Matchmaker

Leonard saw it, Howard and Raj saw it, even Amy, Priya and Bernadette saw it. The close bond between Penny and Sheldon. At first they thought nothing much of it, wrote it off as nothing more than them being incredibly close friends. But soon they began to notice little subtleties.

The first happened when it was chinese food night. Penny had treated them this time, celebrating the raise she had gotten at the Cheesecake Factory and the big bonus she had gotten fom landing a small role in another commercial.

Penny was just starting to take out all the items when Sheldon approached her. "Penny," he started. "Did you remember to ask that-"

"Yes," she said, handing him his diced chicken.

"Even though the menu clearly says-"

"Yes."

"Did you remember to stop at the store and get-"

"Yes," she said handing him the good hot mustard.

"And the-"

"Yes," she finished, handing him the low sodium soy sauce.

"Thank you."

Sheldon sat at his spot and arranged his food and napkins, while Penny took her food and sat next to him, which by an unspoken agreement had somehow become "her spot". Sheldon poured exactly twenty milliliters of each into his fod, and held the bottles to his right. Right into the palm of her outstretched hand. They had reached out their hands at exactly the same time silently and were sitting a little closer than they normally would.

No one said anything, they decided to think of it as nothing more than the two of them becoming increasingly close friends over the years.

The next time didn't happen for weeks. The next time it happened was Halo night. Sheldon and Penny were teamed up against Howard, Raj and Leonard. Leonard was killed, now only Raj and Howard were left to defend what was left of their base. Stalking just out of range, Sheldon and Penny skirted around the edge. Soon, they found an opening.

"Penny..."

"I'm on it."

Not knowing what to expect, Raj and Howard were caught off guard by the plasma grenade and soon it was raining bits and pieces of them. Howard threw his controller down in frustration.

"Okay, I don't know how, but you two are cheating!" Raj simply gave them a look of silent disbelief.

After many more of encounters such as these, and more, and Leonard felt as if he should do something about it. But he'd need help. So he decided to ask Wolowitz and Koothrapali when they met up at Raj's apartment to hang out.

"Hey, guys," he said. "Do you think Penny and Sheldon would make a good couple?"

Both men stared at him in disbelief. "Are you joking?" asked Howard, "Sure you won't feel jealous of seeing your ex girlfriend with your roommate and best friend?"

"I'm sure. I may have loved Penny, but now I'm in love with Priya. I still care about Penny. She deserves to be in a real relationship, and I think Sheldon might be the guy."

"Yeah, but dude, this is Sheldon," said Raj. "You know, the 'I hate physical contact because there's so many germs' Sheldon? And also Penny, the 'big ol' five, loves sex' Penny. You don't see that as a problem?"

"Maybe, but don't you think it's worth a shot?" asked Leonard.

Howard put his drink on the coffee table. "Okay," he said. " Let's give it a shot. How would you suggest we start this plan, anyways?"

"Well," Leonard replied. "Let's start brainstorming. Raj, you have some whiteboards here don't you?"

Raj nodded and left the room to get the big white board he kept in his room that he used when he brought any of his work home with him.

"Alright, fellas," he said. "Let's get started."

A/N: I'm not sure if people really read these author notes (I usually scroll right by them) but thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Big thank you to TheTerribleJester for the encouragement! If you have anything to say about it, constructive criticism, plot suggestions, etc, please feel free to review. Reviews make me happy.