1. He loves to garden.
In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that it would give his mother a coronary, Leonard almost went into the study of Botany. He has a few little window boxes full of Zinnas and Roses in the apartment that he loves taking care of. There's something soothing, almost primitive about the smell of dirt and plants. Almost like a new beginning. And Leonard's wanted one of those for twenty nine years.
2. He wants nothing more in life than to be taller.
It's not just the teasing and Hobbit jokes; It's the pure inconvenience. He has a specially made refrigerator just because he can't reach the top of a regular one. Not to mention, being 5' flat makes him feel like he's forever thirteen. And that is not something he wants to deal with.
3. He's always been weirdly attracted to Bernadette.
He knows it's wrong, and that it's his friend's fiancé, but...damn, what an...ample bosom. Plus, she was the only one that didn't make fun of his short refrigerator.
4. He can't believe someone like Penny would ever want to be with someone like him.
Sure it happened in movies and teen romance novels, but in real life, the cheerleader marries the football star and the nerd marries the president of the Women of Science club.
Part of him is always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
5. He's not lactose intolerant.
He just really, really hates milk. His family drank loads of it when he was growing up, and absolutely nothing else. He got so sick of it the thought of milk gives him anxiety attacks. He didn't try a juice box until he was nineteen. And he knew a medical reason was the only reason Sheldon would stop trying to force it down his throat.
6. Every time his mother visits, he wets the bed.
It's absolutely mortifying, and he's sure there's some physiological, reverting-to-past-experiences reason for it. But that's not what he cares about when he had to explain to Penny why his sheets were soaking wet every night that Beverly Hofstader came to town. She suggested he buy some sort of adult diaper. Leonard recalled thinking he'd be the first proven case that someone had actually died of embarrassment.
7. He's fluent in Mandarin Chinese
He learned the summer he was twenty one. He just likes to see Sheldon suffer when he tries to order dinner from the Golden Palace.
8. He can't swim.
That's the real reason he didn't want to the beach with Penny. When other kids were taking swimming lessons at the local pool, he was locked up in his room studying the periodic table. By the time he turned eighteen, he felt like it was too late to learn. His parents always said not to attempt something unless one knew they could succeed.
9. Sometimes, when no one else is home, he turns on the Les Mis soundtrack and sings the entire score at the top of his lungs.
10. He's incredibly jealous of Sheldon Cooper.
It's not the brains and control Sheldon has, but something a little more human. Sheldon had never taken crap from anyone. He had done whatever he wanted in life. When it came down to it, Leonard craved to bridge the one thing that made them different.
Sheldon was who he was because of millions of things; his brain, his appearance, his personality…his own choices.
Leonard was who he was because he had had to be.
And no number of hugging machines was ever going to fix that.