The moment has arrived, apart from the characters this one is all mine. It's longer too! Yay!

Sheldon may seem a little OOC, but that's to be expected.

In case anyone cares, the song that inspired this chapter was Just a Kiss by Lady Antebellum (cheese anyone?)

I don't own anything that is, was, or will ever be the big bang theory. (Unless someone with power feels like adding some of my stuff to a couple of episodes, eh? Eh?)

Penny followed Sheldon down the streets of Pasadena with difficulty. The dinner wine had made her feel like crawling into bed, so power walking home was the last thing that she wanted to do. She kept up as best she could though, dying to know what about the psychic's reading had made him storm off like he did.

"So do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

"No," he replied tersely.

"Aw, c'mon, the lady was a fraud, just like you said remember? Why are you so worked up about what she said?"

If Penny was honest, she was pretty thrown off by what the psychic had said herself. Of course she knew the woman had no real future telling skills, but she had been considerably spot on. Then the last sentence had made her feel like the woman was right inside her head.

There is more than one way to satisfy a hunger.

It was clearly intended to sound mysterious, and it had come off as really cheesy, but it had reminded Penny of her comment at dinner. She had only said it to try and get a reaction from Sheldon, but he had remained as indifferent as ever.

She supposed it was the part about breaking things off with Amy. She knew they didn't have a very intimate relationship, but they were obviously trying. At least Amy was trying, although in the past couple of weeks it seemed that they had been skipping date night to hang out with the group. And Amy had been spending more time with her and Bernadette than Sheldon…

Up ahead Sheldon entered the store on the corner. They were less than a block from home now and Penny recognized the place immediately.

"Holy crap on a cracker," she said under her breath entering the small store that smelled like cardboard and broken dreams. It was the closest liquor store in the neighborhood.

A plump woman behind the corner muttered a greeting to Sheldon as she looked up from her magazine briefly then caught sight of Penny.

"Hi, Penny! In for the usual? I have one last bottle of that peach Stella Rosa you like, check the back aisle."

"Uh, hi Brenda," Penny stammered as Sheldon looked back at her raising a brow quizzically. "I'll take a look thanks."

"I don't know why you have so much trouble landing parts, Penny," Sheldon quipped, walking down the aforementioned aisle. "You're famous at every liquor store in a ten mile radius."

"Ha ha," she retorted. "I just happen to know Brenda."

"Oh really," he asked knowingly. "Know her from where?"

"From..." she searched for a place but came up blank under his patronizing stare. She sighed in defeat, "from the liquor store."

He smiled, way too satisfied with himself and looked at the bottles lined up on the shelf with big black security caps on them. Sheldon reached for one at random and began to walk away.

"Whoa, what the hell are you doing?" Penny demanded.

"What? I am a grown man and if I want to partake of spirits as you do so freely, and often might I add, then I can. Tonight is 'anything can happen' Thursday and anything includes me wanting to solve my problems with alcohol."

"Okay, while I know I should be saying," Penny used her best southern damsel voice, "'No, Sheldon, please there must be another solution,' I am totally open to whatever you have planned. Now, what I will say," she took the bottle from Sheldon's hand. "Is that we are not teenagers and we do not drink liquor that comes in plastic bottles."

She glanced at the shelf for a second before selecting a new bottle with dark liquid and a black label.

"Here," she said holding the bottle up for Sheldon label out, modeling it as though it were a trophy. "Good liquor comes in a glass bottle and has a fancy black embossed label."

Sheldon rolled his eyes, "Please, moonshine comes in a glass bottle and I'm sure any backwoods hick can slap a black sticker on it."

Penny bit her bottom lip and raised her eyes to the ceiling, letting out a slow breath. "Yeaaah," she said putting the bottle back and grabbing the one next to it, "we're gonna need the big bottle."

By the time they got back to the building and began trudging upstairs Penny had had several inner battles with herself. She was feeling really wild and really foolish, but she was with Dr. doesn't-do-anything-that-doesn't-involve-carful-planning, so she was in good hands. But! They had reinstated anything can happen Thursday and now she may or may not be responsible for getting them both plastered.

Then, there was the fact that they were facing serious inner dilemmas and probably should talk it out since they were good friends, so that was good. But! They had invited black-label Johnnie Walker along, the king of bad decisions.

However, Sheldon would probably open up while inebriated, which could be very therapeutic for him and Penny really wanted to vent too. But! There was that lingering thought in her head, the one that ran through at dinner. The one that made her feel like if she started to vent everything would spill out and wouldn't stop.

Before she had come to any sort of decision she realized Sheldon had passed their floor and was still going.

"Hey, Sheldon, where are we going?"

"To the roof."

"The roof? Sheldon, nothing good happens on the roof when Johnnie Walker is involved."

"You shouldn't draw conclusions before you gather data, Penny it's a basic rule of science. Or in laymen's terms, don't knock it till you try it."

"Oh, I've tried it, that's how I know it's a bad idea."

Sheldon led the way and opened the door to the roof. When the warm California air touched her skin she felt a little of her anxiety slip away. It was definitely much different that climbing on a roof in Nebraska. She followed Sheldon over to a spot just on the other side of the roof where there was a low wall surrounding the ventilation unit. It was clear enough tonight that they had a view to LA in the distance.

He sat down on the wall and pulled the bottle of whiskey and two 20oz coke bottles out of the bag. Penny parked herself next to him and grabbed one of the sodas.

"So how often do you come up here?" she asked taking a sip.

"Often enough to know you should have brought a thicker sweater."

"Between the California heat and the whiskey I'll more likely be taking things off than putting them on."

She turned to see his response, not knowing exactly why she kept saying things like that and was surprised to see he was half-way through a swig of whiskey. He held it in his mouth before swallowing it looking thoroughly disgusted and Penny laughed at his reaction before taking the bottle and handing him her coke. He took a drink before seeming to realize that it was the same bottle she had already taken a drink from. His display was almost identical and Penny laughed harder.

"Okay, if you're going to get anywhere with this plan of yours I'm gonna have to teach you how to take shots with dignity."

"I can say with utmost certainty that there is nothing dignified about taking shots."

"Hey, this was your idea, remember? I'm just here as peer support. Now, the first thing you have to learn is to breathe. Breathe in with the shot and blow out when you're done. Watch."

Penny let out a breath to begin with, then brought the bottle to her lips taking in some of the warm liquid, swallowed and then exhaled. She followed up with another sip of coke to ease the burn.

"Now you try," she said handing the bottle back.

Sheldon eyed it warily. "This is worse than Asian Fusion."

"Again, this was your idea," Penny reminded him.

She watched as he let out a breath and followed her instructions, just with more comedic expressions. When it came time for the chaser he didn't even hesitate. It was progress on two fronts.

"Wow," she said, impressed. "You're a fast learner."

Sheldon gave her an annoyed look. "Really? I finished college in less time than it takes most people to complete a thought and this, this, is what makes you call me a fast learner?"

"Shut up and pass the whiskey."

She took another shot and put the cap back on the bottle.

"Woo!" Penny felt the buzz almost immediately. It had been awhile since she had done this and she decided, alcoholism aside, this was exactly what she needed. Sitting cross legged and leaning back she decided to pry again, hoping now Sheldon was ready to talk.

"So, why did you freak out on the psychic?"

"I didn't 'freak out', I merely enlightened her to what I thought of her practice," he said avoiding her gaze.

"Yes you did, but that's not what I'm talking about. I had to chase you home and you are taking shots out of a 50 dollar bottle of black label scotch on the roof with me of all people."

Penny could practically see the gears in his brain trying to formulate a good excuse, but it never came. Instead he took back the bottle of whiskey, threw back another shot and chased it awkwardly, but with more finesse that the last two times. Then he took of his jacket and set it down across from her and sat cross legged on it like she was. She sat up to match his posture waiting for him to speak.

"Penny," he started and she thought maybe the whiskey had kicked in after all. "Do you want to see Jupiter?"

"What?" she said, utterly confused.

Sheldon laid down on top of his jacket and looked up pulling out his phone. Muttering to herself about insane people she took of her sweater and followed suit. Once she was lying next to him he held up his phone, using some kind of constellation app to search for something.

"Look," he said excitedly when he finally found what he was looking for. "Right there." He showed her the location on the screen and pointed at the sky. She tried to see what he was talking about, but couldn't find it.

"Where? All I see is stars… and an airplane… – oh!"

"Do you see it?"

"Oh, no, sorry I just remembered I don't work tomorrow."

Sheldon turned to glare at her and she met his gaze slowly, feeling bad for getting distracted. He moved to get up but she pulled him back down.

"No! I'm sorry, here, show me again," Penny said laying down and trying to pay attention.

Sheldon put up his phone once more and pinpointed it again. "There, the bright star, it's actually Jupiter in the constellation Gemini."

Penny followed his finger and finally found it, "Oh! I see it! … wow. That's incredible."

"Yea, it's very rare that we're able to see it at all given that we live in a city with far too much light pollution."

"That is so sad," she breathed. As she looked up and took in the full scale of the sky, much emptier than the sky in Nebraska. The combination of the night's events and her intoxication made her feel very small. She could feel her throat tighten and tried to combat the feeling when Sheldon spoke.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked.

"No," replied Penny in a small voice. "Do you?"

There was a pause and she expected him to remain silence, then finally he spoke.

"I'm not a very good boyfriend," Sheldon said, his words surprising Penny out of her own emotions.

"Aw, sweetie, you're just inexperienced. I'm sure that if you gave it time…" Penny wasn't sure how to finish that thought so she let her words fall.

Sheldon sat up and put his back against the low wall.

"Amy has been becoming more and more distant and though I should feel alarmed and upset, I don't. I only fear that I may lose her as a companion and friend."

Penny sat up turning to face him and wrapping her arms around her knees. She thought about the way they interacted and tried to imagine being in Amy's shoes. She thought about where they could be if he had been assertive instead of Leonard. They had already slipped into a routine, one that was different from any of the ones he had with other people. He no longer pulled away if she touched him and he allowed her to do things he didn't let anyone else do. He even joked with her now and hadn't they just shared an intimate moment?

A thought occurred to her, but she swept it away. There was absolutely no way in hell that it could be true. Instead she switched to her own dilemma, a simple one in comparison to his much larger predicament.

"I suck at being an actress, and at just about everything else," she confided after a moment.

"Considering you have tried only a miniscule amount of professions in the vast scheme of things, it is improbable that you, as you put it, 'suck at everything'. Plus, even though you're gorilla movie is a truly horrible endeavor, that doesn't mean you're horrible at making gorilla movies."

Penny laughed and found that Sheldon was laughing along with her. A genuine laugh, one she hadn't heard before.

Sheldon felt the tension leaving his shoulders as he watched Penny laugh at his statement. He rationalized that if he could have fun with someone as unlike himself as Penny, then it shouldn't be difficult to make Amy feel the same. However, as he imagined bringing Amy up here he knew it would be very different.

For one, Amy had seen Jupiter countless times in much better conditions and therefore would be very unimpressed. Furthermore, there was no banter between himself and Amy that didn't involve academia, and though he thoroughly loved academia it wasn't the same.

As Sheldon felt himself pondering the differences in the way he spent time with Amy and the way he spent time with Penny he felt the solution begin to show itself. Something he hadn't acknowledged crept to the forefront and he tried to abate it, but it was being forced to the surface by his inebriation. He watched her as she looked at her knees still smiling. He felt his pulse rise almost imperceptivity and a small knot made its way into his gut. He swallowed hard, trying to blame the Asian fusion, but his brain wasn't agreeing with that theory.

Penny chose this moment to look up and he noticed he had been staring, reaching for the bottle for an excuse to look away he unscrewed the cap and took a swig. It wasn't going to help, but the burn in his throat was a welcome distraction. He chased it then let out his breath harshly.

"Whoa, easy there tiger," Penny said reaching over for the bottle and taking a shot of her own. She made a face and then looked at the bottle as she blew out. "Wow! How big of a shot have you been taking? I think this is a good stopping point."

Penny stood and swayed a bit and Sheldon got up quickly to help steady her, but gravity didn't seem as manageable as a wave of dizziness hit him as well and he fell back against the vent taking Penny with him. She fell, palms against his chest and laughed, "Maybe we should have paced ourselves, I forgot how easily this stuff sneaks up on you..."

She looked up and the laughter fell away as her eyes – a most interesting shade of green he never really took the time to appreciate – seem to focus on his lips, then his brain imparted a strange desire to lean down and—

Penny's lips were crushed against his own and though he could swear he never moved the sensation was very real. He put his hands on her hips, for balance he assured himself, and leaned forward into the kiss. Penny's arms snaked around his neck and he convinced himself it was because she was losing purchase again. The fact that this gave a much better angle to the kiss was irrelevant, but then her tongue grazed his and a foreign emotion wound its way through him and took hold. He was deepening the kiss and she was winding her hand into his hair.

Somewhere in the distance a car horn blared and everything snapped back into focus.

They both burst apart simultaneously and though Penny stumbled a bit he didn't move to help her this time, he simply moved to the other side of the vent and put his arm out to steady himself. Something was definitely very off and he promised to never drink again as he remembered something his father had said long ago. A drunk man's actions are a sober man's thoughts.

He had definitely imbibed too much if ancient words from his father were beginning to make sense. No! Not make sense, he corrected. This makes absolutely no sense.

He had to apologize for kissing her. It was not only unwarranted, but very wrong for both parties involved. Even if he couldn't recall acting on his primal instincts and even if she had responded pleasantly.

Sheldon turned to give his apology, "Penny, I'm –"

The roof exit closed with a definitive click and both the blond and the bottle of whiskey were gone.

More soon guys! Please R&R, I might not get to update until after finals, but don't give up on me!