Work Text:
You're my Romeo
And I just changed your name, now it's Romeo
Leela had always wondered why it had to be him and not someone else. She’d later learned that they were essentially destined to be together - like soulmates - but throughout all months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds leading up to such an event, she could never understand why it was Fry. Leela had been in her fair share of relationships, yet never found anyone beating the levels of affection he gave her - served to her on a cushion of cheesy love - even if she’d made it obvious countless times that she never felt that same.
As a result, she’d end up spending a lot of her alone time after her first encounter with the ginger by staring into space vacantly, sometimes holding her dear Nibbler close or just chewing at her nails, mind constantly occupied by every spew-inducing compliment he’d ever thrown her way. Yet, Leela could never bring herself to imagine him in particular. It was always someone else, almost like her subconsciousness was actively fighting against reality. Until it eventually wouldn’t be.
I might just add you to my portfolio
Despite your biggest efforts to turn me on
You're my Romeo
There are times when she’ll contemplate their relationship and just imagine what it’d be like if they were going out. She’d already built a collection, portfolio of sorts, of ex-lovers over the years and didn’t exactly need to add to that - it only made her feel worse. And, yet, a thought wiggled and writhed in the back of her head.
Maybe she should give Fry a chance, and a few chances he did get.
One, notably, had caused her a lot of grief. They hadn’t been explicitly dating beforehand, but a spur of furious rage that rushed through her during a fit close to that of anger had her blurting out about how she was breaking up with him. His initial reaction almost made her wish she’d thrown the chicken hat at his head instead, even more so when he ended up correcting said reaction like he hadn't actually registered what she'd said properly. And then to make matters worse, he had ‘died’ not long after that, sending her on a temporary emotional rollercoaster.
Sometimes, Leela can’t decide whether it’s the immaturity that draws her closer in or further away from him.
Radio
You play your favorite song through your speakerphone
And still, I feel you through all your audio
Despite my biggest efforts to turn it off
You're my Romeo
Nothing hits worse than when a song that reminds you of your awkward situationship starts playing through your radio whilst trying to settle down for a nice - albeit lonely - evening. Because, of course, only Leela would have such luck. It was even worse (if that was even possible) considering it was one he’d played through what she could only assume was a boombox for her, stood outside of her parents’ house on a weekend she’d decided to stay with them. His outfit was the same, only thing changed being that he’d thrown a pair of sunglasses on as if to hide his probably tearful eyes. Her previously open window was shortly slammed shut. Her mom had teased her, yet she continually brushed it off through annoyance she thought she wasn’t making obvious, when it very much was. It was terribly obvious. She’s worse at dealing with her own emotions than she’ll ever seem to let on.
Step one
Don't let yourself fall in love
'Cause that is not fun
Step two
Ah, Romeo
There’s something in the air tonight
From her second time being in a relationship and going forward, she set herself some rules. Step 1 was definitely her proudest and most important, considering her first relationship had failed on this factor. So, she essentially uses it as a warning to not be the first to admit to any kind of feelings - demeaning or not. It’s like a surefire way to make sure her feelings aren’t hurt, which in turn allows her to put her work first no matter what. Work is her first love, after all.
Somehow, Fry seems to mess that all up. Love is in the air, as they say.
You're my Romeo
Everybody laughs when I tell them so
She’s sure she’s too good for him. Not exactly in a portentous or condescending sense - well, maybe in a condescending sense - but it’s almost like they’re too different. At least, that's what Leela thinks. And she’s definitely correct.
She’s mature, he’s immature… and she just can’t help but feel they’ll never work. Fry is like a 5 year old in the body of an adult man, and she can’t help but compare him to Sammy Skillet - the boy who never grew up - of Foreverland. He’s a boy. She’s a woman. A ‘strong, independent woman’, one that apparently ‘doesn’t need a man’. It’s a stereotype, sure, but it's something she doesn’t want to screw up societal-wise because she’s already an outcast enough as it is. First she was the ‘only alien of an unknown race’, and now she’s a mutant. Leela can only feel she’s enough of a laughing stock as it is, and for her, that’s enough evidence for them to not work out.
I feel like it's magic, Romeo
You're all I can imagine, imagine
You're my Romeo
Yet, she always finds her mind running back to him. Eventually it reaches the point where he is everything she pictures in her mind. She manifests him, maybe contorts how he looks a bit, but it’s still Fry at the end of the day. It was only a short while ago that she couldn’t even bring herself to imagine his face, and now he’s appearing in every thought, dream or imagination as clear as day. And maybe she begins to not mind it as much. It’s almost comforting.
Always saying something to throw me off
I feel like it's magic, Romeo
You're all I can imagine, imagine
She observes over a long period that Fry is particularly fond of making cheesy romantic gestures more than she had initially thought. Like the candy hearts - ‘U R 2 CUTE’ and ‘U LEAVE ME BREATHLESS’ coming to mind immediately - and the constant sacrifices he makes just for her. It’s so sickening that sometimes she’s convinced she’s living in an illusion…a fever dream of sorts. Her heart aches for Fry, and yet her head says no. It’s almost like the space honey incident all over again. Maybe that’s why she was so drawn to the honey (even if it was a coma the entire time). Slowly, it just gets harder and harder to imagine anyone but Fry.
Romeo, rather die than be apart
It's only you that fell in love
On your knees, and you're looking up
Leela can’t help but feel that through every failed and rejected romantic pursuit from Fry, she’s taking him for granted, despite the constant turndowns from her end. By now, she’s registered such actions and acknowledges them in a way that feels neglectful, and not just to his feelings but also her own. There’s days where she’ll find herself unable to even speak let alone approach Fry, just because she can’t muster up the courage and feels like she’ll say something wrong. She’s an aggressive person - she’s heard people call her that before. She lashes out easily, so sometimes it better if she distances herself. At least, that's what Leela likes to make herself believe.
She knows what Fry is doing and why he’s doing it, yet finds herself unable to reciprocate such overtly romantic feelings. It’s not that she finds herself disgusted with the idea of romance itself, but maybe after putting up with so many years of corny pick-up lines, her consciousness and ego can’t take it anymore. Still, it’s like he can’t take hints. To her, Fry is like a moth to a flame…dog to a bone and all sorts. He’s just there - blindly standing in a way that is so passive it just feels aggressive - and Leela can’t seem to escape his line of sight and thought. Yet, he’d do anything for her. It reaches such a point where Leela ends up gaining the impression that he’d willingly die doing something for her, even if it means they’ll never be together again. She’s aware of this and in spite of that, she’s not entirely sure how to feel about it.
Instead, she reflects all of her thoughts and doubts onto memories she can only slightly remember, little bits mixed into a jumbled swirl of incoherent concepts. In a way, everything reminds her of a period in time where every helpful offer ended in a worsened outcome. Sure, maybe the gestures were romantic, but he’d ripped her arm off, for Space Pope’s sake! It didn’t help that he ended up ripping his own off in turn. In a way, it reminds her of a Will.i.am Shakespeare play she can't exactly remember the name of.
Romeo
Romeo
Romeo
Romeo
There’s a few nights where all she can do is lie awake in a cold sweat, tossing and turning with an overly occupied mind. She blames Fry more than she does herself, but maybe it’s what she gets for ignoring his needs for so long - like some kind of shitty, messed up payback. There are some times where she finds herself growing a little jealous of his immaturity, however. Everything seems so simple in his small, close-to-empty mind to the point that she wishes it was for her too. She wishes she could just get over herself and admit that maybe, yes, she does have feelings for such a dimwit and that it doesn’t actually matter. His name circles in her head - Fry, Fry, Fry, Fry… - until she eventually does drift off to sleep, fighting against her thoughts in the process.
Romeo, yes, I know that you've had enough (Romeo, Romeo)
Only one of us fell in love (Romeo)
So there's nothing to discuss (Romeo)
She’s a self-critical individual. She knows. Even more so when she can’t help but feel that maybe after so many years of rejection, Fry is growing tired and disinterested in her, like the roles are slowly switching. It just further adds to her suspicions: maybe she was destined to just never be in a committed relationship. There’s times when they’ll be having work-based discussions, and she can’t help but notice that he doesn’t pay as much attention to her as he normally would. On other occasions, Leela feels as though Fry is beginning to spend less time asking her meaningless garbage and other stupid shit such as where he’d last left his lucky trousers - whilst simultaneously walking around their workplace pantless, and rather doing everything previously listed with Bender. It’s unknown to her, however, that everything she projects is being reflected back at her by Fry himself. They feed each other's delusions, despite not knowing any better.
You can fall in love with boys and girls and in between
So I promise that you shouldn't waste your time on all of me
Work gets repetitive after a while, mainly because they - primarily Leela - all end up doing the ‘same-old’ things every day: delivering packages to different planets, watching Bender or Fry mess something up, having to deal with Fry’s usual cringy compliments or failed pick-up lines… It’s like she’s living in a loop that she convinces herself she’s content with, but on the inside wishes she could be something more. Part of her wishes that she hadn’t reverted her eye surgery at times. The memories of Fry’s constant protests seem to comfort her at such times of doubt, but it still feels like a missed opportunity. She looked regular for once. She could’ve done things one-eyed her has only ever dreamed of. Still, she knows that dwelling on the past does no good, so she tries not to and goes about her repetitive day.
The only thing that seems to change is Leela’s mood, probably because of some hormonal changes but she’s not quite sure, the more reasonable answer being that she’d just woken up in an overly sensitive mood that morning. She had laid a particularly painful egg the night before, too. Maybe the constant thoughts of what could’ve been don’t help either, but just like anything and everything else, she decides not to think too much about it - work is more important than festering anyway.
Still, however, she finds herself partaking in said festering despite wanting not to in every way. (Once you’re doing it, it’s hard not to.)
She sits at the table in the break room, head in hands, sighing and on the verge of falling asleep. Her terrible sleep schedule as of regular has screwed her up, she must admit. It’s only worse when she finds herself unable to stop staring at both Fry and Bender. It doesn’t really mean a lot until she finds boredom in looking away from their regular antics for once, and instead is drawn right back. It’s most definitely jealousy, but of course Leela would never admit to feeling such an emotion. She likes to think she’s not that kind of girl.
Even if she is. Even if she very much is.
But, then, maybe it’s just the aforementioned guilt too?
After all these years of rejection, Leela still can’t understand why Fry is so adamant on chasing after her. Surely he can’t be that stupid? Right? Right? She thinks on it further, and through her in-depth observation, she can’t help but think that maybe Bender is the better option for Fry. Sure, being ‘robosexual’ is frowned upon, but they’re always together, and any petty arguments are gotten over very quickly - definitely quicker than any argument Leela had ever gotten over with Fry. Their closeness and touchiness almost makes it seem like they are a couple, and it’s then that she knows she is both jealous and guilty. Jealous of their relationship, but also guilty because part of her doesn’t want Fry to be happy whilst she’s all mopey. She regretfully feels that maybe he should be as mopey as she is. But, because he isn’t, that just makes her feel shittier.
You're my Romeo
Everybody laughs when I tell them so
I feel like it's magic, Romeo
Romeo
You're all I can imagine
Imagine, imagine
It’s strange, because it feels like only yesterday that Leela was complaining about Fry to anyone and everyone, and now they’re together - and more importantly, engaged. For a split second she feels like maybe they’re rushing it, but then she looks back on all their wasted years and it makes her heart ache a little. Well, more like a lot, but at such times she’ll find herself wishing that maybe she hadn’t listened to her past self - the stupid unwritten rules - and had just thrown herself at her most affectionate and obvious admirer when she felt it was right to begin with. Leela had and has always doubted herself, however. It’s nothing new. She’s just as insecure as the next female mutant.
It’s only different now because her previous insecurities relating to their relationships seem to dwindle with every passing day. If she’d told her past self a decade ago that she’d be engaged to Philip J. Fry, she’d have laughed in her own face - because, really, there was no logical way. She’d never really thought to give him the chance. Societal expectations and childhood bullying didn't exactly help, but the older she gets and the more mature she grows, she can only help but to not give a fuck.
They’re soulmates, and she’s happy she can finally admit it.