Penny had a lot of bad habits. She never made the bed, she made waffles on pancake day, insisted half the dvr menu belonged to her and she could save whatever insipid modeling show she wanted. Despite his efforts to help her organize her wardrobe, even going so far as to buy her panties with the name of each weekday printed on them, (she wore Monday's panties on Friday) she still insisted on dressing herself. She kept mixing references of Babylon 5 with Firefly, and proclaimed the women's uniforms on The Original Series Star Trek circa 1966 were 'cute'.

She wasn't all bad. After all she was one of the few females he was acquainted with who agreed to dress up for Comic-con, and as a comic book character, not a film-character per-se.

"Who are you going as again?"

"I am going as Loki, the younger adopted brother of Thor from this summer's cinema block-buster Thor."

"Does he have a chick?"

"What?"

"A girlfriend?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Well…can't you go as someone else? I want to dress up if everyone else is."

"Isn't your Star Trek uniform sufficient for "dressing up"?"

"No I want to be someone with you."

"What for?"

"Well I'm your wife aren't I?"

"I fail to see your logic in that. Is there a rule that we have to dress up only as husband and wife pairings at Comic-con? Are they limited to only currently married, or can one still be alive and the other dead. I suppose it all depends on what comic your on, or would it be popularity?" Penny frowned, confused now

"Look, isn't there a comic book superhero I could go as? Loki's that pale skinny guy in green right?"

"In the film he was, yes."

"Well…isn't there an evil super villain girl he liked…vaguely admired…was acquainted with?"

"I suppose you could go as Loki in female form. Cross-gender is very popular at Comic-con."

"I don't want to be a girl playing a boy looking like a girl!" he sighed heavily.

"Alright then what do you suggest?"

"Well…what about Star Wars?"

"Negative. Wolowitz is going as Han Solo and Koothrappali is dressing as Anakin Skywalker."

"Okay…so? What's stopping us?"

"No."

"No?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because Princess Leia is married to Han Solo, and Senator Padmé Naberrie is married to Anakin Skywalker, father of Luke Skywalker."

"Well…didn't he have a girlfriend?"

"He had a wife."

"Get out really?" Leonard, having been in the kitchen the whole time glanced up from his cereal.

"Yeah, Mara Jade."

"Hmm. Cool name. Who was she?"

"She was under the tutelage of the Emperor after he was destroyed she became a smuggler and eventually a jedi after earning grudging respect for Luke Skywalker having been forced to work with him on several missions, after which they realized they love each other and got married." She looked over to Sheldon.

"Is that it?"

"The much shorter, more boring version yes. Frankly I was never quite sure of her."

"Well I'll be her then."

"Why?"

"She sounds like fun, besides that way you can be Luke."

"I'm not going as Luke, I'm going as Loki."

Penny had a bad habit of convincing him to do things he disliked doing, especially when he had his mind set on something. But eventually she got her way, and he set about finding appropriate costumes for the San Diego Comic-con.

"See, aren't you glad you went as Luke?"

"I suppose it has a modicum of fame my Loki costume wouldn't have garnered. Oh who am I kidding, I would have knocked their socks off as Loki. I had the staff and everything!"

"Oh stop!" she pushed a lock of red hair out of her eyes. "And you're sure this will wash out?"
"I told you. We dyed your hair this morning, it will wash out tonight." He grumbled. "We could have just gotten you a wig."

"For a thousand dollars?"

"Woman you have got to stop looking at Comic-con in terms of money."

"Guys!" Koothrappali and Wolowitz shoved through the crowd gathering around the pair. "Sexy Disney Princesses at eight 'o' clock!"

"Never mind about that!" Koothrappali said "Although wow…Cinderella…oh! Mark Hammill! At the Star Wars booths! He's going to be speaking in two hours."

"Two hours, oh good we have time to get some food." Penny sighed. "I'm starved."

"Two hours? Woman are you mad? We need to get our seats now!" with a swoosh of his brown cloak, Sheldon grabbed her by the wrist and hurried through the crowds, Howard and Raj rushing after them. Leonard was standing on his chair waving his arms to get their attention. He'd opted to come as Magneto, though the point of the helmet kept rubbing against the nose piece of his glasses.

Some time later…

"What a visionary!"

"Genius."

"I can't believe I was in the same room as Mark Hammill." Raj breathed. "Hey, Kai-Adi-Mundi-" the alien turned around "Will you pinch me so I'll be sure that I'm not dreaming?"

"Hey, you!" the entire group turned around to see one of the directors of the Star Wars booth gesturing to Penny and Sheldon. "We want a picture of you with Mark Hammill."

"Me?" Penny pointed to herself

"Yeah, we like your Mara costume." The group stared.

"Yeah that would be awesome!" Sheldon cleared his throat. "Oh, can Sheldon come too?"

"Yeah, yeah, that would be good too." He nodded for them to follow him around the table to where pictures were being taken, leaving Howard, Raj and Leonard behind.

~o~

"Well? What did he say?"

"What was he like?"

"Did he sign any of Penny's body parts only privy to Sheldon?"

"To answer last to first, no, awesome and "nice costumes."

"Penny I protest!" Sheldon exclaimed "He didn't just say 'Nice costumes!'."

"Well…what did he say?" Leonard asked

"Oh, right, he also said "Hey guys."

"No! No! And No!" Sheldon said angrily, his voice rising higher and higher.
"What?" Penny asked

"He asked who you were!" the others looked at each other, then at Penny, then at Sheldon.

"So?"

"He forgot who his wife was!" Sheldon exclaimed. "You would think Luke Skywalker would remember the name of the woman who was hired to assassinate him!"

"I thought you said she loved him?"

"You didn't read those comic books I gave you did you?"

"Give me a break, I did the research online."

"Where?" Leonard asked

"Wookieepedia."

"Oh that's a good place."

"Yeah that's where I get my references for all my Slave Leia pictures."

"Hold on, wait a minute, we are not discussing internet websites and the best places for references! We are discussing the fact that Luke Skywalker, Mark Hammill did not know about Mara Jade, the woman he loves and is married to!"

"Didn't she die though?"

"That's beside the point!" Sheldon cried.

"Okay, hey, woah, calm down." Penny patted his arm. "It's fine. He probably doesn't read the comics."

"Why wouldn't he read the comics?" Sheldon panicked,

"I don't know. He's got other stuff to do. Like go to Comic-con."

"The whole point of Comic-con is for people who read comics to congregate and talk about comics! Hence the name Comic-con!"

"Well…listen, I think you're a way better Luke than him."

"He originated the role!"

"Yeah…but he didn't know who Mara Jade was. Wouldn't that make you better?"

"Your logic fails me."

"Ugh. Look never mind. Come on. We have our picture; let's go get something to eat."

"Fine." He sighed heavily. "But that still doesn't change the fact that he hadn't at least heard of Mara Jade."

"Ugh!" the whole group groaned then.

~o~

Back at the hotel

"Are you at least happy you got the picture?"

"I'm not sure anymore." he said. "I suppose I will keep it for posterity."

"Hey, you still had fun right?"

"Not as much fun as if I had come as Loki." She rolled her eyes as she threw her pyjama shirt over her head.

"Ugh okay, you know what, I promise, next time you can go as Loki."

"Who will you go as?"

"I don't know…"

"Well you're my wife aren't you?" she grinned.

"I'll be whoever you want me to be." She leaned over to kiss him and he backed away.

"Have you brushed your teeth and washed all dead skin cells from your face?"

"Yes!" she said and pecked him on the lips before shutting the door between them so she could shower in peace.

"Huh." He went back to the bed, climbed in and tucked himself exactly in the center. "One…two…three…" From the bathroom, Penny frowned.

"What are you doing out there?"

"Working on future options for our face characters for next year's Comic-con. So far I have three options, but I'm working on more. Given the time frame I could think of at least twenty viable options, if I include all comic, film and television references. We needn't be limited to main-stream genres."

"Okay, well, no rubber heads or excessive body paint."

"Would you object to small rubber appliqués?"

"Why?"

"Well if we were to go as characters Odo and Kira Nerys from Deep Space Nine you would have to wear a nose piece because she is Bajoran."

"Uhm…is that the girl with short red hair?"

"Very good Penny!" Sheldon said "I think I might put them down! I haven't gone as a character from Deep Space Nine yet. The costumes are fairly simple."

"Wait is that who you for sure want to be? We don't have to be husband and wife every single year you know."

"Well, for the present I see no pressing obligation to be a different character, and your point before Comic-con was not a moot one. You are my wife."

"Mm yes." She grinned, holding on the towel around herself. "Well, just in case, lets just plan on being Odo and Kira then, and your time-limit to change your mind is a month before Comic-con."

"Fair enough." The bathroom door shut again, and this time running water was heard.

Penny wasn't perfect. And she had many bad habits, but Sheldon admitted to himself that night that perhaps not everything she said was illogical.