experiments tainted by valium ⋆·˚ ༘ *
gender: not specified
pairing: sheldon cooper x reader
word count: 1739 (short n’ sweet)
notes: i haven’t published anything i’ve written in a while and i’ve been a bit stuck with my other projects so i thought i’d mix it up! it’s pretty obvious but this is set in s2e1 when sheldon comes home after howard gives him valium lmao. i really just wrote this for me tbh so if you read this i hope you enjoy xx <3
just thinking about how happy sheldon is when he sees you standing in the door of his apartment, having already forgotten howard’s existence as his eyes meet yours. he stumbles into the apartment, letting out a drawn out and high-pitched “hey!”
they -his eyes- look a little clouded over to you, and you raise a brow incredulously at your jewish friend who’s standing next to him, while simultaneously trying to get your very tall friend to stand up straight on his own. “there she is! my ole’ neighbor turned temporary roommate,” sheldon continues while stumbling past you, taking small steps through the room, looking around a little bewildered.
glaring sleepily, your eyes in two slits, you cross your arms at howard. “what did you do?” you asked a little confused as to why sheldon got dumped back here when he was the one who wanted to move out in the first place.
sighing while keeping his eyes on sheldon howard began to explain, “koothrappali dumped him on me and he couldn’t get to sleep, so i gave him a glass of warm milk with a handful of my mom’s valium in it.” he said as if this happened standardly.
now both of your eyebrows were up at your hairline and you looked at howard with wide eyes, leaned forward a little. “and he still wouldn’t shut up, so— tag, you’re it!” he finishes by unceremoniously dropping sheldon’s bag onto the floor and immediately making his way down the stairs.
you looked after him for a second before looking back towards the beanstalk of a man now leaning on his desk with a hand propped up onto his hip. “i’m back” he sing-song’ed happily, letting a rare smile peek through in his drugged state.
you close the door with a sigh and start walking towards the living room in tandem with sheldon. “not like i even knew why you left in the first place” you reply dryly, but as per usual he doesn’t pick up on it and just lowers himself onto the chair’s armrest. “i can’t tell you” he replies, piquing your interest.
now the gears in your head started turning, maybe still a little groggily since you’d just gotten woken up by your drugged neighbor and annoyed friend, but they were moving. you needed to know what made him leave, you knew he hated change so it was either something really serious or something really stupid. your undergrad in psychology should probably help you get to the core of it.
you take a seat opposite him on the living room’s coffee table and look up at him, “why not?” you inquired softly, “i promised penny,” he breathed out, breaking eye contact and letting his head fall back a bit.
“you promised penny what?” you could feel yourself getting closer, subconsciously leaning forward a bit so you could hear anything coming out of his mouth, since he didn’t have a very right grasp on what would and wouldn’t.
“i wouldn’t tell you the secret.” he mumbled, but you heard it nonetheless. he let himself fall back into the chair and you would’ve laughed if you weren’t currently on a personal mission to find out what penny was telling sheldon behind your back. “shh!” he interjected the silence with a finger on his lips, looking at you with wide-blown eyes.
you stood up and took a seat on the brown chair next to his now and tried keeping his attention on you while you moved, batting your eyes at him sickly sweet while he moved to sit upright, you placed your hand on his chair’s armrest. “what secret, shelly?”
he turned now to look at you seriously, a pout on his face that made something in the back of your mind scream adorable but which you pushed away leveling his stare with one of your own.
you hoped the use of his nickname would make him trust you more and tell him the secret, but apparently it worked a bit too well and you skipped straight towards the family secrets instead. “mom smokes in the car,” he pauses and you give him a confounded look, brows furrowed. “jesus is okay with it but we can’t tell dad.” he shakes his head at the last part, making you heave a sigh and drop your head in your hands.
you wouldn’t give up yet, however. “not that one dear, the other secret.” you tried getting him back on track but this just resulted in him lowering his voice an octave and whisper-yelling “i’m batman!” while shushing your ‘no’s afterward once more.
“sheldon come on! work with me here.” you moved your chair closer to his and looked him straight in the eye. “you said that penny told you a secret, will you tell me it shelley?” you begged, putting on your best puppy dog eyes with scrunched eyebrows combo and started smiling when he threw his head back with a sigh. “alright i’ll tell you,” he replied, making you celebrate silently with yourself, “but you can’t tell leonard.” you nodded happily along with him.
“my lips are sealed” you smiled out, sitting up a bit straighter, ready for the secret that made sheldon want to move out. “penny lied about finishing community college, because she’s afraid she’s not smart enough for leonard.” he finishes by looking at his hand and moving it around in his field of vision.
you kept looking at him, a little disappointed that was all. “and.. that’s it?” you asked, and he looked back at you, leaving his hand alone again. “i drank milk that tasted funny,” he said, making you come back to your senses and give him an apologetic smile.
“d’you need me to help you get to bed?” you offered, making him scrunch his eyebrows at you in distaste. “don’t be silly, i want to stay up with you.” he stated, catching you by surprise.
you knew sheldon didn’t dislike you, he said hi to you at work, he let you eat dinner at his house, hell- he even let you stay there right now while the apartment manager was fixing your broken window. but evading his rigorous sleep schedule? that made you stop in your tracks a bit. “wha- uh- why?” you tried to speak, sputtering out a response to keep him awake.
he let his head fall back again, his eyes closed and a smile took over his face — it was honestly a bit freaky, but mostly just endearing. “you are very endearing when you’re half asleep” he mumbles out, letting his words linger in the air a bit. your eyes are blown wide and you try to find a response, but you only manage to open and close your mouth like a fish on dry land.
his eyes open and he lets his head loll to the side, looking at you with a dopey expression on his face, “and you called me shelley,” he said. you’d never heard his voice so soft, so without ridicule, it was weird and it made your insides warm. “usually no one can call me that.” he continued, your face slowly heating up in what you assumed was embarrassment.
“but you’re inexplicable y/n.” he sits up a little straighter now, eyes still a little glazed over but determined nonetheless. “anyone else calls me shelley, i don’t like it, but when you do, i do. when someone else needs a place to stay i don’t want them here, but when you do, i do.” he explains softly, trying to reason with himself.
you know you shouldn’t listen to him right now, it’s late and you’re both tired — and more importantly he’s on drugs, but you can’t help but want to grab this moment with him, scared there won’t be any more chances to shoot your shot with the stoic man.
“sheldon?” you ask, but he shakes his head in that disappointed way you’re so used to and corrects you.“shelley.” he interjects matter of factly, and you continue. “alright- shelley, can i preform an experiment?” you ask, shifting a little closer towards him again. he thinks on it for a second before snickering like a kid and and smiling your way. “i love experiments!” he cheered.
“alright” you begin, shifting a little in your seat. “take note of how you’re feeling right now- physically.” you instruct and he nods along. there’s a small pause before he motions with his hand for you to continue.“my data suggests,” you take a deep breath, this is it, “that this would make your heartbeat increase.” you state as he looks at you confused. “my heartbe-” he starts but is cut off by your lips on his, your eyes sewn tightly shut, not wanting to see his reaction just yet.
you stay like that for a moment, unmoving and a little rigid but feeling his soft lips on yours, then you move away, eyes still closed. a couple beats of silence pass before sheldon lets out a “woah” which makes you open one eye cautiously. his eyes are blown wide and his cheeks have a little bit of a blush spreading along their surface, his hand is placed over his heart and he looks at you wordlessly, mouth hanging open slightly.
both of you blink at each other and you swallow a little loudly. you clear your throat a little, “was my hypothesis correct, shelley?” you ask softly, your voice raw with emotion as the man before you just nods in shell-shock. “i believe so,” he stutters out meekly, hand still gripping his pajama shirt.
“well, then why don’t you ponder the implications this has on its field while i.. go..” you rasp out, trying to make this make sense to sheldon’s impossible brain, which seemed a success at his small nod and now finally closed mouth.
you stand up fast and make your way towards leonard’s room where your air mattress resided because even if sheldon wasn’t home people ‘aren’t supposed to be in his room’ and you closed the door softly behind you, leaving a star-struck physicist alone in his living room looking at the empty chair before him, trying to sort out feelings he’d never felt before.
he looked towards leonard’s door and back towards where you’d been sitting just moments before, his stomach fluttering as he thought back to his first kiss from just seconds ago.
“oh dear”
