"Sheldon, I've been feeling better for two days now. Don't you think that if you caught what I had, you'd already be sick by now?" Leonard asked, trying to avoid the aerosol that Sheldon just sprayed around the kitchen.
"One can never be sure, Leonard. For all we know, the virus is still airborne in our apartment, just waiting to attack when my armor is down. This is nothing but a mere precaution." The taller man answered, all the while, still spraying the disinfectant around the living room.
Leonard sighed in defeat. There's really no point arguing with the guy when it comes to germs. He's come so far, and now here he was, doing what he always does when someone sick or was sick is around him. He followed his best friends movements under his glasses. When Sheldon finished his task, he walked to his desk and opened his laptop, not caring about the pair of eyes that were on him. His friend was studying him, trying to see if any emotion will show on his face. The lanky physicist still hasn't spoken to either him or Penny about how he feels. Sheldon didn't even say anything about the Vanessa girl. They didn't push him though, knowing that course of action never leads to anything good.
"Is there any particular reason why you are ogling me?" Sheldon asked without looking up from his laptop, pulling Leonard out of his trance.
"No. Nothing, really. So no plans tonight?"
"Leonard, tonight is Vintage Game night, and unlike you and the rest of the guys, I have no intentions of breaking that routine." He spoke indignantly, finally looking up at him. Everything else in his world feels like chaos, it's only logical that he will want some sense of normalcy; no matter how little.
"I'm sorry, Penny's been busy and tonight is the only time this week that I can take her out. I'll make it up to you buddy, I promise." Leonard says, patting his friend's shoulder as he walks to his desk to retrieve his wallet.
"It's alright. No need to make it up to me. I have to start accepting that nothing is constant. Also, you're spending time with your significant other, not going to a rave with any of my nemesis. That's not a crime." Sheldon said with a sad voice, that got Leonard turning around from his own desk.
"Sheldon... If you want I can talk to Penny and we can just--"
"Leonard, I'm fine. I can manage on my own. You need to stop worrying too much about me." Sheldon spoke, cutting him off.
"Fine. Well, I'll see you later," answered his friend and with that, Leonard left to pick up his wife.
Sheldon rose and looked around their apartment. He's doing Vintage Video Game night alone. It's not a very inviting thought, but he's done it before. He's confused as to why this makes him sad. Oh, you know it, Cooper! Don't be so thick! You miss your group, he thought. With a sigh, he walked over and pulled out Adventure Island and begun setting up for the night.
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Friday night found Vanessa at home, about to do a movie marathon. She didn't feel like going out with her friends from her major class. She was digging through one of the boxes that was delivered earlier in the afternoon, labeled "SciFi films", when her phone on her table, vibrated. She looked and was surprised to see a message from Sheldon.
I need my Crash Bandicoot back, tonight. -S
Vanessa was confused. She tried to remember talking about that game with him the last time they were together, but she was at lost. She thought Sheldon must have sent her the message by accident. How odd, though, that he will send such text on a night when she just received some of her stuff from Texas that her parents sent her; which coincidentally, includes a copy of the very game, Sheldon was talking about. She contemplated for a while if she should respond to his text, when a random idea occurred to her: going to Sheldon's place with her copy of the game and play against him. She tapped her index finger on her chin for about a minute before deciding to grab her purse, jacket and keys. A few minutes later, she was driving to Los Robles.
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One of the many things that Sheldon hate, is when someone doesn't respond to a text message or answer a call right away. It's been almost 30 minutes since he texted Wolowitz to give him one of his games back, but he's still yet to receive even an acknowledgement that the engineer received his message. "He better have a good reason for not replying," he muttered, dialing said man's number on his phone.
"Hello. What's going on, Sheldon?" said Howard, upon answering the call.
"What is going on, wha-- Have you been sleeping?" replied Sheldon; his voice, taking in a higher note.
"No."
"Are you ill?!"
"No, Sheldon, I'm not."
"Then what is taking you so long to respond to my text message?"
"What text message? I didn't get anything from you," says Howard, with confusion in his voice.
"No! I sent you," he says, as he pulls his phone away from his ear . He puts it on speaker and started to check his outgoing messages. "Here, at 7:15, I sent you a message telling you to return my Crash Bandicoot disc. It was successfully sent!"
"And I'm telling you, I didn't receive any!" Exclaimed the man on the other line.
"And I'm telling you that it was sent! 7:15. recipient, Vane-- Oh." Sheldon went silent and blinked a few times as he realized his mistake. Just then, a knock sounded on the door and he glanced to where the sound came from.
"Sheldon? Are you still there? Hello..."
"I'll call you back." He hung up and walked to the door, not even bothering to check through the peep hole. When he has a feeling, he knows it, and currently he has a strong feeling about who was on the other side of his door. As he opens it, sure enough, the tall Texan girl he recently met was there.
"Hi Sheldon." She greets with a smile.
"Good evening, Vanessa. Look, there may have been a mistake, see--"
"Oh, I realized that. To be honest, I don't know why I didn't just tell you that you sent me the message instead of to whomever it was intended for. I guess it has something to do with the fact that, yet again, I'm spending a weekend at home, alone," she said quickly, cutting him off immediately,
"Well, uhm... Okay, but you don't have the game that I need, so why did you come here?" Sheldon pointed out.
"Hold it! Actually, I do," she says, while pulling out the plastic case that looked a bit old, but still decent. "See, I figured, instead of doing a movie marathon maybe it would be better to beat a brilliant man on one of the most fun video games I've ever played." She finished with a side smirk.
Sheldon's hearing picked up the word beat, more than the rest of her sentence. Vanessa knew she got him when his eyebrows shot up after hearing the magic word. She was sure a man with so many achievements, hated the idea of losing.
"Ha! I'm sorry, you must be high on paint fumes to think that. I excel at most things and one of those is playing vintage video games." He spoke with wide, challenging eyes. Vanessa just smiled smugly at him, which irritated him.
"I'm sorry, too, but I'm going to need evidence that proves you excel in this particular matter," she tells him, waving the plastic case in front of him, back and forth.
That was all it took. Sheldon moved aside to let her in the apartment. "Let me demonstrate then," he says, gesturing for her to come in.
An hour and a half, a box of pizza, and a seemingly endless trash talk later, they were two for two. It was a tight competition, both reaching so many checkpoints before losing all of their character's lives.
"Ready to give up yet, Dr. Cooper?" Vanessa asks, tilting up her head a little and smiling widely at the physicist, who had his brows drawn together in frustration.
"Sheldon Lee Cooper, never gives up. If we have to stay here all night, we shall do so."
"Oh I would hate for you to miss sleep, just because you want to try and beat me."
"I've done it twice, I just need one more, you know!" he says.
"No! Not if I can help it!" Sticking out her tongue at him. In a quick motion that Vanessa did not anticipate, Sheldon lunged at her and tried to reach for the controller. Instinctively, she leaned back on the other side of the couch and moved the controller out of his reach. It was a little too late for Sheldon to realize how awkward of a position they'll be in because of his action.
Silence enveloped the apartment as they stared at each other. Sheldon was on top of her, while she was practically laying down on the couch. Vanessa felt like she should move away from him and Sheldon thought that he should get off of her. Sheldon moved his sight down to her lips and back to her eyes. That was all it took to consume Vanessa; she raised her head to meet Sheldon's lips. He froze. It was a chaste kiss; it lasted five seconds before Sheldon leaped up from the couch until the back of his knees hit the white chair. Vanessa was startled by his sudden movement. They looked into each others, wide eyes for what seemed like a long time.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that." Vanessa finally spoke, when she could no longer take the silence.
"No, uhm..." was all that Sheldon could say.
"I should go." She got up and picked up her things. She nodded to Sheldon and headed out the door. Before Sheldon could come to his senses, the sound of her footsteps descending the stairs was gone.
He stood, motionless for almost five minutes, before looking at the PS1 on the floor, realizing she didn't take out the game with her. Sheldon slumped down in his spot, still dazed from the recent events. His eidetic memory, not helping as it constantly replays what occurred a few minutes ago. He was confused and overwhelmed by the onslaught of emotions crossing him that moment. What surprised him was the realization that he wasn't even thinking about his mysophobia. The kiss wasn't what he might call repellent; he might even go so far as to say that it felt nice. Nice and wrong at the same time. Shaking his head, he started cleaning up and putting his console away.
Later that night, while he was in his bed, absentmindedly touching his lips. The scene from earlier that evening, was in a loop and he couldn't think of anything else. His phone buzzed and he reached for it. He looked at the screen and saw that it was a reminder for thanksgiving. The screen read, Thanksgiving at the City Aquarium with Amy. He read it twice before dismissing it. He clicked the home button which held a screen saver of his ex-girlfriend. All too soon, he finally figured out why the kiss felt both, nice and wrong.