Dib made a few odd noises reminiscent of a gazelle with intestinal distress, before frothing at the mouth a little. Gaz crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, waiting to see where Dib's apoplectic fit would take him.

As it so happened, the fit took him sliding up the wall by his mouth like a slug, and hanging from the ceiling while his body flailed around in spasms. Dropping to the floor and squiggling around neurotically, Gaz only caught a few words of his mind-destroyed ranting: "Enemy!...But, hug!… Need eye bleach… dog with meat… hnng…!" Gaz rolled her eyes. Dib was the biggest drama queen on the planet.

A few seconds of crazed ranting passed by, before Dib popped up from the floor and stared calmly at Gaz, wiping the froth off his mouth as he collected his more rational thoughts.

"That… that was the most awkward hug I've ever seen in my entire life." He noted flatly, taking a sip from his soda now that his little episode of terror was over.

Gaz opened her mouth to retort, but snapped it shut. He was right. Combine someone from another galaxy with someone with no social skills and a hug, and the result didn't equal out to anything smooth regardless of the scenario. "I don't care if you don't like him, Dib. I do. You'd be less of a thorn in my side if only you knew the half of it."

"What, the part about Zim not being a real Invader? And his messed up alien backpack thing?"

Gaz froze and pinned Dib with a furious glare. "I swear, if you've gone so far as to put some sort of stupid recording thing on me, I'm gonna shove it so far up-"

"No, no. I'm not that crazy." Dib quickly held his free hand up in defense, motioning for Gaz to chill out. "I've known for years- I broke into his base the day after and got the recording off his computer."

Gaz lowered her finger that had been pointing doomingly at Dib. "Then why haven't you called him out on it yet?" She asked, feeling as though she already knew the answer.

"Because it would have destroyed the pipsqueak completely." Dib said, walking past Gaz and into the living room. Flicking on Machine Gun Squid Apocalypse 2 and passing a purple controller to Gaz while he took his own blue one, he set his soda on the floor away from their feet. "It's kinda funny, really. All I'd ever wanted for years was to beat him, and I finally got it and it just… wasn't right." Dib admitted, selecting his weapon on 2 player mode while Gaz cycled through the options. Gaz nodded mutely, and he continued. "I have a new reason to hunt him down now, though. What's he done to you?"

Gaz pressed "begin match" and glared at Dib. "He hasn't done anything. He's just told me all his little Irken secrets I'm sure you're dying to know." Dib's eyelid twitched with barely suppressed insanity, and Gaz laughed shortly. "Really though, I don't know…" she trailed off, and Dib studied her intently. Narrowly avoiding having his head shot as the match started, he took down a few enemy squids and darted under cover.

"He hugs you, holds your hand, and flies you home, and you can't put two and two together?" Dib demanded, looking fully at Gaz as she sliced a demon squid's tentacles off.

"Well, when you say it like that…" Gaz let the sentence hang, before coming across Dib's avatar and holding the gun to his head. "Look, just drop it for the night, or I'll betray you right now and take the glory of the match for myself."

Dib nearly threw a protective-older-brother tantrum, but squished the instinct and instead made a dissatisfied noise. "Fine." He grumbled, and Gaz lowered the gun.

Only so that she could knife Dib's player to death an instant later.

"Hey! Hey, what was that for!?" Dib bellowed as Gaz defeated the remaining few targets and stood up.

"That was for spying on me through the window like a creep." She explained, and picked her bag up off the floor and headed upstairs.

"I'm not a creep…" Dib protested to the empty room, pouting as he flicked on Mysterious Mysteries of Strange Mysteries.


Gaz lay on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Usually when she was faced with difficult decisions or thoughts, she would drown her worries in the violent world of video games. But tonight, her Gameslave had failed to keep her attention and she'd tossed it on her desk angrily after dying for the 87th time. So as a result, here she was, staring up at the rather unremarkable boring white paint of her ceiling.

Zim had invaded her thoughts this evening quite easily, and refused to leave no matter how hard she tried to shove him out. His stupid superior voice, the asinine things he would sometimes say, that idiotic stiff march he occasionally walked with… why was she wasting her time thinking about him?

"You liiiiike hiiiiim." A soft inner voice hummed, and Gaz snarled.

"Inner monologue, I thought I banished you to the shadow realm years ago. What do you want?" Gaz grumped at herself, crossing her arms. What an absolutely spectacular time for her conscience to crop up.

"You're too proud for your own good. Can't you admit, just once, that it would feel good to have someone to lean on?"

Gaz frowned. This was the exact reason why she had exiled her conscience years ago; it pulled mindtripping thoughts on her from corners of her heart she worked diligently at to bury, and then vanished to let her mull her feelings over in irritation.

"What feelings? I don't have any feelings towards him. He's a… a business contract of sorts." Gaz muttered to herself in the silence of her room, the sound swallowed up by the plushiness of multitudes of stuffed animals in various locations. Even as the complaint left her mouth, Gaz knew it wasn't true. They'd formed a solid friendship in the blink of an eye, having more in common than either would have ever guessed, and now it was mutating into…

For the love of Bloaty, she knew exactly what it was mutating into. She just couldn't bring herself to say it aloud.

Gaz rolled off the purple bed and dug around in her drawers for a pair of pajamas. If she couldn't drown the thoughts and emotions spawned from her realization in video games, perhaps she could hide from them for a while with sleep. Tugging on smooth light purple shirt and pants, she burrowed under her covers and stretched out, trying to quell her mind.

As much as her pride stung because of it, Gaz reasoned that falling asleep to various thoughts of a particular cocky green alien wasn't too wimpy. A faint smile crossed her face as she finally slipped into unconsciousness with the remembered feel of Zim's comforting claws through her hair.


"Computer, run a scan on my Pak, my squeedlyspooch, my lesser brain… everything!" The Irken demanded, gliding into the main computer room and stopping before the blank monitor.

"Uhh… ok… what am I looking for?" The computer asked unsurely, slowly running red lasers down Zim's rigid form.

"I don't know! Maybe an illness, or something. I already know about the defections in my Pak- ignore those. I want any recent changes." Zim clarified tersely, tapping his foot. Gir peeked around the corner with a quiet squeaking noise, watching his master's displeased form in interest. "Anything?" Zim asked as soon as the red light evaporated.

"No. What did you think was wrong with you?" The computer pried.

"My squeedlyspooch gives me odd feelings at times. And I'm incessantly happy- such happiness for Zim is abnormal!" The Invader declared loudly, shaking a fist in frustration.

"Maaasstaaaah?" Gir trilled, tapping over to Zim with little metal clanks from his odd legs. Zim didn't even glance down at his servant, instead making a "go away" motion by flapping his hand and focusing his attention on the monitor as he reviewed his vitals and the test results. Gir, not to be deterred so easily, poked Zim's legs repeatedly. "Maaastaah, I know what's wrong with yous." Gir said gleefully, waving his arms when his master abandoned the computer entirely and stared directly at the little robot.

"And just what is wrong with me, Gir?" Zim humored the android for the moment, bending down with his hands on his knees and peering into the simple blue eyes.

"NOTHIN'!" Gir screeched excitedly, grabbing Zim's face and squishing it.

Zim pinned his antennae back in annoyance as he stood up with Gir still clinging to his face. "Thank you for your valuable insight, Gir. Now leave me be; I need to find out what's wrong." The Irken mumbled around Gir's little metal torso, and grit his teeth when Gir squirmed around and kicked his legs.

"Nu-uh, mastah! You like scary lady!" Gir explained, sticking his tongue out when Zim yanked him off and held him at arm's length.

"I already know that, Gir. She is a most entertaining individual to spend time with, and her presence is quite-"

Gir rapidly shook his head no, cutting Zim off. "Nooo, you like her like her." Gir repeated more insistently, willing the overcomplicated alien to understand something he could grasp so easily for a change.

"No, I…" Zim began, but trailed off and lowered Gir a little as his gaze swept the room unseeingly.

Gir giggled quietly at his master's predicament and swung his legs in the air happily. "Mastah, should try hugging Gazzy again. Gazzy likes hugs- she won't say so, though. Every time I hug her, she threatens to bake me a basket of bread! WOO!"

Zim put Gir down and widened an eye slightly. He strongly doubted Gaz had threatened to bake bread if Gir hugged her. Zim was sure a much more "colorful" choice of words had been used, but Gir's childlike mind had warped it into the usual foolishness to be expected of him. Zim's red eyes followed the robot as it tottered out of the room to go have a tea party, and he heaved a sigh. Gir rarely had lucid moments of communication like the one he'd just been lucky enough to witness, but usually when the android cared about something enough to express it in a way that actually made sense, it was right.

"But… but she's a human!" Zim protested out loud as the truth crashed down on his conflicted little green head.

"So? You're both sentient beings of equal intelligence with similar anatomy. What's the huge difference besides race?" The computer chimed in cheekily, and Zim cast a baleful glare up towards the ceiling. The ex-invader deigned not to respond however, as he turned the computer's logical statement over in his mind. Yes, Gaz was a human, but she was different from most of the typical Earth females and the rest of the human population. That definitely made her worthy of his affections.

"Will I be assaulted by Earth meats?" Zim timidly asked the computer, a horrid memory of his experience with Tak ages ago dredging itself up from his memory bank.

"Earth meat…? Zim, do you know the first thing about human relationships?" The computer guessed accurately, and if it had the ability to make expressions it would appear rather smug as Zim's thin shoulders dropped.

"No…?" The Irken drew out the word hopefully, clearly expecting the technology to fill him in.

No such luck, as the computer breezily answered "Then I suggest you ask Dib."

Zim spluttered before waving his arms angrily. "Oh, of course, because the Dib slime is so popular with the ladies." Zim drawled sarcastically, tapping a foot.

"He's got a girlfriend. What planet have you been on, Zim?" The computer commented dryly.

"The Dib… what!? Never! Impossible! He's too much of a HORRIBLE SMELL RAT to ever…!" Zim let out a breath of air with a whoosh, fist still raised up in denial. Come to think of it, the Dib had been rather lax with trying to break into Zim's base lately and had been hanging around that Gretchen child… But all the same, Zim made a noise of discontent. He HAD been on a theoretical other planet as of late, and he knew it. But if the Dib could help him where his faulty AI system refused to… perhaps a chat at lunch wasn't out of the question.


"Dib beast! I, the INCREDIBLE Zim, require a discussion with you and your enormous head of smell."

Perhaps not the best way to begin asking for help, but Dib looked up from his sandwich all the same and regarded Zim placidly. "Why?" He asked, taking another bite and leaning his head in his hand lazily.

"Because! I, eh… need to ask you about… uh…" Zim looked around for inspiration, eyes landing on a hairy old man who seemed to be at least in his 60's. "Old Kid!" Zim finished, nodding to himself.

Dib set the sandwich down on the saran wrap it had come in and gave Zim a flat-out disbelieving stare. Upon closer inspection, Dib noticed the alien was fidgeting nervously and kept shifting his weight, and only Dib saw the wig shifting as Zim's antennae moved about anxiously. Gaz had buried herself in her Gameslave for the duration of the lunch and remained quieter than normal for the day, and Zim seemed unusually put off about it. So, swinging his legs over the bench, Dib stood up and wrapped his sandwich and shoved it in a pocket, following Zim as the alien led him out of the cafeteria and through hallways.

"Zim, where the hell are you taking me?" Dib asked once the Irken began to ascend a small flight of stairs at the end of one of the side halls. "If you're taking me to the top of the skool just so you can push me off or something stupid like that-"

"Oh shut up Dib, you know we're past that by now."

Zim's irritated reply shut Dib up effectively. The human had honestly expected Zim to never admit to their changed enemy status out loud, but shrugged a shoulder and followed Zim up. The cool breeze from the top of the building was refreshing as Zim turned around and faced Dib stiffly.

Dib looked the alien over warily. "So, you dragged me all the way up to the top of the damn skool to really ask me about…?" Dib prompted, watching Zim's expression melt into one of detestation at something.

Zim looked as though he'd rather leap over the edge of the building than be where he was, and Dib was curious as to what had gotten the ex-invader so worked up. Zim drew in a tight breath and clicked his claws together tensely as he answered. "About… what to do when one wishes to… hm, I suppose court is a fitting equivalent in English… when one wishes to court a female on Earth."

A silence drifted between the two, broken by only the distant cawing of a bird. Dib's face slowly stretched into a manic grin, and Zim winced as he anticipated what was coming.

"Haha…hahaha…. AHAHAHAHA!" Dib slowly worked himself up into a fit of laughter, holding his sides as tears streamed out of the corners of his eyes. "Heheh, you want to date someone here on Earth? Oh man, that's a load!" Dib got out, doubling over and panting as he stomped a foot hysterically. Zim narrowed his eyes and gave the human a death glare, and crossed his arms angrily. Perhaps the computer would be of more help now that Zim had at least tried to communicate with the Dib shit. Dib sucked in a long breath as his chuckles degenerated into occasional bursts of humor, and he straightened up as he looked over the alien's profile.

"It's my sister, isn't it?" Dib asked slowly, carefully observing the Irken. Zim's eyes widened fractionally, but it was all Dib needed to confirm his suspicions. Leaning against the wall that enclosed the top of the stairs, Dib pulled his sandwich out of his pocket and unwrapped it. Chewing it thoughtfully, he pondered the alien's request. Well, he could just tell Zim to go away and never talk to his sister again, but even he wasn't so dense as to miss the fact that Gaz clearly enjoyed spending time around Zim. And as loathe as he was to admit it, Zim seemed uncharacteristically pleasant around her as well. Swallowing the food, he wiped his hands on his pants and raised an eyebrow.

Zim was avoiding Dib's gaze, choosing instead to glare at a pair of birds that flew by cheerily. "I didn't know Zim even could get embarrassed." Dib thought, and cleared his throat. "Take her to Bloaty's. She loves Bloaty's." He said simply, tilting his head when Zim gave him a bewildered expression. "What? You've developed a tolerance for Earth food, the pizza there won't kill you. You asked for my help, and I gave it. The rest isn't hard to figure out- just go with it." The human advised, opening the door despite Zim's choked back noise requesting he wait.

"But… she's been so distant today." Zim muttered as he followed Dib down the stairs, and Dib looked over his shoulder at the forlorn ex-invader.

"Uh, yeah. She's Gaz. You didn't seriously expect her to deal with her feelings in any way OTHER than playing video games, did you?" Dib pointed out, reaching the bottom of the stairwell and making a right turn around the corner back towards the lunchroom. Zim hmphed in reply, remaining stubbornly silent as the two reentered the cafeteria. Heading back to the table, Zim sat in his usual place beside Gaz as Dib said something about seeing Gretchen and left the two alone with the sound of the Gameslave filling the silence.

"Sooo, eh…" Zim began unassumingly, knowing he had Gaz's attention when her button tapping slowed. "Zim was thinking… that, uhm… " The Irken let the sentence hang as he looked across the lunchroom and saw Dib sheepishly running a hand through his hair as Gretchen shyly said something and motioned for Dib to take the seat next to her. Zim frowned in determination- if the Dib monkey could do this affection thing, Zim could do it eighty SQUILLION times better! "I was thinking tonight sounded like a good night for pizza, rather than sitting around in my base and having Gir harass us. Zim thought… perhaps Bloaty's sounded acceptable?" The Irken baited, antennae hearing Gaz hold her breath despite their being covered.

Gaz paused her game and finally made eye contact with Zim, scrunching her eyebrows together as she tried to read his expression. He was clearly hopeful for her to say yes, and seemed on edge if the way he continually twitched his fingers was anything to go by. Cracking a smile at the invitation, Gaz released a handhold on her game to give Zim's anxiously twitching claws a quick squeeze. "Sounds fun." She said at last, smothering the larger smile that threatened to escape as Zim grinned hugely in success.

The bell for class rang, and the Irken hurriedly finished up what he was going to say. "YES! I mean eh, good. I'll get you around seven, so I recommend doing any homework prior." Zim notified her, and stood up to leave. Again his line of sight traveled to the other end of the lunchroom, and Zim's contact covered eyes narrowed to slits as he saw Dib say something along the lines of "See you later." to Gretchen before giving her a quick peck on the cheek and rushing off, leaving her blushing in his wake.

Zim snarled to himself. Stupid Dib, with his stupid… Dib-ness! Snorting, Zim looked behind him to see Gaz flicking off her game and putting it in her bag as she got up from the table. No one outdid an invader, exiled or not. So, grabbing Gaz's arm and tugging her closer, Zim also planted a light kiss on Gaz's cheek before marching triumphantly off to class and leaving a rather befuddled human staring after him.

"Take that, Dib smell."


Gaz passed the day in a mixture of pleasant feelings that made her want to vomit little sparkly hearts, if only the idea of vomiting sparkly hearts didn't make her want to kill herself. Even when her third block teacher dared to call on her to answer a question Gaz didn't immediately send his soul to the shadow realm, opting instead to just say the answer and have class move along without an argument.

At last the end of the day arrived, and she found herself walking home with Dib and Gretchen. Dib had approached her in the courtyard and made a lame attempt at asking Gaz to behave politely around Gretchen, and Gaz waved him off- Gretchen was one of the few people in the skool she didn't want to set fire to. When asked if Gretchen was his legitimate girlfriend, Dib had hemmed and hawed a little uncertainly, causing Gaz to shake her head and let the question go; if they weren't now, it sure seemed they would be by the end of their movie night in the living room. Walking a few paces ahead of the two, Gaz saw the house come into sight and sighed in relief. Not that she didn't enjoy Gretchen's company, but Dib's presence was as irritating as ever and she longed to be sequestered away in her room from his nerve-grating voice.

Holding the front door for the two in an uncharacteristic display of manners, Gaz grinned to herself as she passed by Dib in the living room and caught Gretchen's eye casually. "You know, there was this one time when Dib raised the dead. Has he told you about it?" Gaz asked sweetly, and Gretchen drew her eyebrows together a little.

"NO I haven't, because that's never happened!" Dib cut in instantly, waving his arms at Gaz to go away. For once pitying her older nuisance of a brother, Gaz merely chuckled and walked upstairs, hearing Gretchen slowly ask "Raised the dead…?" as she shut her room door. Thumping down at the dark wood desk Gaz tugged her homework out of her bag and set to doing it, taking her time so any hours spent idly waiting for Zim wouldn't seem like an eternity.

Flipping her literature textbook closed with a flop of papers after skimming through various short stories aimlessly, Gaz rolled her pencil back and forth across the cleared off desk. It was 6:57, and if the Irken was late to something he'd arranged Gaz would never let him hear the end of it. Making an agitated noise, she tossed her pencil in her bookbag and stood up to go sprawl across her bed when a tapping at her window met her ears. Pushing aside the normally drawn curtains that kept out the hated sunlight, she saw Zim hanging from the roof by a spider leg and holding his hand in the air with a claw still outstretched to click against the window. Gaz hurriedly undid the latch to let Zim swing in easily, quirking a brow. Why couldn't he have just knocked on the door like a normal person?

Oh well, she decided. This was the sort of nonsense that made him interesting in the first place.

"Gaz human! Zim has arrived!" The Irken proclaimed loudly, planting his fists on his hips and standing proudly upright.

Gaz rolled her eyes and grabbed her bag, giving the Irken a passing arm bump as she headed for her door. A gloved hand shot out and curled gently around her wrist, tugging her back towards the window as she made a sound of protest. "What, Zim? The door's downstairs." Gaz reminded the ex-invader, wondering why Zim was taking out his spider legs and crouching on the windowsill. Zim looked at her expectantly, and Gaz huffed. Fine, if Zim wanted to be weird and use the window, she supposed she could humor him just this once. Dib and Gretchen were probably comfortable downstairs anyway, and Gaz didn't want to tromp through their evening regardless of how much she enjoyed bugging Dib.

Zim leaned away from the house, and Gaz took his place on the sill as he wrapped an arm carefully around her middle and lowered them both to the ground without incident, spider legs scraping for holds against the house. Gaz placed her feet firmly on the grass while Zim trotted around to the back of her house, and a familiar whirring indicated they would be traveling in style as per usual. Zim sat impatiently in the cockpit, patting the space beside him as an incentive for Gaz to quicken her pace.

Ignoring the alien, Gaz ambled over as slowly as she damn well pleased, smirking at the slight wig shift caused by a twitching antenna. Taking the hand offered to her, Gaz hopped up into the ship and settled comfortably beside Zim as the Irken flipped various switches and knobs, sliding a claw across the dashboard to engage invisibility and have the ship take off. Zim let his Pak wirelessly direct the ship where to go as he diverted his attention to the human pressed against his side. Humans had a warmer core body temperature than Irkens, it seemed, and the warmth was quite nice to huddle into.

Gaz noticed Zim attempting to practically fuse his side with hers while still trying to remain discreet about doing so, and she hid a most un-Gaz-like giggle. Zim was significantly cooler to the touch than most humans, but Gaz didn't mind; if anything, it just meant she would never have to deal with the sweat that would otherwise likely be present on most human males. Deciding to play along with the alien, Gaz pulled him close with an innocent arm around his middle and the Irken brightened at the gesture as he laid an accompanying arm across her shoulders. Who'd have thought the prideful Invader Zim would ever come to think of humans as anything besides lower lifeforms incapable of moderate intelligence?

"I wish you didn't have to wear that stupid disguise everywhere." Gaz's voice from his side made Zim involuntarily twitch an antenna at the unexpected sound.

"You don't find me disconcerting when I'm not wearing it?" The Irken asked, wanting confirmation of his suspicions.

"Of course not. Humans are so boring- why would I want my alien to look like one of them?" Gaz remarked distractedly as she looked out the windshield, seeing the edge of the city that had Bloaty's pizzeria come into view.

Zim quelled a hum of satisfaction at Gaz's seemingly unconscious use of the possessive "my", instead taking manual piloting back and maneuvering the ship to a stand of trees on the same street as the restaurant. Setting it down with as little noise as possible, Zim got out and helped Gaz down before pulling a small black remote out of his pocket and pressing the sole button on it. The ship phased into view for a brief moment with a heat wave-like shimmer, before a bush sprouted from the top and enclosed it, effectively concealing it from idiotic humans who would be too stupid to realize a large bush in the middle of a forest didn't make sense.

Nodding proudly at his incredibly masterful cloaking device, Zim stepped onto the empty street and walked beside Gaz. Trying not to seem on edge as the restaurant of horrors was seen, he whistled innocently before finding Gaz's hand and unobtrusively taking it, wondering if she would permit the action.

Feeling the odd texture of Zim's glove lightly grazing her fingers, Gaz debated on politely removing her hand. She never had been one for open displays of anything, nevermind affection, and the simple gesture had her questioning what she thought she was. Wasn't she the harbinger of doom? The look-at-me-and-I'll eat-your-eyes scary girl? The emotionless person in a sea of fluff-headed bimbos?

Hmph. Well, she supposed she could be nice to one being and still manage to retain those titles. After all, didn't everyone have an exception for something in some small form?

Together they entered the restaurant, and Zim looked around. It had improved little from when he'd last been there, but at least the business seemed to have done away with the soulless, demonic animatronic animals. "What type of pizza did you want?" Zim leaned down a little to hear Gaz over the din of the pizzeria even though she wasn't a great deal shorter.

"Just cheese is fine, you can get your half any way you want it." Gaz said, looking around for a suitable table. An unoccupied booth off to the side seemed innocuous enough, and she nudged Zim and pointed at it to show where she'd be once he'd placed the order. Zim nodded and released her hand, stepping forward to talk with a drooly counter worker as Gaz crossed the restaurant and sat at the booth, propping her head in her palm as she watched the children play in the arcade across the room.

It was so weird watching children, Gaz had always thought. Because before they reached a certain point, they all seemed like they had the chance to be intelligent- until society squashed the spark out, of course. Zim came back with a plastic stand that had the number 2 drawn on it in faded sharpie and tossed it on the edge of the table before taking his own seat, placing his claws on the table with a light click.

The two sat and stared at each other for a moment, silence passing between them as each thought of what to say. Time ticked on, and ultimately nothing was said; for what was there to talk about? The weather? Their respective days at skool? Gaz would feel moronic if drivel like that came out of her mouth in a serious attempt at conversation.

Zim, for his part, sat quietly and let time meander as it pleased. He had nowhere to be and nothing else to be doing, and didn't feel the same awkward need most humans did to fill quiet with their obnoxious voices.

And so they sat, Zim biding his time calmly while Gaz turned conversation options over in her head before routinely discarding them.

"You don't talk like others. Most humans would be squirming with discomfort by now." Zim noted at last, and Gaz hid her relief at finally having something mildly substantial to respond to.

"I only talk when I need to. You didn't bring me here and expect me to melodramatically impart my life's story, did you?" Gaz asked, watching the corner of Zim's mouth twitch up briefly.

"I wouldn't expect that from you under any circumstance, let alone in the middle of a pizza joint." Zim said wryly, attention caught by a server trundling over and asking about drinks.

"Soda." Gaz immediately said, wondering if Zim would even order anything. Wouldn't the water base in all liquids hurt him to some degree?

"Same." The Irken answered quickly, wanting the offensively smelling waiter drone to leave his approximate vicinity. Nodding at the requests, the teen left in much the same slow manner he had arrived with a displeasing snorting sound before he went into the kitchen.

Zim flicked his attention back to Gaz, studying her. Her hair seemed well brushed and her usual makeup was touched up flawlessly- had she actually made some sort of attempt at looking nice for a night out? The mere thought of imagining Gaz fretting in front of a mirror was laughable, but Zim wisely kept his mouth shut. If Gaz had done anything with her appearance, she would never admit as much and any needling by him would only earn a few potent glares.

In return, Gaz observed Zim. Seriously, how in the world was it still possible only she and Dib knew he was an alien? It was obvious at first sight. The lack of nose or ears, the unnatural eye color not found on any human, his speech patterns and personality, the green skin… her race was so godawfully stupid for not being able to see it. But at the same time she was glad of their collective ignorance, because it meant things like spaceship flights in the middle of the day.

The pair's mutual observations ended when their server came back with both requested drinks and wheeling the pizza behind him on a tiny push trolley. Accepting the items with reluctantly muttered thanks from both sides, the server gave a wet sounding cough and staggered away towards the bathrooms.

"I see this place hasn't gone downhill, at least. It's always been bad; I suppose getting worse is impossible." Gaz commented dryly as she grabbed a slice of cheesy pizza.

Zim grabbed his own slice and bit into it, admitting the pizza wasn't half bad for how repulsively terrible of a restaurant the place was. "Then why do you like Bloaty's so much? The pizza isn't bad, but I'm sure there are more suitable places."

Gaz primly wiped a bit off sauce off the corner of her mouth as she looked around. "I don't really know. I've just… always gone here, I guess." She answered after watching a kid get vaporized for losing one of the games. His molecules would be rearranged out back, but that didn't make the game's punishment any less amusing. Watching Zim calmly start his second slice, something occurred to Gaz. "Shouldn't you be, like, on fire or something from eating this stuff?"

Zim blinked at her and swallowed the bite of pizza he had taken, shaking his head. "A couple years ago, yes. But I've had to adapt myself slowly to be able to eat things containing more than just pure sugars. I don't get shipments from Irk anymore, so it wasn't an option to just eat nothing." Zim explained briefly, indulging in the rest of his pizza happily as Gaz grabbed her own second slice.


"You certainly did NOT beat me!" Zim declared angrily, stalking along the street with a takeout box gripped tightly in his gloved hand as Gaz followed behind with a smug grin on her face.

"You were the one who got vaporized. How can you say I didn't win?" Gaz asked incredulously, knowing Zim's pride was smarting from his utter destruction at Zombie Attack III in the restaurant.

"Because! Zim ALWAYS wins!" The Irken yelled, making sure the street was clear before walking off the sidewalk and into the woods. Gaz rolled her eyes and followed, catching Zim just in time to see the bush shield fold up and away and the ship become visible. Getting inside before even Zim did, Gaz crossed her arms.

"Sore loser." She said simply and stuck her tongue out tauntingly, wondering if she was being hypocritical. Of course, she had never lost a game to anyone in her life, thus never giving her the opportunity to find out whether she herself was a sore loser or not.

Zim huffed and easily hopped in, mashing buttons and yanking knobs as he had the ship take off.

"You were a little bit of a challenge, don't feel too bad. I can annihilate anyone in video games." Gaz half-assedly comforted, taking Zim's hand on a whim.

The Irken relaxed and accepted the touch, peeling out his contacts with his free hand and tugging off his wig. Gaz reached up and tapped an antenna almost without thinking, watching Zim's eyes slip closed with a pleased smile spreading across his face. Involuntarily leaning into her touch, Gaz mused that if Zim were a cat he'd be purring like a boat. Instead, a barely perceptible humming sound came from somewhere deep in his throat, and the Irken idly pulled a hand through Gaz's hair.

This was nice, Gaz decided. Not at all sexually pressing like a stupid pig headed male would be, and not awkward either. It was just a pervading feeling of mutual comfort, and Gaz drank it in contentedly.

The two remained like that for a time, their own bubble of solitude enclosing them from the rest of the world. She noticed somewhere in the back of her mind they were no longer sitting up, but more at a steep slant on the cushiony driver's seat. Zim might have thought he was sly enough to get the ship to mold itself more comfortably around them (however the hell he did that without using his hands), but little escaped Gaz. At one point the Irken was bold enough to plant a light kiss on her neck, and Gaz pushed away the heat that rose to her face. For being from another planet, Zim sure wasn't shabby at human tendencies. Bravely sitting up a little, Gaz returned the gesture on his cheek and squeezed him a little.

Well, he wasn't a Gameslave but… she'd keep him.

"Where are we even flying?"

"Heh." Zim said, only half hearing Gaz's question as he buried his face in her hair and inhaled deeply at the familiar scent. "I have no idea. And I don't care."


Yaaaay I finally updated. I guess it hasn't been that long since I last updated, but this chapter didn't come to me as easily as the the one before did. I still made it nice and long for you guys though! Thank you so much to all my reviewers, you guys are so inspiring and awesome :D Any thoughts at all on this chapter are mucho appreciated :D (again, check my main author page for tentative story chapter release dates. It'll give you an idea as to when to expect stuff from me.)