Feeling Human part four

Her long, dark purple hair, pulled up into a ponytail.

Her beautiful cyclop eye, so unique and sweet and yet stern. The way she steered the massive ship, so precise and perfectly and with no hesitation.

Her lovely voice, her lovely, perfect, sexy figure, her soft lips…

Leela, Leela, Leela.

I fell in love with her almost the moment I first saw her.

An supposed alien, but really a mutant from the sewers; her parents took her to an above ground Cookieville Minimum-Security Orphanarium to give her the chance of a better life. To make others believe she was an alien, to hide her bloodline from the unforgiving, judgemental world, her parents succeeded in what they had sacrificed everything to do.

Leela was a success. She was a star-ship captain, smart, witty and sweet.

She told me that before she met me, she never questioned anything. Not the way she forced to do one career her whole life, a job that she obviously hated, working at Applied Cryogenics as a Fate Assignment Officer. The ironic part is that is where and how we met.

I had been accidentally frozen in one of those tubes for one thousand years.

She was the first person I saw when I woke up, the one who helped me start to understand this strange new world.

And I saw it was like the old one, but just a bit more interesting.

A lot more interesting.

Robots, aliens, mutants, express tubes to help people travel across the city quicker, Bachelor Chow, Light Speed underpants, and Lucy Liu robots that make love to you.

And Leela, my one true love.

Or… so I thought.

Never have I tried so hard and so long to gain a woman’s affections before. With Michele, she was relatively easy to start dating, but she turned into a manipulative, angry nightmare. She always tried to change me. She always tried to make me feel like I wasn’t enough, and that I could never reach the heights of other worldly and intelligent men.

She was right.

But one thing she was wrong about was that… I could never do better than her.

I can, and I will.

Just then I hear a loud bunch of voices, yelling and cursing.

It was Bender. My absolute best friend ever.

I walk over toward the hall and near his room.

I lean toward the door and hear a shouting match.

“Wow! You both just happened to be sick!” I heard Leela scoff. “Or do you just wanna play hooky, is the more likely scenario!”

“Fry is sick, and so am I! Deal with it. We’ll be back tomorrow… most likely..” I hear Bender cough dramatically.

“Not buying it. We have a bunch of deliveries today that are going to be late!”

“Not our problem! Sorry.”

Leela scoffed loudly. “You don’t sound sorry. Not at all.”

“Well… I least I don’t intentionally hurt someone and then pretend nothing happened the next day!”

Bender yelled this so loud, I felt my breath go shallow and face heat up.

“Who? What’re you talking about?”

“You, Miss High and Mighty! You keep stabbing the poor guy’s heart and expect him to be okay the next day… heartless!”

Leela sighed. “Fry will be fine.”

My heart leaps in my throat as I realize they are talking about me. I feel slow that it took me a minute to actually realize this.

“You don’t see him! You don’t hear! You don’t know just how bad it is for him every single time you reject him. You don’t care. You just go on your slew of dates that you know will never match up to the intensity and blind dedication that Fry has for you! And, to be fair——Honey, I guarantee you’ll never find someone as interested in you as Fry is.”

“I do feel bad.. but he just keeps asking me out. I don’t know what to do…”

I hear Leela’s exasperated tone and I tear up, about to go into the living room.

I can’t hear anymore of this. It was killing me.

“Maybe just… ugh, give him a chance! He’s attractive in that nerdy sort of way… in that dumb human flesh bag sort of way…and caring and nice…” Bender trails off, and I hear silence.

A minute passes, then I hear.

“Bender… do you love him?”

“No!” Bender yells. “I mean… I don’t think… argh! Leela… you better not even think of saying anything!”

I put my hand over my mouth in a shock. Does he love me? Seriously?

“I won’t. I won’t. I heard you talked to the Professor. Are you serious about that process? To be human?”

“That jerk already told everyone?! He can’t keep anything to himself, can he?”

“So it’s true… you wanna be human?”

“I’m thinking about it. Okay? Let’s stop talking. Fry is waiting. We’re going to watch All my Cir-” he stops speaking and Leela sighs loudly.

“I knew it. You’re faking. Whatever. See you two lazy jerks tomorrow!” Leela says, and hangs up the call. “Be ready to take on double the work!”

I hurry to run back to the living room before Bender comes back, out of breath.

“What did I miss?” Bender asks me, but then he looks at me closely, walking over to sit next to me on the couch.

“Why’re you all sweaty and out of breath? Did I miss something fun, or possibly sticky?”

I laugh. “No. Just feel a bit tired.”

“Oh. Okay. Just don’t count me out for stuff like that. I like it. ‘Specially if there’s a floozy-bot to make love to..”

I laugh again, though my heart is beating insanely fast, and my breath will not calm down, so I turn the TV louder.

“Okay, I’ll keep you in the loop, my friend…” I say a bit with an emphasis, and Bender narrows his eyes.

“Yes… you’re my friend, too, buddy!” Bender said suddenly as he leans into the couch.

“So… how did the conversation go with Leela? I heard shouting.”

Bender chuckled nervously. “Ah. Nothing. She was mad we weren’t going in. That’s all. You know, woman stuff!”

I shrug. “Yeah, who needs ‘em! Women, I mean!” I almost scoot too close to him and Bender noticed, but didn’t move away. I feel my neck heat up.

Bender shrugs back, “Not us! Right?” He looks at me and I smile.

“Right.” We watch an episode of All My Circuits and I say that I’m hungry.

“Oh!” Bender gets up. “Time to start that recipe. I think you’ll enjoy it.”

Before I can protest, he is already in the kitchen and cutting up onions and a ton of garlic.

I get up and go over to him. “Need help? I feel better. The coffee helped me.”

“No, I want you to relax. Kay?” He looks at me and I see the intense way he’s chopping up the fresh cloves of garlic, so I say nothing.

“Well… I’ll give your cooking one last chance.” I go over and relax on the couch. “Make sure you drink plenty of alcohol so you can concentrate!” I yell, and he nods.

“Sure, dear! If you could though, make me a few pre-dinner cocktails, I’d appreciate it!” Bender replied loudly, making me almost fall off the couch in a bit of surprise.

“Dear?” I whisper to myself. ‘He called me dear!’ I thought in a strange mix of emotions.

Bender seemed to either not be aware of what he called me or just oblivious to the meaning of it, and is mixing a bunch of things into a bowl.

“I can make a few drinks..” I say, getting up.

“That’s right, ma!” Bender winked at me, and as I walked by to get a fresh glass or two, he slaps my behind.

My eyes go wide and I hide my blushing face.

“Mighty quiet over there, are we?” Bender said, his tone suspicious.

“I’m.. uh, well… you called me dear and spanked my bottom… not that you’re acting too out of the norm, but still… is everything okay, Bender?”

“Well.. I’m fine.”

I mix up a stronger version of a Manhattan, and add more whisky.

“You sure? You are acting a bit squirrelly.”

Bender starts heating up a large sauce pan and cooking the garlic and onions. “No. I’m okay. Not like a squirrel at all!”

“I… well, it’s…” he grabs a package of fresh chicken drumsticks and starts placing the chicken in what looked to be a marinade. “Fry… I kinda have been thinking.”

I give him two cocktails at once and he drinks them quickly. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he burped, a slight flame bursting from his mouth. “Was one of those your drinks?”

I shook my head and he laughed in a loud way. “I would’ve drank it anyway!”

“Bender.. seriously,” I stare at him and I hear him gulp.

“Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like to be an inferior being. Not made of beautiful, shiny metal. I think about it. Hell, I imagined having back pain last night as I carried you home.”

I remembered that with a slight smile slowly moving to my lips. “That was very nice of you, Bender. To carry me when I was too drunk…”

“Don’t mention it! Ever! I won’t be doing anything like that again,” he rolled his eyes.

“So…” I bite my lip. “You wanna be human?”

“Uh, yeah. I talked to the Professor. He thinks it’s possible. Reverse bullshit or something, I don’t remember that science shit he spouted.”

“Are you serious?” I try to contain my excitement.

“Yeah. I am.” He takes the marinating chicken out of the bowl and starts frying it with the garlic.

“Is there any particular reason?” I ask, and he growls.

“No. I mean… Fry, what do you think?” He turns and looks at me directly.

“I think it’ll be a blast and a half. We can do a lot more together when you’re human.” I grin. “Drink and eat and blow bubbles and watch TV and swim and-”

He gives me a dumbfounded look, “You idiot. That’s all the shit we already do together.”

“It’s different as a human. You will experience it all differently. There’s… sleeping and taste and smell and pain and pleasure.”

“I don’t know about that last one!” Bender snorts. I chuckled.

“Well, dating will be different. It’s just… more physical. You’ll feel things differently. You know?” My face feels so hot, and I cover it with my hand. “I’m… going to lay down.” I walk quickly to the couch and put a pillow over my face and sigh.

“I like that idea of experiencing dating in a more squishy, meaty body. It sounds.. kinky,” Bender said suddenly, and I groaned into the pillow at his words.

This is going to be one crazy, weird, long ride. Isn’t it?

And for reason, thinking about Leela now, I feel better. Being here with Bender is great, and I feel so much at home whenever he’s nearby.