Arm: Chapter six! Yeah! Okay, the romance, for those of you who are getting impatient for it, it isn't until much, much, much, much later into the fic….
Leg: Ignore the chapter title…Arm thought of it, and you may think this chapter is full of the fuzzies…. Well, I don't want to stop your thoughts, but…
Arm: Shut up Leg. Go ahead and read folks!
Betraying the Rivalry: Chapter 6: Shooting Stars and Wishes
It's now about a month later, and Zim and Dib were halfway through their Pictorial Information Retrieval Unit, or Pir, as Dib liked to call it. They could have been finished on it, if it weren't for Gir, who seemed to destroy something that was very hard to replace.
Dib thought it was funny to watch Zim chase Gir around his lab. However, there were times when he had to get in Zim's way so that he wouldn't kill the poor robot. Dib never knew that Zim could get so angry so fast over any tiny little thing Gir did.
It was another one of those days when Gir would get in their way incessantly.
"Gir, go outside an do something!" Zim shouted at the android. Gir had just destroyed some of the very important files he kept on the progress of Pir.
"Aw, why?" Gir asked before he started running around the lab.
Dib tried not to laugh at the android. Running seemed to be Gir's favorite thing to do, besides dancing at nightclubs. They only found out about that because Gir tried to drag them to one.
"Zim, just let him run, we can hide Pir and work on him tomorrow," Dib said.
"But Jazz is going to be here in a few weeks! He might arrive before we're done," Zim protested.
"When was the last time he sent you an email?" Dib asked, pulling the wrench out of Zim's hands as he tried to move his friend away from Pir.
"This morning!" Zim answered. "And he said he was half way here, and at the rate that Gir's been destroying Pir, we probably won't get done by the time Jazz gets here," Zim added.
"Zim, you worry way too much. Gir won't destroy Pir anymore, right Gir?" Dib asked as Gir stopped running.
"Yes, Sir," Gir replied.
Zim rolled his eyes, and sighed. This was an argument he knew he wasn't going to win. "All right, fine, let's but Pir away. And Gir, if you keep your promise, I'll give you all the cupcakes and tuna you want," Zim promised.
Gir's eyes got wide at the thought off all the cupcakes and tuna he'd ever want. "Deal!" Gir squeaked almost immediately. He then ran out of the lab as a way to celebrate.
"Zim, why didn't you promise him that sooner?" Dib asked.
"I don't know. I just remembered how much he liked them, I guess," Zim answered. "So, what do you want to do now, since I made the computer put Pir away?" Zim asked.
Dib thought for a while. "Well, it is dark out. We can look at the stars, if you want. I don't have to be home until seven," Dib suggested.
Zim was shocked at that. "You like to look at the stars?" Zim asked.
"Yeah, doesn't everyone?" Dib asked. "Look, we don't have to if you don't want to, you know."
"Oh, no, it's not that. I always look at the stars, when I get the chance," Zim told Dib as they exited the lab.
"Really? I never knew that. I mean, I wasn't sure if they had stars on Irk," Dib stated.
"They do, but we don't have the same constellations. Plus, on Irk, I rarely had the chance to look at them. Work always took up all of my time," Zim explained.
The two boys walked outside to Zim's backyard. Zim laid down in his usual stargazing spot, and Dib made himself comfortable beside him. They looked up at the stars, both of them lost in thought. Then, suddenly, a shooting star made its way across the sky.
Zim, in all his life, had never seen a shooting star. He asked Dib about it.
"It's called a shooting star, Zim. People here on Earth make wishes on them when they see them," Dib explained.
"Really? Okay, then," Zim said. He closed his eyes and made a wish.
"Now, don't tell anyone what your wish was, or it won't come true," Dib told Zim. Inside, Dib was laughing at himself. He sounded so fricken idiotic.
"Do all humans make wishes on shooting stars?" Zim asked.
"No," Dib simply replied. "Some think that it's foolish if you wish on shooting star. Others once wished something on the shooting star, and it didn't come true, so they never wish on a shooting star again," Dib elaborated. "…Just like me," Dib whispered to himself.
Zim glanced over at Dib. He thought he had heard his friend say something else after his explanation. "What was that, Dib?" he asked.
Dib looked over at Zim. Had he heard him? "It was nothing, Zim," Dib lied. He didn't want to explain everything to Zim; it was just too painful for him.
Zim propped himself up on one elbow and faced Dib. He studied his friend's face to see if Dib was lying to him. Dib glared at Zim for a few seconds, telling him without words to back off, and in those few seconds, Zim saw hurt in Dib's eyes. "Did you wish for something on a shooting star and it didn't come true?" Zim persisted.
Dib's eyes got wide for a few moments before he looked down at the ground. "I don't want to talk about it," Dib answered finally.
"Sometimes it's better to talk about things instead of keeping them to yourself. Jazz used to tell me that all the time," Zim said to his friend.
"It hurts too much to talk about, Zim," Dib explained.
"Will you tell me what it is when it doesn't hurt as much?" Zim asked. He didn't like it when Dib kept things from him.
"I'll try to, Zim," Dib replied. He looked back up at the stars, and he saw another shooting star. He closed his eyes and made a wish much like Zim had, even if he didn't think it would work this time. He told himself it wouldn't hurt to try again.
The two remained silent for a while longer until Dib looked at his watch and realized it was time for him to go home. "I have to go, Zim," Do said quickly as he got off the ground, and Zim got up as well. He walked Dib through his house.
"See you tomorrow at skool, right?" Zim asked.
"I'll try to make it," Dib answered automatically. It was something that the two of them started one day when Dib was sick for skool, and he still came over Zim's house. Ever since it kinda stuck with them.
Zim watched Dib round the corner before shutting the door behind him. He began to worry about Dib. Dib never acted like that before. It made him wonder what could have caused Dib to act like that.
Dib walked home in the cold. He knew he should have brought his jacket; it was going to be winter soon. However, the cold around him wasn't what was bothering him, it was the chill coming from his heart that made him shiver.
He asked himself why he reminded himself of that horrible event. He though he had completely forgot about it. He asked himself why he brought the memory of her back. The woman who had left his family one day and never came back, the woman he once called Mom.
Dib would never forget that night when he was only ten and a half and he wished his mother would come back on the first shooting star he had ever seen. He was highly disappointed when she did not return. Later he would realize how much his mother seemed to dislike his family, and how mentally abusive she was. Not once had he seen her kiss his father after they had Gaz. She would always complain about how Professor Membrane loved his work more than he loved her.
Dib laughed bitterly to himself. Why should she have complained? At least his father told her that he loved her. He couldn't remember a time when his mother simply said, "I love you," and sounded like she meant it. He remembered how devastated his father was when she was gone those first few weeks. His dad couldn't leave the house at all the first week alone, and it wasn't until after Dib had spoken some sense into his father did Membrane go to work at a regular basis.
That was why he got defensive when Zim inquired about it. He didn't want to go into the whole mess of reliving the memories. He hated remembering things that were painful. He didn't want to hurt Zim's feelings by not opening up to him, but he felt as if this was too personal to share.
Zim was in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He was thinking about how weird Dib was acting. Dib never acted upset over anything, and whatever caused him to withdraw from talking about it must have been pretty bad. He didn't like it when Dib was hurt.
Zim got off his bed and headed to his computer. He was going to send Jazz an email. Then he noticed the email Dib had sent him a little under a month ago. He never opened it, and he decided he never would. Dib thought he deleted it anyway. Why read it when Dib thought it was never read?
Dib walked into his house, thinking about his mother and how he wished that she would just contact them once. Even if she was abusive, he missed her. He made that wish on a shooting star over a year ago, and it never came true. Though that wasn't the same wish he made tonight when he saw the shooting star.
He and Zim wished the same thing when they saw their respective shooting stars. They both wanted the courage to admit their feelings to one another. Dib knew at least that wish could come true in time, and Zim believed it would help him find the courage quicker that way. Both had no idea what the shooting star could possibly do.
Arm: There you go! Chapter 6! I hope you all enjoyed it! See ya!
Leg: Oh, and review on your way out! Thank you!