Arm: 10! Woo! Chapter ten! My god, and it looks like there's actually a…NO WAY!
Leg: Ignore her, she just had a piece of left over wedding cake. You all know that we don't own the characters, and for Jhonen V., that might actually be a good thing, but you'll just have to figure out why for yourselves…. Go read!
Betraying the Rivalry: Chapter Ten: A Day for Confessions (Arm: A CONFESSION, WOO! Leg: Shut up!)
Zim woke up the next morning because Gir was standing over him, dripping water on his face.
"Gir! What are you doing?!" Zim shrieked in alarm. He forgot that he had bathed in paste, so he was waiting for the pain to come.
"I dunno. Dib's here to see you," Gir said without much thinking. "He said he wanted to talk to you about something!" Gir continued as Zim got up and walked over to one of the entrances out of his lab.
Zim was wondering what time it could possibly be if Dib came over and he was still awake. He looked at the only clock in his house. He blinked in surprise as he realized that it was past twelve. He must have been really tired last night if he actually slept in that long.
"Good afternoon, sleepy-head. What time did you go to bed at last night?" Dib asked. "Usually by now you're diligently working on something," Dib stated.
"Shut up, Dib, you usually aren't here until two," Zim replied as he wiped his eyes.
"What, you sleep in to one on Saturdays?" Dib asked.
"No, not usually," Zim answered as he yawned. "Gir said you wanted to talk to me about something," Zim said suddenly, looking wide-awake now.
"Yeah, I do. You see, this had been bothering me for a while now, as you know, especially since we saw that shooting star," Dib began as he sat down on the couch. He looked down at his hands, trying to figure out if he should continue or not.
Zim followed him, using his mechanical legs to get onto the couch. "Go on," Zim said gently as he placed a hand on Dib's shoulder.
Dib looked up from his hands and into Zim's eyes. He sighed before continuing, he did promise himself that he would tell Zim this last night, and there was no backing out of it now. "You see, two years ago, my mom got ready for work one day, left the house in her car, and…never came back," Dib said slowly.
"Never…came back?" Zim asked as he removed his hand from Dib's shoulder. He wanted to hold Dib's hand, as a way to make it easier for his friend to continue, but he refrained from doing so.
"Yeah, but that's only half of it. My mother never acted like she loved us. She was always cold and heartless, at least, to me and my father," Dib stated. He noticed the confused look on Zim's face. "She loved Gaz, though. I can't remember a time when she was mean to Gaz, or when she was nice to me," Dib continued with slight difficulty, he could feel his throat close up on him, but he fought it as best he could.
"Dib, I had no idea…. But when she left, you missed her, didn't you?" Zim dared to ask. He knew that Dib was having a hard time with reliving the memories. "And you even wished that she would come back?"
"Yeah, I did…. Now, after two years, my father has met a new woman. She seems nice, but there's this air of coldness coming from her. I don't like her at all. She reminds me too much of my mom," Dib paused as his throat clenched up again, and finally choked out the rest while fighting tears. "And I'm afraid that she'll do what my mom did to my family before. My father already lost one wife, and if he loses Debbie, I don't even want to think of what he would be like…. He was devastated when my mom left," Dib said as he looked down at his hands and sighed. He blinked away the tears before looking back at Zim.
Zim had no idea as to what he should do to help Dib feel better. He remembered what Gir always does for him whenever he was depressed or angry, which was give him a hug. Zim figured that that was what Dib needed right now. Zim hugged Dib and hoped that it would work.
Dib was shocked that Zim was hugging him, but he soon relaxed and hugged Zim back. He was really thankful for the hug; it was what he really needed right then. He said, "Thanks Zim," when they let each other go.
"You're welcome, Dib," Zim said as he noted Dib's smile.
"It feels great to get all of that off my chest," Dib said as he smiled even more. Suddenly, the smile faded as Dib remembered something. "Zim, there's something else that's bothering me about Debbie," Dib said quietly.
"What is it?" Zim asked. He felt like this had something to do with him.
"I was telling her about you after you called, last night. She didn't even seem to care too much about you until Gaz said something about you being an alien. I think she believed what Gaz said," Dib told him.
Zim looked over at his friend and tried to understand what he was trying to say. Then is hit him. "Oh shit, I was having so much fun without having to worry about being discovered. Do you know Debbie's email address?" Zim asked him as he pulled out the paper he had written down that email address on out of his pocket. "I received an email similar to the ones you used to send me from this address last night," Zim stated as he handed Dib the paper to look at it.
"I won't know because I don't know Debbie's email address, but I'll ask her about it. She's going to be at my house this afternoon to move in, the other reason why I came over here so early," Dib said as he studied the email address.
"Really? She's moving in already?" Zim asked.
"Yeah, and Gaz and I just met her yesterday. She and dad figured why not while I was at your house last night, when we were working on Pir. I didn't even find out about the move until this morning," Dib answered.
"Speaking of Pir, I still want to finish him, but…" Zim trailed off. How could he say that he didn't want to get back at Red and Purple anymore to Dib? Dib had wanted to get back at the two since that day they became friends almost as much as he did.
"But what, Zim?" Dib asked. He suddenly understood. "You don't want to get back at Red and Purple anymore, do you?" Dib inquired. Zim nodded his head slowly. "But why? What caused this sudden change of plans?" Dib continued.
"I don't know. I just don't want to get back at them anymore, I guess," Zim replied.
Dib just nodded his head. "Fine, if you really don't want to get back at them, you don't have to. As long as we finish Pir, since we could use him for other things in the future," Dib told him as he leaned back on the couch. "So, what do you want to do now? Go work on Pir?" Dib asked.
"I wanted to tell you something else, actually," Zim began slowly. He hoped that Dib was ready to hear this from him. There was no way he wasn't going to say this, since Dib had to courage to tell him about his family problems, he figured he might as well tell Dib his secret.
"Really? What's that?" Dib asked. He moved closer to Zim subconsciously.
"I wanted to tell you that I-" Zim was cut off by Dib's cell phone. Zim cursed the tiny object for cutting him off. The second that phone had rung, his courage had gone bye-bye.
Dib sighed as he answered the lasted phone. "Dib here, talk to me…. Aw, but Da-… All right, all right, I'm on my way home…Yeah, see you soon…. Bye dad," and with that he hung up the phone. "Damn you, Debbie," Dib muttered under his breath.
"You have to go?" Zim asked.
"Yeah, I'd ask if you'd like to come over, but Debbie's there. She wants to see me," Dib explained.
"Can't I sneak into your room like last time?" Zim asked as he put on his disguise (and he put it on correctly the first time, too).
Dib thought about it. "Yeah, sure, just don't touch anything in there, I have alarms on almost all my stuff as you know, and don't make too much noise getting there, too," Dib ordered as he walked out of the door, Zim not too far behind him.
"I'll make sure I won't, this time," Zim told him as they walked to Dib's house.
"Hey, Zim, what were you going to tell me before my phone rang?" Dib asked. He looked over at Zim and noticed the small blush across his cheeks.
"I was going to tell you that…that I…um…" was basically all that Zim was able to manage. He stopped mumbling and gave Dib a desperate look.
Dib tried not to laugh, he knew what Zim was trying to say now, or, at least he was pretty sure. Dib just decided that words wouldn't suffice for right now, so he took Zim's hand into his own, since he knew he felt the same way. "I think I understand what you're trying to say, Zim," Dib stated as he saw Zim blush even more.
Zim smiled and said, "And I take it you feel the same way," it was a statement, not a question.
Dib blushed lightly. "Yeah, well, I do…" Dib replied as he held onto Zim's hand a little harder.
Zim sighed in content. So wishing on shooting stars did help him get the courage he needed to tell Dib his feelings. Well, he didn't tell Dib them, but Dib understood what he was trying to say, so it was almost the same.
The two walked home in silence, but not that kind that made people uneasy to be apart of. Dib had to let go of Zim's hand as they were almost at his house. "You better go to my room, before someone sees you. I should be there in a few minutes, ten at the most, okay?" Dib asked.
Zim nodded as he headed towards the back of his house. This would be the third time he had sneaked into Dib's room. Zim used his mechanical legs to get up to get up to Dib's window. He opened it like he had the last time, but he entered the room quieter than he had that time. He listened to the conversation going on underneath him.
"Oh, Dib, you're finally home!" a voice he didn't recognized said. He figured that she was Debbie.
"It's nice that you wanted to see me, and since you saw me, can I go to my room?" Dib asked.
"Quite the joker, aren't you? I bet the ladies are all over you," Debbie stated. Zim had to stifle a laugh. He heard Gaz start giggling from wherever she was. If she only knew how the girls in skool treated Dib on a regular basis, she wouldn't be saying that.
"No, they aren't, they all say I'm too weird for them," Dib explained.
"Oh… Were you at that friend of yours?" Debbie asked.
"Yeah, I was. Why?" Dib asked her. Zim could hear the defensive note in his voice.
"Just wondering. Is he really an alien from outerspace?" Debbie asked, her tone sounding like she was joking.
Zim held his breath as he waited for Dib's response. "No, but I thought he was because he didn't quite fit in," Dib responded. Zim sighed a breath of relief.
"Really? When do I get to meet…Zim, was it?" Debbie asked.
Zim said, "Hopefully never," to himself. He heard Dib say that he's try to get Zim over here on day, but right now he had work for skool to do.
Zim waited for Dib to arrive in his room. "Zim," Dib started as he shut the door behind him, "I think she knows."
"Well, all we can do is wait and see, Dib," Zim told him as he grabbed one of Dib's magazines. He always found them very funny to look at. The two had a good time and remained as quiet as they could so that no one would know that Dib wasn't alone in his room.
Zim looked at the time and decided it was time for him to go home. Gir might have destroyed something important to him by now. He and Dib did a quick good bye and he jumped out of the window, just when there was a knock on the door….
Arm: Muahahahahaha! Our cliffhangers return!
Leg: It was her idea. I didn't want to end it there. So, anyway, go review! What are you doing standing around and not looking at the review box for? This might be our last chapter for a long time, because we're going to Ohio on Friday for vacation.
Arm: Yeah, and chapter one to ASToF might not get finished typing before we leave, too. It's really long, unlike the prologue.