*waves* If anyone who watches this (yes, all three of you) has been missing my posts, this probably isn't going to make you happy. I've been into BBT for a few months now, but the opportunity only recently presented itself for me to actually involve myself in the fandom.
In response to Sheldon's comment in a recent episode that Penny had made him watch
The Lake House, I give you...
Title: Saturday is Movie Night
Characters: main cast, with focus on Sheldon and Penny
Notes: This is essentially a flashfic, written in half an hour or so. I'm not sure, not having risked rereading, but there are probably issues in grammar, prose, even spelling.
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Sheldon was puzzled.
Today was Saturday, which meant Movie Night. And because it was the rare fifth Saturday of the month, the movie choice was up to a vote. As always, Sheldon had picked the best Star Trek movie, Rajesh had chosen an inferior movie in the same series, and Howard had brought something vaguely pornographic. Which meant, as usual, that they would end up arguing against each other's choice and eventually going with Leonard's choice. (Ah, consistency.)
The DVD Leonard had brought back from Blockbuster, though, was not Leonard's typical movie. Hence, a puzzled Sheldon.
Sheldon turned the box over several times, reading the summary and notes. He shook the box vigorously several times, until Leonard snatched it out of his hands and cradled it against his chest delicately. Really, Sheldon didn't see a need for it, as Blockbuster could hardly do anything about the damage he did to a rented DVD these days. He expressed as much, only for Leonard to reluctantly explain that it wasn't rented.
As it turned out, it was Penny's DVD, stuffed in an old Blockbuster's bag. "I kind of told Penny about our movie night, and she wanted to come over. She said her boyfriend had just broken up with her, so she was feeling kind of down...and she wanted to watch this." He shrugged, holding out The Lake House and looking at the cover. "It doesn't look so bad."
Sheldon stared at Leonard. It only took two seconds for Leonard to concede that okay, maybe it did look so bad--either a personal record for Sheldon, or Leonard had been lying through his teeth in the first place. He wasn't sure, but it was probably the second one.
As Leonard went on to insist that he couldn't say no to Penny in that state, Sheldon became more sure.
At that point, Rajesh and Howard walked in, so it was too late for them to get different movies. And Sheldon couldn't change his; he only opened his movie collection cabinet twice a month at most, and he'd already pulled out the original The Time Machine movie last week, and The Voyage Home a few minutes ago. He couldn't pick out a different one.
Sheldon crossed his arms and pouted for a moment. It was so unfair!
"What's with Sheldon?" Rajesh wondered, putting Wrath of Khan on a side table.
"Yeah, he looks more mad at you than usual, Leonard." Howard glanced at Leonard, pulling a DVD covered with so many censor bars that it was pretty much a black box out of his bag.
Sheldon snorted loudly, clearly ignoring the fact that they were talking about him. They ignored him back, and Leonard said, "Oh, don't mind him. He's just mad I picked The Lake House for my movie tonight."
"The Lake House," Howard repeated, dumbfounded. "Leonard, why would you pick that movie?"
Rajesh blinked at Leonard. "Yeah, you always go with one of the original Star Wars movies on fifth Saturdays. What gives?"
Before Leonard could answer, Penny walked through the open door, a bag of just-popped corn in one hand and a bottle of soda in the other. "Hey guys," she said chirpily, "ready to watch the movie?"
After a brief moment staring at Penny, Howard turned around and 'subtly' gave Leonard a thumbs up. "I'd love to see it, Penny," he said loudly.
Penny gave Howard a long, unimpressed look, and smiled as she turned away from him. "Well, that's three for it. Raj?" Rajesh stared blankly at Penny, then nodded a bit shakily. He squeaked something possible outside the range of normal human hearing, and found a seat as far from Penny as he could get. Her smile faded slightly, then brightened as she turned to the last of the bunch. "Sheldon?"
He snorted again, and turned towards her. "Penny, what could you possibly do to make me want to watch that movie?" She frowned, and he cut her off before she could speak. "I'll tell you what--nothing. I refuse to watch such a...horrible excuse for a Movie Night movie." And with that, he plopped onto his seat, crossed his arms, and returned to sulking.
Penny stared at him for a very, very, very long moment, during which Leonard quietly moved the DVDs (and himself) out of range of the fight that was brewing. Howard was already behind Rajesh's chair, just barely peeking over the top of it to watch the oncoming storm.
Just when Sheldon was sure that he'd won, and Penny would give in and let them watch something more reasonable (at this point, he'd almost consider Wrath of Khan), she said the one sentence that would have an effect on him.
"It's got time travel in it."
The entire time he was watching the movie, Sheldon criticized the so-called time travel ("What is that thing, a TARDIS mailbox?"). He spent half an hour afterwords telling Penny how impossible the ending temporal paradox was ("Even accepting the idea of parallel universes as fact, the living Alex wouldn't be in the same timeline as the Kate that knew he had died!").
Penny couldn't stop smiling, listening to him ramble on about all the stupid little details.
She had thought he would like it.
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