Hokay, I'm going to wrap this story up now because I'm going away for the weekend and then I have to attend an Induction on either Monday or Tuesday.
After a moment the Nibblonians climbed off of Fry and started to head out into street. Leela stepped over them to kneel by Fry’s side. Red flushed his pale cheeks, his claws retracted back to normal nails and the scales became loose and started to blow away. His breathing was harsh and but regular and his rigid body gradually became more relaxed. Leela gently tapped on a fang with her nail and gasped when the sharp tip simply turned to dust.
‘Dried out.’ Nibbler informed her, ‘When Gheshians don’t drink their required amount of blood, they dry out quickly.’ He tapped the other one firmly and it too disappeared to dust.
‘He could have bitten me.’ She said in amazement tracing his now normal teeth, ‘But he didn’t.’
‘After a while, people can fight their possessors, but it takes a lot of mental effort.’ He glanced down at Fry’s figure.
‘He didn’t show much resistance when we took him the second time, you must have reminded him of himself. Well done.’ Leela had to think for a moment to understand what he meant before smiled proudly, but then glanced worriedly at him.
‘He’s going to be alright?’
‘Yes, you’re going to make sure of that, and I will help you.’ The Nibblonian walked out to where his spaceship was and pushed it into the alley.
‘Can I ask you something?’ Leela said to Nibbler as she picked up the leftover cup.
‘Anything, my friend.’ Leela smiled warmly at her surprising pet.
‘What was it that you gave him?’
‘It seems to be a strong alcohol base with a rare liquid healing potion. The alcohol kills off Gheshian DNA while the healing potion will heal cuts and counter any effects the alcohol causes to the natural system.’ He said informatively as he prepared his ship. ‘It turns out we could have rubbed any alcoholic substance into the wound, but I thought it had to be consumed, that’s why it confused me in…’
‘Fry’s drunken state he still transformed.’ Leela finished for him. Brushing off some excess scales, she picked up Fry’s limp figure with difficulty and sat him in the small ship.
‘Uh, Nibbler? How are we going to fit?’ Nibbler thought for a second then pressed a button on the dash board and it made the ship expand backwards putting an extra seat between Fry and the front seat. Leela squeezed in, half sitting on the chair, half in Fry’s lap. Nibbler scrambled in and closed the roof; Leela’s head was forced down and Fry’s was forced to her shoulder. The spacehip shuddered with extra weight as it took off in to the streets of New New York.
It touched down by Leela’s apartment and Nibbler popped out as the roof opened. Leela was glad to have the pressure off her head, but she found she could not climb out; Fry’s head was still gently rested on her shoulder and for some reason his arms held her waist in a firm embrace. She gently pried his fingers from her middle and tried to carefully slip out from under his head without letting him fall forward. She carried him carefully to her apartment and after brushing most of the scales off in the bathtub she laid him gently on the bed.
‘The Fry that I love, I love, I love, I love’
‘kill her, kill her, kill her.’
‘Stop toying with me!’
‘So thirsty, so thirsty…’
‘You can smell her, you can taste her…’
‘I don’t want to hurt her… oh God, what am I doing?’
‘Fry, you’re scaring me… scaring me… scaring me…’
‘Don’t spoil my fun, kill her, kill her, kill her’
‘Help! Please anybody!’
‘STOP!’
All was quiet. All was still. Fry sat alone in a dark tunnel. It was he that had shouted last, he had shouted at the voices, and now the reminiscent silence pressed down upon him. He sobbed; he was confused, why was it so dark? His sob echoed in the tunnel. There was no light anywhere. He sat there, not thinking, thinking hurts his brain and he knew that the voices would start echoing around him again. It was just a nightmare he would have to wait out; he’d had this kind of dream before, but that time it was full of giant bees buzzing and for some reason Bender was wearing a hula skirt and dancing the Can-can.
But this time he shut his mind off and sat and waited for a sign that he was going to wake up. He sat for at least a few minutes before he became bored, he glanced up and down the dark place and decided to go for a walk. He stumbled through the darkness until he reached one end of the tunnel where there was a door. Behind the door were some steps which he climbed to the top of and there was a room that looked oddly like Leela’s apartment. He stared confusedly at it for awhile before deciding that he wanted to lie on the bed. He rested his head back, comfortable. He closed his eyes and imagined Leela lying down next to him. A wicked smile crossed his lips as he thought of her warm body next to his, her hair loose at her shoulders, her lips pressed against his own, she breathed with him, her scent overpowering, and her hands tangled in his hair, massaging his neck, sliding down his chest…
‘Leela,’ he whispered breathlessly.
‘Fry?’ With a start, Fry opened his eyes.
‘Whoa…’ Fry pinched himself to find he wasn’t dreaming. Leela knelt before him almost exactly how he imagined her. Her hands were rested on his chest, her hair cascading over her bare shoulders, her rather revealing silken nightgown clinging to her shapely figure.
Leela flushed as Fry eyed her. She didn’t realise he would respond or even wake to her touch; she hadn’t thought her actions through.
‘What’s happened to your arm?’ Fry said, reaching up and touching the fresh wounds gently.
‘I… I-I was cut.’ Leela said, flustered. Fry’s eyes immediately widened in realisation and remembrance to earlier events.
‘Oh God.’ His hand jumped to his mouth. He immediately backed away from her, tears springing to his eyes.
‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Fry, it’s not your fault.’ But Fry just stared at her in horror.
‘I nearly killed you!’
‘Fry,’ Leela said forcefully, taking him by his shoulders, ‘I’m fine, you’re fine, the Nibblonians are fine and the future’s going to be fine…’ Leela quickly clamped a hand to her mouth, but Fry didn’t seem to notice her slip.
‘How’d I get back up here from the street?’
‘I carried you.’
‘Oh.’ He paused and once again took in her appearance; her skin now glowed with the sky lightening in the early morning.
‘You weren’t wearing that in the street.’
‘Well of course not!’
‘Why’d you change?’
‘I- that is to say… uh…’ Leela was caught off-guard, and she wondered herself why she had put on something so seductive.
‘You put it on just for me?’ Fry teased grinning as Leela blushed.
‘It-I-My other things are in the wash.’
‘What? Those things?’ Fry pointed to a heap of clothes lying on the floor, more noticeably on the top of the pile was her bra.
It was a rare moment; Fry had outsmarted Leela. Fry casually put his arm around her shoulder.
‘It looks good on you.’ He said smoothly he said gently tracing the lines of her shoulder blades. ‘You should wear it more often.’
‘If you try and hit on me one more time, I’ll knock you flat on your back and I’ll… and…I’ll…’
‘Make hot sexy love to me?’
Leela’s hand came from nowhere and slapped him across the face. But instantly after, she seized his head and pushed him flat on his back and kissed him fiercely.
‘Beeender oh Bender, I’m so great and I kick ass, Bender’s great and if you don’t like it, you can bite my ass!’
Bender strolled happily down the quiet street of New New York, his energy levels were back to normal and he was happy having spent the night with numerous floozy bots and having left with so many numbers to call if he had ever over-charged again. He whistled cheerily to himself, wondering where Fry had gotten too so he could tell him all about it. He puffed on his cigar, practising his story in his head, he was so focused that he nearly passed the apartments where Leela lived without noticing. But he stopped sight of a singular pirate patch lying on the ground. He picked it up, the clogs in his mind turning. He observed the apartments before him, grinned evilly and went inside.
‘Leela, it’s time.’
‘Huh?’
Leela poked her head out of the sheets, her hair tousled, her breath short and her expression one of surprise and yet annoyance at being interrupted.
‘Whassamatta?’ Fry struggled to sit up. Leela moved slightly so he could pop his head up next to hers. His hair was just as messy as hers and he had her lipstick smudged across his face. Nibbler shot them a look of amusement before emitting a bright light from his antennae. They stared blankly at him for a moment.
‘Did everything just taste purple?’ Fry quipped, Leela shuddered.
‘More like orange.’ They stopped for a moment and in shock took in their proximity and partially lack of clothes.
‘Whoa…’
‘Oh my God….’
‘I’ve died and gone to heaven…’
‘Don’t be stupid. What was in that drink Fry?’
‘Uh, Iunno.’ Said Fry, understandably distracted. Leela blushed and tried to drag the sheet between them.
‘Don’t.’ she said, trying to hide behind the sheet and her loose hair.
‘Don’t what?’ Fry whispered breathlessly, gently pushing a lock of her hair out of her eye; he cupped her face with his hand and lifted her chin so he could see her properly. Their noses touched gently.
‘Don’t… don’t stop…’ Leela murmured as Fry’s hand slid down her back over the silken nightgown and pulled her in. Their trembling lips brushed lightly, but suddenly Leela’s alarm went off and she pushed back from him.
‘Oh crap, is that the time?’ With an apologetic glance at a frustrated Fry, she pulled on a dressing gown and literately ran out of the room, and straight into Bender.
‘How long have you been standing there?’
‘Long enough.’ Bender grinned, Leela flushed and seized him by the shoulders.
‘How long?’ Still grinning, Bender’s eyes changed shape to ‘play’
‘… Don’t… don’t stop…’ Leela’s own lustful voice emitted though him. Leela thumped her fist on his chest.
‘Delete it!’
‘Actually I was thinking about how much Zapp Brannigan would-…’ Next thing he remembered, Bender was slammed into the floor. He sat up and watched Leela run out crying. He wondered if he had been too harsh when he was suddenly seized by his antennae.
‘Ow! Fry let me go!’
‘Why did you have to go and say that?’ he said angrily, he pushed out of the way with his foot and hurried after Leela.
‘You’ll be thanking me in the long run!’ Bender hollered after him.
Fry found Leela rushedly washing her face in the bathroom. Her eye closed, she fumbled for a towel and found one being pushed into her hands.
‘Just ignore Bender, he’s a robot, he doesn’t understand females.’ Fry said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.
‘Oh, and I suppose you think you do?’
‘Sometimes,’ Fry said thoughtfully, ‘You keep surprising me though.’
‘I do?’
‘Yeah…’ An uncomfortable pause split the space between them.
‘I guess you are surprising too.’ Leela said, turning to put her towel away. She picked up a hair tie from a small box and deftly swept her hair into its regular ponytail.
‘So…are we going out?’ Fry asked hopefully,
‘I’ll have to think about it.’ Leela said as she tidied up the sink. She glanced up and saw his dejected look in the mirror.
‘Hey,’ she turned and lifted his chin to make him look her in the eye. ‘I haven’t said no.’
Fry deposition immediately brightened. Leela smiled,
‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need a shower, and no you can’t come in with me.’ She said as a suggestive grin crept across his face. She gave him a push toward the door.
‘Go take Bender home.’
‘Good news everyone! Today you’re going to the planet of Dummy to deliver these new atomic nuclear pacifiers I’ve invented.’
‘Oh, so you’re not talking about Fry?’ asked Bender,
‘Who-wa? Oh my no. Incidentally I’ve discovered the reaction of the nasty pestilence that has infiltrated the system. Fry, you aren’t a Gheshian are you?’
‘What’s a Gheshian?’
‘It’s a mythical black creature that could wipe out the human race, oh yes. I’d prefer to use a doomsday device.’
‘Uh, no?’
‘Well of course not you dummy! Stop talking and go and deliver those dummies!’
The trio got up to set off.
‘How’s your cut?’ Leela said, coming up beside Fry.
‘What now?’
‘The cut you got…’ but she trailed off, the cut wasn’t there, in fact there was no trace of it whatsoever. Even the stitches had gone.
‘Weird…wait a second Fry, you’ve got something in your hair.’ Leela seized the delivery boy by the shoulders and forced him onto his knees so she could reach. She carefully picked the something out of his hair and holding her palm out to him for him to see. It was a black shiny scale. Leela frowned.
‘That’s odd.’
‘What?’
‘These remind me of something important, but I can’t remember what…’
‘Oh well, don’t worry about it, I know I’m not.’ Fry boarded the ship leaving Leela standing outside. She let the wind pick the scale from her hand and blow it away. She sighed.
‘I wish I knew, oh well, I’m glad we’re rid of those bugs now.’ She turned and climbed the steps into the ship. All seemed to end well, except that when she had disappeared in to the ship, a small and unnoticed Gheshian quickly ran out of hiding and mounted the steps before they closed.
The End (OR IS IT?
)
... no that is actually the end. Any thought of sequel may come to me next year.
Moving on!
'A muscle in weight proportion' is coming soon to a computer near you!
... next week some time
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