Author's Note: Omg I love you guys! Really, the response has been amazing. This is easily becoming one of my favorite fandoms. I apologize for the shortness of this chapter, but the honeymoon had to end sometime, right? Besides, it's quality, not quantity ; ) Bon appetit!

"Sheldon, if you clear your throat one more time, I will strangle you and I didn't wash my hands after I left the bathroom this morning." Leonard looked over the tops of his glasses at his roommate, who'd been hemming and hawing for the last ten or so minutes, looking at his watch and his laundry basket alternately.

His face twitching gently, Sheldon nodded and swallowed instead, tugging on the collar of his layered shirts. "Sorry."

Lifting his eyebrows at his curiously apologetic friend, Leonard sat back a little and waited for an explanation that never came. He was over an hour late this usual laundry day, but nothing was keeping him from going to the laundry room. Leonard poured soy milk over his cereal and waited, wondering what was going to play out.

Penny let herself in, laundry basket on her hip, about ten minutes later and Sheldon picked up a week-old magazine he'd already read cover to cover and pretended to look at the editorials, his cheeks turning a light pink as Penny put down her basket and fought a yawn.

"Sorry to bug you, but I'm out of detergent. Can either of you spare some?" She gave them both a bleary-eyed smile that said she'd only just woken up.

Leonard nodded. "I have some you can have. Hang on, I'll grab it." Reluctantly, he went to his room and took his time digging in his closet for the long-forgotten bottle of detergent. From the smell of his hamper, it was about time he did laundry. But, and this was hard to do, he had to leave Penny and Sheldon to their own devices occasionally. They were developing on their own just fine, he had to remind himself. And if it wasn't going to work, it wouldn't work.

Penny dug in her laundry basket and pulled up her 'assigned reading' as well as the graphic novel he'd leant her, a flash of smugness on her face. "I slept in today because I finished both of your books last night."

"Very good." Sheldon smirked and took the two books back, reaching toward the kitchen island to return her books to her. "This should be an interesting and wandering conversation."

She looked at his basket. "Oh! I figured you would have gotten started on your laundry without me. I mean, I slept in pretty late, and it wasn't like we planned on it or anything..."

"You mentioned yesterday while you were getting your mail and I was checking for my mail that you were going to do laundry today." He considered her previous comments carefully and then added, however thoughtlessly, "And I wanted to wait for you."

"What about lunch?" she blurted.

He cleared his throat and suffered a glare from Leonard as he returned from his room, detergent in hand. "If you agree to watch over my clothes like a hawk, I'll just run up here and make a sandwich, bring it back down."

"Okay, sure." Penny sounded unsure, unsettled. Leonard didn't know the sound, other than recognizing she was a little out of her element in some way.

Sheldon slunk around her, an unmistakable expression of self-satisfaction on his face. He disappeared out the door and Penny, resembling Sheldon's luminous pet goldfish, popped her lips noiselessly and looked over at Leonard.

"Tonight, I'll come over to your place and bring a pizza. We should probably talk."

She nodded mutely and Sheldon poked his head in, making a soft preemptive noise. "Penny?"

"I'm coming," she replied dutifully and Sheldon stood, holding the door until she passed through it and started to thump down the stairs, barefoot. Sheldon began to lecture her about the bacteria loitering on the concrete floor of the laundry room and she feigned serious interest to keep the lecture from getting longer and more idiotic. She made a show of walking on the balls of her feet to decrease the surface area of her bare skin touching the floor. Sheldon made her sit on the washer beside his while she loaded her own, explaining he would never forgive himself if she contracted a deadly virus because he let her stand on the floor barefoot while they discussed Batman. She complied, bewildered and speechless.

Meanwhile, Leonard made phone calls.

***

She returned to her apartment out of breath, her laundry neatly folded in her basket, her knees shaking. She waited to recover, to bounce back like she had before, but ever since she had come within a stone's throw of stealing Sheldon's presumed virginity, it had been a little harder to pretend she was just floating along like a butterfly on the wind.

"It's a theory that said the slightest motion on this side of the planet can have devastating consequences on the other side. A butterfly's wings here in Pasadena could, ostensibly, cause a volcano in Japan to erupt, killing millions."

She shook her head briskly and looked at her cell phone for the time, wincing when she realized she only had a few hours until Leonard knocked on her door, let himself in, and broke the news to her. The news she already knew but didn't have to break to herself. She laid her fingers over her heart, feeling its beat and finding its rhythm.

Reflecting on the past few weeks, she considered the butterfly that had been the impetus to his moment. She had been unable to sleep and had summoned the infinitely irritating, overwhelmingly stubborn man across the hall. The niggling thought in the back of her mind had been freed, much to Sheldon's chagrin. Not much later, she had conceded and taken a compromise, and since that moment, it had been different. The gentle flutter of her wings had upset her polar opposite and he had, in turn, squished her delicate form against the door to the laundry room and kissed her breathless. She was beginning to blush at the mere sight of doors, wondering when he might get the confidence again.

But, and she had to remind herself of this to keep from wanting to tear her hair out, he wasn't a jerk with no redeeming qualities. Not like some of the men she'd dated. In fact, in the past few days, she was more willing to admit he had some rather beautiful positive attributes. Perhaps Leonard and the others had begun to rub off on her, but she could not follow the logic. The result, her uncontrollable desire to kiss him, to touch him, to simply spend time with him when she could, did not follow from the cause. In fact, the list of possible causes was so broad she had no idea where to begin.

It might have been his recent string of genuine smiles.

It might have been his tremendous gains in social grace.

It was possible she was picking up on his peculiar, unique, Sheldon-y way of caring for her.

Perhaps it was her incessant desire to push his buttons and find his tics.

She closed her eyes, wishing her usual perkiness could carry her through this moment, but she couldn't figure out how it made any sense to have optimism carry her through a moment of indecision. Even this hopelessness was interrupted by her natural ability to find the sunny side. She knew there was an answer, and she knew she'd find it. The only thing that worried Penny was the time it'd take to decipher the complicated emotions she was dealing with, and what the ultimate answer was. At a very basic level, she could at least admit to herself she didn't want to love Sheldon.

He would be work. If she managed to become part of his life, there were changes in store—some for the better and some for the worse, no doubt. She would probably end up losing her mind, and he his. She could already feel her sanity slipping.

"Penny, tonight me and some of the girls are going to a new club—it just opened up! You said you wanted to go; wanna join?"

"No, thanks. I've got to drive a friend to the comic book store, and then I have to pick up dinner. We're playing 'Halo' tonight and my record is flawless. Sorry!"

A year ago, she would have assumed Sheldon was bribing her with false affection, or manipulating her for the ease of his own schedule, but recently she'd seen him more vulnerable. He seemed embarrassed when caught having a fit over a small detail that normally would have perturbed him. Sheldon had started to allow Penny to make mistakes, and he did little other than make a small face or gently correct her. He still showed horror when she showed ignorance in some realms, but her efforts to learn pleased him immensely.

Glancing at the two small holes in the scarf she'd finished yesterday, she thought of him admiring her. Sheldon Cooper did not admire people without degrees in physics. He did not think about people who weren't at least within shouting distance of his position in the atmosphere.

But he did speak to her. He kissed her. He kissed her.

Unconsciously ignoring any cats in boxes, Penny considered the light of passion in Sheldon's eyes. She considered how little she'd seen him working recently. Ignoring the changes in her life, she examined his recent string of pleasantries and Leonard's furtive glances. Even Howard and Raj seemed a little cautious, fascinated.

"Penny, honey?"

She looked up to see Mary Cooper poised in the doorway, holding a light sweater in her hands, her purse over her shoulder. "Mrs. Cooper?"

"Hi, dear!" She opened her arms and laughed. "Get over here and hug me, would you please?"

Standing jerkily, Penny stepped over her latest reading assignment from Sheldon (The Physics of Superheroes) and hugged the older woman delicately. Before she could pull away and smile, ask what had brought on the visit this time, Mary kissed her cheek and grabbed her shoulders, pulling back and smiling, close-lipped.

Penny stuttered when she remembered to speak. "Wh-what brings you to California? Sheldon's not having a freak-out, is he?"

"Well, Dr. Gablehauser and I have kept in touch since Shelley had to ask for his job back." She rolled her eyes, remembering her son's stubbornness and how it often got him into trouble. "He called me a few days ago, asking me to talk to the boy about his lack of progress with his latest paper. It's not like him to miss a due-date!"

"Oh, it's not due anytime soon," Penny assured her. "He has all the time in the world to finish it. It's just, since he's proved that theorem and all, it should be coming easily. He won't be done for a while yet, but..."

Mary nodded, looking smug as she smiled. "Still, it couldn't hurt to have his muse poked a little by a visit from his mother, could it? My prayer group did all they could. The boy just doesn't recognize the Good Lord's help when it's sent to him."

Penny laughed and nodded, folding her arms gently, feeling cold in the stuffy apartment. "You know he'll have a fire under his ass if there's peach cobbler and his mother goading him to get working."

"To tell you the truth, I have no idea what to say to him," Mary admitted, twisting the sweater in her hands. "I've never had to prod him into workin' on this sort of stuff. Apologies, sure. I've even had to call him to make sure he knows when it's expected of him to be at family functions—he forgets how important those things are sometimes. But this science thing? Every time I turn around, he's working."

Something in Penny made her attempt to reply, but while she searched for words, Sheldon appeared in the stairway, frowning at his watch. He looked up, a smile trying to appear on his face, but then he spotted his mother, and an immediate look of suspicion descended on him.

Seeing a peculiar look of fear and helpless attraction on Penny's face, Sheldon's mother turned and squeaked, opening her arms with a shameless affection. "Shelley! Come here and give me a hug, honey!"

"Mother," he greeted her softly and hugged her with one arm, adjusting his laundry basket gingerly. "What brings you to our apartment unannounced?"

Penny didn't hear their conversation—she saw Sheldon frowning, then blushing, then looking everywhere but his mother, and then looking over to her door and accidentally finding her eyes. His look of embarrassment almost tripled and he tugged his mother into the apartment without another word, looking like a shamed little boy. Just before the door closed, she jerked from her reverie, eyes widening, and she heard Mary Cooper shriek.

"Sheldon, is that a hickey on your neck?"

"It's different because it's like this...this nondegenerate bilinear form." She wanted to add, "Or something," but Sheldon had inhaled sharply as he checked his watch to see how much longer his clothes had to be in the dryer. After a moment Penny noticed he had clamped his first and second fingers on his wrist and was still staring at his watch; he was taking his own pulse. His breathing was labored.

After he finished and released his wrist, he looked up from his watch and whispered her name softly, his mouth hanging open an extra second as if he could find no new way to say "Very good!" or "Perhaps there's hope for you yet." Penny felt her stomach folding in half, felt it tying itself in knots.

She slipped from her perch on the washing machine and ignored his concerned stare at her feet, a swing in her hips. She came to a rest inches from him and clasped her hands behind her back, waiting for his mouth to close. His lips finally touched as he swallowed and wiped his palms on his pants. She felt his warm hand slide over her hip softly, as if he weren't sure this was allowed, and then he bent, pasting his face to hers with an amateur grace.

He wrapped his arms around her tightly and turned, lifting her onto the dryers behind them, and she'd started to smile, but was unable to finish the thought when his face disappeared behind a curtain of her hair, a hot breath sending shivers radiating from her core. He fastened his lips to her neck, found her pulse point, and nipped gently, pressing closer with his entire body when she let out a shuddery sigh and combed her fingers through his hair.

She couldn't resist returning the favor. As soon as he paused, panting, to survey her face, to see if there was anything there to help him plan his next step, she gripped the back of his neck and jerked him closer, sucking wildly on the mark that had just barely faded to a light pink that morning. For exactly half a second she considered stopping, asking him exactly what was going through his mind, but she figured she wouldn't understand it even if he told her.

He made a noise of distaste, clapping a hand over her newest handiwork, and shoved her hair away, hemming at the sight of her own brilliant red mark. She cupped his face between her hands and he pulled her forward until she was barely balanced on the washer, its spin cycle just beginning. She could feel him trembling and he braced himself on the edge of the washer, eventually growing bold and slipping his hands around her back.

They heard the cough of the chain-smoking tenant on the second floor before they saw her. Sheldon had looked at Penny, tortured and uncertain, but drew back a few inches, still clutching her, and Penny's arms dropped to his shoulders. The woman, wiping at her lips with a handkerchief, hardly spared them a glance before shuffling past and to the stairs. They stared after her, wondering why they were so jumpy, and Penny broke from the trance first.

His fingers played over the clasp of her bra and a thought crossed her mind. When Sheldon let someone into his personal space, it was all the same to him. She thought of Ramona and how unromantic it had been with her. His body was his temple, but he did occasionally let others in. It was lunchtime, but she wasn't hungry. Sheldon's stomach was curiously empty, but he felt nothing more than the edge of her bra against his fingertips and her warm skin pressed against his lips, his nose, his chest.

He never entered another person's personal space. And yet, here he was, about to slide his hand under her bra and find his way to her front. The thought, however tempting, alerted her that something wasn't entirely right about the situation. She didn't want to be as excited as she was. She wanted to think this was as disturbing as she had when she'd seen Ramona pumicing his feet. She wanted to feel uneasy, not in total bliss.

The dryer buzzed again, louder this time, alerting Sheldon his clothes would be wrinkling if he didn't fetch them soon. They sprang apart, only six inches or so, and Penny felt his hands slip from under her tank top, freezing on her waist while her fingers knotted into his Green Lantern t-shirt.

"I have to go call my aunt. To see if she'll be in Omaha this Christmas, or if she'll be coming out here."

"You said--"

"I know, but...with the party you and Leonard are throwing—I have to go. I'll see you later tonight, Sheldon!" And then she'd run up the stairs and erupted into her apartment, breathless.

Leaving the memory abruptly, Penny collapsed across her bed and forced her eyes shut. "Oh, God. Oh, God."

***

"Penny?" Leonard tried knocking one more time before trying the door and finding it unlocked. He let himself in, put the pizza box on her coffee table, and tiptoed over to her door. She was curled around her biggest stuffed teddy bear, her mascara was a little streaky. To Leonard, she was just as beautiful as always, but tormented in her own unique way.

He sat on the side of the bed, swallowing nervously, and then jostled her shoulder gingerly. "Penny? Would you rather we do this another time?"

Gasping at her sudden wakefulness, Penny pushed herself up on her hip and caught her breath, laughing at the scare Leonard had given her. "Sorry, Leonard. I must have fallen asleep earlier...is Sheldon distracted enough with his mother in town?"

"He's elated he doesn't have to share the peach cobbler she's making with anyone, if that's what you mean." Leonard sniggered, shaking his head. "Are you hungry?"

Without thinking, Penny shook her head. "No, not really."

"You and Sheldon! If his mom weren't here making his childhood favorites, I think he'd be picking over his dinner, too. He's hardly eaten these past few days. He tries, but it's not his usual feast at all." Leonard tapped his chin. "And you, Penny...you haven't been eating that much, either."

"I just haven't been hungry. I'm waiting to hear back from that audition—they didn't immediately tell me to get lost, which is encouraging."

Leonard smiled a little and nodded, rubbing his hands together. "That's great but, hey! Dinner's getting cold and I think we really need to talk."

"Leonard, we're talking," Penny replied flatly. "You start with the real talk whenever you want."

His head falling as he looked at his dancing fingertips. "You and Sheldon have a thing, Penny."

"Sheldon has a thing with everyone."

For once, Leonard didn't think it was best to back down from her glares and firm words. "Sure, but he humiliates Kripke. He hates Leslie so much he hardly goes out of his way to speak to her, let alone push her buttons. He doesn't praise anyone who isn't a world-renowned theoretical physicist. But you, Penny...he's making room for you."

"And once I'm in, it's like quicksand, right? There's no getting out?"

Inhaling slowly, Leonard sighed. "If he ever wakes up and realizes he actually has feelings for you, you'll be the only woman in his world, in his universe. Imagine the focus he saves for his whiteboard, for his research, aimed at you. It's what you've wanted, Penny. It wouldn't cross his mind to think of other women. There aren't other women in his life. Outside his family, you're it."

"No other data to compare," Penny mumbled.

"If you met Sheldon first, before anyone else, before Kurt, Doug, Owen, me?" Leonard asked, sounding shy suddenly. "Wouldn't you know? Like you should know now?"

"If I get him to love me, he'll just hate me for it!" Penny exploded. "Anything that could possibly distract him from science. Anything!"

"If that were true, he wouldn't play 'Halo,' join us for paintball, or collect comic books." He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, linking his hands together. "Penny, all things considered, can you really say he doesn't care? That he hates you?"

"I know, but Leonard—"

"That he's even let you in should let you know that it's not a lack of data, it's a lack of useable matter for experimentation! He didn't need to try a thousand different filament types before he saw the spark with you."

"Even I know that doesn't follow the Scientific Method very well," she grumped, but couldn't ignore the little flutter in her stomach. "Just get to the point, Leonard."

He scooted forward and gripped her hand between his. "Wolowitz and Koothrapalli are on board. We're going to help you break through to him."

She shook her head, pulling her hand away. "It should have already happened."

"Penny, the closest he's gotten to having a breakthrough is with my mother—we know what he thinks is going on between them isn't healthy. As much as he complains about his mother, who is over there trying to annoy him into working again while making him a pile of his favorite childhood snacks to get him eating again, he loves her. I know you hate this psycho-babble, but it does speak volumes, Penny." He snatched up her hand again, jerking her wrist so she was forced to peer at his earnest face.

"He lets you sing to him. A cheeseburger at your workplace has become part of his routine. His attempts to teach you about physics aren't patronizing, they're practically erotic. It's all he knows! He doesn't even know he's trying. But we'll get him there. Think about it. Really think!"

She tried to shake her head again. But, as much as she wanted to fixate on his attachment to Leonard's mother, when it really counted, when he was at his most vulnerable, he wanted affection, not clinical detachment. And Penny, who was never good at pretending to be completely disconnected, could provide affection. She already had, and she hazarded to guess she would again, if given the chance.

When she felt the world around her starting to undulate between startling clarity and a blurry haze, she finally remembered to breathe. Bending forward, she pressed her forehead to Leonard's hands and was fiercely glad she could still rely on Leonard to be a pair of ears when she needed them, whether or not she wanted them.

"Leonard..." She sat up so suddenly she almost caught his chin with the back of her head. "I love him!"

Even though this was exactly what Leonard was hoping would happen, and it'd been a little harder than he'd been anticipating, it was still a shock to hear the words spoken aloud, and with the firm confidence of Penny's certainty.

Smiling, Leonard smoothed her rumpled bed-head. "I know you do. Now, can we focus on the idiot I live with?"

Looking at her expression, he thought it was fair to say she had declared the war junior rodeo on.