"Everybody's so nice. Nobody says what's on their minds." Anya, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Disclaimer: The story is mine. The Big Bang Theory is not. It belongs to its creators, who haven't learned their lesson. This chapter does not pick up where the previous one ends, but...

HIS BEDROOM

She was taking his clothes off.

"You're hot," he said. "So incredibly hot. Hotter than any material I've worked with."

She laughed. "How many Celsius am I?"

"You don't have to do that. On a second thought, it's still cute, though."

He kissed her.

"You ever thought about this before? You with a fellow scientist?"

"If it's you, I don't care what you are."

She kissed his neck. He moaned and grabbed her and hopped backward and landed on the bed. She landed on him. He was bare and she wasn't, and yet somehow this only excited him further. She must have read his thoughts because she said, "Eventually we will have to take my clothes off."

"I know."

"May I, Professor?"

"By all means."

She was an expert in this. Not a second she stopped kissing her and being on top of her while taking off her sweater, her shirt, her jeans, her bra, her panties. Now she was bare, too. Except for her glasses.

"I know you want to leave the glasses on, but won't that kind of bother later?"

"Let me."

This lovely, lovely woman. How could she feel jealous to Alex? He supposed Alex was cute. But the woman before her just exuded sex as naturally as fire produced smoke. It was as if sex was all she could give. He took her glasses off.

And stopped.

He looked at the glasses. He was silent. He didn't move.

"What's wrong?"

"These glasses."

"What?"

"These glasses."

"What about them?"

"These glasses."

"What about them?"

"It's all that has changed."

"What do you mean?"

"When I take these glasses off, what do you have?"

"That's a silly question. I—"

But she had nothing to say, and he knew he'd scored.

He sat.

"What's going on?"

"These glasses." He flicked them away like garbage. "These glasses aside, you've never changed."

"Okay, I've had enough of all these philosophical mumbo-jumbo about glasses and change—"

"You never have made an effort to become a better partner."

"That's not true! I just told you I took basic science classes—"

"Which you have never finished."

"It's not my fault if the professors are so boring."

He stood.

"Leave."

"What?"

"You heard me. Leave."

"Why?"

"It's not my fault if the professors are so boring. Fuck you. You're just lazy."

"I'm what?" Now she stood too. "What did you say?"

"You're lazy."

She tried to slap him across the face, but he caught it.

"What did you ask me just then? How could I not kill myself with all those classes? Well, I'm still alive, aren't I? And I still like science, don't I?"

"But you have no idea how boring my professors are! They're the one to blame—"

"And they should apologize to you for that." He raised his hand before she could reply. "Of course they should. Of course everyone always has to apologize to you."

"No, it's not like that."

"Really? You're insecure about your brain. Then study, goddamn it. Take some classes. Change! Instead you quit. Instead, all the change you're willing to give to me—" He picked up these glasses and wiggled them before her face "—is this."

"But you did admit you like those glasses."

He found himself laughing. Laugh and laugh and laugh. He laughed as long as he could until his laughter petered.

"Without sex, what can you bring to our relationship?"

She was silent.

"You mooch on our food. You take our Wi-Fi. Your actress career consists of one-shot laxative ad. If you're not pretty, what can you give to me?"

Still silent.

"I have to ask you something. You're mad at me because Alex made a pass on me. How is it my fault?"

She found her voice. "Because I'm insecure in front of her."

"I'm insecure in front of that English-accent guy, and I didn't make you play a goddamn cello on my doorstep just so I open my door to you."

"But that's because you weren't being rational!"

"Well, were you? You didn't even give me a chance to explain either! Why should I apologize to you? For fuck's sake, it's her who hit on me, not me on her, so what did I have to apologize for? I did not hit on her, I was being hit on! Why am I the one who has to apologize?"

Silence.

"Admit it, fuck is all you can give to me."

"That's not true!"

"Oh yeah? What makes you better than Alex? What is it that makes you deserve my apology?"

Silence again.

"Your cuteness? You admit it yourself, she is cute. Your fun? She invites me to a science symposium. Your patience? She hasn't quit Sheldon, for fuck's sake. Everything you can do, she can do it, too, perhaps even better. Now, instead of recognizing that fact and working your ass off to rival her, all you did was buy these glasses and hope I still like your cunt."

She cried. She tried to bury her face in his chest, but he pushed her away. He was all out of compassion. She was the one who had brought him into the outside world, but that didn't mean he always had to kowtow to her. In fact, it was exactly because he knew the ways of world now that he knew he was in the right this time. It was past time to deconstruct this double standard.

"Look, Leonard..." she said, when her cries reduced to controllable sobbing. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry about this. Can you just give me a chance?"

"Close your eyes."

"What?"

"Close your eyes."

She did.

"Imagine yourself in a world where you're a scientist and this handsome man next door is an aspiring actor. You and this boy date. But then, where you work, there's this new guy, a scientist like you. Even though you make it clear you're already taken, he still hits on you. When your boyfriend find out about this guy, he refuses to talk to you until you beg him. He makes you apologize for being hit on. And then he says he's afraid his brain can't catch up with yours. The night after, he says he plans to take some class in college, but instead of seeing them through he decides to just buy a pair of glasses.

"Now, the question is: Do you think this boyfriend of yours is a cunt?"

"Yes."

As soon as that she opened her eyes. A mirror stood in front of her. He smiled.

"Get the fuck out of here, Penny."