Absurdity: Ridiculousness because of being irrational, incongruous, or illogical.

"What a noob." Sheldon smiled at Penny's feeble attempt to understand the complicated world of "Age of Conan." She hadn't been playing the game long, yet had very quickly caught on to the various, complicated, rules and idiosyncrasies of the game.

"Sheldon, what does this sword thingy do again?"

"Aww. That's cute." Sheldon looked at Leonard, pulling back at the look on his face. "What?"

"Cute? You do realize that you just referred to Penny as 'cute' right?" Leonard held up his fingers, putting air quotes around the word cute.

Sheldon scoffed at the absurd statement. "I'm merely asserting that her calling The Enchanted Sword "sword thingy" is quite endearing. Not in the sexual context of course; I'm merely saying that her reaction to the game is cute. Like a dog playing with a bone. Or a cat playing with a ball of yarn. It has nothing to do with her physical attractiveness."

"So…you calling her cute means nothing."

"That is correct."

"Sheldon!" Penny whined. "I can't get the sword thingy to do anything! I'm in an enchanted forest and these…things keep attacking me!"

Sheldon sat down next to Penny, peering intently at the computer. He smiled wryly. "Those aren't things; they're goblins."

"Well whatever they are, they're attacking me!"

"Here." Sheldon took the computer, fiddling with the controls. "There. Now you can walk through the enchanted forest and the goblins won't eat you."

"Awww! Thanks Sheldon." Without thinking, Penny threw her arms around Sheldon's neck, enveloping him in a warm hug.

Leonard watched from a distance, raising an eyebrow as Sheldon uncharacteristically returned the hug. Sheldon got up, smiling warmly. Leonard smirked. "Like a dog playing with a bone huh?"

"Exactly." He looked at Leonard, then turned. "I'm going to take a shower."

Penny looked up from her game. "What's with Sheldon?"

"I'm not sure. Did you do something?"

"I don't think so; I just gave him a hug. I mean, he did help me walk through the Enchanted Forest and…what?! Hey!" She grabbed her computer, running across the hall to her apartment. "Bye Leonard; I gotta go kill some goblins!"

Leonard watched the door for a moment, then turned, walking into the bathroom. He stopped, noticing something. "Uh Sheldon…how come there's no steam in here?"

"We ran out of hot water."

"No we didn't; I just made tea a second ago."

"A second ago? Leonard, one second can make a huge difference; in one second, you have made tea; in another, I have turned on the water in the shower, gotten in, and shampooed, thus making it a total of three seconds. Quite different from one second."

Leonard rolled his eyes, walking out of the bathroom. "Whatever." He walked into the kitchen, turning on the water, waiting. A few seconds later, he ran his hand under the water. He smirked, walking back into the bathroom. "Sheldon, there's hot water in the kitchen."

"Of course there is Leonard; three more seconds have gone by since our previous exchange; in that time, the water has—"

"I get it, I get it. Nevermind." Leonard rolled his eyes, closing the door behind him.

Sheldon muttered to himself. "Really; assuming that I am taking a cold shower because Penny's obsession with Age of Conan is cute." He smiled to himself. "How absurd."