Disclaimer: I don't own The Big Bang Theory or the characters. Idea was taken from the many Tumblr posts I see.

'I'm pretending to be your friend because you look very uncomfortable with that person at the bar hitting on you.'

"Hey girl, what are you doing here?! I thought you were working!" Penny hears out of nowhere. She looks around, finally finding who said it. It was a small man, with black-framed glasses and a sweatshirt.

Penny stared at him, realizing what the guy was trying to do.

"Yeah, that was yesterday. Today's my day off."

"Well, since you're here, want to get a drink?"

Suddenly, a guy pushes her new acquaintance.

"Hey, I'm buying her drinks!" The guy that was hitting on her yelled. She immediately felt bad for the guy that was trying to help her, since he was on the floor.

With fear crippling in her mind from images of old friends of hers who got hurt on a night out, she decides to help the guy out.

"Actually I would prefer to go out with him. He's an old friend."

The big guy stares at her in disbelief. "You prefer him over me?" He was muscular and dumb, apparently the type of guy she attracted.

"Yes. I do."

"Do you even know him? What's his name?"

Penny freezes for a second. She sees the guy that tried to help her mouthing something, probably his name, but she couldn't understand it. Since she was a wannabe actress, she created a name.

"Of course I do. It's Michael."

The big guy looks at 'Michael'. "Is that your name?"

"Yes, it is." 'Michael' says, lying.

The big guy leaves and Penny helps 'Michael' up.

"Thank you. For helping."

"You're welcome. I'm just waiting for him to go so I can go away myself."

"Why? Have somewhere to be?" Penny asks. She wanted to know more about this man. He just pretty much saved an unknown person's life. For all she knew, the big guy could have hurt her badly like it had happened to some friends of hers.

"Not really. I just thought that maybe you would want to be alone." 'Michael' says. He honestly wanted to be with that girl to make sure no one else would do like the other guy did. She clearly wanted to be left alone but the guy wanted her. She was evidently uncomfortable with the guy's attitude and he thought he should step in. It wasn't his comfort zone, he was more of a 'let's run away from confrontation and danger' and less 'let's run towards confrontation and danger'. But he wanted to be like a superhero and save at least her night.

"Well, can I at least know your real name?"

"Leonard. Dr. Leonard Hofstadter."

"Doctor? What's your specialty?" She knew about doctors from Grey's Anatomy so she was kind of hoping he wouldn't start talking about his work and asking her questions. It would be like finding out you have a surprise test and immediately knowing you're going to fail because you didn't study.

"I'm not that kind of doctor. I have a PhD in experimental physics."

"Ow! That seems complicated. Are you some kind of genius?" Penny asked, surprised.

"You can say that." Leonard said, smiling. For the first time ever someone was actually interested in hearing him talk.

"So, what does being an experimental physicist mean? What do you do?"

"It would bore you to death. Honestly, it would." Leonard said, smiling. He thought he was saying the truth, no pretty girl like her would want to talk about his work.

"Are you sure?"

"Well, maybe I am. Look I'll tell you the least boring. It's actually fun to work with. I work with lasers, sometimes."

"Lasers? Amazing! The most exciting part of my job is when someone drops a plate." She said, looking a little bored just by thinking about it.

"Really? What do you do?"

"I'm a waitress in the Cheesecake Factory. Comparing to you, not as good."

"I never saw you there."

"You go there?" Penny asked. She always thought that people with PhD's would probably have a maid in their house that made them food every day, making it pointless to go out and eat at the Cheesecake Factory.

"Yes. Every Tuesday Night due to my crazy roommate's crazy schedule. And no, he is not crazy. His mother had him tested. Should have tested him twice." Leonard said, the last sentence a little quitter and between the teeth, making sure Penny heard him but not as loud as to no one else heard.

Penny laughed at his comment.

"You have a roommate?"

"Yes. Dr. Sheldon Cooper. He has a PhD, like me, but his is in Theoretical Physics. He is way smarter than me and he has an eidetic memory. That means he remembers everything that he ever experienced. He has an IQ of 187."

"187? That's, like, a lot, right?" Leonard nodded. "What's your IQ?"

"173."

"WHAT? That much? You are a genius. I'm talking to a genius. My parents were wrong to think that LA was full of dumb people."

Leonard laughs.

"Well, there are a lot of dumb people in LA. But there are also people that have a high IQ. Usually those have low EQ."

"What's 'EQ'?" Penny asks, interested.

"Emotional Quotient. It's basically IQ but as in terms of social skills. I have a low EQ, but I'm working on it."

"Well, you are getting better. Think about what you just did!" Penny says, pointing to the door, reminding him of throwing a guy away.

"Don't remind me." Leonard begged.

"Why not? That was amazing. Not a lot of people would do it."

Leonard blushed and smiled.

"Thanks. Hey, we have been talking for so long, I still don't know your name."

"I'm Penny."

"Hi Penny. You know, that was amazing what you did there. You almost guessed my name."

"That? That was all improve. I want to be an actress that was why I'm here in California. I came from Nebraska. But, hold on, didn't you say your name was Leonard? I said Michael." Penny asked, confused.

"I know. My brother's name is Michael. Almost there."

Penny laughed.

They spoke for a while and then decided to exchange phone numbers so that they could keep in touch.

The next day, as Leonard was walking the stairs to his apartment with his crazy roommate, he thought he saw Penny in the apartment across the hall from his. He wasn't wrong.

And that night, was just the beginning of a love story. Leonard and Penny's love story.

The End

Hope you all liked it, it was on my mind for a long time but I never came around to actually write it. And I am finally posting it today, of all days.

(Today's my birthday😊)

03-07-2018