I promised I'd have a new oneshot up before the episode aired tonight, and as I have a class and time at the barn between now and then, I punched this out between classes. I actually had three drafts of this last night that all got scrapped because I finished and decided I hated them. This is what I finally deemed acceptable.
#7: Take her on dates.
There were some definite perks to dating someone who lived across the hall from you. If you were busy, it took five minutes to stop by and let your significant other know you were thinking about them before rushing off to work or to do errands or whatever else needed to get done right then. If you were too lazy to go out, you could hang out at one of the apartments instead.
However, this convenience could also make you lazy, knowing you could see each other right at home allowed you and your significant other to fall into a habit of never going anywhere, trying new food, walking around new places, or doing anything different.
Leonard Hofstadter was well aware of this, and despite how nice it was to stay at home with Penny, watching television, making love, or even doing each other's nails, he knew that she enjoyed going out on her days off, and unless she'd told him about making plans with Amy and Bernadette, Leonard always had plans ready for her and him.
Sometimes they went to a familiar place, like the restaurant they ended up in on their first date, or the movie theater they had gone to many times as a couple and once as friends, or the shooting range – he hadn't shot anything but the target in months and the managers finally let them shoot without extra supervision – and sometimes she surprised him at Caltech to heat up the lab, which he always tried to have something scientific to show her so it would seem like they were going somewhere, another world, another time.
And then sometimes he took her somewhere new, a new restaurant, a new bar, a place decorated for the season. Her eyes lit up when they arrived, taking in everything, never letting go of his hand unless there was a gong in the corner that she ran over and hit only to be chided by the manager that it was for show only.
She never got the cheapest food, or the cheapest drink, or the cheapest desert, and if her feet hurt after a long night out he carried her shoes home, all the while wondering why one would wear shoes like that if they knew they were going to be hobbling home barefoot.
And the effort that was made to actually go out, or to find a new place, and the money that was spent, and the looks he got from carrying high heels down the street, they were all worth it just so he could get that look, that affectionate smile, the loving eyes, and the words "I had a really nice time tonight."