【 ! Just as a friendly reminder, this is my first entry to . I shall be posting several chapters. Currently, I have three at hand which I will post once I've reread and corrected them twice (Lock your doors kids, Santa is coming to town! He he..). Anyways, is welcomed. I would really appreciate it, for like I mentioned, it is my first time here. I'm keeping this mostly fluff, so feel free to read without getting embarrassed. (^/^)
Gee wiz, I truly do appreciate you reading this if you have. Anyways, happy reading~】
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Registering back to his 'on' mode, the robotic character felt a small gust of wind. He had been waiting for what would've felt like forever to a human, but for Bender seemed mere minutes. What exactly was he waiting for? Honestly, he himself didn't quite know. His eyeplate lifted slightly, slanting towards the entrance way. There was a quiet slip of air once the door opened, followed by a clank of metal from its closing. Slowly but surely the culprit of these noises forced himself out towards his own room, dragging behind him feet connected to the sniffling man-child; it was Fry. Phillip J. Fry, to be exact. Jeez, he must've had a night. And a long one at that. I mean, it was 4:26 a.m.
The robot had his arm draped across the back of the couch, then turned himself to look at his friend. He sure looked depressed. In that moment the bending unit thanked Mom for not giving him emotions. Well, in actuality, he did have emotions. Quite a lot of them. He bickered relentlessly. He cried to no avail. But he also lied to himself about not having these human feelings to make himself feel more macho. Watching only for four seconds longer as his drained buddy slipped onto his bed with a loud creak from the springs, he turned back around to face 'All My Circuits.' Crossing his arms, the robot tapped his foot cup. 'Damn it. I've been up all damn night to make sure this meatbag came home safely. And what does he do? Goes right into his gross, sweaty room. Doesn't even say hello to me, lovable Bender!' His eyeplate slanted inward, making an angered expression. Letting his features soften, he crooked his head to look back at the room. The door was still open. No lights were on, either. He probably was just sitting in there. Dork.
Suddenly, one of those rare suppressed emotions came onto Bender; it was guilt. Sorrow. Feeling like whatever his friend was going through was hurting him too. It was weird, however, that this emotion only tied with Fry. Another example was happiness. He would only feel this way around his redheaded buddy. And not person-falling-down-flight-of-stairs sort of happiness. Nah, that was comedy. Fry was really strange in that way. After this annoying feeling was too much to ignore, the metallic man sighed full-heartedly. He proceeded by jumping to his feet. 'Stupid Fry, making my concentration faultier. That must be it. It isn't emotions. My circuitry board must be busted.' He stretched, pounding his chest. 'Well, might as well check up on the little sausage.'
Bender popped his head in the doorway of Fry's room, looking around slowly. Seeing the lifeless human staring up at the ceiling, completely flat on his bed, the robot relaxed and made his way up to his side. "Hello Bender." He walked into Fry's room. "That's just one example of a greeting. You could've also said, 'What up Bender,' Or maybe, 'Can't believe you've been up 'till 4:30 at night! Did you stay up waiting for my sorry ass?' To which I would reply, 'Why yes, Phillip. You're life is thoroughly boned, therefore I must watch out for you.'" The robot paced while lecturing. Once be realized he elicited no reaction, Bender stopped and hovered over the human in annoyance. "Hey! Why the hell are you ignoring me!" He vigorously waved his three-fingered claw in front of the emotionless bag of chemicals. Due to annoyance, Fry rolled to his side and scrunched up his blanket into his chest. Bender slightly leaned back, another wave of guilt hitting him. He retaliated with a muffled blow to his head. 'Stupid... Malfunction. Yeah, malfunction.' Again, he lied to himself. And again, he tried to get the attention of the human. So Bender, with a glare of concentration burning into Fry's back, finally resorted to poking his shoulder. He continued to poke him there, knowing Fry would get pissed off and give him at least some sort of attention. It worked. The quiet and patient character popped up to a sitting stance. He sure did look pissed. That was the goal, after all. Ruffled red hair made him look like he'd been running his finger through it with worry. His brows were pointed down, drawing attention to his eyes. These puffed red bags under his cool pupils matched his hairdo, but also reminded Bender of the human reaction to a startling or sad event; crying. His face was pail, making these red areas pop like 3D. He had boxers on and his regular dirty white shirt what was wetted just a bit. Probably tears again. And finally, his eyes were brimmed with pearls of water that boiled with anger. He opened his mouth, just to close it and open in again, but the words just didn't come. He looked like a goldfish. Finally, he swallowed nervously, looking up helplessly at his one true friend with slanted eyes. "G-go away." He choked out, his back folding down and his eyes facing his feet that were crossed neatly. "Please, just.. You d-don't... You don't.." He gulped again, trying to stop the shaking voice. "You don't understand what I've been through." Closing his eyes, a small liquid bag fell and popped open onto his sock-less foot.
Stunned by the clear blue bubbles of aqua that brimmed Fry's eyes and the puffy unkempt face he had made this aching pain of wanting to comfort in the bending unit throb. Jesus this is depressing. Whenever Fry was sad, Bender would throw his empathetic emotions away by telling him to shove a cork in it. But he's done it so many times, and the emotions just flow right back in like water, like tears. Shoving those selfish tactics to the side, the robot knew he had to help Fry. He always had a soft spot for this dork. No other dork but him. And there are a lot of dorks in the world, at least by Bender's standards. Sitting himself down onto the creaking bed, Bender faced the opposite direction of the dismayed husk of a person. Already regretting the idea that floated into his head, the robot put his face in one hand. "Go on Fry, just tell me. I'll listen. "
With a confused tilt of the head, the human looked at his bot friend. Bender noticed the cute head tilt and his curiosity towards what the scheme was this time. Fry probably expected Bender to laugh at him, and call him sappy or stupid for believing he would listen to what was making him so upset. He had his hands tightly clasped on his ankles and was leaning forwards as much as he could. Again, he thought how cute the motion was. "I ain't got all night." He crossed his legs and arms, turning away from Fry's gaze. This made him less wary, as the robot hypothesized it would. "Alright.. I guess." Fry started. He wiped the tears from his eyes and breathed in deeply. "Well, I was gunna go to Leela's house to escort her to the movie we were gunna see. I told her about it a week ago, and she agreed. Then, I-I got there.. I uhm..." He cleared his throat. "I had a suit and tie and chocolates, an-"
"I get the point. You looked attractive. Wish I could've seen it. Continue." Bender let that third sentence slip. Sometimes while thinking and speaking, you mix up what you want to say and what you don't.
The delivery boy blinked, but continued with a small curve on his lips that quickly dissipated. Bender smiled too. "Okay... Then, and, I.. Well, I knocked on her door. But then it creaked open. Jeez, I hope that sound was from the door.." He shivered, pulling his ankles. Bender acted indifferent as he turned to face him. "And then.. Oh, I had flowers too..." He seemed to be avoiding the ending. Bender narrowed his eyeplate. "F-fine. She was.. There was s-someone.. In her bed... H-he wasn't even.. G-god, I can't b-be..lieve it...I j-just.." The human scrunched up, choking on his tears that he tried so hard to keep inside of himself. "That i-isn't even the half of it! Leela doesn't even acknowledge me.. B-but then, my fucking life is just...My family, my dog... It's all gone. All of it. They didn't even care about me. Seymour c-cared more than.. Than m-my own stupid parents." This was degrading for him, as anyone could understand. Fry pulled his knees up to his chest, holding them there with a such a tight grip his knuckles turned white. Bender noticed. "I'll s-stop. Thanks for.. trying Bender, b-but..." He lifted his head momentarily from his knees, then bowed again as he felt his eyes drowning in saline. He muffled his whimpers the best he could but it wasn't very effective. Fry just clammed up, feeling as though he was intolerable to his cold robot buddy.
Bender was now eyeballing Fry. His back was still facing the slouched man, but his head was turned in a way to watch without causing a huge obstruction. Bender's heart would be racing, if he had one. Well, he does, a human's donated heart, but it isn't connected to anything. He quietly stood up with expectation of Fry to look up in desperation. Fry didn't, because he figured Bender doesn't like these gushy human things. The depressed delivery boy would simply let him go so he could wallow in his own sadness without dragging his one true friend along with him. But that's not what happened. Bender was too worried to leave. "Fry, you're the only human I would ever feel concern for. If you don't continue walking on sunshine, I'm going to go insane and make you walk on sunshine. Oh, and also, in case you didn't deduce this yourself, I am truly concerned." He roughy stated.
Fry sniffled under his breath, lifting his head that felt like it weighed more than a ton of dark matter. "R-really?" He faced Bender with helplessness and child-like features.
Sitting himself back down in front of Fry to face him, the impossibly empathetic robot smiled for a second time. "Really really."
The human smiled along with his friend, letting out a pitiful little laugh. It was only one measly chuckle, but it lifted Bender's spirits. He had no idea how heavy he felt until the weight was removed from his shoulders. That smile made him feel as light as a feather, in fact. And like a schoolbot in love. But that was a different matter that Bender didn't yet reconcile with. Quickly, the meatbag retired to his depressed self again. "You're sweet 'n all Bender, but humans can't just be happy on command." He winced at calling Bender 'sweet.' That was embarrassing. Bender would've blushed if he could. 'Did he just call me sweet?' He shook it off quickly though, turning to the matter at hand. Giggling evilly, the robot recalled a method he learned in his League of Robots to make the redhead finally shut his sniffling up and continue his lighthearted expressions. Who says you can't command a human to be happy? "Fry, if you don't stop being sad, I'm going to have to use force." He rubbed his hands together, his eyeplate slanted devilishly.
"What? Do you mean force, or 'the' force? I hope you mean the force." The robot inched closer. He assumed it was the other form of force. The one without the 'the,' that is. "Uhm, Bender, I appreciate your concern I guess, but that's kinda... Uhh, Bender? Be..daahh ahah! S-stop! Haha, yo- uheeheh, n-no no stop!" Fry's slacked lips curled up into a ridiculous smile. He was trying to escape the robot's grip, not even registering what was happening due to the quickness of the action. Oh wait. "A-stop tickling me! Y-ou.. Hhehe a ouch, ppffhh.. Hahah!" Fry mumbled out, trying desperately to pry himself from Bender's arms that were snaking up around him, pulling him from the wall he was leant against. "Nope! You aren't being happy on your own, so I do it for you. Heheheh. Hey, it's making me happy too!"
"P-pfhh,please stop! Aghh, my tummy h-hurts! Hahheha!" Fry grabbed his stomach, trying desperately to shield it from Bender. He still had a huge goofy grin plastered on his lips. "Alright, skintube. Got to ruin all the fun huh?" He let the 21st century pizza boy squirm in his arms, ceasing the tickles but deciding not to let him go just yet. APPROVED
"Bender, oh.. My god... Don't do, don't do that again! I'm out of breath!" He panted lightly, still tiredly trying to pull himself loose from the stubborn robot's grip. "Jeez, you can free me now!" He sighed, looking up at Bender. Once he did this, the realization of how close he was to his friend washed over him. He crawled away a bit, clearing his throat. Bender's smirk disappeared, as well as his controlling hug. He let his desires take control of him.
"Welp, it's been fun on a bun but you should get to sleep." The robot cooly shrugged off that previous awkwardly-close moment between he and Fry. However much he liked it, which he couldn't yet explain why, he had to let his friend go. He obviously didn't appreciate the action nearly as much as Bender did. So the metallic man stood up, but was abruptly stopped by a quick grip around his wrist.
"What? You're just gonna leave like that?"
"Well.. Humans need sleep to recoup. You won't be getting much due to how late it is, and you need a lot of time to regain your energy so you can be more happy, like the Fry I know and lo-.. Lottery tickets. Yeah, you owe me a lottery ticket." Obviously Bender was about to say 'love,' and most would catch that. Most excluding Fry.
"That's nice of you Bender, to be so concerned and stuff." He thought momentarily. "Wait, but wouldn't you just steal a lottery ticket?.." He suspiciously rubbed his chin. Bender artificially gulped. "Ah well, okay sure! I have like a buck and a nickel saved up in my piggy bank. I'll start there."
Bender 'phew'ed out loud. "Sure meatbag. Just go to sleep. And shut your trap, I'm set to light snooze right now." He paused. "And that isn't because I'm worried about you crying at night or something! That's stupid and has no gain!"
"Bu-"
"Shaddup!" Bender stormed out, then smacked his head. "Aww, forgot to say goodnight." He rushed back to poke his head though the doorframe. "Goodnight, damn you!" And with that, he again stormed out into his room, proceeding to angrily pound the close button.
Fry stared blankly at the disarrayed display of robot mayhem, then shrugged it off and turned to face the ceiling as he lied back down. 'I gotta do something for Bender tomorrow. In return. Gotta get him a lottery ticket. Oh! Maybe a picnic too? Is mayonnaise or marinara for spaghetti? They both start with 'M' so it shouldn't matter. Maybe an exploding toy bear?' He questioned inwardly, brows narrowed. 'I just wish Leela was as great as Bender. He's been a better everything for everything...' He yawned. '...I've ever had. So I'll.. Haveta do.. Sumthin...' The human curled up, dozing off with thoughts of a reward for his friend. It was easy since he was so tired.
Bender on the other hand, could not go to sleep.