TEN MONTHS AGO

This is awkward, Dib thought to himself.

The two were walking through corridors deep in Zim's base. An uncomfortable silence had fallen over them, neither having the words to break it.

Dib had shown up at the base an hour earlier, eager to start asking the alien questions in accordance to their agreement. But it was weird. The dynamic between them had shifted so abruptly and Dib found himself unsure how to act.

Zim, so normally loud and energetic, was now oddly withdrawn. He looks tired, was Dib's first thought when the Irken opened the door. He wasn't even sure if Irkens needed to sleep, but there were dark circles under the alien's eyes and he moved with weariness in his steps – a sharp contract from his typical lively marching.

The paranormal investigator had launched into his prepared questions, but Zim had given short, lackluster answers, or else he didn't understand the question. Reigning in his frustration, Dib opted to have Zim give him a tour of the base rather than start what would surely turn into a big fight, which brought them to this point.

They passed another room and the human peered in curiously, seeing an assortment of creatures – some native to Earth, some that looks alien and monstrous, contained in individual glass tubes. He made a mental note to ask more about that later, and continued following Zim down the hallway.

"Do Irkens need to sleep?" He asked finally, unable to hold his curiosity back any longer.

The alien kept walking, although his antenna twitched and Dib knew he heard the question.

"Zim," he growled warningly. Was the alien going to break their agreement already? It hadn't even been a week yet.

Zim stopped and turned to face Dib, shooting him a glare before looking away again.

"No."

Dib waited for more, then gave an exasperated sigh when he realized that was it.

"Then why do you look so tired?"

The alien's antenna briefly flattened in annoyance before returning to their normal position. There was a short pause as the human watched the alien try to come up with a suitable lie.

"Zim does not look tired!" He finally screeched, making Dib wince at his volume.

"Yes, you do! And you promised not to lie to me anymore! You said you'd answer my questions!"

"I did not agree to listen to you insult my amazing appearance!" Zim shrieked.

"I just asked a question!" Well, this was turning out to be a complete failure.

"I don't know why I thought I could trust you," Dib sighed. He should have just cut open the alien when he had a chance, not that he couldn't capture Zim again. He still had his pak-disrupting device on him...

"We have to recharge when low on energy. Not through sleep."

Huh. So Zim was going to co-operate after all. Maybe this wasn't all a waste, even if getting an answer from the stubborn creature was like pulling teeth.

"How do you recharge?"

"Irkens can use a variety of power sources," Zim continued tersely, obviously not pleased with the human and his questioning, "Solar energy, electricity, snacks, any form of energy can be used to power our paks."

"So why..."

"Zim has had a lot on his mind lately," Zim turned and kept walking, not meeting the human's eyes. "It's not important."

Well, this was kind of pathetic. The once proud, arrogant, loud Irken Invader now sulking around his base, not taking care of himself and giving in to Dib's demands without much of a fight. I wonder how much grief I could have saved myself by doing this years ago, he pondered.

Briefly Dib wondered if he should say something, try to console Zim a little. He quickly buried the thought. This was Zim! The alien who'd spent the last six years trying to take over the Earth, making multiple attempts to kill him and forcing him to spend all his free time monitoring and defending against him. How long had it been since he'd done some non-alien paranormal investigating?

Still… it wouldn't do him any good if his once in a lifetime chance of researching an alien was cut short by said alien dying of exhaustion.

"You said you get energy from food, right? Show me your alien food supplies," he ordered.

Zim grumbled under his breath but changed his course, leading them to an elevator where they squished in awkwardly together and descended deeper into the base.

They got off in front of a large door, reinforced around all sides with more dark pink Irken metal. It was the most secure room Dib had seen yet. Evidently, Irkens were pretty serious about their food.

The door lock beeped cheerfully after Zim entered the code and the door automatically swung open, revealing a large storeroom lined with shelves full of brightly packaged foodstuffs.

"Woah," Dib breathed, eyes wide as he took in the different alien letterings on the containers. He knew enough Irken to tell that many of these weren't Irken-made. He took a moment to marvel at the fact that he was surrounded by items that had been created by all sorts of different aliens on different planets galaxies away.

Zim was watching him, an annoyed expression on his light green features.

"Why do you want to see Zim's snacks?" He questioned. He hadn't eaten anything for a while, but it set him on edge to have another in his snack room. Even Gir wasn't allowed inside.

"Oh, right," Dib picked an item at random, it was a bag with shiny green packaging that crinkled loudly when he touched it. He tossed it at Zim. "Eat up."

The Irken caught it deftly. He looked ready to spit an insult at the human, but thought better of it. He pointedly turned his back and took a seat on the floor, pulling open the bag.

Satisfied, Dib turned to the shelves again, taking his time now to pick something for himself. He briefly wondered if he should ask Zim for permission, but quickly stifled that thought. He was in charge now.

He picked a small black bag with magenta Irken lettering and opened it carefully, making sure not to tear the packaging across the text. Inside were glossy dark red objects in various shapes that had a strong sweet aroma. He popped one into his mouth.

"Ugh!" He spat it onto the floor and wiped his tongue against his sleeve. The little piece of food was disgustingly sweet, sending a sharp sugar ache into his teeth. He heard a small cackle behind him and turned to glare at Zim.

"Foolish human!" Zim hissed under his breath.

Dib closed his eyes for a moment, starting a countdown from ten. He promised himself he wouldn't let his anger get the better of him. No matter how irritating Zim was, he'd approach this scientifically and extract as much information as possible before the deal ended.

At one, he exhaled and opened his eyes again. Zim was watching him, an eye quirked in confusion and his antenna wriggling in the air.

"Is there any food here a human could eat?" He asked calmly. He wasn't particularly hungry, but who could resist the opportunity to try alien food?

Zim sighed, tilting his head to look at the shelves around him. After a moment he looked down at the bag in his hands and frowned at it. Then he was on his feet, snatching the black bag out of the human's hands and replacing it with the one he'd been eating from.

The Irken returned to his seat on the floor, back to Dib, resuming his meal.

The bag in Dib's hands was half-filled with light blue misshapen spheres that looked to have a chip-like texture. He placed one in his mouth, bracing himself for a rush of sugar.

It wasn't bad, actually. Salty and light with a sweet aftertaste that dissolved on his tongue. He took a seat on the floor, watching the other as he ate the rest of the bag.

It was slightly mesmerizing to watch Zim's antenna wiggle with little movements as he ate. He could see the texture of the alien's feelers; they looked velvety. It was so rare to have a chance to watch the Irken calm and undisguised.

He watched for several minutes before he realized something odd. Dib rose to his feet, careful not to make a sound. He slipped in front of Zim, catching the alien in the act.

Zim was holding the bag close to his chest, his tongue extending down to reach the candies. He looked up in surprise at the human, retracting his worm-like tongue back into his mouth, the end of it wrapped around a red candy.

"I didn't know you could do that," Dib knelt down, intrigued by the new discovery. "So all Irkens have prehensile tongues?"

Zim took his time before replying, making a show of swirling the candy around in his closed mouth to make the human wait.

"Yes." He finally muttered. Then his tongue dipped out again for another piece.

Dib grabbed it, earning a squeak of surprise from the other. He tugged on Zim's tongue until it wouldn't go any further.

"Amazing," he breathed. "It's almost as long as my forearm."

The Irken jerked his head to the side, yanking the appendage free. He snapped his teeth at Dib, showing off the sharp edges, his eyes narrowed to furious slits.

"How dare you touch Zim with your filthy disgusting-"

A distant screech jolted them, causing Dib to flinch and Zim's antenna to stand up straight.

A moment passed and then they heard the distant sound of crashing machinery and a shriek of "waaaaaffles!"

"GIR!" Zim jumped to his feet, marching toward the source of the noise. He glanced back at Dib and hissed, "Stay here and don't touch anything!"

Dib shrugged and tried to look innocent, smirking internally as Zim raced off.

When the alien was out of sight, the human wasted no time reaching into his long coat and pulling out a handful of his newest super-small spy cameras. Dib was never one to waste such an opportunity.

Cameras in the hallway, cameras in rooms of machinery, cameras in storage rooms and everywhere else he could reach. He kept his ears alert for footsteps as he balanced precariously on a thin piece of tubing that jutted from the wall, placing another camera up high with a good vantage point.

"He never comes in here anymore, you know."

Dib nearly lost his balance and quickly clutched at the wall, searching for the source of the disembodied voice.

He heard a chuckle as he hopped to the floor and realized who it was.

"You're Zim's computer, right?" He looked around, wondering how it could see him. "You're, uh, not going to tell him about this, are you?"

"Hmmmm," the machine murmured. If Dib didn't know better he'd swear the machine was enjoying making him sweat.

"I wonder what my pak-disrupter would do if I attached it to your systems," mused Dib, narrowing his eyes and rifling through his coat pockets for the device.

"I was only kidding, don't take things so seriously," droned the computer. "Zim's almost back now, by the way."

Dib was running out of the room and down the hall before the sentence was over, arriving back at his initial spot just in time to see the elevator door open and Zim stepping out. The alien made a face, noting the human's hard breathing, but said nothing. They continued the tour of the base in silence.