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Today was Sheldon’s birthday, and at school, he’d given them all invitations to a party at his house. Of course, Jenny had been to several parties since she’d started going to school, but she suspected Sheldon’s would be a little different. Loud music and crowded rooms didn’t really seem like his thing.
At the end of the day, she headed to her locker to collect her present, only to find Sheldon waiting there, thankfully not inside this time. He looked happy to see her, as he always did. “Hi Jenny.” She could hear the adoration in his voice, the same adoration he’d held since they first met.
He was sweet really. She smiled at him. “Hey Sheldon, you got everything ready for the party?”
He snapped out of his lovestruck gaze with a gasp. “I still need to get the monsters ready!” With a quick “See you soon!” he rushed outside.
With a sigh of relief, Jenny removed the wrapped present from her locker. She didn’t want him to see it before the party started. That done, she headed off to find Brad, they needed to collect Tuck and grab some of Sheldon’s favourite sweets before they made their way over to fight whatever monsters Sheldon had in store for them.
Normally, of course, such a prospect would make her worried about letting any of the boys near such creatures, but a couple days ago Sheldon had invited her over and helped her make a character sheet for his game, along with a couple they thought Brad and Tuck would enjoy.
She found Brad outside the school, waiting for her, holding his own present. He grinned at her as he waved her over. “Hey Jenny! Got everything you need?”
She nodded, her wings extending from her back as her jet boosters emerged from her feet. “Yep! Ready to go get Tuck?”
Once he’d nodded, she picked him up under one arm and flew into the air, soaring through town until they set down outside Tuck’s elementary school. The younger child naturally came running up to meet them immediately, hugging Jenny’s leg, yelling. “JENNY THAT WAS SO COOL!”
Jenny chuckled, patting his head. As she did so, she noticed he was clutching a bag of sweets. Not just any sweets, Reese’s Cups – Sheldon’s favourite.
Brad had clearly spotted the sweets too, as he grinned down at his little brother. “Oh hey, good job bro! Where’d you get them?”
“I traded my apple for them!” Tuck proclaimed proudly.
“Well let’s go. I bet Sheldon’s gonna love his presents!” Jenny giggled, scooping her young friend up under her free arm and blasting off again, flying towards Sheldon’s house, a couple streets away from hers.
She touched down on the lawn, placed her friends next to her, and rang the bell. Sheldon answered almost immediately. Clearly, he’d been waiting for them. “You’re here! This is gonna be the best birthday ever!” He threw his arms up excitedly as he welcomed them.
“Happy birthday Sheldon!” Jenny was the first to step inside, handing over her present, followed by Brad placing his present on top, and Tuck tossing his bag of sweets on top of that. Sheldon was practically shaking with excitement as he led them into the living room, clearly happy to have friends to spend his birthday with.
There were none of the disco lights and punch bowls Jenny had seen in so many other parties. Instead, there was a table with various snacks, bottles of fizzy drinks, and a small chocolate cake, along with plenty of oil cans for Jenny. On the floor was a battle map comprised of squares, with several figurines and at least 10 bags of dice on it, along with a large screen with pictured of dragons on it to the side. Sheldon made a beeline for the seat with the screen, and the others sat around the board, with Tuck opposite him, and Brad and Jenny to either side. Jenny found herself blushing as Sheldon’s gaze lingered on her.
“Open mine first!” Tuck insisted.
Sheldon chuckled, holding up the clearly labelled bag of Reese’s cups. “Oh wow, I wonder what this is.” Then he opened it and popped one in his mouth, giving Tuck a happy thumbs up, before turning his attention to Brad’s present, starting to tear the wrapping off to reveal a dungeon master’s guide for a cyberpunk adventure. The cover art showing a badass robot fighting a creature that appeared to be made of magma. Sheldon stared at it with wide eyes, a big grin on his face. “This is… this is so cool Brad!”
Brad grinned at him. “Hey, when you ready, I’ll join your adventure. It looks cool.”
He looked so happy, and Jenny leaned forward, gently pushing her present closer. “You’ve still got one more to open.”
He blushed slightly, clearly embarrassed to have forgotten about hers, and started to unwrap her much neater present.
Inside was an action figure from the new robot anime, the main character, a tall robot that wielded chainsaws instead of hands and served as the butler to an inventor. Jenny wasn’t entirely clear on the details, but Sheldon loved the show. He looked amazed as he pulled the figure out. “Wow… I couldn’t even find this online…”
“I got it straight from Japan.” She told him proudly. “Back when I had to fight that giant lizard. Do you like it?”
“I love it, Jenny! Chainsaw Butler’s my second favourite robot!” He paused, then despite how obvious it was, he continued with a shy smile. “You’re my favourite.”
She smiled back at him. “You’re one of my favourite humans, Sheldon.”
He let out a delighted little gasp in response to that, making Brad chuckle. “Alright lovebirds. You wanted us to try this game, right?”
“Oh, right!” Sheldon handed over their character sheets. An elf sorcerer for Jenny, a half-elf bard for Brad, and a halfling barbarian for Tuck. Once everyone had looked over their characters, he began to narrate the start of their adventure. “You find yourselves in a strange town, with no memory of how you got there, but one feeling seems more important than anything else. You have to find a way home.”
The session began rather well, with the group teaming up to defeat a gang of goblins, and Sheldon was getting the hang of DMing. Up until Jenny proclaimed “I want to flirt with the innkeeper.”
Sheldon grinned. “Ok, what do you say?”
He was gazing at her again, and Jenny decided she had to make this good. So, she leaned forward, putting on her character’s voice. “Oh innkeeper, I have travelled all around the world but have yet to meet one so handsome as you.” She leant closer, smiling as Sheldon began to blush. “Perhaps if I had a room here you could join me for dinner.”
“Oh Jenny…. Um… h-he gives you the k-key t-t-to a room.” He stammered, seeming even more embarrassed at temporarily forgetting they were playing characters.
Now Jenny was expecting to get advantage on her charisma roll, she was not expecting to fluster him so badly he forgot to make her roll altogether. Brad chuckled and reached across the board to nudge her. “Looks like you got a nat 20 on Sheldon.”
She giggled, gazing at their blushing DM as he struggled to get his focus back to the campaign. “So I did, but he does give me advantage all the time.”
They played – and snacked – for a few more hours, getting out of the town and partway through the woods to confront the evil warlock, before Tuck started to yawn. Brad scooped his little brother up, letting him rest his head against his shoulder. “Well Sheldon, it’s been fun. But we should get going.”
Sheldon nodded. “You wanna come back tomorrow? We can continue the campaign.”
“Sure bro” Brad shot him a finger gun with his free hand.
As they headed out, Jenny turned to face Sheldon. “You know, I do have one more gift for you.”
He looked a little confused, and a little hopeful as he looked up at her. “You do?”
“For being such a sweet friend.” She leant in and kissed him. Sheldon’s eyes shot wide open in surprise, before closing as he kissed her back.
When she pulled away his face was red, and he was staring at her with a dreamy smile. “Oh wow… Jenny I… wow…”
Then he fainted, flopping forward against her. Jenny gasped, before carefully scooping him up, one hand under his knees as the other supported his back. She ignored Brad’s laugh as Sheldon snuggled up against her with a murmur, and instead began to carry him upstairs. After scanning the rooms, she entered the leftmost door.
Models of robots and other nerd stuff everywhere, several pictures of her on one of the shelves. Yep, this was definitely his room. She walked over to the bed and gently set Sheldon down on it, leaning down to kiss his cheek as she pulled his blanket over him. “Sweet dreams Sheldon.” She whispered to him.
She made a second trip to retrieve his presents and dungeons and dragons things from downstairs, setting them next to his bed for him. Upon returning downstairs, she found Tuck in a chair as Brad set about tidying up the food. Good… she knew his parents wouldn’t be home for at least a few more days. Once they were done, she picked the brothers up under her arms and began to fly them back through town.
“You know Jen… I’m not usually one for all this nerd stuff, but that dragon game was great.”
She smiled as they approached their houses. “It was, Sheldon has such a way with words…”
She couldn’t keep the blush off her face, and Brad chuckled. “When he’s not getting flustered over you, sure.”
They said goodbye and she watched as Brad carried his little brother into their house, before she headed into her own.
She was looking forward to seeing Sheldon again tomorrow. He was a sweet guy, it might be nice to go on a date with him sometime.