The Things I Left Unsaid
Chapter Four
-xxx-
After the first time, it didn't happen for a week.
Dib had chalked it up to his exhaustion and stress levels and had made himself let it go. He had been tired and flustered and his mind had gone to what he knew best. He vaguely understood the mechanics of sex, but he wasn't interested in any of the girls at his skool (he barely had time to pine away for any of them when he was the only one keeping them safe from being enslaved by intergalactic space monsters.)
Everything went normally. Gaz listened to everything he had to say before calling him stupid, and their dad had called to briefly video-chat about a new invention he planned to publicly announce the next day. Dib ordered a fake shrub off the Internet and cut eyeholes in the front, then went shuffling down Zim's walkway in order to plant some new surveillance cameras. He had gotten halfway to the door when Gir had exploded out of the window, screeching about toothpaste and wielding a lasso made of floss. Dib held still and everything had been fine until Gir lifted a leg and peed oil on him, and he screamed in horror as Gir screamed in excitement, and the gnomes had ripped off his costume and dumped him off on the curb. He got solid B's on his quizzes and one of his fan letters got read on Mysterious Mysteries (even though the host has visibly rolled his eyes behind his glasses.)
On Wednesday the coil suddenly furled itself in his stomach.
He was sitting in English when a sudden anxiety filled him and he squirmed in his seat. It crept down his legs and began to work its way into his stomach, and it so took him by surprise that he sucked in a breath and gripped the edge of his desk. Immediately Zim was sneering suspiciously at him from across the room. Dib met his gaze and swallowed thickly, slowly relaxing his fingers and letting out a breath. Anxiety pounded in his chest and heat filled his face as he pressed his back against the seat and forced himself to look at his notes.
Zim's glare burned into the side of his head and Dib couldn't help but think that the alien understood.
Time slowed to a dizzying crawl as the paranormal investigator swallowed and tapped his pencil on his desk. He felt hot and achy, and the longer he tried to ignore it, the more irritating it became. He began to scribble idly in the margins of his homework, wiping his clammy free hand on his pants. He tried to look busy as Zim watched him, hawklike. The rest of the day dragged until the minute hand finally creaked to the 12 and everybody bolted for the door.
The second he got in his house he ran to the bathroom. The hot water pounding into his skin wasn't the reason that after three short minutes he sank to his knees, shuddering and gasping for breath.
"Dammit," he whispered softly.
When he squeezed his eyes shut, a sickly green lingered in his mind and on the backs of his eyelids. He knew it was stupid, but…
…he felt like Zim knew.
Slamming his second glass down, Dib stood up. He was done.
The mesmerizing rise and fall of the mass of bodies almost looked like a single organism beneath the flicker of the staggered lights. He skirted the edge of the crowd as he searched the faces. Almost immediately, he saw her.
Her eyes were wide and bright, and she moved delicately to the subtle, looping melody beneath the heavy bass. She had long, spidery eyelashes and pale, curving talons, and there was something beautiful about the inverted arch of her spine. He slipped through the writhing crowd and approached her.
"Hi."
She blinked up at him and smiled shyly, and he knew she would be perfect.
He could have anybody he wanted.
-xxx-
Dib was close to seventeen before he realized he was beautiful.
The boy was accustomed to being something of a spectacle. He had always been sneered and gawked at as a kid, and when he had to stop every few light years for directions to the new housing development just west of the Irken empire's border, he assumed that the odd stares had something to do with the fact that the rest of the humans were in zoos or breeding experiments or were put in boxes on store shelves when the pet rocks were out of stock. It wasn't until he had been settled into his new house for a few Earth-years that the females around the city had started to pursue him. It had been a few years more until he had dared to indulge any. He had learned as quickly as he could and, after the first few times, felt that he had a handle on it. Having had no encounters with other humans to bias him enabled Dib to be open-minded and receptive to the different ways in which different species mated. And despite his frequent mumblings against forked tongues and multiple rows of teeth - she wasn't going to bite anything off afterwards, right? Were there any barbs he needed to know about? - he had never left a partner unsatisfied.
Afterwards, as she'd slip into a sleepy half-doze, he would lie awake for hours to observe. How many lungs or air sacs did she have? Was there any notable pulse, and if so, how did it compare to his? Did joints lock up during the sleep cycle or did she relax as her body repaired? The next day he would sit and take copious amounts of notes. Gradually, he began to feel like a normal person and less like an oddity. He had settled into a strangely normal life that kept him sufficiently distracted.
As with all good things that happened to Dib Membrane, however, this sense of normalcy wasn't to last.
-xxx-
It was only three Earth-days later when Dib returned to lose himself to the endless beat of the music once more. The towering centipede-like creature who worked as the second-shift bartender recognized him as he made his way to the bar and slithered away to make what Dib ordered every night he came by. The human hesitated before sliding into his seat and breathing in the heady scent of bodies and rich wooden tables and cheap, ineffective alcohol. It was easy to lose himself here, and when he couldn't sleep and his mind reached out toward childhood memories that hovered in the shadows like phantoms, his first inclination was to come here as quickly as his two-seater cruiser could take him. The bartender returned to place the heavy mug on the counter, sliding it across with a segmented, skeletal arm.
Dib had raised the mug to his lips when he heard it.
"You dare to question me?"
The chime of a raspy and high-pitched voice pierced the rhythmic thrum of the music.
"Sir, I apologize, but you're very short and we'll need to see verification that you are out of your larval stage."
"You stinking fool! Do you not recognize one of the greatest invaders ever to have lived?"
Cup half-tipped toward his mouth, Dib froze.
It couldn't be.
"I'm sorry, sir. I'm going to need to see verification of your age."
"How dare you! I am a century older than you, filthy guard-creature!"
"Sir, if you refuse to comply, I'm going to have to ask you to-"
"I AM ZIM!"
Dib's mug cracked against the bar as he whirled around in his seat.
It was.
The light from the street illuminated the tiny figure in the doorway, casting a pinkish hue on the pale green skin. Little clawed hands waved wildly about in outrage as two bright red eyes narrowed in fury, a set of serrated teeth glinting in the dim light as he opened his mouth to speak.
"Zim!"
Antennae twitching at the sound of his name, the tiny creature blinked and whipped toward the sound of the voice.
Dib closed the distance between them in half a second.
Zim hit the floor with a snarl of outrage and was tearing his claws into the human's stomach almost instantly.
"You little insect!" Dib aimed a blow at one bright eye, missing and knocking the side of Zim's head before cracking one knuckle open against the floor.
"Dib-pig," the Irken sneered, the sickly-sweet pang of talons digging into Dib's stomach making him shout in anguish. "How have your survived this long away from your filthy little ball of dirt?"
As he opened his mouth to reply, Zim's knee dug into his abdomen and Dib gasped hoarsely. Ripping his arms back to clutch at his stomach, he reeled, numbed by the sudden shock of having the wind knocked out of him. Zim shoved him back and his shoulder smacked against the floor as the barstool above him toppled.
"Sir!"
The silhouette of the lanky bouncer fizzled into view as Dib sat up groggily.
"You're gonna have to leave if you don't knock it off."
"Tell it to that little waste of space," Dib heard himself snap, and he leaned against the counter and wheezed before stumbling to his feet.
Zim hit him like a hurricane had propelled him.
The rounded edge of the bar rammed into Dib's back and he howled in fury, finding the Irken's shoulders and yanking his away just as Zim's teeth sank into his neck. The rip of flesh sounded like paper tearing and the Irken flew across the room, slamming into the doorframe and crumpling.
"Out," the bouncer was growling, and the burbling anger in his voice made it obvious that he was from an aquatic planet. There were huge, thick fingers digging into Dib's collarbone and suddenly he was shoved toward the door. "And take the kid with you."
"He's not a kid," Dib spat, pulling away from the fish-man's grip. "He's Zim."
"Not my problem. Get out of my sight and get him out of here too. Any more dead bodies showin' up here and Gorloch will be paying us a visit."
"What? Who's-"
The bouncer shoved the Irken against Dib's chest with enough force to send him stumbling backward into the street.
"No, I-"
The door slammed before he could protest, muffling the beat of the music and leaving him out in the whir of the busy town. Dib turned his glare at the creature in his arms. "This is all your fault, you worthless little- Zim!"
He shook the Irken violently. One antenna hung limply over his wrist.
"Zim?"
KatKit97: You're very welcome! I tried to make this like a novel and less like the expected kind of fanfic. :)
CrazySeagirl: There are a couple more flashbacky things to come. I feel like that's more fun than telling everything in the order in which it happened. Thanks!
zimlover: For some reason I feel like I know who you are. Thank you for taking the time to comment on each chapter thus far - I'll do my best to update weekly, if not more often than that.
ngrey651: I'm not sure I understand why you're in the IZ fandom if you detest races bent on conquest and destruction. :P But yes, I'm very happy with how this has turned out so far. Thank you!
It's getting dark and thundery here, so maybe I should unplug my computer ... storms are so exciting! I'll see you soon, guys!