The first proper fan fiction I'm ever attempting. At the moment, I'm totally shipping Penny/Sheldon, and I hope for this to be a thorough and eye-opening ride for the two characters.
DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING.
Title: Unraveling the Mystery
Chapter 1: The Remembrance Paradigm
Penny stared at Sheldon with a sympathetic look in her eyes. She didn't know how to say it, but she really did feel bad for him. She feared telling him as he cared not for others feelings, and, in return, she pretended not to care for his. Her sarcastic comments followed by looks of dismay were fake. She really did feel bad for him; especially when he was like this.
Sheldon held in his hands a vintage comic book, recently, with the threat of an emotion breakdown, taken out from his safety deposit box. He'd waited 30 minutes in line, during which he contemplated slipping Howard a Diet Coke with one of the several toxic substances that were untraceable in an autopsy. But where at this time of night would he get his hands on such substances at such shot notice.
"Hey Sheldon, what's wrong sweetie?" she questioned.
He repeated his monologue of waiting for 30 minutes just to get a damned comic book and recited his disappointment of losing a bet to Wolowitz.
"Oh sweetie." Penny gave Sheldon a one armed hug as they made their way to the stairs.
"That was completely unnecessary."
Penny sighed. However prominent her want to slap him across his face, she reminded herself that he was still, and would always be, Doctor Sheldon Lee Cooper; probably the only man in the world without any need for physical human contact.
At this thought, Penny's eyebrows furrowed a small frown on her lips. He didn't want her to know that he saw it, never mind acknowledged it, so he didn't say anything. He turned his face away and looked forwards as they climbed the stairs in peace.
The silence wasn't strange or awkward like the first time they'd met.
"New neighbor?" Leonard questioned his roommate, grasping his Indian takeaway bag in his left hand.
"Evidently," Sheldon replied, uninterested. He hadn't looked into the apartment for too long; he didn't feel the need to.
"Significant improvement on the old neighbor."
Sheldon's eyes were drawn to the blonde beauty currently digging into a cardboard box labeled 'clothes'.
"Two-hundred pound transvestite with a skin condition. Yes, she is," he'd said, trying to not sound affected by the vision of this woman. Her golden hair swayed slightly, straightened and glossy; bronzed shoulders, thin waist, flat stomach and delicious, lengthily legs.
Thinking of it now, he might have even smiled to himself.
"Penny?" he questioned.
She grunted as if to allow him to continue. He mentally thanked her and continued his halted speech.
"My mortal enemy Leslie Winkle is in my apartment with Leonard. I don't want to go in there."
Penny smiled, coming up to her apartment door. She looked up into Sheldon's deep blue eyes, seemingly genuinely affected by Leslie Winkle's presence in his home.
Penny stared at Sheldon with a sympathetic look in her eyes. She didn't know how to say it, but she really did feel bad for him. She feared telling him as he cared not for others feelings, and, in return, she pretended not to care for his. Her sarcastic comments followed by looks of dismay were fake. She really did feel bad for him; especially when he was like this.
"Sweeties, you wanna come in?" she offered, opening her door, groceries held in one arm. The gift of multi-tasking was a woman's life-saver. Sheldon nodded.
He didn't follow her in. He stopped and thought back to their very first conversation. Such a long way they'd come since then.
"Oh, hi!" the delicious blonde said politely at the staring strangers. Sheldon gulped, never one for verbal communication with another human, unless with a member of his family of close circle of friends; or the lady behind the counter at Ralph's.
"Hi," his roommate said.
"Hi." Sheldon spoke awkwardly, shifting his stance.
The conversation continued with the same one-syllable welcomes one would say even to a stranger when met in the street or a supermarket. To Sheldon, it was personal.
An unsure Penny smiled as she pondered her current social position, looking directly into the brown eyes of the smaller, curly haired man with glasses with a somewhat hopeful expression on his face. The direction of her eyesight switched to the other man, further behind, uttering yet another menial greeting from his thin lips.
"Hi," she practically breathed, her green eyes tangled in their connected vision. A piercing blue stared back at her sending her knees weak.
She tried not to think about the mystery man as she closed her door and leaned back onto it. They were neighbors; she would see them any time, probably whenever she opened her front door. But those blue eyes and thin lips were all she could think about; his deep voice, broad shoulders, slender physicality: not her usually choice.
Unusual: exactly the point.
This was different. His eyes were different. His stance was… different. She had to see him, she thought, running over to her kitchen aisle to the right of her apartment.
"Crap! Full up on sugar," she cursed.
And then a fateful knock at her door was heard, saving her from her delirium; welcoming him into a whole new world of such.