Title: "A Viable Pursuit"
Author: renisanz
Summary: Sheldon and Penny discuss their perceptions character relationships in Star Trek.
Category: Romance, Sheldon/Penny
Rating: PG
Word count: 814
Warning/Spoilers: Slight spoilers for Star Trek.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.
Notes: Prompted by patronuscharms, I wrote this for my drabble meme, but it got quite long. I've NEVER written Sheldon/Penny, so, if this is rife with errors, self indulgent and slightly OOC, sorry. Of course, feedback is welcome.

. . . . . . . . . .

"So...Spock and Uhura, huh?" Penny teased. Penny walked beside Sheldon as she exited the theater, having run back inside to retrieve her forgotten sweater. She was surprised to see Sheldon had stayed behind to wait for her to come out. She was always surprised when his gentlemanly ways were put on display. And then of course, he would ruin it by opening his hole.

Sheldon didn't take the bait like Penny expected. She couldn't believe she was admitting this, but, it was Sheldon, and the theater was full of mostly his kind anyway, so she began, "I don't remember them having a thing on the old series..."

Sheldon turned to her then.

"I thought she had a thing with Kirk, right?"

"This thing, to which you refer, was brought on by an alien influence on their respective characters. It's also noteworthy that—"

"Yeah," Penny cut him off before he went on a one of his rants, "I just remember it being a big deal 'cause like, it was a white guy kissing a black woman back then, like the 60s." Yeah. That's why she remembered it. It was historical and related to pop culture, which made knowing that fact relevant and not at all geeky.

"That...well, that's right." Sheldon said sounding surprised by her knowledge.

Penny couldn't help but smile.

She wondered what Sheldon thought of the reinvention of the character who was, like, a god to him. She thought the Sylar dude did a good job as Spock (and he was actually kind of hot), and it was cool seeing him and Leonard Nimoy doing scenes together. She wondered if Sheldon was thinking about the DNA she had unwittingly given him.

She glanced over at him to find him staring at her, didn't expect it.

"Penny, I must say, that while at first I was skeptical at your claim to be Uhura because of your obvious lack of physical resemblance to the actress or character..."

Oh, here we go, Penny rolled her eyes.

"...your appearance in the outfit is not...unpleasurable to look upon."

Wait, did Dr. Sheldon Cooper, Ph.D. just compliment her? "Oh, sweetie, you think I'm hot?"

"I think the statement stands on its own," Sheldon replied, but his mouth quirked, and...did his eyebrow just cock a little. It totally did.

"Well, it looks like even someone as logical as Spock isn't completely immune to emotion. I guess even Vulcans need lovin'. I hope that didn't crush your world view or anything, Sheldon."

Sheldon was silent for a long moment, and after a while Penny thought the conversation was done. Then he said, "It's a fascinating postulate that while Spock displays great control over his emotions, he, and even his father, as suggested in his reasoning for marrying his mother, he did allow said emotions to drive him to completing his mission."

"Uh huh," Penny mumbled, nodding as she processed all the words. "Maybe incorporating some of that into your prime directive wouldn't hurt every once in a while." Like when he said she was hot in his backwards, Sheldon way, Penny mused.

"And of what possible benefit could that be to me?" Sheldon asked, an emphasis in his tone that told her he really wanted to know, that it wasn't necessarily a rhetorical question.

"You could save the world, duh," she said.

"And, of course, get some lovin', maybe," Penny glanced at him while she said the last bit. She wasn't offering or anything, just ya know, putting it out there, because a lot of time she really wanted to see how he would respond.

"I would need evidence that such a thing would be a viable pursuit," Sheldon stated.

Penny slowed her walk and turned to look at him fully. She would take his bait. "What kind of evidence?" she looking up into his grey-blue eyes, wondering if there was some geeky-drugged air she was breathing that was making her think that his eyes were kind of nice, especially accentuated by the pointy eyebrow makeup.

Then his hand was lightly resting against her hip, and Penny nearly jumped out of her skin. What the—

Oh.

Wow. Ok, uhm...Penny looked around, and people were walking by, and she told herself the curious looks were because they were a couple in costume. The longer she stood there with Sheldon looking at her, but not, she felt her heart rate kept at its hurried pace, and her face was growing warm. She leaned up on her tip toes, bracing her hand against his chest for balance. He tensed a little under her touch, but he didn't jump away so she pressed a kiss to his lips.

She tipped her heels back down, moving to break the kiss, and his head followed her down keeping the contact for a second more before she tilted her chin down and away. Whoah.

"A viable pursuit, indeed," Sheldon breathed against her reddened cheek.

. . . . . . . . . .

Finis.