Zim pushed. For a few moments, the couple didn't say anything as they listened to the soothing noise of the little peddles being crunched by the wheelchair. The alien pushed the chair in silence, glad that he could get his sweetheart out of that damned hospital, away from all the beeping and the endless, white halls. Away from the nervous intern-nurses who dropped everything, away from the wise old doctors who had too many patients to take care of.

The doctors had told them like it was obvious. No biggie. Cancer. Practically everywhere. Even Dib smiled when he heard the news.

'Well, that's it, then.' He had said. Gaz had smiled, placed her hand on Dib's shoulder and nodded while whispering: 'That sucks.' Zim seemed to be the only one to have heard that this was Dib's end. That he was going to die now.

They wouldn't start chemos, obviously. Dib was 86 years old and the cancer was in his blood, bones, liver... It was clearly the sign that now it's time to go. Time to stop. Time to die. And Zim was the only one who wasn't okay with it.

Zim had grown older too. Not taller, but he did age, although not that much. He didn't feel half as fit as he used to and sometimes his back started to ache when he had been standing for too long, but Zim still looked like he was in his late fifties. He didn't have wrinkles, age-marks and he didn't have any hair to turn grey or white. Whenever they met new people, everyone immediately assumed Zim was Dib's son. This had been hilarious for a couple of years. Zim would call him his father in public and then watch mouths drop as he pecked him on his lips in grocery shops.

'Stop! Zim, stop!'

The pleas shocked Zim right out of his memories and he blinked. For a second, he feared something was wrong, but Dib seemed quite content, pointing at the riverbanks.

'I want to sit here.' Came his old voice out of the wheelchair. He then proceeded to stand up, but Zim had jumped up in front of him before he could get to his feet.

'But there's a bench right there!' Dib protested, faintly trying to push Zim's claws on his chest away.

'You're staying in the wheelchair.' Zim commanded. Firmly, but not too roughly, pushing his husband back in his chair. Even a tiny push would have been enough, Dib was so weak he fell back immediately. It annoyed the alien.

'I'm not helpless. I want to sit on the bench.'

'Yes you are, now shut up.' Zim took his position behind the wheelchair again, as he pushed it forward to the river. He located it next to the wooden bench before flopping down on it. Zim panted, rubbing his face with his hands. When he looked up, Dib was staring at him, smiling.

'What?' Zim asked, rather aggressively.

'You're getting old, too.' Dib chuckled. He changed his view to the water and watched as big, red leaves slowly fell into the water. Zim growled annoyed.

Gir, the only one to not have changed a bit in over 70 years, ran to the water. He barked loudly to scare the ducks away, which worked, making Dib's smile wider.

'Why doesn't anyone question the fact that you're not dead yet?' Dib asked as a trembling hand went down to carefully pet Gir's head. Gir had learned to be a little more calm when Dib tried to touch him. He didn't answer to the question, but instead stared at the ducks who had landed somewhere else in the river.

Silence followed. Dib didn't seem to mind, petting Gir until the robot got tired of it and ran off. Zim watched as the pale, thin hand returned to it's lap and Dib stared at the leaves gathering on the water.

Zim didn't like the silence as much as his husband. Instead, he hated it. It made it seem like Dib was too weak, too tired and too old to fill it. To discuss hundreds of things like he used to, never running out of words, only stopping to kiss him. Or to laugh. Now he just sat there, like using the muscles in his lips to talk was too much.

But suddenly, he did.

'This might be my last day outside.'

Zim gasped, and then hissed. What the hell was he thinking, saying stuff like that? What was he trying to do, make him cry or something? No way. Zim hadn't cried when he had heard Dib was dying. And he won't. Crying is something teenage, human girls do. Not old, strong aliens.

'Shut your mouth, smelly human.' Zim growled. 'This isn't your last day outside. You're not going to die.'

'For the last time, Zim, yes I am. When will you accept that?'

'I won't! Unlike you, I'm not giving up that easily!'

Dib looked at him, questioning. He seemed to choose his words carefully before he opened those cracked, colorless lips again.

'It's not giving up. It's accepting the end.'

'You literally just explained what giving up means!' Zim cried.

This time, Dib answered quickly.

'Zim, shut up. Everything has an end, alright? I'm old and I'm weak. It's time to go.'

'But-'

'I told you to shut up!'

Dib stared at the water again and surprisingly, smiled.

'I told you to shut up so many times in my life. Listen to me this time, okay?'

Zim couldn't take it. He couldn't take the way Dib's hands trembled and the way his voice was so weak and quiet. He couldn't take it that Dib wasn't shouting, smiling, laughing the way he used to. He couldn't take it that Dib would never pick him up again, that he couldn't pick him up ever again.

'But you can't do this!' Zim suddenly blurted out. He started to feel so angry. So incredibly pissed at his lover. He wanted to hit him, right against his nose. He would have, if he didn't knew that would probably kill him.

'You can't do this- to me!' the alien cried, grabbing the wheelchair's armrest.

'What the hell am I going to do without you, Dib!?' He asked. 'I have nothing left when you're gone! Nowhere to go to, nobody to come home to, I'll be all alone! If you don't want to fight for yourself, then why not for me!?'

Zim could feel his alien heart pounding as he stared at Dib, waiting for answers. For anything.

Dib smiled again, but this time it was a sad smile. Zim could see his old, golden eyes getting wet with tears, but none of them trickled down his cheeks just yet. When he spoke, his voice didn't tremble.

'Because it's a losing battle. I've told you Zim, my time is up. It's over. I'm giving up, but maybe it isn't such a bad thing right now. I have accepted this, why can't you?'

Before Zim knew it, his body had already set into action. It stood up from the bench, took two steps and then fell in Dib's wheelchair, swinging his arms around his neck, not caring if this daring act would break a few bones in Dib's fragile body.

'Because I love you, you idiot.'

And then, Zim cried. His body, still small as ever, curled around Dib's, his feet coming of the floor as he now fully climbed onto his lover's lap. He buried his face in the pale neck and cried like he had never done before. His left claw hooked in Dib's shirt, pulling it, almost tearing it as the pain shot through Zim like a sword. He thought of his past- their past. Where it all started, as children. Where their relationship begun, as teenagers and how it turned into the best, most wonderful thing that ever happened to the boy. He lost track of time as he sat there, squeezing the fragile body with every memory that shot through him. Good, bad, happy, sad, all the memories hurt because they were the last of them. No more new memories of him and his human. It was all over now. He cried and shouted and whimpered, praying, no- begging Dib to stay with him. To not go, ever. Begging all the Gods he could think of to make the cancer disappear, to save his lover. To keep him alive and healthy and here, with him, on earth.

Only minutes after Zim had somewhat calmed down, he noticed Dib's hands, carefully embracing him and petting his back. Zim sniffled, as he sat up a little so he could look at Dib's face, but that turned out to be too painful. He stared at his own hands instead, still fondeling with Dib's baby-blue shirt.

Dib smiled. ''You done?'

Zim now couldn't help but chuckle. He nodded slowly, closing his eyes. Softly, he let their foreheads bump together.

'I'm going to miss you so, so much, Dib.' He admitted, still sniffing.

'I'm going to miss you, too. Lying six feet under the ground in a coffin for eternity would be a lot more fun with you.'

Zim chuckled again and moved to his human's neck again, nuzzling there. He finally fully calmed down, as all he could hear was Dib's breathing and Gir barking in the distance.