"Thank you, Penny. For tonight, and for being part of my life" he said after a while, when he found again the energy to talk. They were now on their sides facing each other.

"Thank you, sweetie. You are my everything. Always been" she whispered back.

"You have no idea how long I wanted to do that. When we first met, I really didn't care about you, and never did for more than one year"

"Yeah... I noticed. You were thinking about those science stuff only" she interrupted him.

"When we had that prank war after I banned you from our apartments, I felt something I couldn't explain... I started to feel attracted to you, but I thought it was just a transitory basic instinct and I had to ignore it. Then... you gave me the Leonard Nimoy napkin and everything changed. When you came here tonight, and gave me a so brilliant perspective about something you don't even know, I found no other way to thank you than making love with you, just like that Christmas I felt the uncontrollable need to hug you"

"Sheldon, that is... Aw, come here" she leaned towards him and gave him a few kisses on the lips. This time their kisses were soft, they needed these after an exhausting session of extremely wet kisses.

"If I have to be honest..." he continued "Even I have lost the count of all the times I wanted to do this. In the last few years I desired you every single time I saw you, basically every day. When you broke up with Leonard I seriously thought about asking you out. But then I was set up with Amy, you got back together with Leonard, then you married him. I thought proposing to her would have helped me to get over you definitively but clearly, it didn't work. It's not that I hate her, but I don't want to get myself into a loveless, kind-of-arranged marriage"

"Loveless marriage, huh? I guess that's what my relationship with Leonard is. We fight all the time for every stupid thing. Sometimes I even find his presence just annoying, with no particular reason. Do you believe that we forgot about our anniversary?"

"I can't forget anything but... considering how little you both seem to care about your marriage, I do"

She sighed and went on. "Don't get me wrong, Leonard isn't a bad guy at all, and there were times I truly felt loved... but I don't want to live with him for the rest of my life. It may sound absurd to others, but the relationship I have with you is much healthier. You advised me, you supported me, you challenged me, you thaught me things and I did the same for you. You are so sweeter and more caring than people say"

"I am like Wall-E... I am so full of love, and I can save a plant and get people out of the floaty chairs" he said as they both laughed.

"How you came up with this?" she asked, not remembering that she actually said that.

"You told this to me when I rescued you after you fell in the shower. It was 8 years, one month and 26 days ago" he pointed out.

"Oh yeah... You have idiotic memory"

"It's called eidetic memory" Sheldon rolled his eyes.

"I know that, sweetie, I just wanted to tease you" she said, smiling and giving him another peck "I remember that night. When we sang Soft Kitty here... my God, I desired you so badly that night. I really had to struggle a lot to resist you"

"I touched your right breast" he remembered smiling, caressing her boobs and making her smile in return.

"And that was far from being the first time. I started to be attracted to you long before. Since the moment I met you" she had turned completely serious now that she was talking. "Tell me, since you have that...

"...eidetic memory?" he helped her continuing the question.

"Yeah. When did you want to kiss me for the first time? I mean, when you understood that you loved me, not just basic instinct" she ended the sentence air-quoting what he said before.

"Well, that's quite easy. Monday April 27th, 2009. You let me stay here and sleep in this bed after I locked myself out of my apartment. I still wasn't completely confident, so I abruptly told you to get out of this room after singing Soft Kitty"

"Don't you want to apologize for that?" she asked, grinning.

"Of course I'm sorry. Even if it has been 3181 days since then. 8 years, 8 months and 15 days" he replied.

"You know there are a few more things for what you should apologize?"

"You mean I should apologize for... Grammar is important"

This time she was the one to roll her eyes. "Correcting every single thing I say is one of those... I know you just mean to instruct me but it isn't nice, sweetie. All the times you implied I'm a bit stupid or cheap weren't nice either. You'll definitely have a lot of time for that but, if we want to make this thing work, it's important that you know how everything about my feelings" she was half-serious.

"I'll tell you something right now. I want you to know that I never meant to intentionally hurt you. I already told you I don't understand other people's emotions, I would have never said those things if I had known better. I love you... for who you are. And I want to thank you for all the nice things you did for me, they mean the world"

She turned on her back and watched the ceiling.

"We did everything wrong, sweetie, didn't we? There will be huge consequences now" she said in a low pitch.

"Probably we waited too long, and we shouldn't have gone this far with the wrong people, but I wouldn't say we did everything wrong. At least after all this time we know how to work well together"

Her eyes started to fill with tears. "Sheldon... I don't want to lose Leonard nor Amy. Thy might not be our soul mates, but I want to keep them as friends. They are not bad people after all. Maybe we could keep seeing each other behind their backs for a few weeks and then..."

"I don't think it's a good idea. I don't want ourselves to be ashamed of our relationship, even if it's forbidden. We have to talk to them as soon as we can"

"OK, listen to my suggestion. Tonight we will act like if nothing happened, and then tomorrow we'll tell them together. Sounds good?"

"I have no objection, though according to my calculations there is one in a million probability they will take it well. I think Leonard will punch me"

"I know, sweetie, but... Together we can do everything. We even solved string theory!"

He hugged her, pressing their naked bodies together, and kissed her on the forehead. He was too happy to tell her that no, they didn't actually solve string theory.

"OK, I guess I have to go. They're still waiting for me to bring them pizza" she said, straightening up and grabbing her clothes from the floor.

"That's a good idea. I think I'll have a shower"

"Yeah, you definitely need that. I do, too" she gave him one last kiss and started to dress herself as he headed to the bathroom.

"Thought you were getting us dinner" Leonard said as Penny walked in.

"Sorry. I had to stop at Sheldon's and help him solve string theory" she said crossing her arms.

"What?" Amy watched her in shock.

"Yeah, turns out the answer's knots"

"That's cute, but you can't have knots in more than four dimensions" Leonard pointed out.

"You can if you consider them sheets" she said proudly, patting his back "By the way... I hope we could have dinner here tomorrow night, the four of us and nobody else. Maybe have another game night, it's been a lifetime since the last time"

"I'm in... I'm looking forward to beat your asses again with my bestie" Amy was excited, completely oblivious.

"I'm in, too" Leonard followed.

"OK, then. I'll have a shower and go to sleep. Goodnight, Amy. Leonard... don't make noise when you come to bed, right? I'm very tired"

Penny headed to the shower and quickly washed herself, then she climbed on the bed, still alone, and thought about what just happened. Her life and Sheldon's had completely changed and the following day, at the same hour, Leonard's and Amy's lives would be turned upside down as well.

"Tomorrow will be a very long day... but it's worth it" she thought to herself, before falling in a very restless sleep.

Soundtrack: Pink - True Love