[A/N: i want to express my ships cuddling in some way, but i'm not sure that i'll be able to translate the thoughts properly. Many are just sitting close together. Color me touch-starved.

This one is Dib experiencing Zim's skin. Sorry that the 'reason' that they're different here is poorly written. The nerves in my hands have been shot for a couple years, so i'm sorry that i don't describe things well.

TW/CW: ZaDr, touching, sitting together/physically close, phone and tablet/social media (mentioned), tactile descriptions, tiredness]

The days were hot. There wasn't any escaping the heat when you were outdoors, but staying inside did a good enough job of letting you forget it for a while. At least when the air conditioning was working properly. When it wasn't blowing cold enough, then you'd need to also use a fan to keep cool.

It made it mostly comfortable: shorts felt best to wear like this. They didn't like having so much exposed, but the constriction of their regular attire quickly became too hot and sweaty to be worn right now.

The day had long been over when they decided to retire to the bed. Not sleep: it was that time that many would say is "too late" to sleep, whatever that means. So they just played on their little gadgets until they passed out or the sun came up. It wasn't exactly so different from what they did during the day, but there was always some different texture to it when it was like this.

The covers were kicked off long ago. The two little robots that were sleeping on the bed never minded being moved to the side to let the others share it: they were just happy to be allowed to stay there with them.

Surprisingly neither of them had a "side" of the bed that they would consistently keep. Sometimes one would sleep by themself and get angry when the other tried to take his space, and other times they would wake up to find that they had fallen asleep in compromising positions. They both wanted most of the bed for themself, but they would honestly rather have their partner there with them than have to be alone for the night.

Tonight, Zim was lying on Dib's right side, reading something about Earth fish on his tablet. Dib scrolled through the endless pages of social media on his phone, not finding anything at all interesting. He sighed in boredom, slightly upset that none of the pages that he followed posted anything worth looking at. He kept scrolling, though.

At a point, the page had to load new information. The screen went dark, save for the little spinning circle in the center. Dib caught a glimpse of his tired face in the reflection, and quickly tilted the screen so he didn't have to keep looking at himself. What he saw instead was a bit of the little green guy next to him. This was only for a moment, as social media websites know how important it is to keep people attached to the screens.

But in the time between then, Dib noticed that their arms were touching. It wasn't out of place or anything: everyone on Earth knew how aggressively physical they could get, and the place they were now knew that in a completely different way.

Dib thought about it. Neither of them noticed the contact before, nor did they move enough to separate or even rub against the other. It might have been an accident initially, but now Dib decided that he was doing it on purpose.

He studied the heat between them first. It wasn't clear which side was making it so warm, but Dib decided to take the blame for once. It would have probably been uncomfortable given the circumstance, but he wanted to endure it to at least get another chance to study Zim's physiology.

Besides being warm, Zim was soft. Or, at least his skin was. It wasn't hard to find a part of him that was well-toned beneath it: him staying fit to a point where it was uncertain if there had ever been a bit of fat on him. Dib didn't care too much either way when it came to Zim, but he liked what he looked like now far enough.

It wasn't too clear what else he could tell from where they were connected. He knew what Zim felt like by now, so he tried to notice the smaller details through the flesh of his arm. He tuned his phone to open the camera app so he could get a peek at his partner without having to move any or disturb him. He tried not to tilt his phone too much to be noticed, but it was in a spot where he couldn't get too good of a look at his face.

Dib wanted to be coy about it. He stretched a bit and breathed in deeply before twisting his body to the side so he could face his boyfriend. He closed his eyes and sighed through his nose. He made sure that his skin was still touching Zim's. "Going to sleep now??"

Dib opened his eyes partway. "Maybe…" He kept his current interest in his vision and reached out to touch it with his hand. He introduced the tips of his fingers first, brushing gently to get Zim comfortable and to absorb up as much of the texture as he could. He slowly brought his palm to Zim's arm and lovingly feathering his thumb over him.

Zim didn't look up from his tablet. "What're you doing?"

Dib hummed that he didn't know. He delicately rubbed his digits against the alien flesh and felt his face and his chest lighten with it. He relaxed his neck and happily cuddled against the bed. "I just wanna touch you, i guess." He slowly petted his hand over Zim's arm.

Zim felt completely different from a human. His skin was soft and completely smooth, without hair or follicles or even dry areas. Even where his arm bent, the cracks and wrinkles that were there were delicate and tender. Dib compared it to what a treefrog must feel like, except warm; so he wondered if it was more like a dolphin or something. He was sure that neither of those Earthly animals could compare to his precious little alien, whose skin felt like it was kissing his fingers back as he skirted anywhere he could.

Zim glanced his eyes over at Dib's hand and watched it trace its path over and over again. It took him a minute before he turned his head some to watch him better. He didn't understand what was so interesting in the texture. He tried to reason, but he couldn't. He finally inquired, "why???"

Dib didn't really know how to answer. "Hmm.. Because you're weird, Space Boy." He kept rubbing his arm. "You're like an alien, or something." Dib guessed that he might actually be tired, judging by what he said there. "Plus, i think i like you."

Zim hummed a giggle. "Foolish worm-monkey." He smiled and lowered his tablet to rest on his chest. He bent his arm so that he could caress Dib's cheek with the side of his bare finger. His eyes drifted closed and he cuddled further into his pillow. "I didn't know that you could be cute."

He huffed and smiled sweetly. Zim leaned over and lovingly kissed Dib on his forehead for a full two seconds. The two exchanged darling expressions with each other. "Sleep well, Dib-beast." He brushed his cheek for a moment more. "I love you."

Dib hummed and smiled again. He stopped moving his hand, but kept it on Zim's arm. "I love you too, Zim."