Down for the Count, sixth part: Exchange

by Deb H

Thursday 16 August 3004

I woke up in a small room. A warm, small room.

As I lay there in bed, I could feel some arms enfolding me. There was one under my neck, one under my back, another one across my breasts, and one more across my shoulders. The fingers of that hand were laced with the fingers of my right hand.

There was also a leg stretching across my left leg.

I couldn't see anything, but I could hear a snout breathing next to me.

Jazenny was a quiet sleeper, much different from me. She actually aksed me once, "How do you snore so loud? You don't even have a snout!"

Apparently most Neptunians snore. Jazenny was a rarity.

Of course, I knew that about her already.

I leaned over to my left to give her a kiss.

Then there was a knock at the door.

Almost immediately, something whanged against my forehead.

"Owww!" I shouted.

"Aaah!" I heard Jazenny shout.

The sound sensors automatically put the lights on. Squinting through my eyelid, I saw Jazenny holding her head, just like me.

"Shit," she said. "You okay?"

"Yeah. You?"

"I'm okay."

The sudden illumination was making my head hurt even more, so I kept my eyelid almost completely shut.

There was another knock.

"Guess we'd better get that," she said.

"I'm on it," I said.

"No, no, I'll get it. You stay right there."

She lifted my hand out of the way, kissed my forehead, and then crawled across me to the door.

I heard the door slide open partway and Jazenny say, "Oh, hey you two. Can you give us a minute or two?... Great."

The door slid shut again, and then Jazenny, kneeling down next to the bed, said to me, "Hey, it's the Joeys."

"Oh."

"Come on. Let's get some clothes on."

By this point, opening my eye only hurt a little bit. Jazenny sat on the far end of the bed, near my feet, and sorted through the clothes on the floor. Occasionally she tossed something at me.

Once I had my bra and underpants on, Jazenny had already gotten hers on. She got up again and let the Joeys in, giving them each a hug.

"Hey," the male Joey said. "Sorry if we woke you."

"Oh, it's okay," Jazenny answered. The Joeys came around to me, still sitting, and each gave me a hug at the same time. The female Joey also kissed my cheek.

"Good to see you again," she said.

"Yeah. You too," I replied.

"Have a seat," Jazenny said to them, pointing to the bed.

"No, it's okay," the male Joey said. "We just wanted to drop by real quick."

"Yeah," the female Joey added. "And say thanks. For... for last night."

"Oh," Jazenny said. "Not at all. Thank you."

The female Joey said, "I have to say, nobody's ever done the genie scenario quite like that."

Jazenny turned to me, grinning sheepishly.

It was Sunday morning now. Last night, we had been given our upgrade, the one we had been promised after their security had tased me.

When I entered the scenario, I found myself alone in a small bedroom, with no obvious exits. I was just starting to look around for secret hatches and the like when I suddenly found myself lifted toward – and apparently through – the ceiling.

The next thing I knew, I was standing before Jazenny. She had a glass bottle, a funny shaped one with a long neck, in her hand and a huge giddy grin on her face.

She made wishes all night. Every time she did, a dialogue box appeared in front of my face. The choices were always the same: GRANT, DENY, and GRANT WITH TWIST.

I tried GRANT WITH TWIST a few times. The first was when she held two of her hands in front of her breasts and said, "I wish I was bigger."

"If you say so," I said with a shrug. I clicked the last button, and another box invited me to describe the twist I wanted to give her. It promised that Jazenny wouldn't be able to hear what I said.

"Scale her entire body up," I said.

A new box aksed by how much.

"Double height."

"Whoa!" Jazenny yelped. She staggered back a few steps on the beach we were standing on as the shreds of her dress fell away. Her footprints were suddenly larger, and deeper, than normal.

"Sorry," she said. "Everything just felt weird there for a sec."

Then she finally noticed that I was shorter than her. More than normal, at least.

Looking down at me, she said, "Wait. You shrank yourself? No, I wanted to be bigger."

"You are bigger."

"No, my breasts."

"Your breasts are bigger."

"They look the same to me."

I told her, "That's because the rest of you is also bigger."

"The rest of me?" she aksed. She looked her body over carefully.

I found it funny that the first thing she looked at was her ass.

As she reviewed herself, I looked down at the pieces of the dress. I hadn't really paid attention to it when I first appeared on the beach, but it looked like a simple black cocktail dress with no colouration, or adornments, or anything. I could also see the chain of a necklace and a pair of open toed, heeled shoes that now looked ridiculously tiny.

Then I took a moment to examine my own clothing. I was wearing a flowing pink gown made from a thin material that was slightly translucent, such that the outline of my bra and underpants were visible underneath. I had several gold bangles around each wrist and a few necklaces, simple gold strips. I could also feel a hoop earring dangling from each ear.

Finally, Jazenny looked down at me. "I'm still the same," she said. "You're the one who's different."

"Guess again," I answered.

"I... what? You're the same? But that means..."

She sat down in front of me and said, "Eel... what the fuck did you do?"

Even sitting down, she was as tall as me.

I shrugged. "You said bigger."

"So you... you made me bigger."

"I did."

"You know, I want to slap you, but I'm afraid I'm gonna break you."

"You won't break me."

"How big am I?" she aksed.

"I made you double size. You're about, I dunno, thirteen feet tall now."

She said, "Double size. So, like, eight times the weight?"

"Why eight times?"

"Twice the height," she replied, holding one hand above another. Then she held the other two next to each other and added, "So eight times the volume. Two cubed."

"Oh, yeah," I said, nodding my head.

"So eight times the mass, assuming the same density. So I'm... almost six hundred kilos?"

"I... I guess so."

"Well, fuck me."

"Okay," I said. I jumped up into her arms and kissed her outsized lips. She tore my dress off and went to work on me.

After we completed a couple of rounds, she wished me larger. We kept fucking and growing until we were both nearly skyscraper size.

Lying in a rubble pile that used to be a downtown district, Jazenny climaxed once more and then reclined across my body.

Brushing one of my gigantic fingers against her breast, I aksed her, "What do you want to do now?"

"I have an idea," she responded.

She wished us back to normal, and then she wished us into Alexandra Malden and Rosalyn Fisher.

Just like that, I found myself in the brown dress, trenchcoat, and fedora from last night.

"How do I look?" Jazennalyn aksed.

I took a moment to take it all in. The blonde curls and the opera gloves stood out the most, along with her diminutive height.

Still, over the last hour or so, I had already been taller than her a few times. So that wasn't new.

"Breathtaking," I finally answered.

She smiled broadly. Then she reached up and wrapped her arms around my neck.

I bent down and kissed her.

When we pulled away, she said, "That's why I wanted a body like this. I wanted to know what it feels like to kiss at an upwards angle."

"It's great, isn't it?" I responded.

She shrugged. "I like it either way. As long as it's with you."

We kissed again.

Then, arm in arm, we climbed down from the heap of broken concrete.

"Wait," she suddenly said. "I wish all this was back to normal."

I granted it.

"And I wish we were right in front of the Golden Finch Room."

I granted it.

Jazennalyn led me inside and then said, "I'll get us some drinks. Find us a table?"

"Sure."

She gave me a quick peck of a kiss and then headed for the bar.

I wandered amongst the tables for a moment.

Then I saw them: a guy in a suit and tie, and a girl in a derby hat and suspenders.

"Joey and Joey?" I said in surprise.

"Oh, hi," the female Joey said.

"Oh hey!" the male one said. "It's Leela, right? Or... or Alexandra, I guess. Come on. Grab a chair."

I sat at the table, and he said, "Hey, good work with the genie-ing there. Looked like you guys were really enjoying it."

"Oh lord," I sighed. "You were watching? The whole thing?"

"Oh, no-no-no-no-no," the male Joey responded, holding out his hands. "Not like that. Just, you know, monitoring the statistics."

"Statistics?"

"Yeah," the female Joey answered. "We could see, like, the simulated endorphin levels and stuff, so we knew you were having a good time. And we could see your sizes. We could see you doing the whole, you know, giantess thing."

"Giantess thing?"

"It's perfectly natural," the male Joey said. "There's plenty of people who have a thing for that."

"Oh."

Suddenly, the GRANT/DENY/GRANT WITH TWIST dialogue appeared again.

Obviously Jazenny could still make wishes even when I wasn't around to hear them.

Shrugging, I reached up and clicked GRANT. I figured I would find out what the wish was soon enough.

My belly expanded to the size of the female Joey's, proving me correct.

A hand touched my shoulder.

I looked up, but not very far, to see Jazennalyn's face.

She kissed me, and then she set a glass on the table in front of me.

"Hey guys," she said to the Joeys.

"Hi," they said.

I stared at Jazennalyn as she sat down, gingerly, next to me.

"It's okay," she said. "They're Roy Rogerses."

I leaned in toward her. "Jaze... you wished me pregnant?"

"I wished us both pregnant."

Then I noticed the bump under her sequined dress and put my hands on it. She parted my trenchcoat and put her hands on my belly.

"This time I also wished that our clothes would adjust automatically," Jazennalyn said. "How do you like it?"

"It's a little weird," I answered. "But I like it."

She kissed me and said, "Wait right here."

She made her way up on stage. I joined the rest of the room in applause.

"Hello everyone," she said into the microphone. "I'm Rosalyn. And these are some songs for a special someone."

The next hour or so was simply incredible.

She sang like a canary with Ella Fitzgerald's vocal cords. Or at least, how the canary with Ella Fitzgerald's vocal cords should have sounded. The recent experiment to transplant Ella Fitzgerald's vocal cords to a canary had not been successful – Rihanna's head had very nearly had her eyes pecked out while they were supposed to be recording a duet.

Jazennalyn sang all of the songs that I had heard the previous night. But naturally, they sounded nothing alike.

If you ever have occasion to have a series of romantic songs sung to you, and the choice of singers is either a woman who is completely in love with you or a bending unit, I suggest you take the first option.

As she sang, Jazennalyn looked all around the room. I could tell that everyone, from the front of the house to the back, was drawn in. Nobody seemed to care about her gravid state, or even to notice at all.

She may have been singing to the entire room, but her gaze kept returning to me.

And every time it did, I found myself getting hotter and hotter.

By the last song, I was ready to explode. I was ready to leap onto the stage, rip off her dress, and simply have my way with her, right in front of everyone.

And I can't say I didn't think about it. After all, other than the Joeys, everyone else in there was an NPC. They were all just fake people created by a computer.

Even knowing that, though, I couldn't bring myself to override twenty eight years of self discipline. I just sat there as she finished the last song.

She stood and bowed, but then she surprised me.

"Thank you," she said as we all cheered. "Thank you so much. Before I go, I thought you might enjoy this. This is a song that I've been working on more recently."

She caught my eyes and said, "And it's called 'You and I'."

Until that point, her set had made me lust for her. But that last song made me love her all over again.

It was typical fare for a love ballad: I know you're the one for me, our love overcomes our differences, no one can keep us apart. All the same shit.

But it was clearly about us. These lyrics were a hint:

Two arms, four arms, two eyes, one eye
The only thing that matters is you and I

When she finished, she took another bow and then stepped down to the floor. She received a couple of congratulatory handshakes and hugs from people at other tables before she reached ours.

She stopped and stood before me.

I stood up.

We stared at each other for a few moments until I reached out and wrapped my arms around her waist. I gave her a deep, intense kiss, one that seemed to last forever.

It finally ended, but Jazennalyn still had her arms around my neck, dangling like a pendulum. I had to lean forward a little so that my swollen belly would fit above hers.

"I wrote that one for you," she said.

"I guessed."

She smiled and kissed me again.

Then the Joeys came around the table and gave her hugs. "That was really great," the male Joey said. "You're a natural."

"Thanks. This character was designed for it."

He giggled.

"Come on," Jazennalyn said to us. "Want to come to my dressing room?"

Once there, we had a brief spell of small talk. They told us about how they met. They were high school sweethearts, and the female Joey had gotten this job immediately after graduation. It seemed after about half a year, she convinced them to hire the male Joey. And they had been doing quality assurance for the sims ever since.

But then, out of nowhere, the female Joey said to us, "Hey, listen. We were kinda wondering... aw, hell. I'm just gonna come out and say it. Joey and I... well, we like to be a little... you know... flexible now and then."

"Flexible?" Jazennalyn aksed. "Flexible how?"

She said, "We would like... that is... we were hoping..."

The male Joey sighed and said, "We want to spend the night with you."

"Oh, is there, like, a party or something?" Jazennalyn aksed them.

He answered, "No... I mean, spend the night like..."

"Oh," I immediately said.

The female Joey looked away. She was obviously the shy one.

The male Joey went on, "I hope I'm not being too forward here. But we, well, we don't do this that often, but we do like to on occasion. When we find someone that we really like. And you two are... breathtaking. Both your regular bodies and these bodies."

"Well, this one isn't that different from my regular body," I said. "Just a couple of things are different."

"But Jazenny's is different," he answered.

"It's so different," the female Joey added. "But it's... it's still recognisably yours, Jazenny."

"What?" Jazennalyn aksed. "What does that mean?"

"It's... it's not you. It's, like, the complete opposite of you. It's short, and it's got a light complexion, and it's got long hair. But it's obvious that it is you."

"Anyway," the male Joey said, "we both think you both are attractive – well, gorgeous really – and we'd like to spend some... I guess... quality time together."

"'Quality time'?" Jazennalyn giggled.

He said, "It's okay. We're off duty."

Jazennalyn aksed them, "So... do you always do this with couples you meet in the sims?"

"We only ever aksed one other couple," the male Joey said. "They shot us down."

"Well, I'm not surprised," Jazennalyn retorted. "Sounds a little..."

"Forget it," the female Joey said as she struggled to her feet. "We'll just go."

"Wait," I said.

Jazennalyn turned to me, her head tilted at a strange angle.

"What?" I aksed her.

She leaned in and whispered in my ear, "I didn't expect... I thought you wouldn't want to."

"I'm not saying I want to."

"You don't want to?"

"I'm not saying that either."

Jazennalyn put her face in her palm.

"Sorry," I said. "I'm doing it again."

"It's all right." Jazennalyn held my hands and added, "I just thought that, you know, you might be... you might want to be fucked by a guy. Only... you wouldn't say it."

"Wh... what?"

"Look, Eel. I know you love me. I know it. But I also know there's one thing I can't do for you. And... well, this is a way for you to get what you need."

"I don't need it," I said.

"What you want, then. Eel... I meant what I said earlier. It's okay if you like guys. Really. I can't change that about you. Actually, I... I wouldn't want to. I love you the way you are. And you love me the way I am. Right?"

"Of course I do."

"Then it's okay. If you want him, that's just fine. I'm completely fine with that."

"Really?"

"Of course," she said. "I know I don't need to keep you on a leash or anything. Besides..."

"What?" I aksed her.

"Well, maybe I'll learn something from the girl Joey. You know, something that I can use on you."

I paused for a moment, and then I said, "So you think she can teach you how to fuck?"

Jazennalyn responded, "I... um... I would like to think I know how already."

"No, that's not how I meant –"

"I know," she said, cutting me off. "Teasing. Anyway, it's... it's up to you, babe."

"What do you want to do?" I aksed her.

"Whatever you want to do."

I rolled my eyes.

Somehow, it didn't seem odd having two of them to roll.

"I mean it," Jazennalyn said to me. "I mean, of course I want to do her, but, well, if that means wrecking things with you... well, it's not worth it."

"Who says it would wreck things with me?"

"Right. Exactly. We love each other. We love each other, and we trust each other. Isn't that... isn't that all that matters?"

I looked over at the Joeys, and then back at Jazennalyn.

"Yes," I said. I bent down and kissed her, and then I said, "Yes, it is all that matters."

It was a unique experience, being virtually fucked by a virtual guy while I was virtually pregnant and had virtual stereoscopic vision.

And this morning, the Joeys had come to visit us once more before we went home.

Picking up on the female Joey's comment on the genie scenario, the male Joey added, "Yeah. There's actually a lot of people who are into giantess, or pregnancy, or a billion other fetishes. But you guys certainly put your own little spin on it."

"Yeah," the female Joey said. "So, anyway, thanks for coming, and all that. And we hope we'll see you back here eventually. Don't forget about that free weekend. Maybe a virtual honeymoon?"

I looked at Jazenny, sitting next to me on the bed.

"I don't think we're quite there yet," Jazenny said. "But I think we'd really like to come back."

"Yeah," I added.

"You were great last night, Leela," the female Joey said. "That's some tongue you've got."

"I know," Jazenny replied. "I'm lucky."

I blushed.

But then I said, "Wait. How do you know? I did it with..."

I pointed at the male Joey. He was looking away.

"Well, actually..." the female Joey started to say.

Jazenny and I looked at each other. Jazenny seemed surprised, even more so than I was.

The female Joey held her hand up and said, "Yeah, you... you did it with me."

"What?" I aksed. "You were in his body?"

"Yeah."

Jazenny said, "Then that means..."

I said, "That means you didn't just fuck our bodies. You fucked our minds."

"Yeah, they did," Jazenny laughed.

"I'm sorry," the male Joey said.

"Yeah, sorry," the female one added. "We should have said something earlier. It's just, well, we always do it that way. Whenever we're in the sims, I always wear his body, and he always wears mine."

"Oh," I said. "What's that like?"

"It's fun," she said. "It helps change things up."

"Yeah," the male one responded. "There's never a dull moment with us."

They kissed each other, and then she said, "All right, well, we've got to be off. Thanks again. And sorry for... you know... fucking your minds."

"Oh, no problem," Jazenny said with a grin. "Sometimes a mind fuck is better than a body fuck."

"See you later," the male Joey said.

"Take care, you two," the female Joey said.

Once they left, Jazenny leaned into my shoulder and wrapped me up in her arms. "Wow," she sighed.

"Yeah," I said. "Did you notice?"

"What? That they swapped?"

"Yeah."

"Not a clue."

"Nor me," I responded.

She said, "So I... I guess that means... I've done it with a guy."

"Sort of," I giggled.

"Sort of, yeah."

"Come on," I said to her. "Let's get in the shower, and then we can get home."

"Of course."

I flew her home in the Planet Express ship. It was a short flight, and so she lay down on the couch and had a quick nap.

As I set the autopilot, I noticed the message light on the thing I always wear on my wrist.

I hit the button, and Fry's face appeared.

"Hey," he said. "So... have you seen the Professor's gargoyle? Apparently, like, the Professor has a gargoyle, only, like, now he can't find it or something. He wanted to go looking for it, but I guess you have the ship, so he couldn't. And we were talking about the way he drives, and, like, Amy said we should take him to a spa or something. I dunno. But we couldn't do that either, because, like, you still have the ship. Anyway, if you see the gargoyle, just, you know, let us know, or whatever. So... yeah. Hope you're having a good time with your... with your girlfriend. Guess I'll, you know, see you Monday."

I went to one of the other consoles and turned on the interior status display. There were two blips on the bridge: me and Jazenny. There was one more in the cargo bay. I punched up the camera, and there he was, sleeping in the corner.

I reached for the thing I always wear on my wrist again.

"Leela? Hey."

"Hey Fry."

"So what's... I thought you were, like, with your girlfriend."

"Jazenny?" I aksed. "Yeah. She's here. We're on our way back to Earth."

"Oh. How was the... whatever you guys went to?"

"The resort? It was fun. A little weird."

"Really? Weird how?"

"It's... it's a long story. Anyway, reason I'm calling... I got Pazuzu."

"You got what?"

"Pazuzu."

"An Isuzu? Do they still make those?"

"Yeah, but they're not selling. I drove an Isuzu Storm Trooper once. It sucked."

"Really? Why?"

"The laser mounts were shoddy. You couldn't hit anything. And the robot recognition software is terrible. You know, I would click on a robot, and I would know that it was the right robot, but it would still think that they weren't the droids I was looking for. Wait, why are we talking about this? No, I found Pazuzu. The Professor's gargoyle. He's in the cargo bay."

"Oh."

"Yeah, he must have been in there when we left."

"I didn't even know the Professor had a gargoyle."

I said, "That's because you don't pay attention."

"What's because I don't pay attention?" he aksed.

"You didn't know the Professor had a gargoyle."

"I didn't know that?"

"That's what you just said."

"I was pretty sure I knew that. Why would I say I didn't?"

"I don't know! You're the one who said it!"

I saw Jazenny's legs, off one end of the couch, stir.

"Listen," I added, more softly, "there was another thing I wanted to call about. I... I'm really sorry about what I said to you."

"Oh, that? Yeah, it's okay. Don't worry about it."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah. I mean, I was being an annoying asshole."

"You weren't."

"I was."

"Fry, no, you weren't. I... I didn't mean to say that. It just... it just slipped out."

"It's okay, Leela. I know what you meant. It's none of my business who you're into."

"But..."

"And she makes you happy. Right?"

I looked up at her and sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, she does."

"Then... you know... that's what matters."

"Yeah. I... I guess it is."

"Good," he said.

"Yeah."

"Oh, by the way, what do you think about the Professor?"

"What about him?" I aksed.

"Do you think he's too old?" Fry said. "Amy thinks he is. She said I should ask you. She said you'd back her up on that. I guess she wants to take him to some spa or something. You know, someplace where they'll make him, like, less old or whatever. I think it's kinda weird, but, you know, if you think it's a good idea, then, well, I guess I'm with you. So what do you think?"

"About the Professor?"

"Yeah. Is he too old?"

I looked up at Jazenny again.

Then I said to Fry, "You know, I could not give an owl's ass about the Professor right now."

"Whose ass would you give?"

"I... what? It doesn't matter. I don't care."

"You don't? At all?"

"I really don't."

"Oh. Well, anyway, I'll tell the Professor that you're bringing back Joe Isuzu."

"Pazuzu."

"Mewtwo?"

"Pazuzu."

"Desmond Tutu?"

I sighed, "I'll just E-mail the Professor."

"All right. So I'll... see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

"Kay. Bye."

"Bye."

I turned off the thing, and then I went up to the couch. I kneeled over the back and started to play with Jazenny's hair.

But then I was suddenly reminded of the conversation we'd had in the lounge while the sims were down.

In particular, the moment when I realised it was time to tell her.

You thought that was a mind fuck, I thought. Just wait.

I gave a tiny giggle.

"What?" Jazenny aksed.

"Nothing."

"Come on. What is it?"

I looked down at her.

"Aks me again tonight," I answered. "Like, after dinner."

"Oh. Um... okay."

I bent down toward her. She sat up a little and kissed me.

I landed us in the hangar. As we grabbed our suitcases and descended the stairs, Jazenny said, "You know, I haven't met your coworkers yet. Other than Amy."

"You will," I said. "I've got a plan."

"A plan?"

"Yeah. I'll tell you tonight."

"You've got a lot of stuff to tell me tonight."

"Wait, hang on," I said.

I turned around and hit a button on the thing I always wear on my wrist. The ship's cargo bay door lowered to the ground.

"The Professor's gargoyle was on board," I explained. "Thought I'd leave it open in case he wanted to get out."

"Gargoyle?"

"Yeah. He has a gargoyle."

"Is that one of your coworkers?"

We left the building and walked to the tube intake.

I said to her, "Anyway, yeah, I know I have a lot of stuff to tell you. This... this is a big one."

"What is?" she aksed. "Your coworkers?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "Not them. Well... maybe. But no, I... can we just wait until tonight? I'll tell you all of it."

"Okay."

"Good."

We took the tube to South Street Spaceport. Then Jazenny led me to where she parked her rocket car.

We had been planning to take a commercial flight to the Sideways Planet and back home, but the delivery on Friday night had boned our plans.

In retrospect, though, it was actually a blessing. It was a much faster trip in the Planet Express ship, especially including the security screening and shit that we didn't have to do.

Eventually, Jazenny found her car. She flew us to my apartment so I could drop off my suitcase, and then we went to San Antonio for lunch and a training session.

Jazenny and I were all over each other most of the time. There were plenty of kisses, hair strokes, gropes, hand holds, kisses, gropes, stares, kisses, gropes, and kisses when we were together.

But during training, we didn't fuck around.

I had a lot of jobs here at the gym. Instructor. Spotter. Coach. Sparring partner. Cheerleader.

Mostly, though, my job was to make her the best damn fighter she could be.

Training methods really hadn't changed much in the last thousand years. Jazenny and I usually started with some running on the treadmill. We would follow that either with some weight training or with some balance and reflex exercises, where I would toss a ball at her in a random direction and make her catch it. Then she would put on her set of gloves – Neptunians used the word set rather than pair – and we would go to the punching bag and the speedbag.

Then we would finally work on real boxing techniques. Some days, I would help her develop a particular type of punch. On occasion, I would try to teach her a technique I had seen another boxer use.

We would always end the workout with a sparring session, where I would try to imitate the style of her next opponent. Naturally, it was tricky for me, given the handicap I had compared with Neptunians.

And yes, we made the handicap joke nearly every time.

It all seemed to be working. She was in the midst of a winning streak, having defeated six consecutive opponents. Of course, she was favoured against most of those opponents to begin with, but all of them got in plenty of punches. Jazenny had had to work for it each time.

The sparring seemed to be making the most difference. She would always tell me that nobody at her gym could keep up with her the way I could.

"You're indefatigable," she'd say.

Well, that's what she'd try to say. She always had trouble pronouncing it. If she stuttered too much trying to say it, I'd give her a kiss.

It was just as well that she tried to say that only after our training sessions were over. If she ever said it during the session, I wouldn't be able to help myself.

After we finished sparring, we would go back to her apartment. I would always give her a rubdown, to keep her muscles from tensing up. Then we'd have a shower, which always turned into a fuck.

Actually, sometimes we didn't even wait until the shower. Sometimes we'd do it during the rubdown, or even in place of it.

After all, there are multiple ways to keep your muscles loose.

Today, after we finished in the shower, we had a quiet afternoon at home. I sat on her couch and watched the rest of the Yankees game, with her lying across the couch and resting her head in my lap. She wrapped one pair of arms around my waist, and on occasion, her other hands slipped underneath my tank top and stroked my hips or my stomach.

After that, we went downtown to the Hover-River.

It was the centrepiece of San Antonio. It was essentially a pedestrian walkway that weaved right through downtown, completely normal in every respect except for the river above it.

Somehow, they had managed to suspend the water above the walkway. It was high enough that if I reached up and stood on my tiptoes, I could just barely poke my fingers into the water. Jazenny, of course, could reach the water more easily.

I loved taking walks with Jazenny, and a lot of that was due to the way we held hands.

She would hold my hand in her lower hand, with our fingers laced together. Her upper arm would wrap around my arm and pull us close together.

"Want to go there?" Jazenny aksed me, pointing to a tiny restaurant on one corner. "I hear they have good fish tacos."

I stopped and looked up, through the water, toward the setting Sun. We had walked most of the Hover-River's length.

"Shit," I moaned.

"What?" Jazenny said. "What is it?"

"Oh, it's... it's nothing. I just..."

Jazenny had tilted her head one way, giving me an odd look.

This was her You're acting a little insane look.

I told her, "I... what you said, just now. It reminded me of something I... something I said to Fry this weekend."

I looked away, withdrew my hand, and started to twist my ponytail in my hands.

"Eel?"

She put her hands on my arms and waited until I stopped and met her gaze.

"Wanna talk?" she aksed me.

"Yeah," I said. "I... let's get some tacos first. I'll tell you on the way home."

We went inside and placed our takeout orders. As we waited, I summarised the delivery that Fry and I had made on Friday, when I told him about her.

Just as I was getting to the important part of the story, they brought us the bag. Jazenny took it in one hand, and I held one of her other hands and led her back toward where we parked.

"That smells really good," I said.

"It does, yeah."

"Yeah. Anyway, about then, he aksed if I was attracted to him. And then I... I called him an annoying asshole."

"What?"

"I know," I sighed. "I fucked up. It just slipped out. I mean, I called him earlier today, when we were on the way home, and apologised. I told him I didn't mean it. He was okay about it."

"Oh." We walked a little longer, and then Jazenny added, "So is he an annoying asshole?"

"No," I answered. "He's not. He just..."

"He just what?" she aksed.

"He just can't take a hint. He's had a thing for me ever since we met. But I've told him so many times that it wouldn't work. That it can never work between me and him."

We went up a set of stairs to the lot where Jazenny had parked her rocket car.

"I guess that's why I was kind of reluctant to tell him about us," I said while she lifted off toward her apartment.

Jazenny replied, "But now he knows."

"Yeah."

"Think he'll leave you alone now?"

"I don't know."

"Do... do you want him to?"

Jazenny was pulling into our building now. She was paying full attention to the road.

It was as though she was afraid to look at me.

I waited until she parked. I let her turn off the car, but as she pulled the key out of the column, I reached out and grabbed her hand.

"Jaze," I said.

"Yeah?" she aksed. "What is it?" She seemed uncertain.

"Jaze, you're the one for me."

I pulled her hand away from the column and kissed it.

I added, "You know that, don't you?"

"I... but I thought..."

"What?" I aksed her.

"Isn't he, well, isn't he more your type?"

"What do you mean? Because he's a human?"

Jazenny responded, "Well, I meant, because he's a he."

"Oh," I said. "No, he's not my type. He is so not."

"So what is your type?"

"Well, for the longest time, I didn't know what it was. Or, well, I thought I knew. It turned out I was wrong."

I looked down at her hand in my lap.

I went on, "I should have been looking for someone with the perfect mix of youth and maturity. Someone who knows when to take things seriously and when to loosen up. Someone who can make me laugh, intentionally or... or otherwise."

I lifted my gaze up and met her eyes.

"Someone who has an upper right cross that can bend a girder."

The relief was plain on Jazenny's face. Slowly, the hesitation and uncertainty melted away, and a smile formed.

"Look, Fry is a friend," I told her. "A really good friend. He... I owe him a lot."

I wrapped my hands around Jazenny's hand, which was still clinging to the keys.

"But I owe you my heart," I whispered.

I pulled her hand toward me.

The rest of her followed, and so I leaned in and kissed her.

Her other arms wrapped me up and pulled me close.

"Mmmf!" I said. I worked my lips free and said, "Seatbelt!"

"Oh! Sorry!"

She undid my seatbelt and pulled me close for another kiss. This was followed by a few more just like it.

"I love you, Eel."

"I love you, Jaze."

We sat there in the car a few more minutes, her staring into my eye.

"Come on," I finally said. "Our tacos are getting cold."

We went back into her apartment. I got us a bottle of wine while she sat at the table.

"So what was the connection with tacos?"

"What?" I aksed.

"Tacos," she repeated. I sat down next to her, and she continued, "You said you thought of that when I suggested the taco place."

"Oh, that," I said.

She reached into the bag and gave me one of the tacos.

I unwrapped it and said, "Yeah, I brought him a taco one time when I was... well, it all started when we put on the Professor's netsuits and went online..."

I told her about the gaming session where I first saw Alkazar, how I believed I had finally found my home planet, all the way through Fry riding to the rescue with Alkazar's other brides.

By the time I was done, we had finished off the tacos, and the wine was nearly gone as well.

"You have so many stories," Jazenny said, taking a sip from her glass. "And they all seem to take about the same time to tell. Twenty two minutes."

"You time my stories?" I aksed.

She shrugged. "I just kinda noticed. But yeah, I'm glad you didn't get married."

"Me too. I told you I owe him."

"I guess so."

"And... and not just for that."

She made a different face.

This one was a close relative of the You're acting a little insane look, but the brow was furrowed a bit more. That made this her I'm unsure how to react to that face.

"Tell you what," I said to her. "Let's go back to New New York, and then I'll tell you what I have to tell you."

"What do you have to tell me?"

"I'll tell you when we get to my place."

"Um... okay."

We got back in her car. This time I was quiet. I just held her hand the whole trip.

When we got back to my place, Jazenny went into my bedroom, calling, "Nibbler? Are you here?"

"He's with Amy for the weekend," I said.

"Oh," Jazenny replied. "So should I go to the bathroom now before you start your story?"

"Actually," I said, "I could add a couple of act breaks to the story. That would make it about thirty minutes in total."

She sat down in my chair, held all her arms out, and said, "Then c'mere. How does this story start? Did you win a trip to a soft drink factory? Visit the race track? Or did you go to watch a supernova?"

I sat in her lap, letting her wrap me up.

A couple of hands groped my breasts.

"No, this story begins when my orphanarium named me Orphan of the Year."

I told her everything from that story, with one breakpoint before Bender's whale and another when I jumped from the ladder into the mutagenic lake.

"For Bender and Fry, the bus was all they needed at that particular moment," I said. "But I had to know the truth. So I closed the personhole cover. I took a slow, deep breath. And then I let go of the ladder."

"So? Then what happened?" Jazenny aksed me when I got to that point.

"Then you had to go to the bathroom," I said, making a face at her.

With a groan, she glared at me. Then she pushed me out of her arms and ran to the bathroom.

When she returned, I sat down with her again and resumed the story, telling her about the waters that didn't mutate me but that seemed to work fine for Virginia.

Before long, I got to the end, when I finally hugged my parents for the first time.

"We were all crying," I said. "I think even Bender was touched."

Jazenny held me just a little tighter. She kissed my neck.

I looked over my shoulder and found tears in her eyes.

"So... so you found your parents."

"Yeah."

"When was this?"

"Just a few months ago. Not long before I met you."

"You never said anything," Jazenny said. "You kept saying you were an orphan."

"Yeah," I said. "I can't exactly go around telling everyone that I'm a mutant."

"You're what?"

I sighed. "Jaze... weren't you listening? I'm the daughter of mutants. So yes, that makes me a mutant. And you think I'm blonde."

She said, "It's okay. Eel, it doesn't matter. Name one person who cares if you're a mutant."

"Everybody."

She started to say, "I said one person..."

"Jaze, look. I'm... mutants are supposed to be confined to the sewers. It's illegal for me to be on the surface. Everyone thinks I'm an alien. Hell, I thought I was an alien. It was the perfect disguise. So good I didn't even know it was a disguise."

I paused for a breath, and then I went on, "The truth is, I'm on the surface illegally. Have been my entire life. The only people who know are my parents, and the people I've been working with these last few years."

Another pause.

"And now you."

She released me and turned me around. Now we were face to face, each sitting against opposite arms of the chair.

She put two arms over my shoulders and two around my waist.

"Eel," she whispered.

"Yeah?"

"I don't care."

"About what?"

"About you being a mutant. It doesn't matter if you're a mutant, an alien, a Neptunian, a human, a robot, whatever. You're the girl I love."

I smiled.

She continued, "The important part of the story is, you found your parents. That's what matters. That's the point of that story."

"No it's not," I insisted. "It does matter that I'm a mutant. It's my secret. And you have to help me keep it. Okay? Nobody can know."

"Right," she said.

"Nobody."

"Of course."

"I mean it, Jaze." I slipped out of the chair and kneeled on the floor in front of her. Holding onto her upper pair of hands, I said, "They could throw me down there. For the rest of my life. You'd never be able to see me again."

She said, "But normals can go into the sewers. You've been down there."

"Yeah."

"So I could still visit you."

"So it's okay if I get thrown down there?" I aksed.

"That's not what I meant."

"I know," I said. "It's just... this is a big thing for me."

"I know. And... your secret is safe with me."

She took a deep breath and held up two hands. "I swear to you, Eel. I'll never breathe a word. On my... on my mother's grave."

I got up and kissed her.

We'd had some emotional kisses before. The kind of kiss where we just let ourselves get lost in the moment and become part of one another.

This was that multiplied by a few trillion.

This was us combining into one.

A hive mind.

A single superorganism.

Jazeela.

We're committed now, I thought.

When we finally pulled away, I laughed a little.

"What?" she aksed.

"You've got tears streaking all down your face."

"So do you."

We kissed again.

Once we were all kissed out, I sat down in my chair and let Jazenny sit on my lap. I turned on a movie – it looked like a remake of Sleepless in Seattle set on a planet where it rains liquid methane as much as Seattle rains water – and wrapped my arms around her waist. She reached back and held onto my thighs.

"So I had a plan for Friday," I said.

"Oh, right," she replied. "Your plan."

"Yeah. You have a fight on Saturday, but I was hoping that on Friday you'd want to, you know, meet my parents."

She turned around and looked at me.

"Your parents?" she aksed.

"Yeah."

"In the sewers?"

"Yeah."

"I'd like that," she answered.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Of course."

I kissed her again and said to her, "I don't think anyone has ever been that excited to visit the sewers before."

We reconfigured ourselves so that I had one leg over one arm of the chair, and she had her upper body over the other arm. I leaned over and rested my chin on one of her shoulders.

I told her to meet me at work on Friday evening. I would introduce her to my coworkers, and then we would go down into the sewers and have dinner with my parents.

"Sounds like fun," she said.

I looked over at her.

"What?" she aksed.

I said, "Not sure that's the word I'd use."

"What word would you use?"

I thought about it.

"It'll be... it'll be interesting."

Fry and I had spent a week meeting with just about everyone, both at the clinic and at Planet Express. I had heard more about medical equipment in those meetings than in all of the medical dramas I had ever watched.

The clinic was going to open on time, in about a week and a half. We were going to treat war wounded, but we were also going to try to open a pædiatric ward so we could treat kids. One of the pediatricians had suggested that, and it was obviously a great idea.

As for Planet Express, we decided to build another ship, to go with the new one. The Turanga Leela was mine now, and so the Professor and Cubert had designed a replacement for BW and Bender to use. The shipyard had the plans already, so they could build more as needed. Hermes was also going to hire more delivery crews.

After the last meeting, Fry and I visited Mars. Remi, who had already moved there in anticipation of starting at Mars U, took me to a club near campus. It was Wittgenstein-a-Go-Go, located not far from the philosophy department. I had been there frequently during my college career.

Fry dropped us off and then went to talk to some of the profs. I think he wanted them to open a department of mutant-Earthican studies.

Remi put me on her back, and I held on to her waist as she suddenly tilted backward. We were ascending a set of stairs. That surely meant that we were going to the VIP balcony.

I hadn't been up there before. Oh, I could have. I probably could have gotten into any VIP room in any club or bar anywhere on Earth or Mars. I had been in plenty, like the one at Entropy in Mars Vegas or the ladies' room at Kayleigh's.

This wasn't like that, but it was still fairly roomy. Even though it overlooked the dance floor, it also extended back so that part of it was quiet. That was something I really appreciated as Remi set me down on a couch. She sat down next to me.

"It is so good to see you again," she said to me. "I thought you were gone."

"Yeah," I said. "Me too."

"I feel like... everything's right now," she responded. "You know? Now that you're back, everything's okay."

"Not everything," I said, clasping my hands.

"Why? What is it?"

I simply said, "Leela."

"Oh."

There was a pause.

"Sorry, Amy."

"It's okay," I said.

She said, "I'm gonna get a drink. Want one?"

"Sure. How about a sonic screwdriver?"

"Sure thing. Back in a sec."

I heard her many footfalls slink away.

Pawfalls, I suppose.

I thought she was one of the cutest mutants. She was a hexacattaur, as she liked to call herself. She had six legs that ended in paws, and most of her body was covered in black fur.

I had never been able to hear her walk before. Was my hearing getting more sensitive?

They said that was a possibility. The doctors said that sometimes blind people have stronger hearing, smell, and stuff. Their other senses improve because they're relying on them so much.

She came back in a moment, and there was a slight thunk that must have been her setting the glass on the table.

"Thanks," I said.

I reached out for it, carefully.

"Oh shit," Remi said. "Sorry."

I suddenly got a handful of fur. It was Remi's hand, and my thumb could feel the glass underneath it.

Her hand was warm to the touch. But it was also vibrating a bit. It was like she was shivering.

Or maybe she was nervous.

I maneuvered my hand down and got a grip on the glass.

"Sorry," she said again, and giggled.

She moved her hand out of the way, and I took a taste of the drink.

"I got you a ten," she said. "I didn't know what kind of sonic screwdriver you wanted."

I answered, "Ten's good."

"I've heard some people around here say that four is the best. But I like ten."

"I haven't tried all of them."

"There actually aren't that many," Remi said. "Like, there's no six. And I think nine and ten are the same."

"How do you know all that?" I aksed her. "You're so young."

"I'm old enough to drink here."

That was true. The drinking age on Mars was lower than on Earth.

For a fleeting moment, I thought about something that had happened a few months earlier. It was when Fry and I were watching Martian news coverage about my father, or my uncle, or whoever he was.

Fry had pointed to the screen and said, "That's not how you spell color."

"Sure it is," I had responded. "That's how we spell it on Mars. With the U."

"I thought that was, like, how they spell it in Canada."

"Well, you know what they say about Mars, right?" I aksed him. "Earth's Canada."

The drinking age was just one of many small differences from Earth that had earned Mars that epithet.

I relaxed into the couch as Remi began to tell me about her experiences on Mars so far. They were about to start orientation, and then classes would begin a week later. Not many of her new classmates had arrived yet, so she was mostly getting to know the upperclassmen who were there for summer research projects.

"How have people been?" I aksed her. "Do they know... you know... what you are?"

She answered, "Some of them do, yeah. But everybody's been real nice. Nobody's given me any trouble or anything."

"Good."

"How about you?" she aksed me. "I mean, I heard the news, and, like, I was shocked. I mean, I left because... you know, I came here early because I just couldn't... I couldn't live there."

"Why not?"

"You weren't there," she said. "It wasn't the same without you."

"Oh," I replied. "Thanks."

She took my hand and kissed it.

"But you guys are gonna have to stop treating me like royalty," I said to her.

"Well, good luck trying to talk everyone into that. So is everything good? You're living with Fry?"

"Yeah. Yeah, things are good. The clinic is almost ready to open. I've been meeting with people there. It's... well, it's bigger than I expected."

She giggled again, just a bit. "That's good."

"Yeah."

She told me some more stories, and we had some more drinks.

Sometime later, she was telling me about a guy she had gone to high school with, a guy who had ended up in charge of Epsilon Eridani 4's new postal service. It seemed that he had just discovered that people on the surface don't just flush letters to one another.

But then she came to a halt.

"Something wrong?" she aksed me.

"What?"

"You just seem... I dunno... distracted. Or... you've got something on your mind, maybe."

I drew in a breath.

I'm not sure why I told her. I had talked with her during the construction, sure. There was that time I went to her trailer.

But this was different.

She put a furry arm around my shoulder.

"It's... it's a dream," I finally said. "A few of them. I've been having them since I got out of..."

I trailed off.

"Since the rescue?" she aksed.

"Yeah."

"Is it always the same one?"

"No, but they fit together. They're like episodes. You know? Each one picks up where the last one left off."

Her arm moved slightly back and forth. I guess she was nodding.

"Are they about Leela?"

"Yeah," I told her. "They're about Leela and, well, another girl."

"Another girl?"

"Yeah. And she and Leela are..."

"Sleeping together?"

"Well, yeah," I said. "But more than that. They're, like, in love."

Then Remi aksed, "Is it you?"

"What?"

"Is the other girl you?"

"What?" I aksed again. "No. It's not. It's, like, this boxer chick."

"Oh. Okay," she said. "So... do you wish it was you?"

"What does that mean?" I aksed.

"Maybe that's what that dream means."

I glared at her.

Well, of course I couldn't actually see her. I just glared in her direction.

All right. From now on, whenever I write something like that, like I glared at her, it means that I glared in her direction. Okay? Good.

So I glared at her.

I said, with a significant dose of displeasure, "If it was, why wouldn't I just dream that?"

She said, "I don't know. There's still a lot about the human mind that we don't understand."

I didn't respond.

"So... is she happy?" Remi aksed.

"Who? Leela?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, she is. I think they're gonna get married. That one's probably coming up soon."

"Do you have them every night?"

"No," I told her. "Not every night. They skip some nights here and there. Actually, I don't think I've had one for a few days now."

"Oh."

"Thing is..."

I paused.

"Yeah?"

I moved my hands around idly.

I was trying to avoid telling her that I was dreaming about being Leela.

And that the Leela that I was dreaming about being was a bisexual swinger.

Remi pulled me in closer.

"I... I think I prefer the dream."

"You do?"

"Yeah. I mean, Leela's there. That's way better than this. And she's happy. She's thrilled. Excited. I never really saw her like that before."

"She hasn't been in a relationship like that?"

Hasn't been.

Remi was using a present participle, or whatever the hell that verb tense is called.

It was the one you use for people who are still alive.

She hasn't been in a relationship like that.

And because of me, she never will be.

Before I knew it, I was crying again.

"Ohhhh," Remi whispered. "Come here."

Her hands pulled me into a hug. One of them rested my head on her shoulder.

"I miss her," I said, my throat struggling to get the words out. "I just miss her so much."

She tried to wipe some of the tears away from my cheek. She didn't try to take my shades away.

I went on, "And... everyone I meet... every mutant... reminds me of her. And every time I think of her, I think of..."

I think of how I killed her, I almost said.

That would have been a huge mess.

Everyone was being so kind to us. They all thought I had been devastated like that because I had seen the guy kill her.

No, it was much worse than that.

The mutants could never know. Especially her parents.

I had been afraid to tell Fry. I didn't know how he would react, of course. But I think I was also fearful that he might spill the secret.

And now I had nearly done just that.

"It's okay," Remi murmured.

She kissed my forehead.

I tilted my head up in response. Even though I couldn't actually look at her, it was more of an instinct.

That little kiss had sparked something in me.

Suddenly, I was filled with the urge to kiss her back.

Hell, more than that. I wanted to fuck her.

I wanted her to push me onto my back, rip off my cargo pants, and have her way with me. I wanted to taste her pussy.

I wanted to find out if her extra pairs of legs also had pussies between them.

Pussycat pussies, I realised.

I started to laugh to myself, thinking of the phrase pussycat pussy.

If she does have one between each pair, I thought, it would be: Pussycat pussy, pussycat pussy, pussycat pussy.

"There," Remi said. "There's a smile."

"Hm?" I aksed.

"You're smiling."

"Oh."

She leaned over and pulled me into a tight hug.

"Amy?" she said.

"Yeah?"

"Can I... take your shades off?"

"My shades?" I aksed.

"Is that okay?" she aksed. "I just want to see your eyes."

"Yeah," I answered. "Okay."

Her thumbs brushed against my temples, and then, a moment after that, the shades weren't there any more.

She was silent.

After she was done being silent, she started to be silent again.

After a few more silentifications, I finally aksed her, "Well, what do you think?"

She said, haltingly, "I... um... I think they're..."

"What?"

She inhaled deeply.

"Still beautiful," she finally said. "Just like before."

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah," she said. "Of course."

I reached out a hand.

Something metal touched it.

I could feel something long and skinny, and then something flat and slightly curved.

"Here they are," she said.

"Actually," I answered, "I was... um... going for your hand."

"My hand?"

"Yeah, your hand," I said. "You know. That thing with the fingers. At the end of your arm."

"Yeah," she said. "You mean this thing."

My shades were pulled out of my hand, and then there was her hand.

It was hot, and a little wet.

Was her palm sweating?

Or maybe it was mine.

"Oh," Remi suddenly said.

Her hand pulled away, and the couch cushion I was sitting on seemed to shift upward.

"Hey Fry," I heard from my side.

Remi had apparently stood up from the couch.

"Hey," Fry answered. "How are you two girls doing?"

"Doing okay," she said to him. "Oh, wait."

Her hairy knuckles touched the sides of my head again, and she slipped my shades back on my face.

"Here you go," she said to me. To Fry, she aksed, "How was your meeting?"

"Okay," he said. "I don't think they like me very much."

"Why?" she said. "Why not?"

Fry sat down next to me and put his arms around my waist.

He replied to Remi, "They think I'm stupid."

"No they don't," I said.

"Of course they do," he said. "They're humanities professors. Or alienities professors. And maybe they have some robotities professors too. I dunno. I didn't see any."

"Fry?" I said.

"Yeah?"

"You're not stupid."

I pulled him tight.

"You really think that?" he said.

"Of course."

"Then you're stupid."

I laughed a little at that.

"Kiss," I said.

He placed a couple of fingers on my chin and drew me in for a kiss.

We had started to do things that way lately.

The first few days after I left the clinic, whenever I wanted to kiss him, I would reach out blindly and brush my hands all over Fry's face to make sure I knew where his lips were in three dimensional space. Only then would I go in, slowly, deliberately.

Then I started aksing him for kisses. After all, he wasn't going to turn me down.

Maybe one day he'll know when I want a kiss and I won't have to aks for it. Like those old married couples.

I probably sound a little presumptuous, like I'm assuming that we're going to get married.

Well, why shouldn't I? It's not like there's anyone better out there. We're both damaged goods.

Besides, we fit together so well.

I understand how he feels, the man who's lost the brightest thing in his life. He understands how I feel, the woman who's carrying twelve tons of secret everywhere.

All right, maybe he doesn't understand exactly how I feel.

I don't want him to, though. Nobody should have to go through this. Nobody should have to know what it's like to kill one of your friends and then fall in love with your other friend, the one who was in love with the one that you killed.

But the fact is, he's exactly what I need now. He's the understanding, and the support, and the love. And it's unconditional love, too. He knows what I did, and he doesn't care.

After he kissed me, I leaned over into his lap, and I just stayed there while he talked with Remi. I didn't listen much, as it soon became clear that she was telling him the same stories she had already told me.

I must have been drifting off, because I suddenly found myself being roused out of Fry's lap.

"Hey," he said. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah," I said. "I guess. Was I... was I asleep?"

"I don't think so," he answered. "I think you were going that direction, though."

"Oh."

"It's okay," he said. "It's kinda late. And we've had a long week."

"Yeah."

He helped me to my feet.

"Good to see you again, Remi," Fry said.

"Yeah, you too."

There was a little kissy sound.

"Amy?" Remi said.

"Yeah?"

"It was really good to see you again."

"Yeah, you too," I answered. "I mean..."

She laughed. "I know what you mean."

She hugged me. It was another tight one.

"Hey, give me a call any time," she said. "Any time at all. If you wanna talk, I'm here."

"Oh," I said. "Okay. Thanks. Thanks, Remi."

"Any time," she repeated. "I'm here for you."

She hugged again, and then Fry and I were on our way home.

I was gradually getting better at walking in the blind. I wasn't drifting off into odd directions any more. Well, not as much. And Fry was holding my hand every step of the way.

Even so, it was a fairly long walk back to the Leela.

"So was that a kiss?" I aksed him.

"On Remi's cheek?" he said. "Yeah."

"Didn't you kiss Vyolet on the cheek too?"

"Yeah. I do cheek kisses now. Cheek kisses are cool."

"Whatever," I said.

"You don't like them?"

"It's not the kind I prefer, no," I answered.

"What kind do you –" he started to say, but then he suddenly added, "Step."

I stopped and poked around with my toe.

"Down," Fry added.

I lowered my foot and found the step.

"Okay," I said.

A moment later, he said, "We're here."

I knew the way from here. I stepped up onto the landing pad and continued up the stairs.

After we took off, Fry said, "So I think I can guess what kind of kiss you like."

"You can?" I said.

"Yeah."

"Show me?"

He gave me a soft and tender kiss on the lips. Then another one.

"That's not bad," I said to him. "But it's not quite what I like."

"Hold that thought," he said. "I gotta fly us."

Fry piloted us back home, and when we got back, we were making out before we even got off the ship.

But, as had become our new routine, he stopped us before we could go as far as I wanted.

I thought about the last dream, and about what I couldn't say to Remi.

I couldn't explain to her that I was Leela in the dreams. I also couldn't explain to her that Leela was totally out of character in the dreams.

And there's definitely no way I could tell Fry about any of that.

It's funny, in a way.

Fry and I sleep right next to each other. But in many ways, we're megaparsecs apart.