Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

     It wasn't uncommon for Fry to be out late. He likely went to a bar by himself to try, and fail, to hit up another meatbag, or maybe got caught up in some utterly incomprehensible escapade that would be impossible to explain. During these times, Bender remained in an empty, painfully quiet apartment, and after exhausting himself going through and stealing Fry’s things, he would try on his clothes. There was something comforting about wearing human clothes, something about the smell and the feeling of something so warm against his metal framing. He would never actually admit it to Fry, but there was something nice about pretending to be something so fragile and impermanent. It was like if his actions counted. When you live for hundreds of years, everything seems so worthless and fleeting, but when he puts on his jacket, it feels warm. He could buy some of his own clothing to wear alone in his room, but something was different about how it was worn already, something about how Fry had just… 

     “B-Bender, what the fuck are you d… doing?” Wait… was that Fry? Bender opened his visor to see Fry, drunk, standing in the doorway, one hand on the door frame to keep himself steady, flipping on the light switch and the new accompanying light revealing exactly his actions. “Are you going through my shit again? I already told you I have nothing of value, and if I did, you would know,” Fry takes a closer look at him, squinting, “why are you wearing my clothes?” 

     “I was uhh,” Bender takes a while for his processors to catch up with how to get away with this one, “seeing if they’re worthy to pawn?” Fuck, he made it sound like a question, “go to bed, you're drunk, you don’t know shit, you and you humans always imagining things,”
He pushed Fry onto his bed, slammed the door behind him, and walked off into his room, mumbling about killing all humans. Stupid meatbag doesn’t know nothin. 

     He closed the door of his room behind him and realised, shit, he’s still wearing his clothes. Disappointed with himself, he slides down the wall, sitting with his knees mere inches from his face, like a crying teenager hiding in a bathroom stall after getting dumped by her ugly ass boyfriend. Bender couldn’t quite smell, but he could render all the things that remained in Fry’s clothes that weren’t just the fabric. Partly because he never washed them, and partly because humans were always leaving little bits of garbage behind. It was almost cute. Bender takes off the clothes, opens his bedroom door, and ‘lovingly’ throws them onto their living room floor, praying to the god he met that one time that he’s just too drunk to realize that what he saw was real. He stands back up and closes his visor, ready to sleep. 

     “YAWN! fuck,” erupts from the kitchen, “Bender, get up, we're going to be late for work.” Fry yawns, opening Bender’s room door. Bender slowly opens his visor before being assaulted by the bright light from the kitchen. 

     “God damn it, Fry, why are you like this?” Bender yells, “I hope you're excited for the day that I kill all humans, cause I sure am.” He lazily steps out of his room, bothered. 

     “Yeah, whatever,” Fry mumbles, “Come on, and we're late for work.” Fry stands, rubbing his eyes like a sleepy toddler. “There’s my jacket! How did you end up there?” He asks. 

     Bender lets out a small evil giggle in response, before noticing the dark puffy circles under Fry's eyes and the stains from drool across his face, “Jeez, Fry, what’s gotten into you? Not that I care or whatever, I just wanna know so I can enjoy your misery.” 

     “I don’t wanna talk about it,” he says, simply putting each of his arms into the sleeves of his red jacket. 

     Bender decides not to ask further questions; he didn't wanna bother him, and also he was too tired to care. They stroll off to work in a comfortable silence. At least that's what Bender thought. He had never been in an uncomfortable silence. All the silence around Bender was perfect silence, because he was making it, and he was great.

     At work, Bender sits with his feet crossed on the table, waiting for the daily  “Good news, everyone!” While waiting for it, he sang his favorite song to fill that extremely comfortable silence.  

     “Bender is great! Bender is great! Oh, Bender is great!” During his magnificent song, he notices his other two bitch ass coworkers walk into the room. Awkwardly, and not just Fry awkward, I don't wanna talk about it, awkwardly. Leela seemingly avoids Fry, making sure the six-foot distance between them is assured. No wonder Fry looks like shit. Ha.

     “BENDER!” Leela shouts, “Shut the hell up!” She rubs her one fat, ugly eye, obviously just as tired as Fry is. Before sitting down at her designated chair. 

     “Shut up, Big Boots, everybody loves Bender's song,” Bender responds. Amy shakes her head at his statement. Bender loved his song, and that's all that mattered, so he continued until the long-awaited…

     “GOOD NEWS EVERYONE, I APOLOGIZE IF MY VOLUME IS OVERWHELMING MY HEARING AIDS HAVE SEEMINGLY DIED,” The professor yells. The old piece of shit then continues to explain their next mission at full volume. However, the whole time Bender couldn't stop but wonder what happened between Fry and Leela last night, he had a feeling he would find out before the end of his 22-minute premiere. 

     Their next mission was a long one; his built-in GPS told him it would take somewhere around three days to arrive at the planet they were going to. This was going to be well interesting.  

     After the 30-minute morning struggle for everyone to get into the ship, the journey begins. Leela announces her “3-2-1 takeoff,” and Fry sits in his chair and looks like a wet puppy dog. Pathetic. They launch themselves into space, and the slow journey begins. 

 Leela stands up and turns around after putting the shipon autopilott. “Our arrival will be at the second galaxy before the end of the universe, and today we’ll be delivering three tons of electric eel mucus to the planet of Zephrellia, the people there use it as positively charged oh uhh,” Leela pauses, she looks at her clipboard and furrows her one brow. 

     Bender walks behind her and zooms in on the fine print on the clipboard and immediately bursts out in laughter, “What the hell does a planet need with three tons of lube!” 

     “Wait, really?” Fry asks, “That's what they need all those big boxes for??”

     “I uh, guess,” Leela responds, “still this should not break our professionalism, we will be polite,” she eyes Bender and Fry, “to the people there and make a quick delivery, and I need you two on standby for the next three days, for now we shall… return to our quarters,” she commands. 

     Fry and Bender wander off into their designated room. Once they arrive, Fry sits on the floor instead of his cot. His knees held up to his chest. “What’s making you so pathetic? it's getting annoying,” Bender questions. 

    “I said I didn't want to talk about it,” Fry demands. 

     “Not even with your best pal?” Bender gives him big puppy eyes. 

     “Ugh,” Fry sighs and turns his head towards the wall, “It's just Leela, we went to a bar last night, and we had fun, but she took me home to her apartment to ‘watch a movie,’ but then I tried to kiss her, and then she just… kicked me out! Now I don't know what to do with myself, I wish I wasn't such a loser,” Fry’s voice cracks around ‘loser’. 

     “Sounds like the best solution here is to,” Bender ponders for just a moment, “kill yourself,”

     “Ugh, maybe, when we get back to Earth, drag me to one of those suicide booths and just throw me in,” Fry mumbles, “I’m gonna go to bed,” 

     Fry pulls himself into his bed and rolls over and sits there quietly for the rest of the night. Stupid pathetic meatbag.

     Fry wanders out of their small closet of a room after a few hours, and Bender sneakily follows him into the control room. Bender could never miss out on stupid meatbag tea, especially because he was missing two episodes of ‘Oh My Circuits’ while they were gone. 

     Leela sits in her captain's chair and watches the thousands of stars fly by, “Oh… hey, Fry.” She notices Fry walk into the room. 

     “I’ve been meaning to talk to you, Leela,” he sighs.

     “Yeah,” she says, “kinda me too,” 

     “Leela, we’ve been doing this for years now,” he gestures to the spaceship, and the room around them “ever since I came to the future you’ve been going back and forth between liking me and hating me,” he looks towards the floor as he speaks “I can't do this anymore Leela, I’m in love with you, but I need you to decide for me,”

     “Fry…” she mumbles,s “I like to think I like you, and sometimes I do! You're so sweet and kind, but I don't think that you're the right person for me, as sweet as you are. I was going to talk to you about how you need to accept that, we're coworkers and we're friends, Fry, and I would like to keep it that way.”

     “I- okay,” Fry stands up, watery-eyed, and wanders back to his quarters.

     Bender, shocked by Fry's quick turnaround, runs for the kitchen. That was sad. Maybe he’ll go play poker with the coffee maker. 

Chapter Text

Fry:

     Fry stumbles back into his quarters and collapses. He sits cross-legged on the floor, back against the wall, head in his hands. His stomach had sunk, and his lungs pulled for air. He gasps, but never quite gets the oxygen he needs. Tears stream down his face, dripping into his shirt, pants, and even the floor. It hurts. Everything hurts.

     His hands reach into his red, fluffy hair and pull; individual strands break from the pressure. He tries to sob quietly, but there is a point where he can no longer care. He pulls his knees into himself subconsciously and lays his head onto his knees and feels the drool leave his mouth and drip onto the floor. His thoughts remain so empty, yet his head feels so full. 

     The door slides open to reveal a steel frame holding a bottle of cheap beer. “Oh, sniff, hi Bender,” Fry wipes his face with his sleeve, wiping away a mixture of tears, snot, and drool. 

     “Hey meatbag, you seem like a sad, lonely bastard,” Bender says, opening his mouth and taking a long swig of the beer. 

     “Yeah, Le-” Fry mutters in between suppressed sobs before being immediately interrupted by the stupid, selfish, selfish, robot. 

     “Haha, yeah, sounds rough, meatbag. Seems like you should really suck it up. Don't interrupt me. I need my beauty sleep; it's been a long night of scamming our appliances out of all their money. It's not easy being this brilliant and sexy,” Bender hops into his top bunk and lights up a celebratory cigar, puffing thick black smoke into Fry's face. 

     “Bender, you cheated,” Fry mumbles, now painfully aware of just how much of an asshole his best friend is. He always knew he was a dick, but sometimes Fry just couldn't handle his narcissism anymore. 

     “I know that's what makes it so great!” Bender is a robot and can't make facial expressions, but Fry could still see the smugness on his face. 

     “Whatever, Bender,” Fry mumbles, sniffling,s and wipes a tear from his eye. 

     Bender releases a vicious laugh. “Fry, you're always there to cheer me up with your constant misery and misfortune,” he blows another puff of smoke towards Fry, “Fry, Leela was never going to date you, it's on you for not realizing this soon enough.”

     “I just really thought she was the one.” Another tear falls from his eyes, falling quickly from his face to the floor. Fry notices and wipes it from his cheeks, “damn it,” he whispers. 

     “The only one you should be worried about is the single digit in your IQ, which is the same reason that Leela would never even consider you!” Bender laughs like an old engine turning over before finishing the last of his cigar in one inhale, “Fry, will you go to bed now? It was destined in the thousands of stars for you to die alone and sad, because you're dumb and ugly, accept it. It's fate,”

     “Bender, fuck you, you talk a lot of shit for an actual trash can, and I hope you die alone, too. I’m gonna go to sleep in the control room. I hope you have fun here alone,” Fry quickly grabs his small, cheap blanket and his pillow before stomping out of the room. Fuck Bender. He was such an awful friend, Fry’d be better off without him, that's what Leela's been telling you for years anyway. 

     “I hope you have fun too… uh- dummy,” Bender hated the consequences of his actions. Fry knew that, too. Mostly because he's bailed him out of jail multiple times, usually spending most of his savings on the bail money. Not anymore, though maybe he’ll save enough money to buy his own apartment, so he doesn't have to go home to the tin can. That would be nice. 

     Fry sits on his designated chair, leans back, and covers himself with the small blanket. He watches the stars fly by. Letting himself space off and forget about the last 48 hours, and pretending in his mind that everything was fine. It was probably late at home by now: ten or eleven. Fry’s chest still ached, and his head began to pound. Why did everything have to be so goddamned hard? 

     The next morning comes slowly to Fry. He wakes up, beginning to lean forward out of his chair, and rubs his eyes. His surroundings confuse him. He was in the control panel of the ship, sure… but why? Leela walked into the control room as the memories of last night finally began to register. 

     “We’ll land in ten minutes. Get Bender and start getting ready,” Leela commands. She doesn’t make eye contact with him or necessarily look in his general direction. Her eyes keep looking towards the floor and her lips are tightly pressed together. She sighs before Fry walks further back into the ship to talk to Bender. Fry’s stomach sank. He’s seriously fucked this beyond repair hadn’t he? He knew communicating was a bad idea.

     He arrives at the door and pounds on it “Bender, time to suck it up. Let’s go already!” Loud grumbles erupt from the other side of the door. 

     Once Bender realizes “WAIT! Fuck you! That’s my thing!” Fry giggles behind the door. The door slides open to reveal Bender. He stares blankly at Fry for just a moment before reaching his arms out to choke him. Fry begins to gag as Bender digs his cold metal fingers into his neck.

     “BOYS! I don’t need you two killing each other before we even get there! Get in here!” Both Bender and Fry look at each other with resentment and disgust, eyes like slits and childish frowns, before sulking into the control room.

     “This delivery should be relatively short compared to the ride. I just need you to stay focused and at least attempt to be reasonable to the people who live here,” Leela barks. Meanwhile, the Fry pays more attention to the view out the window, a great big pink planet begins to come into view quickly, getting bigger. 

     “It is recommended that you take a seat for landing and don’t forget to buckle up!” The protocol of the planet express ship mutters through the speakers. 

     “Whatever you say baby,” Bender purrs into the ship. Fry rolls his eyes. Disgusting, he would think that Bender had learned his lesson with the ship.

     The landing, to say the least, was rough. Rough enough for the lights to shut off, and a good handful of scratches added to the sides and front of the ship. With two sets of seatbelts installed, holding on was still increasingly difficult for the express crew. 

     “Planet Express Ship, wasn't there supposed to be a port?” Leela yells over the sound of the trees breaking on the body of the ship. 

     “Oh, haha, yeah… I forgot about that,” the ship embarrassingly acknowledged. Leela violently rolls her eyes at the ship.

     After finally reaching the ground, they step out of the ship with a struggling futuristic dolly surrounded by a thick, humid forest. The air there was breathable, but it felt like it wasn’t. The air was dense and hot and felt like putty in his lungs. The trees are a dark shade of pink with leaves the size of large dogs. The trees are extraordinarily tall reaching likely hundreds of feet in the air. It makes Fry uncomfortable. The daunting size of everything here likely implied that the creatures that claimed this habitat weren’t any smaller. “Uhh Leela- where the hell are we?” Fry questions.

     “2.7 miles from the capital. Not too far of a walk I think we'll be alright on foot,” She responds. Bender groans so loud you swear you can feel the vibrations of his voice.

     “Damn it, big boots! Do we not have a ship about a foot behind us that can easily carry this three-thousand-pound box? Or do I need to be admitted?” Bender argues.

     “We’ve been ordered to save fuel, tough shit, Bender,” Leela asserted. Bender groans once again as Leela begins to walk back into the ship and grabs two large machetes and hands one to Fry. “Get chopping, damn it,”

     They chop away at branches, small trees, vines, and shrubs. Fry occasionally complained about how this is hard and Bender never stopped complaining.  This, however, never stopped the awkward silence between the three. If anything, it made the situation worse. Leela was visibly unhappy about the position she remained in. She still never gave Fry as much as a glance.

     After a good half an hour, there was a decent third of a mile hole big enough to fit the large box through. Fry wiped the sweat off his forehead  “Leela, how much further?” He asks carefully not to sound as if he’s complaining. 

    “I’m not sure, let me-“ just as Leela begins to check lojackimater large rustling I heard from just a few feet away. It sounded large, but it was still soft and quiet despite its size.     

     Quickly, a large snake appears out of the density of the forest. The snake hisses at the crew; it was the size of a small building, standing as a display of threat. 

     “Fry, watch out! HYAA” Leela yelled. She uses the machete to take a big slice of the snake, it doesn’t seem to do much to it. It hisses at the pain before snatching Fry in between its fangs before slithering away too quickly for Leela and Bender to even think, let alone take action.

     “Well good job, smart ass, now it has Fry,” Bender protests.

Chapter Text

     “What the hell did you want me to do?” Leela yells, obviously upset for a reason that isn’t this.

     “I don’t know? Save him?” Bender countered. Fry was gone. How the absolute fuck could she not be upset? He was literally just snatched from both of them. How could she just be standing there?

     “We couldn’t have done anything? I mean, he literally probably just got eaten whole by a giant fucking snake! I don’t think there’s anything we could have done!” Leela began to yell.

     “This is your fault, Leela, you're supposed to be the captain. You’re supposed to be in charge. And if you weren’t pissed at Fry, you would be chasing it down right now, “ Bender was panicking. Fry was gone and very possibly dead, and Leela seemed fine. pissed at Bender, sure, but that was her default state. “Why aren’t you doing anything?”

     Leela places her hand gently on his shoulder and has a fake look of sorrow in her eye. “Bender, I need you to be real with me. I don’t think that chasing after him and getting both of our asses eaten by a snake will be very productive!” Leela seemingly can’t control her anger and begins to yell at him,  “We literally watched him get swallowed whole! Just do your fucking job, Bender!”

    Bender pauses for a prolonged moment. His fists are clenched tight. He looks towards the floor, his eyes flickering from one side to the other. He looks up at Leela, pointing at him, “Leela, fuck you…” he doesn’t yell; he doesn’t say anything more; he just runs off in the direction of the snake after Fry.

     Diving through a toxic pink forest, pushing through random assortments of vegetation, he follows the trail of pressed-down grass left behind by the snake. The forest was just as dense, and he could see far, but the manufactured adrenaline that pumped through his veins kept him from ever stopping. He couldn’t let anything happen to Fry. Fry was his best friend. 

     Bender finds a small clearing near the entrance of a cave, along with that huge damned snake. Bender reaches his arms into his mouth into his chest-cavity and pulls out a short-handled scythe. He sticks it in between his metal teeth before pouncing onto the snake. 

     “Fry, hold onto your dick. You're about to be saved by the one and only Bender!” He wraps his arm all the way across the snake; it hisses in response. He uses his arm from the side of the snake and stabs into its chest before swinging his weight to throw himself downward, creating a long slice into the insides of the snake, revealing Fry. He lay in the fetal position inside a strange tube filled with liquids. 

     Bender kicks off the snake and lands on the ground with an earth-shattering thump. Fry took a big gasp and slowly opened his eyes before seeing Bender. Fry pulls himself out of the snake's intestines and is still covered in blue goop. “BENDER! I thought you were gonna leave me!” Fry runs to Bender; Fry is now somehow half naked, and Bender grabs Fry and hugs him bridal style, scared to show his grin, and spins around on Fry's impact. He was surprisingly fast for a dude who drinks so much beer. Bender would never say it out loud, but god damn was he relieved. “Thanks, Bender,” Fry mumbles under a wide smile he was holding.

     “Shut up, baby, I know it,” Bender lights a celebratory cigar, carrying Fry in one arm all the way back to the ship to deal with that one-eyed cunt. 

    Fry went to shower and change in the ship from Leela’s stack of extra clothes for Fry, but Bender sat on the step still finishing off his cigar, waiting for Leela to return. 

     She slowly walks up, pushing the cart in front of her. “You're back? Did you heroically save Fry like you said you would?”

     “YES. I DID. He’s showering or some other weird meatbag shit, really could have used your help if we both died, it would have been on you,” Bender fusses, arms crossed, “but Bender always has to do everything.” 

     Leela rolls her eyes as she takes the cart to the back of the ship. “Yeah, whatever, Bender.”

     “Would you even care if he died? Did you get bored with him being your little toy, and so you no longer care if he lives or dies? After all this time, that’s who you really are? Care about every living thing except for the one that would do everything for you?” Bender was pissed. She had claimed to love him, but every time it led to something, she would turn him down, and now she’s finally decided she’s done with him. She just throws him away.

     “Bender.. of course I don’t…” Leela looked blank. Was that who she was?

     “I wouldn’t be surprised if you wanted him to die! What if I stayed on the ship for this delivery and you just fucking let him die! You’re an evil, heartless woman.” Bender had tears in his eyes; they both mutually agreed to protect his favorite meatbag, even if it was never spoken about. “God damn it,” Bender swears and turns back into the ship and stomps all the way into their room. He needed a beer. 

     Shortly after the ship rumbles to start, they slowly start their journey home. Fry walks into their quarters, just a towel wrapped around his waist, hair still dripping wet, and he sits on his cot, swinging slightly back and forth. 

    “Bender, I appreciate you saving me and all, but where was Leela? Why wasn’t she there?” Fry talks upward at Bender, who then continues to pause. 

     Should he tell him? He deserves to know, but would he cope with the feelings that Leela just didn’t care to save him? Whatever, why was he thinking about this? Bender is great, so therefore Bender doesn’t care. “She finished the delivery while I saved you; she didn’t really want to. I don’t know, probably cause you’re so fat and ugly or something.”

     “She didn’t want to?” Fry’s voice was small and scared. 

     “Nah, not really,” Bender answered 

     “But you did anyway? And she never followed you?” Fry mumbles.

     “Yeah, meatbag, get over it. I know it must be hard to be rescued by someone so sexy.”

     “Yeah, thanks, Bender,” Fry quickly changed into his tighty whities and rolled over in his cot with a loud ‘humph’.