A/N: Every year, my friend Nerdforestgirl gathers the shamy shippers community to celebrate Fluff Crawlspace, aka Shamy anniversary. It's the fluffiest day of the year! I usually partecipate with a gifset, but this year I went with a ficlet instead. Enjoy! Happy 10th anniversary, Sheldon and Amy.

"Shelly, what are you doing here all alone? Thinking of a new science thing?"

Sheldon shakes his head. "I wish," he only admits. Mary sits next to him on the porch swing and takes him in her arms. She knows when his child is not okay.

He lets her hold him for a while, his mind still fighting to move away from his current thoughts. He eventually gives up.

"Mom, do you think I will be happy in college?"

This surprises Mary. Wasn't he the one who insisted so much to go? "You were so enthusiastic until now. I thought you wanted this more than anything."

"I do. I really do."

She sees his face. Who knows what's going on in his child's mind right now? She strokes his hair, "Then, what's worrin' you?"

"No one really liked me at school," Sheldon admits, "Only Tam and Mrs. Hutchins stands me."

"I am sure you'll make some friends in college too. And there's always professor Sturgis. He is your friend, isn't it?"

"He is."

Still, he had offended him not long ago, and almost lost his friendship. It always ends up like that.

"Then what is it, Shelly?"

Sheldon hides in his mother's protective embrace a little longer. "I am the smartest person of any room I walk in." Mary raises an eyebrow, but he doesn't care, "One would think this makes me things so much easier. Instead, it seems I don't understand most of what happens around me. I make people upset, and I don't even know why."

The admission just blurts out, and he doesn't even realize it until he speaks. He should think of unifying the field theories, not silly things like this. And yet this makes him so sad…

"Am I just meant to be alone, Mom?"

"No!" Mary categorically replies, "Don't even say that!"

She detaches enough to have Sheldon face her. "Sheldon, I promise you. Out there, there is someone who is going to love you exactly the way you are."

"Why would they even do that?"

A soft smile shows on Mary's face. "You don't know? Sometimes it's the imperfect stuff that makes things perfect."

"Oh, here you are," Amy says as she finally spots her husband sitting deep in thoughts on the porch swing.

"I admit it, celebrating our anniversary here was a good call. That's really the right moment to have everyone spoiling me and not letting me do anything." By the feeling of a slight kick, her baby seems to agree from her belly.

"Mmm."

He really isn't listening, is he? "So, what are you thinking about?"

Sheldon realizes Amy is there. He smiles at her, "I remember things. The curse and the blessing of an eidetic memory."

"Is it a curse or a blessing today?"

He takes a long look at her, the sweet smirk and the loving eyes and her growing belly. He really thought to have won everything with that Nobel, how silly. "A blessing" he finally replies, taking her hand.

"I didn't know it ten years ago, when I met you," he recalls, "And sadly, I yet had to learn it five years ago, when we broke up. I connected the dots at our wedding, sure, but I realized how my mom was right the whole time only now. Life is funny, huh?"

He raises her hand to kiss it. She enjoys it, even if she doesn't have the slightest idea what on earth he is referring to. He gets it and tries to explain it.

"Just about 29 years ago, I was on this very spot reflecting on my recent graduation from high school. I was afraid." It is so much easier to admit it today.

"I was preparing to go to college soon, and I didn't know what to expect. I knew I wasn't like anyone around me, in a way that didn't only mean being the smartest person in the room. More often, this just means I had more difficulties than the others navigating through life."

She knows what he is about to say. She knows it firsthand, unfortunately. Now, this is not easy to admit today. "Above all, it meant I hurt the people who loved me, and I didn't even realize it. I wondered how there could be someone out there willing to love me. Tolerate me, at least."

He feels Amy squeezing his hand. When he turns back to her, she just smiles and leans toward him to place a gentle kiss on his cheek.

"You know... Sometimes it's the imperfect stuff that makes things perfect."

He gapes at her. How… Oh, why he even wonders about it. Of course she knows. She always does.

He rests his head on her shoulder, and Amy leans on him. He breathes in the warm air of a lovely May afternoon in Texas, and the scent of Amy - peaches, dandruff shampoo, home.