A/N: The penultimate chapter. I decided to talk a little from Sheldon's POV this time. Hope you enjoy.

If he was honest with himself, there are two reasons Sheldon is worried about kissing Penny. The first is the transfer of germs, and no matter how many times he tells himself that people do it everyday and survive, he always finds horror stories online of people contracting diseases from others. Secondly he had never done it before, and he didn't like the fact that someone knew more about a subject than he did, even if that someone was Penny.

But Sheldon knew that if he wanted Penny in his life he would have to eventually kiss her, and more. He had allowed hand holding and they had both kissed each others cheeks and nothing bacterial had come back from either of those two activities yet, so logically kissing would be the same.

If he was really honest with himself, when Sheldon looked at Penny he wanted to hold her in his arms, and he wanted to kiss her like he had seen on the movies.

Never in his life had he not achieved something he wanted, and he wanted Penny.

Penny re-entered the room, she had been for a walk to the scenery car, to let Sheldon do some work she said, but Sheldon believed that she just wanted to be alone. Except for the time to get dinner they had been in the cabin all day, so it was perfectly understandable that Penny was getting cabin fever.

"You missed a beautiful sunset Sheldon." She closed the door behind her.

"Did you know that by the time you see the sun set on the horizon the sun did actually set about 8 minutes beforehand, so what you really are seeing is not the sun setting, but rather a reflection, and did you know that on Mars the sun appears only about two-thirds the size that it appears in a sunset seen from earth, that is because." he hoped she would finish the sentence for him.

Penny looked at him in total bewilderment. "Because of what Sheldon?"

"I was hoping you could tell me."

"Because Mars is further away from the sun perhaps."

"Very good." he smiled at her.

"Thanks, but please I'm not a five year old. I may not be a genius, but you have to respect me or this relationship will not work, you cannot talk down to me Sheldon. We have to be equals"

Sheldon blinked, he hadn't meant to insult her. "Sorry Penny, I didn't mean to talk down to you."

"Sorry moonpie, I'm a little nervous."

Sheldon looked at her blankly, she needed to clarify exactly what she was nervous about.

"Tomorrow morning we leave this train to see our friends, but everything has changed."

"Oh, you mean between us?"

"Exactly, I don't know how Leonard will handle it."

"Isn't that my problem more than yours." Sheldon replied.

Penny stopped talking and just closed her eyes. Sheldon walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him. Her head rested on his chest, this time he hadn't hesitated, he had faltered, and it felt right. She looked up at him and he knew that she wanted him to kiss her, but he couldn't, instead he smiled at her.

"Well at least you hugged me." she pulled away and he knew she was hurting. He wasn't going to give up.

Penny sat on the made up bed and Sheldon sat next to her.

She grabbed at his hand. "Sheldon what happens from tomorrow?"

"I assume I go back to my work and you still live across the hall, except now." he had lost his concentration. Instead he was thinking about the germs transferring from her hand to his, he can beat this, he has a superior mind. Concentrate Sheldon. "Now we are boyfriend and girlfriend." he concluded.

Penny smiled at him. "I'm your girlfriend, not just a girl that is a friend?"

"No you are now my girlfriend." Then he added nervously "If you want to be."

"Will I have to sign an agreement?" she asked.

"Oh. Good idea." He saw Penny shake her head violently. "Or bad idea."

"Bad Idea. We don't need things in writing Sheldon, if I do something you don't like tell me, and if you do something I don't like I will tell you. For instance, you don't talk down to me and I will only call you moonpie when we are alone."

"Point taken. You know Penny I have never had a girlfriend before."

"Well I am truly honoured Sheldon."