Hey all!
Thank you for being so patient while I wrote the next chapter. I know it's been FOREVER since I've updated and I'm TERRIBLY sorry. School's been a handful lately and inspiration completely abandoned me. Luckily, I found it and the time to type (--FYI--and somehow a few dirty words got in here--FYI--). I made it longer to make it up to you guys, so here you go!
Chapter 8 should be up soon! (Hopefully…)
The story should wrap up in a few chapters. For those of you who enjoyed this, I'm thinking about writing a sequel! PM me with a few ideas for it and maybe I could work them in!
Love ya' all! And thanks!
INVADERZIM12
Ch.7-Garlic
My two ton backpack weighed me down as I slowly made my way towards the base. Every step that I took took more effort than it should have. This was completely unfair. It was going to be a beautiful weekend and I'll have to do two weeks worth of homework.
Glancing around, I tried to determine how far away from Zim's base I was. Looking at the familiar landmarks, I quickly found that I had about a block to go. I stopped walking for a minute to breathe.
My whole back hurt along with my shoulders and spine. I was starting to think that my spine would be bent like that forever. Not only would my classmates call me insane and gay, they'd call me a hunchback too. The insane gay hunchback boy whose father is the world's greatest scientist when his son can't even get a job at friggin' MacMeaties and keep it for two minutes before screwing something up! Then they'd probably lock me in a belltower and make me ring the bells…ugh, damn Disney movies!
Even though it was almost the end of September, it felt like it was 99 degrees. I took a few more steps before I dropped to my knees. I hung my head, trying not to focus on the pain paralyzing everything past my waist. I looked up for a minute and looked back down as a bead of sweat ran down my face and off of my nose.
"Where's my Knight in shining armor when I need him?" I gasped. "He should be here."
Someone tapped my shoulder. I turned to the direction it came from to be greeted by an all too familiar face and voice.
"I am here, Dib."
"Oh, Zim." I paused to take a deep breath. "I knew you'd come for me."
"I'm sorry, Dib, but the costume store didn't have any knight suits left and I couldn't afford a white horse. This," He gestured towards himself. "Will have to do."
Zim went behind me and I let him slide my arms out of the straps. I stretched and moaned. Luckily, I was able to stand up straight.
"Thanks, Zim."
Zim swung my backpack over his shoulder and nearly lost his balance.
"IRK, Dib! What do you have on this thing? Bricks?"
"No," I crossed my arms and eyed him. "I have my text books and homework." I pushed my glasses closer to my face. "That's all, Zim."
"Sure doesn't feel like text books." Zim groaned. After a minute, he grimaced and shuddered. "Dib? My back really itches. Do you think you could…"
I tilted my head slightly and smiled. "Sure, Zim."
I went behind him and lifted his magenta INVADER'S shirt. The first thing I noticed was between Zim's shoulder blades. Right above his gray and pink pak were red raised bumps that really contrasted his green skin, which seemed to be really irritated.
"Hey, Zim? You're broken out."
"Ugh, am I?"
"Yeah," I told him. I took my nails and dragged them across the red area. Zim arched his back closer to me, which I took as a gesture that he didn't want me to stop. So, I continued to scratch his terribly red back. While I did, I started trying to figure out why Zim's back was like this. "You're not allergic to anything, are you Zim?"
It took him a moment to answer. "Not that I know of."
For a minute, I doubted him. I'm terribly allergic to poison IVY and have a really bad reaction to it. I'd break out pretty badly, almost how Zim's back was.
"Harder." Zim commanded.
I pretended not to hear him.
"Harder." Zim repeated.
"I don't want to hurt you. I mean-"
"Harder." He snapped.
I pressed harder as I continued to scratch his back.
Eventually, my arm got tired.
"Better?" I asked.
Zim sighed deeply. "Much. Thank you, Dib."
I pulled Zim's shirt down and walked to his side, putting my arm around him and leaning closer to his incredibly cool IRKEN skin. Zim put his arm around me. The walk to the base seemed to take forever. As soon as we got close, I ran ahead.
Zim always kept the security on, so I had to get past them. I've learned from previous experiences that the lasers singe your skin. The garden gnomes eyes glowed and the small cannons aimed at me. I leapt up into the air into a back flip, allowing the gnomes to shoot lasers at each other. I landed, hitting the ground and rolling a few times before ending up on my stomach and in front of Zim's base door.
"That hurt." I whimpered.
Zim staggered up behind me. "Would you quit showing off and open the damn door already?"
"Heh. Oops." I felt my face heat up. I mean, I DID just fall on my ass in front of my boyfriend. "Sorry Zim."
I stood and steadied myself. I kicked the door open and jumped to the side as Zim stumbled through the doorway, the weight of my backpack severely throwing off his balance. He tripped over his own feet and fell. I bit my lower lip, stifling my laugh. It was just too funny. I was barely able to speak, but I didn't want to be rude.
"Y-Y-You okay, Z-Z-Zim?"
"I just fell. How do you think I feel?"
I couldn't hold it in any longer and busted out laughing. Zim, still on the ground, rested his head on his arm. He glared up at me. It was that "I love you, Dib, but this is too much" look.
"Come on, it's not that funny!" Zim leaned forward a little when he said 'that'.
I continued laughing. My sides were hurting now, but I couldn't stop laughing. Grabbing at my stomach, I tried catching my breath. I eventually stopped laughing and cleared my throat.
"Oh God, Zim. I'm sorry." I took a breath between each word that came out of me. I sighed, finally calming down. "Let me help you up."
I gave Zim my hand. He grabbed my wrist and starting to pull himself up. He got maybe halfway off the floor when he smirked, tugged my wrist and pulled me down. I yelped. I saw a quick flash of white as the side of my face met the cold, hard tiled floor of Zim's base.
"Ow." I moaned.
There was another flash of white and Zim was kneeling next to me undisguised. His magenta eyes gazed worriedly at me.
"Are you alright?"
I couldn't speak for a minute. My mouth was open, I could tell it was, but I couldn't say anything. I felt Zim's gloved hand run through my hair. For a minute it felt like I couldn't breathe. Zim apparently could tell that I couldn't breathe and he gently rubbed my back. I coughed and took a few breaths before answering.
"Yeah, I'm ok."
"You don't sound ok."
I groaned and pushed myself up. Zim never believed me when I told him I was alright. The smallest cry of pain that escapes my mouth worries Zim more than it should. I do admit, though, I like all the attention he gives me. Zim wrapped his arm around me.
"I'm sorry." He stammered. "I really have to be more careful…"
"It's alright Zim, really."
A pain shot through the center of my hand. I took my good hand and held my wrist, supporting it. Great! If Zim finds out about my hand, he'll make a big fuss over it.. I gazed down at it. I've broken my hand before and this feels nothing like it…probably a sprain or something.
Zim stared into my eyes. I stared back. I knew what he was doing and I knew not to blink. Zim was staring into me and scanning my brainwaves to make sure I was alright mentally, physically, and emotionally. It's an IRKEN thing. I try to hide things from him sometimes, but only if I really didn't want him to know. I found out that, sometimes, it didn't work.
He was still looking into my eyes as he said, "You're hand is injured."
I looked down and looked up. I shook my head. "It's nothing, Zim."
He leaned closed and put his gloved hand under my limp hand. A whimper slipped out of me as he lifted it slowly. Zim shook his head and glanced up at me.
"As I said before, you're injured."
I sighed. "Yeah, it does hurt a little."
"A little, or a little."
"A little, Zim. Nothing that you have to worry about."
It hurt a lot more than I had told Zim, but I really didn't want him to worry about it.
"Is it bleeding?"
I looked at it. Looking at it made it hurt more. The burning pain stung my eyes, causing me to tear up a little. I shook my head. "No," My voice cracked. Shit! Now he'll know I hurt…
"Are you sure you're ok? Do you need me to cast it or anything?"
"No, I'm alright, Zim." Still on the ground, I glanced up at the cock. It was now 4:21. "Can we get to my homework now?"
Zim smiled slightly. "Yeah, I guess we could."
Zim pulled me off the ground (I gave him my good hand). I plopped down on his couch as he began to go through my backpack. I closed my eyes for a moment but was startled awake by a piercing scream. Zim was on the base floor, clutching his stomach. He was breathing heavily and his magenta eyes were squeezed shut. A small vile was on the floor next to him, the contents spilt on the floor. I quickly pieced it together. That was my crushed garlic. That's what caused Zim's rash. That made sense. I grabbed the broom out of the corner and swept it outside of Zim's base. I slammed the door and ran over to Zim. I knelt down next to him worried.
"I'm sorry, Zim! I-I-I completely forgot a-a-about the-"
Before I said another word, Zim put one of his gloved fingers on my mouth. "It's alright," He coughed. "I'm alright."
I was confused. "So, you're not going to die or anything?"
Zim coughed a few more times. "No," He choked. "That wasn't enough to kill me. It was only enough to set off my reaction, that's all."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" I repeated. I felt absolutely terrible. I didn't mean to hurt Zim.
"I'm ok, Dib."
I then broke down sobbing. I remembered the last time I screwed up big time which didn't help my case. It was when I fought with my dad over something…I think it might have been about the whole "I'm dating a guy. Get over it." thing. Zim hugged me to him. I sniffled a few times. Whenever I cried, you could tell that I had. My eyes got red along with the rest of my face. My throat and stomach were entangled in the worst knot ever. Zim's embrace made everything better though. Zim took his hand and held the side of my face, making me look into his eyes. He smiled.
"Everyone makes mistakes, even me."
I sniffled and nodded. I was then barely able to say, "I seem to make more mistakes than anyone else."
"Well, now you know for next time: No garlic around me."
"Yeah," My voice was barely a whisper.
Zim sighed and brought me closer to him. For the first time in over 30 minutes, I smiled. We sat on his base floor for a few more minutes.
"Wait. What time did you say it was, Dib?"
"Well, it's 4:30 now."
"We'd better get your homework done then."
"Why? What's the hurry?"
"Tonight's the night of the comets."
How I forgot, I don't know. I guess, with all that's been going on lately, I might have forgot. "Oh, yeah!"
"You want to go, don't you?"
"Early. I want to get a good spot."
"We'd better get going!"
Tonight would be a good night. Watching comets with my alien vampire boyfriend. I hope every will go alright…
