Chapter Text
Penny looks over in shock, because they'd told everyone they'd been together for the better part of six months when someone brought it up at Thanksgiving, Mina laughs lightly and puts a shirt back on the shelf where she'd pulled it out to see the back.
"Wait, what? we've been together since-" she starts, but Mina cuts her off with a smug look.
"You don't have to lie, I'm really good at sniffing out people who "date" just to not show up alone to things. You'd be surprised how many people do that at my parents' fundraisers."
Penny really doesn't know what to say, because if Mina knows, who else knows? And her fear must show on her face because the girl is patting her on the arm.
"Babes! Calm down, everybody else thinks you guys are like, goals. And I'm not the kind of girl that goes around telling people's business!" She fixes Mina with a look, remembering the times she'd been met with the latest update on someone's drama in lieu of a greeting, and the time she'd literally laid some poor dude's family secrets out at a bar because he wouldn't stop trying to kiss on Clara, Mina's right hand woman. The woman next to her laughs.
"Okay, okay. Just know I'm not going around telling your business, how about that? You guys make a cute couple, and I see the way you look at each other when the other one isn't looking. However fake this whole thing started I can tell it's not fake anymore, for either of you."
Penny's insecurities must bleed into her expression as well, because Mina is taking her hands in her own and shaking them lightly, "don't overthink it, That's a good one you got there. I still have to coach Zack on how to take my pictures, as crazy as that sounds."
She has to laugh at that, because Mina has no clue the amount of coaching she’d had to give Sheldon, but she thanks Mina for her support and silence as they make their way back to the group of girls that had probably been suffocating the perfume counter workers as they tested every one available.
By the time the sun is past the midpoint in the sky, right after they'd finished up eating at this cute place that had comped their meals and offered them free drinks in exchange for content about their restaurant, Mina decided it was time to go round up the boys and head back to the house. It was New Years Eve, and they had quite the long night ahead, so she wanted to give everyone a chance to rest and relax before they headed back out onto the strip. They make their way through a hotel lobby and into a casino, where they spot their counterparts sitting around half of a poker table, the other half full of strangers. Penny watches as Mina and her friends saunter up beside their respective partners, and she plays Mina's advice in her head as she makes her way to Sheldon. He's in the middle of a hand, and has clearly won a fair few hands previous to this one if the stack of chips to his left is any indication. He smiles up at her when she approaches, and tilts his head up when she runs her hand under his chin, searching for a kiss. A brief brush of lips, and she's looking him up and down.
"How's your day been going? Seems like you know what you're doing," she nods at the stack of chips and he nods in response, "my father and his friends used to play a lot on the weekends, I picked up a few things over the years."
He asks her about her day, saying that she better have put his card to good use, and Penny decides now is a good a time as any to start her mission of convincing him she wants him, leaning down near his ear to whisper a thank you for letting her spend his money and an offer to show him exactly what she bought with it when they got back, if he was up for it. He exhales a laugh through his nose, face red, and nods, looking her up and down with a "I'd like that," before he's pulling her onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her waist and handing her his cards. They sit through many more hands like that, Sheldon's hands running a slow trail up and down her sides, and she starts to understand how people get addicted to gambling when they win almost all of the hands they’re dealt. Everyone ends up getting pretty invested in the games, and Penny’s skin starts to tingle where she’s pressed against Sheldon when a nice older man across from them buys drinks for the table. They make it home in the late afternoon a few thousand dollars richer than when they left, and she brags about it on the phone to Bernadette while she waits for her shower to heat up.
She can hear tinny squeals coming through the receiver as she recalls their trip, and she can almost guess the question Bernadette asks before it comes out of her mouth.
"Soooo... have you found out whether or not Howard and Raj were lying about those interns?"
Penny can feel her face heat up, and she's glad Sheldon is somewhere else in the house playing Smash with Zack and his friends as she sputters her answer, "No! Jesus, we've only been gone for like three days, it's not like he's a completely different person!" No way she’s gonna tell anyone what happened the night before, at least not until she’s more sure of what is exactly happening between them.
But Bernadette is humming, "Penny, the man you've been telling me about sounds nothing like the guy that lives across from you. Playing poker? The kissing? And sitting you in his lap? Two separate times? He literally pushed Raj off the couch for sitting too close to his cushion last week. And spent a full hour explaining to Leonard how a claw machine was just as much a gamble as a slot machine the same day. Clearly something's different with you."
She grumbles in disbelief and runs her hand under the shower, yanking it back when she feels that the water is definitely hot now. "Okay, I have to go jump in the shower and get ready for New Years in Vegas so I'll talk to you later?"
Bernadette laughs lightly at the abrupt change in topic and echoes Mina's sentiment from earlier, "don't overthink it. There's something real there now, even if it started off fake. Sheldon's not a very good liar, do you think he would be acting like this if there wasn't a little bit of truth to it? Bye Penn, love ya!"
She's replying in kind and hanging up the phone before stripping out of her clothes and stepping under the spray of the shower. Damn. Of course Bernadette would leave her with a psychological question to mull over as soon as she's about to get in the one place most people are ever alone with their thoughts. She's right, though. Sheldon is a horrible liar. He has such obvious tells when he's uncomfortable, and she hasn't seen any of them really, at least not directly at her. His face had been really twitchy that day in the fitting rooms, and again but to a lesser extent when she'd left him with the guys today. But any time they'd been alone together and while they were learning to act like a couple he hadn't been uncomfortable at all.
Actually, he seems to emote more when it's just the two of them, to the point where she'd literally had to ask him once while the others were distracted during a game night if she'd done something to piss him off because of how stone-faced he was being. He just shook his head and assured her that "this is just my face," and when she greeted him the next morning for their run with a smile and he returned it, she felt a lot better. And last night, there's no way he could have lied to her about something like that. He'd looked embarrassed, like he hadn't actually meant to say half of the things he did, and she thought it was so f*cking cute. She really wants to date him, and her mind starts to wander as she imagines what their lives would be like back in Pasadena. Not much would change, she thinks, because they spend almost all their time together anyways, and if they were dating she wouldn’t have to stop herself from kissing him or hugging him whenever he said something that made her laugh or did something that made her happy.
She mimes smacking herself on the forehead when she realizes she's been distracted from shaving her legs and.. other things in preparation for the skimpy outfit Mina and the other girls insisted she wear tonight after seeing it on her in the fitting rooms with thoughts of a potential life with Sheldon. She looks hot, she's not gonna lie, even just in her getting-ready dress, and one of Mina's friends works as a camgirl and gave her advice to keep her skin smooth, so she feels even better than she looks. She steps out of the shower just in time to hear the door to their suite opening, indicating Sheldon's return, and she's glad she brought her things in here instead of leaving them on the dresser. She spends a long time on her skincare. Seriously, she feels like the girl in one of the shows she and Sheldon had watched that woke up like three hours before school to do a bunch of pointless sh*t to her face to impress a guy. But she spends the time preparing herself mentally for a night that was sure to be full of social media worthy content and confusing feelings anyways, brushing out her hair and braiding it before opening the door.
Sheldon feels, for lack of better phrasing, really out of his depth. Not right now, since he's currently sat between Zack and... Eric? playing Smash, but in general. These people really needed to get some more memorable names, he just found it in himself to remember Zack’s. He's not really paying attention, years of muscle memory kicking in as he thinks about Penny and the situation they're in. As real as this whole thing had felt to him from the jump, something feels different today. He doesn’t really feel bad for rejecting her last night, he was telling the truth when he told her he didn't want to take advantage of her. But their subsequent confessions had him waking up this morning unable to stay away from her for long. He'd wanted to sit with her like that as soon as he saw the chair in their room, and her appreciation for his presence was clear from the kiss she'd given him in thanks afterwards. He really hadn't wanted to leave her earlier, he would have been content to walk around with her and watch her try on clothes all day, but he'd needed a little time to think about what exactly he wanted to accomplish before they made it back to Pasadena. He really wants to just bite the bullet and ask her out, but he and his mortal enemy "societal conventions" are duking it out in his head.
He knows Penny concerns herself with other's opinions, as much as she would rather not, and he had witnessed many a breakdown involving invasive news outlets badgering Penny over her freshly ended relationship, or anxious about being pictured with someone she takes home from the bar, and he's sure she wouldn't want to be caught like that with someone like him. She's popular now, brushing elbows with internet icons and low level celebrities, and a lot of them take quite the liking to the small blonde woman. She's had this dream of being a Hollywood star since she was a child, talks about it any time she's afforded an opportunity to seriously chase it, and she deserves someone who can help her do that. Not to say he isn't accomplished and well-known in his own right, and that he wouldn't enjoy having Penny, clever and funny, on his arm at those stupid scientific society events Gablehouser forces him to attend with a date, but it's just not the same. It'd make more sense for her to be with a director, or a screenwriter, or an actor, someone attractive who she wouldn't have to explain pop culture references and literally train to treat her like a normal person. He’s been going back and forth with it in his head, but their clear feelings for each other make his decision that he’s going to ask Penny out, to be his actual girlfriend, before they return to Pasadena. He wonders how things will be when they get back – there are a few places around LA that she’d begged Leonard to take her to, and he’s already thinking about tickets and reservations and shot lists for her videos. He’s already found more excuses to touch her in the last few days than he could in the years they’ve known each other, and if they’re dating he won’t need an excuse to hold her hand or hug her or fall asleep with her on the couch during a movie – he could just do it because he’s her boyfriend and he wants to. He's so distracted by the thought of a life with Penny that he doesn't even notice he's won the match until the guys sitting next to him shake his shoulders in excitement, and he laughs off his win on his way out of the room, on his way back upstairs to Penny, who should be getting out of the shower in the next 15 minutes or so.
