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He wasn't stalking her, not in the least, well not technically. But when some pretty girl - he thought she was pretty at least - held up civilized conversation with someone he deemed a friend - even if Sheldon didn't see it that way - Shawn decided it would be a good idea to keep a look out for said girl. So, whenever he was out doing whatever, like the errands today, he would keep an eye out for one Ellie Spectre.

He did this to everyone that talked to his neighbor, really. To see what made these people tick, that made Sheldon talk to them for more than five minutes that was not born out of necessity [like schoolwork or something] or even made Sheldon show more than one emotion. There was an interest in these people and unfortunately, Shawn was horrible at finding them. One would think that someone with a distinct hairstyle as her's would be easy to spot. Sure, Destiny City was large, but from what he had heard, Sheldon didn't seem to have any problems with finding the blonde.

Today seemed like another failed mission on his little mission of errands, some mostly for Sheldon who was still milking his injuries from the wrestling match. He forcefully pushed the cover of the little cargo carrier of his junkie looking bike closed, ready to grab his helmet and go... until he spotted it. That blonde hair coming from around the corner. She had a school bag in hand, and what looked like a shopping one at that - what it was, was anyone's guess since it was a nondescript brown bag - and her Meadowview School uniform on.

But it was her! It had to be! "Ellie!" Shawn grinned, straightening his dorky trucker hat as he called out to the girl.

This was two counts of awesome; first, it was in fact her! Finally, after months of keeping his eyes peeled. And second, she remembered him! "Yes!" He replied, a little too enthusiastically, "I mean. Yes, Shawn." The plump neighbor returned the curt head nod which looked a lot sleazier than her version. Like a really bad pick up line, which usually was all of Shawn's material.

"Not much, picking up a few things here and there." He would have tried to lean on his crappy little bike, but with his weight and its instability that was probably going to be a bad move. "Yeah, running some errands for me and Sheldon... 'cause he's cooped up in his apartment."

"What about yourself?" Shawn asked, his tone trying to sound smooth and collected .... but just came out dirty and wrong.

Oh crap! Shawn instantly put his hands up in defense, "No!" Well, "maybe.. kind of. It's reflex with girls, sorry!" He was sputtering out excused as best he could trying to clear his name, even if his intentions were clearly known from the way he acted.

"I'm done with my errands though," He shifted the subject elsewhere for the time being, trying to act as casual as he could without putting on his usual demeanor towards the opposite gender. "And hey, you look like someone who could use some nice down time." What was this leading to?

"You wanna come hang out?" There we go, what he always wanted to ask Sheldon's acquaintances. Ellie was at least spared an eyebrow wiggle or some other innuendo attached to his offer. "You could bug the s**t out of Sheldon, that's always good times."

"I do now!" Shawn returned the grin, no falter in his voice or mannerisms even with her little addition to her statement. This wasn't the first time he hit on someone underage, nowadays it was almost impossible to figure out how old girls really were - younger or older. He just knew this particular girl liked to express emotions with her fist.

"It's not too far, I just like taking my bike so I don't have to walk that far," it could also serve the purpose of a storage unit when he had to run all these errands. "We can take it or just walk there if you like." He didn't have an extra helmet though, well he could do the manly thing and give him hers... Either which option she was going to go with, Shawn moved past her to grip one of the handle bars and release the brake.

"Well, yeah..." Shawn shrugged as his sentence turned into just a collection of sounds and nonsense and a little mumble of 'well, excuse me' thrown in at the end. Someone was all high and mighty over the law of bikes.

But at least the decision was made, even though she was heading in the opposite direction, "other way!" Shawn called out to her as he steered his bike around and began to head down the street, keeping a slow pace so she could catch up.

--

What too far turned out to be was about half a mile, and not a really scenic route. The commercial streets dwindled down to residential areas, small houses and moderate sized apartment buildings that were surrounded by winter bound trees that littered the ground with their falling leaves.

Finally, the duo stopped at a six story apartment building. It wasn't ripped with luxury, but it was far from being the slums of any kind. Enough for Shawn to park his bike outside with the other bicycles that residents owned, and one scooter that might be familiar to Ellie. After unpacking his load, Shawn steered Ellie towards the lobby and up the elevator towards Sheldon's studio apartment - his as well, as he was only two doors down.

The apartment was small, able to fit three people down for hanging out, but small by most standards. The apartment was surprisingly clean for someone who was habitually lazy, the kitchen looking like new - really, he didn't use it often except the microwave and perhaps the oven from time to time. The only spots of clutter being clothes piled near the bed - he was a guy after all. The walls were actually lined mostly with bookcases filled with a few books and video games, but mostly board games. Loads of board games.

Shawn - and now Ellie - found Sheldon just as he left him in the small little apartment. On the couch, same spot, playing Call of Duty. The level was different and the little side table [where an interesting little snow globe rested] now had a cup of water next to the large can of Amp. "Dude, I found someone awesome!" Shawn announced, dropping Sheldon's share of groceries and take-out on another table closer to the inlet kitchen.

Sheldon paused his game and turned, a questioning confused look on his battered face on what his neighbor could possibly mean. There were flecks of healing scars that littered his face - where the glass had hit him - and a few welts - that would be the metal - and the fading echoes of a black eye - a bigger piece of metal. His left arm was visibly wrapped up, again, from wrist and probably past his shoulder but hide under his short sleeved geeky t-shirt. A little worse for wear, but with these days it was probably better off than most.

His eyes fell on Shawn first, still questioning until he looked more towards the door and spotted Ellie. Uh. "Hi, Ellie." The hell was she doing her?

Sheldon gave the chuckling girl a very long bored look, fingers still loosely wrapped around the xbox controller. "Oh, goodness!" He faked a gasp, even bringing his good hand to his cover his mouth, "I hadn't the faintest idea that my face looked like glass and metal had fallen on it. Heavens me!" Channeling Scarlet O'Hara? .... yup.

"No s**t, Sherlock," he added in with a grin in a vain attempt to regain a manly response. He spared a glance from the television and his couch companion to see where Shawn had gone - in the kitchen, laughing, and looking for something to drink. His chubby neighbor was still laughing as he popped open a soda and called to the blonde to see if she wanted anything to drink.

Sheldon turned back to the game, finger flicking the start button to resume his killing of pixeled peoples. "Vietnam, going after Nova-6." He replied, taking out a few of the enemy AI.

Sheldon managed to spare a quick non-intimidating glare Ellie's way as she laughed her way onto the arm of his humble little couch. Sure, he cracked a smile at her amusement, but he still felt the need to shoot her an unpleased response [it didn't help that there seemed to be an echo of laughter behind him, rummaging through his fridge].

"So, what brings you here, Ellie?" Sheldon asked her when she seemed to have calmed down; oblivious to the way she was sitting, of course. His eyes were now glued to the screen, shooting through enemy lines with his sniper rifle. "Or have you been kidnapped by Shawn for his nefarious plots?"

"Hey!" Shawn yelled, "I am not that bad!" And he had already gotten the mouthful from Ellie earlier, there was no way he'd try something with the blonde.

"Oh good," Sheldon cracked a smile towards Ellie's resistance to depravity ... or at least Shawn. "He can't seem to rangle those with a though process." His grin widened as his neighbor sat begrudgingly in the chair that sat adjacent to the couch - an uncomfortable chair at that.

Shawn made a grumbled sound as he slid the styrofoam boxed sandwich that he had gone out of his way to get, making a point to knock over Sheldon new favorite little trinket. "The point of bringing Ellie over was to poke fun at you, not me."

"Ha ~" Sheldon lamely replied with a glare, pausing his game to retrieve his sandwich and right the snowglobe. "You can also blame Shawn for my lovely facial remodel of the week.. or month, whatever." That and weed, but he'd skip mentioning weed this time around.

"You agreed to it." Shawn glared back, popping his own container open; his filled with Chinese food.

"Yeah," Sheldon began to rebuttal not bothering that his mouth was full of food, "because I was high." Okay, so the no mentioning the weed thing was out in a matter of two seconds, "from weed that you gave me." For what seemed to be a heated argument, Sheldon's tone was oddly mellow and even.

Shawn's, on the other hand, was raised and agitated. "It was an awesome idea and you know it!"

There was a pause, some more staring and silence between the two boys before it was broken up by a grunt from Shawn. He turned to stirring his chow mein a little too vigorously with his chop sticks as Sheldon turned his now indifferent expression back to Ellie; like he totally hadn't ignored and forgotten about her for a couple of minutes there.

"Clearly, you totally picked the more fun option." He nodded with a chuckle and took another bite of his sandwich.