Word Count: 1374
Summary: Penny's bored at home while Leonard works late, and she decides to call him.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Big Bang Theory or the characters.

She would constantly watch him stretch the collar of his shirts before taking them off and doing the same when he put them on. Because of this action, all his shirts and sweatshirts had a loose collar, and she was always intrigued about why he did it.

One day, she returns home from work to find an empty apartment. All she wanted was to fall asleep on the couch held by her husband – that wasn't home as she had expected him to be.

Penny grabbed her phone and searched for his name, and that's when she saw a text from earlier that day, telling her that he would work late and not wait up.

Sighing, she marched to their room. If Leonard weren't going to be home to cuddle with her, she would do the next best thing – wear one of his shirts.

Finding one she had given him years earlier for his birthday, she put it on, noticing just how stretched the collar was. It was a clear sign to her that he wore it a lot. That and the color faded after so many washes.

Satisfied with the shirt selection, she went back to the living room. She sat down on the couch and turned the TV on, flipping through the channels trying to find something to watch, and failing. Finally, groaning, she leaves the TV to play the news and grab her phone. After a few moments of scrolling through her social media feeds, she was even more bored – the news as background noise wasn't helping.

Then, she decided to call her husband – maybe he was thinking about work and could talk to her about it. It would actually be less boring.

After three rings, he finally answers.

"Yeah?" She could hear how tired he is – or maybe he's just as bored as she is.

"Hey. Uhm…" Penny feels some regret in calling him. She wouldn't have liked to be interrupted at work either. "Sorry, it's just I'm bored, and I was just sitting here thinking of what to do-"

"And you decided to interrupt me at work because you're bored?"

Even though he is not there, she feels herself blush from embarrassment. "Well, yeah. Sorry."

She hears him sigh. "I'm bored too." She hears him chuckle and feels relief, no longer regretting calling him. "What do you wanna talk about?"

"Are you sure you can talk? Aren't you supposed to be working? Which is why I'm here alone in our apartment and bored?"

"I am supposed to be working, but I can pause for a moment. I'm using this moment with you to get some more coffee. Besides, I'm still trying to figure out what to do next with this experiment. So maybe a pause is what I need."

"Since you're sure I'm okay with talking." She pauses for a moment, thinking of something to talk about. In the background, she hears him moving around and what appears to be a pot of coffee being made. She can almost imagine him doing it from all those miles away.

"Penny? Are you still there?" He asks her, breaking her from her reverie.

"Yeah. I don't know what to talk about."

"How was work?" He asks and hears a groan that causes him to chuckle. "Okay, I guess we won't talk about work because I don't want to talk about it either. Oh, there was this trailer that came out for-"

"No!" She yells. "Please don't."

He stifles a laugh. "Okay. Uhm… I don't know." He pours the coffee into his thermos and keeps thinking about something, anything to talk about.

"I know this might be a bizarre question," he hears her saying, and he focuses on the phone, wondering at the same time what she might ask. "Why do you stretch all the collars of your shirts?"

He doesn't answer for a few moments. It's such a random question that not even an over-thinker like Leonard had thought she would ask. Then, finally, he just lets out a small laugh and answered.

"For the same reason I prefer elevators over stairs or prefer to pay for parking over parking for free but having to walk longer. Because I'm very lazy."

Penny looks puzzled, still not understanding. "What?"

"It's easier to stretch the collar than to take my glasses off. If I take them off, it will be easier to put on the shirt, but I will also have to bother to take them off. Too much work."

Penny laughs at his answer. She knew her husband could be a very lazy man, but out of everything he could have answered, that wasn't even in the top ten.

"Seriously, Leonard?"

"You don't know what it is like to wear glasses, okay? Not being able to see when you have a hot beverage in your hands or when you pick something from the oven because your glasses are all fogged up. They constantly fall off my face and are always smudge. For no reason at all."

She had noticed the fogged-up glasses, obviously. She had laughed her fair share of times because of it. But she had also noticed the number of times they would fall from his face or how he was constantly pushing them up.

"I think it's cute when you push your glasses up." She tells him, and it's his turn to be puzzled.

"What are you talking about?" He asks after a few moments of silence on the other end.

"When you're working, like really into what you are doing, or watching one of your movies. You know, those you've watched thousands of times, and you make me watch them with you." Even though she can't see him, he nods. Then, as if she knew, she continues. "Well, when you're in front of your board with all those numbers and stick figures or whatever, "she hears him chuckle in the background. "I notice how many times and different items you use to pull your glasses up. I've seen you use the markers or your wrist. I think the weirdest one was a mug. I did once see you use the board itself, which was interesting."

He finally reaches his lab but does not want to hang up. The conversation was interesting – they somehow always found something to talk about, whether it was a childhood story or work gossip – and his work was boring him.

But Leonard doesn't know what to answer to continue the conversation.

"I never noticed." He finally says, after a few beats.

"Well, I did." Penny smiles and suddenly wishes she had decided to visit him instead of calling.

He looks at the board in his lab, thinking about setting up a camera to see what he does as he works.

"Did you get to your lab?" She asks, her turn breaking him from his reverie.

"Yes."

"I'll let you get back to work now." She says, looking around, thinking of what to do next. Maybe she could go to the Wolowitz's house or across the hall. But she doesn't feel like bothering either couple. Maybe go to Raj's. He must be just as bored as she is.

"Actually, uhm…" What if she genuinely wants to hang up now, he thinks. Maybe he shouldn't tell her to stay on the phone with him.

"Yeah?" Penny asks. I hope he asks to stay on the line with me, she thinks.

"Could you stay on the phone with me while I work?" He questions softly. On a typical day, she would probably laugh about how scared he seemed of asking that question. Or hug him, maybe. But today, she seemed almost eager to answer.

"Yes, I will."

"But you have to be silent. No talking." He tells her, and she nods. Until she realizes he can't see her.

"Okay, deal."

They stay on the phone silently. Him, working on his project. Her, reading magazines and organizing her clothes – she was that bored.

It didn't take long for Leonard to hear soft snores coming from his phone, meaning Penny had fallen asleep. Not wanting any sound from his end to wake her, he grabs his phone.

"Sweet dreams. Love you." He says, to his sleeping wife, before hanging up.

The End

This story came to life after I noticed I stretch my clothes instead of taking my glasses off. Maybe Leonard does the same. :)