-The Country Gentleman Addiction-
Sheldon may be bright, blunt and socially inept (a dangerous combination), but what does Amy think of him? Inspired by the FF5 song title, "Kountry Gentleman".
She caught it from their first physical meeting together, when he stared curiously into her eyes, as if seeing a new, hybrid species for the first time.
"May I buy you a beverage?" She felt eyes trained on their backs, like frozen sniper rifles.
"Tepid water, please." It was pleasant, how he looked to her as if she was not just a female, but also a person.
As they got to know one another more, both of them were eager to unload intellectual burdens. To be surrounded by people who would ask, "What's wrong?", but not understand the implications of a highly dysfunctional social structure as it applied to the ionic bond breaking out of one's tooth brush bristles? It was like none of what they said or who they were was lost in translation, as it was with others- they were understood.
It took a lot of self-restraint to keep her hands off of him. She would steal short glimpses of him while he was working on complex equations, feigning a look out the window behind him. She was sure that he never caught on to her.
She never caught him staring at her, and it was disappointing to say the least. Wasn't that what boys also did to girls that they liked?
Didn't he like her?
It was getting hard to tell. He would seem to enjoy conversing with her, and he would accompany her almost anywhere she wanted to go- except maybe Salt Lake City, and any wedding.
Then he asked her out. Ever since then, Amy felt the return of some familiar feeling, from way back when they first met. She sensed something in him, and she was determined to bring it out in the open, capture and dissect it. What could be more beautiful?
Maybe she would get her chance at the wedding rehearsal of Howard and Bernadette. Weddings featuring close friends usually brought out pleasant enough feelings, maybe even romance in other couples.
Although reluctant to go to anything like this with her in the past, all of Sheldon's friends assured him that they would be there. While Dungeons and Dragons was originally scheduled for that Saturday afternoon, Sheldon had not thought to fill the void earlier in the year, when he had been told the date of the rehearsal. He sifted it out as useless gossip. When on a whim he asked Amy if she wanted to stay at home and play cards with him that day, she resorted to issuing a bodily threat if he did not allow her to wear her "princess" dress and tiara, and perform her bridesmaid duties that day. He obliged without further question.
"Would you just look at all of that unnecessary frivolity- why on earth would anyone want to dance like a chicken?"
Amy gave him a withering look.
"Honestly, no child would like to be around those blood-thirsty, feathered feigns. As for adults-". The chicken dance ended in large applause. So far, the pre-wedding dinner and party had done nothing for Sheldon. It was as if he was immune to the excitement, immune to her, all decked out in her pretty new dress. Was it really so bad to be looked at like a piece of meat, if the alternative was to be looked at like a well-made chair?
The mood mellowed out, and here was the first slow dance of the evening. Thus far, a steady mix of pop and party favorites had worked as an excellent boyfriend repellent. It was as if toxic, warning fumes had been rising up out of the dance floor, and Sheldon could sense them.
His eyes suddenly softened when the beat slowed down, and he drummed his fingers lightly against their table. Leonard and Penny, their table mates, had been out on the dance floor for most of the night.
"Amy?" She averted her gaze from Leonard's hands on her bestie's lower back (Oh, to be those hands!), only to lock eyes with Sheldon. There was something in his eyes, in the way that he looked at her. Her heart skipped a beat.
"Would you like to dance?" He stood up and held out a hand to her. She hesitated out of shock for a second or two, but then bolted up (almost falling over in her heels) to grab his hand. The last time she had held his hand had been after she had been exposed to the touch of a hunky piece of man meat, but this time, Sheldon was the man meat. He was looking sharp in a black tuxedo, blue and grey striped tie, and she could have sworn that she smelled the slight scent of the cologne that Leonard had been chasing him around the apartment with earlier that morning. When he found a spot that was not too crowded, he turned his attention to her. As soon as his feet hit the tiled floor, she heard a slight rustling sound.
"Sheldon?"
"Noise- reducing spurs, " he explained. "Leonard made me change them after an hour of walking around with my normal ones this morning."
"He was pacing around the kitchen in them, and they were driving me insane," Leonard deadpanned from in back of them, and Amy jumped a little.
"You ask me to wear my best shoes, and yet you argue against one of their most charming qualities when I do."
At that, Sheldon went deeper in the crowd, turned to Amy and positioned both of her hands on his shoulders. Tentatively, he placed his hands on her waist. Maybe it was the light, but she could have sworn that he was blushing slightly.
"Please let me know if you are in any way uncomfortable," he said softly. She nodded, and couldn't help but ask,
"And if I lower my hands down your body from your shoulders?"
"I trust that you wouldn't do so." It was worth a shot.
He led, being the experienced dancer that he was. She could have never dreamed that for him, dancing included such an intimate embrace; each of them could feel the bodily heat of the other. Then again, the salsa at that banquet had been pretty spicy.
As she could imagine that the prolonged eye contact was enough to make him severely twitchy, Amy looked down as they swayed, but moved a little closer to him.
"Amy..." She looked up, and he wore a very natural smile on his face.
"Thank you for wishing me bodily harm, unless I were to accompany you here today."
There was a decent amount of space between them, and then he decided to dip her, completed with a slightly awkward, poofy- dressed spin. His hands were now closer to the small of her back, and the song was almost over.
Please, don't let it end just yet! Amy thought. She felt one of his hands leave her body and come up to rest on her head, where her tiara was. He straightened it, stroking her hair a bit to smooth it down. At the last note of the song, Sheldon drew her against him, very gently. It was a very soft, quick embrace, his head tilted down and a slight exhale of breath hitting her ear. She shuddered, and he mistook her euphoria for discomfort.
"I'm sorry, was that a little too much?" Too much! As he drew back, being careful not to drag his retreating hands off of her skin, she couldn't seem to find the words to describe how she was feeling.
"That… that was-" "Hey guys!" Leonard and Penny were coming their way.
"Sweetie, you do NOT want to be trapped in the middle of all of these people during the electric slide again!" Penny pointed out.
"Oh for goodness sakes!" Holding his hand out for her, he led Amy back to their table, the slight ching! of his spurs bringing Amy out of her trance.
That's what it was- that's how he was different from all of the other men she had tried to date. He was her one and only knight in silver spurs.
Hope you all enjoyed it. Not the best, just a little fluff to add to the growing masses of Shamy :3. We'll be able to bunch it all up and have a Shamy cotton candy stand one day! HUZZAH!
~Please leave a review if you loved it, hated it, whatever you want to say about it! Any feedback is appreciated :). ~