Summary:

People find out.

"Remember, I'll let the guys know, introduce the subject naturally and then we'll deal with their questions and teasing. And yes, it's teasing, they're going to be happy for us." Penny told him as she drove them over to Toni and Jonjon's house for DnD night.

He nodded in agreement, Penny was well versed in these social matters and she'd know how to approach this correctly. He wasn't even sure how one could 'introduce the subject naturally' but he would not say anything until Penny did. Although to him it would make more sense to do it at the start of the evening.

Once they arrived at the house Sheldon was quickly ushered out to the backyard with 'The boys' as Penny enjoyed calling them, while Penny herself went into the living room where a pitcher of something, most likely alcoholic, was sitting on the table. Penny shot him a look that he didn't understand, it wasn't annoyed or angry.

While he wasn't a fan of these pre-game sessions, he knew that the group used them to catch up and chit chat about banalities. He greeted everyone and nodded in thanks at Keith who handed him a bottle of water. Sheldon might be the only one without a bottle of beer in his hands but they never pressured or forced him to drink which he appreciated greatly.

"Hey Sheldon, all good? It looks like you have something on your mind." Brian was certainly perceptive.

"I have a question. Why do people cheat?" Penny's answer hadn't fully satisfied him and Brian was someone he could trust with these subjects.

Brian hummed in thought. He only did this when the subject was complicated. "Well-" Jonjon interrupted him.

"All you need to know is that cheaters fucking suck!" Sheldon blinked and frowned, Jonjon was a cheerful young man most of the time. It was off putting to see him without a smile on his face and if Sheldon was right, he looked enraged.

"I'm sorry. Did I ask something I shouldn't have?" He directed the question towards Jonjon.

"No, no, no. I…I'm sorry. I…" He took a deep breath. "My dad wasn't a nice guy. He cheated on my mom all the time and…Yeah…I'm just going to let Brian take care of this one." Jonjon's face scrunched up in either pain or awkwardness.

"My father cheated on my mother as well. One time, when I was thirteen and on spring break from college. I returned home early because they ran out of math to teach me. My mother was at bible study, I walked in the house expecting to find it empty…and I heard a sound coming from my parents' bedroom." He took a deep breath as the memory manifested itself. "When I opened the door…I saw my father having relations with another woman." Sheldon frowned at himself, he hadn't intended to share that memory.

"Dude!" Keith said in shock and approached him, it looked as if he wanted to hug him but stopped himself at the last moment.

"Holy shit man…" Jonjon looked on the verge of crying.

Brian said nothing but grabbed his shoulder, Sheldon jumped a little at the contact but he was oddly comforted by the gesture so he allowed it.

"Look Sheldon. There's no 'one size fits all' answer for this." Brian said gravely. "Cheating is breaking the trust of the person you're in a relationship with. It's a lack of respect and an insult, not only to the person but to the relationship itself." Brian took a sip of his beer. "I'm not going to lie to you, some cases are hard to define because relationships can get messy but we're not going to get into that. As for your question…Some people think that they're missing out on something, what this something is, I personally think that they don't even know themselves. Some claim that it's sex, love, affection, etc."

"But why enter into a relationship if you're already planning to break the social contract?" Sheldon tilted his head.

"Now that's the question. And the truth is that I don't know, I can't imagine making Erica go through something painful like that, because it's not just the end of the relationship but also the end of the trust and friendship. After being cheated on, a lot of people blame themselves and have a hard time trusting future partners."

"I don't see the point of cheating. My mother suffered a lot." Sheldon admitted.

The guys nodded, Jonjon looked angry again while Keith grimaced and Brian pressed his lips together in a bad facsimile of a sad smile.

"Just remember what we talked about, communication is the key to a healthy relationship." Brian squeezed his shoulder once before letting go. "Now, let's talk about something nicer."

For the next couple of minutes they talked about the upcoming session and Sheldon was glad to see Jonjon's smile make a return.

Penny was regretting not telling the girls right away about her and Sheldon. Especially hearing this conversation.

"Sheldon is special, I know you like him but unless you can deal with infodumps, I don't recommend you going after him." Dani was trying to discourage Katia from making a move on Sheldon.

And failing miserably.

"He can infodump all he wants in me, until I have trivia running down my leg." Katia was very…forward.

Penny didn't want to say anything so she opted for keeping her glass of sangria to her mouth. Dani laughed awkwardly while Toni and Carly absolutely lost their shit. Those two were one pitcher ahead of everyone else.

"I'm all for getting yours, but please don't tell that to Sheldon. We don't want to scare him." Dani finally said and Penny could kiss her.

"Don't worry, I'm being patient. But soon I'll have him eating me o-" Penny had heard enough.

"Oh look! The guys are coming back into the house, it's time to play. C'mon, let's go." Her voice was high and frantic and Dani looked at her weirdly.

Penny really liked Katia. Just not at that moment.

Unfortunately the rest of the night didn't go much better, she was unable to find the right time and it all came to a head when Katia went all in.

"So Sheldon, I heard that you like trains. Did you know about the Fairy Queen exhibition happening at the PMRRM?" Katia smiled at Sheldon in a way that had Penny grinding her teeth. "Perhaps you would like to go sometime?"

"That does sound like an activity I would enjoy. Penny, we'll have to schedule a visit." Sheldon wasn't looking at any of them, he was making changes to his character sheet.

Katia laughed as if he had just told a joke. "No, no. I meant you and me."

Sheldon frowned and finally looked up. The rest of the group was pretending that they weren't eavesdropping and doing a terrible job at it. Carly and Toni didn't even pretend, they were grinning and looking from Sheldon to Katia.

"I'm not well versed in these situations but…would this be considered a date?" Sheldon hesitantly asked Katia. Her eyes brightened and a hopeful smile broke through her face as she nodded.

Penny wanted to hogtie her so badly.

"Oh, I see." Sheldon looked up for a moment before repeating a phrase from the relationship contract Penny had included for the both of them. "I'm sorry. I'm currently in a relationship and not interested." And as if he hadn't just dropped a massive bomb on the group, Sheldon went back to his sheet.

Penny could physically feel the weight of everyone's looks as everyone present, even Katia, turned to look at her. She took another sip of her sangria and cleared her throat before speaking. "So, uh, yeah, we decided to give dating a shot." She tried to shrug in a 'What can you do about it?' way, but Dani and Brian narrowing their eyes at her showed they didn't find it cute.

Brian and the other boys quickly dragged Sheldon back to the backyard while Penny stayed to face two very drunk girls, one unamused girl and one very apologetic girl.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know you two were together. I would have never-Oh god, the things I said. I'm so sorry." Katia couldn't stop apologizing and no matter how much Penny tried to tell her that it was okay, she just couldn't take it. It took close to ten minutes for Katia to finally understand that Penny wasn't upset. She was a pretty decent actress after all.

"So you weren't planning on telling us?" Once Katia had calmed down, Dani pounced on the attack. She didn't look amused but not mad either.

"I…was planning to tell you guys in a subtle way, you know? Not make a big deal out of it." Penny licked her lips nervously.

"Wow, good job bish." Carly said and laughed.

Toni raised her hand. "Oh, oh, oh, have you guys done it already?" Carly made a surprised face and nodded enthusiastically.

"Okay, that's enough sangria for the both of you." Dani said and took the still half full glasses from the other girls. "Erica is going to kick herself for missing this." She muttered loud enough that Penny was able to catch it.

"Look guys, we don't want to make a big deal out of this. We're just going to be giving this a try and we could do without all the pressure." Penny pleaded with them.

Dani scratched her cheek and nodded slowly. "Yeah, sorry. It was just a big shock. We've been helping Sheldon to get acclimated to the idea of a relationship and here out of the blue it happened…We're happy for you, we just didn't express it well." Dani grimaced. "Sorry."

"No, no, no, I get it. I think I would have done the same but, well, this is kind of a big deal. I think I could love him."

A chorus of 'Awww's was the response and Penny had to smile bashfully. It felt weird to say it out loud.

Dani sat next to her and pulled her into a one armed hug. "Okay Hon, we love you and really like Sheldon so we'll keep our paws to ourselves and just root for you two."

Penny didn't fight the smile growing on her face.

"Holy shit man!" Jonjon said as soon as they were out of the house, he jumped high in the air in a rather impressive show of athletic prowess. "How did you keep it a secret? You suck at keeping secrets!"

"No one asked me." He admitted. Brian and Keith laughed while Jonjon looked dumbfounded.

"How are you feeling Sheldon? I know we had talked about this but now that it's here I want to know how you're doing." Brian leaned back against the deck and looked at him directly.

"Yeah, do you need to talk?" Keith preferred to sit on a chair, his face looked honest and open. Jonjon said nothing more but sat right next to Keith, a huge smile on his face.

Sheldon found his usual chair and calmly sat down before he spoke. "While I must admit that this is new territory for me, I am not overwhelmed as I had initially feared. Is this what most relationships are like? My bond with Penny has not changed dramatically other than an increase in physical intimacy of course."

Jonjon went to open his mouth but Keith slapped his thigh rather forcefully. "You take this one Brian."

"Yeah." Brian narrowed his eyes at Jonjon before focusing back on Sheldon. "It's only been a few days right?" He waited for Sheldon to nod before continuing. "Then it's normal to feel like that. You two were already pretty close and living together to boot, so there's not much that's going to change on that front. Give it time and your relationship will change little by little."

"Is there something I should do?" Sheldon had wondered about this.

"Plenty! I know that it might not sound logical right now but you can be there for Penny when she needs you. That might mean not working on a project you wanted or skipping DnD night and she'll do the same for you. You can show her that you appreciate her, you know, touch her cheek, kiss her just because, maybe use a pet name. Show that you care about her. A single word can mean the world." Brian smiled at nothing. "Talk to her. Don't assume that she knows how you feel, or that she'll guess what you need. The worst mistake you can make is not communicating. Remember that you're in a relationship because you wanted to share your life with that person. You've mentioned your dream of winning a Nobel right? Well, having someone by your side when it happens should make it taste that much sweeter. And lastly, don't close yourself to these new feelings and experiences. I'm proud of you man, I know this whole thing wasn't easy for you."

Sheldon wouldn't admit it out loud but he felt touched by Brian's praise. He had been fundamental in removing a lot of the apprehension he initially felt at realizing his feelings towards Penny.

"Thank you."

"Argh, c'mon, we're getting too sappy. Let's go finish the adventure for the night." Jonjon said, clearly uncomfortable. He moved towards the house. Keith laughed and followed him.

"Don't mind him, he's still a kid in a lot of ways." Brian also laughed.

Sheldon took a deep breath and looked up at the night sky. Odd, he had never felt this camaraderie before. It was fascinating.

He followed the others inside.

Leonard tried to make out the ceiling in the dark, but without his glasses it was impossible. Only the blur of darkness greeted him. As a kid he had been terrified of the dark, the inky emptiness haunted him, and if he were to be totally honest with himself, even as an adult he found darkness to be unsettling. But he refused to accept that thought as true, it wasn't manly.

He could hear Leslie peacefully sleeping next to him. She was a very passionate lover but that didn't translate into an affectionate one, he had tried to cuddle with her but she complained about it being too hot and more often than not they slept like this, each on one side of the bed.

Like an old married couple.

He hated it with a passion but Leslie wouldn't budge. He had tried again earlier that night, still feeling guilty about that night he spent with Priya and he had tried to be more loving only for Leslie to reject him. An unwanted thought crossed his mind. Penny also didn't like cuddling. He tried really hard not to focus on that but it was hard, maybe it was him after all.

Fumbling blindly, it took him a long moment to find his glasses. He soon found his phone and despite Leslie being sound asleep he still made sure his screen was not visible.

In the morning after sleeping together, Priya had taken his phone and saved her own number in it. Priya and a heart emoji. He had smiled like a fool at seeing that and even more when she kissed him goodbye. But as soon as he was back in his car, he changed her contact to 'Pizza Hut', no emojis.

He had told himself that Priya had been a mistake, but he still couldn't delete her number. That night was a mistake for sure, but he was one of the good ones, so he decided to never contact Priya again.

But now, in the darkness and missing the warmth of Priya's body, he sent her a message.

'Hey, would you like to go to dinner sometime?'

As soon as he had sent it, he regretted it. What the fuck was he doing? Leslie was his girlfriend and she was literally sleeping two feet away from him and what was he doing? Texting another girl literally after he had just slept with Leslie.

Like a real man.

The thought was shameful and he quickly buried it under a sea of justifications he didn't believe. His recrimination was stopped short when his phone vibrated.

'Sure :)'

Leonard stared at that text for a long while and smiled foolishly. Priya was so hot, he couldn't believe that he had slept with her!

No, bad Leonard. He tried to smother the smile. He would see her and break it off for good. He wouldn't be a scumbag that cheated on his girlfriend.

At some point he had fallen asleep and dreams of bronze skin haunted him. Feeling guilty he was extra nice to Leslie in the morning, making her breakfast and even running a bath for her.

The next time he saw Priya all of his resolve to break it off with her flew out the window. She was wearing a suit that had no right looking as sexy as it did. They went to a bar again and somehow he spent the night with her again, and again, and again.

After two weeks, it was obvious that he had no intention of breaking it off with Priya so he very seriously considered dumping Leslie. She wasn't that great anyway. Priya loved cuddling and he actually felt loved, like he mattered.

Leonard resolved himself and decided to break off with Leslie…After Howard's birthday party. He had already asked Leslie to go with him and didn't want to show up alone, especially because Penny would be there and he didn't want to be seen alone if she brought a Neanderthal with her.

Of course, he was Leonard Hofstadter so everything went wrong almost immediately because life was unfair.

They were having Howard's party at a small club, he had invited almost all of Caltech, plus some of the guys from Stuart's shop, the ones that showered at least. The party skewed heavily towards males but there were a good number of girls as well, he didn't know how Howard had convinced them.

Leonard was about to take a sip of his mojito when Raj pulled him aside rather frantically.

"Dude, I'm going to tell you something and I need you to be cool with it. You have to promise me because I swear that if you ruin Howard's party I will never forgive you." Raj's accent was heavy with stress.

"Okay? What could you possibly tell me that-" Leonard could never finish his thought.

"Penny is dating Sheldon!" Raj blurted out and looked at him with wide eyes.

Leonard's brain froze for a moment before he started laughing, tears in his eyes. He struggled to get the words out due to how hard he was laughing and he even spilled some of his drink. "Goo-Good one Raj. Now tell me what you really wanted to tell me."

When Raj didn't burst out laughing or say Bazinga, a pit of dread began forming in his stomach. "Tell me you're joking Rajesh." Leonard wasn't laughing, not anymore. His voice was harsh.

"We found out just minutes ago." Leonard felt that Raj's voice wasn't sympathetic enough and it made him mad.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do?" He threw his hands up in frustration and paced in front of Raj. "Am I supposed to act like my best friend and my ex-girlfriend didn't just betray me? Huh!"

"Dude. Stop." Raj's voice was equally harsh. "You don't even talk to Sheldon anymore. During lunch you ignore him fully, do you really think he's your best friend?"

Leonard felt a pang of regret but the anger quickly smothered it. He had stopped talking to Sheldon because he refused to tell him his new address and well, it sort of snowballed from there, it was easy to ignore the tall man.

"It doesn't matter. He was my best friend for many years." Leonard rubbed at his face. "And Penny! She goes and fucks my best friend! This is-"

"Stop it! It's been months since you two broke up. You don't own her." Raj frowned at him and it only made him angrier.

"Whose side are you on?!" Leonard wanted to shove Raj out of the way but he stopped himself.

"Not yours. Remember, this party is for Howard. If you can't act reasonably then just go." Having said that, Raj left him alone and Leonard couldn't believe how little sympathy his friend had for him. Couldn't he see how fresh this was for him? How much it hurt him? Sulking, he went back to his table where Leslie looked at him weirdly, but he wasn't in the mood to talk to her, he just waved her concerns away, but knew she would be watching him closely.

From his seat he watched the entrance like a hawk, unwilling to miss Penny's arrival.

He didn't have to wait long.

Maybe fifteen minutes later Penny and Sheldon showed up. She looked amazing as always, she was wearing a sundress that made her look like a dream. He grimaced in distaste, he knew that men would be ogling her and sure enough as he looked around he was able to find more than one man that was staring a little too long. He wanted to yell at them that she was his…but then reality came crashing down. Penny was holding hands with Sheldon.

Sheldon looked the same as always, he was still dressed like a man-child and he couldn't believe that Penny wasn't dying of embarrassment by having to walk with him dressed like that.

He was considering approaching them when Raj suddenly made an appearance and dragged the couple somewhere he couldn't see. He stood up to search for them when a new person arrived. All bronze skin and long legs, suddenly Priya was there.

He smiled at her until his brain caught up with him. He suddenly felt very cold and the dread in his stomach grew to an impossible level. But before he could move, Priya was there in front of him and kissing him.

"Hey love, you know someone at this party too?" She said after kissing him.

His body felt heavy, like he was underwater. He couldn't hear anything else but his own heartbeat, he hoped that Leslie had gone blind and deaf for the last couple of minutes.

"Hofstadter, want to catch me up?" No such luck. Leonard closed his eyes and hoped this was a nightmare. "Who are you?" Leslie really wasn't amused.

"I'm his girlfriend." Priya matched the aggressive tone of voice.

"Funny, I thought I was his girlfriend." He didn't have to look to know that Leslie was looking at him now.

"There has to be a mistake…" For the first time since he had met her Priya's voice sounded hurt and Leonard wanted to be swallowed by the earth.

"Fuck you Hofstadter. Don't you ever contact me again." Leslie's voice broke down and he was glad his eyes were closed, he didn't want to see her cry.

"Priya?" Raj's voice joined the rest and Leonard almost laughed at how unfair everything was.

"You're a piece of shit Leonard." Priya slapped him and that forced him to finally open his eyes. Everyone was looking at him, even Penny and Sheldon. He felt like crying and he decided to run away from the club. Not looking back he quickly moved towards the exit and into the street.

Finding his car was easy, but starting it was another story, his hands were shaking badly and he couldn't put the key in. After his twelfth attempt the keys dropped from his hands and the tears he was holding back finally fell.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuck. Why me?! Why is it always me?!" He slammed his hands against the steering wheel and slammed his feet. Why couldn't life ever go his way? Was he really asking for so much?

Feeling his phone vibrate, he turned it off. Took a deep breath and fished his keys back. He didn't want to go to Howard's home yet. He just wanted to drive around.

The drive gave him no comfort.

He ended up driving all the way to Santa Monica where he spent the night in his car thinking about all the ways that life had screwed him over. He grabbed a pretty shitty coffee before deciding to drive back. Thankfully he still had his friends.

Raj would be pissed at the scene he caused but ultimately would forgive him. He had left the club to make it easier.

He arrived at Howard's house a little past noon and found his stuff in the front yard. Raj and Howard were busy moving his furniture from the garage. Parking quickly and probably incorrectly, he basically jumped out of the car.

"Woah, woah, woah, what the hell are you doin-" Raj sucker punched him. "What the hell man?!" He mumbled through his fingers.

"You used my sister to cheat on Leslie, you piece of shit!" Raj truly looked pissed and Leonard raised his hands in defeat when it looked like Raj wanted to punch him again. "Priya told me everything, you told her you were single. You made her part of your cheating!"

"Wait, your sister? Who-" Leonard wasn't a genius but it took him only a moment to make the connection. "Oh…" Fuck, he had really messed up this time. "Raj, buddy, I didn't know!"

Raj shook his head and went to the garage to keep putting his stuff out.

"Howard! You're kicking me out?" He knew that Raj was too angry to listen to him. But he could always count on Howard.

"I used to like you Leonard. But I don't think I recognize you anymore. Raj is my best friend and what you did was really shitty. You had even told us about you asking Leslie to move in with her!" Howard shook his head sadly. "You need help."

"I can make this better." He swore.

"How?" Howard's face was sincere, he wanted to know if Leonard had a magical way of fixing everything. But the reality was that he had nothing, so he stayed quiet. "I thought so. Leonard…I don't even know where to start. Do you like who you are right now?"

Leonard wanted to cry again. He knew that the bond between Raj and Howard was strong but he never suspected that he would lose both of them. "Howard…I'm sorry."

"I'm not even in the top five of people you should be apologizing to right now."

"I-"

"You have until tomorrow to get your stuff off my lawn, otherwise it goes into the trash." Howard said and turned to walk back into the garage.

Leonard was left alone.

'Why can't I catch a break?' He thought as tears once again blurred his vision.