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“So, why are we celebrating Christmas in July, again?” Amy asked Fry, as the two started to decorate the tree. Fry just shrugged.
“Well, we can’t have a normal Christmas without robot Santa ruining things, so I thought it would be nice.”
“Hey, robots don’t ruin things!” Bender complained, as he chugged down the months old egg nog, unphased.
Rolling his eyes, Fry looked over at his robot best friend. “I know, but robot Santa does… Now, hey, save some of that for me!” He hollered as he started to chase the robot, trying to steal the rotten egg nog from him. When he finally caught him and took a swig, he spat it out in shock.
“Bender, this is old!”
The robot crossed his arms before taking the container back. “It’s an acquired taste!”
“Are all the gifts under the tree?” Professor asked, adjusting his glasses and trying to count them.
“I think so. Is everyone ready?” Fry answered, watching everyone gather around and sit in a circle. “Okay, whose handing them out? And Zoidberg, don’t volunteer this time. You opened all the gifts with your claws last Christmas and I don’t want to deal with Bender yelling about spoilers again.”
“Well, spoilers are wrong and terrible and I hate them!”
Ignoring the robot, Fry lifted a gift, handing it to Cubert. “Hey, how about you pass them out this year?”
The young clone just shrugged and looked down at the name. “For Amy, from Mom and Dad.”
he read aloud, handing her the gift. As the gifts cycled through, it quickly became apparent that everyone had things from their family except for Leela, who sat in silence, looking down pitifully at the gifts she had received from her friends, trying her best to smile.
She knew, for the most part, that they cared, after all. But now, even Fry had gifts from the professor and Cubert, and even Zoidberg got his aunt and uncle’s divorce papers in the mail, which he happily decided was a gift. But it was still hard. She stood up and slipped out of the room suddenly when Cubert started to open a gift from the professor and gave him a happy ‘thanks dad’ in return. Her heart felt like it was shaking in her chest; she wished that she could have what he had, and she felt terrible for thinking it. Her friends went through so much work to make her happy, and here she was, still crying.
When she opened her eye, she saw Amy, sheepishly standing in the doorway with a comforting smile. “Hey.”
Leela wiped at her eye and smiled at her friend. “Sorry, I just…”
“You don’t have to apologize to me, Leela.” Amy said, sitting beside her with a large box in her hands. “Now, you never opened my present to you.”
Leela looked down at the glittery purple box and smiled before pulling the top off, softly gasping at the sight. In the box, a large puffy purple sweater with a candy cane heart on it sat, and Leela couldn’t help but burst into a wide smile. “Oh, thank you Amy. You didn’t have to get this for me.”
Shrugging, the other girl leaned slightly against her. “I saw you looking at it last year, so I ordered it the other day… check underneath it.”
Doing just that, Leela gasped softly again. Beneath the sweated was a yellow plastic tulip, with a card and two little strips wrapped around it. “Are these… concert tickets?”
Amy nodded. “Mhm. It’s just some holophoner concert, nothing too special, but… I thought it would be nice to go together.”
Clenching the tulip, Leela’s shoulders sagged. “But… don’t you have friends that would like to go? Ones that you won’t be embarrassed to be seen with?”
Shaking her head, Amy placed a hand on the other girl’s. “Sure, I have other friends, but… I didn’t ask you because you’re my friend, Leela.”
Her face heating up, Leela smiled down at their hands. “Oh, I see… well, thank you. I’d be happy to go with you.”
“Now, you ready to go back in? I think we’re cutting the fruit cake soon.”
Nodding, Leela stood up, still holding tightly to Amy’s hand, and showing no intent of letting go as they walked back into the room. Right away, Fry hurried to Leela with a pout.
“I’m sorry if we upset you again, Leela. I tried making it better this year, but I didn’t know what I could do.”
“Oh, that’s sweet Fry, but… I’m alright. I just need to remember that even with my parents gone, I still have family here.” She placed her free hand on his shoulder and gave him a smile, when she heard Bender snickering and approaching them.
Instantly, the robot started to elbow Fry. “Look, they’re holding hands. Let’s push ‘em under the mistletoe.”
Fry rolled his eyes a little bit at the idea, but still found himself helping usher the girls under the mistletoe.
“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” Bender started chanting, making Leela’s face go red again.
“Bender! We’re not going to—” Before the one-eyed woman could finish her statement, Amy leaned over and kissed her cheek.
Right away, Amy burned up as well. “Sorry, I hope that wasn’t too fast or anything.”
Leela gave her a shy smile and held her hands tightly as the group around them dispersed to the kitchen, mumbling about something. “It wasn’t…thank you.”
The two only stopped staring and smiling at each other when Fry let out a yell.
“NO! Stop eating the wrapping paper!”
Racing into the room, Leela expected to see Fry scolding Nibbler, but instead, Fry hovered over Zoidberg, who sure enough had a large piece of wrapping paper hanging from his mouth. Fry continued smacking him with a rolled-up newspaper, before Zoidberg ate that, too, and accidentally bit Fry in the process, leading the group to gather around him in the living room as they disinfected the wound and he cried.
Leela glanced around at all the chaos, before settling her eyes on the woman beside her, who currently was trying to stop Bender from pouring salt on Fry’s freshly disinfected cut. Yes, this wasn’t exactly the perfect Christmas she would celebrate with her parents when she found them, but it was family, and it was enough.