Amy licked her lips and took a deep breath. She had put on her nightgown, a mild peppermint taste sitting on her tongue from her toothpaste, and ready to spend the night in a big blanket fort she had built with her boyfriend. Leonard had gone to bed, declaring he was not going to sleep on the floor to which Sheldon had sarcastically answered with a quiet "Might as well sleep here than in your bed with no sheets". Amy had shot him a proud and amused glance and they had giggled.
Amy got on her knees in front of the fort and crawled back inside. Sheldon had spread two sleeping bags on the floor. He was already wrapped into one, lying on his tummy, leaning on his elbows and reading something apparently very interesting on his phone.
Amy got comfortable in her own sleeping bag and then looked over at her boyfriend. "What are you doing?"
"I googled sleepovers in fort blankets. The first few suggestions were far away from G-rated though…" He knitted his eyebrows at his phone. "But I've found a nice one here; telling each other scary stories!"
"If you're not afraid of it triggering my night terrors..." Amy added for consideration.
Sheldon shook his head. "I am prepared; stroking your hair gently!"
The neurobiologist nodded and then shrugged. "Fine, then. Do you know a scary story?"
He thought for a moment, then suddenly seemed excited and dropped his phone, turning around to face Amy. "This one time I got home and I felt something was wrong… do you know this? This terrible feeling of something being wrong and scary…"
Amy nodded, eyes widening, as she stared at him full of anticipation.
"So I went around in the living room… it was not in the kitchen… it was not at the sofa… nor was it in the bathroom or the bedrooms. But I sensed something…"
Amy slipped a little deeper into her sleeping bag, afraid to hear the outcome of the story. He was pretty good at that.
"I slowly walked over to the bookshelf… and there it was. One of my books was not in alphabetical order!" Sheldon shook his head. "That's terrible and scary, right?"
He smiled so proudly that Amy did not have the heart to tell him that Google probably had meant something else by scary story and just nodded. Seemingly satisfied, Sheldon laid on his back and stared up at the ceiling of the fort. Amy couldn't help but look at him. He looked so happy and she loved it when he was. Most of all since the evening had started out with him being grumpy.
"Still angry about not being at Feynman's house?" She softly asked, prepared that the answer could have been a yes.
But he just eyed her from the side and shook his head. "No. To be honest, no matter what opportunity given, I think I'd rather be here with you."
Amy's jaw dropped. "Wait, you mean even if you could have dinner with Stephen Hawking?"
Sheldon thought about it for a moment and then nodded. "I've seen Hawking before but I've never had a sleepover in a fort with you"
She smiled. "That's true"
It went silent and they both laid there, lost in their thoughts and smiling.
"But…" Sheldon suddenly broke the silence. "Maybe I would want Hawking to have a sleepover here with me"
Amy pulled her eyebrows down and stared at him in confusion and utter speechlessness. She only realized it had been a joke when he grinned at her with this special cheeky look in his eyes that sometimes made her think about him as a kid and how he must have done this grin when he had done something forbidden and exactly knew he had captured his mom's and Meemaw's heart so much that no one would have been able to really be mad at him.
The next thing Sheldon knew was something white and fluffy hitting his face.
"Heeeey!" He screamed, scrambling the pillow away.
Amy was still lying on her back and laughing so hard that her eyes became watery. Sheldon shook his head a little. This woman was crazy – but in a good way.
He grabbed the pillow and smashed it back at her.
"Nooo!" Amy screeched with laughter and got out of her sleeping bag. She got on her knees and slapped the soft bolster right into his face again.
"That's enough, woman!" Within a second he was kneeling in front of her too and they started to hit each other with their pillows.
Amy was suffering from a laughing fit which caused her to be a little less defensive than Sheldon. She covered her face with her hands until she felt that he had stopped. Amy re-opened her eyes and saw a million feathers flying around in the fort.
"I ruined Leonard's pillow" Sheldon mumbled and seemed so distraught that Amy couldn't help but chuckle again.
"We'll buy him a new one. I'll drive you."
"Thank you" Sheldon sighed but then grinned at her through all of the down falling feathers.
She grinned back but it turned into a smile and she sunk down and sat onto her calves. Right in that moment her phone buzzed again. Midnight.
"Is it time to sleep?" Sheldon seemed sad.
But lying wasn't going to help – Amy had already gotten more than she had expected. She nodded at him.
He sighed but then he suddenly seemed to think and looked right back into her eyes. "I guess that marks the end of Date Night"
Amy was confused and stared at him quizzically.
Before she even understood what he was doing, he had leaned in and pressed his warm lips onto hers. They were so soft that she almost got dizzy. They had already kissed a few times but it was a whole new sensation every time.
His taste was divine, his smell nearly drove her insane. When he slowly – slower than usual – pulled back, she kept her eyes closed. The kiss had been too delicious to dive back into reality yet.
When she finally looked at him he was still close to her and looking at her with such a loving expression that she almost melted under the blue of his perfect eyes. He smiled and picked a feather out of her hair.
"Thank you" She watched the feather float down onto the floor.
They slipped back into their sleeping bags and Sheldon turned around to turn off the little lights.
"Good night, Amy" He whispered.
"Good night, Sheldon"
Before she fell asleep, she felt his warm big hand grab hers. Amy smiled and slowly sunk into a world of dreams… which was also full of Sheldon.
