Whew! Finally taking the plunges and putting up a story! It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, putting it up I mean; the writing was the easy part.

Chapter One

Two pairs of feet crunched through the softly falling autumn leaves, a human and an Irken walked slowly home from school. They were in no hurry to bring their time together to an end.

In the years since he had come to Earth, Zim had grown a little taller; he was about as tall as Dib, which meant he was the perfect height for Gaz. They had always shared a mutual loathing for the human race in general and Dib in particular. They had known that much from Day One, but they knew it dimly in the backs of their brains. Strangely, neither of them had bothered to reach out to the other for a long time.

Then came the day when Gaz had looked up from her game just in time to see Zim punching Dib in the nose in the middle of the cafeteria. Dib had dropped his tray with a sharp clatter. Delighted, sarcastic applause filled the room and Dib blushed bright red, looked like he wished he could sink through the floor. She smiled. While romance didn't exactly blossom immediately, Gaz now officially knew Zim existed, and she liked what she had seen.

A year or two later Zim had been needling her about playing video games at lunch one day when all of the other human stink children were obediently being trained by Zim to play dodgeball. The snide accusation that she wasn't as good as everybody else would have been easy enough for her to deal with, but a crack

about her games could not go unanswered.

She had never before been tempted to play with anyone else, so it came as all the more a genuine shock when Zim came close to beating her. This impressed her so much they started playing together at lunchtime, as Dib ranted and raved behind them about making friends with the enemy and monsters from outer space. When school closed for the summer, Zim began coming to visit Gaz because he missed her dry wit and putdowns of Dib, and she refused to leave the house unless it involved a new pizza at Bloaty's.

He used to tell her he was only there for the challenge she offered him, Gir simply could not play a video game for longer than ten minutes before being distracted. Gaz would smirk knowingly as she switched her game from One Player to Two Player mode.

Dib was horrified at this development but there wasn't much he could, do short of murdering Zim. Having been unable to get Zim on a dissecting table after all this time, he was unlikely to be able to get him there now. And even if he did manage to do so, Gaz would certainly make sure Dib himself followed.

However, when listening to Dib finally became more annoying than amusing, they began going to Zim's base to play their video games. That was even more torture for Dib because now he had no clue what they were doing. They laughed every time they thought of what he might be saying. Unfortunately however, it also meant Gaz had to endure another one of Dib's lectures when she returned home.

"I know things about those creatures, Gaz!" he would usually start even before she had fully opened the door. "I've been studying them for years! They're slave traders and to them we're lower than cattle! They act all friendly at first, but the next thing you know... "

If Zim was here, they could enjoy a good laugh at him together, but now it was just annoying, unbearably annoying. The next day she would repeat as much of his rambling rant as she could remember and they would laugh at his empty, needless outrage together. Good old Zim. What was bad he made bearable, and what was unbearable he actually made funny. He never let Gaz down.

After a while, Zim began walking Gaz home from school, carrying her books, as he had observed that earth males are supposed to do. When they stopped in front of the Membrane house, he placed her books in her arms.

"I have discharged my duties properly," he declared loudly, "so that means that I have earned a kiss!"

Gaz admired his confidence, so totally different from Dib's. She allowed a slight smirk to pull at the corner of her lips. Let's see what more she could make him do first.

"Zim will - "

"Who will?"

"I will... I will come to see you tonight... if Dib doesn't ruin it."

"He won't."

"Promise?"

"He won't. Kiss me. Now."

"Mm... " Zim leaned in and planted a perfect kiss on Gaz's lips. She reached up and held his head close to hers, not letting him go until she was good and ready to let him go. "Zim" he might be, but she was Gaz.

He surrendered her books and turned to leave. Gaz stifled a sigh as she watched him go, then almost smiled as he turned and waved to her before turning around again and walking away. Now she turned and headed towards the house, but a few steps from the door she suddenly stopped, and when she began walking again it was with a grim, furious step.

She knew the flash she had seen through the window had been Dib's glasses, sure enough, when she opened the door, there he was, glaring at her with all the severity as he could muster.