"Oh well…I-I…" the blonde gulped nervously. "It's just kidding around, right?"

"Kidding around?"

"A fun test…" she stuttered, one hand flicking towards the laptop unsure why she was so unnerved by what had just happened. "It's like that intimacy experiment… just a bit of fun...you know..."

Sheldon looked first at his screen and then towards the jittery frame standing alongside him, "I do believe you're being non-committal with me?" he frowned. "Just like you were with Leonard."

"Noooooo," she said, rather unconvincingly but the earnest glare staring back caused a lump in her throat and she sat back down hastily, "I'm sorry," she said, "Its just…"

He waited.

"Oh god, I'm usually so good at this," she breathed, as the words didn't come.

"Good at what?"

"Good at men!"

"Well, perhaps men plural and man singular are different."

She managed a tight smile. "You are very different, Sheldon," she sighed, "And I just don't know what to do with you."

"Well, what do you usually do?"

She considering this for a moment and then answered. "Well… I usually wear something low cut… smile a lot, make plenty of eye contact, touch his arm or leg, if I can make it look natural and just when he thinks he's calling the shots, I jump on top of the guy, go in for the kill and try to get my hands under his clothes."

"Well!" Sheldon spat.

"Obviously…. I not going do that with y-you," she stuttered, as she realised who she was talking too.

"I should think not!"

Penny glanced about the room for a few awkward seconds after her admission. The fact he had put her on that list had both thrilled and freaked her out and for the first time in her life, she was unsure how to proceed. "Do you really think it could work between us?" she asked finally.

"Well…" he mused, his brow furrowed in thought. "You'll need to make some changes."

"Me? What about you?"

"Why does everything think I should be the one to change?" he said, eyes flashing at her in challenge, "Leonard, Howard, Amy and now you. It would do you good to tame those rampant urges of yours. Look at the trouble they cause you."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Why are we even talking about this?" she groaned.

"Because it needs talking about and we talk about everything."

"We do don't we? We never shy away from the truth."

"No matter how distasteful."

"Distasteful huh?" she huffed, "So why am I on your spreadsheet then?"

The question hung in the air for a second. "I'm still trying to work that out." He shifted in his seat, eyes down.

Penny turned towards her handsome friend and took his closest hand in hers. "Maybe you can't work something like this out on paper, or with pixels. Maybe you need to…"

"To what?"

Now that was her cue. Under ordinary circumstances she would have taken this as the moment to launch herself right in.

Bounce damn it! Kiss the guys, just damn well do it!

She hesitated.

What if he hates it? What if he pushed me away? Darn, this is hard.

"You think of something then!" she snapped, frustrated by her impotence.

"Very well," he said quite calmly, "I suggest we being the kissing."

He was nothing if blunt. "T-t-the what?"

"I was initially quite reluctant to kiss but I'm quite comfortable now and as this is the ninth year of our acquaintance we are a little behind schedule."

His face and lips taunted her, she could just bend forward and try but instead…

"No."

"No? Well that's disappointing," he replied, with a slight sulk. "I need the kissing as part of my research. Although I have marked Mrs Gunderson as exempt."

"Well, you'll have to mark me exempt as well because kissing leads to other things with me Sheldon. I'm not the type to make compromises like Amy did."

He gave her a blank look. She was going to have to spell it out. "I want sex!"

"What now?!"

"Huh? No not… now!" She flushed.

"You really shouldn't say things you don't mean. It's very confusing."

Penny felt herself rile up and lurched forward a little, lowering her tone, "What if I stuck my tongue right in your mouth now, would you take me off you list?" she threatened, her sharp green eyes fixed on his, leaning closer.

Sheldon pulled his free hand up in a protective gesture. "Um? I absolutely insist that there be no tongues. You will just have to constrain yourself."

"Sweetie, I don't do tests, I don't have schedules. I give everything. I thought this was just a friendship but it's not. I thought we were just friends. Like brother and sister even but the potential has always been there, the potential for a lot more. So that's the truth. Take it or leave it. You'll have to realise one thing about me, I never constrain myself," she hushed in her most seductive tone.

The full extent of what he was taking on suddenly became very real to Sheldon. Those darkening pupils were so close, a light breath on his skin and a soft hand upon his. He knew that she would be silk under his fingertips, that her hair would be cool and light as a feather on his neck. He knew all this because he'd felt it before and had those blonde locks gently graze his neck when they'd embraced in the past. He remembered everything so vividly. Her skin was so soft, almost unbearably soft. Sheldon's mind began to tick over looking for a solution to tame that wild thing before him. "I could train her." A dozen techniques flashed in his mind. "I could make her less chaotic… I could!" and then, "Do I want too?" There was only one thing left to think, "Lean closer." He wanted her to close the gap, to push him a little more but not quite yet. Swallowing hard, he turned away and nodded towards the kitchen where the abandoned questionnaire still sat. Her head followed his gaze and when she pulled away he was both retrieved and slightly regretful.

The blonde snatches up the pages and then spoke. "It's okay if we just stay friends, Sheldon. I don't want to lose you."

"Okay."

That's it? He's not going to argue? Her heart sunk a little.

"We can be friends… friends with kissing," he said.

"Sheldon, you can't be friends with kissing," she said gently, smiling at how cute he was.

"Oh course you can. I will teach you and it will make you a real contender, Penny."

Penny wanted to be a "real contender" even though she suspected the questionnaire would change all that. "Sure," she replied, happy to see the unmistakable excitement spread across his face.

"Well, I must say this is all going wonderfully. Good night Penny."

As the door closed behind her, she stopped briefly in the hall to take in what she had just agreed too. Friends with kissing? What the hell? That was pretty much his relationship with Amy. She'd given Sheldon exactly want he wanted and she'd always thought that Amy was such a pushover accepting those terms.

"Damn, how does he do that?" she miffed, as she crossed the hall.