Dib, the Tallest
"Good morning, Dib human." Zim's voice woke me. I groaned and pulled the pillow over my head. "The sooner you get up, the sooner we can start on my base." He tugged the blankets off of me. I grumbled and pulled the pillow tighter over my head. He yanked that off too and I stared up at a blurry, green-skinned boy holding my pillow. He held out my glasses. "Here."
"Thanks." I mumbled. I put them on and smiled a little when the world came into focus. "Can we have breakfast first? Or at least some coffee?" I yawned widely, stretching my arms high over my head.
"Coffee sounds fine." He replied. "Do you wish to have it here or go somewhere and get it?" He asked. 'And by that he means do you wanna drink it here and then sleep with him or do you wanna go on a date first?' I shook away the voice in my head once more and thought about it as I stood and walked to my dresser.
"How about Niyall's on Third? I hear they have some pretty good coffee." I pulled out a pair of jeans and a shirt. "Or there's the more generic shop on Bridge street." I walked into the bathroom to change, but kept the door open to continue the conversation. I pulled off my undershirt and pulled on the tee, then pulled my pants on over my boxers.
"Niyall's is fine. I'm lucky I have a disguise with me." I heard him walking closer as I rubbed on some deodorant and checked my hair.
"All yours. Take your time." I walked out and let him in, watching as he shut the door. The simple fact that he spoke of his disguises in front of me was a huge leap forward from how we used to be. A few minutes later he emerged, piercings and all. "Ready to go?" I asked. He nodded.
"Niyall's on Third?" He confirmed. I nodded and let him lead the way out of the house. I smiled and locked the door behind us, then pocketed the key and started walking. Niyall's was about four blocks away, and easily within walking distance. We walked side by side, taking our time. We didn't need to talk; silence was enough for us. We walked into the small coffee shop and waited in line.
"So how long will it take to fix your computer?" I asked, shuffling ahead as people received their drinks. He glanced up at me.
"The whole lab or just my computer?" He asked back. Two more people left. We were second in line after a man in a business suit.
"Just the computer." I replied. The man in the suit left. We quickly placed our orders: a double chocolate latte for me, an Earl Greyer tea, black and strong, for him. We waited patiently for our order, the took our drinks and headed outside.
"Umm...if we work without a pause, about four hours. It's just cosmetic damage; all the internal parts are still in working order." He shrugged, keeping both his hands wrapped around his teacup. A shrill feminine shriek alerted me to a girl nearby. A moment later, a flash of light made me see spots. That same shriek again and the girl ran off.
"Who the hell was that?" I asked, rubbing the vision back into my eyes. Zim blinked, closing one eye to focus and make sure he could see too.
"I think it was that crazy chick from school. Her name's Stacy or Stephanie or something." He rubbed his eyes once and blinked again.
"Samantha? The one who dyed her brown hair black and wears it like a scene girl? Wears emo goth clothes but is about as goth as a prep?" I asked. Zim nodded. My vision returned, and I took a sip of my coffee.
"How old is she? Fourteen, fifteen?" He wrapped his hands back around his cup of tea.
"She's sixteen, actually, and taking advanced classes." I reclined in my seat, putting my ankle over my other knee and laying one arm over the back of the chair. Zim was my opposite, hunching over in his chair as far as he could, trying to curl his entire body into his teacup. He quite obviously had issues with being around people. "So, how do you want to start on the house?" He glanced up at me. "The house. It blew up, remember? So where do we want to start first?" He shrugged, staring into his teacup once more.
"The computer. It's got everything important I need on it. Once we fix it, I can run a program and fix the house." He kept his voice low.
"Do you want to get these to go?" I asked, gesturing to our drinks. He glanced up long enough to see what I was pointing to before he nodded. I unfolded my long legs and stood, taking my drink into my hand. Zim stood as well and followed me back inside the store. We got our drinks to go and walked back out. "Your house to work or back to mine?" He shrugged. "To yours then." There was no telling if Gaz was going to be home or not, and I wanted to avoid any chance at a confrontation.
"It's a couple miles away." He pointed out. I shrugged.
"Don't you remember that I used to be there pretty much every day? It's no problem for me." He shrugged.
"Okay. Lead the way." He sipped his tea, falling quiet once more. I smiled without him seeing and took a drink of my quickly chilling latte. Silence reigned supreme once more, neither of us wanting to say much in the cool fall air. Leaves crunched under our feet as we walked along, passing the house with the "rabid" dog. I chuckled, causing Zim to glance over and smile a little as well. "Alien handcuffs. One way to find out if they work or not." He mumbled, then laughed softly. I chuckled as well, and we continued on our way. About twenty minutes later, we came upon a crater in the Earth where Zim's base and house used to be.
"Damn." Was all I could think to say. Some rubble was still scattered in the street, and Zim leaned over to pick some up as we walked closer to the "house." I helped him out a little, then set the scrap in a pile near the only picket left standing that used to be his fence. "How are we gonna do this?" I asked as he put more metal into the small pile.
"I know how to fix the computer, but I'll need to repair it first. It didn't completely explode, but it did suffer quite a bit of damage, both internal and external." He leaned over and picked up what looked like a motherboard. "See?" He tucked it into his jacket pocket and kicked a clod of dirt into the hole.
"Want me to work on the house? If I get a basic shelter set up, we can sleep here, wake up, and keep working on it. No need to travel back and forth every day." He shrugged, still staring at the hole. I stepped closer. "We can fix it, Zim. Promise. It'll take only a couple days to get the house fixed up and probably a few hours for you to fix the computer." He shrugged again, wrapping his arms around himself. My subconscious told me to hug him, but I shook that feeling away.
"Okay...Let me see if I can get to my base, or if it's still viewing me as in intruder."
