For the Love of Summer
Author's Note: Written as an accompaniment to chibiqueen01's ZADR stories, "For a moment" and "For her protection". Thank you so much for willingly collabing with me! :)
Enjoy, and review if you'd like! This is my first Invader Zim fic, and I'm hoping I'll have the time and inspiration to write some more for the ZADR ship.
Two weeks.
It had been two entirely too long weeks of summer vacation, a time that was supposed to be full of joy and sleeping in and greasy, crappy food. Every waking hour of her vacation so far sucked, all because of Dib's angsting all over the place, which had long since begun to get on Gaz's nerves. Her hair would stand on end, her teeth would grit together even more so than usual, and not even Bloaty's pizza could keep the zen in Gaz's precariously balanced lifestyle.
If Dib moped on the couch, sighing and frowning and asking her about totally b.s. alien hate-speak one more time…
As if on cue, Dib, sitting upside down on the couch to better watch his stupid lame geekboy show, said: "And it makes me sick, it really makes me want to hurl when Zim—"
She snarled at the pixilated screen of her game. For the love of… Clearly, she'd have to take matters into her own hands if she wanted to have even a semblance of a decent summer.
"That is IT, come ON."
Zim had long since stopped trying to do anything even vaguely productive since Wednesday… last Wednesday. Or maybe it was Tuesday.
"But who cares?" he bemoaned to himself, his claws grabbing his face in despair. "There is nothing to do, no Dib-stinks to bother without seeming gooey and pathetic, and—GIR! GET DOWN FROM THAT HANGY-THINGY!"
His utterly useless robot-dog was too busy playing Tarzan and Jane with Mini Moose, squealing in obnoxious glee, from the rafters to hear his master's order. Zim sighed, falling back into the cradle of his palms. This was going to be a very long, very tedious summer.
Maybe an attempt of doom was in order, at that fuel station conveniently down the street from the Membrane house… Yeah—
"And be even MORE pathetically squishy? ZIM DOES NOT STOOP TO SUCH LEVELS!" Zim finished with a booted foot poised on the back of his chair, one solitary fist shaking up to the ceiling in defiance.
"Intruder alert," his computer deadpanned, effectively cutting through Zim's monologuing.
"Hmmm?" Zim perked up, one lekku twitching up in curiosity. Could it be…? "Computer," he commanded, "Pull up the front door's video feed."
Within moments, the surveillance footage was pulled up. Zim felt his squeedlyspooch expand in sudden excitement when right there, on his porch stood the object of his frustrated soliloquies. There he was, arguing with Gaz who was purposefully ignoring her brother in favor of attempting to kick Zim's door down.
Zim wasted no time in making his way up to the main level of his home-base, hastily donning his disguise.
"GIR!" he barked to the seeming ether.
"Yeeeees, master?" came out of nowhere, from the 'elevator' audio system.
"Get the door, and don't let Gaz-human break anything."
"Visitors, whee! I'mma make some bacon!"
"GIR, obey!" Zim hissed to no avail.
Meanwhile, right outside of Zim's house...
"I don't get why you dragged me to spaceboy's house, Gaz! What's your deal?" Dib snapped for what seemed like the umpteenth time. His purple-haired sister ignored him in favor of demolishing the bathroom door that led into Zim's home. The gnome-security system had similarly met their fateful end at the heel of Gaz's almighty shoe.
"He's probably busy plotting," Dib muttered halfheartedly. In reality, he was a little unnerved. Seemingly out of nowhere, Gaz had dragged him all the way to Zim's! What was she up to? Ever suspicious, Dib couldn't help but wonder if this had anything to do with that one day at skool, when he'd caught Zim and Gaz… chatting, of all things.
Right on cue, Dib felt his hands clench into twin fists. His face flushed in frustrated anger. Despite the fact that Gaz had reassured him (with as much reassurance as Gaz could offer) that it wasn't a big deal, that nothing was going on, Dib still felt… angry? Yeah, he was angry that Zim dared to talk to his little sister. That memory had served to haunt him, worse than any ghost encounter. Nothing she didn't like…
"YAAAAY!" Came an inhuman squeal from within the base, the only warning the brother-sister duo had before the door was unceremoniously thrown open for them.
Gaz barely caught herself in time, growling ever so slightly as Zim's 'parents' popped up in the doorway. The robots didn't even have a chance to croak out their automated dialogue before Gaz unceremoniously swipe-kicked them off to the side in a heap of faintly sparking metal and fabric.
Just as he was about to ask, yet again, what his sister's deal was, Dib was accosted by Zim's obnoxious robot-pet.
"Mary!" GIR announced, wrapping his wiry arms around Dib's neck in what was more of a chokehold than an actual hug. "We misseded your big head!"
"Hey!" Zim's indignant voice yelled, "What do you two think you're doing?"
"Go in there," Gaz growled through gritted teeth, plucking GIR off of Dib's throat as if it were nothing and tossing the robot, sounding like a howler monkey as he screamed in excitement, into the air.
Dib went to protest, but his sister interrupted him. "I have had enough of your teen angst party and the two of you need to talk before I MAKE YOU." She enunciated this with a firm, resolute push.
Zim yelped as Dib plowed right into him from the force of Gaz's shove, human and alien falling into a heap on the floor. Immediately after, the front door slammed shut.
They wasted no time in scrambling back to their feet, Dib's face glowing red while Zim's was rapidly overcome by a bluish blush of its own.
"What is the meaning of this, Dib?" Zim snapped, hurriedly brushing himself off.
"I have no idea! Gaz just like, snapped or something and the next thing I know, here we are!" He glared, running a hand over his scythe-like hair. "Maybe she's PMSing or something, I don't know!"
Zim narrowed his eyes at that. "What is this… Peeyemesing?" he asked suspiciously, only in part to save face. Was it some kind of mind-controlling Earthen technology?
Dib grimaced. "Nevermind." They stood like that for a few moments, just kind of stranding off with no real purpose in mind. "Hey genius," Dib piped up out of nowhere, "You know you're missing your contacts?"
Zim froze for a moment, before cursing under his breath. "Zim meant to do that, stupid Dib!"
Dib snickered into the sleeve of his trench… oh. He awkwardly realized he was still in his pajamas, a set of plaid pants and a wifebeater that had clearly seen better days.
"So what dastardly plan of fail are you concocting this time, Zim?" Dib retorted. "I know you're up to something!"
Zim opened his mouth, prepared to retort that, as usual, he wouldn't be so stupid as to reveal his ingenious plans, but he didn't feel like it. Instead, he grit his zipper-like teeth and huffed out a sigh. "Dib, I—"
Just then, a great whoosh emitted from the rubble that was Zim's pseudo-parental units, and they both stared in shock as the scrap was engulfed in flames.
"Holy—"
"Irk!"
The two quickly sprung into action, Dib locating a fire extinguisher conveniently placed in Zim's kitchen and tossing it to the alien who made quick work of the Irken technology, quashing the fire before it had a chance to do any real damage.
Dib walked over to Zim, slightly shaking with adrenaline. "Crap," he breathed, folding his arms across his chest.
Beside him, the alien sighed, taking off his wig and chucking it somewhere behind him. There was no real point in attempting to keep up his disguise, when they both knew what he was. His lekku twitched in the open air, taking in the scents of melted wiring and burnt fabric. "Thank you, Dib-stink," he muttered, turning around and walking over to his sofa. It was as if, all of a sudden, all of the energy just left him.
Dib blinked in surprise before following the alien over, plopping down next to the alien. His skin seemed to prickle with goose-bumps at the nearness of his supposed arch nemesis. "Are you okay? You just thanked me," he clarified at Zim's look of confusion.
"Dib," Zim began, in a tone Dib couldn't ever recall hearing from him. Dib waited, with bated breath, for Zim to go on but when it seemed like nothing was forthcoming, he leaned back and sighed.
"You know what's been bugging me?" he asked. Zim hummed in reply. "Something Gaz said to me… She said she wasn't your type. What did she mean?"
Zim blinked owlishly, his large ruby eyes gazing at Dib with something akin to disturbed terror. "Nothing! Your sister is absolutely…"
They stared at each other for a prolonged moment. Dib felt his heart pounding in his ears as he licked his lips. Something tickled at the back of his mind as he watched Zim's eyes trail down to his mouth.
"Zim…?"
"Yes, Dib-stink?"
Dib found himself leaning into Zim's space, watching as Zim flinched ever so slightly in surprise.
"I'll never stop defending Earth from your invasion," he murmured quietly out of nowhere. Zim's lekku gently slumped down against his skull.
"Zim would never ask you to," the alien replied feebly.
Dib was close enough to see the faint pores on Zim's upturned green face, to watch the transgression of blue across Zim's cheeks.
"I wouldn't quit messing with your plans."
"I don't want you to."
"Zim?"
Those bright eyes practically penetrated him with their intensity, making Dib flush and nearly lose his resolve. "Mmm?"
"What is your type, anyway?"
Instead of answering, Zim, who could sense the human's spike in internal body temperature with his antennae, grabbed Dib's exposed arm and pulled him the rest of the way over, wasting no time in planting a hasty, uncoordinated kiss on the human's pale lips.
Dib found himself short of breath as Zim pulled away, his eyes wide behind his glasses.
After a moment of tense silence, Dib cracked a grin at the alien—his alien—and pulled Zim close for more.
Outside, GIR was astride a frantically galloping groundhog, yipping in glee as they chased after Mini Moose in the front yard. Gaz was lounging against Zim's picket fence playing her video game. For a fleeting moment, one corner of her mouth began to twitch upwards.
"Idiots."