Zim began his journey home in silence, feeling no eyes on him and hearing no sounds of pursuit. Dib must have gone home. He had injured him quite badly after all... Zim felt guilty again, the feeling gnawing at him from the inside-out. He pushed it aside, there was no point living in the past. He just had to hope that Dib didn't hold it against him when he held out the 'hand' of friendship. Zim kicked a rock, sending it flying into the road, watching it bounce off a car bonnet and hit someone in the head. He smirked, moving away slowly and trying to act innocent. He didn't want to fight at the moment. Grey clouds overhead made him pick up his pace, hoping to get back before rain started to fall. Hopefully Dib wasn't too injured because Zim was determined to explain everything tomorrow. He just needed Dib to be in Skool so they could talk.
Zim walked up the path to his... 'home'. He opened the door, having never bothered to lock it since Gir always opened it anyway. The robot never remembered to lock it again and sometimes Zim came back to find the door wide open. He'd never been robbed though. Not many people were brave enough to venture so close to the odd house with the crazy green dog and lazer gnomes. Zim slipped inside, sidestepping Gir as the robot tried to hug him.
"MASTUR!" Gir cried and Zim patted the Sir unit's head so it didn't start to cry.
"Hi Gir, i'm going to be downstairs." He moved off as Gir squealed.
"Me an Piggy r gonna go da fair naow!" Zim ignored him, already in the lift to the lab. He'd continue his experiments and maybe start a serum to make him immune to water contact. It'd help him fit in better... and take his mind off Dib.
After working for a few hours, Zim pushed away his notes and samples. He had some homework to do and Gir was probably back by now. If he wasn't upstairs every six hours then Gir would trash the place doing Irk knew what. Zim rubbed at one of his eyes, remembering his disguise. He always wore it on house level in case someone saw indoors. He hurriedly put it on before setting off upstairs. Gir was banging around in the kitchen as he arrived.
"Mastur want a cuppycake?" The robot shoved a bar of soap into his mix and Zim shook his head.
"Sorry Gir... why don't I have it for lunch tomorrow?" Then he could dispose of it without Gir finding out. Blissfully unaware, Gir smiled widely at him.
"I loveses u Mastur!" Zim sighed, Gir was so hyuman it was weird. He himself was still new to emotions but Gir had already mastered them.
"I... love... you too." Zim fumbled with the words before marching away to the couch. Gir squealing again as he left. Why was it so hard for him to say? He slumped onto the couch, pulling his homework out and setting it on his lap. Humans were still quite far behind Irkens but Zim always had trouble with Math. English was even worse and Zim was barely passing both subjects. He couldn't help it, the numbers just blurred and jumped when he looked at them and words never looked right so Zim just spelt it as it sounded. He was more of a hands on person anyway and the only paper based subject he liked was Art. In Art his detailed schematics were praised and when he decided to draw less realistically, mechanically as he'd been told once, he was praised even more. It was quite relaxing to sketch whatever he wanted to and not get accused of being alien or insane. Zim pushed his work aside, finally finished. He felt his eyelids begin to droop and he barely had time to pull out his contacts before his body shut down into sleep mode. His Pak needed charging occasionally and Zim had been too busy to bother, now he had to manually recharge so he could only wait to wake up.
Gir giggled at his sleeping master. The Irken looked more peaceful asleep with his usual aura of arrogance and evil missing. Gir grabbed a blanket, covering Zim and himself with it before switching on the TV. He made sure to keep the volume low since he didn't want to wake his master. The screen flickered to life and Gir watched amazed as footage of this morning's robbery was shown on the news.
"Mastur's on TV!" He whispered in awe, seeing Zim's lekku twitch at the noise. Gir grinned, petting Zim's head gently. "Good Mastur." He mumbled proudly. He kept it up for a minute then with one more fond pat, Gir turned back to the screen and switched the channel to his favourite show. "I love this show." He cooed as a Scary Monkey face filled the screen. Gir hummed happily, now if only he could find his piggy...