Chapter One:
Penny never thought she would be spending her first Valentine's Day since getting together with Leonard without, well, Leonard.
But she could have especially never guessed who she would be spending it with.
"How did this happen?" Sheldon ranted on, seemingly unaware that Penny wasn't paying any attention. "I'm so careful with my health, I avoid physical contact with others in general principle..."
He suddenly stopped speaking, and she looked over at him. For a few seconds he sat there, frozen to the spot, and even though he was silent she could practically hear all the thoughts and connections forming in his head.
Finally...
"It was you!" he accused furiously, turning to glare at her from his spot on the couch. "You did this!"
Penny didn't know why she just didn't go to her apartment and suffer, considering being around Sheldon Cooper wasn't doing anything to help her get better. Maybe it was because they both were sicker than anything, and it was easier to be with someone with the flu than go through it alone.
But, all things considered, she regretted not staying in her room and sleeping it through. After all, if things continued the way they were going, she felt as if she might have to strangle him.
For a moment Penny almost felt bad, but then she went over everything that had happened. His continued eagerness to ruin her planned trip to Switzerland, his firm belief that Leonard should have taken him. With all of this occurring to her, she couldn't possibly find herself feeling guilty for making him sick.
She stared at him, her eyelids feeling heavier with each blink. "Happy Valentine's Day." she told him, just barely managing a half-triumphant smirk.
"You...You evil woman!" he continued, his frustration obviously growing with each word. "How dare you sabotage my trip? All I wanted to do was view CERN's Large Hadron Collider, yet you purposefully infect me in order to drag us both down!"
Penny took a sip of her soup, swallowing and feeling it sooth her soar throat. "Slow down, cowboy." she ordered calmly. "I didn't even know I was sick. Maybe you gave it to me. You're supposed to be a genius. Ever think of that?"
"That isn't even a possibility!" replied Sheldon, throwing his hands up in the air in distinct frustration. He sounded stuffed up, but even then it couldn't mask his obvious annoyance. "You began showing symptoms approximately two hours before me. There's no fathomable way I could have given you the virus."
"Consider it karma, then." Penny said, feeling too tired to argue with him. Instead she stretched out onto the couch, resting her feet on the coffee table. Each movement just reminded her exactly how much her body ached.
"Lord, of all the people I get forced to experience contact with." muttered Sheldon, rolling his eyes and glancing up at the ceiling in irritation. He glared over at her, making a sweeping motion with his hands at her feet, telling her to put them on the ground. "It has to be you."
Penny refused to let herself get offended, and instead just looked lazily over at him. "News flash, Sherlock: No one is forcing you." She positioned her feet on the table again, past caring.
Sheldon just sat there a moment, seeming to process this new information. "You're right." he observed, appearing slightly startled. "Well then, I guess I'm free to leave if I wish."
As a follow through to his words, he stood up and grabbed his soup bowl from the coffee table, glaring down at her feet for a moment. With a little "Hmph" he walked confidently out of the main room of the apartment and disappeared down the hall.
Penny was glad for the silence, but soon found herself becoming bored with him gone.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"Penny."
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"Penny."
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"Penny."
Penny mentally groaned, rolling onto her side in hopes that if she ignored the noise, it would go away. But a moment later she heard the door click open, and deep down she knew it was futile to pretend she was asleep.
Leonard had offered up his room for her to sleep in while he was gone, and there was no way she was going to refuse that proposal. That being said, at that precise second she wished she had just gone back to her apartment and slept in her bed.
After all, when she was there, she didn't have the risk of having Sheldon bother her in the middle of the night.
Light washed into the room from the open door, but she continued to keep her eyes closed.
"Penny, I'm afraid I'm unable to reach REM sleep."
Oh, Sheldon. Annoying, needy Sheldon. If she wasn't as sick as she was, she might have considered grabbing one of Leonard's action figures and beating him to death with it.
She reluctantly blinked open her eyes, her vision blurry from sleep. She glanced over at the clock. "Sheldon, it's midnight. Drink a warm glass of milk and try again."
"But Penny." He sounded more stuffed up than before. "I already tried that."
"Well, what do you want me to do about it?" she asked, her voice muffled slightly as she buried her face deep into her pillow.
For a moment, there was silence.
"I'd prefer it if you'd come and sing Soft Kitty to me."
Penny considered her options. On one hand, she was curled up in her blankets, felt bad, and was as warm as could be. On the other, if she didn't get up and do what he wanted, he might never go away.
But then again, she really didn't want to get up.
"Sheldon, I feel like shit." she finally told him. "There's no way in hell I'm going to get up and go sing to you in the middle of the night. Besides, I thought no one was allowed in your room?" Hopefully reminding him of that fact would get him to leave.
It didn't.
"I have decided to allow an exception for that whenever I am ill." he told her matter-of-factly. "And however am I supposed to reach my goal of sleep if you don't help relax me, Penny?"
She knew a great way to relax him, one involving her fist connecting with his face. But she also knew that telling him that idea would just leave him confused, and she bit down onto her tongue so it wouldn't slip out.
Feeling every part of her body protest, she eventually gave in and pushed herself up into a sitting position. Her head suddenly became dizzy, and she glared up at where Sheldon stood innocently in the doorway. "You owe me for this."
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind." he replied, making an attempt to breath through his nose but failing. He looked like he felt like he wanted to die, and she knew she probably didn't appear much better.
Penny stood up and slowly followed him to where he was walking to his bedroom, all the while dragging her feet.
"Penny, that isn't a very good habit to start." commented Sheldon over his shoulder. "I would suggest walking properly."
She didn't have the energy to flip him off, and instead just settled on not picking her feet up. When they reached his room, he immediately moved over to lie on his bed, in his usual position of on his back and staring up at the ceiling.
She swore he wasn't human.
Hesitantly sitting on the side of his bed, she already felt even more tired from the walk there, and decided not to waste anymore time. "Soft kitty, warm kitty-" she began, but he cut her off.
"-No." he interrupted. "You're singing it too fast."
"Sheldon, I'm sick." she snapped at him. "I'm not going to sit her and play this game with you."
He glared stubbornly over at her, but kept silent. She began again. "Soft kitty, warm kitty-"
"-Now it's too slow."
Penny felt her hands twitch, and she resisted the urge to wrap them around his throat. "Sheldon, I'm going to tell you this once. If you interrupt me again, I swear I'll infect you every time I feel so much as a cold coming on."
"Well, you've already done it once." he pointed out quietly, but shut up when he caught sight of the look she was giving him.
For a moment she just continued to stare at him, but then she began to sing again, hopefully for the last time. "Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur..." She felt herself begin to get sleepy as she recited the lyrics. "Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr, purr, purr..."
When she glanced down, Sheldon's eyes were closed and his mouth was open for him to breath, and she knew he must have been asleep. Glad that it didn't take that long, she made an attempt to stand up, but found that she was too tired to do so.
Without thinking, she slowly fell onto the bed and lay on her side, her eyes closing with every moment. She was so close to Sheldon that she could hear his steady breathing, but she didn't care.
It was then that sleep overwhelmed her. She didn't bother to resist.