Fic: The Effervescent Chlorine Submersion (8B/15)

[fujiidom]

Title: The Effervescent Chlorine Submersion
Pairing/Character: Sheldon/Penny
Rating: MA
Summary: Almost drowning gives Sheldon some perspective, Penny suffers through the ups and downs of Life Debt as a cultural phenomena because of this.
Spoilers: Set around mid-to-late season two

Author’s Note: See? I keep my promises. There's still a few more reactions to deal with, eventually, but there's also some much needed hotness by next chapter. For now, here's some more plot progression! Hope you like the conclusion!

Thanks for the ton of reviews in between then and now, you guys are quick! Enjoy!

 

Chapter Eight (Part Two):

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It was barely 6:30 that morning, when Leonard first walked across the hall.

He attempted to knock on Penny’s door six times before finally following through, not wholly wanting to face his neighbor. Or the truth.

He had debated whether to go to Sheldon first, confront him with his thoughts and let his friend explain himself. For some reason, however, he was much more concerned about Penny’s lies, or lies by omission—whatever.

Sheldon wasn’t one to be dishonest, but his evasiveness was normal. Penny feeling the need to hide this was making his stomach roll around, knotting itself up like a caged snake.

There was a reason why this had become a secret, Leonard’s mind kept blinking in warning.

There was still enough skepticism in his mind that it was easy enough to ignore his worry. There must be some hilarious explanation he couldn’t figure out for himself.

This had, after all, happened before and though answer was never really given for Penny’s gaming addiction, things had gone back to normal after a short time.

The blonde finally pulled the door open and looked like she wanted to say something mean, but just put on an overly sweet smile. “What can I help you with, Leonard?”

“Um, I, uh, well,” Leonard kicked at floor. He was really regretting this plan of action.

“What? Leonard, spit it out,” she crossed her arms and started tapping her foot.

“What’s going on with you and Sheldon?” he practically screamed out, finally breaking the deafening rhythm of her slipper banging on her hardwood floor.

Her foot stopped moving, so did the rest of her body. Well, other than her jaw dropping open and closed for a while, seeming to be at a loss for words.

Just then, of course, Sheldon appeared at the other opened door. “What’s going on here?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out! Yesterday, you told me you finished your ‘raid’ in three hours. You started at six o’clock; Penny was sneaking out at midnight. I’ve been going over it in my head and I always come to the same conclusion,” he pushed his hands roughly into his robe’s pockets.

“Let’s all go inside,” Sheldon had a grave look on his face and motioned towards the living room.

For some reason that set off Leonard into taking deep, steadying breaths. He felt like he already knew what was about to happen and was going to start hyperventilating, as a result.

They sat in their normal spots: Sheldon in the furthest seat to the left on the couch, Penny to his right, and Leonard in the chair facing them both.

“Okay,” Penny said to no one, trying to decide if it would be best for her or Sheldon to tell him. She remembered this was still Sheldon, in any case, and cleared her throat. “Well, after the pool incident, the two of us spent a lot of time together. The other night, with Missy, we got really drunk,” Leonard’s mouth was making a perfect circle in shock, “and danced a lot and kissed a lot.”

Leonard let a strangled, “Oh.”

“And then,” Penny continued, to Leonard’s dismay, “we came back to my place, drank some more and… messed around. Then he came home, the next morning, sorta lied about Missy’s friend, which was actually me. Which is why Leslie noticed my place being trashed, we went on our raid and…,” she looked at the ground awkwardly, “celebrated winning.”

“I—what—I—what?” Leonard looked like his head was about to implode. “While I was on the other side of the wall?!”

“In our defense, we thought you might have been asleep. We also used leather belts to bite down on, concealing any noise, just to make sure not to disturb you,” Sheldon pointed out, in a way he seemed to think was helpful. The other two let out stunned yelps.

“Oh, my God! Oh, my God, so you’ve been having sex? Oh, my God! In this apartment?!” Leonard cried out, gasping for air between shouts.

“No!” Penny protested, but was drowned out by Sheldon explaining that there were different ways to interpret what constituted ‘having sex.’ Giving his friend more than enough information to draw from as to what might have actually been going on behind Sheldon’s closed door.

“I can’t believe this, it doesn’t seem real. How can this really be happening?”

“Are you mad at me, Leonard?” Sheldon mumbled, sounding much less sure of himself than a few moments ago. He wasn’t making eye contact, either, causing him to look like a nervous child.

“Mad? I, uh, I guess? Should I be?” He looked between the two, stood up and paced around the kitchen preparing a pot of coffee. “So, this has only been going on for a few days, then?”

“Since Saturday night, yeah,” Penny tucked her errant strands of hair behind both ears.

“Is it serious? I mean, I’m assuming you’re not just having some fling,” Leonard pulled some mugs out of the opened cabinet and pulled out a coffee filter.

The others shared a look, not having really answered the question themselves. There had been so much drama over Leonard finding out; they hadn’t planned past that point.

Penny could feel a warm smile spread across her face, reaching for either side of her head. She looked over to see Leonard measuring out coffee grinds and snuck her hand over towards Sheldon, who gripped it nervously with his own.

“Yes, it is,” Sheldon answered more confidently, discreetly pulling her hand up to his mouth and giving it a small peck.

There was some clattering in the kitchen when Leonard caught sight of some of the scene going on in the living room.

Quickly, turning his back again, he closed his eyes and let it all go.

Even though he had been so sure of his and Penny’s destined romance, seeing Sheldon act so kindly, it was hard to ignore.

As much as it may kill him, the idea of Sheldon finding any close human connection was also pretty staggering.

Leonard had  known the other man for years and although it sucked it had to be the girl of his dream, he felt sort of happy for Sheldon. Deep, deep down.

God, what were the other going to say? “Have you thought about telling everyone, or did you want this to stay quiet?”

Penny felt her chest grow warm, in response. Leonard was offering to keep it a secret.

She launched herself off the couch and caught him in a hug, almost causing him to spill the coffee tin in surprise. “Oh, sweetie, thank you! Thank you so much! We only delayed telling you because we were trying not to rub this in your face. It just happened,” she rubbed her hands around his back, trying to cheer him up some. “You are such a good guy, Leonard,” she squeezed him tight and gave him a very serious look of gratitude.

Again, something inside Leonard let go.

It all was falling into place, just at really strange intervals.

He could easily reconcile Penny as his friend’s girlfriend. They’d been on their date, that door was closed. That cat was out of the box, or bag. Whichever one was the non-theoretical dead or alive phrasing.

There was a now such an obvious reason why he liked her so much, but couldn’t seem to get it to progress into anything more. It wasn’t meant to; she was meant to be with Sheldon.

It felt the strangest to not really care all that much. He had almost felt this coming, for years. Their intense friendship was now just an intense relationship, more than the mathematical parts of his brain told him it figured.

He put the tray with their coffees on the table and met Sheldon’s eyes for the first time since going into the kitchen. He still looked nervous. Leonard shook his head and smirked. “Should I ask about the wax, again, or is that gonna make it even more awkward?”

Penny let out a loud snort and buried her head into the hole near Sheldon’s elbow, doubling over in giggles of embarrassment.

“I think you have your answer,” Sheldon replied dryly.

Leonard laughed, too when the other man just rolled his eyes and patted the blonde awkwardly as she sniffed loudly for air, against his arm.

This could work, Leonard smiled to himself. He blew on his coffee, so he wouldn’t burn his tongue.

Ω