The next morning, Sheldon woke up more refreshed than he had in a long time, despite (or perhaps because of) the blonde who was currently using his chest as a pillow. He carefully crawled out from under her, sliding his pillow under her head. He got ready for work as quietly as he could, hoping not to wake her.

As he finished making his oatmeal, Leonard came stumbling into the kitchen sleepy-eyed and irritable, his recent lack of sleep catching up with him. Seeing Sheldon, he collapsed into the nearest island chair and said, "Amy's getting really tired of having to try to track you down every night, and so am I for that matter. I haven't gotten to bed at a decent hour in days now."

Sheldon took his bowl of oatmeal over to the couch and sat down.

"I'm not sure why you keep looking for me, it's really not any of your business where I am. And if you must know, I was at my girlfriend's again."

"Come on, Sheldon. What are you playing at?" said Leonard from his seat at the island. "We all know no girl besides Amy would ever put up with your eccentrics, so stop pretending you have some other girlfriend. And you've been treating your actual girlfriend, Amy, really poorly lately. So tonight you're taking her out on a formal date, and you are kissing her, on the lips, like you mean it."

"Sorry Leonard, but I already have plans. I'm taking my real girlfriend out on a date tonight." Sheldon was thankful Leonard wasn't looking at him, because he could feel his own twitch, and there's no way Leonard would have missed it. At the same time, he pulled out his phone and wrote Penny a quick text (to be sent after he got to work, and she had time to wake up); Emergency. I had to tell my roommate that I was going to be out on a date with my girlfriend tonight. Is there any chance you are free this evening, and would like company for dinner somewhere?

Leonard just shook his head, trying to figure out how he was going to trap Sheldon in the apartment after work until Amy got there to take him on their non-optional date. He also wondered if he should take Sheldon to a doctor, as he seemed to be suffering from some kind of delusion, and kept disappearing for hours at a time.

A few hours into work, Sheldon pulled his phone out of his pocket, and hit send on the text. A minute later he got a reply; Of course sweetie. I don't have work today, so want to meet for lunch as well?

Quickly replying in the affirmative, Sheldon got back to work.

Five minutes before Leonard would normally come by his office to pick him up, Sheldon climbed into Penny's car on the far side of the campus. He hit send on a text telling Leonard that his girlfriend was picking him up from work and he wouldn't need a ride home, before turning towards Penny and asking, "How was your day? Have you heard back from your audition yet?"

"It was fine. And no, I haven't heard back yet; I just spent the day finishing up unpacking. Everything's out of the boxes, but I've no doubt you'll want to move everything around and clean everything up. Which is fine, just don't expect me to keep it that way," replied Penny. "How was your day?"

"My day was fine, just unraveling the mysteries of the universe. And I would be more than happy to come over and clean for you on a regular basis."

"We'll see, sweetie. We'll see," Penny replied, lightly patting his arm.

As they sat down in an ice cream shop near where they had eaten supper together (both of which Penny let Sheldon choose, since she didn't know his full list of approved restaurants yet), Sheldon reached into his bag and pulled out a key. Setting it down in front of Penny, he said, "If you can't get asleep again, here's the key to my room. It will also unlock the front door, though I already gave you the spare key for our front door when you gave me yours. If I'm already asleep, do try and not wake me. I need my REM sleep."

He looked so sincere, that it made Penny want to cry. But she knew that would only disturb him, so she blinked back her tears, and took the key solemnly. Then she pulled the brightly colored flower hair beret that he'd frequently seen her wearing out of her hair. Sheldon watched as she slipped the key into a little pocket built in behind the flower. Seeing him watching her, she said, "I like to make these for fun; I call them 'Penny Blossoms'.One day I had the idea of putting in a little pocket to hide small objects in, but so far this is the only one I've made with a hidden pocket."

An hour later, they found themselves walking up the stairs to Penny's apartment. As they stepped onto the fourth floor landing, they heard voices coming from the inside of 4A.

"Look, I told you already, I don't have a clue where he is. I showed you the text he sent me."

"You promised me a date night! How the hell am I supposed to implement my five year plan if he's never around!?"

"Look, I'm sorry! But I don't know what to tell you. He's been acting strange ever since he blew off your date night two weeks ago when we never could find him."

There was a pause.

"Look, how do you want me to make it up to you?"

"Oh, I think you know how I want you to make it up to me."

"But he could come in at any time."

"That's what your bedroom is for, idiot. I wasn't suggesting having sex on the couch, where he could walk in on us."

"Fine, but if he does come in while we're having sex, you're the one who has to explain what you were doing in my room."

Sheldon and Penny scurried across the hall and slipped into 4B as quietly as they could.

"Did I just hear what I think I heard?" asked Penny in stunned disbelief as soon as her door was safely closed and locked behind them.

"If you mean my ex-girlfriend is about to have coitus with my roommate, then yes," replied Sheldon.

"But it sounded like it wasn't anything out of the ordinary," protested Penny. "Was your girlfriend cheating on you with your roommate the whole time you were dating her?"

Sheldon thought back over the year he had been forced to date Amy. The nights Amy hadn't been around that Leonard hadn't either, but hadn't come home bragging about his latest conquest or whining about a failure. Small looks between Leonard and Amy when they thought he wasn't paying attention. His roommate's words the previous morning; 'I was with her all night'.

"Well, that would make sense. Leonard has always been a slut, though usually a failed one. But he hasn't dated anyone since forcing me to start dating Amy, and he hasn't been hitting on girls nearly as much either. Which only happens when he's already 'getting some', as Howard would put it. And Amy clearly desires coitus, she's made that clear from day one. So it does make sense that they would be using each other to fulfill their sexual desires."

"And you aren't at all upset that your ex-girlfriend was cheating on you with your roommate the entire time you two were dating!?" protested Penny, feeling angry for Sheldon.

"I don't care who she's sleeping with, so long as it isn't me," replied Sheldon, calmly. "I never wanted to be in a romantic relationship with her to begin with. And if it kept Leonard from bragging about everyone he's had coitus with, and kept Amy from raping me, then no. I am not upset."

"Oh." said Penny, realizing the situation from Sheldon's point of view.

"Now, do you mind if I start cleaning?"

A couple hours later, they finally heard Amy leave. Waiting a few minutes for her to have fully left the building, Sheldon walked back to his apartment to go to bed. After he had closed the door to 4A behind him, Leonard looked up and saw that it was Sheldon. "Where have you been, again!?" he asked angrily. "Amy was here waiting on you for hours."

"I told you where I would be," replied Sheldon as he walked back to his bedroom. He decided against pointing out that Amy hadn't been passively waiting on him. No reason to reveal that he knew what was really going on just yet.

About fifteen minutes after Sheldon had gone to bed, and Leonard shortly thereafter, he heard the apartment door quietly open and close, before his own door did the same a few seconds later. Deciding to pretend he was asleep, he felt Penny crawl under the covers, before curling up next to him with her back against his side. He quickly drifted off to sleep.

Once again, when he woke the following morning, Penny had flipped around and was using his chest as a pillow. Only this time she was already awake.

"Sleep well, sweetie?" she asked softly.

"For having someone in my bed, surprisingly," he responded with a slight smile. "Want some breakfast?"

Several minutes later, Sheldon had just set a plate of pancakes down in front of her when Leonard came walking in. As soon as he saw Penny there, he immediately went into flirt mode.

"Oh, hi Penny, what are you doing here so early?"

"Sheldon invited me for breakfast," she replied with a smile.

"Sheldon, may I have a word with you in private for just a second?" Leonard asked overly cheerful, turning towards his roommate.

"Not if you want to make it to work on time," replied Sheldon, as he poured another batch of pancakes. "Would you like some?"

"It's about your girlfriend," whispered Leonard harshly.

"I highly doubt that," replied Sheldon. "What I believe you mean is that it is about Amy. And honestly, I could care less."

"So Leonard," interrupted Penny loudly, "When do I get to meet your friends? Sheldon's told me all about Howard and Raj and Amy, but I have yet to meet any of them."

"Well, we have pizza and classic video game night tonight, if you'd like to come for that," answered Sheldon. Turning towards his roommate he added, "They are still coming, aren't they?"

"Yeah, yeah," mumbled Leonard. He had been planning on telling them to skip it, so that Amy could deal with Sheldon one-on-one, and whilst she was doing that he could go over to Penny's and see if she was willing to hang out. But even to Leonard having pizza and classic video game night with just Sheldon, Amy, himself, and Penny didn't sound like a smart move. Amy was going to kill him for not giving her a chance to be alone with Sheldon, or at least demand more sex, but it's not like there was anything he could do about it.

That afternoon, when Leonard got to Sheldon's office to give him a ride home, he found the door locked. At almost the exact same time, he heard his phone ding; I've got a ride back to the apartment. Pick up the pizza on your way home.

Wondering who this mystery ride was that Sheldon kept getting (it obviously wasn't a 'girlfriend', no matter what Sheldon had said in his text the day before), Leonard headed off to the pizza place.

When he got back to the apartment, he found Sheldon and Penny on the couch, already playing Super Mario Kart. He'd been hoping to play something different, but when Sheldon wanted to play something, that's what was played. As he sat the pizza boxes down on the coffee table, he said casually, "Penny, you'll have to move. That's Amy's spot. It's kind of like Sheldon's spot, it's nonnegotiable. "

"Sheldon told me I could sit here," replied Penny, never taking her eyes off the screen, where she held a slim lead over Sheldon at the moment.

"Well, you can't," stated Leonard. "That spot's where Sheldon's girlfriend sits."

Penny glanced over at Sheldon to smirk, but Sheldon took the opportunity of her momentary distraction to blow past her for the win.

"Hey! No fair! You can't beat me while I'm distracted!" Penny exclaimed.

"Should've been paying attention," Sheldon smirked back at her.

Penny just rolled her eyes and shook her head, before opening the top pizza box and grabbing a slice. As she leaned back, a plate appeared on her lap.

"Neat freak," she whispered.

"Chaos girl," he countered.

"Hey, those would be good superhero names," said Penny as she took a bite of her pizza.

At that moment, the front door opened and Raj, Howard, and Amy walked in. Almost immediately, Amy looked at Penny and said, "That's my seat. You can sit in the armchair next to Leonard."

"Sorry," replied Penny in a voice that clearly meant the exact opposite, as she took another large bite of pizza. "Sheldon said I could sit here."

"Well, he's wrong. He should know better than to give his girlfriend's seat to someone else," said Amy, glaring at Sheldon. He ignored her, carefully selecting a slice of pizza and placing it on his own plate. Howard took the opportunity to sidle up to Penny, and sit on the third cushion of the couch.

"Enchante Madamoiselle. Howard Wolowitz, Cal-Tech department of Applied Physics. You may be familiar with some of my work, it's currently orbiting Jupiter's largest moon taking high-resolution digital photographs."

"Penny. And I'm taken." Looking up at Raj, she smiled brightly and said, "Hi Raj!"

Raj froze up for a second, before scrambling to the fridge for a beer.

"And you must be Amy," she said to the mousy haired individual who was alternating glares between Sheldon and Penny. When Amy ignored her greeting, Penny added, "I heard there was an open armchair next to Leonard."

"Get. Away. From. My. Boyfriend," Amy growled at Penny, trying to look threatening.

"He's. Not. Your. Boyfriend," Penny replied mockingly. "Ask him. Or just look at this," she added, as she picked up the relationship contract release form from the couch between her and Howard, and held it out to her.

"And who exactly do you think you are, to tell me Sheldon's not my boyfriend?"

"Umm…His new girlfriend?" retorted Penny with mock contemplation.

"Oh, please. Like Sheldon could ever land someone like you," scoffed Amy.

"No wonder you dumped her," said Penny to Sheldon in a stage whisper that they could all easily hear.

"You're dating Sheldon? Sheldon Cooper, Ph.D, complete nutcase?" interrupted Howard, disbelievingly. He had a decent sum of money riding on Sheldon reproducing by eating too much Thai food and splitting in half.

Hoping Sheldon wouldn't completely freak out, Penny leaned up and gave Sheldon a really soft, really quick peck on the lips, and said, "Sheldon Cooper, double Ph.D., and the man who has a working knowledge of the entire universe and everything it contains."

By this point, Leonard's brain had finally caught up to the discussion. "You can't date Penny!" he screamed at Sheldon. "I saw her first! I called dibs on her!"

"And would that be before or after you started having coitus with Amy?" asked Sheldon calmly.

Howard and Raj's heads jerked around to gape at Leonard and Amy.

"Wait, never mind," continued Sheldon. "You two have been sleeping together since you forced me to start dating her a year ago."

"What? No…I haven't…We haven't…We would never do anything like that," stuttered Leonard.

"We heard you last night, isn't that right, Penny?" asked Sheldon, looking down at the blonde next to him.

"Yep," she replied, popping the 'p'. "Loud and clear."

No need to clarify that they'd merely heard them talking about it, not actually doing it, thought Penny to herself.

When Leonard and Amy didn't say anything for several seconds, Howard finally said, "What the frak? You two are sleeping together!? How long?"

"Hey! I was just doing it to appease Amy so she wouldn't leave Sheldon before he finally started providing for her!" shouted Leonard defensively. "It's not like she was cheating on him when he wasn't even having sex with her to begin with!"

"Pretty sure that's still cheating," said Penny. And then added so quietly only Sheldon's Vulcan hearing could hear her, "And if there's anything I know about, it's cheating."

"You stay out of this!" yelled Leonard, turning savagely at the blonde. "You're just some stupid pretty face that'll never amount to anything who probably cheats on your neanderthal boyfriends all the time."

At this, Sheldon had had enough. Even with the recent audition and call-back, he knew Penny was still fragile enough as it was from her breakup with Kurt, without being reminded by his roommate and one-time friend of everything Kurt did and said to her. Leaping up, he towered over his seated roommate and growled, "You will never, ever, speak about Penny like that again."

"Or you'll do what?" retorted the homunculus, jumping up to face his lanky roommate. "She's obviously just some dumb-blonde slut who doesn't belong in our highly intelligent—"

He never finished his sentence. Sheldon's fist connected with his face, and sent him flying over the back of the chair, sprawled out on the ground, nose bleeding profusely.

"Come along, Penny," said Sheldon calmly, reaching for Penny's hand. "I believe we'd have a much more enjoyable evening elsewhere." And hands intertwined, they walked out of the apartment.

Staring at Leonard for several seconds, Howard and Raj finally looked at each other, and then back down at Leonard.

"I think Sheldon's got the right idea," Howard said.

Raj nodded in agreement, the beer not yet having had time to remove his female-induced muteness, and both of them stood and made their way to the door.

"You can't leave!" said Amy. "What about Leonard?"

Howard just shrugged his shoulders, saying, "You're the one sleeping with him," before opening the door and walking out, with Raj following close behind.

Over in Penny's apartment, Sheldon had led Penny over to her couch, and sat her down. He knew she was on the brink of tears, but didn't know how to stop them. Sitting down next to her, he did the only thing he could think of, and wrapped his arms around her awkwardly, saying, "There, there. Sheldon's here."

Penny gave out a mirthless chuckle, intermingled with a few stifled sobs. "You really have a lot to learn about comforting an upset girl," she responded kindly as she maneuvered to wrap her arms around him and bury her face in his chest.

"I know, Kitten," he replied, and just held her.

After several minutes of silence — silence on his part, silent tears on her part — Sheldon spoke again, softly. "You know you are none of those things Leonard said, right? And I imagine Kurt said many of the same things both before, and when, you broke up with him. But they are not true."

In the three days since she'd broken up with Kurt, she hadn't talked at all about what had happened, but he knew it had taken a toll on her, and having been bullied his entire life, he had some understanding of what she was going through.

Penny smiled into his shirt. He might be the worst at comforting, but at least he was trying, and that was worth something. And it was surprisingly making her feel better.

"Thank you. And sorry about the kiss; but I wanted to make sure they really believed it."

"It's okay," replied Sheldon. "It was surprisingly more enjoyable than I expected."

"Wait till you actually kiss for real," Penny teased back.

"Now let's not get carried away."

As Sheldon sat there, thinking back over why he was even friends with Leonard in the first place, he realized Penny had fallen asleep in his arms. Having heard Amy leave with Leonard to go to the hospital, Sheldon carefully picked her up and carried her across the hall and back to his bedroom, where he tucked her in before heading back out to the living room. He went back across the hall and picked out some reasonable sleep clothes for her, and tiptoeing back into his bedroom, laid them on the table next to the bed so she could change into them if she woke up.

Going back into his living room, he made himself a cup of tea, and pulled up his laptop.

Penny woke up to find herself alone, but carefully tucked into Sheldon's bed. She glanced over to the alarm clock on the table, and noticed the clothes he'd set there for her. She got up and quickly changed, not wanting to sleep in jeans for the rest of the night. She momentarily thought about going out into the living room to see what Sheldon was doing, but if he was working she didn't want to bother him, and she didn't want to run the risk of running into Leonard or Amy, so she crawled back into bed and fell asleep again.

The second time she awoke, she noticed that her pillow seemed to be breathing softly, and the early morning sun was staring to peak through the windows. As she listened to his soft breathing, she wondered when it had become normal for her to wake up next to him. It was only the fourth time she'd done so, but in as many nights since she'd broken up with Kurt, and it already felt like the most natural thing in the world.

Unbeknownst to her, her pillow was thinking the exact same thing. Only for Sheldon, he was wondering how it had become normal for him to be in this close of proximity to a girl without completely freaking out. He had only known her for a little over two weeks, and yet he was already closer to her than he was to any of his old friends he'd known for years. And certainly closer than the girl he'd 'dated' for a year.

An hour later, Sheldon and Penny were sitting on the couch eating French Toast that Penny had made, and watching Doctor Who. Penny sat curled into Sheldon's side, and Sheldon had his arm lightly around her shoulder when Leonard opened the door and walked in.

"Amy's still willing to forgive you, you know," Leonard said coldly to Sheldon as he skulked by on the way to the kitchen.

"Forgive him for what? He never did anything wrong!" exclaimed Penny in disbelief. "Punching you, or breaking up with Amy!"

As Leonard came back from the kitchen with a bowl of cereal and sunk into the armchair, he said grumpily, "I still can't believe you stole my girl. I saw her first, even you should know better than to break the bro code."

"And what part of the bro code includes sleeping with your roommate and supposed best friend's girlfriend?" asked Sheldon.

"And I hardly think you saw me first, considering I met Sheldon two and half weeks ago, and met with him most days in the two weeks before I moved next to you guys," added Penny.

"You were cheating with Penny for two weeks and you dare accuse me of cheating with Amy!?" yelled Leonard, upsetting his bowl of cereal (it was an easily upsettable bowl; it had a very fragile ego).

"I was merely friends with Penny those two weeks, helping her work up the courage to break up with an abusive boyfriend. And you have been cheating with Amy for a year."

"You break her up with her boyfriend and start dating her immediately after, and you don't call that cheating!?"

"As neither of us were dating anyone when we started dating, no, I don't call that cheating. I helped her escape an abusive relationship with a cheater and she helped me escape an abusive relationship with a cheater, and in the process we realized we had a lot in common."

"You weren't in an abusive relationship!" screamed Leonard. "Amy is the only person who ever has, or ever will, love you!"

Though he didn't say anything, Sheldon wondered if that was really true; or rather, whether it was true that no one would ever love him, as he knew for a fact that Amy didn't really love him. He was beginning to suspect that his friendship with the blonde currently curled into his side was a little more complicated than they were pretending.

Sunday afternoon, as Sheldon and Penny were walking back from the comic book store (Amy refused to go anywhere near there, and Leonard had stopped taking him ever since Sheldon had stopped giving in to Amy's every whim two weeks earlier; so it had been several weeks since Sheldon had been), Penny's phone rang. As the person on the other end talked, her face suddenly lit up.

"I got it! I got it!" she squealed as she hung up, jumping up and down and throwing her arms around Sheldon, hugging him tightly.

"I take it that was the tv series you auditioned for?" asked Sheldon, as Penny let go. "Congratulations."

"Yes! I start filming tomorrow," said Penny, beaming from ear to ear. "And they think the part could be even bigger than they originally said."

Over the next several weeks, Penny started driving Sheldon to work on her way to filming. Tensions were still extremely high between Sheldon and Leonard, and though Leonard would let Sheldon ride with him any time Penny couldn't drive him (probably due to some clause in the Roommate Agreement Penny thought), neither Sheldon nor Leonard wanted to ride together; Sheldon didn't want to have to listen to Leonard's ongoing attempts to put him and Amy back together, and Leonard still wouldn't accept that Sheldon had broken up with Amy and didn't believe Sheldon was really with Penny. He was also still angry at being punched and Sheldon stealing "his girl" as he referred to Penny.

Penny would also pick him up after work unless she was still filming, and on any nights Howard and Raj couldn't come over, Sheldon would move whatever night it was over to Penny's apartment, to avoid Leonard and Amy, who continued to hound Sheldon anytime they were alone with him.

About a month after Penny moved into apartment 4B, Leonard came storming into the living room one evening. Sheldon was sitting at his desk, working on his latest paper on string theory, and Penny was sitting on the couch, reading over her lines for the following day's filming. The tv series had been a hit so far, as had her character, and the studio was in the process green-lighting an additional ten episodes.

"If you're going to keep up this charade of dating my girl, I'm leaving and moving in with Amy," Leonard declared authoritatively to Sheldon and the room at large.

"Okay," replied Sheldon, not bothering to look up from his laptop. "Don't forget that you'll still owe me your half of the rent for the remaining four months on the apartment lease, plus the fourth month after we moved in that you never payed your half of. So five months total."

"I'm dead serious Sheldon," admonished Leonard. "Give up my girl, or I'm moving out this weekend."

"Not to interrupt this obviously heated debate," interrupted Penny, "but am I the only one who finds it slightly ironic that if Sheldon doesn't give up the girl you want, you're going to move in with a different girl? There just seems to be something slightly off about that."

"She does have a point, you know," added Sheldon from his desk, finally turning to face Leonard. "If you can't have girl A — which you can't — you're threatening to move in with girl B who you've been sleeping with for over a year. Which makes me wonder why girl A would even consider being with you, even if she wasn't already with someone else."

"And then there's the question of whether you would continue sleeping with girl B even if you did get girl A," continued Penny. "Because unless girl B could get the guy she was originally going after, I doubt she'd be too pleased at suddenly being cut off."

"Enough!" interrupted Leonard, practically steaming at the ears. "This isn't a threat. Sheldon, if you don't give up this nonsense with Penny and start dating Amy again, your one true love, by this weekend, I'm moving out!"

"Need any help packing?" asked Sheldon as he turned back to his laptop and started typing.

Saturday morning, as Sheldon and Penny lay in Sheldon's bed, listening to the sounds of Leonard and Amy packing, as Howard and Raj roamed around, making sure Leonard and Amy didn't try to steal any of Sheldon's things, Sheldon looked over at Penny.

"We aren't really just friends anymore, are we?"

"No…I don't think so," replied Penny carefully. "Is that okay?"

"I think so. Yes." said Sheldon thoughtfully. "Does this mean we actually are dating, like we've been telling everyone for the past month?"

"If you want it to, I suppose it can," replied Penny. "I hadn't planned on dating this soon after Kurt, but since we have been pretending to date for a month now and I've been okay, I think it would be okay, if we continued to take it slowly. But actually dating does mean you're eventually going to have to kiss me again, you realize that, right?"

"It wasn't as bad as I expected," said Sheldon, thinking back on the one time Penny had kissed him; the night Penny had met Howard, Raj and Amy for the first time, and Leonard had ended up in the hospital. "I suppose I could eventually do it again, as long as it was with you."

"Then I suppose we're dating for real now."

~~The End~~