"Good morning, Leonard!"

Smiling, Sheldon greeted his friend and temporary roommate as he entered the kitchen. Leonard didn't answer though, and silently walked toward him with a serious look. Sheldon handed him the plate with some French toasts he had just prepared, "Do you want some? You look gloomy."

Leonard stared at them. It was pancakes day, and from Amy's admission he now knew why Sheldon had made toasts as well. He sighed to avert that thought, "Sheldon, we need to talk."

Sheldon sat, and took a first bite of one toast, "Very well, what's up, buddy?"

Leonard ignored the afterglow cheerfulness inspired epithet, and spoke, "I met some of the men working at 4B, yesterday."

"Ohh, look at you, wanting to spend time with the common man!"

Leonard sighed again, this time in frustration, "Sheldon, I know what are you doing!" He said.

The other man looked back at him, apparently unaware of what he was talking about, "Eating my breakfast while my roommate brags about how low his social life has become?"

After a third, exasperated sigh, Leonard spoke again, "They told me you kept complaining about them with their boss."

Sheldon just kept looking at him, raising his eyebrows in anticipation. Leonard continued, "You made them repaint four times."

"So, your problem is that I complained and required my own apartment to be rebuilt properly?" He took another bite, shaking his head. Leonard was so odd at times, he thought. How could he even be surprised that he had complained? It's not like he had even hidden the fact that he was a flawless champion in that.

"You hid their equipment!" Leonard snapped. Sheldon went to swallow his toast, and his expression finally changed.

"Well, this doesn't prove anything."

"Oh, please. Admit it, Sheldon: you are sabotaging the repairs on purpose!"

Leonard stared at him, waiting for an explanation, but his crazy friend just looked back at him with no intention to explain what the heck he was up to.

"Sorry! Don't mind me."

They both turned and found Amy sneaking into the room. Somehow they hadn't even realized she had arrived at the pancakes' plate.

She outlined a shy smile and took it up, "I don't want to interrupt your conversation. I- I'll just take these and leave you on your own," she declared while searching for a fork.

Neither of the two men had the time to answer back a word however, as she quickly disappeared back into the aisle.

They remain speechless for a little while more, until Leonard urged for clarifications. "I just don't understand. Why are you doing that? It seems as if you are wanting to remain here as long as possible."

"This is simply absurd," Sheldon tried to dismiss. "There's no rational reason why I shouldn't want to return to a peaceful daily life in my own apartment. Are you sure you aren't the one who would like me to stay a little longer, since deep down you miss living with me?"

"Me?!" Leonard shouted back, with a sudden raise of tone, "How?! Do you seriously think I missed your cleaning inspections and emergency drills?"

Of course, Sheldon didn't get the sarcasm, "Well, yes? I did miss those."

Leonard snorted, "I didn't! Oh, and on top of all, you returned puberty in full effect! Tell me Sheldon, is there a room or surface you and Amy didn't have sex?"

"This simply doesn't make sense. First, I hit puberty when I was 15," Sheldon pointed out, "Second, it is incorrect to state we had coitus indiscriminately on every surface. We only did it in our bed. And in the bathtub. And on the couch. And here on this table, but in my defense it was induced by one of those alluring dresses your wife had Amy buying."

"Whaat- What?!" Leonard exclaimed. He tried to articulate something, but Penny had entered the kitchen in that very moment, heading toward the refrigerator.

"Oh, sorry to interrupt. I met Amy outside the bedroom and we are having pancakes. We need syrup," she said, retrieving the bottle.

"By the way, I definitely won't eat on there like, never again," she added then, pointing at the table, before leaving.

"Her loss," Sheldon shrugged. "Of course I perfectly cleaned and disinfected all after coitus. We are not animals."

Several different possible answers occurred to Leonard, but none of them was really polite, and all included references to Animal Planet. "Sheldon, do you realize that you two are guests in here, right?" He eventually resolved to say.

"Guests? We paid you our half for the month!" Sheldon protested.

Leonard suddenly understood why his wife rolled her eyes so often. He really would love to do that now, seeming the only possible response in the context that didn't involve violence or swearing.

"This doesn't mean that- What again?!" He ended up yelling to Amy and Penny, who were approaching the kitchen again.

"We need napkins…" Amy tentatively said.

"You can just have breakfast here. We're done." Leonard drily announced, storming out.

ii.

"Hi guys…"

As the entrance door opened, Amy timidly peeked and greeted the Hofstadters. Ever since Leonard's outburst that morning, the two couples hadn't met yet, and she wasn't sure of Leonard's mood at the moment. She also felt a bit of guilt as well. Sure, Sheldon had been the kind of annoying roommate he was used to be, but they were together in doing all those other inappropriate things around the house.

Penny smiled to her and, much to Amy's relief, so did Leonard.

"We bought dinner," Amy announced as she entered the apartment. Sheldon silently followed her, showing up the boxes along with an unusual repented face.

"Oh, it does smell good!" Penny thanked them, standing to gather the food from Sheldon.

"We also have apologies for you," Amy continued. She looked at Sheldon, and he could just nod in agreement.

"Yes. We are sorry if our permanence here caused some...uhm, trouble." He saw Leonard's eyebrow move, but also his face turn into a comprehensive smile.

"You will be happy to know also that we talked to the landlord and he told us that, despite any inconvenience occurred, the apartment is ready. We will move back tomorrow."

"Oh…" Leonard only said in response to him. He was surprised by his own reaction. It was exactly what he was wanting the second after they had entered his apartment asking for hospitality. A thought crept in his mind, but he didn't would allow it to come out. He could not possibly think to ever miss living with Sheldon Lee Cooper.

They set up for dinner, and everyone took their seat. Amy threw a look to Sheldon, who just like Leonard had been oddly quiet in the last few minutes.

"So, the cohabitation is ending," Penny tried to break the silence, "I have to admit it, it ended up being much more interesting that I expected it to be."

The other three nodded. Indeed, it was ending. Sheldon felt it was the moment to be completely honest with them.

"Leonard… I do owe you further apologies. I admit I have acted in these last days with the purpose of delaying this day," he confessed.

Leonard smiled. It didn't happen often, but he knew how to recognize true, heart-felt apologies from his odd friend.

"It's okay," Leonard accepted his apology, "It's just… I thought you liked living on your own with Amy."

Sheldon turned to Amy, and she nodded. She knew he did indeed; but she also knew how much he loved his friends and the years spent with him.

"I do. I also liked living with you, though. I mean, I was with Amy and with you guys. It was funny, wasn't it?"

Leonard sighed, and everyone thought he looked almost moved, "Well… it was," he couldn't avoid to grin. After all, some of the events occurred during the cohabitation were so absolutely absurd and unpredictable by the time they first lived together. "But hey, it's not like you're going anywhere far," he continued, "I mean, you guys are merely a few meters away."

"I- I think I need to apologize to you guys as well," Amy added. "With all the troubles that occurred with four people living in a single place, my presence led to some kind of embarrassing situations." She blushed, and everyone else in the room thought that it was sweet she could still blush like that considering what she was excusing herself for. She paused a moment, then went on. "It's just… it's all new to us, you know. And we were used to being on our own, experimenting and all... it has been a little tricky to adjust."

Penny's grin grew bigger than ever, "Oh Ames. You know it, after all I'm so proud of you guys."

Amy could only blush harder, as Sheldon looked around a little confused. Leonard smiled along. With all the inconveniences that it has brought, he was just as happy as Penny to witness their friends finally fully embracing the physical aspect of their relationship. Even if this had meant no discretion at all.

"I would like to propose a toast," Leonard offered. His wife and friends agreed, and everyone took their glass of wine or milk.

"To us," He proclaimed, "To friendship, to love, and to broken pipes!"

iii.

It had followed a very pleasant dinner for all the inhabitants of apartment 4A, made of good Chinese food and laughs. Leonard didn't remember having had such a pleasant evening in weeks. Now it was only turning out for the best, as he and Penny were just in the right mood for some sexy time. Kissing and holding his wife, Leonard for a while felt very satisfied.

"Wait a moment."

Suddenly, Penny had stopped moving. "Did you hear that?"

Leonard shook his head. He didn't, and honestly he didn't care. He really just wanted to make love to his wife and close the nice evening well.

Except that now he heard something as well. He asked Penny to stay quiet, and tried to understand if the sound came from the adjacent room. When he understood it wasn't, he looked back to Penny, worried.

"What do you think it is?" She whispered.

"Do- do you think someone had broke in?"

The pure bliss was quickly becoming fear. Leonard gulped, praying Penny would not ask him to go check.

Luckily for him, she had already stood and was looking for her baseball bat.

"Be careful," he recommended to her when she left the room.

iv.

Having solemnly promised to be as quiet as possible in case of coitus, Amy and Sheldon were enjoying a quiet, yet just as passionate, preliminary make-out session. They hadn't explicitly stated it, but both of them were determined their last night in there to be remarkable.

Sadly, Amy couldn't fully appreciate Sheldon's hand finally finding its way under her nightgown. She froze, hearing a thud from the outside. She reluctantly stopped him and raised her head a little bit with the hope of hearing the noise again.

"Did you hear that?" She asked Sheldon.

"No, I don't," he lied "And in any case it's most likely just Leonard and Penny. Don't worry about that."

She nodded, even if not completely sure about his explanation. He crushed back on her lips, and Amy could only try to forget about it.

"Guys, hurry! In the kitchen".

Penny's voice echoed a few seconds after in the whole apartment.

They exchanged a brief, terrified look, as both suddenly recognized the noise: exploding pipes.

v.

Despite the various desperate attempts to block the stream with shreds and tape, water kept pouring out from at least four different sections of the kitchen pipes. The four had given up, and plopped down almost at the same time.

Leonard spoke first, "I can't believe this is happening,"

"Maybe this building is jinxed," Penny commented.

"Don't be ridiculous," Sheldon answered back, "There's no such thing as bad luck. It's probably the whole building's plumbing that sucks."

"You called me a pipe jinx," Amy protested.

"Well, you would admit that the coincidence is odd- Ouch!" With a slap on his arm, Amy interrupted Sheldon's further observations.

"Guys, it doesn't matter who's at fault," Leonard observed. He dared to give another look to the kitchen area, the most affected by the leaks, and remembered how they had observed that soon new ones would have opened in the bedrooms as well.

He took a deep sigh, and looked at Sheldon and Amy.

"We may need to sleep at your place tonight."

A/N: And this is a wrap, folks! I objectively took me a little longer than expected to conclude this, but I still hope you enjoyed it and had fun. I did, picturing all this in my mind. Thank you to all of you for your support and kind words. I am my own worst judge, so every review or simple encouragement to keep going meant the world to me.

See ya,
Lu