Short chapter, but here you all go! :)

Chapter Thirty-One

Penny almost lunged for Raj to tell him to stay awhile longer when he and Howard stood to go. She wasn't ready to face Leonard, yet. But it would have to be done eventually, especially if she and Sheldon wanted to make their relationship public. Sneaking around could be fun, Penny knew this from experience, but after awhile it could get exhausting and Penny didn't want to have any part of her relationship with Sheldon to get exhausting. Annoying, yes. She never wanted to get tired of him, though. She was in this relationship for the long haul.

"See you both later," Leonard told his friends as he cleaned up the remaining garbage from the table. Sheldon said the same thing back, but in a much more...Sheldon-y way.

"See you both at work on Monday. And Penny, I'll see you...whenever," Howard said and Raj waved as they finally left the apartment. Tomorrow was Sunday and, though they usually had a set schedule for Sundays, they had decided to give Sheldon a day off. Surprisingly, he had been okay with the change. The hour of rest he had gotten earlier had been enough to spend a few hours with his friends, but he would need a lot more if he were to return to work on Monday.

Once the door closed, Leonard turned to the two of them. "You have something you want to tell me...don't you?" His eyebrows furrowed and he crossed his arms over his chest, trying to act nonchalant but not succeeding.

Sheldon was the first to speak. "We do."

"You probably won't like it," Penny added and brought her knees up to her chest. Luckily, the chair allowed her to do so without tipping backwards. She needed something to do with her hands and gripping her knees close was the best thing she could have done at the moment, short of gnawing all of her fingernails off.

Leonard took a seat in his chair and sighed. "You two are...together," he guessed.

"Yes," Sheldon answered after looking at Penny to make sure it was all right. "I did not think we made it that obvious."

"You said I wouldn't like it, Sheldon. I don't like that." Leonard looked as if someone had taken his heart and ripped in two and Penny didn't feel sorry for him one bit. She wasn't his and she had never even given him reason to think that she would be interested in dating him. After all, the only 'date' they had ever gone on was when he had tricked her.

Thinking about it got Penny a little angry, but she was careful not to dwell on it. She wanted this conversation to be calm and mature. There was no reason to bring up old thing...unless Leonard tried to do the same.

"Well, it happened," Penny supplied. "And it didn't just happen because we were only in Europe, either. I've had feelings for Sheldon for...a while, now." That was hard to admit a loud, but it was all the truth.

Leonard's eyes looked like they wanted to pop from his skull and even Sheldon looked a little surprised at that, though he should have figured out some of the extent of her feelings before they had finally taken that leap together. But this was Sheldon, she supposed. And who knew, it looked as if she had done good job of hiding it from everyone.

Leonard opened and closed his mouth a few times, looking like he wanted to say something but something in his head was stopping him. Sheldon turned to his friend and waited patiently, hands on his knees, for Leonard to say something. However, Penny wasn't so patient.

"What did you want to say?" At the last minute, she stopped herself from snapping. She wanted this to continue to be a calm conversation. It was already going better than she had hoped and didn't want to ruin it.

"B-But how?" He sounded as if his brain had just shorted out.

"Simple," Sheldon spoke before Penny could, which was fine by her. "Penny kissed me, before we went on our date I might add," he paused to smile over at her for a brief second. "And we decided that it would be in our best interest to start a relationship."

"That's not what I meant! And... you were taking her out on a date?"

"Yes. While we were on Paris, I thought it would be a perfect time to take Penny on one. It is the 'City of Love', after all." He even used air quotes.

"You went to Paris?!"

Sheldon sighed. "That is what I said. And I do not understand, Leonard. What were you asking exactly when you said 'how'?"

"He wants to know I came to have feelings for you," Penny answered Sheldon and shot a glare at Leonard, who still looked to be in total shock and didn't seem to notice the look.

"Oh, I see." Sheldon blinked. "Well, to my understanding, that when two people spend a lot of time with one another, they start to know each other better and find out their strengths and faults. Penny's strengths far out weigh her faults and I found myself enjoying spending time with her...immensely."

Penny smiled, but it didn't look as if she Sheldon was done.

"When I was in my slump at work those months after the...incident, she was the one to make sure I was all right. She made sure I ate and that I didn't overwork myself. In turn, I came to care about what went on in her daily life and cheered her on when she had an audition and was almost as excited as she when she got a part. These past several months we have gone from friends to best friends to...girlfriend and boyfriend." He looked at Penny. "Did I explain that right?"

Penny was speechless for several seconds. "You explained that perfectly, Sheldon." Sheldon nodded and turned back to Leonard.

"There you have it, Leonard. That is the 'how'."

It took Leonard a few minutes to process everything that was being said and Penny allowed him that. She would feel the same way if she were in Leonard's shoes. Five minutes later, he asked, "So, Penny, there was no chance for...us?"

"No, Leonard," she said, shaking her head. "There never was. You're a nice guy." Sometimes... "But I never thought of you like that."

"Okay." He stood from his armchair. "I-I appreciate that you two have told me the truth and didn't try to hide it. It's going to take me a few days to process everything. Is that okay?"

Penny could do that. After all, she didn't expect to fully support their relationship right away. "Yeah, that's okay. And thanks for not being a jerk about this. We almost waited to tell you because we thought you would be super angry, but Raj told us that you wouldn't be that angry."

"Raj knows?"

"Yeah. He figured it out while we were in Europe somehow and since he knew, Howard does, too," Penny answered.

Leonard took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay. Is that way Howard was acting a little off earlier?"

"Yep."

"All right, then." He ran a hand through his hair. "Well, I'm going to head to bed. I'll see you two later." With that, he turned and left the room.

When Penny heard the door to Leonard's room close, she took the seat he had just vacated. "That went way better than I thought."

"I know. I'm glad. I don't know how I would feel if Leonard would be angry with me. He is my roommate and friend, after all." Penny reached for his hand and squeezed.

"I understand."

"He was the easy person to tell, though." He wasn't looking at her.

"Easiest? Who else do we have to tell?" Penny racked her mind for anyone else they both knew that would need to know about their relationship status.

"Meemaw! Oh, and my mother, too."

*gulp* Looks like I might attempt to write Sheldon's mother and Meemaw. Heaven help me!

Thanks for reading!