Before Fry and Leela knew it, the door opened one more time. They were finally free. And through the power of sufficiently advanced voodoo magic, their anger faded away.
Having been possessed by the virus for longer than most, even if it was only two weeks, Leela was worried she wouldn't know how to feel a wider range of emotions. It wasn't like she was particularly easygoing when she wasn't sick. One small comment would annoy her, and she'd worry she'd lose all control.
And as she rediscovered the things that made her feel calm, like her workout room and her puzzles (they actually weren't that hard after all), she became overly aware of just how calm she felt. And, ironically, it made her more nervous. It was like a phantom limb.
But when she and her soulmate got cured side by side, she immediately relearned the emotion she'd missed the most.
Love. Not just lust. Vulnerable, trusting love.
It was funny returning to their musty old apartment after hours and hours in the dome of complaining about each other's bad roommate habits. Because walking through that door together they felt like they were crossing the gates of Heaven. (And they'd kind of done that before!)
They both crashed on the couch immediately, Leela's head lying on Fry's chest.
"Did that spell leave you winded, too?" she asked.
"Yeah," he responded. "Getting a zombie virus yanked out of your body really leaves you achy for a while."
Fry ran a hand through Leela's messy, unwashed bangs – a welcome change from his daily habit of pulling at them. With his hand in her hair and his heart beating softly in her ear, Leela felt a tear come to her eye, and she had to sit up to sob.
"What's wrong, Leela?" Fry asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You don't have a sadness virus now, do you?"
She lifted her head out of her hand, sniffing. "I was so awful to you, Fry."
"It's okay. Like I said, it wasn't you. It was the virus."
"But the things I said… the things I did… I knew you were hurt, and I just…" She blinked a tear away. "I couldn't stop. I wanted to stop, but any time I tried to remember why I loved you, it just wouldn't let me." She made a fist. "I was just full of so much…"
"Rage?" Fry made the obvious guess.
"Fire. And if I didn't take it out on you, or my parents, some poor kid online, it would just keep building and burning." She lowered her head. "I'm so sorry you had to deal with that. That everyone had to deal with that." (She'd make sure to call her parents later. And maybe delete her more heated Twitcher posts.) "I know it must've hurt."
"It did hurt. A lot." As sympathetic as Fry was, he couldn't deny that. "I didn't want to make you feel worse… but even though I knew you didn't really mean it…" Now he appeared on the verge of tears. "When you said you didn't care that I loved you–"
"Of course I care." She took his hand in hers. "I just hated that I couldn't love you back. I knew it was there, behind all the fire, but I couldn't get to it. It was killing me."
Fry nodded. "I kind of knew. That's… one of the reasons I wanted to join you." He shrugged. "I would've wanted to be with you no matter what, even if the virus would've killed us. But I really hated that I didn't know what was happening to you, and I couldn't help you."
"You did help." In a long overdue gesture, Leela leaned in to hug Fry. "In your own impulsive, sort of stupid way."
He held her tighter than he'd held her in a while. "That's my favorite way to help."
Snuggled into him, not even caring how rank and sweaty they were, Leela let her mind wander to that other feeling she'd gotten to know well recently.
"You know what part I did like, though?" She traced a finger down his chest. "When you were pulling my hair and tearing off my clothes. Could you manage that without any virus helping you along?"
Fry smirked. "Maybe after a few practice runs."
After a highly necessary shower, the couple retreated to their bedroom. That's when Leela noticed two odd little creatures in their bed. One orange and familiar; one purple and new.
"Fry," Leela said with the loving tone she was so grateful to use again, "did you get us both Lovey Bears!"
"Oh! Yep!" He sat down on the bed and picked up the purple Lovey Bear, which had one eye removed in a morbidly adorable way. "I really missed cuddling with you, so I got the orange bear for you and the purple bear for me. I tried to get this one to talk, too, but…"
He squeezed the bear, which replayed Leela's voice: "You're mocking me, Fry."
"...I didn't get as good a recording of your voice." Fry gave a sheepish grin. "But it's your voice, and that's enough for me! Sorry you didn't really like your bear."
Leela sat next to Fry and picked up her orange bear. "Now that I can actually like things…" She gave the bear some playful squeezes, triggering Fry's botched "I love you, Leela" message. "I actually really like it."
She then made her orange Lovey Bear kiss Fry's purple Lovey Bear, the same way they'd made their own voodoo dolls kiss earlier. And even though these bears weren't directly tied to their souls, they felt the love all the same.
And they'd never take that for granted again.
