It took a bit of creative time management but I finished it in time (-^.^-) This story is dedicated to RissyNicole, who has been going through a difficult time, in hopes that it makes what was going to be a difficult day just a little bit better.
Besides that, this story is one based on the idea that Skoodge was originally going to move in with Zim. And yes, that's a Shirly Temple movie playing near the end, originally it was going to be specified it was Heidi.
Skoodge walked down the seemingly quiet neighbourhood street, occasionally struggling with his grocery bags as he made his way past the groups of children playing in parks and on lawns enjoying their spring break. Nobody spared him a second glance, assuming he was a child running errands for his 'aunt & uncle', even with his green skin contrasting with the rusty red sky; they all knew about his louder 'cousin' with his 'skin condition' and presumed it was genetic. Soon enough Skoodge reached the door of the distinct green and purple house at the end of the cul-de-sac, one which was only slightly smaller than the three-story apartments on either side despite housing far fewer people and, much like its' owner, screamed stature complex.
Sure enough, the house was exactly as he had left it; with Gir in his usual spot on the sofa watching the ever-familiar sour-faced monkey glare into the camera, and no trace of the robot's owner beyond the occasional muffled shout of frustration echoing up from the basement lab. Hearing the front door open, Gir hopped off the couch and toddled up to Skoodge "Jell-o?" he asked "Oh, sure. I remembered your jell-o" Skoodge replied as he fished the package out of the plastic grocery bag and handed it to Gir, the little robot immediately tore the package open, dumped the contents into his head's thermos compartment (and onto the floor) before running to the fridge and pouring a jug of similarly orange liquid in after it, and returning to his show, squealing all the while.
Gir turned back to Skoodge and smiled brightly "I gots jell-o in my head" he half giggled half whispered "Y-you sure do Gir" Skoodge replied uneasily "Double orange jell-o…Did Zim come upstairs while I was out?" Gir shook his head. Skoodge sighed, it seemed some things never changed "I'm going downstairs to the lab, alright?" Gir nodded "Jell-o". Skoodge climbed into the elevator and watched the network of wires and pipes go by, as expected, when he reached the lab he saw Zim pouring over his latest project.
Skoodge climbed over the mess as he entered the room "I'm back!" he called, getting a few distracted noises of acknowledgement in return. "Uh-Zim? When was the last time you took a break?" this caught the smaller Irken's attention enough to warrant a proper reply "Eh? I took a break earlier today, you were there! Gir made that weird….clay thingy".
"That was three days ago."
It spoke volumes of how engrossed Zim was with his project that he responded with an annoyed noise of dismissal and hand wave, rather than his customary scream of 'You're lying!'. "Do you think you might want to take another one soon?" Skoodge asked as he examined a piece of metal that had likely been mangled by Zim in a fit of rage "It might make your project a little less….frustrating". This got Zim's attention as he turned to Skoodge with a small, obstinate frown "No".
Skoodge recognized the tone as one that signified the conversation was over and in danger of becoming a monologue on how 'Zim needs no break!' and took his cue to leave. "Alright then, I'll let you get back to work"
When he reached the surface level Skoodge began to pace the around kitchen worriedly; despite what most of their species would say, he long believed that Zim's biggest problem was his habitual self-negligence. The Irken empire had an image of being a well-oiled machine, a model of efficiency where each cog was technologically enhanced to be able to work constantly and without rest. This was not completely untrue, but did contain a fair bit of hyperbole; PAKs did not completely eliminate the need to eat and sleep, they just greatly reduced it so an Irken could last much longer without either than they normally would. This was why the majority of food items were classified as snacks, to help enforce the idea that Irkens only ate and slept for their own enjoyment and not out of biological need. Thinking about it, Skoodge couldn't help but wonder if that might be why Smeets weren't allowed on the surface; their growing bodies needed more of both than an adult, certainly more than their older counterparts would care to admit.
Either way, it seemed that Zim was the only one who had missed the memo that his PAK hadn't actually made him completely immune to fatigue. It had been a life-long pattern that Zim would set his mind on something and refuse to let go, chasing after it with everything he had and pushing himself to exhaustion in the process if it didn't happen fast enough. Eventually he'd crash (usually at the worst possible moment for everyone else) and spend the next day or so asleep, then wake up in a foul mood, his frustration that he wasn't able to keep going worsened by the fact that he couldn't point the finger of blame without part of him being "at fault".
If this week was anything to go on, he still hadn't broken the habit. Thus far "Skool" would normally force Zim to step away from whatever he was working on for a few hours and he'd usually take a little time to unwind upon returning, it wasn't ideal but it was better than the unhealthy habits he had slipped back into the moment Skool went on break. It was then that Skoodge decided to take drastic steps; Zim was going to take half-way decent care of himself, darn it, even if he'd have to sit on him to make it happen. Well, not literally sit on him, that was just asking for trouble.
As he looked down Skoodge realized he had started collecting his baking supplies, likely out of habit, immediately the gears started turning in his head and a plan began to form. "Ooh! You gonna make cookies!?" Gir gasped loudly, he hadn't even noticed the robot come in "Can I help!? I wanna make cookies with lobsters in 'em!" Skoodge winced, normally he'd let Gir experiment in the kitchen and had found that some of his ideas were surprisingly good; but the Sir unit's experiments tended to be hit or miss, and this one was a solid miss. "Maybe later Gir, these are 'for everyone' cookies, so they have to be just right. Why don't you get your play-doh and make some with that to show me what you want to do? Then we can try and make them tomorrow". Gir smiled brightly "Okie dokey" he squeaked before scurrying down the hall, Skoodge smiled and got to work.
A few hours later everything was ready: Gir was distracted watching a movie on TV, he'd just taken the last tray of cookies out of the oven, and the chocolate drink he'd bought was just about ready. Perhaps getting a different brand with a mild soporific effect was a bit unfair, but considering that he was going to have to overcome the towering monolith of Zim's stubbornness it seemed justified, if only this once. Skoodge took a moment to look over his handiwork before taking the elevator back down to the lab, he took a deep breath before exiting and hoped this wouldn't be too difficult.
"Hey Zim, how's your project going?" Skoodge asked. The smaller Irken looked back at him "The same as when you asked me five minutes ago" Skoodge held back an exasperated sigh "It's been four hours…." "It has? Oh well" Zim replied dismissively. This conversation was already starting to go off the rails, Skoodge tried to steer it back on topic "I know you don't need a break, but I was wondering if you give me your help with something. I just tried a new cookie recipe and I need a second opinion"
This got Zim's attention long enough to reply "Why don't you ask Gir?". Skoodge had planned for this and already had his response ready "He already said he liked them, but I was hoping to get the input of someone a bit more….You know" "Discerning?" Zim finished, adjusting his posture to match the haughty tone his voice was taking "Very well Skoodge I will lend you the benefit of my culinary expertise". Skoodge allowed himself a small triumphant smile as he followed behind; like most of their kind Zim gave his opinion regardless of whether or not it was asked for, while telling him what to do would likely result in him digging his heels in, appealing to his ego never failed.
Once they stepped out of the elevator Skoodge hurried over to the kitchen counter and gathered a tray and stack of plates "I just need a minute to get everything ready! If you want to wait in the living room the movie on T.V. is better than most". If Zim objected to the idea he didn't bother voicing it beyond a dismissive wave of his hand.
Skoodge discreetly measured Zim's body with his eyes as he left and quickly worked out the right serving size to give him. It was a bit discouraging that he still had to do this, but it was better than the alternative; growing up Zim would often insist that he could finish the meals he was given, completely ignoring that they were a standardised size meant for a smeet much bigger than he was, and ending up sick with a nasty spoochache. Skoodge would know; he was usually the one staying up to look after him, getting him medicine or a bucket when needed. Granted that wasn't a Zim-specific problem; lots of smeets were prone to doing the same, though normally the natural hierarchy would lead to the taller smeets stealing the extra food off the trays of the smaller, giving everyone what they needed in a distinctly Irken way. The problem was that, as usual, Zim had been an outlier nobody had accounted for; in this case a smeet that was both tiny and consistently able to defend his tray from everyone else.
The worrisome part was that growing up and gaining autonomy over his food hadn't fixed anything; instead Zim took to hyper focusing on his projects, often forgetting to eat for days on end and then making himself sick when he tried to compensate afterwards. At least that's how it had been during their training days and, judging by what Skoodge had seen since moving in with his friend, not much had changed. Once he was satisfied with the serving-size he set out plates for himself, Gir & Minimoose and brought the tray into the living room, as he handed them off he noticed Gir was eating his own play-doh "lobster" cookies. Gross.
As the four of them sat eating their cookies and watching the fair and curly-haired little girl on the TV set sing and dance, Skoodge couldn't help but muse at how funny it was that for somebody who had claimed to have no interest in Earth entertainment Zim had some very strong opinions on it. Besides knowing to avoid a handful of despised shows Skoodge had trouble finding something that was suitably relaxing, as task made all the more difficult by the fact that many of the shows that were typically considered such weren't for Zim: cooking shows for example usually resulted in his loudly expressing his disgust with the majority of human food, similarly quiz shows would lead to him competing against the contestants on TV (and cursing the "Lying quiz show human" if his answer was incorrect), documentaries were a bit hit or miss depending on the topic, and all of them found sci-fi more comedic than anything else. As a result, finding something to play on TV that wouldn't get Zim riled up had been the most time-consuming part of this exercise.
"So, how are they?" This was really just small talk; if he didn't like them Zim wouldn't have already finished half the cookies and hot chocolate on his tray. "Eh, they're alright" Zim shrugged "Better than most Earth food anyway." His eyes weren't quite as wide open as usual. "What is that cushion doing on the sofa, anyway?" he asked pointing to a pink pillow placed between his spot on the sofa and Gir's. "Oh, that. Gir made a pillow fort earlier, that was the security system" it wasn't a lie; Gir had built one earlier in the day, and dismantled it while the cookies were baking, but one had been left on the sofa, strategically placed for when the need would arise "Why, do you want me to get rid of it?" Zim took another bite of cookie and sip of hot chocolate while eyeing the pillow, as if he were carefully weighing his options and assessing the pillow's worthiness to be in that spot "No, it can stay" he eventually decided as he handed the now empty plate and mug back to Skoodge.
As the larger Irken busied himself with the dirty dishes, Zim fiddled with his gloves in an effort to keep himself awake; he had things to do! What good was a break from skool if he spent it relaxing? But at the moment it was frustratingly difficult to stay awake and he found his eye lids were slowly starting to drift shut, in part due to the annoyingly soothing warmth that was quickly spreading throughout his tiny body. For a second he thought he felt the gentle touch of fingers stroking the back of his head, he couldn't be quite sure though as moments later he slipped into a deep, blissful sleep.
Skoodge gingerly pulled his hand back and walked around to the front of the sofa; one discovery that resulted from his and Zim's smeethood misadventures was that there was a little spot on his head that had a calming effect on the normally high-strung Irken when stroked. If the state he was currently in, head dipped forward and slowly bobbing in time with his breathing with his hands resting on his full tummy, was anything to go by the trick still worked. Skoodge gently eased his friend into a more comfortable position on his side, his head ending up squarely in the middle of the pillow from before.
He then walked around and plucked Gir off the sofa with a "shh" gesture which the little robot returned and carried him into the kitchen "Aww, I wanna see the rest of the movie" Gir whined. "Just give me a minute and we'll watch it downstairs" Skoodge replied with a patient smile Gir gasped happily "You mean I gets to watch it on the big T.V.?" he whispered with reverent awe; master never let him use the big T.V. There was a good reason for this, it really wasn't meant to be a T.V. set, but Skoodge decided that with it sitting idle for the night and supervision from both him and Minimoose, who was already escourting his sibling into the lab, it should be alright. But first there was one thing left to do.
He picked up a fluffy blanket he'd hidden away in the cupboard and carried it over to the sofa, doing one last test before placing it. "Zim?" he whispered gently "Are you still awake?" No response came apart from a slight twitch of his right antenna and a squeaky hiccup. Satisfied that he wouldn't accidentally wake him up, Skoodge carefully placed the blanket over the sleeping Irken who snuggled deeper into the pillows and blanket until just the upper part of his face was poking out from the fluffy pink bundle. Aww. Finally, Skoodge lowered the volume on the T.V. and switched off the lights before leaving to join the two robots; hopefully only sleeping for a few hours instead of over a day meant Zim wouldn't wake up in as foul a mood as he normally did. But for now, he was happy to leave his friend to his personal (likely explosion filled) dreamland.
"Goodnight Zim"