A/N: For those of you following me for my Arrow/Olicity fics, I should warn you this fic is for The Big Bang Theory. My OTP had a pretty big episode, and my Shenny muse woke up.

For those of you who found this because of Shenny and The Intimacy Acceleration, welcome! This is my first Shenny fic, hope you like it!

Ever since their little experiment, she was uncomfortable laughing with everyone at Sheldon's expense. Now that she knew his perspective on things, she couldn't help glancing over at him when one of them made a joke about him, or complained about his behavior. She wasn't a saint; she still rolled her eyes at his quirks from time to time, but she was far more careful about her words. She found herself defending him against everyone, or changing the subject abruptly to shift the focus away from him. Or, if the gang persisted, she would speak directly to Sheldon, usually in a whisper, explaining whether they were joking or genuinely upset with him. Most of the time they were just being jerks. She never really noticed how often they mistreated him, or made him the butt of their jokes. But her eyes were open now.

It was a new trend that did not go unnoticed by Leonard. He caught her off guard by confronting her about it over dinner one night.

"Can I ask you something?" he asked, looking at her over his glasses with hesitance in his eyes.

"Sure," she replied, sparing only a brief glance before returning her attention to her lasagna.

He pushed up on his glasses before continuing. "You've been acting kind of weird lately."

She furrowed her brow and looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

He shrugged. "I don't know…kind of…like, a…a spoilsport."

The forkful of food that was on its way to her mouth froze in midair, and she put it back down on her plate. She shook her head and squinted at him. "What?"

He shrugged again, unable to accurately verbalize his thoughts. "I don't really know how to explain it, but it's like…when we're joking around, you just…suck out the funny."

She leveled an unimpressed glare at him. "Suck out the funny? What does that even mean?"

He shook his head and returned his attention to his soy cheese lasagna. "Never mind. I don't know how to explain it."

"No, please, try," she countered, her voice rising in volume as her hackles went up.

"Forget I said anything," he pleaded, retreating into himself in defense.

"Well, I can't. You can't just tell me I'm a spoilsport and that I 'suck out the funny' and then expect me to forget about it."

He threw his hand over his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "I'm sorry I brought it up."

She let out an exasperated sigh, and resumed eating her dinner. The tense silence between them simmered uncomfortably, and she seethed over his words. She thought about the last time they had joked around, and though she couldn't quite remember the context, she did remember it had something to do with Sheldon.

"Are you talking about when everyone was being an ass to Sheldon and I didn't laugh along?"

He looked up at her with a shocked expression. "How were we being the asses? Sheldon's the ass!"

"Sheldon is just being Sheldon, he isn't purposely trying to be an ass. Unlike you guys. And you know what," she threw her fork down a little too forcefully, "maybe I've just noticed how mean we are to each other, and maybe I'm sick of it."

Leonard stared at her as if she had grown another head. "But Sheldon is always mean, I don't see you yelling at him."

"Sheldon is not malicious," she retorted. "Sure, he's clueless and tactless, but he can't help it. You can help it, but you don't."

"You're not innocent in this either, you know," he said in retaliation. "Pot meet kettle."

She crossed her arms and sat back in her seat. "Yeah, well, I regret it. I had no idea how it affected him, but now I do, and I don't feel comfortable with it anymore."

Leonard sighed, and put on his most pathetic expression. "Fine, if I promise not to be an ass to Sheldon anymore, can we please drop it?"

She raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Can you actually pull it off?"

He reached across the table with his hand outstretched, palm up. "I'll try," he promised. "For you."

She could feel her heart thawing with his words and his damn puppy dog eyes, and she reached her hand out to meet his. "Good."