Summary:

Dani observes her friends.

Jonjon sucked on his teeth as he stared at the photo on his phone. Taking a deep breath he tried to hit the delete button before he could change his mind.

But he couldn't do it.

It was a picture of Priya and him at the gym. A spur of the moment thing. He was flexing his arms and making a silly face while Priya smiled as she held a hand under his face, her other hand held the phone as they stood in front of the large mirror.

It was his favorite picture.

With a flick of his finger and a couple of taps he switched to his messages. He hesitated for a moment before opening Priya's messages.

'I'm waiting inside.'

That was the last message from when they met at Starbucks. That had been almost two months back and he was still pining after her. He wanted to send her a message, to ask her how she was doing.

He wanted to ask her if she missed him. Them.

Because he did, he missed her every day. He missed hearing her laughter, he missed seeing her smile. Because she had even stopped going to the gym. Or maybe she went at a different time. He didn't know, because he was trying to not bother her and also he had hoped that distance would make it easier for him to stop thinking about her.

No luck so far.

"Hey, nurse heartbreak. Break's over. Go do the next round." Jackie knocked on the door to the break room. She was an older nurse that had no patience for anyone, not even her patients.

Jonjon wasn't startled, even when thinking about Priya he still hadn't forgotten where he was.

"Coming."

"Look kid-" Jonjon stared up at her and she trailed off. Jackie pressed her lips together and huffed a breath out. "Nevermind. C'mon, I'm about to finish my double and I'm ready to go home."

Jonjon nodded and looked back down at his phone. Two quick flickers of his fingers and he was staring at that picture of him and Priya again. A press of his fingers.

'Move 1 image to the Trash?'

A deep breath and the photo was no more.

"You lucky bitch." Erica's tone was all giddiness as she stared at the ring on Penny's finger.

They were having a rare girls night out at Toni's house. The boys were at her apartment with Sheldon as they all did some sort of hand me down ritual with their computers. Sheldon tried to explain it to her but all she knew was that Sheldon bought a new graphics card and that meant he was selling his old used one to Brian and then Brian was giving his old one to Keith and that meant Keith was giving his old one to Jonjon.

It didn't make sense to her but all the boys were really excited so she decided to let them have their fun while she and the girls got together to drink wine.

"That's such a Sheldon thing to do though, it's so cute!" Carly gushed.

"Okay, not to be THAT person…but I'm going to be that person." Dani made an apologetic face towards her and Penny nodded at her to keep going. "Well…after Kurt you sort of made a big deal out of not wanting to get married…not that it was something you wanted even with Kurt. So, I'm wondering why you said yes to marry him. And I'm just checking on you, don't punch me in the throat!" She added hastily.

Toni opened her mouth but after a moment she frowned, closed her mouth and nodded to herself.

Penny nodded as well. "Yeah, I didn't know I was going to say yes. To be like fully honest with you. I didn't know that was going to be my answer."

"Uh I-Maybe I…Maybe I shouldn't say this but-" Erica looked anguished and torn. Penny interrupted her.

"I know, I know. He told me after. It wasn't supposed to be a marriage proposal." Penny laughed at the relief on Erica's face. "He can't lie to save his life, remember?"

"Wait, what?" Toni stopped with her drink halfway to her mouth.

A quick explanation and everyone was laughing while Penny shrugged her shoulders in a 'what can you do?' way.

"Back to the question. I didn't think that I wanted to get married. It's not like I had the greatest example right? But…I didn't expect to be this comfortable and happy. Because yeah, Sheldon can be a pain in the ass and he can have his moments but it's not like living with me is a dream either."

"Truuuuuueee. Girl, you need to eat more fiber and less beans." Toni cackled and Penny threw a handful of popcorn at her while mock-glaring. Mostly.

"ANYWAY. I think I started thinking about marrying Sheldon when he went away to the Arctic. I was like 'I don't want to lose him.' and it sort of spiraled from there. Believe it or not I have been giving this whole marriage thing some serious thinking ever since. I guess it was easier to freak out about it without Sheldon being physically here. I'd convinced myself that I was exaggerating or just horny and then we'd Skype and…" Penny opened and closed her hands in front of her, trying to convey the squishy, soft feelings that hearing Sheldon's voice brought out of her.

"Yeah, I get it." Of course it was Erica who immediately got it.

"I don't but it doesn't mean it's not real. I mean I'm nowhere near close to that huge of a step but I think I get it…I think." Carly said and Penny was honestly surprised. The lithe girl went through relationships like they were socks.

"A toast to our happy and gassy girl!" Dani raised her cup.

"Hey!"

The boys stood in place, admiring Sheldon's PC with the 1080 running. They weren't even looking at the monitor where WoW sat in all its 1440p glory.

"That's beautiful." Keith muttered and everyone, including Sheldon nodded.

"Okay, time to check what my new GTX 980 can do." Brian rubbed his hands together before switching the PSU on.

"I'm just happy you gave me your RX 580." Keith went back to installing his new GPU.

"Bro, shut up, I can't believe I'm finally getting that K5200. I can finally throw away that shitty GT120." Jonjon couldn't stop grinning at finally getting an upgrade.

Brian smiled at seeing him honestly happy, even if just for a bit. Breaking up with Priya had really gotten to him but he was getting back to his usual self, even if it was slowly.

A familiar ringtone made him pull his phone and he picked up without checking the caller ID. "Hi Honey."

"Change of plans, love. We're ordering pizza so you guys should get dinner on your own and-" Brian nodded even though Erica couldn't see him. She didn't sound super drunk but he knew it was only a matter of time. With a quick 'Love you' he hung up the call.

"We're not having Thai food with Penny and the rest, are we?" Sheldon had gotten much better at understanding that some things you just don't fight.

"Sorry buddy. We can still have Thai if you want."

Jonjon was having a great time. It was honestly great to forget about Priya for one night. The group was walking towards the Thai place, it honestly wasn't that far away from Penny and Sheldon's place and it was barely evening and they even managed to convince Sheldon to go.

It would be a great ending to a pretty fun night.

At least until he glanced at the small and pretentious cafe across the street from where they were walking. If you were to ask him why he glanced that way, he would be unable to tell you why. Only that he did.

That's why he was able to see a beautiful Priya sitting down on a patio table. She looked amazing, her smile lit up the night and his own smile grew but it died pretty quickly at seeing that she wasn't alone.

He stopped walking.

The guy she was with was everything he wasn't. He was tall, he could tell even with the guy sitting down. Had expensive clothes. He was blonde and white. In horror he watched as the guy raised a hand to her cheek and she leaned into it.

Jonjon heard himself grunting in pain and for one long moment it wasn't his heart breaking but some stranger that he was witnessing. Until reality set it. He looked away, ashamed to have seen such an intimate moment but because he was an utter and complete idiot, he looked back.

Priya had her eyes closed as the guy leaned across the table to kiss her.

"Let's go man." Keith's soft voice made him look away before they actually kissed. His best friend moved to block his sight.

"I-She…" Jonjon tried to get out but he could feel his throat closing with emotion.

"I know, I know. C'mon, let's go." Keith had been there for him always and if there was one person that he could trust, it was him.

"It hurts."

Priya huffed in annoyance as she slammed her door behind her.

She didn't even know why she had said yes to the date. No, she knew, she said yes because she was an idiot.

The guy was grabbier than an octopus and even tried to kiss her before she leaned her face away. The guy had the gall to grab her cheek and when she leaned her face down and away he still followed her. What a creep.

But that was done now and he could tell Jasmine that the date didn't work and to stop trying to set her up.

Before changing out of her clothes she pulled her phone out and stared at the screen for a moment before biting her lip and sending a message. She had been putting this off, but it was time to reach out to him. Sure he had messed up but she didn't think he was being malicious.

Priya had spent their time apart coming to terms with what happened and she wanted to try again, to start from zero and see where it took them.

'Hey.' That's all it read. She waited to see that it was delivered before throwing her phone on the couch and moving to her bedroom.

She hummed in happiness, already imagining Jonjon's reply.

Jonjon stared with bloodshot eyes at the one word message he had just received. He blinked as he tried to make sense of it.

His fingers moved across the screen, slowly but surely.

'Block contact? You will no longer receive any calls or messages from this contact.'

The glare of the screen made his eyes itch and he squinted. His hands shook but with all the effort in the world he pressed 'Block'

"Hey man, can we talk for a sec?" Keith had sort of ambushed Jonjon before the DnD game. But this whole thing was eating at him. He knew that Jonjon wasn't doing great at the moment, they had found Priya with another man just last week and while Jonjon didn't break apart, he wasn't his usual cheery self either.

"Sure, what's up?" Jonjon gave him a weak smile.

"Look man, I know this is probably not the best time to do this because of…well, you know. But I don't want to lie to you and I don't want to sneak around any longer."

"Okay?" Keith couldn't blame Jonjon for looking so confused.

Keith opened his mouth but stopped. He cleared his throat a couple of times before deciding to just go for it.

"I'm dating your sister." Keith squeezed his eyes shut. He knew it was probably a bombshell and that Jonjon would need time to adjust and to come to terms with-

"Yeah, I know."

"WHAT?!"

"Calm down dude. Yeah. I mean, we live in the same place. Did you really think I didn't notice that you spent the night here after hanging out?"

"Oh…was it that easy to tell?"

"Well, that and the fact that Toni told me as much. 'I'm dating Keith and that's that. If you have an issue with that then you can go eat a sock.' "Jonjon rolled his eyes.

"Well…I feel silly now."

"Still, if you break her heart I'll kill you."

"Understandable."

"Good, now let's go play."

Dani wiggled her hips as she pulled the jeans past her hips. She put a little more sway in her movements because she knew that Raj was watching from the bed.

"Wow…" Raj exclaimed and she smiled to herself. Dani was on the wrong side of her twenties so it felt good to know she still had it.

Honestly, she had been having too much fun with Raj since they started this little hooking up thing. But she knew it wouldn't last, not because she wanted to end it but because Raj wanted to take it to the next level and while Raj was a cutie he wasn't exactly boyfriend material yet and she was past her I-can-fix-him phase.

"This was fun, I'll give you a ca-Oh! Right, are you still going to Penny's party?" She asked Raj before putting on her shirt.

"Of course, my sweet Irish princess." Raj was trying and failing to be suave.

"Uhm! No. Nope. No. Please don't." Sometimes she wished he hadn't gotten over his fear of talking to her. He still had issues with unknown women, but with her, Penny and Erica to some extent he was able to talk freely.

He ignored her. "Can we finally go as a couple?"

Dani closed her eyes at the hopeful tone of his voice. She didn't answer, instead sitting down on the bed to put on her boots. She took the time to think about her response, she didn't want to be cruel, but it was time to pull the bandage off.

"Raj, sweetie. We're not a couple. We're friends with benefits. We've talked about this." Her voice was flat but not unkind.

She felt the bed shift as Raj moved. "But we have been together for months now, almost a year and-"

"No, we haven't been together. We just fuck. We don't do dates, we don't-"

"Because you don't let me take you!" He jumped down from the bed, grabbing the sheet to cover himself as he went to stand in front of her.

"Raj. It's been fun but I think we need to take a break."

"But this is my longest relationship ever." Dani closed her eyes at the sad statement, not helped by his pathetic tone of voice.

"Raj. That's sad. That's really sad. You promised that you could do this." She looked up into his sad face and while she felt a twinge of regret, it wasn't enough to make her stick around.

"That was before I got to know you! You're funny and caring and-"

"And not interested in a relationship. Raj, listen to me. You're a nice guy but not only am I not ready for a relationship… I don't want one." She swallowed the 'with you.', no need to be extra cruel.

"...but we have fun right? We're so good together."

It took all of her effort to keep a straight face, instead she ran a hand down her face and tried to think of what to tell him.

"Because if it's about time, then I can wait!" Raj grabbed her hand and she pulled it back.

"Okay, no, stop. I was trying to find a nice way to end this between us but it seems you're mistaken niceness with unwillingness. Raj, I like you, you're a nice boy. But that's all you are in my eyes. Maybe this is also my fault for allowing this to go on for as long as it did but…look, we're at different poin-wow, no. I need to be direct with you. I don't believe that you're ready for a relationship."

"What?" She didn't look away from him.

"Raj. Sweetie. It took you three months to be able to talk with me. Three months. With us constantly hooking up. This nice apartment is paid by your dad. You told me that the last time you paid for a credit card was two years ago, your dad took over that as well when you made a late payment." Raj went open his mouth but she raised her hands and he closed it again. "I get it, you got rich parents, but you shouldn't be bragging about that every ten minutes. It's not attractive when you openly brag about your dad's Bentley as if you had anything to do with it. So, no, I don't think you're ready for a relationship."

Raj at least had enough sense to look ashamed.

"And I'm not trying to dunk on you here. I think you're happy with things as they are and that's fine. You'll probably marry a nice Indian girl that doesn't mind those things about you and that your parents chose for you. Just don't drag other people into that mess. I'm other people by the way."

"I…" Raj frowned and looked away.

Dani finished tying her boots while Raj sat there. She stood up, grabbed her bag, made sure that nothing was missing and turned around to find Raj still in the same place. She squatted next to him.

"You'll find the right person one day. I hope we can stay friends but I understand if it's not possible." She patted his arm, stood up and walked towards the exit.

"Hey! I-I have a lot to think about but…thank you for being honest and not, you know, being mean."

"I'll see you at the party." She said without turning around.

"Sheldon, I love you man but if you want to take that suit then I'm afraid I'll have to fight you." Jonjon cringed away from the all-white-suit that Sheldon was wearing.

"Penny said the same thing the last time we were here. Very well, I'll change into that bazer, but I'll look ridiculous!"

Jonjon shook his head. Sheldon could be a pain in the butt about the weirdest things.

They had come to the mall to find a blazer for Sheldon and Penny's engagement party, which was just their regular group going out to eat at a slightly fancier restaurant than what they were used to. Penny and Sheldon had both initially refused but Dani and Carly were a force to be reckoned with and they were not taking a no for an answer.

Thankfully Sheldon agreed to the party, something about customs and non-optional thingies with thingies. All that mattered was that he said yes.

But Sheldon needed a new blazer, something he could also use to attend casual parties in the future and since Jonjon needed a new blazer as well he had volunteered to bring Sheldon along.

"C'mon Sheldon hurry up, I want my Mango-a-go-go!"

"That atrocity of a smoothie is nothing but sugar and-" A changing room curtain would not stop Sheldon from ranting.

"You say that like you're not going to order a Peanut Butter Moo'd" Jonjon interrupted him and he smiled at the silence on the other side of the curtain.

"It tastes like frozen Reese's pieces and I like it." Sheldon could sound a lot like a kid when it came to food.

"Then hurry up man, we can also go get a pretzel."

"Oh goody!"

Priya pursed her lips in annoyance as she looked out the car window. She didn't want to come to this party but her brother insisted and…no, she shouldn't be too annoyed at him. In his own dumb way he was trying to help her.

Jonjon had never replied to her message and it had eaten at her so she swallowed her pride and called him, only to find that the call never connected properly, sending her to voice mail right away. It took her a painfully long moment to realize what that meant.

"Howard is bringing Bernadette and-" Raj talked non stop as he drove them to the restaurant and she just nodded when needed.

Learning that Jonjon had blocked her was a really bitter pill to swallow. She wanted to blame him but she did break up with him and she didn't regret it, well…not exactly, she did feel hurt by him and after Leonard she wasn't very tolerant for BS, because there was no doubt, Jonjon ghosting her was BS and it made her consider their relationship which led them to breaking up but as weird as it was she missed Jonjon terribly. They were good together.

She tried going on a single date and that had been a disaster from the start.

Sighing, she made the resolution to let go of Jonjon. It was what it was. Karma governed everything and she was paying for something, she just knew it.

Thankfully, she didn't have much time to keep berating herself because Raj's car made its way into a parking lot.

Priya looked at herself in the rearview mirror and tried smiling but to her eyes it looked wrong and crooked. She stopped smiling and moved her mouth from side to side, as if she was putting on a mask.

The next smile looked more natural and that made her happy. Small things.

Dani was about to lose her shit.

She loved this place, so so much…until Sheldon. That man was special, she knew that, but he was also a pain in the ass and she was this close to killing him for almost ruining Fogo de Chao for her.

She had spent so much time organizing this party and Sheldon couldn't stop talking about how easy germs could travel to the food thanks to the way that waiters carried the food and he just needed to bring his own fork and…she needed a break while Penny set her man straight.

She was right outside the restaurant, fighting the urge to ask to bum a smoke off the delivery driver standing close to the employee entrance.

She almost rubbed a hand down her face but stopped at the last moment, no way she would be able to fix her make up if she did that.

She was debating with herself for the fifth time about going to ask for a smoke when Raj's voice pulled her from her own head.

"Dani!" He happily called out to her and she smiled at seeing him, he had said that he was bringing his sister along and-

Oh no.

"Hi, my name is Priya." The issue was that Dani recognized her. Jonjon had shown her a picture of them together.

Crap.

"Nice to meet you!" Dani was pretty sure she had freaked out Priya with her overly enthusiastic greeting but she was too freaked out to care.

It was a good thing that Jonjon hadn't arrived yet and-

"Hey."

Dani could only close her eyes. Of course.

"Jonjon?" Priya asked and Dani felt that it was time to go inside.

She grabbed Raj's hand and pulled him inside the restaurant but she stopped and came back to the two shocked idiots outside.

"I expect to see you two inside in ten minutes tops. Do I make myself clear?" Dani used her best mom voice.

Both Priya and Jonjon nodded, she narrowed her eyes at them and then turned to enter the restaurant, followed closely by Raj.

Jonjon shuffled on his feet. He stared up at the darkening sky and wondered if God hated him.

"Hey." Jonjon could physically feel the awkwardness in her words.

"Hey." He tried to sound casual but his voice cracking ruined it.

"Hey." Priya looked wonderful, but he was keeping his eyes glued to the sky.

"Hey." Damn his bad habit of always being the last to arrive.

"He-No-I-" Priya laughed nervously and he finally looked at her. She was looking down and tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. The peach dress complimented her dark skin and for a moment he just stared at her, until she looked up and his eyes went to the ground. "How are you?"

Jonjon smiled to himself for a moment, such a loaded question.

"I'm okay." He lied.

"...Are you?" The concern in her voice squeezed at his heart.

Steeling himself he looked up at her and smiled wanly, hoping that it satisfied her. "Yeah. I am."

She stared at him for a long moment. "Okay." Her voice was low and he knew she didn't believe him.

Jonjon kept the fake smile on his face and he offered his arm to her. He regretted it as soon as she took it and glued herself to his side, that familiar scent of citrus and cinnamon tickled his nose and he hated how happy it made him.

Entering the restaurant he smiled and nodded at Dani who looked at him like he was crazy for walking arm in arm with Priya but he ignored her, just like he ignored that little pleased part of himself that enjoyed being close to Priya again.

Luckily the place next to Sheldon was empty and he was able to put some distance between himself and Priya.

"Oh good, Jonjon is here. Please tell Penny that you agree with me that chicken giblets are a perfectly good source of protein which is also easily digestible and-" Penny didn't let Sheldon finish.

"I don't care Sheldon, I'm not eating them."

Jonjon smiled a little more honestly. "C'mon Penny, you said you wanted to get back into the gym right?" He joked.

"You shut up."

Priya spent the rest of the night trying to pretend like she wasn't watching Jonjon constantly.

Of course Dani noticed. She knew enough about her from her brother to know she was always on top of things so she wasn't totally surprised when Dani pulled aside near the salad bar for a quick chat.

"Penny also dated that guy that cheated on you…Raj told me."

"...That's a horrible ice breaker."

"I know!" Dani made a face and threw her hands up

And while it truly was a horrible ice breaker, it did the job and got them talking. And while at first her heart was beating like crazy she was able to calm down enough to talk to Dani and when they got back to their seats Dani kicked Keith off his seat so they could sit together.

"I know this whole situation is messed up. I didn't know that you were Raj's sister…no wait, I was going to say something dumb. Just…I wish this wasn't as hard on the both of you." Dani smiled at her and Priya found herself smiling back, there was something about Dani that made her feel at ease.

"No, I understand. To be honest I thought you might hate me…for what happened."

"Oh nonononono. I-look-I love Jonjon like he was my actual brother but I'm not blind to his faults and he did mess up by disappearing from you like that. I can't say if breaking up was the right decision but for sure this whole situation will make Jonjon more considerate for his next relationship."

"Yeah…" Priya said lamely and she took a sip of her wine to mask the bitterness that the thought brought her.

"I'm just glad that you didn't bring your boyfriend because that would have killed him." Dani said casually but Priya choked on the wine.

"What?" Thankfully no one else noticed.

"Uh, your boyfriend?"

"What boyfriend?!"

Dani told her, apparently Jonjon had witnessed her one failed date and assumed she was in a relationship.

"No, he didn't see the full thing! It was horrible date and-"

"Okay, okay, I get it. But…I don't think he does." Dani pointed towards Jonjon, he and Sheldon were playing some dumb game on their phones and she smiled at how happy Jonjon looked.

She turned to look at Dani who smiled at her.

Taking a deep breath, Priya stood up and walked towards Jonjon.

Dani often feared that she was too pushy with her friends. She felt that she meddled in their business way too often.

Sometimes instead of listening to them she went into troubleshooting mode and tried to find solutions when all their friends wanted was a sympathetic ear.

She was fully aware of that.

But looking at Priya and Jonjon hugging through the restaurant's front window made it hard for her to want to change the way she was.

But perhaps she should focus more on herself.

Yeah, that sounded like a good plan. She already let go of Raj so he could find the right person. It was time for her to do the same.

She smiled looking at her friends. Brian and Erica were feeding each other while making eyes at each other and while that used to bother her she now found it cute. Those two never grew out of the lovey dovey phase.

Keith and Toni looked unbothered as they ate, but she didn't miss the fact that they were eating only using one hand each and her smile turned into a smirk. Those two were still kids, holding hands under the table and pretending they were not.

Sheldon and Penny were bickering about something but the smiles on their faces were obvious to everyone. Dani always thought those two had something special and she was glad those crazy kids were doing alright. She couldn't wait to see what kind of kids those two would raise.

Probably evil geniuses.

End Notes:

And that's a wrap folks. The overall theme of this fic was 'Misunderstandings' but I wanted to do it in my own way, because I love a good misunderstanding just like the next person, but I have to admit that most of them make me want to shake the blorbos into oblivion. 'Just fucking talk to each other!' But at the same time I wanted one of those and thus we had Priya and Jonjon, hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

I loved writing this Universe and I know that we're leaving our characters on a happy but open-ended note but that's because maybe in the future I would like to return for an epilogue. Maybe. Don't quote me on that.

I hope you had fun. Thank you for reading!