"Les derniers seront les premiers
Dans l'autre réalité
Nous serons princes d'éternité"

- Jean-Jacques Goldman

One of life's greatest paradoxes is that of the Pestilent Partner. It seems completely illogical and yet every person on the planet (un)fortunate enough to have found that special someone can testify to its existence and veracity. During the five years Sheldon Cooper had dated Amy Farrah Fowler he'd become increasingly aware of this peculiar phenomenon – and more and more puzzled by it.

As weird as it may sound, all the evidence pointed in the same direction: the strength of your love for a person directly correlates to the strength of your desire to throw them off a bridge out on a busy highway.

Like the time when Amy had cooked prawns for dinner and Sheldon had refused to try them, citing their close relationship to cockroaches and woodlice as the reason why the ingestion of such creatures was completely inappropriate, not to mention super gross. Amy had urged him to at least try a bite, and had also pointed out that while prawns were indeed crustaceans they weren't insects so it wouldn't do him any harm to try it. Sheldon had agreed that the consumption of arthropods wasn't in itself dangerous, but had also argued that prawns have six legs and antennae and an exo-skeleton which in his book makes them bugs and therefore they should be dealt with as such. Amy had yelled at him when he'd sprayed the chili-fried prawns with REPEL ("For Christ's sake Sheldon, they're already DEAD!"), and she had refused to speak with him for the remainder of the evening. Sheldon hadn't minded at the time – after all, he got the pizza he'd wanted to begin with, and he could play Candy Crush on his phone all through dinner without Amy interrupting him with silly questions.

How something as insignificant as a small invertebrate could cause such controversy was entirely beyond Sheldon, but one thing he knew for certain – had he known what was coming he would have just tried the stupid thing and had it be over with. But he didn't, and so followed an event that Sheldon would later think of as 'The time I almost took the wheel from Amy and steered the car into a concrete wall'. It had been one long, long, long, long, long drive home to 2311 N. Los Robles Avenue, during which Sheldon had found himself thinking 'It's just not possible to be this furious with another human being' no less than 23 times.

Sheldon had been in one corner. Amy had been in the other. They'd been searching for weaknesses, an opening in the other's defense, and the audience had been cheering on and biting their nails as they both delivered blow after blow (well technically they'd been alone in the car shouting accusations at each other but you know, details), their argument skyrocketing into a full-frontal fight that would surely have earned them millions of dollars in ticket-sales had they been professional boxers and not nerdy scientists with questionable social-skills.

The lanky physicist had spitted out a particularly venomous remark about the petite neurobiologist's soft spot for lower primates, commenting that it was hardly surprising she'd had trouble finding other company if that was the standard she'd held herself to. Judging from the look on Amy's face Sheldon was sure he was the new champion, but alas he'd been sorely mistaken: his triumph was to last a mere 1.5 seconds, after which Amy pulled out a weapon so lethal that he'd contemplated informing the U.S government of its existence.

She'd begun crying.

Apparently a woman's tears contain some sort of mind-controlling agent because Sheldon had found himself apologizing for just about everything he had ever said during the years they'd been dating, and after she'd pulled up in front of his building he had held her and patted her hair and told her he was inferior and unworthy, and what was even worse was that he'd had absolutely no control of his actions whatsoever.

That was the first time he had seriously considered he might actually love her. He also ordered prawn rolls the next time they went out for sushi, after which he had to admit to her that they were in fact quite tasty. You know, given that they were water bugs.

She had slowly opened him up to new experiences and coaxed him into abandoning some of his more restrictive habits, and so when she asked him to check his e-mail after they had finished dinner the day before their third official Sleepover Night he did as he was told without further ado.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Sheldon asked confusedly as he scrolled through the document on his iPad, nodding 'thanks' to Amy as she put a steaming mug of tea in front of him.

"Why memorize it of course" Amy replied, as if it were obvious. "Have you forgotten that tomorrow night is Sleepover Night?"

"I have an eidetic memory, I remember-"

"-every single day of your entire life, I know, I know" Amy filled in, having been given the same answer countless times before. "Still, with your superior intellect and fondness for structure and routine you should have been able to guess what the document was for."

"Am I to assume you think I've lost my touch?" Sheldon gasped, his hand shooting to his heart.

"Assuming makes an ass out of you and me ("Amy! Language!)". I'm merely stating facts. Also I said that you're smart and organized, didn't you catch that?" Amy teased, waggling her eyebrows flirtatiously as she gently blew on her tea before taking a cautious sip of the hot liquid.

"Well I've always said that your adoration of me is one of your most redeeming qualities" Sheldon muttered as he reluctantly downloaded and saved the file she'd sent him to his iPad. He tapped the icon when it appeared on the screen, carefully studying the document once more. He thought he might have an idea of what it was Amy had planned for them but he couldn't be sure, although this time he was almost certain it wouldn't involve needles - for which he (not to mention his left ear) was ever grateful.

"Alright" Sheldon sighed, putting away the iPad and helping himself to a piece of cake Amy had brought over for Date Night, "how do you suggest we do this? I would think it more logical to have the sleepover at your apartment, seeing as it is more suitable for the type of… activity you have in mind. However, you would have to help me transport some of the necessary equipment from my place to yours, which would leave us with one hour less to complete the activity before bedtime" he pointed out, watching his girlfriend as she contemplated this. She rarely made any sound to indicate she was thinking: instead she simply looked to the side, her eyebrows furrowed and her forehead wrinkled. A few years ago this move would have been entirely too nuanced for him to pick up on, resulting in him interpreting her silence as a cue for him to continue speaking. Now he simply waited, knowing she was working out the pros and cons in her head.

"There are two ways for us to do this" she finally said, pausing for a second to put a spoonful of chocolate cake in her mouth, moaning out loud because it was so darn delicious. The sound sent a shiver down Sheldon's spine and he quickly diverted his gaze, hoping she wouldn't notice he was blushing. "Either you help me carry down the equipment you need to my car and I'll keep it in the trunk 'til tomorrow, or I bring the equipment I need with me to work tomorrow and I'll drive us to Los Robles. I'm reluctant to keep expensive hardware in my car overnight though, I mean your video camera alone is worth several hundred dollars. It's better if we have the sleepover at your place, you know… I just need clothes and make up. Possibly some silk scarves" Amy continued, feeling a rush of excitement shoot through her as she thought of their plans for Friday night.

"While I agree that this arrangement is much safer and less time-consuming, there is one problem" Sheldon told her, knowing there was no way he would agree to this if their privacy couldn't be guaranteed. "Penny is away on business so Leonard will be home tomorrow."

"Well" Amy husked as she toyed with the whipped cream on her plate with her spoon, "I guess you will have to send him away then."

That proved to be easier said than done. Leonard had (as was his habit) whined about how there was nothing to do in Penny's apartment when she wasn't there, and that their other mutual friends Howard and Raj were spending the night with their wife and girlfriend, respectively, so he would have no one to hang out with, and no he couldn't just bring his video games to Penny's apartment because she didn't have a console. Sheldon had argued that they had a clause in the Roommate Agreement that handled the topic of girlfriends and sleepovers and that Leonard was legally obliged to stay away until Sheldon invited him back over, to which Leonard replied that Sheldon had never done that for him so why should he?

It was truly befuddling, as Leonard had always been - as it was commonly known - a "bro" about these things, and Sheldon suspected his sudden diversion from his normal cooperative demeanor had to do with Penny's business trip because it was yet another testament to the fact that she made more money than him. When he pointed that out Leonard finally relented and apologized, offering to drive Sheldon home on Friday should he need time to prepare for Amy's visit. Sheldon had politely declined, and informed him that he was welcome back home at 9.00 a.m. on Saturday morning.

"What did he say when you told him that?" Amy asked as Sheldon told her about the ordeal while they climbed the stairs up to his apartment the following night. They were both carrying large boxes, and Amy who was short nearly had to walk sideways to see where she put her feet.

"I don't know, I wasn't listening. Something, something, 'use protection', something" Sheldon replied as he balanced the box on his hip while simultaneously trying to fish his keys out of his pocket. "I can't be sure but I think he was being sarcastic. I always take the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of myself and others – Leonard knows that by now, he even helped set up some of the booby traps in the living room…"

Amy bit her bottom lip, entering the apartment as Sheldon leaned against the door to keep it from slamming shut. "I don't think that's the kind of protection he was talking about Sheldon" she mumbled as she sat her box down on the floor, keeping her back to him as she felt her temperature rise. This was mined territory. One step and she might lose a foot.

Sheldon stared at her curiously, wondering why she'd suddenly gone so quiet. 'That's not the kind of protection he was talking about.'

Oh. He'd meant… Oh.

Sheldon didn't know what to reply. Did his roommate's remark mean that Leonard assumed that Amy and Sheldon were having SEX now, or that they were at least about to have SEX within the foreseeable future? Dear Lord. While he'd most certainly worried about the implications of them spending every Friday night together, it hadn't crossed his mind that others would now assume that they were having SEX… But if Leonard had been sarcastic it meant that they didn't. Somehow that upset Sheldon even more.

He put his box down next to hers, carefully avoiding looking at her.

"So uhm… Do you want to have dinner first or…?" the tall man asked awkwardly, eager to move on to safer grounds.

Amy turned to him then, nodding as she tried to appear unmoved by his discomfort.

"Yeah… Yeah, I'm starving. Let's order in today, I don't really feel like cooking" she replied, moving over to the kitchen to get the take out menus, leaving Sheldon alone with his thoughts. He went to sit down in his spot on the couch, his eyes firmly locked on his top desk drawer on the opposite end of the room. There were decisions to be made… Important decisions indeed.

Like whether or not he should ask Amy exactly what she had in mind for their Sleepover Night. She'd told him that all she needed was clothes and make up but those boxes had been really heavy – unless she had dismantled her actual closet and brought it with her they must contain something else. As dinner arrived and they sat down to eat he became increasingly sure that he shouldn't have been so quick to assume that he knew what she'd planned.

"Are you excited?" Amy asked after they'd finished the last of their Thai food. She handed her empty Styrofoam carton to Sheldon for him to put in the trash bin, grinning once again as the awkwardness from before dinner was long forgotten. "I know I am. This is the kind of thing I've fantasized about doing since I was a teenager!"

Sheldon gulped as he cleared the table, thinking to himself that this had become part of their Friday night routine: each of them walking on eggshells around the other, terrified of just how far they might take this whole adolescence repossession thing. Not that he was one to talk – he'd suggested they switch careers to become criminal masterminds the week before after all. But that was just it – with their combined intelligence and Sheldon's predisposition for grandiose (Leonard called it "loony") thinking and Amy's access to various biohazardous materiel, things could get really interesting… or really, really precarious.

Sheldon placed two fingers over the inside of his wrist, checking his watch and mouthing "one, two, three" silently to himself.

"Either that or I'm about to die of a heart attack" he replied when he was done, shooting a glance at the cardboard boxes which were still standing next to the coffee table. "Would you care to tell me what it is we're doing so I can decide whether to call the hospital to let them know I'm coming in or not?"

Amy rolled her eyes at her neurotic boyfriend, thinking to herself that while tonight's activity would benefit from his tendency to overdramatize, it would do him good to learn not to expect the worst all the time.

"Don't be silly Sheldon, you're not gonna die. Plus I know mouth-to-mouth so should you have a heart attack I'll be able to keep you alive 'til the ambulance arrives."

"You're just saying that so you'll have an excuse to stick your tongue down my throat."

"I've never stuck my tongue down your throat!"

"Well it would be the perfect time when I'm out cold, wouldn't it?"

"That's just… There are no tongues involved in mouth-to-…wait, why am I arguing with you about this?"

"You tell me, I wasn't the one who brought it up."

"You just… gah!" Amy cried out, counting to ten in her head while trying to think of her happy place, a place where everything was nice and quiet and she wasn't just about to throttle her boyfriend.

Breathing in through her nose and out of her mouth she looked up at Sheldon, who was regarding her innocently with those big blue eyes of his. It was a good thing he was cute, or she might actually have gone through with the deed.

"We… are going to record a music video" she said at last, giggling as she watched Sheldon take a deep breath to protest, only to deflate as his mind processed what she had just said.

"Oh… well, that doesn't sound too bad" he let out flatly, wondering to himself why he'd been so worried about Leonard being in the apartment. Now he wasn't at all sure what it was he'd imagined they'd be doing.

Amy looked as if she were thinking the exact same thing, only she seemed amused rather than puzzled.

"Didn't you get that from the lyrics I asked you to memorize?" she teased, realizing (not for the first time) that Sheldon's fantastically intricate mind was so complex that it was unable to make the simplest of connections – like that lyrics and video cameras and props and frocks probably meant they'd be recording themselves singing.

"I thought it might have something to do with that" Sheldon pouted, trying to save face.

"Of course you did. Come on, let's set the scene! I brought outfits for the two of us but I wasn't really sure which theme I wanted for the video so I thought we might go through them together" Amy enthused, tugging at her boyfriend's hand to get him to come along with her.

'Well, this might actually be fun' Sheldon thought as Amy kept babbling, watching a whirlwind of nylon and pastel colors and glimmering feather boas swirl through the living room as his girlfriend unpacked one of the two cardboard boxes. They'd often recorded videos in costume for his "Fun with Flags" online educational program, and as long as Amy remembered to press "record" on the camera these sessions usually went by smoothly. He wasn't exactly sure how this was different from what they'd done on previous occasions and why it was something Amy felt she'd missed out on, but he was willing to play along if it meant he didn't have to offer up another of his appendages as an offering to whatever God one was supposed to appease by modifying one's body.

"So I had two ideas for the video" Amy continued as she kept throwing scarves and gloves his way without bothering to look back to see if he actually caught any of them, "the first was to just lip-sync to the original recording of the song and act out a replica of the accompanying music video. But logistically that could be tricky, and I don't think we'll have the time to film all the necessary scenes… That's why I asked you to memorize the lyrics and the tabs."

Sheldon, who was busy trying to balance a steadily growing pile of clothes in his arms, searched the vast library that was his eidetic memory but couldn't for the life of him remember having ever seen the video she spoke of.

"And the second idea?" he asked, dumping the clothes in the armchair, shuddering as he realized how disorganized the pile was. He had an overwhelming need to sort and fold it.

"The second idea is to sing and play ourselves, and direct this sort of… low-key version of the original video. I thought we might film it in your bedroom. I brought props…" Amy grinned, eager to get on with it.

"Oh Dear" Sheldon mumbled, thinking he might have reason to be nervous after all. "I better go set up my piano then."

One of their strengths as a couple was their ability to work efficiently together. Sheldon was quite happy tinkering with his amplifier and digital piano while Amy gradually turned his bedroom into something that looked like a backdrop from "Sixteen Candles". Not that he'd seen that movie…. more than once.

Within twenty minutes the scene was set, all the cords were checked and all the hideous quilts and stuffed toys were in their respective places on the bed, and the amplifier worked perfectly after Sheldon gave it a good smack ("That's how my father handled machinery if it sassed him"). He decided to play through the tabs while Amy changed into her costume, informing her as she tried to get him to change too that the correct dress code for backing musicians is all black and that's what he was going to wear. She had reluctantly admitted that he was right, perking up as he told her this meant she was the star and not him.

"What do you think?" Amy asked as she returned from Leonard's room, motioning for him to take off his headphones and focus on her. He pulled out the plug and put the phones back in their case, slowly taking in the sight of her. Well, it was certainly… different from what she usually wore. A black sequined blazer over a striped tank top, some kind of patterned flowy skirt and bright pink leggings, and a black hat. It was small and round, resting rakishly at the top of her head. He found himself wondering how it stayed on.

"It's very… 80's" Sheldon stammered, trying not to stare at her décolletage. Amy rarely wore anything even remotely revealing and the last time she'd exposed part of her bosom he'd had to go lie down with his feet up high to avoid passing out. Strangely enough they'd been engaging in a rather juvenile activity at that time too.

Amy's face fell, and she looked down at her skirt.

"Is that a bad thing?" she asked, suddenly feeling insecure about standing in front of the camera. They had worn all kinds of silly costumes when they recorded "Fun with Flags" but she'd tried to look good this time. She'd hoped he'd say she was pretty.

"It's not… I mean that's to say… You look very… sparkling" Sheldon coughed out, struggling to express himself. "While I haven't watched many music videos in my life, the ones I have seen suggest that your attire is entirely appropriate for MTV" he continued, exhaling loudly as Amy's smile returned to her face. Disaster averted.

"Nobody watches MTV for the music videos anymore Sheldon" Amy mumbled sweetly, nudging his shoulder with her elbow.

"Of course they do. MTV. Music Television" Sheldon insisted, cocking his head to the side. "What else would they be watching?"

"Teenagers giving birth, teenagers getting drunk, teenagers taking drugs, teenagers getting arrested" Amy recited as she checked the settings on the camera. "Teenagers getting rejected by their best friend whom they've been crushing on for seven years, teenagers getting tricked into falling in love with people they've never met… it has something to do with catfish but I'm not sure what" she continued as she pressed "record" and grabbed something that looked like a journal or diary and a pencil from the top of Sheldon's chest of drawers.

"My Meemaw used to fry catfish for dinner if I visited her on Wednesdays" Sheldon suddenly recalled, surprised to find he could actually feel the scent of it waft into his nostrils. Oh, memories.

"I don't think that's what they are referring to Sheldon" Amy giggled as she crawled onto the bed, neatly arranging her skirt so it would flow out over the covers. "But I'll cook you catfish every Wednesday from now on if it makes you happy."

"You would do that for me?" Sheldon gasped, staring into her emerald green eyes as she took off her glasses and hid them on the window sill behind the drapes.

"I'd do anything for you. Now come on maestro, hit it from the top!" Amy exclaimed, and as if possessed by one of the old masters he began playing, his fingers dancing over the keys as Amy began singing. She pretended to be writing in her diary, looking sad and forlorn as she glanced into the camera.

"Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick,
and think of you
Caught up in circles confusion -
is nothing new
Flashback - warm nights -
almost left behind
Suitcases of memories,
time after…"

Her voice trembled as she sang, and he felt the hair on his arms rise as the vibrations hit his chest. He loved that rumbling contralto of hers. She sat up on her knees, appearing to be mourning something she'd lost. How could she know what that was like?

"…Sometimes you picture me -
I'm walking too far ahead,
you're calling to me, I can't hear
what you've said -
Then you say - go slow -
I fall behind -
the second hand unwinds…"

He felt sweat trickle down his forehead as he played, his eyes never leaving her as she acted out her pain, and he was mesmerized… Years of practice meant he could let his hands roam freely over the keys, allowing for him to watch what was unfolding before him. That voice of hers, that deep, husky voice.

"If you're lost you can look - and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you - I'll be waiting
Time after time…"

She sang and he played, and time seemed to be standing still. He had no memory of finishing the song: suddenly it was just over. How could he not have seen it? How could he not have listened to her before?

Amy too was quiet, aware that whatever had just taken place it had gone beyond a mere amateur recording of a music video. Sheldon was sitting by his piano, looking down at it as if unsure of what to do next. Suddenly he seemed to have found his equilibrium, turning the piano off before raising his head to look at her.

"I have something for you" he said, rising from his seat and pressing "stop" on the camera before he walked out the door, leaving her alone on the bed with the plush toys and the ugly quilt her grandmother had given her for her 20th birthday. She looked down at her skirt, absent-mindedly smoothing out the hem. It was funny how nearly every single time they'd been in his bedroom (or hers for that matter), they'd been in costume. Doctor Who, prom dress, train conductor… But this felt more like that time when they'd just been themselves, and she'd asked him if they would ever have an intimate relationship. It was strange indeed.

Sheldon rummaged through his drawers, searching for the item he knew had been there just the day before. He'd searched all over town for the likes of it, only to be told that what he wanted wasn't in retail anymore. After getting one or three shop clerks fired and very nearly earning himself another restraining order to go with his collection he'd settled for a substitute – it wasn't what he'd been after but it would have to do until he could get a hold on the real thing.

"Aha!" he exclaimed as he found it, holding the box behind his back as he went back to his bedroom. Amy was just where he'd left her, sitting up as she heard him enter the room.

"Now" Sheldon began as he sat down on the bed next to her, careful not to let her see what he held in his hand, "As you know I am not particularly fond of gift-giving and I realize that this… item, might not be exactly what you expected. I assure you I've been doing my best to find just the perfect one but unfortunately things didn't turn out the way I planned… Now, since you've offered to cook me catfish every Wednesday for an unspecified amount of time I will consider us even, and therefore there's no need for you to get me something in return… So… here you go" he finished, handing over the box to his somewhat stunned girlfriend, who gingerly accepted it.

She opened it slowly, instantly realizing what it was when she saw the shape of the package. She couldn't believe he had actually gone out and done this – had he thought of it all by himself?

"It's perfect" she sobbed, pulling the item out of the box and clutching it to her heart. "I can't believe that you'd… Oh it's just wonderful…"

Sheldon felt oddly proud of himself as he watched Amy admire the bright pink retro telephone receiver-shaped (how's that for a tongue twister?) headset, complete with a curly cord and an iPhone-compatible plug. He had meant to get her an actual telephone but as it turned out the model he was looking for was quite hard to come by so instead he'd gone for the next best thing.

"Now I can call you on your pink telephone" he mumbled, regarding Amy as she picked out her phone to plug in the headset.

"I want to try it out" she told him excitedly. "Try calling me up."

"Alright" Sheldon nodded, swinging his feet over the edge of the bed to head out to the living room, only to freeze on the spot as Amy's hand shot out to grab his shoulder.

"No, please stay here with me" she pleaded with him, pulling him down until they were lying side by side on their backs.

"I don't understand. If I call you up while we're in the same room you'll hear me talking next to you" Sheldon protested, thinking her request was slightly odd.

"It doesn't matter, just call me up" she repeated, turning to look at him with those forest green eyes of hers. She hadn't put her glasses back on yet and she was still wearing that costume, and suddenly he felt as if he'd been transported to another place and another time, somewhere way back where they could have been hadn't they been where they were.

"Okay" he whispered, leaning back against the pillow as he put his phone to his ear, hearing her phone ring at the same time the signals went through. Beep…Beep…Beep…

"Hey boyfriend" Amy mumbled next to him, holding the receiver with one hand and twirling the curly cord with the other, just as he'd pictured her a few weeks earlier. It was strange hearing her talking next to him while simultaneously hearing her voice through the speaker.

"Hey girlfriend" he replied softly, sighing as he raked his hand through his short chestnut-colored hair.

"It's dark out now. It must be time for bed soon" Amy said, and he felt her move next to him as she turned to glance at the digital alarm clock on his nightstand. At least that's what he thought she was doing.

"My watch says it's 9.47" Sheldon replied.

"Then your watch is falling behind."

"That's from your song."

"What?"

"That's what you sang. That you're were falling behind."

"Oh…" Amy exhaled. Perhaps there was more truth to that than Sheldon realized. She was falling behind, in so many different ways. And at the same time she felt as if she were moving at the speed of light.

"Why did you pick that song?" Sheldon asked when she hadn't spoken for over a minute, thinking she might have dozed off. She was still very much awake though, and he heard her sigh heavily, which prompted him to lower the volume on the speaker as it hurt his ear.

"It was Jennie's favorite song" she replied at last, inching closer to him as she spoke.

"Jennie? Who's Jennie?" Sheldon asked confusedly, wrinkling his eyebrows as he tried to conjure a memory of her mentioning that name, but nothing popped up.

"She lived two doors down from us when I was a little girl. She seemed all grown up to me at the time but now I realize she was probably about 14 or 15 years old. She used to watch me in the evenings when my mother was at work" Amy recounted, her voice revealing she was drifting off into a long distant memory. "She'd let me watch TV after bedtime and she'd draw me pictures of Disney-characters, and tell me stories about the boys she went out with… My mother must have known but she didn't have much of a choice at the time but to leave me with her… Jennie loved Cyndi Lauper, she even wore her hair just like her… She's one of the few friends I've ever had in my life."

Sheldon licked his bottom lip, feeling slightly overwhelmed. How unfair it was, how utterly, utterly unfair that the only people who had ever cared for them had done so out of obligation.

"Where is she now?" he exhaled, wondering why he'd never heard of this girl before.

"How should I know?" Amy snorted, as were it a silly question, "it's not like my mother would have let me hang out with her. I was 9 years old and she was a teenager, and not a very well-behaved one I might add. I admired Jennie and she was nice to me, but she had her own life. She's probably married with kids now."

'Maybe…' Sheldon thought as he absent-mindedly rubbed his stomach, 'Maybe the next time you see her you will both be.'

But he didn't say it out loud, and Amy didn't appear to have much else to say, and so they both fell silent.

"I'm going to hang up now" Amy said at last, still sounding as if she were miles away.

"Okay" Sheldon mumbled, and they hung up, both of them lingering in bed as the minutes kept ticking by.

Eventually Amy sat up as the blazer had begun to itch, and Sheldon mimicked her move, thinking it was time to brush their teeth and go to bed.

"Thank you for this" Amy murmured, nudging her head at the pink headset. "It was the nicest thing anyone has ever given to me."

"You're welcome" Sheldon replied quietly, sensing that there was something hanging in the air, something that hadn't been there before.

"Well… Good night then" she whispered, leaning in to press her lips against his. He cupped her jaw as she did so, feeling his blood pressure rise as he pulled in the scent of her. They pulled back slowly, the tips of their noses still touching as they looked deeply into each other's eyes, his hand still on her cheek and her hand still at the back of his head. Yet again her lips were on his, yet again she pulled back, only to be drawn back in, their lips parting and their tongues meeting, and this was new, all new… Hands shyly roamed as they kissed, both their hearts throbbing, and Sheldon couldn't stop himself from letting out a deep guttural groan as Amy gently bit his bottom lip, which woke him from his trance and caused him to break away from her, both of them breathing heavily as they tried to process what had just happened.

"I… I should go get ready for bed" Amy stuttered, her head spinning and her thoughts colliding.

"It's… it's already past ten" Sheldon said, swallowing as he tried to gather his composure.

"Alright… g'night" Amy blurted out, grabbing her glasses and darting off before he had the chance to ask her if he could take the couch because all the awful plush animals would surely give him nightmares. He watched her shut the door behind her, his heart still pounding in his chest.

"Good night Amy" he whispered to himself, putting the tip of his finger to the spot on his bottom lip where her teeth had been just minutes before.

Thank you for reading and reviewing!

"Time after Time"

courtesy of Cyndi Lauper