Amy

After Sheldon fled to his room, Amy sat there a minute pondering what had just happened. Had she really just made out with her boyfriend? How exciting! She, Amy "Gorilla Fingers" Fowler, not only had a boyfriend, not only was living with her boyfriend, but had actually finally made out with him! Oh if only everyone who had ever made fun of her could see her now.

Granted, he had ended up (to quote a phrase of Penny's) "freaking out" on her, but then again, he had been a willing participant prior to said freak out. She wondered what to do…She decided to talk to Penny.

She walked quickly across the hall and knocked on the door. Leonard answered and looked surprised to see her.

"Hey Amy…it's kind of late…what's up?"

"I was wondering if I could speak with Penny. It is a matter of some urgency."

Leonard frowned, confused. "Ok…is something wrong?"

"I don't know yet."

Leonard raised his eyebrows. "Did Sheldon do something?"

"Yes."

Leonard looked at her, opened his mouth as if to speak, and then closed it shaking his head. "Come on in."

Penny walked out of their bedroom pulling her pajama shirt down. She looked surprised to see Amy.

"Hey Amy, what brings you here? We were just getting ready to go to bed."

"I was wondering if I could speak with you…alone."

Amy looked pointedly at Leonard, who cleared his throat, yawned while stretching, and said "Boy look at the time…I'm tired…I think I'll just go ahead and go in to bed." He turned to Penny. "See you in there…you know…whenever you get tired too…" He paused to kiss Penny before going into the bedroom and closing the door.

Penny sat down on the couch and patted the seat next to her. "Have a seat. So what's up?"

"Sheldon and I made out."

Penny stared at her. "I'm sorry…what?"

"We made out."

Penny raised her eyebrows and cleared her throat. "And by 'made out' you mean…"

"French kissing…sadly second base was never reached."

Penny closed her eyes and shook her head. "I'm sorry. I'm trying to simultaneously wrap my brain around and not think about you and Sheldon making out…" She opened her eyes. "So…what happened?"

"Well…we were watching t.v. after everyone left and I said I wanted to do an experiment and then I kissed him. French kissed him that is. With tongue."

Penny held up her hand. "Ok ok. No I gotcha. No need for the gritty details." She frowned, looking confused. "So…but…didn't you guys try that once and you said you couldn't get the hang of it?"

Amy nodded. "Yes."

"So…what happened? How'd you figure it out?"

"Rajesh and Howard helped me."

Penny's eyes looked ready to pop out of her head. "I'm sorry what? What do you mean Raj and Howard helped you out?"

"Remember that internet kissing device Leonard used when he was still dating Priya?"

Penny frowned. "Yes…"

"Well, I asked Howard if I could borrow it to practice with."

"Ok…but what's Raj got to do with it."

"He offered to be my practice partner."

"Amy!"

Amy frowned, confused. "What?"

"You are dating Sheldon! You can't be making out with Raj!...I can't believe he suggested that ridiculous idea!"

"Actually, technically it was Howard's idea" Penny raised here eyebrows. "…but Raj didn't seem to mind helping…however, to put your mind at ease, Raj was only watching the other end, rather than kissing it. He gave me excellent pointers, and likely would have made for a good kissing partner, but it occurred to me prior to starting the endeavor that perhaps Sheldon wouldn't find the idea of his girlfriend kissing another man appealing…even if it was through a robotic mouth…"

"You think?" Penny shook her head. "I'm going to have a long talk with those two…" She turned to Amy. "Ok…so you 'practiced' kissing with an internet device thingie." She rolled her eyes. "So what happened when you kissed Sheldon?"

Amy shrugged. "He was surprised at first."

Penny smirked. "I bet."

"But then he kissed me back."

Penny raised her eyebrows and nodded thoughtfully. "Interesting. Sheldon actually kissed you back?"

Amy nodded. "Yes."

"So then what happened?"

"Well, he pulled me onto his lap."

"Sheldon…pulled you onto his lap…" Penny's mouth fell open and then she shook her head. "I'm sorry…I'm trying to wrap my brain around and not picture it again…So it sounds like things went well."

Amy nodded. "I suppose so. We kissed for awhile. But then he just got up and went into his room."

"What did he say?"

Amy shrugged. "Nothing." She frowned. Her initial high was wearing off. "Why do you think he left? Do you think he didn't like it?" Suddenly she was worried.

Penny looked thoughtful. "No…If he was participating, it sounds like he liked it." She shrugged. "He probably just freaked out about germs or something."

She gave Amy a reassuring look. "I wouldn't worry too much about it."

Amy took a breath and nodded. "Ok." Penny always knew what to say to make her feel better.

Penny grinned at her slyly. "Look at you Amy! Initiating a make out session! And getting our little Sheldon to finally hit puberty!"

Amy smiled back. Yeah. It was pretty great.

The next morning Amy's nervousness returned. She was anxious about seeing Sheldon. She wondered how he'd react. She suspected he would either pretend nothing had happened or would avoid her entirely.

She walked past the empty bathroom and Sheldon's empty room into the living room space. Sheldon didn't appear to be present.

"Sheldon?"

No answer. Hmm…he must be going with option two.

Although it wasn't entirely unexpected, it did still sting a little. Part of her had hoped that by this morning he would have calmed down. Alas it appeared to be a hollow dream.

She sighed and walked back towards the bathroom to prepare for the day.

When Amy opened the door of the apartment after work that evening she was greeted with an unexpected sight.

It appeared that the coffee table had been set. There were real plates with what appeared to be Thai food, rather than card board takeout containers, wine glasses with water in them, and even two candle sticks. Amy's defenses went up. What was going on? The only other time Sheldon had prepared a meal had been the time he had made breakfast for them when he had wanted to deny her further kissing access.

"Oh good you're home." Sheldon walked in and smiled at her.

Amy frowned, sure that nothing good could come of this.

Sheldon looked at her, still standing in the open doorway. "Why are you standing in the doorway? Shouldn't you come in and prepare for dinner?"

Amy looked at him. "Prepare for dinner?"

Sheldon sighed. "Yes." He gestured towards the coffee table. "I've made arrangements to have a more formal dinner. I even informed our mutual friends that they would have to arrange their own meals this evening."

Amy slowly closed the door, but didn't move forward. Just what was going on here? She didn't know how to react. Was this sincere? Had her boyfriend indeed prepared a semi-romantic dinner for them?

But no. This was Sheldon. As much as she would be overjoyed at the thought, there had to be an ulterior motive in place. After all, he never did anything romantic. He detested any mention of the word.

"Amy?"

She realized she was staring at the coffee table and looked over at him. "Yes?"

"Is something the matter? You still haven't moved away from the door."

"Why are you doing this?"

He frowned. "Do you not like the arrangements? I would have thought you'd find the change refreshing."

She blinked at him. "No. The arrangements are fine…but what is the occasion?"

He shifted uncomfortably and looked at the floor. "Can't a guy prepare a meal for his girlfriend?"

"You didn't prepare it. You bought it."

He looked at her sharply. "That is beside the point. I arranged it."

"…But why?" She was still suspicious.

He opened his mouth and then closed it, before he narrowed his eyes and said, "Please just go set down your belongings and get ready for dinner."

She looked down at herself. She was wearing essentially what she always wore; tights, a skirt, a button down shirt, and a cardigan. "How am I supposed to prepare?"

Sheldon sighed, sounding exasperated. "Never mind. Just go set your belongings down and return here so we can enjoy our meal."

As she walked back towards her room, she wondered at his testy response. She set down her bag and made a stop in at the restroom, running a brush through her hair.

She walked back into the living room and saw that Sheldon was already seated in his spot, and that he had lit the candles.

Still feeling that there must be a catch, Amy sat down. She picked up her dinner plate, unsure what else to do, and took a bite of her food.

Sheldon turned to her and asked, "How was your day?"

She swallowed her current bite and began to recount for him the tales of her day. Throughout the meal he continued to ask her questions regarding her work. It was unsettling. He had of course shown interest in her work before, but never before having regaled her with his own events of the day.

All throughout the meal she kept waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop…but it never did. Sheldon was perfectly pleasant all throughout the meal. It set her on edge.

Finally, after they were both finished with their meal and were sipping from their water glasses, Amy couldn't take the suspense any further.

"Sheldon, what's going on?"

He frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Why did you prepare a nice dinner for us? Why did you forego your usual scheduled plans? You ran to your room last night, and were gone when I woke up this morning, and then I come home to a romantic dinner. This isn't normal for you. What is going on?"

He blinked at her. "Do you not like it?"

"I'm sorry?"

"You seem upset. Did you not like the dinner? I assumed you would like a meal with just the two of us, but perhaps I acted hastily."

"Hastily?" She was not becoming any less confused. She shook her head. "Sheldon I'm still not following."

He looked away, shuffling uncomfortably in his spot, but didn't say anything.

She waited, looking at him.

He looked over at her, cleared his throat, opened his mouth and then closed it, looking away again. He repeated this process three more times before finally turning to her, swallowing, taking a big breath, and saying, "I just thought I'd do something nice…Obviously I failed."

He stood up. "If you'll excuse me, since there is no Halo night tonight, I would like to spend the time working. Please feel free to clean up."

As he walked away Amy wondered what in the world had just happened.

A/N: Thank you as always for reading. And, I'd also like to thank the Anon reviewer who calls themself "Someone" for making me laugh with the reference to rewarding me with "Shiny Reviews". I know this chapter is shorter than we've all gotten used to (actually it's just back to my "normal") but as I was writing I realized that I (and Sheldon and Amy) was not quite ready to head into the next phase. There is still a fair amount to explore/explain. We're nearing the end of this fic, so be happy. I bought you a couple extra chapters. ;) Alright, here's the part where I hope that this site doesn't try to foil me again, and where you send those rewarding shiny reviews my way! :)

P.S. If you're thoroughly confused at the end of this chapter, then mission accomplished. :)