Leonard had to give credit to Amy- she knew how to keep his roommate preoccupied. Usually the only way to get Sheldon out of his hair was to take his leash off and make a run for it, hoping he didn't find his way home.

She distracted him, enough so that Leonard could have his "me" time. She was the only thing besides reckless abandonment that could rid him of his best friend for more than a half an hour. What they did together, he didn't know. With Sheldon being as romantically unattached as he was and his girlfriend being almost (but not quite) as socially obnoxious as he was, he didn't understand how they could stand one another.

So Leonard was trying something new. He had the time to do anything he wanted, for a short while.

"Breathe deeply, as you draw your thighs up and over your shoulders, and chant the mantra." He inhaled deeply, raised his left leg up and-

"LEONARD!" Sheldon burst in, after a series of quick, customary knocks. His hair was mussed up, eyes wild with fright like a baby deer trapped in a Nascar stadium.

"Leonard, something terrible has happened! I require your immediate social advisory skills, as Penny isn't in, and you're the Gandhi of the social scene."

He gave Sheldon an incredulous look.

"That is to say, your skills with others of your species may go unrecognized by many of your peers before an early death, unlike Penny's-"

"Get to the point Sheldon, I'm busy!" His left leg was stuck behind his head, jolted into place when a lunatic had burst in, screaming his name. He glared angrily at his best friend, and his leg twitched in an attempt to right itself.

"And it's no wonder, sometimes I wonder if you've any social skills at all. Certainly more than Wolowitz...well, aren't you going to get up and offer me a hot beverage? It is customary to do so when one's companion is in distress."

"I'm kind of stuck here. And you're not my companion by choice," he added on in a low mumble.

"Now you're not always my cup of tea, but I find your friendship is usually commendable, at the worst of times. You owe me as a friend." There was a small twitch of sadness on Sheldon's face. He looked less like a stoic praying mantis for a second, and more like a depressed grasshopper.

He sighed. "Alright Sheldon, what's bothering you?"

The physicist paced around the room nervously.

"I don't know where I went wrong. I have, in writing, proof of my commitment, and we have discussed on numerous occasions the implications and legalities- in the presence of our respective lawyers- mine being the only one capable of representing my case fully, being that I represent myself."

He sat down and twiddled his thumbs, anxiously perched on the edge of Leonard's bed.

"I don't understand where I went wrong, and I need you to help me figure it out."

His leg was slowly becoming numb, and he dislodged it from above his head like a limp stick of salami. It landed on the floor with a thump.

"Did you get in an argument with her?"

"If you were listening at all, you would not have come to that conclusion. Good lord, maybe I should have tried Penny's cell phone. It's like talking to a sack of potatoes!"

Leonard began to wonder how hard he could swing his salami leg, and if it was enough to knock any of the crazy out of his best friend.

"Pretend you're talking to Penny then; Sheldon, what's wrong?"

His eyes looked a bit watery, as he was blinking more than normal when he answered, though he was trying to keep himself composed.

"Leonard… she wants to marry me."