::ZADR:: TtheGK c.8

Zim blinked confusedly in the direction in which Dib disappeared before shaking his head, rolling his eyes, and turning back to the TV.

Dib came back with a cardboard box in arms. "Continue talking about it. I'm going to search through these while you do." He sat on the couch and made some ruffling noises from the box.

"Well," Zim said, watching Dib with only a hint of interest. "Most of the buildings are made of metal, so if you aren't inside it get's kinda hot during the day because the sun is so close. That's why the skies are red during the day too." Zim leaned close to Dib, trying to get a good look inside the box. "What are you looking for?"

Dib smiled childishly as he set the box on the ground, retrieving what he had set after. He scooted closer to the green boy, holding several photos in hand.

"These," Dib pointed out, holding the pictures in between him and Zim so they can both see it together. "Are my favorite sky pictures! You see, I have an ongoing shutter-camera set up to view the skies incase more Irkens come or some other alien… And then I could show it as proof… you get it… But the more I did this, the more I grew fond of our Earth sky..."

Half of the photos, the half that was on top, were all cloudless like Zim had described, but blue. The bottom half all had beautiful clouds of all sorts whooshing like whip cream, or like some, foam on the ocean. "Just thought you'd might appreciate seeing these… to why I like 'clouds', and… maybe the cloudless ones you'll like."

Zim pointed to a picture of a sun set, saying, "That's the color of Irk's sky during the day. At night the sky is purple and the entire planet is lit up in different shades of pink. It's especially beautiful from space because it looks like the whole planet is glowing pink."

Dib smiled softly at the Irken. "Then… would you like to keep that picture?"

"Could I?" Zim asked, looking at Dib disbelievingly.

This made Dib's heart well up for some reason. "Y-yeah… you can." Dib grinned, and then shuffled through the photos till he came up with another photo. The sky was purple and there were puffy golden orange clouds high up above the sun. "This one is my favorite."

"What would you do?" Zim asked out of no where. He had been feeling himself breaking down all night and finally that feeling of helplessness in his chest just had to be let go. "If your people left you behind, what would you do?"

Dib stared, lowering the photo thoughtfully.

If humans left me behind… abandoning me with an alien race... just leaving me... "I'd feel like crap." He answered bluntly. "But… I suppose I'd try to find my people… and ask them why they left me… and try to adapt myself into their society the best I could once again... Which was never much till recently anyway." His answer came more thought out this time.

"I wanna go home." Zim said, close to sobbing, but keeping everything in, not wanting to completely break down in front of Dib. "I want to leave this stupid dirt clod behind and go back home."

Dib looked at him concernedly, attempting to put his hands on the other's bear shoulders but choosing against it due to earlier. "Then go home already, Zim." He answered softly, a big chunk of him kicking him in the balls for this. "If you want to go… then go... Earth likes being here… spinning normally…”

"I can't." Zim said, crossing his arms. "I'm an Invader! I can't just leave my planet, not to mention, where they are now, it would take me two years to get to them and my voot isn't capable of doing that."

Dib twitched. 'They really DID leave him here all alone...'

He had to go against instincts. "W-well in a way… I'm kind of relieved… at this… 'Opportunity'."

"What do you mean?" Zim asked, looking up at Dib with a poorly veiled 'lost puppy' look.

"It would be too boring not having a Zim to torture…” He grinned sweetly, but then reheard what he said playing in his head. He slapped his forehead. "Oi. That's not what I mean, though… I mean… You're fun… to have around… I guess..." He gave the same smile, but this time found his eyes tracking on the carpet.

Zim gave another tired nose laugh before saying, "Thanks... I guess. I must admit my invading Earth would not have been as fun if you weren't to always screw things up."

Dib giggled softly. "It's been real fun, hasn’t it?"

"Yeah," Zim agreed before adding, "Except for the bleeding, bleeding isn't very fun."

"Maybe not, but the rain was." He turned his head lopsidedly to face Zim with a smirk.

"You're cruel..." Zim said, pretending to pout.

"I learn from the best." Dib teased back.

"Naturally." Zim said vainly.

"Perhaps if I work on it hard enough, I'll get an ego as big as yours as well!" The human joked.

Zim pretended to pout once again and lightly punched Dib's arm.

Dib chuckled and grabbed the Irken's fist as it landed softly on his shoulder, and pulled Zim closer, softly elbowing Zim in his ribs, all in good pretending fun that is.

Zim smirked and grabbed Dib around the neck with his free hand and lightly pressed his knee into Dib’s stomach being careful not to injure.

The hand around Dib's neck didn’t last long. The boy started laughing menacingly (obviously a rehearsed laugh at that, just for playful moments like these) and pretended as if he was going to rack Zim, only coming inches from actually touching the other.

Zim held onto Dib tightly, tensing as the hands got near to his skin and he squirmed to try and get farther away from them.

Dib let go of Zim, his facial features dropping totally. "Z-Zim?"

"I-I'm fine." Zim said, still holding onto Dib though. "You- you didn't touch, so I'm fine."

"No, you're not." Dib said firmly like a parent scolding their child for doing something wrong, Zim's hand still around his throat. "If you need me to stop, just tell me."

"No, really, I'm fine... I-I was having fun..." Zim said, blushing a little.

"M-me too." Dib blushed. Why was this so hard to choke down? "Z-zim? It's your move…”

Zim nodded, and, taking a deep breath, lightly knocked his forehead into Dib's, their hair in the way of any touch, like he had head butted the human.

Dib smiled kindly at the motion, and flipped his arm up to lightly to softly shove the other down.

Zim landed back on the couch with an 'oof'! Trying to suppress a giggle.

Dib grinned, getting an idea from this. "Hey, Zim! Don’t laugh!!" And quickly he began tickling the teen's sides being careful of his skin.

Zim began to giggle uncontrollably and tried to push Dib away but wasn't coordinated enough through his laughter.

Dib began to laugh himself at the hilarious response the alien presented him with.

This just inspired to tickle him even harder, bending over even closer to make sure he wouldn’t get away.

Zim couldn't breathe he was laughing so much. Not that he needed to but his face and sides were starting to ache. "Sto-stop!" Zim managed to pant out.

Dib snickered. "Not until you say who you're marrying and that you LOOOOVE him!" He was going to take advantage of this.

"N-NEVER!" Zim yelled, trying to squirm away.

"Not until you say it!" Dib taunted, tickling more, and getting even closer.

"Al-ALRIGHT!" Zim yelled. "I-I marrying you Dib! And I love you THIS much!" With that he grabbed Dib's face and gave him a harsh kiss on the lips, using a little more force than he should have and cutting the inside of his lip on his teeth and probably doing the same to Dib.

Dib stopped all current movements, staring wide eyedly at the alien who held his lips below him. All time seemed to have stopped. He wasn’t even expecting Zim to cave, nevertheless KISS him.

Zim pulled back and gave Dib a stern look, saying, "Don't do that."

Dib continued to just stare. "D-do what?" He asked stupefied, trying to think whether Zim meant 'don’t tickle', 'don’t just stare at me like that', or 'don’t not react.'

Zim gave him a confused look, saying, "I don't know." His face went stern again and he said, "But something you're doing is annoying me, so stop doing whatever it is."

Dib blushed and pulled himself up, obediently to Zim. "R-right. Wont happen again!" What was he saying? He didn’t even know what he did.

"O-ok..." Zim said, sitting up as well. "That was a cheap shot you know?"

"M-Me? You kissed me. I think that's cheaper." Dib continued his blush not even trying to hide it.

"Well you wouldn't stop." Zim defended, blushing as well as if just realizing he kissed Dib.

"What you were saying though… I was just going to let you go with that… you know…” He mumbled, now looking away and feeling a little fidgety. "T-that was practice." His mind wondered.

"Y-yeah, ok... but, heh, the look on your face was worth it." Zim said, snickering a little.

"Look? What look? I don’t remember giving a look!" Dib pouted, crossing his arms.

"Oh, but you did." Zim said, poking Dib's nose with a gloved finger.

Dib swatted the hand away gently. "I think I would have remembered if I did." He half-glared.

"Shock seems to make us forget, Dib-stink." Zim said, smirking.

The human rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He grumbled, trying to bring his attention back to the black and white comedy.

Zim could only snicker and curl up again, his antennae twitching under the wig with amusement.

Although he tried to focus on the TV screen, Dib couldn’t help but glance over at Zim every two to three seconds. "What? What’s so funny?"

"You." Zim said simply, with a shrug.

"You're a jerk." Dib replied bluntly, his eyes firmly back on the TV.

"And you're a broken record." Zim said, relaxing back.

"At least I'm not emo." He retorted, now with bitterness.

"Shut up, at least I'm not so desperate to be married that I have to kidnap an alien and threaten his life." Zim said, crossing his arms.

"Oh yeah? Well at least I wouldn’t ..." When Dib couldn’t think of anything, he sighed, letting go of his anger.

"Whatever. I don’t wanna talk anymore."

Zim snorted with the effort of holding back his laughter.

Dib grumbled something under his breath about 'stupid alien' and 'stupid alien sky' and 'stupid alien kiss' and 'stupid alien play fight'.

"You know you enjoyed it." Zim said, not being clear on what Dib knew he enjoyed be it the kiss or the play fight.

"Whatever. I'm not talking to you, remember?" He grumbled and thought of something which made him have to look over at the lounging Zim. "And what about you? Did you enjoy it?"

Zim shrugged, saying, "You need work on it a little..."

"W-work on what?"

"You’re kissing, duh. No wonder you never got a girlfriend, you're terrible." Zim said,pointing accusingly at Dib.

Dib's face light up brightly. "I never kissed you- that's why!!" He paused for a moment. "Except for yesterday… but it's hard to purposefully kiss you."

"I say you're just a bad kisser." Zim said with his arms crossed.

"I'm not a bad kisser!" Dib argued. "I can kiss just fine! And for your information- that’s NOT why I can’t find a wife. I dump THEM, not the other way around!" He growled.

"My experience with your lips says other wise. In fact I'm rather disappointed with your kisses." Zim said with a sigh.

Dib glared harder. "What can you expect when I'm kissing YOU?"

"Oooh, that hurts." Zim said with a teary voice, pouting at Dib cutely.

Dib's glare immediately softened two folds. "W-well… I mean… It's… It's YOU... It's… weird…”

"Then stop thinking of me as Zim, start thinking of me as... Zimma." Zim suggested, giving Dib a smirk.

Dib stared at 'Zimma', debating something within himself. "Okay… if… that's what you'd like, I could try... but it would still be weird…‘Zimma'."

"I just think it would be easier." Zim said with a shrug. "After all you seem to like teasing me about it."

"It's easier to tease you than make out with you." Dib sharply turned his gaze to the other side of the room. "Or even to hug you."

"Well," Zim said. "Teasing can be seen as affectionate to outsiders."

Dib's face reddened once more, taking in what Zim said. He looked back at Zim. "We should tease more when we're in public, then… But it won’t matter at home. We know that we don’t like one another and that our teasing is just to tease. We'll know this outside of this house too, so it won’t be that hard..."

"Right and I've decided that kissing you is fun so THAT won't be too big of a problem." Zim said, relaxing back.

The human's face twisted up in almost horror and confusion. "How- why would you? I can’t be fun to kiss. You even said so yourself; I suck at it." He suddenly tried to keep kissing in the clear, figuring that it was less important out in public than around his dad.

"Because, it gets the BEST reactions out of you. The BEST, better than any reaction I've ever gotten from you EVER." Zim exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air to show just HOW good those reactions were.

Dib snatched one of Zim's wrists, yanking it down to show how LITTLE he reacted, which in turn just showed his big reaction. "If you do that, I'll be sure to touch your bare skin in public." He narrowed his eye, then caught onto what he was saying. He let go of Zim's wrist. "No, forget it, I wont." Zim now had the advantage over him, and he knew it. He couldn’t touch Zim's skin- he looked so scared and it was obvious something bad happened in his past that made him that way. That would be too mean, even for Dib to do. Torture suited the Irken much better.

Zim just rubbed his wrist and pouted at Dib for ruining his fun.

Dib sighed, picking up the box of photos and looking through them aimlessly. He was a little scared of Zim now that he had one up on him, but he wasn’t going to willingly let the other know.

"So when are you going to hire that planner?" Zim asked, looking once more at the picture Dib gave him.

"Now, if you'd like..." Dib mumbled, looking through some more sky pictures.

"I would," Zim answered.

Dib searched his pocket for his cell, pulling it out and pressing a few numbers. "Uh, hello? Yeah, could you please connect me to a wedding planner? Yes, I'll hold, thank you." After maybe five minutes, somebody came on. "Yeah. Yeah, could you? Yes, tomorrow will fine. Twelve? Okay. Zimma. Dib. Membrane. You'd have to speak to her about that. Yes, yes. Alright. Thank you, bye." He hung up. sticking it back in his pocket.

"Tomorrow at twelve?" Zim asked, making sure he was totally ready.

"Yeah. I'll stick by you during all of the questions, but she'll mainly talk to you about it. Just a fair warning." He said, giving the box a lazy look.

"Ok," Zim said, turning his attention back to the TV. His thoughts wandered though, playing back certain events that occurred in the past few days. He noticed himself laughing, truly laughing, not cackling but really laughing because he had really had fun. And not all of it at the human's expense, like just a few minutes ago they were having fun TOGETHER.

"I hate you." He said, more for his own benefit than the others.

"I know," Dib replied calmly, setting the box down. "I hate you too."

"And I'm hungry." Zim added, not taking his eyes off the TV.

"I could try to cook if you want." He said dully.

"I don't care." Zim sighed, feeling a little depressed at how quickly the mood changed.

Dib gave the Irken an odd look. "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't... I don't like this." Zim said. "It's only been three days since you FORCED this on me and everything's already become so complicated."

"What's complicated?" He asked lazily.

"I just told you, everything is." Zim 'duh'ed. "I've suddenly had to act more human than I'd ever had to act before, I also have to act female which I've NEVER done before, and then there's you going back and forth between wanting to touch me and not, then there are these instances when we don't seem mind each other's company and- just- like I said, EVERYTHING."

Dib stared, feeling the least he could do was to understand and accept where Zim was coming from on this.

"I don’t want to touch you because you don’t want me to. I'm trying to be respectful towards that on you. You should think acting more human than before is a good thing while in disguise on Earth anyway, and as for the whole 'female' thing, I think it really suits your demeanor." Dib paused.

It was almost as if there was something stuck in Dib's throat because of the way he dragged on a noise as though debating if he wanted to speak or not. "And.. we're.. trying to like each other it seems... to make this easier for the both of us.. it's just hard, and we're use to hating one another."

Zim sighed again, saying, 'That doesn't make it any less complicated."

"Would you rather us go back to us trying to kill one another?" Dib asked, feeling his own wave of depression fling over him.

"Was it not easier?" Zim asked. "I would try to take over the world and you would try to stop me which would make me want to stop you. Kind of like tag. Back and forth, back and forth, always a constant thing I could count on, until you went to college that is."

"I... don’t know. Love's complicated. Maybe we can figure out a nice.. routine thing for this whole 'fake love' thing.." Dib mumbled, setting his box down once more to pay better attention to Zim.

"I hate love." Zim said, eyes narrowing at the wall. "It's such a stupid, painful; emotion. Completely worthless in the grand scheme of things. The only thing most races need to survive is a male, a female, and a sex drive. But no, they have to get all picky with this 'love' thing."

Dib watched him. "I don’t know. I've never been in love but... I'm lead to believe that it's the most powerful feeling there is, that even loathing cannot compare." He shrugged. "It's not the important, I suppose, for the evolution of humans but.. I think it's important psychologically."

"Bah, you're all just a bunch of apes with stress, just get rid of the need to use your brains for work and love will not matter." Zim said as if the very subject disgusted him.

Dib frowned. "But that would be boring. I'd like to feel love once, at least."

Zim just gave a disapproving grunt before turning to look at Dib expectantly.

"What?" Dib asked, a little offended by that reaction.

"You were going to make something to eat?" Zim asked, crossing his arms.

"Right... though.. I suddenly don’t feel like making anything. You want Bloaties or to go somewhere?" Dib asked, not in the mood to do anything now.

"Neither." Zim said, leaning back again. "I think I'll just go back to sleep."

Dib sighed. "Fine, fine. Have a good night's sleep." He mumbled, pulling out his cell to call pizza for one.

Zim wanted to argue that it was morning but didn't, instead just going back up to his bed to lay down, falling onto it face first.