Penny knocked on Sheldon's door, then waited impatiently, tapping her foot. In a moment, Sheldon opened the door.
"Hello, Penny, how kind of you to knock," he said with a little smirk.
"Well, I had to, seeing as someone locked their door. What happened to 'my door is always open to you'?"
"I never said that," Sheldon retorted quickly.
"Fine, whatever," Penny said with an exasperated sigh. She edged past him and plopped down on one of the lawn chairs that were set up where the leather couch had once been. Since the sofa was Leonard's, he had taken it when he moved out. Penny produced her laptop, which she had been carrying under one arm, and opened it up. Sheldon sat down in the chair beside her (set precisely in his spot, of course) and peered curiously at the screen.
"Hmm... this looks like a crude version of a business prospectus. Are you thinking of starting up Penny Blossoms again?"
She wrapped a tendril of hair around a finger and twisted it nervously. "Yeah. Since Leonard left, I've realized how much I was mooching off of him. I hate that I let myself go so much that I couldn't even pay my bills without help. I was hoping that with the assistance of my super-genius friend, I could actually make this turn a profit."
Sheldon gave her a half-smile at her use of the term "super-genius", but he became serious again as he focused his attention on her business plans. It appeared that she had given this a lot of thought. She was even planning to take classes in jewelry-making. As he got to the end of the document, however, the last line made him frown.
"Penny, are you planning on applying to a bank for a business loan?"
"Yup," she replied, popping the "p" as she always did.
"I believe that any bank would examine your credit score before granting, or even considering, your loan request. Do you have any idea what your credit rating is?"
"Well, if it's based on how many pairs of shoes I've bought online, I'd say it's pretty good," she quipped.
He stared at her in dismay. After a moment, he found his voice. "Don't do that, Penny," he said harshly.
"Do what?" she asked, surprised at his tone of voice.
"Stop playing down to people's expectations of you. While pretending to be a 'dumb blonde' may get you free drinks at the local bar, it is hardly fitting for a young entrepreneur. Nor it is appropriate for someone I consider a friend," he added in a softer tone.
She looked down at her hands. "You're right, Sheldon," she said, after a long silence. "I've spent way too much time being someone less than what I could be."
She sighed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "And to answer your question, no, my credit score is pretty crappy, but I'm hoping to find some place that will lend me money. Maybe I can get another credit card and get a cash advance on it."
He shook his head. "No, that won't do at all. You know, I believe that Stuart has a friend-or an acquaintance at least-who makes chainmaille. Perhaps he could introduce you."
"Chainmail? Why would I want to learn about that?" Penny asked, wrinkling up her nose in confusion at the sudden shift in conversation.
Sheldon found himself distracted by how adorable she looked when she did that. With a slight shake of his head, he corrected, "Not chainmail, as in armor, but chainmaille, spelled with an '-le' at the end of the word. It refers to decorative jewelry and accessories made in the style of traditional chainmail, but using more malleable metals in the shape of links called jump rings." With a few taps, he pulled up some images on her screen.
"Wow, these are really amazing," Penny enthused. "I can imagine so many ways I could combine these chains and weaves with my rhinestones and silk flowers."
Personally, Sheldon couldn't picture it, but then again, no one had ever accused him of having an artistic temperament.
"Very well," he decided. "We should go talk to Stuart this evening."
"I really appreciate your eagerness, but even if Stuart's friend is willing to teach me, I still think I'll need some money to get started," Penny protested.
Sheldon hesitated for only a moment before proposing what he believed was the only viable option. "I will loan you the money."
"Oh, Sheldon, no, I can't," she protested. "That's just what I was trying to get away from, borrowing money from my friends."
"On the contrary, in your position, it would be better if you borrowed money from someone who wouldn't charge you interest and was willing to be flexible about repayment. I believe that a large part of your discomfort with relying on Leonard to provide for you was the fact that you were having coitus with him."
Penny winced. "Come on, Sheldon, can't you just say dating?"
"Very well. The fact that you were giving him 'dates' in exchange for him paying for your food and utilities made you feel as if you were engaging in what is referred to as 'the world's oldest profession'. That's prostitution," he added as she looked blank.
She winced, but nodded. "That's kind of what I said when I first came in here, but wow, you sure don't soft-pedal anything, do you?"
Sheldon took a deep breath. "Penny, I feel as if I owe you a great debt of gratitude for all of your emotional support over the past several weeks. You have taken action in ways that illustrate that you have been acting in what you consider to be my best interests, even when it made me feel upset or angry. I would be a poor friend if I did not reciprocate that same level of respect. In my opinion, right now you do not need someone to pat you on the back and say 'there, there'. It seems like you need what my mother used to call 'a swift kick in the pants'. If I am in error, I... apologize."
That last word came out of his mouth rather reluctantly, but it was still a huge step forward for Sheldon. Before now, he had never asked forgiveness of anyone unless he was forced into it, because he had such a hard time imagining he could be wrong. Recent events were slowly changing his opinion, however. He was willing to admit that he had made mistakes in his personal relationships. He was well aware how badly he had misjudged Leonard's friendship and Amy's loyalty.
Penny smiled softly at his words, causing a curious sensation in Sheldon's chest. If he had been asked to describe it, he would have said it felt like his heart had just turned a somersault, although of course that was anatomically impossible. Her next words, however, shocked him out of his reverie.
"So while we're being honest with each other, why did you kiss me the other day?"
Sheldon startled at her words and stared at her wordlessly. He hadn't yet been able to articulate how his feelings had changed toward Penny. Perhaps he was experiencing some weird hormonal fluctuation that had fixated on her as its focus. Maybe it was just a byproduct of his increased reliance on her for friendship and companionship. He wondered uneasily why she was asking. Notably, she hadn't mentioned anything about having feelings for him. A shock ran through his system as he realized that he, Sheldon Cooper PhD, was sitting there thinking about emotions.
Sheldon jumped up and hurried to the kitchen, opening up cabinets and rifling through them. "Would you like some tea?" he asked in a strained voice.
"I want you to answer the damn question."
Her voice came from directly behind him, and he almost dropped the mug in his hand. He turned around reluctantly to find that he was trapped between the counter and Penny. His eyes darted around the room nervously. He had thought about it, of course. He had tried to understand what could have caused him to so deviate from his normal behavior. Yet whenever his eidetic memory replayed the kiss (over and over), it caused his heart to race and his palms to sweat in a most distracting fashion.
"I... I don't know," he said desperately. It was the truth, in a manner of speaking.
She looked up into his face, her green eyes meeting his intensely. Her voice was little more than a whisper. "Sheldon, we spent all weekend together, even shared a bed. But I'd never thought about you that way until just before you went up to Amy's apartment. You touched my face, and there was something intimate about it. Then when you came back down, you kissed me, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it... about us."
Sheldon swallowed hard, certain that she could hear the pounding of his heart which sounded so loud to his ears. "I have had thoughts about you, too," he admitted quietly.
She reached out and took one of his long-fingered hands, cradling it with both of her own.
"Does this bother you?" she asked softly.
He could feel beads of sweat forming along the back of his neck, along with a prickling along his spine. The whole room seemed to narrow to just the two of them, in this moment.
"I find it... alarming, but not unpleasant," he murmured, closing his eyes as if in denial of what he was saying.
His eyes flew open again as her hands slid around his waist. "We'll take it slow," she said, laying her cheek against his chest. "We've been friends for a long time. Now we're just friends that might be something more."
In response, he wrapped his arms around her cautiously. She wasn't fragile. She wasn't weak. And yet somehow, with her arms around him, he felt as though he were her champion.
A/N: I haven't abandoned either of the two works-in-progress that I've been posting on this site. I even have outlines for both stories, so I know where the story is going. But my husband and I are hoping to move out of state, and so we've been putting a lot of time and effort into job hunting, researching likely neighborhoods, and fixing up our current house to put it on the market. It's a lot of work, so please be patient. I'll finish the story eventually!