TREMBLE FOR ME
12. Special Privileges
Gaz's GSP trilled and she closed a round of vampire piggy squashing to check it.
Gaz,
Modifications to the base are completed. Zim could provide you with a grand tour whenever you are free.
Love, Zim
Gaz's scowl melted into a small smile. A proper tour of his base, Zim was really serious about letting her use it as she saw fit. Funny, this whole thing started because Zim still saw her as an enemy, obviously that, at least, had changed. Zim would never volunteer a tour to someone whom he perceived as an enemy.
"Um, Gaz, you're scaring the group," Maddy said softly. Indeed, the other two members of her team were hiding in a corner holding onto one another tightly. Based on Maddy's face she was just a step above that. Most people weren't witness to Gaz's rare smiles, those who had were in the right to fear them, considering the kind of things that normally made Gaz smile. Why did two words have to be so nauseatingly endearing? Normally her smiles were reserved for the suffering of others, typically those who really pissed her off, but suffering in general could sometimes do the trick. Yet the thought of one stupid green alien finding her presence positive somehow exceeded it.
"That was a good mood face," Gaz specified, scowling again. Watching Maddy relax and encourage the other two back over. Gaz got saddled with finding some appropriate media for a presentation. She'd find a couple clips that were appropriately gruesome to show that she was the one responsible for them. The presentation side was probably why Maddy asked in the first place; because Gaz never spoke in front of the class. Whenever Gaz was required to do a presentation alone she would just bring an episode of her father's show and get a failing grade. Presentations with Maddy meant that Gaz handled the computer while Maddy spoke, she'd get a couple points deducted for not speaking, but Maddy could convince the teacher of her contributions.
Gaz let them continue talking without really paying attention, instead choosing to reply to the e-mail.
I could come over after school.
Gaz
A few minutes later Gaz's GSP trilled again.
Excellent, Zim shall see you after school then.
Love, Zim
Unfortunately Gaz had not made her intentions clear, as Zim was, once again, waiting for her in front of the school. Gaz groaned, once again taking some extra time inside the school and waiting for the crowds to clear. The real gossipy types never lingered. The only ones who stay around long enough to maybe see something were the nerds, who no one would listen to, and dumb jocks, who wouldn't be able to put two and two together anyway.
"I thought I made it clear last time that showing up outside my school was stupid," Gaz said, crossing her arms as she approached the invader.
"What?" Zim's brow line rose. "That was a situation specific declaration; you made no protest the time before last when Zim arrived at the school."
"No, the first time was the specific situation, you called me out of class, and everyone else was still in class. Not to mention the fact that things have changed since then. When I want you to show up outside the school I will tell you," actually she probably wouldn't. Last time she was slightly disappointed, which meant that part of her liked him showing up. No, she soaked up anything that indicated Zim liked her, as futile and imagined her evidence might be. Unfortunately she was still tied to the established known as Hi-Skool. It wasn't that Gaz cared about their opinions, but her reputation afforded her relative solitude, free of annoyances. That would certainly change if the nosy and annoying members of the student body knew she was dating Zim. Zim still had enough of a reputation all on his own that the pairing would garner a frustrating amount of public interest.
"Zim was attempting to show initiative," he countered, pouting before Gaz urged him forward.
"Yeah well, you showing up regularly, behaving like you're my boyfriend, that could attract attention, start rumors."
Zim seemed unfazed, "I thought I was your boyfriend."
"You are," Gaz was turning red, "but that's not the point. You need to remember that Dib still has friends here, if the wrong person gets the wrong idea then it will eventually get back to Dib."
That made the alien flinch, "The… The almighty Zim already has the approval of the girl-child's father figure, what can Dib do now?"
"Your little blood feud with Dib drove me crazy, if you stupidly start it up again I will destroy you, Zim; no matter what labels, or trembling you might freakishly have been given," Gaz insisted as they neared Zim's house.
Apparently Zim's tour started the moment that they reached Zim's fence, he turned towards her and cleared his throat. "The lawn gnomes are programmed to no longer target you," he said, "and if you touch the fence post, a bio-scan confirmation will allow guests to enter the ground floor of the base without being evaporated." Gaz smirked, she had never thought Zim would compensate for guests. She wouldn't really bring anyone over anyway, and those she did bring she'd probably avoid touching the fence so that they would be evaporated.
"Welcome home son," the robo-parents opened the door, catching Gaz by surprise, "Come in, Miss Gaz."
"I didn't realize I was a Miss," Gaz scowled, a mildly amused scowl mind you.
"As you can see your identity has been added to their subroutines, although that's mostly for whatever pretense you bring guests in under," Zim said, "Robo-Parents, return to sleep-mode." The two wheeled into their respective closets, powering down. "If they become a nuisance you can supply the same voice command."
"I get voice commands, do I?" Gaz wondered aloud. That was pretty impressive from Zim's perspective.
"In the case of conflicting orders command is deferred to me," Zin said. "Mini-Moose is similarly informed, though with his advanced capabilities he will likely not obey any commands that are not in my own interests. I tried to inform Gir, of course, that's no guarantee of behavior, stupid defective robot. As for the house computer, your status has been updated from incidental ally to second-in-command."
"What does that mean?"
"Incidental ally means that if I haven't given the computer any commands related to you, you are free to leave the base or access any facility when I am accompanying you. Second-in-command means that unless it conflicts with an order that I have given you have access to defenses, communications, and facilities, which incidentally puts you above Mini-Moose in jurisdiction. His privileges only come into play during an emergency."
"What's Gir?"
"Gir is currently classified as a pet," Zim frowned, clearly displeased.
Apparently the little robot had heard his name getting called, because he shot up from under a side table, launching himself into Zim's face. "The Swiffer is on my back! The Swiffer is on my back!"
"Gir!" Zim yelled flailing, fighting to pry the piece of scrap metal.
Gaz smirked, watching Zim flail like an idiot. It was kind of cute. Then Gaz paused at the realization. She'd just thought Zim's idiocy was cute. Idiocy could be entertaining to watch. As long as they made fools of themselves and didn't get in her way. It had never been cute. Gir pulled Zim's disguise off in the struggle, which only made their little game seem more endearing.
With a groan of frustration, which was more for herself and to hide the fact that she wanted to coddle the flustered invader, Gaz held out her arms, "Gir, come here."
"Wheeeeeee!" Gir happily leapt from his master's head into Gaz's waiting arms.
"Now keep still or I'll drop-kick you into next week," Gaz said darkly, Gir squeaked and froze in place. "What's next on my grand tour?"
"You may choose, Gaz-human," Zim pulled out a paper, "these are the chambers of the base, just tell the computer where you wish to go first."
Gaz glanced over the page, while Gir stretched in futility to grab the paper, the names were laughable. There were three storage rooms, the "making stuff" room, ship bay, the observation study, the training room, the experiment lab, and the transporter room. Gaz knew what the "transporter room" was, a mass of tubes to whatever destination Zim may have programmed in. She suspected that her last date in Zim's base was spent in the training room. "Computer, take us to the experiment lab," Gaz said, dropping the paper into Gir's waiting claw hands. He might have shredded it, at least, Gir had sounded like a shredder, but Gaz already knew what order she wanted to see the base in anyway.
The floor depressed right where they were standing, creating an elevator where it was needed. (It had always been a feature, but Zim usually just used the fixed location tubes.)
"Excellent choice love-pig," Zim said, wrapping his arm around Gaz's waist.
"I'm still not a pig," Gaz pushed the Irken into the wall in displeasure. Gir laughed, pointing as his master, snuggling into the one arm that Gaz was holding him with.
"Insolent little robot, you dare mock you master?!" Zim fumed.
"Call me something nicer and I'll let you touch me," Gaz challenged.
"Uhm… fiery Mierdot?"
"In English, Zim."
"Sweet-pastry-thingie..."
"Try again," Gaz stared ahead while Zim growled in futility.
"Sesame flower!"
"No."
"Lick-able pudding?"
"No."
"Begonia of all things pretty!"
"No."
"Argh!" he yelled, "Zim knows not what to call the epitome of human loveliness that is Gaz!"
Gaz felt a blush creeping onto her cheeks, "That one wasn't bad."
"Really?"
"Yeah," Gaz bumped her hip into Zim's and he wrapped his arm around it again. "One, you used my name without some insulting prefix or suffix, plus, being the epitome of most anything is pretty good."
"Well then, you are the epitome of many rather admirable things, Gaz," Zim nearly purred, finding her cheek with his thin lips before the elevator opened and their tour continued.
For whatever reason, Gaz only stayed close enough to leave Zim's hand around her waist for exactly 5 minutes and 15.753 seconds. Gir got held for longer than that; managing 15 minutes and 35.933 seconds before angering Gaz. The little robot would have to repaired later, that one dent was rather unsightly. However, while Gir seemed to earn ambivalence or outright murderous annoyance, Zim managed to elicit a few smiles, as well as a couple instances of Gaz groaning and hiding her face in her hands. Although he wasn't quite sure which was the better deal, more touching seemed to equal more painful retribution.
"Well, that wasn't nearly as lame as I expected," Gaz said as they returned to the ground floor.
The house itself has mobile death machines functions," Zim said calmly, "if you require a demonstration."
"You know I wasn't actually, ugh, never mind," Gaz headed for the door. Trying to explain the subtleties of the English language was pointless if the human brain cell experiment was any indicator.
"You are displeased," Zim stated rather than asked. Gaz stopped, he wasn't really that bad at reading her, at least he was better than most. He could certainly differentiate whether or not her smile would be accompanied with a severe beating…
"Well, it wasn't exactly fun," Gaz replied.
"Fun? The point was not fun! Zim was showing Gaz the technological capabilities that she is now in command of."
"Dates should be fun, Zim."
"Date? No, that was… when you came here to do homework did it count as a date?"
"No, that was just me stopping by to do homework."
"And this was you stopping by for a tour of the facilities," it sounded like he was talking about a restroom. "If there is a date there will be plans with definitive timelines."
"Fine, but for the record, even me stopping by to do homework was more fun than this."
"Wait, how was that fun? At the museum you were entertained by Irken superiority."
"No, I was entertained by your ridiculous ire-filled ranting, museums are boring. Even Dib is more interesting than a museum. And this was basically a museum that no one was ranting at."
"What? Well, what made homework better?"
"One, it was entertaining to see how frazzled you were at my suddenly showing up. Two, homework is more boring than a museum and you were distracting me from it, and therefore, it was entertaining."
"Zim could distract you again," the alien suggested with a quirk to his smile. It sounded perverted; Gaz wasn't sure how he managed that without a sex drive.
"Distract me from what? I'm not doing anything."
"Computer, did you finish the download?" Zim demanded.
The computer groaned, "Yes."
"Excellent, display the Game Slave Portable on the living room screen."
"Game Slave Portable," Gaz blinked.
"Whenever you enter the base the computer will sync to your game progress and allow you to play here with the advantage of Irken's advanced technology," Gaz stared wide eyed at the controller that Zim pulled from the walls and waggled provocatively in front of her face.
End Mission Log
A/N: On problem of letting your characters run off-script and play-out however they want to is that they never do what you want them to! This series was originally going to be spending much of its time verging smuttiness. Unfortunately the characters keep demanding more "personal development".
