Archive of Our Own ^beta

Living with a robot wasn’t nearly as exciting as Fry had initially expected.
Sure it was different then having a human roommate but he’d easily forget his roommate was a robot if he wasn’t occasionally reminded of it.
Bender had certain robotic noises he made that he couldn’t control, like the sound of his arms extending and the clank his stomach cabinet made whenever he closed it. A big one was the clanking of his round feet whenever he moved around. None of this stuff was bothersome to Fry however he thought it was more cool than anything. But he had maybe expected a little more, like why couldn’t his friend shoot lasers out of his eyes? Or crawl on walls or- maybe he was thinking of a different thing.

The most interesting thing about Bender, at least to Fry, was how he “closed” his eyes to sleep at night. Because he didn’t really technically close them at all. A sheet of metal would fall over his eyes giving the appearance of a night mask and his eyes would no longer be visible. Fry often wondered if he had to close his eyes under the metal too. His roommate tended to get knocked out pretty fast too to the jealousy of Fry. He wished it was easier for humans to do that.
Additionally Bender also tended to sleep standing up while Fry found multiple layers of odd. Firstly because it reminded Fry of how flamingos would sleep, and to Fry’s knowledge Bender wasn’t a Flamingo. Secondly because he looked so incredibly still it was fascinating. But also a little concerning. Thirdly he couldn’t think of a third reason he was pretty tired and thinking this hard was hurting his head.

Fry had occasionally contemplated inviting him to sleep in his bed because he had the space to do so. He felt bad for him thinking maybe his feet would hurt standing up like that every night. Fry didn’t think he could stand up all night like that without his legs cramping or accidentally toppling over. Bender's sense of balance compared to Fry was incredible, but sleeping like that did seem super uncomfortable in his opinion.

Despite this Fry didn’t want to intrude on Bender’s sleeping routine as he didn’t know if this really even was a problem with robots or not. He was still so new to the future and he didn’t really know how robots worked all that well. Perhaps the solution would be to just ask. (as Leela would probably say) but Fry didn’t think it was necessary. It’s not as if this is a big problem anyway, Bender probably hadn’t even thought about any of this at all.

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Fry was groggily awoken by what he assumed was supposed to be quiet footsteps against the floorboards. The loud squeaking of the cheap wood floor gave it away immediately. He didn’t even have to open his eyes to know instantly who it was. Not that it could be that many people at all.
“Fry..” a hesitant voice whispered closeby.
“What is it, Bender?” He asked his robotic roommate, his brain still clouded with leftover sleep residue. He rubbed one of his eyes hoping it would help them open a little wider. (it didn’t)
“Can we..” Fry could hear him moving around his fingers anxiously. Bender moving even closer than he already was, the clanking of his feet always noticeable.

“Hm..” Fry answered by rolling over and getting ready to go back to his slumber. It was hard to focus on what was going on when sleep was still clawing for his attention. He was having such a pleasant dream before this.

“Can we maybe..” Bender trailed off hesitating before he continued. “cuddle?” He said in the quietest voice Fry had ever heard him use. He was only able to hear it due to how quiet everything else was around them, the only noise being the cars outside and the occasional angry argument outside the building.

“Huh?” Fry asked not out of surprise but more out of tired confusion. He squinted his heavy eyes and tried looking in the general direction of where he assumed Bender was. He hadn’t expected Bender to be so forward.

They’d been roommates for a bit, maybe a couple weeks and Fry has gotten very comfortable around this robot. He hadn’t really considered the idea that this would be something he wanted. But after very little consideration (not that he could anyway because of how sleepy he was) he moved over leaving room for Bender.

“Yeah sure, Bender. Come over here..” he responded, already feeling himself start to drift off. He half-hazardly wondered if this would make him gay but he shook that off, cuddling with your guy friends was normal and besides he wanted a cuddle buddy anyway. It was best not to look too into it.
It didn’t take long before fry felt an extra weight on the other side of the bed making him stop his wandering thoughts. He felt cold, metallic, gentle hands hold onto him. Perhaps hesitant on if it was okay to do so. Fry attempted to reassure his roommate by relaxing onto Bender’s arms.
“You know I was going to ask if you wanted to sleep in the bed if you didn’t ask,” Fry sleepily mumbled.

“Hm why?” Bender asked, getting more comfortable.

“Because I thought your legs would get tired standing like that all night,” Fry answered without really thinking. He had grabbed onto one of Bender’s hands and was messing with it mindlessly, caressing his fingers onto Benders feeling the coolness disappear overtime, his body heat crossing over to Benders hand.

Bender made no comment of Fry taking his hand and instead let out a quiet chuckle, “No you didn’t need to worry about that, robots sleep like that all the time we’re built that way.” Bender responded trying to explain it lightly but not doing that good of a job. He had been looking over at Fry and admiring how sweet he looked.

“Oh..” Fry answered, looking away. “Well, I’m happy you wanted to sleep in a bed anyway.” He said attempting to sound nonchalant. He continued to hold onto Bender’s hand.

Not long after Fry closed his eyes, a small smile on his face. He hoped he could cuddle with Bender more, he felt so comfortable and content with him. He felt himself falling back asleep with Bender’s hand still in his arms.