TBBT - The Thespian Convergence
Chapter 1. - To Be, Or Not To Be.
It took them a while to notice it. Leonard was busy with his girlfriend Stephanie. Howard and Raj were just, busy doing God knows what, but Sheldon had started to appear less and less.
At first, they simply didn't notice. Sheldon kept to his own schedule and as far as they were concerned, the less they saw of him the better.
Then they did notice, but it was more a cause for celebration than any kind of concern or curiosity. If Sheldon wasn't with them, he couldn't annoy them and ruin whatever they were doing.
Then they began to notice when he was there instead of when he wasn't. It became rarer for them to see him than not, and they were mildly curious.
When asked, he just said he was testing out new schedules and routines to optimise his satisfaction levels and they left it at that. As far as they were concerned, it wasn't worth thinking about, so they didn't.
At this time, Penny was also a less common sight, though this only bothered them in terms of eye candy. Having her over for halo night wearing her short shorts was a pleasant evening as far as they were concerned, but it didn't matter much. Leonard was dating Stephanie and couldn't care less about what-if girls when he had a real one. Howard and Raj were sated by the eye candy Stephanie provided and didn't miss Penny too much.
They were quicker to notice her absence though, and when they did see her; she was often dressed smarter than they were used to. When asked, she let them know that she wasn't working at the cheesecake factory anymore and was taking her acting much more seriously. This made sense.
The first one to grow genuinely curious was Raj. He'd seen Sheldon clock off work a few hours early, and when he idly watched him while getting a drink from a vending machine, he saw Penny give him a hug and then drive away with him. He never mentioned it, but he was stunned three times. The first was that she hugged Sheldon and he seemed to let her. The second was that she'd come to pick him up at all. They both seemed so busy recently and it never occurred to him that maybe sometimes they were busy together. Third was that Sheldon was leaving work early. Sheldon never left early. This was the equivalent of Raj acting like a suave Don Juan while sober, or Howard respecting boundaries, it was just one of those immutable things.
The second to become curious was Howard, though this was vicariously. Raj kept mentioning Sheldon and Penny but had nothing specific to say about them. It was weird. It was Raj mentioning it all the time that led to him inadvertently tracking their comings and goings when he saw them. Whenever he saw one from the apartment, the other was usually nearby. He was aware that they shared laundry nights, he just figured that whatever schedules Sheldon was trying out, he'd dragged Penny along for the ride.
The third to notice was surprisingly Stephanie, who had barely even seen Leonard's mysterious roommate. It was the discrepancy between what Leonard told her and what she saw that caught her attention. Leonard told stories of the asexual robot that didn't understand social cues and was always harassing them. The Sheldon she saw kept to himself but was generally polite and rather direct. Stephanie seemed confused that Leonard and the other two corroborated that Sheldon loathes physical contact and that she should never sit in his 'spot'. When she did and Sheldon saw her, he introduced himself with a handshake and then left. No mentioning of the spot, none of his apparently overly OCD habits, plus he had a firm handshake. This wasn't the guy Leonard described, and weirder still, Leonard was right there and didn't seem to notice the weirdness of him holding her hand to begin with. She was beginning to want to schedule Leonard for some CAT scans.
When Leonard finally noticed, it was far too late. He couldn't believe how much things had changed in just a few short months.
XxXxX A few short months ago XxXxX
Penny discovered Sheldon's secret. She couldn't believe he'd managed to hide it for this long, and she couldn't believe how lucky she was to actually find out.
It started when she came home after a double shift at the cheesecake factory and was playing a game of 'who can drink the most wine' with her reflection in the mirror - and winning. That was when she heard a loud clang on the fire escape outside her window. Taking a look, she saw a sword had landed there. It was like one of those fancy plastic toys that Leonard and Sheldon had in their apartment. She glanced up and guessed it was coming from the roof. Now, normally she'd have gone up the stairs to the roof, realised it was locked and then forgot about it. But she was drunk and feeling silly, so she crept up the fire escape 'ninja-like' in her bare feet, stifling her giggles at her attempt at stealth. As she reached the roof, she heard him before she saw him and to her drunk mind, didn't question why he was talking to himself in a roof alone. Instead, she bit her knuckle to stop giggling and crept even more quietly to the roof. When she got there however, she was stunned.
Sheldon was acting. He was wearing a bathrobe over his pyjamas and waving a sword around dramatically. He was magnificent! Even more so because she had only recently seen the scene he was acting out so she could see how accurate his portrayal was. Leonard and Sheldon had bullied her just over a week ago into watching some Doctor Who, and when she complained that it was boring nerd stuff, they endeavoured to find the silliest non-nerdy episodes to show her, and Sheldon was acting out one of those.
It was one of the Christmas episodes with that sexy actor whose name she forgot that looked quite a lot like Sheldon. She almost giggled again as her tipsy train of thought almost labelled Sheldon as sexy.
He was swinging the sword and being so serious she was enthralled at his performance. She saw a piece of paper stuck to the wall with a big red circle coloured in and remembered the episode more vividly.
He crouched to the ground and got up.
"And now I know what sort of man I am. I'm lucky, 'cause quite by chance, I'm still within the first 15 hours of my regeneration cycle, which means I've got just enough residual cellular energy, to do this!" He said dramatically, before wiggling one of his hands silently.
She was aware that acting could often look embarrassing, but the fact that it was Sheldon made her cover her mouth with her hands. Her shoulders shaking as she tried not to give herself away.
By the time she collected herself, he was nearing the end of the scene.
"I win." He rasped and paused, as if awaiting a response only he could hear.
"I'll spare your life if you take this champions command. Leave this planet and never return. What do you say?" He sneered. His eyes tracing some invisible form beyond where his sword was pointed.
"Swear on the blood of your species!" He snarled loudly, giving Penny goosebumps.
He abruptly dropped the sword and turned towards the door to the roof, his angry manner completely gone.
"Well then, thanks for that! Cheers, big fella." He grinned.
He walked toward the other side of the roof, tossing a tangerine in his hand, and ranting about satsumas before his face melted into steel. She remembered this bit of the episode and grinned.
He casually threw the tangerine, hitting the red circle drawing, and saying that last badass line:
"No second chances. I'm that sort of a man."
He paused, took a few breaths then clapped his hand and started collecting up all his stuff. He was obviously done for the night so Penny crept away before she could be spotted.
The next day when she saw him again, she questioned him.
"Hey sweetie, you know how you have all those routines you follow? Like Laundry night every Saturday at 08:15?"
"Oh, hello Penny. Of course, I know my routines, at the risk of sounding repetitive, they are my routines." He answered promptly.
Fighting the urge to roll her eyes, she continued her line of questioning.
"Do you have all your time planned out?"
"Yes, I find it helps me generate serotonin at a steady pace throughout the day. If I'm doing something I enjoy, then I'm happy. If I'm doing something I don't enjoy, I know when exactly I'll next be doing something enjoyable, and the anticipation of that time will help me feel happy beforehand." He droned.
"So, what exactly would you be doing at say, oh, I don't know… Monday nights at… 9pm?" She asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible.
Sheldon gave a brief pause and looked her in the eye. His piercing blue orbs staring straight into her soul before he sniffed and turned back to the stairs. Penny let out a breath she didn't notice she was holding.
"Well, that would actually depend on the day specifically. Last night was my Doctor Who night, where I watch Doctor Who." He sniffed.
If she wasn't carefully looking at him, she'd have missed it. He nearly told the truth, but when he said 'watch' she saw his left eye twitch. She grinned.
She decided to push her luck a bit.
"So, how often is it that you do erm, whatever it is you just said you did last night?" She asked, just vague enough that the answer meant his acting.
He looked at her as a single eyebrow slowly rose.
"Honestly Penny, I just told you I watch - she noticed another twitch - Doctor who. Well, in answer to your question, I do what I did last night most nights. I try to spend an hour or so each evening…" he paused. "… watching Doctor Who." He finished with a third eye twitch.
"Oh, that's cool. Cool. Very cool. Yup." She said, thinking over what he'd just said.
Reading between the lines, he just said he liked to take an hour out of every day just to practice acting. That was a lot of dedication for something that was obviously a secret. He practiced her craft more often than she did for crying out loud!
Sheldon, meanwhile, was confused and uncomfortable. He often missed social cues but if even he thought she was being weird, then she must really be acting weird.
"Yes. Well. Good day Penny." He said, cutting off the conversation and rushing toward his apartment.
By the time Penny finished daydreaming, she realised Sheldon ran away and tutted her bad luck. She'd have to sneak to the roof again tonight after work and see if she could surprise him.
XxX
As soon as she made it home after her shift, she wanted desperately to repeat the night before and win another drinking contest with her reflection but had to stay sober for when she confronted Sheldon.
She sat there twiddling her thumbs before she snapped out of it. She decided to climb up the fire escape and then wait for him to arrive.
Once she was there, perfectly comfortable and hidden away, she began thinking about the great whack-a-doodle himself.
She remembered first meeting her neighbors. She remembered noticing Sheldon first. He was tall in that gangly kind of way, and she found she liked that. Most people saw the types of guys she dated and assumed she liked muscular jocks, but it was just coincidence. She liked her men tall, so that when they held her, she felt totally safe and protected.
She had that same attraction toward Sheldon when they first met. He was tall, his icy-blue eyes were absolutely gorgeous, and he apparently had one of those beautiful minds which she'd never come across before but found very attractive. It was when he'd spazzed out about his 'spot' that she lost interest.
Now, she was thinking that maybe she was premature in that decision. Sure, he had his kinks, but they'd grown to be good friends since then. She'd probably never understand why his spot was so important to him, but as long as she didn't trip any of his pre-warned mines, he was a perfectly nice - and weird - friend. Maybe he'd be a perfectly nice - and still weird - boyfriend someday?
But still, this just proved to her that there was still so much about him that she didn't know yet. She'd developed something of a Sheldon-translator for everyday stuff, but a secret talent for acting? Now that was something else entirely. Something entirely unexpected.
Or was it?
Sheldon was always honest. Even with this revelation, she was well aware he was brutally honest and could always be relied upon to be honest with her when she needed it. She critiqued her attitude, her job, her skills at that job, even her clothing most of the time. But as far as she could recall, he'd never criticised her for her dream. If anything, he seemed to support it. It was just between his complaints of most things and Leonard's smiling criticisms of her acting, they'd blurred together, and she had just assumed neither of her neighbors supported her advocation. Another thing to question him about.
When she stopped thinking and zoning out, she realised Sheldon had just arrived. This time, he was carrying a funky looking hand-held harp, a bag full of little props and a messy black wig. He began setting out his bits and pieces around the roof, creating miniature sets, if they could be called that. A single prop didn't make an entire scene, but she just figured it was to help his super photographic memory or whatever. He then unfolded a lawn chair and started tuning the harp with the wig on. It gave him long black hair that looked unkempt and shaggy, and she had no idea what on earth he was about to do.
He started humming as he played a few notes and she felt that all-too familiar voyeuristic joy. He was going to sing!
Eventually, he stood and clapped once loudly. Took a deep breath and said aloud:
"This is the Tale of Orpheus in three acts, written by Doctor Sheldon Cooper Ph.D. Sc.D." And began his performance.
It was amazing! Yesterday he re-enacted a popular sci-fi TV show, and now he was doing some weird opera thing that he apparently made up! Oh my God! She felt chills going down her spine as he monologued the tale of a man who dove straight into hell to rescue his lady love.
The only background music was the mini harp he kept strumming as he acted his way through hell.
Eventually, he was trying to escape hell without looking at her. And she felt her heart breaking from the emotions he showed, like no breath was worth breathing unless he could look upon her.
When he broke into song, she felt her tears escape. She was enraptured by him.
"Hear, oh Gods, my desperate plea.
To see my love beside me.
..
Sunk below the mortal sea,
Her anchor weighs upon me.
Fasten her tether unto me,
That she may rise to sail free.
Don't, don't look back.."
It was the most chilling thing she'd ever seen or heard. She's been to acting showcases and never before had she been so blown away. His voice was thready and sad, and seemed to linger around her. Every half-glance he made as he sang gripped her heart tightly.
"Close enough that light we can see,
My doubt betrays the better of me.
Glance to the stern is all it would be,
That anguished shade shall haunt me.
Ever on,
Calm seas, winds a-lee,
But now the squall's upon us, we're floundering,
Drowning.
Don't look back,
Don't look back,
Don't look back,
Don't look back,
Don't look back."
The tale ended sadly, when he turned and looked upon her love and was horrified to see her desiccated form before the furies came and took her away from him, leaving him devastated and alone.
Penny was inconsolable by this point. Heaving great big sobs. She was totally drawn into the play that she only snapped out of it when she realised Sheldon was standing in front of her with his arms crossed.
"What are you doing here Penny?"
Oops!
A/N: This was supposed to be a One-shot, but I was wrong. I'm thinking this'll be about 3 or 4 chapters long to include everything I wanted.
Hope you like it!
Oh! P.S. the song is from the Hades video game, I just totally decided that Sheldon invented it.