A/N: I'm so happy that you seemed to like the proposal, thank you so much! And a huge thanks to Hazelra7 and ShAmy4eva as always.
Apt. 4A, 2311 Los Robles Av., Pasadena, May 28th 2015, 7:00 p.m.
Thursday evening was date night which tonight was being held at Sheldon's place. Amy was as punctual as always, and Sheldon greeted his girlfriend – no wait, his fiancée, he still had to get used to it – with a smile and a kiss on the lips. He had cooked for them and the salad and bread was already on the kitchen counter. He had decorated the place with candles and there was also a sunflower in a pot on the table.
"Oh Sheldon, you actually bought me a flower?" Amy said in surprise, a huge smile spreading over her face.
"No, I didn't," Sheldon corrected her.
Amy's shoulders slumped to a hunched pose, her smile fading as quickly as it had appeared. "Oh, of course. I'm sorry for jumping to hasty conclusions," she mumbled, feeling stupid and averting her eyes.
Sheldon studied her. "That's your sad face, right?" Amy didn't answer, but her eyes returned to his. At least she was looking at him now, but that didn't help much in explaining her facial expression, especially as it seemed to have slightly changed again, perhaps more curious now but definitely not happy. He had thought he was getting better at reading Amy's facial cues but at times like this he still wasn't completely certain. Why did she confuse him like this, when her logical reaction should have been to be pleased about the flower, and why couldn't she just settle for one expression at a time instead of changing when he was still trying to decipher the first one. It was difficult enough as it was, but that just complicated things even more. He sometimes got the impression when he asked Amy to explain her facial expressions that she didn't always answer honestly, in fact sometimes, as now, she did not answer at all. They really needed to talk more about this, he thought, well aware of how hippie-dippy it sounded in his mind.
"Alright, with the missing data, I'll just take your lack of an answer as a confirmation. You didn't let me finish. I didn't buy it; I planted it from sunflower seeds. I have a few more of them in my room as a backup. I'm still not a fan of severed plant genitals, but as you seem to be fond of flowers, I thought this would be a compromise. This specimen can reach a height of six feet, so you can still keep it in your apartment, and in autumn you'll have plenty of possibilities, you can harvest the seeds and eat them or make oil out of them or plant more of them to ensure their progeny or even feed birds with them if the whimsy strikes you."
"Oh Sheldon, that's so thoughtful," Amy's smile was even more radiant than before now. "Thank you so much, and I'm sorry again for having reached the wrong conclusion earlier." She hugged him tightly, and he stroked her back in response.
After being apart all day at work, Sheldon was excited to finally see and speak to her. According to their new agreement he hadn't texted her during the day to avoid further distractions. So instead he had collected all his Amy-related feelings to tell her in the evening.
"Mmh, that smells delicious, thank you Sheldon," Amy said smiling as she sat down at the kitchen counter.
"It is delicious," Sheldon answered matter-of-factly as he served dinner for both of them. He had prepared gratinated potatoes with vegetables instead of meat, even changing his mother's recipe because Amy wasn't too fond of too much meat.
"Amy, in light of recent events, I would like to invoke an impromptu relationship summit," he said.
"Seconded. Please go on," Amy answered.
"I have several requests for alterations of the relationship agreement," Sheldon started. "Firstly, in line with my expressions of Amy-related feelings, I need to understand your emotions better. This would require honest answers from you whenever I ask you to elaborate, like concerning your facial expression about the sunflower earlier."
"Agreed," Amy confirmed after a short pause of consideration.
"Secondly, I'd like to include regular sleepovers on dateni…"
"Agreed," Amy interrupted him eagerly.
"…nights," he finished. "I knew you would agree," he grinned at her. "If you haven't hidden another of your overnight bags here…" he started to look around the room.
Amy shook her head in the negative, "I'd be happy to provide you with one of my shirts… that is if we need it at all," he finished, blushing. Amy smiled at him fondly; he just looked too adorable like that.
Before he would get too distracted about possible later activities he went back to his mental list. "Thirdly, concerning the recent progress of our relationship, the logical next step would be for us to live together, by the latest when we are married. We also need to discuss marriage arrangements. I'm certainly not one to rush things, so we'd need to take it slow…"
Amy simply nodded in agreement, this week was already turning out several orders of magnitude better than she could ever have imagined; she could wait however long it might take him.
Sheldon continued, "I've thought about it for a long time now, 155 days to be exact…"
Amy did a quick calculation. "Since Christmas," she said in wonder.
"It was the first Christmas I had enjoyed since Pop-pop died," Sheldon admitted in a low voice. "When you made all those efforts for a perfect Christmas and gave me such a thoughtful present… as I tasted your cookies, it made me feel at home with you, and I realized I would not object to not having you in my life in a non-permanently way anymore."
He looked at her tenderly, then remembered something else and decided to bring it up himself before she'd ask him. "Uhm, I fooled myself when I thought I could manage to go to Mars alone… but that was the last time, I won't make that mistake again. Anyway, getting back to Christmas, directly afterwards I set out to get you the ring, but I never found the right opportunity to give it to you. I thought about it during our sleepover and on our anniversary, but first I couldn't summon the courage to ask you, and then the opportunity was lost due to your absence," he looked at her sheepishly, and she smiled at him, encouraging him to go on.
"That was the one thing I didn't want to write in my letter… And also what I had been trying to tell you during our Skype call on Monday… I've been thinking a lot about relationships and how difficult they can be, and I think ours is a special one and we should do everything in our power to make it thrive. You know I'm very hesitant towards change, but with you I've learned that it isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm glad about our recent developments and wouldn't want to take a single thing back to the way it was before." He exhaled in relief, "Finally some closure on that interruption," he mumbled.
Amy was beaming at his words now. He really was so sure about his commitment to her. If she had just let him speak three days ago, they might have resolved their problems even sooner – not that she would complain about the recent turn of events; that was much more than she had ever dreamed of. She was amazed that with his compulsion for closure, he had let himself be interrupted and had waited three days to tell her; he had definitely made a lot of concessions just for her.
"Concerning closure, what was that look on your face about earlier concerning the sunflower?" Sheldon asked earnestly, hoping to understand her better.
"Oh. Well, your guess about the sad face was correct," Amy replied.
"Ha! I knew it," he said proudly with a smile, but then it vanished as he looked at her confused again. "And why was it your sad face?" He inquired further.
Amy wanted him to figure it out by himself. "You negated my question about whether you had bought me a flower. What are the possible implications?" She asked.
"Obviously, that I didn't buy it – as I explained," he said, still looking confused.
"Yes, you explained that later. What else?" Amy was persistent.
"Uhm… that I didn't buy it? As much as Leonard loves to work for me, when it concerns you, I'd prefer to do that myself. Is that what bothered you?" He asked.
"No. Try again," Amy shook her head in the negative.
"That I didn't buy it for you?" Sheldon asked after another moment of consideration. As she finally nodded, he looked at her incredulously. "Wasn't it obvious? Seriously, woman, how many people do you think are there in the world that I have been wanting to ask to become my wife and that I would even bother to think about giving flowers?"
"That would be me," Amy chuckled. "I'm sorry, I still have to get used to you really wanting to please me," she added in a small voice.
Sheldon licked his lips, thinking about how to approach the final topic on his list he had started. Yes, he surely wanted to please her more often. "Uhm, that's definitely been on my mind... which leads me to my last item, making love…"
He paused, and Amy was desperate to know what was going on in that big bulbous brain of his. "If you're pausing for dramatic effect, you have been successful. Please go on, you probably have it outlined already in terms of frequency, duration and acceptable positions?" She asked curiously. Of course Sheldon would need to regulate everything, but then at least she'd know what to expect, and it would be binding…
Sheldon's eyes moved over her body, making her feel all warm and fuzzy from just his gaze. "An interesting point we might consider at a later stage. However, at the moment, I would refer to us being in the initial set-up of the experiment. There are so many possibilities to try out, vary and optimize. Before making conclusions about preferences we need to define, assess and evaluate the necessary parameters, environmental conditions, equipment…"
"E… equipment?" Amy repeated.
"Yes," he nodded, raising his eyebrows in challenge. "Now that you asked, for starters, we could put Rice Sheldon to good use. Placing him underneath you for example would vary the angle of penetration."
Amy thought that if he was trying to make her blush, she would give him some of his own medicine. "Oh, how whimsically inventive of you, Dr. Cooper," she winked at him. "Are you also planning to use your Saturn V rocket on me?" She raised her eyebrows as he did sometimes, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth as she revealed that information.
Sheldon's smug expression had vanished at her remark. "Why… why would you say that?" He stuttered, turning pale. It suddenly dawned on him why Kripke had been so excited about his model rocket. Would the wrath of Amy now soon be upon him, he thought fearfully.
"Don't worry, I'm not mad anymore," she continued. "Barry asked me once if we were still giving that rocket a proper jostling, and I didn't understand. Later I talked to Penny and it made a lot of more sense then. It also gave me hope to know that you were working on it."
Amy thought for a moment whether to tell him, and then she added, "By the way, don't be surprised if Barry asks about your Tom Baker scarf. I may have added a few fantasies of my own when I spoke to him later. Uhm, just remember you like to be tied to the headboard of my waterbed while Nurse Chapel rushes through the TARDIS doors to your, uhm… rescue. Well, I didn't tell him about the TARDIS because that came later, but I think you'll get the picture," she finished sweetly.
Sheldon looked at her with wide eyes and gulped. "Uhm," he croaked, then tried again, "I guess I deserved that…" He then gave her a lopsided smile. "So… with that in mind I believe there is consent to also add some Cosplay items to the list of equipment?"
'There is a list already?' Amy thought in wonder. "Oh, definitely, Dr. Cooper," she agreed in a low seductive voice as she slowly continued eating.
Sheldon's eyes followed the food disappearing into her mouth. "Oh boy, you can even make potatoes look sexy," he said hoarsely.
"Just wait until we get to dessert, I have also prepared something for us," Amy winked at him.
"I'm in hell, but I guess you know that already," he groaned, shifting around in his seat as it started to become uncomfortable down there. All his Amy-related feelings seemed to go into the same direction recently.
Seeing him fidgeting around gave Amy an idea. She got up and moved her chair halfway around the counter so that she wasn't sitting opposite him anymore, but kitty-cornered to him with the effect that the shelves beneath the kitchen counter weren't that much of a barrier between them anymore. "Recently I seem to be getting a better picture of your emotions," she said slowly in a low voice, "but it wouldn't hurt to substantiate my guesses with some solid evidence," and accompanying her sensual voice she had stripped off her shoes and was trailing a line with her foot over his calf up to his thigh and further on to his crotch where she slightly wiggled her toes against his arousal, making him nearly choke on his food.
"Will you stop it already? This is hard enough as it is," he said in a rough voice, then tickled her toes to try to regain some semblance of control.
They continued eating silently for a short while, then Sheldon spoke again as he couldn't keep his eyes from her lips and her throat as she swallowed the food. "Uhm, that reminds me of something else," he told her. "You know when you talked about topological quantum field theory and curved time-space yesterday? Well, I couldn't get the image of your curvy body out of my mind all day no matter how much I tried, but before assaulting you in your lab again I tried to keep it together and decided to show you later how I felt about you," he explained as his eyes roamed over her body, making her feel all warm inside.
"So, as I thought of how your body was all soft but could also turn surprisingly rigid in certain places, along with those slippery parts that turn out to be extremely flexible and forceful depending on the, uhm, activation mechanism, that lead me to an interesting idea. A part of the generally accepted theory deals with supersymmetry in which the Hamiltonian is assumed to be zero, preventing any real dynamics. However, considering an intervening manifold, which uhm… would be me for sake of comparison, non-trivial tunneling effects might become possible in the appropriate environment which would be a space-time flexible and slippery enough to be susceptible to such manipulations without disruptions. I still have to work out some of the details, but I was already able to describe the rough outline most elegantly with the help of Feynman diagrams."
Amy listened attentively, enraptured and aroused by his beautiful mind again. It was a delight to see what he could do with the proper suggestions.
"I made a first draft and also mentioned you in the acknowledgements for, uhm, giving me inspiration. Do you want to read it?" He asked her eagerly.
"Of course," Amy agreed instantly. "Sheldon, this is great, it sounds like you're really onto something. Uhm, how about you read it to me later in bed? I love hearing your voice, and this seems to be a most interesting lecture," she told him.
"Alright, you just got yourself a bed-time story, little lady," Sheldon winked at her.
They had finished eating without further incident to wreak havoc on Sheldon's thin layer of control. As he took care of the dishes, Amy got up to get her bag. "As you made dinner, I brought dessert," she said, unpacking a bowl of strawberries, a bar of dark chocolate and a small fondue set.
Sheldon's jaw dropped as she set up the fondue and lit up the gelled fuel paste, then chopped the chocolate and put the pieces into the fondue pan. "You… you brought strawberries?" he stammered.
"Oh yes, I've read your letter very attentively. As you seemed to be thinking of having strawberries with chocolate more often for dessert, I'm happy to oblige you," Amy smiled, setting up two small plates and handing him a skewer as he joined her at the kitchen counter.
"I have to warn you, though, this is a bit more of a sophisticated eating experience than your chocolate-crusted version from last time. As the chocolate is still hot, you have to twirl the skewer and need to be quick to catch it, or you would make a mess." She demonstrated as she explained, and at the word 'mess' her tongue darted out to catch the sweet fruit before any chocolate could drop down.
Sheldon watched her every move attentively and couldn't tear his gaze away from her lips as she licked them clean.
"Do you want to try?" Amy asked, looking up at him through her eyelashes.
"Yes, please," he croaked, closing his eyes and moaning at the taste as she fed him a piece.
"Oh dear, I've already made a mess," Amy sighed, using her finger to wipe up a dollop from the corner of his mouth. As she pulled her hand away, he caught her finger and brought it to his mouth, licking it clean.
"Delicious," he said, his darkened eyes looking intently at her. "My turn now." He had been sitting at the counter, but got up and came over to her. He picked up a strawberry, dipped it into the molten chocolate with his fingers and guided it towards her mouth. As Amy parted her lips, he didn't insert it, but first traced a line along her lips before he finally put it inside.
"Oh, let me help you with that," he said, stepping even closer to her than before as his lips descended on hers. He lightly sucked on her lips and traced them with his tongue, licking the chocolate off them. This was even more delicious than the fruit itself, its fragrance now mixed with Amy's taste. As he felt her tongue darting out, he deepened the kiss, his hands entangling in her hair while his thumbs stroked her cheeks.
Amy pulled him close to her, tilting her head up to meet him, eagerly reciprocating the kiss. When they had to come up for air, she got up and pushed him into the bar chair instead, so that she would get a better angle for kissing him next time. She then took a strawberry and dipped it into the chocolate as he had done earlier and, with just her fingers, fed it to him.
After each fruit their kisses became more heated and before too much time had passed, Sheldon had Amy sitting on the kitchen counter, her date night dress ridden up her thighs while he stood between her legs with his hands on her bottom, holding her close to him as he set up a slow rhythm with his pelvis to press into her with the same tempo as his tongue dueled with hers. The rest of the strawberries had been forgotten; they had more important things to take care of right now.
Amy's hands were tousling his short brown hair, and she was molding her body against him with such vigor that it seemed that neither could get close enough to the other.
Which is how Leonard and Penny found them when they entered the apartment a short while later.
"Looks like date nights have improved recently," Penny commented dryly.
"Not only date nights," Leonard added, remembering the make-out session he had involuntarily witnessed two days ago.
Amy quickly jumped down while Sheldon remained standing behind the counter very glad of the cover. As Amy grabbed her glass of water to drink a bit to cool off and hide her embarrassment, Penny's gaze fell upon her ring.
"Oh my God, is this what I think it is?" She screamed.
"I literally have no idea what you might be thinking at all. This is Amy drinking water," Sheldon said confused, his voice husky from their recent activities.
"Sheldon, she is talking about the ring," Amy explained.
"Ah, okay," Sheldon nodded. "Penny, this is a ring," he told her as if that explained everything.
"I can see that," Penny said exasperated.
"I guessed so. Then why did you ask?" Sheldon asked, glad that Amy didn't talk in that confusing manner.
"I think she is wondering about the significance of me wearing such a ring," Amy elaborated further with a huge smile as Leonard came closer, smiling at the couple.
"Then why didn't she ask appropriately?" Sheldon looked blankly at Amy who shrugged her shoulders, he shook his head and turned to Penny. "Okay, if you had simply asked why Amy is wearing a ring and what it means to us, I would have told you that I asked her to marry me and she agreed, obviously."
Penny shrieked and clutched Leonard's arm in excitement. Leonard approached Sheldon and patted him on the back, still smiling hugely. "Congratulations, buddy. I knew you had it in you." He turned to Amy and hugged her, "I'm so happy for you, you two deserve it!"
"Wow, you really did it, I can't believe it! Come on, spill! I need to hear all about it," Penny exclaimed excitedly, taking Amy's hand to get a better view of the ring. Amy was wearing goofy smile, enjoying for once being in the center of the attention for a nice reason.
"No, you certainly don't," Sheldon hastened to assure her in a high-pitched voice.
Penny didn't understand his reaction but didn't want to argue with him, so she turned to Amy. "Come on, Ames, how did he propose to you? Was it romantic?" Penny asked, then seeing Leonard's disbelieving face, hastened to correct herself, "I mean, Sheldon-type of romantic."
Sheldon's mouth opened and closed again. He was at a loss now, as he certainly didn't want to give them any details on his 'proposal'. Why hadn't they thought of an elaborate scheme to tell their friends? In the light of day, his impulsive act might not have been the wisest move ever. He tried again, "Uhm…" then was silent again.
Meanwhile, Amy was blushing furiously and looking at her feet. She also seemed to be suffering from the same loss of words. "For me, it was," she finally answered in a low voice, smiling up to Sheldon shyly.
Leonard and Penny looked at them in confusion, what could have possibly been so difficult to tell? They knew they had their weird ways, but why did they both seem to be so embarrassed now?
Penny's gaze fell upon the chocolate fondue and she picked up a strawberry to taste it, "Mmh, delicious!"
Sheldon slapped her hand away as she went for another one, "Stop it, that's unhygienic," he scolded her while Amy shook her head and smiled at the hypocrisy of it, but wisely made no comment.
"Alright, let me guess," Leonard started, trying to figure out what might have made sense in Sheldon's mind. "Sheldon sent you a document at least ten-page long, outlining all the pros and cons, thus reaching the conclusion that matrimony might be an adequate and logical continuation of your relationship – with the understanding that nothing changes whatsoever, of course – closing with demanding your opinion on the matter RSVP."
Sheldon huffed. "Even I know this should be done, uhm… personally. And some of the recent changes might not have been that unpleasant," he added in a low voice, making Amy smile at him.
"Ha, I know, Sheldon did it Leonard-style," Penny joked, and both Leonard and herself laughed together at the pun. Now that they were finally married, they could look back at their proposal history in amusement. However, when they looked at Amy and Sheldon, they saw that they were both watching them like deers caught in the headlights, and Sheldon was grabbing Amy's hand for support.
"Hey, that was a joke, right?" Penny said, not so certain anymore. Both of them still looked at her with wide eyes. Sheldon was biting his lip and Amy was stroking his hand with her thumb, trying to calm him, neither of them answering her.
"What exactly were those not so unpleasant changes?" Leonard wondered; picking up on Sheldon's previous words he had an idea, especially concerning their current reaction, but again received no answer from either of them.
For Penny, the solution was already clear. "Holy crap, you really did that?" She screamed, looking to and fro at their faces, not sure about which part to freak out more, that they actually had sex or that Sheldon had proposed during sex.
"Way to go… You dawg," Leonard drawled. He had known when he saw them making out recently it would only be a matter of time until they would fully commit to each other, but this was much faster than he thought, but then Sheldon obviously didn't do anything half-heartedly.
"Now, uhm… this is confusing," Sheldon had found his voice again, "while I had spooned Amy from behind initially, I don't think a comparison with dogs would be appropriate here."
"Sheldon, that is too much detail," Amy hissed, her cheeks turning red. "But it was really nice," she said with a dreamy look in her eyes while Sheldon pulled her closer to him, placing his arm around her waist, mumbling "good" into her ear.
"Ohh, next girl's night will be soo interesting, perhaps we should include Sheldon as he's so forthcoming with sharing information," Penny grinned. "I'm so happy for you guys!"
Leonard now looked at Amy apologetically, "Sorry Amy, but after all these years of hearing his Homo Novus talk I have to ask him now." He turned to Sheldon with a big grin. "Tell me, whatever happened to finding the concept of coitus ridiculous and off-putting?"
Sheldon looked at him pensively, still hugging Amy. "Oh, that didn't change." Amy looked at him in confusion, because he certainly hadn't been repulsed, quite the opposite. Sheldon continued, "We didn't engage in coitus. I made love to the woman I will be spending the rest of my life with, that's something completely different." Amy's face lit up at his words.
"And now enough of that," he said in his usual dismissive manner. "By the way, we've included sleepovers for date night, so don't you have someplace else you have to be?" He asked them bluntly.
"That's a wise idea," Leonard said hastily, grabbing Penny's hand to get the hell out of there, not wanting to witness anything they might be up to later.
"Would you mind locking the door behind you?" Amy asked sweetly, winking at Penny who grinned at her in return.
"Oh, definitely," Leonard said as they left.