I'm talking about video games in this, but I'm not a gamer. Forgive me if I talk nonsense, haha. Happy reading!

Chapter 3:

A few weeks have passed and Leonard has become a fixture in his neighbors life. And not in the lost puppy kind of way, following them around, hoping for some crumbs of attention. No, he was a welcomed guest and a friend in their apartment.

Much to Amy's surprise and delight.

Once Sheldon and Leonard had returned from the comic book store, arms full with new purchases, Sheldon had been a different man. With eyes glinting in excitement, he breezed past Amy with a swift kiss to her cheek in greeting and then urged Leonard to follow him down the hallway. The very last door was a crossing into nerd-culture heaven.

Shelves with neat rows of comic books on one side of the room. Another shelf filled with DVD's of Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who and more great science-fiction programs. Movie posters and comic book covers on the walls and various action figures propped on top of each shelf.

Leonard's eyes actually watered upon this sight.

Three hours later, an amused-looking Amy popped her head into the room, clad in her long nightgown, nonchalantly letting them know that dinner was on the table in case they were hungry and that she would go to bed now since she had to work in the morning. "But you boys have fun." she had called over her shoulder, barely able to contain her laughter.

Sheldon and Leonard had stared at each other, blushes creeping up their necks. Then they had made a show of maturely wishing each other a good night, yet already planning to meet again tomorrow at lunch to continue their discussion.

Ever since that day, they always met for lunch – all three of them – talking about their respective field of work and to Amy's dismay also a lot about science-fiction stuff that she didn't really care for. But from the glint in her eyes, Leonard could tell that she was just happy that her fiancé finally found a like-minded individual with whom he could share those geeky interests.

Leonard invited Sheldon to visit him upstairs at his 5A apartment every Wednesday after they went to Comic Central to read and discuss the newest issues. On Mondays he would come downstairs for dinner and sometimes a movie and on Fridays, Sheldon would turn on his vintage video game system and they'd play rounds and rounds of Zelda, Mario Cart and other games. Sometimes Amy joined them to watch and cheer them on and sometimes she would show her competitive side and she'd demand that the guys showed her how to play. Only for her to learn so quickly that she would destroy the two gaming lovers with her wrath.

Such nights were always a sign for Leonard that he had to leave early because Sheldon's eyes would get a weirdly distracted stare and Leonard could only tolerate so much newly-engaged lovey-doveyness before his dinner threatened to resurface.

He always left to the quiet emptiness of his own apartment with a mixture of glumness and longing. Leonard wondered if he would ever find a partner like that. Someone only half as compatible to him as Sheldon and Amy seemed to be to each other, would still be enough to make him unbelievably happy.

Amy, herself, hasn't made any close female friends yet, but she and Leonard never ran out of things to talk about. From their similarities in their respective childhood to handling advice for Sheldon's many peculiarities, shared mostly without his knowledge otherwise the proud physicist would be sulking like a child. At least he wasn't jealous anymore.

But both, Leonard and Amy, still longed for friendship outside of their little group.

"So, listen…" said Leonard as he and Sheldon entered the lobby of their building one day and waited for the elevator to come. "How about today we meet at my place to play video games. It'll be a nice change of pace."

Sheldon turned to look at him. One of his eyebrows raised up high while the other formed a perfectly wavy, scrunched up line. Leonard swallowed and moved half a step back. No one managed to convey so much condescension with only a look like Sheldon could.

"A nice change of pace?" he repeated mockingly and then shook his head with a snort of haughty derision. "I don't believe there is such a thing."

"Come on." Leonard tried to convince. "We're always hogging your TV. Amy must be sick of that."

"It's Friday night, Leonard." Sheldon lectured matter-of-factly. "That has been her long workday those past weeks which is why you're driving me home. On such days Amy prefers to curl up in bed and read. She would have no use for the TV anyway. So we can follow the routine as always, play Mario Cart and I'll beat you as always."

The elevator dinged open and the two friends got in. "Excuse me, you may have won last time, but I'm still number one in the ranking." Leonard reminded him passionately. They pressed the buttons for their respective floors and the door closed again. "It's just that I bought an extension for my gaming system. I have more slots for the controllers now and I want to see how it works."

"Why would you need more slots? It's not that you're living room is often crowded with people who fight for a turn on your Playstation." Sheldon pointed out. "In fact, I'm the only one you play with."

Leonard frowned as he got reminded of that fact, but this was exactly what might change, starting tonight. Only Sheldon didn't know it yet and since his friend obviously wasn't someone who embraced change willingly, Leonard knew he needed to be careful with approaching this subject or his evening would surely be ruined. "Just… humor me for once. I'm sure we'll have just as much fun as we do when we play at your apartment."

They've reached Sheldon's floor. "Humor you for once." he muttered to himself as he got out.

"Sheldon." Leonard whined, holding the door open. "Don't be like that. We always do what you want. Come to my apartment at the usual time and I let you decide which game we'll play."

Sheldon stood in front of his door, fiddling with the strap of his messenger bag. "Fine." he rolled his eyes exasperatedly. "But get ready for some text-based gaming fun with Zork."

Leonard swore he saw Sheldon smile mischievously as he turned around to open his door. Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. "Oh, come on." he threw up his hands. "You're the only one who likes that game." The elevator closed halfway through Leonard's complaint but he knew it didn't matter if Sheldon heard him or not. His stubborn friend had to get his way at least in one aspect of this argument or he wouldn't budge from his routine at all.

At least he was coming to his place now.

Leonard leaned against the back of the elevator and smiled. So far everything went according to plan.

Two hours later Leonard visibly jittered in his seat on the couch. He had prepared salty snacks and bought two packs of lemonade for his new friends who were already sitting on the couch next to him, eyes glued to the video game they were playing. Leonard had never prepared food for invited guests, but that wasn't why he was so nervous.

A quick glance at his wristwatch showed him that it were merely seconds now until it was exactly seven p.m. In just a few moments Sheldon would open the door, precisely on time as always.

He had warned his new companions about him being a little… quirky… to put it nicely, and they had just shrugged their shoulders because they weren't exactly the most suave people, either. But Leonard was still nervous how the meeting would go. He really hoped Sheldon would like them, too.

Only five seconds to go. A shiver went through Leonard, then he heard the distinctive pattern of Sheldon's triple knocks on the door accompanied by the triple call of his name. Leonard caught his friends exchanging a puzzled glance but he called him in anyway.

Sheldon opened the door and then immediately froze in the doorway when he saw that Leonard wasn't alone.

"Hi, Sheldon. Come in." Leonard said, making a point of acting perfectly natural. "These are Howard and Rajesh; they work at CalTech, too."

"Hey."

"Hi." The two young men greeted curtly, barely taking their eyes off the screen.

Sheldon was still staring. "What on earth is going on here? Did I accidentally step through a portal that led me to an alternative universe?"

Leonard rolled his eyes. "No, Sheldon. Just come in."

His friend did so. Very warily of course. "Since when do you have people over?"

"Since today. We wanted to make more friends, remember? Well, I have. Howard and I were setting up one of my experiments and realized that we have a lot in common. And Rajesh just transferred to CalTech and only knew Howard until now, so I decided to invite them over." Leonard explained, encouraged by a sudden burst of proud confidence.

"I think it was you who wanted to make more friends." Sheldon remarked. "At this point I already had you. How many more friends do you think I'd need?"

"Aww, that's so sweet, Leonard." Howard quipped, finally taking his attention off the screen after he blew Rajesh's character to smithereens and receiving a death glare from said person. "I didn't know you two were an item."

"We're not." Leonard deadpanned. "Sometimes it just feels that way. Sheldon, would you please sit down." he begged when Sheldon carefully inched closer, circling the couch like it could lash out at him any second.

"Where am I supposed to sit? You're currently blocking the spot where I usually sit in your apartment." Sheldon pointed out.

"What's the difference?" Rajesh wanted to know.

Sheldon breathed in, but Leonard interfered. "Don't you even start. I'll move. See." he said quickly and sat down in his desk chair since it was the only other comfortable, free space in his small living room. He watched as Sheldon sat down on the far left side of the couch, regarding Howard, who sat in the middle, suspiciously from the corner of his eyes. Luckily, Howard wasn't as shy as the rest of them so he immediately tried to break the ice.

"So, Leonard has told us you're a pretty great theoretical physicist at CalTech?"

Sheldon turned his head fully towards Howard and gave him one of his trademark looks of pure condescension. "Pretty great? I got my first PhD by the age of sixteen. I'm a mind that comes along once, maybe twice in a generation. I'm not just pretty great. I'm exceptional."

Howard stared at him with an open mouth, more irritated than in awe. "Exceptionally arrogant, yes."

Sheldon breathed in, trying to think of a witty comback, but when he obviously couldn't he turned his head sharply back to Leonard. "I don't like him. Make him leave."

"Come on, Sheldon." Leonard pushed. "You didn't even get to know him yet. Just try one more time."

"Alright." Sheldon nodded, not convinced at all but apparently set on proving to Leonard that his efforts to make everyone like each other was a lost cause. "So…" he started, clearly feigning interest. "What do you do at CalTech, Howard?"

Howard smiled proudly. "I'm an aerospace engineer."

Sheldon actually giggled in the back of his throat. "And thus my point is proven." He immediately dismissed Howard, crossed his fingers casually in his lap and turned to look at Rajesh, who flinched when the ice-blue stare hit him. "Next, please." said Sheldon smugly. "Try to impress me."

"U-Uhm…" the shy Indian guy stuttered meekly. "I-I'm Rajesh… but you can call me Raj and I'm an astrophysicist." he said quickly and then leaned back to wait for the blow to hit him.

"Oh." said Sheldon in surprise. "That's more like it. Well... I guess they can stay."

Raj grinned at his friend Howard, who was now the one sending the death glare.

"I didn't ask for your permission." muttered Leonard, unpausing the game.

"Yes, you did." Sheldon replied with certainty and unceremoniously grabbed the one spare controller that was laying around for him. "So, what are we playing?"

What they were playing was a battle royal type of game that Sheldon didn't know until now but quickly learned to enjoy. As they were playing round for round, competing to get to know each other better, Leonard was slowly relaxing for the first time this evening. Sheldon was his true, bigheaded self, but the guys seemed to accept him… more or less. At least everyone was being civil.

This is going way better than I thought it would, Leonard thought... just when Sheldon opened his mouth.

"I must say, Howard, you're quite adept with handling your controller." he said. "Way better than Leonard. Now I finally have a worthy opponent."

"Thanks." said Howard, using some kind of nifty gadget to escape an ambush of Leonard and Raj. "I've been playing video games since before I could talk full sentences."

"Good for you. I didn't get my first video game until I was ten." Sheldon narrated, blowing Raj out of the game again. "Of course that didn't collide with my speech development because I was in high school by then."

"You're not missing any opportunity to brag about that, are you?" Leonard noticed, sneaking stealthily through some virtual bushes.

"My Meemaw got me Adera as my first video game and I mostly played it with her." said Sheldon. "I also showed it to Amy once, but she disliked the fact that it was always a female who needs rescuing in those games."

"Who's Amy? Your sister?" Howard asked curiously.

"No, Missy is my sister. Amy is my fiancée."

Howard instantly paused the game, just before a now upset Leonard could finally manage to sneak up on him unseen, and turned to Sheldon with wide eyes. "Excuse me… d-did you just say fiancée?"

Sheldon scrunched up his brows in confusion. "Yes."

Raj made a noise that sounded like one just sat on a hamster and he lost hold of his game controller. Howard's mouth hung open in utter shock while touching his chest as if to make sure his heart was still beating. Leonard sank back into his chair with a sigh.

Oh great. A conversation about girls with two needy nerds.

"H-How did you manage to get a girl to stay with you? I mean, you like video games, you have a geeky job and you're kind of… off-putting." Howard concluded for the lack of a nicer word. "You're basically like us."

"Excuse me!?" Sheldon raised his voice in offense. "I resent that statement. I'm a world-class physicist. You're merely an engineer, an insecure experimental physicist and…" he paused. "I don't know enough about Raj's work to insult him properly, but you're in no way on the same intellectual level as me."

"Yeah, yeah, you're a genius." Howard muttered unimpressed. "But how did you get a girl?"

Sheldon looked puzzled. "I believe you just answered your own question… I'm a genius." he clarified once more.

"What does that mean?" Raj chimed in. "Did you manipulate her into going out with you? Did you hypnotize her? Are you rich? Because that alone hasn't worked for me."

"No, of course I didn't manipulate her in any way." Sheldon argued heatedly. "Amy's just… she…" he began to blush a bit under the scrutinizing gazes of Howard and Raj and looked away. "Amy is the only woman, the only human being who truly understands me. She's my intellectual equal." he then mumbled.

For the sake of their just developing friendship, Leonard decided to help Sheldon out by taking the focus off of him and speaking up. "To be fair, they apparently knew each other since they were kids so he had a lot of time to convince her."

"Oh, a teenage love story. How romantic!" exclaimed Raj with a big grin. "Tell us everything."

"No, I won't." Sheldon grumbled, clearly embarrassed by all this emotional talk. "It's none of your business."

"Okay, guys, leave him alone." chided Leonard. "We're here to play video games, aren't we? Not to talk about girls." Howard and Raj mumbled their agreement, returned their attention back to the screen and picked up their controllers, restarting the game. For a while the mention of a female within their possible circle of acquaintances seemed to be forgotten, but Leonard underestimated Howard's nosiness.

"So, you're fiancée…" he started without taking his eyes off the game. "Is she hot?"

The shock of that extremely blunt question got Sheldon's character killed, but he didn't even notice. He quickly rose from his seat and glowered furiously at Howard. "That is also none of your business! You'll never talk to Amy. You'll never even look at her, do you understand!?"

Howard was a pretty small guy, even shorter than Leonard, but right now with tall, lean Sheldon towering intimidatingly above him, he looked small enough to just vanish between the sofa cushions. "Okay, okay." he spluttered quickly. "Calm down, I wasn't going to make a move on her. Honest. I was just curious."

"Stop making inappropriate comments about my fiancée or I will make your life a living hell." Sheldon demanded fiercely.

Leonard looked around Sheldon's tall frame to catch Howard's gaze. "He's very protective of her. Did I not mention that?" he grinned smugly.

"I can see that." said Howard nervously. "Which is completely understandable. If I had a girl, I would do anything not to lose her again. I get it, okay? I'm just not used to someone around me being in a real, stable relationship."

Howard's hands still fidgeted, but Sheldon finally calmed down a bit. "I'm not used to that, either." he confessed. "And I know we're still young, but let me assure you that I will do anything to make our relationship last."

"Understood." Howard promised and Sheldon nodded, sitting back down again.

"If it makes you feel any better," Raj suddenly chimed in. "I couldn't talk to your fiancée even if I wanted to. I get so nervous around girls that I can't talk to any of them."

Everyone threw Raj a bewildered look but Sheldon actually seemed to relax at this statement. "Good. One creep less to worry about." he said dryly.

Howard glanced at him from the side in annoyance and then widened his eyes at Leonard as if he'd say: Who is that raving psychopath you've introduced us to?

Leonard grinned. It will take some time, but somehow he was confident that the guys would eventually get along fine.

Thanks for reading everyone! Please remember that those are very early versions of our TBBT gang. If they seem a bit off, it's because they still need to learn how to grow together. :)