Chapter 2

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Amy looked at Sheldon with tears in her eyes. "You want me to do WHAT?"

Sheldon wasn't always good at reading facial expressions, but he was pretty sure tears were bad. He didn't understand Amy's reaction, though. He was looking out for her and trying to make sure she got what she wanted, so why was she crying? Wasn't looking out for her what he was supposed to do? Didn't that make him a GOOD boyfriend? Not understanding what was going on left him unsure what to say. He kept looking at Amy, hoping that she would elaborate.

"Sheldon, could you really send me to another man's bed? Do I mean nothing to you?"

Oh. Sheldon could answer this. "You mean a lot to me, but I'm not sexual, Amy. I've tried and tried, and I'm just not. But just because I'm asexual, that doesn't make it right for me to expect you to to live without sex, anymore than it makes it right for you to expect an asexual to have sex with you."

He looked down and sighed, then looked back up. "But you're right that I couldn't happily send you off to have sex with Dave or Zach or somebody. It should be your right to have sex with anybody you want, if I won't do it with you, but it would make me feel bad if you copulated with them." He looked across the room, to where Leonard was very carefully staying out of the conversation. "I love Leonard, too, though, so somehow it feels right to me for you to do it with him, but not anybody else. You're both my family, or at least, I want you to be."

Amy visibly calmed down. He'd said something she liked, then. He wished he knew which thing it was.

Amy swallowed and looked levelly at him. "I appreciate your doing so much reading on love and sex in order to make sense of our situation and to figure out what to do about it. Considered logically, your suggestion makes sense. But Leonard and I haven't spent much time together and don't know each other very well."

Oh, good, Science Amy. He understood her much better than Emotional Amy, and he could talk with this Amy. Sheldon smiled at her. "I wasn't suggesting that you take Leonard to his bedroom and have your way with him right this minute. I thought you could begin having Date Nights with him, too, and when you both agreed the time was right, THEN you could go at, like the rabbits you both seem to be."

"Sheldon." Amy's voice was stern. "I understand that you consider yourself asexual, and now that I know that, I won't pressure you for sex anymore. But that doesn't give you the right to imply that there's something wrong with people who ARE sexual or to say that we're like animals."

He supposed that was fair. He thought that his friends' being so preoccupied with sexuality undermined their scientific productivity, but his reading did make it clear that asexuals were quite a minority of the population, and it wasn't aberrant for people to spend quite a lot of time thinking about sex. Just another way homo novus was superior, he supposed. Still, hurting Amy's or Leonard's feelings wouldn't make them any happier, and he did want them to be happy.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Amy nodded. "Okay." She glanced at Leonard, who had been watching their interactions without participating, then looked back at Sheldon. "Sheldon, you know that Penny just broke up with Leonard three weeks ago, and they were ENGAGED. He's not going to be ready to date anyone for awhile yet; people don't get over losing someone they love that quickly."

Sheldon sighed. "That's what HE said, when I asked him if he could have sex with you in my place. But I'm worried you won't wait, now that I've told you I can never have sex with you. I don't want to send you to Stuart or Dave or somebody."

Amy looked at him with that look he'd come to recognize as her I-love-you look. "I still love you, even though I understand now that you'll never have sex with me. I don't want to live a sexless life, but I'm willing to wait long enough for us to try a couple of different work-arounds to our mismatch in libido. The fact is, Sheldon, that I don't want to lose you anymore than you want to lose me, so I'm prepared to try some unconventional solutions to our problem."

Oh, good. Amy still loved him and was willing to be flexible. His plan was proceeding nicely.

Amy looked at Leonard. "Leonard, I appreciate it that you've stayed out of the discussion up till now, so that Sheldon and I could get things clear between us, but I'm very uncomfortable with Sheldon's acting as if he can use you as some sort of sexual surrogate unless you say you're okay with it."

Leonard grimaced at Amy. "He just sprang this on me an hour ago, so I'm still assimilating it, myself. I told him that I was still reeling from having my engagement ended so abruptly, and then Sheldon suggested that he and I have a relationship that was romantic but not sexual. I'm so overwhelmed right now that I have almost nothing to say. I do like you, and I guess I love Sheldon as much as he loves me, but I can't make any promises while I'm feeling this overwhelmed; it wouldn't be fair to either of us."

Amy nodded. "I understand, believe me."

Leonard gave her a shaky smile. "I do sorta like the idea of the three of us being a family, though. The family I grew up in was pretty cold and loveless, and I think it would actually be good for me to have TWO people to love, if that, y'know, should actually happen between us."

Amy smiled back. "Well, how about if we hang out together once a week, just the two of us, but only as friends, at least at first."

Leonard nodded. "I think I'd like that. As Sheldon's girlfriend, you're going to be around for awhile, and even if nothing ends up happening between us, I'd like to know you better."

Sheldon decided to help them. "Leonard, Amy enjoys the aquarium quite a bit, and while it's not physics, of course, it does educate the public about marine biology, which makes it a much better place to go than the bars you and Wolowitz and Koothrappali go to."

Leonard looked at Amy, and she smiled. "That works for me, if it works for you."

Leonard nodded. "Yeah, it's been a long time since I've been to the aquarium; I'd love to see it again. Since you know it well, maybe you can show me around. Does Saturday afternoon work for you?"

Amy shook her head. "The place tends to be mobbed with small children on Saturday afternoons. But on Sunday mornings, some people are in church, and the ones who aren't are usually sleeping off whatever trouble they got into on Saturday night, so there aren't many people at the aquarium then."

"Okay," Leonard said. "Sunday at 9 a.m. It's a friend-date!"

"Goody!" Sheldon said.

Amy and Leonard both looked at him, then looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Hmm. Maybe if he were intentionally mildly irritating or mildly clueless, Amy and Leonard would bond over that. He'd have to ponder that, while they were at the aquarium.

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Author's note: Why did I have Sheldon talk about "sex" instead of "coitus"? "Coitus" means specifically sexual intercourse, but Sheldon's been reading up on love and sex, and he knows that things like oral and manual sex exist, so he's using the term "sex" because he realizes that Leonard and/or Amy may want more or other than just intercourse.

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