Sheldon
Sheldon stared at his whiteboard thinking. He was trying to balance the equation in front of him, but was having trouble concentrating. Amy kept popping into his head. It irritated him to no end. He erased a positive on the board and switched it to a negative, but wasn't really concentrating. He only wanted to look as if he was accomplishing something, rather than staring stupidly at a board he was paying no attention to. Concentrate Cooper, he thought to himself, you are a man of science. You will never obtain a Nobel Prize if all you can think about is your girlfriend. He huffed outwardly in exasperation and switched the newly changed negative back to a positive.
Just then Raj walked into the office. "Hey Sheldon. Are you busy?"
"Of course I'm busy. I'm always busy. What is it?"
"We're planning to go to the comic book store tonight. Are you in?"
Sheldon turned to look at Raj, surprised. "But it's not new comic book night. Why are you going?"
Raj shrugged. "It's anything can happen Thursday and Leonard and Howard want to go. Are you in?"
Sheldon groaned. "Oh no. Tonight is my date night with Amy. Drat." He had been so preoccupied that he had forgotten that this month had 5 Thursdays and as such their date would be on the third Thursday this month, thus coinciding with anything can happen Thursday. "Perhaps I can talk her into going." Sheldon knew Amy had no interest whatsoever in comic books and had mentioned being baffled by his interest in them, but he wanted to go. He turned to Raj. "Yes I'll go. And I'm bringing Amy."
Raj frowned in confusion. "But I thought Amy hated comic books."
"As you said, it's anything can happen Thursday. And it 'happens' that I want to go to the comic book store. We can go and then continue on with our date after that." Sheldon turned back to his whiteboard as Raj sat down at his desk.
"It's your funeral dude," Raj said to himself.
Sheldon turned back around to glare at Raj before continuing on with his work.
As Sheldon rode home with Leonard that prevening he was still thinking about Amy. It was baffling to him why he should be thinking about Amy so much. He blamed that hand holding session a few weeks ago. He should never have allowed it, even if it was Valentine's Day. This is precisely why he never wished to enter into a romantic attachment with anyone. He would never achieve his goals if he couldn't focus on his work. There were rumors swirling at the university that Kripke was close to making a significant discovery and Sheldon couldn't stand the thought of that…that…sorry excuse for a physicist potentially obtaining more notoriety than the brilliant Dr. Cooper. No. He must talk to Amy. He would do so tonight during their date. He simply couldn't let her break the terms of the Relationship Agreement again. What good is mutual indemnification if one or both parties completely ignored the document?
"You're being awfully quiet today Sheldon," said Leonard. "Is something on your mind?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm simply reflecting on my work. There is an equation that I'm trying to balance and I'm having a, if you'll excuse my language, heck of a time figuring it out."
Leonard gave Sheldon a curious look. "Oh? So it's just work? There's nothing else bothering you?"
Sheldon turned towards Leonard with narrowed eyes. "Leonard, I don't know what you're implying, but I can assure you that nothing else is 'bothering me'. This is hardly the first time you've seen me mulling over an equation."
"Ok, ok. Sorry…but just so you know, I'm available if there's anything else you want to discuss."
"Well there's not. Thank you and if you'll forgive me, I'm going to go back to thinking about my equation." Sheldon turned back to face the front.
Yes, he would simply tell Amy that she must refrain from such displays again or risk an official charge for violations of the Relationship Agreement. He wondered how Amy would handle the discussion. He knew her to be an intelligent person; indeed she was probably the most intelligent person, aside from himself of course, he had met. However, ever since she decided to become friends with Penny he has noticed she can, at times, be a little more animalistic regarding her baser urges. He tried not to think about the drunken kiss she had given him. It had only occurred to him later to be repulsed by the fact that his lips had touched another's. At the time he had been so surprised and fascinated by the experience that he had let his thoughts betray him, responding with "Fascinating". Luckily Amy had consumed enough alcohol to render her memory useless and so he had never had to give an explanation for his response.
He sighed in exasperation, prompting Leonard to glance over at him again. This was preposterous! Here he was, spending his valuable time thinking about a kiss he had spent a good deal of his time intentionally not thinking about. And all this spurred on by a simple night of hand holding over a month ago! Yes, his mind was made up. After tonight, Amy would know in no uncertain terms that he was not going to stand for a repeated lapse in the terms of the Relationship Agreement.
Sheldon opened the door for Amy to enter the comic book store first. She did so quietly, but gave him a look through narrowed eyes as she passed by him. He could tell she was upset and he did feel something akin to remorse, now that he thought about it, but there was little he could do about that now. He supposed he would just have to let her pick the movie tonight. If that didn't put her back in good spirits, then he was at a loss.
"Hey Sheldon. Hey Amy." Leonard, Howard, and Raj were already perusing the comic book selections.
"Hello Leonard. Raj. Howard." Amy replied. Sheldon immediately started perusing along with the others. He could see the other three giving each other looks out of the corner of his eye, but he dismissed it.
Leonard cleared his throat. "So. Amy. How are things going at the lab?"
"Things are going well. The glass doors have all been replaced with Plexiglas after that fiasco involving the monkeys' switch to O'Douls. The cut on my torso is almost completely healed as well. We did obtain some rather fascinating data however, so the study is still referred to as a success."
Leonard, Raj, and Howard all exchanged glances. "Good…good…" replied Leonard.
Amy turned to Sheldon. "I'm going to go look at that She-ra display over there."
Sheldon didn't look up. "Ok."
After Amy had walked away Howard spoke up. "Sheldon, what are you doing?"
Sheldon didn't look up but replied, "I'm looking at comic books Howard. I know you only have a Master's Degree, but even I am surprised that you couldn't surmise that on your own."
"Dude, I don't even have a girlfriend and I know that blowing off your date night to hang with your friends isn't something you want to do," Raj interjected.
"I'm not blowing it off. This is merely one stop in the night." Sheldon looked up. "I fully intend…" Something caught his eye. His friends looked around to see what he was looking at. They each sucked in a breath, looked at each other, and turned back around to look at Sheldon apprehensively. Amy was talking with Stuart.
Sheldon stood there expressionless, blinking and staring at Amy and Stuart chatting. His mind blanked, and then started running at top speed. Why was Stuart talking with Amy? And more importantly, why was Amy talking with Stuart? Was this because she was angry with him? Now that he thought about it, it was probably a little rude to ask her to postpone their date to stop at the comic book store…
Before he had really thought it through, he walked quickly to Amy's side and grabbed her hand. "Hello Stuart." Amy looked down at their hands, blinked, and looked back at Sheldon. "Sheldon what are you doing?"
"Can't a guy hold his girlfriend's hand? Come on, we're going to be late for the movies." Without giving her a chance to respond, he pulled her towards the door and out onto the sidewalk.
"Sheldon. Stop." Amy pulled him to a stop. "That was rude."
"Yes, you're right. Stuart should never have started talking to you. You two have a history and it was rude of him to flaunt that in front of me."
"No Sheldon, I was talking about you."
Sheldon didn't respond to the statement.
"Why would you do that Sheldon? I thought you didn't like physical contact. I find it hard to believe that you would knowingly break the rules established in the Relationship Agreement."
Sheldon shuffled awkwardly and cleared his throat. "I would like to propose an amendment to the Relationship Agreement."
Amy blinked. "You would?"
Sheldon looked away and again cleared his throat. "Yes. I have come to the conclusion that it was short sighted to exclude hand holding when in a romantic relationship. I have been researching other couples and have concluded that it may be necessary to hold hands in order to establish that there is a romantic attachment and that the female, or male, in the relationship is, as they say, 'taken' and is not to be considered as a viable subject for proposed pair bonding."
Amy cocked her head to the side, thinking. Then she looked at him and said "Ok."
Sheldon tried not to look too pleased. "Very well. I will draw up the necessary paperwork and have it ready for the both of us to sign by tomorrow afternoon. Shall we continue to the movies?" He made to let go of her hand, but she held on. He blinked for a couple seconds and then started walking, hand in hand with Amy. I guess I had better get used to this, Sheldon thought.
A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, and please review! Also, I noticed that next month really DOES have 5 Thursdays. What a happy accident!