The Peanut Reaction

Claire was sitting at the end of the table in the Cheesecake Factory, officiating the 'Tresling' match going on between Raj and Sheldon who were sitting with their arms out and braced on the table, arm wrestling but also with their laptops open on their laps, playing Tetris at the same time, Howard and Leonard shouting encouragements without heed to the other diners around them as the two men duked it out.

"Hey, guys, guys, some of the other waitresses wanted me to ask you something," Penny called as she dashed over in her uniform, on duty, a small plate with a cheesecake slice on it and a candle stuck on top of it balanced on her hand.

"Oh, it's called trestling," Leonard smiled at her for only a moment before returning his attention back to the match, not wanting to miss this.

"It combines the physical strength of arm wrestling with the mental agility of Tetris into the ultimate sport," Howard watched the match eagerly.

"Yeah, that's terrific," Penny cut in, "But what they wanted me to ask you was to cut it the hell out!" she hissed the last five words before calling back over her shoulder to her coworkers, "Right, come on guys, come on," she led the other waiters off to another table, singing happy birthday to a random diner.

"We might as well stop," Sheldon sighed, his gaze focused on his computer screen, not even looking at Raj, his own arm resting straight up on the table despite Raj's best efforts to push it down, "It's a stalemate. You're beating me in Tetris, but you've got the upper body strength of a Keebler Elf."

"Keebler Elf?" Raj scoffed, "I've got your Keebler Elf right here!" he strained to push Sheldon's arm down, having to relinquish his Tetris match to use both hands on Sheldon...but the man's arm barely moved at all, "Ok, it's a stalemate."

Claire laughed and reached out, squeezing Sheldon's arm a bit teasingly as they both let go, "Still got those muscles eh, Shelly?"

Most people would look at Sheldon and think he was a stereotypical weakling, and he was, he very much was. He could lift his basket of laundry and that was probably the extent of his strength. But this wasn't about brute strength, or it wasn't always. If you knew the right angle to get your arm, the right position on the table, and applied just enough force to lock your muscles, you could at least hold your own in arm wrestling, even if you couldn't physically push back and win, it would keep the other person from beating you. And Sheldon had ample experience with that in dealing with his older brother George. The man would always try to trick Sheldon into doing things, like his chores or homework, and try to get him to do it by arm wrestling. Sheldon had worked out early what his brother was doing and, knowing his brother was stronger than him, had studied the strength and anatomy of the human arm to find a way to at least stalemate it, he could then trick his brother right back into calling off the challenge because it was a tie.

She always liked to tease him that it wasn't physics that let him win but his own strength and awesome muscles, a joke but one that they'd been doing since they were children.

Sheldon gave her a small smile for the sense of nostalgia that brought up, his arm twitching a bit as she gave it a light squeeze, feeling a sort of thrill go through him at having her hand on his arm, complimenting his (lacking) physique, feeling pleased that she found him appealing and...he stiffened.

What was WRONG with him? He'd never cared about that before.

He quickly pulled his arm away and shut his laptop, his mind racing for an explanation for how his mind had wandered. And it hit him. It must be the adrenaline from the strain of the match and endorphins that had been released from managing to best Raj even without actually winning. Yes, that was it, the endorphins were creating a chemical imbalance in his system making him feel warm and tingling from the thrill of his victory. It had nothing to do with Claire or her touching his arm or complimenting him. It was the rush of success and proving himself superior to another intellectual.

"So Leonard," Penny smiled as she headed back to their table, "Will we be seeing you on Saturday for your free birthday cheesecake?"

"He can't eat cheesecake, he's lactose intolerant," Sheldon cut in, turning his mind to the facts.

"Ok, he can have carrot cake."

"What about the cream cheese frosting?"

"He can scrape it off," Penny said through clenched teeth.

"Forget about the cake," Leonard waved it off, "How did you know that my birthday is Saturday?"

"I did your horoscope, remember," Penny reminded him, "I was going to do everybody's until Sheldon went on one of his typical psychotic rants..."

"For the record," Sheldon stated, exasperated, "That psychotic rant was a concise summation of the research of Bertram Forer, who in 1948 proved conclusively, through meticulously designed experiments, that astrology is nothing but pseudo scientific hokum."

Penny blinked looked at Claire as the woman was reaching for the desert menu, "A guy studied some horoscopes and decided they didn't mean anything."

Penny shook her head at Sheldon, "Typical Taurus."

"Pisces," Claire corrected her guess, though she didn't give away Sheldon's actual birthday, just...narrowed it down.

Penny just smirked, "Good thing you're a Capricorn then Claire, harmonizes the Pisces..."

"Oh please," Sheldon scoffed, "As though that affects our friendship. My emotions aren't ruled by the stars, Penny. I love Claire because of her brilliant mind and personality not because she's a…a candycorn."

Penny blinked and stared at him, not sure if she had really heard what she'd thought she'd just heard, "What did you just say, Sheldon?"

Sheldon rolled his eyes, huffing at the irritation of having to repeat himself again, "I said, 'Oh please, as though that affects our friendship. My emotions aren't ruled by the stars, Penny. I like Claire because…"

Penny ignored the rest of what he was saying, focusing more on the one single word that she was sure, 100 percent sure had been different the first time around. He'd said LOVE first. She KNEW he had. But as she looked at the table, it seemed like the others had tuned Sheldon out as they often did, the boys not even reacting or really listening when he talked on one of his 'rants.' Claire, though she knew the woman would be more likely to have heard, seemed to be frowning with concentration at the dessert menu as if she were trying to make a life altering decision.

"Claire," she called, getting the girl's attention, "What's that thing...a um...a Floridian trip?"

"A Freudian slip?" Claire guessed.

"Yeah, yeah, that thing, whatever, what is it again?"

"It's when something slips out because it's truest in your subconscious mind. You don't realize you've said it most of the time."

Penny nodded and started smiling, ooh she knew it! Well, she didn't really know it, and knowing Sheldon and his definitions and views of emotions, it might be something entirely different than what she thought but...she wanted to squeal! But when she saw Sheldon frowning at her in confusion she turned to Leonard instead, best not bring THAT up to Sheldon just yet, he seemed the sort to get very defensive and pushy and resistant when he was confronted with something he wasn't ready for. And if Claire was right and it was subconscious and not something Sheldon was aware of...she didn't want to risk pushing him. But she was SO going to do more research about this, see if there wasn't some experiments and observations she could make.

Ooh, look at her sounding like a scientist.

"So," she shook her head, fighting to keep her grin down, "Leonard," she cleared her throat, "Seriously, are we going to see you Saturday?"

"Oh, I don't think so," Leonard shrugged.

"Why not?"

"I don't celebrate my birthday."

"Shut up, yeah you do."

"No, it's no big deal, it's just the way I was raised," he explained, "My parents focused on celebrating achievements, and being expelled from a birth canal was not considered one of them."

"Uh, that's so silly."

"It's actually based on very sound theories," Sheldon cut in, "His mother published a paper on it."

"What was it called, 'I hate my son and that's why he can't have cake?'"

"It was obviously effective, Leonard grew up to be an experimental physicist. Perhaps if she'd also denied him Christmas he'd be a little better at it."

"Thank you, Sheldon," Leonard remarked dryly.

Claire smiled empathetically at Leonard for that, she could relate very much to that. She wanted to say something to him, to Sheldon as well, but, well, it wasn't something she really wanted to broadcast to the rest of the boys or even Penny, it was a little personal.

"Well I love birthdays," Howard smiled, "Waking up to Mom's special French Toast breakfast, wearing the birthday king crown, playing laser tag with all my friends..."

"Yeah, see, that's what kids should have," Penny nodded, pointing at Howard.

"That was last year Pen," Claire told her with an amused grin.

"How did you know?" Howard frowned at her, VERY sure he would have noticed if a redheaded woman had actually joined them in those celebrations.

"Shelly sent me pictures," Claire shrugged. Just because they didn't see each other as often as they'd have liked didn't mean they didn't keep in touch.

"So you've really never had a birthday party?" Penny turned to Leonard again.

"No," he answered, "But it was ok. I mean, when I was little I'd think maybe my parents would change their mind, and surprise me with a party, like this one birthday I came home from my cello lesson, and I saw a lot of strange cars parked out front, and when I got to the door I could hear people whispering, and I could smell German chocolate cake, which is my favorite."

"Good choice," Claire nodded, she loved chocolate.

"And?" Penny shook her head.

"Uh, it turns out my grandfather had died," Leonard said.

"Oh my God, that's terrible!"

"Oh, it was kind of like a birthday party," he tried to make the best of it, "I got to see all my cousins and there was cake, so…"

"That's the saddest thing I've ever heard."

"You think?" Howard scoffed, "Go ahead, tell her about your senior prom."

"Oh I remember that," Claire smiled fondly, "Shelly and I went, well, HE went to MY prom, we were 16. That was a blast."

Penny would have raised her eyebrows at that, not just from Claire claiming a school dance with Sheldon was fun...but from the fact that Sheldon had even gone, but then Sheldon even seemed to agree.

"I suppose it was...bearable, even being forced into it by Missy," Sheldon had to admit begrudgingly, "Though it was more the company than the party."

~8~

Claire and Penny waited till they heard Leonard leave the apartment later that day before making their way over to the boys' apartment, Claire letting her in with the emergency key, "Hey guys," they called.

"Hello Claire," Sheldon greeted as Claire moved to sit beside him on the couch armrest, "Hello Penny. Leonard just left."

"We know," Penny said quickly, needing to get this set up before Leonard came back, "We want to talk to you."

"What would we talk about?" he gestured between himself and Penny, "Claire and I could talk for hours, and we have, but you and I have no overlapping areas of interest I'm aware of, and you know I don't care for chitchat."

Penny rolled her eyes at how contradictory he was but continued, "Here's the deal, we," she gestured around the room to all of them, Howard and Raj included, "Are going to throw Leonard a kick-ass surprise party for his birthday on Saturday."

"I hardly think so, Leonard made it very clear he doesn't want a party."

"Did someone say party?" Howard perked up at that, even Raj looking interested, grabbing his white board.

"I don't think he was making it very clear he doesn't want one, Shelly," Claire argued, "He seemed to just not think of it cause he ain't never had one. If YOU had never seen Star Wars, would you be excited to see a miniature model of the Death Star?"

Sheldon blinked at that, nodding along with her logic, "I suppose that's possible..."

"Well for the record," Howard just HAD to add, "I've never had a threesome and yet I still know I want one."

Claire leaned over to where Howard was sitting on the couch, resting her hand on Sheldon's shoulder for a balance to smack Howard on he shoulder, looking to Penny as she pulled back, "Do you want to get the duct tape or should I?"

Penny just shook her head, "Howard, here's the difference. The possibility exists that Leonard could have a birthday party before hell freezes over."

"Fine," Howard huffed, before smirking at Penny, "If I do have a threesome, you can't be part of it," Penny crossed her arms, unamused, "I'm just kidding, yes you can. Can you bring a friend?"

"Claire get the tape."

"Ooh bondage," Howard teased, as Claire stood up, making him grin, "You know if you and Penny want me that bad, I can find some time in my schedule for the two of you and..." he started to turn to her, intent to give her a grin...when he was dealt a slap across the face by Claire.

"What in God's name is wrong with you that you would ask a woman to have a threesome with you when they are clearly NOT interested, Howard Wolowitz?!" she glared at him as Howard blinked at her, his eyes wide, his hand on his cheek, "And I swear to god," she added in a huff of anger, "You ever talk to Penny or I like that again, you ever speak to us like that ever again, I will go medieval on your ass so fast you won't even have time to say 'egads!'"

"Medieval as in..." Howard shifted, sounding almost squeamish.

"I wrote a paper on Medieval Torture Devices," she deadpanned.

Howard swallowed hard and made a locking motion over his mouth.

Claire nodded and turned with a huff, sitting back down next to Sheldon, crossing her arms, still very on edge about how Howard had spoken to her and Penny. She knew he was a creep, but that had just crossed a line because she knew he was being completely serious and it was disturbing. She was going to have to talk to Sheldon about getting his friend under control or she was not going to hang around them when Howard was there.

Penny opened her mouth to comment, when she saw Sheldon reach out and pat Claire's knee in comfort, not really looking at Claire but the action seemed so automatic that it almost made her smile...but then she remembered why Claire was so angry and shot a glare at a rather pale Howard, the man likely thinking of all the different devices that existed, "Remind me never to get you angry," Penny tried to lighten the mood with a tease to Claire.

But all her efforts were in vain when Sheldon went right back to talking about the party as though Howard hadn't said anything, "I think a birthday party is a terrible idea," he got up to go get a glass of water in the kitchen, well, two glasses, Claire would want something to do with her hands instead of try to strangle Howard. It took a lot for Claire to get upset like that, he knew HE wasn't the easiest person to be around, but Claire had put up with him nearly her entire life. What Howard had said was very rude, vulgar, and offensive and if Claire hadn't let him have it HE was about to tell the man to get out of the apartment. Claire had seemed to make her point though as Howard was completely silent, "I envy Leonard for growing up without that anguish."

"Anguish?" Penny looked at him, incredulous.

"Year after year," he lamented, "I had to endure wearing conical hats while being forced into the crowded sweaty hell of bouncy castles, not to mention being blindfolded and spun towards a grotesque tailless donkey as the other children mocked my disorientation."

Truly the only good thing about his birthdays were Claire's gifts, she always knew exactly what to get him to make the day bearable.

"Ok, sweetie," Penny sighed, "I understand you have scars that no non-professional can heal, but nevertheless we are going to throw Leonard a birthday party."

"Have I pointed out that I am extremely uncomfortable with dancing, loud music, and most other forms of alcohol induced frivolity?" Sheldon asked as he entered the room again, handing Claire a glass of water.

"Nevertheless we are…"

"In addition I really don't think that Leonard wants a…"

"Ok, here's the deal," Penny cut in, now in a huff herself, "You either help us throw Leonard a birthday party or, so help me God, I will go into your bedroom and I will unbag all of your most valuable, mint condition comic books. And, on one of them, you won't know which, I'll draw a tiny happy face...in ink."

"You can't do that," Sheldon frowned, "If you make a mark on a mint comic book it's no longer mint."

"And that's called blackmail, Shelly Bean," Claire called, taking a sip of the water, trying not to look at Howard lest she be tempted to smack him again.

Sheldon's eyes widened at the implication, at the smug look Penny was giving him that told him she really WOULD do that, "I have an idea, let's throw Leonard a kick-ass birthday party."

~8~

Claire glanced up from where she was in the process of preparing to try her hand at hopefully successfully decorating Leonard's cake, a very special German chocolate cake Penny had ordered from a local bakery, plain as they wanted the decoration to be more personal, when there was a knock on the door, a precise set of two knocks, two knocks, and one knock. And yet Sheldon, who was standing before the door, refused to open it, continuing to just stare at the door.

It happened again and Sheldon let out an exasperated sigh before opening the door, "That's not the secret knock!"

"Two, one, two," Claire called as Sheldon demonstrated, picking up a bowl and scooping icing from the little containers at the store into it.

"What difference does it make?" Howard asked.

"The whole point of a secret knock is to establish a non-verbal signal to verify the identity of one's co-conspirators!" Sheldon whispered.

"Is that Raj and Howard?" Penny called from her room where she was finishing wrapping Leonard's gift.

"Possibly, but unverified."

"Just let them in Shelly," Claire told him, looking around for the food coloring, and he stepped back.

"Luckily for you two," he remarked to Howard and Raj, "This is not a nuclear reactor."

"So, what did you get the birthday boy?" Penny asked as she walked in to see them with gifts in hand.

"Well, Raj got him an awesome limited edition Dark Knight sculpture based on Alex Ross's definitive Batman, and I got him this amazing autographed copy of the Feynman lectures on physics," Howard beamed.

Penny looked at Claire as Howard and Raj placed their gifts on her coffee table, "Raj got him a Batman statue, Howard got him a book."

Penny nodded, "Nice. Claire got him a movie and I got him a sweater."

"Ok," Howard nodded slowly, "Well, he might like that, I've seen him…watch movies and, you know, theaters are chilly."

Penny rolled her eyes at his put down of their gifts, and turned to Sheldon when she saw 4 gifts instead of 5, "Uh, Sheldon, I didn't see your present."

Claire sighed, starting to squeeze the green coloring into the icing, "That's because he didn't bring one," she told Penny, "Shelly decided not to get him a present."

"Well why not?"

"Don't ask," Howard tried to say quickly, but...

"The entire institution of gift-giving makes no sense," Sheldon defended with a huff.

"Too late," he muttered.

"Let's say that I go out and I spend 50 dollars on you, it's a laborious activity, because I have to imagine what you need, whereas you know what you need. Now I can simplify things, just give you the 50 dollars directly and, you could give me 50 dollars on my birthday, and so on until one of us dies leaving the other one old and 50 dollars richer. And I ask you, is it worth it?"

"Told you not to ask," Howard sing-songed.

"Well, Sheldon, you're his friend," Penny argued, "Friends give each other presents."

"I accept your premise, I reject your conclusion," Sheldon stated.

Penny crossed her arms, giving him a look, deciding to test a theory she'd been working on out, "So you're gonna tell me that, in all the time you've known Claire, you've NEVER given her a single gift? Ever? For anything?"

Sheldon blinked and frowned at the mere thought of it, "Of course I have, that would be rude to not get her something."

"And why's that?"

"Because she is my best friend."

"And what's Leonard?"

"My roommate."

"Roomates can be friends too Sheldon," Penny explained, though she was secretly thrilled her theory seemed to be right. Claire was definitely someone special to Sheldon, special enough where he automatically seemed to do things differently when it came to her. She'd been thinking that maybe, a good way to handle Sheldon (since she knew she would never know him as well as Claire did or handle him like that) would be to use Claire to do it. Bring up Claire, drop Claire's name, and see how differently he acted. And it was working! "I'm friends with Claire."

"That doesn't create an accurate argument, many people can be roommates but not friends as well and..."

"It's a non-optional, social convention Shelly," Claire called, stemming off the argument from continuing any longer. Sheldon, sometimes, didn't understand why people did things, didn't understand why it was expected of him to do similar things that he didn't see the point in. Telling him it was just a general expectation put on people by the masses was one way to do it. He usually wouldn't argue against it as he understood that he missed quite a bit of social cues and other things. He trusted her to tell him when he was arguing a moot point because it was just 'something people did' and that he should do to. She would never tell him to do something bad or dangerous that others did, but in a general sense of what was polite that he often missed.

"Oh," Sheldon nodded, "Fair enough."

Penny shook her head but smiled at how quickly he gave into that, Claire definitely knew how to handle Sheldon.

"Question," Sheldon continued, "How am I going to get Leonard a present before the party? I don't drive, Claire will want to finish the cake so she can't take me, and the only things available within walking distance are a Thai restaurant and a gas station. I suppose I could wrap up an order of mee krob and a couple of lottery scratchers..."

"Ok," Penny nodded, "Let's do this, um, I will drive Sheldon to get a present, Claire you finish the cake," Claire held up the now green-covered spatula in her hand in salute that she'd heard her, "And Howard, you need to get rid of Leonard for about two hours."

"No problem," Howard agreed.

"And then Raj, you bring the stuff across the hall and start setting up."

'What if guests show up' he held up a white board.

"Entertain them."

He erased his last remark and held up, 'What if they're women?'

"Stare at them and make them feel uncomfortable."

Raj nodded, holding a thumbs up.

~8~

Penny was about to pull her hair out. She'd tried to get Sheldon to pick something fun for Leonard in the computer store, but he just kept looking at routers...whatever those were, "What do you think?" he held up two boxes at her.

"Um, that one," she pointed to the left one.

"Because of the two additional Ethernet ports?"

"Sure."

"He doesn't need them, he's already got a 640 connect switch."

"Oh, ok then this one," she tried to point at the other one.

"Why?"

"I don't know," she took the box and turned it to show him a grinning man on the front, "The man on the box looks so happy?"

"Penny!" he shook his head chastisingly at her, "If I'm going to buy Leonard a gift, I'm going to do it right. I refuse to let him experience the same childhood trauma I did."

"Oh, I know I'm going to regret this," she muttered, "But…what trauma?"

"On my 12th birthday I really wanted a titanium centrifuge, so, you know, I could separate radioactive isotopes."

"...of course."

"Instead of a titanium centrifuge, my parents bought me…" he choked up a bit, "Wow, this is hard," he took a breath, "They got me…a motorized dirt bike."

"No!" Penny mock gasped in mock-horror.

"What 12 year old boy wants a motorized dirt bike?" he lamented, "The only thing that made it bearable was when Claire suggested we take it apart and use its parts to build a robot."

"Right," she nodded, "Ok, so we're getting this one?" she held up the box she'd taken.

"Yeah, I suppose."

"Ok, let's go."

"Excuse me," a woman walked up to them, having heard Sheldon talking to Penny about the boxes, and gestured around, "Do you know anything about this stuff?"

"I know everything about this stuff," Sheldon smirked.

"Ok, I have my own wholesale flower business, and I want to hook up my computer in the front entrance with the one in my refrigerated warehouse."

"Here, buy this one," Penny handed the woman the box with the smiling man on it, "Look, it's the one we're getting, see, happy guy available."

"No, no, no, no, she doesn't want that, she needs..." Sheldon turned and pulled a box off a shelf, "A point-to-point peer network with a range extender."

"Thank you," the woman took it.

...and then another man came up to them, "Which hard drive do I want, firewire or USB?"

"It depends on what Bus you have," Sheldon remarked.

The man stared at him for a moment, "I drive a Chevy Cavalier."

"Oh, dear lord."

"Sheldon, we have to go," Penny hissed.

"Not now, Penny, this poor man needs me," he held up a hand to a woman who was approaching with another question, "You hold on, I'll be right with you," before focusing on the man before him, "What computer do you have, and please don't say a white one?"

Penny rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone, walking off just a few steps to speak more privately.

~8~

Claire looked up from where she was standing in the kitchen, her hands pressed on the counter, half hunched over as she tried to stare down the green-icing covered cake as though it were an enemy to conquer, when she heard her phone ring. She had been trying to find the right way to ice the cake because, of course, there couldn't just be one way or one design or one method, and she had no idea what Leonard would like which was causing havoc on her nerves. She just...she wanted this to be a good birthday for the man. She could tell from how he talked about his mother that the woman wasn't quite affectionate or encouraging. The fact that he hadn't had a birthday before because of his parents' choice not to give him one was upsetting.

Plenty of her birthdays had been missed but it had nothing to do with a conscious choice to refuse her one and more...how easily it slipped certain people's minds.

Never Sheldon's though, never his. He always made her birthday special and she just wanted to help make his friend's birthday a special one too. She wasn't sure if Leonard would enjoy the movie she'd gotten him, so she wanted to do something extra, make the cake a little more personal. And now she was failing that.

She had just let out a sigh, ready to give in and claim defeat, when the phone went off. She looked down at her rather...sticky and green hands and quickly looked around for something to wipe them on but the paper towels were gone and there was nothing so...clothing it was! She wiped her hands on her pants and reached out for her phone.

"Claire?" Penny's voice answered.

"Hey, Pen, what's up?"

"Yeah, hi, listen...how do you get Sheldon OUT of a computer store?"

"Ooh," Claire winced at that, "That's gonna be tricky, sugar."

"Yeah, I can tell. Which is why I called the expert."

Claire chuckled at that, "Alright, well...since the party's already started," she glanced at the door, able to hear the pounding music and shouting through the door, "You don't got much time to really coax him out of there gently. You're gonna need force."

"Should I have brought a baseball bat?"

"No," Claire laughed at that, "No, just um...ok," she nodded, "Here's what you gotta do..."

~8~

Penny led a store employee over to where Sheldon was standing at the in-store computer, helping a woman check inventory, "Ok, we don't have that in stock, but I can special order it for you."

"Him," Penny pointed.

"Excuse me, sir," the employee walked over to him, "You don't work here."

"Yes, well, apparently neither does anyone else," Sheldon straightened.

"Sheldon, we have to go," Penny sighed.

"Why?"

"Well, for one thing, we're late for Leonard's birthday party. For another, Claire told me to make them call security. And third, Leonard's at the hospital with..."

"Is Claire ok!?" Sheldon looked at her, alarmed.

Penny blinked and would have smiled at his concern for the girl, at how his mind had jumped right to Claire being in trouble instead of letting her finish that it was Howard who had, apparently, gone so far as to eat a peanut treat he was allergic to to keep Leonard away from the party, at how he hadn't seemed to process the fact that she'd JUST talked to Claire and the girl was fine...if he hadn't been irritating the hell out of her first, but still it was an opening, "No...no, she's not," she said seriously, "She...um...got some icing on the floor and tripped on it, Leonard had to take her to the hospital to make sure she doesn't have a concussion."

"Again?!" Sheldon grabbed his coat, Penny blinking at the fact that her completely made up story seemed to have actually happened to the girl once in her past, "Why didn't you say so? Let's go!" he cried, pulling Penny out of the store.

~8~

Sheldon had not been happy to learn Penny had tricked him, he'd been frantic when she passed the exit for the hospital, till she told him the truth about Claire not being the one there. Then he'd been relieved Claire was alright. And that was why he was sitting in the apartment, in his spot on the couch, with Claire beside him on the couch instead of on the arm this time. Her head was resting on his shoulder, the girl sleeping after a testing day, and he didn't even mind.

The cake was sitting off to the side, looking a little misshapen and lumpy. Claire had gone a little frantic over the cake. She hadn't known what color to use for the icing, though he had recommended Green, but she also didn't know Leonard's preferences for icing either. Did he like a lot of it? Did he not care for it? She'd put on a little icing, and it looked terrible, so she put more on, but then it was too much so she'd scraped it off and ended up taking bits of the cake with it. She'd tried to coat just the top but then the sides looked weird with no icing. But she had ended up messing up the top in that she realized she had used all the white icing and had no other colors or food coloring. So she'd scraped the top off and tried to write 'Happy Birthday Leonard!' on the top with the green icing. But it was just a mess of trying to make the cake look good and it hadn't worked. She'd spent the entire time getting worked up over it to the point where he and Penny had returned and found her in the kitchen...with green splatters caking her hair, green streaked across her cheek and forehead, on the edge of her clothing, on the counter, just...everywhere. There was even some on the ceiling.

Penny had actually tried to tease and ask her if she managed to get any of the cake and it just served to make Claire throw her hands up in surrender and go to shower the icing off before Leonard got there.

Afterwards it had been them standing there awkwardly in the middle of the party as it began to die down, Penny having invited quite a few friends and random people to help Leonard celebrate. Claire now had a headache from the loud music and he was not about to wake her, not even with her head on his shoulder. She needed to sleep it off, sleep helped her deal with her headaches.

He looked over to see Penny curled up on the armchair while Raj drunkenly sang karaoke, the party now over, everyone gone, Leonard having never shown.

...and then the door opened and the birthday boy and Howard stepped in.

"Dude!" Raj called, "Everybody left an hour ago! Surprise!"

~8~

Penny and Leonard sat on the couch, Raj's phone in his hand as they watched his recording of the party, a woman sitting on his shoulders as he spoke to his phone, "Ok Leonard, here I am at your birthday party, I don't know where you are dude, but it's really kick-ass. Everyone is very, very drunk, and uh…" the girl poured some beer into his mouth, "Oh look, there's a girl taking her shirt off!"

"That's my friend Carol," Penny winced as the camera turned to the woman, "Remind me, I've got to introduce her to Howard."

"Oh sweet Krishna, shake it, that rupee maker!"

Penny sighed as Leonard turned off the video, "I'm so sorry you didn't get your party."

"Oh, it's ok," Leonard waved it off.

"Happy birthday anyways," she turned and kissed him on the lips, for more than just a second.

"Yeah, happy birthday!" Claire called as she led the three boys over, a plate with the cake on it in her hands, a candle on the top, "Enjoy your German Chocolate cake and icing, lactose free for both!"

Leonard smiled as they sang happy birthday to HIM, wishing hard that every birthday could be like this, before he blew out the candle. He didn't need a good party, just good friends, which he had. Even Sheldon.

A/N: Aww :) I really wanted Claire to be the one to handle the cake. Not the baking of it (dear lord no!) but frosting it. Because to her, it should be simple and easy enough...but she's so indecisive that she just kept wiping it off and trying again and changing her mind. It's easier when she really knows someone to make a decision about what they might want or like, like...if she was decorating a cake for Sheldon, she would know exactly how HE likes his cake to be and would decorate it like that without hesitation. But for Leonard, she's not sure what his preferences are so she kept changing it up and getting frustrated lol. But she really wanted to be able to contribute too incase her present wasn't all that great :) He's also Sheldon's roommate and one of his friends and she wanted to help do this for him too :)

It might be a bit harsh to have Howard slapped here, but I was just thinking that if I were Penny and some man was crudely talking about wanting a threesome with me, even in a teasing way, I would have turned and walked away. Claire would not stand for Howard's remarks and it sort of crossed a line for her and she was NOT going to let him talk to her or Penny like that :(

And can you believe, there's just ONE more chapter left of this story before we get the next one!? O.O It went by so fast! But we'll be starting season 2's story very soon :)

Some notes on reviews...

Oh I think Missy would have clung to Claire as her official translator and stuck her tongue out at Sheldon when he tried to tug her away. ...and now I'm imagining them doing a tug-of-war over Claire as kids :) My brother was the same, though his obsession was cars. I know the names of items and parts of a car...but I don't fully know what they are lol :) I got a little revenge though, my siblings now know the word TARDIS but aren't fully sure what it is lol :)

I think Missy and Penny will definitely be talking about Claire and Sheldon ;) ;)

There probably won't be times where Claire wakes up next to another guy. She's not quite as experienced as Penny is, one thing she retained from where she grew up (and also a little bit from her enjoyment of medieval literature and how women were viewed then) was not to do anything before marriage. It's not quite going to hold up in the long run that she HAS to be married first, but Claire takes it to be that she should be in a very serious and committed relationship before she does anything with a man, so probably no awkwardness like that ;)

Lol, it might be a nod to DW, but it's more Claire genuinely does prefer bowties to regular ties, (something that will come up whenever Sheldon needs to dress formally) she thinks they're cute and sophisticated and genuinely thinks they're cool ;) So a nod to DW, but more the character's actual preference and thoughts on bowties ;) And I'm glad you're concerned about Penny teaching Claire to cook lol, it's definitely meant to be a joke since she's not a good cook herself. As Sheldon thinks to himself in the 8th chapter '...Sheldon's mind began to race with the implications, mentally making a list of all the fire hazard materials, first aid products, and other protective items he would need to stock up on if Penny, who wasn't exactly a chef herself, was going to try and teach Claire to cook. Oh dear lord, they were going to burn down the building weren't they?' :) I'm glad you're liking Claire so far though ;)

It'll take a while before Sheldon and Claire really get together in an official sense ;) Sheldon's seen Claire his whole life as 'his best friend' so for him to realize that he's seeing her differently now and understanding what that means will take a while, he doesn't like change for the most part :)

Leonard and Claire will definitely bond over childhood, more so when Claire actually gets a chance to meet Leonard's mother in person ;) I think, for the boys, they're more afraid of getting too close to Claire unless she wants to get close to them first. They sort of see her as 'Sheldon's' and they know how he can get when people try to take his things. Leonard will be the first to start to bond with her, Raj might have trouble due to his mutism and, after this chapter, Claire isn't too fond of Howard so he would have to reconsider how he acts around her and talks to her first ;)

I can say Sheldon and Amy won't be together as long as they are in the show, I can tease that, at the very least, all of Season 8 will be Sheldon and Claire together (but I'm not saying at what point before that they get together ;)), there'll be a sort of ongoing joke and a bit of an imbalance in Sheldon and Amy's relationship that we'll see when he actually starts to date Amy though that might help hold out for the Sheldon/Claire to happen :)

Oh Sheldon would definitely start to worry about Claire's future and health yup ;) And I'm very excited for Nowitzki to appear, it'll definitely be a redhead face off lol :)