Arm: Chapter nine had arrived like we promised! And, I have a word of warning: besides A Strange Twist of Fate (which, by the way, the title is subject to change), I have started a new fic…
Leg: Yeah, watch for it… She isn't finished writing it first though, so it might take a while to get here…. Well, let's stop talking your ears off! Go read now!
Betraying the Rivalry: Chapter 9: Thoughts and Other Things
Dib walked home from Zim's relieved that the damage Gir had done was easily fixed. That was something that shocked both Zim and Dib, usually when Gir messed up something they did, it took them about a week to repair, and this time it only took an hour.
Dib walked up to his front steps and noticed that Debbie's care was gone. He breathed a sigh of relief. He knew she was nice, but there was something about her didn't like. There was an air of coldness coming from her, something he also sensed from Ms. Bitters as well. They couldn't be related, could they?
Dib shivered at that thought. A stepmother that was related to his teacher? Yeah, right. He knew his father had better taste than that. They might not be related, but they both made him feel uncomfortable.
Dib called out that he was home, and Gaz greeted him almost instantly.
"Hey, Dib. Man, did you miss the best dinner we ever had in years!" she said from the living room. "Debbie made it," Gaz added.
"Really? Is there any left-overs?" Dib asked. He didn't eat anything while he was at Zim's, and he was starving.
"No, dad ate the last of it," Gaz explained.
Dib sighed. It figured that he was still going to have to eat cereal for dinner. Whenever they had a real dinner, Dib was never around because he was at an Eyeball meeting, and by the time he got home, it was usually time for him to get ready for skool.
"So, were you able to fix whatever Gir had messed up?" Gaz asked. She figured she should try to get some kind of conversation going.
"Yeah, it was unusually easy to repair," Dib told her.
"Really? Do you think that Zim might have broke it himself and you that Gir broke it in hopes that you would come over?" Gaz asked.
Dib looked at her weirdly. "Zim wouldn't do that, Gaz," he told her as he took his bowl of cereal upstairs to his room. He didn't catch Gaz's mumbled reply, but he was pretty sure on what she had said. She asked him if he was sure on it, and to be perfectly honest with himself, he didn't truly know.
Zim placed Pir in a place that he was sure Gir couldn't get to. He could not believe how easy that was to fix. He seriously was about to kill or seriously harm the poor SIR robot when he saw what he had done to the unfinished Pir. It was a good thing he ran when he did and hid behind Dib, or he would have actually done what he had planned to do.
Zim walked over to his laser weasel experiment (or LWE, as he now referred to it), but he couldn't concentrate on the weasels. Dib's behavior was really starting to get to him. Dib was really pensive while they worked on Pir. Zim figured it had something to do with Dib's mother that made his friend act like he was.
"But what could it be?" Zim asked himself as he typed on his computer. "What is it about his mother that is bothering him so much?"
Zim shook his head. He could speculate all he wanted, but he was never going to know unless he asked Dib. By this point, Zim knew it was better to speculate than to ask questions. He didn't want Dib to stop speaking to him completely, which was the absolute last thing he needed right now. Zim just hoped that Dib would open up to him soon. He didn't think he could handle this pensive side to Dib much longer.
Dib placed his bowl into the sink. He was amazed that all the dishes were finally washed, leaving a clean sink. He figured that Debbie must have washed them. He admired her for that because those dishes were so dirty and in there for so long that Dib had done mold experiments with them when he was younger, much younger.
Dib then felt a chill go down his spine. Why did he get that chill whenever he thought of Debbie? It was starting to bother him. He didn't like the way she looked nor they way she talked. She just seemed so…fake, like she was acting nice and talking nicely, but she wasn't like that deep down.
Dib didn't like it. It reminded him too much of the way his mother used to act around them while they were out in public. Always smiling, acting really polite, but when they got home…. Dib hated it. She was cold, heartless, and unfeeling. Maybe Debbie wasn't acting like that now, but he asked himself what if Debbie started to? What if Debbie left them after she realized they weren't the family she wanted to them to be?
"Stop it, Dib, just stop thinking like that," Dib ordered to himself silently as he walked up to his room. He always started to think negative like that over the stupidest things. Dib knew it was only making him more and more depressed than he needed to be, but he couldn't help himself. What made it worse was the fact that he was afraid Zim would somehow get involved. Debbie had shown an uncharacteristic interest in Zim. Did she believe what Gaz had said, even if it was the truth?
"Oh great," Dib thought out loud, "now all I need to do is worry about Zim." Dib hoped that Debbie wasn't as obsessed with aliens as he used to, or Zim was going to be in for one hell of a ride.
Zim remembered during Parent/Teacher night that Dib only brought his father to it (or, his father's image from across town). He didn't even mention his mother. From the looks of it, Dib's mother seemed to be gone from his life.
Zim's thoughts were broken when the computer blipped. He saw that he had a new email from Jazz, and he read it as fast as he could. Jazz said that he would be a little late coming to Earth. Zim was at first ticked off at that, but he then realized that it gave him and Dib more time to finish Pir. Zim then noticed another email he had received early that day by someone he didn't know.
That caught Zim's interest. He opened it, expecting to be one of those harmless email gags. It wasn't an email gag, but one of those kind of emails he used to get from Dib, saying that whoever sent it would tell the world that he was an alien. Great, all he needed now was another human trying to destroy him. He wrote down the address, and resolved to ask Dib about the address tomorrow, since tomorrow was going to be a Saturday.
Dib checked his email. There weren't any new emails from CropCircles.com and any member messages from the Swollen Eyeballs. He asked himself if he should send an email to Zim, but decided not to. Zim was probably out doing something right now.
Dib asked himself yet again if he should tell Zim the long story about his mother. He just didn't like keeping things from Zim like that. Zim was his only friend after all, and he knew that Zim would try to understand. And even if he didn't, he would at least get it off his chest.
That reminded Dib of the other secret he was keeping from Zim. The one that was purely from his heart. Dib was able to admit it to himself, and with the way he was, he was afraid he would just blurt something out without thinking. He didn't want to blurt it out without thinking, that always made him feel stupid. He wanted to admit it consciously, and he promised himself he would really soon.
Zim went over to his files, and read through the ones on Dib. He sighed as he added things to it. He was never going to figure Dib out, which was the main reason why he continued to study Dib. Zim wanted to figure at least some of Dib out, so that he understood his friend a little better. The mysterious side to Dib made him…attracted to the human, and if he figured that side he out…well, he didn't want to think about it.
Zim knew what he felt for Dib now, and he was shocked for a little it afterward when he first figured it out. He didn't really expect to fall for his once rival, but he knew life had a funny way of working things out. He knew he should tell Dib about his feelings, but he also knew that now was not the time. Especially since he and Dib were barely talking to one another.
Zim hated that. He just hated it when he and Dib couldn't communicate like they used to. It was only a month into their friendship, and things like this usually didn't happen until much later on. Zim knew he was going to have to find a way to get Dib to open up without making Dib feel like he as being cornered. He didn't want to use mind control either, like he had done with that Keef kid.
Zim shivered at the memory of his hired bestfriend. Keef had creeped him out, and rightfully so. No wonder they kid was a reject; he couldn't tell when he wasn't wanted. And he was very clingy, that, in itself, was scary.
Dib turned off the light to his room. He told himself he should tell Zim about his mother and about Debbie. He needed to tell someone about that before it eventually drove him insane. That, and he knew that Zim would figure it out by himself. He'd rather tell Zim himself than have Zim do a whole bunch of research on it.
Besides, that something about Debbie that unnerved him so much had to be discussed with Zim. Zim could help him figure out things about Debbie, especially since he was beginning to worry about Zim's safety. Debbie interest in Zim after Gaz mentioned that Dib used to think that Zim was an alien told him that she believed Gaz.
Zim and Dib went to bed that night, and planned out what they were going to do tomorrow. Zim hoped that Dib was in the mood to open up to him, and Dib hoped that Zim would try to understand everything he was going to say.
Arm: Well, there you go. I'll work on that new fic I was telling you about. I have to write the first two chapters before I even post the first one, it gives me a sense that I'm working ahead that way.
Leg: I don't know why, she's always off schedule and late anyway. Well, go review now! See ya later everyone!