After the Dawn
by:muaaimoi
Summary: Sequel to Night Life. Penny and Sheldon try being friends. Mostly they fail. Shenny love, very AU!
1.
Just being Sheldon's friend has to be one of the hardest thing Penny has ever done.
The guy is adorable. Seriously. Criminally adorable.
She knows she's infatuated. You don't find things like the constant cleaning raids on your apartment cute unless you're crushing on someone pretty hard, but that doesn't mean that watching Sheldon straighten things in her apartment doesn't make her stomach flutter.
The whole cleaning and organizing thing Sheldon has going on? It's a thing. Like a real thing. Possibly like a psychological condition or something.
Not quite OCD, according to Google. Sheldon is obsessively clean, but he wouldn't be able to bar tend if he couldn't handle other people's germs. It's more that Sheldon has this need to organize things. Especially when he's nervous. He'd said something about awaiting the reaction to a paper once when he'd knocked on her door. He'd then proceeded to clean her apartment within an inch of it's life. And he wouldn't even let her help.
Then again, Penny finds it hard to mind. Mostly, she finds it funny.
Even that one time Sheldon was having a bad day and they hit whole Foods for groceries. Penny had laughed the entire time they had run out of the store, the manager chasing them with a salami raised like a club. They didn't take to kindly to some random guy attempting to 'optimize' their meat isle.
It's the kind of story you look forward to telling your grand kids. Penny tries not to think about them together some forty odd years down the line. Her crush is getting kind of ridiculous. And Sheldon isn't like other people, she knows that. He has these moments when he just so...fragile. It's best to keep her distance.
It's not like either of them are going anywhere. She can wait.
2.
Sheldon is surprised to find that Penny is a good friend.
It's not just her willingness to ferry him about town in her car. It's the knowledge that she seeks him out because she enjoys his company. Sheldon is fairly certain this is the first time he's met someone who wants to be his friend just because. Not due to proximity or because they need help with academics. He finds this oddly refreshing. But then, plenty about his friendship with Penny is odd.
She gives him these looks sometimes. Looks reminiscent of the one's the women at the club give him when they wish to engage in coitus. But that makes no sense. Everything he knows about Penny's personality points to her being forward. If Penny wanted to have sex with him, she would let him know. And her tendency to be a grabby drunk aside, Penny has shown no attraction to him.
Regardless of those moments though, Sheldon likes being her friend. She's perfectly willing to let him clean and organize her space to his standards. And she's an easy distraction when he needs it. Sheldon finds himself surprised by how often he needs it. Company is not the sort of thing that Sheldon is used to looking forward to.
But when the monotony of being alone in his apartment starts to get to him, the knowledge that Penny is just a floor away is fairly soothing. She never seems to mind when he just turns up without a warning. And she always smiles when he sees her. Always. The knowledge of that truth makes something warm swoop in his stomach. Sheldon hopes he's not coming down with anything.
3.
The one thing Penny doesn't like about Sheldon is his hatred of socializing. He's an awesome person, it's selfish of him to keep that to himself.
Penny finally manages to drag him to a Halloween Party a co-worker of hers is throwing. They have something suspiciously like a moment when he takes in her cat outfit, gives her this sweet half smile, and declares it " Appropriate."It's been so long since anyone has made Penny blush, but the warmth on her cheeks feels good. She kind of loves it when he notices her.
Sheldon's Spock outfit gets him ragged on a lot. He ignores it with what Penny suspects is the ease of long practice.
Then someone boots up an X-box and Sheldon wants to play. He proceeds to kick ass. This seems to get him a suspicious amount of respect, so Penny gets curious. She decides to join in when someone calls out teams. Naturally she joins Sheldon's. Halo is so easy. They dominate.
The next time she drags Sheldon to a party, She makes sure there are video games. And not just for him. Penny finds that they're a surprising amount of fun. They make the party's enjoyable and she doesn't even have to drink more than a beer. Word gets around pretty quickly in her new found circle of friends. It get's to the point that when they walk into a party, they're usually dragged away play as they're defending champs. Everyone wants a crack at them.
It's good to be king.
4.
Sheldon is rather grateful to Penny for reintroducing video games into his life. He'd left all of his old one's behind when he'd left Pasadena. Sheldon doesn't even mind that he's usually dragged to a social engagement in order to play. If anything it helps him differentiate playing video games in Pasadena with playing video games in LA. None of his former colleagues would have been present at such a gathering. He's still surprised a geek like himself is so welcome.
He's gathered that being there with Penny makes all the difference.
He's found that there are many advantages to having one's friend be a pretty girl. Penny has talked the security of many an establishment he had accidentally offended into dropping their grievances. She even laughs about the uncomfortable situations he lands them in. It's a pleasant change from the griping and yelling Sheldon is used to.
But then again, their brushes with the law seem to please Penny's sense of adventure.
In a move that completely baffles him, Sheldon finds himself making outings often. Even when he doesn't need much of anything at all. He even tags along to keep Penny company on her errands. Something he would have never even thought to offer Leonard. He figures he's simply grateful. Penny is a much better friend than Leonard ever was.
There is also the simple fact that Penny is the only real friend he has.
Sheldon is fairly certain that for all her other friends, Penny is fairly lonely. Perhaps that is why they are so suited to being friends to each other. In LA, they are all the other really has. Sheldon wishes he understood why he felt so pleased by that notion. He likes the thought of being important to Penny. He supposes that at least makes sense, he's come to like Penny period.
So when she introduces him to banal concepts such as window shopping, Sheldon lets himself be tugged along. He doesn't understand his own lack of protest. Fortunately no one else in LA knows him well enough to point out that compliance is completely out of character for him. This makes him feel rather accomplished. So he has manages to become different after all.
5.
Sheldon is especially weird about Christmas.
Penny gets that he's not that huge a fan of holidays to begin with, but she hadn't thought he would have been such a Scrooge about it. Penny loves Christmas, she doesn't get how people don't like it. This doesn't keep her from enjoying Sheldon though. She's come to like how weird he is about pretty much everything.
Sheldon doesn't actually have plans since he doesn't celebrate it, so it's only natural that they spend it together. Penny insists, despite Sheldon's insistence that they don't exchange gifts. Penny plots to cook them one hell of an elaborate Christmas dinner and very carefully doesn't mention to Sheldon that it's going to be his present.
They watch Frosty the Snowman together once, and Sheldon cheers for the sun. Penny laughs so hard she chokes. She makes sure to watch as much Christmas movies with him as she can, after. It's hilarious and he gets so serious about them. One late afternoon when they're watching Bad Santa and Sheldon looks half asleep she asks him what he has against Santa Clause.
Penny's heart breaks as she hears about Pop-pop and completely ignores Sheldon's squawk of "Personal space!" to reach over and hug him. Penny may not be his girlfriend, and Sheldon may not be big on hugging, but she's his friend. It's basically in the job description to hug your friends when they look like they need it. She needs to explain this to Sheldon before he stops complaining about her arms around him. She manages to cuddle him through the entire movie. Penny counts it as a win.
Then, because it brings certain urges back to unmanageable levels and Penny is only human she hangs some mistletoe over the door. She considers every kiss she manages to spring on him as his present to her.
6.
Sheldon spends his New Year working and can't find it in himself to be surprised when Penny decides to kiss him as the best way to welcome the new year. Penny is a very affectionate creature, as the holiday's have taught him. Mark, who insist that he and Penny are dating despite Sheldon constantly assuring him that no, they aren't, laughs at him. Sheldon attempts to scowl through his tingling lips and tries to handle the rowdy drunken crowd with aplomb.
Sometimes this is easier than others. Sheldon has never seen so many drunk people in one place. Far too many of them seem to want to engage in coitus with him. He never understood his old colleagues grievances about the lack of available women. To him there seems to be a clear superfluous surplus.
Penny helps. She talks to some of the pushier women, and some of the men. He never quite manages to catch what she tells them, but they back off. Sheldon shoots her a grateful smile and gives her a gin and tonic, Penny's drink of choice, on the house. The smile he receives at the gesture warms something in him. It's easier to smile after.
He's noticed that Penny seems to have a puzzling positive affect on his mood. At any given time, a smile from her inspires one of his own. Sheldon finds himself thoroughly bemused by this. He's never thought he was someone who could enjoy someone else's happiness. Even the drive to make his parents and his grandmother proud was an inherently selfish impulse, Sheldon wanted to be acknowledged as the most remarkable of the Cooper children. That making them proud had the side effect of making them happy was simply a bonus.
Penny is something of an anomaly to him. So when they pause by her door later that morning, both spent, he doesn't know why he hovers before her. He has no idea what compels him to lean forward and enfold her in his arms, to whisper " Happy new year," into her hair. He's utterly bemused by his own actions.
He thinks about Penny's blinding smile as she walked into her home and decides that he could learn to be okay with that.
7.
Penny feels gypped. Christmas had been full of kisses and Sheldon hugging her of his own violation on New Years had made her heart flutter. She had been full of hope about the new year. Totally pumped about their growing relationship. All that seems to change is that Sheldon stops shying away from her. It's almost nothing.
Penny knows she's stopped trying to be his friend a long time ago. She doesn't know exactly when it happened, but she knows she treats Sheldon like he's her boyfriend. It doesn't help that she's constantly telling the customers at his job that he's taken. She's pretty enough to intimidate most of them away. Those that take it as a challenge she tell she's pregnant. It's her way of paying him back for all those drunken nights he dealt with her. Or at least that's her excuse for scaring any other potential partners away. She's pretty sure admitting to staking her claim wouldn't go over very well.
She catches a cold near the beginning of February. By the thirteenth, she's got Sheldon sick too. Penny maintains that she didn't mean to pass her sickness on, but Sheldon glares at her in a woeful betrayed manner anyway. Secretly, she thinks it's kind of cute.
They spend Valentines day on Penny's couch watching reruns of House. It's one of the few shows they both love. Sheldon likes the medical science and Penny loves the drama of it all. The rest of the day is a series of compromises. Penny is willing to make them soup and tea if Sheldon provides the other much needed fluids and drugs. She rubs vapor rub on his chest so long as he agrees to cuddling.
He doesn't make her bargain anything so that he'll sing to her. She's surprised at the offer, to be honest. Soft kitty is adorable, and the vibration of Sheldon's chest as he sings it softly lull her to sleep.
She wakes up hours later, overheating. Sheldon's skin feels like a furnace where she touches his skin. Penny manages to take off their robes without waking him and wraps herself around him regardless of the fevered flesh. Sheldon is inherently cuddly, it's not hard to ignore the heat.
Besides, Penny muses on the cusp of sleep, she's not half as miserable as she usually is when she's sick. Sheldon had seemed to be trying to take care of her the same way she'd been trying to take care of him. She's pretty sure that means something.
8.
Sheldon seems to spend most of his time with Penny and isn't terribly certain as to how the situation came about. There is no moment in which he makes the conscious decision to do so. The change seemed to happen gradually, almost naturally. And, odd as always when things involve Penny, it does seem natural.
They fall into a weekend routine.
He wakes up on Friday and makes them breakfast. Penny stops in as it's usually ready just in time for her lunch break. The next three hours he devotes to Physics. He meets her at her door when she gets off work and she makes them dinner, which doubles as his lunch. She sets food aside for him to take to work later in the evening. They watch TV. Argue about what show to watch, comment on whatever they settle on. Penny will wind herself around him within the first twenty minutes of the chosen program.
He's utterly lax on her couch in time to leave for work. He's come to realize that extended physical contact with Penny soothes him. The reverse seems true as well. Penny is usually asleep by the time he disentangles himself from her. He supposes Penny naps for a few hours before stopping by the club. The bouncers know to wave her in by now. The time she arrives isn't set, but she always shows before closing and they walk home together.
The routine is almost exactly the same for the following two days.
It's the weekdays that vary. They spend their off days however it suits their whimsy, unless he's called in to work for some reason or another. He's managed to get Penny to agree to bring down her shoe shopping to once a week as opposed to her previous habit of three times a week. In return Sheldon agrees to go to whatever party her friends are throwing at the time. They fall asleep together on Penny's fold out couch all the time.
Sometimes he wakes up to pancakes at three in the morning. Sometimes he makes Penny coffee despite his own hatred of the drink. Sometimes they do silly things just to make each other happy.
He's come to love the contrast. He likes the clear dividing lines between what his life is now and what it used to be. He has Penny to thank for all of it. For balancing out all the small irritations that plague his days. For letting him have his order and helping him embrace chaos. For being the best thing about every single day.
He wonders how he should go about thanking her. Nothing he can think of seems to be good enough.
9.
Penny knows the way she feels about Sheldon isn't a crush any longer. If it ever was. She loves him. She wakes up in his arms more often than not. They're pretty much dating. They pretty much have been dating since she woke up in his bed that first night.
But pretty much isn't dating. And not dating Sheldon feels like it's driving her insane. She just wants to kiss him all the time. Wrap herself around him and never let go. She doesn't even know what she's waiting for. She doesn't remember what limits she'd set or why she'd put them up in the first place.
So one morning, mid April, she stops holding back. She walks into Sheldon's apartment while he's making them breakfast and doesn't make the conscious decision to kiss him hello. She just does. Sheldon freezes for a moment and Penny feels like her own heart stops. Then Sheldon kisses her back and Penny feels like she can breathe again.
" What was that for?" Sheldon asks when she finally pulls back. Breakfast has burned and Sheldon scowls through the red blush on his cheeks. Penny can't help her happy smile. She'll happily take her french toast with extra charcoal if she's getting a boyfriend out of it.
" I want to be your girlfriend." Penny says." Officially."
" Officially?" Sheldon echoes." Why officially?"
" Mark was right. We've been dating for a while now." She admits.
" Oh." Sheldon says, then crosses his arms and glares at her." Why didn't you tell me we've been dating?"
Penny shrugs." Well you're the genius. Why didn't you figure it out?"
" I have no previous experience in these matters." Sheldon says heatedly, then pauses, bites his lips hesitantly." Have I been a good boyfriend?"
She knows what that means, Penny beams." The best."
Then leans over to kiss him again because it feels like she's been waiting to do it for years. And finally she can, as his girlfriend, she's allowed. So they kiss and they kiss. And then they do a lot more than that because it's been six months and having an almost boyfriend is nothing compared to having a real boyfriend. Especially when that boyfriend is Sheldon.
10.
They move in together shortly there after.
There is no logical sense in having two apartments when they spend all their time together anyway. They don't even need to split grocery money or argue over space. Sheldon has rapidly become fond of Penny's fold out couch ever since they began engaging in coitus upon it. And they have been buying groceries together for months now. It seems logical to sacrifice his actual bed for wardrobe space as Penny truly has an astounding number of shoes. He can admit that finding ways to organize and store them has become quite the fun challenge.
No one had ever told Sheldon that a girlfriend could be so amazing. It's not even the new found understanding of the cultural universal obsession with sex. Earth shattering though their copulation is. It's having someone so firmly on his side for the first time in his life. He's never even imagined so much support was possible before.
When he tells Penny about what happened in the arctic, there is no insistence that Jesus would want you to forgive them. No old stories like the ones his Memaw pulled out about rocky times in strong friendships and how to be a better friend in general. Penny is simply utterly outraged on his behalf. Completely ready and willing to go CalTech and go 'all junior rodeo on their asses'. Sheldon is very tempted to take her up on the offer. But he finds himself too busy kissing Penny and being happy most of the time to bother.
There are downsides of course. Penny insists on getting mani-pedis together. Going to the beach far too often, and attending many, many parties. But her presence at every activity takes the edge of annoyance off. Sheldon finds he doesn't actually mind, especially as he knows going along with it will make Penny happy. And Penny's happiness has long since become synonymous with his own.
He's fairly certain Penny loves him. Sheldon thinks he's in the same boat.
Love.
If it's someone willing to go to the laundry mat with you when you confessed to a pressing need to wash your clothes at two in the morning on a Monday night. There's grumbling of course, but all it takes is buying Penny's favorite ice cream flavor to win back her smile.
Love.
If it's running lines as the sun begins to shine into your apartment and not closing the blinds even though it hurts your eyes. If it's knowing she likes to watch the sunrise. The golden green of her eyes in the sunlight making his heart feel light, physical impossibility that such a feat is.
If love is knowing you get to wake up to someone who loves you every time you go to bed. If it's looking into green eyes and knowing that your girlfriend will become your wife someday. And finding yourself impatient for the day to come because you know it will be glorious.
He thinks it's Love.
Because Penny feels like she completes him and Sheldon is willing to show his work to prove it.
x
So I think I got a little too ooc romantic with Sheldon there at the end, but cest la vie. Shorter than the prequel I know, but I wanted to focus on their relationship. You know, what they mean to each other and stuff. It's pretty much my favorite thing to write. There's the idea of their parents finding out and everyone else's reactions hovering in the back of my mind...But nah. This is short enough as it is. If I wrote something extra it would only have like five parts?...Oh well, hope you enjoyed!