Sequel to Warm Milk

Penny sat next to Sheldon as they glued rhinestones into the petals of Penny's new hobby/side job. Penny Blossoms.

She hadn't expected Sheldon to help her fulfill the order she got from a boutique. Out of all the guys he had been the least likely to stay and help, but lo and behold, here he was. The rest had flaked and left.

"Penny?"

"Yeah?"

"May I ask a question related to your Somnia heritage?"

Penny smiled in confusion. "Suuuuure?"

"I have been researching this but the information available online was conflicting and dare I say, misleading. So I believe the only way to get a straight answer is asking you directly."

Penny raised her eyebrows and wondered what he had to ask for him to look so serious. "Go ahead Honey."

"Are Somnia and Oneiros different types of Fairy-folk?" His face was earnest.

"Oh wow. I wasn't expecting that. Hmmmmm, I would say yes…but not because we're different in terms of dream abilities or even appearance. Somnia believe that we're children of Somnus and to be exact we have different…forefathers? Ancestors? Depending on that we also have cultural differences between the Somnia. My family claims that we're descendants of Morpheus but growing up I had a neighbor that claimed her family descended from Phantasos." Penny shrugged.

"She could still do the same things that I could so I don't think there's an actual difference. " Sheldon was listening intently and Penny had to smile. Not a lot of people were actually interested in learning about her history and people.

"As for the Oneiros, they believe that they are children of Nyx. We have the same abilities and even use the same warding arrays but culturally we're distinct from one another. We celebrate different Holidays, use different symbols for our families, our names are also different so overall I would say we're different people.

"I see." Sheldon nodded and Penny smiled at him knowing he would never forget this talk. Literally. "Penny."

"Yeah?"

"No, I mean…You said different names. But Penny is not a Roman or latin name. In fact, it's Greek, as it comes from Penelope."

Penny narrowed her eyes at Sheldon. She might have feelings for the tall Wackadoodle but she wasn't sure if she wanted to share this with him yet.

"It's not diminutive of Penelope…" Penny sighed. "My birth name is Plotina." She closed her eyes and waited for mockery or laughter.

"Oh! Okay. Thank you Penny, that was very informative." Sheldon went back to making Penny Blossoms.

Penny's eyebrows tried to escape her face. Sheldon was the first person to not make fun of her because of her name.

It was nice.

She was glad that Sheldon was busy making more Penny Blossoms because she was smiling like a fool and couldn't stop.

"Penny. One more question if you don't mind." This time he didn't look up from his work.

"Sure, shoot."

"How does your warding array work? Without dreams do you…well, do you sleep?"

"Oh…huh…I guess it can be a bit hard to understand but, within the warding array I don't manifest my dream abilities. It's not like a void, I just sleep and then wake up."

"Do you have your own dreams?"

"I want to be an actress." She said cheekily.

"Har, har. I meant that-"

"I know, I know. In short, yes, but I can't walk in my own dreams and I will never remember them."

"Fascinating."

Penny trudged up the stairs, a soggy mess.

"No rain at all!" She said mockingly trying to imitate the weatherman from channel 4.

Her night out with her friends had been canceled unexpectedly by the sudden and heavy rain. Quick goodbyes and the group had dispersed after only visiting one club, Penny had wanted to dance and maybe find a warm body to spend the night with. She was frustrated to hell and back.

Penny had been trying to flirt with Sheldon but either the man was oblivious or he wasn't interested…and she was too much of a coward to ask him outright.

It wasn't even midnight and here she was returning home.

Quickly making her way into her apartment, Penny removed her mess of a dress and dropped it in the hamper with a heavy thump. Running a warm bath took no time and soon enough she no longer felt grimy and gross. In fact the warm water was relaxing her into sleep, she really shouldn't, but just for a moment Penny closed her eyes and stars bloomed behind her eyes.

Almost immediately her real body made a huge splash as she jumped out of the bath.

Sheldon's usually golden bright dream was now a dim sickly yellow, like a cracked old bulb ready to give out.

Drying herself off as best as she could and still with wet hair, Penny made sure her array wasn't active as she changed into sleeping shorts and a ratty old tee she had stolen from her brother. Finally, after what felt like an eternity Penny lied down on her bed and closed her eyes.

Usually, Penny loved seeing all the dreams explode into makeshift constellations, but this time as soon as her dream self came into being she ran towards the very familiar dream. She ignored Leonard's as she ran towards her friend.

Sheldon's dream looked even worse up close.

All of her early frustrations now forgotten, Penny simply wanted to help Sheldon get out of this nightmare. She had seen dreams in this state before and it only meant that the dreamer was definitely not having a good time.

Pressing her hand against the dream, she noticed that the usual warmth was missing. A window formed and all she could see was rain. Black, cold and infinite it fell mercilessly against a small concrete building where a window shook and rattled with every thunder strike. A lone flickering light barely illuminated the interior and Penny knew that the small shivering figure was Sheldon.

This time the dream fought her as she made her way inside.

Freezing cold rain pelted her as she finally made her way inside, the rain roared and it even muffled the sound of thunder, it was as if a thousand people were screaming in agony.

Penny tried to chase the shadows away but it was useless, as soon as she got rid of it, the rain brought more shadow to replace what had been sheared off.

No. She couldn't do anything here. Gazing at the lonely building she began to walk, small golden footprints marked where she walked, but even those were soon swallowed by the hungry, dark rain.

Time in dreams was always wonky, Penny could have sworn that she walked for hours before finally reaching the building, she expected the door to be locked but to her surprise it gave in easily and she was able to make her way inside.

Unlike the real world, the water clinging to her body quickly evaporated, almost as if it was trying to escape her presence.

The rain in this room was muffled, the roaring was distant but not any less intimidating. The room was simple, a bed sat against the wall and a desk served as a makeshift night stand. Sheldon stood by the window and in his hand was a flickering lamp, it wasn't connected to anything but it still worked. Barely.

"You shouldn't be here." Sheldon's hollow and haunted voice startled her. All previous times she had visited his dreams, she had stayed in the background, never interacting with him directly.

"The rain was scary."

Sheldon finally turned to look at her. In the dream he must have been around fifteen, he still had that baby fat that made him look younger. Sheldon blinked at her and nodded. "Storms are scary."

Slowly, with short and careful steps she approached him. "Would you mind if I share your light?"

"Does it make it less scary for you?" His voice still sounded hollow and far away.

Penny nodded at him. "Yep."

"I suppose that the gentlemanly thing to do is to share the light." Sheldon extended the hand holding the lamp at her.

Penny reached him and covered his hand with hers. Immediately the lamp shone brighter, the light changed from yellow to golden, shadows backed away from Sheldon's feet and the window didn't rattle and shake as much.

But Sheldon didn't notice any of this, he had turned to look out the window again.

Penny stood there with him for a long time, not saying anything. She, unbeknownst to him, was clearing the room from any lingering shadows.

Sheldon yawned and rubbed at his eyes. "I'm tired."

"Do you want to lie on the bed?"

"I…" Sheldon stopped and looked at her closely. "Could you stay with me?" He finally said.

"Of course Honey. I'll watch over you."

The bed was a single but Sheldon made room for her and she sat next to his pillow, against the headboard. The lamp still in her hand and resting in her lap.

Sheldon closed his eyes and tried to sleep but she knew he was awake, he still flinched with every thunder strike.

Penny adjusted herself to be more comfortable but Sheldon must have misinterpreted her movement as her trying to leave because his hand shot up to grab her arm firmly and in a shaky voice he begged. "Please don't leave me!"

Penny wanted to cry, but she simply lied next to him and put her head right next to his on the pillow.

"I'm not going anywhere." She reassured him.

Sheldon woke up, stiff and anxious but not as much as he expected.

Storms always made him have horrible nightmares. He had expected that having Penny nearby would mean he wouldn't experience a nightmare but alas, it was not to be.

At least he didn't feel on the verge of a panic attack even if he did feel pressure on his chest.

Sheldon carefully removed the covers and froze.

Penny snored peacefully on his chest.

This was unexpected.

But not unwelcome.

Notes:

Yay, more for this Universe.

I think for now these are sort of glimpses rather than an actual narrative but it helps to keep the inspiration going.

Also, for the people in this site. It seems that the site has decided to stop sending me any kind of notifications, so thank you for your wonderful reviews. Much love.