I Want to Grow Old with You

By: muaaimoi

xXx

She hadn't meant it.

It doesn't even bother Penny until she has to cough up ten more bucks for the bum to get rid of the chair. Then she's left home alone, Amy having gone to get her shots, twenty bucks poorer than when she had started, and feeling remarkably stupid. It's not exactly a new feeling.

But sitting exactly where she'd sat before Sheldon had freaked out about the chair, and reliving the moment…It bothers her.

Penny hadn't been very close to her maternal Grandparents growing up. All she really remembers is the way they fought all the time. Her father had hated it. He said it was an awful example of what married life could be like. Penny's mother would just shake her head, sigh, and say " Bob if they haven't killed each other in fifty years they aren't going to chose tonight to do it. " But she had given up eventually. She knew her mother still spoke to her parents on the phone. But they had stopped spending time together, the way family should.

As always, her mother had given in.

Penny had always hated that. Because even among the memories of countless arguments, many of them run through like a script, there had been other moments Penny remembered too. Few and far in between, but much clearer than any argument.

Like the one time her grandfather had fallen asleep at the chair. Her grandmother had sat right beside him with a huff, and Penny had watched in confusion as her grandmother twined their fingers together. Mumbling , all the while, about forgetful old fools. It hadn't been long until she had fallen asleep too. It had been surprisingly cute. Watching the way they leaned into each other, even asleep. Still in love, fifty years later.

It was certainly a better example of marriage than Penny's own parents. With the way her father went about making all the big decisions, and the way her mother just didn't argue. She just let him set their course. She had promised herself she would never be like her mother.

It hadn't even occurred to her that she could have ended up like her grandmother instead.

With the way she and Sheldon argued. The biting comments and weird sync they could always find with each other.

That comfort she never felt with anyone else…

It never mattered to Sheldon what she looked like, how much skin she was showing, or how messy her hair was. He'd made his peace with the lack of cleanliness in her apartment years ago. Hell, he'd made his peace with everything about her that bothered him, period. It didn't mean he was quiet about it. But he wouldn't be Sheldon if he didn't complain, so she dealt with that as best she could. Which was by complaining right back.

At the end of the day, to him, she was just Penny. And she liked that.

Life with Sheldon wouldn't have been hard. Frustrating and wracked with arguments, maybe, but not hard.

And maybe they had reminded her of an old married couple for a moment. Just not her grandparents.

So she hadn't meant it.

She hadn't.

xXx

Sheldon allows himself to smirk in the safety of his room.

He wondered at how easily his so called friends forgot about his Vulcan hearing. Admittedly, he didn't often bring it to their attention, but it was hardly a secret. He was awful at keeping those.

But he supposed he could leave Penny in peace about the foul garbage chair. It was gone after all. And the years of being Penny's neighbor had taught him that some victories where best celebrated and gloated over in private.

For all of her disorganized tendencies, Penny wasn't actually a slob. So he knew the living room would be disinfected in the near future. Not to his standards granted, but Penny wasn't someone he expected exceptional cleanliness from regardless. Perhaps he might sneak in and do a better job.

Leonard was probably too busy with Priya to notice this time.

He was rather enjoying their long distance relationship. Leonard got to satisfy his need for emotional intimacy, and aside from having to leave the apartment at times, Sheldon didn't see a down side. He found he liked Priya a lot more when she wasn't around.

Though, Penny had been acting rather strange lately. Their relationship was as it always was. With Penny attempting to bring chaos into his life and his doing the best to resist it. But that was about the only relationship that had lasted exactly as it was over the years.

Leonard was only his best friend by default now. Amy would have been his preferred choice, but she was female. That meant, for some emotional reason that escaped him, that she wanted to be his girlfriend instead. He'd allowed it, if only not to lose her. People who understood him and were worth a sustained acquaintance were very rare. He hadn't even realized how much he wanted her in his life until she'd almost left him.

And no amount of Cats had been able to replace her. He didn't understand why he'd gone for something Leonard seemed sure would work. At least Sheldon had assumed he was confident about how well a cat could replace women in his life. It had always been his coping mechanism of choice. Well that and sad songs. Perhaps one had to listen to a ridiculous amount of My Chemical Romance to enable the technique to work?

Sheldon didn't know. He had never felt inclined to. And Amy was in his life once again, which meant that he'd just spent valuable seconds of his life on a pointless train of thought.

Leonard was a terrible influence on him.

Just that morning he'd caught himself picturing Penny and himself as an older couple. Like his Pop and Meemaw had been, before colon cancer had claimed his grandfather. They had always been teasing each other back and forth. Sometimes his grandfather would hide Meemaw's things, just to get a rise out of her. It had been his grandfather who had taught him all about practical jokes.

Sheldon had pranked Missy mercilessly around the anniversary of his Pop's death. It was the only way his Meemaw would crack a smile.

And if he could picture himself, sitting in his spot with Penny beside him, a few years down the line, watching star trek, well… it didn't matter.

He was dating Amy after all, and she should be the one who he pictured himself beside.

XXX

Ok .So I know I should be working on my other stories…but this one was begging to be finished. What do you guys think? Should I try to stretch this into a three shot? Or leave it as a one shot and resume my labor on my current multy chapter stories?