As usual, I'd like to thank those of you who reviewed my last chapter. This one came together quicker and feels a bit disjointed to me, but I've run out of ideas of what to do with it. Also an experiment in switching perspectives, which I normally only do between chapters. I figure fan fiction is as good a place as any to try different things.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I welcome any feedback anyone has.

Leela didn't know if she should be relieved or angry that everyone else was just as stunned by the results of the latest delivery as she had been. She may not have had the best history of reading Fry's emotions but she could tell when something was really bothering him. Now was one of those times.

He'd been excited when they'd touched down in the hanger, eager to tell everyone how he'd delivered the package without any screw ups and even gotten a tip. Leela had been dreading the part where he would recount their departure from the swampy mudball but he'd actually opted to gloss over that part. The rest of the crew had been impressed.

The problem was that they were too impressed.

Shocked and amazed was a more apt descriptor for most of them, super-charged with greed for Bender. The kleptomaniacal machine had almost extended his eyes right out of his head at the sight of such a huge amount of money.

While everyone was aware that Fry's intelligence had received a boost nobody had really adjusted to it yet. They were used to Fry being amazed and impressed by the most mundane things in modern life and by his own rather meager accomplishments. The upshot of this was that the praise for a job well done was distributed in the stilted and condescending manner that was normally reserved for praising a small child's terrible finger painting. For perhaps the first time since she'd met Fry she realized just how horrible it really sounded.

If the sullen way Fry was staring at his half eaten sandwich was any indication he felt the same way.

Leela settled down onto the couch next to Fry, casting him a sidelong look when he failed to react. She'd barely opened her mouth when Fry cut her off.

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine," Leela said.

"Yeah, well, it's probably just Slurm withdrawal." Fry took a petulant bite of his sandwich, still avoiding Leela's eye.

"Oh, let me go get you one then." Fry was always in a better mood after a cold Slurm. It had proven to be a useful shortcut to ending minor sulking sessions in the past.

"Nuh, am trahn tuh giff id uhb," Fry said through a mouthful of processed meat and bread.

"What?"

Fry swallowed and wiped his mouth on his jacket sleeve. "I said I'm trying to give it up."

"Give it up?" Leela echoed, disbelieving.

"I can't stop remembering where it comes from."

"You mean the Slurm Queen's-"

"Eating," Fry protested.

"Sorry."

Leela watched Fry finish off his lunch in silence. He was obviously not in the best of moods and she was at a loss for ideas to cheer him up. It wasn't like him to get and stay so down over something like people treating him like an idiot.

"You feel like going out tonight?" she asked at last.

"Out where?"

"I don't know. Anywhere. I mean, you can't drink right now but we should be able to find something to do. Just the two of us."

Fry's expression brightened somewhat. "We could burn through some of this tip money, I guess."

"You should hold onto that. You might need it for something."

"Like what? I can't think of anything else I'd rather spend money on than you."

"Aww... that's so sweet of you, Fry. Short sighted and financially irresponsible but sweet."

Fry rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Yeah, well, it's true. I mean, I know I screw it up a lot but spending time with you is always the best part of my day."

"I wouldn't go that far," Leela said uncomfortably. "I do kind of boss you around a lot at work."

"So?"

"You mutinied over it once."

Fry shrugged. "Yeah, but that was before Zapp was in charge. You're strict and all, but you keep us alive. Mostly. I mean, sure, most of us have died at least once at this point but you don't try to get us killed. Except the space whale thing but I think that was the weird obsession feeding thing it was doing. Look, the important thing is that you've saved me more times than I can usually count so being bossy is a good thing."

"Thank you, Fry. That's nice of you to say. I think."

"Sorry. I guess I suck at some stuff even when I'm smart."

"Don't worry about it."

–

Fry wasn't sure what it was, but Leela had been determined to get him out the door the moment the workday had ended. Typically it was Fry who was the more eager of the pair with Leela being the one reigning him in or telling him why they shouldn't do things. A strange, cynical thought had been that she trusted him more with the hat on. He much preferred the alternative explanation that she was simply trying to make him feel better.

He was also starting to deeply hate the hat.

Far from being easier to understand, the world was much more complicated when intelligent. Here he was on a totally unplanned, unscripted, do-whatever-we-want-to date with the woman he had been in love with for so long and he was barely enjoying himself. Leela also seemed just a little too tense about the whole thing but he couldn't work out why. So far all being smart had done for his relationship with Leela was put a unnamed nagging feeling in the back of his head and make her uncomfortable. Or was that what the feeling was about?

Their destination had turned out to be a museum of space travel since the end of the 20th century, complete with records of all the alien races they'd made contact with. He found ways to drag out admiring the awesome ships, replicas of awesome ships and blackened, twisted remains of awesome ships for Leela's sake. He'd noticed her hanging back a bit at times, working the controls of her wrist device in an increasingly frustrated search for something else to do when they were done. He'd have suggested they just go kill a few hours at the virtual arcade in the latest installment of "Factory of Death", but he couldn't really see the VR helmet fitting right now. Instead he made an offhand comment about being hungry and watched Leela triumphantly dig up a list of nearby restaurants.

Leela had been relieved when Fry declared himself ready for dinner. This date had been a disorganized mess right from the get go. So far as she could tell Fry didn't seem to mind that and indeed had been fascinated by seeing all the greatest space ships of Earthican history. Still, something was troubling him, leaving her casting about for something else for them to do. This had proven to be a much greater challenge than she'd expected until Fry gave her that easy out. Now things were simple. They'd have dinner someplace ordinary and talk about whatever random topics they could think of. After that they could take a nice, relaxing walk in the park before returning to her apartment for the night.

Ordinarily she'd debate with herself a lot more before deciding to take Fry home with her but she just couldn't bring herself to send him back to Bender's closet. With the way everyone was acting around him she wanted Fry to know that she at least was still there and that she valued whatever it was that was going on between them. She did not for the life of her know what said thing was but she was certain that she wasn't going to lose it to a hat.

"How do you feel about some buggalo burgers? There's a place just down the street from here with good reviews that we shouldn't be under dressed for."

"Sounds good to me."

Leela felt a twinge of disappointment when Fry put his hands in his pockets but she made no comment. It didn't really mean anything, after all. Holding hands or not holding hands was about as irrelevant a detail as could be imagined in the grand scheme of things. His hand was usually sticky anyway. She squared her shoulders and focused her attention of not running into other pedestrians.

It wasn't long until they found the restaurant and a open booth. Leela had barely started studying the menu when she heard a familiar voice filter over the background noise of the other diners.

"Come on, Kiffy. It won't be so bad."

"Oooh, I don't know, Amy... I mean, you were engaged to him for a while..."

"Spluh. But that's ancient history. He lost interest the moment I said 'monogamous'."

"Is that Amy?" Fry asked.

Leela shrugged. "I guess she and Kif are on a date. Figures they'd pick the same place."

"Took you two long enough," another familiar voice said.

"Wait, Bender too?" Leela said. A sinking feeling was starting up in her stomach and only got worse when more joined in the overheard conversation.

"Ah, my good friends Amy and the boyfriend," Zoidberg exclaimed. "You'll help pay the bill, perhaps? Let the good doctor have a hot meal? I can offer a free checkup in the morning?"

"Euhh... let's just say it's on me, no checkup required."

"Hooray!"

"Ah, shut up ya filt'y, moochin' crab," Hermes' voice joined in.

"Jeez, guess we weren't invited," Fry said grouchily.

"Oh, they probably figured we'd be going out tonight, Fry. I wouldn't jump to conclusions."

"Yeah... you're probably right. Oh well, I have all the company I need right here." Leela smiled and was about to say something when their coworkers conversation caught her attention again.

"Man, I can't believe how proud Fry was about that tip," Amy said.

Leela went rigid in her seat. This was the last thing this night needed. She'd had a plan, damn it. If Fry overheard them talking about him... Thankfully, he must have decided that their conversation wasn't interesting and was focused intently on his menu. Thanking heaven for small favors Leela tried to do the same. Her ears had other plans.

"Means plenty of lootin' for me. I ought to be able to find something I can't just as easily steal to buy with that sack of cash."

"Spleesh, Bender, do you ever stop stealing from him? Besides, Leela will have gotten him to put it all in the bank."

Bender made an affronted sound at Amy's prediction. "Stupid girlfriend getting all interfering. How much longer do you think until she dumps him again?"

"I don't know... she seems pretty attached this time. Maybe a month?"

"Actually, I was thinking they might stay together," Kif said. "After all, they do seem to be happier when they are."

"You kiddin', mon? With all the stupid things Fry does I give it two weeks at most. Rememba when he told everyone Leela was a mutant? I still can't believe she forgave him for that."

Leela scowled at her menu. What business of it was theirs how she conducted her personal life? Fry hadn't meant to get her banished from the surface. For all the reputation the Stupid Ages had for intolerance Fry had never seemed to grasp the severity of mutant segregation. Given his brain problem and everything he'd done afterward to help the mutants, going so far as to try to become one himself, Leela couldn't manage to hold a grudge.

Leela looked up to check on Fry. He was still staring at his menu. In fact, he was starting at exactly the same place he had been several minutes ago. Leela's heart sank when she realized that he had been listening the whole time.

"And then there was that time when Fry got his head stuck in that crater," Bender said.

"They're talking about me like I'm a stupid puppy or something," Fry grumbled.

"Oh, come on, Fry," Leela said gently, "Sure, you made a lot of mistakes, but we always got through it together, didn't we? And besides, the Professor said it's a genetic thing so none of it was really your fault."

"I can't get over how childish he used to be," Amy was saying. "He was all 'space travel is the gloolest thing' and 'the moon is going to be awesome!' like every little thing was just mindblowing!"

Fry sank a little lower in his seat. "The moon was awesome..."

"Come on, Fry, let's get out of here," Leela said. She took hold of Fry's hand and stood, trying to pull him up to follow her. Fry's mind was still fixated on his co-workers conversation to the point that he barely responded to being hauled upright.

"I'll be glad when he gets that hat off," Bender said. For a moment Fry's spirits visibly lifted. They crashed back down harder than Bessie when Bender finished his thought. "He actually caught me going for his wallet today! Sooner he gets it off the sooner I get back to robbing the chump blind."

Fry wrested his hand from Leela's grasp.

Fry's fists were clenched in sudden rage, his eyes fixed each of his so-called friends in turn with a furious death glare. Amy choked on her drink when she caught sight of the enraged delivery boy storming towards their table.

"Guh oh."

Amy, Hermes and Zoidberg all looked at Fry with various degrees of apprehension. Kif's camouflage reflex had engaged, leaving a headless velour uniform and a floating pair of eyes seated next to Amy. It turned out that the Professor was there as well although he was snoring quietly in the corner of the booth, completely oblivious to the unfolding situation. Bender took a long pull on his cigar and blew the smoke in Fry's general direction.

"What's your problem, meatbag?"

Slowly the rage started to bleed away. The anger that had moments ago been demanding that he start throwing punches was replaced by a dull emptiness in the face of his best friends total lack of concern until he felt as though he'd been hollowed out where he stood.

"Is this really how you guys see me?" Fry asked quietly. "Like some dumb pet you laugh at for getting choked by his leash? The guy you take advantage of because he's too dumb to notice or hold a grudge? The stupid kid who doesn't know any better than to be amazed by new things?"

"I wouldn't put it like-," Amy began hesitantly.

"Yup!" Bender cut in.

"Bender!"

"What? It's true!" the robot protested. "The only smart thing he ever did was make friends with me, Bender."

"You kiddin'? That was one of the dumbest things he eva' did!" Hermes said. The accountant winced when Fry's shoulders sagged a bit further. The wince became a somewhat frightened cringe when he noticed the disgusted expression (and cracking knuckles) of the cyclops standing behind Fry. "Ooh..."

"Forget it," Fry said in a dead monotone. "In a couple days I'll be too stupid to understand any of this, remember? So you may as well go ahead and laugh at me. Seems like it's all I'm good for. Phillip J. Fry the hilariously stupid nobody," he added quietly. Without a further word Fry turned away from the table.

"You got it, pal!" Bender called after him. His raucous cackles chased Fry all the way to the exit.