A knock at the door pulled Sheldon from his work.
Hesitation, a desire to please, and anxiety pulled at Sheldon. Curious, he almost sprinted to the door to see what was on the other side.
He cleared his throat, then straightened and stiffened up his posture.
"Yes?" He asked once he opened the door.
"My name is Leonard" The shorter man said.
Sheldon furrowed his brow at the way he introduced himself, "Are you asking me, or telling me?"
"Telling you?" At Sheldon's look, Leonard changed his tone of voice, "Telling you. My name is Leonard and I am here about the ad you put out for a roommate."
"If an atom was the size of a sports stadium, how big would the electrons be?" Sheldon asked him.
As Leonard pondered the question, Sheldon pondered Leonard.
Thanks to his new anti-social behavior, Sheldon didn't even have to drop his shields.
He didn't really have any protection anymore.
The shorter man was hesitant, wanting to please a complete stranger but had no idea how. His self-confidence was so low that Sheldon was having trouble finding any at all. Wondering if his mother would approve of this location. Certainty that his mother would approve of Sheldon.
"Honey Bees." Leonard said, proud that he came up with the answer in under a minute.
"Correct, you have earned the right to see the apartment." Then Sheldon added sarcastically, "Huzzah." Inwardly he smiled at his joke.
One month later and Leonard had submitted a form, per the roommate agreement, that his mother was coming to visit for the night.
Thinking about it, Sheldon rolled his eyes. Roommate Agreement. What a load.
Movement caught his eye and that brought him back to the present. Leonard's mother was brewing coffee.
He didn't like her.
She was narcissistic, self-involved to the exclusion of everything else. She adored her older children, a son and daughter that Leonard could never compare to. Leonard was her constant disappointment. He was the black spot on her flawless parenting record.
She attacked everything he did from work to personal life. She had criticized every single thing he did.
What was worse, she loved Sheldon. She even insisted that he call her Beverly.
Sheldon stood corrected. He hated her.
"Good morning Beverly." Sheldon said, careful to remove any and all emotion from his voice.
"And to you Sheldon." She responded. If Sheldon didn't know any better he would have sworn she was mocking him. "Would you care for some caffeine stimulation this morning?"
"I would not." He informed her before getting his orange juice.
"I would like to thank you for the stimulating conversation last night. It was certainly more than anything I would expect from a friend of Leonard's." Unfortunately Leonard chose that moment to leave his bedroom.
Hurt that his mother thought his friends were stupid, anger that he allowed her to hurt her, but no denial. It was more like resignation. Leonard was more complex than he first thought.
"Good morning mother, Sheldon." He greeted them blandly. He was trying to put up a front.
"Leonard." They both said in a monotone.
"I am going to urinate, then shower before dressing for my lecture this afternoon. Are there any objections?" Beverly asked her audience. When they both stayed silent she continued, "Motion has passed. If you both will excuse me."
Once she was out of sight, Sheldon turned to Leonard. "Your mother is simply fascinating."
Leonard sighed and nodded, "Yeah, I thought you two would hit it off."
Sheldon focused in on his new roommate. He was anxious to get this day over with. Impatient to have a country separating himself from his mother again. Sadness that he would never measure up. New knowledge that he was a drunken accident. Embarrassed that his new roommate had more in common with his own mother than he did.
Forcibly Sheldon pulled up images of his own mother. She was the one who fought for his education. The one who showed him how to cook and how to fix the plumbing. Hugs filled with love, proud smiles. Someone who he could count on to love him no matter what he did.
Leonard had none of that. A sort of sad realization came over Sheldon.
In the month that they had been roommates, Sheldon had barely said more than a handful of words to the shorter man a day. Good morning, good evening, may I have a ride. That was about it.
He thought that the obsession to please Leonard had was self inflicted. Now he realized it was almost forced onto the smaller man by his own family unit. There was no support system there.
"After meeting your mother I feel I have been remiss in the 'getting to know you' portion of our roommate agreement. Would you care to join me for dinner tonight? It's Friday, Friday is pizza night." Sheldon offered. It could be a start at least.
Timidly, Leonard agreed. "Sure. Maybe after we could play some vintage video games?"
Sheldon felt the need for acceptance go down a little bit. He decided then and there he was going to help the shorter man. He would help him with his self-esteem and confidence.
Sheldon thought he had problems with his 'condition'. This man standing in front of him needed all the help he could get.
A/N: Leonard gets bashed a HELL of a lot in our little corner of the fandom world. I think that some of it is true, some of it isn't. I don't really like to bash him, because to me at least, he doesn't deserve it. Well..except for the whole Arctic thing. However I chose to believe that never happened.