving the girl, the boy and the busted-up inhaler.
The boy looked up at her a little feebly, his eyes rushing back down to his broken inhaler. She leaned over and began to pick up the pieces, placing them into her small and delicate, young, hands.
"What are you doing?" He asked as he looked over to her, bewildered with her actions.
"Pickin them up for ya!" She snapped, holding out her hand which had busted up little pieces of inhaler in it.
"But it's busted"
"And?"
He starred at her open palm then grabbed the inhaler quickly from her hands, stuffing it in his pants pockets.
"Thank you..." He said quietly, it was the first time that he had thanked someone.
"No problem!" She shot him a cheeky grin, "I'm Penelope, but my mommy calls me Penny so you can too!"
"I see"
"And you?"
"What?"
"Well! What's your name boy?!" She demanded, starring down at him.
"My name is Sheldon..." He replied quietly.
Her open hand was still held out toward the boy.
"You may fold your hand back now. I have taken my inhaler..."
"You're not just gonna sit in the dirt all day, are you Sheldon?" She asked, shaking her hand with a childish exasperation.
It took him a while to understand what she meant. Reaching his hand feebly out, he grabbed hers. She pulled him off the ground and out of the dirt with a graceful ease.
"You're skinny" She grinned, "But that's okay!"
"Thank you?..." He replied, now standing slightly taller than her.
"Well, we haven't got all day for recess! Lets go!" She beamed, grabbing his hand again and dragging him off to the play equipment, "You can be my friend!"
That was the first time he had a friend.
She moved no later than a year later.
Flashback End
Sheldon faked an odd look, starring at the blonde girl who was starring intently at him,
"No, I have not been made aware that we had met any time in the past" He lied, starring her in the eyes, "Perhaps you have been drinking"
She rolled her eyes for the millionth time,
"Whatever, I'm going to my apartment" She said, standing up and hauling her laptop under her arm.
"Thank goodness, I thought I was going to have to ask you myself for you to return home"
"You're horrible, Sheldon" Penny said, heaving a sigh.
She made her way to the door, the physicist following at her heels. Opening the door, she walked out and across the hall to her apartment complex and fiddled with her keys.
"Hey, Penny?"
She looked over her shoulder, momentarily ceasing her fiddling with her cheap keys.
"Yes, Sheldon?"
"Thank You" He thanked her for the second time in his life.
And with that, he closed his door and went to finish his noodles, leaving a very bewildered and baffled Penny starring at the door of the know-it-all physicist's apartment, wondering what had gotten into him.
