AN 1: Funny thing, I have been on hiatus for years and after getting hooked on TBBT, decided to dust off the keyboard and try writing again after this story came to mind. At the time the very talented moulesfrites had just started posting a story about Amy's mental health crisis, so I thought I would wait rather than cloud TBBT FF section with more darkness. But I think she started something as I've now seen other stories popping up so decided to just go for it. No Beta's, all mistakes are solely mine.

AN 2: This is a different angle on the abuse/mental health storyline of things. It will deal with some serious issues but will have some threads of humor/romance/friendship along the way.

Timeline: Sometime in the Season 7-8 range, after the kiss on the train, before any breakups.

Chapter 1:

"Dinner was delightful as always Amy, thank you" Sheldon said as he rose from table while Amy quickly moved to clear the dishes.

"I'm glad you liked it," Amy beamed back at him. Even though he was easy to please with meals of spaghetti with hot dogs and Strawberry Quik, she enjoyed knowing she could make date nights special for her boyfriend. Even though finishing dinner signaled the end of their date, she was looking forward to the goodnight kiss portion of the evening that was coming next. As Sheldon gathered his messenger bag, she quickly rushed to sit on the sofa to wait. From her calculations he now had a 99.3% success rate of remembering their date night kiss without prompting. A 67.87% success rate of kissing on the sofa escalating to what could generously be called a light make-out session, as opposed to the 23.19% success rate if they engaged in their date night kiss standing at her front door which had a 74.8% chance of being a distracted brush of the lips before he turned towards the door.

Sheldon noticed her choice of location, having calculated himself that over the past 2 months she was now moving to the couch for their goodnight kiss 94.21% of the time that he did not get to the door first. He had initially been mystified as to the cause of this, having concluded that she probably just liked somewhere softer to sit after they had spent an hour sitting on the wooden chairs at the dinner table.

Sheldon joined his girlfriend on the sofa at the exact calculated projection to where he could lean in and their lips could meet while maintaining what he felt was an appropriate distance to not engage in any unnecessary physical contact. He had not volunteered to her that ever since their kiss on the train he had started enjoying their kisses more, but he also remained wary as Amy had made no secret that she would like to be more intimate, while he was more than happy to just keep exploring the world of kissing.

"Here we are," he announced unnecessarily, "time for our goodnight kiss."

"Yes, here we are," Amy smiled cheekily as they both leaned towards the center of the sofa and their lips gently met. She was pleased to find that he was not abruptly pulling away as their kiss continued. Until now they had both only engaged in close mouthed kisses but as they continued she felt daring and parted her lips enough for him to feel her breath against his lips, she almost squealed when after the barest of hesitations she felt him reciprocate, though she was careful to keep her tongue to herself to keep from freaking him out. She could not believe they had just advanced to open mouthed kissing and that he was not pulling away.

After a few moments of feeling their breaths mingling while they softly kissed Amy tilted her head, changing the angle at which their lips met and decided to go for broke as she tentatively let her tongue stroke against his bottom lip for the briefest of moments.

Sheldon inhaled sharply and pulled away as they locked gazes, his brain quickly processing what had just happened. He felt his own increased heartbeat and wondered if his eyes were as dilated as her own. Deciding that the experience had not harmed him, acknowledging that he had enjoyed it, he gulped, feeling a little shaky as he murmured her name before leaning back in.

"Sheldon," he felt Amy's breath caress his lips as she whispered his name in return before their lips met again. They experimented slowly, alternating between open and closed mouth kisses with occasional darts of their tongues to explore the lips of their partner.

Amy almost jumped when she realized they had touched tongues and Sheldon did not retreat in disgust at the germs. She scooted in closer to him, still testing the boundaries as she rested her hands on his shoulders to help anchor herself. Instead of retreating she felt him lean in, his arms slowly come to rest on her lower back as they both stayed focused on the new sensations.

While Sheldon was enjoying their kiss his brain started to interfere as he became uncomfortable at the rising heat in his body, he could feel his body responding to the kiss and knew he had to end it soon before he embarrassed himself and Amy both.

Though joined by the kiss their brains were on different tracks. While Sheldon fought the growing urge to pull away Amy could feel her heart pounding, tasting the remnants of Quik in his mouth as they continued to experiment with the different sensations. She realized they were escalating to the point that she could honestly say they had been French kissing. She had meticulously researched the different types of kissing people might engage in so she could accurately describe it to Penny and Bernadette later, she tried to read as much as she could to help hide her inexperience. She had to say she was finding this latest development in their relationship particularly enjoyable.

While acutely aware of her own growing arousal, the biologist also took a moment to gauge her partners physical response. She could feel the increased puffs of air coming from his nostrils, feeling the pulse in his neck under her fingers, both signs of his own arousal. Becoming even more bold she moved her right hand from his neck and gently rested it on his knee while trying to distract him with another dash of her tongue against his lips, ignoring the flinch she felt in response. "A flinch of nerves is different than pulling away." She reassured herself as she squeezed his knee gently, not intending to go any higher as she began alternating between a squeeze and a light caress on the bony joint.

There was a loud smack as Sheldon pulled back abruptly, looking at her with wide eyes and to Amy's alarm the earlier look of pleasure in his eyes was gone as he immediately scooted away from her, almost hugging the arm of the sofa.

There was a moment of silence as Amy focused on a picture on the wall, trying to calm her racing heart and increasingly familiar frustration she felt at the bucket of ice water he had just thrown on their make out session. Every time they started to become closer, he would abruptly pull away and she was finding it difficult to not be angry at the mixed messages.

Sheldon was silent, unmoving as he focused on his hands trying to deal with the thoughts racing through his brain. With her body in control but the anger still simmering, Amy shifted her gaze back to her boyfriend, prepared to lash out and confront him about his problems with intimacy but the look on his face stopped her cold. She had expected him to look uncomfortable but instead he looked terrified.

TBC