Shower. Shower. Shower. Shower. Shower. That was the only word in Sheldon's mind when he went up to the fourth floor in the apartment complex in Pasadena. He had really driven the bus without his special bus pants. Of course he had searched for the cleanest seat in the bus but still, the thought of a lot of different bottoms sitting on these every day, made him sick to the stomach.

He pulled out his keys and opened the apartment door. Yes, he had gone home for Amy, but what he needed first was a shower.

Just when he was about to quickly head over to the bathroom, he realized that little lump of fleece on the sofa. He slowed down and walked towards it. When he only saw Amy's forehead and hair stick out from under the blanket, he grinned. She had fallen asleep while watching TV. He thought about it for a second, but then he carefully pulled the blanket down a little bit, so that he could see her face. She wrinkled her nose and made a grumbly noise but didn't wake up. Sheldon smiled and kneeled down in front of her.

"Oh, Amy… you're so beautiful" He whispered, carefully taking one of her brown hair strands between his thumb and index finger and let it glide down between them till it fell back on the sofa again.

Then he slowly ran his index finger along her nose and quietly laughed as she wrinkled it again. The last time he had seen something so beautiful and had been so fond of something, had been, when his mother had given him his very first big physics encyclopedia.

He could have sat there for hours but he also knew that he'd hate himself if he had to go to bed unshowered after riding this filthy bus.

With a last long sigh he bent over and kissed Amy's forehead. But the feeling of her soft skin was too temping, so he also kissed her cheek and then her nose before finally quietly standing up and heading towards the bathroom.

Bumps… a bumpy road. But she hadn't even been on a road a second before?

Slowly Amy woke from her slumber, just to find herself in Sheldon's arms.

"Oh drat. I didn't mean to wake you…" He whispered. "Close your eyes, keep sleeping"

Amy shook her head. "How late is it?"

"Half past eleven"

"And you're already back home?"

Sheldon, who had carried Amy from the sofa to his bedroom, carefully put her down on her side of the bed and quietly went to his.

Amy leaned on her elbows and looked at her boyfriend. "No, really. Why are you already back home? Didn't Leonard want to stay?"

"No, I didn't want to stay." Sheldon sat down on his side of the bed and turned around halfway to Amy without looking at her though.

"So… who drove you?"

"I took the bus"

Amy's jaw dropped. "But you didn't have your bus pants with you"

"Please don't remind me" Sheldon's eyes reflected the pure horror he had felt when riding that dirty public bus.

The young neurobiologist moved a little closer to her boyfriend. "Why did you want to go home? Was someone mean?"

"No. I just wanted to go home. Does a man need a reason for wanting to be in his own four walls?"

"If he usually prefers weird card games, then yes" Amy didn't stop looking at him.

Sheldon sighed. She wouldn't give up anyway. "I wanted to be with you."

"Oh Sheldon…"

"Because… only because I am worried, I mean, after you slipped today and all…"

"Of course" Amy grinned and her cheeks reddened a little with excitement when she realized that Sheldon might have come home because he couldn't have gotten his mind off of her and what had happened between them earlier.

Sheldon saw her grin and pulled his eyebrows down. "No coitus tonight, young lady! Don't you even think about that!"

"Apparently you were thinking about it just now…" She smirked at him and he blushed and cleared his throat nervously.

"Anyway, no coitus!"

Amy could have grumbled and bitched at him. She also could have agreed like a nice girl. But she wasn't planning on either of that. It was time to play. "Well, I apologize"

Sheldon swung his legs into bed and then stared at her quizzically. "What for?"

"I didn't know it was so bad touching me in a sexual way. I apologize for the seduction. It won't happen again." She said it so easily and peacefully, that Sheldon panicked for a second. It seemed like she really thought that and that she was ready to be okay with it.

"I love touching you!" He blurted out bluntly. "To even think I'd find it bad! That's disappointing, Amy!"

The young woman kept her pokerface but was grinning on the inside. "Who knows"

"I do! I know my feelings! And my feeling was, that I loved touching you. In every way."

"Fine, good to know!" Amy gave him a short smile and then turned around.

"That's it? 'Fine, good to know'? I would have wished on a little more response, Miss Fowler."

"For example?"

"I… uh…" Sheldon stuttered and his face felt so hot that he was afraid it would explode. He must have been bright red.

"Are you seriously giving me this typical 'Was I good' macho thing?" Amy turned back around and stared at him in disbelief.

"Of course not!" Sheldon shook his head. "I know I was good."

Amy almost started laughing when she saw his asking insecure look towards her. She could have backed out of the conversation at that point but she also was clever enough to know, that Sheldon hated to be insecure about things and she didn't want him to hate anything that had happened between them.

"You're right" She smiled at him. "You were."

Sheldon cleared his throat and pulled the blanket up his legs.

Amy took a deep breath, then bit her lip and stared at her hands. "You said… no coitus tonight…"

Her boyfriend turned his head to her and a little smile formed on his lips. "You just earned three more spanks"

"Good! You owe me four now!"

"I owe you?" It took him a moment to understand. "Oh, you little vixen"

Amy laughed and then yawned. "I think I'm gonna sleep"

"Alright" Sheldon slipped down and pulled the blanket up to his chin. "Me too. Good night, Amy."

"Good night" Amy turned her back to Sheldon and then sighed peacefully.

A few minutes of silence passed, before the neurobiologist's voice cut through it again. "You're not using your spanks anyway…"

Slap.

Amy's laughing scream sounded through the room as she turned around and tossed her upper body next to Sheldon's, starting to tickling him.

"No, Amy, nooo!" Sheldon giggled, trying to push her back to her side. But Amy was strong. She poked her fingers into his side, tickled his belly, and tickled his neck.

It went on for a few short minutes, then Sheldon finally found the strength to free himself. He grabbed Amy's wrists, turned her on her back again and pinned her arms down next to her head.

Almost automatically Amy rose her head and planted a short innocent kiss onto Sheldon's lips.

He looked right into her eyes. "I've never felt so free with anyone before."

"Good" She nodded, slightly out of breath.

He kept looking at her and suddenly felt that weird sensation he had already felt several times when waking up and today in the bathtub. Quickly he moved away from her. She was confused but also didn't hold him back. She knew it was new to him and that he had made big steps for her within the last few weeks.

"Hey, it's way past your bedtime" Amy softly whispered. "We really should sleep"

"Yes" Sheldon agreed with a thin voice. "Thank you, Amy"

"Don't worry, Sheldon"

"You're already home?" Penny sounded disappointed as she stopped painting her toenails and looked at her boyfriend.

"Yeah" Leonard swung the door shut. "It sucked"

"But didn't you play the new Gaylords of Nu-uh or something?"

"Warlords of Ka'a" Leonard let himself fall onto the sofa next to her. "Yes but it isn't funny in a set of three."

Penny pulled down her eyebrows and started counting quietly. Then she looked at her boyfriend with a slightly open mouth but didn't care enough to really ask so she kept painting her toenails. Leonard sighed and leaned back. He would have loved to know what has been wrong with Sheldon.

"Oh, so it was him I heard come home earlier!" Penny suddenly realized.

"There is no one else living on this floor, who did you think it was?"

"I wasn't sure if maybe I…" She tossed a slow glance at the wine glass and Leonard understood.

Penny finished her toenails and then leaned back to her boyfriend. "What happened? Did he lose?"

"Not at all… he was weird. First he said he felt bad, then all of a sudden he admitted he wanted to go home to Amy because he was worried. When I picked him up he was in the bathroom with her…"

Penny's eyes widened as she stared at Leonard.

"…he told me she had slipped but I could definitely hear someone getting out of the bathtub… and he behaved weird the whole time. More weird than usual…"

Penny's mouth still hung open, then she punched Leonard in the side. "You know what that means, right?"

Leonard stared at her quizzically and she rolled her eyes. "Leonard! Your little friend did the nasty! In the bathtub! With Miss Amy Farrah Fowler!"