A/N: I've just been to a similar seminar myself and had to think about how much fun it might be to have Sheldon and Amy there as well… so here we go!
This will be at least ten chapters, and this time I've finished a great deal already, so I won't make you wait too long. There will also be a bit of angst, but don't worry. I will post on Monday/Wednesday/Friday for the time being, I hope you'll enjoy! As episode 8.20, The Fortification Implementation, has just aired, no spoilers in this story!
I do not own these characters, or they would be doing a lot more of this stuff... Many thanks to my wonderful beta, Hazelra7! You're the best! :-)
"Good evening, Amy," Sheldon greeted his girlfriend as she entered his apartment.
"Sheldon, why are you holding your happy mask in front of your face again?" Amy asked worriedly as he closed the door.
"Obviously because I'm not happy, but not allowed to be unhappy on date night," he replied curtly, following her to the couch where they sat down, Sheldon in his spot, and Amy by his side, facing him with her hands on her knees.
"Yes, I got that. You put it into the relationship agreement yourself. But why are you not happy? Is this about… us?" Amy inquired anxiously.
"No to the second question, and to the first one: Can't tell you. Also not allowed on date nights," the voice behind the mask answered.
Amy sighed in relief. It was 'just' about work. "Okay, proposal: We suspend date night, effective immediately, you tell me what's bothering you, and then we resume it."
"Alright." Sheldon put down his mask on the table and faced her. "Gablehouser wants to force me to attend a seminar to improve my soft skills. It's called 'convincing with personality'. The horror! Doesn't he get it that my time is much too valuable for such malarkey?" He said with a disgusted scowl.
"It certainly is. But I'm sure you remember our conversation about fund raising?" Amy asked tentatively, secretly thrilled because this course had found her attention as well when she skimmed through the new seminar program some days earlier.
"Of course I do. An example of you making me do things I don't want to," he stated stubbornly.
"You're not referring to our new date night arrangements as well, I hope?" Amy's voice was quivering very slightly. She knew she shouldn't feel insecure anymore, but recently it all seemed too good to be true.
"I most certainly am not!" Sheldon exclaimed and was rewarded with a huge smile, so he must have said something right. He felt the need to clarify further. "And may I remind you, little lady, that it was I who set the precedent for sleepovers on date nights? You just extended it to regular sleepovers each week."
"So it's the idea and not the execution that counts?" Amy grinned now.
"In this case, I'm grateful for both parts. But don't tell Leonard that. Oh look, here I am compromising again. The things I do for love…" He casually stroked her cheek, not even realizing the intimate gesture his hand had made on its own accord, sending shivers to Amy's skin. His face had changed into the same soft look he had on Christmas after tasting Amy's cookies baked according to his Meemaw's recipe.
"Well, you seem to enjoy doing a lot of things for love recently…" Amy was lost in thoughts as her hand had come up to the spot on her skin he had just briefly touched, her smile still tugged at the corners of her mouth.
"And as you seem to need the reassurance: I don't regret any of them!" His eyes bore into hers intensely. "Although I have to point out that I have been completely innocent here. If you hadn't snuggled your appealing posterior so close to me while I was simply trying to sleep, all of this," and with his hands he drew the shape of her hour-glass figure in the air between them, "would never have happened…" He tried to sound annoyed, but she could tell by the twitching of his lips that he was enjoying this, but didn't want to give up his bad mood so easily.
She could also see his gaze wandering all over her body. Any other guy, she would have told him, 'Hey, my eyes are up here,' but with any other guy she didn't share a physical relationship! It was all so new for her – for both of them, and she loved to revel in his gaze, to have the very tangible proof of his attraction to her body and not only her mind.
"Interesting, because I remember your arm enclosing my waist beforehand and pulling me near you. Thank you for this useful piece of information indeed, Dr. Cooper." Amy knew that he loved to be called by his title, and she finally got a smile out of him. "There it is," she cajoled. "Now we can talk about that seminar without needing this mask anymore."
"But what should I do, Amy? I don't want to go," he whined.
"Well… are you satisfied with pursuing dark matter research as a junior professor?" She inquired, placing her left hand on his knee closest to her at the word 'satisfied' without further thinking.
"I am," he said, nodding his head a bit too eagerly in agreement as he felt the warmth of her hand through his pants.
"And what is required from you in such a position?" Amy continued, her thumb absent-mindedly starting to move with tiny strokes on his knee while she felt lost in the cerulean blue of his eyes.
"Letting my mind work in peace… to unravel the mysteries… of the universe," he replied haltingly as her touch made it difficult to form the words.
"And what else?" Amy kept digging, her fingers still stroking the fabric of his pants while she was fascinated watching him biting his lower lip.
"Teaching students," he mumbled, mesmerized by the tiny movements of her hand.
Amy smiled at him contentedly. "And how do you attract them?"
Sheldon's gaze lowered to her lips as she spoke of attraction. They distracted him even more than her touch, but then he remembered what he wanted to say. "Oh. They are easily drawn to the fire that is my genius."
"Of course they are… Although we both are familiar with survival of the fittest, is it sage advice to burn the students in the process?" Amy suddenly noticed that her hand was touching him and froze, then tried to remove it quickly. But Sheldon was faster and held it in place with his own hand on top of hers.
"That's their problem, not mine," he pouted, partly because of what he knew she was implying with this conversation, but mostly because he felt more and more addicted to her touch lately and didn't want her to stop.
Amy felt a delicious shiver running all the way up her arm from his thumb stroking the back of her hand. But she needed to concentrate to make her point. "Not at first," she managed to reply. "But do you know what might happen to a professor that doesn't have students to teach? And by the way, I heard that Barry has also applied for this position."
"Kripke again? What do you have to do with him anyway? Are you still selling your math out?" Sheldon exclaimed in a high-pitched voice, grabbing her hand firmly, holding her even closer to him than before as if to keep her from running away.
"I don't see how this is your concern, but I am not, and Howard told me," Amy eased him. She wouldn't admit it, but felt a bit flattered by his obvious jealousy. Although it wasn't made up, she had mentioned Barry partly to see his reaction.
"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to keep some of the students…" he began as he relaxed his grip on her again. Their hands had moved up his thigh a bit when he grabbed her close to him earlier.
"And what if there were methods for you to learn how to impress them even more with your exceptional personality?" Amy continued.
"I still don't want to go to this seminar," he stated, biting his lip again.
"I still think it's a good idea, and I hoped you decided to go on your own volition, but… " Amy fidgeted in her seat and averted his eyes. "With this new seminar program coming out, I also had a look at it, and… well, I signed up for the same course, and I was so thrilled when you told me Gablehouser wanted to send you as well, so… why don't we do it together? It could be so much fun!"
"Amy, Amy, Amy," he shook his head and looked at their hands on his thigh with their fingers having entwined somehow in the meantime. "You distract me enough as it is. How should I even be able to work with you?"
"Uhm… I'll take this as a compliment. But we could make a game out of it…" Amy started to explain.
Sheldon jumped up a bit in his spot, interrupting her. "Oh you want to pretend we're aliens?"
"I've been thinking more along the lines of a different kind of role-playing…" She tried to elaborate, but Sheldon was having none of it.
"I'm not going to play D&D with you in front of an audience! Seriously woman, don't you have any modesty at all?" He had loosened their grip and was running his hand through his hair now as he remembered what he told her next. "It was bad enough when Leonard caught us kissing goodbye on Sunday morning, and that wasn't even a regular date night, let alone a scheduled sleepover! At the pace we're going, next thing you'll ask me is to start our own Tijuana sex show replacing fun with flags on the internet!"
"Oh no, that's not what I meant at all!" Amy blushed furiously. "What do you think of me, Sheldon?"
"You know all too well what's been on my mind recently… or not so recently, to be honest," he answered in a rougher voice than normal.
"Oh Sheldon… you seem to forget sometimes that this is all so new… and frightening sometimes… for me, too. I know what order and control mean to you, and I can't even begin to tell you how honored, cherished and loved you make me feel… just by being comfortable enough around me to let go and let me be a part of this passion you always deny having... And of course I know how you feel about public displays of affection, I would never embarrass you in that way."
"Alright. I may have jumped to hasty conclusions. Please proceed." Sheldon leaned back in his spot.
"I was just thinking, if we attend this seminar together, it would be fun to pretend not to know each other. They would let us do all these get-to-know-each-other exercises together, we wouldn't have to do it with strangers and feel more comfortable. And we might even learn something new."
"This I really doubt. But you do have valid arguments, so color me intrigued."
"So it is settled, then? We'll do the course together?"
"Agreed," Sheldon sighed. "And for the record, I didn't say I was frightened." Amy just looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Okay I am, but I didn't say it… I'm simply not a fan of losing control," he tried to explain, looking at her lips. "Now as we've discussed it, shall we resume our date night?"
Before Amy could answer yes, his lips were on hers. Her mouth was already parted to speak, and Sheldon didn't waste any time after having to wait all day to finally feel her close to him again. His tongue took one swift swipe along her bottom lip and then plunged right in. Amy reciprocated his kiss eagerly. Her tongue danced vigorously around his while her fingers held onto his biceps. Sheldon's hands were entangled in her hair to hold her in place and feel her soft silky strands glide through his fingers.
Finally they needed to come up for air. Both of them were panting slightly, leaning their foreheads together. "You taste just as sweet as I remember," Sheldon said in a rough voice, watching her swollen lips in awe. "But we should eat first… we might need the strength later on."
Sheldon had prepared a delicious dinner for date night. They had strawberry quik made of syrup, not the powder and talked about their days. Despite the recent alterations of the paradigm of their relationship, this hadn't changed, and they felt at ease in each other's company.
Their fort sleepover had been G rated, except for their first French kissing experiment that had started innocently enough as a good-night kiss in the fort, and to Sheldon's surprise it had been an extremely pleasurable experience. It had been late, and Amy had tried to stifle a yawn just when he decided to kiss her in their usual manner. Her open mouth had caught both of them in surprise, and suddenly he had to improvise and was nibbling her lower lip. He had lost it then when he heard that barely-there humming noise emanating from Amy and grazed her lips with his tongue. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, her tongue was there, tentatively touching his own, setting all his nerve endings on fire. He strongly believed that was what addiction felt like. He had fidgeted around several days afterwards, trying to find a way to bring it up that he needed more data to support this hypothesis. It was then Amy who proposed to include weekly sleepovers into their date night schedule, and oh boy did they collect more data!
On their second sleepover – in Sheldon's room in which one girl was allowed now after all – they had snuggled so close together that Amy could feel his excitement poking into her bottom. That had happened more and more often, but they had never been so close together for her to feel it. It had simply started with him draping his arm around her and pulling her close to preserve body heat, which was only logical after all. He didn't take into account what her butt pressed so close to his groin would do to him. When he noticed it, it was already too late, because he had felt Amy's body go rigid in shock. A moment had passed in which both were considering jumping up and running for the hills, but then Amy had exhaled and deliberately moved her bottom in tiny circles against him, holding his arm around her waist. Then one thing had led to another, and they were making love for the first time. The only awkward thing had been Sheldon running off to the shower directly afterwards, but Amy followed him, needing to reconnect with him, and that's exactly what they did then… again… God bless the adhesive ducks.
Their third sleepover had been at Amy's after playing with her TARDIS, and her waterbed had given them a whole new experience. That was last week, and Sheldon couldn't stop thinking about her. He shoved Leonard out of the apartment on Saturday, convincing him that he was compromising again for him so that he could have two nights a week at Penny's, and invited Amy over. This time they went directly to the shower together. And that was also when they were caught kissing by Leonard on Sunday morning. But so far, none of their friends seemed to have noticed any more than their just-sleeping-and-kissing activities, and they intended to keep it that way for the time being. This was all so new and just for them and not fodder for the group to make fun of.
After having done the dishes together, Amy and Sheldon were drinking tea at the kitchen counter. Amy took a sip of her tea mug and put it down on the counter. She felt his gaze lingering on her and smiled at him, wondering what went through his head right now. "Do you want to watch a movie before calling it a night?"
Sheldon looked her up and down unabashedly. "Amy. You really wore me out last time, woman. I propose we head directly to bed tonight."
Amy covered her bottom lip with her hand in surprise. "Hoo. I'd love to…"
Then she noticed a large crumb of the cookie she had for tea had fallen down. As she bent down to pick it up, facing away from him, she heard his voice all dark of a sudden. "Don't you know how much self-restraint Homo Novus has to exert each time you wiggle your ample posterior in front of him?"
"I do not wiggle, Sheldon," she started, then thought better of it. "But you're full of useful information tonight… Oh look, another cookie crumb…" and she bent down again.
"Are you doing this on purpose?" He nearly growled this time at this wonderful view in front of him.
"I guess I am…" She batted her eyelashes down at him as she came up again.
"Good. Because that wasn't clear… I believe I'm getting better at this, but… would you mind to clarify just one more time?" He was surprised how much he enjoyed having her flirting with him… but no, this was more than flirting, as evidenced by the growing bulge in his pants.
Amy had noticed it, too, because he saw her gaze flickering down to his crotch, and she licked her upper lip unknowingly. Strangely, he wasn't embarrassed at all, but even thrilled that she seemed to like what she saw, because she shot him a smile looking back over her shoulder as she started to bend down again, much slower this time.
Suddenly, this was all too much to take. He needed to touch her. Right. Now. And then he was behind her, pressing into her while his hands reached around to her belly, pulling her up again.
Amy slowly swayed her hips against him, increasing the torturous friction, while her hands moved back towards his hips, holding him in place.
Sheldon's hands had already moved underneath her cardigan, pulling her blouse out of her skirt and finally touching the soft skin underneath. Amy shivered at the barely-there touch that first tickled her, but then he pressed his warm hands flatly against her tummy and began to draw large circles all over her skin while his nose nuzzled in her hair, inhaling her intoxicating scent.
Amy shuddered in delight and pressed her back even further into him. He involuntarily bucked his hips into her, and his lips found the sensitive spot on her neck just behind her ear. She moaned as he started sucking there and moved her head to the side to grant him better access.
"We should move this to the bedroom," Sheldon whispered in her ear as his hands began to move up slowly.
"Do we have to?" Amy answered between soft moans. She didn't want to move right now. His hands were like magic on her.
His hands had come up to cup her breasts beneath her clothes. He wanted to push aside her bra and was delighted to find there wasn't any. "Oh," he gasped. Her breasts felt so soft and warm and fitted perfectly in his hands.
"I felt… it would be… an unnecessary constraint… for date night," Amy panted.
"Mh-hmm," he agreed and swiftly rolled her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers with just the right amount of friction he knew she loved. Amy's breath was becoming ragged by his ministrations, which turned him on even more.
"Or let's go to the shower… I really don't care right now!" Sheldon groaned.
"Oh… you don't?" Amy moved a step forward towards the armchair with Sheldon following her automatically to not lose the body contact. She bent down again, supporting her weight with her forearms on the back of the chair. She spread her legs a little, making her tight denim skirt ride up a bit on her bare legs.
"Then what would you do if I told you… I not only seem to have forgotten my bra… but that I'm also not wearing any panties tonight?" She continued in a sultry voice.
"Oh. Dear. Lord," was all she heard in a hoarse voice, followed by the sound of a zipper. Then his hands were on her bottom, pushing her skirt further up, and his fingers travelled between her legs, surprised and enraptured by the wetness he found there already. In an instant they were replaced by his arousal he had now freed from his pants, and she spread her legs even further to invite him in.
With one long stroke he pushed himself inside her, both of them moaning at the contact. He retreated nearly completely, only to push back inside with even more force. Amy's hand moved down between her legs, desperately circling her clit while he drove into her more and more frantically. This wasn't going to last long for both of them. Only a few more strokes and he became undone, muffling his cries in her neck while he emptied inside her. Just two or three more flicks with her fingers, and Amy was convulsing around him as well, gripping him tightly with her walls as she groaned his name.
When he slipped out of her, she finally turned around in his arms and gave him a long, deep kiss. "And now we can move this to the shower," she smiled as she took his hand and dragged him behind her.
