The following Monday, Penny bounced up the stairs with a bag of leftover pastries from the Cheesecake Factory. She'd meant to freeze them for later, but then decided—why not share?
She was getting… comfortable here.
Which was terrifying, but in a nicely terrifying way.
She knocked once on 4A out of habit and then walked in, already calling, "Hey boys—brought snacks!"
She got three startled faces in return.
And one Sheldon Cooper, frozen mid-outburst.
"LEONARD," he snapped, pointing sharply at the armchair. "We agreed—you signed the document—you cannot sit in that chair!"
Leonard, caught red-handed with a book open on his lap, winced.
"Oh come on, Sheldon. It's one chair. It's not even your spot."
"It's in the neutral zone of the living room!" Sheldon said. "If you sit there unapproved, it throws off the entire room's gravitational symmetry."
Penny paused in the doorway, muffins in hand.
'Ohhh.' The "Leonard's Chair" fight episode.
This one tended to end with someone in tears or someone storming off.
Not today.
Without even thinking, Penny marched across the room, plucked Leonard's book out of his hands, and planted herself in the chair.
She crossed her legs, leaned back, and took a chocolate croissant from the bag and took a slow, deliberate bite.
Both men stared at her.
Raj whispered something in Hindi that sounded suspiciously like 'she is a goddess of chaos.'
Sheldon blinked hard, recalibrating.
"Penny. That is Leonard's designated chair. He earned it through seniority and the settlement of the Great Sitting Dispute of 2008."
Penny held up a finger. "Couple things. One: Leonard wasn't using it respectfully, he was using it to instigate a fight."
Leonard sputtered. "I was not!"
"You absolutely were," she said. "And two: if you're gonna label a chair as neutral territory, maybe don't have a silent turf war every time one of you sits there."
Howard snorted.
Raj nodded emphatically.
Sheldon pointed at her. "You're… you're disrupting the social contract."
Penny took another bite of the croissant, chewing carefully before, "Yup. And look—no one's dying."
Sheldon's mouth opened. Closed.
Opened again.
His eyes narrowed at her with a kind of analytical fascination.
Then, to everyone's shock, he said:
"…That is a valid point."
Leonard's jaw hit the floor.
Howard whispered, "Holy crap."
Raj, eyes wide, whispered back, "She unlocked a cheat code."
Penny fought a laugh. "Sheldon, sweetie, you spend so much time worrying about the rules that you forget rooms are for living in. Not for staging Cold War reenactments."
Sheldon tilted his head, studying her the way he'd studied her sketches—deeply, intently, with too much precision.
"I find your behavior pattern… highly irregular," he said.
"Thanks?" Penny said.
"Not an insult," Sheldon added quickly. "Merely an observation. You seem to detect social tensions before they manifest. You intervene. Then the tension dissipates with surprising efficiency."
Penny blinked.
Oh. Oh no. He was noticing things he was not supposed to notice.
"Just intuition, I guess," she said lightly.
But Sheldon wasn't letting it go.
"I hypothesize that you possess an enhanced form of interpersonal perception. Possibly the result of a unique neurological configuration."
Howard mouthed, 'is he flirting?' in horror.
He wasn't.
Probably.
Maybe.
But he was merely...interested.
The good kind.
The kind Penny that made her very nervous.
So she shot Leonard a look. "Dude, I'm holding your chair hostage unless one of you eats a pastry." She held out the paper bag to the boys.
Leonard grabbed one instantly.
Howard and Raj followed.
Sheldon hesitated.
Penny held the bag out to him with a soft smile.
He took a muffin.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Like she was handing him something fragile.
---
The evening drifted on with surprisingly little chaos.
Penny perched sideways in the "neutral" chair, feet pulled up, laughing as the boys argued about a documentary that didn't need arguing about.
Leonard explained the physics joke she already understood but pretended not to.
Howard bragged about his Mars Rover joystick design.
Raj told her about his sister and his dog in two different accents, after mentioned casually an awkward arranged first date that went from awkward to embarrassing when discovered he could only talk to said date when affected by alcohol (hence the beer in his hand as he talked to Penny).
Sheldon corrected everyone.
Everything felt warm, uncomplicated in a way she hadn't expected.
She liked them.
For real.
Not because she knew their story.
Not because she knew how the canon played out.
Because they were… good.
Good people.
Good friends.
Good heartbeats in the shared air.
She felt her chest go soft at the realization.
God help her.
She was becoming part of the group.
---
Later that night, as she shut off her bedside lamp, the familiar flicker of blue appeared in her peripheral vision.
[Affinity Level: +2]
Group Bond: Strengthening
Soul Link: Dormant]
Penny frowned.
"Dormant is good," she whispered to herself. "Dormant means I'm not cheating."
But her heart was still too full as she slid under the covers.
She liked them.
And that scared her a little.
But not enough to stop.